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diff --git a/old/qltfk10.txt b/old/qltfk10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..99b65c2 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/qltfk10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2596 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Queer Little Folks, by Harriet Beecher Stowe +#2 in our series by Harriet Beecher Stowe + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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Wheeler. + + + + + +QUEER LITTLE FOLKS + + + + +Contents: + +Hen that Hatched Ducks +The Nutcrackers of Nutcracker Lodge +The History of Tip-Top +Miss Katy-Did and Miss Cricket +Mother Magpie's Mischief +The Squirrels that live in a House +Hum, the Son of Buz +Our Country Neighbours +The Diverting History of Little Whiskey + + + +HEN THAT HATCHED DUCKS + + + +Once there was a nice young hen that we will call Mrs. Feathertop. +She was a hen of most excellent family, being a direct descendant of +the Bolton Grays, and as pretty a young fowl as you could wish to see +of a summer's day. She was, moreover, as fortunately situated in +life as it was possible for a hen to be. She was bought by young +Master Fred Little John, with four or five family connections of +hers, and a lively young cock, who was held to be as brisk a +scratcher and as capable a head of a family as any half-dozen +sensible hens could desire. + +I can't say that at first Mrs. Feathertop was a very sensible hen. +She was very pretty and lively, to be sure, and a great favourite +with Master Bolton Gray Cock, on account of her bright eyes, her +finely shaded feathers, and certain saucy dashing ways that she had +which seemed greatly to take his fancy. But old Mrs. Scratchard, +living in the neighbouring yard, assured all the neighbourhood that +Gray Cock was a fool for thinking so much of that flighty young +thing; THAT she had not the smallest notion how to get on in life, +and thought of nothing in the world but her own pretty feathers. +"Wait till she comes to have chickens," said Mrs. Scratchard; "then +you will see. I have brought up ten broods myself--as likely and +respectable chickens as ever were a blessing to society--and I think +I ought to know a good hatcher and brooder when I see her; and I know +THAT fine piece of trumpery, with her white feathers tipped with +gray, never will come down to family life. SHE scratch for chickens! +Bless me, she never did anything in all her days but run round and +eat the worms which somebody else scratched up for her." + +When Master Bolton Gray heard this he crowed very loudly, like a cock +of spirit, and declared that old Mrs. Scratchard was envious, because +she had lost all her own tail-feathers, and looked more like a worn- +out old feather-duster than a respectable hen, and that therefore she +was filled with sheer envy of anybody that was young and pretty. So +young Mrs. Feathertop cackled gay defiance at her busy rubbishy +neighbour, as she sunned herself under the bushes on fine June +afternoons. + +Now Master Fred Little John had been allowed to have these hens by +his mamma on the condition that he would build their house himself, +and take all the care of it; and to do Master Fred justice, he +executed the job in a small way quite creditably. He chose a sunny +sloping bank covered with a thick growth of bushes, and erected there +a nice little hen-house with two glass windows, a little door, and a +good pole for his family to roost on. He made, moreover, a row of +nice little boxes with hay in them for nests, and he bought three or +four little smooth white china eggs to put in them, so that, when his +hens DID lay, he might carry off their eggs without their being +missed. This hen-house stood in a little grove that sloped down to a +wide river, just where there was a little cove which reached almost +to the hen-house. + +This situation inspired one of Master Fred's boy advisers with a new +scheme in relation to his poultry enterprise. "Hallo! I say, Fred," +said Tom Seymour, "you ought to raise ducks; you've got a capital +place for ducks there." + +"Yes; but I've bought HENS, you see," said Freddy; "so it's no use +trying." + +"No use! Of course there is. Just as if your hens couldn't hatch +ducks' eggs. Now you just wait till one of your hens wants to sit, +and you put ducks' eggs under her, and you'll have a family of ducks +in a twinkling. You can buy ducks' eggs a plenty of old Sam under +the hill. He always has hens hatch his ducks." + +So Freddy thought it would be a good experiment, and informed his +mother the next morning that he intended to furnish the ducks for the +next Christmas dinner and when she wondered how he was to come by +them, he said mysteriously, "Oh, I will show you how," but did not +further explain himself. The next day he went with Tom Seymour and +made a trade with old Sam, and gave him a middle-aged jack-knife for +eight of his ducks' eggs. Sam, by-the-by, was a woolly-headed old +negro man, who lived by the pond hard by, and who had long cast +envying eyes on Fred's jack-knife, because it was of extra fine +steel, having been a Christmas present the year before. But Fred +knew very well there were any number more of jack-knives where that +came from, and that, in order to get a new one, he must dispose of +the old; so he made the purchase and came home rejoicing. + +Now about this time Mrs. Feathertop, having laid her eggs daily with +great credit to herself, notwithstanding Mrs. Scratchard's +predictions, began to find herself suddenly attacked with nervous +symptoms. She lost her gay spirits, grew dumpish and morose, stuck +up her feathers in a bristling way, and pecked at her neighbours if +they did so much as look at her. Master Gray Cock was greatly +concerned, and went to old Dr. Peppercorn, who looked solemn, and +recommended an infusion of angle-worms, and said he would look in on +the patient twice a day till she was better. + +"Gracious me, Gray Cock!" said old Goody Kertarkut, who had been +lolling at the corner as he passed, "ain't you a fool?--cocks always +are fools. Don't you know what's the matter with your wife? She +wants to sit, that's all; and you just let her sit. A fiddlestick +for Dr. Peppercorn! Why, any good old hen that has brought up a +family knows more than a doctor about such things. You just go home +and tell her to sit if she wants to, and behave herself." + +When Gray Cock came home, he found that Master Freddy had been before +him, and had established Mrs. Feathertop upon eight nice eggs, where +she was sitting in gloomy grandeur. He tried to make a little +affable conversation with her, and to relate his interview with the +doctor and Goody Kertarkut; but she was morose and sullen, and only +pecked at him now and then in a very sharp, unpleasant way. So after +a few more efforts to make himself agreeable he left her, and went +out promenading with the captivating Mrs. Red Comb, a charming young +Spanish widow, who had just been imported into the neighbouring yard. + +"Bless my soul," said he, "you've no idea how cross my wife is." + +"O you horrid creature!" said Mrs. Red Comb. "How little you feel +for the weaknesses of us poor hens!" + +"On my word, ma'am," said Gray Cock, "you do me injustice. But when +a hen gives way to temper, ma'am, and no longer meets her husband +with a smile--when she even pecks at him whom she is bound to honour +and obey--" + +"Horrid monster! talking of obedience! I should say, sir, you came +straight from Turkey." And Mrs. Red Comb tossed her head with a most +bewitching air, and pretended to run away; and old Mrs. Scratchard +looked out of her coop and called to Goody Kertarkut, - + +"Look how Mr. Gray Cock is flirting with that widow. I always knew +she was a baggage." + +"And his poor wife left at home alone," said Goody Kertarkut. "It's +the way with 'em all!" + +"Yes, yes," said Dame Scratchard, "she'll know what real life is now, +and she won't go about holding her head so high, and looking down on +her practical neighbours that have raised families." + +"Poor thing! what'll she do with a family?" said Goody Kertarkut. + +"Well, what business have such young flirts to get married?" said +Dame Scratchard. "I don't expect she'll raise a single chick; and +there's Gray Cock flirting about, fine as ever. Folks didn't do so +when I was young. I'm sure my husband knew what treatment a sitting +hen ought to have,--poor old Long Spur! he never minded a peck or so +and then. I must say these modern fowls ain't what fowls used to +be." + +Meanwhile the sun rose and set, and Master Fred was almost the only +friend and associate of poor little Mrs. Feathertop, whom he fed +daily with meal and water, and only interrupted her sad reflections +by pulling her up occasionally to see how the eggs were coming on. + +At last "Peep, peep, peep," began to be heard in the nest, and one +little downy head after another poked forth from under the feathers, +surveying the world with round, bright, winking eyes; and gradually +the brood were hatched, and Mrs. Feathertop arose, a proud and happy +mother, with all the bustling, scratching, care-taking instincts of +family-life warm within her breast. She clucked and scratched, and +cuddled the little downy bits of things as handily and discreetly as +a seven-year-old hen could have done, exciting thereby the wonder of +the community. + +Master Gray Cock came home in high spirits, and complimented her; +told her she was looking charmingly once more, and said, "Very well, +very nice," as he surveyed the young brood. So that Mrs. Feathertop +began to feel the world going well with her, when suddenly in came +Dame Scratchard and Goody Kertarkut to make a morning call. + +"Let's see the chicks," said Dame Scratchard. + +"Goodness me," said Goody Kertarkut, "what a likeness to their dear +papa!" + +"Well, but bless me, what's the matter with their bills?" said Dame +Scratchard. "Why, my dear, these chicks are deformed! I'm sorry for +you, my dear; but it's all the result of your inexperience. You +ought to have eaten pebble-stones with your meal when you were +sitting. Don't you see, Dame Kertarkut, what bills they have? +That'll increase, and they'll be frightful!" + +"What shall I do?" said Mrs. Feathertop, now greatly alarmed. + +"Nothing, as I know of," said Dame Scratchard, "since you didn't come +to me before you sat. I could have told you all about it. Maybe it +won't kill 'em, but they'll always be deformed." + +And so the gossips departed, leaving a sting under the pin-feathers +of the poor little hen mamma, who began to see that her darlings had +curious little spoon-bills, different from her own, and to worry and +fret about it. + +"My dear," she said to her spouse, "do get Dr. Peppercorn to come in +and look at their bills, and see if anything can be done." + +Dr. Peppercorn came in, and put on a monstrous pair of spectacles, +and said, "Hum! ha! extraordinary case; very singular." + +"Did you ever see anything like it, doctor?" said both parents in a +breath. + +"I've read of such cases. It's a calcareous enlargement of the +vascular bony tissue, threatening ossification," said the doctor. + +"Oh, dreadful! Can it be possible?" shrieked both parents. "Can +anything be done?" + +"Well, I should recommend a daily lotion made of mosquitoes' horns +and bicarbonate of frogs' toes, together with a powder, to be taken +morning and night, of muriate of fleas. One thing you must be +careful about: they must never wet their feet, nor drink any water." + +"Dear me, doctor, I don't know what I SHALL do, for they seem to have +a particular fancy for getting into water." + +"Yes, a morbid tendency often found in these cases of bony +tumification of the vascular tissue of the mouth; but you must resist +it, ma'am, as their life depends upon it." And with that Dr. +Peppercorn glared gloomily on the young ducks, who were stealthily +poking the objectionable little spoon-bills out from under their +mother's feathers. + +After this poor Mrs. Feathertop led a weary life of it; for the young +fry were as healthy and enterprising a brood of young ducks as ever +carried saucepans on the end of their noses, and they most utterly +set themselves against the doctor's prescriptions, murmured at the +muriate of fleas and the bicarbonate of frogs' toes, and took every +opportunity to waddle their little ways down to the mud and water +which was in their near vicinity. So their bills grew larger and +larger, as did the rest of their bodies, and family government grew +weaker and weaker. + +"You'll wear me out, children, you certainly will," said poor Mrs. +Feathertop. + +"You'll go to destruction, do ye hear?" said Master Gray Cock. + +"Did you ever see such frights as poor Mrs. Feathertop has got?" said +Dame Scratchard. "I knew what would come of HER family--all +deformed, and with a dreadful sort of madness which makes them love +to shovel mud with those shocking spoon-bills of theirs." + +"It's a kind of idiocy," said Goody Kertarkut. "Poor things! they +can't be kept from the water, nor made to take powders, and so they +get worse and worse." + +"I understand it's affecting their feet so that they can't walk, and +a dreadful sort of net is growing between their toes. What a +shocking visitation!" + +"She brought it on herself," said Dame Scratchard. "Why didn't she +come to me before she sat? She was always an upstart, self-conceited +thing; but I'm sure I pity her." + +Meanwhile the young ducks throve apace. Their necks grew glossy, +like changeable green and gold satin, and though they would not take +the doctor's medicine, and would waddle in the mud and water--for +which they always felt themselves to be very naughty ducks--yet they +grew quite vigorous and hearty. At last one day the whole little +tribe waddled off down to the bank of the river. It was a beautiful +day, and the river was dancing and dimpling and winking as the little +breezes shook the trees that hung over it. + +"Well," said the biggest of the little ducks, "in spite of Dr. +Peppercorn, I can't help longing for the water. I don't believe it +is going to hurt me; at any rate, here goes," and in he plumped, and +in went every duck after him, and they threw out their great brown +feet as cleverly as if they had taken swimming lessons all their +lives, and sailed off on the river, away, away among the ferns, under +the pink azaleas, through reeds and rushes, and arrow-heads and +pickerel-weed, the happiest ducks that ever were born; and soon they +were quite out of sight. + +"Well, Mrs. Feathertop, this is a dispensation!" said Mrs. +Scratchard. "Your children are all drowned at last, just as I knew +they'd be. The old music-teacher, Master Bullfrog, that lives down +in Water-Dock Lane, saw 'em all plump madly into the water together +this morning. That's what comes of not knowing how to bring up a +family!" + +Mrs. Feathertop gave only one shriek and fainted dead away, and was +carried home on a cabbage-leaf; and Mr. Gray Cock was sent for, where +he was waiting on Mrs. Red Comb through the squash-vines. + +"It's a serious time in your family, sir," said Goody Kertarkut, "and +you ought to be at home supporting your wife. Send for Dr. +Peppercorn without delay." + +Now as the case was a very dreadful one, Dr. Peppercorn called a +council from the barn-yard of the squire, two miles off, and a brisk +young Dr. Partlett appeared, in a fine suit of brown and gold, with +tail-feathers like meteors. A fine young fellow he was, lately from +Paris, with all the modern scientific improvements fresh in his head. + +When he had listened to the whole story, he clapped his spur into the +ground, and leaning back laughed so loudly that all the cocks in the +neighbourhood crowed. + +Mrs. Feathertop rose up out of her swoon, and Mr. Gray Cock was +greatly enraged. + +"What do you mean, sir, by such behaviour in the house of mourning?" + +"My dear sir, pardon me; but there is no occasion for mourning. My +dear madam, let me congratulate you. There is no harm done. The +simple matter is, dear madam, you have been under a hallucination all +along. The neighbourhood and my learned friend the doctor have all +made a mistake in thinking that these children of yours were hens at +all. They are ducks, ma'am, evidently ducks, and very finely-formed +ducks I daresay." + +At this moment a quack was heard, and at a distance the whole tribe +were seen coming waddling home, their feathers gleaming in green and +gold, and they themselves in high good spirits. + +"Such a splendid day as we have had!" they all cried in a breath. +"And we know now how to get our own living; we can take care of +ourselves in future, so you need have no further trouble with us." + +"Madam," said the doctor, making a bow with an air which displayed +his tail-feathers to advantage, "let me congratulate you on the +charming family you have raised. A finer brood of young, healthy +ducks I never saw. Give me your claw, my dear friend," he said, +addressing the eldest son. "In our barn-yard no family is more +respected than that of the ducks." + +And so Madam Feathertop came off glorious at last. And when after +this the ducks used to go swimming up and down the river like so many +nabobs among the admiring hens, Dr. Peppercorn used to look after +them and say, "Ah, I had the care of their infancy!" and Mr. Gray +Cock and his wife used to say, "It was our system of education did +that!" + + + +THE NUTCRACKERS OF NUTCRACKER LODGE + + + +Mr. and Mrs. Nutcracker were as respectable a pair of squirrels as +ever wore gray brushes over their backs. They were animals of a +settled and serious turn of mind, not disposed to run after vanities +and novelties, but filling their station in life with prudence and +sobriety. Nutcracker Lodge was a hole in a sturdy old chestnut +overhanging a shady dell, and was held to be as respectably kept an +establishment as there was in the whole forest. Even Miss Jenny +Wren, the greatest gossip of the neighbourhood, never found anything +to criticise in its arrangements; and old Parson Too-whit, a +venerable owl who inhabited a branch somewhat more exalted, as became +his profession, was in the habit of saving himself much trouble in +his parochial exhortations by telling his parishioners in short to +"look at the Nutcrackers" if they wanted to see what it was to live a +virtuous life. Everything had gone on prosperously with them, and +they had reared many successive families of young Nutcrackers, who +went forth to assume their places in the forest of life, and to +reflect credit on their bringing up,--so that naturally enough they +began to have a very easy way of considering themselves models of +wisdom. + +But at last it came along, in the course of events, that they had a +son named Featherhead, who was destined to bring them a great deal of +anxiety. Nobody knows what the reason is, but the fact was, that +Master Featherhead was as different from all the former children of +this worthy couple as if he had been dropped out of the moon into +their nest, instead of coming into it in the general way. Young +Featherhead was a squirrel of good parts and a lively disposition, +but he was sulky and contrary and unreasonable, and always finding +matter of complaint in everything his respectable papa and mamma did. +Instead of assisting in the cares of a family,--picking up nuts and +learning other lessons proper to a young squirrel,--he seemed to +settle himself from his earliest years into a sort of lofty contempt +for the Nutcrackers, for Nutcracker Lodge, and for all the good old +ways and institutions of the domestic hole, which he declared to be +stupid and unreasonable, and entirely behind the times. To be sure, +he was always on hand at meal-times, and played a very lively tooth +on the nuts which his mother had collected, always selecting the very +best for himself; but he seasoned his nibbling with so much grumbling +and discontent, and so many severe remarks, as to give the impression +that he considered himself a peculiarly ill-used squirrel in having +to "eat their old grub," as he very unceremoniously called it. + +Papa Nutcracker, on these occasions, was often fiercely indignant, +and poor little Mamma Nutcracker would shed tears, and beg her +darling to be a little more reasonable; but the young gentleman +seemed always to consider himself as the injured party. + +Now nobody could tell why or wherefore Master Featherhead looked upon +himself as injured or aggrieved, since he was living in a good hole, +with plenty to eat, and without the least care or labour of his own; +but he seemed rather to value himself upon being gloomy and +dissatisfied. While his parents and brothers and sisters were +cheerfully racing up and down the branches, busy in their domestic +toils, and laying up stores for the winter, Featherhead sat gloomily +apart, declaring himself weary of existence, and feeling himself at +liberty to quarrel with everybody and everything about him. Nobody +understood him, he said;--he was a squirrel of a peculiar nature, and +needed peculiar treatment, and nobody treated him in a way that did +not grate on the finer nerves of his feelings. He had higher notions +of existence than could be bounded by that old rotten hole in a +hollow tree; he had thoughts that soared far above the miserable, +petty details of every-day life, and he could not and would not bring +down these soaring aspirations to the contemptible toil of laying up +a few chestnuts or hickory-nuts for winter. + +"Depend upon it, my dear," said Mrs. Nutcracker solemnly, "that +fellow must be a genius." + +"Fiddlestick on his genius!" said old Mr. Nutcracker; "what does he +DO?" + +"Oh, nothing, of course; that's one of the first marks of genius. +Geniuses, you know, never can come down to common life." + +"He eats enough for any two," remarked old Nutcracker, "and he never +helps to gather nuts." + +"My dear, ask Parson Too-whit. He has conversed with him, and quite +agrees with me that he says very uncommon things for a squirrel of +his age; he has such fine feelings,--so much above those of the +common crowd." + +"Fine feelings be hanged!" said old Nutcracker. "When a fellow eats +all the nuts that his mother gives him, and then grumbles at her, I +don't believe much in his fine feelings. Why don't he set himself +about something? I'm going to tell my fine young gentleman that, if +he doesn't behave himself, I'll tumble him out of the nest, neck and +crop, and see if hunger won't do something towards bringing down his +fine airs." + +But then Mrs. Nutcracker fell on her husband's neck with both paws, +and wept, and besought him so piteously to have patience with her +darling, that old Nutcracker, who was himself a soft-hearted old +squirrel, was prevailed upon to put up with the airs and graces of +his young scapegrace a little longer; and secretly in his silly old +heart he revolved the question whether possibly it might not be that +a great genius was actually to come of his household. + +The Nutcrackers belonged to the old-established race of the Grays, +but they were sociable, friendly people, and kept on the best of +terms with all branches of the Nutcracker family. The Chipmunks of +Chipmunk Hollow were a very lively, cheerful, sociable race, and on +the very best of terms with the Nutcracker Grays. Young Tip +Chipmunk, the oldest son, was in all respects a perfect contrast to +Master Featherhead. He was always lively and cheerful, and so very +alert in providing for the family, that old Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk had +very little care, but could sit sociably at the door of their hole +and chat with neighbours, quite sure that Tip would bring everything +out right for them, and have plenty laid up for winter. + +Now Featherhead took it upon him, for some reason or other, to look +down upon Tip Chipmunk, and on every occasion to disparage him in the +social circle, as a very common kind of squirrel, with whom it would +be best not to associate too freely. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Nutcracker one day, when he was expressing these +ideas, "it seems to me that you are too hard on poor Tip; he is a +most excellent son and brother, and I wish you would be civil to +him." + +"Oh, I don't doubt that Tip is GOOD enough," said Featherhead +carelessly; "but then he is so very common! he hasn't an idea in his +skull above his nuts and his hole. He is good-natured enough, to be +sure,--these very ordinary people often are good-natured,--but he +wants manner; he has really no manner at all; and as to the deeper +feelings, Tip hasn't the remotest idea of them. I mean always to be +civil to Tip when he comes in my way, but I think the less we see of +that sort of people the better; and I hope, mother, you won't invite +the Chipmunks at Christmas,--these family dinners are such a bore!" + +"But, my dear, your father thinks a great deal of the Chipmunks; and +it is an old family custom to have all the relatives here at +Christmas." + +"And an awful bore it is! Why must people of refinement and +elevation be forever tied down because of some distant relationship? +Now there are our cousins the High-Flyers,--if we could get them, +there would be some sense in it. Young Whisk rather promised me for +Christmas; but it's seldom now you can get a flying squirrel to show +himself in our parts, and if we are intimate with the Chipmunks it +isn't to be expected." + +"Confound him for a puppy!" said old Nutcracker, when his wife +repeated these sayings to him. "Featherhead is a fool. Common, +forsooth! I wish good, industrious, painstaking sons like Tip +Chipmunk WERE common. For my part, I find these uncommon people the +most tiresome. They are not content with letting us carry the whole +load, but they sit on it, and scold at us while we carry them." + +But old Mr. Nutcracker, like many other good old gentlemen squirrels, +found that Christmas dinners and other things were apt to go as his +wife said, and his wife was apt to go as young Featherhead said; and +so, when Christmas came, the Chipmunks were not invited, for the +first time in many years. The Chipmunks, however, took all +pleasantly, and accepted poor old Mrs. Nutcracker's awkward apologies +with the best possible grace; and young Tip looked in on Christmas +morning with the compliments of the season and a few beech-nuts, +which he had secured as a great dainty. The fact was, that Tip's +little striped fur coat was so filled up and overflowing with +cheerful good-will to all, that he never could be made to understand +that any of his relations could want to cut him; and therefore +Featherhead looked down on him with contempt, and said he had no +tact, and couldn't see when he was not wanted. + +It was wonderful to see how, by means of persisting in remarks like +these, young Featherhead at last got all his family to look up to him +as something uncommon. Though he added nothing to the family, and +required more to be done for him than all the others put together,-- +though he showed not the smallest real perseverance or ability in +anything useful,--yet somehow all his brothers and sisters, and his +poor foolish old mother, got into a way of regarding him as something +wonderful, and delighting in his sharp sayings as if they had been +the wisest things in the world. + +But at last old papa declared that it was time for Featherhead to +settle himself to some business in life, roundly declaring that he +could not always have him as a hanger-on in the paternal hole. + +"What are you going to do, my boy?" said Tip Chipmunk to him one day. +"We are driving now a thriving trade in hickory-nuts, and if you +would like to join us--" + +"Thank you," said Featherhead; "but I confess I have no fancy for +anything so slow as the hickory trade; I never was made to grub and +delve in that way." + +The fact was that Featherhead had lately been forming alliances such +as no reputable squirrel should even think of. He had more than once +been seen going out evenings with the Rats of Rat Hollow,--a race +whose reputation for honesty was more than doubtful. The fact was, +further, that old Longtooth Rat, an old sharper and money-lender, had +long had his eye on Featherhead as just about silly enough for their +purposes,--engaging him in what he called a speculation, but which +was neither more nor less than downright stealing. + +Near by the chestnut-tree where Nutcracker Lodge was situated was a +large barn filled with corn and grain, besides many bushels of hazel- +nuts, chestnuts, and walnuts. Now old Longtooth proposed to young +Featherhead that he should nibble a passage into this loft, and there +establish himself in the commission business, passing the nuts and +corn to him as he wanted them. Old Longtooth knew what he was about +in the proposal, for he had heard talk of a brisk Scotch terrier that +was about to be bought to keep the rats from the grain; but you may +be sure he kept his knowledge to himself, so that Featherhead was +none the wiser for it. + +"The nonsense of fellows like Tip Chipmunk!" said Featherhead to his +admiring brothers and sisters--"the perfectly stupid nonsense! There +he goes, delving and poking, picking up a nut here and a grain there, +when _I_ step into property at once." + +"But I hope, my son, you are careful to be honest in your dealings," +said old Nutcracker, who was a very moral squirrel. + +With that, young Featherhead threw his tail saucily over one +shoulder, winked knowingly at his brothers, and said, "Certainly, +sir! If honesty consists in getting what you can while it is going, +I mean to be honest." + +Very soon Featherhead appeared to his admiring companions in the +height of prosperity. He had a splendid hole in the midst of a heap +of chestnuts, and he literally seemed to be rolling in wealth; he +never came home without showering lavish gifts on his mother and +sisters; he wore his tail over his back with a buckish air, and +patronized Tip Chipmunk with a gracious nod whenever he met him, and +thought that the world was going