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Show MAKING 0 l K N .ii D HOI SE By Thornton W. Burgess Ja home Is always what you make it. ( N'tth love there you will ne'er forsake for-sake it Whitcfoot the Wood Mouse Whitefoot the Wood Mouse climbed jup to the old nest of Melody the Wood j Thrush, over the edge of the which lrs. Whitefoot was looking down at jhim. It took Whitefoot hardly a mo-I mo-I ment to get up there, for the old nest , was only a few feet above the ground 'in a young tree, and you know Whlte-; Whlte-; foot is a ver good climber Ho found Mrs Whitefoot er much excited. She was delighted with that old nest and she showed It. For his part Whitefoot couldn t sec anything I in that old home of Melod s but a deserted old house, of no use to any I one. To be suro it had been a very good house in its time. It had been made of tiny t. igs, stalks of old weeds I leaves, fine roots and mud. It was still iUitt solid and was firmly fixed I in a crotch of the yoUBS tree But I Whitefoot couldn't see how It could be turned into a home for a Mouse. ! 1 Ho said as much. Little Mrs Whitefoot became more excited than ever. "You dear old stupid," stu-pid," said she, "whatever Is the matter mat-ter with you? Don't you sec that all wo need to do is to put a roof on, make an entrance on the otb.er side and make a soft. COAfOrtable bed Inside In-side to make it a delightful home?" "I don't see why we don't make a new home altogether," protested Whitefoot. "It seems to me that hollow hol-low stub of mine is ever so much better bet-ter than' this. That has good, solid walls and we won't have to do a thing I to it." "I told you once before that it j doesn't QulOt suit me for summer,' replied re-plied little Mrs. Whitefoot rather sharply because she was beginning to I lose patience "It will be all right for I winter, but winter Is a long way off. it may suit you for summer, but It I doesn't suit mo, and this place does, j So this Is where we aio going to live." "Certainly, my dear, certainly." replied re-plied Whitefoot very meekly "If you want to live here, here we will live. P.ut I must confess It isn I clear to me yet how we are going to make a decent de-cent home out of this old ucst." "Don't you worry ubout that,' replied re-plied Mrs Whitefoot. "You can get 1 he material and 1 11 attend to the rest, j Let us waste no time about it. I am anxious to get our homo finished and I to feel a little bit settled. I have al- I ready planned Just w hat has got to be done and how we will do It. Now, j you go and look for some nice, soft, dry weed stalks and strips of soft bark and moss and an other soft, tough material that you can find Just get busy, and don't stop to talk 1 Of course Whltefoot old as he was , told He ran down to the ground and ! , began to hunt for the things Mrs WhlteioOt wanted. He was yerj particular par-ticular about it. He still didn't think much of her idea of making over that old home of Melody's but If she would . -r- weWv- i -Jp.- - H.CM a "c 3 So back mid forth from the ground to tin old nest In the tree. do it he meant that she should have, the ery best of materials to do It with. So back and forth from tho ground to the old nest In the tree Whitefoot hurried, and presently there was quite a pile of weed stalks and soft grass iinl --trips of bark In the old nest. Mrs. Whitefoot joined Whitefoot In hunting for Just the right thing, but she spent more time In arranging the material. Over that old nest she made a fine, high door. Down through tho lower side she cut a little round doorway Just big enough for them to pass through. Unless you hrjponod to be underneath looking up. you never would have guessed there waa an entrance en-trance at all Inside was a snug, round room and In this she made the softest and most comfortable of nests. As it began to look more and more like a home, Whitefoot himself became as excited and eager as Mrs. Whitefoot had been from the beginning "It certainly cer-tainly is going to be a fine home," said Whitefoot. "Didn't I tell you It would be?" retorted re-torted Mrs Whitefoot (Copyright, 1922, bq T. W Burgess) Tho next story: "The Whltefoots Enjuy Their New Home." |