Sleepy Time Tales: The Tale of Fatty Coon
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Arthur Scott Bailey >> Sleepy Time Tales: The Tale of Fatty Coon
Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks
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SLEEPY-TIME TALES
THE TALE OF FATTY COON
BY
ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
ILLUSTRATED BY
HARRY L. SMITH
NEW YORK
1915
CONTENTS
I FATTY COON AT HOME
II FATTY LEARNS SOMETHING ABOUT EGGS
III FATTY DISCOVERS MRS. TURTLE'S SECRET
IV FATTY COON'S MISTAKE
V FATTY COON GOES FISHING
VI FATTY AND THE GREEN CORN
VII JOHNNIE GREEN IS DISAPPOINTED
VIII A TERRIBLE FRIGHT
IX JOHNNIE GREEN LOSES HIS PET
X FATTY COON AND THE MONSTER
XI JASPER JAY TELLS SOME NEWS
XII FORTY FAT TURKEYS
XIII FATTY MEETS JIMMY RABBIT
XIV THE BARBER-SHOP AGAIN
XV FATTY VISITS THE SMOKEHOUSE
XVI FATTY COON PLAYS ROBBER
XVII FATTY FINDS THE MOON
XVIII THE LOGGERS COME
XIX FATTY GROWS EVEN FATTER
XX THE TRACKS IN THE SNOW
ILLUSTRATIONS
FATTY SAW MRS. TURTLE DIGGING IN THE SAND Frontispiece
FATTY COON CROUCHED CLOSE TO THE WATER'S EDGE
FATTY WISHED THE DOG WOULD GO AWAY
FATTY STOPPED RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD
"PLEASE, MR. BEAR, LET GO OF MY TAIL!" FATTY CRIED
IT HUNG UNDER A TREE, JUST OVER FATTY'S HEAD
I
FATTY COON AT HOME
Fatty Coon was so fat and round that he looked like a ball of fur, with
a plumelike tail for a handle. But if you looked at him closely you
would have seen a pair of very bright eyes watching you.
Fatty loved to eat. Yes--he loved eating better than anything else in
the world. That was what made him so fat. And that, too, was what led
him into many adventures.
Close by a swamp, which lay down in the valley, between Blue Mountain
and Swift River, Fatty Coon lived with his mother and his brother and
his two sisters. Among them all there was what grown people call "a
strong family resemblance," which is the same thing as saying that they
all looked very much alike. The tail of each one of them--mother and
children too--had six black rings around it. Each of them had a dark
brown patch of fur across the face, like a mask. And--what do you
think?--each of them, even Fatty and his brother and his sisters, had a
stiff, white moustache!
Of course, though they all looked so much alike, you would have known
which was Mrs. Coon, for she was so much bigger than her children. And
you would have known which was Fatty--he was so much rounder than his
brother and his sisters.
Mrs. Coon's home was in the hollow branch of an old tree. It was a giant
of a tree--a poplar close by a brook which ran into the swamp--and the
branch which was Mrs. Coon's home was as big as most tree-trunks are.
Blackie was Fatty's brother--for the mask on his face was just a little
darker than the others'. Fluffy was one of Fatty's sisters, because her
fur was just a little fluffier than the other children's. And Cutey was
the other sister's name, because she was so quaint.
Now, Fatty Coon was forever looking around for something to eat. He was
never satisfied with what his mother brought home for him. No matter how
big a dinner Mrs. Coon set before her family, as soon as he had finished
eating his share Fatty would wipe his white moustache carefully--for all
the world like some old gentleman--and hurry off in search of something
more.
Sometimes he went to the edge of the brook and tried to catch fish by
hooking them out of the water with his sharp claws. Sometimes he went
over to the swamp and hunted for duck among the tall reeds. And though
he did not yet know how to catch a duck, he could always capture a frog
or two; and Fatty ate them as if he hadn't had a mouthful of food for
days.
