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Show yfO " 1 3w 3EDTIME STORO Ing for It. And safety was his first thought as lie built the walls above water. lie knew that when Jack Frost should come and cover the Smiling Tool with Ice it would be an easy matter for old Man Coyote and. Keddy and Granny Fox to get to his house. If the walls were thin and poorly made they might be torn open. Then, too, the cold might creep through and freeze him. For some reason, Just why he didn't know, lie had a feeling that the com ing winter was going to be extra cold. So Jerry made those walls extra thick. He chose the stoutest cattails cat-tails and rushes he could find and dug up the biggest roots he could SAFETY FIRST AND COMFORT NEXT IF ANYONIG should ask Jerry Muskrat how to build a house the advice he would give would be something some-thing like this: "Build It for safety first and comfort next." There Isn't one of the little people of the Green Forest but will say that this Is tiie best of good advice. Even Peter Itabblt will say so, though as every b dy knows he doesn't live up to It. If safety means bard work Peter Pe-ter will take a chance with danger every time. Even when his own comfort com-fort Is concerned Peter will avoid the work If possible. Isn't It funny f A 0 "It Is Nothing But a Pile of Rub-blsh," Rub-blsh," Said He. how lazy and shortsighted some people peo-ple can be? But Jerry Muskrat isn't one of these. Oh, my, no. No, indeed. When he dug those tunnels from the cellar of his house down under water to the bank and to the deepest deep-est part of the Smiling Pool he was thinking of safety and prepar- manage. He went a little way up the Laughing Brook for sticks. All these things he towed across- the Smiling Pool to the new house and worked into the walls. He dug up mud and worked it In with the rushes and cattails and sticks In a way that only he and Paddy the Beaver can. Peter Rabbit, watching from the bank, turned up his nose. "It Is nothing but a pile of rubbish," said he. In truth Peter wasn't to be blamed for saying so. That Is what it looked like Just a great pile of rubbish. What Peter couldn't see was that in the center of it was a 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 though the water should rise quite a lot in the Smiling Pool. And this nice dry chamber connect ed 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. If he couldn't have had the safety with the comfort he would have chosen the safety. But as long as he could have both he Intended to have both. Higher rose the walls and presently pres-ently the bedroom was roofed over. As. had been the case In the old house, tiny spaces were left for fresh air to come in and 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 mud, that the air might pass through. Many nights Jerry worked and when at last he laid 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 experi-ence with Hooty the Owl. , 1933, by T. W. Burgess. WNU Service. 1 one teaspoon of salt and one-eigfcth teaspoon of pepper. Fill the eggplant egg-plant halves and cover with buttered crumbs. Bake In 8 moderate oven. Macedoine of Vegetables. Melt three tablespoons of shortening, short-ening, add one tablespoon of chopped onion and the same of chopped pl-miento. pl-miento. Cook for five minutes. Add two table&poonfuls of flour, and when well mixed add two cupfuls of canned tomatoes and cook until the mixture thickens slightly. Add one cup of peas, corn, lima beans or carrots, one and one-half cup of boiled rice, one tablespoonful of 'chopped parsley, lwo teasponfuls of salt and one-half cupful of grated cheese; add a dash of cayenne an l bake for twenty minutes In a ho' oven. . 1933, Western Newspaper Union. |