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Show FARMER Brown s hoy LBULRNS WHERE THE FAT HEN WENT By Thornton W Burgess A trifling thing because mysterious Too often is considered Berloui I Old Mother Nature. ' The morning after the night in which he had sat up to watch for ltors to tho box In which he had a young Fox a prisoner, Farmer Brown's Boy oversleps. You see. It was almost morning before be went to bed. 'hn I he did awake the first thing ho thought of was tho l'at hen he had seen tho mother of tho young Fox leave outside the box. and which later had mysteriously disappeared. All the morning while he was doing ills work he kept thinking Rbout thut mystery, lie knew that neither K d-ly Fox nor Mrs. Reddy bad taken thut fat hen away. Ho knew that it had beep done while neither of thorn was about and while he himself had been nodding. But who could have done it he hadn't the least Idea. "1 know I dozed off once or twice," be said to himself, "but I'm not sure that It was not for inon- than u. minute min-ute or two at a time. I can t think of any ono big enough to have carried away that fat lien, and. any way, I don't see how any one could nave possibly pos-sibly done it ln tho minute or two I had my eyes closed." He visited the box where the young Fox was and f-arefully looked ail about It for ome dlstancu around in search of feathers. Not a single feather dla he find. Neither did he find any tracks excepting those of Mother Fox. He would have suspected her of having taken the fat hen away had he not been watching when she dlsrovr n-cl that It was gone and thus seen thut she was as puzzled and as surprised us he was. Now, Farmer Brown's Boy dearly . loves a mystery .as most people do. I He likes to try to work It out H-knows H-knows that to every' mystery thre I In simple answer. If only It can be found. So all the time he was at work I his mind was busy trying to work out It lie answer to this mystery, but he-e-ouldn't. No. sir, he couldn't. The more he thought about It, the more Imvsterlous It all became. ! That afternoon, he went for a walk In the Green Forr-sf. Somehow he can alwavs think better when he te tramping tramp-ing through the Green Forest or across the Green Meadows. So he tramped ,and he tramped, and he thought and , h.- thought. But despite all his tramping tramp-ing all his thinking, he was as puz- j zled as ever. At last ho reached a certain dark (part of the Green Forest, and as he passed beneath a grtat tree, he happened hap-pened to look down. The first thing he saw wus a feather. He gave a Utile Ut-ile exclamation or surprise, for that feather was from a hen. and it was , from tho liame kind of a hen as the one Which had so mysteriously disappeared. dis-appeared. Of course, he stopped at once and began to look around carefully. care-fully. It did't take him long to discover dis-cover more feathers. Then he found some -'jeer little balls. He knew what they were the Instant be saw them. They were the little balls of parts of food which Rooty the Owl cannot dip-oat, and so spits out. He opened oue or two or them. There were feathers ln them. Farmer Brown's B 03 laughed nloua H fairly shouted, and as he did so a It was tho Mggist of all the osls Hooty, the .rvat Horned uwi great broad winged bird sailed oiu from the top of that tree. It was Hooty himself. It was th- higgiv . t ,all the owls Hooty the Great Horned OW1, "So "ou are the rascal that got that fat hen!" cried Farmer Brown's Boy "You are the one that got that dinner din-ner I was counting on! No WOUder 1 couldn't think where that fat hen had disappeared to: Well, I guess it did you mora good than It would have done me, and I'm not sorry' you had It. He started for hoim and as he tramped along he chuckled. He knew iust as well as If he had seen It all what had happened. He knew that Hooty must have come sailing along on those client wings of his and seen that fat hen. Possibly he had been sitting somewhere near when Mrs. Reddy first brought the hen. Then .When the way was clear, he had float-ied float-ied d'wn like a great shadow, picked up the hen In Ids great claws, and i mst as silently floated away. It would inot have taken him a minute to do It. and that minute hail been one of those minutes when he. Farmer Brown's 'Boy had been nodding So for Farmer Farm-er Brown's Boy. the grnt mystery f the fat hen wns a mystery no longer. Bui to this day It Is a mystery to Mrs. Reddy. for of course. Farmer Brown's Boy could not teM her what ho had found out. ! (Copyright, 1322. By T. W. Burgess) The next story: "The Young Fox Has to Eat " rtrt |