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.