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Project Gutenberg's Minnie; or, The Little Woman, by Caroline Snowden Guild
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Minnie; or, The Little Woman
A Fairy Story
Author: Caroline Snowden Guild
Release Date: July 17, 2011 [EBook #36760]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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</pre>
<div class="figcenter">
<img src="images/image01_frontispiece.jpg" alt="Minnie and the Squirrel." title="Frontispiece" /><br /><span class="smcap">Minnie and the Squirrel.</span><br />
</div>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p class="center" style="font-size:160%">MINNIE;</p>
<p class="center">OR,<br /></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:130%">THE LITTLE WOMAN<br /><br /></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:120%">A Fairy Story.<br /><br /></p>
<p class="center">BY THE AUTHOR OF "VIOLET."<br /><br /><br /></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:130%">BOSTON:</p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:100%">PHILLIPS, SAMPSON AND COMPANY,<br />
<span class="smcap">13 winter street.</span><br />
1857.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p class="center" style="font-size:90%">Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by<br />
PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & CO.,<br />
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.<br /><br /><br /><br /></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:80%">STEREOTYPED BY<br />
HOBART & ROBBINS,<br />
New England Type and Stereotype Foundry,<br />
BOSTON.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:120%">HOW THE STORY CAME TO BE WRITTEN.</p>
<p>One evening, last summer, a little girl, with laughing
eyes that no one could resist, looked up into my face, and
said,</p>
<p>"'Touldn't you wite me a story?"</p>
<p>"Yes. What shall it be about?" was the answer.</p>
<p>"O, wite something I could wead myself,--something
with pictures,--something like Tom Thumb, you know;
and I shouldn't care if it had pink covers, too, and
wasn't larger than--this." And she held up the palm
of a rosy hand.</p>
<p>In a moment more she came bounding back to whisper,
"I shouldn't care if you left off the fingers, only make a
<i>cunning</i> story, and something I can wead."</p>
<p>Instead of leaving off, I should have to add a great
many of Minnie's fingers, to cover the book, which
would grow so large, and I couldn't help it, any more<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
than you can when a little bud opens out to a great
flower. So, I ask her forgiveness; hoping that she will
find, inside of the volume, something "cunning" enough
to make her forget the covers.</p>
<p>And now, dear children, if you like my story, you must
all thank Minnie C----, to whom it is dedicated, with
the heartiest good wishes of</p>
<p style="text-align:right"><span class="smcap">The Author.</span></p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:125%">CONTENTS.</p>
<table summary="Contents">
<tr><td></td><td></td><td></td><td><span class="smcap">page</span></td></tr>
<tr><td>CHAPTER</td><td style="text-align:right">I.</td><td><span class="smcap">—rodocanachi,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">9</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">II.</td><td><span class="smcap">—dandelion,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">15</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">III.</td><td><span class="smcap">—minnie's home,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">21</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">IV.</td><td><span class="smcap">—minnie and the squirrel,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">26</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">V.</td><td><span class="smcap">—a squirrel-back ride,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">31</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">VI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—living in a tree,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">36</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">VII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—master squirrel,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">40</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">VIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—night,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">45</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">IX.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the new home,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">51</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">X.</td><td><span class="smcap">—in the woods,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">56</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the squirrel's party,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">60</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—by the river,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">63</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—yellow-bird,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">70</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XIV.</td><td><span class="smcap">—in a bird's nest,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">75</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XV.</td><td><span class="smcap">—minnie and the birds,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">81</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XVI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the squirrel's team,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">87</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XVII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the moonlight dance,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">92</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XVIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the little nurses,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">96</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XIX.</td><td><span class="smcap">—mouse,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">100</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XX.</td><td><span class="smcap">—housekeeping,</span><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">104</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—trouble for minnie,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">108</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—trouble still,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">113</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—free at last,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">118</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXIV.</td><td><span class="smcap">—turtle,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">123</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXV.</td><td><span class="smcap">—minnie's wings,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">127</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXVI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—hide-and-seek,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">130</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXVII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—minnie in prison,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">135</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXVIII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—narrow escapes,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII">140</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXIX.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the little seamstress,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX">146</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXX.</td><td><span class="smcap">—stork,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXX">151</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXXI.</td><td><span class="smcap">—the sea-shore,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI">156</a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="center">"</td><td style="text-align:right">XXXII.</td><td><span class="smcap">—storm and calm,</span></td><td style="text-align:right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII">161</a></td></tr>
</table>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:140%">MINNIE;</p>
<p class="center">OR,</p>
<p class="center" style="font-size:140%">THE LITTLE WOMAN.</p>
<hr style="width: 15%;" />
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
<p class="center">RODOCANACHI.</p>
<p>Somewhere in Massachusetts is a little town
as beautiful as a garden. Nay, in summer-time I
think this place is prettier than a garden; for it
is not laid out in long, stiff beds and paths; but
the roads wind about like rivers under its shady
trees, and, wherever you see a bed of flowers, a
cosey little house is sure to rise up in its midst;
and then the hills,----Did you ever read about
the giant, who wouldn't give the fairies any
peace, but chopped them up for mince-meat, and
did all kinds of wicked things, till they resolved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
to kill him, if they could?</p>
<p>The fairy queen, who was very wise, knew
that the giant's strength lay in a great brass helmet
which he wore; so she told her people to
watch, and, if ever he laid it aside, to steal this,
and hide it away.</p>
<p>Now, one summer's day, the giant went hunting,
and had such good success that he came
home with his arms full of game, tired and
warm enough.</p>
<p>I don't remember the giant's name: perhaps
it was Ugolino, or Loeschigk, or Rodocanachi.
We'll call it Rodocanachi. Down he threw his
game,--the deer and squirrels he had killed to
eat; and the poor little robins, and blue-birds,
and humming-birds, he had only killed for the
pleasure of seeing them flutter down from the
boughs where they were singing sweetly--down
to the ground, with their broken, bloody wings.</p>
<p>Rodocanachi threw his game aside, and then
lay down himself to drink from a pretty stream
that ran bubbling and sparkling under the shady
trees. He was so thirsty, and had such a monstrous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
swallow, that, before long, the stream
stopped flowing, and, wherever the sun fell into
its bed, the pebbles began to grow white and
dry. He had drank it almost up, when the giant
said to himself, "Bah! what a shallow river, and
how the pebbles get into my teeth! I must have
a drop of wine to take away the earthy taste."</p>
<p>There, under the shady trees, Rodocanachi
drank and smoked, till his head grew hotter than
ever, and so confused, that he stretched himself
upon the grass; and, while trying to collect his
thoughts, fell fast asleep.</p>
<p>Then, how the fairies flew into sight! Down
they swung, from all the high oaks and elms, on
rope-ladders made of spider-web; and, from under
the broad mulleins, up they poured in a swarm;
from the other side of the stream they fitted up
rafts of pond-lily leaves, and came floating across;
for, after the giant turned away, the river had
run full again. What had seemed beds of fern-leaves
came marching down from the hill-side,
or out from the deep shade,--they were fairy
armies, with banners all astir; and such a rustling
as they made, and such a patter of little feet, and
flutter of tiny wings, and singing and shouting<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
of soft, glad voices, you never heard!</p>
<p>Last came the car of the fairy queen, a pearly
pond-lily, lined and fringed inside with gold,
with a golden seat, and drawn by six bright-blue
dragon-flies, that sprinkled a light from their
transparent wings, as the car shed fragrance all
along its way.</p>
<p>The queen arose and lifted her sceptre; which
was tipped with a diamond so bright it shone
like a star, and could light a path at midnight
through the densest wood. She stretched this
wand forth, and the noisy multitude grew so
still--so still that you could not hear a sound,
except the giant's breathing;--then she spoke:</p>
<p>"The time we have watched and waited for so
long, so impatiently, has come; the wicked Rodocanachi
is in our power at last. Say, what shall
we do with him, my subjects?"</p>
<p>Then swelled forth a breeze of little voices, so
confused that you could not tell one from another;
and the queen's wand rose again.</p>
<p>"We have not a moment to waste, be still, and
hear the advice of my general."</p>
<p>"If I have led your armies bravely, O, great<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>
queen--"</p>
<p>"Yes, yes," interrupted the queen, "but what
shall I do with Rodocanachi? I'll praise you,
and receive your compliments afterwards."</p>
<p>"Suffer me, then, to go alone, and, with my
spear, this tough acacia-thorn, put out the giant's
eyes."</p>
<p>The fairy shook her head, and turned to a
statesman, the greatest in all her kingdom:</p>
<p>"What say you?"</p>
<p>"Cut off his hands and feet, and make mince-meat
of them, as he made of my cousin's family!"</p>
<p>Again the queen shook her head, and turned
to a grave judge, the wisest man in Fairy-land:</p>
<p>"Let us go together, and, while he sleeps, roll
this old sinner off from the mountain-top, that
his bones may be well broken when he reaches
the valley below!"</p>
<p>At this the little people all shouted for joy,
and some ran towards Rodocanachi, impatiently,
to begin; but the fairy, with her sparkling
sceptre, called them back.</p>
<p>Puzzled and sorrowful, great queen as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
was, she wrung her little hands and wept. "I
cannot bear to do such cruel deeds," she sighed;
"and yet how shall I banish this tyrant, and
make my people happy? O, I wish any one, who
thinks it a pleasant thing to be a queen, could
stand in my place to-day!"</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
<p class="center">DANDELION.</p>
<p>In the court of the fairy queen was a child,
as pretty and gentle as a flower; a little boy,
whose work it was to gather dew and honey, and
bring it to his mistress in an acorn-cup, or strewn
in separate drops over some broad leaf.</p>
<p>Now, this child loved his mistress dearly, and
his heart was large and true as if it had beat in
a larger bosom; he could not bear to think of
torturing even the cruel Rodocanachi,--much
less could he bear to see his dear queen grieve.</p>
<p>Little fellow as he was, he tried to make his
way toward the fairy's chariot; but the people
crowded so, and moved their banners about so
restlessly, that more than once he was thrown to
the ground, and trodden under their feet.</p>
<p>But Dandelion--that was his name--caught
at the tip of one of the fern-leaf banners, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>
happened to lean toward him; and, when it was
lifted into the air, he swung himself, like a spider,
from banner to banner, over the heads of
the crowd.</p>
<p>Then he climbed up among the pearly, perfumed
lily-leaves of the fairy's car, and, all
powdered over himself with gold-dust from its
splendid lining, knelt at his mistress' feet.</p>
<p>The queen smiled through her tears,--for she
was fond of Dandelion,--and asked why he had
come at such a time; then said: "Perhaps my
pretty one can give me some advice." And all
the fairy-people laughed at the thought of a
poor little boy being wiser than statesmen and
generals.</p>
<p>Dandelion did not care how small they thought
him, if he could but help his queen; so he said,
bravely:</p>
<div class="figcenter">
<img src="images/image02_chap02.jpg" alt="Dandelion Tickles the Giant's Nose." title="Chapter 2" /><br /><span class="smcap">Dandelion Tickles the Giant's Nose.</span><br /></div>
<p>"O, my great mistress, I was shaking dew out
of the cups of white violets that grow by the
stream, when this giant lay down near me and
fell asleep. Then all the people hurried, and I
with them, to your court. I heard you ask what
should be done with the wicked Rodocanachi;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>
and, when no one had an answer to give, and
my mistress sorrowed, I crept back all alone to
the hill-top, where the giant lay, and climbed on
his shoulder--"</p>
<p>"My brave little Dandelion!" said the queen.</p>
<p>"I had picked up a feather, that a wood-dove
had just let fall on the grass; and with this I
tickled Rodocanachi's nose--"</p>
<p>"Fine work!" growled the general. "Suppose
you had wakened him, and we were all
slaves again!"</p>
<p>But the queen, waving the general back to his
seat with her sceptre, said, "Let the boy go on:
I am curious to hear the rest."</p>
<p>"The giant stirred; his head was on uneven
ground, and the great brass helmet tipped, tipped,
tipped, and at last it rolled away, and left his
forehead bare."</p>
<p>"O, Dandelion, you have saved my kingdom!"
said the queen; and the people all shouted
"Bravo!" and "Hurrah for Dandelion!" as, without
waiting longer for leave, they rushed to the
hill-top where Rodocanachi lay.</p>
<p>Then came a clanging sound, as if all the mountains<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>
were great brass drums, and twenty giants
were beating them--it echoed so far and wide.</p>
<p>"Ah, it's the giant's helmet! and now we
fairies are safe!" exclaimed the queen. She
clapped her hands, and the six blue dragon-flies
flew to the hill-top with their chariot in time for
Dandelion to see the helmet, still jarring where it
had been thrown by the fairy-people, far down
among the rocks.</p>
<p>"Now, fly, fly quickly," said the queen, "and
tear up sods and bushes, and gather leaves, till
you've hidden the helmet so safely that Rodocanachi
can never find it again."</p>
<p>Fairies, though little people, are not slow;
and when at last the giant, with a snore that
sounded like thunder, awoke from his sleep, the
helmet, for which he began to look at once, was
nowhere to be seen.</p>
<p>And the giant's strength was gone. He could
not break the stem of a wild-flower, much less
lift the game he had killed that very day. He
could hardly totter home; and, when there, could
not open his own door.</p>
<p>So Rodocanachi began a search for his helmet:<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>
all in vain, in vain. He stepped his great feet
into it, and never guessed it was hid underneath
the grass, and bushes, and flowers, that looked as
if they had always grown where they were.</p>
<p>For a year he wandered up and down the
earth, growing thinner and sadder every day.
He had nothing to satisfy his monstrous appetite
except berries and mushrooms. Sometimes the
fairies, in pity of his wretched state, would crack
a handful of nuts, or kill a frog or two, for his
breakfast; but Rodocanachi fairly starved and
worried himself to death.</p>
<p>And the queen was so grateful to dear little
Dandelion, that she made him always dress in
cloth-of-gold, and gave him a beautiful golden
shield.</p>
<p>But this was only to remind the people how
he looked when the boy crept up into her chariot
that day, all dusted over with gold. When
Dandelion died, a plant sprang out of his grave,--and
every one said the fairy put it there,--that
had blossoms exactly like his golden shield;
and, when these withered, there came globes of
seed, with starry wings, that could fly about in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>
the air, and swing on the wind, from leaf to leaf,
as Dandelion swung on the fern-leaf banners once.
