GOOD – NIGHT STORIES.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 33, 9 February 1928, Page 12

GOOD - NIGHT STORIES.

MEADOW FOLKS WARNED OF WINTER'S COMING. (Told by BLANCHE SILVER for PETER TAN.) Now I'm sorry to say but Chatty Chipmunk was one of these little fellows who never did anything until he just had to, and so it came about when the weather began to turn cold that Chatty Chipmunk's store rooms were empty.

'"Oh, dear; oh, dear, what shall I do?" he cried flipping his tail back and forth excitedly. Just then he looked up and discovered the great strings of white cobwebs stretching from one weed to another all over the meadows. "Now of all the nerve" Chatty Chipmunk cried rushing up to pull down the webby lines nearest his doorway. "Who in the world stretched all that clothes line in front of my doorway! I dou't care to have folks think I've taken in washing."

"I don't know," snapped Mr. Red Squirrel, who had been watching Chatty Chipmunk for a long time. "Washing's no disgrace, if you do it well. But I do think you'd better not tear down those lines or someone else will have to suffer. Now if it were just yourself who would pay for it, I'd let you tear them down. But it's for our neighbours. It is to warn them to fill their store rooms before it's too late. Maybe if they wake up in time, they can save themselves a hungry winter."

"Say, what in the world are you driving at?" questioned Chatty Chipmunk. "What have these cobwebs to do with anyone's starving?"

"Goodness me, Chatty," laughed his cousin, "you don't mean to say you don't know who spread them over the meadows and why they did it?" "\es, I know the silly spiders put them here," replied Chatty Chipmunk, scratching his head, "but why, I haven't the least idea."

"Why, to warn you folks that winter is on its way and you'd better be getting your winter's supply in your cellars as as you can," replied -. Red Squirrel. "I saw Mrs. Wood Spider spinning them and she told me why she was doing it. It was to warn folks" that winter was not far off. So here's where you'd better get ready for the old fellow," and with a merry flip of his pretty bushy tail, he filled the wee pockets in his cheeks with acorns and hurried away to his storeroom.

Chatty Chipmunk, • thinking Red Squirrel was just joking, didn't take anv pains to gather any nuts except those which he ate at once, until Billy Beaver came hurrying by and told him he had gotten the glad news.

"I'm just about ready to settle down to my winters rest," be laughed. "My store rooms nre filled and my house is ready so that when we have the first frost I can begin to patch up the holes in my house. Are you ready for winter? I am so glad Mrs. Spider and her sisters take such pains to warn us, aren't you. Chatty?"

"Indeed, I am," laughed Chatty Chipmunk, filling his pockets with nuts. He hurried back to his store rooms, and it was a good thing he did, for the next day the ground was covered with a slight blanket of snow and it made Lis feet cold to travel from the oak tree to his store room, but he knew he had it to do and he worked so hard he didn't mind the cold. But before he closed his little doors for the winter he called on Mrs. Spider and thanked her for sending out her little telephone wires to warn them of winter's approach.