To tell the truth, Fatty would eat almost anything he could get--nuts,
cherries, wild grapes, blackberries, bugs, small snakes, fish, chickens,
honey--there was no end to the different kinds of food he liked. He ate
everything. And he always wanted more.
"Is this all there is?" Fatty Coon asked his mother one day. He had
gobbled up every bit of the nice fish that Mrs. Coon had brought home
for him. It was gone in no time at all.
Mrs. Coon sighed. She had heard that question so many times; and she
wished that for once Fatty might have all the dinner he wanted.
"Yes--that's all," she said, "and I should think that it was enough for
a young coon like you."
Fatty said nothing more. He wiped his moustache on the back of his hand
(I hope you'll never do that!) and without another word he started off
to see what he could find to eat.
II
FATTY LEARNS SOMETHING ABOUT EGGS
When Fatty Coon started off alone to find something more to eat, after
finishing the fish that his mother had brought home for him, he did not
know that he was going to have an adventure. He nosed about among the
bushes and the tall grasses and caught a few bugs and a frog or two. But
he didn't think that THAT was much. He didn't seem to have much luck,
down on the ground. So he climbed a tall hemlock, to see if he could
find a squirrel's nest, or some bird's eggs.
Fatty loved to climb trees. Up in the big hemlock he forgot, for a time,
that he was still hungry. It was delightful to feel the branches swaying
under him, and the bright sunshine was warm upon his back. He climbed
almost to the very tip-top of the tree and wound himself around the
straight stem. The thick, springy branches held him safely, and soon
Fatty was fast asleep. Next to eating, Fatty loved sleeping. And now he
had a good nap.
Fatty Coon woke up at last, yawned, and slowly unwound himself from the
stem of the tree. He was terribly hungry now. And he felt that he simply
MUST find something to eat at once.
Without going down to the ground, Fatty climbed over into the top of
another big tree and his little beady, bright eyes began searching all
the branches carefully. Pretty soon Fatty smiled. He smiled because he
was pleased. And he was pleased because he saw exactly what he had been
looking for. Not far below him was a big nest, built of sticks and lined
with bark and moss. It was a crow's nest, Fatty decided, and he lost no
time in slipping down to the crotch of the tree where the nest was
perched.
There were four white eggs in the nest--the biggest crow's eggs Fatty
had ever seen. And he began to eat them hungrily. His nose became
smeared with egg, but he didn't mind that at all. He kept thinking how
good the eggs tasted--and how he wished there were more of them.
There was a sudden rush through the branches of the tall tree. And Fatty
Coon caught a hard blow on his head. He felt something sharp sink into
his back, too. And he clutched at the edge of the nest to keep from
falling.
Fatty was surprised, to say the least, for he had never known crows to
fight like that. And he was frightened, because his back hurt. He
couldn't fight, because he was afraid he would fall if he let go of the
nest.
There was nothing to do but run home as fast as he could. Fatty tried to
hurry; but there was that bird, beating and clawing his back, and
pulling him first one way and then another. He began to think he would
never reach home. But at last he came to the old poplar where his mother
lived. And soon, to his great joy, he reached the hole in the big
branch; and you may well believe that Fatty was glad to slip down into
the darkness where his mother, and his brother Blackie, and Fluffy and
Cutey his sisters, were all fast asleep. He was glad, because he knew
that no crow could follow him down there.
Mrs. Coon waked up. She saw that Fatty's back was sadly torn (for coons,
you know, can see in the dark just as well as you can see in the
daylight).
"What on earth is the matter?" she exclaimed.
Poor Fatty told her. He cried a little, because his back hurt him, and
because he was so glad to be safe at home once more.
"What color were those eggs?" Mrs. Coon inquired.
"White!" said Fatty.
"Ah, ha!" Mrs. Coon said. "Don't you remember that crows' eggs are a
blueish green? That must have been a goshawk's nest. And a goshawk is
the fiercest of all the hawks there are. It's no wonder your back is
clawed. Come here and let me look at it."