well with him. + +But one luckless day, as Featherhead was lolling in his hole, up came +two boys with the friskiest, wiriest Scotch terrier you ever saw. +His eyes blazed like torches, and poor Featherhead's heart died +within him as he heard the boys say, "Now we'll see if we can't catch +the rascal that eats our grain." + +Featherhead tried to slink out at the hole he had gnawed to come in +by, but found it stopped. + +"Oh, you are there, are you, mister?" said the boy. "Well, you don't +get out; and now for a chase!" + +And, sure enough, poor Featherhead ran distracted with terror up and +down, through the bundles of hay, between barrels, and over casks, +but with the barking terrier ever at his heels, and the boys running, +shouting, and cheering his pursuer on. He was glad at last to escape +through a crack, though he left half of his fine brush behind him; +for Master Wasp the terrier made a snap at it just as he was going, +and cleaned all the hair off of it, so that it was bare as a rat's +tail. + +Poor Featherhead limped off, bruised and beaten and bedraggled, with +the boys and dog still after him; and they would have caught him, +after all, if Tip Chipmunk's hole had not stood hospitably open to +receive him. Tip took him in, like a good-natured fellow as he was, +and took the best of care of him; but the glory of Featherhead's tail +had departed for ever. He had sprained his left paw, and got a +chronic rheumatism, and the fright and fatigue which he had gone +through had broken up his constitution, so that he never again could +be what he had been; but, Tip gave him a situation as under-clerk in +his establishment, and from that time he was a sadder and a wiser +squirrel than he ever had been before. + + + +THE HISTORY OF TIP-TOP + + + +Under the window of a certain pretty little cottage there grew a +great old apple-tree, which in the spring had thousands and thousands +of lovely pink blossoms on it, and in the autumn had about half as +many bright red apples as it had blossoms in the spring. + +The nursery of this cottage was a little bower of a room, papered +with mossy-green paper, and curtained with white muslin; and here +five little children used to come, in their white nightgowns, to be +dressed and have their hair brushed and curled every morning. + +First, there were Alice and Mary, bright-eyed, laughing little girls, +of seven and eight years; and then came stout little Jamie, and +Charlie; and finally little Puss, whose real name was Ellen, but who +was called Puss, and Pussy, and Birdie, and Toddlie, and any other +pet name that came to mind. + +Now it used to happen, every morning, that the five little heads +would be peeping out of the window, together, into the flowery boughs +of the apple-tree; and the reason was this. A pair of robins had +built a very pretty, smooth-lined nest in a fork of the limb that +came directly under the window, and the building of this nest had +been superintended, day by day, by the five pairs of bright eyes of +these five children. The robins at first had been rather shy of this +inspection; but as they got better acquainted, they seemed to think +no more of the little curly heads in the window than of the pink +blossoms about them, or the daisies and buttercups at the foot of the +tree. + +All the little hands were forward to help; some threw out flossy bits +of cotton,--for which, we grieve to say, Charlie had cut a hole in +the crib quilt,--and some threw out bits of thread and yarn, and +Allie ravelled out a considerable piece from one of her garters, +which she threw out as a contribution; and they exulted in seeing the +skill with which the little builders wove everything in. "Little +birds, little birds," they would say, "you shall be kept warm, for we +have given you cotton out of our crib quilt, and yarn out of our +stockings." Nay, so far did this generosity proceed, that Charlie +cut a flossy, golden curl from Toddlie's head and threw it out; and +when the birds caught it up the whole flock laughed to see Toddlie's +golden hair figuring in a bird's-nest. + +When the little thing was finished, it was so neat, and trim, and +workman-like, that the children all exulted over it, and called it +"our nest," and the two robins they called "our birds." But +wonderful was the joy when the little eyes, opening one morning, saw +in the nest a beautiful pale-green egg; and the joy grew from day to +day, for every day there came another egg, and so on till there were +five little eggs; and then the oldest girl, Alice, said, "There are +five eggs: that makes one for each of us, and each of us will have a +little bird by-and-by;"--at which all the children laughed and jumped +for glee. + +When the five little eggs were all laid, the mother-bird began to sit +on them; and at any time of day or night, when a little head peeped +out of the nursery window, might be seen a round, bright, patient +pair of bird's eyes contentedly waiting for the young birds to come. +It seemed a long time for the children to wait; but every day they +put some bread and cake from their luncheon on the window-sill, so +that the birds might have something to eat; but still there she was, +patiently sitting! + +"How long, long, long she waits!" said Jamie impatiently. "I don't +believe she's ever going to hatch." + +"Oh, yes she is!" said grave little Alice. "Jamie, you don't +understand about these things; it takes a long, long time to hatch +eggs. Old Sam says his hens sit three weeks;--only think, almost a +month!" + +Three weeks looked a long time to the five bright pairs of little +watching eyes; but Jamie said the eggs were so much smaller than +hens' eggs that it wouldn't take so long to hatch them, he knew. +Jamie always thought he knew all about everything, and was so sure of +it that he rather took the lead among the children. But one morning, +when they pushed their five heads out of the window, the round, +patient little bird-eyes were gone, and there seemed to be nothing in +the nest but a bunch of something hairy. + +Upon this they all cried out, "O mamma, DO come here! the bird is +gone and left her nest?" And when they cried out, they saw five wide +little red mouths open in the nest, and saw that the hairy bunch of +stuff was indeed the first of five little birds. + +"They are dreadful-looking things," said Mary; "I didn't know that +little birds began by looking so badly." + +"They seem to be all mouth," said Jamie. + +"We must feed them," said Charlie.--"Here, little birds, here's some +gingerbread for you," he said; and he threw a bit of his gingerbread, +which fortunately only hit the nest on the outside, and fell down +among the buttercups, where two crickets made a meal of it, and +agreed that it was as excellent gingerbread as if old Mother Cricket +herself had made it. + +"Take care, Charlie," said his mamma; "we do not know enough to feed +young birds. We must leave that to their papa and mamma, who +probably started out bright and early in the morning to get breakfast +for them." + +Sure enough, while they were speaking, back came Mr. and Mrs. Robin, +whirring through the green shadows of the apple tree; and thereupon +all the five little red mouths flew open, and the birds put something +into each. + +It was great amusement, after this, to watch the daily feeding of the +little birds, and to observe how, when not feeding them, the mother +sat brooding on the nest, warming them under her soft wings, while +the father-bird sat on the topmost bough of the apple-tree and sang +to them. In time they grew and grew, and, instead of a nest full of +little red mouths, there was a nest full of little, fat, speckled +robins, with round, bright, cunning eyes, just like their parents; +and the children began to talk together about their birds. + +"I'm going to give my robin a name," said Mary. "I call him Brown- +Eyes." + +"And I call mine Tip-Top," said Jamie, "because I know he'll be a +tip-top bird." + +"And I call mine Singer," said Alice. + +"I 'all mine Toddy," said little Toddlie, who would not be behindhand +in anything that was going on. + +"Hurrah for Toddlie!" said Charlie; "hers is the best of all. For my +part, I call mine Speckle." + +So then the birds were all made separate characters by having each a +separate name given it. + +Brown-Eyes, Tip-Top, Singer, Toddy, and Speckle made, as they grew +bigger, a very crowded nestful of birds. + +Now the children had early been taught to say in a little hymn:- + + +"Birds in their little nests agree; +And 'tie a shameful sight +When children of one family +Fall out, and chide, and fight;" - + + +and they thought anything really written and printed in a hymn must +be true; therefore they were very much astonished to see, from day to +day, that THEIR little birds in their nest did NOT agree. + +Tip-Top was the biggest and strongest bird, and he was always +shuffling and crowding the others, and clamouring for the most food; +and when Mrs. Robin came in with a nice bit of anything, Tip-Top's +red mouth opened so wide, and he was so noisy, that one would think +the nest was all his. His mother used to correct him for these +gluttonous ways, and sometimes made him wait till all the rest were +helped before she gave him a mouthful; but he generally revenged +himself in her absence by crowding the others and making the nest +generally uncomfortable. Speckle, however, was a bird of spirit, and +he used to peck at Tip-Top; so they would sometimes have a regular +sparring-match across poor Brown-Eyes, who was a meek, tender little +fellow, and would sit winking and blinking in fear while his big +brothers quarrelled. As to Toddy and Singer, they turned out to be +sister birds, and showed quite a feminine talent for chattering; they +used to scold their badly behaving brothers in a way that made the +nest quite lively. + +On the whole Mr. and Mrs. Robin did not find their family circle the +peaceable place the poet represents. + +"I say," said Tip-Top one day to them, "this old nest is a dull, +mean, crowded hole, and it's quite time some of us were out of it. +Just give us lessons in flying, won't you? and let us go." + +"My dear boy," said Mother Robin, "we shall teach you to fly as soon +as your wings are strong enough." + +"You are a very little bird," said his father, "and ought to be good +and obedient, and wait patiently till your wing-feathers grow; and +then you can soar away to some purpose." + +"Wait for my wing-feathers? Humbug!" Tip-Top would say, as he sat +balancing with his little short tail on the edge of the nest, and +looking down through the grass and clover-heads below, and up into +the blue clouds above. "Father and mother are slow old birds; they +keep a fellow back with their confounded notions. If they don't +hurry up, I'll take matters into my own claws, and be off some day +before they know it. Look at those swallows, skimming and diving +through the blue air! That's the way I want to do." + +"But, dear brother, the way to learn to do that is to be good and +obedient while we are little, and wait till our parents think it best +for us to begin." + +"Shut up your preaching," said Tip-Top; "what do you girls know of +flying?" + +"About as much as you," said Speckle. "However, I'm sure I don't +care how soon you take yourself off, for you take up more room than +all the rest put together." + +"You mind yourself, Master Speckle, or you'll get something you don't +like," said Tip-Top, still strutting in a very cavalier way on the +edge of the nest, and sticking up his little short tail quite +valiantly. + +"O my darlings," said their mamma, now fluttering home, "cannot I +ever teach you to live in love?" + +"It's all Tip-Top's fault," screamed the other birds in a flutter. + +"My fault? Of course, everything in this nest that goes wrong is +laid to me," said Tip-Top; "and I'll leave it to anybody, now, if I +crowd anybody. I've been sitting outside, on the very edge of the +nest, and there's Speckle has got my place." + +"Who wants your place?" said Speckle. "I'm sure you can come in, if +you please." + +"My dear boy," said the mother, "do go into the nest and be a good +little bird, and then you will be happy." + +"That's always the talk," said Tip-Top. "I'm too big for the nest, +and I want to see the world. It's full of beautiful things, I know. +Now there's the most lovely creature, with bright eyes, that comes +under the tree every day, and wants me to come down in the grass and +play with her." + +"My son, my son, beware!" said the frightened mother; "that lovely- +seeming creature is our dreadful enemy, the cat,--a horrid monster, +with teeth and claws." + +At this, all the little birds shuddered and cuddled deeper in the +nest; only Tip-Top in his heart disbelieved it. "I'm too old a +bird," said he to himself, "to believe THAT story; mother is chaffing +me. But I'll show her that I can take care of myself." + +So the next morning, after the father and mother were gone, Tip-Top +got on the edge of the nest again, and looked over and saw lovely +Miss Pussy washing her face among the daisies under the tree, and her +hair was sleek and white as the daisies, and her eyes were yellow and +beautiful to behold, and she looked up to the tree bewitchingly, and +said, "Little birds, little birds, come down; Pussy wants to play +with you." + +"Only look at her!" said Tip-Top; "her eyes are like gold." + +"No, don't look," said Singer and Speckle. "She will bewitch you, +and then eat you up." + +"I'd like to see her try to eat me up," said Tip-Top, again balancing +his short tail over the nest. "Just as if she would. She's just the +nicest, most innocent creature going, and only wants us to have fun. +We never do have any fun in this old nest!" + +Then the yellow eyes below shot a bewildering light into Tip-Top's +eyes, and a voice sounded sweet as silver: "Little birds, little +birds, come down; Pussy wants to play with you." + +"Her paws are as white as velvet," said Tip-Top, "and so soft! I +don't believe she has any claws." + +"Don't go, brother, don't!" screamed both sisters. + +All we know about it is, that a moment after a direful scream was +heard from the nursery window. "O mamma, mamma, do come here! Tip- +Top's fallen out of the nest, and the cat has got him!" + +Away ran Pussy with foolish little Tip-Top in her mouth, and he +squeaked dolefully when he felt her sharp teeth. Wicked Miss Pussy +had no mind to eat him at once; she meant just as she said, to "play +with him." So she ran off to a private place among the currant- +bushes, while all the little curly heads were scattered up and down +looking for her. + +Did you ever see a cat play with a bird or a mouse? She sets it +down, and seems to go off and leave it; but the moment it makes the +first movement to get away,--pounce! she springs on it, and shakes it +in her mouth; and so she teases and tantalizes it, till she gets +ready to kill and eat it. I can't say why she does it, except that +it is a cat's nature; and it is a very bad nature for foolish young +robins to get acquainted