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Show - BEDTIME STOU.Y FOR CHILDREN I By THORNTON W. BURGESS JOHNNIE CHUCK DECIDES TO EAT A LITTLE MORE 'pO EAT or not to eat, that Is the - question," said Johnny Chuck as he nibbled daintily at a clover leaf. "You don't look to me as If there was apy question at all," declared Sammy Jay, who happened along just In time to overhear what Johnny had said. "How any one so fat as you are can ever look at food is something I can't understand. If you eat much more your skin will burst Don't you think of anything but your stomach, Johnny Chuck?" "I'm not thinking of my stomach," retorted Johnny Chuck indignantly. "I wouldn't eat another mouthful If I could be sure that I'm fat enough." "Fat enough I" exclaimed Sammy Jay, "Ho, ho, hoi If you get much iiJHPS 'lid " Am Not Thinking of My Stomach," Retorted Johnny Chuck. fatter you won't be able to walk. How fat do you want to get?" "Fat enough to be sure of sleeping comfortably all winter and having strength enough left to take care of myself when Mistress Spring gets here again," replied Johnny Chuck, shortly. He didn't like being laughed at. "I wish I could know whether the winter is going to be a long one or a short one. If I thought It was going to be short I would stop eating this very minute." "I don't see what the winter has to do with your eating," replied Sammy Jay, scratching his head in a puzzled puz-zled way. "It's got everything to do with it," retorted Johnny Chuck. Then he explained ex-plained that getting fat was his way of storing up food and that it was very necessary that he should have enough to last him until the coming of Mistress Mis-tress Spring. Sammy Jay listened with something like very real Interest. Inter-est. He began to understand why It was that Johnny Chuck was so anxious anx-ious to know what the winter would be. "Jerry Muskrat thinks it Is going to be a long, hard winter," said Sammy as Johnny Chuck stopped speaking. Johnny pricked up his short, round ears. "How do you know that?" he demanded. "He's building the walls of his house thicker than I've ever known him to before," replied Sammy. "If anybody knows about the weather it is Jerry Muskrat. Then, too, his cousin, Paddy the Beaver, is cutting more wood than he did last year. You know he sinks it in his pond and eats the bark in winter. That looks to me as if Paddy thinks the same as Jerry. He knows he can't get any more food until the ice has melted in the spring, and he means to have enough. I don't believe he would work the way he is doing if he wasn't pretty sure that it was necessary." Johnny Chuck sat up the better to look at Sammy Jay and make sure that Sammy meant what he was saying. say-ing. "What more have you seen or heard?" he demanded eagerly, all the time chewing a clover leaf. "Nothing much," replied Sammy, "only that I heard Buster Bear say that his new fur coat is the thickest he ever had, and he wished told weather would hurry up and come along because he's uncomfortable now. He's fatter, too, than I've ever seen him since he came to the Green Forest to live. This morning I met Reddy Fox and he was complaining about the thickness of his new coat He said that Billy Mink and Little Joe Otter have the finest, warmest coats they ever have had, but are finding them a little uncomfortable Just now. Do you know what I think?" "What?" asked Johnny Chuck eagerly. eag-erly. "I think," replied Sammy Jay, trying try-ing to look wise and knowing, "that If Old Mother Nature has given these fellow such a thick coat, it is because be-cause she knows that they will have need for it I think that the winter Is going to be hard and long. I'm almost al-most tempted to move south myself." "Thank you, Sammy Jay," replied Johnny Chuck gratefully. "I think just as you do. You have removed the last doubt from my mind. I don't think I'll turn In to sleep for the winter win-ter for a few days yet. A little more fat won't won't do any harm. There is nothing like being prepared. Too much fat won't hurt me, but too little may." With this Johnny Chuck fell to eating eat-ing as if he were half starved instead of nearly bursting with fat ffi. 1932. by T. W. Buritose. WNTJ Service. |