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Show ' SITIME : y-yrx' story s TM08M70H W. : CHATTERER HAS A DREADFUL THOUGHT CHATTERER THE RED SQUIRREL SQUIR-REL was almost too frightened to think. He knew that the end must come soon unless something wonderful wonder-ful happened. The simple little tricks he had tried had not fooled Shadow the Weasel at all. He was right in the very next tree, and Chatterer Chat-terer didn't even dare stop to look behind. Then an idea popped into his head. It just seemed to come without any thinking on his part. It was a dreadful idea a truly dreadful dread-ful idea. At first Chatterer wouldn't let himself think of it at all. But, little by little, he did think of it, and the more he thought of it the less dreadful it seemed. That is a way bad thoughts have the longer you let them stay the less bad they seem. And it was so with Chatterer now. What was the dreadful thought? Why, it was to lead Shadow the Weasel over to the home of Happy Jack the Gray Squirrel, who, you know, is own cousin to Chatterer. "If he finds Happy Jack at noma he will forget me." "If he finds Happy Jack at home he'll forget all about me," thought Chatterer, "for Happy Jack is bigger big-ger and fatter than I am and will make a better dinner. Of course, I don't like to do it; it really is a very dreadful tiling to do. No, sir, I don't like to do it; but but it is everybody for himself these days, and I I can't run much longer. Of course, it won't be really my fault if Happy Jack gets killed, because all I'll do is to simply run past his door. Then, if Shadow chooses to go in there why why well, it won't be my fault." Now, of course, Chatterer knew perfectly well that this wasn't true. But Chatterer is a coward, and he was thinking in just the way that cowards think. He knew that it was his own fault that he was in such dreadful danger himself that if he had minded his own business instead in-stead of tormenting Bobby Coon by waking him from sleep Shadow the Weasel would not have heard him and so been able to find him. But, like all cowards. Chatterer wasn't brave enough to face the results of his own fault and now he was ready to see some one else suffer for what he had done. A little, still voice down inside told him that what he was thinking of was a dreadful and cowardly thing, but he tried not to listen to it. "Happy Jack is bigger and stronger strong-er than I am, and I shouldn't wonder if he could fight Shadow and whip him. In fact, I am almost sure he can," thought Chatterer. Yet all the time he knew that Happy Jack couldn't, for just as likely as not he would be taking a nap, and it would be all over before he knew he was in danger. You see, Chatterer was just trying to fool himself. "I wish I had thought of it before," he panted. "It's a long way over to Happy Jack's house, and I may not be able to get there before Shadow catches me." But the thought that he might, he just might, escape gave him new strength, and for a little while he actually gained n Shadow the Weasel. He didn't stay in the tree tops now, but ran along the ground as fast as ever he could in the direction direc-tion of Happy Jack's house. He was not half way there when, looking over his shoulder, he saw Shadow bounding along with great leaps just a little way behind him, and he knew that in a few more leaps Shadow would have him. Shadow could go faster on the ground than he could. He gave one despairing glance in the tree tops where he had raced and played and been happy so long, and which he felt sure now he would never play in again. Near the top of one of them was a big brown bunch. Chatterer's heart gave a little throb of hope. He saw what he thought might be a last chance. |