Late
again," the third-grade teacher said to little Johnny.
"It
ain't my fault," Miss Crabtree. "You can blame this on my Daddy. The
reason I'm three hours late is Daddy sleeps naked!"
Now
Miss Crabtree had taught grammar school for thirty-some-odd years. So
she asked little Johnny
what he meant by that, despite her mounting fears. Full of grins and
mischief, and in the flower of his youth, little Johnny and trouble were
old friends, but he always told the truth.
"You
see, Miss Crabtree, at the ranch we got this here lowdown coyote. The
last few nights he done et six hens and killed Ma's best milk goat. And
last night, when Daddy heard a noise out in the chicken pen, he grabbed
his gun and said to Ma, "That coyote's back again, I'm a gonna git
him!'"
'Stay
back, he yelled to all us kids!"
He was
naked as a jaybird, no boots, no pants, no shirt!
To the
hen house he crawled, just like an Injun on the snoop. Then he stuck
that double barrel through the window of the coop. As he stared into the
darkness, with coyotes on his mind, our old hound dog Zeke had done woke
up and come sneakin' up behind Daddy. Then we all looked on plumb
helpless, as old Zeke stuck that cold nose in Daddy's crack!
"Miss Crabtree, we been cleanin' chickens since three o'clock this
mornin'!"
