XVII

FATTY FINDS THE MOON


Wandering through the woods one day, Fatty Coon's bright eyes caught a
strange gleam from something--something that shone and glittered out of
the green. Fatty wanted to see what it was, though he hardly thought it
was anything to eat. But whenever he came upon something new he always
wanted to examine it. So now Fatty hurried to see what the strange thing
was.

It was the oddest thing he had ever found--flat, round, and silvery; and
it hung in the air, under a tree, just over Fatty's head. Fatty Coon
looked carefully at the bright thing. He walked all around it, so he
could see it from all sides. And at last he thought he knew what it was.
He made up his mind that it was the moon!

He had often seen the moon up in the sky; and here it was, just the same
size exactly, hanging so low that he could have reached it with his paw.
He saw nothing strange in that; for he knew that the moon often touched
the earth. Had he not seen it many a time, resting on the side of Blue
Mountain? One night he had asked his mother if he might go up on the
mountain to play with the moon; but she had only laughed. And here, at
last, was the moon come to him! Fatty was so excited that he ran home as
fast as he could go, to tell his mother, and his brother Blackie, and
Fluffy and Cutey, his sisters.

"Oh! the moon! the moon!" Fatty shouted. He had run so fast that, being