We call the flowers Dandelions, to this day.</p>
<p>When, in summer-time, you see these golden
shields sprinkled over the meadows, and along
the roadsides, you must think of the brave little
fairy, who did great things because so willing to
do the best that he could.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
<p class="center">MINNIE'S HOME.</p>
<p>We have found, from the history of Dandelion,
that no one is too small to be of use. We have
found that kind hearts may succeed where wise
heads and strong arms fail; but perhaps you will
wonder what Rodocanachi has to do with my
story.</p>
<p>I'll tell you. Have you forgotten that I began
to describe a beautiful little town, with roads
that wound about like rivers, and houses set in
the midst of garden-beds?</p>
<p>Great hills rose on every side, folding against
each other as if they meant to shut out the rest
of the world, with its noise, and trouble, and
weariness. So the valley looked, from a distance,
like a bird's nest lined with moss, and
leaves, and long fine grass; and the houses and
churches seemed like white eggs scattered among<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>
the greenery.</p>
<p>Or, if you stood in the centre, the slopes of
the hills were so smooth and round, that the valley
was like the inside of a painted bowl:--here
were woods and waterfalls like pictures; here
meadows of grass and grain; white patches of
buckwheat, and the tender green of oat-fields,
were striped along with brown potato-beds, and
patches of dark-green tasselled maize.</p>
<p>In this gay-painted bowl, in this soft grassy
nest, lived a little girl, whose name was Minnie,
and whose history I mean to tell.</p>
<p>But what has it all to do with Rodocanachi?</p>
<p>Why, this: people say that the beautiful valley
between the hills was nothing less than the
inside of the giant's great brass helmet! Rivers
had found their way through it now, and forests
had rooted themselves on the sods that were
spread by fairy hands; yet, deep down underneath,
the helmet still was wedged among the
rocks. Think what a giant Rodocanachi must
have been, when you could thus put a whole
town into his hat!</p>
<p>Whether the wonderful place in which she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>
lived had anything to do with Minnie's strange
history, I cannot tell. See what you think about
it.</p>
<p>The house of Minnie's father was near the
centre of the town, and in a street where there
were many other houses. These were not joined
together in a block, like city dwellings, but each
had a garden and summer-house, and a patch of
grass in front for the children's play-ground.</p>
<p>Around Minnie's house was a curious fence,
made of thin strips of iron, bound at the top
with a square board, painted white.</p>
<p>In the next house lived a boy named Frank.
He was a bright, good-natured little fellow, just
of Minnie's age, with rosy cheeks and curly hair,
and as full of fun as he could be.</p>
<p>Minnie herself was very fond of play. Perhaps
she played too hard, for she did not look
hearty and rosy like Frank, but was slight and
quick as a humming-bird, and fluttered about so
from one thing to another, that it was more than
her mother could do to keep her always in sight.</p>
<p>One minute she'd be seated quietly on the
door-step, looking at the pictures in a book; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>
next she was away, and you only caught sight
of her curls going round the corner of the house.</p>
<p>Or, perhaps, after you had looked for Minnie in
the garden, she would start up with her laughing
eyes from behind your very chair, and the next
instant she was fluttering along the top of the
fence, standing on one foot, and, with her bright
pink dress, looking more like a flower than a little
girl.</p>
<p>The iron strips of the fence were so far apart
that Minnie could easily peep through, and could
even crowd her little hand between the squares,
to stroke Franky's curls, or pat his rosy cheeks.</p>
<p>As soon as breakfast was over, every morning,
both Minnie and Frank would run to the fence,
and talk and play there for hours.</p>
<p>But Minnie was not satisfied with this; she
wanted to swing on the boughs of her father's
young fruit-trees, and, as I told you, would climb
the fence, and skip along the rail upon one foot.</p>
<p>Again and again her mother warned her that
she might fall and kill herself, or at least soil and
tear her dress, and that it was rude for little girls<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
to be climbing trees and fences.</p>
<p>It was of no use. Even while she was talking,
Minnie would clamber into some place so dangerous
that her mother would have to run and take
her down.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
<p class="center">MINNIE AND THE SQUIRREL.</p>
<p>One day, when Minnie's mother had been telling
her how wicked it was to be so disobedient,
and how much trouble she gave every one that
loved her, the little girl thought she never would
climb another fence, but would begin now, and
be good.</p>
<p>So she seated herself on the door-step, and
was quiet as many as two minutes.</p>
<p>Then a little brown sparrow came hopping,
hopping along the top of the fence, and stopped
a short way off, and chirped, as if he were saying,
"You can't catch me!"</p>
<p>"Can't I?" said Minnie, and another minute
she was dancing along the rail.</p>
<p>The sparrow flew away, and then Minnie, remembering
the promise which she had made to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>
her mother, went back to her seat.</p>
<p>She was quiet longer this time, for she began
to think how hard it was to be good. Then she
remembered how the sparrow had flown away--away
off alone up into the bright blue air, and
could sing as loud as he chose, and tilt on the
highest boughs of the trees, and nobody call him
rude.</p>
<p>And the sparrow didn't have to be washed
and dressed in the morning, and to eat his breakfast
at just such a time, and be careful to take
his fork in his right hand, and not to spill his
milk.</p>
<p>O, how much better breakfasts the sparrow
had! First, a drink of dew from the leaves
about his nest; then, a sweet-brier blossom to
give him an appetite; and then, wild raspberries
and strawberries, as many as he wanted; and,
afterwards, wild honey to sweeten his tongue, or
smooth gum from the cherry-tree to clear his
throat before the morning song!</p>
<p>Then for a merry chase through the woods,
instead of going to school. "O, dear! O, dear!"
said Minnie, "why wasn't I made a sparrow?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span></p>
<p>Just then she heard a chattering in the pine-tree
over her head, and a squirrel tripped in
sight. Minnie happened to have some nuts in
her pocket, so she quietly rolled one along the
top of the fence, and squirrel came down for it.</p>
<p>I think wild creatures know which children
are their friends, and which their enemies. At
all events, this squirrel did not feel afraid of
Minnie, but sat there nibbling at the nut she gave
him, until he had eaten out all the meat.</p>
<p>Just then her mother came to the door with
some ladies, who had been making her a call, and
off darted squirrel, quicker than you can think.</p>
<p>"Now, where has he gone?" thought Minnie;
"down under the cool grass, I suppose, or far
off into the pleasant woods, where he can have
all the nuts he wants, and play hide-and-go-seek
among the boughs. O, dear! I wish I had been
a squirrel! I wonder if I couldn't run along
the fence as quickly as he did just now!"</p>
<p>Her mother was talking so busily with her
friends that she forgot to watch Minnie, and off
the little girl flew, along the rail, skipping and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>
dancing, and twirling upon one foot.</p>
<p>And now comes the wonderful part of my
story. Minnie thought she heard somebody
scream, and then she looked round, and her
mother was gone, and she was seated on the
door-step all alone again, and squirrel, on the
fence beside her, was eating his nut.</p>
<p>"Come, give us another!" he said, at last,
throwing away the shell, and speaking with the
queerest little squeaky, grumbling voice.</p>
<p>"Why, who taught you how to talk?" asked
Minnie, in surprise.</p>
<p>"O, nobody. Squirrels don't go to school.
They couldn't keep us quiet on the benches, you
see. It makes us ache to sit still!" and he
ran round and round the rail of the fence, to rest
himself.</p>
<p>"Pray, don't go away yet," called Minnie; "I
want to know if all squirrels talk, or what you
did to learn."</p>
<p>Down the squirrel jumped into the grass,
pulled the blades apart with his paws, and smelt
of this weed and that, till at last he found what
seemed to satisfy him, for he broke off a sprig,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>
and went back to his seat on the fence.</p>
<p>"Minnie, how should you like to live with
us?" he said. "We have good times, I tell
you, out in the woods. We do nothing but chatter,
and eat, and fly about, all day long. We
haven't any master, and the whole world's our
play-ground; the deep earth is our cellar; the
sun is our lamp and stove."</p>
<p>"But I should frighten the squirrels, I'm so
large!" and Minnie stood on tip-toe, to let him
see what a great girl--as indeed she was, beside
a squirrel!</p>
<p>"The same weed that made me talk like a little
girl, will make you grow small as a squirrel. Do
you dare to taste it?" and he tossed the green
sprig into Minnie's lap.</p>
<p>"Dare? yes, indeed! who's afraid?" She
ate the leaves at a mouthful.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
<p class="center">A SQUIRREL-BACK RIDE.</p>
<p>Minnie had only half believed what the squirrel
said, and was surprised and almost frightened
when she felt herself growing smaller in every
limb. Did you ever drop a kid glove into boiling
water? It will keep its former shape, but
shrink together so as to be hardly large enough
for a doll. Thus Minnie's whole form shrank,
until she was no taller than squirrel himself, and
not half so stout, and her hands were as tiny as
his paws.</p>
<p>"Now we'll have plenty of fun," said squirrel;
and they started together for the woods.</p>
<p>But Minnie walked so slowly, with her little
feet, that her guide soon lost his patience. He
would dart on out of sight, and come back for
her, again and again; he would wait to eat nuts,
and dig holes in the ground to bury some against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>
winter-time; and still Minnie, for all her hurrying,
lagged behind.</p>
<p>At last squirrel said, "This will never do; seat
yourself on my back, and I'll carry you faster
than any steam-car that ever you saw. Here we
go!"</p>
<p>It was a pretty sight--the little rider and her
frisky steed, bounding so gracefully over the
road. They had not gone far, however, when
Minnie called,</p>
<p>"O, squirrel, pray, pray stop!"</p>
<p>"What's the trouble now?"</p>
<p>"You go so fast it takes away my breath, and
the underbrush all but scratches my eyes out;
and the grass is full of bugs and ugly caterpillars,
that stretch their cold claws to catch at me as I
go past."</p>
<p>"Is that all?" He darted by a post, along
the fence-rails, and up the trunk of a tree, and
into the leafy boughs. But now it was the
squirrel's turn to complain.</p>
<p>"Don't pull at my ears so hard! Why, my
eyes are half out of my head! It is bad enough<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>
to carry such a load!"</p>
<p>"But, dear squirrel, I shall tumble off! Here
we are, away up in the air, higher than any
house, and you skip and leap, and scramble so,
it frightens me out of my wits."</p>
<p>"Jump off a minute, then; I know a better
way to carry you."</p>
<p>No sooner had Minnie obeyed, than he was out
of sight. With one spring, he had leaped to
the bough of a taller tree;--and now would he
ever come back?</p>
<p>It made her dizzy to look down. It seemed
further than ever to the ground, now, she had
grown so small. And the insects that crept and
flew around her looked so large! A great mosquito
came buzzing about with his poisoned bill,
and then a hard-backed beetle trolled past, and
two or three fat ants. And a bird alighted on
the bough, and began to sing.</p>
<p>Minnie drew down a broad leaf to hide her
face, for she felt afraid that the bird would think
her some kind of bug, and eat her up. Perhaps
he meant to do so, for he kept hopping nearer<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>
and nearer as he sang.</p>
<p>"O, how I wish I were at home!" thought
Minnie. "Perhaps my mother is looking for me
now; and Franky has been standing ever so
long at the fence, with the half of his cake that
he promised to save for me. How could that
old squirrel be so wicked as to leave me here
alone?"</p>
<p>Still the bird hopped nearer, and eyed her as
he sang, and looked as if his mouth were watering
for a taste.</p>
<p>"I shall be killed and eaten up by ants and
worms if I fall to the ground," thought Minnie;
"or, even if I reached it alive, I could never,
never find the way home, with these small, slow
feet. Let the robin eat me, then."</p>
<p>But now came a rustling amongst the leaves,
and a chirping, chattering sound, and, lo! her
friend the squirrel frisked into sight. He seemed
to be quarrelling with the bird, for she half
spread her wings, and stretched her beak as if
she could bite him; and squirrel chattered and
chuckled at her, and his bright brown eyes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span>
flashed with anger, till the robin flew away.</p>
<p>"A moment later, Minnie, and you would have
been changed into a song. That saucy fellow
meant to eat you for his luncheon," said squirrel.
"Now, don't complain that I went away; if
you do, I shall go again. We never allow any
grumbling out here in the woods."</p>
<p>"Yet they allow quarrelling, and murder, and
mischief of many kinds, I see," thought Minnie;
"but as I've come so far, I will not go home
without learning how birds and squirrels live."</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
<p class="center">LIVING IN A TREE.</p>
<p>The squirrel now tucked his little friend under
his chin, as if she were a nut, and off they went
together, fast as any bird could fly.</p>
<p>Minnie soon found there was no use in urging
squirrel to go in a straight line, and pick out the
smoothest paths: it was not his way. He made
her dizzy, often, by running along the under side
of the boughs, or twirling round them in his
frisky way; and, in passing from tree to tree,
whichever branches were farthest apart, they
were the ones he chose for a leap.</p>
<p>If he heard with his quick ears any sound that
frightened him, down squirrel darted into some
hollow trunk, that was full of ants and rotten
wood, and wiry snails; but Minnie found he was
growing very tired, and was all in a perspiration
with carrying such a burden; so she did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
complain.</p>
<p>Yet, when, in passing, her curly hair caught on
the rough bark, and had many a pull, and her
cheeks became bruised with brushing against
the leaves, and she shook black ants and beetles
out of her dress, Minnie more than once wished
herself home again.</p>
<p>At last, with a chuckle of delight, squirrel
darted up the trunk of a beautiful elm, and
seated Minnie where the great boughs parted
into something like an arm-chair; while he went
to find his mate.</p>
<p>This, then, was her new home! Tired and
hungry as she was, the little girl looked about
her with pleasure--it was such a lovely place.
On one side were sunny fields; on the other,
stretched the silent, shady wood, with its beds
of moss, and curtains of vine, and clumps of
wild-flowers.</p>
<p>Closer about her, fanning her warm cheeks,
were the green leaves of the elm--more thousands
of them than she could think of counting,
and all so fresh, and creased, and pointed so prettily.
"Many a game of hide-and-seek I'll have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>
here!" she thought.</p>
<p>But now squirrel returned with his wife, who
shook hands with her little guest very politely,
and begged her to feel quite at home. Madam
Squirrel was not so handsome as her husband,
but was such a kind, motherly person, that you
would not notice her looks.</p>
<p>She had brought some dry moss from her nest,
and with this made a soft bed for Minnie to rest
upon while she prepared dinner. The good soul
even wove the twigs together into a leafy bower
above her head, and called one of her young ones
to stand near and keep the flies away, so that
Minnie might have a nap.</p>
<p>The young squirrel, however, was less thoughtful
than his mamma. He had so many questions
to ask, and so much news to tell, that sleep was
out of the question. And Minnie found that the
wonderful herb had not only made her grow
small as squirrels, but at the same time had
taught her to understand their language.</p>
<p>And not this alone; by listening carefully, at
first, she could soon make out what all the creatures
around her were saying--the bees, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
birds; and grasshoppers, and wasps, and mice.</p>
<p>Even the leaves she saw talked to each other
all day long; the wind had only to come, and
make them a call, and start a subject or two--then
there was whispering enough! And the
grass underneath whispered back, and perfumed
wild-flowers talked with the grass, and the river
talked to the flowers, or, when they would not
listen, talked to its own still pebbles.
</p>
<p>The sun, if he did not speak, smiled such a
broad, warm smile, that any one could guess it
meant, "I know you, and love you, friends!"
And at night the silent moonshine stole into the
wood, and kissed the leaves till they smiled with
happiness, and kissed the flowers till the air was
full of perfumes they breathed back to her, and
kissed the brook till all its little wavelets sparkled
and laughed together for joy.</p>
<p>Meantime the stars were winking at each
other, to think they had caught the cold moon
making love!</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
<p class="center">MASTER SQUIRREL.</p>
<p>No sooner had young Master Squirrel taken
up his stand by Minnie's couch, than he began
to tell how fortunate she was in having such
friends.</p>
<p>"Yes," Minnie replied, "I was thinking of
them this very minute, and wishing I could send
word to my dear mother that I was safe. Poor
Franky must be tired of waiting for me by this
time; there's no one else to play with him.
