96 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



lous the whole thing was, so he made no answer 

 whatever, but just calmly and clumsily waddled off, 

 grinning to himself. 



"Well, that's funny. They won't even give me an 

 answer, but just laugh themselves sick and walk 

 off. I wonder what's so amusing about it anyway," 

 said Stripes to himself, all at once coming to the 

 realization that he had asked a most foolish ques- 

 tion. He also realized that he was terribly hungry, 

 so he ran over to the old fence and began tearing 

 at the roots of the new spring grasses. Then he 

 uncovered some May and ground beetles, as well as 

 some white grubs hidden in the grass, which made 

 a suitable breakfast. 



He ran down the fence to another field, to see 

 what was planted there, and found a fine crop of 

 spring wheat growing. Here he began digging at the 

 roots of the young and tender plants recently 

 sprouted, and found that the young wheat plants 

 were about the best things he had ever eaten. He 

 was so hungry that he gorged himself while he had 

 the chance, and destroyed nearly every plant for 

 quite a small area, but he satisfied his hunger, re- 

 gardless of what the consequences would be to 

 Farmer Johnson. 



While he was busy with the wheat kernels, he was 



