Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 204, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 August 1920 — The SANDMAN STORY [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The SANDMAN STORY

FOX’S HOUSEWARMING MR. FOX had been so much disturbed by Mr. Dog and his master that he decided to try living somewhere besides on the ground floor of .the woods. One night he took a look around in the moonlight and to his delight he discovered the very place for him toll ve. It was a house built in the branches of a big tree that some boys very likely had made the year before. “Now, with a very little repairing this

will be the finest house in the woods,” said Mr. Fox. So over the hill he ran to Mr. Man's and brought away all that was needed to make his house comfortable. He even found an old piece of stovepipe to make his stove draw well, and in a few days Mr. Fox told all his friends of his new home and invited them to a housewarming. Mr. Coon and Mr. Possum and Mr. Squirrel were not at all upset by finding out that MV. Fox’s new home was in the big tree, but Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Badger looked very sad and said it was out of the question for them to accept Mr. Fox’s kind invitation, much as they would like to be present. Mr. Fox had borrowed a ladder from Mr. Man and when Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Badger said they could not come Mr. Fox remembered that he was not much of a climber himself, and that if he did not keep that ladder he might have a hard time getting into his home when he was in a hurry. r So he decided that Mr. Man woui« not need it as much as he would and

that It would also make a nice addition to his home. When he told Mr. Badger and Mr. Rabbit about the ladder they decided to come, and one night when the moon was shining the animals were all to go to Mr. Fox’s house to dinner. Mr. Fox thought it would be the cheapest way to fill his guests with soup, so he took all the bones that he had collected and put them in a pot on the stove to boll. Up curled the smoke from his chimney and out through the windows went the nice-smelling odor of soup, and Mr. Dog who happened to be running through the woods saw and smelled as well. He wagged his tail and looked up at the house in the tree; then he whined and scratched the tree, and as he danced about it, with his eyes fixed upon the house all the time, he bufnped into the ladder. “Ah, how fortunate,” he said, and up he went and into Mr. Fox’s house he went, too, and took the cover off the pot. It did not take him a second to remove the pot from the stove and pour out the soup in the sink and cool those bones, and then such a feast he had. He ate until he became sleepy; then he lay down on the floor and went to sleep. • > (Copyright)