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+Project Gutenberg's Among the Forest People, by Clara Dillingham Pierson
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Among the Forest People
+
+Author: Clara Dillingham Pierson
+
+Illustrator: F. C. Gordon
+
+Release Date: January 15, 2011 [EBook #34971]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMONG THE FOREST PEOPLE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Heather Clark and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+        [Illustration: THE HOME IN THE FOREST.
+                                                 _Frontispiece_]
+
+
+
+
+                        AMONG THE FOREST PEOPLE
+
+                                   BY
+                        CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON
+
+                  AUTHOR OF "AMONG THE MEADOW PEOPLE"
+
+                      Illustrated by F. C. GORDON
+
+                             [Illustration]
+
+                                NEW YORK
+                         E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY
+                      31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET
+                                  1900
+
+
+
+                            COPYRIGHT, 1898
+                                   BY
+                           E. P. DUTTON & CO.
+
+                   The Knickerbocker Press, New York
+
+
+
+
+TO THE CHILDREN.
+
+
+_Dear Little Friends_:
+
+Since I told my stories of the meadow people a year ago, so many
+children have been asking me questions about them that I thought it
+might be well to send you a letter with these tales of the forest folk.
+
+I have been asked if I am acquainted with the little creatures about
+whom I tell you, and I want you to know that I am very well acquainted
+indeed. Perhaps the Ground Hog is my oldest friend among the forest
+people, just as the Tree Frog is among those of the meadow. Some of the
+things about which I shall tell you, I have seen for myself, and the
+other stories have come to me in another way. I was there when the
+swaggering Crow drove the Hens off the barnyard fence, and I was quite
+as much worried about the Mourning Doves' nest as were Mrs. Goldfinch
+and Mrs. Oriole.
+
+I have had a letter from one little boy who wants to know if the meadow
+people really talk to each other. Of course they do. And so do all the
+people in these stories. They do not talk in the same way as you and I,
+but they have their own language, which they understand just as well as
+we do English. You know not even all children speak alike. If you and I
+were to meet early some sunshiny day, we would say to each other, "Good
+morning," but if a little German boy should join us, he would say,
+"Guten Morgen," and a tiny French maiden would call out, "Bon jour,"
+when she meant the same thing.
+
+These stories had to be written in the English language, so that you
+could understand. If I were to tell them in the Woodpecker, the Rabbit,
+or the Rattlesnake language, all of which are understood in the forest,
+they might be very fine stories, but I am afraid you would not know
+exactly what they meant!
+
+I hope you will enjoy hearing about my forest friends. They are
+delightful people to know, and you must get acquainted with them as soon
+as you can. I should like to have you in little chairs just opposite my
+own and talk of these things quite as we used to do in my kindergarten.
+But that cannot be, so I have written you this letter, and think that
+perhaps some of you will write to me, telling which story you like best,
+and why you like it.
+
+                              Your friend,
+                                           CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON.
+
+  Stanton, Michigan,
+    April 15, 1898.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+                                                                PAGE
+  MR. RED SQUIRREL COMES TO LIVE IN THE FOREST                    13
+  WHY MR. GREAT HORNED OWL HATCHED THE EGGS                       21
+  THE SWAGGERING CROW                                             31
+  THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER CHILDREN                              39
+  THE NIGHT MOTH WITH A CROOKED FEELER                            52
+  THE BEES AND THE KINGBIRD                                       62
+  THE STORY OF THE COWBIRD'S EGG                                  73
+  MRS. MOURNING DOVE'S HOUSEKEEPING                               83
+  THE YOUNG BLUE JAY WHO WAS NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO BE AFRAID        91
+  THE RED SQUIRRELS BEGIN HOUSEKEEPING                           100
+  THE BIGGEST LITTLE RABBIT LEARNS TO SEE                        113
+  THE LITTLE BAT WHO WOULDN'T GO TO BED                          123
+  A SWARM LEAVES THE BEE TREE                                    133
+  THE HAUGHTY GROUND HOG                                         144
+  THE UNDECIDED RATTLESNAKE                                      153
+  THE QUARRELSOME MOLE                                           163
+  THE WILD TURKEYS COME                                          175
+  THE TRAVELLERS GO SOUTH                                        186
+  THE RUFFED GROUSE'S STORY                                      198
+  A MILD DAY IN WINTER                                           208
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MR. RED SQUIRREL COMES TO LIVE IN THE FOREST
+
+
+Life in the forest is very different from life in the meadow, and the
+forest people have many ways of doing which are not known in the world
+outside. They are a quiet people and do not often talk or sing when
+there are strangers near. You could never get acquainted with them until
+you had learned to be quiet also, and to walk through the underbrush
+without snapping twigs at every step. Then, if you were to live among
+them and speak their language, you would find that there are many things
+about which it is not polite to talk. And there is a reason for all
+this.
+
+In the meadow, although they have their quarrels and their own troubles,
+they always make it up again and are friendly, but in the forest there
+are some people who can never get along well together, and who do not go
+to the same parties or call upon each other. It is not because they are
+cross, or selfish, or bad. It is just because of the way in which they
+have to live and hunt, and they cannot help it any more than you could
+help having eyes of a certain color.
+
+These are things which are all understood in the forest, and the people
+there are careful what they say and do, so they get on very well indeed,
+and have many happy times in that quiet, dusky place. When people are
+born there, they learn these things without thinking about it, but when
+they come there from some other place it is very hard, for everybody
+thinks it stupid in strangers to ask about such simple matters.
+
+When Mr. Red Squirrel first came to the forest, he knew nothing of the
+way in which they do, and he afterward said that learning forest manners
+was even harder than running away from his old home. You see, Mr. Red
+Squirrel was born in the forest, but was carried away from there when he
+was only a baby. From that time until he was grown, he had never set
+claw upon a tree, and all he could see of the world he had seen by
+peeping through the bars of a cage. His cousins in the forest learned to
+frisk along the fence-tops and to jump from one swaying branch to
+another, but when this poor little fellow longed for a scamper he could
+only run around and around in a wire wheel that hummed as it turned, and
+this made him very dizzy.
+
+He used to wonder if there were nothing better in life, for he had been
+taken from his woodland home when he was too young to remember about it.
+One day he saw another Squirrel outside, a dainty little one who looked
+as though she had never a sad thought. That made him care more than ever
+to be free, and when he curled down in his cotton nest that night he
+dreamed about her, and that they were eating acorns together in a tall
+oak tree.
+
+The next day Mr. Red Squirrel pretended to be sick. He would not run in
+the wheel or taste the food in his cage. When his master came to look at
+him, he moaned pitifully and would not move one leg. His master thought
+that the leg was broken, and took limp little Mr. Red Squirrel in his
+hand to the window to see what was the matter. The window was up, and
+when he saw his chance, Mr. Red Squirrel leaped into the open air and
+was away to the forest. His poor legs were weak from living in such a
+small cage, but how he ran! His heart thumped wildly under the soft fur
+of his chest, and his breath came in quick gasps, and still he ran,
+leaping, scrambling, and sometimes falling, but always nearer the great
+green trees of his birthplace.
+
+At last he was safe and sat trembling on the lowest branch of a
+beech-tree. The forest was a new world to him and he asked many
+questions of a fat, old Gray Squirrel. The Gray Squirrel was one of
+those people who know a great deal and think that they know a great,
+great deal, and want others to think so too. He was so very knowing and
+important that, although he answered all of Mr. Red Squirrel's
+questions, he really did not tell him any of the things which he most
+wanted to know, and this is the way in which they talked:
+
+"What is the name of this place?" asked Mr. Red Squirrel.
+
+"This? Why this is the forest, of course," answered the Gray Squirrel.
+"We have no other name for it. It is possible that there are other
+forests in the world, but they cannot be so fine as this, so we call
+ours 'the forest.'"
+
+"Are there pleasant neighbors here?" asked Mr. Red Squirrel.
+
+"Very good, very good. My wife and I do not call on many of them, but
+still they are good enough people, I think."
+
+"Then why don't you call?"
+
+"Why? Why? Because they are not in our set. It would never do." And the
+Gray Squirrel sat up very straight indeed.
+
+"Who is that gliding fellow on the ground below?" asked the newcomer.
+"Is he one of your friends?"
+
+"That? That is the Rattlesnake. We never speak to each other. There has
+always been trouble between our families."
+
+"Who lives in that hollow tree yonder?"
+
+"Sh, sh! That is where the Great Horned Owl has his home. He is asleep
+now and must not be awakened, for Squirrels and Owls cannot be
+friendly."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"Because. It has always been so."
+
+"And who is that bird just laying an egg in her nest above us?"
+
+"Speak softly, please. That is the Cowbird, and it is not her nest. You
+will get into trouble if you talk such things aloud. She can't help it.
+She has to lay her eggs in other birds' nests, but they don't like it."
+
+Mr. Red Squirrel tried very hard to find out the reason for this, but
+there are always some things for which no reason can be given; and there
+are many questions which can never be answered, even if one were to
+ask, "Why? why? why?" all day long. So Mr. Red Squirrel, being a wise
+little fellow, stopped asking, and thought by using his eyes and ears he
+would in time learn all that he needed to know. He had good eyes and
+keen ears, and he learned very fast without making many mistakes. He had
+a very happy life among the forest people, and perhaps that was one
+reason. He learned not to say things which made his friends feel badly,
+and he did not ask needless questions. And after all, you know, it would
+have been very foolish to ask questions which nobody could answer, and
+worse than foolish to ask about matters which he could find out for
+himself.
+
+It is in the forest as in the world outside. We can know that many
+things are, but we never know why they are.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+WHY MR GREAT HORNED OWL HATCHED THE EGGS
+
+
+If the Rattlesnake is the king of the forest in the daytime, the Great
+Horned Owl is the king at night. Indeed, he is much the more powerful of
+the two, for he is king of air and earth alike and can go wherever he
+wishes, while the snake can only rule over those who live near the
+ground or who are so careless as to come to him there.
+
+There was but one pair of Great Horned Owls in the forest, and they
+lived in the deepest shade, having their great clumsy nest in the hollow
+of a tall tree. You might have walked past it a hundred times and never
+have guessed that any Owls lived there, if you did not notice the round
+pellets of bone and hair on the grass. They are such hungry fellows that
+they swallow their food with the bones in it. Then their tough little
+stomachs go to work, rolling all the pieces of bone and hair into balls
+and sending them back to be cast out of the Owls' mouths to the ground.
+
+The Great Horned Owl was a very large bird. His whole body was covered
+with brown, dull yellow, and white feathers. Even his feet and legs were
+covered, and all that you could see besides were his black claws and his
+black hooked bill. Yes, at night you could see his eyes, too, and they
+were wonderful great eyes that could see in the dark, but they were
+shut in the daytime when he was resting. His wife, who was the queen of
+the forest at night, looked exactly like him, only she was larger than
+he. And that is the way among Owls,--the wife is always larger than her
+husband.
+
+Every night when the sun had gone down, the Great Horned Owl and his
+wife would come out of their hollow tree and sit blinking on a branch
+near by, waiting until it got dark enough for them to see quite plainly.
+As the light faded, the little black spots in their eyes would grow
+bigger and bigger, and then off they would go on their great soft,
+noiseless wings, hunting in the grass and among the branches for the
+supper which they called breakfast.
+
+Mrs. Owl could not be gone very long at a time, for there were two large
+round white eggs in the nest which must not get cold. Her husband was on
+the wing most of the night, and he often flew home with some tender
+morsel for her. He was really a kind-hearted fellow, although you could
+never have made the small birds think so. Sometimes his wife would sigh
+and tell how tired she was of sitting still, and how glad she would be
+when the eggs were hatched and she could go more with him. When she
+began to speak of that, the Great Horned Owl would get ready for another
+flight and go off saying: "It is _too_ bad. I am _so_ sorry for you. But
+then, one would never have young Owlets if one didn't stick to the
+nest." He was always proud of his children, and he thought himself a
+very good husband. Perhaps he was; still he had never taken his place on
+the nest while his wife went hunting.
+
+One night, after they had both been flying through forest and over
+field, he came back to the hollow tree to rest. He expected to find Mrs.
+Owl, for she had started home before he did. She was not there and he
+grew quite impatient. "I should like to know what keeps her so long," he
+said, fretfully. After a while he looked into the nest and saw the two
+big white eggs. "It is a shame," he said. "Our beautiful eggs will be
+chilled, and it will be all her fault if we have no Owlets this summer."
+
+You see, even then he did not seem to think that he could do anything to
+keep them warm. But the next time he looked in, he put one feathered
+foot on the round eggs and was surprised to find how cool they were.
+
+It fairly made his head feathers stand on end to think of it, and he was
+so frightened that he forgot to be cross, and stepped right in and
+covered them with his own breast. What if they had already been left too
+long, and the Owlets within would never hatch? Would Mrs. Owl ever
+forgive him for being so stupid? He began to wonder if any of the other
+fellows would see him. He thought it so absurd for the king of the
+forest to be hatching out a couple of eggs, instead of swooping around
+in the dark and frightening the smaller birds.
+
+The night seemed so long, too. It had always been short enough before,
+and he had often disliked to have daylight come, for then he had to go
+to bed. He was very much upset, and it is no wonder that when he heard a
+doleful wail from a neighboring tree, and knew that his cousin, the
+Screech Owl, was near, he raised his head and called loudly,
+"Hoo-hoo-oooo! Waugh-hoo!"
+
+The Screech Owl heard him and flew at once to a branch beside the nest
+hollow. He was a jolly little fellow in spite of his doleful call, and
+before he could talk at all he had to bend his body, look behind him,
+nod his head, and shake himself, as Screech Owls always do when they
+alight. Then he looked into the tree and saw his big cousin, the Great
+Horned Owl, the night king of the forest, sitting on the eggs and
+looking very, very grumpy. How he did laugh! "What is the matter?" said
+he. "Didn't you like your wife's way of brooding over the eggs? Or did
+she get tired of staying at home and make you help tend the nest?"
+
+"Matter enough," grumbled the Great Horned Owl. "We went hunting
+together at twilight and she hasn't come home yet. I didn't get into the
+nest until I had to, but it was growing very cold and I wouldn't miss
+having our eggs hatch for anything. Ugh-whoo! How my legs do ache!"
+
+"Well," said his cousin, "you are having a hard time. Are you hungry?"
+
+The Great Horned Owl said that he was, so the Screech Owl went hunting
+and brought him food. "I will look in every night," he said, "and bring
+you a lunch. I'm afraid something has happened to your wife and that
+she will not be back."
+
+As he flew away he called out, "It is _too_ bad. I am _very_ sorry for
+you. But then, I suppose you would never have the Owlets if you didn't
+stick to the nest."
+
+This last remark made the Great Horned Owl quite angry. "Much he knows
+about it," he said. "I guess if he had ever tried it he would be a
+little more sorry for me." And then he began to think, "Who have I heard
+say those very words before? Who? Who? Who?"
+
+All at once the Great Horned Owl remembered how many times he had said
+just that to his patient wife, and he began to feel very uncomfortable.
+His ears tingled and he felt a queer hot feeling under his face
+feathers. Perhaps he hadn't been acting very well after all! He knew
+that even when he told her he was sorry, he had been thinking she made
+a great fuss. Well, if she would only come back now, that should all be
+changed, and he shifted his weight and wriggled around into a more
+comfortable position.
+
+Now, if this were just a story, one could say that Mrs. Owl came back
+and that they were all happy together; but the truth is she never did
+come, and nobody ever knew what became of her. So her husband, the night
+king of the forest, had to keep the eggs warm and rear his own Owlets.
+You can imagine how glad he was on the night when he first heard them
+tapping on the inside of their shells, for then he knew that he would
+soon be free to hunt.
+
+A finer pair of children were never hatched, and their father thought
+them far ahead of all his other broods. "If only Mrs. Owl were here to
+see them, how lovely it would be!" he said. Yet if she had been there
+he would never have had the pleasure of hearing their first faint
+cheeps, and of covering them with his soft breast feathers as he did
+each day. He forgot now all the weary time when he sat with aching legs,
+wishing that his cousin would happen along with something to eat. For
+that is always the way,--when we work for those we love, the weariness
+is soon forgotten and only happiness remains.
+
+It is said that the Screech Owl was more thoughtful of his wife after
+his cousin had to hatch the eggs, and it is too bad that some of the
+other forest people could not have learned the same lesson; but the
+Great Horned Owl never told, and the Screech Owl kept his secret, and to
+this day there are many people in the forest who know nothing whatever
+about it.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE SWAGGERING CROW
+
+
+When the Crows who have been away for the winter return to the forest,
+all their relatives gather on the tree-tops to welcome them and tell the
+news. Those who have been away have also much to say, and it sometimes
+seems as though they were all talking at once. They spend many days in
+visiting before they begin nest-building. Perhaps if they would take
+turns and not interrupt each other, they would get the news more
+quickly, for when people are interrupted they can never talk well.
+Sometimes, too, one hungry fellow will fly off for a few mouthfuls of
+grain, and get back just in time to hear the end of a story. Then he
+will want to hear the first part of it, and make such a fuss that they
+have to tell it all over again just for him.
+
+At this time in the spring, you can hear their chatter and laughter,
+even when you are far away; and the song-birds of the forest look at
+each other and say, "Dear me! The Crows are back." They have very good
+reasons for disliking the Crows, as any Robin will tell you.
+
+There was one great shining black Crow who had the loudest voice of all,
+and who was not at all afraid to use it. This spring he looked very lean
+and lank, for it had been a long, cold winter, and he had found but
+little to eat, acorns, the seeds of the wild plants, and once in a
+great while a frozen apple that hung from its branch in some lonely
+orchard.
+
+He said that he felt as though he could reach around his body with one
+claw, and when a Crow says that he feels exceedingly thin. But now
+spring was here, and his sisters and his cousins and his aunts, yes, and
+his brothers and his uncles, too, had returned to the forest to live. He
+had found two good dinners already, all that he could eat and more too,
+and he began to feel happy and bold. The purple gloss on his feathers
+grew brighter every day, and he was glad to see this. He wanted to look
+so handsome that a certain Miss Crow, a sister of one of his friends,
+would like him better than she did any of the others.
