Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1917-06-06
uI1ILLESoR!Es
BY THORNTON w. BURGESS.
Copyright. 1917. by T. w. Burgess.J
The Search for Chubby.

When Mrs. Reddy Fox started out to
look for poor little lost Chubby, the
latest of her four children it didn't
take her long to find where Chubby had
been. Her keen nose. always to the
ground would catch a bit of scent here
and a bit of scent there. Being such 4
very small fox, Chubby hadn't left a lot
of scent as an older fox would have
done. Besides, it was some time since
she had been along, and scent, like per-
fume, grows fainter and fainter until
there is none.
So it wasn't at all easy for her
mother to follow Chubby's wanderinss.
But by keeping at it persistently Mrs.
| Reddy followed the twists and turns
Chubby's wandering little feet had
made in the Old Pasture, and she knew
just as well as if she had been there to
see everything that Chubby had done
She knew that here Chubby had caught
a beetle and there she had tried to
catch a mouse, but had failed. And so
at last Mrs. .Reddy came to the place
where Chubby had first discovered that
she was lost.
THE poor child" murmured Mrs.
Reddy. she was frightened almost to
death when she found out that she
didn't know the way home. Here is
where she began to run. and l expect
she almost ran her legs off. And in
stead of being headed toward home she
was headed right the other way.
Now and then Mrs. Reddy would lose
the trail, for at times it was 50 very
faint that even her keen nose could
These delays made Mrs. Reddy very
impatient, for, you know, she was
dreadfully worried. Any mother would
have been. Whenever she lost the trail
she would run in circles with her nose
to the ground until she found the trail
again.
So at last Mrs. Reddy came to the
bullbrier castle of Old Jed Thumper, the
big gray Rabbit. who was the father
of little Mrs. Peter Rabbit. Old Jed
brambles and he chuckled as he saw
Mrs. Reddy and the worried look on her
face. lie wasn't sorry for her bit.
No, sir, he wasn't sorry for her bit.
know as we should blame him. You
see, ReddY and Old Granny Fox used
to hunt him SO much that he had to
keep his ears open and his wits work.
| ing all the time to keep a whole skin.
/ Then had come Mrs. Reddy to make
things harder still. But Old Jed
Thumper had begun to think that he
hadn't known what it was to be hunted
until after the arrival of Reddy's and
| Mrs. Reddy's babies. Since they ar
rived he had been hunted so much by
Reddy and Mrs. Reddy that he had
grown so nervous that he would try to
| jump away from his own shadow when
he happened to see it over his shoulder
| 30 oiu Jei CNucRle9 as he
watched Mrs. Reddy pass his bullbrier
! castle with such worried look. He
had seen Chubby pass that way long
| before. and he had hoped then that she
would lose herself so that she never
| would be found, and he hadn't changed
his mind since.
| Mrs Reddy saw him peeping at her
through the brambles and she had it
on the tip of her tongue to ask him If
he had seen Chubby pass that way, but
she didn't.
| 1T wouldn't do any good" thought
| she. 1T wouldn't do the least bit of
| good. He wouldn't tell me if he had
| seen her"
So she merely gave him look and
hurried on.
| So at last she came to the place
where the Old Pasture and the Green
| Forest meet, and she knew then that
| Chubby was somewhere in the Green
Forest. This made her more anxious
| than ever. for there were more dangers
for little fox in the Green Forest
than~in the Old Pasture; also there
were fe>& bramble-tansles under which
| a little foN could crawl, and few other
hiding places unless you knew Just
where to look for them, and, of course,
Chubby didn't know this. SO Mrs
| Reddy was greatly worried.
But, worried as she was it was moth
ing to what she was to worry