| Show bedtime story f for or children by THORNTON W BURGESS burdess lightfoots lightfoote LIGHT FOOTS CLEVER TRICK the deer Is 13 smart yes L sir lightfoot the deer Is smart he has to be especially in the hunting season to save his life if he grere riot smart he would have been killed long ago he never makes the foolish mistake ot of thinking that other people are not smart he ele knew that that hunter who had started out to follow him early that morning was not one to be easily discouraged or to be tooted fooled by simple tricks he had a very great respect for the ille smartness ot of that hunter he knew that he afford to be careless for one little minute the certainty certainly of danger sometimes ta Is easier to bear than the on uncertainty certainty vt of not knowing whether or not there really mally Is any danger ll 11 lightfoot felt that it if he could know just where the hunter was he himself would know better what to do the hunter might have become discouraged and given up following him in that case he could rest and stop worrying it would bp be better to know that he was being followed than not to know but how was he to find out lightfoot kept turning this over and over in his mind as ile he traveled through h the green forest then an idea came to him 1 I know what ill do I 1 know just what ill do said lightfoot to himself Il lEnd out whether or not that hunter Is still following me and ill get a little rest goodness knows 1 need a rest lightfoot bounded away swiftly and ran for some distance then he turned and quickly but very very quietly returned in the direction from which he had just come but a little to one side of his old trall after a while he saw what he was looking tor for a pile ot of branches which wood choppers had left when they had trimmed the trees they had bad cut down this was near the top of a little hill lightfoot went up the hill and stopped behind a pile of brush for a few moments he stood there perfectly still looking and its bening then ath with a little sigh of relief he lay down where without being in any danger of being seen himself he could watch his old trail through the hollow at the bottom of the hill it if the hunter was still following him he would pass along through that hollow in plain sight for a long time lightfoot rested comfortably behind the pile of brush there was not a suspicious sound to show that danger was abroad in the green forest ile he saw mr and mrs grouse fly down across the hollow and disappear among the trees on the other side ile he saw unc billy possum looking over a hollow tree and guessed that unc nilly billy was getting ready to go into winter quarters ile he saw juniper jumper the hare squat down under a low hanging branch of a hemlock I 1 tree and prepare to take a nap ile he heard drummer the woodpecker at work drilling after worms in a tree not far away little by little lightfoot grew easy in his mind it must be that the hunter had become discouraged and was no longer following him 0 T W burtess burgess service |
