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diff --git a/38896.txt b/38896.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a529b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/38896.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4890 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book, by Albert Bigelow Paine + +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: The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book + being a continuation of the stories about the Hollow Tree + and Deep Woods people + +Author: Albert Bigelow Paine + +Illustrator: J. M. Conde + +Release Date: February 16, 2012 [EBook #38896] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: [See p. 28 + +THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS PEOPLE + +Mr. Crow, Mr. Turtle, Mr. 'Coon, Mr. 'Possum, Mr. Robin, Mr. Squirrel, +Mr. Dog, Mr. Rabbit + +THEN MR. DOG SAID: "I KNOW ALL ABOUT MENAGERIES, FOR I HAVE BEEN TO +ONE"] + + + + + +THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK + +BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE STORIES ABOUT THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS +PEOPLE + +BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE + +AUTHOR OF "THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK" + +WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. M. CONDE + +[Illustration] + + NEW YORK AND LONDON + HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS + M C M X + + + + + BOOKS BY + ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE + + THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK. Crown 8vo $1.50 + + THE SHIP-DWELLERS. Illustrated 8vo 1.50 + + THE TENT-DWELLERS. Illustrated Post 8vo 1.50 + + THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK. + Illustrated. Post 8vo 1.50 + + FROM VAN-DWELLER TO COMMUTER. Ill'd. + Post 8vo 1.50 + + LIFE OF THOMAS NAST. Ill'd 8vo _net_ 5.00 + + HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y. + + + Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS + Published October, 1910 + _Printed in the United States of America_ + + + + + TO ALL DWELLERS IN + THE BIG DEEP WOODS OF DREAM + +[Illustration: MAP OF THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS COUNTRY] + + + + +EXPLANATION OF MAP + + +THE top of the map is South. This is always so with the Hollow Tree +People. The cross on the shelf below the edge of the world (where the +ladder is) is where Mr. Dog landed, and the ladder is the one brought by +Mr. Man for him to climb back on. The tree that Mr. Man cut down shows +too. The spot on the edge of the world is where the Hollow Tree People +sometimes sit and hang their feet over, and talk. A good many paths +show, but not all by a good deal. The bridge and plank near Mr. Turtle's +house lead to the Wide Grass Lands and Big West Hills. The spots along +the Foot Race show where Grandpaw Hare stopped, and the one across the +fence shows where Mr. Turtle landed. Most of the other things tell what +they are, and all the things are a good deal farther apart than they +look. Of course there was not room on the map for everything. + + + + +TO FRIENDS OLD AND NEW + + +I WONDER if you have ever heard a story which begins like this: "Once +upon a time, in the far depths of the Big Deep Woods, there was a Big +Hollow Tree with three hollow branches. In one of these there lived a +'Coon, in another a 'Possum, and in the third a Big Black Crow." + +That was the way the first story began in a book which told about the +Hollow Tree People and their friends of the Big Deep Woods who used to +visit them, and how they all used to sit around the table, or by the +fire, in the parlor-room down-stairs, where they kept most of their +things, and ate and talked and had good times together, just like +folk.[A] + +And the stories were told to the Little Lady by the Story Teller, and +there were pictures made for them by the Artist, and it was all a long +time ago--so long ago that the Little Lady has grown to be almost a big +lady now, able to read stories for herself, and to write them, too, +sometimes. + +But the Story Teller and the Artist did not grow any older. The years do +not make any difference to them. Like the Hollow Tree People they remain +always the same, for though to see them you might think by their faces +and the silver glint in their hair that they are older, it would not be +so, because these things are only a kind of enchantment, made to +deceive, when all the time they are really with the Hollow Tree People +in the Big Deep Woods, where years and enchantments do not count. It was +only Mr. Dog, because he lived too much with Mr. Man, who grew old and +went away to that Far Land of Evening which lies beyond the sunset, +taking so many of the Hollow Tree stories with him. We thought these +stories were lost for good when Mr. Dog left us, but that was not true, +for there came another Mr. Dog--a nephew of our old friend--and he grew +up brave and handsome, and learned the ways of the Hollow Tree People, +and their stories, and all the old tales which the first Mr. Dog did not +tell. + +And now, too, there is another Little Lady--almost exactly like the +first Little Lady--and it may be that it is this Little Lady, after all, +who keeps the Artist and the Story Teller young, for when she thought +they might be growing older, and forgetting, she went with them away +from the House of Many Windows, in the city, to the House of Low +Ceilings and Wide Fireplaces--a queer old house like Mr. Rabbit's--built +within the very borders of the Big Deep Woods, where they could be +always close to Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, and +all the others, and so learn all the new tales of the Hollow Tree. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[A] _The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book_, by the same author and +artist. + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + TO FRIENDS OLD AND NEW 7 + THE FIRST SNOWED-IN STORY 15 + MR. DOG AT THE CIRCUS 21 + THE SECOND SNOWED-IN STORY 39 + THE WIDOW CROW'S BOARDING-HOUSE 57 + THE FINDING OF THE HOLLOW TREE 71 + THE THIRD SNOWED-IN STORY 87 + THE FOURTH SNOWED-IN STORY 103 + THE "SNOWED-IN" LITERARY CLUB 119 + THE "SNOWED-IN" LITERARY CLUB--PART II 143 + THE DISCONTENTED FOX 155 + MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY 173 + THE BARK OF OLD HUNGRY-WOLF 191 + AN EARLY SPRING CALL ON MR. BEAR 219 + MR. CROW'S GARDEN 239 + WHEN JACK RABBIT WAS A LITTLE BOY 261 + A HOLLOW TREE PICNIC 273 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS PEOPLE _Frontispiece_ + MAP OF THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS COUNTRY 4 + GATHERING NICE PIECES OF WOOD 17 + THE PANTRY IN THE HOLLOW TREE 24 + "SLIPPED IN BEHIND HIM WHEN HE WENT INTO THE TENT" 29 + "HE LOOKED SMILING AND GOOD-NATURED, AND I WENT + OVER TO ASK HIM SOME QUESTIONS" 31 + "GAVE ME AN EXTRA BIG SWING AND CRACK" 35 + ALL AT ONCE HE HEARD A FIERCE BARK CLOSE BEHIND HIM 43 + "THEN I SUDDENLY FELT LIKE A SHOOTING-STAR" 47 + "THEN MR. DOG SAID, 'TELL ME ANOTHER'" 49 + "AND DID ROLL OFF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, SURE + ENOUGH" 53 + "I SET OUT FOR HOME WITHOUT WAITING TO SAY + GOOD-BYE" 55 + CAME CLATTERING DOWN RIGHT IN FRONT OF MR. DOG 61 + SO THEN MR. DOG TRIED TO GET MR. 'POSSUM ON HIS + SHOULDER 64 + HE WAS AN OLD BACHELOR AND LIKED TO HAVE HIS OWN + WAY 67 + THEY SAW MR. CROW OUT IN THE YARD CUTTING WOOD FOR + HIS MOTHER-IN-LAW 69 + HAD TO STAY AT HOME AND PEEL POTATOES 75 + LISTENED NOW AND THEN AT WIDOW CROW'S DOOR TO BE + SURE SHE WAS ASLEEP 79 + MR. 'POSSUM SAID HE'D JUST GET ON AND HOLD THE + THINGS 81 + MR. 'POSSUM AND MR. 'COON TRIED TO PUT UP THE STOVE 83 + MR. FOX SAID HE DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TO DO FOR A FEW + MINUTES AND HE'D ACT AS JUDGE 93 + SAILING ALONG, JUST TOUCHING THE HIGHEST POINTS 97 + AWAY WENT MR. TORTOISE, CLEAR OVER THE TOP RAIL 99 + SET OUT FOR HOME BY A BACK WAY 101 + TRIED TO SPLICE HIS PROPERTY BACK IN PLACE 107 + GRANDFATHER WOULD LIGHT HIS PIPE AND THINK IT OVER 109 + SET UP HIS EARS AND WENT BY, LICKETY-SPLIT 111 + "'GLAD TO SEE YOU,' SAID KING LION; 'I WAS JUST + THINKING ABOUT HAVING A NICE RABBIT FOR + BREAKFAST'" 113 + GOT AROUND THE TABLE AND BEGAN TO WORK 125 + MR. 'POSSUM WANTED TO KNOW WHAT MR. RABBIT MEANT + BY SPINNING THEIR TAILS 129 + MR. DOG SAID HE HAD MADE A FEW SKETCHES 133 + MR. 'POSSUM SAID IT MIGHT BE A GOOD ENOUGH STORY, + BUT IT COULDN'T BE TRUE 137 + SO THEN MR. RABBIT SAID THEY MUST CHOOSE WHO WOULD + BE "IT" 147 + MR. 'POSSUM HAD TO PUT ON THE HANDKERCHIEF AND DO + MORE EXERCISING THAN ANY OF THEM 149 + WOULD FIND IT ON THE MANTEL-SHELF OR PERHAPS ON + MR. CROW'S BALD HEAD 152 + MR. 'POSSUM SAID HE HADN'T MEANT ANYTHING AT ALL + BY WHAT HE HAD SAID ABOUT THE STORY 162 + AND SO THIS CAT GREW RICH AND FAT 164 + HIS CLERKS 167 + A SOLEMN LOOK WAS IN HIS FACE 168 + QUOTH HE, "MY PRIDE IS SATISFIED; THIS KINGDOM + BUSINESS DOES NOT PAY" 171 + AUNT MELISSY HAD ARRANGED A BUNDLE FOR UNCLE + SILAS, AND SHE HAD FIXED UP THE HIRED + MAN TOO 179 + DIDN'T LOOK AS IF SHE BELONGED TO THE REST OF + OUR CROWD 181 + THE BALLOON WENT OVER THE WIDE BLUE WATER JUST + AFTER IT GOT OUR FAMILY 184 + MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD + THEM WAS TRUE 189 + ONE DAY MR. CROW FOUND HE WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF + THE BARREL OF EVERYTHING 195 + THEN MR. 'COON SLAMMED HIS DOOR 199 + MR. 'POSSUM SAID NOT TO MOVE, THAT HE WOULD GO + AFTER A PIECE OF WOOD 201 + HE WOULD SMOKE IN THE SUN WHEN THE MORNINGS WERE + FAIR 203 + WITH A LOOK AND A SIGH THEY WOULD STAND AND BEHOLD 204 + THE TASTIEST PASTRY THAT EVER WAS KNOWN 205 + THEN TO STIR AND TO BAKE HE BEGAN RIGHT AWAY 206 + THE GREEDY OLD RAVEN, BUT GREEDY NO MORE 208 + LOOKED STRAIGHT AT MR. 'POSSUM AND SAID, "WHAT + WAS THAT YOU WERE CHEWING JUST NOW?" 211 + THEY WENT ALONG, SAYING WHAT A NICE MAN THEY + THOUGHT MR. BEAR WAS 224 + MR. BEAR MUST HAVE BEEN VERY TIRED AND GONE TO + SLEEP RIGHT WHERE HE WAS 226 + MR. 'COON SCRATCHED HIS BACK AGAINST A LITTLE BUSH 234 + MR. RABBIT THANKED HIM FROM ACROSS THE RIVER 237 + ONE SAID IT WAS ONE WAY AND THE OTHER THE OTHER + WAY 247 + MR. CROW DECIDED TO THIN OUT A FEW OF JACK + RABBIT'S THINGS 251 + MR. CROW WAS ALMOST AFRAID TO BRING ON THE SALAD 255 + JACK RABBIT CAPERED AND LAUGHED ALL THE WAY HOME 259 + TOOK HER PARASOL AND HER RETICULE AND A CAN OF + BERRIES, AND STARTED 265 + AND HE MADE SOME STRIPES, TOO--MOSTLY ON TOP OF + THE STOVE 267 + LITTLE JACK KNEW PERFECTLY WELL THAT SHE WASN'T + AT ALL PLEASED 269 + PROMISED NEVER TO DISOBEY HIS MOTHER AGAIN 271 + AND HE TASTED OF THAT A LITTLE, TOO 278 + MR. 'POSSUM LEANED HIS BACK AGAINST A TREE AND + READ HIMSELF TO SLEEP 280 + SO MR. 'POSSUM PROMISED, AND MR. 'COON UNTIED HIM 282 + "AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY SAW?" 284 + + + + +THE FIRST SNOWED-IN STORY + +[Illustration: GATHERING NICE PIECES OF WOOD] + +IN WHICH THE READER LEARNS TO KNOW THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE AND THEIR +FRIENDS, AND THE LITTLE LADY, AND THE STORY TELLER + + +NOW this is the beginning of the Hollow Tree stories which the Story +Teller told the Little Lady in the queer old house which stands in the +very borders of the Big Deep Woods itself. They were told in the Room of +the Lowest Ceiling and the Widest Fire--a ceiling so low that when the +Story Teller stands upright it brushes his hair as he walks, and a fire +so deep that pieces of large trees do not need to be split but can be +put on whole. In the old days, several great-grandfathers back, as the +Hollow Tree People might say, these heavy sticks were drawn in by a +horse that came right through the door and dragged the wood to the wide +stone hearth. + +It is at the end of New-Year's Day, and the Little Lady has been +enjoying her holidays, for Santa Claus found his way down the big stone +chimney and left a number of things she wanted. Now, when the night is +coming down outside, and when inside there is a heap of blazing logs and +a rocking-chair, it is time for the Story Teller. The Story Teller +generally smokes and looks into the fire when he tells a Hollow Tree +story, because the Hollow Tree People always smoke and look into the +fire when _they_ tell _their_ stories, and the Little Lady likes +everything to be "just the same," and the stories must be always told +just the same, too. If they are not, she stops the Story Teller and sets +him right. So while the Little Woman passes to and fro, putting away the +tea-things, the Story Teller lights his pipe, and rocks, and looks into +the fire, and holds the Little Lady close, and begins the Tales of the +Hollow Tree. + +"Once upon a time," he begins-- + +"Once upon a time," murmurs the Little Lady, settling herself. + +"Yes, once upon a time, in the old days of the Hollow Tree, when Mr. Dog +had become friends with the 'Coon and the 'Possum and the Old Black Crow +who lived in the three hollow branches of the Big Hollow Tree, and used +to meet together in their parlor-room down-stairs and invite all their +friends, and have good times together, just like folk--" + +"But they live there now, don't they?" interrupts the Little Lady, +suddenly sitting up, "and still have their friends, just the same?" + +"Oh yes, of course, but this was one of the old times, you know." + +The Little Lady settles back, satisfied. + +"Go on telling, now," she says. + +"Well, then, this was one of the times when all the Deep Woods People +had been invited to the Hollow Tree for Christmas Day, and were snowed +in. Of course they didn't expect to be snowed in. Nobody ever expects to +be snowed in till it happens, and then it's too late." + +"Was that the Christmas that Mr. Dog played Santa Claus and brought all +the presents, and Mr. Squirrel and Mr. Robin and Mr. Turtle and Jack +Rabbit came over, and they all sat around the fire and ate things and +told nice stories? You said you would tell about that, and you never +did." + +"I am going to tell it now, as soon as a Little Lady gets real still," +says the Story Teller. So then the Little Lady _is_ "real still," and he +tells the first snowed-in story, which is called: + + + + +MR. DOG AT THE CIRCUS + +THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE LEARN SOMETHING VERY IMPORTANT ABOUT SHOWS + + +THAT was a great Christmas in the Hollow Tree. The 'Coon and the 'Possum +and the Old Black Crow had been getting ready for it for a long time, +and brought in ever so many nice things to eat, which Mr. Crow had +cooked for them, for Mr. Crow is the best cook of anybody in the Big +Deep Woods. Then Mr. Dog had brought a lot of good things, too, which he +had borrowed from Mr. Man's house, so they had the finest Christmas +dinner that you can think of, and plenty for the next day when it would +be even better, because chicken and turkey and dressing and such things +are always better the next day, and even the _third_ day, with gravy, +than they are when they are first cooked. + +[Illustration: THE PANTRY IN THE HOLLOW TREE] + +Then, when they were all through and were standing around, smoking their +new pipes and looking at each other's new neckties and other Christmas +things, Mr. Crow said that he and Mr. Squirrel would clear off the table +if the others would get in some wood and stir up the fire and set the +room to rights, so they could gather round and be comfortable by-and-by; +and then, he said, it might snow as much as it liked as long as they had +plenty of wood and things to eat inside. + +So then they all skurried around getting on their things to go out after +wood--all except Mr. Crow and Mr. Squirrel, who set about clearing off +the table and doing up the dishes. And pretty soon Mr. Dog and Mr. 'Coon +and the rest were hopping about where the snow was falling so soft and +silent among the big, leafless trees, gathering nice pieces of wood and +brushing the snow off of them and piling them into the first down-stairs +of the Hollow Tree, which the 'Coon and 'Possum and Old Black Crow use +for their wood-house and general store-room. It was great fun, and they +didn't feel the least bit cold after their warm dinner and with all that +brisk exercise. + +Mr. Robin didn't help carry the wood in. He was hardly strong enough for +that, but he hopped about and looked for good pieces, and when he found +one he would call to Mr. 'Coon or Mr. 'Possum, or maybe to one of the +others, to throw it on his shoulder and carry it in, and then he would +tell whoever it happened to be how strong he was and how fine he looked +with that great chunk on his shoulder, and would say that he didn't +suppose there was another 'Coon, or 'Possum, or Turtle, or Rabbit, or +Dog that could begin to stand up straight under such a chunk as that +anywhere outside of a menagerie. Mr. Robin likes to say pleasant things +to his friends, and is always popular. And each one tried to carry the +biggest load of wood to show how strong he was, and pretty soon they had +the lower room of the Hollow Tree piled up high with the finest chunks +and kindling pieces to be found anywhere. Then they all hurried +up-stairs, stamping the snow off their feet, and gathered around the +nice warm fire in the big parlor which was just below the three big +hollow branches where the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow had +their rooms. + +Mr. Crow and Mr. Squirrel were through with the table by this time, and +all hands lit their pipes, and looked into the fire, and smoked, and +rested, and thought a little before they began talking--thinking, of +course, of what a good time they were having, and how comfortable and +nice it was to be inside and warm when such a big snow was falling +outside. + +Mr. 'Possum was the first one to say anything. He said he had been +thinking of what Mr. Robin had said about them being outside of a +menagerie, and that, come to think about it, he believed he didn't know +what a menagerie was, unless it was a new name for a big dinner, as that +was the only thing he could think of now that they were outside of, and +he said if that was so, and if he could get outside of two menageries, +he thought he could carry in a bigger chunk than any two chunks there +were down-stairs. + +Then all the others laughed a good deal, and Mr. 'Coon said he had +thought that perhaps a menagerie was something to wear that would make +anybody who had it on very strong, and able to stand up under a big +load, and to eat as much as Mr. 'Possum could, or even more. + +But Mr. Robin said that it didn't mean either of those things. He said +he didn't really know what it did mean himself, but that it must be some +kind of a place that had a great many large creatures in it, for he had +heard his grandmother quite often call his grandfather the biggest goose +outside of a menagerie, though, being very young then, Mr. Robin +couldn't remember just what she had meant by it. + +Mr. Rabbit said he thought that the word "menagerie" sounded like some +kind of a picnic, with swings and nice lively games, and Mr. Crow said +that once when he was flying he passed over a place where there was a +big sign that said "Menagerie" on it, and that there were some tents and +a crowd of people and a great noise, but that he hadn't seen anything +that he could carry off without being noticed, so he didn't stop. + +Mr. Squirrel thought that from what Mr. Crow said it must be a place +where there would be a lot of fine things to see, and Mr. Turtle said +that he was a good deal over three hundred years old and had often heard +of a menagerie, but that he had never seen one. He said he had always +supposed that it was a nice pond of clear water, with a lot of happy +turtles and fish and wild geese and duck and such things, in it, and +maybe some animals around it, all living happily together, and taken +care of by Mr. Man, who brought them a great many good things to eat. He +had always thought he would like to live in a menagerie, he said, but +that nobody had ever invited him, and he had never happened to come +across one in his travels. + +Mr. Dog hadn't been saying anything all this time, but he knocked the +ashes out of his pipe now, and filled it up fresh and lit it, and +cleared his throat, and began to talk. It made him smile, he said, to +hear the different ways people thought of a thing they had never seen. +He said that Mr. Turtle was the only one who came anywhere near to what +a menagerie really was, though of course Mr. Crow _had_ seen one on the +outside. Then Mr. Dog said: + +[Illustration: "SLIPPED IN BEHIND HIM WHEN HE WENT INTO THE TENT"] + +"I know all about menageries, on the outside and the inside too, for I +have been to one. I went once with Mr. Man, though I wasn't really +invited to go. In fact, Mr. Man invited me to stay at home, and tried to +slip off from me; but I watched which way he went, and took long +roundin's on him, and slipped in behind him when he went into the +tent. He didn't know for a while that I was there, and I wasn't there so +very long. But it was plenty long enough--a good deal longer than I'd +ever stay again, unless I was tied. + +"I never saw so many wild, fierce-looking creatures in my life as there +were in that menagerie, and they were just as wild and fierce as they +looked. They had a lot of cages full of them and they had some outside +of cages, though I don't know why they should leave any of those +dangerous animals around where they could damage folks that happened to +come in reach, as I did. Those animals outside didn't look as wild and +fierce as those in the cages, but they were. + +"I kept in the crowd, close behind Mr. Man at first, and nobody knew I +was there, but by-and-by he climbed up into a seat to watch some people +all dressed up in fancy clothes ride around a ring on horses, which I +didn't care much about, so I slipped away, and went over to where there +were some things that I wanted to take my time to and see quietly. + +"There was an animal about my size and style tied over in one corner of +the tent, behind a rope, with a sign in front of him which said, 'The +Only Tame Hyena in the World.' He looked smiling and good-natured, and I +went over to ask him some questions. + +[Illustration: "HE LOOKED SMILING AND GOOD-NATURED, AND I WENT OVER TO +ASK HIM SOME QUESTIONS"] + +"But that sign wasn't true. He wasn't the least bit tame, and I'm sure +now that he wasn't smiling. He grabbed me before I had a chance to say a +word, and when I jerked loose, which I did right away, for I didn't want +to stir up any fuss there, I left quite a piece of my ear with the tame +hyena, and tripped backward over the rope and rolled right in front of a +creature called an elephant, about as big as a house and not as useful. + +"I suppose they thought _he_ was tame, too, but he must have been tamed +by the same man, for he grabbed me with a kind of a tail that grew on +the end of his nose--a thing a good deal like Mr. 'Possum's tail, only +about a million times as big--and I could hear my ribs crack as he waved +me up and down. + +"Of course, as I say, I didn't want to stir up any fuss, but I couldn't +keep still under such treatment as that, and I called right out to Mr. +Man, where he sat looking at the fancy people riding, and told him that +I had had enough of the show, and if he wanted to take any of me home he +ought not to wait very long, but come over that way and see if he +couldn't get the tame elephant to practise that performance on the hyena +or the next dog, because I had had plenty, and was willing to go home +just as I was, all in one piece, even if not very lively. + +"Mr. Man _came_, too, and so did a lot of the others. They seemed to +think that I was more to look at than those riding people; and some of +them laughed, though what there was happening that was funny I have +never been able to guess to this day. I kept right on telling Mr. Man +what I wanted him to do, and mebbe I made a good deal of noise about it, +for it seemed to stir up those other animals. There was a cage full of +lions that started the most awful roaring you can think of, and a cage +of crazy-looking things they called monkeys that screeched and howled +and swung back and forth in rings and held on to the bars, and all the +other things joined in, until I couldn't tell whether I was still saying +anything or not. I suppose they were all jealous of the elephant because +of the fun he was having, and howling to be let out so they could get +hold of me too. + +"Well, you never heard of such a time. It nearly broke up the show. +Everybody ran over to look, and even the riding people stopped their +horses to enjoy it, too. If it only hadn't been so dangerous and +unpleasant I should have been proud of the way they came to see me +perform. + +"But Mr. Man didn't seem to like it much. I heard him tell somebody, as +loud as he could, that I would be killed, and that I was the best dog he +ever had, and that if I _was_ killed he'd sue the show. + +"That made me proud, too, but I wished he wouldn't wait to sue the +show, but would do something right away, and just then a man with a +fancy dress on and a stick with a sharp iron hook on it came running up +and said something I didn't understand and hit the elephant with the +hook end of the stick, and he gave me an extra big swing and crack and +flung me half-way across the tent, where I landed on a bunch of hay +right in front of a long-necked thing called a camel--another terrible +tame creature, I suppose--who had me about half eaten up with his old +long under lip, before Mr. Man could get over there. + +"When Mr. Man did get hold of me, he said that I'd better take what was +left of me home, for they were going to feed the animals pretty soon, +and that I would likely get mixed up with the bill of fare. + +"After that he took me to the entrance and pushed me outside, and I +heard all those fierce creatures in the cages growl and roar louder than +ever, as if they had expected to sample me and were sorry to see me go. + +[Illustration: "GAVE ME AN EXTRA BIG SWING AND CRACK"] + +"That's what a menagerie is--it's a place where they have all the kinds +of animals and things in the world, for show, and a good many birds, and +maybe turtles, too, but they don't have any fine clear pond. They have +just a big tent, like the one Mr. Crow saw, and a lot of cages inside. +They keep most of the animals in cages, and they ought to keep them all +there, and I don't think they feed them very much, nor the best +things, or they wouldn't look so fierce and hungry. + +"They just keep them for Mr. Man and his friends to look at and talk +about, and if Mr. Turtle will take my advice he will keep out of a +menagerie and live in the Wide Blue Water where he was born. I wouldn't +have gone there again unless I had been tied and dragged there, or +unless they had put those tame animals into cages with the others. No +doubt there are some very fine, strong animals in a menagerie, but they +wouldn't be there if they could help it, and if anybody ever invites any +of you to join a menagerie, take my advice and don't do it." + +Then Mr. Dog knocked the ashes out of his pipe again, and all the other +Deep Woods People knocked the ashes out of _their_ pipes, too, and +filled them up fresh, and one said one thing, and one said another about +being in a menagerie or out of it, and every one thought it would be a +terrible thing to be shut up in a cage, except Mr. 'Possum, who said he +wouldn't mind it if they would let him sleep enough and give him all he +could eat, but that a cage without those things would be a lonesome +place. + +Then Mr. 