Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1918-03-16
LIIILESIoRlEs
&BEDTImE
By THORNTON w, BURGESS.
Copyright. 1915. BY T. W. Burgess,
Danny Meadow Mouse Be-
comes Excited.
Danny Meadow Mouse is small,
4 little chap in gray.
But Danny's smart; if he were not
He'd hardly Live q day.

| That is fact. Danny is smart be-
cause he has to be smart. 1t is sur
prising what you can do when you
really have to. No one knows better
than Danny that his life is likely to
be the price of stupidness or careless
ness. He simply has got to be smart
in order to live. 1t is a pity that the
same thing isn't true of some folks we
all know. They would be smart enough
if their lives depended on it. So Danny
is smart The very fact that he is alive
proves it.
Danny and Nanny had spent very
pleasant winter. There wasn't great
deal to worry about They had plenty
to cat. they were warm enough. and
danger You see they had little tun-
nelS under the snow, and down there
there were quite safe The only time
they were in real danger was when
they went UP on top of the snow and
this they didn't have TO do unless they
wanted to. Danny did it frequently
just for excitement, as you know.
If l didn't give Roughleg the Hawk
and Reddy Fox and old Man Coyote
and Hooty the owl chance to try to
catch me now and then | should for
get how to fool them, and then some
time one of them would surprise me
and / would be so slow in thinking
what l ought to do that / would be
caught. There is nothing like keeping
in practice
So Danny kept in practice. as he
called it, and altogether spent very
pleasant and comfortable winter. But
with the coming of gentle sister
South Wind the troubles of Danny
and Nanny began. The snow melted
and the water ran in their little tun-
nels SO that getting about was not
at all pleasant Then, after awhile.
the roofs of those little tunnels dipped
in and for a time there was no getting
about at all without running great risk
of being seen by sharp eyes always on
the watch.
At last the snow was all gone and
little paths through the brown grass
of last year But the brown grass no
longer gave him the shelter that II
once did 1t was matted down in
clumps and between these clumps
result was that when he moved about
Danny's heart was in his mouth most
of the time. He would peep out
from under one of those brown clumps
and If he could see no danger he would
listen with ali his might. If he heard
no SUSPICIOUS sound he would dart out
and across to the next brown clump.
The trouble was he is so small that ne
couldn't see over the brown grass very
narrow escapes, especially from Rough
leg the Hawk, who all day long was
on the watch.
There was one particular clump of
matted brown grass from under the
edge of which Danny could peep out
and see the tree in the top OF which
Roushleg sat most of the time. One
morning about ten days after the last
of the snow had disappeared Danny sat
watching Roughleg and wishing that
something would happen to him when
suddenly Roughleg spread his great
wings and flew out from the top OF the
tree right straight away from Danny.
Il wonder who he sees now" thought
Danny I'm glad it isn't me he is
Every second Danny expected to see
one in the grass. But he didn't Instead
he went up higher and higher and all
the time kept going straight away
until at last he was merely a tiny black
speck, and then after little was not
to be seen at all. All in flash a
thought popped into Danny's head.
Could it be that Roughleg had started
where he spends his summers? Danny
was most too excited to sit still. When
he got home he said nothing to Nanny
but the next morning bright and early
he was back where he could see the top
of that tree. Roughleg wasn't there.
Danny waited long. long time. but
still no sign of Roughleg. Then Danny
was sure that Roughleg had gone for
good. He was SO excited that he
started for home as fast as he could
go and all the way he squeaked, Nan
ny, Nanny, Nanny" And Nanny.
hearing him, thought that something
dreadful had happened