And then, if you could only see our baby; she's
so sweet and cunning!"</p>
<p>"Nonsense!" said Master Squirrel; "she is not
half so cunning as you are, now. I was speaking
of your new friends, my father and mother."</p>
<p>"Well, what about them?"</p>
<p>"O, we belong to such a fine family, and are
so much respected here in the woods, and my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>
father is so rich!"</p>
<p>Minnie laughed. "Who ever heard of a rich
squirrel? Where do you keep your money?
Are there any banks in the woods?"</p>
<p>"Banks enough, but they bear nothing except
grass and violets. We are not so foolish as to
put our wealth into pieces of white and yellow
stone. My father may not have gold, but he has
more nuts and acorns hidden away than any
other squirrel in creation. As for the silly birds,
they never save anything, and the worms and
beetles live from hand to mouth."</p>
<p>"What happens to the frogs and flies?"</p>
<p>"O, they creep into a hole, when winter comes,
and freeze, like stupid flowers, till the spring sun
is ready to thaw them out again. You see, we
squirrels are the only wise and prudent creatures.
And to think that, among all squirrels, you
should have become acquainted with the richest
one--you are very lucky!"</p>
<p>"If all your father's nuts were brought together
and measured," said Minnie, "how many
bushels would there be?"</p>
<p>"What do I know about bushels? He has at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>
least as many as would make a wagon-load!"</p>
<p>Master Squirrel said this with a great air, but
Minnie only laughed. "My father does not pretend
to be rich, but he gives away more than a
wagon-load of nuts every year; besides keeping
all we want for ourselves."</p>
<p>Dear children, as Minnie looked upon the
squirrel's nuts, that made him feel so important,
just so God's angels look upon <i>our</i> treasures.
Money, fine horses and carriages, are to them no
reason for being proud. They smile at our gains
and savings, which seem foolish toys to them.
The angels have better wealth.</p>
<p>The squirrel was silent, and so ashamed that
Minnie said, to comfort him:</p>
<p>"I should not mind never seeing a nut, if I
were as bright and spry as your father; and,
whether she were rich or poor, I know any one
as kind and generous as your mother would
always be respected."</p>
<p>"Poh! it is easy enough to be kind. I've
seen one ant help another home with his dinner;
I've seen a ground-sparrow, when her neighbor
was shot, feed the hungry young ones left in the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span>
nest; but that's nothing—that doesn't give
one a place in the best society!"</p>
<p>"I don't believe the little orphan-birds waited
to ask if their friend belonged to the aristocracy.
But, Master Squirrel, what do you call society?"</p>
<p>"I will show you, to-morrow. I heard my
mother say that she should give a grand party in
honor of your coming. Though it will be like
my parents (who are very condescending) to ask
some of the common people, you may expect to
see along with them all the aristocracy of the
woods."</p>
<p>Now the mother-squirrel came with Minnie's
dinner; and, sending her talkative son away to
give invitations for the party, busied herself with
spreading out the tempting meal.</p>
<p>Of course there were nut-meats in plenty;
walnuts on one leaf, chestnuts on another, and
ground-nuts and grains of wheat on a third.
Then there was a bit of honey-comb, and a
ripe red strawberry that squirrel had run a mile
to pick on the mountain-top; and there were
some slices of what Minnie thought must be
squirrels' tongues, they were so small and tender;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>
she ate them with a great relish.</p>
<p>Then squirrel brought, in a nut-shell, a drink
of fresh water from the brook; and, filling her
shell again, dropping in a sweet-brier leaf or two
to perfume it, she bathed Minnie's forehead till
the tired little traveller went fast asleep.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
<p class="center">NIGHT.</p>
<p>Upon awaking, Minnie was surprised to find
all dark about her. The good old squirrel had
tucked the moss of her couch together so nicely
that she was warm and comfortable; but, on
reaching out a hand, she felt the leaves wet with
dew.</p>
<p>Then a wind stirred the branches, and far up
in the sky she saw the twinkling stars, and knew
that it was night.</p>
<p>Night, and the little girl was alone there out
of doors! No mother in the next room listening
to see if her children breathed sweetly, and
all was well; no sister Allie to nestle close
beside her, now; but the great lonely sky
above her, and the creaking elm-bough for her
cradle.</p>
<p>And how high this cradle lifted her into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>
air! She hardly knew which was farthest off,
the ground or the sky. It was all so strange
that Minnie thought she must be dreaming. She
stretched her hands out in the starlight; they
were small as squirrels' paws,—ten times smaller
than even baby Allie's dimpled hands,—small as
those of her smallest doll. Who ever heard of
such hands for a little girl?</p>
<p>Yes, she felt sure it was a dream; but, turning
to sleep, she was aroused by a loud snoring.
Could a man be hidden up here among the
boughs? And suppose he should catch her alive,
and shut her up in a cage, to be advertised, and
talked about, and pointed at with canes and parasols
in Barnum's museum?</p>
<p>But now the snores seemed changing to
sounds more like the purring of a cat. Were
not tigers a kind of cat? Suppose this were a
tiger, ready to spring down and seize her in his
great paws, as a cat might seize a mouse!</p>
<p>No; there came next a loud, rough laugh, startling
to hear in the silence; and then a great
flutter, and a scratching sound, and something
alighted on the bough above her—something<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>
heavy, for the bough bent till its leaves were
crushed upon her face.</p>
<p>As soon as Minnie could push the leaves apart
she looked up, and saw to her dismay two great
round eyes staring full at her! She covered her
own eyes, and in her terror would have fallen
from the tree, had not her dress been caught
among the leaves.</p>
<p>"What's that? What's that?" a gruff voice
called.</p>
<p>Then Minnie remembered what she had heard
her mother, and even the little squirrels, say, that
it is foolish to fear anything; so, as loudly as she
could with her trembling voice, the little woman
shouted:</p>
<p>"How do you do, sir? It's a fine evening, all
but the cold!"</p>
<p>And, venturing to look once more, she saw
what a curious animal she had addressed; with
the eyes of a man, he had the face of a cat, and
the bill and body of a bird.</p>
<p>"Who's here? who are you?" was his only
answer.</p>
<p>"I am a traveller, sir. I have come from my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>
home in the village, to make my friends, the
squirrels, a visit; perhaps I shall have the pleasure
of meeting you at their house."</p>
<p>"Not so fast! I'm an owl, I'd have you know,
and do not keep company with chattering squirrels.
If you wish to see me you must come to
my own home."</p>
<p>"And where is that?"</p>
<p>"In the hollow around on the other side
of the elm. We owls are satisfied to sit thinking
over our wisdom, and do not go scrambling
about like squirrels, and other simple
creatures."</p>
<p>"How did you happen out to-night?"</p>
<p>"O, every evening I come up on this branch
to take the air, and study astronomy."</p>
<p>"Astronomy?—what's that?"</p>
<p>"It is counting the stars, and telling how they
move, and watching when they fall. I expect
to catch one, some day."</p>
<p>"What shall you do then?"</p>
<p>"Hide it in my nest, to be sure, until I can
plant the seeds, and raise another crop."</p>
<p>"Hide a star in an owl's nest! Why, the stars<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>
are worlds," laughed Minnie.</p>
<p>"O, that is what ignorant people say. This,
that you see above your head, is a huge tree
with dark leaves, and hung all over with golden
oranges. When the stars seem to move, it is
only the boughs that are waving; when the
stars seem to fall, it is ripe fruit that drops to
the earth. Let me catch one, and you'll see
what a fine orange-bush I'll grow from the
seed!"</p>
<p>"I'd sooner fly out, in the pleasant morning
sunshine, and pick up strawberries, blueberries,
checkerberries, all the nice things that grow in
the wood," said Minnie; "but, if you can't be
happy without the stars,—"</p>
<p>"I never can!" exclaimed the owl.</p>
<p>"Then I would fly up where they grow, and
pick them myself from the boughs;—not sit in
a dark hole, and wait for them to fall."</p>
<p>But the owl—who thought no one's opinion
worth much, except his own—could not agree
with her, and flew away.</p>
<p>Then Minnie, tired of talking so long, fell
asleep once more, hoping, with all her heart, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
she should awake in her little room at home,
with Allie's rosy cheek pressed close to hers,
and her mother stooping to give them both her
morning kiss.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
<p class="center">THE NEW HOME.</p>
<p>Cool air and pleasant music were about her,
when Minnie awoke the next day, but no home.
She was wrapped in a bundle of moss, on the
elm-bough, still.</p>
<p>The bright morning sunshine lay over the
leaves, fragrant odors came stealing out from the
wood, and wreaths of beautiful white mist floated
above the brook, and, slowly rising, reached, at
last, and melted in with those other white clouds
far up in the sky. Yet the lower end of the
mist-wreath rested still upon the brook, so that
it seemed like a long pearly pathway, joining the
earth and heaven.</p>
<p>Many birds had their nests in the elm, and they
were feeding and singing to their young; or,
floating up in the sky, still kept a close watch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>
over their little homes among the leaves.</p>
<p>Minnie found she had plenty of neighbors.
The tree was like a town, filled with people of all
colors, and sizes, and occupations. Of course,
these were only birds or insects; but Minnie had
grown so small that they looked monstrous to
her. The birds were as large as herself, you
remember. Little lady-bugs seemed as big as a
rabbit does to us, and fire-flies were great street-lanterns;
butterflies' wings were like window-curtains;
bees were like robins; and squirrels,
as large as Newfoundland dogs!</p>
<p>As her friends did not come to bid her good-morning,
the little girl thought she would go in
search of them. She felt afraid to move, at first,
but found soon that the bough was as wide for
her small feet as a good road would be for larger
ones; so, steadying herself now and then by
help of a twig or leaf, she wandered on.</p>
<p>Sliding carefully down the slope of a bough,
she found herself, at length, close by the entrance
of the squirrel nest. Her friend, the young
squirrel, was just sweeping the door-way with
his bushy tail; but, when he took Minnie in to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>
see his brothers and sisters, she did not find their
home a very orderly place.</p>
<p>She could not step without treading on empty
nut-shells, bits of moss, or broken sticks; then
the place was dark, and did not have a clean,
sweet smell, like her mother's parlor. In one
corner lay a heap of young squirrels, some so
small you could put them into a nut-shell—others
larger, and larger still. The nest was so
cold and damp that the poor little things had
crept together to keep warm.</p>
<p>Master Squirrel said, by way of excuse, that
his mother was so busy, preparing for the party,
she had not been able to set her house in order
this morning; but Minnie never afterwards happened
to go there when it was in better order
than now.</p>
<p>"Where is your mother?" she asked.</p>
<p>"In the woods, at some of our other houses;
for we squirrels don't live always in one place.
She is gathering nuts and all kinds of goodies for
our supper, and will scold me well if I have not
the table set when she comes home."</p>
<p>"O, let me help you!"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
<p>Squirrel was glad to accept her offer, and they
went to work in earnest. First, Minnie insisted
upon bringing all the young ones out into the
sun, when they stretched out their little heads
and paws to receive the pleasant warmth, while
Minnie returned to see if anything could be done
with their disorderly home.</p>
<p>She sent squirrel into the woods for some pine
leaves, and of these made a broom as large as
she could handle. Then she swept, and dusted,
and brushed black cobwebs down, and wiped the
mouldy walls, and put fresh leaves in place of
the musty moss on which the children had laid.</p>
<p>By this time the old squirrel had come back
from the woods again; and told what a beautiful
place his wife had found for their feast, and how
glad she would be of Minnie's help. He limped
a little, and said his back ached still from carrying
such a load the day before; but, as there was
no other way for the little woman to reach the
ground, she might go with him, only be sure not
to pull his ears!</p>
<p>No sooner said than done. Down the trunk
of the tall tree they went with a leap or two, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>
along the stone walls, over bushes, through
hollows, further and further into the wood, till
they came to a lovely spot.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
<p class="center">IN THE WOODS.</p>
<p>A number of trees stood so closely together
that they seemed like a solid wood; but, when
the squirrel had made a way for Minnie to pass
under the heavy boughs, she found inside a circle,
covered only with fine soft grass and moss, a
few wild flowers nodding across it, and the leaves,
with their low, pleasant rustle, closing around it
like a wall.</p>
<p>"Now," said the old squirrels, who were too
wise to be proud and boastful like their son,
"now, Minnie, you know better than we what is
proper, and you must tell us how everything
shall be arranged."</p>
<p>Nothing could please Miss Minnie better than
this. Her mother had not even allowed her to
go into the supper-room before company came;
and here she was to order all things, and be herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span>
the little mistress of the feast!</p>
<p>They decided to have their party in the afternoon,
because at that time the sunshine always
slanted so pleasantly through the wood. If they
waited till evening, the dew would begin to rise,
and there was no depending on the moon for
light; and their children, besides, would be needing
them at home.</p>
<p>First, Minnie said, they must have a more convenient
entrance to the supper-room. On one
side stood a large azalea, or wild honeysuckle, in
full flower, and near it a sweet-brier; between
these were some whortleberry bushes, around
the roots of which last Minnie made the squirrels
burrow till she could drag them away.
</p>
<p>Then, smoothing the broken earth, she covered
it with sods of fresh moss, while overhead the
sweet-brier and azalia met in a beautiful archway
of fragrant leaves and flowers.</p>
<p>And it was so much prettier to have flowers
growing in the ground than if they had been cut
and brought from some green-house! Both Minnie
and the squirrels were delighted with their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>
dining-hall.</p>
<p>Next they spread shining oak-leaves for a table-cloth,
which was better so than if it had all been
in one piece, because now, wherever a tuft of
violets grew, or any of the slight starry flowers
that dotted over the grass, they could remain
there, and save the trouble of arranging vases.</p>
<p>Then came a great variety of food,--nuts,
honey, grain and berries, apple and quince seeds,
bits of gum, and strips of fragrant bark. Minnie
was shocked when she saw among the game a
dish of dead ants, and one of frogs' feet, and
another of red spiders; but the squirrel said she
must have something to suit all tastes, and the
birds would be disappointed if they had not
animal food.</p>
<p>Then she begged Minnie to slice some cold
meat for her, and brought a big black beetle to
be shaved up like dried beef, and an angle-worm
to be cut in slices for tongue.</p>
<p>"O, dear!" exclaimed Minnie, as the little
round slices of this last fell into the plate, "can
this be what I mistook for tongue, and relished<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>
so heartily last night?"</p>
<p>"Very likely," squirrel answered; "it is one
of the tenderest meats we have."</p>
<p>Minnie resolved to eat no more dainties in the
wood, until she had first found out their names;
but she had not time to grieve much over her
mistake, for the father-squirrel came to tell that
he had promised his oldest children a race in
the woods, and invited her to make one of the
party.</p>
<p>She was glad to take lessons in running of
such a quick little body as he; and, while his
young ones frisked and bounded, and chased each
other, he was very patient in teaching her all his
arts. Before many such lessons, Minnie could
balance herself on the most uneven and unsteady
place; could climb slippery boughs, skip without
stopping over the crookedest places, and even
leap from branch to branch, so nimbly that squirrel
was proud of his pupil.
</p>
<p>He would not let her go very far that day,
because she must be fresh for the afternoon,
when his guests would come.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
<p class="center">THE SQUIRREL'S PARTY.</p>
<p>In due time the company arrived, and all were
in such good spirits, and so polite, that Minnie
thought she had never known a more charming
party.</p>
<p>On each side of herself sat the birds; a blue-bird
and yellow-bird first, then a thrush and an
oriole, then--cunning little creatures!--a wren
and an indigo-bird. The robins and bobolinks
were not invited, because they were such gluttons.
