Ground Hog Saw His Shadow; 6 More Weeks of Winter, Feb. 2, 1921

Mrs. Ground Hog heard the alarm clock go off.

Turning over, she dug a sharp elbow into Mr. Ground Hog’s ribs and commanded:

“Get up and make the fire.”

Mr. Ground Hog, his eyes heavy with enforced sleep, turned over and rubbed his optics, his good wife in the meantime having decided on a short nap to give him time to start a blaze in the kitchen stove and to build a fire in the grate so that the children after their long hibernation might be warm and comfortable before they ventured out at noon today.

Knowing her husband fairly well, Mrs. Ground Hog waited a few minutes and again planted her elbow in his ribs, this time a little harder. Realizing that three strikes will put a fellow out, Mr. Ground Hog hopped out of bed, peeped out at the snow which lay on the ground, and built the fires. Mrs. Ground Hog had dressed before he had the two fires going and she was busily engaged preparing breakfast a few minutes later.

“There’s no sense in getting up early on a morning like this, and, besides, the sun will be shining at noon,” complained the male of the species.

“That’s what you’ve been saying for these 20 years,” replied his spouse, her sharp glance cutting off three whiskers and causing him to show the better part of valor.

“Now, don’t tell me that you expect to loaf around this house for six more weeks,” his energetic helpmeet continued after she had shot him with another glance that froze him to the arm chair. “You are all the time saying that you can never do anything about the yard and the house because of the cold, and I’m determined that you shall get to work early and help this county along the road to prosperity. It is idleness that causes a whole lot of trouble. Let’s build a new house, or at least have some repairs made on this.”

Mr. Ground Hog did not reply, but he busied himself about the house and at noon he and his good wife and the children bolted out the door.

They were blinded by a bright sun.

Mr. Ground Hog was the first to re-enter the house.

He went straight to the alarm clock, wound it again, and saw to it that the alarm was placed on “silent.”

Mr. Ground Hog then went back to bed, hoping that he would not be disturbed for six weeks.

From the Hickory Daily Record, February 2, 1921