Arizona republican., 1922-06-13
Little Stories For Bedtime
MR.. BLAckSNAKE CHANGES
HIS SUIT
BY THORNTON W. sURcEss

Now that Mr.. Blacksnake had
| made up his mind to have new suit
| he was in hurry to get it. So he
hurried about looking for a retired
| place in which to take off his old
suit, but all the time he took the ut
most pains not to be seen. Ordinari-
! ly he does not care who sees him,
| but getting rid OF an old suit for
new one is a very serious matter
with Mr.. Blacksnake. In the first
place he feels very uncomfortable
while he is getting the old suit Off,
| and his temper, never Of the best, is
very, very short then. Also he has
rather a helpless feeling. You see,
he cannot slip his suit off easily in
| the way a boy can. He is like the
little girl who has dress with
great many hooks and eyes where
she cannot get at them easily, and so
must take considerable time, and
sometimes lose both temper and pa
tience.
At last he found just the place he
was looking for. 1t was on the edge
of the Green Forest, where the brush
grew thick around little pile OF old
logs. There was room to crawl under
these. You know, Mr.. Blacksnake
does not require very much room,
and here he found plenty for his pur-
pose. He felt sure that no one would
disturb him there, and that was
very important matter Still more
important was the fact that two OF
those logs were just far enough apart
to make IL a tight squeeze for him to
wriagle between them. He smiled
when he saw this 1t was going to
make il much easier to get that old
suit off. You see, he has no hands
with which to pull 1t off as old Mr..
| Toad pulls his suit off, and so he has
to try some other way.
He pIided all around under and be-
| tween the logs TO make sure that no
one else was there, and then he Gid
ed this way and that way through
the brush to make sure that no one
was hiding there. At last he was
satisfied that he would not be dis
turbed. and he hurried back to the
pile of logs to begin the task of get
| ting off his old suit.
Now. YOU know Old Mother Ma
ture has queer ways of giving her
| children new clothes. All this time
| Mr.. Blacksnake really had his new
| suit on underneath the old suit. he
| had to get the old suit off, but he
wouldn't have to put the new one on
| because ii was already on. Oid
Mother Nature had attended TO that.
He went straight to the two legs
| that were so close together and then
he began to push and wriggie and
squirm as he tried TO pass between
them He puffed and ne blew. and
| suspect that if he had been anybody
but snake he would have gruflted
II was easy enough TO get his neek
through after he had got his head
through, but the thickest part or his
body was terribly tight squeeze
Little by little he managed TO gel
through. When enough OF him was
through to allow him to lift his heao
and look back he gave little sigf
or relief. You see. his old silt mac
caught between those two logs ano
he was pulling himself right out ol
it lust the same way in which yot
pull your hand out of glove.
When he saw this he went to work
again and pulled harder than ever
He was afraid that that old sui
might pull loose from the logs; but
it didn't, and presently as he got tht
thickest part of his body through the
old suit came off easier. A few more
wriggles and pulls and he was out
OF it altogether. There ii lay. turned
wrong side out complete, clear to
the tip OF his slender tail. And the
funny thing was that instead OF being
black it was white. Yes. sir. it was
white. and so thin that you could
| almost look through it, But his new
suit was black, oh, so black! And II
was very handsome. Right away
| Mr.. Blacksnake was in a hurry 10
| show ii off. and he didn't even give