Fatty
Finds the Moon
Written
by: Arthur Scott Bailey, 1915
Recorded by: Patricia Thornton-Houser
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Wandering
through the woods
one day, Fatty Coon's bright eyes caught
a strange gleam
from something--something that shone
and glittered
out of the green. Fatty wanted to see what it was, though he hardly
thought it was anything to eat. But whenever he came upon something
new he always wanted to examine
it. So now Fatty hurried
to see what the strange thing was.
It
was the oddest
thing he had ever found--flat,
round, and silvery;
and it hung in the air, under a tree, just over Fatty's head. Fatty
Coon looked carefully at the bright thing. He walked all around
it, so he could see it from all sides.
And at last he thought he knew what it was. He made up his mind
that it was the moon!
He
had often seen the moon up in the sky; and here it was, just the
same size
exactly,
hanging
so low that he could have reached
it with his paw.
He saw nothing strange in that; for he knew that the moon often
touched
the earth.
Had he not seen it many times, resting
on the side of Blue Mountain? One night he had asked his mother
if he might go up on the mountain to play with the moon; but she
had only laughed.
And here, at
last, was the moon come to him! Fatty was so
excited that he ran home as fast as he could go, to tell his
mother, and his brother Blackie, and Fluffy and Cutey, his sisters.
"Oh!
the moon! the moon!" Fatty shouted.
He had run so fast that, being so plump,
he was quite
out
of breath. And that was all he could say.
"Well,
well! What about the moon!" Mrs. Coon asked. "Anybody
would think you had found
it, almost." And she smiled.
Fatty
puffed
and gasped.
And at last he caught
his breath again.
"Yes--I've
found it! It's over in the woods--just a little way from here!"
he said. "Big, and round, and shiny!
Let's all go and bring it home!"
"Well,
well, well!" Mrs. Coon was puzzled.
She had never heard of the moon being found in those woods; and
she hardly knew what to think. "Are you sure?" she asked.
"Oh,
yes, Mother!" Fatty could hardly wait,
he was so eager
to lead
the way. And with many shakes
of the head, Mrs. Coon, with her family, started
off to see the moon.
"There!"
Fatty cried,
as they came in sight
of the bright, round thing. "There it is--just as I told
you!" And they all set up a great shouting.
All
but Mrs. Coon. She wasn't quite
sure, even
yet,
that Fatty had really found the moon. And she walked close
to the shining thing and peered
at it. But not too close! Mrs. Coon didn't go too near it. And she
told her children quite sternly
to stand
back. It was good that she did; for when Mrs. Coon took her
eyes off Fatty's moon and looked at the ground
beneath
it--well! she jumped back so quickly that she knocked
two of her children flat on the ground.
A trap!
THAT was what Mrs. Coon saw right
in front of her. And Farmer Green, or his boy, or whoever it was
that set
the trap, had hung that bright piece of TIN
over the trap hoping that one of her family would see it and
play with it--and fall into the trap. Yes--it was a relief
that Fatty hadn't begun knocking it about. For if he had he would
have stepped
right into the trap and it would have shut--SNAP!
Just like that. And there he would have been, caught
fast.
It
was no wonder
that Mrs. Coon hurried her family away from that spot. And Fatty
led them all home again. He couldn't get away from his moon fast
enough.
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