ke it more beautiful by your own dainty beauty. Do not
wish to do what only seems a greater thing."

And then she told the fate of the discontented Dewdrop that had wished
to become great and how at last it was swallowed by its own greatness,
and its dainty beauty which had been so admired no longer remained.

"Be content with the small but beautiful part you play in this world,"
she told the drop, "and do not long for a greatness which may result in
your unhappiness."

INQUISITIVE MR. POSSUM

[Illustration: Inquisitive Mr. Possum]

It was Mr. Owl who gave the wood folk the warning by calling out one
night, "To whom it may concern!" At least the wood people knew that
was what he meant, but anyone else might have thought he just cried "To
whoo! To whoo!"

So when all the animals both great and small had gathered around his
tree he told them that in his opinion it was to be a very, very hard
winter.

That of course meant that they must begin right away to lay up stores
for the cold, snowed-in days, and everyone bestirred himself at once to
do this.

Even Mrs. Rabbit, who seldom made much preparation for the winter days,
began to do up preserves; all the small bunnies were sent out with
their baskets to gather corn and beans and beet tops and all sorts of
good things. "If we cannot get them green," said Mrs. Rabbit to her
neighbor, Mrs. Squirrel, "we can eat them stewed; but of course we much
prefer them in their natural state."

Mrs. Squirrel, to encourage her neighbor in laying up winter stores,
gave her a big basketful of walnuts which Mrs. Rabbit pickled, and some
say those were the first walnuts ever pickled.

But this story is not about pickled walnuts; it is about the nice
preserves that Mrs. Rabbit put up and the accident that befell Mr.
Possum.

Everybody that passed Mrs. Rabbit's home for many days found it hard to
get by her door, for such spicy, nice-smelling odors as came through
the open windows made everyone feel hungry.

Mr. Possum was especially interested when he found that Mrs. Rabbit
was, among other things, putting up a great deal of canned corn, and he
decided that when it was dark he would just take a peek into her pantry
window and see how many cans she had.

Right in front of the window was a tree and one limb hung low enough so
that Mr. Possum with a little care could easily swing himself from it
and reach the pantry window.

Now this might have been safe enough if the