New Britain herald., 1928-10-29

Deechnuts were ripe. That is. such as they were. they were ripe. But the harvest was a slim one. Every one was there for ti,eir share. Great big Buster Bear was on hand, Llght- toot the Deer was also there. Strip cd Chipmunk. Happy Jack Squirrel, ,'hattercr the Red Squirrel. Rusty the Fox Squirrel. Sammy Jay. MT. :nd Mrs. Grouse. not to mention N'hitefoot the Wood Mouse and few others. were all looking 10: their share. Usually beechnut har- vest time !s happy time. This year it was an anxious time.
 My goodness, I never knew beechnuts to be 50 scarce, grum- blcd Hustcr Bear. "I depend on these nuts to get fat for the winter. but unless I can find some bcech- nut trees somewhere else with more nuts on them than these have got l guess 1 shall go into the winter with very little fat"
 It made Buster short tempered. He growlcd at everybody who came anywhere near him. There were so fw of those little three -cornered nuts that Buster wanted all of them himself.
 I.ightfoot the Deer didn't care s2 much. There was other food for Lightfoot. He really wasn't depend- cnt on beechnuts. The same thing was true of Mr. and Mrs. Grouse. But they were disappointed. They are very fond of beechnuts and they had looked forward to q feast when these little nuts should be ripe.
 "I feel as if had been cheated. said Mrs. Grouse. There is hardly more than taste and there are all those greedy Squirrels acting as if they thought they owned these beechnuts Just see how out t-of-sorts Buster Bear is, Usually he is good natured when he is getting beech nuts"
 Mir. Grouse chuckled. "He isn't getting them; that's the trouble" said he. Hello. here comes Mrs. Bear! She means to have her share. And there Is Cubby Bear too!'
 Sure enough, Mrs. Bear came shuffling up. but Cubby Bear kept bis distance. It was quite evident that Cubby didn't dare come very near either Buster Bear or Mrs. Bear. Buster Bear didn't seem at all glad 10 see Mrs. Bear. On her part, she didn't seem at all glad 10 see Buster Bear. For that matter. they pretended not 10 see each other at all. However. if Mrs. Bear happen cd to como his way, Buster always found something to do somewhere else, Of course. with the whole Bear family prowling around searching for those little three-cornered nuts, the smaller folk had rather hard time. You should have heard Chat terer the Red Squirrel scold. To hear him you would have thought that he was the only one who had any rights there. Once Mrs. Bear almost caught him. For a while after that his tongue was still. It was the worst fright he had had for some time.
 There were very few nuts escaped the bright eyes looking for them. II didn't take long to complete t.le harvest. The leaves were raked over and raked over and raked over. and when it was quite evident thai all the nuts had been gathered. mol one was satisfied. Cuhby Bear and Buster Bear and Mrs. Bear left in different direction. all grumbling and still hungry. The storeho ouses of the Squirrels and of Whitefoot the Wood Mouse would have 10 be filled with other food this year. It really was very serious matter.
 ''The worst of it is.' said Happy Jack Squirrel. ''the acorn crop isn't much better. l don't know how we're going to live this coming win ter. lis alt right now. but when the ground is covered with snow and ice and our storehouses are