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6 THE MISCHIEVOUS ADVENTURES OF NIP AND TUCK ELIZABETH LYLE MADISON NIP nnd Tuck were plotting mis chief! They sat in the sun on tho back stone wall washing their faces like kittens and protending to be demure. But the truth is they were two as rascally .- little .--coons as ever came from the wild 'woodlife to scandalize a peaceful, proper farmyard. They had furry 'bodies and long, bushy tails, decorated with five Hugs of black fur. Of these 'they were very proud and when they "felt particularly impertinent they would curve nnd brandish these about as though saying, "Well, anyway,. you can't show a' single ,thinff m em- .so ••fine as these handsome appendages of ours,, so there!" Dainty ears] were theirs, and little painted noses, wonderfully keen scent-" 'ed nnd Inquisitive "and cold; Their snapping eyes werefset each in a patch of blaak fur ; which extended down the gray.nose in a funny little point adding a look : of alertness and drollery to the 1 faces. ' I Today, between"; the- stages of their morning face /wash, they would sidle ,vp t to each .other, .exchange- some slde • splittlng confidence and go scampering tothe end of -the wall and back, chuck ling, with glee. Then, eylng'each other with, grave reprovai; they would •sit down.and.make^another attempt to get throughthe bath soberly.' !,-. ; " Fred, from; a* nearby, stump, watched , the" chattering- two and felt -decidedly jealous, for he was himself in a doleful mood. He had lost the cellar key with ; the: storeroom,? key tied to it.-and his \u25a0 father.,;, hadPfqrbidden •his "playing or 1 flshing:,or v doing anything really worth .while; to /a'boy until the keys 'should -be"' found,--. and'; Fred, after, hunting and hunting.twaslin' despair. .'.""' " ;^VNip and :Tuok,spyihg;Fred, held an other : u hasty 'consultation;;, and then •icameji scampering" across; the 'yard to 'him.-,; One;ran up.his^backiand one up , h ls arm and then they ; V chased ) round and round his shoulders, as.though say ing, •»"Cheer,-upjold!playmate.;' See how much funlthere-ls in"llfe yet." '\u25a0..;•'. \ \u25a0; Fred? la'ughed^nfsplte"bf;himself, but just ;> theni he heard Aunt Mandy' s « voice from the : kitchen /door, crying. "Fred I Fred!;: Those>rascally.X;coons: have got into < the ; screen safe /again and eaten up the^bacon!. Now; you've ; got to get ; rid- of -them jrlghtfaway,*for:i; won't : haveithemaround'another.day!". ' v < Fredfrose?: sorrowfully Jandi his pets followed : him ; into the . wood, like two v 'frolicsome^ dogs.';: Finally, i when they. ,' arri yed? at; a ibroadf pool' Fred; took" both' , Nip ?and ; Tuck : and i^hrew, them»into the ' water, i running , away I as ) he < did it and thinking,; "Now- they'll i have/ a hard swlmto the other side and they'll hate me t for ; dolrig^ it , and ' will , stay )away !" ; ' But ' do j you : think that >is the .way i t turned out? , No,: lndeed! N i p Splashed round in . the cold L watei* like. . a mi 11 - wheel and finally/ spluttering and" choking I,^1 ,^ faced the", side -of.; the ; shore from*- which he had been ; tossed "<• and , struck out for shore.;; Tuck followed him, as; she always did, and the two landed THE TROUBLES OF A TROUT CHARLES CRISTADORO \u25a0 CERTAINLY was a very little f el- I low, not-much thicker' than a i piece > of ; cotton thread, but aa I swam around : I ;. carried a sack with ; - me "; that grew each) day- until it finally disappeared. sl first -knew; what it : wa* to bejhungry and . want; to eat when , the sack disappeared. Up to the pres ent: moment; I had been living, as .it were, \ upon, myself. -.,' . \u0084 ' \I did not gjo ! hungry, long, for a 'man came-along and ;. with a feather, dropped ; into'" the?, water .".-a ; sort'of. red - paste which ;wei all -ate^greedily. ';v '.There %were ; many ..thousands 1 of us in long troughs .divided by 'small wire 1 partitions, , through which - the' 'cold spring, water flowed/ night*' and: day, fresh i from - a gushing spring from un der the ; hill. \. \u25a0 -. . , \u25a0;,,-,. * .So in-?our shady pond indoors «we swam about and fed heartily and grew 1 apace. ;' It was . not -long before ; a . man came along ; and with a net scooped out . numbers of, our companions to give the rest more room,' because we were growing and thriving. , And then • came the day when' we wore, all scooped out by that net and put ' 'outdoors into lqrger ponds/ screened in, yet giving us ample room to .