The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1916-02-16
LITTLE STORIES FOR BEDTIME.
Mrs. Grouse Goes to Bed.
By THORNTON w. BURGESS.
tCopyrixht. 1918. BY }. q. Lloyd

tCOpyriWut, IUio' ny Js vs. h'"s"'i
When you go 20 bed at night
Without anything 10 fear,
Think of those who never sleep
Without danger lurking near.
A few of the little people OF the
Green Forest and the Green Mead
ows can go TO sleep without worry
ing. Reddy Fox and old Man Coy
ote and Buster Bear and Hooty the
Owl and Roughleg the Hawk sleep
without fear, but most of the other
little people never know when they
close their eyes whether they will
ever open them again. II must be a
dreadfully uncomfortable feeling to
dread going to sleep for fear some
thing awful will happen to you while
your eyes are closed. Don't you
think SO? II is for this reason that
most Of the little people are very
hight sleepers. They are said 10
sleep with one eye open. OF course
this isn't true. II means that they
are such slight sleepers that il some
times seems ms II they had one eye
open.
Now Mrs. Grouse is one of those
who is in constant danger when she
Is asleep. You see. while she is
many, many times larger than many
Of the other little feathcred people,
she really has more to fear than
they do. In the first place it is not
so easy for her to hide. In the sec
ond place being so big she would
make a much better dinner than one
of the smaller birds. and so Reddy
and Granny Fox and Hooty the Owl
are ON the watch for her more sharp
ly than for any of the other
Mrs. Grouse knows all this, and
going to bed at night Is a very seri-
Gus matter with her. a matter which
calls for all her knowledge and
sharpest wits. She must be sure
that no one sees her when she goes
to bed So as bedtime approaches
she is very wide awake indeed. Hav-
ing made up her mind just where
she will sleep she approaches the
place slowly and carefully, stopping
often TO look and listen to make
sure that no one is near.
Now while Mrs. Grouse has stout
wings and can fly swiftly she is not
at all fond Of using them excepting
To escape from danger or to take
her up into the trees when food is
30 scarce that she must live on the
buds of trees. She never feels really
in a tree. Her feet were
made for walking on the ground, and
they get very tired and ache when
she must cling TO branch for
long time. So she much prefers to
sleep on the ground. But when
there is hard. Icy crust, she sleeps
in the thickest branched tree she
can find. There she has nothing to
fear from Reidy Fox, but she Is
always afraid that she may move
and the Keen ears OF Hooty the Owl
may hear her and his night-seeing
eyes spy her out You see Hooty
flies so softly that there is nothing
TO warn Of his presence.
But when she Is sleeping on the
ground Mrs. Grouse can trust I'd
her ears to catch the sound of soft
footsteps. The rustic OF dry leaf
or the faintest snap of tiny dry
twig is enough TO waken her and
send her whirrIng up to the nearest
tree. Reddy Fox found this out long
ago. More than once he had hap
pened close 10 where she was
sleeping. not knowing that she was
there. and had been startled almost
out of his wits by the roar of her
wings. SO he had made up his mind
that he had got to find out where