Shadow The Weasel Makes A Mistake

By Thornton W. Burgess

Shadow the Weasel was true to his name. He stole through the Green Forest so swiftly and so quietly that he hardly seemed more real than a shadow. All the little meadow people and forest folk who saw him fled as fast as they could go for they were afraid. Shadow the Weasel is a bold, bad robber, very bad indeed, and no one loves him. But Shadow doesn't care. No, Sir, Shadow doesn't care. He doesn't want to be loved. So he stole through the Green Forest and not so much as a single leaf rustled. From tree to tree and log to log he stole, peeping from behind each in the hope that he might find someone on the other side. Than Sammy Jay saw him.

Now because Sammy Jay can fly he has no fear of Shadow the Weasel, but he has no love for Shadow. So at once he began to fly along just over Shadow and scream at the top of his lungs, "Thief! thief! thief!" Shadow looked up and snarled at Sammy Jay. "Keep still, can't you?" he asked fiercely. Sammy Jay kept right on calling louder than ever.

Sammy Jay is a thief himself and everybody knows it. Perhaps that is the reason that he delights in calling someone else a thief. Anyway he kept it up until Shadow hid in a hollow log. Sammy Jay hung around until he grew tired. Then he flew off and once more Shadow came out to hunt for something to eat. Of course it was of no use to hunt around there after Sammy Jay's warning to all the little forest folk, so he hurried over to the Laughing Brook.

Pretty soon he smelled something that made his mouth water. He sniffed and sniffed again. It was fish. "All I've got to do is to follow my nose," said Shadow to himself, and smiled as he thought of the feast he would have. "Must be that someone has had more fish than they wanted and has left some. How fortunate for me!" thought Shadow, as he followed his nose.

Pretty soon his nose brought him to somebody's storehouse. Shadow's hopes fell. He didn't need to be told whose storehouse it was. He knew. It was the storehouse of his cousin, Billy Mink.

For just a minute Shadow hesitated. He looked this way and looked that way. No one was in sight. Shadow began to dig. How he made the leaves and dirt fly! In a few minutes he had uncovered three nice trout which Billy Mink had put there that morning. Shadow pulled one out. Before he began to eat he once more looked all around. No none was in sight. Of course he could run away with this one but then he would have to leave the others. No he would eat this first and take away one of the others.

My, how good that trout did taste! Shadow forgot all about everything else. He just stuffed himself greedily. And then he heard a noise just behind him. He whirled like a flash and there was his big cousin, Billy Mink, and the look on Billy's face wasn't pleasant to see.

"What are you doing with my fish?" demanded Billy Mink.

"Are they your fish? I didn't know it. I found them here and thought someone had dropped them," said Shadow the Weasel.

"Well, you made a mistake," said Billy Mink grimly. And then things happened that made the leaves and the dirt and the fur fly. In a few minutes Shadow limped off as fast as he could.

"I made a mistake," he sobbed.