+
+That was all very well, if he had been at all polite about it. But one
+day he saw her visiting with another Crow, and he lost his temper, and
+flew at him, and pecked him about the head and shoulders, and tore the
+long fourth feather from one of his wings, besides rumpling the rest of
+his coat. Then he went away. He had beaten him by coming upon him from
+behind, like the sneak that he was, and he was afraid that if he waited
+he might yet get the drubbing he deserved. So he flew off to the top of
+a hemlock-tree where the other Crows were, and told them how he had
+fought and beaten. You should have seen him swagger around when he told
+it. Each time it was a bigger story, until at last he made them think
+that the other Crow hadn't a tail feather left.
+
+The next day, a number of Crows went to a farm not far from the forest.
+Miss Crow was in the party. On their way they stopped in a field where
+there stood a figure of a man with a dreadful stick in his hand.
+Everybody was frightened except Mr. Crow. He wanted to show how much
+courage he had, so he flew right up to it. They all thought him very
+brave. They didn't know that down in his heart he was a great coward. He
+wasn't afraid of this figure because he knew all about it. He had seen
+it put up the day before, and he knew that there was no man under the
+big straw hat and the flapping coat. He knew that, instead of a
+thinking, breathing person, there was only a stick nailed to a pole. He
+knew that, instead of having two good legs with which to run, this
+figure had only the end of a pole stuck into the ground.
+
+Of course, he might have told them all, and then they could have
+gathered corn from the broken ground around, but he didn't want to do
+that. Instead, he said, "Do you see that terrible great creature with a
+stick in his hand? He is here just to drive us away, but he dares not
+touch me. He knows I would beat him if he did." Then he flew down, and
+ate corn close beside the figure, while the other Crows stood back and
+cawed with wonder.
+
+When he went back to them, he said to Miss Crow, "You see how brave I
+am. If I were taking care of anybody, nothing could ever harm her." And
+he looked tenderly at her with his little round eyes. But she pretended
+not to understand what he meant, for she did not wish to give up her
+pleasant life with the flock and begin nest-building just yet.
+
+When they reached the barn-yard, there was rich picking, and Mr. Crow
+made such a clatter that you would have thought he owned it all and that
+the others were only his guests. He flew down on the fence beside a
+couple of harmless Hens, and he flapped his wings and swaggered around
+until they began to sidle away. Then he grew bolder (you know bullies
+always do if they find that people are scared), and edged up to them
+until they fluttered off, squawking with alarm.
+
+Next he walked into the Hen-house, saying to the other Crows, "You might
+have a good time, too, if you were not such cowards." He had no more
+than gotten the words out of his bill, when the door of the Hen-house
+blew shut and caught there. It was a grated door and he scrambled wildly
+to get through the openings. While he was trying, he heard the hoarse
+voice of the Crow whom he had beaten the day before, saying, "Thank you,
+we are having a fairly good time as it is"; and he saw Miss Crow picking
+daintily at some corn which the speaker had scratched up for her.
+
+At that minute the great Black Brahma Cock came up behind Mr. Crow. He
+had heard from the Hens how rude Mr. Crow had been, and he thought that
+as the head of the house he ought to see about it. Well! one cannot say
+very much about what happened next, but the Black Brahma Cock did see
+about it quite thoroughly, and when the Hen-house door swung open, it
+was a limp, ragged, and meek-looking Crow who came out, leaving many of
+his feathers inside.
+
+The next morning Mr. Crow flew over the forest and far away. He did not
+want to go back there again. He heard voices as he passed a tall tree by
+the edge of the forest. Miss Crow was out with the Crow whom he had
+beaten, and they were looking for a good place in which to build. "I
+don't think they will know me if they see me," said Mr. Crow, "and I am
+sure that I don't want them to."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE RED-HEADED WOODPECKER CHILDREN
+
+
+Mrs. Red-headed Woodpecker bent her handsome head down and listened.
+"Yes, it is! It certainly is!" she cried, as she heard for a second time
+the faint "tap-tap-tap" of a tiny beak rapping on the inside of an egg
+shell. She hopped to one side of her nest and stood looking at the four
+white eggs that lay there. Soon the rapping was heard again and she saw
+one of them move a bit on its bed of chips.
+
+"So it is that one," she cried. "I thought it would be. I was certain
+that I laid that one first." And she arched her neck proudly, as the
+beak of her eldest child came through a crack in the shell. Now nobody
+else could have told one egg from another, but mothers have a way of
+remembering such things, and it may be because they love their children
+so that sometimes their sight is a little sharper, and their hearing a
+little keener than anybody else's.
+
+However that may be, she stood watching while the tiny bird chipped away
+the shell and squeezed out of the opening he had made. She did not even
+touch a piece of the shell until he was well out of it, for she knew
+that it is always better for children to help themselves when they can.
+It makes them strong and fits them for life. When the little Red-headed
+Woodpecker had struggled free, she took the broken pieces in her beak
+and carried them far from the nest before dropping them to the ground.
+If she had done the easiest thing and let them fall by the foot of the
+hollow tree where she lived, any prowling Weasel or Blue Jay might have
+seen them and watched for a chance to reach her babies. And that would
+have been very sad for the babies.
+
+The newly hatched bird was a tired little fellow, and the first thing he
+did was to take a nap. He was cold, too, although the weather was fine
+and sunshiny. His down was all wet from the moisture inside the egg, and
+you can imagine how he felt, after growing for so long inside a warm,
+snug shell, to suddenly be without it and know that he could never again
+have it around him. Even if it had been whole once more, he could not
+have been packed into it, for he had been stretching and growing every
+minute since he left it. It is for this reason that the barn-yard people
+have a wise saying: "A hatched chicken never returns to his shell."
+
+When Mrs. Red-headed Woodpecker came back, she covered her shivering
+little one with her downy breast, and there he slept, while she watched
+for her husband's coming, and thought how pleased and proud he would be
+to see the baby. They were a young couple, and this was their first
+child.
+
+But who can tell what the other three children, who had not cracked the
+shell, were thinking? Could they remember the time when they began to
+be? Could they dream of what would happen after they were hatched? Could
+they think at all? They were tiny, weak creatures, curled up within
+their shells, with food packed all around them. There had been a time
+when they were only streaks in the yellow liquid of the eggs. Now they
+were almost ready to leave this for a fuller, freer life, where they
+could open their bills and flutter their wings, and stretch their legs
+and necks. It had been a quiet, sheltered time in the shell; why should
+they leave it? Ah, but they must leave it, for they were healthy and
+growing, and when they had done so, they would forget all about it. By
+the time they could talk, and that would be very soon, they would have
+forgotten all that happened before they were hatched. That is why you
+can never get a bird to tell you what he thought about while in the egg.
+
+After the young Woodpecker's three sisters reached the outside world,
+the father and mother were kept busy hunting food for them, and they
+were alone much of the time. It was not long before they knew their
+parents' voices, although, once in a while, before they got their eyes
+open, they mistook the call of the Tree Frog below for that of the
+Woodpeckers. And this was not strange, for each says, "Ker-r-ruck!
+Ker-r-ruck!" and when the Tree Frog was singing in his home at the foot
+of the tree, the four Woodpecker children, in their nest-hollow far
+above his head, would be opening their bills and stretching their necks,
+and wondering why no juicy and delicious morsel was dropped down their
+throats.
+
+When they had their eyes open there was much to be seen. At least, they
+thought so. Was there not the hollow in their dear, dry old tree, a
+hollow four or five times as high as they could reach? Their mother had
+told them how their father and she had dug it out with their sharp,
+strong bills, making it roomy at the bottom, and leaving a doorway at
+the top just large enough for them to pass through. Part of the chips
+they had taken away, as the mother had taken the broken shells, and part
+had been left in the bottom of the hollow for the children to lie on. "I
+don't believe in grass, hair, and down, as a bed for children," their
+father had said. "Nice soft chips are far better."
+
+And the Woodpecker children liked the chips, and played with them, and
+pretended that they were grubs to be caught with their long and bony
+tongues; only of course they never swallowed them.
+
+It was an exciting time when their feathers began to grow. Until then
+they had been clothed in down; but now the tiny quills came pricking
+through their skin, and it was not so pleasant to snuggle up to each
+other as it had once been. Now, too, the eldest of the family began to
+show a great fault. He was very vain. You can imagine how sorry his
+parents were.
+
+Every morning when he awakened he looked first of all at his feathers.
+Those on his breast were white, and he had a white band on his wings.
+His tail and back and nearly the whole of his wings were blue-black. His
+head, neck, and throat were crimson. To be sure, while the feathers
+were growing, the colors were not very bright, for the down was mixed
+with them, and the quills showed so plainly that the young birds looked
+rather streaked.
+
+The sisters were getting their new suits at the same time, and there was
+just as much reason why they should be vain, but they were not. They
+were glad (as who would not be?) and they often said to each other: "How
+pretty you are growing!" They looked exactly like their brother, for it
+is not with the Woodpeckers as with many other birds,--the sons and
+daughters are dressed in precisely the same way.
+
+As for the vain young Woodpecker, he had many troubles. He was not
+contented to let his feathers grow as the grass and the leaves grow,
+without watching. No indeed! He looked at each one every day and a great
+many times every day. Then, if he thought they were not growing as fast
+as they should, he worried about it. He wanted to hurry them along, and
+sometimes, when his sisters did not seem to be looking, he took hold of
+them with his bill and pulled. Of course this did not make them grow any
+faster and it did make his skin very sore, but how was he to know? He
+had not been out of the shell long enough to be wise.
+
+It troubled him, too, because he could not see his red feathers. He
+twisted his head this way and that, and strained his eyes until they
+ached, trying to see his own head and neck. It was very annoying. He
+thought it would have been much nicer to have the brightest feathers in
+a fellow's tail, where he could see them, or at any rate on his breast;
+and he asked his mother why it couldn't be so.
+
+"I once knew a young Woodpecker," she said, "who thought of very little
+but his own beauty. I am afraid that if he had been allowed to wear his
+red feathers in his tail, he would never have seen anything else in
+this wonderful great world, but just his own poor little tail." She
+looked out of the doorway as she spoke, but he knew that she meant him.
+
+Things went on in this way until the children were ready to fly. Then
+there were daily lessons in flying, alighting, clinging to branches, and
+tapping for food on the bark of trees. They learned, too, how to support
+themselves with their stiff tails when they were walking up trees or
+stopping to eat with their claws hooked into the bark. Then Mrs.
+Red-headed Woodpecker taught them how to tell the ripest and sweetest
+fruit on the trees before they tasted it. That is something many people
+would like to know, but it is a forest secret, and no bird will tell
+anyone who cannot fly.
+
+It was on his way back from an orchard one day, that the vain young
+Woodpecker stopped to talk with an old Gray Squirrel. It may be that
+the Gray Squirrel's sight was not good, and so he mistook the Woodpecker
+for quite another fellow. He was speaking of an old tree where he had
+spent the last winter. "I believe a family of Red-headed Woodpeckers
+live there now," he said. "I have met them once or twice. The father and
+mother are fine people, and they have charming daughters, but their son
+must be a great trial to them. He is one of these silly fellows who see
+the world through their own feathers."
+
+As the young Red-headed Woodpecker flew away, he repeated this to
+himself: "A silly fellow, a silly fellow, who sees the world through his
+own feathers." And he said to his father, "Whose feathers must I look
+through?"
+
+This puzzled his father. "Whose feathers should you look through?" said
+he. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Well," answered the son, "somebody said that I saw the world through my
+own feathers, and I don't see how I can get anybody else's."
+
+How his father did laugh! "I don't see why you should look through any
+feathers," said he. "What he meant was that you thought so much of your
+own plumage that you did not care for anything else; and it is so. If it
+were intended you should look at yourself all the time, your eyes would
+have been one under your chin and the other in the back of your head.
+No! They are placed right for you to look at other people, and are where
+they help you hunt for food."
+
+"How often may I look at my own feathers?" asked the young Woodpecker.
+He was wondering at that minute how his tail looked, but he was
+determined not to turn his head.
+
+The old Woodpecker's eyes twinkled. "I should think," he said, "that
+since you are young and have no family to look after, you might preen
+your feathers in the morning and in the afternoon and when you go to
+sleep. Then, of course, when it is stormy, you will have to take your
+waterproof out of the pocket under your tail, and put it on one feather
+at a time, as all birds do. That would be often enough unless something
+happened to rumple them."
+
+"I will not look at them any oftener," said the young Red-headed
+Woodpecker, firmly. "I will _not_ be called a silly fellow." And he was
+as good as his word.
+
+His mother sighed when she heard of the change. "I am very glad," said
+she. "But isn't that always the way? His father and I have talked and
+talked, and it made no difference; but let somebody else say he is silly
+and vain, and behold!"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE NIGHT MOTH WITH A CROOKED FEELER
+
+
+The beautiful, brilliant Butterflies of the Meadow had many cousins
+living in the forest, most of whom were Night Moths. They also were very
+beautiful creatures, but they dressed in duller colors and did not have
+slender waists. Some of the Butterflies, you know, wear whole gowns of
+black and yellow, others have stripes of black and white, while some
+have clear yellow with only a bit of black trimming the edges of the
+wings.
+
+The Moths usually wear brown and have it brightened with touches of buff
+or dull blue. If they do wear bright colors, it is only on the back pair
+of wings, and when the Moth alights, he slides his front pair of wings
+over these and covers all the brightness. They do not rest with their
+wings folded over their heads like the Butterflies, but leave them flat.
+All the day long, when the sun is shining, the Moths have to rest on
+trees and dead leaves. If they were dressed in yellow or red, any
+passing bird would see them, and there is no telling what might happen.
+As it is, their brown wings are so nearly the color of dead leaves or
+bark that you might often look right at them without seeing them.
+
+Yet even among Moths there are some more brightly colored than others,
+and when you find part of the family quietly dressed you can know it is
+because they have to lay the eggs. Moths are safer in dull colors, and
+the egg-layers should always be the safest of all. If anything happened
+to them, you know, there would be no Caterpillar babies.
+
+One day a fine-looking Cecropia Moth came out of her chrysalis and clung
+to the nearest twig while her wings grew and dried and flattened. At
+first they had looked like tiny brown leaves all drenched with rain and
+wrinkled by somebody's stepping on them. The fur on her fat body was
+matted and wet, and even her feelers were damp and stuck to her head.
+Her six beautiful legs were weak and trembling, and she moved her body
+restlessly while she tried again and again to raise her crumpled wings.
+
+She had not been there so very long before she noticed another Cecropia
+Moth near her, clinging to the under side of a leaf. He was also just
+out of the chrysalis and was drying himself. "Good morning!" he cried.
+"I think I knew you when we were Caterpillars. Fine day to break the
+chrysalis, isn't it?"
+
+"Lovely," she answered. "I remember you very well. You were the
+Caterpillar who showed me where to find food last summer when the hot
+weather had withered so many of the plants."
+
+"I thought you would recall me," he said. "And when we were spinning our
+chrysalides we visited together. Do you remember that also?"
+
+Miss Cecropia did. She had been thinking of that when she first spoke,
+but she hoped he had forgotten. To tell the truth, he had been rather
+fond of her the fall before, and she, thinking him the handsomest
+Caterpillar of her acquaintance, had smiled upon him and suggested that
+they spin their cocoons near together. During the long winter she had
+regretted this. "I was very foolish," she thought, "to encourage him.
+When I get my wings I may meet people who are better off than he. Now I
+shall have to be polite to him for the sake of old friendship. I only
+hope that he will make other acquaintances and leave me free. I must get
+into the best society."
+
+All this time her neighbor was thinking, "I am so glad to see her again,
+so glad, so glad! When my wings are dry I will fly over to her and we
+will go through the forest together." He was a kind, warm-hearted
+fellow, who cared more for friendship than for beauty or family.
+
+Meanwhile their wings were growing fast, and drying, and flattening, so
+that by noon they could begin to raise them above their heads. They were
+very large Moths and their wings were of a soft dust color with little
+clear, transparent places in them and touches of the most beautiful
+blue, quite the shade worn by the Peacock, who lived on the farm. There
+was a brown and white border to their wings, and on their bodies and
+legs the fur was white and dark orange. When the Cecropias rest, they
+spread their wings out flat, and do not slide the front pair over the
+others as their cousins, the Sphinxes, do. The most wonderful of all,
+though, are their feelers.
+
+The Butterflies have stiff feelers on their heads with little knobs on
+the ends, or sometimes with part of them thick like tiny clubs. The
+Night Moths have many kinds of feelers, most of them being curved, and
+those of the Cecropias look like reddish-brown feathers pointed at the
+end.
+
+Miss Cecropia's feelers were perfect, and she waved them happily to and
+fro. Those of her friend, she was troubled to see, were not what they
+should have been. One of them was all right, the other was small and
+crooked. "Oh dear," she said to herself, "how that does look! I hope he
+will not try to be attentive to me." He did not mind it much. He thought
+about other things than looks.
+
+As night came, a Polyphemus Moth fluttered past. "Good evening!" cried
+he. "Are you just out? There are a lot of Cecropias coming out to-day."
+
+Miss Cecropia felt quite agitated when she heard this, and wondered if
+she looked all right. Her friend flew over to her just as she raised her
+wings for flight. "Let me go with you," he said.
+
+While she was wondering how she could answer him, several other
+Cecropias came along. They were all more brightly colered than she.
+"Hullo!" cried one of them, as he alighted beside her. "First-rate
+night, isn't it?"
+
+He was a handsome fellow, and his feelers were perfect; but Miss
+Cecropia did not like his ways, and she drew away from him just as her
+friend knocked him off the branch. While they were fighting, another of
+the strangers flew to her. "May I sit here?" he asked.
+
+"Yes," she murmured, thinking her chance had come to get into society.
+
+"I must say that it served the fellow right for his rudeness to you,"
+said the stranger, in his sweetest way; "but who is the Moth who is
+punishing him--that queer-looking one with a crooked feeler?"
+
+"Sir," said she, moving farther from him, "he is a friend of mine, and I
+do not think it matters to you if he is queer-looking."
+
+"Oh!" said the stranger. "Oh! oh! oh! You have a bad temper, haven't
+you? But you are very good-looking in spite of that." There is no
+telling what he would have said next, for at this minute Miss Cecropia's
+friend heard the mean things he was saying, and flew against him.
