Vernon Parish Democrat. (Leesville, La.) 1917-193?, 1920-11-25

"Only blackberries." said Brother.
"But we can get along very nicely till
morning. And we are very grateful
70 you f6T taking Us into S siiiiE, tree
"You must have some more supper"
said the tree man. And he spread out
some things to eat. The chief thing
was bread and butter, but that was not
the most curious thing. There was q
large dish Of beechnuts, already
shelled.
'srhe squirrels shelIed those nuts
for themselves" said the tree man.
"But / gathered them for myself and
made all the squirrels shell some more.
make all the squirrels work for me,
but as never shoot any OF them, they
don't mind much. And do kill the
blacksnakes, so the snakes IN this
woods never get chance to eat the
baby squirrels. The old squirrels are
grateful to me for this, and do not
mind being robbed"
cit saves you a great deal Of work"
said Sister, as politely as she could
with mouth full of beechnuts and
bread and butter. at must be a great
bother for q man to shell beechnuts."
She wanted to say "an old man." but
she thought that it would be rude to
say that
For dessert they mad wild honey.
The tree man had got it out Of bee
trees. He said that he could do moth
ing in return for the bees, but that
the bees had got so in the habit Of
working that they didn't mind gather
ing extra honey. He said that bees
do not know how to play, anyhow. The
only play they have is their work.
After supper the children curled up
in the rounding bed, just like two
curly bananas in a bunch, or two
curly filbert nuts in a shell, and went
to sleep. Outside it rained and rained,
but they paid no attention.
In the morning they had blackber-
ries for breakfast, and some popOvers
that the tree man made in his cunning
little stove. He could make only six
pOpovers at time, but that was two
apiece.
The rain had stopped. ald Aristotle
went off little way and hunted till
he caught a chipmunk and ate it. He
was so very quick that the chipmunk
never knew what hit him. Still it is
too bad that dogs can't always have
dog biscuit to eat.
The children saw a tiny lathe up In
the second story of the tree, and they
asked the man what that was for.
Il will tell you," said the little old
man, with shy look, eff you viii
promise not to tell"
The children promised.
81 put a little stick of wood in this
machine, this lathe. Then l make the
tteadle go, like a sewing machine
treadle. Then hold "a chisel against
the wood until shape it into little
round balls. Then / take my knife
and shape these balls to look like nut
megs. Then l rub them with white
powder to make them look exactly like
nutmegs. Then l sell them to ped
dlers who sell them to the farmers
wives for real nutmegs. make
wooden nutmegs."
When the children heard this as
tOnishing story, they simply had moth
ing to say. Now they knew why the
nutmeg man lived in a tree. 1t was
so that the policemen could not catch
him. He made wooden nutmegs and
cheated the farmers wives. He was
a cheat and a fraud.
They were very sorry, because he
had been so exceedingly kind to them.
had eaten pOpOvers that were made
with flour that was bought with money
that was got from the farmers wives
by peddlers that sold wooden nutmegs
that were made by the man who lived
in the tree.
"But am sick of this nutmeg busi-
ness" said the nutmeg man. ANY
how, there's no money in it. Almost
all the farmers wives know wooden
nutmegs when they see them, and SO
they won't buy them. Besides, they
have pure food law now, so that II
is wrong to sell wooden nutmegs."
"Why," said Sister, wasn't it wrong
to sell them before that?"
"Wen," said the nutmeg man, per
haps it wasn't just right, but then 1t
wasn't just wrong, because there were
others who did It, OF course, if just
l had done it, it wouldn't have been
right. But then if / hadn't done 1t,
the others would"
But the children we're quite sure
that it never could be right to sell
wooden nutmegs.
The nutmeg man gave Aristotle a
wooden nutmeg to play with, and Aris-
tOtle chewed on it and carried it all
the way home. The man took them to
the edge of the woods and showed
them the right path.
The children's parents were greatly
frightened and had been hunting for
them all night. The children told them
that they had stayed all night in a
hollow tree. That was true, but it
was not the whole truth. They had
promised the man not to tell about