Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1920-09-24

Solomon Owls door. But for once
Solomon's great pale face did not
appear
| Where's the 7fun?" Reddy's
friends had wanted to know, after
they had waited until they were
impatient.
And Reddy Woodpecker could
only shake his head and say:
i can't understand It'll It's new
er happened like this before. I'm
afraid Solomon Owl mas lost his
hearing"
Reddy Woodpecker's friends
were no more polite than he. And
they began to jeer at him.
you didn't hammer loud
enough" one of them told him.
So~he set to work again and rap
ped and raped until his head felt
as if his head would fly off, and
his neck began to ache.
Still, Solomon Owl did not APP
pear. And the party broke up in
something very like quarrel. For
'Reddy Woodpecker lost his tenn
per when his friends teased him;
and good many unpleasant re-
| marks passed back and forth.
Somehow, Reddy felt that it was
oil Solomon Owls fault, because
he hadn't come to the door.
| OF course, Reddy had no means
Of knowing that all that time Sol
aomon Owl was sleeping peacefully
Sin Farmer Green's haystack i'm
the meadow, a quarter of mile
away.
1t was a good joke on Reddy
Woodpecker. And though no one
had told Solomon Owl about it.,
he was not so stupid that he
couldn't guess a little that had
happened.
Solomon Owl continued to have
very pleasant time living in the
meadow. Since there were many
mice right close at hand, little by
little he visited the woods less and
less. And there came a time at
last when he hardly left the mea-
dow at all.
Not flying any more than he
could help, and eating too much,
and sleeping very soundly each
day, he grew stouter than ever, un-
til his friends hardly knew him
when they saw him.
Solomon Owl is sight--he's
so fat!" people began to say,
But his size never worried Solo
mon Owl in the least. When he
became too big for his doorway
in the haystack, 1t was simple
matter to make the opening larg-
crunch simpler than it would
have been to make himself smaller.
And that was another reason why
he was delighted with his new
home.
AT last, however, something hap
pened to put an end to his lazy
way of living. One day the sound
of mems voices awakened him,
when he was having a good nap
in the haystack. And he felt his
bedroom quiver as if an earth
quake had shaken it.
Scrambling to his doorway and
peeping slyly out, Solomon saw a
sight that made him very angry.
A hayrack stood alongside the
stack; and on it stood Farmer
Green and his hired man. Each
had a pitchfork in his hands, with
which he tore great forkfuls of
hay off the stack and piled it upon
the wagon.
Solomon Owl knew then that his
fine hiding place was going to be
spoiled. AS soon as the horses had
pulled the load of hay away, with
Farmer Green and the hired man
riding on top of it, Solomon Owl
crept out of his snug bedroom and
hurried off to the woods.
He was so fat that it was sever
al days before he could squeeze
inside his old home in the hollow
hemlock. And for the time be-
ing he had to sit on a limb and
sleep in the daylight as best he
could.
But to his surprise, Reddy Wood
pecker troubled him no more.
Reddy had drummed so hard on |
Solomon's door, in the effort to |
awake him when he wasn't there,
that Aunt polly Woodchuck told
didn't look out And since thei
him he would ruin his bill, if he
warning thoroughly alarmed him,
Reddy stopped visiting the hem
lock grove.
In time Solomon Owl grew to
look like himself again. And peo-