ile to discover that these two-legged
creatures were so busy that he had nothing to fear from them, and so he
crept out to watch. He saw them draw the golden syrup from one end of
the evaporator and fill shining tin cans with it. Day after day they did
the same thing. At night when they had left and all was quiet inside the
sugar-house, Whitefoot stole out and found delicious crumbs where they
had eaten their lunch. He tasted that thick golden stuff and found it
sweet and good. Later he watched them make sugar and nearly made himself
sick that night when they had gone home, for they had left some of that
sugar where he could get at it. He didn't understand these queer doings
at all. But he was no longer afraid.
CHAPTER III: Farmer Brown's Boy Becomes Acquainted
It didn't take Farmer Brown's boy long to discover that Whitefoot the
Wood Mouse was living in the little sugar-house. He caught glimpses of
Whitefoot peeping out at him. Now Farmer Brown's boy is wise in the ways
of the little people of the Green Forest. Right away he made up his
mind to get acquainted with Whitefoot. He knew that not in all the
Green Forest is there a more timid little fellow than Whitefoot, and
he thought it would be a fine thing to be able to win the confidence of
such a shy little chap.
So at first Farmer Brown's boy paid no attention whatever to Whitefoot.
He took care that Whitefoot shouldn't even know that he had been seen.
Every day when he ate his lunch, Farmer Brown's boy scattered a lot
of crumbs close to the pile of wood under which Whitefoot had made his
home. Then he and Farmer Brown would go out to collect sap. When they
returned not a crumb would be left.
One day Farmer Brown's boy scattered some particularly delicious crumbs.
Then, instead of going out, he sat down on a bench and kept perfectly
still. Farmer Brown and Bowser the Hound went out. Of course Whitefoot
heard them go out, and right away he poked his little head out from
under the pile of wood to see if the way was clear. Farmer Brown's boy
sat there right in plain sight, but Whitefoot didn't see him. That was
because Farmer Brown's boy didn't move the least bit. Whitefoot ran out
and at once began to eat those delicious crumbs. When he had filled his
little stomach, he began to carry the remainder back to his storehouse
underneath the woodpile. While he was gone on one of these trips, Farmer
Brown's boy scattered more crumbs in a line that led right up to h
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