Show BEDTIME STORY FOR CHILDREN by THORNTON W BURGESS SAFETY FIRST AND COMFORT NEXT TP r ANYONE should ask ash jerry musk rat how to build a house the advice he would give would be something III like e this it for safety first and comfort next there one of the little people of the green meadows and the green forest but will say that this Is the best of good advice even peter rabbit will say so though as everybody knows he live up to it it it if safety means hard work reter peter will take a chance with danger every time even when his own comfort Is concerned peter will nill avoid the work it if possible it funny how 1 01 1 p k A I 1 A IQ 1 it Is nothing but a pile of rubbish said he lazy and shortsighted some people can be 0 but jerry muskrat ilus krat one of these oh my no no indeed when he dug those tunnels from the cellar of his bis house down dowd under water oer to the bank and to the deepest part of the smiling pool he be was thinking of and preparing for it and safety was his first thought as he built the walls above water ile he knew that when jack frost should come and cover the smiling pond with lee ice it could be an easy matter for old sian man coyote and reddy and granny fox to pet get to ills his house if the walls were thin and poorly made they might be torn open then too the cold might creep through and frebe him for tome bome reason just why A by he know he had a feeling that the coming winter was going to be extra cold so jerry made those walls extra thick lie ile chose the stoutest cat coattails cattails calt alls tails nod and rushes he be could ond flod and dug up the biggest roots lie he could manage ile he went a little way up the laughing crook brook for sticks all these things he towed across the smiling pool io to the new house and worked into the walls ile he dug up mud and worked it in with the rushes and cat coattails cattails catt alls tails and sticks in fl a way flint only he and paddy the denier can peter ieter rabbit wn watching from the batik back turned up his nose it Is nothing but a pile of rubbish said he in truth reter to be blamed for saving so that Is what it looked like just a great pile of rubbish what peter see was that in the center of it ns as a nice big roomy chamber one big enough for jerry and two or three friends to sleep in in comfort not only this but it was high enough to be dry even thou hough h the water should rise quite a lot in the smiling pool and this nice dry chamber connected with the water cellar beneath from which led tunnels to the bank and to deep water so while in his tunnels and thick walls jerry was looking out for safety in the nice big dry bedroom he was looking out for comfort it if lie have had the safety with the comfort lie would have hare chosen the safety but as long as he could have both lie he intended to have bo both th higher rose the walls and presently the bedroom was roofed over As had been the lie case in the old house tiny spaces were left tor for fresh air to come in and bid bad air to go out no one knows better than jerry how necessary fresh air Is no matter how cold the weather so he took care not to seal the top of his roof with mith mud that the air night might pass through many nights jerry worked and nhen at last he laid the last stick and the last bulrush in place he felt that his new house was worth all that he had gone through all the hard work and even the terrible experience with the owl C 1931 1933 by T W burnen burgess service |