Back and forth over the Green Meadows sailed Whitetail the Marsh Hawk.
Like Longlegs the Blue Heron, he was hungry. His sharp eyes peered down
among the grasses, looking for something to eat, but some good fairy
seemed to have warned the very little people who live there that
Whitetail was out hunting. Perhaps it was one of Old Mother West Wind's
children, the Merry Little Breezes. You know they are always flitting
about trying to do some one a good turn.
They love to dance and romp and play
From dawn to dusk the livelong day,
But more than this they love to find
A chance to do some favor kind.
Anyway, little Mr. Green Snake seemed to know that Whitetail was out
hunting and managed to keep out of sight. Danny Meadow Mouse wasn't to
be found. Only a few foolish grasshoppers rewarded his patient search,
and these only served to make him feel hungrier than ever. But old
Whitetail has a great deal of persistence, and in spite of his bad luck,
he kept at his hunting, back and forth, back and forth, until he had
been all over the Green Meadows. At last he made up his mind that he was
wasting time there.
"I'll just have a look over at the Smiling Pool, and if there is nothing
there, I'll take a turn or two along the Big River," thought he and
straightway started for the Smiling Pool. Long before he reached it, his
keen eyes saw Longlegs the Blue Heron standing motionless on the edge of
it, and he knew by the looks of Longlegs that he was watching something
which he hoped to catch.
"If it's a fish," thought Whitetail, "it will do me no good, for I am no
fisherman. But if it's a Frog--well, Frogs are not as good eating as fat
Meadow Mice, but they are very filling."
With that he hurried a little faster, and then he saw what Longlegs was
watching so intently. It was, as you know, Grandfather Frog sitting on
his big green lily-pad. Old Whitetail gave a great sigh of satisfaction.
Grandfather Frog certainly would be very filling, very filling, indeed.
Now Longlegs the Blue Heron was so intently watching Grandfather Frog
that he saw nothing else, and Grandfather Frog was so busy watching
Longlegs that he quite forgot that there might be other dangers.
Besides, his back was toward old Whitetail. Of course Whitetail saw
this, and it made him almost chuckle aloud. Ever so many times he had
tried to catch Grandfather Frog, but always Grandfather Frog had seen
him long before he could get near him.
Now, with all his keen sight, old Whitetail had failed to see some one
else who was sitting right in plain sight. He had failed because his
mind was so full of Grandfather Frog and Longlegs that he forgot to look
around, as he usually does. Just skimming the tops of the bulrushes he
sailed swiftly out over the Smiling Pool and reached down with his
great, cruel claws to clutch Grandfather Frog, who sat there pretending
to be asleep, but all the time watching Longlegs and deep down inside
chuckling to think how he was fooling Longlegs.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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