with. + +"Oh, where is he? where is he? Do find my poor Tip-Top," said Jamie, +crying as loud as he could scream. "I'll kill that horrid cat,--I'll +kill her!" + +Mr. and Mrs. Robin, who had come home meantime, joined their +plaintive chirping to the general confusion; and Mrs. Robin's bright +eyes soon discovered her poor little son, where Pussy was patting and +rolling him from one paw to the other under the currant-bushes; and +settling on the bush above, she called the little folks to the spot +by her cries. + +Jamie plunged under the bush, and caught the cat with luckless Tip- +Top in her mouth; and, with one or two good thumps, he obliged her to +let him go. Tip-Top was not dead, but in a sadly draggled and torn +state. Some of his feathers were torn out, and one of his wings was +broken, and hung down in a melancholy way. + +"Oh, what SHALL we do for him? He will die. Poor Tip-Top!" said the +children. + +"Let's put him back into the nest, children," said mamma. "His +mother will know best what to do with him." + +So a ladder was got, and papa climbed up and put poor Tip-Top safely +into the nest. The cat had shaken all the nonsense well out of him; +he was a dreadfully humbled young robin. + +The time came at last when all the other birds in the nest learned to +fly, and fluttered and flew about everywhere; but poor melancholy +Tip-Top was still confined to the nest with a broken wing. Finally, +AS it became evident that it would be long before he could fly, Jamie +took him out of the nest, and made a nice little cage for him, and +used to feed him every day, and he would hop about and seem tolerably +contented; but it was evident that he would be a lame-winged robin +all his days. + +Jamie's mother told him that Tip-Top's history was an allegory. + +"I don't know what you mean, mamma," said Jamie. + +"When something in a bird's life is like something in a boy's life, +or when a story is similar in its meaning to reality, we call it an +allegory. Little boys, when they are about half grown up, sometimes +do just as Tip-Top did. They are in a great hurry to get away from +home into the great world; and then temptation comes, with bright +eyes and smooth velvet paws, and promises them fun; and they go to +bad places; they get to smoking, and then to drinking; and, finally, +the bad habit gets them in its teeth and claws, and plays with them +as a cat does with a mouse. They try to reform, just as your robin +tried to get away from the cat; but their bad habits pounce on them +and drag them back. And so, when the time comes that they want to +begin life, they are miserable, broken-down creatures, like your +broken-winged robin. + +"So, Jamie, remember, and don't try to be a man before your time, and +let your parents judge for you while you are young; and never believe +in any soft white Pussy, with golden eyes, that comes and wants to +tempt you to come down and play with her. If a big boy offers to +teach you to smoke a cigar, that is Pussy. If a boy wants you to go +into a billiard-saloon, that is Pussy. If a boy wants you to learn +to drink anything with spirit in it, however sweetened and disguised, +remember Pussy is there. And Pussy's claws are long, and Pussy's +teeth are strong; and if she gives you one shake in your youth, you +will be like a broken-winged robin all your days." + + + +MISS KATY-DID AND MISS CRICKET + + + +Miss Katy-did sat on the branch of a flowering azalea, in her best +suit of fine green and silver, with wings of point-lace from Mother +Nature's finest web. + +Miss Katy was in the very highest possible spirits, because her +gallant cousin, Colonel Katy-did, had looked in to make her a morning +visit. It was a fine morning, too, which goes for as much among the +Katy-dids as among men and women. It was, in fact, a morning that +Miss Katy thought must have been made on purpose for her to enjoy +herself in. There had been a patter of rain the night before, which +had kept the leaves awake talking to each other till nearly morning; +but by dawn the small winds had blown brisk little puffs, and whisked +the heavens clear and bright with their tiny wings, as you have seen +Susan clear away the cobwebs in your mamma's parlour; and so now +there were only left a thousand blinking, burning water-drops, +hanging like convex mirrors at the end of each leaf, and Miss Katy +admired herself in each one. + +"Certainly I am a pretty creature," she said to herself; and when the +gallant colonel said something about being dazzled by her beauty, she +only tossed her head and took it as quite a matter of course. + +"The fact is, my dear colonel," she said, "I am thinking of giving a +party, and you must help me to make out the lists." + +"My dear, you make me the happiest of Katy-dids." + +"Now," said Miss Katy-did, drawing an azalea-leaf towards her, "let +us see--whom shall we have? The Fireflies, of course; everybody +wants them, they are so brilliant,--a little unsteady, to be sure, +but quite in the higher circles." + +"Yes, we must have the Fireflies," echoed the colonel. + +"Well, then, and the Butterflies and the Moths. Now, there's a +trouble. There's such an everlasting tribe of those Moths; and if +you invite dull people they're always sure all to come, every one of +them. Still, if you have the Butterflies, you can't leave out the +Moths." + +"Old Mrs. Moth has been laid up lately with a gastric fever, and that +may keep two or three of the Misses Moth at home," said the colonel. + +"Whatever could give the old lady such a turn?" said Miss Katy. "I +thought she never was sick." + +"I suspect it's high living. I understand she and her family ate up +a whole ermine cape last month, and it disagreed with them." + +"For my part, I can't conceive how the Moths can live as they do," +said Miss Katy, with a face of disgust. "Why, I could no more eat +worsted and fur, as they do--" + +"That is quite evident from the fairy-like delicacy of your +appearance," said the colonel. "One can see that nothing so gross or +material has ever entered into your system." + +"I'm sure," said Miss Katy, "mamma says she don't know what does keep +me alive; half a dewdrop and a little bit of the nicest part of a +rose-leaf, I assure you, often last me for a day. But we are +forgetting our list. Let's see--the Fireflies, Butterflies, Moths. +The Bees must come, I suppose." + +"The Bees are a worthy family," said the colonel. + +"Worthy enough, but dreadfully humdrum," said Miss Katy. "They never +talk about anything but honey and housekeeping; still, they are a +class of people one cannot neglect." + +"Well, then, there are the Bumble-Bees." + +"Oh, I dote on them! General Bumble is one of the most dashing, +brilliant fellows of the day." + +"I think he is shockingly corpulent," said Colonel Katy-did, not at +all pleased to hear him praised; "don't you?" + +"I don't know but he IS a little stout," said Miss Katy; "but so +distinguished and elegant in his manners--something quite martial and +breezy about him." + +"Well, if you invite the Bumble-Bees, you must have the Hornets." + +"Those spiteful Hornets! I detest them!" + +"Nevertheless, dear Miss Katy, one does not like to offend the +Hornets." + +"No, one can't. There are those five Misses Hornet--dreadful old +maids!--as full of spite as they can live. You may be sure they will +every one come, and be looking about to make spiteful remarks. Put +down the Hornets, though." + +"How about the Mosquitoes!" said the colonel. + +"Those horrid Mosquitoes--they are dreadfully plebeian! Can't one +cut them?" + +"Well dear Miss Katy," said the colonel, "if you ask my candid +opinion as a friend, I should say not. There's young Mosquito, who +graduated last year, has gone into literature, and is connected with +some of our leading papers, and they say he carries the sharpest pen +of all the writers. It won't do to offend him." + +"And so I suppose we must have his old aunts, and all six of his +sisters, and all his dreadfully common relations." + +"It is a pity," said the colonel; "but one must pay one's tax to +society." + +Just at this moment the conference was interrupted by a visitor, Miss +Keziah Cricket, who came in with her work-bag on her arm to ask a +subscription for a poor family of Ants who had just had their house +hoed up in clearing the garden-walks. + +"How stupid of them," said Katy, "not to know better than to put +their house in the garden-walk; that's just like those Ants." + +"Well, they are in great trouble; all their stores destroyed, and +their father killed--cut quite in two by a hoe." + +"How very shocking! I don't like to hear of such disagreeable +things; it affects my nerves terribly. Well, I'm sure I haven't +anything to give. Mamma said yesterday she was sure she didn't know +how our bills were to be paid; and there's my green satin with point- +lace yet to come home." And Miss Katy-did shrugged her shoulders and +affected to be very busy with Colonel Katy-did, in just the way that +young ladies sometimes do when they wish to signify to visitors that +they had better leave. + +Little Miss Cricket perceived how the case stood, and so hopped +briskly off, without giving herself even time to be offended. "Poor +extravagant little thing!" said she to herself, "it was hardly worth +while to ask her." + +"Pray, shall you invite the Crickets?" said Colonel Katy-did. + +"Who? I? Why, colonel, what a question! Invite the Crickets? Of +what can you be thinking?" + +"And shall you not ask the Locusts, and the Grasshoppers?" + +"Certainly. The Locusts, of course,--a very old and distinguished +family; and the Grasshoppers are pretty well, and ought to be asked. +But we must draw a line somewhere,--and the Crickets! why, it's +shocking even to think of!" + +"I thought they were nice, respectable people." + +"Oh, perfectly nice and respectable,--very good people, in fact, so +far as that goes. But then you must see the difficulty." + +"My dear cousin, I am afraid you must explain." + +"Why, their COLOUR, to be sure. Don't you see?" + +"Oh!" said the colonel. "That's it, is it? Excuse me, but I have +been living in France, where these distinctions are wholly unknown, +and I have not yet got myself in the train of fashionable ideas +here." + +"Well, then, let me teach you," said Miss Katy. "You know we +republicans go for no distinctions except those created by Nature +herself, and we found our rank upon COLOUR, because that is clearly a +thing that none has any hand in but our Maker. You see?" + +"Yes; but who decides what colour shall be the reigning colour?" + +"I'm surprised to hear the question! The only true colour--the only +proper one--is OUR colour, to be sure. A lovely pea-green is the +precise shade on which to found aristocratic distinction. But then +we are liberal;--we associate with the Moths, who are gray; with the +Butterflies, who are blue-and-gold coloured; with the Grasshoppers, +yellow and brown; and society would become dreadfully mixed if it +were not fortunately ordered that the Crickets are black as jet. The +fact is, that a class to be looked down upon is necessary to all +elegant society; and if the Crickets were not black, we could not +keep them down, because, as everybody knows, they are often a great +deal cleverer than we are. They have a vast talent for music and +dancing; they are very quick at learning, and would be getting to the +very top of the ladder if we once allowed them to climb. But their +being black is a convenience; because, as long as we are green and +they black, we have a superiority that can never be taken from us. +Don't you see now?" + +"Oh yes, I see exactly," said the colonel. + +"Now that Keziah Cricket, who just came in here, is quite a musician, +and her old father plays the violin beautifully;--by the way, we +might engage him for our orchestra." + + +And so Miss Katy's ball came off, and the performers kept it up from +sundown till daybreak, so that it seemed as if every leaf in the +forest were alive. The Katy-dids and the Mosquitoes, and the +Locusts, and a full orchestra of Crickets made the air perfectly +vibrate, insomuch that old Parson Too-Whit, who was preaching a +Thursday evening lecture to a very small audience, announced to his +hearers that he should certainly write a discourse against dancing +for the next weekly occasion. + +The good doctor was even with his word in the matter, and gave out +some very sonorous discourses, without in the least stopping the +round of gaieties kept up by these dissipated Katy-dids, which ran +on, night after night, till the celebrated Jack Frost epidemic, which +occurred somewhere about the first of September. + +Poor Miss Katy, with her flimsy green satin and point-lace, was one +of the first victims, and fell from the bough in company with a sad +shower of last year's leaves. The worthy Cricket family, however, +avoided Jack Frost by emigrating in time to the chimney-corner of a +nice little cottage that had been built in the wood that summer. + +There good old Mr. and Mrs. Cricket, with sprightly Miss Keziah and +her brothers and sisters, found a warm and welcome home; and when the +storm howled without, and lashed the poor naked trees, the Crickets +on the warm hearth would chirp out cheery welcome to papa as he came +in from the snowy path, or mamma as she sat at her work-basket. + +"Cheep, cheep, cheep!" little Freddy would say. "Mamma, who is it +says 'cheep'?" + +"Dear Freddy, it's our own dear little cricket, who loves us and +comes to sing to us when the snow is on the ground." + +So when poor Miss Katy-did's satin and lace were all swept away, the +warm home-talents of the Crickets made for them a welcome refuge. + + + +MOTHER MAGPIE'S MISCHIEF + + + +Old Mother Magpie was about the busiest character in the forest. But +you must know that there is a great difference between being busy and +being industrious. One may be very busy all the time, and yet not in +the least industrious; and this was the case with Mother Magpie. + +She was always full of everybody's business but her own--up and down, +here and there, everywhere but in her own nest, knowing everyone's +affairs, telling what everybody had been doing or ought to do, and +ready to cast her advice gratis at every bird and beast of the woods. + +Now she bustled up to the parsonage at the top of the oak-tree, to +tell old Parson Too-Whit what she thought he ought to preach for his +next sermon, and how dreadful the morals of the parish were becoming. +Then, having perfectly bewildered the poor old gentleman, who was +always sleepy of a Monday morning, Mother Magpie would take a peep +into Mrs. Oriole's nest, sit chattering on a bough above, and pour +forth floods of advice, which, poor little Mrs. Oriole used to say to +her husband, bewildered her more than a hard north-east storm. + +"Depend upon it, my dear," Mother Magpie would say, "that this way of +building your nest, swinging like an old empty stocking from a bough, +isn't at all the thing. I never built one so in my life, and I never +have headaches. Now you complain always that your