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Show HI By THORNTON W. BURGESS THE BEECH-NUT PICNIC f VER in a certain part of the Green Forest grow silver-barked beeches, the trees that Peter Rabbit thinks are the most beautiful of all trees that in winter are bare of leaves. Already they were p-nlly bare, and the leaves which still clung to them were crisp and yellow. yel-low. The beech trees, like Johnny Chuck, were about ready to go to sleep for the winter. You see, their barked beech trees, for the joy and well-being of some of their feathered feath-ered and furred neighbors. All summer sum-mer long those little nuts had been growing In little prickly husks on the beautiful beech trees. At first, they bad been green, but with the coming of fall they had turned brown. Now had come Jack Frost of a still October night and opened the prickly little husks. Merry Little Lit-tle Breezes had shaken out the little brown nuts and they had rattled rat-tled merrily down through the branches to the ground and rolled this way and rolled that way under the crisp fallen leaves. Now, many sharp eyes had been watching those little husks on the beech trees and waiting for the coming of Jack Frost to open them. The owners of those sharp eyes knew when Jack Frost did come. Of course. He always makes his arrival known by going about and slyly pinching all whom he may find, just by way of greeting. So very early in the morning after Jack Frost had opened the little prickly husks, many feet turned toward that part of the Green Forest For-est where grow the beautiful beech trees, and some wings were turned in that direction, too. It was the ness, came Buster Bear. Buster Bear is very fond of beech, nuts, and he had been counting on these to help make him fat for the long winter sleep ahead of him. "My, but this is going to be some picnic!" murmured Peter Rabbit , T. W. Burgess. WNU Service. "My, But This Is Going to Be Some ' Picnic!" summer work was about finished. In fact, it was quite finished, for beneath them hiding among the crisp fallen leaves were ever and ever so many ripe, brown, three-sided three-sided little nuts, the sweetest little nuts in the world. That Is what Buster Bear says, anyway, but perhaps he isn't a fair judge. Those brown three-sided little nuts were the gift of the silver- day of the annual beech-nut picnic. Chatterer, the Red Squirrel, and his big cousin, Happy Jack, the I Gray Squirrel, started just as soon as it was light enough to see, but early as they were, they found Mrs. Grouse and family there before them. Hardly had they arrived when Sammy Jay appeared and, I am sorry to say, he and Chatterer at once began to call each other names. Then came .Redhead, a cousin of Drummer, the Woodpecker, Woodpeck-er, who is very fond of beech nuts. Big Tom, the Gobbler, and Mrs. Gobbler, and their whole family of young Gobblers, now nearly as big as their parents, were the next to arrive, ar-rive, and Chatterer greeted them with a perfect storm of abuse, to which they didn't pay the least attention. at-tention. Chatterer simply wasted his breath. Presently there was a rustle of leaves, and who should appear but Li'ghtfoot, the Deer. Unc' Billy and Mrs. Possum arrived a few minutes later, their sharp eyes twinkling greedily. Whitefoot, the Wood Mouse, was there, though he took pains to keep out of sight. Of course, Peter Rabbit was there. Not that Peter was at all interested In those sweet, brown nuts. Peter doesn't. eat nuts, you know. He was there just because he couldn't stay away. He wanted to see what was going on. Last of all, shuffling along with funny grunts and whines of eager- |