+
+It was not long before this stranger also was punished, and then the
+Moth with the crooked feeler turned to the others. "Do any of you want
+to try it?" he said. "You must understand that you cannot be rude before
+her." And he pointed his right fore leg at Miss Cecropia as she sat
+trembling on the branch.
+
+"Her!" they cried mockingly, as they flew away. "There are prettier
+Moths than she. We don't care anything for her."
+
+Miss Cecropia's friend would have gone after them to punish them for
+this impoliteness, but she clung to him and begged him not to. "You will
+be killed, I know you will," she sobbed. "And then what will become of
+me?"
+
+"Would you miss me?" he asked, as he felt of one of his wings, now
+broken and bare.
+
+"Yes," she cried. "You are the best friend I have. Please don't go."
+
+"But I am such a homely fellow," he said. "I don't see how you can like
+me since I broke my wing."
+
+"Well, I do like you," she said. "Your wing isn't much broken after all,
+and I _like_ your crooked feeler. It is so different from anybody
+else's." Miss Cecropia looked very happy as she spoke, and she quite
+forgot how she once decided to go away from him. There are some people,
+you know, who can change their minds in such a sweet and easy way that
+we almost love them the better for it. One certainly could love Miss
+Cecropia for this, because it showed that she had learned to care more
+for a warm heart and courage than for whole wings and straight feelers.
+
+Mr. Cecropia did not live long after this, unfortunately, but they were
+very, very happy together, and she often said to her friends, as she
+laid her eggs in the best places, "I only hope that when my Caterpillar
+babies are grown and have come out of their chrysalides, they may be as
+good and as brave as their father was."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE BEES AND THE KINGBIRD
+
+
+There was in the forest a great hollow tree where for years a swarm of
+Bees had made their home. To look at it in winter, one would never guess
+what a store of honey was sealed up within, but in summer the Bees were
+always passing in and out, and it was indeed a busy place. Then the
+Workers had to gather honey and build the cells and look out for the
+Queen-Mother's many babies. The Queen-Mother had so much care of her
+eggs that she could really do nothing but attend to them. After they
+were ready in their cells, the Workers took care of them, and tucked in
+a lot of bread for the babies to eat when they were hatched. Then there
+was the bread-making to be done also, and all the Workers helped bring
+the pollen, or flower-dust, out of which it was made.
+
+The Drones didn't do anything, not a thing, not a single thing, unless
+it were taking care of the Queen when she flew away from the tree. They
+had done that once, but it was long ago, before she had laid an egg and
+while she was still quite young. They were handsome great fellows, all
+black and gold, and if you didn't know about them, you might have
+thought them the pleasantest Bees in the tree. Of course you would not
+care for them after finding how lazy they were, for people are never
+liked just because they are fine-looking.
+
+The Drones always found some excuse for being idle, and like many other
+lazy people they wanted the busy ones to stop and visit with them. "What
+is the hurry?" they would say. "There will be more honey that you can
+get to-morrow. Stop a while now."
+
+But the Workers would shake their brown heads and buzz impatiently as
+they answered, "We can get to-morrow's honey when to-morrow comes, but
+to-day's honey must be gathered to-day."
+
+Then the Drones would grumble and say that they didn't see the sense of
+storing up so much honey anyway. That also was like lazy people the
+world over, for however much they scold about getting the food, they are
+sure to eat just as much as anybody else. Sometimes lazy people eat even
+more than others, and pick for the best too.
+
+On cloudy days, the Workers did stay at home in the tree, but not to
+play. They clung to the walls and to each other and made wax. It took
+much patience to make wax. When they were gathering honey there was so
+much that was interesting to be seen, and so many friends to meet, that
+it was really quite exciting; but when they made wax they had to hang
+for a long, long time, until the wax gathered in flakes over their
+bodies. Then it was ready to scrape off and shape into six-sided cells
+to hold honey or to be homes for the babies.
+
+One sunshiny morning the Queen-Mother stopped laying her eggs and cried:
+"Listen! did you hear that?"
+
+"What?" asked the Workers, crowding around her.
+
+"Why, that noise," she said. "It sounded like a bird calling 'Kyrie!
+K-y-rie!' and I thought I heard a Worker buzzing outside a minute ago,
+but no one has come in. I am afraid--" and here she stopped.
+
+"Of what are you afraid!" asked the Drones, who, having nothing to do
+but eat and sleep, were always ready to talk about anything and
+everything. The great trouble with them was that if you once began to
+talk they did not like to have you leave and go to work.
+
+"Why," said the Queen-Mother, "I don't want to alarm you, but I thought
+it was a Kingbird."
+
+"Well, what if it was?" said a big Drone. "There is only one of him and
+there are a great many of us."
+
+"Yes," said the Queen-Mother, "but there may not be so many of us very
+long if he begins to watch the tree. I have lived much longer than you
+and I know how Kingbirds act."
+
+This was true, for Queens live to be very old, and Drones never live
+long because they are so lazy.
+
+"Well," said the big Drone, "we must find out about this. Just fly
+around and see if it is a Kingbird," he said to a Worker. "We must know
+about things before we act."
+
+"Suppose you should go," she replied. "I have my leg-pockets full of
+pollen, and it ought to be made into bread at once. I never saw Larvæ so
+hungry as these last ones are."
+
+"I only wish that I could go," said the big Drone, limping as he got out
+of her way; "but my fifth foot just stepped on my third foot, and I can
+hardly move."
+
+When he said this, all the Workers smiled, and even the Queen-Mother had
+to turn away her head. The Drones looked as solemn as possible. It would
+not do for them to laugh at their brother. They did not want him to
+laugh at them when they made excuses for staying at home. They even
+pretended not to hear one of the Workers when she said that it was
+funny how some people couldn't use their wings if one of their feet hurt
+them.
+
+"Yes," said another Worker, "and it is funny, too, how some people can
+get along very well on three legs when they have to, while others are
+too helpless to do anything unless they can use the whole six."
+
+The Drones began to talk together. "I think that the whole swarm should
+fly at the Kingbird and sting him and drive him away," said one. "There
+is no sense in allowing him to perch outside our home and catch us as we
+pass in and out. _I_ say that we should make war upon him!" He looked
+very fierce as he spoke, buzzing and twitching his feelers at every
+step.
+
+"Exactly!" cried another Drone. "If I had a sting, I would lead the
+attack. As it is, I may be useful in guarding the comb. It is a great
+pity that Drones have no stings." You would have thought, to hear him
+speak, that if he had been given a sting like those of the Workers, not
+all the Bees in the tree could keep him from fighting.
+
+While the Drones were talking about war, some of the Workers sent to
+their Queen for advice. "Tell us," they said, "how to drive away the
+Kingbird. Should we try to sting him? You know it kills a Bee to sting
+anybody, and we don't want to if we can help it, yet we will if you say
+so."
+
+The Queen-Mother shook her head. "You must not bother me about such
+things," she said. "I have all that I can do to get the eggs ready, and
+you must look after the swarm. Nobody else can do my work, and I have no
+time to do yours." As she spoke, she finished the one hundred and
+seventeenth egg of that day's lot, and before night came she would
+probably have laid more than a thousand, so you can see she was quite
+right when she said she had no time for other things.
+
+This left the Workers to plan for themselves, and they agreed that a
+number of them should fly out together and see where the Kingbird was.
+Then they could decide about attacking him later. When one gave the
+signal, they dashed out as nearly together as possible.
+
+After the Workers returned with honey and pollen, the Drones crowded
+around them, asking questions. "Where is he? What does he look like? Did
+he try to catch you?" The Workers would not answer them, and said: "Go
+and find out for yourself. We all came back alive." Then they went about
+their work as usual.
+
+"I don't see how they dared to go," said a very young Bee who was just
+out of her cocoon and was still too weak to fly.
+
+"Pooh!" said the big Drone. "You wouldn't see me hanging around this
+tree if I were not lame."
+
+"There is no use in stopping work even if you are scared," said one of
+the Workers. She smiled as she spoke, and whispered something to the
+Queen-Mother as she passed her. The Queen-Mother smiled also.
+
+"Why don't you Drones go for honey?" she said. "You must be getting very
+hungry."
+
+"We don't feel very well," they answered. "Perhaps it would be better
+for our health if we were to keep quiet for a while and save our
+strength. We will lunch off some of the honey in the comb if we need
+food."
+
+"Not a bit of it!" exclaimed the Workers. "Stay in the tree if you want
+to for your health, but don't you dare touch the honey we have gathered
+for winter, when the day is clear and bright like this." And whenever a
+Drone tried to get food from the comb they drove him away.
+
+The poor Drones had a hard day of it, and at night they were so hungry
+they could hardly sleep. The next morning they peeped out, and then
+rushed away to the flowers for their breakfast. They stayed out all day,
+and when they returned at night they rushed swiftly into the tree again.
+
+"There!" they said; "we escaped the Kingbird."
+
+"What Kingbird?" asked a Worker.
+
+"The one who was there yesterday," answered the Drones. "Has he been
+back to-day?"
+
+"There was no Kingbird near the tree yesterday," said the Worker.
+
+"What!" cried the Drones.
+
+"No," said the Queen-Mother, "I was mistaken when I thought I heard him.
+The Workers told me after they had been out for honey. Perhaps they
+forgot to tell you."
+
+But her eyes twinkled as she spoke, and all the Workers smiled, and for
+some reason the Drones did not know what to say.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE STORY OF THE COW BIRD'S EGG
+
+
+On the edge of the forest next to the meadow, a pair of young
+Goldfinches were about to begin housekeeping. They were a handsome
+couple, and the birds who were already nesting near by were much pleased
+to see them tree-hunting there.
+
+Mr. Goldfinch was a fine, cheerful little fellow, every feather of whose
+black and yellow coat was always well oiled and lying in its proper
+place. His wife was dressed in a dull, greenish brown with a touch of
+yellow on her breast. "Bright yellow and black does very well for Mr.
+Goldfinch," she would say, "but for one who has to sit on the nest as
+long as I shall have to, it would never do. People would see me among
+the leaves and know just where to find my eggs."
+
+Mr. Goldfinch thought that there was never a bird who had a prettier,
+dearer, or harder-working little wife than he, and he would wonder how
+he was ever happy before he knew her. That is a way that people have of
+forgetting the days that are past; and the truth is that Mr. Goldfinch
+had made fun of the Robins and other birds all spring, because they had
+to build nests and hunt worms for their babies, while he had nothing to
+do but sing and sleep and feed himself. In those days the Robins used to
+call after him as he flew away, "Silly fellow! Silly fellow! Silly!"
+They knew that there is something sweeter in life than just taking good
+care of one's self.
+
+One afternoon Mr. Goldfinch saw a tiny green-brown bird on a sweetbriar
+bush, and as he watched her he thought her the most beautiful creature
+he had ever seen. She had such a dainty way of picking out the seeds,
+and gave such graceful hops from one twig to another. Then Mr. Goldfinch
+fluffed up his feathers and swelled out his throat and sang her such
+songs as he had never sung before. He did not want her to speak to
+anybody else, and yet he could not help her doing so, for Goldfinches
+always go together in crowds until they have homes of their own, and at
+this time they were having concerts every morning. He showed her where
+the finest dandelion seeds could be found, and one bright and sunshiny
+day she became Mrs. Goldfinch, and they went together to find a place
+for their home.
+
+They began one nest and had it nearly done, when Mr. Goldfinch said it
+was not in a good place, and tore it all to pieces. Mrs. Goldfinch felt
+very badly about this and talked it over with some of her Goldfinch
+neighbors. They told her not to mind it at all, that their husbands
+often did the same thing, and that sometimes they came to like the new
+place much better than the old. At any rate, there was no use in getting
+cross about it, because that was something she would have to expect.
+
+Mr. Goldfinch was sure that they had built too near the ground, and he
+had chosen a crotch above. Toward this he was dragging the bits of
+grape-vine and cedar-bark which were woven into their first nest. He
+said they could also use some of the grasses and mosses which they had
+gotten together, and he even told his wife of some fine thistle-down
+which he could bring for the inside, where the eggs were to be laid.
+Mrs. Goldfinch watched him tugging with bill and both feet to loosen the
+bits of bark, and she said to herself: "Dear fellow! what a helper he
+is! I won't mind rebuilding if it makes him happy," and she went to work
+with a will.
+
+When the sun went down in the west the next night the second nest was
+done, and it was the last thing at which the Goldfinches looked before
+tucking their heads under their wings and going to sleep. It was the
+first thing that they saw the next morning, too, and they hopped all
+around it and twittered with pride, and gave it little tweaks here and
+little pokes there before they flew away to get breakfast.
+
+While they were gone, Mrs. Cowbird came walking over the grass and dry
+leaves to the foot of the tree. She wagged her head at every step, and
+put on as many airs as though she were showily dressed, instead of
+wearing, as she always does, a robe of dull brownish gray. She had seen
+the Goldfinches fly away, and she was looking for their home. She was a
+lazy creature in spite of her stirring ways, and she wished to find a
+nice little nest in which to lay an egg. You know Cowbirds never think
+of building nests. They want all of their time to take care of
+themselves, which is a very foolish way of living; but then, you could
+never make a Cowbird think so!
+
+"That nest is exactly right," said Mrs. Cowbird. "I will lay my egg
+there at once, and when Mrs. Goldfinch has laid hers she will have to
+hatch them all together and take care of my baby for me. What an easy
+way this is to bring up one's family! It is really no work at all! And I
+am sure that my children will get along well, because I am always
+careful to choose the nests of small birds for them. Then they are
+larger and stronger than the other babies, and can get more than their
+share of food."
+
+So she laid a big white egg with gray and brown spots on it in the
+Goldfinches' new home, and then she flew off to the Cowbird flock, as
+gay and careless as you please. When the Goldfinches came back, they saw
+the egg in their nest and called all their neighbors to talk it over.
+"What shall I ever do?" said Mrs. Goldfinch. "I wanted my nest for my
+own eggs, and I meant to lay them to-morrow. I suppose I shall have to
+sit on this one too, but it won't be at all comfortable."
+
+"I wouldn't," said one of her neighbors, a Yellow Warbler. "I left my
+nest once when such a thing happened to me, and built a new one for my
+own eggs."
+
+"Oh dear!" cried Mrs. Goldfinch, "we have built two already, and I
+cannot build another."
+
+"Well, whatever you do," said a Vireo, "don't hatch the big egg out with
+your own. I did once, and such a time as I had! The young Cowbird pushed
+two of my little Vireos out onto the ground, and ate so much that I was
+quite worn out by the work of hunting for him."
+
+"My dear," said Mr. Goldfinch, "I have an excellent plan. We will put
+another floor in our nest, right over this egg, and then by adding a bit
+all around the sides we can have plenty of room for our own children. It
+will be much less work than beginning all over again, and then the
+Cowbird's egg will be too cool to hatch."
+
+Everybody called this a most clever plan, and Mr. Goldfinch was very
+proud to have thought of it. They went to work once more, and it was not
+so very long before the new floor was done and the new walls raised.
+Then, oh, wonder of wonders! there were soon four tiny, pearly eggs of
+their own lying on the thistle-down lining of the nest.
+
+Mrs. Goldfinch had to stay very closely at home now, but her husband
+went off with his friends a great deal. He bathed and sang and preened
+his feathers and talked about his queer nest and his bright little wife,
+after the manner of Goldfinches everywhere.
+
+His friends laughed at him for helping so much about the nest, for, you
+know, Goldfinches do not often help their wives about home. He cocked
+his handsome head on one side and answered: "My wife seemed to need me
+then. She is not so very strong. And I do not know what she would ever
+have done about the strange egg, if I had not been there to advise her."
+
+When he got back to his home that night, Mrs. Goldfinch said: "I have
+been wondering why we did not roll the Cowbird's egg out on the ground,
+instead of going to all that trouble of building around it."
+
+And Mr. Goldfinch declared that he believed she was the only bird who
+had ever thought of such a thing. "It could have been done just as well
+as not," he said. "I must tell that to the other birds in the morning.
+How lucky I am to have such a bright wife! It would be dreadful if such
+a clever fellow as I had a dull mate!"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+MRS. MOURNING DOVE'S HOUSEKEEPING
+
+
+Strange as it may seem, there had never been any Mourning Doves in the
+forest until this year, and when a pair came there to live, the people
+were much excited. They talked about the Doves' song, so sweet and sad,
+and about their soft coats of brown and gray, and they wondered very
+much what kind of home they would build. Would it be a swinging pocket
+of hairs, strings, and down, like that of the Orioles? Would it be stout
+and heavy like the nests of the Robins? Or would it be a ball of leaves
+and grasses on the ground, with a tiny doorway in one side, like that of
+the Ovenbird?
+
+You can see that the forest people were really very much interested in
+the Mourning Doves, and so, perhaps, it is not strange that, when the
+new couple built their nest in the lower branches of a spruce tree,
+everybody watched it and talked about it.
+
+"Really," said one of the Blackbirds, who had flown over from the swamp
+near by, "I never should think of calling that thing a nest! It is
+nothing but a few twigs and sticks laid together. It is just as flat as
+a maple-leaf, and what is to keep those poor little Doves from tumbling
+to the ground I can't see."
+
+"I wouldn't worry about the little Doves yet," said a Warbler. "I don't
+think there will ever be any little Doves in that nest. The eggs will
+roll off of it long before they are ready to hatch, and the nest will
+blow to pieces in the first storm we have."
+
+"Well," said the Blackbird, as she started for home, "I shall want to
+know how the Mourning Doves get on. If any of you are over my way, stop
+and tell me the news."
+
+Some days after this, a Quail, passing under the Doves' home, happened
+to look up and see two white eggs in the nest. It was so very thin that
+she could see them quite plainly through the openings between the twigs.
+Later in the day, she spoke of this to a Grouse, saying, "I came by the
+Mourning Doves' nest and saw two white eggs through the bottom."
+
+After she went away, the Grouse said to a wild Rabbit: "The Quail told
+me that the Mourning Dove's eggs went right through the bottom of her
+nest, and I don't wonder. It wasn't strong enough to hold anything."
