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Show lip Daddy s iiSfjLveiig Fairy Tale dynARY GRAHAM BOWER THE WILD ANIMAL When Sam and Peter were adven turing through the woods on thei' mm A Pi way to the plact whefe they thoaght lhe would fi n d the buried treasure it was getting dark, so they de elded to make their bed of pine boughs and go to sleep. Suddenly Petei called out: "Oh I Oh! - Look !" "What?" Sam asked. Peter's voice The Eyes Drew wns 'ow- Nearer. tried l ,k,eep from shaking. "See wildcat!" he pointed. And there, coming closer and closer, stealthily, almost silently moving, came those terrible eyes, staring so fixedly at them. The only thing in the woods thai they feared, and here It came, so slow ly and so surely, toward them. There was nothing they could do If they moved to reach for any weapon with which to combat the w-ildcat ht could spring upon them at once. It was wiser not to take a chance, so they sat, staring back with fixed glances, though in the darkness thej felt that their gaze would neither be clear nor alarming, But they stared. And the eyej drew nearer, nearer. The creature would be upon them in an instant. "What would he do? What could they do? What v. us there to do in this second left them? Of all the creatures in the woods the only one they feared was the little leopard or wildcat, and this was the first time they had ever encountered one this first time that they were alijne. Suddenly there was a slight sound It somehow brought them relief though they were too frightened to realize relief so quickly. There was the sound again. It was unmistakably one of friendliness hope, interest. And then the crea ture was upon them, right at theit feet, but brushing against them and purring, me-owing, purring. "Why," breathed Sam, "it's nothing b it a big cat." "Oh, Pussy." said Peter, "you don't kaow how glad we are to see you You've no idea how happy we are." The cat was all friendliness. "Have you wandered away from home. Pussy," Sam asked, "and lost your way as the darkness came on, oi were you thinking of going back to see some of your wild relatives?" The cat answered with the most do mestic of purrs. "Let's not tell anyone what hap pened," Peter suggested. "It sounds too absurd for us to have been so frightened." j "But his eyes did look terrible, j didn't they?" Sara said. "Let me have a look at your eyes, Pussy." i The cat turned his eyes on Sam i blinking somewhat sleepily. "There is a wild look In them just the same," he said, "but we'll keep this adventure to ourselves." They went to sleep quite soon after I this. All their possible fears had left them, for now, no matter how terrible anything might seem to be they would remember the wild look of those two eyes drawing nearer and nearer to them and would remember that it was nothing but h cat. When they awoke In the morning li was bright sunlight. They had slept longer than they had meant to sleep, and the cat had evidently wandered back home or gone still deeper into the woods, for there was no sign of him about. "Well, we don't nave to share our breakfast with him." said Sam, "and he might nave been a good ealer. I wonder what he was do- Ing in these woods Nothng But a -maybe he does Big Cat like a wild life but having known people too, he is friendly enough toward them." They built a fire and had their breakfast. The bacon had such a good flavor, the toast was so crisp and the jam particularly delicious. They traveled on all through the day, stopping now and again for nxnls and twice for swims. What a fine time tliey were having. |