The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-08-27
Little Stories For Bedtime
(By THORNTON BURGEss)

LOngleg's Breakfast Is Snatched Away Don't count your chickens till they're
 matched,
 Nor eat your dinner till you get 1t. Don't try to fly till you get wings.
 Nor wash your face until you wet 1t. T ONGLEQS the heron stoo d among the rushes on the edge of
 the Smiling Pool and his eyes were bright with joy. Just a little way out in front of him a school of minnows were at play and little by little they were drawing nearer and nearer. Longlegs knows all about min nows. He knows just how needless and careless they are when at play, and he knows that they dearly love to play among the bulrushes. You see when Longlegs isn't about they are they know 1t. Out in the deep water live big fish, who are quite as fond of minnows as Is Longlegs himself, but where the bulrushes grow the water is very shallow. It is not deep enough for the big fish, but plenty deep enough for little minnows. Then, too, there is al- ways plenty to eat there.
 So Longlegs felt sure that these min nows he was watching would soon come Swimming around his very feet, for he knew that they did not know that he was there. He had waited so long that his stomach was so empty that he felt as if the bottom was dropping out of it. Not so much as single pollywog had shown itself. This was because Grand father Frog had seen Longlegs when he arrived and had warned the polly wogs to keep away from where he was. You know the pollywogs are Grandfa. ther Frogs children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren So when at last Longlegs saw those minnows he was happy. He felt absolutely sure of at least one of them, and he meant to pick out the biggest and fattest.
 Now it is one of the laws of the Great World that no one can be sure of a thing until he has it. People think they are sure of things. Buster Bear thought he was sure of all the honey in Busy Bees storehouse, but you remember what happened. He had eaten but half of it when Farmer Browns boy gave him such a fright that he ran away, leaving the other half. More than once Reddy Fox has thought he was sure of catching Peter Rabbit, only to have Peter get away most un- expectedly. Then there was the time when little Mir. Striped Snake caught one of the children of Sticktoes the Tree Toad and had already begun to swallow him. He had every reason to think that he was sure of little Stick toes, but along came Farmer Browns boy and made him cough up little Sticktoes. So you see it is of no use to even think you are sure of anything until you have it where it cannot get away or be taken away from you. The only time you can be sure of dinner is when it is in your stomach.
 Longlegs knew this. Anyway he ought to have known it. But the fact, the plain fact, remains that he thought he was sure of one of those minnows. He could almost feel the comfortable sensation of one of them wriggling down his long throat to his empty stom-. ach. Nearer the careless minnows came, and nearer. The head of Long legs was drawn back ready to be shot forward with the speed of lightning. The biggest, fattest minnow was lazily swimming straight toward him and was almost within reach.
 Right then something happened. Out from the Big Hickory Tree on the bank of the Smiling Pool flew another fish- erman. He was not very big. He wore a pointed cap which made his head look too big for his body, and he was modestly but handsomely dressed in blue and gray and white. Straight out right over that school of minnows he flew. and for just a second seemed to stand still in the air. Then he closed his wings and shot down. There was