OCR Text |
Show BEDTIME STORO WHAT JERRY MUSKRAT WAS DOING T""ID you ever watch a house be-Ing be-Ing built? Of course you have. You know, first of all a cellar Is dug. You know how sewer and water pipes are laid. You must know that a lot of work Is done in the ground which doesn't go Into the house itself, it-self, but which Is a part of the building of the house just the same. z -co - of the work would be the easiest for Jerry. First of all Jerry had to dig a sort of cellar. The mud from this he piled around him to make a sort of wall. It was really the beginning of the new house. When he had this cellar finished of course the water was quite a lot deeper there than It was around It. This was why he had to dig It. He knew that the water was so shallow around it that It would very likely freeze clear to the bottom In the winter. He didn't want that to happen under his house, or should I say Inside bis house? You see that cellar really was a part of his house, I suppose. Anyway, it was the way by which he would go in and out, and so U had to be made safe. It wouldn't do to leave a chance of being frozen in. So he took pains to make it deep enough. Then from that cellar he started a tunnel over to the bauk of the Smiling Smil-ing Pool. It took time to dig that tunnel. When he reached the bank he kept right on, slanting up until he had reached where it was dry and where he felt sure tjiat the spring flood would not reach unless it happened to be such an unusual flood as the one which had swept away his old house last spring. There he made a comfortable and roomy chamber wherein he would later make a nice bed of grass. Then Jerry went back to his cellar cel-lar and started another tunnel. This one he headed straight for the deepest deep-est part of the Smiling Pool, where he knew there would be water no matter how thick the ice above might be. When this was finished he dug another to the bank and an other to deep water so that In case of accident to the first one, he would still have tunnels he could use. lerry believes In being prepared. It takes time and a lot of hard work to dig tunnels like these. It was this that Jerry was doing while Peter Rabbit was so Impatiently watching for some signs of the new house above water. The bits of earth and sod which Jerry dug out he used to broaden the foundation around his cellar. And of course U was this work that made the water so muddy. The truth is these tunnels were quite as Important as the house Itself. It-self. In fact, In some ways they were more important So Jerry took great pains in digging them. He knew that the time might come when his life would depend on them. He Intended that If that time did come there should be nothing wrong with those tunnels. Not until they were finished did he give much thought to the rest of the house. . 1933. byT. W. Burgess. WNU Service. Firbt of All Jerry Had to Dig a Cellar. It was this same way with Jerry Muskrat and his new house. He had a lot to do before he could build the house itself, which would rise above the surface of the water. Grandfather Frog had been right when he had said that that part |