Old Man Coyote Gives Up His Home

For most people moving is considerable of a job. There is a lot of packing up, and when the new home is reached everything has to be unpacked and put in just the right place. Most people dread moving. With the little people of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows changing from one home to another is different. They have nothing to carry but the clothes on their backs, so there is no packing or unpacking. Just the same, it usually means a whole lot of work. You see, most of them build their own houses. That means that if they have to move from where they have been living they cannot go out and find another house already for them to move into as you and I can. They have got to build that new house. There are a few, just a few, who are not particular or at all fussy and are willing to live in old houses left by other people, but even these have to be fixed up a little usually. So most of them won’t move, particularly in the middle of the season, unless they feel that they must.

Old Man Coyote felt that he must. He felt that never again would he have a moment’s peace of mind so long as he continued to live in his present home in the far corner of the Green Meadows. Old Granny Fox had led Bowser the Hound to it, and Bowser had led Farmer Brown’s Boy to it, and the latter had set traps all around it. To be sure, he had come that very day and taken away those traps. Old Man Coyote had watched him from a hiding place and had wondered at what he saw. Of course, he couldn’t know that Farmer Brown’s Boy had had a change of heart—that he had begun to realize how terribly unfair and cruel traps are and so had made up his mind never to set another.

But if he had known this it would have made no difference. Old Man Coyote would have been afraid that Farmer Brown’s Boy might take it into his head to try to dig him out and kill him, or hide near by to shoot him with his terrible gun. No, sir, he never could live in peace in that home. There was no question about that.

“And it was such a nice home!” sighed Old Man Coyote. “It just suited me. I don’t believe I will be able to find another place to suit me half as well. And to think of all the work I put into this!”

He sighed. Then, because when he once makes up his mind to do a thing he does it quickly, he turned his back on the far corner of the Green Meadows without even going to take a last look at his home and started to look for another.

And this is how it happened that when Sammy Jay came hurrying back from the Green Forest to tell Old Man Coyote how he had followed Farmer Brown’s Boy way home and had seen him throw his traps down as if he didn’t intend to ever use them again, he could see nothing of Old Man Coyote.

“Perhaps he’s in his house,” thought Sammy and called his very loudest. But no one appeared, and without knowing just why, Sammy had a feeling that there was no one at home.

“Must be he hasn’t come back yet,” thought Sammy. “I’ll wait a while.”

So Sammy waited as patiently as he could, which was not very patiently, for patience is a virtue of which Sammy Jay has little. At last he gave up and disappointedly flew back to the Green Forest. “I’ll call again tomorrow,” thought he.

And that is what he did, and the next day, and the next day, and the day after that. At last he began to suspect what was the truth, that Old Man Coyote had deserted his old home. Sammy scratched his head thoughtfully.

“I wonder,” thought he, “if he has left the Green Meadows and the Green Forest.” ____

SAMMY JAY JUMPS AT CONCLUSIONS.

Con-clu-sions sounds like a very big and important word, but, really, it is quite simple. To jump at con-clu-sions is to make up your mind that a thing is so or isn’t so without really knowing. It was just this way with Sammy Jay when he found that Old Man Coyote was no longer living in his home in the far corner of the Green Meadows. First, he began to wonder if Old Man Coyote had left the Green Forest and the Green Meadows. Then he jumped to the con-clu-sion that he had. Just because he didn’t find him in the places where he was used to seeing him he made up his mind that Old Man Coyote had gone away.

Like a great many others who jump at con-clu-sions Sammy Jay didn’t wait to make sure that he was right, but at once hastened to spread the news. He knew that it would be good news, the very best of news, to a great many of the little people of the Green Meadows, especially those who had to be always watching out for Old Man Coyote lest he gobble them up. So he spread his blue wings and hurried over to the dear Old Briar-patch to tell Peter Rabbit. He quite forgot that he and Peter were forever quarrelling.

“Oh, Peter, I’ve great news!” he screamed as soon as he was near enough for Peter to hear.

Peter sat up, so full of curiosity that he, too, forgot that he and Sammy were not the best of friends. “What is it?” he asked eagerly.

“Old Man Coyote has left the Green Meadows and the Green Forest. He’s gone away,” replied Sammy Jay.

“Hurrah!” shouted Peter, kicking his long heels together. “Are you sure of it, Sammy Jay?”

But Sammy was already on his way to tell Danny Meadow Mouse and couldn’t stop to answer. Danny was just as much pleased as Peter, and he and Nanny Meadow Mouse had a little celebration all to themselves. You see, it meant just one less worry for them. Sammy hurried up to the Old Orchard to tell Johnny Chuck, who didn’t seem to care, and then flew over to the Smiling Pool. Jerry Muskrat saw him coming and he knew by the way Sammy was hurrying that he was very much excited.

