The Detroit times., 1915-12-16
LITTLE STORIES FOR BEDTIME.

sY THORNTON w. BURGESS.

(CeDyriSht. 1915. By ,. G. gIoyd.)
Hardly had Peter Rabbit left
Whitefoot the woodmouse when he
discovered some new tracks In the
snow. and right away he was all
curiosity.
Now whose can these be, won
def7" thought he.
They were quite different from the
tiny tracks OF Whitefoot. In the
hrst place they were ever 20 much
larger. Then, too. they were quite
far apart In little groups Of four.
two little round ones and two quite
long ones.
"Of course" said Peter to himself.
'the little ones Are the prints Of
front feet. and the long ones are the
prints Of hind feet. They are Just
little like my own prints. only not
30 big. guess I'll follow them and
see where they lead to-"
SO Peter started OF lipperty Upper
ty-lip. for these tracks were very
easy to follow. He had followed
them quite q distance without dis
covering anybody when he happened
to look back At his own tracks. Then
he stopped abruptly and sat up.
First he looked at his own tracks
and then he looked at the other
tracks. and a very foolish look crept
over his face. He had noticed what
he had quite forgotten, and this was
that In hopping he puts his hind
feet down In front of his fore feet
50 that any one who didn't know
that would think from his tracks
that he was going In just the op-
posite direction from what he was.
He looked q little closer at the
tracks he had been following and
now he could see the marks Of toe
mats. Whoever had made those
tracks did Just a. he did. put the
hind feet down in front Of the foro
feet, and here he had been follow
ing them In the wrong direction No
wonder he didn't catch up with any
one. Ny, how foolish Peter did
feel! He looked this way and that
way to make sure that no one had
seen what he had been doing. and
then he turned about and started
back the way he had come as fast
as he could 90.
When ne reached the place where
he had FIRST begun to follow tho
tracks he kept right on. Presently
he came to a place where someone
had dug down through the snow.
Right beside the little hole was an
empty nutshell. Peter stopped and
right away he lost all interest.
"Poohf" he exclaimed. I'm not go
Ing to waste my time following those
tracks any farther. They were made
by Happy Jack Squirrel. and he's at
home in bed now. Funny 7 didn't
think OF him before. Next time 7
see his tracks I'll know them. 80
perhaps my time hasn't been wholly
wasted"
With this Peter once more went
looking for tracks, and he didn't
have far 10 look. This time they
were big round tracks in . single
row. Peter took one good look at
them and that was enough.
"Reddy Fox," ne exclaimed under
HIS breath. This is no place for me
II he II about. There n one good
thing, and that In they head away
from where have been. hope he
won't take II into his head to come
over this way"
Making the longest Jumps he knew
how. Peter hurried on to another
part Of the Green Forest. and there
presently he forgot all about Reddy
Fox In his interest In another set of
tracks. These we're IN . double row,
and II was very plain to Peter that
whoever made them was In no great
bury. He followed them, and pres
satly came TO IN old stump with .