The Washington times., 1926-09-23
SAND MAN YARN
BY K. MILLER
Continued from First Page)

Continued from First Page)
down yonder where the big roads
cross. that the bear and the DUCK
would meet for supremacy aIoot
and afist and adroit.
The remainder of the animal king
dom throughout the vast stretches
of open spaces and sheltered regions
were invited to gather in the glade
one evening in the early autumn
when the warmth of summer would
be lust merging into the freshness
of fall and the dew would be
settling on the trees and flowers
and the grass and the stones-one
evening they were invited to come
and witness a supreme struggle 10
decide this great question which
had all of the tribe, particularly the
two-footed tribe, quite cuckoo IN
deed.
A wonderful ballyhoo went out
over the woods and Clearngs telling
of the battle to the death which
would ensue between the distln'
suished deer and the great, big,
beautiful brown-eyed bruin-bear, and
from far and near the clan came
trooping in.
They lived in the hollows of the
trees. beneath messy stones, behind
the big poplars and grazed on all
sorts of walnuts, chestnuts, f1lberts
and locust berries during the day
and evening preceding the giant
struggle.
In fact there was such a response
to the old oaken hokum that there
were not enough tree-trunks ana
uoss-covered stones and protected
places for all of them to sleep.
Some of them, my dear little chill
dren, actually had to sleep on the
park benches and beneath the OLD
church steps.
Well, anyway, it was the day OF
the evening that they were to try
their strength. The sun had come
up very bright and warm that day
and some Of the bipeds actually
strolled around the, greensword
without their hats.
AS it was a very gay occasion
indeed. they were carrying be-
ribboned walking sticks, badges,
banners and various tokens betray-
ing their allegiance either to the
big. broad-shouldered blondish buck
or the beautiful, brown-eyed bru-
nette bear.
Little Wagers Made.
And do you know, my little ones,
that some of them were actually
LAYING innocent little wagers such
as one acorn against 10 that the
buck would not survive the savage
attack of the bruin-bear and so
forth and so on. One big, bad, bold
biped, whom we shall call Jack
Kearns, and who had been saying
lot of things about the sun-burned
bruin-bear, had the nerve to offe"
as much as three lotus leaves
against one that the brun-bear
would win-now what do you make
of that, my children; what do you
make of that after him doing all
that talking?1
And so, the time for the Struggle
of the Sesqui had arrived and the
birds and the beasts were there.
Some of them came in ones and
some of them came by pairs. And
many had come from a long, long
way, indeed, and were sore OF foot
and weary of mind. to say nothing
of low of pocketbook.
And among the innocent by
ISLANDERS and interested spectators
was a funny little ilk Of the animal
species who called themselves ex-
perts. They were supposed to be
particularly qualified to pass judg-
ment on this gladiator and that, and
what they had to say had an i'm
portant bearing on what everybody
had to think.
Wherever one of this queer little
tribe went folks were sure to say
to him, "Well, what do you think
of it?" And this thing went on and
on and on, and everybody had so
much to say and so many people
were quoted as believing this or be-