+
+At sunset, the Rabbit had a short visit with Mrs. Goldfinch, as she
+pulled a great thistle-head to pieces and made her supper from its
+seeds. He told her he had heard that the Mourning Dove's eggs had fallen
+through the bottom of the nest and broken on the ground, and Mrs.
+Goldfinch said: "Oh, that poor Mrs. Mourning Dove! I must go to see her
+in the morning." Then she fled home to her own four pearly treasures.
+
+Now, of course the Rabbit was mistaken when he said anybody had told him
+that those two eggs were broken; just as much mistaken as the Grouse was
+when she said somebody had told her that the eggs had fallen. They both
+thought they were right, but they were careless listeners and careless
+talkers, and so each one had changed it a bit in the telling.
+
+The next day it rained, and the next, and the next. Mrs. Goldfinch did
+not dare leave her nest to make calls, lest the cold raindrops should
+chill and hurt the four tiny birds that lay curled up in their shells.
+At last the weather was warm and sunshiny, and Mrs. Goldfinch and some
+of her bird neighbors went to call on Mrs. Mourning Dove. They found her
+just coming from a wheat-field, where she had been to get grain. "Oh,
+you poor creature!" they cried. "We have heard all about it. Your poor
+babies! How sorry we are for you!"
+
+Mrs. Mourning Dove looked from one to another as though she did not know
+what to make of it. "What do you mean?" she cooed. "My babies are well
+and doing finely. Won't you come to see them?"
+
+Then it was the turn of the other birds to be surprised. "Why," they
+chirped, "we heard that your eggs had fallen through your nest and had
+broken and killed the tiny Dove babies inside. Is it true?"
+
+"Not a word of it," answered Mrs. Mourning Dove. "The nest is all
+right, and the eggs were not broken until my two little darlings broke
+them with their sharp beaks."
+
+"Here they are," she added, fondly. "Did you ever see such pretty ones?
+See him open his bill, the dear! And did you ever see such a neck as she
+has? Mr. Mourning Dove thinks there never were such children."
+
+"But do you feel perfectly safe to leave them in that nest?" asked the
+Oriole politely. "My babies are so restless that I should be afraid to
+trust them in it."
+
+"That is what people always say," answered Mrs. Mourning Dove, with a
+happy coo, "and I fear that I am a rather poor housekeeper, but it runs
+in our family. Mr. Mourning Dove and I have raised many pairs of
+children, and they never rolled out, or tumbled through, or blew away,
+and I do not worry about these. I shall never be thrifty like you good
+builders, perhaps, but I'm sure you cannot love your little ones any
+more than I do mine. It was very kind of you to be so sorry for me when
+you heard I was in trouble. I think I have the best neighbors in the
+world."
+
+When her callers went away, they could not say enough about Mrs.
+Mourning Dove's pleasant ways, and her gentle, well-behaved children.
+"It is too bad she is such a poor nest-maker," the Vireo said, "and I
+understand now what she meant when she told me that they sometimes used
+old Robins' nests for their young. She said they flattened them out and
+added a few twigs, and that they did finely. I thought it very queer in
+them to do so, but perhaps if I had not been a good builder I should
+have done the same thing."
+
+"Perhaps we all would," the others agreed. "She certainly is a very
+pleasant bird, and she is bringing up her children well. Mr. Mourning
+Dove seems to think her perfect. We won't worry any more about her."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE YOUNG BLUE JAY WHO WAS NOT BRAVE ENOUGH TO BE AFRAID
+
+
+Everybody who is acquainted with the Blue Jays knows that they are a
+very brave family. That is the best thing that you can say about them.
+To be sure, they dress very handsomely, and there is no prettier sight,
+on a fine winter morning, than a flock of Blue Jays flitting from
+branch to branch, dining off the acorns on the oak trees, and cocking
+their crested heads on one side as they look over the country. They are
+great talkers then, and are always telling each other just what to do;
+yet none of them ever do what they are told to, so they might just as
+well stop giving advice.
+
+The other people of the forest do not like the Blue Jays at all, and if
+one of them gets into trouble they will not help him out. This always
+has been so, and it always will be so. If it could be winter all the
+time, the Blue Jays could be liked well enough, for in cold weather they
+eat seeds and nuts and do not quarrel so much with others. It is in the
+summer that they become bad neighbors. Then they live in the thickest
+part of the woods and raise families of tiny, fuzzy babies in their
+great coarse nests. It is then, too, that they change their beautiful
+coats, and while the old feathers are dropping off and the new ones are
+growing they are not at all pretty. Oh, then is the time to beware of
+the Blue Jays!
+
+They do very little talking during the summer, and the forest people do
+not know when they are coming, unless they see a flutter of blue wings
+among the branches. The Blue Jays have a reason for keeping still then.
+They are doing sly things, and they do not want to be found out.
+
+The wee babies grow fast and their mouths are always open for more food.
+Father and Mother Blue Jay spend all their time in marketing, and they
+are not content with seeds and berries. They visit the nests of their
+bird neighbors, and then something very sad happens. When the Blue Jays
+go to a nest there may be four eggs in it; but when they go away there
+will not be any left, nothing but pieces of broken egg-shell. It is
+very, very sad, but this is another of the things which will always be
+so, and all that the other birds can do is to watch and drive the Jays
+away.
+
+There was once a young Blue Jay in the forest who was larger than his
+brothers and sisters, and kept crowding them toward the edge of the
+nest. When their father came with a bit of food for them, he would
+stretch his legs and flutter his wings and reach up for the first bite.
+And because he was the largest and the strongest, he usually got it.
+Sometimes, too, the first bite was so big that there was nothing left
+for anyone else to bite at. He was a very greedy fellow, and he had no
+right to take more than his share, just because he happened to be the
+first of the family to break open the shell, or because he grew fast.
+
+This same young Blue Jay used to brag about what he would do when he got
+out of the nest, and his mother told him that he would get into trouble
+if he were not careful. She said that even Blue Jays had to look out for
+danger.
+
+"Huh!" said the young Blue Jay; "who's afraid?"
+
+"Now you talk like a bully," said Mother Blue Jay, "for people who are
+really brave are always willing to be careful."
+
+But the young Blue Jay only crowded his brothers and sisters more than
+usual, and thought, inside his foolish little pin-feathery head, that
+when he got a chance, he'd show them what courage was.
+
+After a while his chance came. All the small birds had learned to
+flutter from branch to branch, and to hop quite briskly over the ground.
+One afternoon they went to a part of the forest where the ground was
+damp and all was strange. The father and mother told their children to
+keep close together and they would take care of them; but the foolish
+young Blue Jay wanted a chance to go alone, so he hid behind a tree
+until the others were far ahead, and then he started off another way. It
+was great fun for a time, and when the feathered folk looked down at him
+he raised his crest higher than ever and thought how he would scare them
+when he was a little older.
+
+The young Blue Jay was just thinking about this when he saw something
+long and shining lying in the pathway ahead. He remembered what his
+father had said about snakes, and about one kind that wore rattles on
+their tails. He wondered if this one had a rattle, and he made up his
+mind to see how it was fastened on. "I am a Blue Jay," he said to
+himself, "and I was never yet afraid of anything."
+
+The Rattlesnake, for it was he, raised his head to look at the bird. The
+young Blue Jay saw that his eyes were very bright. He looked right into
+them, and could see little pictures of himself upon their shining
+surfaces. He stood still to look, and the Rattlesnake came nearer. Then
+the young Blue Jay tried to see his tail, but he couldn't look away from
+the Rattlesnake's eyes, though he tried ever so hard.
+
+The Rattlesnake now coiled up his body, flattened out his head, and
+showed his teeth, while all the time his queer forked tongue ran in and
+out of his mouth. Then the young Blue Jay tried to move and found that
+he couldn't. All he could do was to stand there and watch those glowing
+eyes and listen to the song which the Rattlesnake began to sing:
+
+  "Through grass and fern,
+  With many a turn,
+    My shining body I draw.
+  In woodland shade
+  My home is made,
+    For this is the Forest Law.
+
+  "Whoever tries
+  To look in my eyes
+    Comes near to my poisoned jaw;
+  And birds o'erbold
+  I charm and hold,
+    For this is the Forest Law."
+
+The Rattlesnake drew nearer and nearer, and the young Blue Jay was
+shaking with fright, when there was a rustle of wings, and his father
+and mother flew down and around the Rattlesnake, screaming loudly to all
+the other Jays, and making the Snake turn away from the helpless little
+bird he had been about to strike. It was a long time before the forest
+was quiet again, and when it was, the Blue Jay family were safely in
+their nest, and the Rattlesnake had gone home without his supper.
+
+After the young Blue Jay got over his fright, he began to complain
+because he had not seen the Rattlesnake's tail. Then, indeed, his
+patient mother gave him such a scolding as he had never had in all his
+life, and his father said that he deserved a sound pecking for his
+foolishness.
+
+When the young Blue Jay showed that he was sorry for all the trouble
+that he had made, his parents let him have some supper and go to bed;
+but not until he had learned two sayings which he was always to
+remember. And these were the sayings: "A really brave bird dares to be
+afraid of some things," and, "If you go near enough to see the tail of a
+danger, you may be struck by its head."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE RED SQUIRRELS BEGIN HOUSEKEEPING
+
+
+The first thing that Mr. Red Squirrel did after coming to the forest and
+meeting the Gray Squirrel was to look for something to eat. It was not a
+good season for a stranger who had no hidden store of nuts and seeds to
+draw upon. The apples and corn were not ripe, and last year's seeds and
+acorns were nearly gone. What few remained here and there had lost their
+sweet and wholesome taste. Poor Mr. Red Squirrel began to wish that he
+had eaten breakfast before he ran away. He even went to the edge of the
+forest and looked over toward the farmhouse, where his open cage hung in
+the sunshine. He knew that there were nuts and a fresh bit of fruit
+inside of it, and his mouth watered at the thought of them, but he was a
+sensible young fellow, and he knew that if he went back to eat, the cage
+door would be snapped shut, and he would never again be free to scamper
+in the beautiful trees.
+
+"I will starve first!" he said to himself, and he was so much in earnest
+that he spoke quite loudly.
+
+The words were hardly out of his mouth when "Pft!" a fat acorn came down
+at his feet. He caught it up with his forepaws before looking around. It
+was smooth and glossy, not at all as though it had passed a long winter
+on an oak branch. He took a good nibble at it and then looked up to see
+if there were more on the tree above him. You can think how surprised he
+was to find himself sitting beneath a maple, for in all the years since
+the world began no maple has ever borne acorns.
+
+"There are no more to come," he said. "I must take small bites and make
+it last as long as I can." And he turned it around and around, clutching
+it tightly with his long, crooked claws, so that not the tiniest bit
+could be lost. At last it was all eaten, not a crumb was left, and then
+"Pft!" down came a walnut. This hit him squarely on the back, but he was
+too hungry to mind, and he ate it all, just stopping long enough to say:
+"If this maple bears such fruit as acorns and walnuts, I should like to
+live in a maple grove."
+
+Next came a hazelnut, then a butternut, and last of all a fat kernel of
+yellow corn. He knew now that some friend was hidden in the branches
+above, so he tucked the corn in one of his cheek-pockets, and scampered
+up the maple trunk to find out who it was. He saw a whisking
+reddish-brown tail, and knew that some other Red Squirrel was there. But
+whoever it was did not mean to be caught, and such a chase as he had!
+Just as he thought he had overtaken his unknown friend, he could see
+nothing more of her, and he was almost vexed to think how careless he
+must have been to miss her. He ran up and down the tree on which he last
+saw her, and found a little hollow in one of its large branches. He
+looked in, and there she was, the same dainty creature whom he had so
+often watched from his cage. He could see that she was breathless from
+running so fast, yet she pretended to be surprised at seeing him.
+Perhaps she now thought that she had been too bold in giving him food,
+and so wanted him to think that it had been somebody else.
+
+"Good morning!" said he. "Thank you very much for your kindness."
+
+"What do you mean?" said she.
+
+"As though you didn't know!" he answered. "I never heard of a maple tree
+that bore acorns, nuts, and corn, and that in the springtime."
+
+"Oh, well," said she, tossing her pretty head, "you have lived in a cage
+and may not know what our forest trees can do."
+
+That was a rather saucy thing to say, but Mr. Red Squirrel knew her kind
+heart and that she said it only in mischief. "How do you know I have
+lived in a cage?" he asked.
+
+"I--I thought you looked like the Squirrel at the farmhouse," she said;
+and then forgetting herself, she added, "You did look so surprised when
+that walnut hit you."
+
+"Where were you then?" he asked quickly.
+
+"Oh! I was on a branch above you," she answered, seeing that he now
+knew all about it. "You looked so hungry, and I had plenty of food
+stored away. You may have some whenever you wish. It must have been
+dreadful in that cage."
+
+Now Mr. Red Squirrel had loved his little friend ever since the first
+time he saw her on the rail fence, but he had never thought she would
+care for him--a tired, discouraged fellow, who had passed such a
+sorrowful life in prison. Yet when he heard her pitying words, and saw
+the light in her tender eyes, he wondered if he could win her for his
+wife.
+
+"I shall never be able to do anything for you," said he. "You are young
+and beautiful and know the forest ways. I am a stranger and saddened by
+my hard life. I wish I could help you."
+
+"The Blue Jays! The Blue Jays!" she cried, starting up. "They have found
+my hidden acorns and are eating them."
+
+And sure enough, a pair of those handsome robbers were pulling acorn
+after acorn out of a tree-hollow near by, and eating them as fast
+as they could. You should have seen Mr. Red Squirrel then! He
+leaped from branch to branch until he reached the Blue Jays; then
+he stood by the hole where the acorns were stored, and scolded them.
+"Chickaree-chickaree-quilch-quilch-chickaree-chickaree!" he said; and
+that in the Red Squirrel language is a _very_ severe scolding. He jumped
+about with his head down and his tail jerking, while his eyes gleamed
+like coals of fire. The Blue Jays made a great fuss and called "Jay!
+Jay!" at him, and made fun of him for being a stranger, but they left at
+last, and Mr. Red Squirrel turned to his friend.
+
+"What would I have done without your help?" she said. "I was so
+dreadfully frightened. Don't you see how my paws are shaking still?" And
+she held out the prettiest little paws imaginable for him to see.
+
+Then Mr. Red Squirrel's heart began to thump very fast and hard beneath
+the white fur of his chest, and he sighed softly. "I wish I might always
+help you and protect you," he said; "but I suppose there are better
+fellows than I who want to do that." And he sighed again.
+
+"Yes, they might want to," she said, looking away from him and acting as
+though she saw another Blue Jay coming.
+
+"You wouldn't be my little wife, would you?" he asked, coming nearer to
+her.
+
+"Why--I--might!" she answered, with a saucy flirt of her tail, and she
+scampered away as fast as she could. Do you think Mr. Red Squirrel
+stopped then to eat his fat kernel of yellow corn? Or do you think he
+waited to see whether the Blue Jays were around? No, indeed! He followed
+as fast as his legs could carry him from tree to tree, from branch to
+branch, and it was not until he had reached the top of a tall beech that
+he overtook his little sweetheart. They were still there when the Gray
+Squirrel happened along in the afternoon.
+
+"Ah!" said he, squinting at Mr. Red Squirrel, for his eyes were poor.
+"You are getting acquainted, are you? Pleasant society here. The
+Squirrel set is very select. You must meet some of our young people.
+Suppose you will begin housekeeping one of these days?"
+
+"I have done so already, sir," answered Mr. Red Squirrel, although his
+wife was nudging him with one paw and motioning him to keep quiet. "Mrs.
+Red Squirrel and I will build our round home in the top fork of this
+tree. We shall be pleased to have you call when we are settled."
+
+"Is that so?" exclaimed the Gray Squirrel. "I did not know that you
+were married. I thought you came alone to the forest."
+
+"This is my wife, sir," said Mr. Red Squirrel, and the Gray Squirrel
+made his very best bow and looked at her as sharply as his poor eyes
+would let him.
+
+"I think I must have seen you somewhere," he said; "your face is very
+familiar." And he scratched his poor old puzzled head with one claw.
+
+"Why, Cousin Gray Squirrel, don't you know Bushy-tail?" she cried. "You
+lived the next tree to mine all winter."
+
+"To be sure!" he exclaimed. "But isn't your marriage rather sudden?"
+
+"No," she said, blushing under her fur. "We have always liked each
+other, although we never spoke until this morning. I used to scamper
+along the rail fence to see Mr. Red Squirrel in his cage."
+
+"Did you truly come for that?" asked her husband, after their caller had
+gone.
+
+"I truly did," she answered, "but I never expected anybody to know it.
+You poor fellow! I felt so sorry for you. I would have given every nut I
+had to set you free."
+
+They were a very happy couple, and the next fall the Gray Squirrel
+watched them and their children gathering nuts for their winter stores.
+Mr. Red Squirrel, as the head of the family, planned the work, yet each
+did his share. The nuts were not yet ripe, and they gnawed off the
+stems, then came to the ground, filled their cheek-pockets with the
+fallen nuts, and scampered off to hide them in many places. They were
+stored in tree-hollows, under the rustling leaves which strewed the
+ground, in the cracks of old logs, beneath brush-heaps, and in holes in
+the ground.
+
+"Don't stop to think how many you need," said the little mother to her
+children. "Get every nut you can. It may be a very long winter."
+
+"And if you don't eat them all," said their hard-working father with a
+twinkle in his eyes, "you may want to drop a few down to some poor
+fellow who has none. That was your mother's way."
+
+"When was it her way? What makes you smile when you say it? Mother, what
+does he mean?" cried the young Red Squirrels all in a breath.
+
+"I gave some nuts to a hungry Squirrel once," she said, "and he was so
+grateful that he drove the Blue Jays away when they tried to rob me."
+But she looked so happy as she spoke that the children knew there was
+more to the story. They dared not tease her to tell, so they whispered
+among themselves and wondered what their father meant.
+
+As they gathered nuts near the Gray Squirrel, he motioned them to come
+close. "S-sh!" said he. "Don't tell it from me, but I think the poor
+hungry fellow was your father, and it was a lucky thing for you that
+she had enough to give away."
