Old Mother West Wind | Page 3

is clearly readable, and does *not* contain characters other than those intended by the author of the work, although tilde (~), asterisk (*) and underline (_) characters may be used to convey punctuation intended by the author, and additional characters may be used to indicate hypertext links; OR
[*] The etext may be readily converted by the reader at no expense into plain ASCII, EBCDIC or equivalent form by the program that displays the etext (as is the case, for instance, with most word processors); OR
[*] You provide, or agree to also provide on request at no additional cost, fee or expense, a copy of the etext in its original plain ASCII form (or in EBCDIC or other equivalent proprietary form).
[2] Honor the etext refund and replacement provisions of this "Small Print!" statement.
[3] Pay a trademark license fee to the Project of 20% of the net profits you derive calculated using the method you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. If you don't derive profits, no royalty is due. Royalties are payable to "Project Gutenberg Association/Carnegie-Mellon University" within the 60 days following each date you prepare (or were legally required to prepare) your annual (or equivalent periodic) tax return.
WHAT IF YOU *WANT* TO SEND MONEY EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE TO?
The Project gratefully accepts contributions in money, time, scanning machines, OCR software, public domain etexts, royalty free copyright licenses, and every other sort of contribution you can think of. Money should be paid to "Project Gutenberg Association / Carnegie-Mellon University".
We are planning on making some changes in our donation structure in 2000, so you might want to email me, [email protected] beforehand.

*END THE SMALL PRINT! FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END*

Etext created by Eve Sobol, South Bend, Indiana, USA

OLD MOTHER WEST WIND
by Thornton W. Burgess

TO MY MOTHER TO WHOM I OWE SO MUCH AND TO MY LITTLE SON WHOSE LOVE OF STORIES INSPIRED THESE TALES THIS LITTLE VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED.
CONTENTS:

CHAPTER
I. MRS. REDWING'S SPECKLED EGG
II. WHY GRANDFATHER FROG HAS NO TAIL
III. HOW REDDY FOX WAS SURPRISED
IV. WHY JIMMY SKUNK WEARS STRIPES
V. THE WILFUL LITTLE BREEZE
VI. REDDY FOX GOES FISHING
VII. JIMMY SKUNK LOOKS FOR BEETLES
VIII. BILLY MINK'S SWIMMING PARTY
IX. PETER RABBIT PLAYS A JOKE
X. HOW SAMMY JAY WAS FOUND OUT
XI. JERRY MUSKRAT'S PARTY
XII. BOBBY COON AND REDDY FOX PLAY TRICKS
XIII. JOHNNY CHUCK FINDS THE BEST THING IN THE WORLD
XIV. LITTLE JOE OTTER'S SLIPPERY SLIDE
XV. THE TALE OF TOMMY TROUT WHO DIDN'T MIND
XVI. SPOTTY THE TURTLE WINS A RACE

CHAPTER I.
MRS. REDWING'S SPECKLED EGG
Old Mother West Wind came down from the Purple Hills in the golden light of the early morning. Over her shoulders was slung a bag--a great big bag--and in the bag were all of Old Mother West Wind's children, the Merry Little Breezes.
Old Mother West Wind came down from the Purple Hills to the Green Meadows and as she walked she crooned a song:
"Ships upon the ocean wait; I must hurry, hurry on! Mills are idle if I'm late; I must hurry, hurry on."
When she reached the Green Meadows Old Mother West Wind opened her bag, turned it upside down and shook it. Out tumbled all the Merry Little Breezes and began to spin round and round for very joy, for you see they were to lay in the Green Meadows all day long until Old Mother West Wind should come back at night and take them all to their home behind the Purple Hills.
First they raced over to see Johnny Chuck. They found Johnny Chuck sitting just outside his door eating his breakfast. One, for very mischief, snatched right out of Johnny Chuck's mouth the green leaf of corn he was eating, and ran away with it. Another playfully pulled his whiskers, while a third rumpled up his hair.
Johnny Chuck pretended to be very cross indeed, but really he didn't mind a bit, for Johnny Chuck loved the Merry Little Breezes and played with them everyday.
And if they teased Johnny Chuck they were good to him, too. When they saw Farmer Brown coming across the Green Meadows with a gun one of them would dance over to Johnny Chuck and whisper to him that Farmer Brown was coming, and then Johnny Chuck would hide away, deep down in his snug little house under ground, and Farmer Brown would wonder and wonder why it was that he never, never could get near enough to shoot Johnny Chuck. But he never, never could.
When the Merry Little Breezes left Johnny Chuck they raced across the Green Meadows to the Smiling Pool to say good morning to Grandfather Frog who sat on a big lily pad watching for green flies for breakfast.
"Chug-arum," said Grandfather Frog, which was his way of saying good morning.
Just then along came a fat green fly and up jumped Grandfather Frog. When he sat down again on the lily pad the fat