A BOY AND A WOODCHUCK

New Zealand Tablet, 31 July 1913, Page 61

A BOY AND A WOODCHUCK

Teddy was sick in bed. The doctor had just come Teddy could hear him talking with mamma in the next room. ‘ I can’t persuade him to touch the milk,’ his mother was saying. ‘He never drinks it when he is well. What shall I do?' f Teddy listened eagerly for _an answer Doctor Huntington was such a kind, jolly man. ‘ Starve him to it!’ Teddy could hardly believe he heard aright. He trusted his ears still less when the doctor walked in smiling, up to the bedside. ‘How do you feel this morning?’ he asked, taking Teddy’s wrist in his cool hand. 1 I haven’t had anything to eat,’ whined the little boy. ‘I can’t drink milk.’ ‘You’d better try,’, said the doctor. ‘ I can’t! Mayn’t I have a cooky ?’ ‘No.’ ‘Or some bread and butter ?’ ‘No.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘ Because milk is better for you.’ ‘ But I can’t drink it. ’ The doctor was preparing a powder, and did not reply. Teddy wondered if he heard. ‘Did you ever hear the story of the little woodchuck?’ Doctor Huntington looked up with merry ©yes.

‘ No, sir,’ said Teddy. , ‘What is it?’ ; ; ‘ Weil, it was this way,’ and the doctor ' seated himself comfortably in his chair. ‘ There was once a little woodchuck that lived in a nice, deep hoi© with his mother. There was nothing he liked to do quite so well as to run around in the sunshine. At the other end of the lot there was' a tall tree, and one morning the little woodchuck’s mother said : “To-day you must learn to climb that tree. I cannot always be here to protect you, and if a dog should catch you away from home, you’d be in a fine plight.” . : : ■ ‘ But the little woodchuck looked up the steep trunk, and said: ‘‘Oh, I can’t.” The next morning his mother said to him again: ‘To-day you must certainly learn to climb that tree!” But once more the little woodchuck answered, “I can’t,” and ran off to play in the sunshine. ‘ It was not long before the mother went to visit a neighbor. The little woodchuck was having a glorious time, when all of a sudden he heard a yelp, and there was a dog rushing toward him ! He looked longingly at his home across the lot; but the dog was between —and he was coming nearer every second ! The little woodchuck ran as hard as he could make his feet fly, but the dog ran faster. Just as he thought he couldn’t run much further, he came to the big tree. ‘‘Dear me !” he gasped, “I can’t climb it!” And then, because the dog was almost upon him, and because there wasn’t anything else to do, the little woodchuck just scrambled up that —up, up, , till he was out of the dog’s reach! You see, he had to, and so he did. I hope to-morrow I shall find you a great deal better.’ And the doctor smiled a kind good-bye. Teddy lay thinking after his mother and Doctor Huntington had gone out. ‘ I wonder if I could,’ he thought. ‘l’m awfully hungry!’ and he reached for the glass of milk on the table by his bed. ri ; . When his mother came back the glass was empty, and Teddy was smiling contentedly among the pillows.