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Show I i MRS. REDDY DOES HER PART. By Thornton W. Burgess. ll'epend upon the mother henrt To find a way to do her part. Old Mother Nature. Reddy Fox had done his part by ileadlng Bowser the Hound away from j Farmer Brown s henhouse. Mrs. Red-'dy, Red-'dy, who had been watching from behind be-hind the corner of the old stone wall at the edge of the Old orchard, wall nti ouly long enough fo be sure tha: farmer Brown and his boy were no-wha no-wha e about. Then Bho ran ewiltly over to tiao old barrel standing on end j'isi bar!; of the henhoUBC It didn'! take her two minutes to find that what she had most feared was true, one of her children was a prisoner in that barrel. Mrs. Reddy stood up and put her forepawa against the upper edt:.- ol thai barrel. This brought her nose up to a crack between the edge of the j barrel and the board Mrs. Brown Had i placed across Ihe gpening in the top 'Of the barrel. She spoko sottly to the! 'young Fox within. Perhaps you can. guess how that young Fox felt wheni he heard his mother's voice. Until Mien despair had tilled his heart. ; There had been just a tiny speck of 'hope that something would happen to I get him out of his trouble, but that speck of hope bad been very tiny, Indeed. In-deed. Now, at the sound of his mother's' j voice, it was as if n great load bail 'suddenly been lifted from him Ml 'would be well now. Mo'her Fox j would got him out el his trouble. He hadn't a doubt erf it. He stood up on Ibis hind feet inside the barrel and put his nose to that crack. "I'm so glad you've come. ' he whimpered. "I was frightened almost to death." "You had reason to be," replied bis mother rather sharply "You still have reason to be. How under the sun did you get In there''" The young Fox told her. He (old her how that barrel had been lying on its side and how there had been an open-, in- on one end ju?t bin nougb tor hjni io slip through and too small for Bowser Bow-ser the Hound to get through He told her how a strange creature bad come and lipped that barrel upon end and then covered the opening. "What were you doing up here aft- Mrs. Reddy stood up and put her forepaws against the upper edge of that barrel. cr 1 had warned yovi to keep away from this place?" demanded Mrs. Red-, dy. "I I I came up to find out about those hens,-' stammered the young Fox . Well, 1 hope your curiosity is satisfied." satis-fied." retorted his mother sharply. "I I'll never come here again," j said the young Fox. "You may never have a chance to come again, for you may never get ! n:iy from here," replied his mother.1 At that the young Fox began to I whimper and cry. His mother sharp ly told him to keep quiet. Then she, leaped up on top of the barrel. She 1 saw at once how Mrs. Brown had mode the voting Fox a prisoner. On! the board across the opening was a big stone. Mrs. Reddy at once begau to try to move that stone. But it was j a big stone, and though she did her best, she could move it only a little. She worked and worked. At last she had it almost ofT It was at just that very instant that Farmer Brown B Boy came around the corner of the j henhouse. Mrs. Reddy jumped and like a flash disappeared around the eorner of the henhouse. ((Copyright, 1922. by T W. Burgess.) The next story: "The Young Fox Is Worse Off Than Before." |