The crows could not come, because they
were so quarrelsome, and the cherry-birds were
too great thieves.</p>
<p>Then came a whole row of squirrels, that sat
with their bushy tails up in the air, and paws
folded quietly, notwithstanding the nuts before
them, while they made themselves agreeable to
the meek mice and moles, that were all a-tremble,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>
not often finding themselves in such grand company.</p>
<p>One large gray squirrel came in his rough
hunting-coat; but he talked so loud and boastfully,
and seemed to look down upon all the
others with such contempt, they were not sorry
when he said, at last, that he had promised to
take a walk with his distinguished friend the rabbit,
and must therefore go home.</p>
<p>Several toads were invited, and Minnie had
even taken pains to roll some round stones into
the room for their seats. They came, and were
chatting gayly, when their eyes, that wandered
over the delicious feast, fell upon the dish of
frogs' feet, and home they hopped at once, offended.
It was a great mistake, on the squirrel's
part, to bring such guests and such a dish
together; for who could be expected to relish
seeing his cousin chopped up into souse?</p>
<p>The butterflies came, but declined taking seats
at the table, as they never ate anything. They
fluttered above, with their beautiful velvet wings,
and clung to the flowers, bending them down
with their weight; and, when Minnie observed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>
how wistfully the birds were eying them, she
thought perhaps the butterflies had a better
reason than they gave for keeping at a distance.</p>
<p>After eating all they wanted, squirrel proposed
that his guests should go to the brook for a
drink. It was not far, and Minnie had swept the
path nicely with her broom, and spread new moss
wherever the ground was bare; so they seemed
to be walking on a strip of green velvet carpeting,
as, two by two, they started for the water-side.</p>
<p>Some little green, graceful snakes followed on
from curiosity, while over the heads of the party
fluttered all the butterflies; and a rabbit, chancing
to see them, very politely asked squirrel if
he might join the guests.</p>
<p>Meantime the toads, that had crept into a corner
to mutter about their insult, hopped back to
the table, and, along with a swarm of flies and
ants, and greedy robins, crows, and bobolinks,
soon finished all that the company had left.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
<p class="center">BY THE RIVER.</p>
<p>A yellow-bird was the companion of Minnie's
walk, and a pleasant little man he was, with his
gayly-spotted wings, his graceful manners, and
musical voice.</p>
<p>The oriole was handsomer, and had a sweeter
song; but he was proud, and spoke in a sharp,
short way, that was not agreeable. Minnie said
to herself, "I can listen to oriole while he sings
at the top of the tall elm; but for my friend I
will choose some one with gentler behavior, if
he hasn't so loud a song." Do you think Minnie
was wise?</p>
<p>Yellow-bird was equally pleased with his companion,
and very ready to converse. He told
her that he had often wished to become acquainted
with some of his neighbors in the
village, but dare not trust them.</p>
<p>"Why?" Minnie asked.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
<p>"O, one of my brothers, after eating the plant
that makes us wise, heard a little girl begging
him to come and live with her. She promised a
beautiful cage in the summer-house, and plants to
eat and drink."</p>
<p>"And he went?"</p>
<p>"Yes; he was so unwise. Before the end of
a week the little girl had forgotten to feed him,
and he lay dead in the bottom of his cage."</p>
<p>"Yet that was an accident; the little girl was
sorry, I am sure."</p>
<p>"Her sorrow did not bring him to life again;
and I could tell sadder stories--O, too sad
stories for to-day!" Here yellow-bird stopped
talking, and breathed forth a low, mournful song.</p>
<p>The squirrel, hearing him, turned quickly:
"This will never do! Why, friend, we're going
to a feast, and not a funeral; pray give us some
gladder music."</p>
<p>"Excuse me, I never can sing so soon after
eating," said yellow-bird, who was not willing to
leave his new friend.</p>
<p>As for Minnie, she had never stood so near a
bird before in her life; and could not be satisfied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>
with looking into yellow-bird's round eyes, and
stroking the soft feathers on his neck. She had
a hundred questions to ask; and he answered so
graciously that she began to think she would
rather live with those gentle creatures, the birds,
than with her kind, but wild and frisky friends,
the squirrels.</p>
<p>You may remember it was Minnie's wish at
first to live like a bird, on that morning--how
long ago it seemed to her now!--when she had
sat on her father's door-step, and watched a sparrow
soar into the sky, and sing.</p>
<p>They had not time for many words before
reaching the water, which in one place spread to
a little pond beneath the trees, and reflected the
leafy branches on every side, and the sky, with
its pearl-white clouds, and the sunshine that lay
across it like a path of gold.</p>
<p>An aged birch-tree, uprooted by the wind, had
fallen into this pond. Its large and handsome
boughs were still alive; and here flew oriole
at once, singing as he alighted, and swung on
the tip of a branch. The other birds followed
through the air, except Minnie's friend, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>
walked quietly on with her. The squirrels
bounded in a trice across the broad, white trunk
of the tree. The mice and the moles followed
them, and the rabbit was not far behind. The
butterflies chose to hover above the sunny water
in a flock.</p>
<p>Then squirrel made a speech, thanking his
guests for the honor they had done him in
spending so much time at his poor feast. He
was glad it had been in his power to make some
return, by presenting to them so distinguished a
guest.</p>
<p>The rabbit took this compliment to himself;
so he replied by assuring squirrel that the obligation
was all on the part of his guests. In ending,
he regretted that he had not chanced to meet
earlier with such pleasant companions; the truth
was, he had only an hour ago been able to rid
himself of a gray squirrel, a rough, unmannerly
fellow from the backwoods, whom he would have
been ashamed to bring into such polite society.</p>
<p>"Ha!" said squirrel, forgetting his dignity as
host, "the very chap that honored us with his
presence a little while, and boasted about his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>
mighty friend, the rabbit."</p>
<p>Rabbit folded his ears together very wisely at
this, and replied: "A person who feels it necessary
to boast of his friends, is never much in
himself. Now, <i>I</i> always feel that I'm as good as
any of my acquaintance."</p>
<p>"I wonder which is worse vanity," thought
Minnie, "to boast of one's friends or one's
self!"</p>
<p>But here yellow-bird hopped upon a spray,
and sang a delightful little song in honor of their
fair guest, whom he compared to a flower, a little
cloud, a soft willow-bud of the spring-time, a
white strawberry, and many other things in
which birds delight.</p>
<p>The company were so pleased that they begged
to hear the song again,--all except rabbit, who,
finding his mistake at last, hopped further in
among the leaves, and hid himself, feeling very
much ashamed.</p>
<p>Then yellow-bird, instead of repeating his first
song, sang another, which was sweeter still. It
told how full the world might be of love and
happiness, how many such good times as this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
all creatures might have, if they would but be
gentle and kind, willing to please, and ready to
forgive.</p>
<p>As the last note died away, oriole, impatient
to show his skill, remarked that yellow-bird's
song was too much like a sermon; and, without
waiting for invitation, he then gave what seemed
to him a better one.</p>
<p>And it was enchanting music. O, so clear, and
wild, and joyous, that it made the other birds lift
their wings, and long to fly!</p>
<p>Hearing a plunge in the water near, and a sigh
of pleasure, Minnie looked down between the
branches, and saw a handsome green frog, that
had come to listen to the music; and swarms of
little fish, with rainbow-colors on their silver
scales, all listening too.</p>
<p>So the afternoon passed in speeches and music.
The squirrels, who could not sing, told stories
that made the company laugh right heartily.
Even Minnie took her part in the entertainment,
by relating how people in the village lived, how
they ate, and drank, and slept, and why they did
many things which had puzzled the birds and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span>
squirrels amazingly.</p>
<p>All this was as interesting to her listeners as
it would be for us to read Robinson Crusoe,
or Dr. Kane's travels among the icebergs and
Esquimaux.</p>
<p>Repeating their thanks to squirrel, and each
one politely urging Minnie to visit him, the company
now went home.</p>
<p>Yellow-bird insisted upon taking Minnie on his
wings, but soon found the little woman so heavy
that he was satisfied to let her dance along by
squirrel's side, and flew off to find his young.
He had, too, a world to tell his mate about the
merry feast, and the queer little lady in whose
honor it was given.
</p>
<p>I am afraid all the birds and squirrels that were
at the party kept their mates or their brothers
and sisters awake that night, relating what they
had seen and heard. Even the mice talked about
it in their cellars under ground; and oriole did
not sleep a wink, he worked so hard composing a
song to Minnie's eyelashes.
</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
<p class="center">THE YELLOW-BIRD.</p>
<p>At daybreak the next morning yellow-bird
came with the indigo-bird and thrush, and awakened
Minnie with their charming songs. Sunrise,
you know, is the time birds always choose
for serenades; and I am not sure they are
wrong--everything is so fresh, and still, and
dewy, then.</p>
<p>She could hardly wait till the music was over
before shaking away the moss in which she had
slept, and going to bid her friends good-morning.
Skipping fearlessly along the boughs,--for she
had not forgotten squirrel's lessons,--just as the
birds were preparing to fly away, Minnie surprised
them with a sight of her merry face.</p>
<p>They did not chat long, for Minnie could see
that her friends were impatient for their morning
sail up in the fresh blue air. So she begged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
them to fly away, while she would go to the
squirrel-nest and find if breakfast was ready.</p>
<p>She met squirrel, who, though much fatigued,
and sometimes obliged to put his tail before his
mouth in order to hide his gapes, was as civil as
ever, and bade her a pleasant good-morning.</p>
<p>His wife did not happen to be in so amiable a
mood. Not only was she tired from all the work
and anxiety of the day before, but Minnie's
sweeping and dusting, she said, had put everything
out of order in her nest. Besides this, the
children had taken cold from staying out of
doors so long, and the light of the sun had given
them weak eyes.</p>
<p>Minnie was troubled, and offered her help in
making things go right again.</p>
<p>"No," Mrs. Squirrel replied, "I have had
enough of such help, and now you can best
assist me by keeping out of the way."</p>
<p>This was very rude, and brought tears into
Minnie's eyes. It was bad enough, she thought,
to be so far from home, but to be treated unkindly,
and after she had worked so hard in
hopes to please the squirrel, this was more than<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>
she could bear.</p>
<p>Running so far from the nest that she could
not hear the angry voice within, Minnie seated
herself on the bough, and, all alone there, thought
of her pleasant home, and the mother who was
so ready to praise her when she did right, and
just as ready to forgive her when she did wrong.
She seemed to see Franky looking through the
fence, waiting, and wondering if she would never
come. Then she saw Allie open her large eyes,
and, peeping between the bars of her crib, look
all about the room, and stretch her little hands
forth for Minnie, and no Minnie there!</p>
<p>Even if she went back now, would they know
her, shrunk as she was to a mere doll? Before
she could reach her father's door, wouldn't the
boys in the street pick up such a curious little
being, and put her in a cage, or sell her, perhaps,
to be killed and stuffed for some museum?</p>
<p>"O, I haven't any home, or friends in all the
world!" she said, and, covering her face with
her little hands, Minnie sobbed as if her heart
would break.</p>
<p>"Hallo, there! what's the matter?" shouted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>
young Master Squirrel from the bough above.
"It can't be you're crying because the old
woman is cross? Why, she'll be good as chestnuts
by the time you see her again. Here, catch
these nuts! she made me crack them for your
breakfast."</p>
<p>Minnie thanked the squirrel, but she could not
eat. Her heart was too heavy. She hoped that,
when the birds came back, they would not find
her, for she was too much grieved to talk, or
even listen to music.</p>
<p>She had hardly drawn the leaves about her,
when she saw the indigo-bird, and then the
thrush, making their way towards the elm. Minnie
held her breath, while they alighted and
hopped from bough to bough, and turned their
heads on one side to peer between the leaves,
and sang little snatches of song, that she might
hear and answer them. At last they flew away,
and when oriole came, he had no better success.</p>
<p>Then came yellow-bird, with a fresh ripe strawberry
in his mouth. He also looked in vain,
until, just as he was lifting his wings to go, his
quick ear caught a sigh, so low that only loving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>
ears would have heard it, and he flew at once to
Minnie's feet.</p>
<p>She still held the leaves fast, and yellow-bird
was obliged to tear them with his beak before he
could be certain that she was within.</p>
<p>"Poor little soul! what is the matter?" he
said, when he saw her sad face, wet with tears.</p>
<p>Then Minnie put her arms around yellow-bird's
neck, and told all her troubles. He did not speak
a word until she had finished, when he exclaimed,
"You shall not live with the squirrels any longer.
Come to my own warm little nest on the other
side of the elm. My mate will be glad to see
you, and you shall have sunshine and music
all day long. Tell me, Minnie, will you come?"
He ended with a little strain of song, so sweet
and pleading that Minnie could have kissed him
for it, only, you know, a bird's mouth is rather
sharp to kiss. She pleased him better by promising
to go that very hour to his nest.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
<p class="center">IN A BIRD'S NEST.</p>
<p>Yellow-bird's nest was all that he had promised.
It was built on one of the outer boughs
of the elm, deep enough among the leaves to be
shady at noon, yet not so deep but in the cool
of morning the sunshine could rest upon it.</p>
<p>Then the view was much finer than that from
squirrel's side of the tree. Minnie looked down
upon fields of wild flowers all wet with dew,
across at hills that rose grandly against the sky;
and, better still, between the trees she caught a
glimpse of the town, with its white spires and
cottages.</p>
<p>It was an important day with yellow-bird, for
a whole brood of young ones were leaving his
nest for the last time. He had taught them to
sing and fly, had shown them where to find food,
and given so much good advice, that now he did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>
not feel afraid to trust them by themselves.</p>
<p>He brought his children to see Minnie before
they left, made them sing a little song of welcome
and farewell, and then watched with pleasure
as they flew into the wood, and soon were
lost amid its shady boughs.</p>
<p>Minnie asked if it did not make him sad to
lose his treasures all at once.</p>
<p>"O, no," he said; "if one of my chicks had
been blind, or had grown up with a broken wing,
and could not leave the nest, I well might
grieve. Now that all has gone well, I'm only
too glad to see them fly away."</p>
<p>"But suppose that, when out of your sight,
they fall into trouble or mischief?"</p>
<p>"They are never out of God's sight. Cannot
he take better care of them than a little bird like
me? Ah, Minnie, it isn't best to fret! The
smaller and weaker we are, the more care our
heavenly Father takes of us."</p>
<p>Yellow-bird's mate came now to see what her
husband could be talking about, and invited
Minnie to take a nearer look at her nest, which
she had been industriously cleaning and mending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>
since her children went.</p>
<p>It was a smooth, cool bed of horse-hair and
moss, set prettily amidst the thick green leaves.
