¹     Panther was hot and thirsty. He was looking for a path to the riverbank. Panther was ready for a cool, refreshing drink of water from the river. Panther took the path through the thick brush. He had to cross through a bushy thicket to get there. The thicket was covered with thorny thistles. It was so thick Panther could barely get through. He was almost there when he stepped on a thorn. The thorn went deep into his hind footpad.
 
²     "Ouch," growled Panther loudly. "That hurts!" Panther licked at the thorn, but he could not get it out. Panther limped on through the thicket towards the river. His head was throbbing. He had a thorn in his paw, and he was thirsty.
 
³     Then Panther heard something moving in the thicket. He crouched down and tried to limp quietly through the thistly underbrush. He was almost there when he was frightened by a hissing sound. When Panther looked up, he saw a big, yellow-spotted python in front of him. The python was coiled halfway around an old cypress tree stump at the edge of the thicket. Something about the python didn't look quite right. So, being a wise and cautious panther, he stayed a safe distance away from the python.
 
⁴     As Panther started moving away, Python rose up and cleared his throat. "Ahem," said Python. Then Python attempted to say something to Panther but it came out sounding like this:

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