d a good long smell of the
C. X. pie--so--and said, "O-o-oh! How nice!" Then he smelled a very long
smell of the R. T. pie--so----and said, "O-o-o-o-oh! How delicious!"
Then he smelled a very, very long smell of the P. C. pie--so------and
said, "O-o-o-o-o-oh! How strange!"

[Illustration]

That made the 'Coon want to smell, too, and when he had smelled of all
three he said that there certainly did seem to be a difference in those
pies, and that the last one had a sort of a woodsy spring-like flavor,
like the first of April. That made the 'Possum jump, and he said he had
not remembered till that very minute that to-morrow was the first, sure
enough. Then he said he didn't suppose Mr. Crow would care how the pies
were set on the table, so he moved them about and put the P. C. pie
where the C. X. pie had stood, and the C. X. pie at the end instead of
the P. C. pie. But while he was doing it he happened to notice the
joined letters in the middle of the pies, which he hadn't seen before.
He looked at first one and then the other, and studied a minute what to
do. Then he picked up an old thin knife that Mr. Crow used for cutting
around cake and slipping pies out sometimes when they stuck to the pan.

[Illustration: "OH," SAID MR. 'COON, "I HOPE YOU'RE NOT GOING TO CUT
THEM."]

"Oh," said Mr. 'Coon. "I hope you're not going to cut them!"

"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "Not so's you'll notice it."

[Illustration]

Then he slipped the thin knife around the top crust of the P. C. pie and
lifted it off carefully and looked in and made a very queer face. Mr.
'Coon came and looked in, too, and made another very queer face. Then
Mr. 'Possum lifted off the top of the C. X. pie and looked in and
smiled, and Mr. 'Coon looked in and smiled, too. There were two nice,
fat chicken legs right on top, and Mr. 'Coon took one and Mr. 'Possum
the other, because they said that as this was to be their pie any way,
they might just as well have a little taste of it beforehand. Then they
changed the covers and put the P. C. cover on the good pie and C. X.
cover on the fool pie, and just then they heard Mr. Crow coming home,
and slipped down into the parlor and up into their own rooms and
pretended to be asleep when he came in.

THE STORY OF THE C. X. PIE

CONTINUED

MR. CROW'S PARTY AND THE OPENING OF THE PIES

Well, next morning Mr. Crow was down stairs bright and early, putting
the big parlor room in order and setting the table. P