+
+"Do you suppose that was it?" the young Red Squirrels whispered to each
+other. "Do you really suppose so?"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE BIGGEST LITTLE RABBIT LEARNS TO SEE
+
+
+Seven little Rabbits lay on their nest at the bottom of the burrow, and
+wriggled and squirmed and pushed their soft noses against each other all
+day long. Life was very easy for them, and they were contented. The
+first thing that they remembered was lying on their bed of fur, hay, and
+dried leaves, and feeling a great, warm, soft Something close beside
+them. After a while they learned that this Something was their Mamma
+Rabbit. It was she who had gotten the nest ready for them and lined it
+with fur that she tore from her own breast. She didn't care so much
+about looking beautiful as she did about making her babies comfortable.
+
+It was their Mamma Rabbit, too, who fed them with warm milk from her own
+body until they should be old enough to go out of the burrow. Then they
+would nibble bark and tender young shoots from the roots of the trees,
+and all the fresh, green, growing things that Rabbits like. She used to
+tell them about this food, and they wondered and wondered how it would
+taste. They began to feel very big and strong now. The soft fur was
+growing on their naked little bodies and covering even the soles of
+their feet. It was growing inside their cheeks, too, and that made them
+feel important, for Papa Rabbit said that he did not know any other
+animals that had fur inside their cheeks. He said it was something to be
+very proud of, so they were very proud, although why one should want fur
+inside of one's cheeks it would be hard to say.
+
+What tangles they did get into! Each little Rabbit had four legs, two
+short ones in front, and two long ones behind to help him take long
+jumps from one place to another. So, you see, there were twenty-eight
+legs there, pushing, catching in the hay, kicking, and sometimes just
+waving in the air when their tiny owners chanced to roll over on their
+backs and couldn't get right side up again. Then Mamma Rabbit would come
+and poke them this way and that, never hurting any of them, but getting
+the nest in order.
+
+"It is a great deal of work to pick up after children," she would say
+with a tired little sigh, "but it will not be long before they have
+homes of their own and are doing the same thing."
+
+Mamma Rabbit was quite right when she said that, for all of their people
+set up housekeeping when very young, and then the cares of life begin.
+
+One fine morning when the children were alone in their burrow, the
+biggest little Rabbit had a queer feeling in his face, below and in
+front of his long ears, and above his eager little nose. It almost
+scared him at first, for he had never before felt anything at all like
+it. Then he guessed what it meant. There were two bunchy places on his
+face, that Mamma Rabbit had told him were eyes. "When you are older,"
+she had said to him, "these eyes will open, and then you will see." For
+the Rabbit children are always blind when they are babies.
+
+When his mother told him that, the biggest little Rabbit had said, "What
+do you mean when you say I shall 'see'? Is it anything like eating?"
+
+And Mamma Rabbit said, "No, you cannot taste things until you touch
+them, but you can see them when they are far away."
+
+"Then it is like smelling," said the biggest little Rabbit.
+
+"No, it is not like smelling, either, for there are many things, like
+stones, which one cannot smell and yet can see."
+
+"Then it surely is like hearing," said the biggest little Rabbit.
+
+"Oh dear!" exclaimed his mother, who was tired of having questions asked
+which could not be answered. "It is not a bit like hearing. You could
+never hear a black cloud coming across the sky, but you could see it if
+you were outside your burrow. Nobody can make you understand what seeing
+is until your eyes are open, and then you will find out for yourself
+without asking."
+
+This made the biggest little Rabbit lie still for a while, and then he
+said: "What is a black cloud, and why does it come across the sky? And
+what is the sky, and why does it let the cloud come? And what is--" But
+he did not get any answer, for his mother ran out of the burrow as fast
+as she could.
+
+And now his eyes were surely opening and he should see! His tiny heart
+thumped hard with excitement, and he rubbed his face with his forepaws
+to make his eyes open faster. Ah! There it was; something round and
+bright at the other end of the burrow, and some queer, slender things
+were waving across it. He wondered if it were good to eat, but he dared
+not crawl toward it to see. He did not know that the round, bright thing
+was just a bit of sky which he saw through the end of the burrow, and
+that the slender, waving ones were the branches of a dead tree tossing
+in the wind. Then he looked at his brothers and sisters as they lay
+beside him. He would not have known what they were if he had not felt of
+them at the same time.
+
+"I can see!" he cried. "I can see everything that there is to see! I'm
+ahead of you! Don't you wish that you could see, too?"
+
+That was not a very kind thing to say, but in a minute more his brothers
+and sisters had reason to be glad that they couldn't see. Even while he
+was speaking and looking toward the light, he saw a brown head with two
+round eyes look in at him, and then a great creature that he thought
+must surely be a dog ran in toward him. How frightened he was then! He
+pushed his nose in among his blind brothers and sisters and tried to
+hide himself among them. He thought something dreadful was about to
+happen.
+
+"I wish Mamma Rabbit would come," he squeaked, shutting his eyes as
+closely as he could. "I wish Mamma Rabbit would come."
+
+"Why, here I am," she answered. "What are you afraid of?"
+
+The biggest little Rabbit opened his eyes, and there was the creature
+who had frightened him so, and it was his own mother! You can imagine
+how glad she was to see that one of her children had his eyes open.
+
+"I will call in some of my Rabbit friends," she said, "and let you see
+them, if you will promise not to be afraid."
+
+The next day four of the other little Rabbits had their eyes open, and
+the day after that they all could see each other and the shining piece
+of sky at the end of the burrow. It was not so very long afterward that
+the Rabbit family went out to dine in the forest, and this was the first
+time that the children had seen their father. Often when their mother
+left them alone in the burrow she had pulled grass and leaves over the
+opening to hide it from him, for Rabbit fathers do not love their
+children until they are old enough to go out into the great world, and
+it would never do for them to know where their babies are kept. Then
+their father taught them how to gnaw tough bark to wear their teeth
+down, for Rabbits' teeth grow all the time, and if they were to eat only
+soft food, their teeth would get too long. He taught them, too, how to
+move their ears in the right way for keen hearing, and told them that
+when chased they must run for the burrow or the nearest thicket. "Then
+crouch down on some leaves that are the color of your fur," he said,
+"and you may not be seen at all."
+
+"Why should we run?" said the biggest little Rabbit.
+
+"Because you might be caught if you didn't."
+
+"What might catch us?" asked the biggest little Rabbit.
+
+"Oh, a Hawk, perhaps, or a Weasel."
+
+"What does a Hawk look like?"
+
+"Like a great bird floating in the sky," said Papa Rabbit. "Now, don't
+ask me a single question more."
+
+"Does a Hawk look like that bird above us?" asked the biggest little
+Rabbit.
+
+His father gave one look upward. "Yes!" he said. "Run!"
+
+And just as the Hawk swooped down toward the ground, he saw nine
+white-tipped tails disappear into a burrow near by.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE LITTLE BAT WHO WOULDN'T GO TO BED
+
+
+"Come," said Mamma Bat, flying toward her home in the cave, "it is time
+that you children went to bed. The eastern sky is growing bright, and I
+can see the fleecy clouds blush rosy red as the sun looks at them."
+
+The little Bats flitted along after her, and Papa Bat came behind them.
+They had been flying through the starlit forest all night, chasing the
+many small insects that come out after the sun has gone down, and
+passing in and out of the tangled branches without ever touching one.
+Indeed, Mamma Bat would have been ashamed if children of hers flew
+against anything in the dark. There might be some excuse for such a
+mistake in the daytime, for Bats' eyes do not see well then, but in the
+night-time! She would have scolded them well, and they would have
+deserved it, for Bats have the most wonderful way of feeling things
+before they touch them, and there are no other people in the forest who
+can do that. There are no other people who can tell by the feeling of
+the air when something is near, and the Bats made much fun of their
+friend, the Screech Owl, once, when he flew against a tree and fell to
+the ground.
+
+And now the night was over and their mother had called them to go home.
+One of the little Bats hung back with a very cross look on his face,
+and twice his father had to tell him to fly faster. He was thinking how
+he would like to see the forest in the daytime. He had never seen the
+sun rise, and he wanted to do that. He had never seen any of the
+day-birds or the animals that awaken in the morning. He thought it was
+pretty mean to make poor little Bats go off to bed the minute the stars
+began to fade. He didn't believe what his father and mother said, that
+he wouldn't have a good time if he did stay up. He had coaxed and coaxed
+and teased and teased, but it hadn't made a bit of difference. Every
+morning he had to fold his wings and go to sleep in a dark crack in the
+rock of the cave, hanging, head downward, close to the rest of the
+family. Their father said that there never was a better place to sleep
+than in this same crack, and it certainly was easy to catch on with the
+hooks at the lower ends of their wings when they hung themselves up for
+the day. But now he just wouldn't go to bed, so there!
+
+"It is your turn next," said Mamma Bat to him, when the rest of the
+children had hung themselves up.
+
+"I'm not going to bed," the little Bat answered.
+
+"Not going to bed!" said his father. "Are you crazy?"
+
+"No," said the little Bat, "I'm _not_."
+
+"I don't believe the child is well," said Mamma Bat. "He never acted
+like this before. I'm afraid he has overeaten." And she looked very
+anxious.
+
+"I _am_ well, and I _haven't_ eaten too much," said the little Bat. "I
+think you might let a fellow have some fun once in a while. I've never
+seen the sun in my life, and there are whole lots of birds and animals
+in the forest that I've only heard about."
+
+Papa and Mamma Bat looked at each other without speaking.
+
+"I _won't_ go to bed!" said the little Bat.
+
+"Very well," said his father. "I shall not try to make you. Fly away at
+once and let us go to sleep."
+
+After he had gone, Mamma Bat said, "I suppose you did right to let him
+go, but it seems too bad that children have to find out for themselves
+the trouble that comes from disobedience."
+
+The little Bat flew away feeling very brave. He guessed he knew how to
+take care of himself, even in daylight. He felt sorry for his brothers
+who were in the cave, but he made up his mind that he would tell them
+all about it the next night.
+
+The eastern sky grew brighter and brighter. It hurt his eyes to look at
+it, and he blinked and turned away. Then the song-birds awakened and
+began to sing. It was very interesting, but he thought they sang too
+loudly. The forest at night is a quiet place, and he didn't see the
+sense of shouting so, even if the sun were coming up. The night-birds
+never made such a fuss over the moon, and he guessed the moon was as
+good as the sun.
+
+Somebody went scampering over the grass, kicking up his heels as he ran.
+"That must be a Rabbit," thought the little Bat. "The Screech Owl told
+me that Rabbits run in that way. I wish I could see him more plainly. I
+don't know what is the matter with my eyes."
+
+Just then a sunbeam came slanting through the forest and fell on his
+furry coat as he clung to a branch. "Ow!" he cried. "Ow! How warm it is!
+I don't like that. The moonbeams do not feel so. I must fly to a shady
+corner." He started to fly. Just what was the matter, he never knew. It
+may have been because he couldn't see well, it may have been because he
+was getting very tired, or it may have been because the strangeness of
+it all was beginning to frighten him; but at all events, he went down,
+down, down until he found himself pitching and tumbling around in the
+grass.
+
+A Crow had seen him fall, and cried loudly, "Come! Come! Come!" to his
+friends. The Rabbits, who were feeding near by, came scampering along,
+making great leaps in their haste to see what was the matter. The
+Goldfinches, the Robins, the Orioles, the Woodpeckers, and many other
+birds came fluttering up. Even a Blue Jay sat on a branch above the Bat
+and shrieked, "Jay! Jay! Jay!" to add to the excitement. And last of
+all, the Ground Hog appeared, coming slowly and with dignity, as a
+person who can remember his grandfather should do.
+
+"What is the cause of all this commotion?" he asked. He might have said,
+"What is the matter?" and then they would have understood him at once,
+but he was too haughty for that. He thought he had to use big words
+once in a while to show that he could. If people didn't understand them,
+he was willing to explain what he meant.
+
+"We've found such a queer bird, sir," said the biggest little Rabbit,
+without waiting to find out what a "commotion" was. "Just see him tumble
+around!"
+
+"Bird? That is no bird," said a Woodpecker. "Look at his ears and his
+nose. He hasn't even a bill."
+
+"Well, he flies," said the biggest little Rabbit, "because I saw him, so
+he must be a bird."
+
+"Humph!" said a Chipmunk. "So does my cousin, the Flying Squirrel, in a
+way, yet he is no more bird than I am."
+
+"And this fellow hasn't a feather to his skin!" cried an Oriole.
+
+"I don't say that my son is right," said Papa Rabbit, "but this creature
+has wings." And he gave the Bat a poke that made him flutter wildly for
+a minute.
+
+"Yes, but what kind of wings?" asked the Goldfinch. "A pair of skinny
+things that grow on to his legs and have hooks on both ends."
+
+"He must be a very stupid fellow, at all events," said the Ground Hog.
+"He doesn't talk, or walk, or eat, or even fly well. He must come of a
+very common family. For my part, I am not interested in persons of that
+kind." And he walked away with his nose in the air.
+
+Now the other forest people would have liked to watch the Bat longer,
+but after the Ground Hog had gone off in this way, they thought it would
+show too much curiosity if they stayed. So one after another went away,
+and the little Bat was left alone. He fluttered around until he reached
+the branch where the Blue Jay had been, and there he hung himself up to
+wait until night.
+
+"Oh dear!" he said, "I wonder how long a day is. I am hot and blind and
+sleepy, and if any more of the forest people come and talk about me, I
+don't know what I shall do. They don't think me good-looking because my
+wings grow to my legs. I only wish I could see what they look like. I
+believe they are _just_ as homely."
+
+And then, because he was a very tired little Bat, and cross, as people
+always are when they have done wrong, he began to blame somebody else
+for all his trouble.
+
+"If my father and mother had cared very much about me," he said, "they
+would never have let me stay up all day. Guess if I were a big Bat and
+had little Bats of my own, I'd take better care of them!" But that is
+always the way, and when, long afterward, he was a big Bat with little
+Bats of his own, he was a much wiser person.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A SWARM LEAVES THE BEE TREE
+
+
+The old Bee tree was becoming very crowded and the Queen-Mother grew
+restless. There were many things to make her so. In the tree were
+thousands of cells made ready for her eggs, and she had been busy for
+days putting one in each. In the larger cells she laid eggs that would
+hatch out Drones, and in the smaller ones she laid Worker eggs. She
+never laid any Queen eggs. Perhaps she did not want any Queens among her
+children, for there can never be two Queens in one swarm, and when a new
+one is hatched, the Queen-Mother has to go away and find another home.
+That is a law among the Bees.
+
+The Workers, however, knew that there must be young Queens growing up
+all the time. Supposing something should happen to the Queen-Mother,
+what would become of the swarm if there were nobody to lay eggs? So
+after she had laid several thousand Worker eggs, and it was time for the
+young ones to hatch, they decided to change some of the babies into
+young Queens. And this was easy enough. When they were out for honey,
+they filled the pockets on their hind legs with pollen, the yellow dust
+that is found in flowers. This was to be mixed with honey and water and
+made into bread for the babies, who were now awake, and looked like
+tiny white worms in the bottom of their cells. Then they made some that
+was almost like sour jelly, and put it in a few of the Worker cells for
+the tiny white worms, or Larvæ, to eat. The Larvæ that eat this jelly
+grow up to be Queens, and can lay eggs. Those that eat the common bread
+are either Drones or Workers, whichever their mother had planned them to
+be.
+
+After the Larvæ were five or six days old, the Workers shut them up in
+their cells and stopped feeding them. That was because the Larvæ had
+other things to do than eat. They had to spin their cocoons, and lie in
+them until they were grown and ready to come out among the older Bees.
+When a Larva, or Bee baby, has finished its cocoon, and is lying inside,
+it is called a Pupa, and when a Pupa is full grown and has torn its way
+out of the cocoon and wax, it is called a Drone, or a Worker, or a
+Queen.
+
+Now the Queen-Mother was restless. She could hear the young Queens
+piping in their cells, and she knew that they wanted to come out and
+drive her away. She wanted to get to them and stop their piping, but the
+Workers stood in her way and prevented her. They knew it would not be
+well for the Queen-Mother to meet her royal children, and when these
+children tried to come out the Workers covered the doors of their cells
+with another layer of wax, leaving little holes where they could put out
+their tongues and be fed.
+
+This made the Queen-Mother more restless than ever. "If I cannot do as I
+wish to with my own children," she said, "I will leave the tree." And
+she began walking back and forth as fast as she could, and talked a
+great deal, and acted almost wild with impatience. The Workers saw how
+she felt, and part of them decided to go with her. When a Worker made
+up her mind to go with the Queen-Mother, she showed it by also acting
+wild and walking back and forth, and talking a great deal, sometimes
+fluttering her wings very fast. Then she would go for honey, because
+when Bees are about to swarm they fill their honey-pockets just as full
+as they can. At times the Queen-Mother would be quiet, and you might
+almost think that she had given up going. Then suddenly she would grow
+restless again, and all the Workers who were going with her would act as
+she did, and they would get so warm with excitement that the air in the
+tree became quite hot.
+
+At last the Queen-Mother thought it time to start, and her followers
+came around her in the tree, and were very still for a minute. Several
+of the Workers had been flying in circles around the tree, and now they
+came to the doorway and called. Then all came out, and hovered in the
+air a few minutes before stopping to rest on a bush near by. When they
+rested, the first Bee held on to the bush, the next Bee held on to her,
+and that was the way they did until they were all clinging tightly
+together in a squirming, dark-brown mass.
+
+Ah, then the Queen-Mother was happy! She felt that she was young again,
+and she thought, "How they love me, these dear Workers!" She stroked her
+body with her legs to make herself as fine as possible, and she noticed,
+with pleasure, how slender she was growing. "I had thought I should
+never fly again," she said, "yet this is delightful. I believe I will go
+off by myself for a little while."
+
+So she flew off by herself and was talking rather airily to a Butterfly
+when two of the Workers came after her.
+
+"You may return to the rest," she said in a queenly way, as she motioned
+to them with her feelers. "I will come by and by."
+
+"No," said they, "you must come at once or we shall all go back to the
+Bee tree. You must stay with us. You must do your part as it should be
+done." And she had to go, for she knew in her heart that Queens have to
+obey the law as well as other people.
+
+After she had hung with the Workers on the bush for some time, the ones
+who had gone ahead to find a new home for the swarm came back and gave
+the signal for the rest to follow. They went to an old log near the
+river-bank, and here they began the real work. Crawling through an
+opening at one end, they found a roomy place within, and commenced to
+clean house at once.
