CHAPTER II

OLD MAN COYOTE PLAYS A TRICK

Of people who play tricks beware,
Lest they may get you in a snare.
You cannot trust them, so watch out
Whenever one may be about.

_Bowser the Hound._


There is such a thing as being too much interested in the thing you are
doing. That is the way accidents very often happen. A person will get so
interested in something that he will be blind and deaf to everything
else, and so will walk straight into danger or trouble of some kind.

Now just take the case of Bowser the Hound. Bowser was so interested in
the chase of Old Man Coyote that he paid no attention whatever to
anything but the warm scent of Old Man Coyote which the latter was
taking pains to leave. Bowser ran with his nose in Old Man Coyote's
tracks and never looked either to left or right. He would lift his head
only to look straight ahead in the hope of seeing Old Man Coyote. Then
down would go his nose again to follow that scent.

So Bowser didn't notice that Old Man Coyote was leading him far, far
away from home into country with which he was quite unacquainted. Bowser