Slender roots and threads were woven across
the outside, and what was Minnie's delight to
find among them a scrap of one of her mother's
dresses, which yellow-bird said he had picked up
beneath a window in the village, for it was so
soft, and covered with such bright flowers, he
knew it must please his mate!</p>
<p>Minnie felt that the nest would be dearer to
her, and more like home than ever now. Yet
she knew it was not civil to leave her good
friends, the squirrels, without a word of good-by;
so, lighter-hearted than when she left it, she
skipped back to their den on the other side of
the tree.</p>
<p>She found the old lady's temper very much
improved, perhaps because she had her nest in
what she called order again. Minnie tumbled
over nut-shells, tore her dress against thorny
sticks, and, when she stretched her hand toward
the wall, trying to rise, she felt cold mushrooms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>
growing out of the crumbling wood.</p>
<p>It was dark, too,--no prospect there,--and
there was the old musty odor, which she remembered
so well, instead of the sweet air and fresh
green leaves above yellow-bird's nest; and there
was the heap of sleepy young squirrels squeaking
in a corner.</p>
<p>"O, dear!" thought Minnie, "how could I
ever have wished to live in a place like this?"</p>
<p>Mrs. Squirrel was polite once more, and kindly
offered her some luncheon, but did not ask her
to stay. And, though surprised, she did not
seem grieved when the little lady told her that
she had come to say farewell.</p>
<p>Not so squirrel himself, who was proud of
Minnie, and fond of her, and felt so badly at
parting, that his lips trembled too much to bid
her good-by, and he ran off into a hole in the
ground to hide his tears.</p>
<p>"Dear squirrel! he has done the best he could
for me," she thought; "and now, because he
doesn't happen to have a pleasant home, I am
about to leave him! I have a great mind to go<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>
back!"</p>
<p>Just then a nut-shell dropped on her head,
and, looking up, she saw Master Squirrel, who
laughed at her surprise. Leaping a little nearer,
he began:</p>
<p>"So you've returned, Miss Runaway! My
mother said it would be too good luck to lose
you in a hurry. She was sure we should see
you before the sun went down."</p>
<p>"Then your mother doesn't like me?"</p>
<p>"O, yes! she says you're a cunning little body,
and mean no harm; but, like all company, you
make a great deal of trouble, and do no one any
good, that she can see."</p>
<p>"What does your father say to that?"</p>
<p>"He takes your part; tells her he's ashamed
that she is not more hospitable; and then they
quarrel well, I tell you!"</p>
<p>"There shall be no more trouble on my account,"
said Minnie, with dignity. "I am going
to live with my friends, the yellow-birds. I have
bidden your father and mother good-by, and now
good-by, squirrel; you have all been very kind to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>
me."</p>
<p>"No we haven't, Minnie; and I have been
rudest of all; and you, so good, to be satisfied
with our poor home!"</p>
<p>"Dinner-time! plenty of checkerberry buds
and juicy berries in the wood!" sang yellow-bird
on a bough above. "Come, Minnie, come!"</p>
<p>"Good-by, squirrel! Yellow-bird, here I am."</p>
<p>"O, Minnie!" was all the answer squirrel
could make. She left him wiping his eyes on his
hairy paws--left him, and skipped away with
her new friend.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
<p class="center">MINNIE AND THE BIRDS.</p>
<p>For a little while Minnie was very happy with
the yellow-birds; they were gentle and loving as
the days were long, and only disputed to know
which should have the pleasure of doing most
for their company.</p>
<p>At home it was all sunshine and music, exactly
as they had promised; and, when there was too
much sun, they flew to the wood, where hundreds
of other birds met also, and merrily passed the
long, bright afternoons.</p>
<p>It was like a party every day. Instead of
needing to set a table each time, there was the
whole wood, with its flowers, berries, gums, and
spicy buds, spread out for them to take their
choice. The wine bubbled up freshly from their
cellar, and spread into bright wells wreathed
with flowers. No need of corkscrews and coolers;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
yet, the best wine in the world never tasted
so good, nor left such clear heads, and such
merry, thankful hearts, as this simple water--the
only drink the birds asked at this woodland
feast.</p>
<p>Minnie made friends among great and small,
she was so sprightly, and ready to please, and so
willing to be pleased herself. This last is a great
secret in winning friends. If people find it hard
to amuse us, they very soon grow tired of trying,
and leave us to entertain ourselves.</p>
<p>But Minnie had a pleasant word and a merry
answer for every one. She did not laugh at the
oriole for his foolish pride, nor at the ant for her
stinginess and silence, nor at the bee for making
such a bustle, nor at the indigo-bird for her diffidence.
She knew it was their way, and only
took care not to imitate their faults herself.</p>
<p>Meantime she never was tired of admiring
their better traits of character. Let the oriole
be proud as he would; she knew that hardly any
one else could sing such lovely songs as he was
always twittering. Let the ant be ever so mean
and dumb; who else had such an orderly house,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>
and such a store of food? Let the bee buzz;
couldn't he turn the poorest weeds into delicious
honey, and set it in waxen jars of his own
making, yet so neat, and delicate, and well contrived,
that any man or woman might be proud
of them? Let the indigo-bird be shy; once hidden
among the leaves, wasn't she willing enough
to trill forth the clearest, loudest, sweetest little
songs?</p>
<p>Ah! in this great wide world there is no creature
but has some precious gift for us, if we can
only find it. The little bird is weak, but his
voice can fill the whole sky with music. You
may know some rough boy who seems wicked;
but be sure there's a good spot in his heart, and,
by treating him kindly, we may make that good
spot larger. Isn't it worth while to try?</p>
<p>Though yellow-bird, after giving many lessons,
found he could not teach Minnie to fly, he taught
her so much that, by resting one hand on his
neck, she could easily glide along with him
through the air.</p>
<p>In this way they fluttered from bough to
bough in the wood, then took longer flights<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>
through sunny meadows, and at last ventured
up among the clouds, where Minnie had longed
to go.</p>
<p>Up, up, they soared,--yellow-bird singing for
joy,--till there was nothing around them except
the bright blue air, and, close over their heads,
rose the pearly morning clouds.</p>
<p>Many a time had the little girl sat on her father's
door-step, and longed to be where she now
found herself. Many a summer morning she had
watched these same clouds gather and wrap
themselves together, till they looked like splendid
palaces of pearl--pearly domes and spires
dazzlingly bright in the sunshine, and porticos
with pillars of twisted pearl; and, at little
openings, she could look through vast halls, all
paved with pearl, and curtained with silvery
hangings.</p>
<p>At sunset the roof of her beautiful palace had
changed from pearl to silver, and all its spires
were gilded; the silvery hangings changed to
rose-color; the floor, instead of pearl, was paved
with solid gold, and the pillars were made of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>
shining amethyst.</p>
<p>"O," Minnie had thought, "if, instead of this
little house, with its dull, iron fence, I could live
in such a noble home as that, how proud and
happy I should be!"</p>
<p>Then, as a man passed, with his ladder, to light
the street-lamps, she wondered if hundreds of
ladders tied together couldn't reach as far as
the clouds.</p>
<p>"How I would skip up the rounds," she
thought, "and, when I had reached the highest,
send my ladder tumbling back to earth! The
ladder would break, so no one could follow me;
and all day long I'd fly from hall to hall, or,
through great winding staircases, find my way
to the golden cupolas, where I could look down
into the poor old dusty earth I had left."</p>
<p>And now, without tying a hundred ladders
together, here she was among the clouds. Alas!
the pearly halls, that from below had looked so
beautiful, were damp and dismal vapors. It was
chilly and lonesome up there, while, wonderful
to tell! the earth seemed a warmer, sunnier,
more cheerful place than she had ever known it.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>
There was the pretty town, with its surrounding
hills and woods, with its winding rivers, and
green fields, and tranquil lakes. In all the sky
there was nothing half so beautiful!</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
<p class="center">THE SQUIRREL'S TEAM.</p>
<p>After the long sky-journey, Minnie was glad
to reach her home in the elm once more. She
was weary, wet, cold, and disappointed. She
longed for the blazing fire in her mother's room,
and the warm, pleasant drink her mother could
mix for her. She longed to hear Frank's merry
voice, and to see baby Allie with her golden
curls.</p>
<p>There was no use in longing. Even if yellow-bird
should fly with her to the very window,
they wouldn't know her. They would only
laugh at the curious little creature she had
grown, and hang her up in the cage with their
canary-birds. So she would make the best of
her home that was left, and not distress her kind
friends by wearing a gloomy face.</p>
<p>She was trying to smile, when a pleasant chirp<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>
told her that the yellow-bird's mate was near.
She soon hopped into sight, and, welcoming Minnie
in her kind way, told that she had an invitation
from no less a person than his majesty, the
owl.</p>
<p>The party was made especially for Minnie;
so she could not refuse, although it was to be
held at midnight. Yellow-bird would go with
her.</p>
<p>"And you, too?" Minnie asked.</p>
<p>"Excuse me, dear, this time. I feel obliged to
stay at home."</p>
<p>"So do I, then."</p>
<p>"Ah, I will tell you a secret. I have in my
nest some of the prettiest little eggs you ever
saw. If I should leave them they might be
chilled with the night-air; so never mind me,
Minnie, but go and have the pleasantest time
you can."</p>
<p>"To tell another secret, then," Minnie answered,
"my dress is not only worn to rags,
but so soiled that I am ashamed of it, and cannot
think of going into company. See what a
plight!" And she held up the skirt that was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>
torn into strips like ribbon.</p>
<p>"Is that all? I watched to-day while a cruel
boy was shooting in the wood. He fired at a
poor little humming-bird, and broke its wing. It
fluttered down among the bushes, and lies there
now, I suppose, for I took care to call the boy
away."</p>
<p>"How?"</p>
<p>"O, we understand. I cried out as if he had
also wounded me; and, when he began to search,
went slyly round into another place, and cried
again. So I led the boy on, till I felt pretty sure
he could not find his game if he went back."</p>
<p>"But why did you take so much pains?"</p>
<p>"Partly so that he should not carry the pretty
little creature home, and send half the boys in
town out here, next day, hunting humming-birds,
and partly because I thought the feathers would
make you such a warm, handsome cloak. Fly
with me, now, and we'll find it; for here comes
my mate, to take his turn in staying with the
nest."</p>
<p>They quickly reached the bush, under which
humming-bird lay dead; but how heavy he was!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>
It was as much as ever Minnie could do to lift
him from the ground.</p>
<p>While they stood over him, wondering what
was next to be done, Master Squirrel frisked in
sight, rolling before him a large, round turtle-shell.</p>
<p>"Stand out of the way!" he shouted. But
Minnie stood across his path, and, for fear of
throwing her down, he stopped; and, leaning on
his shell, not very good-naturedly asked what
she wanted.</p>
<p>"O, squirrel, do leave your play a little while,
and help us!" she said. "We have this heavy
bird to carry home, and skin, and make the skin
into a cloak, while the daylight lasts; do be kind,
now, and help us!"</p>
<p>"It isn't my way to be kind; but I'll make a
bargain with you."</p>
<p>"Well."</p>
<p>"Yellow-bird shall fix a harness out of straw,
fasten you into my shell for a horse, and I will
drive home with your load."</p>
<p>"That's a good plan," said Minnie, not waiting
to think how squirrel had kept the best of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
the bargain for his own share. "What say you,
yellow-bird?"</p>
<p>"Poor little woman! after such a long journey
you are too tired to drag this great fellow home.
I will do it myself."</p>
<p>"Then I will help you twist the ropes."</p>
<p>To work they went, and soon had the harness
finished. Squirrel, meantime, selected a good
long twig for a whip, laid the humming-bird
across the shell, and leaped into his place.</p>
<p>He could hardly wait for the harnessing to be
ended; but Minnie made him stay until he had
promised only to snap his whip in the air, not
use it on yellow-bird, and they darted on.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
<p class="center">THE MOONLIGHT DANCE.</p>
<p>Minnie tripped behind, watching the little
team. She had grown so nimble that she could
keep nearer than squirrel thought.</p>
<p>When he supposed he was out of sight from
her, he lifted his whip, and gave yellow-bird a
smart stroke across his shoulders.</p>
<p>But she knew how to punish him;--spreading
her wings at once, she rose into the air, and
made the deceitful squirrel roll out of his
chariot.</p>
<p>He was ashamed to see Minnie after this, so
limped away, whining that he had broken his
paw, and would tell his mother.</p>
<p>Then yellow-bird sung one of her droll little
songs, that were like twenty laughs shaken
together, and, when Minnie came, begged her to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>
take the squirrel's place, and drive home.</p>
<p>The little woman was too thoughtful of her
kind friend for that. She went behind and
pushed, while yellow-bird dragged the shell, and
they soon had it safe beneath the elm.</p>
<p>Then they slipped off the humming-bird's skin
in a trice, hung it a while on the sunny side of
the elm to dry, and Minnie's good friend pulled
out from among the twigs of the nest that dear
piece of her mother's dress, and gave it to her
for a lining.</p>
<p>You never saw a prettier and more fairy-like
little garment than this when it was finished; the
tiny feathers all lay together so evenly, and
whenever the wearer moved they took such brilliant
hues! Now the cloak was red, now brown,
now green and gold, and again it glittered with
all these colors at once.</p>
<p>Minnie had always seemed like a bird, with her
quick, light, flying ways, and more than ever she
seemed one now, with her gay feather cloak, and
the fluttering, sailing motions she had caught
from yellow-bird.</p>
<p>Mrs. Yellow-bird, having put the last stitch in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>
Minnie's cloak, fastened it about her neck, and
looked at her guest with great satisfaction.
Then, at a chirp, her mate came, and readily consented
to be Minnie's escort; so away they flew
together.</p>
<p>The evening was mild, and clear moonlight
filled the wood. Owl had chosen a lovely green
dell in which to meet his friends, and had fitted
it up with taste, and no little pains. All among
the bushes and lower boughs of the trees he had
tied live fire-flies and bright green beetles. He
had built for the dance a tent of bark, and had
sanded the floor with a curious dust that is found
in the wood countries, and is like pale coals of
fire.</p>
<p>The birds dared not step on this fiery carpet at
first, for fear of singeing their feet; but owl
assured them that it had no warmth. As for the
fire-fly lanterns, it must be confessed that the
birds' mouths watered in passing them, but they
were too civil to eat up their host's decorations.</p>
<p>There was an orchestra of crickets, and they
played such merry tunes that the guests all
danced and waltzed till they were tired, and then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
it was supper-time.</p>
<p>Alas! owl had not been so thoughtful as the
squirrels, and had only furnished such food as he
liked himself. You may judge the surprise and
disgust of the company, when, to the music of
the band, they were marched in front of a heap
of dead mice!</p>
<p>The owl began to eat at once, and begged his
guests not to be diffident. Not one of them
tasted a morsel, however. Some politely refused,
some went home angry, and a few had the courage
to own that they were not fond of mouse-flesh.</p>
<p>Thus owl's party ended, and, indeed, all his
parties, for, the next time he sent out invitations,
every bird in the wood respectfully declined.</p>
<p>If we think of no one but ourselves, we shall
soon be left to ourselves.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
<p class="center">THE LITTLE NURSES.</p>
<p>Minnie almost fell asleep on her way back to
the elm, and found it hard to keep up with yellow-bird,
who flew on briskly as ever.</p>
<p>Her long morning journey, the labor and hurry
of making her cloak, as well as the effort to
bring the humming-bird home, and the party
afterwards, the dancing and late hours, tired her
so much--so much that she feared all the rest
in the world would not make her strong again.</p>
<p>And when the tree was reached, Minnie's
friends did not, as usual, offer her their nest.
