Sammy Jay chuckled wickedly as he flew. When he reached the Green
Forest and stopped in his favorite hemlock-tree to rest, he was still
chuckling. But by that time it was a different kind of a chuckle. Yes,
Sir, it was a different kind of a chuckle. It was a better chuckle to
hear. The fact is, Sammy Jay was no longer chuckling over the thought
of the trouble he could make. He was laughing at the memory of how funny
those three little baby Chucks had looked sitting up on Johnny Chuck's
doorstep and trying to do whatever Johnny Chuck did. The more he thought
about it, the more he tickled and laughed.
Right in the midst of his laughter along came Redtail the Hawk. Sammy
Jay opened his mouth to call to Redtail and tell him about Johnny
Chuck's secret. Then he closed it again with a snap.
“I won't tell him yet,” said Sammy to himself, “for he might catch one
of those baby Chucks, and they are such funny little fellows that that
would really be too bad. I guess I'll wait a while.” And with that, off
flew Sammy Jay to hunt for some other mischief. You see, he had had a
change of heart. The little goodness way down deep inside had come out
of hiding.
But of course Johnny Chuck didn't know this, and over in his new house
in the far corner of the old orchard, he and Polly Chuck were worrying
and worrying, for they felt sure that now every one would know their
secret, and it wouldn't be safe for the dear little baby Chucks to so
much as put their funny little noses outside the door.
XXII. JOHNNY CHUCK IS KEPT BUSY
Johnny Chuck is naturally lazy. You see, Johnny has very simple tastes
and usually he is contented. He does not have to go far from his own
doorstep to get all he wants to eat. He does not have to hunt for his
food, as so many of the little meadow and forest people do, and so he
has a great deal of time to sit on his doorstep and watch the world go
by and dream pleasant daydreams and grow fat. Now people who do not have
to work usually become lazy. It is the easiest habit in the world to
learn and the hardest to get over. And so, because he seldom has to
work, Johnny Chuck quite naturally is lazy.
But Johnny can work when there really is need of it. No one, unless
it is Digger the Badger or Miner the Mole, can dig faster than Johnny
Chuck. And when there is real need of working, Johnny works with a will.
When he was a very tiny Chuck, old Mother Chuck had taught him this:
“When work there is that must be done
Don't fret and whine and spoil the day!
The quicker that you do your work
The longer time you'll have to play.”
Johnny never has forgotten this, and when it is really necessary that he
should work, no one works harder than he does. But he always first makes
sure that it is necessary work and that he will not be wasting his time
in doing foolish, unnecessary things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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