 Johnnie
Green Loses
His Pet
Written by: Arthur Scott Bailey,
1915
Recorded by: Patricia Thornton-Houser
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Now, Farmer Green and his
hired
man had not chopped
long before they stopped to breathe.
They had not chopped long--but oh! what great, yawning
holes
they had made in the big chestnut!
From the tree
limb where he clung
Fatty Coon looked down. The tree no longer shook.
And Fatty felt better at once. You see, he thought that the men
would go away, just as Johnnie had gone away the night before. But
they had no such idea at all.
"Which way are you going to fell
her?" the hired man asked. He said HER, meaning the TREE,
of course.
"That way!" said Farmer Green, pointing toward
the woods.
"We'll have to drop her that way, or she'll fall right across
the road, and of course THAT would never do."
"But will she clear
the trees on the edge
of the woods?" The hired man appeared somewhat
doubtful.
"Oh, to
be sure--to be sure!" answered Farmer Green.
And with that they set
to work again. But this time they both chopped on the same side
of the tree--the side toward the woods.
Now, if Fatty Coon was frightened
before, you will believe that he was still more frightened when
the big chestnut tree began to sag.
Yes! It began to lean
toward the woods. Slowly, slowly it tipped.
And Fatty was scared
half out
of his mind. He climbed
to the very top of the tree, because he wanted to get just as far
away from those men as he could. And there he waited. There was
nothing else he could do. Yes! he waited until that awful
moment should come when the tree would go
crashing down upon the
ground. What was going to happen to him then? Fatty wondered.
And while he was wondering there sounded all at once a great snapping
and splitting.
And Fatty felt the tree falling, falling. He could hear Johnnie
Green shouting. And he shut his eyes and held fast
to his branch.
Then came the crash.
When Fatty Coon opened his eyes he expected to see Johnnie
Green all ready to seize
him. But to his great surprise he was still far above the ground.
You see, Farmer Green had been mistaken.
Either the big chestnut tree was taller than he had guessed,
or the woods were nearer than he had thought. For instead of dropping
upon the ground, Fatty's tree had fallen right against another tree
on the edge of the woods. And there it lay, half-tipped over, with
its branches caught fast in the branches of that other tree.
It was no wonder that Johnnie Green shouted. And he shouted
still more loudly when he saw Fatty scramble
out of the big chestnut and into the other tree, and out of that
tree and into another, and then out of THAT tree. Fatty was going
straight
into the woods.
It was no wonder that Johnnie Green shouted. For he had
lost his pet coon. He had lost him before he ever had him. And he
was sadly disappointed.
But Fatty Coon was not disappointed, for he had not wanted
to be a pet at all. And he was very glad--you may be sure--to get
safely
home once more.
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