Fatty Coon felt quite proud, as his mother examined the marks of the
goshawk's cruel claws. And he didn't feel half as sorry for himself as
you might think, for he remembered how good the eggs had tasted. He only
wished there had been a dozen of them.
III
FATTY DISCOVERS MRS. TURTLE'S SECRET
After his adventure with the goshawk Fatty Coon did not go near the
tree-tops for a long time. Whenever he left home he would crawl down the
old poplar tree in which he lived; and he wouldn't climb a single tree
until he came home again. Somehow, he felt safer on the ground. You see,
he hadn't forgotten the fright he had had, nor how the goshawk's claws
had hurt his back.
It was just three days after his scare, to be exact, when Fatty Coon
found himself on the bank of the creek which flowed slowly into Swift
River. Fatty had been looking for frogs, but he had had no luck at all.
To tell the truth, Fatty was a little too young to catch frogs easily,
even when he found one; and he was a good deal too fat, for he was so
plump that he was not very spry.
Now, Fatty was hiding behind some tall rushes, and his sharp little eyes
were looking all about him, and his nose was twitching as he sniffed the
air. He wished he might find a frog. But not one frog appeared. Fatty
began to think that some other coon must have visited the creek just
before him and caught them all. And then he forgot all about frogs.
Yes! Frogs passed completely out of Fatty Coon's mind. For whom should
he spy but Mrs. Turtle! He saw her little black head first, bobbing
along through the water of the creek. She was swimming toward the bank
where Fatty was hidden. And pretty soon she pulled herself out of the
water and waddled a short distance along the sand at the edge of the
creek.
Mrs. Turtle stopped then; and for a few minutes she was very busy about
something. First she dug a hole in the sand. And Fatty wondered what she
was looking for. But he kept very quiet. And after a time Mrs. Turtle
splashed into the creek again and paddled away. But before she left she
scooped sand into the hole she had dug. Before she left the place she
looked all around, as if to make sure that no one had seen her. And as
she waddled slowly to the water Fatty could see that she was smiling as
if she was very well pleased about something. She seemed to have a
secret.
Fatty Coon had grown very curious, as he watched Mrs. Turtle. And just
as soon as she was out of sight he came out from his hiding place in the
tall reeds and trotted down to the edge of the creek. He went straight
to the spot where Mrs. Turtle had dug the hole and filled it up again.
And Fatty was so eager to know what she had been doing that he began to
dig in the very spot where Mrs. Turtle had dug before him.
It took Fatty Coon only about six seconds to discover Mrs. Turtle's
secret. For he did not have to paw away much of the sand before he came
upon--what do you suppose? Eggs! Turtles' eggs! Twenty-seven round,
white eggs, which Mrs. Turtle had left there in the warm sand to hatch.
THAT was why she looked all around to make sure that no one saw her.
THAT was why she seemed so pleased. For Mrs. Turtle fully expected that
after a time twenty-seven little turtles would hatch from those eggs--
just as chickens do--and dig their way out of the sand.
But it never happened that way at all. For as soon as he got over his
surprise at seeing them, Fatty Coon began at once to eat those twenty-
seven eggs. They were delicious. And as he finished the last one he
couldn't help thinking how lucky he had been.
IV
FATTY COON'S MISTAKE
Fatty Coon was very fond of squirrels. And you may think it strange when
I tell you that not one of the squirrels anywhere around Blue Mountain
was the least bit fond of Fatty Coon. But when I say that Fatty Coon was
fond of squirrels, I mean that he liked to eat them. So of course you
will understand now why the squirrels did not care for Fatty at all. In
fact, they usually kept just as far away from him as they could.
It was easy, in the daytime, for the squirrels to keep out of Fatty's
way, when he wandered through the tree-tops, for the squirrels were much
sprier than Fatty. But at night--ah! that was a very different matter.
For Fatty Coon's eyes were even sharper in the dark than they were in
the daylight; but the poor squirrels were just as blind as you are when
you are safely tucked in bed and the light is put out.