head aches +whenever I call upon you. It's all on account of this way of +swinging and swaying about in such an absurd manner." + +"But, my dear," piped Mrs. Oriole timidly, "the Orioles always have +built in this manner, and it suits our constitution." + +"A fiddle on your constitution! How can you tell what agrees with +your constitution unless you try? You own you are not well; you are +subject to headaches; and every physician will tell you that a +tilting motion disorders the stomach and acts upon the brain. Ask +old Dr. Kite. I was talking with him about your case only yesterday, +and says he, 'Mrs. Magpie, I perfectly agree with you.'" + +"But my husband prefers this style of building." + +"That's only because he isn't properly instructed. Pray, did you +ever attend Dr. Kite's lectures on the nervous system?" + +"No, I have no time to attend lectures. Who would sit on the eggs?" + +"Why, your husband, to be sure; don't he take his turn in sitting? +If he don't, he ought to. I shall speak to him about it. My husband +always sits regularly half the time, that I may have time to go about +and exercise." + +"O Mrs. Magpie, pray don't speak to my husband; he will think I've +been complaining." + +"No, no, he won't. Let me alone. I understand just how to say the +thing. I've advised hundreds of young husbands in my day, and I +never gave offence." + +"But I tell you, Mrs. Magpie, I don't want any interference between +my husband and me, and I will not have it," says Mrs. Oriole, with +her little round eyes flashing with indignation. + +"Don't put yourself in a passion, my dear; the more you talk, the +more sure I am that your nervous system is running down, or you +wouldn't forget good manners in this way. You'd better take my +advice, for I understand just what to do,"--and away sails Mother +Magpie; and presently young Oriole comes home all in a flutter. + +"I say, my dear, if you will persist in gossiping over our private +family matters with that old Mother Magpie--" + +"My dear, I don't gossip. She comes and bores me to death with +talking, and then goes off and mistakes what she has been saying for +what I said." + +"But you must CUT her." + +"I try to, all I can; but she won't BE cut." + +"It's enough to make a bird swear," said Tommy Oriole. + +Tommy Oriole, to say the truth, had as good a heart as ever beat +under bird's feathers; but then he had a weakness for concerts and +general society, because he was held to be, by all odds, the +handsomest bird in the woods, and sung like an angel; and so the +truth was he didn't confine himself so much to the domestic nest as +Tom Titmouse or Billy Wren. But he determined that he wouldn't have +old Mother Magpie interfering with his affairs. + +"The fact is," quoth Tommy, "I am a society bird, and Nature has +marked out for me a course beyond the range of the commonplace, and +my wife must learn to accommodate. If she has a brilliant husband, +whose success gratifies her ambition and places her in a +distinguished public position, she must pay something for it. I'm +sure Billy Wren's wife would give her very bill to see her husband in +the circles where I am quite at home. To say the truth, my wife was +all well enough content till old Mother Magpie interfered. It is +quite my duty to take strong ground, and show that I cannot be +dictated to." + +So, after this, Tommy Oriole went to rather more concerts, and spent +less time at home than ever he did before, which was all that Mother +Magpie effected in that quarter. I confess this was very bad in +Tommy; but then birds are no better than men in domestic matters, and +sometimes will take the most unreasonable courses, if a meddlesome +Magpie gets her claw into their nest. + +But old Mother Magpie had now got a new business in hand in another +quarter. She bustled off down to Water-Dock Lane, where, as we said +in a former narrative, lived the old music-teacher, Dr. Bullfrog. +The poor old doctor was a simple-minded, good, amiable creature, who +had played the double-bass and led the forest choir on all public +occasions since nobody knows when. Latterly some youngsters had +arisen who sneered at his performances as behind the age. In fact, +since a great city had grown up in the vicinity of the forest, tribes +of wandering boys broke up the simple tastes and quiet habits which +old Mother Nature had always kept up in those parts. They pulled the +young checkerberry before it even had time to blossom, rooted up the +sassafras shrubs and gnawed their roots, fired off guns at the birds, +and on several occasions, when old Dr. Bullfrog was leading a +concert, had dashed in and broken up the choir by throwing stones. + +This was not the worst of it. The little varlets had a way of +jeering at the simple old doctor and his concerts, and mimicking the +tones of his bass-viol. "There you go, Paddy-go-donk, Paddy-go-donk- +-umph--chunk," some rascal of a boy would shout, while poor old +Bullfrog's yellow spectacles would be bedewed with tears of honest +indignation. In time, the jeers of these little savages began to +tell on the society in the forest, and to corrupt their simple +manners; and it was whispered among the younger and more heavy birds +and squirrels that old Bullfrog was a bore, and that it was time to +get up a new style of music in the parish, and to give the charge of +it to some more modern performer. + +Poor old Dr. Bullfrog knew nothing of this, however, and was doing +his simple best, in peace, when Mother Magpie called in upon him one +morning. + +"Well, neighbour, how unreasonable people are! Who would have +thought that the youth of our generation should have no more +consideration for established merit? Now, for my part, _I_ think +your music-teaching never was better; and as for our choir, I +maintain constantly that it never was in better order, but--Well, one +may wear her tongue out, but one can never make these young folks +listen to reason." + +"I really don't understand you, ma'am," said poor Dr. Bullfrog. + +"What! you haven't heard of a committee that is going to call on you, +to ask you to resign the care of the parish music?" + +"Madam," said Dr. Bullfrog, with all that energy of tone for which he +was remarkable, "I don't believe it,--I CAN'T believe it. You must +have made a mistake." + +"I mistake! No, no, my good friend; I never make mistakes. What I +know, I know certainly. Wasn't it I that said I knew there was an +engagement between Tim Chipmunk and Nancy Nibble, who are married +this very day? I knew that thing six weeks before any bird or beast +in our parts; and I can tell you, you are going to be scandalously +and ungratefully treated, Dr. Bullfrog." + +"Bless me, we shall all be ruined!" said Mrs. Bullfrog; "my poor +husband--" + +"Oh, as to that, if you take things in time, and listen to my +advice," said Mother Magpie, "we may yet pull you through. You must +alter your style a little,--adapt it to modern times. Everybody now +is a little touched with the operatic fever, and there's Tommy Oriole +has been to New Orleans and brought back a touch of the artistic. If +you would try his style a little,--something Tyrolean, you see." + +"Dear madam, consider my voice. I never could hit the high notes." + +"How do you know? It's all practice; Tommy Oriole says so. Just try +the scales. As to your voice, your manner of living has a great deal +to do with it. I always did tell you that your passion for water +injured your singing. Suppose Tommy Oriole should sit half his days +up to his hips in water, as you do,--his voice would be as hoarse and +rough as yours. Come up on the bank and learn to perch, as we birds +do. We are the true musical race." + +And so poor Mr. Bullfrog was persuaded to forego his pleasant little +cottage under the cat-tails, where his green spectacles and honest +round back had excited, even in the minds of the boys, sentiments of +respect and compassion. He came up into the garden, and established +himself under a burdock, and began to practise Italian scales. + +The result was, that poor old Dr. Bullfrog, instead of being +considered as a respectable old bore, got himself universally laughed +at for aping fashionable manners. Every bird and beast in the forest +had a gibe at him; and even old Parson Too-Whit thought it worth his +while to make him a pastoral call, and admonish him about courses +unbefitting his age and standing. As to Mother Magpie, you may be +sure that she assured every one how sorry she was that dear old Dr. +Bullfrog had made such a fool of himself; if he had taken her advice, +he would have kept on respectably as a nice old Bullfrog should. + +But the tragedy for the poor old music-teacher grew even more +melancholy in its termination; for one day, as he was sitting +disconsolately under a currant-bush in the garden, practising his +poor old notes in a quiet way, THUMP came a great blow of a hoe, +which nearly broke his back. + +"Hallo! what ugly beast have we got here?" said Tom Noakes, the +gardener's boy. "Here, here, Wasp, my boy." + +What a fright for a poor, quiet, old Bullfrog, as little wiry, wicked +Wasp came at him, barking and yelping. He jumped with all his force +sheer over a patch of bushes into the river, and swam back to his old +home among the cat-tails. And always after that it was observable +that he was very low-spirited, and took very dark views of life; but +nothing made him so angry as any allusion to Mother Magpie, of whom, +from that time, he never spoke except as OLD MOTHER MISCHIEF. + + + +THE SQUIRRELS THAT LIVE IN A HOUSE + + + +Once upon a time a gentleman went out into a great forest, and cut +away the trees, and built there a very nice little cottage. It was +set very low on the ground, and had very large bow-windows, and so +much of it was glass that one could look through it on every side and +see what was going on in the forest. You could see the shadows of +the fern-leaves, as they flickered and wavered over the ground, and +the scarlet partridge-berry and winter-green plums that matted round +the roots of the trees, and the bright spots of sunshine that fell +through their branches and went dancing about among the bushes and +leaves at their roots. You could see the chirping sparrows and the +thrushes and robins and bluebirds building their nests here and there +among the branches, and watch them from day to day as they laid their +eggs and hatched their young. You could also see red squirrels, and +gray squirrels, and little striped chip-squirrels, darting and +springing about, here and there and everywhere, running races with +each other from bough to bough, and chattering at each other in the +gayest possible manner. + +You may be sure that such a strange thing as a house for human beings +to live in did not come into this wild wood without making quite a +stir and excitement among the inhabitants that lived there before. +All the time it was building, there was the greatest possible +commotion in the breasts of all the older population; and there +wasn't even a black ant, or a cricket, that did not have his own +opinion about it, and did not tell the other ants and crickets just +what he thought the world was coming to in consequence. + +Old Mrs. Rabbit declared that the hammering and pounding made her +nervous, and gave her most melancholy forebodings of evil times. +"Depend upon it, children," she said to her long-eared family, "no +good will come to us from this establishment. Where man is, there +comes always trouble for us poor rabbits." + +The old chestnut-tree, that grew on the edge of the woodland ravine, +drew a great sigh which shook all his leaves, and expressed it as his +conviction that no good would ever come of it,--a conviction that at +once struck to the heart of every chestnut-burr. The squirrels +talked together of the dreadful state of things that would ensue. +"Why!" said old Father Gray, "it's evident that Nature made the nuts +for us; but one of these great human creatures will carry off and +gormandize upon what would keep a hundred poor families of squirrels +in comfort." Old Ground-mole said it did not require very sharp eyes +to see into the future, and it would just end in bringing down the +price of real estate in the whole vicinity, so that every decent- +minded and respectable quadruped would be obliged to move away;--for +his part, he was ready to sell out for anything he could get. The +bluebirds and bobolinks, it is true, took more cheerful views of +matters; but then, as old Mrs. Ground-mole observed, they were a +flighty set,--half their time careering and dissipating in the +Southern States,--and could not be expected to have that patriotic +attachment to their native soil that those had who had grubbed in it +from their earliest days. + +"This race of man," said the old chestnut-tree, "is never ceasing in +its restless warfare on Nature. In our forest solitudes hitherto how +peacefully, how quietly, how regularly has everything gone on! Not a +flower has missed its appointed time of blossoming, or failed to +perfect its fruit. No matter how hard has been the winter, how loud +the winds have roared, and how high the snow-banks have been piled, +all has come right again in spring. Not the least root has lost +itself under the snows, so as not to be ready with its fresh leaves +and blossoms when the sun returns to melt the frosty chains of +winter. We have storms sometimes that threaten to shake everything +to pieces,--the thunder roars, the lightning flashes, and the winds +howl and beat; but, when all is past, everything comes out better and +brighter than before,--not a bird is killed, not the frailest flower +destroyed. But man comes, and in one day he will make a desolation +that centuries cannot repair. Ignorant boor that he is, and all +incapable of appreciating the glorious works of Nature, it seems to +be his glory to be able to destroy in a few hours what it was the +work of ages to produce. The noble oak, that has been cut away to +build this contemptible human dwelling, had a life older and wiser +than that of any man in this country. That tree has seen generations +of men come and go. It was a fresh young tree when Shakespeare was +born; it was hardly a middle-aged tree when he died; it was growing +here when the first ship brought the white men to our shores, and +hundreds and hundreds of those whom they call bravest, wisest, +strongest,--warriors, statesmen, orators, and poets,--have been born, +have grown up, lived, and died, while yet it has outlived them all. +It has seen more wisdom than the best of them; but two or three hours +of brutal strength sufficed to lay it low. Which of these dolts +could make a tree? I'd like to see them do anything like it. How +noisy and clumsy are all their movements,--chopping, pounding, +rasping, hammering. And, after all, what do they build? In the +forest we do everything so quietly. A tree would be ashamed of +itself that could not get its growth without making such a noise and +dust and fuss. Our life is the perfection of good manners. For my +part, I feel