The Birmingham age-herald., 1922-06-30
BURGESS BED-
 TIME STORY
The Little Mouse Does Just the Right
 Thing
By THORNTON w. BURGEss


 Who takes the time to hesitate
 At least may find he is too late. | -Whitefoot the Wood Mouse. 1 There are times In the lives of 1 every one of the little people of the 1 Green Forest and the Green Meadows 1 when to hesitate would be to furnish
 one of their enemies with a dinner.
 Whatever Is to be done must be done i instantly. There is no time to think | things over.
 The littleWood Mouse, running for
 his life in the Green Forest with
 Reddy Fox behind him, had no time 1 to hesitate about where he should go. As fast as his small legs could take him he darted under the fern looking
 for place in which to hide. He was
 frightened clear tofthe top of his long 1 tail, but his fright didn't prevent him
 from using his eyes in search of l hiding place. But look as he would
 he could see no place where he would | be safe from Reddy Fox.
 It was a fortunate thing for tho
 little Mouse that there was thick
 patch of ferns right there, for under
 these Reddy could not see him. Had 1 he been out in the open Reddy would
 have caught him in two Jumps. But
 in those ferns Reddy had to go by hearing. He would hear the faint sound
 of those running little feet and then l spring in that direction. Two or l three times he very nearly brought | his black paws down on that poor little Mouse. Each time it seemed to that little Mouse as if his heart would 1 jump right out of his mouth.
 In just a few minutes tho little Mouse came to the edge of that patch | of ferns. He couldn't turn back, for Reddy Fox was right behind him. He | didn't hesitate. He ran out into the | open and straight over to tall, dead
 stub of tree. He lodged around 1t. | Then what do you thing he did? de ran right up that tall, dead stub
 Yes, sir he did Just that. He never
 had climbed anything like that before. | He didn't know 1t was the right thing | to do. But he didn't hesitate. It was his one chance for life and he took 1t. 1 Up. up, up climbed the little Wood Mouse without once looking down.
 He half expected to hear the claws of | this dreadful enemy coming up after | him. At last he reached the stub of
 broken branch. On thls he stopped | He had to. He was out of breath.
 Also he was tired, for you know he was only a young Wood Mouse, that he was afraid that If he kept on he | wouldn't have strength enough to cling to the tree and would fall. This was his first chance to look | down. At the foot of that tall, dead l stub looking up at him was Reddy
 Fox. Such look of disappointment
 and anger as there was in Reddy's I eyest That look alone told the little Mouse that here was an enemy that
 couldn't climb. In climbing that stub he had done the only thing there was l to do. and 1t had been the right thing. | Then the little Wood Mouse re- | membered something. He remembered that his father. Whitefoot, had told him that there were certain enemies who could not climb trees. and that
 among these was Reddy Fox He
 hadn't known that this was Reddy, but now he guessed it. Little by | little his heart seemed to go back | where 1t belonged. Little chills no | longer ran up and down his backbo 1 and clear to the end of his long tail. He was beginning to breathe more easily.
 'I fooled that fellow that time." | said the little Wood Mouse quite as | If he had planned it all out before hand. Then. because he was very young Wood Mouse. he leaned over
 and grinned at Reddy Fox. Reddy drew back his lips and showed all his teeth, and the sight of them was so 1 dreadful that the little Mouse almost lost his balance. But he didn't quite.
 If he had lost his balance there would