• dart about here and there. Thfc ponds" had clean, white, sandy bot toms ' and were free, from disturbing 1 enemies of any kind.- There was no food in the , pond for, us to eat and we continued to live on the foods pro vided .'for us. We- grew apace and the day came when w$ were again scooped into cans and sent awuy to bo emptied into a tiny brook into which a cool spring: emptied. k There were no more screens to keep us within limits and we never saw the man utrain .who was In the habit of feeding us. And when meal time came and went, without our food being thrown to us, hunger pinched us and we sought here and there for some thing; to fill our stomachs. Bits of bark and leaves floating on the sur THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL', FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1910.-TTIE JUNIOR CALTJ sleek and dripping and raced " after Fred, squealing. They crawled upon him and .nosed at his sweater bosom,' whimpering "like : ;t wo ; /wet .: babies,' pleading for shelter and caresses. Of course, Fred wiped them .off— how' couldv he , help it? •As * soon, as they found, that; he had;relented they cocked their .saucy eyes up at him, and soon scuttled 'down, dry and s reassured and scampered home txhead of' him! "That's the \u25a0\u25a0> way they. always save themselves Just >by the skin of their teeth. 'I suppose that's the, reason father' first . .named':. them- Nip and : Tuck!'' , •'\u25a0\u25a0••'\u25a0. ; ' ... \": That' night all. the, cream was gone from Aunt Mandy's milkparis. r ; "Who In the world ever gets into the milkhouse?!" ,; cried '\u25a0'•; the .«: exasperated housekeeper. ; "The> door's always locked and the window screen is never taken off.* Now, who do; you think—"; As ; she \u25a0 spoke she o, was \u25a0 peering in through; the; aforementioned - window and a minute later she cried out sharply: . "Frederick Anderson! You come,: here! t Look! Just look!" ; ': , Fred tiptoed' up besisle her and he ; also':, exclaimed uin surprise. Inside were Nip 'and Tuck .demonstrating as fast as they could just>what had hap pened: to the . milk. They ; sat one on each;?side of a shining earthen bowl scooping up' the cream with their bare forepaws \u25a0 and \ deftly slapping: each handful into .•; their mouths. Bank presidents -at, a 17 course dinner never enjoyed themselves more. .. "Scat! You gi-eat villains!" cried. face of the 'water ''we jumped at and, spat out. We gulped down flies and insects' and liked them and when very hungry the larger ones ' among ua ate, the smaller ones. But we soon learned that there were other things to .eat in' the brook and, in a measure, left each other alone. \u25a0 We loved the. flies better than alt else, it was such fun to leap after them even ns they flew over the sur- , face of the water. It, was our custom to hido behind a stone in the brook where the water flowed .swiftly, and as the tired and . half drowned insects floated down, dart out and seize them. We found we had many enemies, not only in the brook, but in the air. After the ; largo trout from ' below, in deep water, had run 1 up against us and de voured'many of us we, learned to keep in shallow water, where the larger, fish could not follow. . The larger chub per secuted us as did the squirming eels who hugged the bottom. Then came the herons, who had a way of standing like images, still- and. motionless, until we forgot they were around, and they snapped us up in their long, razorlike bills. The kingfishers were in tho habit of sitting on a dead limb overhead and dropping In among us like a flash of lightning, and seldom flying away with empty bills. , , , • -•\u25a0.