The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-12-28

Impntience often costs a dinner
 Where patience would have been the winner. -Old Man Coyote. The snow lay deep in the Green Forest and over the Green Meadows and the Old Pasture. It had packed down and Jack Frost had formed crust over the top of it. Old Man Coyote could run on 1t now without breaking through, and this meant he could go where he pleased to hunt For days he had thought about and dreamed about the twin lawns of Lightfoot the Deer and Mrs. Light foot. Could he but catch one of these his stomach would no longer ache from emptiness. So just as soon as he was sure the snow would bear him he started straight for the Green Forest. He knew Just where to go. Old Man Coyote wouldn't be the clever fellow he Is if he didn't know all about the ways of his neighbors. He makes it his business to know all about them, where they live, what they do, how they keep watch for danger and in what ways they are sometimes careless. So when he started out from his home in the Old Pasture he headed straight for that part of the Green Forest in which he knew the Deer family would spend the winter.
 As he drew near he carefully tested the wind to make sure of the direc- ton from which 1t was blowing. No one knows better than he how keen are the noses of Lightfoot and Mrs. Lightfoot and he didnt intend to give any Merry Little Breeze a chance to warn them by taking his scent to them. So when he was sure of the direction from which the wind was blowing he was careful to keep 1t always in his face as he stole like a gray shadow toward the home of Lightfoot and his family.
 Presently just the faintest of odors tickled his sharp nose. Old Man Coyote stood still with his nose held high and his mouth began to water. That scent was faint. but there was no mistaking 1t; 1t was tho scent of Deer. Then he sneaked forward rap idly and so presently came to a path cut deep in the snow. He didn't need to be told who had made that path; he know.
 "rhis is one edge of the yard of Lightfoot the Deer and his family" muttered Old Man Coyote. Now. I must find out just where they are and keep watch" He jumped down into the path and began to steal along 1t in the direction his nose told him Lightfoot and his family were.
 "Now. as perhaps you know, the place where Deer have tramped out their path is called a yard. This is because when the snow is deep they cannot go outside those paths. It is just as if they were In a real yard with a fence around it. The paths go in every direction. crossing and re- crossfn&T twisting and turning in the most confusing way. They look as If made with no purpose at all, but this isn't so. They lead to every bit of food within the yard.
 Had you or I been in Old Man Coyotes place 1t is probable that we those many paths. and sooner or later Lightfoot's wonderful nose would have discovered our presence. But Old Man Coyote didn't get lost. No. sir, he didn't get lost. His nose kept him always in the right direction as cautiously he sneaked along those paths. Presently it warned him that he was AS near as 1t was wise to go Then he lightly leaped out on the crusted surface behind a little clump of hemlock trees, and lying flat on the snow peeked under the branches Just little way ahead he saw Eight foot. Mrs. Lfghtfoot and the two half grown children.
 Patience and watchfulness will get me that dinner now" thought Old Man Coyote. Sooner or later one of those youngsters will be careless and drop behind or wander off alone and that will be my chance"
 So, patiently, hour after hour. Old Man Coyote watched the Deer family, stealthily moving when they moved so as always to keep the scent of them in his nose and his own scent away from them.
 Copyright. 1921. by T. W. Burgess.)
 The next story: The Careless Young Deer"