Show r The Sandman Story FOR TONIGHT I. I TONIGHT Mr Fox Cuts the Cottontails Mr Fox decided that the only way to get all the wood animals animals' to have a good opinion of him was to give a big dinner for he had somehow got a a. bad name among the animals for being so tricky So all day lon long he went about telling telling telling tell tell- ing all the animals that when it was dark dark quite quite dark dark they were to come cometo cometo cometo to his house and dine There were the and the Coons the Possums and the Bear family family fam fam- ily By and all the Rabbit family including Susie Cottontail and her brother Jimmie Jimmie Jim- Jim mie and many others You may be sure that no one ate any dinner that day They all saved their appetites for Mr Foxs Fox's nighttime nighttime nighttime night night- time feast for as Mr Coon expressed it We should be very verY ungrateful to Mr Fox 1 if we did not take to his dinner our very best appetite therefore therefore therefore there there- fore our stomachs should be empty As soon as it was dark so that Mr Dog could not see them all the animals animals animals ani ani- ani- ani mals began to slowlY creep toward Mr Foxs Fox's home Mr Fox let them in one by one and was careful to draw all the shades I and stuff the keyhole so the light would not show outside if anything happened that Mr Dog should be roaming rosining through the woods At last all the animals but Jimmie and Susie Cottontail were there and everyone began to wonder where they could be and what kept them so late It happened that Jimmie and Susie Cottontail were not at all sure they would enjoy enjo Mr Foxs Fox's dinner and they had run over to the farm on the hill to have a ca' a dinner of some garden stuff sturt of ot which they were fond They had stayed longer than they had intended and when they started for Mr Foxs Fox's house they were not as cautious as they usually were about throwing Mr Do DOR off oft their track Just as they were entering the wood who should come bounding aster after them but Mr Dog who had followed them from the farm and off ran Jimmie and Susie Cottontail looking for a hole in which to hide Mr Foxs Fox's house was the first refuge they came to and in the door they burst with Mr Dog at their heels Of Ot course there was no dinner and the party was spoiled for everybody ran ran and Mr Dog not knowing which one to chase when he saw so many went home without having caught anyone The next day Mr l Fox was talking with his friend Mr Co Coon n. n Not one of the animals would have gotten otten us into such a fix but those Cottontails he said In the first place their ears are so short they never hear quickly like some others of that family and then those tails tails why why they can be seen for yards and yards I I should have known better than to have asked them And everyone knows they have no sense The Cottontails run into the first opening they see and never keep on running as their cousins do I have had my lesson I shall cut them off my visiting list from prom rom now on And that is the reason the Cottontail Cottontail Cottontail Cotton Cotton- tail family are never Invited to any dinners that the wood folk give give give- their tails can be too easily followed by Mr Dog |