They must keep it now for the eggs. Cold and
weary as she was, the little girl must lie down
among damp leaves, with no other bed than a
mossy place which she found on the rough bark
of the elm.</p>
<p>In the morning she still felt tired, lame, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>
stiff, yet her spirits came back with the sunshine,
and when she told yellow-bird she had not
strength enough to fly away with him, he stayed
and sung to her a while, and afterwards brought
her delicious berries from the wood, all sweet
and ripe, and cool with dew.</p>
<p>With such an attentive friend to supply her
wants, it was not very hard to sit quietly upon
her couch of moss, so green and velvety, with
sunshine all about her on the leaves, and the
pleasant prospect below.</p>
<p>You will remember that the tree was full of
inhabitants, and our Minnie had made friends
with almost all of them. When well and active,
she had never passed them without a pleasant
word, or at least a nod of welcome; and, now
that she was sick, they were most happy to sit
and talk with her, or offer their assistance.</p>
<p>They brought her presents, each in his kind.
The bee came up from among the clover-blossoms,
to place clear drops of honey on the leaf
beside his little friend. The silent ant stopped
a moment to tell the news, and presented a morsel
of sugar which she had hoarded in her nest<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>
till it was brown with age. Indigo-bird brought
a berry, blue as his wings. Some of the birds
brought good fat angle-worms or snails, which
would be dainty morsels to them. These Minnie
laid aside for her friend Mr. Yellow-bird, although
she thanked the givers politely, as if what they
brought were her own favorite food.</p>
<p>This was not deceitful, because what Minnie
enjoyed was the thoughtful kindness of her
friends, and not their gifts. The berries were
sweet, to be sure, but their friendship was
sweeter.</p>
<p>Master Squirrel came among the rest. He
and a spider of his acquaintance had made Minnie
a beautiful parasol, with the humming-bird's
bill for a handle, and a wild rose for the top.</p>
<p>The pink cup of this flower, turned downward
as it was, cast such a glow upon Minnie's pale
face, that Master Squirrel thought he had never
before seen her look so handsome.</p>
<p>Soon, tired of listening to his coarse compliments,
the little girl asked what else it was that
he kept so nicely covered in his hands.</p>
<p>"O, that's my mother's offering!" he replied.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>
"How the old woman would have scolded if I
had forgotten to give it to you!"</p>
<p>"Pray, let me have it. How kind your mother
always is!"</p>
<p>"Except when her nest is too clean, eh? Well,
she saw me working over the humming-bird's
carcass, and thought, as the meat was fresh, perhaps
you'd like a scrap cooked for your dinner."</p>
<p>"Cooked meat! O, I haven't tasted a morsel
since I left my father's house!" said Minnie, in
delight. "Where could your mother have found
the fire, though?"</p>
<p>"Not far off the woods are burning,--took
fire in the dry season, as they often do,--and
there were plenty of coals; so madam cut off the
humming-bird's wing, and broiled it--O, my!--till
it smells so nice that it made my mouth water
to bring it to you!"</p>
<p>He lifted the cover, and there, on a green leaf,
lay the dainty wing, all crisp and smoking now.
Minnie relished her dinner more than words can
tell.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
<p class="center">MOUSE.</p>
<p>Before Minnie was strong again, yellow-bird's
eggs hatched, and both he and his mate were
busy and anxious, all the time, with taking care
of their nest full of little ones. She did not see
her friends so often as formerly, and, when they
came, their visits were hurried and short.</p>
<p>And, one by one, her other acquaintances
grew forgetful, for birds and insects don't have
such good memories as we, you know. Each
was occupied with his own cares and amusements.
Perhaps the truth was that they had
grown tired of Minnie, as you grow tired, in
time, of your prettiest playthings.</p>
<p>She felt all these changes. She remembered
sadly what Master Squirrel had said, that his
mother thought company a great deal of trouble,
and herself, though a cunning body, of no use to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>
any one.</p>
<p>What if yellow-bird and his mate should begin
to feel the same? She determined not to stay
and trouble them any longer, after they both had
been so kind; but where in the great world
could she go for a home? Who would feed, and
comfort, and love her? Ah! how sadly she
remembered the dear mother who had made it all
her care to watch over and supply her children's
wants!</p>
<p>Every creature in the wood had a home and
friends, except herself! And yet none of these
homes were so pleasant, none of these friends
so sweet and loving, as the ones she had foolishly
thrown away.</p>
<p>"Ah!" thought Minnie, as in the dusky twilight
she lay swinging on a lonely bough of the
elm, "Ah! if I could whisper loud enough for
every little boy and girl on earth to hear, I'd
say, 'Be happy in your own home, with your
own friends; for there are no others like them--none,
none, none!'"</p>
<p>Though these sad feelings were weighing on
the heart, the rocking of the bough and sighing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>
of the evening wind among the leaves lulled
Minnie soon asleep.</p>
<p>She awoke in a terrible storm. She was
drenched with rain, which pelted like pebbles, in
sharp, quick drops, beating the leaves, while the
wind dashed the boughs together, and made
Minnie fear that, though clinging with all her
strength to the branch, she must fall.</p>
<p>And she did fall into the wet grass far below,
and was stunned, perhaps, for she did not awake
until morning.</p>
<p>Then the sun shone brightly once more, the
elm above her glittered with sparkling drops,
and the first sound which Minnie heard was yellow-bird's
song of joy that his little ones were
safe after all the wind and rain.</p>
<p>"He has forgotten me, or he would not be so
glad!" she whispered to herself. Then came the
thought, "Perhaps he is happier because I am
swept away out of his sight!" and with this she
began to cry.</p>
<p>"What's the matter?" asked a little mouse,
that was running about in the grass, picking up
worms and flies which had perished in the rain.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>
"What's the matter? Have my proud cousins,
the squirrels, been treating you badly again?"</p>
<p>"No, they all do more for me than I can do
for them; but, dear little mouse, I've stayed in
the woods too long. Every one is tired of me.
Couldn't you show me the way back to my
mother's house?"</p>
<p>"Why, Minnie, <i>I</i> am not tired of you. Pray,
don't go home yet. Come and make me a visit
in my snug little hole, so quiet underground.
No storms reach there. I shall not whisk you
about as squirrel has done; nor take you long,
weary journeys through the air, like yellow-bird.
I'll bring you cheese, and meal, and melon-seeds,
till you grow rosy as your little sister Alice."</p>
<p>"My sister! What can you know about her,
pray?"</p>
<p>"Wasn't I at your house this morning? I
have, not far from this very wood, a passage-way
underground that leads into your mother's pantry.
Come to my nest, and you'll hear news
from home."</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
<p class="center">HOUSEKEEPING.</p>
<p>Minnie gladly followed the mouse into his
hole. To see some one who had been in her
dear lost home, was almost as good as to feel her
mother's gentle hand laid on her head once more.</p>
<p>In the promised news she was disappointed!
Alas! the mouse disappointed her in many
things. Minnie had not lived with him long before
she found that she had fallen into bad company.</p>
<p>He was good-natured and hospitable in his
way, but a sad thief, and his word could never
be depended upon. The little girl even felt
afraid of her own safety, when she saw what
pleasure mouse took in betraying all who trusted
in him.</p>
<p>The first time she fell asleep, the mischievous
fellow nibbled off what rags were left of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>
gown, to make a bed for his young. Minnie
feared that next he might pick out her eyes for
their luncheon, and determined to leave him before
it should be too late.</p>
<p>But it seemed as if the sly mouse saw into her
mind, for, as she was composing her farewell
speech, he came running out in the grass where
she had seated herself, and said, in his squeaking
voice, "Minnie, will you do me a great favor?"</p>
<p>"I shall be glad to do anything in my power,"
was the reply.</p>
<p>"Well, you didn't seem satisfied with the news
I brought from home, and so I have resolved to
go and try if I cannot pick up some more."</p>
<p>"I suppose you won't pick up any of my
mother's cheese and pie-crust?" said Minnie,
laughing.</p>
<p>"Of course not; at least, not more than
enough to pay for my trouble in going. And
now, Minnie dear, I want you to take care of my
little ones while I'm gone,--to feed them, and
see that they don't roll out of their nest."</p>
<p>"That I will do very willingly."</p>
<p>Mouse scampered away, and Minnie little<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>
thought how long it would be before she should
see him again.</p>
<p>The nest was narrower, deeper, and darker,
than squirrel's, and quite as close and disorderly.
It was hard for Minnie to crowd herself through
the entrance; but, once within, she found paths
winding in every direction, some of them ending
in little chambers. Part of these rooms were
store-houses of grain, cheese, and all manner of
rubbish, which mouse must have stolen for the
pleasure of stealing, Minnie thought, it was so
wholly useless. The other rooms had each its
brood of little mice, of all sizes and ages, some
almost as large as the mother, some not much
larger than a fly.</p>
<p>It took the whole afternoon to wander from
one room to another, explaining where the mother
had gone, comforting those that began to fret,
feeding the hungry, quieting the quarrelsome.
Glad enough was Minnie when she had tucked up
the last brood in their bed of wool, and could
creep out into the grass for a breath of air and a
look at the pleasant sky.</p>
<p>Shaking the earth from her cloak of humming-bird<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span>
feathers, and picking a handful of checkerberries,
Minnie looked about for a stone to sit
upon while she ate her supper.</p>
<p>She soon found one, smooth as any pebble in
the brook. Here she could eat at her leisure,
while a band of crickets and katydids played to
her, and all the beautiful stars twinkled over her
head, and all the grass about her was strung with
glistening drops of dew.</p>
<p>"After all," she thought, "this is more to my
taste than being shut up in my curtained bed at
home. What's the use in stars and dew, if we
never look at them? What use is there in the
evening breeze, if we shut it out with our windows?
It's a good thing to have our own way,
and I may yet be glad that I left my father's
house."</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
<p class="center">TROUBLE FOR MINNIE.</p>
<p>As Minnie sat meditating, suddenly the grass
about her seemed to move. The long blades
bent this way and that, and shook their dew-drops
over her.</p>
<p>What could this mean? Had the grass feet?
Could it draw its roots up out of the ground
and walk?</p>
<p>Why, <i>she</i> was moving! The grass behind lay
bowed together in her pathway, and here she
was, seated close under an evening primrose,
which opened its yellow blossoms so far from the
mouse-nest that she had only felt their fragrance
when the wind blew.</p>
<p>Presently something like the head of a great
snake was stretched out from under her seat.
Minnie sprang up at once, and, climbing into the
primrose branches, wondered if she were awake<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>
or asleep, that such strange things should
happen.</p>
<p>Then the snake's head disappeared, and a low
voice spoke from under the stone, "Why do you
leave me? I live in a pleasanter place than the
mouse, and am myself more honest and agreeable.
Will not the little woman make me a visit?"</p>
<p>"Why, what's your name, and where did you
come from? and are you a stone, or something
alive? and is that snake's head a part of you?"
said Minnie, half frightened, and half amused.</p>
<p>"What you are so polite as to call a snake's
head is my own, and what you call a stone is my
shell, and I am a turtle, Miss Minnie," the voice
answered, with dignity.</p>
<p>"Pray, don't be angry with me, turtle; I
meant no harm. Now the moonlight has come, I
can see the beautiful golden stars on your back;
and, now my fright is over, I remember what a
pleasant ride you took me through the grass."</p>
<p>"You shall have as many such rides as you
want, if only you'll come and stay with me by
the side of the brook."</p>
<p>Here was the very opportunity Minnie had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
wished, to find a safer home; but she could not
forget her promise to the mouse, and leave the
little ones to suffer.</p>
<p>When she told turtle this, he said that she was
perfectly right, and, creeping back with his load
to the entrance of the nest, and finding the mouse
was still away, he left Minnie, promising that by
sunrise in the morning he would return for her.</p>
<p>Accustomed as she had long been to the shelter
of the elm-leaves, the dampness rising from
the ground made Minnie sneeze so violently that
the crickets stopped playing to listen. She was
glad to go, at last, inside of the nest, and sleep
in one of the close little rubbish-rooms.</p>
<p>At daylight she was awakened by a small
brown beetle running up and down her arm.
Rubbing her eyes, she asked, rather sharply, why
he could not let her sleep in peace.</p>
<p>"The turtle wants to know why you don't
keep your promises. He has been waiting this
half hour, and sends word that it is a shame for
you to sleep away the beautiful morning hours."</p>
<p>Minnie sprang to her feet at once, and was following
the beetle, when squeak, squeak! ho, hallo!<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>
wait a minute, Minnie! came from every room
she attempted to pass.</p>
<p>She found that mouse had not kept her promise
of coming home, and, sending a message to the
turtle, she was obliged to wait and hear a hundred
questions and complaints, and settle a hundred
disputes between the quarrelsome young
ones.</p>
<p>One had pushed the other out of bed; one had
trodden on the other's tail; one tickled the other
so that he could not sleep; one snored so loud it
made another nervous; one had eaten up the
other's grain.</p>
<p>As Minnie crept about in this dark, disagreeable
place, so full of angry voices, she remembered
that lost home of hers, where all was
peace and love. She remembered dear Franky,
with his rosy cheeks and curly hair,--the good,
generous little fellow that he was; and baby
Alice, with her large brown eyes; and the kind
parents who never went away and forgot <i>their</i>
little ones.</p>
<p>Then she rummaged the store-rooms for food;
and, not finding enough to satisfy the greedy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>
mice, crept out into the air to see if she could
not pick up something for their breakfast.</p>
<p>She saw no turtle. The grass was bent still
with his foot-tracks, but he was gone. So Minnie
went busily to work picking off seeds and berries,
and the honeyed end of clover-blossoms, till
she had such a heap that it seemed to her she
could never carry it all into the nest.</p>
<p>Then thinking, "Perhaps, if I set the mice at
work, it will stop their quarrelling," she called
out several of the elder broods.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
<p class="center">TROUBLE STILL.</p>
<p>The young mice seemed obedient to Minnie
until they had reached the entrance of the nest;
but, at the first taste of fresh air, they began to
frisk about, and do whatever they chose.</p>
<p>First they attacked her heap of food, and ate
all the choicest bits which she had saved for the
little ones. Then off they ran, this, that, and
every way, Minnie calling after them in vain.</p>
<p>She went in search of the runaways, but they
hid safely under the leaves and grass, or burrowed
into the ground. Tired and discouraged,
the poor girl turned back to collect what food
was left, and give it to the little ones.</p>
<p>And still the old mouse did not come home.
Minnie wondered if she had gone on purpose to
be rid of her family, and if she must herself have
the care of bringing up this great brood of noisy,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
troublesome mice.</p>
<p>Why not let them starve? If they grew up,
it would only be to cheat and steal, like their
mother, and run away with people's meal and
cheese.</p>
<p>Ah! but Minnie had promised. And, besides,
the old mouse had been kind in her way, and had
offered Minnie a home when other friends forsook
her. No, she would not desert the little ones.</p>
<p>All at once she remembered a trap that used
to stand in her mother's pantry; suppose the
mouse was caught in it! She would go this
instant, and see.</p>
<p>Now the underground pathway was very, very
narrow, and so close and warm that three times
Minnie gave up her attempt, and as many times
went back; for, when she thought that the
friend who had fed her might be starving, it was
enough to drive away all other thoughts.</p>
<p>Still, not being a mouse, she could not breathe
in that close cellar-way. Her strength all left
her. The little heart, that had beat so fast when
she thought of going home, home, only fluttered
faintly now. She began to feel that she could<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>
not even creep back to the mouse-nest; that this
dark passage was to be her grave.</p>
<p>But one step forward brought Minnie into a
good-sized room, and what was her surprise to
find this the nest of the father-mouse!</p>
<p>He didn't like the noise and trouble of children,
he said, and so kept away from the sound
of their voices. He hoped his mate was well,
and was just on the point of going to see what
had become of her.</p>
<p>When Minnie told her fears, he uttered a
frightened squeak, and said he was sure she must
be right, and that he was a poor, lonesome widower,
and should never see his dear, dear wife
again.</p>
<p>Minnie cheered him by telling that her mother's
trap was not one of the cruel ones with teeth,
but only a box with wires, in which his wife
might live safely for several days. Then she
explained how with his teeth and paws he could
open the door and set her free.</p>
<p>Away flew the mouse, first showing his friend
a nearer and easier pathway out into the air.</p>
<p>Minnie now began to consider how displeased<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>
the mother-mouse would be, on returning, to find
her children scattered in all directions. If she
could but call them together, and see them safe
in the nest once more, bid the old mice good-by,
and ride off quietly herself on the turtle's back,
how happy she would be!</p>
<p>She climbed the tall evening primrose, and
looked on every side, but not a sign of a mouse.