'Coon said that a little adventure had happened to him once +which he had never mentioned before, because he had never known just +what to make of it; but he knew now, he said, that he had come very near +getting into a menagerie, and he would tell them just what happened. + +The Story Teller looked down at the quiet figure in his lap. The Little +Lady's head was nestled close to his shoulder, and her eyes were +straining very hard to keep open. + +"I think we will save Mr. 'Coon's story till another night," he said. + + + + +THE SECOND SNOWED-IN STORY + +MR. 'COON TELLS HOW HE CAME NEAR BEING A PART OF A MENAGERIE, AND HOW HE +ONCE TOLD A STORY TO MR. DOG + + +"YOU can tell about Mr. 'Coon, now--the story you didn't tell last +night, you know," and the Little Lady wriggles herself into a +comfortable corner just below the Story Teller's smoke, and looks deep +into a great cavern of glowing embers between the big old andirons, +where, in her fancy, she can picture the Hollow Tree people and their +friends. + +"Why, yes, let me see--" says the Story Teller. + +"Mr. Dog had just told about being at the menagerie, you know, and Mr. +'Coon was just going to tell how he came very near getting into a +menagerie himself." + +"Oh yes, of course--well, then, all the Hollow Tree people, the 'Coon +and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, and their friends who were visiting +them--Mr. Dog and Mr. Robin and Jack Rabbit and Mr. Turtle and Mr. +Squirrel--knocked the ashes out of their pipes and filled them up +fresh--" + +"No, they had just done that." + +"That's so, I forgot. Well, anyway, as soon as they got to smoking and +settled back around the fire again Mr. 'Coon told them his story, and I +guess we'll call it + + + MR. 'COON'S EARLY ADVENTURE + +Mr. 'Coon said he was quite young when it happened, and was taking a +pleasant walk one evening, to think over things a little, and perhaps to +pick out a handy tree where Mr. Man's chickens roosted, when all at once +he heard a fierce bark close behind him, and he barely had time to get +up a tree himself when a strange and very noisy Mr. Dog was leaping +about at the foot of the tree, making a great fuss, and calling every +moment for Mr. Man to hurry, for he had a young 'coon treed. + +"Of course I laid pretty low when I heard that," Mr. 'Coon said, "for I +knew that Mr. Man would most likely have a gun, so I got into a bunch of +leaves and brush that must have been some kind of an old nest and +scrooched down so that none of me would show. + +[Illustration: ALL AT ONCE HE HEARD A FIERCE BARK CLOSE BEHIND HIM] + +"Then by-and-by I heard some big creature come running through the +brush, and I peeked over a little, and there, sure enough, was Mr. Man +with a long gun, and I noticed that he wore a thing on his head--a sort +of hat, I suppose--made of what looked to be the skin of some relative +of mine. + +"Of course that made me mad. I hadn't cared so much until I saw that; +but I said right then to myself that any one who would do such a thing +as that never could be a friend of mine, no matter how much he tried. So +I scrooched down and laid low in that old nest, and didn't move or let +on in any way that I was there. + +"Then I heard Mr. Man walking around the tree and talking to his dog and +telling him that there wasn't anything up in that tree at all, and that +Mr. Dog had just been fooling him. I could tell by his voice that he was +getting mad at Mr. Dog, and I hoped that he'd get mad enough pretty soon +to take a stick to him for chasing me up a tree like that, and then +calling for Mr. Man to come and see me when there wasn't really anything +to look at. + +"But Mr. Dog kept galloping around the tree and barking out, over and +over, that I was there; that he had seen me, and that he knew that I was +hiding up there somewhere; and pretty soon I heard Mr. Man going away, +and I peeked over again. + +"Sure enough, he was going, but Mr. Dog was staying right there, +sitting under the tree and looking up and making a good deal more noise +than there was any need of to let me know he hadn't gone. I didn't see +why he stayed there. I wished he'd go away and tend to his own business. + +"Being quite young, I still lived with my folks over near the Wide Grass +Lands, and I wanted to get home for supper. It was a good way to go, for +the tree I had climbed was over close to the edge of the world where the +sun and moon rise, and you all know that's a good way, even from here. + +"Well, he didn't go, but just sat there, barking up that tree, and after +a long time I heard somebody coming again, and I peeked over and there +was Mr. Man, hurrying back, this time with an axe. I knew, right then, +there was going to be trouble. I knew they were going to cut that tree +down, and that I should most likely have quite a fuss with Mr. Dog, and +perhaps go home with a black eye and a scratched nose, and then get +whipped again for fighting, after I got there." + +Mr. 'Coon stopped and knocked the ashes out of his pipe and filled it up +fresh, and all the others knocked the ashes out of their pipes and +filled them up fresh, too. Then Mr. 'Possum poked up the fire and told +Mr. Turtle to bring a stick of wood from down-stairs, and when it was +blazing up high and bright again they all stepped over to the window a +minute, to see how hard it was snowing and banking up outside, then +went back to their chairs around the fire, and stretched out their feet +and leaned back and smoked, and listened to the rest of Mr. 'Coon's +story. + +Mr. 'Coon said he didn't like the sound of that axe when Mr. Man began +to cut the tree down. + +"Every time he struck the tree I could feel it all through me," he said, +"and I knew if he kept that noise up long enough it would give me a +nervous headache. I wished the tree would hurry up and drop, so we could +have what muss we were going to, and get it over with. I'd have got out +of that old nest and made a jump for another tree if there had been any +near enough, but there wasn't, so I just laid low and gritted my teeth +and let him chop. + +"Well, by-and-by that tree began to go down. It seemed to teeter a +little at first, this way and that; then it went very slow in one +direction; then it went a little faster; then it went a good deal +faster; then I suddenly felt like a shooting-star, I came down so fast, +and there was a big crash, and I thought I had turned into a lot of +stars, sure enough, and was shooting in every direction, and the next I +knew I was tied to a tree, hand and foot and around the middle, and Mr. +Man and Mr. Dog were sitting and looking at me, and grinning, and +talking about what they were going to do. + +[Illustration: "THEN I SUDDENLY FELT LIKE A SHOOTING-STAR"] + +"Mr. Man wasn't scolding Mr. Dog any more. He was telling him what a +good thing it was they had caught me alive, for now they could sell me +to a show and get a great deal more for me than they could for my skin. +I didn't know what a show was, then, or that a show is a menagerie, but +I know now, and I can see just what they meant. + +"Pretty soon Mr. Man told Mr. Dog to stay there and watch me while he +went home after a box to put me in. He said he didn't think it would be +safe to carry me in his arms, and he was right about that. + +"So then Mr. Man walked off, and left Mr. Dog guarding me, and saying +unpleasant things to me now and then. + +"At first I wouldn't answer him; but pretty soon I happened to think of +something pleasant to say: + +"'Mr. Dog,' I said, 'I know a good story, if you'd like me to tell it. +Mr. Man may be a good while getting that box, and mebbe you'd like to +hear something to pass the time.' + +"Mr. Dog said he would. He said that Mr. Man would most likely have to +make the box, and he didn't suppose he knew where the hammer and nails +were, and it might be dark before Mr. Man got back. + +"I felt a good deal better when I heard Mr. Dog say that, and I told him +a story I knew about how Mr. Rabbit lost his tail, and Mr. Dog laughed +and seemed to like it, and said, 'Tell me another.'" + +[Illustration: "THEN MR. DOG SAID, 'TELL ME ANOTHER'"] + +Before Mr. 'Coon could go on with his story, Mr. Rabbit said that of +course if that old tale had helped Mr. 'Coon out of trouble he was very +glad, but that it wasn't at all true, and that some time _he_ would tell +them himself the true story of how it happened. + +Then they all said that they hoped he would, for they'd always wanted to +hear that story told right, and then Mr. 'Coon went on with his +adventure. + +Mr. 'Coon said that when Mr. Dog said, "Tell me another," he knew he was +in a good-humor, and that he felt better and better himself. "I thought +if Mr. Man didn't come back too soon," he said, "I might get along +pretty well with Mr. Dog. + +"'I know another story, Mr. Dog,' I said--'the funniest story there is. +It would make you laugh until you fell over the edge of the world, but I +can't tell it here.' + +"'Why,' he said--'why can't you tell it here as well as anywhere?' + +"'Because it has to be acted,' I said, 'and my hands are tied.' + +"'Will you tell it if I untie your hands?' said Mr. Dog. + +"'Well,' I said, 'I'll begin it, and you can see how it goes.' + +"So Mr. Dog came over and untied my hands, for he said he could tie them +again before Mr. Man came back, because he knew Mr. Man hadn't found +that hammer yet. + +"'You can't get loose with just your hands untied, can you?' he said. + +"'No, of course not, Mr. Dog,' I said, pleasant and polite as could be. + +"'Let's see you try,' said Mr. Dog. + +"So I twisted and pulled, and of course I couldn't get loose. + +"'Now tell the story,' said Mr. Dog. + +"So I said: 'Once there was a man who had a very bad pain in his chest, +and he took all kinds of medicine, and it didn't do him any good. And +one day the Old Wise Man of the Woods told him if he would rub his chest +with one hand and pat his head with the other, it might draw the pain +out the top and cure him. So the man with the pain in his chest tried +it, and he did it this way.' + +"Then I showed Mr. Dog just how he did it, and Mr. Dog thought that was +funny, and laughed a good deal. + +"'Go on and tell the rest of it,' he said. 'What happened after that?' + +"But I let on as if I'd just remembered something, and I said, 'Oh, Mr. +Dog, I'm _so_ sorry, but I can't tell the rest of that story here, and +it's the funniest part, too. I know you'd laugh till you rolled over the +edge of the world.' + +"'Why can't you tell the rest of that story here as well as anywhere?' +said Mr. Dog, looking anxious. + +"'Because it has to be acted with the feet,' I said, 'and my feet are +tied.' + +"'Will you tell it if I untie your feet?' said Mr. Dog. + +"'Well, I'll do the best I can,' I said. + +"So Mr. Dog came over and untied my feet. He said he knew that Mr. Man +hadn't found the nails or the pieces to make the box yet, and there +would be plenty of time to tie me again before Mr. Man got back. + +"'You can't get loose, anyway, with just your hands and feet untied, can +you?' he said. + +"'No, of course not, Mr. Dog,' I said, more pleasant and polite than +ever. + +"'Let's see you try,' said Mr. Dog. + +"So I squirmed and twisted, but of course with a strong string around my +waist and tied behind I couldn't do anything. + +"'Now go on with the story,' said Mr. Dog. + +[Illustration: "AND DID ROLL OFF THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, SURE ENOUGH"] + +"'Well,' I said, 'the pain left his chest, but it went into his back, +and he had a most terrible time, until one day the Old Wise Man of the +Woods came along and told him that he thought he ought to know enough by +this time to rub his back where the pain was and pat his head at the +same time to draw it out at the top. So then the man with the pain +rubbed his back and patted his head this way,' and I showed Mr. Dog how +he did it; and I rubbed a good while about where the knot was, and made +a face to show how the man with the pain looked, and then I said the +pain came back into his chest again instead of being drawn out at the +top; and I changed about and rubbed there awhile, and then I went around +to my back again, chasing that pain first one side and the other; and +then I said that the Old Wise Man of the Woods came along one day and +told him that he must kick with his feet too if he ever wanted to get +rid of that pain, because, after all, it might have to be kicked out at +the bottom; and when I began to kick and dance with both feet and to rub +with my hands at the same time, Mr. Dog gave a great big laugh--the +biggest laugh I ever heard anybody give--and fell right down and rolled +over and over, and did roll off the edge of the world, sure enough. + +"I heard him go clattering into a lot of brush and blackberry bushes +that are down there, and just then I got that back knot untied, and I +stepped over and looked down at Mr. Dog, who had lodged in a brier patch +on a shelf about ten feet below the edge, where Mr. Man would have to +get him up with a ladder or a rope. + +"'Do you want to hear the rest of the story, Mr. Dog?' I said. + +"'I'll story _you_,' he said, 'when I catch you!' + +"'I told you you'd laugh till you fell off the edge of the world,' I +said. + +[Illustration: "I SET OUT FOR HOME WITHOUT WAITING TO SAY GOOD-BYE"] + +"'I'll make _you_ laugh,' he said, 'when I catch you!' + +"Then I saw he was cross about something, and I set out for home without +waiting to say good-bye to Mr. Man, for I didn't want to waste any more +time, though I missed my supper and got a scolding besides. + +"But I was glad I didn't bring home a black eye and scratched nose, and +I'm more glad than ever now that Mr. Man didn't get back in time with +that box, or I might be in a menagerie this minute instead of sitting +here smoking and telling stories and having a good time on Christmas +Day." + +The Story Teller looks down at the Little Lady. + +"I'm glad Mr. 'Coon didn't get into the menagerie, aren't you?" she +says. + +"Very glad," says the Story Teller. + +"He went lickety-split home, didn't he?" + +"He did that!" + +"I like them to go lickety-split better than lickety-cut, don't you?" +says the Little Lady. "They seem to go so much faster." + +"Ever so much faster," says the Story Teller. + + + + +THE WIDOW CROW'S BOARDING-HOUSE + +EARLY DOINGS OF THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE AND HOW THEY FOUND A HOME + + +ANYBODY can tell by her face that the Little Lady has some plan of her +own when the Story Teller is ready next evening to "sit by the fire and +spin." + +"I want you to tell me," she says, climbing up into her place, "how the +'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow ever got to living together in +the Hollow Tree." + +That frightens the Story Teller. He is all ready with something +different. + +"Good gracious!" he says, "that is an old story that all the Deep Woods +People have known ever so long." + +"But I don't know it," says the Little Lady, "and I'd like to know that +before you tell anything else. Rock, and tell it." + +So the Story Teller rocks slowly, and smokes, and almost forgets the +Little Lady in remembering that far-away time, and presently he begins. + +Well, it was all so long ago that perhaps I can't remember it very well. +Mr. 'Possum was a young man in those days--a nice spry young fellow; and +he used to think it was a good deal of fun to let Mr. Dog--who wasn't +friendly then, of course--try to catch him; and when Mr. Dog would get +pretty close and come panting up behind him, Mr. 'Possum would scramble +up a tree, and run out on to the longest limb and swing from it, head +down, and laugh, and say: + +"Come right up, Mr. Dog! Always at home to you, Mr. Dog! Don't stop to +knock!" + +And then Mr. Dog would race around under the tree and make a great to +do, and sometimes Mr. 'Possum would swing back and forth, and pretty +soon give a great big swing and let go, and Mr. Dog would think surely +he had him then, and bark and run to the place where he thought he was +going to drop. Only Mr. 'Possum didn't drop--not far; for he had his +limb all picked out, and he would catch it with his tail as he went by, +and it would bend and sway with him, and he would laugh, and call again: + +"Don't go, Mr. Dog! Mr. Man can get up the cows alone to-night!" + +[Illustration: CAME CLATTERING DOWN RIGHT IN FRONT OF MR. DOG] + +And then Mr. Dog would remember that he was a good ways from home, and +that if he wasn't there in time to help Mr. Man get up the cows there +might be trouble; and he would set out lickety-split for home, with Mr. +'Possum calling to him as he ran. + +But one time Mr. 'Possum made a mistake. He didn't know it, but he was +getting older and a good deal fatter than he had been at first, and when +he swung out for another limb that way, and let go, he missed the limb +and came clattering down right in front of Mr. Dog. He wasn't hurt much, +for the ground was soft, and there was a nice thick bed of leaves; but I +tell you he was scared, and when Mr. Dog jumped right on top of him, and +grabbed him, he gave himself up for lost, sure enough. + +But Mr. 'Possum is smart in some ways, and he knows how to play "dead" +better than any other animal there is. He knew that Mr. Dog would want +to show him to Mr. Man, and that he was too heavy for Mr. Dog to carry. +He had thought about all that, and decided what to do just in that +little second between the limb and the ground, for Mr. 'Possum can think +quick enough when anything like that happens. + +So when he struck the ground he just gave one little kick with his hind +foot and a kind of a sigh, as if he was drawing his last breath, and +laid there: and even when Mr. Dog grabbed him and shook him he never let +on, but acted almost deader than if he had been really dead and no +mistake. + +Then Mr. Dog stood with his paws out and his nose down close, listening, +and barking once in a while, and thinking maybe he would come to pretty +soon, but Mr. 'Possum still never let on, or breathed the least little +bit, and directly Mr. Dog started to drag him toward Mr. Man's house. + +That was a hard job, and every little way Mr. Dog would stop and shake +Mr. 'Possum and bark and listen to see if he was really dead, and after +a while he decided that he was, and started to get Mr. Man to come and +fetch Mr. 'Possum home. But he only went a few steps, the first time, +and just as Mr. 'Possum was about to jump up and run he came hurrying +back, and stood over him and barked and barked as loud as ever he could +for Mr. Man to come and see what he had for him. But Mr. Man was too far +away, and even if he heard Mr. Dog he didn't think it worth while to +come. + +So then Mr. Dog tried to get Mr. 'Possum on his shoulder, to carry him +that way; but Mr. 'Possum made himself so limp and loose and heavy that +every time Mr. Dog would get him nearly up he would slide off again and +fall all in a heap on the leaves; and Mr. Dog couldn't help believing +that he was dead, to see him lying there all doubled up, just as he +happened to drop. + +[Illustration: SO THEN MR. DOG TRIED TO GET MR. 'POSSUM ON HIS SHOULDER] + +So, then, by-and-by Mr. Dog really did start for Mr. Man's, and Mr. +'Possum lay still, and just opened one eye the least bit to see how +far Mr. Dog had gone, and when he had gone far enough Mr. 'Possum jumped +up quick as a wink and scampered up a tree, and ran out on a limb and +swung with his head down, and called out: + +"Don't go away, Mr. Dog! We've had such a nice visit together! Don't go +off mad, Mr. Dog! Come back and stay till the cows come home!" + +Then Mr. Dog was mad, I _tell_ you, and told him what he'd do next time; +and he set out for home fast as he could travel, and went in the back +way and hid, for Mr. Man was already getting up the cows when he got +there. + +Well, Mr. 'Possum didn't try that swinging trick on Mr. Dog any more. He +found out that it was dangerous, the way he was getting, and that made +him think he ought to change his habits in other ways too. For one +thing, he decided he ought to have some regular place to stay where he +could eat and sleep and feel at home, instead of just travelling about +and putting up for the night wherever he happened to be. + +Mr. 'Possum was always quite stylish, too, and had a good many nice +clothes, and it wasn't good for them to be packed about all the time; +and once some of his best things got rained on and he had to sleep on +them for a long time to get them pressed out smooth again. + +So Mr. 'Possum made up his mind to find a home. He was an old bachelor +and never wanted to be anything else, because he liked to have his own +way, and go out all times of the night, and sleep late if he wanted to. +So he made up his mind to look up a good place to board--some place that +would be like a home to him--perhaps in a private family. + +One day when he was walking through the woods thinking about it, and +wondering how he ought to begin to find a place like that, he met Mr. Z. +'Coon, who was one of his oldest friends in the Big Deep Woods. They had +often been hunting together, especially nights, for Mr. 'Coon and Mr. +'Possum always like that time best for hunting, and have better luck in +the dark than any other time. Mr. 'Coon had had his troubles with Mr. +Dog, too, and had come very near getting caught one night when Mr. Man +and some of his friends were out with Mr. Dog and his relatives and +several guns looking for a good Sunday dinner. Mr. 'Coon _would_ have +got caught that time, only when Mr. Man cut the tree down that he was in +he gave a big jump as the tree was falling and landed in another tree, +and then ran out on a limb and jumped to another tree that wasn't so far +away, and then to another, so that Mr. Man and his friends and all the +dog family lost track of him entirely. + +[Illustration: HE WAS AN OLD BACHELOR AND LIKED TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY] + +But Mr. 'Coon was tired of that kind of thing too, and wanted some +place where he could be comfortable, and where he could lock the door +nights and feel safe. Mr. 'Coon was a bachelor, like Mr. 'Possum, though +he had once been disappointed in love, and told about it sometimes, and +looked sad, and even shed tears. + +So when he met Mr. 'Possum that day they walked along and talked about +finding a place to live, and just as they were wondering what they ought +to do they happened to notice, right in front of them, a little piece of +birch bark tacked up on a tree, and when they read it, it said: + + MRS. WIDOW CROW. + WILL TAKE A FEW GUESTS. + SINGLE GENTLEMEN PREFERRED; + PLEASANT LOCATION NEAR + RACE-TRACK. + +Then Mr. 'Possum scratched his head and tried to think, and Mr. 'Coon +scratched _his_ head and tried to think, and pretty soon Mr. 'Coon said: + +[Illustration: THEY SAW MR. CROW OUT IN THE YARD CUTTING WOOD FOR HIS +MOTHER-IN-LAW] + +"Oh yes, I know about that. That's Mr. Crow's mother-in-law. He had a +wife until last year, and his mother-in-law used to live with them. I +believe she was pretty cross, but I've heard Mr. Crow say she was a good +cook, and that he had learned to cook a great many things himself. I +heard some time ago that she had moved over by the race-track, and +perhaps Mr. Crow is boarding with her. Let's go over and see." + +So away they went, saying how nice it would be to be really settled, and +pretty soon they got over to Mrs. Widow Crow's, and there, sure enough, +they saw Mr. Crow out in the yard cutting wood for his mother-in-law; +and when they asked him about the advertisement, he said he was helping +her to get started, and she had two nice rooms, and that Mr. 'Possum and +Mr. 'Coon would be just the ones to fill them. + +So they went right in and saw Mrs. Widow Crow about it, and by night +they had their things moved and were all settled, and Widow Crow got a +nice supper for them, and Mr. Crow helped her, and worked as hard as if +he were a hired man instead of a boarder like the others, which he was, +because he paid for his room as much as anybody, and got scolded besides +when he didn't do things to suit his mother-in-law. + + + + +THE FINDING OF THE HOLLOW TREE + +HOW THE 'COON AND 'POSSUM AND THE OLD BLACK CROW MOVED AND SET UP +HOUSEKEEPING + + +WELL, the Widow Crow set a very good table, and everything in her +boarding-house went along quite well for a while, and Mr. 'Possum and +Mr. 'Coon both said what a good thing it was to have a home, and Mr. +Crow said so too, though he didn't look as if he enjoyed it as much as +he said, for his mother-in-law kept him so busy cutting and carrying +wood and helping her with the cooking that he never had any time for +himself at all. + +Even when Mr. Rabbit and some of his friends had the great fall handicap +race he had to stay at home and peel potatoes, and not see it, besides +being scolded all the time for wanting to go to such a thing as a rabbit +race anyway. And Mr. Crow was sad because it reminded him of his +married life, which he was trying to forget--Mrs. Crow having been the +image of his mother-in-law and exactly like her about races and peeling +potatoes and such things. + +And by-and-by, Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon didn't like it so much, either. +Widow Crow got so she scolded them, too, about their habits, especially +about being out nights and lying in bed next morning, and she wouldn't +give them any breakfast unless they got up in time. + +At last she even asked them to take care of their own rooms and to do +other work, the same as Mr. Crow did; and she didn't cook as good +things, nor as many of them, as she did when they first came. Then one +day when they complained a little--not very much, for they were afraid +of the Widow Crow, but a little--she told them that if they didn't like +what she gave them they could find a place they liked better, and that +she was tired of their ways anyhow. + +[Illustration: HAD TO STAY AT HOME AND PEEL POTATOES] + +So then Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum all got together and +talked it over. And Mr. Crow said _they_ might be pretty tired of it, +but that they couldn't in a hundred years, thinking night and day, think +how tired of it _he_ was. He said if they would just say the word he +would take the things that belonged to him out of that house, and the +three of them would find some good place and all live together, and +never have anything more to do with mothers-in-law or their families. He +said he knew how to cook as well as she did, and really liked to cook +when he was in a pleasant place and wasn't henpecked to death. + +And he said if they moved his things they had better do it at night +while his mother-in-law was asleep, so as not to disturb her. + +Well, Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon both spoke right up and said _they'd_ go +in a minute, and that they'd hunt up the place to live that very day, +though it wasn't the best time of year to move. And Mr. Crow said: + +"I know where there's a big Hollow Tree that would be _just_ the place. +It's the biggest tree in the Big Deep Woods. It has three big hollow +branches that would do for rooms, and with a little work it could be +made into the finest place anywhere. The Old Wise Man of the Woods once +lived there and fixed it all up with nice stairs, and a fireplace, and +windows, and doors with good latches on them, and it's still just as he +left it. All it needs are a few repairs, and we could move right in. I +found it once as I was flying over, and I could tell _you_, so you could +find it. It's in a thick swampy place, and you would never guess it was +there if you didn't know it. Mr. Dog knows about it, but he never could +get in if we kept the door latched, and it's not so far away from Mr. +Man's that we could not borrow, when we ran out of little things we +needed." + +Well, Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon took the directions from Mr. Crow, and +went right off to look at the Hollow Tree that very day, and decided +they'd take it, and pitched in to clean it up and get it ready to live +in. And next day they came with a hammer and some nails and worked all +day again, and Mr. Rabbit heard the noise and came over and looked +through the place and said how nice it was; and they were so tired at +night that they never thought of going out, and were up early for +breakfast. + +Widow Crow was so surprised she forgot what she had always scolded them +for before, and scolded them this time for getting up so early that they +had to stand around and wait for breakfast to be put on the table. But +they didn't seem to mind the scolding at all, and Mr. Crow looked +happier than he had looked for months, and skipped around and helped set +the table, and brought in a big wood-box full of wood, and when Widow +Crow scolded him for getting chips on the floor he laughed. Then she +boxed his ears and told him he ought to remember the poor Missing One at +such a time, and Mr. Crow said he did, and could almost imagine she was +there now. + +Well, Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum got the Hollow Tree all ready, that day, +and that night they moved. + +The Widow Crow was pretty fat, and liked to go to bed early, and sleep +sound, and leave Mr. Crow to do the evening dishes; and that evening Mr. +'Coon and Mr. 