+
+"If there is anything I do like," said a Worker, as she dropped a
+splinter of rotten wood outside the door, "it is house-cleaning."
+
+"So do I," said her sister. "But what a fuss the Drones always make when
+we try to do anything of the sort! A pretty-looking home we'd have if
+they took care of it!"
+
+"I'm glad none of them came with us to this place," said the first
+Worker. "I guess they knew they were not wanted."
+
+"There, there!" said the Queen-Mother, coming up to where they were;
+"you must not talk in that way. It may be that you would rather do
+without Drones, and perhaps they would rather do without you; but I need
+you both and I will not have any quarreling." When she said this she
+walked away with her head in the air, and the Workers did not scold any
+more. They knew that she was right, and, after all, she was their Queen,
+even if she did have to obey the laws.
+
+Next they got varnish from the buds of poplar trees and varnished over
+all the cracks and little holes in the walls of their home, leaving open
+only the place where they were to go in and out. They also covered with
+varnish a few heavy fragments of wood that lay on the floor of their
+home, and when this task was done it was all in order and ready for the
+furniture, that is, the comb.
+
+You know how the comb looks, and you know how they get the wax from
+which to make it, but unless you are acquainted with the Bees, and have
+seen them at work, you have no idea what busy creatures they are. The
+Queen-Mother, as soon as the cells were ready and she could begin laying
+eggs again, was as contented and happy as ever.
+
+One day, when she was walking around a corner of the comb, she ran
+against a sad and discouraged-looking Worker. "Why, what is the matter?"
+said she, kindly. "Are you sick?"
+
+"No," answered the Worker. "I'm not sick and I'm not tired, only I want
+to get through."
+
+"Through with what?" asked the Queen.
+
+"With work! It is clean house, varnish the walls, make wax, build combs,
+get honey, make bread and jelly, and feed the babies. And when they get
+old enough they'll have to clean house, varnish the walls, make wax,
+build combs, get honey, make bread and jelly, and feed the babies. I
+want to know when it is going to stop, and Bees can spend their time in
+play."
+
+"Never," said the Queen-Mother; and she spoke very gently, for she saw
+that the Worker was crazy. "It will never stop. If you had nothing to do
+but play all your life you would soon want to die, and you ought to, for
+there is no place in this world for idlers. You know that after a while
+the Drones die because they do nothing, and it is right they should."
+
+"Don't you ever get tired of your eggs?" asked the Worker.
+
+"No," answered the Queen-Mother, "I don't. You see, I have so much to
+think about, and happy thoughts make tasks light. And then, you know, it
+is not always the same kind of egg, and that makes a pleasant change for
+me. I will give you a motto to remember: 'As long as a Bee is well, work
+is pleasant when done faithfully.'"
+
+"Perhaps that is the matter with me," said the Worker, raising her
+drooping head. "I have been careless lately when I thought nobody was
+looking. I will try your way."
+
+When she had gone, the Queen-Mother smiled to herself and said: "Poor
+child! When work is no longer a pleasure, life is indeed sad. But any
+Larva should know better than to work carelessly when she is not
+watched."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE HAUGHTY GROUND HOG
+
+
+Not far from the home of the Rabbits was another burrow where the Ground
+Hog lived, and there was a very kindly feeling between the neighbors.
+They liked the same food, and as there was plenty for all, they often
+nibbled together near the edge of the forest. The little Rabbits were
+fond of him and liked to listen to his stories. Once the biggest little
+Rabbit had run into the Ground Hog's burrow by mistake when he was
+frightened, and that was the beginning of a great friendship between
+them.
+
+They were a queer-looking couple, for the Rabbit was small and quick and
+dainty, while the Ground Hog, with his stout body covered with thick,
+reddish fur, his broad, flat head, and his short legs, was a clumsy
+fellow. To be sure, he could get out of sight quickly if he had to, but
+he never scampered around and kicked up his heels for the fun of it, as
+the Rabbits did. He was too dignified to do that. He came of an old
+family and he could remember who his grandfather was. There were but few
+people in the forest who could do that; so, of course, he could not
+frisk like his neighbors.
+
+Perhaps if the Ground Hog had not belonged to so old a family, he might
+have had a better time. Yet the thought that he could remember his
+grandfather was a great pleasure to him, and when he was talking he
+would often remark in the most careless way, "as my grandfather used to
+say"; or, "That reminds me of something my grandfather once did." Some
+people said that he did this to show off; but it may be that they were
+envious.
+
+However that may have been, the Ground Hog was certainly a haughty
+fellow, and if he had not been so gentle and kind a neighbor people
+would not have liked him. Only once had he been known to get angry, and
+that was when a saucy young Chipmunk had spoken of him as a Woodchuck.
+"Woodchuck! Woodchuck!" he had grunted. "You young Bushy-tail, I am a
+Ground Hog, and the Ground Hog family lived in this forest long before
+you ever opened your eyes. People with good manners do not call us
+'Woodchucks.' We do not like the name. My grandfather could not endure
+it."
+
+It was not very long after this that he told the wondering young Rabbits
+about his grandfather. When talking, the Ground Hog rested by the edge
+of his burrow, sitting on his haunches, and waving his queer little
+forepaws whenever he told anything especially important. And this was
+the story:
+
+"Perhaps you may have heard me speak of my grandfather. Ah, he was a
+Ground Hog worth seeing! He was large, and, although when I knew him the
+black fur on his back was streaked with gray, he was still handsome. He
+was clever, too. I have often heard my father say that he could dig the
+deepest and best burrow in the forest. And then he had such fine
+manners! There was not another Ground Hog in the country around who
+could eat as noisily as he, and it is said that when he was courting my
+grandmother she chose him because of the elegant way in which he sat up
+on his haunches. I have been told, children, that I am very much like
+him."
+
+Just here, a Red-headed Woodpecker gave a loud "Rat-a-tat-tat" on the
+tree above the Ground Hog's head, and there was a look around her bill
+as though she wanted to laugh. The Ground Hog slowly turned his head to
+look at her as she flew away. "Quite a good-looking young person," he
+said, "but badly brought up. She should know better than to disturb
+those who are talking. What was I saying, children?"
+
+"You were telling how well your grandfather sat up on his haunches,"
+said the smallest little Rabbit.
+
+"So I was! So I was! I must tell you how my grandfather came to know the
+world so well. When he was only a young fellow, he made his home for a
+time by a Hen house, and so heard the talk of the barn-yard people.
+Once he heard them tell how the farmer watched on a certain winter day
+to see my grandfather come out of his burrow. Of course, you children
+all know how we Ground Hogs do; in the fall we are very fat, and when
+the cold weather comes we go to sleep in our burrows to wait for spring.
+Sometimes we awaken and stretch, but we go to sleep again very soon.
+Then, when spring comes we are slender and have healthy appetites.
+
+"The Hens treated my grandfather with great politeness, and the Black
+Brahma Cock showed plainly how honored they felt to have him there. They
+said that they were so glad my grandfather stayed out of his burrow
+awhile on this winter day when the farmer was watching, because they
+were in a hurry for warm weather. My grandfather did not know what they
+meant by that, but he was too wise to say so, and he found out by
+asking questions, that if a Ground Hog leaves his burrow on this certain
+day in winter, and sees his shadow, and goes back again, it will be cold
+for a long time after that. If he does not see his shadow, and stays
+out, it will soon be warm.
+
+"You see now, children, how important our family is; and yet we are so
+modest that we had not even known that we made the weather until the
+Hens told my grandfather. But that is the way! Really great people often
+think the least of themselves."
+
+"And do you make the weather?" asked the smallest little Rabbit.
+
+"I suppose we do," said the Ground Hog, with a smile. "It is a great
+care. I often say to myself: 'Shall I have it warm, or shall I have it
+cold?' It worries me so that sometimes I can hardly eat."
+
+"And how do you know when the day comes for you to make the weather?"
+said the smallest little rabbit.
+
+"Ahem! Well-er! I am sorry to say that my grandfather did not find out
+exactly what day it is that they watch for us, so I have to guess at
+that. But to think that we Ground Hogs make the weather for all the
+other people! It is worth a great deal to belong to such a family. I
+suppose I might have been a Weasel, a Fox, an Owl, or an Oriole. And it
+is a great thing to have known one's grandfather."
+
+The little Rabbits sat very still, wishing that they had known their
+grandfather, when suddenly the biggest one said: "If you should stay out
+of your burrow when that day comes, and another Ground Hog should go
+back into his burrow, how would the weather know what to do?"
+
+"Children," said the old Ground Hog, "I think your mother is calling to
+you. You might better go to see. Good-by." And he waved his paw
+politely.
+
+The seven little Rabbits scampered away, but their mother was not
+calling them. She wasn't even there, and when they went back they
+couldn't find the Ground Hog. They wondered how he happened to make such
+a mistake. The Red-headed Woodpecker who came along at about that time,
+twisted her head on one side and said: "Made-a-mistake! Rat-a-tat-tat!
+Not he!"
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE UNDECIDED RATTLESNAKE
+
+
+It is not often that one of the Forest People has any trouble about
+making up his mind, but there was one large Rattlesnake who had great
+difficulty in doing so. She lived in the southern edge of the forest,
+where the sunshine was clear and warm, and there were delightful
+crevices among the rocks in which she and all her friends and relatives
+could hide.
+
+It seemed very strange that so old a Snake should be so undecided as she
+was. It must be that she had a careless mother who did not bring her up
+in the right way. If that were so, one should indeed be sorry for her.
+Still even that would be no real excuse, for was she not old enough now
+to train herself? She had seven joints in the rattle on her tail and an
+eighth one growing, so you can see that she was no longer young,
+although, being healthy, she had grown her new joints and changed her
+skin oftener than some of her friends. In fact, she had grown children
+of her own, and if it had not been that they took after their father,
+they would have been a most helpless family. Fortunately for them, their
+father was a very decided Snake.
+
+Yes, it was exceedingly lucky for them. It may not have been so good a
+thing for him. His wife was always glad to have things settled for her,
+and when he said, "We will do this," she answered, "Yes, dear." When he
+said, "We will not do that," she murmured, "No, dear." And when he
+said, "What shall we do?" she would reply, "Oh, I don't know. What do
+you think we might better do?" He did not very often ask her opinion,
+and there were people in the forest who said he would never have talked
+matters over with her if he had not known that she would leave the
+decision to him.
+
+Now this is a bad way in which to have things go in any family, and it
+happened here as it would anywhere. He grew more and more selfish from
+having his own way all of the time, and his wife became less and less
+able to take care of herself. Most people thought him a very devoted
+husband. Perhaps he was. It is easy to be a devoted husband if you
+always have your own way.
+
+One night Mr. Rattlesnake did not return to their home. Nobody ever knew
+what had become of him. The Red Squirrel said that Mrs. Goldfinch said
+that the biggest little Rabbit had told her that the Ground Hog had
+overheard Mr. Crow say that he thought he saw somebody that looked like
+Mr. Rattlesnake chasing a Field Mouse over toward the farm, but that he
+might have been mistaken. This was all so uncertain that Mrs.
+Rattlesnake knew no more than she had known before. It was very trying.
+
+"If I only knew positively," she said to her friend, Mrs. Striped Snake,
+"I could do something, although I am sure I don't know what it would
+be."
+
+Mrs. Striped Snake tried to help her. "Why not have one of your children
+come home to live with you?" she said pleasantly, for this year's
+children were now old enough to shift for themselves.
+
+"I've thought of that," answered Mrs. Rattlesnake, "but I like a quiet
+life, and you know how it is. Young Snakes will be young Snakes.
+Besides, I don't think they would want to come back."
+
+"Well, why not be alone, then?"
+
+"Oh, it is so lonely," replied Mrs. Rattlesnake, with a sigh.
+"Everything reminds me so of my husband, and that makes me sad. If I
+lived somewhere else it would be different."
+
+"Then why not move?" said Mrs. Striped Snake, briskly. "I would do that.
+Find a nice crack in the rock just big enough for one, or make a cosy
+little hole in the ground somewhere near here. Then if he comes back he
+can find you easily. I would do that. I certainly would."
+
+She spoke so firmly that Mrs. Rattlesnake said she would, she would
+to-morrow. And her friend went home thinking it was all settled. That
+shows how little she really knew Mrs. Rattlesnake.
+
+The more Mrs. Rattlesnake thought it over that night, the more she
+dreaded moving. "If he does not come back," she sighed, "I may marry
+again in the spring, and then I might have to move once more. I believe
+I will ask somebody else what I ought to do."
+
+So in the morning she began to consult her friends. They all told her to
+move, and she decided to do it. Then she could not make up her mind
+whether to take a rock-crevice or make a hole in the ground. It took
+another day of visiting to settle that it should be a hole in the
+ground. A fourth day was spent in finding just the right place for her
+home, and on the fifth day she began work.
+
+By the time the sun was over the tree-tops, she wished she had chosen
+some other place, and thought best to stop and talk to some of her
+friends about it. When she returned she found herself obliged to cast
+her skin, which had been growing tight and dry for some time. This was
+hard work, and she was too tired to go on with her home-making, so she
+lay in the sunshine and admired her beautiful, long, and shining body of
+reddish brown spotted with black. Her rattle had eight joints now, for
+when a Rattlesnake casts the old skin a new joint is always uncovered at
+the end of the tail. She waved it quickly to see how an eight-jointed
+rattle would sound. "Lovely!" she said. "Lovely! Like the seeds of the
+wild cucumber shaking around in their dry and prickly case."
+
+One could not tell all the things that happened that fall, or how very,
+very, very tired her friends became of having her ask their advice. She
+changed her mind more times than there are seeds in a milkweed pod, and
+the only thing of which she was always sure was eating. When there was
+food in sight she did not stop for anybody's advice. She ate it as fast
+as she could, and if she had any doubts about the wisdom of doing so,
+she kept them to herself.
+
+When winter came she had just got her new home ready, and after all she
+went when invited to spend the winter with a cave party of other Snakes.
+They coiled themselves together in a great mass and slept there until
+spring. As the weather grew warmer, they began to stir, wriggling and
+twisting themselves free.
+
+Two bachelor Snakes asked her to marry. One was a fine old fellow with a
+twelve-jointed rattle. The other was just her own age.
+
+"To be sure I will," she cried, and the pits between her nostrils and
+her ears looked more like dimples than ever. "Only you must wait until I
+can make up my mind which one to marry."
+
+"Oh, no," they answered, "don't go to all that trouble. We will fight
+and decide it for you."
+
+It was a long fight, and the older of the two Snakes had a couple of
+joints broken off from his rattle before it was over. Still he beat the
+other one and drove him away. When he came back for his bride he found
+her crying. "What is the matter?" said he, quite sternly.
+
+"Oh, that p-poor other b-bachelor!" she sobbed. "I b-believe I will g-go
+after him. I think p-perhaps I l-love him the b-better."
+
+"No, you don't, Mrs. Rattlesnake," said the fine old fellow who had just
+won the fight. "You will do no such thing. You will marry me and never
+speak to him again. When I have lost two joints of my rattle in fighting
+for you, I intend to have you myself, and _I_ say that you love me very
+dearly. Do you hear?"
+
+"Yes, darling," she answered, as she wiped her eyes on the grass, "very
+dearly." And they lived most happily together.
+
+"He reminds me so much of the first Mr. Rattlesnake," she said to her
+friends. "So strong, so firm, so quick to decide!"
+
+And the friends said to each other, "Well, let us be thankful he is. We
+have been bothered enough by her coming to us for advice which she never
+followed."
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE QUARRELSOME MOLE
+
+
+When the first hillock of fresh brown earth was thrown up in the edge of
+the Forest, the People who lived there said to each other. "Can it be
+that we have a new neighbor?"
+
+Perhaps the Rabbits, the Ground Hogs, and the Snakes cared the most, for
+they also made their homes in the ground; yet even the Orioles wanted to
+know all about it. None of them had ever been acquainted with a Mole.
+They had seen the ridges in the meadows beneath which the Moles had
+their runways, and they knew that when the Moles were making these long
+streets under ground, they had to cut an opening through the grass once
+in a while and throw the loose earth out. This new mound in the forest
+looked exactly like those in the meadow, so they decided there must be a
+Mole in the neighborhood.
+
+If that were so, somebody should call upon him and get acquainted; but
+how could they call? Mrs. Red Squirrel said: "Why can't some of you
+people who are so clever at digging, burrow down and find him?"
+
+"Yes indeed," twittered the birds; "that is a good plan."
+
+But Mr. Red Squirrel smiled at his wife and said: "I am afraid,
+Bushy-tail (that was his pet name for her) that none of our friends here
+could overtake the Mole. You know he is a very fast runner. If they were
+following they could never catch him."
+
+"Let them burrow down ahead of the place where he is working, then,"
+said she.
+
+"And the Mole would turn and go another way, not knowing it was a friend
+looking for him."
+
+"Well, why not make an opening into one of his runways and go into it,
+hunting until he is found?" said Mrs. Red Squirrel, who was like some
+other people in not wishing to give up her own ideas.
+
+"Yes," cried a mischievous young Woodpecker; "let the Ground Hog go. You
+surely don't think him too fat?"
+
+Now there was no denying that the Ground Hog was getting too stout to
+look well, and people thought he would be angry at this. Perhaps he was
+angry. The little Rabbits were sure of it. They said they knew by the
+expression of his tail. Still, you know, the Ground Hog came of a good
+family, and well-bred people do not say mean things even if they are
+annoyed. He combed the fur on his face with both paws, and answered
+with a polite bow: "If I had the slender and graceful form of my
+charming friend, Mrs. Red Squirrel, I should be delighted to do as she
+suggests."
+
+That was really a very clever thing for Mr. Ground Hog to say. It was
+much more agreeable than if he had grunted out, "Much she knows about
+it! We burrowing people are all too large." And now Mrs. Red Squirrel
+was pleased and happy although her plan was not used.
+
+That night Mrs. Ground Hog said to her husband: "I didn't know you
+admired Mrs. Red Squirrel so much." And he answered: "Pooh! Admire her?
