Evening star., 1915-12-28
YELLOW CORN AND FAT HICKORY
NUTS WERE SPREAD ALL OVER
THE SNOW-COvERED FLAT
STONE

you that it was very merry place
before you were near enough to see
what was going on. 1t was. You see,
up there there was a Christmas party.
l suspect that IL Peter Rabbit had
| known about it nothing could have
kept him away from it. But he didn't
know about it until afterward, which
| is just as we'll, for home is the place
of all places in which to spend Christ
| mas, and If Peter had gone up to the
Old Orchard the day would have been
quite spoiled for little Mrs. Peter.
No one had known that there was
going to be party: This had made
it all the merrier. You know pleasant
things often are great deal more
pleasant when they come as a surprise.
1t began when Tommy Tit the, Chickadee
came fitting over to the Old Orchard.
He was a trif1e late that morning and
Farmer Browns Boy was just leav-
ing, whstling as he tramped through
the snow toward his house. dee, dee,
chickadee" cried Tommy merrily. for
Tommy is always merry. Dee, dee,
chick" Tommy stopped short. His
sharp little eyes had discovered some
thing. 1t was a great lump of white
suet tied fast to one of the old apple
| trees. And there on another tree was.
more suet, and on third tree was
| bone with shreads of meat clinging to
| it, No wonder Tommy stopped his
| merry greeting short in the middle and
caught his breath. But 1t was only
d
excitedly, and he couldn't get the dee.
dees" out fast enough. They fairly
tripped over each other. Here was a
feast, a Christmas feast. and there was
| enough for everybody! He wanted
Everybody to share in 1t. so he called
| with all his might.
Drummer the Woodpecker heard him
and hurried up. So did Yank-yank
the Nuthatch. Their eyes sparkled
when they saw the feast. for they. too,
| love suet. They chartered excitedly
as they feasted. and when they dis
covered a little shelf fastened to one
| of the trees and on this shelf a lot of
cracked hickory nuts their Joy knew
before Sammy Jay came over to find
| out what was going on. Sammy likes
suet, and he likes nuts when they are
| cracked for him. but when he found
great double handful of yellow corn
| in hollow of one OF the trees his joy
was so great that for once he for
got to be selfish and screamed at the
top of his voice to his cousin, Blacky
the Grow, whom he could see in the
| top of tall tree on the edge of the
Green Forest. Blacky came over at
/ once.
| Meanwhile. Chatterer the Red
| Squirrel had come racing along the
old stone wall to see what was going
| on. When he came to a great fiat
stone half way along the old wall he
stopped so suddenly that he almost
| tumDled over. 1ellOW corn ana lat
hickory nuts were spread all over the
snow-covered fiat stone. Then he
| added his voice to the happy, excited
chatter. Presently Happy Jack the
Gray Squirrel joined the party. and he
| found nuts and corn spread for him
| Bob White was very hungry that
| morning. The snow had buried the
seeds and he didn't quite know where
| he and his family were going to get
| their Christmas breakfast. When he
heard the merry chatter over in the
old Orchard he few over just to see
IL by chance he might share in the
| good things. Almost the first thing
he saw when he got there was a little
shelter of poles and brush down in one
corner of the Old Orchard and scat
tered all around it wheat and rye and
sunflower seeds. Bob didn't stop to
pick up so much as one tiny seed, but
hurried back for his family, joy sing
| ing in his heart.
With a great whirr of stout little
wings Mrs. Bob and all their children
| followed him back to the Old Orchard
to join the merry Christmas party.
! And IL was all because of Farmer
Browns Boy. No wonder that his own
Christmas was very, very merry.