'Possum pitched in and helped him, and they got through +in a jiffy and began to move. + +Mr. Crow said he knew his own things, and that he wouldn't take any that +belonged to the Missing One, because they had mostly come from her +mother; and, besides, they would be a sad reminder, and didn't seem to +go with the kind of a place they had planned to have. He said if they +didn't have enough things they could borrow a few from Mr. Man when Mr. +Man went away and left his windows open, and that they wouldn't need +much to begin with. + +So then they got Mr. Crow's cook-stove out of the back store-room, and a +table that was his, and some chairs from different parts of the house, +and a few dishes which had come to him from his side of the family, and +they tiptoed around and listened now and then at Widow Crow's door to be +sure she was asleep. + +They knew she _was_ by the sound; but still they were very quiet until +Mr. 'Possum started to bring a rocking-chair of Mr. Crow's down-stairs +and somehow got his legs through the rounds and fell and rolled clear to +the bottom, expressing his feelings as he came down. + +[Illustration: LISTENED NOW AND THEN AT WIDOW CROW'S DOOR TO BE SURE SHE +WAS ASLEEP] + +That woke up Widow Crow with a jump, and she sat up in bed and called +"Thieves!" and "Help!" and Mr. Crow ran to her door and said that it +wasn't anything, only those scamps Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon had been +out late again. He said they had brought home one of Mr. Man's +beehives and had dropped it because the bees woke up just as they were +climbing the stairs. + +Then Mrs. Crow called out quick, and said for him not to dare to open +that door and let those pesky bees into her room, and that she hoped +they'd sting that 'Possum and 'Coon until they wouldn't be able to tell +themselves apart. She said she bet she'd get that pair out of her house +if she lived through the night. Then she rolled over and went to sleep +again, and Mr. 'Possum got up and limped a little, but wasn't much +damaged, and they got all the things outside and loaded up, and set out +for the Hollow Tree. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM SAID HE'D JUST GET ON AND HOLD THE THINGS] + +It was moonlight and Mr. Crow led the way, and the minute they were far +enough off to be sure they wouldn't wake up Widow Crow they sang the +chorus of a song that Mr. Rabbit had made for them the day before when +he called at the Hollow Tree, and they had told him what they were going +to do. That was the "Hollow Tree Song," which, of course, everybody in +the Big Deep Woods knows now, but it had never been sung there before, +and when they joined in the chorus, + + Then here's to the 'Possum and the Old Black Crow + And the 'Coon with a one, two, three! + And here's to the hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow-- + Then here's to the Hollow Tree, + +Mr. Owl, who was watching them from a limb overhead, thought he had +never heard anything quite so fine. + +Well, they couldn't get along very fast, for the things got so heavy and +they had to rest so often that it began to look as if they wouldn't get +to the Hollow Tree by morning. But just as they got out into a little +open place that was about half-way there they saw somebody coming, and +who do you suppose it was? + +"I know," says the Little Lady, "it was the Old Wise Man of the Woods, +to tell them they couldn't have his house." + +No, he didn't live there any more--he had gone away for good. No, it +wasn't the Old Wise Man; it was Mr. Rabbit and Mr. Turtle, coming to +help them move. Mr. Rabbit had gone all the way to the Wide Blue Water +after Mr. Turtle because he is so strong, and they would have been there +a good deal sooner, only Mr. Turtle didn't get home till late, and +travels slow. + +Well, it wasn't so hard to move after that. They just set the cook-stove +on Mr. Turtle's back and piled on as much as would stay on, and he kept +telling them to put on more, until pretty soon Mr. 'Possum said that he +would just get on and hold the things from slipping off, which he did, +and sat on the stove and rode and swung his feet and held the other +things, while Mr. Crow and the rest walked and carried what was left. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM AND MR. 'COON TRIED TO PUT UP THE STOVE] + +And when they got to the Hollow Tree it was just about sun-up, and Mr. +'Possum said if they didn't have breakfast pretty soon he would starve +to death with being up all night and working so hard holding on those +things. + +So then Mr. Crow told him that he and Mr. 'Coon could set up the stove, +and that he would unpack the food and stir up something as quick as he +could if the others would bring a little wood and some water from the +spring, and place the things around inside; for he saw a cloud coming, +he said, and it might rain. And Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon tried to put +up the stove in a hurry, and the pieces of pipe didn't fit very well, +and they came as near having a quarrel over it as they ever did over +anything, for even the best friends can't always put up stovepipe +together without thinking and sometimes saying unpleasant things about +each other, especially when they are hungry and not very warm and the +house is all upset. Mr. 'Coon said he only wished he had another hand +and he would do that job alone, and Mr. 'Possum told him that if he'd +been provided with a handy and useful tail he'd _have_ the same as +another hand, and could work more and not wish so much. + +Then Mr. Rabbit came to help them, and just as they got it about up it +all came down again, and Mr. Crow said that if they'd all go away he'd +set up the stove himself; which he did in about a minute, and had a +fire in it and the coffee on in no time. + +Then the others rushed around and got the things straightened out, and a +fire in the fireplace, and they said how nice their rooms were, and when +Mr. Crow called they all came hurrying down, and in about another minute +the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, with Mr. Rabbit and Mr. +Turtle, all sat down to the first meal in the Hollow Tree. + +It was then that Jack Rabbit read all of the "Hollow Tree Song" he had +made for them, and they all sang it together; and then the storm that +Mr. Crow had seen coming did come, and they shut all the doors and +windows tight, and sat before the fire and smoked and went to sleep, +because they were so tired with being up all night. + +And that was the first day in the Hollow Tree, and how the 'Possum and +'Coon and Old Black Crow came to live there, and they live there +still. + + + + +THE THIRD SNOWED-IN STORY + +MR. RABBIT TELLS SOME INTERESTING FAMILY HISTORY + + +THE Little Lady waited until the Story Teller had lit his pipe and sat +looking into the great open fire, where there was a hickory log so big +that it had taken the Story Teller and the Little Lady's mother with two +pairs of ice-tongs to drag it to the hearth and get it into place. +Pretty soon the Little Lady had crept in between the Story Teller's +knees. Then in another minute she was on one of his knees, helping him +rock. Then she said: + +"Did Mr. Rabbit tell his story next? He promised to tell about losing +his tail, you know." + +The Story Teller took his pipe from his mouth a moment, and sat thinking +and gazing at the big log, which perhaps reminded him of one of the +limbs of the Hollow Tree, where the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black +Crow lived and had their friends visit them that long-ago snowy +Christmastime. + +"Why, yes," he said, "that's so, Mr. Rabbit _did_ tell that story. When +Mr. 'Coon got through telling how he came near getting into a menagerie, +they all said that it certainly was a very narrow escape, and Mr. 'Coon +said he shouldn't wonder if that menagerie had to quit business, just +because he wasn't in it; and Mr. 'Possum said he thought if anything +would _save_ a menagerie that would, for it would keep them from being +eaten out of house and home." + +Then Mr. 'Coon said that if that was so, Mr. 'Possum had saved at least +three menageries by staying right where he was in the Big Deep Woods. +This made Mr. Squirrel and Mr. Robin laugh, and the rest wondered what +those two gigglers had noticed that was funny. Then they all knocked the +ashes out of their pipes again, and walked over to the window, and +looked at the snow banking up outside and piling up on the bare limbs of +the big trees. They said how early it got dark this time of year, +especially on a cloudy day. And pretty soon Mr. Crow said they had just +about time for one more story before supper, and that Mr. Rabbit ought +to tell now about how, a long time ago, his family had lost their tails. +Mr. Rabbit didn't seem to feel very anxious to tell it, but they told +him that he had promised, and that now was as good a time as any, so +they went back and sat down, and Mr. Rabbit told them + + +THE TRUE STORY OF THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE, AND HOW JACK RABBIT LOST +HIS TAIL + +"Once upon a time," he said, "a great many great-grandfathers back, my +family had long bushy tails, like Mr. Squirrel and Mr. Fox, only a good +deal longer and finer and softer, and _very handsome_." + +When Mr. Rabbit said that, Mr. Squirrel sniffed and twitched his nose +and gave his nice bushy tail a flirt, but he didn't say anything. Mr. +Rabbit went right on. + +"Well, there was one fine, handsome rabbit who had the longest and +plumiest tail of any of the family, and was very proud of it. He was my +twenty-seventh great-grandfather, and was called 'Mr. Hare.' He was +young and smart then, and thought he was a good deal smarter than he +really was, though he was smart enough and handsome enough to set the +style for all the other rabbits, and not much ever happened to him, +because he could beat anything running that there was in the Big Deep +Woods. + +"That twenty-seventh great-grandfather of mine was very proud of his +running, and used to brag that in a foot-race he could beat anything +that lived between the Wide Grass Lands and the Edge of the World. He +used to talk about it to almost everybody that came along, and one day +when he met one of the Turtle family who used to be called 'Mr. +Tortoise' in those days, he stopped and began to brag to him how fast he +could run and how nobody in the Big Deep Woods dared to race with him. + +"But Mr. Turtle, he just smiled a little and said: 'Oh, pshaw! you can't +run very fast. I believe I can beat you myself!' + +"Well, that did make Grandfather Hare laugh--and made him a little mad, +too. + +"'You!' he said. 'Why, I'll give you within ten yards of that rail fence +of Mr. Man's, half a mile away, and then beat you across it. Just travel +along, and some time this afternoon, when you get down that way, I'll +come back and let you see me go by. But you'll have to look quick if you +see me, for I'll be going fast.' + +"But Mr. Tortoise said he didn't want any start at all, that he was +ready to begin the race right then; and that made Grandpaw Hare laugh so +loud that Mr. Fox heard him as he was passing, and came over to see what +the fun was. Then he said that he hadn't much to do for a few minutes, +and that he'd stay and act as judge. He thought a race like that +wouldn't last long; and it didn't, though it wasn't at all the kind of a +race he had expected. + +"Well, he put Mr. Tortoise and my twenty-seventh great-grandfather side +by side, and then he stood off and said, 'Go!' and thought it would all +be over in a minute. + +[Illustration: MR. FOX SAID HE DIDN'T HAVE MUCH TO DO FOR A FEW MINUTES +AND HE'D ACT AS JUDGE] + +"Grandpaw Hare gave one great big leap, about twenty feet long, and then +stopped. He was in no hurry, and he wanted to have some fun with Mr. +Tortoise. He looked around to where Mr. Tortoise was coming straddling +and panting along, and he laughed and rolled over to see how solemn he +looked, and how he was travelling as if he meant to get somewhere before +dark. He was down on all fours so he could use all his legs at once, and +anybody would think, to look at him, that he really expected to win that +race. + +"The more my Grandpaw Hare looked at him the more he laughed, and then +he would make another long leap forward and stop, and look back, and +wait for Mr. Tortoise to catch up again. + +"Then he would call to him, or maybe go back and take roundin's on him, +and say, 'Come along there, old tobacco-box. Are you tied to something?' +Mr. Fox would laugh a good deal, too, and he told my ancestor to go on +and finish the race--that he couldn't wait around there all day. And +pretty soon he said if they were going to fool along like that, he'd +just go down to the fence and take a nap till they got there; and for +Grandpaw Rabbit to call to him when he really started to come, so he +could wake up and judge the finish. + +"Mr. Fox he loped away to the fence and laid down and went to sleep in +the shade, and Grandpaw Hare thought it would be fun to pretend to be +asleep, too. I've heard a story told about it that says that he really +did go to sleep, and that Mr. Tortoise went by him and got to the fence +before he woke up. But that is not the way it happened. My +twenty-seventh great-grandfather was too smart to go to sleep, and even +if he had gone to sleep, Mr. Tortoise made enough noise pawing and +scratching along through the grass and gravel to wake up forty of our +family. + +"My ancestor would wait until he came grinding along and got up even +with him, then suddenly he'd sit up as if he'd been waked out of a nice +dream and say, 'Hello, old coffee-mill! What do you want to wake me up +for when I'm trying to get a nap?' Then he would laugh a big laugh and +make another leap, and lie down and pretend again, with his fine plumy +tail very handsome in the sun. + +"But Grandpaw Hare carried the joke a little too far. He kept letting +Mr. Tortoise get up a little closer and closer every time, until Mr. +Tortoise would almost step on him before he would move. And that was +just what Mr. Tortoise wanted, for about the next time he came along he +came right up behind my ancestor, but instead of stepping on him, he +gave his head a quick snap, just as if he were catching fish, and +grabbed my Grandpaw Hare by that beautiful plumy tail, and held on, and +pinched, and my ancestor gave a squeal and a holler and set out for +that rail fence, telling his troubles as he came. + +"Mr. Fox had gone sound asleep and didn't hear the rumpus at first, and +when he did, he thought grandpaw was just calling to him to wake up and +be ready to judge the race, so he sat up quick and watched them come. He +saw my twenty-seventh great-grandfather sailing along, just touching the +highest points, with something that looked like an old black wash-pan +tied to his tail. + +"When Mr. Fox saw what it was, he just laid down and laughed and rolled +over, and then hopped up on the top rail and called, out 'All right, I'm +awake, Mr. Hare! Come right along, Mr. Hare; you'll beat him yet!' + +"Then he saw my ancestor stop and shake himself, and paw, and roll over, +to try to get Mr. Tortoise loose, which of course he couldn't do, for, +as we all know, whenever any of the Turtle family get a grip they never +let go till it thunders, and this was a bright day. So pretty soon +grandpaw was up and running again with Mr. Tortoise sailing out behind +and Mr. Fox laughing to see them come, and calling out: 'Come right +along, Mr. Hare! come right along! You'll beat him yet!' + +[Illustration: SAILING ALONG, JUST TOUCHING THE HIGHEST POINTS] + +"But Mr. Fox made a mistake about that. Grandpaw Hare was really ahead, +of course, when he came down the homestretch, but when he got pretty +close to the fence he made one more try to get Mr. Tortoise loose, and +gave himself and his tail a great big swing, and Mr. Tortoise didn't let +go quite quick enough, and off came my twenty-seventh great-grandfather's +beautiful plumy tail, and away went Mr. Tortoise with it, clear over the +top rail of the fence, and landed in a brier patch on the other side. + +"Well, Grandpaw Hare was in such a state as you never heard of! He +forgot all about the race at first, and just raved about his great loss, +and borrowed Mr. Fox's handkerchief to tie up what was left, and said +that he never in the world could show his face before folks again. + +"And Mr. Fox stopped laughing as soon as he could, and was really quite +sorry for him, and even Mr. Tortoise looked through the fence, and asked +him if he didn't think it could be spliced and be almost as good as +ever. + +"He said he hadn't meant to commit any damage, and that he hoped Mr. +Hare would live to forgive him, and that now there was no reason why my +grandpaw shouldn't beat him in the next race. + +[Illustration: AWAY WENT MR. TORTOISE, CLEAR OVER THE TOP RAIL] + +"Then my ancestor remembered about the race and forgot his other loss +for a minute, and declared that Mr. Tortoise didn't win the race at +all--that he couldn't have covered that much ground in a half a day +alone, and he asked Mr. Fox if he was going to let that great +straddle-bug ruin his reputation for speed and make him the +laughing-stock of the Big Deep Woods, besides all the other damage he +had done. + +"Then Mr. Fox scratched his head, and thought about it, and said he +didn't see how he could help giving the race to Mr. Tortoise, for it was +to be the first one across the fence, and that Mr. Tortoise was +certainly the first one across, and that he'd gone over the top rail in +style. + +"Well, that made Grandpaw Hare madder than ever. He didn't say another +word, but just picked up his property that Mr. Tortoise handed him +through the fence, and set out for home by a back way, studying what he +ought to do to keep everybody from laughing at him, and thinking that if +he didn't do something he'd have to leave the country or drown himself, +for he had always been so proud that if people laughed at him he knew he +could never show his face again. + +"And that," said Mr. Rabbit, "is the true story of that old race between +the Hare and the Tortoise, and of how the first Rabbit came to lose his +tail. I've never told it before, and none of my family ever did; but so +many stories have been told about the way those things happened that we +might just as well have this one, which is the only true one so far as I +know." + +[Illustration: SET OUT FOR HOME BY A BACK WAY] + +Then Mr. Rabbit lit his pipe and leaned back and smoked. Mr. Dog said it +was a fine story, and he wished he could have seen that race, and Mr. +Turtle looked as if he wanted to say something, and did open his mouth +to say it, but Mr. Crow spoke up, and asked what happened after that to +Mr. Rabbit's twenty-seventh great-grandfather, and how it was that the +rest of the Rabbits had short tails, too. + +Then Mr. Rabbit said that that was another story, and Mr. Squirrel and +Mr. Robin wanted him to tell it right away, but Mr. Crow said they'd +better have supper now, and Mr. 'Possum thought that was a good plan, +and Mr. 'Coon, too, and then they all hurried around to get up some +sticks of wood from down-stairs, and to set the table, and everybody +helped, so they could get through early and have a nice long evening. + +And all the time the snow was coming down outside and piling higher and +higher, and they were being snowed in without knowing it, for it was +getting too dark to see much when they tried again to look out the +window through the gloom of the Big Deep Woods. + + + + +THE FOURTH SNOWED-IN STORY + +MR. JACK RABBIT CONTINUES HIS FAMILY HISTORY + + +"DID they have enough left for supper--enough for all the visitors, I +mean?" asks the Little Lady the next evening, when the Story Teller is +ready to go on with the history of the Hollow Tree. + +"Oh yes, they had plenty for supper, and more, too. They had been +getting ready a good while for just such a time as this, and had carried +in a lot of food, and they had a good many nice things down in the +store-room where the wood was, but they didn't need those yet. They just +put on what they had left from their big dinner, and Mr. Crow stirred up +a pan of hot biscuits by his best receipt, and they passed them back and +forth across the table so much that Mr. 'Possum said they went like hot +cakes, sure enough, and always took two when they came his way." + +And they talked a good deal about the stories that Mr. 'Coon and Mr. +Rabbit had told them, and everybody thought how sly and smart Mr. 'Coon +had been to fool Mr. Dog that way; and Mr. 'Coon said that, now he came +to think it over, he supposed it was a pretty good trick, though it +really hadn't seemed so specially great to him at the time. He said he +didn't think it half as smart as Mr. Tortoise's trick on Mr. Rabbit's +Grandpaw Hare, when he beat him in the foot-race and went over the fence +first, taking Mr. Hare's tail with him. And then they wondered if that +had all really happened as Mr. Rabbit had told it--all but Mr. Turtle, +who just sat and smiled to himself and didn't say anything at all, +except "Please pass the biscuits," now and then, when he saw the plate +being set down in front of Mr. 'Possum. + +Then by-and-by they all got through and hurried up and cleared off the +table, and lit their pipes, and went back to the fire, and pretty soon +Jack Rabbit began to tell + + +HOW THE REST OF THE RABBITS LOST THEIR TAILS + +"Well," he said, "my twenty-seventh great-grandfather Hare didn't go out +again for several days. He put up a sign that said 'Not at Home,' on his +door, and then tried a few experiments, to see what could be done. + +[Illustration: TRIED TO SPLICE HIS PROPERTY BACK IN PLACE] + +"He first tried to splice his property back into place, as Mr. Tortoise +had told him he might, but that plan didn't work worth a cent. He never +could get it spliced on straight, and if he did get it about right, it +would lop over or sag down or something as soon as he moved, and when he +looked at himself in the glass he made up his mind that he'd rather do +without his nice plumy brush altogether than to go out into society with +it in that condition. + +"So he gave it up and put on some nice all-healing ointment, and before +long what there was left of it was all well, and a nice bunch of soft, +white cottony fur had grown out over the scar, and Grandpaw Hare thought +when he looked at himself in the glass that it was really quite +becoming, though he knew the rest of his family would always be saying +things about it, and besides they would laugh at him for letting Mr. +Tortoise beat him in a foot-race. + +"Sometimes, when there was nobody around, my grandfather would go out +into the sun and light his pipe and lean up against a big stone, or +maybe a stump, and think it over. + +[Illustration: GRANDFATHER WOULD LIGHT HIS PIPE AND THINK IT OVER] + +"And one morning, as he sat there thinking, he made up his mind what he +would do. Mr. Lion lived in the Big Deep Woods in those days, and he was +King. Whenever anything happened among the Deep Woods People that they +couldn't decide for themselves, they went to where King Lion lived, in a +house all by himself over by the Big West Hills, and he used to settle +the question; and sometimes, when somebody that wasn't very old, and +maybe was plump and tender, had done something that wasn't just right, +King Lion would look at him and growl and say it was too bad for any one +so young to do such things, and especially for them to grow up and keep +on doing them; so he would have him for breakfast, or maybe for dinner, +and that would settle everything in the easiest and shortest way. + +"Of course Grandfather Hare knew very well that Mr. Tortoise and Mr. Fox +wouldn't go with him to King Lion, for they would be afraid to, after +what they had done, so he made up his mind to go alone and tell him the +whole story, because he was as sure as anything that King Lion would +decide that he had really won the race, and would be his friend, which +would make all the other Deep Woods People jealous and proud of him +again, and perhaps make them wish they had nice bunches of white cottony +fur in the place of long dragging tails that were always in the way. + +"And then some day he would show King Lion where Mr. Fox and Mr. +Tortoise lived. + +[Illustration: SET UP HIS EARS AND WENT BY, LICKETY-SPLIT] + +"My Grandfather Hare didn't stop a minute after he thought of that, but +just set out for King Lion's house over at the foot of the Big West +Hills. He had to pass by Mr. Fox's house, and Mr. Fox called to him, but +Grandpaw Hare just set up his ears as proud as could be and went by, +lickety-split, without looking at Mr. Fox at all. + +"It was a good way to King Lion's house, but Grandpaw Hare didn't waste +any time, and he was there almost before he knew it. + +"When he got to King Lion's door he hammered on the knocker, and when +nobody came right away he thought maybe the King was out for a walk. But +that wasn't so. King Lion had been sick for two or three days, and he +was still in bed, and had to get up and get something around him before +he could let Grandpaw in. + +"Grandpaw Hare had sat down on the steps to wait, when all at once the +door opened behind him and he felt something grab him by the collar and +swing him in and set him down hard on a seat, and then he saw it was +King Lion, and he didn't much like his looks. + +"'So it was you, was it, making that noise?' he said. 