Yes--when the squirrels were in bed at night, up in their nests in the
trees, they could see very little. And you couldn't say they were SAFE
in bed, because they never knew when Fatty Coon, or his mother, or his
brother, or one of his sisters, or some cousin of his, might come along
and catch them before they knew it.
Fatty thought it great sport to hunt squirrels at night. Whenever he
tried it he usually managed to get a good meal. And after he had almost
forgotten about the fright the goshawk had given him in the tall hemlock
he began to roam through the tree-tops every night in search of
squirrels and sleeping birds.
But a night came at last when Fatty was well punished for hunting
squirrels. He had climbed half-way to the top of a big chestnut tree,
when he spied a hole in the trunk. He rather thought that some squirrels
lived inside that hole. And as he listened for a few seconds he could
hear something moving about inside. Yes! Fatty was sure that there was a
squirrel in there--probably several squirrels.
Fatty Coon's eyes turned green. It was a way they had, whenever he was
about to eat anything, or whenever he played with his brother Blackie,
or Fluffy and Cutey, his sisters; or whenever he was frightened. And now
Fatty was so sure that he was going to have a fine lunch that his eyes
turned as green as a cat's. He reached a paw inside the hole and felt
all around.
WOW! Fatty gave a cry; and he pulled his paw out much faster than he had
put it in. Something had given him a cruel dig. And in a jiffy Fatty saw
what that "something" was. It was a grumpy old tramp coon, whom Fatty
had never seen before.
"What do you mean, you young rascal, by disturbing me like this?" the
ragged stranger cried.
"Please, sir, I never knew it was you," Fatty stammered.
"Never knew it was me! Who did you think it was?"
"A--a squirrel!" Fatty said faintly. And he whimpered a little, because
his paw hurt him.
"Ho, ho! That's a good one! That's a good joke!" The tramp coon laughed
heartily. And then he scowled so fiercely that poor Fatty nearly tumbled
out of the tree. "You go home," he said to Fatty. "And don't you let me
catch you around here again. You hear?"
"Yes, sir!" Fatty said. And home he went. And you may be sure that he
let THAT tree alone after that. He never went near it again.
V
FATTY COON GOES FISHING
One day Fatty Coon was strolling along the brook which flowed not far
from his home. He stopped now and then, to crouch close to the water's
edge, in the hope of catching a fish. And one time, when he lay quite
still among the rocks, at the side of a deep pool, with his eyes
searching the clear water, Fatty Coon suddenly saw something bright, all
yellow and red, that lighted on the water right before him. It was a
bug, or a huge fly. And Fatty was very fond of bugs--to eat, you know.
So he lost no time. The bright thing had scarcely settled on the water
when Fatty reached out and seized it. He put it into his mouth, when the
strangest thing happened. Fatty felt himself pulled right over into the
water.
He was surprised, for he never knew a bug or a fly to be so strong as
that. Something pricked his cheek and Fatty thought that the bright
thing had stung him. He tried to take it out of his mouth, and he was
surprised again. Whatever the thing was, it seemed to be stuck fast in
his mouth. And all the time Fatty was being dragged along through the
water. He began to be frightened. And for the first time he noticed that
there was a slender line which stretched from his mouth straight across
the pool. As he looked along the line Fatty saw a man at the other end
of it--a man, standing on the other side of the brook! And he was
pulling Fatty toward him as fast as he could.
Do you wonder that Fatty Coon was frightened? He jumped back--as well as
he could, in the water--and tried to swim away. His mouth hurt; but he
plunged and pulled just the same, and jerked his head and squirmed and
wriggled and twisted. And just as Fatty had almost given up hope of
getting free, the gay-colored bug, or fly, or whatever it was, flew out
of his mouth and took the line with it. At least, that was what Fatty
Coon thought. And he swam quickly to the bank and scampered into the
bushes.
