The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-18
Little Stories For Bedtime
 (By THORNTON BURGEss
SHADOW THE WEASEL IS FALSELY ACCUSED

The thing that hurts the very most
 Of anything I know
 Is having people say of one
 A thing that isn't so.
 NOU know what it is to be accused.
 It is to have some one tell you
 that you have done or haven't done something. To be accused falsely is to be told such thing when 1t isn't true. It happens over and over and over again and it hurts and is very hard to bear. Even those who seem to enjoy doing bad or mean things never like to be charged with having done something which they haven't done.
 Now Shadow the Weasel is hated by all his neighbors, as everybody knows. and you wouldn't suppose that he would care n flirt of his blacktipped tail if peopIe did say things about him which are not so. But Shadow is not so unlike other people after all he doesn't like to he accused of doing things which he hasn't done. If he should get into Farm CT Browns henyard and kill chicken he wouldn't feel badly at all over what he had done. But if some one else should kill a chicken there and then he should be accused of having done 1t he would fly into a terrible rage. You see that would be injustice, and injustice is one of the hardest things in all the world to bear patiently.
 Shadow had taken it into his head to do little hunting down along the edge of Farmer Browns cornfield. He hadn't been down there for long time and 1t just popped into his head that he might find it worth his while to hunt through the tangle of bushes along the fence. So he had followed along the old stone wall and then down along the fence be- side the lane that led to the cornfield. Bushes and weeds grow along the fence and more than once in the summer had Shadow surprised little feathered folk hiding there. Now the bushes were bare and the stalks of the weeds rose brown and dead above the snow, but they still made hiding place of kind and so Shadow kept among them. He did it for two reasons. In the first place he hoped he might find Peter RabDlt there, for he knew Peter is very fond of those old fence rows. In the second place he wanted to keep out of slght himself. You will find that all doers or evil deeds try to keep out of sight, even when there is nothing to fear.
 It was a moonlight night and Reddy Fox had decided to have one more look for Danny Meadow Mouse along the edge of that cornfield. You see 1t was very hard work for Reddy to believe that Danny had disappeared for good. Suddenly Reddy saw something moving among the bushes. He croucned aoWn in the snow and held his breath. mere it was again, just little dark spot on the snow. Could it be Danny! It was coming towards him and in minute ne would know. r.,
 Nearer and nearer came that little dark spot and Reddy crouched flatter than ever in the snow. Just be1ore II was within springing distance 1t paused and then it seemed as if a little heap of snow arose right in front of 1t.
 In that very instant Reddy Knew tnat he had been fooled. He knew that the little black spot was the black tip or Shadows tail, and that what nad seemed like little heap of snow rising up was Shadow himself in hls wnlter coat of pure white.
 Just then Shadow saw Reddy ana ms little eyes grew red with haIe'
 orched his back and spat angrily. lie has no love TOT heuuy IoA "A has no Hove for him. An ugly gieaih crept into Reddy's yellow eyes ana ne drew back his lips in a snarl.
 "This is the time pay UP for catch ing Danny Meadow Mouse when he be- longed to me-" said he and sprang at Shadow. "You're a thief!'
 Now, there is no one who can move more quickly than Shadow the Weasel He can move so quickly that it is hard flor the eye to follow him. When Reddy landed it was where Shadow had been, not whereAhe was. He was two jumps off to one side, splitting and snarling, his eyes redder than ever.
 q haven't caught Danny Meadow Mouse," he snapped. "But will now if can if for nothing more than to spite you. He doesn't belong to you anyway. I've got just as much right to him as