OLD MAN COYOTE PLAYS A TRICK
Of people who play tricks beware,
Lest they may get you in a snare.
You cannot trust them, so watch out
Whenever one may be about.
_Bowser the Hound._
There is such a thing as being too much interested in the thing you are
doing. That is the way accidents very often happen. A person will get so
interested in something that he will be blind and deaf to everything
else, and so will walk straight into danger or trouble of some kind.
Now just take the case of Bowser the Hound. Bowser was so interested in
the chase of Old Man Coyote that he paid no attention whatever to
anything but the warm scent of Old Man Coyote which the latter was
taking pains to leave. Bowser ran with his nose in Old Man Coyote's
tracks and never looked either to left or right. He would lift his head
only to look straight ahead in the hope of seeing Old Man Coyote. Then
down would go his nose again to follow that scent.
So Bowser didn't notice that Old Man Coyote was leading him far, far
away from home into country with which he was quite unacquainted. Bowser
has a great, deep, wonderful voice which can be heard a very long
distance when he bays on the tracks of some one he is hunting. It can
be heard a very long distance indeed. But far as it can be heard, Bowser
was far, far beyond hearing distance from Farmer Brown's house before
Old Man Coyote began to even think of playing one of his clever tricks
in order to make Bowser lose his scent. You see, Old Man Coyote intended
to lead Bowser into strange country and there lose him, hoping that he
would not be able to find the way home.
Old Man Coyote is himself a tireless runner. He is not so heavy as is
Bowser, so does not tire as easily. Then, too, he had not wasted his
breath as had Bowser with his steady baying. Old Man Coyote could tell
by the sound of Bowser's voice when the latter was beginning to grow
tired, and he could tell by the fact that he often had a moment or two
to sit down and rest before Bowser got dangerously near.
So at last Old Man Coyote decided that the time had come to play a
trick. By and by he came to a river. At that point there was a high,
overhanging bank. On the very edge of this bank Old Man Coyote made a
long leap to one side. Then he made another long leap to the big trunk
of a fallen tree. He ran along this and from the end of it made still
another long leap, as long a leap as he could. Then he hid in a little
thicket to see what would happen.