degraded at the mere presence of these human beings; +but, alas! I am old; a hollow place at my heart warns me of the +progress of decay, and probably it will be seized upon by these +rapacious creatures as an excuse for laying me as low as my noble +green brother." + +In spite of all this disquiet about it, the little cottage grew and +was finished. The walls were covered with pretty paper, the floors +carpeted with pretty carpets; and, in fact, when it was all arranged, +and the garden walks laid out, and beds of flowers planted around, it +began to be confessed, even among the most critical, that it was not +after all so bad a thing as was to have been feared. + +A black ant went in one day and made a tour of exploration up and +down, over chairs and tables, up the ceilings and down again, and, +coming out, wrote an article for the Crickets' Gazette, in which he +described the new abode as a veritable palace. Several butterflies +fluttered in and sailed about and were wonderfully delighted, and +then a bumble-bee and two or three honey-bees, who expressed +themselves well pleased with the house, but more especially enchanted +with the garden. In fact, when it was found that the proprietors +were very fond of the rural solitudes of Nature, and had come out +there for the purpose of enjoying them undisturbed; that they watched +and spared the anemones, and the violets, and bloodroots, and dog's- +tooth violets, and little woolly rolls of fern that began to grow up +under the trees in spring; that they never allowed a gun to be fired +to scare the birds, and watched the building of their nests with the +greatest interest,--then an opinion in favour of human beings began +to gain ground, and every cricket and bird and beast was loud in +their praise. + +"Mamma," said young Tit-bit, a frisky young squirrel, to his mother +one day, "why won't you let Frisky and me go into that pretty new +cottage to play?" + +"My dear," said his mother, who was a very wary and careful old +squirrel, "how can you think of it? The race of man are full of +devices for traps and pitfalls, and who could say what might happen +if you put yourself in their power? If you had wings like the +butterflies and bees, you might fly in and out again, and so gratify +your curiosity; but, as matters stand, it's best for you to keep well +out of their way." + +"But, mother, there is such a nice, good lady lives there! I believe +she is a good fairy, and she seems to love us all so; she sits in the +bow-window and watches us for hours, and she scatters corn all round +at the roots of the tree for us to eat." + +"She is nice enough," said the old mother-squirrel, "if you keep far +enough off; but I tell you, you can't be too careful." + +Now this good fairy that the squirrels discoursed about was a nice +little old lady that the children used to call Aunt Esther, and she +was a dear lover of birds and squirrels, and all sorts of animals, +and had studied their little ways till she knew just what would +please them; and so she would every day throw out crumbs for the +sparrows, and little bits of bread and wool and cotton to help the +birds that were building their nests, and would scatter corn and nuts +for the squirrels; and while she sat at her work in the bow-window +she would smile to see the birds flying away with the wool, and the +squirrels nibbling their nuts. After a while the birds grew so tame +that they would hop into the bow-window and eat their crumbs off the +carpet. + +"There, mamma," said Tit-bit and Frisky, "only see Jenny Wren and +Cock Robin have been in at the bow-window, and it didn't hurt them, +and why can't we go?" + +"Well, my dears," said old Mother Squirrel, "you must do it very +carefully; never forget that you haven't wings like Jenny Wren and +Cock Robin." + +So the next day Aunt Esther laid a train of corn from the roots of +the trees to the bow-window, and then from the bow-window to her +work-basket, which stood on the floor beside her; and then she put +quite a handful of corn in the work-basket, and sat down by it, and +seemed intent on her sewing. Very soon, creep, creep, creep, came +Tit-bit and Frisky to the window, and then into the room, just as sly +and as still as could be, and Aunt Esther sat just like a statue for +fear of disturbing them. They looked all around in high glee, and +when they came to the basket it seemed to them a wonderful little +summer-house, made on purpose for them to play in. They nosed about +in it, and turned over the scissors and the needle-book, and took a +nibble at her white wax, and jostled the spools, meanwhile stowing +away the corn on each side of their little chops, till they both of +them looked as if they had the mumps. + +At last Aunt Esther put out her hand to touch them, when, whisk- +frisk, out they went, and up the trees, chattering and laughing +before she had time even to wink. + +But after this they used to come in every day, and when she put corn +in her hand and held it very still they would eat out of it; and +finally they would get into her hand, until one day she gently closed +it over them, and Frisky and Tit-bit were fairly caught. + +Oh, how their hearts beat! but the good fairy only spoke gently to +them, and soon unclosed her hand and let them go again. So day after +day they grew to have more and more faith in her, till they would +climb into her work-basket, sit on her shoulder, or nestle away in +her lap as she sat sewing. They made also long exploring voyages all +over the house, up and through all the chambers, till finally, I +grieve to say, poor Frisky came to an untimely end by being drowned +in the water-tank at the top of the house. + +The dear good fairy passed away from the house in time, and went to a +land where the flowers never fade and the birds never die; but the +squirrels still continue to make the place a favourite resort. + +"In fact, my dear," said old Mother Red one winter to her mate, "what +is the use of one's living in this cold, hollow tree, when these +amiable people have erected this pretty cottage, where there is +plenty of room for us and them too? Now I have examined between the +eaves, and there is a charming place where we can store our nuts, and +where we can whip in and out of the garret, and have the free range +of the house; and, say what you will, these humans have delightful +ways of being warm and comfortable in winter." + +So Mr. and Mrs. Red set up housekeeping in the cottage, and had no +end of nuts and other good things stored up there. The trouble of +all this was, that, as Mrs. Red was a notable body, and got up to +begin her housekeeping operations, and woke up all her children, at +four o'clock in the morning, the good people often were disturbed by +a great rattling and fuss in the walls, while yet it seemed dark +night. Then sometimes, too, I grieve to say, Mrs. Squirrel would +give her husband vigorous curtain lectures in the night, which made +him so indignant that he would rattle off to another quarter of the +garret to sleep by himself; and all this broke the rest of the worthy +people who built the house. + +What is to be done about this we don't know. What would you do about +it? Would you let the squirrels live in your house or not? When our +good people come down of a cold winter morning, and see the squirrels +dancing and frisking down the trees, and chasing each other so +merrily over the garden chair between them, or sitting with their +tails saucily over their backs, they look so jolly and jaunty and +pretty that they almost forgive them for disturbing their night's +rest, and think that they will not do anything to drive them out of +the garret to-day. And so it goes on; but how long the squirrels +will rent the cottage in this fashion, I'm sure I dare not undertake +to say. + + + +HUM, THE SON OF BUZ + + + +At Rye Beach, during our summer's vacation, there came, as there +always will to seaside visitors, two or three cold, chilly, rainy +days,--days when the skies that long had not rained a drop seemed +suddenly to bethink themselves of their remissness, and to pour down +water, not by drops, but by pailfuls. The chilly wind blew and +whistled, the water dashed along the ground and careered in foamy +rills along the roadside, and the bushes bent beneath the constant +flood. It was plain that there was to be no sea-bathing on such a +day, no walks, no rides; and so, shivering and drawing our blanket- +shawls close about us, we sat down at the window to watch the storm +outside. + +The rose-bushes under the window hung dripping under their load of +moisture, each spray shedding a constant shower on the spray below +it. On one of these lower sprays, under the perpetual drip, what +should we see but a poor little humming-bird, drawn up into the +tiniest shivering ball, and clinging with a desperate grasp to his +uncomfortable perch. A humming-bird we knew him to be at once, +though his feathers were so matted and glued down by the rain that he +looked not much bigger than a honey-bee, and as different as possible +from the smart, pert, airy little character that we had so often seen +flirting with the flowers. He was evidently a humming-bird in +adversity, and whether he ever would hum again looked to us +exceedingly doubtful. Immediately, however, we sent out to have him +taken in. When the friendly hand seized him, he gave a little, +faint, watery squeak, evidently thinking that his last hour was come, +and that grim death was about to carry him off to the land of dead +birds. What a time we had reviving him,--holding the little wet +thing in the warm hollow of our hands, and feeling him shiver and +palpitate! His eyes were fast closed; his tiny claws, which looked +slender as cobwebs, were knotted close to his body, and it was long +before one could feel the least motion in them. Finally, to our +great joy, we felt a brisk little kick, and then a flutter of wings, +and then a determined peck of the beak, which showed that there was +sonic bird left in him yet, and that he meant at any rate to find out +where he was. + +Unclosing our hands a small space, out popped the little head with a +pair of round brilliant eyes. Then we bethought ourselves of feeding +him, and forthwith prepared him a stiff glass of sugar and water, a +drop of which we held to his bill. After turning his head +attentively, like a bird who knew what he was about and didn't mean +to be chaffed, he briskly put out a long, flexible tongue, slightly +forked at the end, and licked off the comfortable beverage with great +relish. Immediately he was pronounced out of danger by the small +humane society which had undertaken the charge of his restoration, +and we began to cast about for getting him a settled establishment in +our apartment. I gave up my work-box to him for a sleeping-room, and +it was medically ordered that he should take a nap. So we filled the +box with cotton, and he was formally put to bed, with a folded +cambric handkerchief round his neck, to keep him from beating his +wings. Out of his white wrappings he looked forth green and grave as +any judge with his bright round eyes. Like a bird of discretion, he +seemed to understand what was being done to him, and resigned himself +sensibly to go to sleep. + +The box was covered with a sheet of paper perforated with holes for +purposes of ventilation; for even humming-birds have a little pair of +lungs, and need their own little portion of air to fill them, so that +they may make bright scarlet little drops of blood to keep life's +fire burning in their tiny bodies. Our bird's lungs manufactured +brilliant blood, as we found out by experience; for in his first nap +he contrived to nestle himself into the cotton of which his bed was +made, and to get more of it than he needed into his long bill. We +pulled it out as carefully as we could, but there came out of his +bill two round, bright scarlet, little drops of blood. Our chief +medical authority looked grave, pronounced a probable hemorrhage from +the lungs, and gave him over at once. We, less scientific, declared +that we had only cut his little tongue by drawing out the filaments +of cotton, and that he would do well enough in time,--as it +afterwards appeared he did, for from that day there was no more +bleeding. In the course of the second day he began to take short +flights about the room, though he seemed to prefer to return to us; +perching on our fingers or heads or shoulders, and sometimes choosing +to sit in this way for half an hour at a time. "These great giants," +he seemed to say to himself, "are not bad people after all; they have +a comfortable way with them; how nicely they dried and warmed me! +Truly a bird might do worse than to live with them." + +So he made up his mind to form a fourth in the little company of +three that usually sat and read, worked and sketched, in that +apartment, and we christened him "Hum, the son of Buz." He became an +individuality, a character, whose little doings formed a part of +every letter, and some extracts from these will show what some of his +little ways were:- + +"Hum has learned to sit upon my finger, and eat his sugar and water +out of a teaspoon with most Christian-like decorum. He has but one +weakness--he will occasionally jump into the spoon and sit in his +sugar and water, and then appear to wonder where it goes to. His +plumage is in rather a drabbled state, owing to these performances. +I have sketched him as he sat to-day on a bit of Spiraea which I +brought in for him. When absorbed in reflection, he sits with his +bill straight up in the air, as I have drawn him. Mr. A- reads +Macaulay to us, and you should see the wise air with which, perched +on Jenny's thumb, he cocked his head now one side and then the other, +apparently listening with most critical attention. His confidence in +us seems unbounded: he lets us stroke his head, smooth his feathers, +without a flutter; and is never better pleased than when sitting, as +he has been doing all this while, on my hand, turning up his bill, +and watching my face with great edification. + +"I have just been having a sort of maternal struggle to make him go +to bed in his box; but he evidently considers himself sufficiently +convalescent to make a stand for his rights as a bird, and so +scratched indignantly out of his wrappings, and set himself up to +roost on the edge of the box, with an air worthy of a turkey, at the +very least. Having brought in a lamp, he has opened his eyes round +and wide, and sits cocking his little head at me reflectively." + +When the weather cleared away, and the sun came out bright, Hum +became entirely well, and seemed resolved to take the measure of his +new life with us. Our windows were closed in the lower part of the +sash by frames with mosquito gauze, so that the sun and air found +free admission, and yet our little rover could not pass out. On the +first sunny day he took an exact survey of our apartment from ceiling +to floor, humming about, examining every point with his bill--all the +crevices, mouldings, each