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Show Al' if I SEPTHB1E ST MY q Y "y THORNTON W. OUItCESS "But doesn't Tommy Tit eat worms and bugs? And doesn't drummer drum-mer the Woodpecker? If they can find them why can't Welcome Robin and the others?" Peter felt very pleased with bis retort "Why don't you eat nuts the way Happy Jack Squirrel does?" demanded de-manded Prickly Porky. "Because I haven't got the right kind of teeth for cracking them." replied Peter. "What a silly question!" ques-tion!" "So If you had nothing to eat but nuts you would starve while Happy Jack would grow fat, wouldn't you?" persisted Prickly Porky. "I guess 1 would," replied Peter, looking puzzled. "But what has that got to do with Welcome Robin and Drummer the Woodpecker?" "Nothing!" replied Prickly Porky, and Goldie the Oriole and all the others could do It too." "What does Welcome Robin eat?" demanded Prickly Porky. "Why,'- worms and bugs and i things," replied Peter In a rather uncertain voice. "Seen any worms and bugs and tbings since Jack Frost arrived?" WHY SOME BIRDS FLY , SOUTH AND SOME STAY j WHEN Peter Rabbit asked . Prickly Porky the Porcupine If It was discontent that caused so many of the birds to fly away to the sunny Southland at the coming of cold weather he did It more to change the subject than with any hope of learning anything. Prickly Porky had been preaching to Peter about contentment, and It had made Peter feel a little uncomfortable. You know nobody likes to De preached to, Peter least of all. So be tried to change the subject Now he didn't have the least Idea that Prickly Porky would really know ' anything about the matter. Like almost every one else he always al-ways thought of Prickly Porky as rather a stupid fellow. He is slow moving and does little but eat and sleep, sod altogether Is regarded by his mor active neighbors as rather stupid. So Peter didn't really expect ex-pect to learn anything when be asked the question. . It was a mat- ter that had bothered Peter' for a long time. He never could see any sense In those long Journeys which so many of his feathered frleads made every year. If Tommy Tit the Chickadee and Drummer the Woodpecker, Wood-pecker, an a few others who stay all winter could stand the cold why couldn't the rest? He had studied and studied the matter without "only Drummer has a bill for mailing mail-ing holes In trees and In the bark , where certain kinds of worms are always to be found, and where bugs bide their eggs. Welcome Robin hasn't and there-you are. Drummer Drum-mer can find a meal any time where Welcome Robin would starve. It's the Bame way with Tommy Tit. He eats millions of eggs of insects, so tiny that you wouldn't be able to see them at all probably, and he finds them on the twigs of trees hidden nu.der the bark. Welcome Robin never could fill up on those, and even If he could, he couldn't get them. His feet are not made for climbing upside-down to little twigs as Tommy Tit's are. That's all there Is to It Those who can find enough to eat stay, and those who can't find enough to eat go. Simple, isn't it?" ( br J. Q. Uoyd.)-WNO 8ervlce. "Why Don't You Eat Nuts the Way Happy Jack Squirrel Does?" De-mandad De-mandad Prickly Porky. asked Prickly Porky, and the tone of his voice was enough to make Peter feel very foolish. 'No o," confessed Peter, "but" "But what?" demanded Prickly Porky sharply. 1 growing one bit wiser. So Just Im- Jagine how surprised he was when Prickly Porky stopped eating long i enough to look down at him and say J In the most scornful way, as If j he thought Peter the most stupid fellow that ever was to ask such a foolish question: "Discontent has nothing to do ! with It It's simply a matter of getting enough to eat I thought everybody knew that" ! Peter didn't like the way In I which Prickly Porky said that but ! he wanted to know more, so he wisely swallowed the sharp retort j which was on the tip of his tongue. "I didn't," he confessed very humbly, "and I don't quite understand now. Little Tommy Tit doesn't seem to have any trouble finding enough to ' eat in this weather, and If such a little fellow as be can stand the cold weather I should think that Welcome Robin and Carol the Lark , I |