'Well, I'm glad to +see you, for I was just thinking about having a nice rabbit for +breakfast.' + +[Illustration: "'GLAD TO SEE YOU,' SAID KING LION; 'I WAS JUST THINKING +ABOUT HAVING A NICE RABBIT FOR BREAKFAST'"] + +"Then my twenty-seventh great-grandfather knew he'd made a mistake, +coming to see King Lion when he was feeling that way, and he had to +think pretty quick to know what to say. But our family have always been +pretty quick in their thoughts, and Grandpaw Hare spoke right up as +polite as could be, and said he would do anything he could to find a +nice young plump rabbit for King Lion, and that he would even be proud +to be a king's breakfast himself, only he wasn't so very young nor so +very plump, and, besides, there was that old prophecy about the king and +the cotton-tailed rabbit, which of course, he said, King Lion must have +heard about. + +"Then King Lion said that my twenty-seventh great-grandfather was plenty +young enough and plenty plump enough, and that he'd never heard of any +prophecy about a cotton-tailed rabbit, and that he'd never heard of a +cotton-tailed rabbit, either. + +"Then Grandpaw Hare just got up and turned around, and as he turned he +said, as solemnly as he could: + + 'When the King eats a hare with a cotton tail, + Then the King's good health will fail.' + +"Well, that scared the King a good deal, for he was just getting over +one sick spell, and he was afraid if he had another right away he'd die +sure. He sat down and asked Grandpaw Hare to tell him how he came to +have a tail like that, and grandpaw told him, and it made the King laugh +and laugh, until he got well, and he said it was the best joke he ever +heard of, and that he'd have given some of the best ornaments off of his +crown to have seen that race. + +"And the better King Lion felt the hungrier he got, and when my +Grandfather Hare asked him if he wouldn't decide the race in his favor, +he just glared at him and said if he didn't get out of there and hunt +him up a nice, young, plump, long-tailed rabbit, he'd eat him--cotton +tail, prophecy, and all--for he didn't go much on prophecies anyway. + +"Then Grandpaw Hare got right up and said, 'Good-day' and backed out and +made tracks for the rest of his family, and told them that King Lion had +just got up from a sick spell that had given him an appetite for +long-tailed rabbits. He said that the King had sent him out to get one, +and that King Lion would most likely be along himself pretty soon. He +said the sooner the Rabbit family took pattern after the new +cotton-tailed style the more apt they'd be to live to a green old age +and have descendants. + +"Well, that was a busy day in the Big Deep Woods. The Rabbit family got +in line by a big smooth stump that they picked out for the purpose, and +grandpaw attended to the job for them, and called out 'Next!' as they +marched by. He didn't have to wait, either, for they didn't know what +minute King Lion might come. Mr. Tortoise and Mr. Fox came along and +stopped to see the job, and helped grandpaw now and then when his arm +got tired, and by evening there was a pile of tails by that stump as big +as King Lion's house, and there never was such a call for the +all-healing ointment as there was that night in the Big Deep Woods. + +"And none of our family ever did have tails after that, for they never +would grow any more, and all the little new rabbits just had bunches of +cotton, too, and that has never changed to this day. + +"And when King Lion heard how he'd been fooled by Grandpaw Hare with +that foolish prophecy that he just made up right there, out of his head, +he knew that everybody would laugh at him as much as he had laughed at +Mr. Hare, and he moved out of the country and never came back, and +there's never been a king in the Big Deep Woods since, so my +twenty-seventh great-grandfather did some good, after all. + +"And that," said Mr. Rabbit, "is the whole story of the Hare and the +Tortoise and how the Rabbit family lost their tails. It's never been +told outside of our family before, but it's true, for it's been handed +down, word for word, and if Mr. Fox or Mr. Tortoise were alive now they +would say so." + +Mr. Rabbit filled his pipe and lit it, and Mr. Crow was just about to +make some remarks, when Mr. Turtle cleared his throat and said: + +"The story that Mr. Rabbit has been telling is all true, every word of +it--I was there." + +Then all the Deep Woods People took their pipes out of their mouths and +just looked at Mr. Turtle with their mouths wide open, and when they +could say anything at all, they said: + +"_You were there!_" + +You see, they could never get used to the notion of Mr. Turtle's being +so old--as old as their twenty-seventh great-grandfathers would have +been, if they had lived. + +"Yes," said Mr. Turtle, "and it all comes back to me as plain as day. It +happened two hundred and fifty-eight years ago last June. They used to +call us the Tortoise family then, and I was a young fellow of +sixty-seven and fond of a joke. But I was surprised when I went sailing +over that fence, and I didn't mean to carry off Mr. Hare's tail. Dear +me, how time passes! I'm three hundred and twenty-five now, though I +don't feel it." + +Then they all looked at Mr. Turtle again, for though they believed he +was old, and might possibly have been there, they thought it pretty +strange that he could be the very Mr. Tortoise who had won the race. + +Mr. 'Possum said, pretty soon, that when anybody said a thing like that, +there ought to be some way to prove it. + +Then Mr. Turtle got up and began taking off his coat, and all the others +began to get out of the way, for they didn't know what was going to +happen to Mr. 'Possum, and they wanted to be safe; and Mr. 'Possum +rolled under the table, and said that he didn't mean anything--that he +loved Mr. Turtle, and that Mr. Turtle hadn't understood the way he meant +it at all. + +But Mr. Turtle wasn't the least bit mad. He just laid off his coat, +quietly, and unbuttoned his shirt collar, and told Mr. 'Coon and Mr. +Crow to look on the back of his shell. + +And then Mr. Dog held a candle, and they all looked, one after another, +and there, sure enough, carved right in Mr. Turtle's shell, were the +words: + + BEAT MR. HARE + FOOT-RACE + JUNE 10, 1649 + +"That," said Mr. Turtle, "was my greatest joke, and I had it carved on +my shell." + +And all the rest of the forest people said that a thing like that was +worth carving on anybody's shell that had one, and when Mr. Turtle put +on his coat they gave him the best seat by the fire, and sat and looked +at him and asked questions about it, and finally all went to sleep in +their chairs, while the fire burned low and the soft snow was banking up +deeper and deeper, outside, in the dark. + + + + +THE "SNOWED-IN" LITERARY CLUB + +MR. RABBIT PROPOSES SOMETHING TO PASS THE TIME + + +"DID the Hollow Tree People and their company sleep in their chairs all +night?" asks the Little Lady, as soon as she has finished her supper. +"And were they snowed in when they woke up next morning?" + +The Story Teller is not quite ready to answer. He has to fill his pipe +first, and puff a little and look into the fire before he sits down, and +the Little Lady climbs into her place. The Little Lady knows the Story +Teller, and waits. When he begins to rock a little she knows he has +remembered, and then pretty soon he tells her about the "Snowed-In" +Literary Club. + +Well, the Hollow Tree People went to sleep there by the fire and they +stayed asleep a long while, for they were tired with all the good times +and all the good things to eat they had been having. And when they woke +up once, they thought it was still night, for it was dark, though they +thought it must be about morning, because the fire was nearly out, and +Mr. 'Possum said if there was anybody who wasn't too stiff he wished +they'd put on a stick of wood, as he was frozen so hard that he knew if +he tried to move he'd break. + +So Mr. Turtle, who had been drawn up mostly into his shell, and Mr. Dog, +who was used to getting up at all hours of the night, stretched and +yawned and crept down after some sticks and dry pieces and built up a +good fire, and pretty soon they were all asleep again, as sound as ever. + +And when they woke up next time it was still just as dark, and the fire +had gone almost out again, and Mr. 'Coon and Mr. Crow, too, said they +didn't understand it, at all, for a fire like that would generally keep +all night and all day too, and here two fires had burned out and it was +still as dark as ever. Then Mr. Crow lit a splinter and looked at the +clock, and said he must have forgotten to wind it, or maybe it was +because it was so cold, as it had stopped a little after twelve, and Mr. +'Possum said that from the way he felt it was no wonder the clock had +stopped, for if he could tell anything by his feelings it must be at +least day after to-morrow. He said he felt so empty that every time he +breathed he could hear the wind whistle through his ribs. + +That made Mr. Rabbit think of something, and he stepped over to the +window. Then he pushed it up a little, and put out his hand. But he +didn't put it out far, for it went right into something soft and cold. +Mr. Rabbit came over to where Mr. Crow was poking up the fire, bringing +some of the stuff with him. + +"Now," he said, "you can all see what's the matter. We're snowed in. The +snow is up over the window, and that's why it's so dark. It may be up +over the top of the tree, and we may have been asleep here for a week, +for all we know." + +Then they all gathered around to look at the snow, and went to the +window and got some more, and tried to tell whether it was day or night, +and Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum ran up-stairs to their rooms, +and called back that it was day, for the snow hadn't come quite up to +the tops of their windows. + +And it was day, sure enough, and quite late in the afternoon at that, +but they couldn't tell just what day it was, or whether they had slept +one night, or two nights, or even longer. + +Well, of course the first thing was to get something to eat and a big +fire going, and even Mr. 'Possum scrambled around and helped carry +wood, so he could get warm quicker. They still had a good deal to eat in +the Hollow Tree, and they were not much worried. Mr. 'Possum and Mr. +'Coon remembered another time they were snowed in, when Mr. Crow had fed +them on Johnnie cake and gravy, and they thought that if everything else +gave out it would be great fun to live like that again. + +When they had finished eating breakfast, or dinner, or whatever it was, +for it was nearer supper-time than anything else, they began to think of +things to do to amuse themselves, and they first thought they'd have +some more stories, like Mr. Rabbit's. + +But Mr. Rabbit, who is quite literary, and a good poet, said it would be +better to make it a kind of a club, and each have a poem, or a story, or +a song; or if anybody couldn't do any of those he must dance a jig. + +Then they all remembered a poetry club that Mr. Rabbit had got up once +and how nice it was, and they all said that was just the thing, and they +got around the table and began to work away at whatever they were going +to do for the "Snowed-In" Literary Club. + +[Illustration: GOT AROUND THE TABLE AND BEGAN TO WORK] + +Mr. Rabbit wasn't very long at his piece, and pretty soon he jumped up +and said he was through, and Mr. 'Possum said that if that was so, he +might go down and bring up some wood and warm up the brains of the rest +of them. So Mr. Rabbit stirred up the fire, and sat down and looked +into it, and read over his poem to himself and changed a word here and +there, and thought how nice it was; and by-and-by Mr. Dog said he was +through, and Mr. Robin said he was through, too. + +Then Mr. Rabbit said he thought that would be more than enough for one +evening anyway, and that the others might finish their pieces to-morrow +and have them ready for the next evening. + +So then they all gathered around the fire again, and everybody said that +as Mr. Rabbit had thought of the club first, he must be the first to +read his piece. + +Mr. Rabbit said he was sure it would be more modest for some one else to +read first, but that he was willing to start things going if they wanted +him to. Then he stood up, and turned a little to the light, and took a +nice position, and read his poem, which was called + + +SNOWED IN + +_By J. Rabbit_ + + Oh, the snow lies white in the woods to-night-- + The snow lies soft and deep; + And under the snow, I know, oh, ho! + The flowers of the summer sleep. + The flowers of the summer sleep, I know, + Snowed in like you and me-- + Under the sheltering leaves, oh, ho, + As snug and as warm as we-- + As snug and as warm from the winter storm + As we of the Hollow Tree. + Snowed in are we in the Hollow Tree, + And as snug and as warm as they we be-- + Snowed in, snowed in, + Are we, are we, + And as snug as can be in the Hollow Tree, + The wonderful Hollow Tree. + + Oh, the snow lies cold on wood and wold, + But never a bit comes in, + As we smoke and eat, and warm our feet, + And sit by the fire and spin: + And what care we for the winter gales, + And what care we for the snow-- + As we sit by the fire and spin our tales + And think of the things we know? + As we spin our tales in the winter gales + And wait for the snow to go? + Oh, the winds blow high and the winds blow low, + But what care we for the wind and snow, + Spinning our tales of the long ago + As snug as snug can be? + For never a bit comes in, comes in, + As we sit by the fire and spin, and spin + The tales we know, of the long ago, + In the wonderful Hollow Tree. + +Mr. Rabbit sat down then, and of course everybody spoke up as soon as +they could get their breath and said how nice it was, and how Mr. Rabbit +always expressed himself better in poetry than anybody else could in +prose, and how the words and rhymes just seemed to flow along as if he +were reeling it off of a spinning-wheel and could keep it up all day. + +And Mr. Rabbit smiled and said he supposed it came natural, and that +sometimes it was harder to stop than it was to start, and that he +_could_ keep it up all day as easy as not. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said he'd been afraid that was what _would_ happen, and +that if Mr. Rabbit hadn't stopped pretty soon that he--Mr. 'Possum, of +course--would have been so tangled up in his mind that somebody would +have had to come and undo the knot. + +Then he said he wanted to ask some questions. He said he wanted to know +what "wold" meant, and also what Mr. Rabbit meant by spinning their +tails. He said he hadn't noticed that any of them were spinning their +tails, and that he couldn't do it if he tried. He said that he could +curl his tail and hang from a limb or a peg by it, and he had found it a +good way to go to sleep when things were on his mind, and that he +generally had better dreams when he slept that way. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM WANTED TO KNOW WHAT MR. RABBIT MEANT BY +SPINNING THEIR TAILS] + +He said that of course Mr. Rabbit's poem had been about tails of the +long ago, and he supposed that he meant the ones which his family had +lost about three hundred years ago, according to Mr. Turtle, but that he +didn't believe they ever could spin them much, or that Mr. Rabbit could +spin what he had left. + +Mr. 'Possum was going on to say a good deal more on the subject, but Mr. +Rabbit interrupted him. + +He said he didn't suppose there was anybody else in the world whose food +seemed to do him so little good as Mr. 'Possum's, and that very likely +it was owing to the habit he had of sleeping with his head hanging down +in that foolish way. He said he had never heard of anybody who ate so +much and knew so little. + +Of course, he said, everybody might not know what "wold" meant, as it +wasn't used much except by poets who used the best words, but that it +meant some kind of a field, and it was better for winter use, as it +rhymed with "cold" and was nearly always used that way. As for Mr. +'Possum's other remark, he said he couldn't imagine how anybody would +suppose that the tales he meant were those other tails which were made +to wave or wag or flirt or hang from limbs by, instead of being stories +to be told or written, just as the Deep Woods People were telling and +writing them now. He said there was an old expression about having a +peg to hang a tale on, and that it was most likely gotten up by one of +Mr. 'Possum's ancestors or somebody who knew as little about such things +as Mr. 'Possum, and that another old expression which said "Thereby +hangs a tale" was just like it, because the kind of tales he meant +didn't hang, but were always told or written, while the other kind +always did hang, and were never told or written, but were only sometimes +told or written about, and it made him feel sad, he said, to have to +explain his poem in that simple way. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said that he was sorry Mr. Rabbit felt that way, +because he didn't feel at all that way himself, and had only been trying +to discuss Mr. Rabbit's nice poem. He said that of course Mr. Rabbit +couldn't be expected to know much about tails, never having had a real +one himself, and would be likely to get mixed up when he tried to write +on the subject. He said he wouldn't mention such things again, and that +he was sorry and hoped that Mr. Rabbit would forgive him. + +And Mr. Rabbit said that he was sorry, too--sorry for Mr. 'Possum--and +that he thought whoever was ready had better read the next piece. + +Then Mr. Dog said that he supposed that he was as ready as he'd ever be, +and that he'd like to read his and get it off his mind, so he wouldn't +be so nervous and could enjoy listening to the others. He wasn't used to +such things, he said, and couldn't be original like Mr. Rabbit, but he +knew a story that was told among the fowls in Mr. Man's barn-yard, and +that he had tried to write it in a simple way that even Mr. 'Possum +would understand. His story was about a duck--a young and foolish +duck--who got into trouble, and Mr. Dog said he had made a few sketches +to go with it, and that they could be handed around while he was +reading. Now he would begin, he said, and the name of his story was + + +ERASTUS, THE ROBBER DUCK + +_By Mr. Dog, with Sketches_ + +Once upon a time there was a foolish young duck named Erastus (called +'Rastus, for short). He was an only child, and lived with his mother in +a small house on the bank of a pond at the foot of the farm-yard. + +Erastus thought himself a brave duck; he would chase his shadow, and was +not afraid of quite a large worm. + +As he grew older he did not tell his mother everything. Once he slipped +away, and went swimming alone. Then a worm larger than any he had ever +seen came up out of the water, and would have swallowed Erastus if he +had not reached the shore just in time, and gone screaming to his +mother. + +His mother said the great worm was a water-snake, and she told Erastus +snake-stories which gave him bad dreams. + +[Illustration: MR. DOG SAID HE HAD MADE A FEW SKETCHES] + +Erastus grew quite fast, and soon thought he was nearly grown up. Once +he tried to smoke with some other young ducks behind the barn. It made +Erastus sick, and his mother found it out. She gave Erastus some +unpleasant medicine, and made him stay in bed a week. + +Erastus decided that he would run away. While his mother was taking her +morning bath he packed his things in a little valise she had given him +for Christmas. Then he slipped out the back door and made for the woods +as fast as he could go. He had made up his mind to be a robber, and make +a great deal of money by taking it away from other people. + +He had begun by taking a small toy pistol which belonged to Mr. Man's +little boy. He wore it at his side. His mother had read to him about +robbers. Erastus also had on his nice new coat and pretty vest. + +He did not rob anybody that day. There was nothing in the woods but +trees and vines. Erastus tripped over the vines and hurt himself, and +lost the toy pistol. + +Then it came night, and he was very lonesome. For the first time in his +life Erastus missed his mother. There was a nice full moon, but Erastus +did not care for it. Some of the black shadows about him looked as if +they might be live things. By-and-by he heard a noise near him. + +Erastus the Robber Duck started to run; but he was lost, and did not +know which way to go. All at once he was face to face with some large +animal. It wore a long cape and a mask. It also carried a real pistol +which it pointed at Erastus and told him to hold up his wings. Erastus +the Robber Duck held up his wings as high as possible, and tried to get +them higher. It did not seem to Erastus that he could hold them up high +enough. His mother had read to him about robbers. + +Then the robber took all the things that Erastus had in his pockets. He +took his new knife and his little watch; also the nice bag which his +mother had given him for Christmas. + +Erastus kept his wings up a good while after the robber had gone. He was +afraid the robber had not gone far enough. When he put them down they +were cramped and sore. Then he heard something again, and thought it was +the robber coming back after his clothes. + +Erastus fled with great speed, taking off his garments as he ran. At +last he reached the edge of the wood, not far from where he lived. It +was just morning, and his mother saw him coming. She looked sad, and +embraced him. + +It was the first time Erastus had been out all night. + +Erastus was not allowed to go swimming or even to leave the yard for a +long time. Whenever he remembered that night in the woods he shivered, +and his mother thought he had a chill. Then she would put him to bed +and give him some of the unpleasant medicine. + +Erastus did not tell his mother _all_ that had happened that night for a +good while. He was ashamed to do so. But one day when he seemed quite +sick and his mother was frightened, he broke down and told her all about +it. Then his mother forgave him, and he got well right away. + +After that Erastus behaved, and grew to be the best and largest duck in +Mr. Man's farm-yard. + + * * * * * + +While Mr. Dog had been reading his story the Hollow Tree People--the +'Coon and the 'Possum and the Old Black Crow--had been leaning forward +and almost holding their breath, and Mr. Dog felt a good deal flattered +when he noticed how interested they were. When he sat down he saw that +Mr. 'Possum's mouth was open and his tongue fairly hanging out with +being so excited. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM SAID IT MIGHT BE A GOOD ENOUGH STORY, BUT IT +COULDN'T BE TRUE] + +Then before any of the others could say a word, Mr. 'Possum said that it +might be a good enough story, but that it couldn't be true. He said that +he wasn't a judge of stories, but that he was a judge of ducks--young +ducks, or old either--and that no young duck could pass the night in the +Big Deep Woods and get home at sunrise or any other time, unless all the +other animals were snowed in or locked up in a menagerie, and that the +animal that had met Erastus might have robbed him, of course, but he +would have eaten him first, and then carried off what was left, unless, +of course, that robber was a rabbit, and he said that he didn't believe +any rabbit would have spunk enough to be in that business. + +Mr. Rabbit was about to say something just then, but Mr. Crow and Mr. +'Coon both interrupted and said they thought Mr. 'Possum was right for +once, except about Mr. Rabbit, who was plenty brave enough, but too much +of a gentleman to be out robbing people at night when he could be at +home in bed asleep. Then Mr. Dog said: + +"I don't know whether the story is true or not. I wrote it down as I +heard it among Mr. Man's fowls, and I know the duck that they still call +Erastus, and he's the finest, fattest--" + +But Mr. Dog didn't get any further. For the Hollow Tree People broke in +and said, all together: + +"Oh, take us to see him, Mr. Dog! Or perhaps you could bring him to see +us. Invite him to spend an evening with us in the Hollow Tree. Tell him +we will have him for dinner and invite our friends. Oh, do, Mr. Dog!" + +But Mr. Dog knew what they meant by having him for dinner, and he said +he guessed Mr. Man would not be willing to have Erastus go out on an +invitation like that, and that if Erastus came, Mr. Man might take a +notion to visit the Hollow Tree himself. Then the Hollow Tree People +all said, "Oh, never mind about Erastus! He's probably old and +disagreeable anyway. We don't think we would care for him. But it was a +nice story--very nice, indeed." + +And pretty soon Mr. Dog said he'd been thinking about the robber animal, +too, and had made up his mind that it might have been one of Mr. Cat's +family--for Mr. Man's little boy and girl had a book with a nice poem in +it about a robber cat, and a robber dog, too, though he didn't think +that the dog could have been any of _his_ family. Mr. Cat, he said, +would not be likely to care for Erastus, feathers and all, that way, and +no doubt it really was Mr. Cat who robbed him. Mr. Dog said that he had +once heard of a Mr. Cat who wanted to be king--perhaps after Mr. Lion +had gone out of the king business, and that there was an old poem about +it that Mr. Dog's mother used to sing to him, but he didn't think it had +ever been put into a book. He said there were a good many things in it +he didn't suppose the Hollow Tree People would understand because it was +about a different kind of a country--where his mother had been born--but +that if they really would like to hear it he would try to remember it +for them, as it would be something different from anything they had been +used to. Then the Hollow Tree People and their friends all said how glad +they would be to hear it, for they always liked to hear about new +things and new parts of the country; so Mr. Dog said that if some of the +others would read or sing or dance their jigs first, perhaps it would +come to him and he would sing it for them by and by. + +Then Mr. Robin spoke up and said that he thought Mr. Dog's story had a +good moral in it, and he said that _his_ story (Mr. Robin's, of course) +was that kind of a story, too. Perhaps he'd better tell it now, he said, +while their minds were running that way, though as for Mr. 'Possum's +mind it seemed to be more on how good Erastus might be cooked than how +good he had become in his behavior. He was sorry, he said, that his +story didn't have any ducks in it, young or old, but that perhaps Mr. +'Possum and the others would be willing to wait for the nice pair of +cooked ones now hanging in Mr. Crow's pantry, to be served at the end of +the literary exercises. + +But Mr. 'Possum said "No," he wasn't willing to wait any longer--that +Mr. Dog's story and the mention of those nice cooked fowls was more than +he could bear, and that if it was all the same to Mr. Robin and the +others he voted to have supper first, and then he'd be better able to +stand a strictly moral story on a full stomach. + +Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon said that was a good idea, and Mr. Rabbit said he +thought they'd better postpone Mr. Robin's story until the next evening, +as Mr. 'Possum had taken up so much time with his arguments that he +must be hungrier than usual, and if he put in as much more time eating, +it would be morning before they were ready to go on with the literary +programme. + +Then they all looked at the clock and saw that it really was getting +late, though that was the only way they could tell, for the snow covered +all the windows and made no difference between day and night in the +Hollow Tree. + + + + +THE "SNOWED-IN" LITERARY CLUB--Part II + +MR. RABBIT STARTS SOME NEW AMUSEMENTS + + +IT was still dark in the Hollow Tree when the Deep Woods People woke up +next morning, but they knew what was the matter now, and could tell by +the clock and the fire that it was day outside, even before Mr. 'Possum +ran up to his room and looked out the window and came back shivering, +because he said the snow was blowing and drifting and some had drifted +in around his windows and made his room as cold as all outdoors. He said +he was willing to stay by the fire while this spell lasted, and take +such exercise as he needed by moving his chair around to the table when +he wanted to eat. + +Mr. 'Coon said that Mr. 'Possum might exercise himself on a little wood +for the cook-stove in Mr. Crow's kitchen if he wanted any breakfast, +and that if this spell kept up long enough, they wouldn't have anything +left but exercise to keep them alive. + +So Mr. 