She leaped into the grass again, and, with the
stick of her parasol, stirred every tuft of clover
and bunch of violet or plantain leaves. In vain.</p>
<p>Minnie had made up her mind that they were
lost, drowned in the brook, or eaten by some
bird of prey, when she caught sight of one, with
his bright eyes and sharp little nose peeping up
from under a toadstool.</p>
<p>Then she knew that all the rest must be near,
and, jumping on top of the toadstool, she said,</p>
<p>"You mischievous fellows, I dare say you are
all laughing at me in your hiding-places; but
hear this! your mother is dead, perhaps, and as
sure as you stay out of your nest at night, some
mischief will come to you. I shall waste no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
more time in this search."</p>
<p>Wasn't it ungrateful in the mice to disobey
Minnie, when she had taken so much trouble for
their sakes? And yet I have known children
whose parents took as much pains for their sake,
and who were as thoughtless and disobedient as
Minnie's mice.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
<p class="center">FREE AT LAST.</p>
<p>When Minnie returned to the nest, whom
should she meet but mouse in the midst of her
little ones?</p>
<p>The mate was there also. He had come partly
to help home his wife,--who had lamed her
foot in the trap,--and partly to boast of his
wonderful courage and ingenuity in setting her
free.</p>
<p>Both were very profuse in their thanks to
Minnie; for the young mice had already told of
her kindness and care. Minnie interrupted their
thanks to ask the news from home.</p>
<p>This, mouse had half forgotten in her flight.
She only remembered how, after the trap shut
down upon her, the pantry-door had opened, and
a lady came in.</p>
<p>"Tell me exactly how she looked," said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>
Minnie.</p>
<p>"She wore a gown of pink muslin, and pink
ribbons in her hair."</p>
<p>"O, that was my own mother! How I wish I
had been in your place!"</p>
<p>"I wished so too. When she lifted her hand
and took down a jar of sweetmeats, that stood
close by the trap, I felt sure she'd see me, and
have me killed. O, how I trembled! It was as
much as ever I could do to keep from squeaking
when I thought of my mate, and all the little
ones."</p>
<p>"Was my mother alone?"</p>
<p>"No; a little boy came with her, and watched
while she took the sweetmeats out into a dish.
Before closing the jar, I saw her give him a taste
of the delicious pine-apple."</p>
<p>"How did you know it was pine-apple?"</p>
<p>"O, after my mate had set me free, we waited
to lap up a few drops that trickled down the side
of the jar. We know the taste of good things!
Was that boy your brother?"</p>
<p>"No; it was dear Franky, my playfellow, who
lives at the other side of the fence. Didn't he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>
say anything?"</p>
<p>"He asked the lady if she supposed Minnie
was where she could have nice pine-apple for tea.
I couldn't hear the answer, for they both left the
pantry then."</p>
<p>"My generous Franky! He always thought
more of others than himself."</p>
<p>"Don't cry, dear, and I'll call you my generous
Minnie. Think! if you had not been so
kind, all our little ones might have starved."</p>
<p>"Yes; and my own wife might have dried
up into a skeleton in that dreadful trap!" said
the father-mouse. "How glad we are that
we have such a kind friend to live with us
always!"</p>
<p>Alas, it was hard for Minnie now to tell that
she meant to leave their nest! But, hearing the
slow steps of turtle brush through the grass
above, she thanked the mice for their good-will,
and hurried out into the sunshine, to meet her
new and faithful friend.</p>
<p>As for the mice, they were so taken by surprise,
that at first they could only look after her,
without saying a word. But, before she had<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
reached the brook, Minnie heard a squeaking
and scrambling underground; and, from a little
opening, which she had not seen before, up darted
mouse and her mate, trembling with anger, and
talking so noisily, both at once, that she could
not make out what either said.</p>
<p>Meantime turtle, who had little respect for
mice, kept on at his steady, slow pace, through
the grass. As Minnie was mounted on his back,
the mice were obliged to travel also, in order
that she might hear their complaints and reproaches.</p>
<p>For they had forgotten all about gratitude,
now, and could only grieve over the missing
broods of young.</p>
<p>As soon as Minnie discovered this, she begged
turtle to wait a moment, that she might tell her
side of the tale; but on he jogged, and, when
the mice would not be still, snapped at them
so fiercely with his snaky head, that they both
scampered home in fright.</p>
<p>They had not grieved for naught. Four of
the truants had drowned themselves in attempting
to cross the brook; two had been eaten by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
a crow; and the rest were snapped up at a mouthful,
by a spaniel, that happened to run through
the field.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
<p class="center">TURTLE.</p>
<p>You remember Minnie was a restless little
soul; and will not be surprised to learn that she
had not lived with the turtle long before his slow
ways tired her.</p>
<p>He was stubborn and disobliging, too. If
he started for a place, she couldn't make him
turn one inch aside; but on, on, on he crept
at the same slow pace,--no matter whether
Minnie were wet, and half-frozen with rain, or
parched with sunshine,--on, on, till he reached
his goal.</p>
<p>Still he was always quiet and dignified, had no
quarrels with his neighbors, and seemed to treat
his little guest as well as he knew how.</p>
<p>It is true he surprised her in disagreeable
ways sometimes. If he saw a pool of deep mud
by the road-side he would wallow through it,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>
sadly soiling Minnie's fine cloak of humming-bird
feathers. She knew he was partial to mud, and
would not have blamed him so much had this
excursion been all; but, instead of going back
to the grass, where she might wipe herself clean,
he would mount some slanting log that rose out
of the water, and stand there sunning himself
for hours.</p>
<p>One day, a gentleman, who was driving past in
a chaise, saw Minnie and the turtle perched thus
on a log, and stopped to examine the curious
object.</p>
<p>Turtle drew his head inside of his shell at
once, and left poor Minnie to her fate.</p>
<p>Now it happened that the traveller was a great
naturalist, and especially fond of collecting turtles.
He had hundreds of them, snapping at each
other, and scrambling over each others' backs, in
his yard at home.</p>
<p>Still he was always on the watch for a new
specimen; and here was a famous one, he
thought. Springing from his chaise, the gentleman
ran to the other side of the brook, and was
walking cautiously toward them, when turtle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>
thought it time to look out for his own safety.
So, dropping from the log, he disappeared in the
thick, muddy bottom of the brook.</p>
<p>The naturalist went back, disappointed, to his
chaise. Minnie, in passing, caught at some iris-leaves,
and clung to them. As soon as she could
wipe the water from her mouth, she called out,
"Allow me to bid you good-by, Mr. Turtle. I
think I can take as good care of myself as
you've taken of me thus far, and henceforth I
will save you the trouble."</p>
<p>"What's that? I'm rather thick of hearing,"
said turtle, from under the mud.</p>
<p>"Good-by, that's all!" And, by the time he
had reached the end of his log once more, Minnie
was floating down the brook on a pond-lily leaf,
diving every now and then to cleanse herself
from the mud which turtle had dragged her
through.</p>
<p>"Why shouldn't I live by myself? Where's
the use in giving others so much trouble?" she
said now. "Why cannot I play with the flowers
and butterflies, run races with the ripples, and
bright little fishes, in the brook; or sleep on any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>
bank of moss, or in any empty bird's nest that I
can find? At least, let me try; and, if I grow
hungry or lonesome, there are enough good
people to take me in."</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
<p class="center">MINNIE'S WINGS.</p>
<p>Now came the most beautiful and happiest part
of Minnie's wandering life. So nimble was she,
and ready for sport, and so droll, and withal so
gentle and ready to oblige, that she made friends
on every side. Wherever she went you'd be
sure to find a flock of butterflies, or bees, or
birds, about her.</p>
<p>They taught her all the pretty sports which
they had practised among themselves; once
more she flew across the meadows with the
birds, fed on the fresh, clear honey of the bee,
and played hide-and-seek with butterflies.</p>
<p>Sometimes the butterflies lifted her far up into
the air. How do you suppose they contrived to
do it, with their slender wings, which even the
wind could break?</p>
<p>Minnie told them that, in her father's house<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>
stood a statue, with wings on the wrists and feet.
This was Mercury, whom the Greeks in old times
worshipped as one of their many gods.</p>
<p>Now, she thought the butterflies might make a
little Mercury of her. No sooner had she said
as much than a beautiful pair, spreading wings
large enough for sails to her lily-leaf boat, floated
through the sunshine to settle upon the little
woman's shoulders. Then followed smaller ones,
with blue, white, and yellow wings; and, fastening
themselves to her ankles and wrists, up, up,
they all flew together!</p>
<p>But the next day Minnie found her little
friends creeping about with their wings sadly
sprained. So she would not often let them
repeat this experiment.</p>
<p>O, I should have to write a larger book than
this to tell you what good times Minnie had with
the butterflies; into what pleasant places they
were always leading her; how gentle and playful
they were, and how their wings were perfumed
with the flowers they had lived among.</p>
<p>She loved to have them follow her when she
walked, especially that little golden kind you<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>
have often seen in the meadows. Some followed,
some fluttered on before, as if she were
a little queen, and they her body-guard.</p>
<p>There were no angry voices now, no envious
neighbors; no Master Squirrel came to repeat
disagreeable stories. Instead of that stifled
squirrel-hole in the elm, she had the sweet air of
heaven about her now. Instead of that crowded
yellow-bird's nest, where Minnie had felt in the
way, she had now the wide meadow, with room
enough in its soft, green lining, for herself and
all her friends.</p>
<p>But, alas! Minnie was the one, this time, to
cause trouble and discontent. Only to gratify
her wilful temper, she did what she would have
given half the world to undo afterwards. It was
a little thing,--you would hardly call it wicked;
and yet it grieved and drove away her gentle
friends, and would have cost her own life, but for
an accident. These <i>little things</i> make half the
mischief in the world.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
<p class="center">HIDE-AND-SEEK.</p>
<p>One afternoon, tired of playing in the hot sun,
Minnie thought she would creep under some
shady cluster of leaves, and sleep.</p>
<p>But the butterflies could never have play
enough, and the hotter the sunshine, the better
for them. So they did not understand that the
little girl needed rest, and, thinking her weariness
only make-believe, would not give her any peace.</p>
<p>They ran across her hands, they tickled her
cheeks with their feathery feelers, they pelted
her with buttercups, and at last began to cover
her over with leaves of the wild rose. So full of
mischief were they, that one could no more sleep,
while they were about, than if they'd been so
many bees.</p>
<p>At first Minnie tried to be good-natured, and
laugh at their pranks; but, warm and tired as she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>
was, you cannot wonder that her patience didn't
last.</p>
<p>Some children would have roughly driven the
butterflies away--have pelted them with stones,
perhaps, and broken their beautiful wings. But
Minnie could not forget how kind they had been;
and besides, you know, they were not such little
things to her as they seem to us; they were
almost as large as herself.</p>
<p>She only arose, and, turning her back, would
not speak to them, or spoke in such a snappish
manner that the butterflies were frightened, and
flew away.</p>
<p>Left alone, she espied, near the wood, something
that looked like a side-saddle, just large
enough for a little body like herself. She sprang
to see if there were a tiny horse to fit, and
thought how quickly he should gallop off with
her, so far that the butterflies could not follow--no,
not if they wore their wings off!</p>
<p>But the saddle proved only to be a flower, so
much like a wadded leather cushion, that Minnie
took her seat upon it, and was swaying back and
forth with its tall, stiff stem, when she noticed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>
that it was surrounded by a row of leaves more
curious, even, than the flower.</p>
<p>Each leaf was like a little pitcher, with such
great ears that Minnie wondered if it were not
the very kind she had heard her mother talk
about, when she was whispering secrets. There
they stood, like the forty jars in which Ali-Baba
caught the forty thieves, in the Arabian Nights.</p>
<p>"Here's a place to hide!" She had hardly
said it, when the butterflies came in sight, and
Minnie slipped into the tallest pitcher, unseen by
them, she thought.</p>
<p>But no--they found her; and now was Minnie's
time to laugh. Fold their wide wings together,
crumple them as they might, not one of
the butterflies could crowd himself through the
narrow neck of the pitcher. They could only
stand and look down wistfully at the roguish face
within.</p>
<p>"I'm glad to see you! shake hands!" said
Minnie, shaking their slender wrists till they
begged her to be still.</p>
<p>"Ah! Minnie, not so rough! Come, now,
don't be cross any longer. Come out and play<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span>
with us!"</p>
<p>"Don't you wish I would? Don't you wish
you could catch me?" was all the answer she
made.</p>
<p>"But we've found a bee that a bird killed, and
we saved the honey-bag for you."</p>
<p>In vain they urged. Minnie was very stubborn.
She laughed at the butterflies, and teased
them, until they were offended, and, one by one,
flew back to the brook.</p>
<p>And, now that she had leisure to look about,
the little girl found herself in an uncomfortable
place. Not only was the pitcher half full of
water, but so narrow that she could hardly move,
and lined with stiff hairs, that seemed like thorns
to tiny hands like hers. She would not stay
here.</p>
<p>But how to escape was the question! She
only climbed the sides to slip back again; her
arms were scratched till they bled; her garments
were heavy with the water in which they drabbled.
Night was coming down; she could hear
the crickets sing; she caught glimpses of birds
flying home to their nests; yet all were so noisy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>
or so busy that they could not hear her voice.</p>
<p>How she wished, now, that her rudeness had
not driven the butterflies away! But it was too
late for such wishes; they had gone.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2>
<p class="center">MINNIE IN PRISON.</p>
<p>Minnie thought the night would never end.
She watched the stars that moved so slowly overhead;
she watched the moonlight slant into the
wood, and the pale flowers fill with dew. She
heard the night wind creep among the leaves;
and her old friend the owl, and other wild
creatures that hide by day, she heard prowling
about in the dark.</p>
<p>Sometimes there would be a quick cry, or a
patter of light little feet, or the dull hoot of the
owl; and then all was still again, and Minnie
gazed once more to see how far the stars had
moved. O, it was such a little way, and they
had so far to go before the sun would shine
again!</p>
<p>At last she fell asleep from very weariness,
and awoke to find a faint red light above the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span>
eastern hills. It was morning--morning! Another
hour would see the sun rise, and bring
some friend, perhaps, to help her away from her
prison.</p>
<p>When some kind friend awakens you at sunrise
on a summer morning, and, feeling drowsy,
you long to turn and sleep again, and wish daylight
would never come, you must suppose that
you were in Minnie's place, and see then if you
do not find it easier to spring from your beds.