little indentation in the bed-posts, each +window-pane, each chair and stand; and, as it was a very simply +furnished seaside apartment, his scrutiny was soon finished. We +wondered at first what this was all about; but on watching him more +closely, we found that he was actively engaged in getting his living, +by darting out his long tongue hither and thither, and drawing in all +the tiny flies and insects which in summer time are to be found in an +apartment. In short, we found that, though the nectar of flowers was +his dessert, yet he had his roast beef and mutton-chop to look after, +and that his bright, brilliant blood was not made out of a simple +vegetarian diet. Very shrewd and keen he was, too, in measuring the +size of insects before he attempted to swallow them. The smallest +class were whisked off with lightning speed; but about larger ones he +would sometimes wheel and hum for some minutes, darting hither and +thither, and surveying them warily, and if satisfied that they could +be carried, he would come down with a quick, central dart which would +finish the unfortunate at a snap. The larger flies seemed to +irritate him, especially when they intimated to him that his plumage +was sugary, by settling on his wings and tail; when he would lay +about him spitefully, wielding his bill like a sword. A grasshopper +that strayed in, and was sunning himself on the window-seat, gave him +great discomposure. Hum evidently considered him an intruder, and +seemed to long to make a dive at him; but, with characteristic +prudence, confined himself to threatening movements, which did not +exactly hit. He saw evidently that he could not swallow him whole, +and what might ensue from trying him piecemeal he wisely forbore to +essay. + +Hum had his own favourite places and perches. From the first day he +chose for his nightly roost a towel-line which had been drawn across +the corner over the wash-stand, where he every night established +himself with one claw in the edge of the towel and the other clasping +the line, and, ruffling up his feathers till he looked like a little +chestnut-burr, he would resign himself to the soundest sleep. He did +not tuck his head under his wing, but seemed to sink it down between +his shoulders, with his bill almost straight up in the air. One +evening one of us, going to use the towel, jarred the line, and soon +after found that Hum had been thrown from his perch, and was hanging +head downward, fast asleep, still clinging to the line. Another +evening, being discomposed by somebody coming to the towel-line after +he had settled himself, he fluttered off; but so sleepy that he had +not discretion to poise himself again, and was found clinging, like a +little bunch of green floss silk, to the mosquito netting of the +window. + +A day after this we brought in a large green bough, and put it up +over the looking-glass. Hum noticed it before it had been there five +minutes, flew to it, and began a regular survey, perching now here, +now there, till he seemed to find a twig that exactly suited him; and +after that he roosted there every night. Who does not see in this +change all the signs of reflection and reason that are shown by us in +thinking over our circumstances, and trying to better them? It +seemed to say in so many words: "That towel-line is an unsafe place +for a bird; I get frightened, and wake from bad dreams to find myself +head downwards; so I will find a better roost on this twig." + +When our little Jenny one day put on a clean white muslin gown +embellished with red sprigs, Hum flew towards her, and with his bill +made instant examination of these new appearances; and one day, being +very affectionately disposed, perched himself on her shoulder, and +sat some time. On another occasion, while Mr. A was reading, Hum +established himself on the top of his head just over the middle of +his forehead, in the precise place where our young belles have lately +worn stuffed humming-birds, making him look as if dressed out for a +party. Hum's most favourite perch was the back of the great rocking- +chair, which, being covered by a tidy, gave some hold into which he +could catch his little claws. There he would sit, balancing himself +cleverly if its occupant chose to swing to and fro, and seeming to be +listening to the conversation or reading. + +Hum had his different moods, like human beings. On cold, cloudy, +gray days he appeared to be somewhat depressed in spirits, hummed +less about the room, and sat humped up with his feathers ruffled, +looking as much like a bird in a great-coat as possible. But on hot, +sunny days, every feather sleeked itself down, and his little body +looked natty and trim, his head alert, his eyes bright, and it was +impossible to come near him, for his agility. Then let mosquitoes +and little flies look about them! Hum snapped them up without mercy, +and seemed to be all over the ceiling in a moment, and resisted all +our efforts at any personal familiarity with a saucy alacrity. + +Hum had his established institutions in our room, the chief of which +was a tumbler with a little sugar and water mixed in it, and a spoon +laid across, out of which he helped himself whenever he felt in the +mood--sitting on the edge of the tumbler, and dipping his long bill, +and lapping with his little forked tongue like a kitten. When he +found his spoon accidentally dry, he would stoop over and dip his +bill in the water in the tumbler; which caused the prophecy on the +part of some of his guardians that he would fall in some--day and be +drowned. For which reason it was agreed to keep only an inch in +depth of the fluid at the bottom of the tumbler. A wise precaution +this proved; for the next morning I was awaked, not by the usual hum +over my head, but by a sharp little flutter, and found Mr. Hum +beating his wings in the tumbler--having actually tumbled in during +his energetic efforts to get his morning coffee before I was awake. + +Hum seemed perfectly happy and satisfied in his quarters; but one +day, when the door was left open, he made a dart out, and so into the +open sunshine. Then, to be sure, we thought we had lost him. We +took the mosquito netting, out of all the windows, and, setting his +tumbler of sugar and water in a conspicuous place, went about our +usual occupations. We saw him joyous and brisk among the +honeysuckles outside the window, and it was gravely predicted that he +would return no more. But at dinner-time in came Hum, familiar as +possible, and sat down to his spoon as if nothing had happened. +Instantly we closed our windows and had him secure once more. + +At another time I was going to ride to the Atlantic House, about a +mile from my boarding-place. I left all secure, as I supposed, at +home. While gathering moss on the walls there, I was surprised by a +little green humming-bird flying familiarly right towards my face and +humming above my head. I called out, "Here is Hum's very brother." +But, on returning home, I saw that the door of the room was open, and +Hum was gone. Now certainly we gave him up for lost. I sat down to +painting, and in a few minutes in flew Hum, and settled on the edge +of my tumbler in a social, confidential way, which seemed to say, +"Oh, you've got back then." After taking his usual drink of sugar +and water, he began to fly about the ceiling as usual, and we gladly +shut him in. + +When our five weeks at the seaside were up, and it was time to go +home, we had great questionings what was to be done with Hum. To get +him home with us was our desire; but who ever heard of a humming-bird +travelling by railroad? Great were the consultings. A little basket +of Indian work was filled up with cambric handkerchiefs, and a bottle +of sugar and water provided, and we started with him for a day's +journey. When we arrived at night the first care was to see what had +become of Hum, who had not been looked at since we fed him with sugar +and water in Boston. We found him alive and well, but so dead asleep +that we could not wake him to roost; so we put him to bed on a toilet +cushion, and arranged his tumbler for morning. The next day found +him alive and humming, exploring the room and pictures, perching now +here and now there; but as the weather was chilly, he sat for the +most part of the time in a humped-up state on the tip of a pair of +stag's horns. We moved him to a more sunny apartment; but, alas! the +equinoctial storm came on, and there was no sun to be had for days. +Hum was blue; the pleasant seaside days were over; his room was +lonely, the pleasant three that had enlivened the apartment at Rye no +longer came in and out; evidently he was lonesome, and gave way to +depression. One chilly morning he managed again to fall into his +tumbler, and wet himself through; and notwithstanding warm bathings +and tender nursings, the poor little fellow seemed to get diphtheria, +or something quite as bad for humming-birds. + +We carried him to a neighbouring sunny parlour, where ivy embowers +all the walls and the sun lies all day. There he revived a little, +danced up and down, perched on a green spray that was wreathed across +the breast of a Psyche, and looked then like a little flitting soul +returning to its rest. Towards evening he drooped; and, having been +nursed and warmed and cared for, he was put to sleep on a green twig +laid on the piano. In that sleep the little head drooped--nodded-- +fell; and little Hum went where other bright dreams go--to the Land +of the Hereafter. + + + +OUR COUNTRY NEIGHBOURS + + + +We have just built our house in rather an out-of-the-way place--on +the bank of a river, and under the shade of a patch of woods which is +a veritable remain of quite an ancient forest. The checkerberry and +partridge-plum, with their glossy green leaves and scarlet berries, +still carpet the ground under its deep shadows; and prince's-pine and +other kindred evergreens declare its native wildness,--for these are +children of the wild woods, that never come after plough and harrow +have once broken a soil. + +When we tried to look out the spot for our house, we had to get a +surveyor to go before us and cut a path through the dense underbrush +that was laced together in a general network of boughs and leaves, +and grew so high as to overtop our heads. Where the house stands, +four or five great old oaks and chestnuts had to be cut away to let +it in; and now it stands on the bank of the river, the edges of which +are still overhung with old forest-trees, chestnuts and oaks, which +look at themselves in the glassy stream. + +A little knoll near the house was chosen for a garden-spot; a dense, +dark mass of trees above, of bushes in mid-air, and of all sorts of +ferns and wild-flowers and creeping vines on the ground. All these +had to be cleared out, and a dozen great trees cut down and dragged +off to a neighbouring saw-mill, there to be transformed into boards +to finish off our house. Then, fetching a great machine, such as +might be used to pull a giant's teeth, with ropes, pulleys, oxen, and +men, and might and main, we pulled out the stumps, with their great +prongs and their network of roots and fibres; and then, alas! we had +to begin with all the pretty wild, lovely bushes, and the +checkerberries and ferns and wild blackberries and huckleberry- +bushes, and dig them up remorselessly, that we might plant our corn +and squashes. And so we got a house and a garden right out of the +heart of our piece of wild wood, about a mile from the city of H-. + +Well, then, people said it was a lonely place, and far from +neighbours,--by which they meant that it was a good way for them to +come to see us. But we soon found that whoever goes into the woods +to live finds neighbours of a new kind, and some to whom it is rather +hard to become accustomed. + +For instance, on a fine day early in April, as we were crossing over +to superintend the building of our house, we were startled by a +striped snake, with his little bright eyes, raising himself to look +at us, and putting out his red, forked tongue. Now there is no more +harm in these little garden-snakes than there is in a robin or a +squirrel--they are poor little, peaceable, timid creatures, which +could not do any harm if they would; but the prejudices of society +are so strong against them that one does not like to cultivate too +much intimacy with them. So we tried to turn out of our path into a +tangle of bushes; and there, instead of one, we found four snakes. +We turned on the other side, and there were two more. In short, +everywhere we looked, the dry leaves were rustling and coiling with +them; and we were in despair. In vain we said that they were +harmless as kittens, and tried to persuade ourselves that their +little bright eyes were pretty, and that their serpentine movements +were in the exact line of beauty: for the life of us, we could not +help remembering their family name and connections; we thought of +those disagreeable gentlemen the anacondas, the rattlesnakes, and the +copper-heads, and all of that bad line, immediate family friends of +the old serpent to whom we are indebted for all the mischief that is +done in this world. So we were quite apprehensive when we saw how +our new neighbourhood was infested by them, until a neighbour calmed +our fears by telling us that snakes always crawled out of their holes +to sun themselves in the spring, and that in a day or two they would +all be gone. + +So it proved. It was evident they were all out merely to do their +spring shopping, or something that serves with them the same purpose +that spring shopping does with us; and where they went afterwards we +do not know. People speak of snakes' holes, and we have seen them +disappearing into such subterranean chambers; but we never opened one +to see what sort of underground housekeeping went on there. After +the first few days of spring, a snake was a rare visitor, though now +and then one appeared. + +One was discovered taking his noontide repast one day in a manner +which excited much prejudice. He was, in fact, regaling himself by +sucking down into his maw a small frog, which he had begun to swallow +at the toes, and had drawn about half down. The frog, it must be +confessed, seemed to view this arrangement with great indifference, +making no struggle, and sitting solemnly, with his great unwinking +eyes, to be sucked in at the leisure of his captor. There was +immense sympathy, however, excited for him in the family circle; and +it was voted that a snake which indulged in such very disagreeable +modes of eating his dinner was not to be tolerated in our vicinity. +So I have reason to believe that that was his last meal. + +Another of our wild woodland neighbours made us some trouble. It was +no other than a veritable woodchuck, whose hole we had often wondered +at when we were scrambling through the underbrush after spring +flowers. The hole was about the size of a peck-measure, and had two +openings about six feet apart. The occupant was a gentleman we never +had had the pleasure of