'Possum went down-stairs after an armful of stove-wood, and he +stayed a good while, though they didn't notice it at the time. Then they +all helped with the breakfast, and after breakfast they pushed back all +the things and played "Blind Man's Buff," for Mr. Rabbit said that even +if moving his chair from the fire to the table and back again was enough +exercise for Mr. 'Possum, it wasn't enough for _him_, and the others +said so, too. + +[Illustration: SO THEN MR. RABBIT SAID THEY MUST CHOOSE WHO WOULD BE +"IT"] + +So then Mr. Rabbit said they must choose who would be "It" first, and +they all stood in a row and Mr. Rabbit said: + + "Hi, ho, hickory dee-- + One for you and one for me; + One for the ones you try to find, + And one for the one that wears the blind," + +which was a rigmarole Mr. Rabbit had made up himself to use in games +where somebody had to be "It," and Mr. Rabbit said it around and around +the circle on the different ones--one word for each one--until he came +to the word "blind" and that was Mr. 'Possum, who had to put on the +handkerchief and do more exercising than any of them, until he caught +Mr. Turtle, who had to be "It" quite often, because he couldn't get +out of the way as well as the others. + +And Mr. 'Possum was "It" a good deal, too, and Mr. 'Coon, and all the +rest, though Mr. Robin was "It" less than anybody, because he was so +little and spry that he could get out of the way. + +Then when they were tired of "Blind Man's Buff" they played "Pussy Wants +a Corner" and "Forfeits," and Mr. 'Possum had to make a speech to redeem +his forfeit, and he began: + +"LADIES AND GENTLEMEN" (though there were no ladies present)--"I am +pleased to see you all here this evening" (though it wasn't evening) +"looking so well dressed and well fed. It is better to be well fed than +well dressed. It is better to be well dressed than not dressed at all. +It is better to be not dressed at all than not fed at all. Ladies and +gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention and applause"--though +they hadn't applauded yet, but they did, right away, and said it was a +good speech, and Mr. Crow said it reminded him that it was about +dinner-time, and that he would need some more wood. + +So Mr. 'Possum got right up to get the stove-wood again, which everybody +thought was very good of Mr. 'Possum, who wasn't usually so spry and +willing. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM HAD TO PUT ON THE HANDKERCHIEF AND DO MORE +EXERCISING THAN ANY OF THEM] + +Then in the afternoon they had games again, but nice quiet games, for +they were all glad to sit down, and they played "Button! Button! Who's +Got the Button?" and nobody could tell when Mr. 'Possum had the button, +for his face didn't show it, because he was nearly always looking +straight into the fire, and seemed to be thinking about something away +off. And when the fire got low, he always jumped up and offered to go +down into the store-room after the wood, and they all said how willing +and spry Mr. 'Possum was getting all at once, and when he stayed a good +while down-stairs they didn't think anything about it--not at the +time--or if they did they only thought he was picking out the best +pieces to burn. They played "Drop the Handkerchief," too, and when they +got through Mr. Rabbit performed some tricks with the handkerchief and +the button that made even Mr. 'Possum pay attention because they were so +wonderful. + +There was one trick especially that Mr. Rabbit did a great many times +because they liked it so much, and were so anxious to guess how it was +done. Mr. Rabbit told them it was a trick that had come down to him from +his thirty-second great-grandfather, and must never be told to any one. + +It was a trick where he laid the button in the centre of the +handkerchief and then folded the corners down on it, and pressed them +down each time so that they could see that the button was still there, +and he would let them press on it, too, to prove it, and then when he +would lift up the handkerchief by the two corners nearest him there +would be no button at all, and he would find it on the mantel-shelf or +perhaps on Mr. Crow's bald head, or in Mr. 'Possum's pocket, or some +place like that. But one time, when Mr. Rabbit had done it over and +over, and maybe had grown a little careless, he lifted the handkerchief +by the corners nearest him, and there was the button sticking fast, +right in the centre of the handkerchief, for it had a little beeswax on +it, to make it stick to one of the corners next to Mr. Rabbit, and by +some mistake Mr. Rabbit had turned the button upside down! + +Then they all laughed, and all began to try it for themselves, and Mr. +Rabbit laughed too, though perhaps he didn't feel much like it, and told +them that they had learned one of the greatest secrets in his family, +and that he would now tell them the adage that went with it if they +would promise never to tell either the secret or the adage, and they all +promised, and Mr. Rabbit told them the adage, which was: + + "When beeswax grows on the button-tree, + No one knows what the weather'll be." + +[Illustration: WOULD FIND IT ON THE MANTEL-SHELF OR PERHAPS ON MR. +CROW'S BALD HEAD] + +"That," said Mr. Rabbit, "is a very old adage. I don't know what it +means exactly, but I'm sure it means something, because old adages +always do mean something, though often nobody can find out just what +it is, and the less they seem to mean the better they are, as adages. +There are a great many old adages in our family, and they have often got +my ancestors out of trouble. When we didn't have an old one to fit the +trouble we made a new one, and by-and-by it got old too, and useful in +different ways, because by that time it didn't seem to mean anything +special, and could be used almost anywhere." + +Then the Deep Woods People all said there was never anybody who knew so +much and could do so many things as Mr. Jack Rabbit, and how proud they +all were to have him in their midst, and Mr. Rabbit showed them how to +do all the tricks he knew, and they all practised them and tried them on +each other until Mr. Crow said he must look after the supper, and Mr. +'Possum ran right off after an armful of stove-wood, and everybody +helped with everything there was to do, for they were having such a good +time and were so hungry. + +And after supper they all sat around the fire again and smoked a little +before anybody said anything, until by-and-by Mr. Rabbit said that they +would go on now with the literary club, and that Mr. Robin might read +the story he had mentioned the night before. + +So Mr. Robin got up, and stood on a chair, and made a nice bow. He said +it was not really his own story he had written, but one that his +grandmother used to tell him sometimes, though he didn't think it had +ever been put into a book. + +Then Mr. Rabbit spoke up and said that that didn't matter, that of +course everybody couldn't be original, and that the story itself was the +main thing and the way you told it. He said if Mr. Robin would go right +on with the story now it would save time. So then they all knocked the +ashes out of their pipes--all except Mr. Robin, who began right off to +read his story: + + + + +THE DISCONTENTED FOX + +MR. ROBIN TELLS HOW A FOX LEARNED A GOOD LESSON BY TAKING A LONG JOURNEY + + +ONCE upon a time there was a Fox who lived at the foot of a hill and had +a _nice garden_. One morning when he began to hoe in it he got tired, +and the sun was _very hot_. Then the Fox didn't like to hoe any more, +and made up his mind that it wasn't very pleasant to have a garden, +anyway. + +So then he started out to travel and find _pleasant things_. He put on +his best clothes, and the first house he came to belonged to a Rabbit +who kept bees. And the Rabbit showed the Fox his bees and how to take +out the honey. And the Fox said, "What _pleasant work_!" and wanted to +take out honey too. But when he did there was a bee on the honey, and it +stung the Fox on the nose. And that hurt the Fox, and his nose began to +swell up, and he said: "This is not pleasant work _at all_!" and of +course it wasn't--not for _him_--though the Rabbit seemed to enjoy it +_more than ever_. + +So the Fox travelled on, and the next house he came to belonged to a +Crow who made pies. And the Fox looked at him awhile and said, "What +_pleasant work_!" And the Crow let the Fox help him, and when the Fox +went to take a pie out of the oven he burnt his fingers _quite badly_. +Then he said, "No, it is _not_ pleasant work--not for _me_!" and that +was true, though the Crow seemed to enjoy it _more than ever_. + +So the Fox went on again, and the next house he came to belonged to a +'Coon who milked cows. And the Fox watched him milk, and pretty soon he +said: "What pleasant work that _is_! Let _me_ milk." So the 'Coon let +the Fox milk, and the Cow put her foot in the milk-pail and upset it +_all over_ the Fox's nice _new clothes_. And the Fox was mad, and said: +"This work is not in the _least_ pleasant!" and he _hurried away_, +though the 'Coon seemed to enjoy it _more than ever_. + +And the next house the Fox came to belonged to a Cat who played the +fiddle. And the Fox listened awhile and said: "What pleasant work that +_must be_!" and he borrowed the Cat's fiddle. But when he started down +the road playing, a Man ran around the corner and shot a loud gun at +him, and that was not pleasant, _either_, though the Cat seemed to enjoy +it _more than ever_. + +So the Fox kept on travelling and _doing_ things that he thought would +be _pleasant_, but that did not turn out to _be_ pleasant--not for +_him_--until by-and-by he had travelled _clear around the world_ and had +come up on the other side, _back_ to his _own garden_ again. And his +garden was just the same as he had left it, only the things had grown +bigger, and there were _some weeds_. + +And the Fox jumped over the fence and commenced to _hoe_ the _weeds_, +and pretty soon he said, "Why, this is _pleasant_!" Then he hoed some +more, and said, "Why, what pleasant work _this is_!" + +So he kept on hoeing and finding it pleasant until by-and-by the weeds +were _all gone_, and the _Rabbit_ and the _Crow_ and the _Cat_ and the +_'Coon_ came and traded him honey and pies and milk and music for +vegetables, because he had the best garden in the world. And he _has +yet_! + + * * * * * + +When Mr. Robin got through and sat down, Mr. Squirrel spoke up and said +it was a good story because it had a moral lesson in it and taught folks +to like the things they knew best how to do, and Mr. 'Possum said yes, +that might be so, but that the story couldn't be true, because none of +those animals would have enjoyed seeing that Fox leave them, but would +have persuaded him to stay and help them, and would have taught him to +do most of the work. + +Then Mr. Robin spoke up and said that Mr. 'Possum thought everybody was +like himself, and that anyway Mr. 'Possum didn't need the lesson in that +story, for he already liked to do the things he could do best, which +were to eat and sleep and let other people do the work, though of course +he had been very good about getting the wood, lately, which certainly +was unusual. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said he didn't see why Mr. Robin should speak in that +cross way when he had only meant to be kind and show him the mistake in +his story, so he could fix it right. And Mr. Rabbit said that as Mr. +'Possum seemed to know so much how stories and poems ought to be +written, perhaps he'd show now what he could do in that line himself. + +Mr. 'Possum said he hadn't written anything because it was too much +trouble, but that he would tell them a story if they would like to hear +it--something that had really happened, because he had been there, and +was old enough to remember. + +But before he began Mr. Robin said that as they had not cared much about +his story he would like to recite a few lines he had thought of, which +would perhaps explain how he felt, and all the animals said, "Of course, +go right on," and Mr. Robin bowed and recited a little poem he had made, +called + + +ONLY ME + +_By C. Robin_ + + How came a little bird like me + A place in this fine group to win? + My mind is small--it has to be-- + The little place I keep it in. + How came a little bird like me + To be here in the Hollow Tree? + + When all the others know so much, + And are so strong and gifted too, + How can I dare to speak of such + As I can know, and think, and do? + How can a little bird like me + Belong here in the Hollow Tree? + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM SAID HE HADN'T MEANT ANYTHING AT ALL BY WHAT +HE HAD SAID ABOUT THE STORY] + +Well, when Mr. Robin finished that, all the others spoke right up and +said that Mr. Robin must never write anything so sad as that again. They +said his story was just as good as it could be, and that Mr. Robin was +one of the smartest ones there; and Mr. 'Possum burst into tears, and +said that he hadn't meant anything at all by what he had said about the +story, and that some time, when they were all alone, Mr. Robin must +tell it to him again, and he would try to have sense enough to +understand it. + +Then he ran over to Mr. Robin, and was going to embrace him and weep on +his shoulder, and would very likely have mashed him if Mr. Turtle hadn't +dragged him back to his seat and told him that he had done damage enough +to people's feelings without killing anybody, and the best thing he +could do now would be to go on with a story of his own if he had any. + +But Mr. 'Possum said he was too sleepy now, so Mr. Dog sang the poem +which he had promised the evening before because, he said, singing would +be a nice thing to go to sleep on. Mr. Dog's song was called + + +THE CAT WHO WOULD BE KING + + There was cat who kept a store, + With other cats for customers. + His milk and mice + All packed in ice-- + His catnip all in canisters. + + Fresh milk he furnished every day-- + Two times a day and sometimes three-- + And so this cat + Grew rich and fat + And proud as any cat could be. + + But though so fat and rich he grew + He was not satisfied at all-- + At last quoth he, + "A king I'll be + Of other cats both great and small." + +[Illustration: AND SO THIS CAT CREW RICH AND FAT] + +[Illustration] + + Then hied he to the tinner cat, + Who made for him a tinsel crown, + And on the street, + A king complete, + He soon went marching up and down. + +[Illustration] + + Now, many cats came out to see, + And some were filled with awe at him; + While some, alack, + Behind his back + Did laugh and point a paw at him. + +[Illustration: HIS CLERKS] + + Mice, milk, and catnip did he scorn; + He went to business less and less-- + And everywhere + He wore an air + Of arrogance and haughtiness. + + His clerks ate catnip all day long-- + They spent much time in idle play; + They left the mice + From off the ice-- + They trusted cats who could not pay. + +[Illustration: A SOLEMN LOOK WAS IN HIS FACE] + + While happy in his tin-shop crown + Each day the king went marching out, + Elate because + He thought he was + The kind of king you read about. + + But lo, one day, he strolled too far, + And in a dim and dismal place + A cat he met, + Quite small, and yet + A solemn look was in his face. + + One fiery eye this feline wore-- + A waif he was of low degree-- + No gaudy dress + Did he possess, + Nor yet a handsome cat was he. + + But lo, he smote that spurious king + And stripped him of his tinsel crown, + Then like the wind + Full close behind + He chased His Highness into town. + + With cheers his subjects saw him come. + He did not pause--he did not stop, + But straight ahead + He wildly fled + Till he was safe within his shop. + + He caught his breath and gazed about-- + A sorry sight did he behold: + No catnip there + Or watchful care-- + No mice and milk and joy of old. + + He heaved a sigh and dropped a tear-- + He sent those idle clerks away-- + Quoth he, "My pride + Is satisfied; + This kingdom business does not pay." + + With care once more he runs his store, + His catnip all in canisters-- + His milk and mice + All packed in ice, + And humbly serves his customers. + +[Illustration: QUOTH HE, "MY PRIDE IS SATISFIED; THIS KINGDOM BUSINESS +DOES NOT PAY"] + + + + +MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY + +MR. 'POSSUM TELLS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE 'POSSUM FAMILY, TO THE +SURPRISE OF HIS FRIENDS + + +"NOW this," said the Story Teller, "is the story that Mr. 'Possum told +the 'Snowed-In' Literary Club in the Hollow Tree. It must be a true +story, because Mr. 'Possum said so, and, besides, anybody that knows Mr. +'Possum would know that he could never in the world have made it up out +of his head." + +The Little Lady doesn't quite like that. + +"But Mr. 'Possum is smart," she says. "He knows ever so much." + +"Oh yes, of course, and that's why he never _has_ to make up things. He +just tells what he knows, and this time he told + + +HOW UNCLE SILAS AND AUNT MELISSY MOVED + +"You may remember," he said, "my telling you once about Uncle Silas and +Aunt Melissy Lovejoy, who lived in a nice place just beyond the Wide +Paw-paw Hollows, and how Uncle Silas once visited Cousin Glenwood in +town and came home all dressed up, leading a game chicken, and with a +bag of shinny-sticks, and a young man to wait on him; and how Aunt +Melissy--instead of being pleased, as Uncle Silas thought she would +be--got mad when she saw him, and made him and the young man take off +all their nice clothes and go to work in the garden, and kept them at it +with that bag of shinny-sticks until fall.[B] + +"Well, this story is about them, too. I went to live with them soon +after that, because I lost both of my parents one night when Mr. Man was +hunting in the Black Bottoms for something to put in a pan with some +sweet potatoes he had raised that year, and I suppose I would have been +used with sweet potatoes too if I hadn't come away from there pretty +lively instead of trying our old playing-dead trick on Mr. Man and his +friends. + +"I thought right away that Mr. Man might know the trick, so I didn't +wait to try it myself, but took out for the Wide Paw-paw Hollows, to +visit Uncle Silas Lovejoy, who was an uncle on my mother's side, and +Aunt Melissy and my little cousins; and they all seemed glad to see me, +especially my little cousins, until they found they had to give me some +of their things and most of their food, because I was young and +growing, besides being quite sad about my folks, and so, of course, had +to eat a good deal to keep well and from taking my loss too hard. + +"But by-and-by Uncle Lovejoy said that he didn't believe that he and the +hired man--who was the same one he had brought home to wait on him when +he came from town--to be his valet, he said--though he got to be a hired +man right after Aunt Melissy met him and got hold of the +shinny-sticks--Aunt Melissy being a spry, stirring person who liked to +see people busy. I remember how she used to keep me and my little +cousins busy until sometimes I wished I had stayed with my folks and put +up with the sweet potatoes and let Uncle Silas and his family alone." + +Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe, and Mr. Rabbit said that he +supposed, of course, Mr. 'Possum knew his story and how to tell it, but +that if he ever intended to finish what Uncle Lovejoy had said about +himself and the hired man he wished he'd get at it pretty soon. + +Mr. 'Possum said of course he meant to, as soon as he could get his +breath, and think a minute. "Well, then," he said, "Uncle Silas told +Aunt Melissy that he didn't believe he and the hired man could raise and +catch enough for the family since I had come to stay with them, and he +thought they had better move farther west to a place where the land was +better and where Mr. Man's chickens were not kept up in such close, +unhealthy places, but were allowed to roost out in the open air, on the +fences and in the trees. He said he didn't think their house was quite +stylish enough either, which he knew would strike Aunt Melissy, who was +a Glenwood, and primpy, and fond of the best things. + +"So then we began to pack up right away, and Uncle Silas and Aunt +Melissy quarrelled a good deal about what was worth taking and what +wasn't, and they took turns scolding the hired man about a good many +things he didn't do and almost all of the things he did do, and my +little cousins and I had a fine time running through the empty rooms and +playing with things we had never seen before, but we had to keep out of +Aunt Melissy's reach if we wanted to enjoy it much. + +"Well, by-and-by we were all packed up and ready to start. We had +everything in bundles or tied together, and Aunt Melissy had arranged a +big bundle for Uncle Silas to carry, and several things to tie and hang +about on his person in different places, and she had fixed up the hired +man too, besides some bundles for me and my little cousins. + +"Aunt Melissy said she would take charge of the lunch-basket and lead +the way, and she was all dressed up and carried an umbrella, and didn't +look much as if she belonged to the rest of our crowd. + +[Illustration: AUNT MELISSY HAD ARRANGED A BUNDLE FOR UNCLE SILAS, AND +SHE HAD FIXED UP THE HIRED MAN TOO] + +"It was pretty early when we started, for it was getting dangerous to +camp out in that section, and we wanted to get as far as we could the +first day, though we didn't any of us have any idea then how long a trip +we _would_ make that day, nor of the way we were going to make it. +Nobody could guess a guess like that, even if he was the best guesser in +the world and made his living that way." + +Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe again, and said that if anybody +wanted a chance to guess how far they went that first day and how they +travelled, they could guess now. But the Hollow Tree People said they +didn't want to guess, and they did want Mr. 'Possum to go ahead and tell +them about it. + +"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "we travelled fifty miles that first day, and +we travelled it in less than two hours." + +"Fifty miles in two hours!" said all the Hollow Tree People. And Jack +Rabbit said: + +"Why, a menagerie like that couldn't travel fifty miles in two years!" + +"But we did, though," said Mr. 'Possum; "we travelled it in a balloon." + +"In a balloon!" + +"Well, not exactly in a balloon, but _with_ a balloon. It happened just +as I'm going to tell you. + +[Illustration: DIDN'T LOOK AS IF SHE BELONGED TO THE REST OF OUR CROWD] + +"We went along pretty well until we got to the Wide Grass Lands, though +Aunt Melissy scolded Uncle Silas a good deal because he got behind and +didn't stand up in a nice stylish way with all the things he had to +carry, and she used her umbrella once on the hired man because he +dropped the clock. + +"When we got out to the Wide Grass Lands there was a high east wind +blowing, getting ready for a storm, and when we got on top of a little +grassy hill close to the Wide Blue Water it blew Uncle Silas and the +hired man so they could hardly stand up, and it turned Aunt Melissy's +umbrella wrong side out, which made her mad, and she said that it was +Uncle Silas's fault and mine, and that she had never wanted to move +anyway. + +"But just then one of my little cousins looked up in the sky and said, +'Oh, look at that funny bird!' and we all looked up, and there was a +great big long bag of a thing coming right toward us, not very high up, +and Uncle Silas spoke up and said 'That's a balloon,' for Uncle Silas +had seen one in town when he was there visiting Cousin Glenwood, and the +hired man, too. Then while we were all standing there watching it, we +saw that there was a long rope that hung from the balloon most to the +ground, and that it had something tied to the end of it (a big iron +thing with a lot of hooks on it), and that it was swooping down straight +toward us. + +"Uncle Silas called out as loud as he could, 'That's the anchor! Look +out!' but it was too late to look out, for it was coming as fast as the +wind blew the balloon, and Uncle Silas and the hired man being loaded +with the things couldn't move very quick, and the rest of us were too +scared to know which way to jump, and down came that thing right among +us, and I saw it catch among Uncle Silas's furniture and the hired +man's, and I heard Uncle Silas say, 'Grab hold, all of you!' and we all +did, some one way and some another, and away we went. + +"Well, it was certainly very curious how we all were lucky enough to get +hold of that anchor, with all our bundles and things; but of course we +could do it better than if we had not been given those nice useful tails +which belong to our family. I had hold that way, and some of the others +did, too. Uncle Silas didn't need to hold on at all, for some of the +furniture was tied to him, and he just sat back in a chair that was hung +on behind and took it easy, though he did drop some of his things when +he first got aboard, and Aunt Melissy scolded him for that as soon as +she caught her breath and got over being frightened and was sitting up +on her part of the anchor enjoying the scenery. + +[Illustration: THE BALLOON WENT OVER THE WIDE BLUE WATER JUST AFTER IT +GOT OUR FAMILY] + +"I never had such a trip as that before, and never expect to have one +again. The balloon went over the Wide Blue Water just after it got our +family, and we were all afraid we would be let down in it and drowned; +but the people who were in the balloon threw out something heavy which +we thought at first they were throwing at us, but it must have been +something to make the balloon go up; for we did go up until Aunt Melissy +said if we'd just get a little nearer one of those clouds she'd step out +on it and live there, as she'd always wanted to do since she was a +child. + +"Then we all sat up and held on tight, above and below, and said what a +nice day it was to travel, and that we'd always travel that way +hereafter; and Uncle Silas and the hired man unhooked their furniture, +so they could land easier when the time came, and Aunt Melissy passed +around the lunch, and we looked down and saw the water and the land +again and a lot of houses and trees, and Aunt Melissy said that nobody +could ever made her believe the world was that big if she hadn't seen it +with her own eyes. + +"And Uncle Silas and the hired man said that of course this was going +pretty fast, but that they had travelled a good deal faster sometimes +when they were in town with Cousin Glenwood, and pretty soon he showed +us the town where Cousin Glenwood lived, and he and the hired man tried +to point out the house to us, but they couldn't agree about which it was +because the houses didn't look the same from up there in the air as they +did from down on the ground. + +"I know I shall never forget that trip. We saw ever so many different +Mr. Men and Mr. Dogs, and animals of every kind, and houses that had +chimneys taller than any tree, and a good many things that even Uncle +Silas did not know about. Then by-and-by we came to some woods +again--the biggest kind of Big Deep Woods--and we saw that we were +getting close to the tree-tops, and we were all afraid we would get hit +by the branches and maybe knocked off with our things. + +"And pretty soon, sure enough, that anchor did drop right down among the +trees, and such a clapping and scratching as we did get! + +"We shut our eyes and held on, and some of our furniture was brushed off +of Uncle Silas and the hired man, and Aunt Melissy lost her umbrella, +and I lost a toy chicken, which I could never find again. Then all at +once there was a big sudden jerk that jarred Uncle Silas loose, and made +Aunt Melissy holler that she was killed, and knocked the breath out of +the rest of us for a few minutes. + +"But we were all there, and the anchor was fast on the limb of a big +tree--a tree almost as big as the Hollow Tree, and hollow, just like it, +with a nice handy place to go in. + +"So when we got our senses back we picked up all our things that we +could find, and moved into the new place, and Aunt Melissy looked at the +clock, which was still running, and it was just a little over two hours +since we started. + +"Then pretty soon we heard Mr. Man and his friends who had been up in +the balloon coming, and we stayed close inside till they had taken the +anchor and everything away, and after that, when it was getting dark, +Uncle Silas and the hired man went out and found, not very far off, +where there were some nice chickens that roosted in handy places, and +brought home two or three, and Aunt Melissy set up the stove and cooked +up a good supper, and we all sat around the kitchen fire, and the storm +that the east wind had been blowing up came along sure enough and it +rained all night, but we were snug and dry, and went to sleep mostly in +beds made down on the floor, and lay there listening to the rain and +thinking what a nice journey we'd had and what a good new home we'd +found. + +"And it _was_ a good place, for I lived there till I grew up, and if I'm +not mistaken some of Uncle Silas's and Aunt Melissy's children live +there still. I haven't heard from any of them for a long time, but I am +thinking of going on a visit over that way in the spring, and if that +balloon is still running I'm going to travel with it. + +"And that," said Mr. 