+She is a very good-looking person for one of her family, and I want to
+be polite to her for her husband's sake. He and I have business
+together. But for my part I prefer more flesh. I could never have
+married a slender wife, and I am pleased to see, my dear, that you are
+stouter than you were." And this also shows how clever a fellow Mr.
+Ground Hog was.
+
+The very next night, as luck would have it, the Mole came out of his
+runway for a scamper on the grass. Mr. Ground Hog saw him and made his
+acquaintance. "We are glad to have you come," said he. "You will find it
+a pleasant neighborhood. People are very friendly."
+
+"Well, I'm glad of that," answered the Mole. "I don't see any sense in
+people being disagreeable, myself, but in the meadow which I have just
+left there were the worst neighbors in the world. I stood it just as
+long as I could, and then I moved."
+
+"I am sorry to hear that," said the Ground Hog, gently. "I had always
+supposed it a pleasant place to live in." He began to wonder what kind
+of fellow the Mole was. He did not like to hear him say such unkind
+things before a new acquaintance. Sometimes unpleasant things have to be
+said, but it was not so now.
+
+"Umph!" said the Mole. "You have to live with people to know them. Of
+course, we Moles had no friends among the insects. We are always glad to
+meet them in the ground, but they do not seem so glad to meet us. That
+is easily understood when you remember what hungry people Moles are.
+Friendship is all very well, but when a fellow's stomach is empty, he
+can't let that stand in the way of a good dinner. There was no such
+reason why the Tree Frog or the Garter Snake should dislike me."
+
+"Are you sure they did dislike you?"
+
+"Certain of it. I remember how one night I wanted to talk with the
+Garter Snake, and asked him to come out of his hole for a visit in the
+moonlight. He wouldn't come."
+
+"What did he say?" asked the Ground Hog.
+
+"Not a word! And that was the worst of it. Think how provoking it was
+for me to stand there and call and call and not get any reply."
+
+"Perhaps he was not at home," suggested the Ground Hog.
+
+"That's what he said when I spoke to him. Said he was spending the night
+down by the river. As though I'd be likely to believe that! I guess he
+saw that he couldn't fool me, though, for after I told him what I
+thought of him he wriggled away without saying a word."
+
+"Still he is not so disagreeable as the Tree Frog," said the Mole, after
+a pause in which the Ground Hog had been trying not to laugh. The Ground
+Hog said afterward that it was the funniest sight imaginable to see the
+stout little Mole scampering back and forth in the moonlight, and
+stopping every few minutes to scold about the Meadow People. The
+twitching of his tiny tail and the jerky motions of his large,
+pink-palmed digging hands, showed how angry he grew in thinking of
+them, and his pink snout fairly quivered with rage.
+
+"I will tell you about the Tree Frog," said the Mole. "He is one of
+these fellows who are always just so good-natured and polite. I can't
+endure them. I say it's putting on airs to act that way. I was telling
+him what I thought of the Garter Snake, and what should he do but draw
+himself up and say: 'Excuse me, but the Garter Snake is a particular
+friend of mine, and I do not care to hear him spoken of in that way.' I
+guess I taught him one good lesson, though. I told him he was just the
+kind of person I should expect the Garter Snake to like, and that I
+wished them much joy together, but that I didn't want anything to do
+with them.
+
+"It was only a short time after this that I had such trouble about
+making my fort. Whenever I started to dig in a place I would find some
+other Mole there ahead of me."
+
+"And then you would have to go somewhere else, of course?" said the
+Ground Hog.
+
+"I'd like to know why!" said the Mole, with his glossy silver-brown fur
+on end. "No indeed! I had a perfect right to dig wherever I wished, and
+I would tell them so, and they would have to go elsewhere. One Mole was
+bad-tempered enough to say that he had as much right in the meadow as
+anybody, and I had to tussle with him and bite him many times before he
+saw his mistake.... They are disagreeable people over there,--but why
+are you going so soon? I thought we would have a good visit together."
+
+"I promised to meet Mrs. Ground Hog," said her husband, "and must go.
+Good-night!" and he trotted away.
+
+Not long afterward this highly respectable couple were feeding together
+in the moonlight. "What do you think of the Mole?" said she.
+
+"Well,--er--ahem," answered her husband. "You know, my dear, that I do
+not like to talk against people, and I might better not tell you exactly
+what I think of him. He is a queer-looking fellow, and I always distrust
+anyone who will not look me in the eye. Perhaps that is not his fault,
+for the fur hides his eyes and he wears his ears inside of his head; but
+I must say that a fiercer or more disagreeable-looking snout I never
+saw. He has had trouble with all his old neighbors, and a fellow who
+cannot get along peaceably in one place will not in another. He is
+always talking about his rights and what he thinks----"
+
+"You have told me enough," said Mrs. Ground Hog, interrupting him.
+"Nobody ever liked a person who insists on his 'rights' every time. And
+such a person never enjoys life. What a pity it is!" and she gave a sigh
+that shook her fat sides. "Now, I had it all planned that he should
+marry and set up housekeeping, and that I should have another pleasant
+neighbor soon."
+
+"Ah! Mrs. Ground Hog," said her husband teasingly, "I knew you would be
+thinking of that. You are a born matchmaker. Now I think we could stand
+a few bachelors around here,--fine young fellows who have nothing to do
+but enjoy life." And his eyes twinkled as he said it.
+
+"As though you did not enjoy life!" answered his wife. "Still, I could
+not wish any young Mole such a husband as this fellow. It is a great
+undertaking to marry a grumpy bachelor and teach him the happiness of
+living for others." And she looked very solemn.
+
+"I suppose you found it so?" said Mr. Ground Hog, sidling up toward her.
+
+"What a tease you are!" said his wife. "You know that I am happy." And
+really, of all the couples on whom the moon looked that night, there
+was not a happier one than this pair of Ground Hogs; and there was not a
+lonelier or more miserable person than the Mole, who guarded his own
+rights and told people what he thought of them. But it is always so.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE WILD TURKEYS COME
+
+
+The Wild Turkeys are a wandering people, and stay in one place only long
+enough to rear their young. One could hardly say that they lived in the
+Forest, but every year when the acorns and beechnuts were ripe, they
+came for a visit. It is always an exciting time when the Turkeys are
+seen gathering on the farther side of the river and making ready to fly
+over. Some of the Forest People have started for the warmer country in
+the South, and those who still remain are either talking over their
+plans for flight, or working hard, if they are to spend the winter in
+the North, to get their stores of food ready.
+
+It was so this year. One morning a Red-headed Woodpecker brought the
+news that the Turkeys were gathering. The Ground Hog heard of it just as
+he was going to sleep after a night of feeding and rambling in the edge
+of the meadow. One of the young Rabbits told him, and coaxed him to stay
+up to see the newcomers.
+
+"I've never seen Turkeys in my life," said the young Rabbit, "and they
+say it is great fun to watch them. Oh, please come with me to the
+river-bank and see the Turkeys cross over. Please do!"
+
+"Ah-h-h," yawned the Ground Hog. "You might better ask somebody who has
+not been up all night. I am too sleepy."
+
+"You won't be sleepy when you reach the river-bank," said the Rabbit.
+"Beside, I think there should be someone there to meet them."
+
+At this, the Ground Hog raised his drooping head, opened his blinking
+eyes, and answered with great dignity: "There should indeed be someone.
+I will go at once."
+
+When they reached the river-bank there was a sight well worth seeing. On
+the farther side of the water were a great many Turkeys. Old Gobblers
+were there, and the mother Turkeys with their broods of children, all
+looking as fine as you please, in their shining black coats. When they
+stood in the shadow, one might think that they wore no color but the
+brilliant red of their heads and necks, where there were no feathers to
+cover their wrinkled skin. When they walked out into the sunshine,
+however, their feathers showed gleams of beautiful purple and green,
+and the Rabbit thought them the most wonderful great creatures he had
+ever seen.
+
+"Look at them now!" he cried. "Why do those largest ones walk up and
+down in front of the rest and scold them?"
+
+"They are the Gobblers," answered the Ground Hog, "and they are doing
+that to show that they are not afraid to cross the river. They strut and
+gobble, and strut and gobble, and say: 'Who's-afraid? Who's-afraid?'
+until the rest are ready to fly over."
+
+"Now the others are doing the same thing," said the Rabbit, as the
+mothers and young Turkeys began to strut back and forth.
+
+"That shows that they are willing to cross," answered the Ground Hog.
+"Now they will fly up to the very tops of the trees on the hill and
+visit there for a time. It is always so. They start from the highest
+point they can find. It will be some time before they come over, and I
+will take a short nap. Be sure to awaken me when they start. I want to
+welcome them to the Forest." And the Ground Hog curled himself up beside
+a log and went to sleep.
+
+The Rabbit wandered around and ate all the good things he could find.
+Then he fell to wondering how it would feel to be a bird. He thought it
+would be great fun to fly. To pass so swiftly through the air must be
+delightful, and then to sweep grandly down and alight softly on the
+ground without having people know that you were coming!
+
+He had a good mind to try it. There was nobody to watch him, and he
+crept up the trunk of a fallen tree which leaned over against its
+neighbors. It was a foolish thing to do, and he knew it, but young
+Rabbits are too full of mischief to always be wise.
+
+"I will hold my hind legs very still," he thought, "and flap my
+forelegs for wings." With that he jumped off and came crashing down upon
+the dry leaves. He felt weak and dizzy, and as he picked himself up and
+looked around he hoped that nobody had seen him. "It may be a great deal
+of fun to fly," he said, "but it is no fun alighting from your flight
+unless you have real feather wings. It is too bumpy when you fly with
+your legs."
+
+At this minute he heard an old Gobbler call out, and saw the flock of
+Turkeys coming toward him. "Wake up! Wake up!" he cried to the Ground
+Hog. But the Ground Hog never moved.
+
+Still the Turkeys came nearer. The Rabbit could see that the fat old
+ones were getting ahead of the others, and that here and there a young
+or weak Turkey had to drop into the river and swim, because his wings
+were tired. They got so near that he could see the queer little tufts of
+wiry feathers which the Gobblers wear hanging from their breast, and
+could see the swaying scarlet wattles under their beaks. He called again
+to the Ground Hog, and getting no answer, poked him three times with his
+head.
+
+The Ground Hog turned over, stretched, yawned, moved his jaws a few
+times as though he dreamed of eating fresh spring grass, and then fell
+asleep once more. After that the Rabbit left him alone.
+
+The first to alight were the Gobblers, and they began at once to strut
+and chatter. Next came the mother Turkeys and their young, and last of
+all came the weak ones who swam across. It was a fine sight to see them
+come in. The swimmers spread their tails, folded their wings tightly,
+stretched their necks, and struck out swiftly and strongly with their
+feet.
+
+The young Rabbit could hear a group of mothers talking together. "The
+Gobblers are growing quite fond of the children," said one.
+
+"Yes," said another; "my husband told me yesterday that he was very
+proud of our little ones."
+
+"Well, it is the season for them to begin to walk together," said the
+first speaker; "but I never in my life had such a time as I had this
+spring. I thought my husband would break every egg I laid."
+
+"I had a hard time too," said the other. "None of my eggs were broken,
+but after my chicks were hatched I had to hurry them out of their
+father's sight a dozen times a day."
+
+"It is very trying," said a third mother Turkey with a sigh; "but that
+is always the way with the Gobblers. I suppose the dear fellows can't
+help it;" and she looked lovingly over at her husband as he strutted
+around with his friends. You would not have believed if you had seen her
+fond looks, and heard her husband's tender "Gobble," that they had
+hardly spoken to each other all summer. To be sure, it was not now as
+it had been in the springtime. Then he would have beaten any other
+Gobbler who came near her, he loved her so; still, the Rabbit could see
+as he watched them that when he found some very large and fine acorns,
+this Gobbler would not eat them all, but called his wife to come and
+share with him; and he knew that they were happy together in their own
+Turkey way of being happy.
+
+At this minute the Ground Hog opened his eyes and staggered to his feet.
+The loud talking had awakened him. He did not look very dignified just
+now. His fur was rumpled, and he blinked often from sleepiness. There
+was a dry leaf caught on one of his ears, too, that made him look very
+odd. The Rabbit wanted to laugh, but he did not dare to do so. The
+Ground Hog walked toward the Gobblers, and raised himself on his
+haunches.
+
+"Good-evening, good-evening," said he (it was really morning, you
+know). "We are very glad to welcome you to the forest. Make yourselves
+perfectly at home. The grass is not so tender as it was a while ago, yet
+I think that you will find good feeding," and he waved his paws
+politely.
+
+"Thank-you,--thank-you!" answered the Gobblers, while the mothers and
+young Turkeys came crowding up to look at the Ground Hog. "We came for
+the acorns and nuts. We shall certainly enjoy ourselves."
+
+"That is right," said the Ground Hog heartily. "We have a very fine
+forest here. You will pardon me for remarking it. The Pond People have a
+saying that is very true: 'It's a mighty poor Frog that won't croak for
+his own puddle.' And my grandfather used to say that if a Ground Hog
+didn't love his own home he was a very poor Hog indeed. Good-night, my
+friends, good-night." And he trotted happily away, followed by the
+Rabbit.
+
+When he was gone, the Turkeys said: "How very kind of him!" and "What
+fine manners!" And the young Rabbit thought to himself: "It is queer. He
+was sleepy and his fur was rumpled, and that leaf bobbed around his ear
+when he talked. He said 'evening' instead of 'morning,' and spoke as
+though Turkeys came here to eat grass. And yet they all liked him, and
+were pleased by what he said."
+
+You see the young Rabbit had not yet learned that the power of fine
+manners is more than that of looks; and that people could not think of
+the Ground Hog's mistakes in speaking because they knew his kindness of
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TRAVELLERS GO SOUTH
+
+
+One night a maple tree, the very one under which Mr. Red Squirrel sat
+when he first came to the forest, dreamed of her winter resting-time,
+and when she awakened early in the morning she found that her leaves
+were turning yellow. They were not all brightly colored, but on each was
+an edging, or a tip, or a splash of gold. You may be sure that the
+Forest People noticed it at once.
+
+"I told you so," chirruped a Robin to her mate. "The Orioles went long
+ago, and the Bobolinks start to-day. We must think about our trip to the
+South." When she said this, she hopped restlessly from twig to twig with
+an air of being exceedingly busy.
+
+Her husband did not answer, but began to arrange his new coat of
+feathers. Perhaps he was used to her fussy ways and thought it just as
+well to keep still. He knew that none of the Robins would start South
+until the weather became much colder, and he did not think it necessary
+to talk about it yet. Perhaps, too, Mr. Robin was a trifle contrary and
+was all the more slow and quiet because his wife was uneasy. In that
+case one could hardly blame her for talking over the family plans with
+the neighbors.
+
+Later in the day, a Bobolink came up from the marsh to say good-by. He
+had on his travelling suit of striped brown, and you would never have
+known him for the same gay fellow who during the spring and early
+summer wore black and buff and sang so heartily and sweetly. Now he did
+not sing at all, and slipped silently from bush to bush, only speaking
+when he had to. He was a good fellow and everyone disliked to have him
+go.
+
+Mrs. Cowbird came up while they were talking. Now that she did not care
+to lay any more eggs, the other birds were quite friendly with her. They
+began to talk over the summer that was past, and said how finely the
+young birds were coming on. "By the way," said she, in the most careless
+manner possible, "I ought to have a few children round here somewhere.
+Can anybody tell me where they are?"
+
+Mrs. Goldfinch looked at her husband and he looked at the sky. The
+Warblers and the Vireos, who had known about the strange egg in the
+Goldfinches' nest, had already left for the winter, and there seemed to
+be no use in telling their secret now or quarrelling over what was past.
+Some of the other birds might have told Mrs. Cowbird a few things, but
+they also kept still.
+
+"It is a shame," she said. "I never laid a finer lot of eggs in my life,
+and I was very careful where I put them. I wish I knew how many there
+were, but I forgot to count. I have been watching and watching for my
+little birds to join our flock; I was sure I should know them if I saw
+them. Mothers have such fine feelings, you know, in regard to their
+children." (As though she had any right to say that!)
+
+The Mourning Doves were there with their young son and daughter, and you
+could see by looking at them that they were an affectionate family. "We
+shall be the last to go South," they cooed. "We always mean to come
+North in the very early spring and stay as late as possible. This year
+we came much later than usual, but it could not be helped." They had
+spoken so before, and rather sadly. It was said that they could tell a
+sorrowful story if they would; but they did not wish to sadden others by
+it, and bore their troubles together bravely and lovingly.
+
+"How do the new feathers work?" asked a Crow, flying up at this minute
+and looking blacker than ever in his fall coat. Then all the birds began
+to talk about dress. As soon as their broods were raised, you know,
+their feathers had begun to drop out, and they had kept on moulting
+until all of the old ones were gone and the new ones on. When birds are
+moulting they never feel well, and when it is over they are both happy
+and proud.
+
+"I changed later than usual this year," said the Crow, "and I feel that
+I have the very latest fashions." This was a joke which he must have
+picked up among the Barnyard People, and nobody knows where they got
+it. Fashions never change in the Forest.
+
+"I think," remarked a Red-headed Woodpecker, "that I have the best wing
+feathers now that I ever had. They seem to be a little longer, and they
+hook together so well. I almost wish I were going South to try them on a
+long journey."
+
+"Mr. Woodpecker's wing feathers are certainly excellent," said his wife,
+who was always glad to see him well dressed. "I am sure that the
+strongest wind will never part them. I don't see how the Owls can stand
+it to wear their feathers unhooked so that some of the air passes
+through their wings each time they flap them. It must make flying hard."
+
+"Well, if you were an Owl you would understand," chuckled the Crow. "If
+their great wings were like ours, the noise of their flying would scare
+every creature within hearing, and there would not be much fun in
+hunting."
+
+And so they chatted on, while from the meadow came the sound of the
+happy insects piping in the sunshine. It was chilly now at night and in
+the early morning, and they could give concerts only at noonday. The
+next day the Wild Turkeys came and there was great excitement in the
+forest. The Squirrels were busier than ever storing up all the acorns
+that they could before the newcomers reached the oak trees; and the Blue
+Jays were so jealous of the Turkeys that they overate every day for fear
+there would not be enough to go around. As though there were any danger!
