“I have not had my breakfast,” said Mr. Rooster, scratching the ground.
“Neither have we,” said Mr. Tom Cat, “but I have heard somewhere that you should not think of your troubles and they will not bother you, so suppose we each tell a story to take up the time and also take our minds off the thought that we have not had our breakfast. You begin, Mr. Dog, because you are such a good story-teller and have had so many adventures.”
Mr. Dog looked very wise and scratched his head as if he was thinking very hard.
“Did I ever tell you about how I treed a coon?” he asked.
Mr. Rooster and Mr. Tom Cat said they never had heard it, but they should like to hear about it very much indeed.
MR. DOG’S STORY
Mr. Dog cleared his throat and then he said: “I have always had the reputation of being a good hunter, especially when coons were in season, but this story which I am about to tell will show that I had the hardest time a dog ever had getting a coon.
“One moonlight night the master came out of the house and whistled to me; he had his gun over his shoulder and I knew pretty well what was going to happen; we were going coon-hunting.
“So I wagged my tail and gave two or three sharp barks because I knew I could not bark again until I had something to bark about.
“Oh, it was a beautiful night, and just as we got out in the road a little way from the barn I saw something moving. I wasn’t sure at first whether it was a fox or a coon, both of them being equally fond of visiting the poultry-yard; but I kept very still and pretty soon I saw him right in the full moonlight. It was as fat a coon as I ever saw, and he didn’t see me and I made a run for him.