Now, this was what really happened. Farmer Green had come up the brook
to catch trout. On the end of his fish-line he had tied a make-believe
fly, with a hook hidden under its red and yellow wings. He had stolen
along the brook very quietly, so that he wouldn't frighten the fish. And
he had made so little noise that Fatty Coon never heard him at all.
Farmer Green had not seen Fatty, crouched as he was among the stones.
And when Fatty reached out and grabbed the make-believe fly Farmer Green
was even more surprised at what happened than Fatty himself. If the
fish-hook hadn't worked loose from Fatty's mouth Farmer Green would have
caught the queerest fish anybody ever caught, almost.
Something seemed to amuse Farmer Green, as he watched Fatty dive into
the bushes; and he laughed loud and long. But Fatty Coon didn't laugh at
all. His mouth was too sore; and he was too frightened. But he was very,
very glad that the strange bug had flown away.
VI
FATTY AND THE GREEN CORN
It was mid-summer when Fatty Coon had what he then believed to be the
finest time in all his life. And later, when he was older, he still
thought that nothing had ever happened to him that was quite so
enjoyable as that surprise his mother gave him when he was a young coon.
Of course it was something to eat--the surprise. You must have guessed
that, knowing Fatty Coon as you do.
"Come, children!" Mrs. Coon said. "Come with me! I'm going to give you a
treat--something specially nice."
"Is it something to eat?" Fatty asked, as they started off in the
direction of Farmer Green's fields.
"Yes--and the best thing you ever tasted," Mrs. Coon said.
Fatty was greatly excited. His little bright eyes turned green in the
moonlight. He wondered what the surprise would be. And, as usual, he was
very hungry. He walked close beside his mother, for he wanted to be the
first to taste the surprise. You would think that he would have wanted
his two sisters to taste it first, and his brother Blackie, too. But you
must not forget that Fatty was greedy. And greedy people are not
thoughtful of others.
When Mrs. Coon turned out of the lane and crawled through the fence,
Fatty squeezed between the rails very nimbly, for him.
"Here we are!" said his mother.
Fatty looked about him. They stood in a field grown high with tall
stalks of some sort, which turned to green, ribbon-like leaves half way
up from the ground. Fatty grunted. He was very impolite, you see.
"Well--what is there to eat that's so fine?" he asked. "This stuff isn't
good. It's like eating reeds." He had already bitten into one of the
stalks.
"What do you call that?" Mrs. Coon asked. She showed Fatty a long roll
of green that grew out of one of the stalks.
"That's something like a cattail," said Fatty. "It isn't good to eat."
"Have you ever tried one?" asked his mother.
"N--no," Patty said. "But Freddie Bluejay told me they weren't good."
"He did, did he?" Mrs. Coon said nothing more. She stood up on her hind
legs and pulled one of the tall stalks down until she could reach that
long, green thing that grew there. In a jiffy she had torn it from its
stalk. And then she stripped the green covering off it. "Try that!" said
Mrs. Coon with a smile.
Of course it was Fatty who tasted it first. He took a good mouthful of
the white kernels, and he was overjoyed. Such sweetness! Such delicious,
milky juice! It was a moment that Fatty never forgot.
Fatty began tearing down the stalks for himself and he never said
another word until at last he simply had to stop eating just to catch
his breath.
"What's its name, Mother?" he inquired.
"Corn, my child."
"Well, why doesn't Freddie Bluejay like it?" Fatty asked.
"He's probably very fond of corn," said Mrs. Coon. "And I've no doubt he
was afraid that you would eat up this whole field, once you started."
"I'd like to," said Fatty, with a sigh. "I'd like to eat all the corn in
the world."
VII
JOHNNIE GREEN IS DISAPPOINTED
It made Fatty Coon feel sad, just to think that there was that field
full of corn, and that he could never eat all of it. But Fatty made up
his mind that he would do the best he could. He would visit the
cornfield every night and feast on those sweet, tender kernels.