'Possum, "is a true story--all true, every word, +for I was there." + +Nobody said anything for a minute or two after Mr. 'Possum had finished +his story--nobody _could_ say anything. + +Then Mr. Rabbit coughed a little and remarked that he was glad that Mr. +'Possum said that the story was true, for no one would ever have +suspected it. He said if Mr. 'Possum hadn't said it was true he would +have thought it was one of those pleasant dreams that Mr. 'Possum had +when he slept hanging to a peg head down. + +But Mr. Turtle, who had been sitting with his eyes shut and looking as +if he were asleep, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and said that what +Mr. 'Possum had told them was true--at least, _some_ of it was true; for +he himself had been sitting in the door of his house on the shore of the +Wide Blue Water when the balloon passed over, and he had seen Uncle +Silas Lovejoy's family sitting up there anchored and comfortable; and he +had picked up a chair that Uncle Silas had dropped, and he had it in his +house to this day, it being a good strong chair and better than any that +was made nowadays. + +Well, of course after that nobody said anything about Mr. 'Possum's +story not being true, for they remembered how old and wise Mr. Turtle +was and could always prove things, and they all talked about it a great +deal, and asked Mr. 'Possum a good many questions. + +They said how nice it was to know somebody who had had an adventure like +that, and Mr. Rabbit changed his seat so he could be next to Mr. +'Possum, because he said he wanted to write it all down to keep. + +[Illustration: MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD THEM WAS +TRUE] + +And Mr. 'Possum said he never would forget how good those chickens +tasted that first night in the new home, and that Mr. Rabbit mustn't +forget to put them in. + +Then they all remembered that they were hungry now, and Mr. Crow and Mr. +Squirrel and Mr. Robin hustled around to get a bite to eat before +bedtime, and Mr. 'Possum hurried down to bring up the stove-wood, and +was gone quite awhile, though nobody spoke of it--not then--even if they +did wonder about it a little--and after supper they all sat around the +fire again and smoked and dropped off to sleep while the clock ticked +and the blaze flickered about and made queer shadows on the wall of the +Hollow Tree. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[B] _Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book._ + + + + +THE BARK OF OLD HUNGRY-WOLF + +HOW THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE HAVE A MOST UNWELCOME VISITOR, AND WHAT +BECOMES OF HIM + + +"WHAT made Mr. 'Possum so anxious to get the wood, and what made him +stay down-stairs so long when he went after it?" asks the Little Lady +next evening, when the Story Teller is lighting his pipe and getting +ready to remember the history of the Hollow Tree. + +"We're coming to that. You may be sure there was some reason for it, for +Mr. 'Possum doesn't hurry after wood or stay long in a cold place if he +can help it, unless he has something on his mind. Perhaps some of the +Deep Woods People thought of that too, but if they did they didn't say +anything--not at the time. I suppose they thought it didn't matter much, +anyhow, if they got the wood." + +So they went right on having a good time, keeping up a nice fire, and +eating up whatever they had; for they thought the big snow couldn't last +as long as their wood and their things to eat, and every day they went +up to look out of the up-stairs windows to see how much had melted, and +every day they found it just about the same, only maybe a little +crustier on top, and the weather stayed _very cold_. + +But they didn't mind it so long as they were warm and not hungry, and +they played games, and recited their pieces, and sang, and danced, and +said they had never had such a good time in all their lives. + +But one day when Mr. Crow went down into the store-room for supplies he +found that he was at the bottom of the barrel of everything they had, +and he came up looking pretty sober, though he didn't say anything about +it--not then, for he knew there were plenty of bones and odds and ends +he could scrape up, and he had a little flour and some meal in his +pantry; so he could make soup and gravy and johnny-cake and hash, which +he did right away, and they all said how fine such things were for a +change, and told Mr. Crow to go right on making them as long as he +wanted to, even if the snow stayed on till spring. And Mr. 'Possum and +Mr. 'Coon said it was like old times, and that Mr. Crow was probably the +very best provider in the Big Deep Woods. + +[Illustration: ONE DAY MR. CROW FOUND HE WAS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE BARREL +OF EVERYTHING] + +Mr. Crow smiled, too, but he didn't feel like it much, for he knew that +even johnny-cake and gravy wouldn't last forever, and that unless the +snow went away pretty soon they would all be hungry and cold, for the +wood was getting low, too. + +And one morning, when Mr. Crow went to his meal-sack and his flour-bag +and his pile of odds and ends there was just barely enough for +breakfast, and hardly that. And Mr. Crow didn't like to tell them about +it, for he knew they all thought he could keep right on making +johnny-cake and gravy forever, because they didn't have to stop to think +where things came from, as he did, and he was afraid they would blame +him when there was nothing more left. + +So the Old Black Crow tried to step around lively and look pleasant, to +keep anybody from noticing, because he thought it might turn warm that +day and melt the snow; and when breakfast was ready he put on what there +was and said he hadn't cooked very much because he had heard that light +breakfasts were better for people who stayed in the house a good deal, +and as for himself, he said he guessed he wouldn't eat any breakfast +that morning at all. + +Then while the others were eating he crept down-stairs and looked at the +empty boxes and barrels and the few sticks of wood that were left, and +he knew that if that snow didn't melt off right away they were going to +have a _very hard time_. Then he came back up in the big living-room and +went on up-stairs to his own room, to look out the window to see if it +wasn't going to be a warm, melting day. But Mr. Crow came back pretty +soon. He came back in a hurry, too, and he slammed his door and locked +it, and then let go of everything and just slid down-stairs. Then the +Deep Woods People jumped up quick from the table and ran to him, for +they thought he was having a fit of some kind, and they still thought so +when they looked into his face: for Mr. Crow's eyes were rolled up and +his bill was pale, and when he tried to speak he couldn't. And Mr. +Rabbit said it was because Mr. Crow had done without his breakfast, and +he ran to get something from the table; but Mr. Crow couldn't eat, and +then they saw that some of the feathers on top of his head were turning +gray, and they knew he had seen some awful thing just that little moment +he was in his room. + +So then they all looked at one another and wondered what it was, and +they were glad Mr. Crow had locked the door. Then they carried him over +to the fire, and pretty soon he got so he could whisper a little, and +when they knew what he was saying they understood why he was so scared +and why he had locked the door; for the words that Mr. Crow kept +whispering over and over were: "Old Hungry-Wolf! Old Hungry-Wolf! Old +Hungry-Wolf!" + +All the Deep Woods People know what that means. They know that when Old +Hungry-Wolf comes, or even when you hear him bark, it means that there +is no food left in the Big Deep Woods for anybody, and that nobody can +tell how long it will be before there _will_ be food again. And all the +Deep Woods People stood still and held their breath and listened for the +bark of Old Hungry-Wolf, because they knew Mr. Crow had seen his face +looking in the window. And they all thought they heard it, except Mr. +'Possum, who said he didn't believe it was Old Hungry-Wolf at all that +Mr. Crow had seen, but only Mr. Gray Wolf himself, who had perhaps +slipped out and travelled over the snow to see if they were all at home +and comfortable. + +But Mr. Crow said: + +"No, no; it was Old Hungry-Wolf! He was big and black, and I saw his +great fiery eyes!" + +Then Mr. 'Possum looked very brave, and said he would see if Old +Hungry-Wolf was looking into his window too, and he went right up, and +soon came back and said there wasn't any big black face at his window, +and he thought that Mr. Crow's empty stomach had made him imagine +things. + +So then Mr. 'Coon said that he would go up to _his_ room if the others +would like to come along, and they could see for themselves whether Old +Hungry-Wolf was trying to get in or not. + +[Illustration: THEN MR. 'COON SLAMMED HIS DOOR] + +Then they all went very quietly up Mr. 'Coon's stair (all except Mr. +'Possum, who stayed with Mr. Crow), and they opened Mr. 'Coon's door +and took one look inside, and then Mr. 'Coon he slammed _his_ door shut, +and locked it, and they all let go of everything and came sliding down +in a heap, for they had seen the great fiery eyes and black face of Old +Hungry-Wolf glaring in at Mr. 'Coon's window. + +So they all huddled around the fire and lit their pipes--for they still +had some tobacco--and smoked, but didn't say anything, until by-and-by +Mr. Crow told them that there wasn't another bite to eat in the house +and very little wood, and that that was the reason why Old Hungry-Wolf +had come. And they talked about it in whispers--whether they ought to +exercise any more, because though exercise would help them to keep warm +and save wood, it would make them hungrier. And some of them said they +thought they would try to go to sleep like Mr. Bear, who slept all +winter and never knew that he was hungry until spring. So they kept +talking, and now and then they would stop and listen, and they all said +they could hear the bark of Old Hungry-Wolf--all except Mr. 'Possum, +which was strange, because Mr. 'Possum is fond of good things and would +be apt to be the very first to hear Old Hungry's bark. + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM SAID NOT TO MOVE, THAT HE WOULD GO AFTER A +PIECE OF WOOD] + +And when the fire got very low and it was getting cold, Mr. 'Possum said +for them not to move; that he would go down after a piece of wood, and +he would attend to the fire as long as the wood lasted, and try to +make it last as long as possible. And every time the fire got very low +Mr. 'Possum would bring a piece of wood, and sometimes he stayed a good +while (just for one piece of wood), but they still didn't think much +about it--not then. What they did think about was how hungry they were, +and Mr. 'Crow said he knew he could eat as much as the old ancestor of +his that was told about in a book which he had once borrowed from Mr. +Man's little boy who had left it out in the yard at dinner-time. + +Then they all begged Mr. Crow to get the book and read it to them, and +perhaps they could imagine they were not so hungry. So Mr. Crow brought +the book and read them the poem about + + +THE RAVENOUS RAVEN + + Oh, there was an old raven as black as could be, + And a wonderful sort of a raven was he; + For his house he kept tidy, his yard he kept neat, + And he cooked the most marvellous dainties to eat. + He could roast, he could toast, he could bake, he could fry, + He could stir up a cake in the wink of an eye, + He could boil, he could broil, he could grill, he could stew-- + Oh, there wasn't a thing that this bird couldn't do. + He would smoke in the sun when the mornings were fair, + And his plans for new puddings and pies would prepare; + But, alas! like the famous Jim Crow with his shelf, + He was greedy, and ate all his dainties himself. + +[Illustration: HE WOULD SMOKE IN THE SUN WHEN THE MORNINGS WERE FAIR] + + It was true he was proud of the things he could cook, + And would call in his neighbors sometimes for a look, + Or a taste, it may be, when his pastry was fine; + But he'd never been known to invite them to dine. + With a look and a sigh they could stand and behold + All the puddings so brown and the sauces of gold; + With a taste and a growl they'd reluctantly go + Praying vengeance to fall on that greedy old crow. + +[Illustration: WITH A LOOK AND A SIGH THEY WOULD STAND AND BEHOLD] + + Now, one morning near Christmas when holly grows green, + And the best of good things in the markets are seen, + He went out for a smoke in the crisp morning air, + And to think of some holiday dish to prepare. + Mr. Rabbit had spices to sell at his store, + Mr. Reynard had tender young chicks by the score, + And the old raven thought, as he stood there alone, + Of the tastiest pastry that ever was known. + + Then away to the market he hurried full soon, + Dropping in for a chat with the 'possum and 'coon + Just to tell them his plans, which they heard with delight, + And to ask them to call for a moment that night + +[Illustration: THE TASTIEST PASTRY THAT EVER WAS KNOWN] + + For a look and a taste of his pastry so fine, + And he hinted he might even ask them to dine. + Then he hurried away, and the rest of the day + Messrs. 'Possum and 'Coon were expectant and gay. + + Oh, he hurried away and to market he went, + And his money for spices and poultry he spent, + While behind in the market were many, he knew, + Who would talk of the marvellous things he would do; + So with joy in his heart and with twinkling eye + He returned to his home his new project to try, + Then to stir and to bake he began right away, + And his dish was complete at the end of the day. + +[Illustration: THEN TO STIR AND TO BAKE HE BEGAN RIGHT AWAY] + + Aye, the marvel was done--'twas a rich golden hue, + And its smell was delicious--the old raven knew + That he never had made such a pastry before, + And a look of deep trouble his countenance wore; + "For," thought he, "I am certain the 'possum and 'coon + That I talked with to-day will be coming here soon, + And expect me to ask them to dine, when, you see, + There is just a good feast in this dainty for me." + + Now, behold, he'd scarce uttered his thoughts when he heard + At the casement a tapping--this greedy old bird-- + And the latch was uplifted, and gayly strode in + Both the 'coon and the 'possum with faces agrin. + They were barbered and brushed and arrayed in their best, + In the holiday fashion their figures were dressed, + While a look in each face, to the raven at least, + Said, "We've come here to-night, sir, prepared for a feast." + + And the raven he smiled as he said, "Howdy-do?" + For he'd thought of a plan to get rid of the two; + And quoth he, "My dear friends, I am sorry to say + That the wonderful pastry I mentioned to-day + When it came to be baked was a failure complete, + Disappointing to taste and disturbing to eat. + I am sorry, dear friends, for I thought 'twould be fine; + I am sorry I cannot invite you to dine." + + And the 'coon and the 'possum were both sorry, too, + And suspicious, somewhat, for the raven they knew. + They declared 'twas too bad all that pudding to waste, + And they begged him to give them at least just a taste, + But he firmly refused and at last they departed, + While the greedy old crow for the dining-room started, + And the pie so delicious he piled on his plate, + And he ate, and he ate, and he ate, and he ate! + +[Illustration: THE GREEDY OLD RAVEN, BUT GREEDY NO MORE] + + Well, next morn when the 'possum and 'coon passed along + They could see at the raven's that something was wrong, + For no blue curling smoke from the chimney-top came; + So they opened his door and they called out his name, + And they entered inside, and behold! on the floor + Was the greedy old raven, but greedy no more: + For his heart it was still--not a flutter was there-- + And his toes were turned up and the table was bare; + Now his epitaph tells to the whole country-side + How he ate, and he ate, and he ate till he died. + +When Mr. Crow finished, Mr. Rabbit said it was certainly an interesting +poem, and if he just had a chance now to eat till he died he'd take it, +and Mr. 'Coon said he'd give anything to know how that pie had tasted, +and he didn't see how any _one_ pie could be big enough to kill anybody +that felt as hungry as _he_ did now. And Mr. 'Possum didn't say much of +anything, but only seemed drowsy and peaceful-like, which was curious +for _him_ as things were. + +Well, all that day, and the next day, and the next, there wasn't +anything to eat, and they sat as close as they could around the little +fire and wished they'd saved some of the big logs and some of the food, +too, that they had used up so fast when they thought the big snow would +go away. And the bark of Old Hungry-Wolf got louder and louder, and he +began to gnaw, too, and they all heard it, day and night--all except Mr. +'Possum, who said he didn't know why, but that for some reason he +couldn't hear a sound like that at all, which was _very_ strange, +indeed. + +But there was something else about Mr. 'Possum that was strange. He +didn't get any thinner. All the others began to show the change right +away, but Mr. 'Possum still looked the same, and still kept cheerful, +and stepped around as lively as ever, and that was _very strange_. + +By-and-by, when Mr. 'Possum had gone down-stairs for some barrel staves +to burn, for the wood was all gone, Mr. Rabbit spoke of it, and said he +couldn't understand it; and then Mr. 'Coon, who had been thinking about +it too, said he wondered why it sometimes took Mr. 'Possum so long to +get a little bit of wood. Then they all remembered how Mr. 'Possum had +stayed so long down-stairs whenever he went, even before Old Hungry-Wolf +came to the Hollow Tree, and they couldn't understand it _at all_. + +And just then Mr. 'Possum came up with two little barrel staves which he +had been a long time getting, and they all turned and looked at him very +closely, which was a thing they had never done until that time. And +before Mr. 'Possum noticed it, they saw him chew--a kind of last, +finishing chew--and then give a little swallow--a sort of last, +finishing swallow--and just then he noticed them watching him, and he +stopped right in his tracks and dropped the two little barrel staves and +looked very scared and guilty, which was strange, when he had always +been so willing about the wood. + +Then they all got up out of their chairs and looked straight at Mr. +'Possum, and said: + +"What was that you were chewing just now?" + +And Mr. 'Possum couldn't say a word. + +[Illustration: LOOKED STRAIGHT AT MR. 'POSSUM AND SAID, "WHAT WAS THAT +YOU WERE CHEWING JUST NOW?"] + +Then they all said: + +"What was that you were swallowing just now?" + +And Mr. 'Possum couldn't say a word. + +Then they all said: + +"Why do you always stay so long when you go for wood?" + +And Mr. 'Possum couldn't say a word. + +Then they all said: + +"Why is it that you don't get thin, like the rest of us?" + +And Mr. 'Possum couldn't say a word. + +Then they all said: + +"Why is it you never hear the bark of Old Hungry-Wolf?" + +And Mr. 'Possum said, very weakly: + +"I did think I heard it a little while ago." + +Then they all said: + +"And was that why you went down after wood?" + +And once more Mr. 'Possum couldn't say a word. + +Then they all said: + +"What have you got _down there_ to eat? And _where_ do you keep it?" + +Then Mr. 'Possum seemed to think of something, and picked up the two +little barrel staves and brought them over to the fire and put them on, +and looked very friendly, and sat down and lit his pipe and smoked a +minute, and said that climbing the stairs had overcome him a little, and +that he wasn't feeling very well, but if they'd let him breathe a +minute he'd tell them all about it, and how he had been preparing a nice +surprise for them, for just such a time as this; but when he saw they +had found out something, it all came on him so sudden that, what with +climbing the stairs and all, he couldn't quite gather himself, but that +he was all right now, and the surprise was ready. + +"Of course you know," Mr. 'Possum said, "that I have travelled a good +deal, and have seen a good many kinds of things happen, and know about +what to expect. And when I saw how fast we were using up the food, and +how deep the snow was, I knew we might expect a famine that even Mr. +Crow's johnny-cake and gravy wouldn't last through; and Mr. Crow +mentioned something of the kind once himself, though he seemed to forget +it right away again, for he went on giving us just as much as ever. But +I didn't forget about it, and right away I began laying aside in a quiet +place some of the things that would keep pretty well, and that we would +be glad to have when Old Hungry-Wolf should really come along and we had +learned to live on lighter meals and could make things last." + +Mr. 'Possum was going right on, but Mr. 'Coon interrupted him, and said +that Mr. 'Possum could call it living on lighter meals if he wanted to +but that he hadn't eaten any meal at all for three days, and that if Mr. +'Possum had put away anything for a hungry time he wished he'd get it +out right now, without any more explaining, for it was food that he +wanted and not explanations, and all the others said so too. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said he was just coming to that, but he only wished to +say a few words about it because they had seemed to think that he was +doing something that he shouldn't, when he was really trying to save +them from Old Hungry-Wolf, and he said he had kept his surprise as long +as he could, so it would last longer, and that he had been pretending +not to hear Old Hungry's bark just to keep their spirits up, and he +supposed one of the reasons why he hadn't got any thinner was because he +hadn't been so worried, and had kept happy in the nice surprise he had +all the time, just saving it for when they would begin to need it most. +As to what he had been chewing and swallowing when he came up-stairs, +Mr. 'Possum said that he had been taking just the least little taste of +some of the things to see if they were keeping well--some nice cooked +chickens, for instance, from a lot that Mr. Crow had on hand and didn't +remember about, and a young turkey or two, and a few ducks, and a bushel +or so of apples, and a half a barrel of doughnuts, and-- + +But Mr. 'Possum didn't get any further, for all the Deep Woods People +made a wild scramble for the stairs, with Mr. 'Possum after them, and +when they got down in the store-room he took them behind one of the big +roots of the Hollow Tree, and there was a passageway that none of them +had ever suspected, and Mr. 'Possum lit a candle and led them through it +and out into a sort of cave, and there, sure enough, were all the things +he had told them about and some mince-pies besides. And there was even +some wood, for Mr. 'Possum had worked hard to lay away a supply of +things for a long snowed-in time. + +Then all the Hollow Tree People sat right down there and had some of the +things, and by-and-by they carried some more up-stairs, and some wood, +too, and built up a fine big fire, and lit their pipes and smoked, and +forgot everything unpleasant in the world. And they all said how smart +and good Mr. 'Possum was to save all that food for the very time when +they would need it most, when all the rest of them had been just eating +it up as fast as possible and would have been now without a thing in the +world except for Mr. 'Possum. + +Then Mr. 'Possum asked them if they could hear Old Hungry-Wolf any more, +and they listened but they couldn't hear a sound, and then they went up +into Mr. Crow's room, and into Mr. 'Coon's room, and into Mr. 'Possum's +room, and they couldn't see a thing of him anywhere, though it was just +the time of day to see him, for it was late in the evening--the time +Old Hungry-Wolf is most likely to look in the window. + +And that night it turned warm, and the big snow began to thaw; and it +thawed, and it thawed, and all the brooks and rivers came up, and even +the Wide Blue Water rose so that the Deep Woods Company had to stay a +little longer in the Hollow Tree, even when all the snow was nearly +gone. Mr. Rabbit was pretty anxious to get home, and started out one +afternoon with Mr. Turtle along, because Mr. Turtle is a good swimmer. +But there was too much water to cross and they came back again just at +sunset, and Mr. Crow let them in,[C] so they had to wait several days +longer. But Mr. 'Possum's food lasted, and by the time it was gone they +could get plenty more; and when they all went away and left the three +Hollow Tree People together again, they were very happy because they had +had such a good time; and the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow +were as good friends as ever, though the gray feathers on the top of Mr. +Crow's head never did turn quite black again, and some of the Deep Woods +People call him "Silver-Top" to this day. + +The Little Lady looks anxiously at the Story Teller. + +"Did Old Hungry-Wolf ever get inside of the Hollow Tree?" she asks. + +"No, he never did get inside; they only saw him through the window, and +heard him bark." + +"And why couldn't Mr. 'Possum ever hear him sometimes?" + +"Well, you see, Old Hungry isn't a real wolf, but only a shadow +wolf--the shadow of famine. He only looks in when people dread famine, +and he only barks and gnaws when they feel it. A famine, you know, is +when one is very hungry and there is nothing to eat. I don't think Mr. +'Possum was very hungry, and he had all those nice things laid away, so +he would not care much about that old shadow wolf, which is only another +name for hunger." + +The Little Lady clings very close to the Story Teller. + +"Will we ever see Old Hungry-Wolf and hear his bark?" + +The Story Teller sits up quite straight, and gathers the Little Lady +tight. + +"Good gracious, no!" he says. "He moved out of our part of the country +before you were born, and we'll take good care that he doesn't come back +any more." + +"I'm glad," says the Little Lady. "You can sing now--you know--the +'Hollow Tree Song.'" + +FOOTNOTE: + +[C] See picture on cover. + + + + +AN EARLY SPRING CALL ON MR. BEAR + +MR. 