Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1942-04-02
Bedtime Stories
BY THORNTON W. BURGESS,

While Ha xafnr m sSrou wn ts s't Wood
T w 1 YOU'D ,hd you you, d9a me New tell me true.
That is what Farmer Browns
boy did when he met Buster Bear,
and lot of the little people of the
Green Forest and some from the
Green Meadows saw him. You see,
1t was this way. When Farmer
Browns boy came hurrying home
from the Laughing Brook without
any fish one day and told about
the great footprint he had seen in
muddy place on the bank deep
In the Green Forest and had said
he was sure that it was the foot
print Of Bear, he had been laughed
at. Farmer Brown had laughed and
laughed.
Why" said he, there hasn't been
q bear in the Green Forest for years
and years, not since my own grand
father was little boy, and that, you
know, was a long, long time ago; if
you want to find Mr.. Bear you will
have to go to the Great Woods.
don't know who made that footprint,
but it certainly couldn't have been
bear. think you must have i'm
agined It,"
Then he had laughed some more,
all of which goes to show how easy
it is to be mistaken and how foolish
it is to laugh at things you really
don't know about. Buster Bear had
come to live in the Green Forest,
and Farmer Browns boy had seen
his footprint. But Farmer Brown
laughed so much and made fun of
him so much that at last his boy
began to think that he must have
been mistaken after all. So when
he heard Blacky the Grow and
Sammy Jay making a great fuss
near the edge of the Green Forest
he never once thought of Buster
Bear as he started to see what was
going on.
When Blacky and Sammy saw
him coming they moved little
farther into the Green Forest still
screaming in the most exciting way.
They felt sure that Farmer Browns
boy would follow them, and so they
meant to lead him to where Sammy
had seen Buster Bear that morn
ing. Then they would find out
for sure If what Joe Otter had said
was true-that Farmer Browns boy
was afraid Of Buster Bear.
Now, all around, behind trees and
stumps and under thick branches
and even in treetops, were other
little people watching with round,
wide-open eyes to see what would
happen. It was very exciting, the
most exciting thing they could re-
member. You see, they had come
to believe that Farmer Browns boy
wasn't afraid of anything or any
body, and as most of them were
very much afraid of him, they had
hard work to believe that he would
really be afraid of even such a great
big, strong fellow as Buster Bear.
Every one was so busy watching
Farmer Browns boy that no one
saw Buster coming from the other
direction.
You see, Buster had heard the
racket Blacky the Crow and Sammy
Jay were making. He had stood it
Just as long as he could and then
he had started to see what it was
all about. That was because he has
lot of that same curiosity that
gets Peter Rabbit into trouble so
often. He walked very softly. Big
as he is, he can walk without
making the teeniest. weeniest sound.
And that is how it happens that
no one saw him or heard him until
lust as Farmer Browns boy stepped
out from behind the other side Of
that same little tree, and there they
were, face to facet Then everybody
held their breath, even Blacky the
Crow and Sammy Jay. For just q
little minute it was so still there In
the Green Forest that not the least
sound could be heard. What was
going to happen?