OCR Text |
Show Daddy's' Fairy Tale 7vyGRAH.yi BOWER THE WILD ANIMAL When Sam and Peter were adven uring through the woods on thei- way to the pine TT- The Eyes Drew was TeT ow' U,e Nearer. tried t0 keep " from shaking. "See wildcat !" he pointed. And there, coming closer and closer, stealthily, almost silently moving, came those terrible eyes, staring so fixedly at them. The only thing in the woods that they feared, and here It came, so slowly slow-ly and so surely, toward them. There was nothing they could do If they moved to reach for any weapon with which to combat the wildcat he could spring upon them at once. It was wiser not to take a chance, so they sat, staring back with fixed glances, though In the darkness thej felt that their gaze would neither be clear nor alarming. But they stared. And the eyej drew nearer, nearer. The creature would be upon Uiem in an instant. "What would he do? What could they do? What was there to do in this second left thfm? Of all the creatures In the woods the only one they feared was the little leopard or wildcat, and this was the first time they had ever encountered one this first time that they were ahme. Suddenly there was a slight sound It somehow brought them relief, though they were too frightened to realize relief so quickly. There was the sound again. It was unmistakably one of friendliness hope, interest. And then the crea ture was upon them, right at their feet, but brushing against them and purring, me-owing. purring. "Why," breathed Sam, "it's nothing b it a big cat." "Oh, Pussy." said Peter, "you don't kaow how glad we are to see you j You've no idea how happy we are." The cat was all friendliness. I "Have you wandered away from home, Pussy," Sam asked, "and lost your way as the darkness came on, ot were you thinking of going back to see some of your wild relatives?" The cat answered with the most do mestic of purrs. "Let's not tell anyone what happened." hap-pened." Peter suggested. "It sounds too absurd for us to have been so frightened." "But his eyes did look terrible, didn't they?" Sam said. "Let me have a look at your eyes. Pussy." The cat turned his eyes on Sam. blinking somewhat sleepily. "There is a wild look in them just the same," he said, "but we'll keep this adventure to ourselves." They went to sleep quite soon after this. All their possible fears had left them, for now, no matter how terrible anything might seem to be they would remember the wild look of those two eyes drawing nearer and nearer to them and would remember that It was I nothing but a cat. I When they awoke In the morning It j was bright "sunlight. They had slepl j longer than they ', had meant to I sleep, and the cat j had evidently wandered back home or gone still deeper into the j woods, for there was no sign of I him about. "Well, we don't nave to share our breakfast with him." said Sam, 'and he might nave been a good eater. I wonder where thej thought the would find tli buried treasure it was getting dark, so they de cided to make their bed of pin boughs, and go to sleep. Suddenly Peter called out: "( ) h 1 Ob! Look !" "What?" Sam asked. Peter's voice r" jM . ing in these woods Nothng But a maybe he does gjg like a wild life ! hut having known people too, he Is friendly enough toward them." They built a fire and had their breakfast The bacon had such a good flavor, the toast was so crisp and the jam particularly delicious. They traveled on all through the day, stopping now and again for meals and twice for swims. What a fine time they were having. |