<\u25a0 At night the long, sleek furred aaU piiilH swum in among us and snapped ua up until we lived in perpetual ter* ror of our lives. Our numbers grew less and less. The strong, alert, well grown fish, quick of motion and ever on tho watch, alone survived, and aft they grew swam farther down, streanH yet were watchful of surrounding dangers. * i The months went by, The cold of winter froze the surfaoe of the proof*, and although it protected us against the herons and the kingfishers and more or less from tho furred fishers, it on the other, hand, shut oft our. sup ply of flies and insects. We went hungry many a day, and \u25a0when we met one of our kind emalle* Mandy, her wrath- mounting at tho sight. : .-..". * Nip and Tuck R-ave a scared look round .and spied Jlandy/s face at the window. : Tuck jumped, to the floor, but Nip, seeming to realize that this dis closure marked" the last of his; cream feasts,, determined to have one I lllng 1 more. He popped his head completely Into the creamy bowl, thug - carrying 1 away.'. all the booty he possibly could with Uie greatest possible . dispatch. Then he followed Tuck to. the floor ami the two, \u25a0\u25a0marvelously doubling, their furry backs, squeezed through an open ing in: the floor made for a little stream of water from the "brook outside which cooled the milkhouse. Out Into the sun light they Scampered, and later Nip was seen sitting on the stono wall sol emnly * wlplngjhis face and sucking his paws, to. dispose of that portion of tho feast which he had carried away on his countenance. Having discovered that cream was good, Nip and Tuck next discovered that chicken was better. They haunted the poultry 'yard, and two or three small chickens disappeared. Aunt Mandy ac cused' the coons, but' Fred stuck up for his pets as long: as possible. \u25a0'. However, when one 1 morning Speckles, the prize* winning Plymouth Rock hen,' was miss- Ing, Fred,: with a heavy heart indeed, followed "Aunt Mandy to the chicken yard. Fred's forebodings were not un warranted. Yes, there at last lay poor Speckles, cold and bedraggled. It was evidently the work of the coons! Speck than ourselves did not hesitate to pur sue and swallow .him. . ' * How glad |we i were when the j warm sun began to melt the ice and the trees began to leaf and the flowers blossom! Then the,, insects began to fly again and how -we feasted upon them! A fly of any kind was most welcome to us, , and it was this greediness that cost so many of us our lives from a new found enemy quite us dangerous as any heretofore met. < .Tempting, beautifully, colored flies would drop upon the water, generally .two and sometimes three at a time. How the trout would dart atfer them! How strangly they acted!, The. 'very' small 'ones would leave' the: water tho very moment their jaws shut upon, the fly, impelled \by some invisible, force, while the larger fish were forced^ to go in just the opposite direction to* which they desired to travel. - At first when acting this way the fish would seem to be quite able to seek his freedom, but as the moments went by. that something began to overmaster him until, completely exhausted and with head out of the water and open mouthed, he was lifted from among v.4, We saw the tyrant of tho brook one evening leap at a moth miller fly and at once become fast to it. How sur prised he was! Repeatedly did he leap out of the brook to free himself, but without avail. Across, up and down the brook he darted, but that moth miller yet remained upon the edge of his Jaw unswullowed. If he could only rub it loose against J atone or run against a snag or under Sunken log — any place, anywhere, to set rid of that deceptive moth mlllqr that £l few moments ago, he was so greedy to securo. We are inwardly pleased to watch the discomfiture of the old tyrant, for we had no reason to love him, each and every one of us having only missed by a chance going down his great throat. It would be ft relief to us were he to disappear, as we had seen other smaller ones, haver to return among us again, \lq can neither swallow not spit out thd milk white fly nor overcome tho force that so persistently holds to him. tie's free! And is once more back Into the pool, rubbing his nose against the sandy bottom to free It from that lea would never again In clucking prl<le lead forth another brood of yellow chicks. In indignntlon too deep for words Aunt Mandy marched straight to Speck les' nest. "I Just want you to see for yourself, Fred, the beautiful sotting of eggs that hen was taking caro of," sho said icily. •';-- But Instead of finding