The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-26
Little Stories For Bedtime
Johnny Chuck Has Something On His
 Mind
tBy THORNTON BURGESS,

Johnny Chuck Has Something On His
 Mind
 TOMMY CHUCK sat on his door
 step down in the far coner of the O Old Orchard trying to make up his mind. Yes, sir, that is just what Johnny Chuck was trying to do as he was whether he was fat enough to know how it sometimes is when you are little undecided. First you think you will. then you begin asking every. body around you for their opinions and wind up by being no better off than you were in the beginning. hih4s IT
 The matter on Johnny Chuck's mind was whether he was mat enough to sleep comfortably all winter. That seems like funny thing to have wor- rying one, doesn't it? But it wasn't funny to Johnny. Chuck. No indeed, II wasn't funny at all. It really was very serious. He knew that great deal de- pended on the amount ot lat store6 away under his skin before he salo goodbye to everybody and went to pea deep in the ground to sleep until spring If he were fat enough it wouldn't make much difference to him how cold tns' winter might be or how late sweet MS tress Spring might be in coming to wake him up. But if he didn't have fat enough tucked away under his skin ne might not be warm enough, and if Mis- tress Spring should happen to be very late he would be so weak when he awoke that he might not nave strength enough to crawl out of his house. Or 1t might happen before Mistress Spring ar- rived and then he might freeze to death trying to find something to fit to put In Woodchuck's stomach.
 So you see the matter was really very important to Johnny Chuck. The fat under his skin was both blanket and food. That seems queer, but 1t was true. The fatter he was the warmer he could keep and the more comfortable he would be. In this way the fat was like blanket. While he slept through the long, cold months of course he would eat nothing. In the first place he wouldn't be awake to eat, and you l1ow people do not eat while they are asleep. In the second place there would De nothing to eat, anyway. So wise Old Mother Nature has provided that the fat Johnny Chuck lays up should take the place of food.
 You know how it is with food. We | take it into our Stomachs and rom there it Is taken into our bodies to build them up and to make the heat which keeps us warm. In Johnny Chuck s case Old Mother Nature has fixed things so that the body can get what it needs from the fat with which 1t is covered. It needs only very little at time during the winter, because you know Johnny is asleep; curled up quite motionless. A great deal of the food we eat is used up in what is called energy, which is the power of moving about and doing things. You know how it is when you are sick and cannot eat. In little while you have no strength to move. You are very weak. But if you did not have to move at all you could live a long time with very little food because none of it would be used for energy. It is the same way with Johnny Chuck. Sleeping and lying per fectly still he needs no food for energy, and so his body gets all it needs by absorbing it from the fat. Absorbing means taking in the way sponge soaks up water.
 So you see it was quite as important