“Sammy Jay has got something on his mind,” said Jerry to Grandfather Frog. “I wonder what has happened now.”

When Sammy reached the big hickory tree on the bank of the Smiling Pool he was quite out of breath. As soon as he could get enough to speak he gasped: “Old Man Coyote has left the Green Meadows and the Green Forest!”

“What’s that?” demanded Jerry Muskrat.

Sammy repeated what he had said. “How do you know?” asked Jerry Muskrat.

“Because his house is deserted and I have looked everywhere for him and not found him,” replied Sammy.

“Huh!” grunted Grandfather Frog.

Sammy glared down at Grandfather Frog. “Did you speak?” he asked.

“I said huh!” replied Grandfather Frog. “Just because you haven’t been able to find him is no proof that Old Man Coyote has really left.”

“So you don’t believe it,” snapped Sammy.

“No,” replied Grandfather Frog bluntly, “I don’t believe it.”

At once Sammy Jay lost his temper. You know, he loses it very easily. He said that he knew it was so. He called Grandfather Frog a stupid old know-nothing, and finally flew off to the Green Forest, screaming angrily.

Just after jolly, round, red Mr. Sun sank behind the Purple Hills that night a sound was heard that made many little people on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest shiver. Peter Rabbit heard it and his heart sank. Danny and Nanny Meadow Mouse heard it and drew close to each other. Grandfather Frog heard it and smiled. Sammy Jay heard and felt, oh, so cheap. It was the voice of Old Man Coyote.

Story 2

WHERE OLD MAN COYOTE HAD BEEN. By Thornton W. Burgess. (Copyright, 1914, by J. G. Lloyd.)

Never say a thing is so Until you really, truly know.

Sammy Jay awoke in a bad state of mind. Yes, sir, he was in a bad state of mind. He felt cheap, dreadfully cheap. He couldn’t remember when he had felt so cheap. You see, he had discovered that Old Man Coyote had given up his home in the far corner of the Green Meadows. Then he had looked for several days in every place he could think of, but found no trace of Old Man Coyote. At once he had made up his mind that Old Man Coyote had left the Green Meadows for good, and promptly had flown all over the Green Meadows, to the Smiling Pool, and through the Green Forest, telling every one he met that Old Man Coyote had left. Then, just before he fell asleep that night, what should he hear but the voice of Old Man Coyote himself. Do you wonder that Sammy Jay felt cheap as he sat in a hemlock tree and thought it all over?

Now, it is a funny thing how some people feel when they have done something foolish. They get angry, not with themselves, but with some one else who isn’t to blame at all. Sammy Jay did. The more he thought it over the angrier he grew. And whom do you think he was angry with? Why, Old Man Coyote! Yes, sir, Sammy Jay was angry with Old Man Coyote for not having gone away when he, Sammy, had said he had. Of course that was perfectly silly, but do you know there are lots of people just as silly as that? They do foolish things and then try to put the blame on others. Of course Old Man Coyote didn’t know anything about this. All that time when Sammy Jay had been looking for him and couldn’t find him he had been very busy, very busy, indeed. He had been making a new home. You see, he had felt that he could not live with any peace of mind in his old home in the far corner of the Green Meadows now that Farmer Brown’s Boy knew where it was. He would never feel safe there again. That meant that either he must leave the Green Meadows and the Green Forest altogether or else that he must find a very secret place in which to make a new house, a place where no one would think to look for him. It was just this last that he decided to do, for he liked the Green Meadows and the Green Forest too well to leave them altogether.

Now, on the Green Meadows there was no place so lonely and which had so few visitors as the far corner where he had had his home, so right away he decided that as this had been found he would have to leave the Green Meadows and look for a place close to them. He went straight to the Green Forest and all through it, looking for a place to make a new home. But there he could find no place to please him. Besides, he didn’t care to live in the Green Forest if he could help it. He wanted a more open place, a place that was more like the open country of the great wide west, where he had been born. So he left the Green Forest and went over to the Old Pasture. This was better. To be sure, it was much overgrown with bushes and tangles of vines, but there were open places, and it was not at all like the dark depths of the Green Forest, where the trees were so tall and shut out the sunlight. Then, too, those tangled vines and briars made splendid hiding places.

So Old Man Coyote made up his mind that if he could find just the right spot in the Old Pasture that was the place for a new home. Very carefully he went all over it, and at last he found just what he was looking for. In the middle of a great tangle of bushes and vines were some great rocks which formed a very tiny cave. In this Old Man Coyote began to dig, and to his great delight he found that he could dig down and under the rocks. It wasn’t easy digging, but it could be done. So he went to work with might and main, and that is where he was and what he was doing all the time Sammy Jay had been looking for him. He had finished his new house the very afternoon that Sammy spread the news that he had gone away.

By Thornton W. Burgess. (Copyright, 1914, by J. G. Lloyd.)