Show s r r y thornton thorn ton burtress Burc Bur Tess cress J ft t t ff ts fa V a a a ra JERRYS SUSPICION DIES HARD faith and trust have been ONCE driven out by suspicion it is twice as hard to restore them as it was to establish them in the first place that is why any one who plants in the mind of another suspicion of some one else does the very worst kind of an injury if it happens that there are no grounds for a suspicion just take the case of jerry musk 1 1 K I 1 he no longer swam about freely when farmer browns boy was there as he used to i rat and farmer browns boy through kind and thoughtful deeds for a long time farmer browns I 1 boy had established faith and trust lin in the minds of jerry muskrat and all the other little people of the I 1 i green forest the green meadows and all the smiling pool they had learned to regard him as a true friend then along had come a stranger who also pret pretended ende d to be a friend day after day he brought dainties for jerry muskrat until jerry regarded him just as he did farmer browns boy and the least bit suspicious then the stranger had set traps and jerry had been caught by the tail in one of them it was just good fortune that he had been able to get away but all jerrys faith and trust in two legged creatures called men had been destroyed he was suspicious of every one of them including farmer browns boy to be sure the latter had taken away the strangers traps and had left a notice warning the stranger to stop trapping along the laughing brook and around the smiling pool but jerry read that notice all he knew was that the stranger had been good to him just as farmer browns boy had and then had set a trap for him how could he be sure that farmer browns boy do the same thing so though farmer browns boy came to the smiling pool every day and did everything he could think of to show jerry that he was a true friend jerry continued to be suspicious he no longer swam about freely when farmer Br browns owris boy was there as he used to do instead he remained hidden until farmer browns boy went away always the latter left good things for jerry to eat things jerry was fond fored of pieces of sweet apple carrot parsnip and pumpkin but for a long time jerry would not touch them when at last he did venture to eat them it was only after a very careful search for hidden traps the queer thing is that all the time jerry wanted to trust farmer browns boy just as chehad in the past but the memory of his sore tail and his dreadful fright kept suspicion alive it simply die farmer browns boy knew it was so and understood why it made him sad and also it filled him with anger towards che trapper who had destroyed the old faith and trust 0 T W burgess service |