He was thinking of this, as he sat up to look over the Green Meadows.
His heart gave a great throb. What was that over near the lone elm-tree?
It was--yes, it certainly was another Chuck! Could it be the old gray
Chuck come back for another fight? A great anger filled the heart of
Johnny Chuck, and he whistled sharply. The strange Chuck didn't answer.
Johnny ground his teeth and started for the lone elm-tree. He would show
this other Chuck who was master of the Green Meadows!
X. WHY JOHNNY CHUCK DIDN'T FIGHT
Anger is an awful thing;
It never stops to reason.
It boils right over all at once,
No matter what the season.
It was so with Johnny Chuck. The minute he caught sight of the strange
Chuck over by the lone elm-tree, anger filled his heart and fairly
boiled over, until he was in a terrible rage. Of course it was foolish,
very foolish indeed. The strange Chuck hadn't said or done anything to
make Johnny Chuck angry, not the least thing in the world, excepting to
come down on to the Green Meadows. Now the Green Meadows are very broad,
and there is room for many Chucks. It was pure selfishness on the part
of Johnny Chuck to want to drive away every other Chuck.
But anger never stops to reason. It didn't now. Johnny Chuck hurried as
fast as his short legs could take him towards the lone elm-tree, and in
his mind was just one thought--to drive that strange Chuck off the Green
Meadows and to punish him so that he never, never would dare even think
of coming back. So great was Johnny's anger that every hair stood on
end, and as he ran he chattered and scolded.
“I'll fix him! These are my Green Meadows, and no one else has any
business here unless I say so! I'll fix him! I'll fix him!”
Then Johnny would grind his teeth, and in his eyes was the ugliest look.
He wasn't nice to see, not a bit nice. The Merry Little Breezes of Old
Mother West Wind didn't know what to make of him. Could this be the
Johnny Chuck they had known so long, the good-natured, happy Johnny
Chuck whom everybody loved? They drew away from him, for they didn't
want anything to do with any one in such a frightful temper. But Johnny
Chuck didn't even notice, and if he had he wouldn't have cared. That
is the trouble with anger. It crowds out everything else, when it once
fills the heart.
When Johnny had first seen the stranger, he had thought right away that
it was the old gray Chuck with whom he had had such a terrible fight the
day before and whom he whipped. Perhaps that was one reason for Johnny
Chuck's terrible anger now, for the old gray Chuck had tried to drive
Johnny Chuck off the Green Meadows.
But when he had to stop for breath and sat up to look again, he saw that
it wasn't the old gray Chuck at all. It was a younger Chuck and much
smaller than the old gray Chuck. It was smaller than Johnny himself.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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