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.