'POSSUM'S CURIOUS DREAM AND WHAT CAME OF IT + + +"WHAT did they do then?" asks the Little Lady. "What did the Deep Woods +People all do after they got through being snowed in?" + +"Well, let's see. It got to be spring then pretty soon--early spring--of +course, and Mr. Jack Rabbit went to writing poetry and making garden; +Mr. Robin went to meet Mrs. Robin, who had been spending the winter down +South; Mr. Squirrel, who is quite young, went to call on a very nice +young Miss Squirrel over toward the Big West Hills; Mr. Dog had to help +Mr. Man a good deal with the spring work; Mr. Turtle got out all his +fishing-things and looked them over, and the Hollow Tree People had a +general straightening up after company. They had a big house-cleaning, +of course, with most of their things out on the line, and Mr. 'Possum +said that he'd just about as soon be snowed-in for good as to have to +beat carpets and carry furniture up and down stairs all the rest of his +life." + +But they got through at last, and everything was nice when they were +settled, only there wasn't a great deal to be had to eat, because it had +been such a long, cold winter that things were pretty scarce and hard to +get. + +One morning Mr. 'Possum said he had had a dream the night before, and he +wished it would come true. He said he had dreamed that they were all +invited by Mr. Bear to help him eat the spring breakfast which he takes +after his long winter nap, and that Mr. Bear had about the best +breakfast he ever sat down to. He said he had eaten it clear through, +from turkey to mince-pie, only he didn't get the mince-pie because Mr. +Bear had asked him if he'd have it hot or cold, and just as he made up +his mind to have some of both he woke up and didn't get either. + +Then Mr. 'Coon said he wished he could have a dream like that; that he'd +take whatever came along and try to sleep through it, and Mr. Crow +thought a little while and said that sometimes dreams came true, +especially if you helped them a little. He said he hadn't heard anything +of Mr. Bear this spring, and it was quite likely he had been taking a +longer nap than usual. It might be a good plan, he thought, to drop over +that way and just look in in passing, because if Mr. Bear should be +sitting down to breakfast he would be pretty apt to ask them to sit up +and have a bite while they told him the winter news. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said that he didn't believe anybody in the world but +Mr. Crow would have thought of that, and that hereafter he was going to +tell him every dream he had. They ought to start right away, he said, +because if they should get there just as Mr. Bear was clearing off the +table it would be a good deal worse than not getting the mince-pie in +his dream. + +So they hurried up and put on their best clothes and started for Mr. +Bear's place, which is over toward the Edge of the World, only farther +down, in a fine big cave which is fixed up as nice as a house and nicer. +But when they got pretty close to it they didn't go so fast and +straight, but just sauntered along as if they were only out for a little +walk and happened to go in that direction, for they thought Mr. Bear +might be awake and standing in his door. + +They met Mr. Rabbit about that time and invited him to go along, but Mr. +Rabbit said his friendship with Mr. Bear was a rather distant one, and +that he mostly talked to him from across the river or from a hill that +had a good clear running space on the other slope. He said Mr. Bear's +taste was good, for he was fond of his family, but that the fondness had +been all on Mr. Bear's side. + +[Illustration: THEY WENT ALONG, SAYING WHAT A NICE MAN THEY THOUGHT MR. +BEAR WAS] + +So the Hollow Tree People went along, saying what a nice man they +thought Mr. Bear was, and saying it quite loud, and looking every which +way, because Mr. Bear might be out for a walk too. + +But they didn't see him anywhere, and by-and-by they got right to the +door of his cave and knocked a little, and nobody came. Then they +listened, but couldn't hear anything at first, until Mr. 'Coon, who has +very sharp ears, said that he was sure he heard Mr. Bear breathing and +that he must be still asleep. Then the others thought they heard it, +too, and pretty soon they were sure they heard it, and Mr. 'Possum said +it was too bad to let Mr. Bear oversleep himself this fine weather, and +that they ought to go in and let him know how late it was. + +So then they pushed open the door and went tiptoeing in to where Mr. +Bear was. They thought, of course, he would be in bed, but he wasn't. He +was sitting up in a big armchair in his dressing-gown, with his feet up +on a low stool, before a fire that had gone out some time in December, +with a little table by him that had a candle on it which had burned down +about the time the fire went out. His pipe had gone out too, and they +knew that Mr. Bear had been smoking, and must have been very tired and +gone to sleep right where he was, and hadn't moved all winter long. + +[Illustration: MR. BEAR MUST HAVE BEEN VERY TIRED AND GONE TO SLEEP +RIGHT WHERE HE WAS] + +It wasn't very cheerful in there, so Mr. 'Possum said maybe they'd +better stir up a little fire to take the chill off before they woke +Mr. Bear, and Mr. 'Coon found a fresh candle and lighted it, and Mr. +Crow put the room to rights a little, and wound up the clock, and set +it, and started it going. Then when the fire got nice and bright they +stood around and looked at Mr. Bear, and each one said it was a good +time now to wake him up, but nobody just wanted to do it, because Mr. +Bear isn't always good-natured, and nobody could tell what might happen +if he should wake up cross and hungry, and he'd be likely to do that if +his nap was broken too suddenly. Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. Crow was the +one to do it, as he had first thought of this trip, and Mr. Crow said +that it was Mr. 'Possum's place, because it had been in his dream. Then +they both said that as Mr. 'Coon hadn't done anything at all so far, he +might do that. + +Mr. 'Coon said that he'd do it quick enough, only he'd been listening to +the way Mr. Bear breathed, and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be ready +to wake up for a week yet, and it would be too bad to wake him now when +he might not have been resting well during the first month or so of his +nap and was making it up now. He said they could look around a little +and see if Mr. Bear's things were keeping well, and perhaps brush up his +pantry so it would be nice and clean when he did wake. + +Then Mr. Crow said he'd always wanted to see Mr. Bear's pantry, for he'd +heard it was such a good place to keep things, and perhaps he could get +some ideas for the Hollow Tree; and Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. Bear had +the name of having a bigger pantry and more things in it than all the +rest of the Deep Woods People put together. + +So they left Mr. Bear all nice and comfortable, sleeping there by the +fire, and lit another candle and went over to his pantry, which was at +the other side of the room, and opened the door and looked in. + +Well, they couldn't say a word at first, but only just looked at one +another and at all the things they saw in that pantry. First, on the top +shelf there was a row of pies, clear around. Then on the next shelf +there was a row of cakes--first a fruit-cake, then a jelly-cake, then +another fruit-cake and then another jelly-cake, and the cakes went all +the way around, too, and some of them had frosting on them, and you +could see the raisins in the fruit-cake and pieces of citron. Then on +the next shelf there was a row of nice cooked partridges, all the way +around, close together. And on the shelf below was a row of meat-pies +made of chicken and turkey and young lamb, and on the shelf below that +there was a row of nice canned berries, and on the floor, all the way +around, there were jars of honey--nice comb honey that Mr. Bear had +gathered in November from bee-trees. + +Mr. Crow spoke first. + +"Well, I never," he said, "never in all my life, saw anything like it!" + +And Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum both said: + +"He can't do it--a breakfast like that is too much for _any_ bear!" + +Then Mr. Crow said: + +"He oughtn't to be _allowed_ to do it. Mr. Bear is too nice a man to +lose." + +And Mr. 'Possum said: + +"He _mustn't_ be allowed to do it--we'll help him." + +"Where do you suppose he begins?" said Mr. 'Coon. + +"At the top, very likely," said Mr. Crow. "He's got it arranged in +courses." + +"I don't care where he begins," said Mr. 'Possum; "I'm going to begin +somewhere, now, and I think I will begin on a meat-pie." + +And Mr. Crow said he thought he'd begin on a nice partridge, and Mr. +'Coon said he believed he'd try a mince-pie or two first, as a kind of a +lining, and then fill in with the solid things afterward. + +So then Mr. 'Possum took down his meat-pie, and said he hoped this +wasn't a dream, and Mr. Crow took down a nice brown partridge, and Mr. +'Coon stood up on a chair and slipped a mince-pie out of a pan on the +top shelf, and everything would have been all right, only he lost his +balance a little and let the pie fall. It made quite a smack when it +struck the floor, and Mr. 'Possum jumped and let his pie fall, too, and +that made a good deal more of a noise, because it was large and in a tin +pan. + +Then Mr. Crow blew out the light quick, and they all stood perfectly +still and listened, for it seemed to them a noise like that would wake +the dead, much more Mr. Bear, and they thought he would be right up and +in there after them. + +But Mr. Bear was too sound asleep for that. They heard him give a little +cough and a kind of a grunt mixed with a sleepy word or two, and when +they peeked out through the door, which was open just a little ways, +they saw him moving about in his chair, trying first one side and then +the other, as if he wanted to settle down and go to sleep again, which +he didn't do, but kept right on grunting and sniffing and mumbling and +trying new positions. + +Then, of course, the Hollow Tree People were scared, for they knew +pretty well he was going to wake up. There wasn't any way to get out of +Mr. Bear's pantry except by the door, and you had to go right by Mr. +Bear's chair to get out of the cave. So they just stood there, holding +their breath and trembling, and Mr. 'Possum wished now it _was_ a dream, +and that he could wake up right away before the nightmare began. + +Well, Mr. Bear he turned this way and that way, and once or twice seemed +about to settle down and sleep again; but just as they thought he really +had done it, he sat up pretty straight and looked all around. + +Then the Hollow Tree People thought their time had come, and they wanted +to make a jump, and run for the door, only they were afraid to try it. +Mr. Bear yawned a long yawn, and stretched himself, and rubbed his eyes +open, and looked over at the fire and down at the candle on the table +and up at the clock on the mantel. The 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old +Black Crow thought, of course, he'd know somebody had been there by all +those things being set going, and they expected him to roar out +something terrible and start for the pantry first thing. + +But Mr. Bear didn't seem to understand it at all, or to suppose that +anything was wrong, and from what he mumbled to himself they saw right +away that he thought he'd been asleep only a little while instead of all +winter long. + +"Humph!" they heard him growl, "I must have gone to sleep, and was +dreaming it's time to wake up. I didn't sleep long, though, by the way +the fire and the candle look, besides it's only a quarter of ten, and I +remember winding the clock at half after eight. Funny I feel so hungry, +after eating a big supper only two hours ago. Must be the reason I +dreamed it was spring. Humph! guess I'll just eat a piece of pie and go +to bed." + +So Mr. Bear got up and held on to his chair to steady himself, and +yawned some more and rubbed his eyes, for he was only about half awake +yet, and pretty soon he picked up his candle and started for the pantry. + +Then the Hollow Tree People felt as if they were going to die. They +didn't dare to breathe or make the least bit of noise, and just huddled +back in a corner close to the wall, and Mr. 'Possum all at once felt as +if he must sneeze right away, and Mr. 'Coon would have given anything to +be able to scratch his back, and Mr. Crow thought if he could only cough +once more and clear his throat he wouldn't care whether he had anything +to eat, ever again. + +And Mr. Bear he came shuffling along toward the pantry with his candle +all tipped to one side, still rubbing his eyes and trying to wake up, +and everything was just as still as still--all except a little scratchy +sound his claws made dragging along the floor, though that wasn't a nice +sound for the Hollow Tree People to hear. And when he came to the pantry +door Mr. Bear pushed it open quite wide and was coming straight in, only +just then he caught his toe a little on the door-sill and _stumbled_ in, +and that was too much for Mr. 'Possum, who turned loose a sneeze that +shook the world. + +Then Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon made a dive under Mr. Bear's legs, and Mr. +'Possum did too, and down came Mr. Bear and down came his candle, and +the candle went out, but not any quicker than the Hollow Tree People, +who broke for the cave door and slammed it behind them, and struck out +for the bushes as if they thought they'd never live to get there. + +But when they got into some thick hazel brush they stopped a minute to +breathe, and then they all heard Mr. Bear calling "Help! Help!" as loud +as he could, and when they listened they heard him mention something +about an earthquake and that the world was coming to an end. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said that from the sound of Mr. Bear's voice he seemed +to be unhappy about something, and that it was too bad for them to just +pass right by without asking what was the trouble, especially if Mr. +Bear, who had always been so friendly, should ever hear of it. So then +they straightened their collars and ties and knocked the dust off a +little, and Mr. 'Coon scratched his back against a little bush and Mr. +Crow cleared his throat, and they stepped out of the hazel patch and +went up to Mr. Bear's door and pushed it open a little and called out: + +"Oh, Mr. Bear, do you need any help?" + +[Illustration: MR. 'COON SCRATCHED HIS BACK AGAINST A LITTLE BUSH] + +"Oh yes," groaned Mr. Bear, "come quick! I've been struck by an +earthquake and nearly killed, and everything I've got must be ruined. +Bring a light and look at my pantry!" + +So then Mr. 'Coon ran with a splinter from Mr. Bear's fire and lit the +candle, and Mr. Bear got up, rubbing himself and taking on, and began +looking at his pantry shelves, which made him better right away. + +"Oh," he said, "how lucky the damage is so small! Only two pies and a +partridge knocked down, and they are not much hurt. I thought everything +was lost, and my nerves are all upset when I was getting ready for my +winter sleep. How glad I am you happened to be passing. Stay with me, +and we will eat to quiet our nerves." + +Then the Hollow Tree People said that the earthquake had made them +nervous too, and that perhaps a little food would be good for all of +them; so they flew around just as if they were at home, and brought Mr. +Bear's table right into the pantry, and some chairs, and set out the +very best things and told Mr. Bear to sit right up to the table and help +himself, and then all the others sat up, too, and they ate everything +clear through, from meat-pie to mince-pie, just as if Mr. 'Possum's +dream had really come true. + +And Mr. Bear said he didn't understand how he could have such a good +appetite when he had such a big supper only two hours ago, and he said +that there must have been two earthquakes, because a noise of some kind +had roused him from a little nap he had been taking in his chair, but +that the real earthquake hadn't happened until he got to the pantry +door, where he stumbled a little, which seemed to touch it off. He said +he hoped he'd never live to go through with a thing like that again. + +Then the Hollow Tree People said they had heard both of the shocks, and +that the last one was a good deal the worst, and that of course such a +thing would sound a good deal louder in a cave anyway. And by-and-by, +when they were all through eating, they went in by the fire and sat down +and smoked, and Mr. Bear said he didn't feel as sleepy as he thought he +should because he was still upset a good deal by the shock, but that he +guessed he would just crawl into bed while they were there, as it seemed +nice to have company. + +So he did, and by-and-by he dropped off to sleep again, and the Hollow +Tree People borrowed a few things, and went out softly and shut the door +behind them. They stopped at Mr. Rabbit's house on the way home, and +told him they had enjoyed a nice breakfast with Mr. Bear, and how Mr. +Bear had sent a partridge and a pie and a little pot of honey to Mr. +Rabbit because of his fondness for the family. Then Mr. Rabbit felt +quite pleased, because it was too early for spring vegetables and hard +to get good things for the table. + +"And did Mr. Bear sleep all summer?" asks the Little Lady. + +[Illustration: MR. RABBIT THANKED HIM FROM ACROSS THE RIVER] + +No, he woke up again pretty soon, for he had finished his nap, and of +course the next time when he looked around he found his fire out and the +candle burned down and the clock stopped, so he got up and went outside, +and saw it was spring and that he had slept a good deal longer than +usual. But when he went to eat his spring breakfast he couldn't +understand why he wasn't very hungry, and thought it must be because +he'd eaten two such big suppers. + +"But why didn't the Hollow Tree People tell him it was spring and not +let him go to bed again?" + +Well, I s'pose they thought it wouldn't be very polite to tell Mr. Bear +how he'd been fooled, and, besides, he needed a nice nap again after the +earthquake--anyhow, he thought it was an earthquake, and was a good deal +upset. + +And it was a long time before he found out what _had really_ happened, +and he never would have known, if Mr. Rabbit hadn't seen him fishing one +day and thanked him from across the river for the nice breakfast he had +sent him by the Hollow Tree People. + +That set Mr. Bear to thinking, and he asked Mr. Rabbit a few questions +about things in general and earthquakes in particular, and the more he +found out and thought about it the more he began to guess just how it +was, and by-and-by when he did find out all about it, he didn't care any +more, and really thought it quite a good joke on himself for falling +asleep in his chair and sleeping there all winter long. + + + + +MR. CROW'S GARDEN + +THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE LEARN HOW TO RAISE FINE VEGETABLES + + +ONE morning, right after breakfast in the Hollow Tree, Mr. Crow said +he'd been thinking of something ever since he woke up, and if the 'Coon +and the 'Possum thought it was a good plan he believed he'd do it. He +said of course they knew how good Mr. Rabbit's garden always was, and +how he nearly lived out of it during the summer, Mr. Rabbit being a good +deal of a vegetarian; by which he meant that he liked vegetables better +than anything, while the Hollow Tree People, Mr. Crow said, were a +little different in their tastes, though he didn't know just what the +name for them was. He said he thought they might be humanitarians, +because they liked the things that Mr. Man and other human beings liked, +but that he wasn't sure whether that was the right name or not. + +Then Mr. 'Possum said for him to never mind about the word, but to go on +and talk about his plan if it had anything to do with something to eat, +for he was getting pretty tired of living on little picked-up things +such as they had been having this hard spring, and Mr. 'Coon said so +too. So then Mr. Crow said: + +"Well, I've been planning to have a garden this spring like Mr. +Rabbit's." + +"Humph!" said Mr. 'Possum, "I thought you were going to start a chicken +farm." + +But Mr. Crow said "No," that the Big Deep Woods didn't seem a healthy +place for chickens, and that they could pick up a chicken here and there +by-and-by, and then if they had nice green pease to go with it, or some +green corn, or even a tender salad, it would help out, especially when +they had company like Mr. Robin, or Mr. Squirrel, or Mr. Rabbit, who +cared for such things. + +So then the 'Coon and the 'Possum both said that to have green pease and +corn was a very good idea, especially when such things were mixed with +young chickens with plenty of dressing and gravy, and that as this was a +pleasant morning they might walk over and call on Jack Rabbit so that +the Old Black Crow could find out about planting things. Mr. 'Possum +said that his uncle Silas Lovejoy always had a garden, and he had worked +it a good deal when he was young, but that he had forgotten just how +things should be planted, though he knew the moon had something to do +with it, and if you didn't get the time right the things that ought to +grow up would grow down and the down things would all grow up, so that +you'd have to dig your pease and pick your potatoes when the other way +was the fashion and thought to be better in this climate. + +So then the Hollow Tree People put on their things and went out into the +nice April sunshine and walked over to Jack Rabbit's house, saying how +pleasant it was to take a little walk this way when everything was +getting green, and they passed by where Mr. and Mrs. Robin were building +a new nest, and they looked in on a cozy little hollow tree where Mr. +Squirrel, who had just brought home a young wife from over by the Big +West Hills, had set up housekeeping with everything new except the +old-fashioned feather-bed and home-made spread which Miss Squirrel had +been given by her folks. They looked through Mr. Squirrel's house and +said how snug it was, and that perhaps it would be better not to try to +furnish it too much at once, as it was nice just to get things as one +was able, instead of doing everything at the start. + +When they got to Mr. Rabbit's house he was weaving a rag carpet for his +front room, and they all stood behind him and watched him weave, and +by-and-by Mr. 'Coon wanted to try it, but he didn't know how to run the +treadle exactly, and got some of the strands too loose and some too +tight, so he gave it up, and they all went out to look at Mr. Rabbit's +garden. + +Well, Mr. Rabbit did have a nice garden. It was all laid out in rows, +and was straight and trim, and there wasn't a weed anywhere. He had +things up, too--pease and lettuce and radishes--and he had some +tomato-plants growing in a box in the house, because it was too early to +put them out. + +Mr. Rabbit said that a good many people bought their plants, but that he +always liked to raise his own from seed, because then he knew just what +they were and what to expect. He told them how to plant the different +things and about the moon, and said there was an old adage in his family +that if you remembered it you'd always plant at the right time. The +adage, he said, was: + + "Pease and beans in the light of the moon-- + Both in the pot before it's June." + +And of course you only had to change "light" to "dark" and use it for +turnips and potatoes and such things, though really it was sometimes +later than June, but June was near enough, and rhymed with "moon" better +than July and August. He said he would give Mr. Crow all the seeds he +wanted, and that when he was ready to put out tomatoes he would let him +have plenty of plants too. + +Then Mr. 'Coon said it would be nice to have a few flower seeds, and +they all looked at Mr. 'Coon because they knew he had once been in love, +and they thought by his wanting flowers that he might be going to get +that way again. + +But Mr. Rabbit said he was fond of flowers, too, especially the +old-fashioned kind, and he picked out some for Mr. 'Coon; and then he +went to weaving again, and the Hollow Tree People watched him awhile, +and he pointed out pieces of different clothes he had had that he was +weaving into his carpet, and they all thought how nice it was to use up +one's old things that way. + +Then by-and-by the Hollow Tree People went back home, and they began +their garden right away. It was just the kind of a day to make garden +and they all felt like it, so they spaded and hoed and raked, and didn't +find it very easy because the place had never been used for a garden +before, and there were some roots and stones; and pretty soon Mr. +'Possum said that Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon might go on with the digging +and he would plant the seeds, as he had been used to such work when he +lived with his uncle Silas as a boy. + +So then he took the seeds, but he couldn't remember Mr. Rabbit's adages +which told whether beets and carrots and such things as grow below the +ground had to be planted in the dark of the moon or the light of the +moon, and it was the same about beans and pease and the things that +grow above the ground; and when he spoke to Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon about +it, one said it was one way and the other the other way, and then Mr. +'Possum said he wasn't planting the things in the moon anyhow, and he +thought Mr. Rabbit had made the adages to suit the day he was going to +plant and that they would work either way. + +So then Mr. 'Possum planted everything there was, and showed Mr. 'Coon +how to plant his flower seeds; and when they were all done they stood +off and admired their nice garden, and said it was just about as nice as +Jack Rabbit's, and maybe nicer in some ways, because it had trees around +it and was a pleasant place to work. + +[Illustration: ONE SAID IT WAS ONE WAY AND THE OTHER THE OTHER WAY] + +Well, after that they got up every morning and went out to look at their +garden, to see if any of the things were coming up; and pretty soon they +found a good _many_ things coming up, but they were not in hills and +rows, and Mr. 'Possum said they were weeds, because he remembered that +Uncle Silas's weeds had always looked like those, and how he and his +little cousins had had to hoe them. So then they got their hoes and hoed +every morning, and by-and-by they had to hoe some during the day too, to +keep up with the weeds, and the sun was pretty hot, and Mr. 'Possum did +most of his hoeing over by the trees where it wasn't so sunny, and said +that hereafter he thought it would be a good plan to plant all their +garden in the shade. + +And every day they kept looking for the seeds to come up, and by-and-by +a few did come up, and then they were quite proud, and went over and +told Jack Rabbit about it, and Mr. Rabbit came over to give them some +advice, and said he thought their garden looked pretty well for being +its first year and put in late, though it looked to him, he said, as if +some of it had been planted the wrong time of the moon, and he didn't +think so much shade was very good for most things. + +But Mr. 