OCR Text |
Show i BY THORNTON W. BURGESS. ! Blest Is he with ready wit, 1 And nerve enough to follow It. Reddy Fox j Reddy Fox was dlscoumgod Yes. 1 sir, ho was discouraged. There was I Bowaer the Hound coining along over that railroad bridge just. :s if there ' had been no train along .ust a minute before. He hadn't on had a fright from that train and that ma le Red 'l B disappointment all the greater He had planqed that sharp trii k al the railroad bridge to Ret Bowser In i the middle of the lridge- just OS that train would catch him there. Ho had meant that Bowser should either be hit by that train r fori '-'I t" jump from the bridge into ihn water. He I had thought that Bowser might be I killed lb- had ben ure that, at j I L ast. Bowser would be given a ter- ! rible fright. :.m wis.- nows.T : i ;i J tr en (lie tram j and had calmly sat down at one si ! , to Walt for it to pr.s So instead of I Bowser being given a fright it was Reddy himself Who had barely es-I es-I caped. Now here was Bowser, coining coin-ing to continue tho hunt. Reddy knew that tit dry. sand be-I be-I side the track would not hold his J scent well. So before starting off he ran back and forth and round and round In that sand, and th- n finally made as long a jump as he could off I to one side on the bank and hurried away, hot. tired and dusty. He knew that Bowser would find his trail, but i he was sure that It would take him norne time and this would gi him u chance to get far ahead. It did lake Bowser some tlm to ; find Roddy's trail You see he didn't : know on Which side Reddy had left the railroad track It was sandy on ooth sides and that sand dldn t hold the scent well. Besides, the train In passing had whirled up the sand and destroyed what little scent there wan ' close to the track. So Bowser first ! made the mistake of hunting on the wrong side of the railroad track. This j took him some time, for Bowsi ( I worked slowly and carefully. Whai-i Whai-i ever he does be does thoroughly. At ! last he was sure that Reddy had nat ! left the track on that siMe At one? he went over to the other sld and '. ther onee more took up his patient search. Once In a while his wonderful wonder-ful nos caught just a faint scent fnd this told him that Reddy had bean there, patiently he ran back and Carefully be walked up that lean-na lean-na trunk until be reached the tree gainst which It lodged forth, this way and that, until at" last J i he reached the top of the bank. There, he ' lr Ii i around and finally Found Reddy's trail "Bow, wow, wow. WOW!" roared Bowser and was off again, running with his nose to tho ground. I Now this d.-luy had given Reddy the chance h- no much needed to get well ahead and to plan some new I trick to fool Bowser. As he hurried I on Reddy kept his eyes open for some i means of breaking his trail. At lasf ' he came to the trunk of a tree which : had fall.-n In some great wind storm and hud lodged against another tree Which had stood some distance away In an instant Reddy saw the chance he had been looking for. He ran round and round and back and forth just beneath the :ning trunk of that fallen tree, so as to mix up his trail. Then ho leaped up vn that leaning trunk at as high a point as he could reach. Carefully he walked up that I leaning trunk until he reached the I free against which it lodged This was a big hemlock tree, with great branches on the lower part. Verj carefully Reddy climbed to one of i these branches and sat down clos.j to the trunk. He wns about eight feet from the ground and the branches below hid him somewhat. H felt It in Ids bones that this time his wits had served him well. Copyright, 1522. by T. W. Burgess The next story" Bowser Has to Ql . H i "p." |