Show I rB 7 crp c c w V JP Cur C ff fC J rU U L I MOCKER PLAYS rr A JOKE ONCE iCE TO By Thornton W Burgess Every joker loon soon or late Once Onca too often orten teases fate Blackey Blackey the Crow There Thero Is a lot ot of truth In that saying There I Is so It if you OU dont don't be believe line it you ou ask a k Mr Mocker the tho Mocking Bird It 71 almost always s that people who are aro fand of playing Jokes on other people sooner or later play ply a Joke on the wrong one That Is what hap hap- happened happened hap happened to Mr Mocker Mr Jr Mocker had fooled tooled Sammy Jay by making Sammy think that another Jay had bad come to the Oreen Forest However Mocker wu waa wise enough not to let Sam Sam- Sammy Sammy Sam Sammy my Jay know that ho had been the tho victim of a Do Joke joko Sammy ac- ac ac no actually thought that another Jay ball bad been there and had gone ono away Only Peddy ReddY Fox who bo had seen the whole performance knew just what hat had happened lit lie kept the Joke to himself because you OU see Mocker had fooled tooled him only n LI short time before When Sammy Jay had flown away stilt still In a bad temper Mr I Mocker blocker tried to think who dee eixe he be could play a Joke on For some acme sometime time ho he couldn't think of any anyone anyone one Then In the tho distance he heard Blacky the Crow cawing I Mockers eyes twinkled He lie opened op- op opened op opened ened his hl mouth and screamed Caw caw caw cawl aw Ca-a-aw cay caw caw Ho lIe kept this up tor for a few minutes Thc Then he lie hid bid in la the thickest part of o a hemlock tree treo and waited Presently he heard not only Blacky but ral or of Blacky family all alt cawing ex excitedly and coming nearer Again I Mocker called Caw caw cay cawl aw a Caa Ca caw caw It was wea only two or op three min min- minute mm min ute Utes later that Blacky and his hll companions arrived Such an ex- ex excited ex excited cited cawing at as a took place pILe then I They all talked tIlted at the same ame time You see eee they had expected to find one or of o their neighbors over there therewith therewith with lIh something Interesting lot fot Mocker had called thorn thom In la jut just the way WILY that they call each other when they have bave found something of or general g Interest The They bad had cx- cx ex expected to find an Owl 01 that they could tease teuo tea o Not oot finding anyone any one they wore were much puzzled and be- be belog be being log ing puzzled the they lIa had 1 to talk about it It Cof of H C Instantly Jn t all 1111 tic lie crows s led Ild by were nere utter alter urt r him J m But Blacky tho the Crow li is not oneto one oneto oneto to be easily fooled tooled for tor Ion long lie has bas a 4 pair of the sharpest eye eyes eyela In all alt the Green Forest and he now proceeded to make snake use ue ot of them While the others othera were talking Blacky went about peer peer- ing ing- peering ingIn In between the tho branches ot of aU all the trees tree right around there Ho suspected some lome one wa was hid hiding lug ing- In So It wa wu was that ha ho discovered discovered ered Mocker the tho Mocking Mocking- BirdNow Bird Now Blackey didn't know that Mocker locker could talk crow talk tIk but buthe buthe he did know that Mocker could imitate many other bird birds and ho be suspected right away that Mocker blocker had been playing a a Joke Caw caw cay cawl caw screamed creamed Here Horo he ho Is 1 Here lIere lie ho hoIs lieis hela Is lien Here lIere is I the one who hu called ua us over bore horo for nothIng Lets Let's Let teach tOaCh him a lesson lemon He II has no buSiness to be up here In la the winter Inter anyway Instantly alt all the other crows cros came flocking over there thero Poor blocker Ha lie wished he ho had hd kept his tongue still sUII Indeed ho be didi Those crows were so o big bl and there were BO so many of or them that Mocker Mock er wu was wa frightened halt half to death He took to h his hl l wings wing's Ings at once Instantly all the crows led by Black were after alter him aU l n screaming at the top op of ot their lungs This ThIu wa was the kind of fun tun they liked They really didn't care particularly about catching locker blocker They liked to b be getting even with willI him They liked to think how bow scared he lie wa was n And IId Mocker was scared K Ht He never novel had been more scared In alt all his life lle Where do you think lie ho flew to Wh Why he lie flew right straight over to the porch or of Farmer Browns Brown's house lie He was sure lIure that those crows crow dare conic como there and In this he hewa was u rl right ht But Dut you OU may be suro surG that that was all the th last lut Joke that Moc er the tho Mocking Bird tried for a long time Copyright 1926 1924 by T W Burgess The next story When the tho Sap Begins to Run nun |