The very next night Fatty set out toward Farmer Green's. It was hardly
dark. But Fatty could not wait any longer. He could not even wait for
his mother and his sisters and his brother. He hurried away alone. And
when he came in sight of the cornfield he felt better. He had been the
least bit afraid that the corn might be gone. He thought that maybe
Farmer Green had picked it, or that some of the forest people had eaten
it all. But there it was--a forest of corn, waving and rustling in the
moonlight as the breeze touched it. Fatty felt very happy as he slipped
through the rail-fence.
I wouldn't dare say how many ears of corn Fatty ate that night. And he
would have eaten more, too, if it hadn't been for just one thing. A dog
barked. And that spoiled Fatty's fun. For the dog was altogether too
near for Fatty to feel safe. He even dropped the ear of corn he was
gnawing and hurried toward the woods.
It was lucky for Fatty that he started when he did. For that dog was
close behind him in no time. There was only one thing to do: Fatty knew
that he must climb a tree at once. So he made for the nearest tree in
sight--a big, spreading oak, which stood all alone just beyond the
fence. And as Fatty crouched on a limb he felt safe enough, though the
dog barked and whined, and leaped against the tree, and made a great
fuss.
Fatty looked down at the dog and scolded a little. He was not afraid.
But it made him cross to be driven out of the cornfield. And he wished
the dog would go away. But the dog--it was Farmer Green's Spot--the dog
had no idea of leaving. He stayed right there and barked so loudly that
it was not long before Farmer Green and his hired man came in sight. And
with them was Johnnie Green and a little, young dog that had just been
given to him.
When Farmer Green saw Fatty he seemed disappointed. "He's too young to
bother with," he said. "His skin's not worth much. We'll go 'long and
see what we can find."
But Johnnie Green stayed behind. He wanted that young coon. And he
intended to have him, too. Leaving the young dog to watch Fatty Coon,
Johnnie went back to the farmhouse. After a while he appeared again with
an axe over his shoulder. And when he began to chop away at the big oak,
Fatty Coon felt very uneasy. Whenever Johnnie drove his axe into the
tree, both the tree and Fatty shivered together. And Fatty began to wish
he had stayed away from the cornfield. But not for long, because Johnnie
Green soon gave up the idea of chopping down the big oak. The wood was
so hard to cut, and the tree was so big, that Johnnie had not chopped
long before he saw that it would take him all night to cut through it.
He looked up longingly at Fatty Coon. And Johnnie started to climb the
tree himself. But the higher he climbed, the higher Fatty climbed. And
Johnnie knew that he could never catch that plump young coon in that
way.
At last Johnnie Green started off, calling his dog after him. And then
Fatty Coon came down. But he did not go back to the cornfield. He
decided that he had had adventures enough for one night. But Fatty had
learned something--at least he thought he had. For he made up his mind
that once he climbed a tree, no man could reach him. TREES COULD NOT BE
CHOPPED DOWN! That was what Fatty believed. Perhaps you will know,
later, whether Fatty ever found out that he was mistaken.
VIII
A TERRIBLE FRIGHT
It was the very next night after old dog Spot had treed Fatty Coon in
the big oak near the cornfield. They had finished their evening meal at
Farmer Green's house. The cows were milked, the horses had been fed, the
chickens had all gone to roost. And Farmer Green looked up at the moon,
rising from behind Blue Mountain.
"We'll go coon-hunting again to-night," he said to Johnnie and the hired
man. "The corn has brought the coons up from the swamp. We'll start as
soon as it grows a little darker."
Well--after a while they set out for the cornfield. And sure enough! old
Spot soon began to bark.
"He's treed!" said Farmer Green, pretty soon. And they all hurried over
to the edge of the woods, where Spot had chased a coon up into a tall
chestnut tree. In the moonlight they could see the coon quite plainly.
"Another little feller!" cried Farmer Green. "I declare, all the coons
that come to the cornfield seem to be young ones. This one's no bigger
than the one we saw last night."