he Lone Little Path
after Striped Chipmunk, Peter Rabbit, Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk.

By and by they all came to the house of Johnny Chuck.

"Where are you going in such a hurry?" asked Johnny Chuck.

"To find the Best Thing in the World," shouted Striped Chipmunk and
Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Jimmy Skunk and Reddy Fox.

"The Best Thing in the World," said Johnny Chuck. "Why I don't know of
anything better than my own little home and the warm sunshine and the
beautiful blue sky."

So Johnny Chuck stayed at home and played all day among the flowers with
the Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind and was as happy as
could be.

But all day long Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and
Jimmy Skunk and Reddy Fox ran this way and ran that way over the Green
Meadows trying to find the Best Thing in the World. The sun was very,
very warm and they ran so far and they ran so fast that they were very,
very hot and tired, and still they hadn't found the Best Thing in the
World.

When the long day was over they started up the Lone Little Path past
Johnny Chuck's house to their own homes. They didn't hurry now for they
were so very, very tired! And they were cross--oh so cross! Striped
Chipmunk hadn't found a single nut. Peter Rabbit hadn't found so much as
the leaf of a cabbage. Bobby Coon hadn't found the tiniest bit of sweet
milky corn. Jimmy Skunk hadn't seen a single beetle. Reddy Fox hadn't
heard so much as the peep of a chicken. And all were as hungry as hungry
could be.

Half way up the Lone Little Path they met Old Mother West Wind going to
her home behind the hill. "Did you find the Best Thing in the World?"
asked Old Mother West Wind.

"No!" shouted Striped Chipmunk and Peter Rabbit and Bobby Coon and Jimmy
Skunk and Reddy Fox all together.

"Johnny Chuck has it," said Old Mother West Wind. "It is being happy
with the things you have and not wanting things which some one else has.
And it is called Con-tent-ment."

388

Albert Bigelow Paine (1861--), an American
author at one time connected with the editorial
department of _St. Nicholas Magazine_, has for
more than twenty years been known as the
biographer of Mark Twain. He is a popular
writer of stories for children. Pupils in the
fifth grade like his story _The Arkansaw Bear_.
Some of his books suitable for the third and
fourth grades are _Hollow-Tree Nig