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Old Mother West Wind
by
Old Grandfather Frog stopped and looked sadly at a foolish green fly coming his way. “Chug-arum,” said Grandfather Frog, opening his mouth very wide and hopping up in the air. When he sat down again on his big lily pad the green fly was nowhere to be seen. Grandfather Frog smacked his lips and continued:
“And from that day to this every Frog has started life with a big tail, and as he has grown bigger and bigger his tail has grown smaller and smaller, until finally it disappears, and then he remembers how foolish and useless it is to be vain of what nature has given us. And that is how I came to lose my tail,” finished Grandfather Frog.
“Thank you,” shouted all the Merry Little Breezes. “We won’t forget.”
Then they ran a race to see who could reach Johnny Chuck’s home first and tell him that Farmer Brown was coming down on the Green Meadows with a gun.
CHAPTER III HOW REDDY FOX WAS SURPRISED
Johnny Chuck and Reddy Fox lived very near together on the edge of the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck was fat and roly-poly. Reddy Fox was slim and wore a bright red coat. Reddy Fox used to like to frighten Johnny Chuck by suddenly popping out from behind a tree and making believe that he was going to eat Johnny Chuck all up.
One bright summer day Johnny Chuck was out looking for a good breakfast of nice tender clover. He had wandered quite a long way from his snug little house in the long meadow grass, although his mother had told him never to go out of sight of the door. But Johnny was like some little boys I know, and forgot all he had been told.
He walked and walked and walked. Every few minutes Johnny Chuck saw something farther on that looked like a patch of nice fresh clover. And every time when he reached it Johnny Chuck found that he had made a mistake. So Johnny Chuck walked and walked and walked.
Old Mother West Wind, coming across the Green Meadows, saw Johnny Chuck and asked him where he was going. Johnny Chuck pretended not to hear and just walked faster.
One of the Merry Little Breezes danced along in front of him.
“Look out, Johnny Chuck, you will get lost,” cried the Merry Little Breeze then pulled Johnny’s whiskers and ran away.
Higher and higher up in the sky climbed round, red Mr. Sun. Every time Johnny Chuck looked up at him Mr. Sun winked.
“So long as I can see great round, red Mr. Sun and he winks at me I can’t be lost,” thought Johnny Chuck, and trotted on looking for clover.
By and by Johnny Chuck really did find some clover–just the sweetest clover that grew in the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck ate and ate and ate and then what do you think he did? Why, he curled right up in the nice sweet clover and went fast asleep.
Great round, red Mr. Sun kept climbing higher and higher up in the sky, then by and by he began to go down on the other side, and long shadows began to creep out across the Green Meadows. Johnny Chuck didn’t know anything about them: he was fast asleep.
By and by one of the Merry Little Breezes found Johnny Chuck all curled up in a funny round ball.
“Wake up Johnny Chuck! Wake up!” shouted the Merry Little Breeze.
Johnny Chuck opened his eyes. Then he sat up and rubbed them. For just a few, few minutes he couldn’t remember where he was at all.
By and by he sat up very straight to look over the grass and see where he was. But he was so far from home that he didn’t see a single thing that looked at all like the things he was used to. The trees were all different. The bushes were all different. Everything was different. Johnny Chuck was lost.