BOXER IS SADDER BUT MUCH WISER
Experience is not a preacher,
But has no equal as a teacher.
_Mother Bear._
Sammy Jay happened along in the Green Forest just in time to see the
meeting between Boxer and Prickly Porky the Porcupine. He saw at once
that this was the first time Boxer had seen Prickly Porky, and that he
had no idea who this fellow in the path was.
“If that little Bear has any sense at all, he’ll be polite and get out
of Prickly Porky’s way,” muttered Sammy. “But I’m afraid he hasn’t
any sense. He looks to me all puffed up, as if he thinks he knows all
there is to know. He’ll find out he doesn’t in just about a minute if
he stays there. Hi, there! Don’t do that! Don’t hit him!”
This last was screamed at Boxer, who had stretched out a paw as if to
strike Prickly Porky as soon as he was near enough. But the warning
came too late. Prickly Porky had kept right on coming along that little
path, and just as Sammy Jay screamed, Boxer struck.
“Wow!” yelled Boxer, dancing about and holding up one paw, the paw with
which he had struck at Prickly Porky, and on his face was such a look
of amazement that Sammy Jay laughed so that he nearly tumbled from his
perch.
“Wow, Wow!” yelled Boxer, still dancing about and shaking that paw.
“Pull it out. Pull it out at once, before it gets in deeper,” commanded
Sammy Jay, when he could stop laughing long enough.
“Pull what out?” asked Boxer rather sullenly, for he didn’t like being
laughed at. No one does when in trouble.
“That little spear that is sticking in your paw,” replied Sammy. “If
you don’t, you’ll have a terribly sore paw.”
Boxer looked at his paw. Sure enough, there was one of Prickly Porky’s
little spears. He took hold of it with his teeth and started to pull.
Then he let go and shook his paw. “Wow! that hurts!” he cried, the
tears in his eyes.
“Of course it hurts,” replied Sammy Jay. “And if you don’t do as I
tell you and pull it out now, it will hurt a great deal more. That paw
will get so sore you can’t use it. It is a lucky thing for you, young
fellow, that you were in too much of a hurry and struck too soon. If
you had waited a second longer, you would have filled your paw with
those little spears. What were you thinking of, anyway? Don’t you know
that no one ever interferes with Prickly Porky? It never pays to. Even
Buster Bear, big as he is, is polite to Prickly Porky.”
Boxer sat down and looked at his paw carefully. That little spear, or
quill, was right in the tenderest part. It must be pulled out. Sammy
Jay was right about that. Boxer shut his teeth on that little spear and
jerked back his head quick and hard. Out came the little spear. Boxer
whimpered a little as he licked the place where the little spear had
been. After he had licked it a minute or two, that paw felt better.
Meanwhile Prickly Porky had paid no attention whatever to the little
Bear. He had slowly waddled on up the little path, quite as if no one
were about. He was attending strictly to his own business. But inside
he was chuckling.
“That scamp got off easy,” he muttered. “It would have been a good
thing for him if he had had a few more of those little spears to pull
out. I guess that in the future he will take care to leave me alone.
There is nothing like teaching the young to respect their elders.”