"Now Mr. Skunk was very smart and shrewd, oh, very! When the hard
times came, which made so many changes in the lives of the people who
lived in the Green Forest and on the Green Meadows, Mr. Skunk was very
quick to see that unless he could think of some way to protect
himself, it was only a matter of time when he would furnish a dinner
for one of his fierce big neighbors, and of course Mr. Skunk had no
desire to do that. It was then that he asked Old Mother Nature to give
him a bag of perfume so strong that it would make everybody ill but
himself. Mother Nature thought it all over, and then she did, but she
made him promise that he would never use it unless he was in great
danger.
"Mr. Skunk had to try his new defence only once or twice before his
enemies took the greatest care to let him alone. He found that he no
longer had to run for a safe hiding-place when he met Mr. Wolf or Mr.
Lynx or Mr. Panther. They just snarled at him and passed without
offering to touch him. So Mr. Skunk grew very independent and went
where he pleased when he pleased. And, because he no longer had to run
from his enemies, he got out of the habit of running. Then he made a
discovery. He watched those of his neighbors who were forever hurrying
about looking for food, hurrying because all the time there was great
fear upon them that an enemy might be near, hurrying because each was
fearful that his neighbor would get more than he. It wasn't long
before Mr.
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