'Possum said he'd rather have more shade and less things, and he +thought next year he'd let his part of the garden out on shares. + +Well, it got hotter and hotter, and the weeds grew more and more, and +the Hollow Tree People had to work and hoe and pull nearly all day in +the sun to keep up with them, and they would have given it up pretty +soon, only they wanted to show Jack Rabbit that they could have a garden +too, and by-and-by, when their things got big enough to eat, they were +so proud that they invited Mr. Rabbit to come over for dinner, and they +sent word to Mr. Turtle, too, because he likes good things and lives +alone, not being a family man like Mr. Robin and Mr. Squirrel. + +Now of course the Hollow Tree People knew that they had no such fine +things in their garden as Jack Rabbit had in his, and they said they +couldn't expect to, but they'd try to have other things to make up; and +Mr. Crow was cooking for two whole days getting his chicken-pies and his +puddings and such things ready for that dinner. And then when the +morning came for it he was out long before sun-up to pick the things in +the garden while they were nice and fresh, with the dew on them. + +But when Mr. Crow looked over his garden he felt pretty bad, for, after +all, the new potatoes were little and tough, and the pease were small +and dry, and the beans were thin and stringy, and the salad was pretty +puny and tasteless, and the corn was just nubbins, because it didn't +grow in a very good place and maybe hadn't been planted or tended very +well. So Mr. Crow walked up and down the rows and thought a good deal, +and finally decided that he'd just take a walk over toward Jack Rabbit's +garden to see if Mr. Rabbit's things were really so much better after +all. + +It was just about sunrise, and Mr. Crow knew Jack Rabbit didn't get up +so soon, and he made up his mind he wouldn't wake him when he got there, +but would just take a look over his nice garden and come away again. So +when he got to Mr. Rabbit's back fence he climbed through a crack, and +sat down in the weeds to rest a little and to look around, and he saw +that Mr. Rabbit's house was just as still and closed up as could be, +and no signs of Jack Rabbit anywhere. + +So then Mr. Crow stepped out into the corn patch and looked along at the +rows of fine roasting ears, which made him feel sad because of those +little nubbins in his own garden, and then he saw the fine fat pease and +beans and salads in Jack Rabbit's garden, and it seemed to him that Mr. +Rabbit could never in the world use up all those things himself. + +Then Mr. Crow decided that he would thin out a few of Jack Rabbit's +things, which seemed to be too thick anyway to do well. It would be too +bad to disturb Mr. Rabbit to tell him about it, and Mr. Crow didn't have +time to wait for him to get up if he was going to get his dinner ready +on time. + +So Mr. Crow picked some large ears of corn and some of Mr. Rabbit's best +pease and beans and salads, and filled his apron with all he could +carry, and climbed through the back fence again, and took out for home +without wasting any more time. And when he got there Mr. 'Coon and Mr. +'Possum were just getting up, and he didn't bother to tell them about +borrowing from Mr. Rabbit's garden, but set out some breakfast, and as +soon as it was over pitched in to get ready for company. Mr. 'Coon and +Mr. 'Possum flew around, too, to make the room look nice, and by-and-by +everything was ready, and the table was set, and the Hollow Tree People +were all dressed up and looking out the window. + +[Illustration: MR. CROW DECIDED TO THIN OUT A FEW OF JACK RABBIT'S +THINGS] + +Then pretty soon they saw Mr. Turtle coming through the timber, and just +then Jack Rabbit came in sight from the other direction. Mr. Turtle had +brought a basket of mussels, which always are nice with a big dinner, +like oysters, and Mr. Rabbit said he would have brought some things out +of his garden, only he knew the Hollow Tree People had a garden, too, +this year, and would want to show what they could do in that line +themselves. He said he certainly must take a look at their garden +because he had heard a good deal about it from Mr. Robin. + +Then Mr. Crow felt a little chilly, for he happened to think that if Mr. +Rabbit went out into their garden and then saw the fine things which +were going to be on the table he'd wonder where they came from. So he +said right away that dinner was all ready, and they'd better sit down +while things were hot and fresh. + +Then they all sat down, and first had the mussels which Mr. Turtle had +brought, and there were some fine sliced tomatoes with them, and Mr. +Rabbit said he hadn't supposed that such fine big tomatoes as those +could come out of a new garden that had been planted late, and that he +certainly must see the vines they came off of before he went home, +because they were just as big as his tomatoes, if not bigger, and he +wanted to see just how they could do so well. + +And Mr. Crow felt _real_ chilly, and Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum both +said they hadn't supposed their tomatoes were so big and ripe, though +they hadn't looked at them since yesterday. But Mr. Rabbit said that a +good many things could happen over night, and Mr. Crow changed the +subject as quick as he could, and said that things always looked bigger +and better on the table than they did in the garden, but that he'd +picked all the real big, ripe tomatoes and he didn't think there'd be +any more. + +Then after the mussels they had the chicken-pie, and when Mr. Rabbit saw +the vegetables that Mr. Crow served with it he looked at them and said: + +"My, what fine pease and beans, and what splendid corn! I am sure your +vegetables are as good as anything in my garden, if not better. I +certainly _must see_ just the spot where they grew. I would never have +believed you could have done it, never, if I hadn't seen them right here +on your table with my own eyes." + +Then Mr. Turtle said they were the finest he ever tasted, and Mr. +'Possum and Mr. 'Coon both said they wouldn't have believed it +themselves yesterday, and it was wonderful how much everything had grown +over night. Then the Old Black Crow choked a little and coughed, and +said he didn't seem to relish his food, and pretty soon he said that of +course their garden _had_ done _pretty_ well, but that it was about +through now, as these were things he had been saving for this dinner, +and he had gathered all the biggest and best of them this morning before +Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon were up. + +When Mr. Crow said that, Jack Rabbit looked the other way and made a +very queer face, and you might have thought he was trying to keep from +laughing if you had seen him, but maybe he was only trying to keep from +coughing, for pretty soon he did cough a little and said that the early +morning was the proper time to gather vegetables; that one could always +pick out the best things then, and do it quietly before folks were up. + +Then Mr. Crow felt a cold, shaky chill that went all the way up and +down, and he was afraid to look up, though of course he didn't believe +Mr. Rabbit knew anything about what he had done, only he was afraid that +he would look so guilty that everybody would see it. He said that his +head was a little dizzy with being over the hot stove so much, and he +hoped they wouldn't think of going out until the cool of the evening, as +the sun would be too much for him, and of course he wanted to be with +them. + +[Illustration: MR. CROW WAS ALMOST AFRAID TO BRING ON THE SALAD] + +Poor Mr. Crow was almost afraid to bring on the salad, but he was just +as afraid not to. Only he did wish he had picked out Mr. Rabbit's +smallest bunches instead of his biggest ones, for he knew there were no +such other salads anywhere as those very ones he had borrowed from Mr. +Rabbit's garden. But he put it off as long as he could, and by-and-by +Jack Rabbit said that there was one thing he was sure the Hollow Tree +couldn't beat him on, and that was salad. He said he had never had such +fine heads as he had this year, and that there were a few heads +especially that he had been saving to show his friends. Then the 'Coon +and 'Possum said "No," their salads were not very much, unless they had +grown a great deal over night, like the other things--and when Mr. Crow +got up to bring them he walked wobbly, and everybody said it was too bad +that Mr. Crow _would_ always go to so much trouble for company. + +Well, when he came in with that bowl of salad and set it down, Mr. +Turtle and Jack Rabbit said, "Did you ever in your life!" But Mr. +'Possum and Mr. 'Coon just sat and looked at it, for they thought it +couldn't be true. + +Then pretty soon Mr. Rabbit said that he would take back everything he +had told them about his salad, and that he was coming over to take some +lessons from the Hollow Tree People, and especially from Mr. Crow, on +how to raise vegetables. He said that there were a good many ways to +raise vegetables--some raised them in a garden; some raised them in a +hothouse; some raised them in the market; but that Mr. Crow's way was +the best way there was, and he was coming over to learn it. He said they +must finish their dinner before dark, for he certainly must _see_ just +where _all_ Mr. Crow's wonderful things came from. + +Then Mr. Crow felt the gray spot on his head getting a good deal grayer, +and he dropped his knife and fork, and swallowed two or three times, and +tried to smile, though it was a sickly smile. He said that Mr. Rabbit +was very kind, but that Mr. 'Possum and Mr. 'Coon had done a good deal +of the work, too. + +But Jack Rabbit said "No," that nobody but an industrious person like +Mr. Crow could have raised _those_ vegetables--a person who got up +early, he said, and was used to taking a little trouble to get the best +things. + +Then Mr. Crow went after the dessert, and was glad enough that there +were no more vegetables to come, especially of that kind. + +And Mr. Rabbit seemed to forget about looking at the garden until they +were all through, and then he said that before they went outside he +would read a little poem he had composed that morning lying in bed and +looking at the sunrise across his own garden. He said he called it: + + ME AND MY GARDEN + + Oh, it's nice to have a garden + On which to put my labors. + It's nice to have a garden + Especially for my neighbors. + + I like to see it growing + When skies are blue above me; + I like to see it gathered + By those who really love me. + + I like to think in winter + Of pleasant summer labors; + Oh, it's nice to have a garden + Especially for my neighbors. + +Everybody said that was a nice poem and sounded just like Mr. Rabbit, +who was always so free-hearted--all except Mr. Crow, who tried to say it +was nice, and couldn't. Then Mr. Rabbit said they'd better go out now to +see the Hollow Tree garden, but Mr. Crow said really he couldn't stand +it yet, and they could see by his looks that he was feeling pretty sick, +and Mr. Turtle said it was too bad to think of taking Mr. Crow out in +the sun when he had worked so hard. + +So then they all sat around and smoked and told stories, and whenever +they stopped Mr. Crow thought of something else to do and seemed to get +better toward night, and got a great deal better when it got dark, and +Mr. Jack Rabbit said all at once that now it was too late to see the +Hollow Tree garden, and that he was so sorry, for he knew he could have +learned something if he could just have one look at it, for nobody could +see those vegetables and that garden without learning a great deal. + +[Illustration: JACK RABBIT CAPERED AND LAUGHED ALL THE WAY HOME] + +Then he said he must go, and Mr. Turtle said he guessed _he_ must go +too, so they both set out for home, and when Jack Rabbit got out of +sight of the Hollow Tree and into a little open moonlight place, he just +laid down on the ground and rolled over and laughed and kicked his feet, +and sat up and rocked and looked at the moon and laughed; and he capered +and laughed all the way home at the good joke he had all to himself on +Mr. Crow. + +For Mr. Rabbit had been lying awake in bed that morning when Mr. Crow +was in his garden, and he had seen Mr. Crow _all_ the time. + + + + +WHEN JACK RABBIT WAS A LITTLE BOY + +A STORY OF A VERY LONG TIME AGO + + +THE Little Lady skips first on one foot and then on the other foot, +around and around, until pretty soon she tumbles backward into _twelve +flower-pots_. + +That, of course, makes a great damage, and though the Little Lady +herself isn't hurt to speak of, she is frightened very much and has to +be comforted by everybody, including the Story Teller, who comes last, +and finishes up by telling about something that happened to Jack Rabbit +when _he_ was little. + +Once upon a time, it begins, when Mr. Jack Rabbit was quite small, his +mother left him all alone one afternoon while she went across the Wide +Grass Lands to visit an old aunt of hers and take her some of the nice +blackberries she had been putting up that morning. Mrs. Rabbit had been +very busy all the forenoon, and little Jack had been watching her and +making believe he was putting up berries too. + +And when Mrs. Rabbit got through she had cleaned her stove and polished +it as nice as could be; then she gave little Jack Rabbit his dinner, +with some of the berries that were left over, and afterward she washed +his face and hands and found his blocks for him to play with, besides a +new stick of red sealing-wax--the kind she used to seal her cans with; +for they did not have patent screw-top cans in those days, but always +sealed the covers on with red sealing-wax. + +Then Mrs. Rabbit told little Jack that he could play with his blocks, +and build houses, with the red stick for a chimney, and to be a good boy +until she came home. So little Jack Rabbit promised, and Mrs. Rabbit +kissed him twice and took her parasol and her reticule and a can of +berries, and started. Little Jack would have gone with her, only it was +too far. + +Well, after she had left, little Jack played with his blocks and built +houses and set the stick of sealing-wax up for a brick chimney, and +by-and-by he played he was canning fruit, and he wished he could have a +little stove and little cans and a little stick of sealing-wax, so he +could really do it all just as she did. + +[Illustration: TOOK HER PARASOL AND HER RETICULE AND A CAN OF BERRIES, +AND STARTED] + +Then little Jack Rabbit looked at the nice polished stove and wondered +how it would be to use that, and to build a little fire in it--just a +_little_ fire--which would make everything seem a good deal more real, +he thought, than his make-believe stove of blocks. + +And pretty soon little Jack opened the stove door and looked in, and +when he stirred the ashes there were still a few live coals there, and +when he put in some shavings they blazed up, and when he put in some +pieces of old shingles and things they blazed up too, and when he put in +some of Mrs. Rabbit's nice dry wood the stove got _quite hot_! + +Then little Jack Rabbit became somewhat frightened, for he had only +meant to make a very small fire, and he thought this might turn into a +big fire. Also, he remembered some things his mother had told him about +playing with fire and about _never going near a hot stove_. He thought +he'd better open the stove door a little to see if the fire was getting +too big, but he was afraid to touch it with his fingers for fear of +burning them. He had seen his mother use a stick or something to open +the stove door when it was hot, so he picked up the first thing that +came handy, which was the stick of sealing-wax. But when he touched it +to the hot door the red stick sputtered a little and left a bright red +spot on the stove door. + +[Illustration: AND HE MADE SOME STRIPES, TOO--MOSTLY ON TOP OF THE +STOVE] + +Then little Jack forgot all about putting up blackberries, admiring that +beautiful red spot on the shiny black stove, and thinking how nice it +would be to make some more like it, which he thought would improve the +looks of the stove a great deal. + +So then he touched it again in another place and made another spot, and +in another place and made another spot, and in a lot of places and made +a lot of spots, and he made some stripes, too--mostly on top of the +stove, which was nice and smooth to mark on, though he made _some_ on +the pipe. You would hardly have known it was the same stove when he got +all through, and little Jack thought how beautiful it was and how +pleased his mother would be when she got home and _saw_ it. But then +right away he happened to think that perhaps she might not be so pleased +after all, and the more he thought about it the more sure he was that +she wouldn't like her nice red-striped and spotted stove as well as a +black one; and, besides, she had told him _never_ to play with fire. + +[Illustration: LITTLE JACK KNEW PERFECTLY WELL THAT SHE WASN'T AT ALL +PLEASED] + +And just at that moment Mrs. Rabbit herself stepped in the door! And +when she looked at her red-spotted and striped stove and then at little +Jack Rabbit, little Jack knew perfectly well without her saying a single +word that she wasn't _at all pleased_. So he began to cry very loud, and +started to run, and tripped over his blocks and fell against a little +stand-table that had Mrs. Rabbit's work-basket on it (for Mrs. Rabbit +always knit or sewed while she was cooking anything), and all the spools +and buttons and knitting-work went tumbling, with little Jack Rabbit +right among them, holloing, "Oh, I'm killed! I'm killed!"--just +sprawling there on the floor, afraid to get up, and expecting every +minute his mother would do something awful. + +But Mrs. Rabbit just stood and looked at him over her spectacles and +then at her red-spotted and striped stove, and pretty soon she said: + +"Well, this is a lovely mess to come home to!" + +Which of course made little Jack take on a good deal worse and keep on +bawling out that he was killed, until Mrs. Rabbit told him that he was +making a good deal of noise for a _dead_ man, and that if he'd get up +and pick up all the things he'd upset maybe he'd come to life again. + +Then little Jack Rabbit got up and ran to his mother and cried against +her best dress and got some tears on it, and Mrs. Rabbit sat down in her +rocker and looked at her stove and rocked him until he felt better. And +by-and-by she changed her dress and went to cleaning her stove while +little Jack picked up all the things--all the spools and buttons and +needles and knitting-work--every single thing. + +And after supper, when he said his prayers and went to bed, he promised +never to disobey his mother again. + +[Illustration: PROMISED NEVER TO DISOBEY HIS MOTHER AGAIN] + + + + +A HOLLOW TREE PICNIC + +THE LITTLE LADY AND THE STORY TELLER, AND THEIR FRIENDS + + +NOT far from the House of Low Ceilings, which stands on the borders of +the Big Deep Woods, there is a still smaller house, where, in +summertime, the Story Teller goes to make up things and write them down. + +And one warm day he is writing away and not noticing what time it is +when he thinks he hears somebody step in the door. So then he looks +around, and he sees a little straw hat and a little round red face under +it, and then he sees a basket, and right away he knows it is the Little +Lady. And the Little Lady says: + +"I've brought the picnic--did you know it?" + +"Why, no!" the Story Teller says, looking surprised. "Is it time?" + +"Yes, and I've got huckleberries and cream, and some hot biscuits." + +"Good gracious! Let's see!" + +So then the Story Teller looks, and, sure enough, there they are, and +more things, too; and pretty soon the Little Lady and he go down to a +very quiet place under some hemlock-trees by a big rock where there is a +clear brook and a spring close by, and they sit down, and the Little +Lady spreads the picnic all out--and there is ham too, and +bread-and-butter, and doughnuts--and they are so hungry that they eat +everything, and both dip into one bowl when they get to huckleberries +and cream. + +Then the Little Lady says: + +"Now tell me about the Hollow Tree People; they have picnics, too." + +"Sure enough, they do. And I think I'll have to tell you about their +very last picnic and what happened." + +Well, once upon a time Mr. 'Possum said that he was getting tired of +sitting down to a table every meal in a close room with the smell of +cooking coming in, and if Mr. Crow would cook up a few things that would +taste good cold he'd pack the basket (that is, Mr. 'Possum would) and +Mr. 'Coon could carry it, and they'd go out somewhere and eat their +dinner in a nice place under the trees. + +Mr. 'Coon said he knew a pleasant place to go, and Mr. Crow said he'd +cook one of Mr. Man's chickens, which Mr. 'Possum had brought home the +night before, though it would take time, he said, because it was pretty +old--Mr. 'Possum having picked it out in the dark in a hurry. + +So then they all flew around and put away things, and Mr. Crow got the +chicken on while Mr. 'Coon sliced the bread and Mr. 'Possum cut the +cake, which they had been saving for Sunday, and he picked out a pie +too, and a nice book to read which Mr. Crow had found lying in Mr. Man's +yard while the folks were at dinner. Then he packed the basket all neat +and nice, and ate a little piece of the cake when Mr. 'Coon had stepped +out to see how the chicken was coming along, and when the chicken was +ready he cut it all up nicely, and he tasted of that a little, too, +while Mr. Crow was getting on his best picnic things to go. + +And pretty soon they all started out, and it was so bright and sunny +that Mr. 'Possum began to sing a little, and Mr. 'Coon told him not to +make a noise like that or they'd have company--Mr. Dog or Mr. Fox or +somebody--when there was only just enough chicken for themselves, which +made Mr. 'Possum stop right away. And before long they came to a very +quiet place under some thick hemlock-trees behind a stone wall and close +to a brook of clear water. + +[Illustration: AND HE TASTED OF THAT A LITTLE, TOO] + +That was the place Mr. 'Coon had thought of, and they sat down there and +spread out all the things on some moss, and everything looked so nice +that Mr. 'Possum said they ought to come here every day and eat dinner +as long as the hot weather lasted. Then they were all so hungry that +they began on the chicken right away, and Mr. 'Possum said that maybe he +_might_ have picked out a tenderer one, but that he didn't think he +could have found a bigger one, or one that would have lasted longer, and +that, after all, size and lasting were what one needed for a picnic. + +So they ate first one thing and then another, and Mr. 'Coon asked if +they remembered the time Mr. Dog had come to one of their picnics before +they were friends with him, when he'd really been invited to stay away; +and they all laughed when they thought how Mr. Rabbit had excused +himself, and the others, too, one after another, until Mr. Dog had the +picnic mostly to himself. And by-and-by the Hollow Tree People lit their +pipes and smoked, and Mr. 'Possum leaned his back against a tree and +read himself to sleep, and dreamed, and had a kind of a nightmare about +that other picnic, and talked in his sleep about it, which made Mr. +'Coon think of something to do. + +So then Mr. 'Coon got some long grass and made a strong band of it and +very carefully tied Mr. 'Possum to the tree, and just as Mr. 'Possum +began to have his dream again and was saying "Oh! Oh! here comes Mr. +Dog!" Mr. 'Coon gave three loud barks right in Mr. 'Possum's ear, and +Mr. Crow said "Wake up! Wake up, Mr. 'Possum! Here he comes!" + +[Illustration: MR. 'POSSUM LEANED HIS BACK AGAINST A TREE AND READ +HIMSELF TO SLEEP] + +And Mr. 'Possum did wake up, and jumped and jerked at that band, and +holloed out as loud as he could: + +"Oh, please let me go, Mr. Dog! Oh, please let me go, Mr. Dog!" for he +thought it was Mr. Dog that had him, and he forgot all about them being +friends. + +But just then he happened to see Mr. Crow and Mr. 'Coon rolling on the +ground and laughing, and he looked down to see what had him and found he +was tied to a tree, and he knew that they had played a joke on him. That +made him pretty mad at first, and he said if he ever got loose he'd pay +them back for their smartness. + +Then Mr. 'Coon told him he most likely never would get loose if he +didn't promise not to do anything, so Mr. 'Possum promised, and Mr. +'Coon untied him. Mr. 'Possum said he guessed the chicken must have been +pretty hard to digest, and he knew it was pretty salt, for he was dying +for a good cold drink. + +Then Mr. 'Coon said he knew where there was a spring over beyond the +wall that had colder water than the brook, and he'd show them the way to +it. So they climbed over the wall and slipped through the bushes to the +spring, and all took a nice cold drink, and just as they raised their +heads from drinking they heard somebody say something. And they all kept +perfectly still and listened, and they heard it again, just beyond some +bushes. + +[Illustration: SO MR. 'POSSUM PROMISED, AND MR. 'COON UNTIED HIM] + +So then they crept softly in among the green leaves and branches and +looked through, and what do you think they saw? + +The Story Teller turns to the Little Lady, who seems a good deal +excited. + +"Why, why, what did they see?" she says. "Tell me, quick!" + +"Why," the Story Teller goes on, "they saw the Little Lady and the Story +Teller having a picnic too, with all the nice things spread out by a +rock, under the hemlock-trees." + +"Oh," gasps the Little Lady, "did they really see us? and are they there +now?" + +"They might be," says the Story Teller. "The Hollow Tree People slip +around very softly. Anyway, they were there then, and it was the first +time they had ever seen the Little Lady and the Story Teller so close. +And they watched them until they were all through with their picnic and +had gathered up their things. Then the 'Coon and the 'Possum and Old +Black Crow slipped away again, and crept over the wall and gathered up +their own things and set out for home very happy." + +The Little Lady grasps the Story Teller's hand. + +"Let's go and see their picnic place!" she says. "They may be there +now." + +[Illustration: "AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY SAW?"] + +So the Little Lady and the Story Teller go softly down to the spring +and get a drink; then they creep across to the mossy stone wall and peer +over, and there, sure enough, is a green mossy place in the shade, the +very place to spread a picnic; and the Little Lady jumps and says "Oh!" +for she sees something brown whisk into the bushes. Anyhow, she knows +the Hollow Tree People have been there, for there is a little piece of +paper on the moss which they must have used to wrap up something, and +she thinks they most likely heard her coming and are just gone. + +So the Story Teller lifts her over the wall, and they sit down on the +green moss of the Hollow Tree picnic place, and she leans up against him +and listens to the singing of the brook, and the Story Teller sings +softly too, until by-and-by the Little Lady is asleep. + +And it may be, as they sit there and drowse and dream, that the Hollow +Tree People creep up close and watch them. + +Who knows? + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Repeated chapter titles were deleted to avoid repetition for the reader. + +Page 73, "t" changed to "it" (enjoyed it as much as) + +Page 135, "were" changed to "where" (from where he lived) + +Page 157, "pleasan" changed to "pleasant" (pleasant work) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book, by +Albert Bigelow Paine + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK *** + +***** This file should be named 38896.txt or 38896.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/8/9/38896/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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