i keep discovering graphics files of Sarah’s drawings. i have yet to run across the ones that go with this Willie Nod tale. So at the bottom of this one are some of her illustrations that i haven’t included before. i think all of her illustrations are are so good, i intend to include more like these, so all of our readers have access to her drawings. To repeat, all of the illustrations here are Copyright Sarah Jewell, 2017.

Willie Nod and the Cat and the Dog

Willie Nod walked through the expanse of a wide dawning morning
with a cat and a dog before
the heat of the day put a new slant on the beauty of it all.
The birds sing loudest in
the gray blue just before the sun rises.

Willie Nod heard the birds sing and the rooster crow;
He loved the morning.

The sun slowly rose above the trees on the horizon.
For a moment, the morning was golden
before turning blue and bright.
Willie Nod loved the sun.

The people in the houses were still asleep when
Willie Nod, the cat and dog walked by.
Willie Nod thought about the people:
They were all different.
They were all good although some had more bad than good,
doing their thing,
Some succeeding, some failing,
Always changing.

Willie Nod loved the people, their differences,
Their goodness, their trying, and their changing;
hoping in the dawn
their dreams were happy ones.

Willie Nod and the dog and cat
walked back to the small house.
The dog or cat would sometimes dash off
chasing a scent or a bug;
then, they would return to his side.

The dawn was gone
When Willie Nod and his friends
reached the house.
The fullness of morning predicted a beautiful day.

Willie Nod laughed:
He loved his friends, the birds, the people,
the dawn, the beautiful day, and
the dog and the cat.