a deserted set ting they discovered n woll protected nest. Tuck, himself tho murderer of poor Biddy Speckles, was carefully sit ting upon her eggs! After the severe chastisement meted out for this offonse, Nip nnd Tuck be gan to think porhaps they had hotter move away from tho Anderson ranch. They wore seriously discussing the mat ter one night when a fox visited the ranch and' joined in their deliberations. Nip conceived a great admiration for Mr. Reynard's- shrewdness, -and said 'so. "Of course, I'm smart!" said the fox. "Now watch me get that hen roosting on the Hnjb of the tree over thero. I • tran't climb up the tree, but I'll make her come down to mo!" So saying ho began to walk round nnd round In a circle under the limb on which the hen was perched. This soon woke Mrs. Hen up, flustered and palpitating. Sho gazed down upon Reynard. Round and round he walked, always slowly and always looking up, and poor Gfannlo Hen, whose gaze seamed fastened upon him, kept turn ing herself about and about to follow his motions. Finally tho old feathered lady became so dizzy that she fell from the tree, and Mr. Fox made: off«wlth her. • This feat decided Nip. He concluded that wild life must sharpen one's wits more keenly than ranching. Besides, the fox had drawn alluring pictures of wild coons' nests built in hollow logs and lined with sweet smelling grasses and seed downs. .He told Tuck that these must be greatly, more attractive than the box and old wood sack which Fred had provided for their sleeping accommodations. So that night they moved. But before they, went they had one more, glorious raid upon the apple room over the hay mow, where all the dried fruit was spread; out on -the .floor. They rifled this, biting Into some of the best ap ples and whisking the rest about with their tails. Suddenly something sharp rattled on the floor. It-was Fred's lost bunch of keys. Nip and Tuck nosed; them about for awhile and then left them in plain sight in a little circle where they had brushed the fruit clear from the floor. Perhaps they said to each other, "We'll. dolour old playmate thisone last good turn/anyway." .... Then, Just as the dawn was coming up, side by side they slipped down from the loft and Bcuttled away into the wood world. Fred found his keys as they had left them, but never again did he see Nip and Tuck, though he looked for them every day oh his way to school. I secretly bellevo they are lead ing a happy, and, let us hope not too mischievous a life in that mossy, nest in'the tree that Mr. Reynard told them about. . »\u25a0» \u25a0 ,-.i '...'\u25a0\u25a0 which has 'made 'so' much. trouble. As he swims around the pool he /drags a fine, white string, after him. But be fore many days the end of the string caught upon a snag, arid with a mighty tug, the fly, was torn loose, and with a wounded Jaw, the old tyrant' resumed sway once more. :- But it was a great lesson to us all, and we learned that whether fly, grass hopper, worm or any .other tempting thing was attached to a thin white string,' it meant trouble for the one who succumbed to the temptation. In our young days the shadow of our keeper thrown upon the pond meant nothing but. good to us,. but ,we \u25a0 now regarded a shadow upqivthe brook with greatest of alarm and became wary and cautious in the extreme." In time the tyrant of the pool, with head pierced by a kingfisher, floated belly up down stream, and instead of peace and quiet the next largest trout took his place and the warfare and tragedies consequent upon a wild life <jvent on as before, and ever will go on as long as grass grows and watera flow. The Wind The wind has a , language I would I could learn; Sometimes 'tis soothing and sometimes 'tis stern; Sometimes it comes like a low, sweet song, • And all things grow calm as tho sound floats along; And the forest is lulled by the dreamy strain, And slumber sinks down on tile wan dering main; And its crystal arms are folded Ift rest, And the tall ship sleeps on its heav ing breast, .«- — Letltla Elizabeth Landon. Tariff Troubles •'I see that Teddy has sent Into this country a Jurge consignment of lions, tigers, etc. I presume he will havo to pay tariff on them," "Oh, no. They will come in as free roar materials."