seeing, but we soon learned his existence +from his ravages in our garden. He had a taste, it appears, for the +very kind of things we wanted to eat ourselves, and helped himself +without asking. We had a row of fine, crisp heads of lettuce, which +were the pride of our gardening, and out of which he would from day +to day select for his table just the plants we had marked for ours. +He also nibbled our young beans; and so at last we were reluctantly +obliged to let John Gardiner set a trap for him. Poor old simple- +minded hermit, he was too artless for this world! He was caught at +the very first snap, and found dead in the trap,--the agitation and +distress having broken his poor woodland heart, and killed him. We +were grieved to the very soul when the poor fat old fellow was +dragged out, with his useless paws standing up stiff and imploring. +As it was, he was given to Denis, our pig, which, without a single +scruple of delicacy, ate him up as thoroughly as he ate up the +lettuce. + +This business of eating, it appears, must go on all through creation. +We eat ducks, turkeys, and chickens, though we don't swallow them +whole, feathers and all. Our four-footed friends, less civilized, +take things with more directness and simplicity, and chew each other +up without ceremony, or swallow each other alive. Of these +unceremonious habits we had other instances. + +Our house had a central court on the southern side, into which looked +the library, dining-room, and front hall, as well as several of the +upper chambers. It was designed to be closed in with glass, to serve +as a conservatory in winter; and meanwhile we had filled it with +splendid plumy ferns, taken up out of the neighbouring wood. In the +centre was a fountain surrounded by stones, shells, mosses, and +various water-plants. We had bought three little goldfish to swim in +our basin; and the spray of it, as it rose in the air and rippled +back into the water, was the pleasantest possible sound of a hot day. +We used to lie on the sofa in the hall, and look into the court, and +fancy we saw some scene of fairy-land, and water-sprites coming up +from the fountain. Suddenly a new-comer presented himself,--no other +than an immense bull-frog, that had hopped up from the neighbouring +river, apparently with a view to making a permanent settlement in and +about our fountain. He was to be seen, often for hours, sitting +reflectively on the edge of it, beneath the broad shadow of the +calla-leaves. When sometimes missed thence, he would be found under +the ample shield of a great bignonia, whose striped leaves grew hard +by. + +The family were prejudiced against him. What did he want there? It +was surely some sinister motive impelled him. He was probably +watching for an opportunity to gobble up the goldfish. We took his +part, however, and strenuously defended his moral character, and +patronized him in all ways. We gave him the name of Unke, and +maintained that he was a well-conducted, philosophical old water- +sprite, who showed his good taste in wanting to take up his abode in +our conservatory. We even defended his personal appearance, praised +the invisible-green coat which he wore on his back, and his gray +vest, and solemn gold spectacles; and though he always felt +remarkably slimy when we touched him, yet, as he would sit still and +allow us to stroke his head and pat his back, we concluded his social +feelings might be warm, notwithstanding a cold exterior. Who knew, +after all, but he might be a beautiful young prince, enchanted there +till the princess should come to drop the golden ball into the +fountain, and so give him a chance to marry her and turn into a man +again? Such things, we are credibly informed, are matters of +frequent occurrence in Germany. Why not here? + +By-and-by there came to our fountain another visitor,--a frisky, +green young frog of the identical kind spoken of by the poet + + +"There was a frog lived in a well, +Rig dum pully metakimo." + + +This thoughtless, dapper individual, with his bright green coat, his +faultless white vest, and sea-green tights, became rather the popular +favourite. He seemed just rakish and gallant enough to fulfil the +conditions of the song + + +"The frog he would a-courting ride, +With sword and pistol by his side." + + +This lively young fellow, whom we shall call Cri-Cri, like other +frisky and gay young people, carried the day quite over the head of +the solemn old philosopher under the calla-leaves. At night, when +all was still, he would trill a joyous little note in his throat, +while old Unke would answer only with a cracked guttural more +singular than agreeable; and to all outward appearance the two were +as good friends as their different natures would allow. + +One day, however, the conservatory became the scene of a tragedy of +the deepest dye. We were summoned below by shrieks and howls of +horror. "Do pray come down and see what this vile, nasty, horrid old +frog has been doing!" Down we came; and there sat our virtuous old +philosopher, with his poor little brother's hind legs still sticking +out of the corner of his mouth, as if he were smoking them for a +cigar, all helplessly palpitating as they were. In fact, our solemn +old friend had done what many a solemn hypocrite before has done,-- +swallowed his poor brother, neck and crop,--and sat there with the +most brazen indifference, looking as if he had done the most proper +and virtuous thing in the world. + +Immediately he was marched out of the conservatory at the point of a +walking-stick, and made to hop down to the river, into whose waters +he splashed, and we saw him no more. We regret to say that the +popular indignation was so precipitate in its results; otherwise the +special artist who sketched Hum, the son of Buz, intended to have +made a sketch of the old villain, as he sat with his luckless +victim's hind legs projecting from his solemn mouth. With all his +moral faults, he was a good sitter, and would probably have sat +immovable any length of time that could be desired. + +Of other woodland neighbours there were some which we saw +occasionally. The shores of the river were lined here and there with +the holes of the muskrats; and in rowing by their settlements, we +were sometimes strongly reminded of them by the overpowering odour of +the perfume from which they get their name. There were also owls, +whose nests were high up in some of the old chestnut-trees. Often in +the lonely hours of the night we could hear them gibbering with a +sort of wild, hollow laugh among the distant trees. But one tenant +of the woods made us some trouble in the autumn. It was a little +flying-squirrel, who took to making excursions into our house in the +night season, coming down the chimney into the chambers, rustling +about among the clothes, cracking nuts or nibbling at any morsels of +anything that suited his fancy. For a long time the inmates of the +rooms were awakened in the night by mysterious noises, thumps, and +rappings, and so lighted candles, and searched in vain to find whence +they came; for the moment any movement was made, the rogue whipped up +the chimney, and left us a prey to the most mysterious alarms. What +could it be? + +But one night our fine gentleman bounced in at the window of another +room, which had no fireplace; and the fair occupant, rising in the +night, shut the window, without suspecting that she had cut off the +retreat of any of her woodland neighbours. The next morning she was +startled by what she thought a gray rat running past her bed. She +rose to pursue him, when he ran up the wall, and clung against the +plastering, showing himself very plainly a gray flying-squirrel, with +large, soft eyes, and wings which consisted of a membrane uniting the +fore paws to the hind ones, like those of a bat. He was chased into +the conservatory, and a window being opened, out he flew upon the +ground, and made away for his native woods, and thus put an end to +many fears as to the nature of our nocturnal rappings. + +So you see how many neighbours we found by living in the woods, and, +after all, no worse ones than are found in the great world. + + + +THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF LITTLE WHISKEY + + + +And now, at the last, I am going to tell you something of the ways +and doings of one of the queer little people, whom I shall call +Whiskey. + +You cannot imagine how pretty he is. His back has the most beautiful +smooth shining stripes of reddish brown and black, his eyes shine +like bright glass beads, and he sits up jauntily on his hind +quarters, with his little tail thrown over his back like a ruffle. + +And where does he live? Well, "that is telling," as we children say. +It was somewhere up in the mountains of Berkshire, in a queer, +quaint, old-fashioned garden, that I made Mr. Whiskey's acquaintance. + +Here there lives a young parson, who preaches every Sunday in a +little brown church, and during week-days goes through all these +hills and valleys, visiting the poor, and gathering children into +Sunday schools. + +His wife is a very small-sized lady--not much bigger than you, my +little Mary--but very fond of all sorts of dumb animals; and by +constantly watching their actions and ways, she has come to have +quite a strange power over them, as I shall relate. + +The little lady fixed her mind on Whiskey, and gave him his name +without consulting him upon the subject. She admired his bright +eyes, and resolved to cultivate his acquaintance. + +By constant watching, she discovered that he had a small hole of his +own in the grass-plot a few paces from her back-door. So she used to +fill her pocket with hazel-nuts, and go out and sit in the back +porch, and make a little noise, such as squirrels make to each other, +to attract his attention. + +In a minute or two up would pop the little head with the bright eyes, +in the grass-plot, and Master Whiskey would sit on his haunches and +listen, with one small ear cocked towards her. Then she would throw +him a hazel-nut, and he would slip instantly down into his hole +again. In a minute or two, however, his curiosity would get the +better of his prudence; and she, sitting quiet, would see the little +brown-striped head slowly, slowly coming up again, over the tiny +green spikes of the grass-plot. Quick as a flash he would dart at +the nut, whisk it into a little bag on one side of his jaws, which +Madam Nature has furnished him with for his provision-pouch, and down +into his hole again. An ungrateful, suspicious little brute he was +too; for though in this way he bagged and carried off nut after nut, +until the patient little woman had used up a pound of hazelnuts, +still he seemed to have the same wild fright at sight of her, and +would whisk off and hide himself in his hole the moment she appeared. +In vain she called, "Whiskey, Whiskey, Whiskey," in the most +flattering tones; in vain she coaxed and cajoled. No, no; he was not +to be caught napping. He had no objection to accepting her nuts, as +many as she chose to throw to him; but as to her taking any personal +liberty with him, you see, it was by no means to be thought of. + +But at last patience and perseverance began to have their reward. +Little Master Whiskey said to himself, "Surely this is a nice, kind +lady, to take so much pains to give me nuts; she is certainly very +considerate;" and with that he edged a little nearer and nearer every +day, until, quite to the delight of the small lady, he would come and +climb into her lap and seize the nuts, when she rattled them there, +and after that he seemed to make exploring voyages all over her +person. He would climb up and sit on her shoulder; he would mount +and perch himself on her head; and when she held a nut for him +between her teeth, he would take it out of her mouth. + +After a while he began to make tours of discovery in the house. He +would suddenly appear on the minister's writing-table when he was +composing his Sunday sermon, and sit cocking his little pert head at +him, seeming to wonder what he was about. But in all his +explorations he proved himself a true Yankee squirrel, having always +a shrewd eye on the main chance. If the parson dropped a nut on the +floor, down went Whiskey after it, and into his provision-bag it +went, and then he would look up as if he expected another; for he had +a wallet on each side of his jaws, and he always wanted both sides +handsomely filled before he made for his hole. So busy and active +and always intent on this one object was he, that before long the +little lady found he had made way with six pounds of hazel-nuts. His +general rule was to carry off four nuts at a time--three being +stuffed into the side-pockets of his jaws, and the fourth held in his +teeth. When he had furnished himself in this way, he would dart like +lightning for his hole, and disappear in a moment; but in a short +time up he would come, brisk and wide-awake, and ready for the next +supply. + +Once a person who had the curiosity to dig open a chipping squirrel's +hole found in it two quarts of buckwheat, a quantity of grass-seed, +nearly a peck of acorns, some Indian corn, and a quart of walnuts; a +pretty handsome supply for a squirrel's winter store-room--don't you +think so? + +Whiskey learned in time to work for his living in many artful ways +that his young mistress devised. Sometimes she would tie his nuts up +in a paper package, which he would attack with great energy, gnawing +the strings, and rustling the nuts out of the paper in wonderfully +quick time. Sometimes she would tie a nut to the end of a bit of +twine and swing it backward and forward over his head; and after a +succession of spry jumps, he would pounce upon it, and hang swinging +on the twine, till he had gnawed the nut away. + +Another squirrel, doubtless hearing of Whiskey's good luck, began to +haunt the same yard; but Whiskey would by no means allow him to +cultivate his young mistress's acquaintance. No indeed! he evidently +considered that the institution would not support two. Sometimes he +would appear to be conversing with the stranger on the most familiar +and amicable terms in the back-yard; but if his mistress called his +name, he would immediately start and chase his companion quite out of +sight, before he came back to her. + +So you see that self-seeking is not confined to men alone, and that +Whiskey's fine little fur coat covers a very selfish heart. + +As winter comes on, Whiskey will go down into his hole, which has +many long galleries and winding passages, and a snug little bedroom +well lined with leaves. Here he will doze and dream away his long +winter months, and nibble out the inside of his store of nuts. + +If I hear any more of his cunning tricks, I will tell you of them. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Queer Little Folks, by Harriet Beecher Stowe + diff --git a/old/qltfk10.zip b/old/qltfk10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8266743 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/qltfk10.zip |