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[Pg 105] <h2>HOW THE RACCOON WAS CAUGHT</h2> "Well," said the raccoon, "I don't remember when I lived in the forest, or any time before I was caught. When I opened my eyes, I found that I was living in a house where there were a man and woman, several little girls, and a boy named Ray; and the only thing I know about the way I was caught is what I heard the boy say. "The boy said that one time he was hunting through the woods, and he saw a nest, way up on the top of a tree. He climbed up the tree, and there he found two little coons, myself and my little brother. We had just been born, and neither of us had opened our eyes yet. He carried us home to his house; and we were crying for something to eat. We cried and cried and cried. And the little boy didn't know what to do with us or how to feed us. But, finally, he left us with an old cat that had just had some little kittens. Very soon we found that the old cat was willing to give us something to eat, and she nursed us, just as she did her own little baby kittens. The first thing I saw, when I opened my eyes, was this dear old cat who had been a mother to me and to my little brother. But we grew so fast that we were soon nearly as big as the cat. [Pg 106] "I remember one time my brother ran after the old cat for his breakfast, and she didn't want him to have any, but he was so big and strong that he rolled her over and thought he was surely going to get his breakfast. The old cat began to spit and scratch and bite at him, and my brother ran away as fast as he could. "After that neither one of us ever got another meal from that old cat, because when we came near her, she would box our ears, and if we tried to get anything to eat, she would scratch and bite us. After that we got very hungry, but finally the boy bought a rubber nipple at the store and put it on an old bottle he found in the house; then he filled the bottle with milk and gave it to my brother; and you would have laughed to see that little coon sit up, just like a little boy, and hold the bottle up to his mouth and suck, and suck, and suck, until all the milk in the bottle was gone. And then when the bottle was empty, the boy Ray filled it again and gave it to me, and I did the same thing. After that, two or three times every day, this boy would give us a bottle of milk, just as he would feed a little baby. And we ate and ate and grew and grew, until the first thing we knew, we were full grown, almost as large as a dog. "One day, my brother and I saw some chickens out in the back yard. We never had eaten anything in our lives but milk, but the first thing we knew, we[Pg 107] found ourselves running after a chicken, and we caught it and killed it, and ate it all up, and the boy came out and found us all covered with feathers. He scolded us like everything. He said that that was his little pet chicken that he wanted to keep always—a beautiful white bantam. And after that, he put us in a cage until he got a chain, and ever since that time, we have either been in a cage or had a chain around us, to keep us from killing chickens, or doing things that people did not want us to do. "Finally, a man came along and saw us and said he wanted to put us in the circus. And the boy sold us to the man, and that is how we got acquainted with all the other animals. We have been very happy and contented all our lives, because men have always given us all we wanted to eat, and taken good care of us, and while we are glad now that we can climb trees and run around in the woods, still we remember that the men were very kind to us." As the little Cub Bear went off to bed he said, "Well, I guess that is the best way, to be caught before you are big enough to know anything about the woods and the mountains and the hills;" and the coon said, "That is true." The next day the monkey was telling the little Cub Bear about the chariot races they had in the circus—how the men would hitch up four beautiful snow-white horses to one chariot, and four coal-black horses to another chariot, and then race around[Pg 108] and around the track in the circus; and how everybody in the circus would be as excited as could be. The little Cub Bear said, "Why can't we have a race? You know the four beautiful black horses are down at the foot of the mountain, in a little valley, and the four snow-white horses are down at the foot of the mountain, in another valley. Perhaps we can get them up here and run a race. I will drive one chariot." And then the monkey said, "You never learned how to drive horses. I learned how in the circus." But the little Cub Bear was a very brave little bear, and he said he would try anyway. So the next morning, they went down to see if they could get the horses to come up and run the chariot race. Jumbo saw them, and asked where they were going. The monkey told him, and Jumbo said that was fine. He would be very glad to act as judge of the race, and that he would go half way down the mountain and draw a line, and that the first one to get over the line would win the race. So the monkey went down and told the black horses and the white horses what they wanted, and they all agreed that it would be great fun to come up and run a race, just as they used to in the circus. So they all came up to the den; and they were the most beautiful horses you ever saw. It took the monkey a long while to hitch up the horses. The bears helped him all they could. [Pg 109] All four of the white horses were hitched to one of the red and gold chariots, and the four black horses were hitched to the other red and gold chariot; and the monkey chose the white horses, and the little bear chose the black horses. The monkey got into his chariot and took the reins, and little Cub Bear climbed into his chariot and took the reins, and looked over to see how the monkey held them, and he tried to hold them the same way. Then the monkey said, "How are we going to know how to start, so we can both start together?" And the Circus Bear said, "I will tell you what to do. We will get the beaver to slap his tail on the water, and that will be just as good as firing a pistol. When you hear the noise, you both start at the same time." So the muskrat ran down and told the beaver what to do. And little Cub Bear and the monkey waited, all ready to start the moment they heard the noise. Soon there was a sharp "Bang!" and the horses all started, just as though they had been shot out of a gun. The Cub Bear let go the reins the very first thing, and just hung on to the chariot for dear life. The monkey looked over and laughed. The black horses were getting ahead of the white ones, for they were running down hill at a terrible rate. Papa Bear came out of the cave just then, and he was dreadfully frightened, because he felt that his little[Pg 110] Cub Bear would surely be killed. But the horses had run so many times that they were not afraid at all. They were going like the wind. First the white horses would be a little ahead, and then the black horses would be a little ahead. The little Cub Bear hung on as tight as he could, and he looked straight ahead of him. Suddenly he saw a stump right in the way ahead. The horses saw it at the same time, and two of the horses went on one side of the stump and two on the other, and the chariot ran right into the stump with a terrible smash and crash, and broke the chariot all to pieces. One wheel rolled down hill one way, and the other wheel rolled down the hill the other way, and two of the black horses went in one direction and two of the black horses went in the other direction, and the bear went right up in the air. When his papa looked to see what had happened, he saw him come down just like a rubber ball, all rolled up; and he rolled on down the hill. And just when the monkey thought he surely would win the race, he saw a great stone ahead of him, and two white horses went on one side of the stone and two white horses on the other, and the chariot ran "Smash!" right into the stone, and two white horses ran in one direction and two white horses ran in the other direction, and one chariot wheel rolled down the mountain one way and the other chariot wheel rolled down the mountain the[Pg 111] other way, and the monkey went right up in the air, just as though he had been shot out of a gun. The elephant was standing at the line, and just as the monkey flew past him in the air, he reached out and caught hold of the monkey's tail with the thumb and finger on the end of his trunk, and swung him on top of his back. And just as he caught the monkey by the tail, the bear rolled across the line like a great big rubber ball. And that was the end of the race. The elephant never could make up his mind which won the race, the monkey or the bear. Which one do you think won the race? <hr /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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