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Show . I BEDTIME STORY r It Was So Very, Very Funny! To' All But Old Buster Bear at Reddy Fox and Reddy looked at Jimmy Skunk, and for a moment nobody could say a- word. Then Little Joe gave a funny little gasp. "Why, why-e-I" said he, "I believe be-lieve Buster Bear is afraid, too!" Unc' Billy Possum chuckled. "Ah believe yo' are right again, Br'er Otter," said he. "It cert'nly does look so. If Br'er Bear isn't scared he must have remembered something some-thing impo'tant and has gone to attend at-tend to it in a powerful hurry." Then everybody began to laugh because it was so very, very funny. G T. W. Burgess. WNU Service. i By THORNTON W. BURGESS I BLACKY the Crow and Sammy L Jay, looking down from the top 1 of a tall tree, held their breath. Happy Jack, the Gray Squirrel and " his cousin, Chatterer, the Red Squir-f Squir-f rel, looking down from another tree, held their breath. Unc' Billy Possum, Pos-sum, sticking his head out from a hollow tree, held his breath. Bobby Coon, looking through a hole in a hollow stump. In which he was hid- just stepped out from behind one side of a little hemlock tree and Buster Bear had just stepped out from behind the opposite side of the little hemlock tree, and neither had known that the other was anywhere any-where near. For a whole minute they stood there face to face gazing gaz-ing into each other's eyes while everybody ev-erybody watched and waited and it seemed as if the whole Green Forest For-est was holding its breath. Then something happened. Yes, sir, something happened. Farmer Brown's boy opened his mouth and yelled! It was such a sudden yell and such a loud yell that it startled star-tled Chatterer so that he nearly fell from his place in the tree, and it made Reddy Fox jump to his feet ready to run. And that yell was a pr w$ yell of fright. There was no doubt about it, for with the yell Farmer Brown's boy turned and ran for home as no one ever had seen him run before. He ran just as Peter Rabbit runs when he has got to reach the dear Old Briar Patch before be-fore Reddy Fox can catch him. which you know, is as fast as he can run. Once he stumbled and fell, but he scrambled to his feet in a twinkling and away he went without with-out once turning his head to see if Buster Bear was after him There is , l He bamped into trees and crashed ' through bushes and jumped over logs. ' ing, held his breath. Reddy Fox, lying ly-ing flat down behind a heap of V brush, held his breath. Peter Rab-jej Rab-jej bit, sitting bolt upright under a thick jit hemlock branch with eyes and ears jjS wide open, held his breath. And an the other little people who happened hap-pened to be where they could see did the same thing, .jfc V You see it was the most excit-'' excit-'' jj. ing moment ever was in the Green '0. j Forest Farmer Brown's boy had wasn't any doubt that he was much afraid. Everybody leaned forward to watch him. "What did I tell you? Didn't I say that he was afraid of Buster Bear!" cried Little Joe Otter, Ot-ter, dancing about with excitement "You were right. Little Joe! I'm sorry that 1 doubted it. See him go! Caw, caw, caw!" shrieked Blacky the Crow. For a minute or two everybody forgot about Buster Bear. Then there was a great crash which made everybody turn to look the other way. What do you think they saw? Why Buster Bear was running away too, and he was running twice as fast as Farmer Brown's boy! He bumped into trees and crashed through bushes and jumped over logs, and in almost no time at all he was out of sight. Altogether it was the most surprising thing that the little people of the Green Forest ever had seen. Sammy Jay looked at Blacky, the Crow and Blacky looked at Chatterer, Chatter-er, and Chatterer looked at Happy Jack and Happy Jack looked at Peter Pe-ter Rabbit and Peter looked at Unc' Billy Possum and Unc' Billy looked at Bobby Coon and Bobby looked at Johnny Chuck and Johnny looked |