OCR Text |
Show ip Daddy's Jpd Evefii$ Fairy Tale dyAFtr GRWAM BOWER IiOGNOSE SNAKE "It docs si i.'iii u tj :i m " suhl the f Ioxihkm; Snake, hi.;sin' in his most polite way l. lii.s iK-i-4M.ur, tlir Carter Snake, "Ida! .so 111:1113' crcal mvs should be so badly nann-d." "What makes you say that?" asked tin- Carter Snaki;. "Well, there Is the Hog-Doer," said llifi ilonose Snake, "lie is a heaiill- j fill deer and dues not resemble a ply li any way. "There Is no sense for such a name. "Then there is Hie Ant Hear, no relative of the Anleuler. The Ant Hear does not k'row, nor does he look like a hear, nor is lie fond of ants. "Then there Is my own abused self I urn called the llognose Snake, Hie Sand Viper Snake, the 1'UIT Adder make and oilier cruel names. "They all make me sound unattractive unattrac-tive ami dangerous." "That Is so," said the Garter Snake, "and It does seem rather unfair." "Itather unfair," hissed the Hog nose Snake, "very unfair." lie wrig Kled and twisted around In his zoo homo. "Ah, but ( here Is a reason for your names and for your looks," the Garter Snake said. "Now, I am more abused than you are. I am quite harmless and yet people ure always going out of their way to kill me and to think me dangerous." dan-gerous." "Dear mo," said the llognose Snake, "yu're as mild as mild can be." "Thai's so," said Ihe Garter Snake, "but people don't seem to understand 1 that. Now, with you It Is a little dif- I fiTcnf." "Tell me anything to comfort me," said (he llognose Snake, wriggling In 1 Lneo, iiiouriiiui lasnton. "You look dangerous. You are absolutely ab-solutely harmless hut you look as If you could do lots of harm. "Now, that Is Nature's way of protecting pro-tecting you. People are afraid of you for you look dangerous and they're more apt to leave you alone. "They would try to run away from you. They'll take a chance on staying stay-ing and killing me." "Oh," hissed the llognose Snake, "It Is good to hear a few kind and eom- 1 I 1 J .: 1 . u ,1 , "Dear Me," Said the Hog-nose Snake. foiling ibings anyway. What does a Dame mailer when one eau fool the , great world?" And Hie Garter Snake hissed: "II doesn't matter; you're a 'lucky snake!" Now the Canada Porcupine was talking in the next house. "The people in the zoo wonder," he said, "why we don't thrive very well In a zoo. ' "They say that they give us the best of cages, the best of food, the best of ;e. Now all that is very, very true. I hey do give us good homes, good care, good food. They're kind and nice ami pleasant and friendly-out-" and the Canada Porcupine drew a lon-breath. ys, sa.d hts bro.ber, "I know what you are going to say" J "Do you?" smiled the Canada Porcupine. Porcu-pine. "Do you know that I a, goin 0 say that what they don't give us Is-woll. It is something they can't give us, and it is-our own homes' Ve don't like to change. We love the w-oods where we have alwavs lived and had our families and our work and our play and our naps and our Joys and our troubles. "We don't care for any zoo T., porcupines from Africa may care for zoo hte. but not the Canada Poreu- "We are angry when people say that we throw our quills when every le person knows that we don't throw thorn, but if anyone comes near ul we let one of our quills stick into them ' - leave us. That's what we do Our quills are our protection, but oh, ,f they want to know why zoo life cioesn t agree with us w-e can'tel, th m It is because we are lonely-lonely for ',." the free life thoya 'rl tectum, and it Is the free life we love we Canadian porcupines, ".i hat's the secret." |