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Show obooooooooooCocooooocoo I Evening Fairy Tale for the Children 8 By MARY GRAHAM BONNER g 60000000000000000000UWJi-A "Now, whenever you are near water," wa-ter," said Father Raccoon to his children, chil-dren, "you must always wash your food. "That makes It so much cleaner." Father and Mother Raccoon are very clean and care a great deal about having their food fresh and nice and clean. "You can eat a great many things," continued Father Raccoon. "You are allowed eggs of all kinds, fish, frogs, turtles and all sorts of fruit and nuts." "The best of all you haven't mentioned," men-tioned," said the Raccoon little ones. "Ah, I am keeping it as a surprise," gald Father Raccoon. "Where are we going?" asked the children. "Going where?" asked Father Raccoon. Rac-coon. He acted as though he didn't know what the children meant. "Dear me," sighed Mother Raccoon, "the children know so much these days. "Yes, it was different in my time. I didn't know about treats and feasts until I was told." At that all the Raccoon children laughed shrilly. "Oh, mother," they said, "now you have let the cat out of the bag. "We didn't say we knew that we were to be taken to a feast and to have a treat when our lessons were over." "Let what cat out of what bag?" asked Mother Raccoon. "I have no cat, and I have no bag. "What absurd nonsense you children chil-dren talk." "Oh," said one of the Raccoon children, chil-dren, "that is just an expression, you know." "Still I don't understand," said Washed Every Bit of Food. Mother Eaccoon. "I am not up to date, I suppose." "An expression is a saying," said the Raccoon children. "It is something some-thing people say lots and lots of people. And it is supposed to be wise." "What does it mean?" asked Mother Raccoon, who was much puzzled. "Well, it just means that some one has let the secret out or the thing that was supposed to be kept in." "Why did they use the cat and bag for example?'" "Oh, I don't know," said the little raccoon. "I don't believe any one knows how these expressions start, but once they start every one starts saying them so that they become sayings or well-known expressions." "Well, It is true," said Mother Raccoon, Rac-coon, "we are going to have a treat and a feast." "You have all learned your lessons well," said Father Raccoon, "and so we are going to have a treat. And Mother and Father Eaccoon, and all the little Raccoons went off for a splendid feast. But even at the feast they all washed every bit of food before they ate it. In fact they had their picnic by a brook, and the Raccoon parents were proud to see how well their children1 had learned their lessons. ((c). 1931. Western Newspaper Union.) |