+
+The Ground Hog was getting so sleepy now that he would doze off while
+people were talking to him, and then he would suddenly straighten up and
+say: "Yes, yes, yes! Don't think that I was asleep, please. The colors
+of the trees are so bright that they tire my eyes and I sometimes close
+them." The dear old fellow really never knew how he had been nodding.
+
+The Snakes, too, were growing dull and slow of motion, while the Bats
+talked freely of hanging themselves up for the winter. The Grouse and
+Quail made daily trips to the edges of the grain-fields, and found rich
+picking among the stubble. You could almost fancy that they came home
+each night fatter than when they went away in the morning.
+
+Life went on in this way for many days, and the birds had all stopped
+singing. There were no more happy concerts at sunrise and no more carols
+at evening; only chirrupings and twitterings as the feathered people
+hopped restlessly from one perch to another. All could see that they
+were busily thinking and had no time for music. The truth was that each
+bird who was not to spend the winter in the Forest felt as though
+something were drawing--drawing--drawing him southward. It was something
+they could not see or hear, and yet it was drawing--drawing--drawing all
+day and all night. They spoke of it often to each other, and the older
+birds told the young ones how, before long, they would all start South,
+and fly over land and water until they reached their winter home.
+
+"How do we know where to go?" asked the children.
+
+"All that you have to do," the older ones said, "is to follow us."
+
+"And how do you know?" they asked.
+
+"Why, we have been there before," they answered; "and we can see the
+places over which we pass. But perhaps that is not the real reason, for
+sometimes we fly over such great stretches of water that we can see
+nothing else and it all looks alike. Then we cannot see which way to go,
+but still we feel that we are drawn South, and we only have to think
+about that and fly onward. The fathers and sons can fly the faster and
+will reach there first. The mothers and daughters come a few days later.
+We never make a mistake."
+
+"It is wonderful, wonderful," thought a young Rabbit on the grass below.
+"I must watch them when they go."
+
+The very next morning the Forest People awakened to find a silvery frost
+on the grass and feel the still air stirred by the soft dropping of damp
+red, brown, and yellow leaves from the trees. Over the river and all the
+lowland near it hung a heavy veil of white mist.
+
+"It is time!" whispered the Robins to each other.
+
+"It is time!" cooed the Mourning Doves.
+
+"It is time!" cried the Cowbirds in their hoarse voices.
+
+All through the forest there was restlessness and quiet haste. The
+Juncoes had already come from the cold northland and were resting from
+their long flight. The Ground Hogs, the Rabbits, and the Squirrels were
+out to say good-by. The Owls peeped from their hollow trees, shading
+their eyes from the strong light of the sun. And then the travellers
+went. The Robins started in family parties. The Mourning Doves slipped
+quietly away. The Cowbirds went in a dashing crowd. And the Crows, after
+much talking and disputing on the tree-tops, took a noisy farewell of
+the few members of the flock who were to remain behind, and, joining
+other flocks from the North, flew off in a great company which darkened
+the sky and caused a shadow to pass over the stubble-field almost like
+that of a summer cloud.
+
+"They are gone!" sighed the Ground Hog and his wife. "We shall miss them
+sadly. Well, we can dream about them, and that will be a comfort."
+
+"Jay! Jay!" shrieked a handsome-crested fellow from the tree above.
+"What if they are gone? They will be back in the spring, and we have
+plenty to eat. What is the use of feeling sad? Jay! Jay!"
+
+But all people are not so heartless as the hungry Blue Jays, and the
+song-birds had many loving friends who missed them and longed for their
+return.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE RUFFED GROUSE'S STORY
+
+
+The Ruffed Grouse cocked his crested head on one side and looked up
+through the bare branches to the sky. It was a soft gray, and in the
+west were banks of bluish clouds. "I think it will snow very soon," said
+he. "Mrs. Grouse, are the children all ready for cold weather?"
+
+"All ready," answered his cheerful little wife. "They have had their
+thickest feathers on for quite a while. The Rabbits were saying the
+other day that they had never seen a plumper or better clothed flock
+than ours." And her beautiful golden-brown eyes shone with pride as she
+spoke.
+
+Indeed, the young Ruffed Grouse were a family of whom she might well be
+proud. Twelve healthy and obedient children do not fall to the lot of
+every Forest mother, and she wished with a sad little sigh that her
+other two eggs had hatched. She often thought of them with longing. How
+lovely it would have been to have fourteen children! But at that moment
+her brood came crowding around her in fright.
+
+"Some cold white things," they said, "came tumbling down upon us and
+scared us. The white things didn't say a word, but they came so fast
+that we think they must be alive. Tell us what to do. Must we hide?"
+
+"Why, that is snow!" exclaimed their mother. "It drops from the clouds
+up yonder quite as the leaves drop from the trees in the fall. It will
+not hurt you, but we must find shelter."
+
+"What did I tell you, Mrs Grouse?" asked her husband. "I was certain
+that it would snow before night. I felt it in my quills." And Mr. Grouse
+strutted with importance. It always makes one feel so very knowing when
+he has told his wife exactly what will happen.
+
+"How did you feel it in your quills?" asked one of his children. "Shall
+I feel it in my quills when I am as old as you are?"
+
+"Perhaps," was the answer. "But until you do feel it you can never
+understand it, for it is not like any other feeling that there is."
+
+Then they all started for a low clump of bushes to find shelter from the
+storm. Once they were frightened by seeing a great creature come
+tramping through the woods towards them. "A man!" said Mr. Grouse.
+"Hide!" said Mrs. Grouse, and each little Grouse hid under the leaves so
+quickly that nobody could see how it was done. One might almost think
+that a strong wind had blown them away. The mother pretended that she
+had a broken wing, and hopped away, making such pitiful sounds that the
+man followed to pick her up. When she had led him far from her children,
+she, too, made a quick run and hid herself; and although the man hunted
+everywhere, he could not find a single bird.
+
+You know that is always the way in Grouse families, and even if the
+man's foot had stirred the leaves under which a little one was hiding,
+the Grouse would not have moved or made a sound. The children are
+brought up to mind without asking any questions. When their mother says,
+"Hide!" they do it, and never once ask "Why?" or answer, "As soon as I
+have swallowed this berry." It is no wonder that the older ones are
+proud of their children. Any mother would be made happy by having one
+child obey like that, and think of having twelve!
+
+At last, the whole family reached the bushes where they were to stay,
+and then they began to feed near by. "Eat all you can," said Mr. Grouse,
+"before the snow gets deep. You may not have another such good chance
+for many days." So they ate until their little stomachs would not hold
+one more seed or evergreen bud.
+
+All this time the snowflakes were falling, but the Grouse children were
+no longer afraid of them. Sometimes they even chased and snapped at them
+as they would at a fly in summer-time. It was then, too, that they
+learned to use snow-shoes. The oldest child had made a great fuss when
+he found a fringe of hard points growing around his toes in the fall,
+and had run peeping to his mother to ask her what was the matter. She
+had shown him her own feet, and had told him how all the Ruffed Grouse
+have snow-shoes of that kind grow on their feet every winter.
+
+"We do not have to bother about them at all," she said. "They put
+themselves on when the weather gets cold in the fall, and they take
+themselves off when spring comes. We each have a new pair every year,
+and when they are grown we can walk easily over the soft snow. Without
+them we should sink through and flounder."
+
+When night came they all huddled under the bushes, lying close together
+to keep each other warm. The next day they burrowed into a snow-drift
+and made a snug place there which was even better than the one they
+left; the soft white coverlet kept the wind out so well. It was hard for
+the little ones to keep quiet long, and to amuse them Mr. Grouse told
+how he first met their mother in the spring.
+
+"It was a fine, sunshiny day," he said, "and everybody was happy. I had
+for some time been learning to drum, and now I felt that I was as good a
+drummer as there was in the forest. So I found a log (every Ruffed
+Grouse has to have his own place, you know) and I jumped up on it and
+strutted back and forth with my head high in the air. It was a dusky
+part of the forest and I could not see far, yet I knew that a beautiful
+young Grouse was somewhere near, and I hoped that if I drummed very well
+she might come to me."
+
+"I know!" interrupted one of the little Grouse. "It was our mother."
+
+"Well, it wasn't your mother then, my chick," said Mr. Grouse, "for that
+was long, long before you were hatched."
+
+"She was our mother afterwards, anyway," cried the young Grouse. "I just
+know she was!"
+
+Mr. Grouse's eyes twinkled, but he went gravely on. "At last
+I flapped my wing's hard and fast, and the soft drumming sound
+could be heard far and near. 'Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump;
+thump-thump-rup-rup-rup-rup-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r.' I waited, but nobody
+came. Then I drummed again, and after that I was sure that I heard a
+rustling in the leaves. I drummed a third time, and then, children,
+there came the beautiful young Grouse, breaking her way through the
+thicket and trying to look as though she didn't know that I was there."
+
+"Did she know?" cried the little Grouse.
+
+"You must ask your mother that," he answered, "for it was she who came.
+Ah, what happy days we had together all spring! We wandered all through
+this great Forest and even made some journeys into the edge of the
+Meadow. Still, there was no place we loved as we did the dusky hollow by
+the old log where we first met. One day your mother told me that she
+must begin housekeeping and that I must keep out of the way while she
+was busy. So I had to go off with a crowd of other Ruffed Grouse while
+she fixed her nest, laid her eggs, and hatched out you youngsters. It
+was rather hard to be driven off in that way, but you know it is the
+custom among Grouse. We poor fellows had to amuse ourselves and each
+other until our wives called us home to help take care of the children.
+We've been at that work ever since."
+
+"Oh!" said one of the young Grouse. "Oh, I am so glad that you drummed,
+and that she came when she heard you. Who would we have had to take care
+of us if it hadn't happened just so?"
+
+That made them all feel very solemn and Mr. Grouse couldn't answer, and
+Mrs. Grouse couldn't answer, and none of the little Grouse could answer
+because, you see, it is one of the questions that hasn't any answer.
+Still, they were all there and happy, so they didn't bother their
+crested heads about it very long.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+A MILD DAY IN WINTER
+
+
+It had been a cold and windy winter. Day after day the storm-clouds had
+piled up in the northwest and spread slowly over the sky, dropping great
+ragged flakes of snow down to the shivering earth. Then the forest trees
+were clothed in fleecy white garments, and the branches of the
+evergreens drooped under their heavy cloak.
+
+Then there had been other days, when a strong wind stripped the trees
+of their covering, and brought with it thousands of small, hard flakes.
+These flakes were drier than the ragged ones had been, and did not cling
+so lovingly to everything they touched. They would rather frolic on the
+ground, rising again and again from their resting-places to dance around
+with the wind, and help make great drifts and overhanging ledges of snow
+in the edge of the Forest, where there was more open ground.
+
+It is true that not all the winter had been cold and stormy. There were
+times when the drifts melted slowly into the earth, and the grass, which
+last summer had been so tender and green, showed brown and matted on the
+ground. Still the Great Horned Owl and his wife could not find enough to
+eat. "We do not mean to complain," said he with dignity, as he scratched
+one ear with his feathered right foot, "but neither of us has had a
+meal hearty enough for a healthy Robin, since the first heavy snow
+came."
+
+This was when he was talking to his cousin, the Screech Owl. "Hearty
+enough for a Robin!" exclaimed Mrs. Great Horned Owl. "I should say we
+hadn't. I don't think I have had enough for a Goldfinch, and that is
+pretty hard for a bird of my size. I am so thin that my feathers feel
+loose."
+
+"Have you been so hungry that you dreamed about food?" asked the Screech
+Owl.
+
+"N-no, I can't say that I have," said the Great Horned Owl, while his
+wife shook her head solemnly.
+
+"Ah, that is dreadful," said the Screech Owl. "I have done that several
+times. Only yesterday, while I lay in my nest-hollow, I dreamed that I
+was hunting. There was food everywhere, but just as I flew down to eat,
+it turned into pieces of ice. When I awakened I was almost starved and
+so cold that my beak chattered."
+
+It was only a few days after the Screech Owl's call upon his cousins
+that he awakened one night to find the weather milder, and the ground
+covered with only a thin coating of soft snow. The beautiful round moon
+was shining down upon him, and in the western sky the clouds were still
+red from the rays of the setting sun.
+
+Somewhere, far beyond the fields and forests of this part of the world,
+day-birds were beginning to stir, and thousands of downy heads were
+drawn from under sheltering wings, while in the barnyards the Cocks were
+calling their welcome to the sun. But the Screech Owl did not think of
+this. He aroused his wife and they went hunting. When they came back
+they did not dream about food. They had eaten all that they could, and
+the Great Horned Owl and his wife had made a meal hearty enough for a
+dozen Robins, and a whole flock of Goldfinches. It was a good thing for
+the day-birds that this was so, for it is said that sometimes, when food
+is very scarce, Owls have been known to hunt by daylight.
+
+When morning came and it was the moon's turn to sink out of sight in the
+west, the Owls went to bed in their hollow trees, and Crows, Blue Jays,
+Woodpeckers, Chickadees, Grouse, Quail, Squirrels, and Rabbits came out.
+The Goldfinches were there too, but you would never have known the
+husbands and fathers of the flock, unless you had seen them before in
+their winter clothing, which is like that worn by the wives and
+children. Here, too, were the winter visitors, the Snow Buntings and the
+Juncos, brimming over with happiness and news of their northern homes.
+This warm day made them think of the coming springtime, and they were
+already planning their flight.
+
+"I wish you would stay with us all summer," said a friendly Goldfinch,
+as he dirted the snow off from a tall brown weed and began to pick out
+and eat the seeds.
+
+"Stay all summer!" exclaimed a jolly little Snow Bunting. "Why should we
+want to stay? Perhaps if you would promise to keep the snow and ice we
+might."
+
+"Why not ask the Goldfinches to come north with us?" suggested a Junco.
+"That would be much more sensible, for they can stand the cold weather
+as well as we, but we cannot stand warm days, such as I hear they have
+in this part of the country after the ice melts."
+
+Then the older people of the group began to talk of the cares of life
+and many other things which did not interest their children, so the
+younger ones wandered away from them.
+
+"I say," called a young Junco to a young Snow Bunting, "wouldn't you
+like to show some of these playmates of ours the countries where we
+were born?"
+
+"Yes indeed," answered the Snow Bunting. "Wouldn't they open their eyes,
+though? I'd like to have them see the rocks up there."
+
+"And the animals," said the Junco.
+
+"Yes! Wouldn't they stare at the Bears, though!"
+
+"Humph," said a Blue Jay. "I wouldn't care very much about seeing Bears,
+would you?" And he turned to a Crow near by.
+
+"No," said the Crow. "I don't think very much of Bears anyway." He said
+this as though he had seen them all his life, but the Chickadees say
+that he never saw even a Cub.
+
+"They haven't any big animals here," said the Junco to the Snow Bunting.
+
+"Haven't we, though?" replied the Blue Jay. "Guess you wouldn't say that
+if you saw the Ground Hog. Would he say that?" he asked, turning to the
+young Grouse, Quail, Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Chickadees, Squirrels,
+and Rabbits who stood around listening.
+
+"No indeed!" they answered, for they wanted their visitors to understand
+that the Forest was a most wonderful place, and they really thought the
+Ground Hog very large.
+
+"I don't believe he is as big as a Bear" said the Snow Bunting, with his
+bill in the air.
+
+"How big is he?" asked the Junco.
+
+Now the Blue Jay was afraid that the birds from the north were getting
+the better of him, and he felt very sure that they would leave before
+the Ground Hog had finished his winter sleep, so he did what no honest
+bird would have even thought of doing. He held his crested head very
+high and said, "He is bigger than that rock, _a great deal bigger_."
+
+The Crow looked at the rock and gave a hoarse chuckle, for it was a
+hundred times larger than the Ground Hog. The Grouse, Quail,
+Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Chickadees, Squirrels, and Rabbits looked at
+each other without saying a word. They knew how the Blue Jay had lied,
+and it made them ashamed. The Grouse pretended to fix their snow-shoes.
+They did not want to look at the birds from the north.
+
+The Snow Buntings and Juncos felt that it would not do to talk about
+Bears to people who had such a great creature as the Ground Hog living
+among them. "He must be wonderful," they said. "Where does he sleep?"
+
+"In the Bats' cave," answered the Blue Jay, who having told one lie, now
+had to tell another to cover it up. "He sleeps in the middle and there
+is just room left around the edges for the Bats."
+
+Now at this very time the Ground Hog was awake in his burrow. He could
+feel that it was warmer and he wanted room to stretch. He thought it
+would seem good to have an early spring after such a cold winter, so he
+decided to take a walk and make the weather, as his grandfather had
+done. When he came out of his burrow he heard a great chattering and
+went to see what was the matter. That was how it happened that soon
+after the Blue Jay had told about the Bats' cave, one wide-awake young
+Junco saw a reddish-brown animal trotting over the grass toward them.
+"Who is that?" he cried.
+
+The Grouse, Quail, Woodpeckers, Goldfinches, Chickadees, Squirrels, and
+Rabbits gave one look. "Oh, there is the Ground Hog!" they cried. Then
+they remembered and were ashamed again because of what the Blue Jay had
+said.
+
+"Oh!" said the Snow Buntings and the Juncos. "So that is the Ground Hog!
+Big as that rock, is he? And you don't think much of Bears?"
+
+The Crow pointed one claw at the Blue Jay. "I never said he was as big
+as that rock. _He_ is the fellow that said it."
+
+"I don't care," said the Blue Jay; "I was only fooling. I meant to tell
+you after a while. It's a good joke on you." But he had a sneaky look
+around the bill as he spoke, and nobody believed him. Before long, he
+and the Crow were glad enough to get away from the rest and go away
+together. Yet even then they were not happy, for each began to blame the
+other, and they had a most dreadful fight.
+
+When the Ground Hog was told about it he said, "What foolishness it is
+to want to tell the biggest story! My grandfather told us once that a
+lie was always a lie, and that calling it a joke didn't make it any
+better. I think he was right."
+
+And the Snow Buntings and Juncos, who are bright and honest, nodded
+their dainty little heads and said, "Nobody in our own dear north
+country ever spoke a truer word than that." So they became firm friends
+of the Ground Hog, even if he were not so large as the rock.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Among the Forest People, by 
+Clara Dillingham Pierson
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