, and every one thought it would be a
terrible thing to be shut up in a cage, except Mr. 'Possum, who said he
wouldn't mind it if they would let him sleep enough and give him all he
could eat, but that a cage without those things would be a lonesome
place.

Then Mr. 'Coon said that a little adventure had happened to him once
which he had never mentioned before, because he had never known just
what to make of it; but he knew now, he said, that he had come very near
getting into a menagerie, and he would tell them just what happened.

The Story Teller looked down at the quiet figure in his lap. The Little
Lady's head was nestled close to his shoulder, and her eyes were
straining very hard to keep open.

"I think we will save Mr. 'Coon's story till another night," he said.

THE SECOND SNOWED-IN STORY

THE SECOND SNOWED-IN STORY

MR. 'COON TELLS HOW HE CAME NEAR BEING A PART OF A MENAGERIE, AND HOW HE
ONCE TOLD A STORY TO MR. DOG

"You can tell about Mr. 'Coon, now--the story you didn't tell last
night, you know," and the Little Lady wriggles herself into a
comfortable corner just below the Story Teller's smoke, and looks deep
into a great cavern of glowing embers between the big old andirons,
where, in her fancy, she can picture the Hollow Tree people and their
friends.

"Why, yes, let me see--" says the Story Teller.

"Mr. Dog had just told about being at the menagerie, you know, and Mr.
'Coon was just going to tell how he came very near getting into a
menagerie himself."

"Oh yes, of course--well, then, all the Hollow Tree people, the 'Coon
and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, and their friends who were visiting
them--Mr. Dog and Mr. Robin and Jack Rabbit and Mr. Turtle and Mr.
Squirrel--knocked the ashes out of their pipes and filled them up
fresh--"

"No, they had just done that."

"That's so, I forgot. Well, anyway, as soon as they got to smoking and
settled back around the fire again Mr. 'Coon told them his story, and I
guess we'll call it

"MR. 'COON'S EARLY ADVENTURE"

[Illustration: ALL AT ONCE HE HEARD A FIERCE BARK CLOSE BEHIND HIM]

Mr. 'Coon said he was quite young when it happened, and was taking a
pleasant walk one evening, to think over things a little, and perhaps to
pick out a handy tree where Mr. Man's chickens roosted, when all at once
he heard a fierce bark close behind him, and he barely had time to get
up a tree himself when a strange and very noisy Mr. Dog was leapin