Evening star., 1942-03-23
Bedtime Stories
BY THORNTON w. BURGESS.

BY THORNTON w. BURGESS.
Buster Bear yawned as he lay on
his comfortable bed of leaves and
watched the first morning sunbeams
creeping through the Green Forest
to chase out the black shadows.
Once more he yawned, then slowly
got on his feet, stood up on his hind
legs and stretched as high up on
the trunk of the tree as he could
and scratched the bark with his
great claws. After that he yawned
until 1t seemed as If his great jaws
would crack and then sat down to
think what he wanted for break
fast.
All the time he sat there trying
to make up his mind what would
taste best he was at the same time
listening to all the sounds that told
of the waking of all the little people
who live in the Green Forest. He
heard Sammy Jay way of in the dis
tance screaming: Thief! Thief"
and grinned. II wonder" thought
he, If some one has stolen Sammy's
breakfast or if he has stolen the
breakfast of some one else. Prob
ably he is the thief himself"
He heard Chatterer the Red Squir-
rel scolding as fast as he could make
his tongue 60 and working himself
into a terrible rage. Must be that
Chatterer got out of bed the wrong
way this morning" thought Buster.
He heard Blacky the Grow cawing
at the top of his lungs and he
knew by the sound that Blacky was
getting into mischief of some kind.
He heard the sweet voices of happy
little singers and they were good to
hear. But most of all he listened to
a merry, low. silvery laugh that never
stopped but went on and on until
he just felt as if he must laugh, too.
It was the voice of the Laughing
Brook. And as he listened it sud-
denly came to him just what he
wanted for breakfast.
I'm going fishing" said he in his
deep, grumbly-rumbly voice to no
one in particular. Eyes. sir. I'm
going fishing. I want some fat trout
for my breakfast"
He shuffied along over to the
Laughing Brook straight to a little
pool of which he knew and as he
drew near he took the greatest care
not to make the teeniest, weeniest
bit of noise. Now it just happened
that early as he was some one was
here before Buster Bear. When he
came in sight of the little pool who
should he see but another fisher
man there and he had already
caught a fine. fat trout. Who was
it ? Why. little Joe Otter to be sure
He was just climbing up the bank
with the fat trout in his mouth.
Buster Bears own mouth watered
as he saw it. Little Joe sat down
on the bank and prepared to enjoy
his breakfast. He hadn't seen Bus
ter Bear and he didn't know that
he or any one else was anywhere
near.
Buster Bear tiptoed up very softly
until he was right behind little Joe
Otter. "Whoof, whoof!" said he in
his deepest, most grumbly- -rumbly
voice, That's a very fine looking
trout I wouldn't mind if I had it
myself"
Little Joe Otter gave a frightened
little squeal and without even turn
ing to see who was speaking dropped
his fish and dived head first into
the Laughing Brook. Buster Bear
sprang forward and with one of his
big paws caught the fat trout just
as it was slipping back into the
water.
Here's your trout, Mr. Otter"
said he as Little Joe put his head
out of the water to see what had
frightened him so. Come and get it."
But Little Joe wouldn't. The fact
is he was afraid to. He snarled at
Buster Bear and called him a thief
and everything bad he could think
of. Buster didn't seem to mind. He
chuckled as if he thought it all a
great joke and repeated his invita-
tion to Little Joe to come and get
his fish. But Little Joe just turned
his back and went of down the
Laughing Brook in great rage.
"It's too bad to waste such a fine
fish," said Buster thoughtfully. Il
wonder what I best do with it." And
while he was wondering he ate 1t all
up. Then he started down the
Laughing Brook to try to catch some
for himself.