Because the sunshine comes to us so freely, we
must not forget how precious and beautiful it is.</p>
<p>Suppose the darkness, instead of lasting for
one night, should last whole months, as it does
at the far north. What a damp, dismal world it
would be! How we should grope from place to
place, and, sitting in our houses by the flicker of
poor lamps, how we should long for the sunshine--for
the beaming, generous light and
pleasant warmth that spread now over all the
land!</p>
<p>The birds began to rustle among the boughs,
or, half asleep still, sing short dreamy songs
upon their nests; but Minnie could not make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>
them hear her little voice, and had resolved to
call no more, but drown or starve, if she must,
when a humming-bird came wheeling and buzzing
by.</p>
<p>He was such a noisy fellow himself, that, like
the rest, he might have passed on without noticing
Minnie's cry, but he paused to drink at the
pitcher, where he knew that water was hid; and
what was his surprise to find an old acquaintance
there!</p>
<p>Minnie was always ready for a joke; so she
popped up her head like the little men you have
seen shut into boxes, that, when the cover is
lifted, start up and frighten you.</p>
<p>She knew very well that if humming-bird flew
away at first, his curiosity would lead him back
again. She laughed to see how quickly he flitted
into the wood, and then how cautiously he came
forth, and, from bough to bough and plant to
plant, made his way to her side once more.</p>
<p>Then Minnie's face grew serious, as she told
her little friend how much she had suffered and
feared through the long, long night, and begged
that he would help her to escape. He was not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>
half strong enough to lift her, though he tried
till his bill ached with dragging at her tangled
hair.</p>
<p>And this work, if hard to him, was not, as you
may judge, the most agreeable to Minnie. She
persuaded the humming-bird to leave her for
a while, and see if he could not find help, or, at
least, find something for her to eat.</p>
<p>It happened that, in seeking food for Minnie,
the bird found something of which he was especially
fond himself; so, after eating his fill, he
went humming across the meadow, never thinking
again of the friend he had promised to help.</p>
<p>Very impatiently the little girl expected him
every moment, until an hour had passed, and still
she waited, hungry and alone.</p>
<p>Then came a great flapping of wings overhead,
and a rustling such as she had once heard when
a hawk flew into her father's poultry-yard. He
had eaten the white chicken that she called her
own, and it was as large as she was now. Suppose
he should eat her!</p>
<p>The rush of wings came nearer, and the bird,
whatever his name might be, alighted close beside<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>
Minnie, who ventured to peep over the edge
of her pitcher, and beheld a curious, tall, awkward
creature, such as she had never seen before
in her life.</p>
<p>She coughed to attract his attention, and he
turned toward her a bill as long as her own arm
was once, and began to stalk about on legs
longer, even, than his bill, and that looked like a
pair of stilts.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2>
<p class="center">NARROW ESCAPES.</p>
<p>"It's a pleasant morning for a walk," Minnie
ventured to say.</p>
<p>Her visitor answered with a croak so rough
that she couldn't tell whether he agreed with
her or not. But, taking a long step, the stork
came nearer, and looked directly down into Minnie's
prison, and upon the little, tired, mournful,
frightened face.</p>
<p>"Pray, don't hurt me! I have lost my way,
and fallen into this dreadful place."</p>
<p>"Why do you stay here, if it is not pleasant?"</p>
<p>"O, I cannot climb out, I'm so small; and the
sides are so slippery, and all these thorns so
rough!"</p>
<p>Then, without waiting to be asked, the stork
broke the leaf-stem, and, turning it upside down,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>
shook Minnie out into the grass.</p>
<p>It was so good to stretch herself in the pleasant
sunshine, that Minnie folded her hands, and
lay there quietly as if she was asleep, or dead.</p>
<p>The stork travelled around her on his stilts,
and Minnie heard him say, "In all my flying, I
never came across such an odd little creature
before; it looks like a woman, yet isn't larger
than a bird. Its feathers are like a humming-bird's,
and yet they are pretty well worn out. I
wonder how it happens!"</p>
<p>With this he began to poke and pull at her
cloak; finally, off it came, and stork held it up
in the sun for examination. Then he eyed the
little silk apron her mother had made, and
twitched it by one corner, till Minnie began to
think he would eat her piece by piece.</p>
<p>So, the first time he turned his head away, she
sprang to her feet, and, without once looking behind,
ran, leaped the fences and the fallen boughs,
and, reaching her home by the brook-side, hid under
the shadow of a stone.</p>
<p>And high above her, she watched the stork
beating the air with his heavy wings, and sailing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>
on out of sight.</p>
<p>After eating some savory roots, which the
mouse had taught her how to find, and taking a
berry or two for dessert, Minnie jumped into the
brook, which looked warm and tempting as it
rippled through the sunshine.</p>
<p>She could swim as swiftly as any fish, and was
so very fond of the sport that she soon forgot
her weariness. Laughing and shouting, she
started in chase of a swarm of little minnows,
whose silvery sides shone like moonbeams when
they darted across the brook.</p>
<p>Minnie kept gaining ground, and thought, at
last, that she could lay her hand upon the minnows,
crowded all together as they swam; but,
lo! at the first touch, like so many bubbles of
quicksilver, they scattered far and wide. Some
shot before her, some dodged behind her back,
some hid their silly noses under stones and
weeds, thinking, if only their eyes were out of
sight, that nobody else could see them.</p>
<p>Of these last, Minnie caught several; but they
slipped through her fingers again before she
could be certain that she had them there. She<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>
might as well have tried to hold one of the ripples
of the brook.</p>
<p>Now that the butterflies had forsaken her, Minnie
found it lonely in the meadow, and spent
most of her time by the stream. When it was
low she would trip over the wet, rough stones
in its bed so fast that the dragon-flies, with all
their wings, could hardly keep pace with her.</p>
<p>And, when the little stream was full to its brim,
she would nestle inside of a water-lily, and float
for hours, half asleep, watching the sunny ripples
pass. In more restless moods, she would climb
tall bulrushes, or swing among the long, ribbon-like
iris leaves. There was no end to the ways
she had of amusing herself.</p>
<p>But one day, when she was swinging, a boy
mistook her for a butterfly, and, springing among
the iris-leaves, had almost caught her in his hat.
Another day, as she was floating in the brook, an
angler came, and threw a pretty, gay-winged fly
into the water. When Minnie seized this, a sharp
hook pierced her hand, and, the next thing she
knew, she was lifted high in the air on the fisherman's
line! In an instant she freed herself<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>
from the hook, and fell back into the water; but
it was many days before the wound stopped
smarting, and many more before it healed.</p>
<p>Still another time, Minnie found the brook covered
with mosquitoes; the fields were parched
with the August sun; and the road, where all
the birds had gone to chat with the butterflies,
was hot and dusty. So the little girl nestled
under some cool violet leaves. In the woods
violets blossom all the year round, you know,
not plentifully as in spring, but here and there
you find a cluster in bloom.</p>
<p>Such an one Minnie found, and, when she
stretched herself in the grateful shade of its
leaves, the sweet flowers looked down at her like
the blue eyes of her mother, and the wind, that
was whispering through the long, fine grass,
seemed her dear lullaby.</p>
<p>But, as she leaned her head on the moss at the
violet roots, and thought of home, there came a
sudden jar, and the next moment she was rolling
in a heap of dusty earth, and vainly striving to
free herself, as you have seen ants when their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span>
nest was broken open.</p>
<p>A man was digging up the sod of violets to
plant on the grave of his little child that was
dead. Minnie feared that, if he detected her, he
would stick her on a pin, as some new kind of
butterfly, for his cabinet. She hardly dared
breathe until his work was finished, and the man
had gone away.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2>
<p class="center">THE LITTLE SEAMSTRESS.</p>
<p>All dusty and ragged, Minnie stood wondering
whither she should turn next, and what
would become of her.</p>
<p>No place seemed safe, no friends stood by her
long; her garments were torn to fringes, and the
hot sun pelted down its rays upon her so that
she was faint.</p>
<p>She had barely strength to climb a tall pine-tree
near in whose boughs she had often swung,
through the long afternoons. But that was in
happier days. The sighing of the wind among
the branches, which used to be such pleasant
music, was so mournful now that it filled Minnie's
eyes with tears. It seemed as if a hundred
soft, sad voices were calling, just as Minnie's
heart called, for her mother to come and fold her
in her own dear arms once more, and comfort<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span>
her, and forgive her, and take her home, never,
never to wander or be disobedient again.</p>
<p>"Halloa!" said a voice. "What's the matter
this time? Have you lost your fine cloak, or
has some one else grown tired of my little
woman, and sent her off to starve?"</p>
<p>"Pray, squirrel, don't tease me, now. I'm so
homesick, and so poor, and tired, and discouraged,
that it seems to me I shall die."</p>
<p>"That's what I said you'd come to, when you
left us; but I'm your friend, Minnie, though I
am such a rude fellow, and I don't mean you any
harm. Good-by!"</p>
<p>Master Squirrel was frisking off, when Minnie
called, "Wait, wait! Couldn't you--"</p>
<p>"O, you mustn't ask any favors. I'm full of
business and care. Since we parted I have found
a mate; and have a nest of my own, and lots of
little ones. Call and see us!"</p>
<p>He had hardly gone, when Mrs. Yellow-bird
came in sight. "My dear friend," Minnie began.</p>
<p>"A pretty friend!" she interrupted; "think of
the trouble you've caused me!"</p>
<p>"How?"<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
<p>"Ah, you can pretend not to know; but I am
sure Master Squirrel has told you what he did, in
spite, because I helped carry the humming-bird
home for you, one day, and tipped him out of
the car. You never even came to say you were
sorry."</p>
<p>"How could I? I do not even know what the
mischief was."</p>
<p>"He upset my nest, and killed all my pretty
little birds!" And she poured forth a song that
seemed to say, "All my little ones, all my pretty
birds gone! I can never be happy again!"</p>
<p>Even after yellow-bird was out of sight, the
sad notes of her song came back, and she never
knew of the tears that Minnie shed for her.</p>
<p>A spider now let herself down by her silken
thread from the bough above, where she had
been listening to Minnie's words, and pitying
her sorrow.</p>
<p>"Come! this is no way to be happy," she
said, "and no way to make friends. Who'd care
to know such a ragged little witch as you? And
you're dusty as a toad. Why don't you wash
your face, and mend your gown, and let folks see<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>
you are good for something?"</p>
<p>"O, I have tried!" said Minnie, mournfully. "I
tried to sew a new gown out of elm leaves; but
they were so tender they wilted and tore before
I could put them together. Then I picked some
beautiful oak leaves, and they were so tough
they blunted my needle, and frayed the spider-webs
I was sewing with."</p>
<p>"O, well, come down in the grass, and see
what we can do together."</p>
<p>Down leaped Minnie, like a squirrel, and down
dropped spider on her silken thread. They ran
through the grass together till they came to a
dwarf-oak, from which Minnie picked the large
leaves, while spider wove them together with
her curious web.</p>
<p>Minnie seated herself on a mushroom, and
watched her good-natured friend at work. Spider
wove her threads back and forth, till the
seams appeared to be laced together with silvery,
silken cords. She finished each with silver
tassels; and, when Minnie had dressed in her
handsome gown, wove a scarf of silver-gauze to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
throw across her shoulders.</p>
<p>Then Minnie twisted grass-blades together, as
yellow-bird had taught her, and made a strong
girdle for her waist, and tucked a rose leaf under
it for apron, and picked for bonnet a purple snap
dragon, with a golden frill inside.</p>
<p>But, alas, the happy, laughing look was gone
from Minnie's eyes; and the rags and the little
sun-burnt face looked out beneath all her finery!</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2>
<p class="center">STORK.</p>
<p>A few days after Minnie's escape from the
pitcher-plant she heard the minnows telling each
other about a dreadful creature, that had been
wading in the brook, catching the fish in his
wide bill, and gobbling them down two or three
at a time.</p>
<p>She thought it must be the stork, and that she
would keep out of his way; but, when he really
came at last, she couldn't help feeling how nice
it would be to sit high and dry on his back while
he waded up and down the stream. So Minnie
came out of her hiding-place, and asked stork if
he remembered her.</p>
<p>"Don't I? It's all I have lingered here for--the
hope of seeing my queer little woman again.
My own home is far off, beside the blue ocean,
where I can hear the pleasant music of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>
waves."</p>
<p>"How I should like to hear them!" Minnie
exclaimed. "Do they make as loud a sound as
the water of the brook?"</p>
<p>"Not much louder when the weather is fair;
but, in a storm, they roar like thunder, and don't
they throw dainty breakfasts upon the rocks for
me, then!"</p>
<p>"What! honey, and rose leaves, and berries?"</p>
<p>"No; where should they come from? The
waves bring good fat fish, and clams, and black
lobster-claws, that get broken in the storm."</p>
<p>"O, dear, is that all?"</p>
<p>"If you like it better, they bring shells, and
pebbles white as eggs, and beautiful seaweeds
gay as any garden-flower, and little red crabs,
and curious star-fish. Come home with me, and
I'll show what the waves can do!"</p>
<div class="figcenter">
<img src="images/image03_chap30.jpg" alt="Minnie's Ride." title="Chapter 30" /><br /><span class="smcap">Minnie's Ride.</span><br /></div>
<p>Minnie was not sorry to leave the brook, which
had become so unsafe for her; and, besides, you
know she was always ready for a change. So,
begging the stork to bend his neck as near the
ground as he could, she clambered upon his back.
Then stork outspread his broad, strong wings,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
and up they flew, and on, on, on, I cannot tell
how many miles, till they reached the ocean-side.</p>
<p>Minnie had seen wide rivers and lakes before;
but never anything equal to this mighty ocean,
which lay beneath them like an enormous mirror,
as they flew,--like a great glittering floor
of glass.</p>
<p>On one side it stretched far out--nothing but
water--till it reached the sky; on the other, it
was bordered by a beach of smooth, white sand,
over which lay strewn the gay seaweeds, and
pebbles, and shells, about which stork had told
her.</p>
<p>Glad to stand on her feet again, Minnie skipped
along the shore, stooping often to admire some
smooth, pearly shell, or glistening pebble, or heap
of shining bubbles thrown up by the waves, and
changing like opals in the sun.</p>
<p>It seemed as if the little waves were chasing
her; as if they ran up the smooth sand on purpose
to kiss her feet; as if they were asking her
to accept the pretty weeds and stones which
they kept tossing on the beach.</p>
<p>"O, stork, what a beautiful place it is! We<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>
will stay here as long as we live!" she said.</p>
<p>"I don't know about that. The beach is a
good place after a storm; but we can't dine on
bubbles and pebbles, Minnie, so climb my back
again, and I'll take you across to the rocks."</p>
<p>A long, black ledge, against which the waves
kept dashing, to turn white with foam, and leap
glittering into the air,--this was the place toward
which stork now steered.</p>
<p>The little woman could not but tremble as she
looked down upon all the restless waves which
stretched on every side as far as she could see.
It was a beautiful sight; but Minnie knew that,
if she should fall, the ocean would swallow her
more easily than ever stork swallowed a minnow
in the brook.</p>
<p>The rocks were wet, they found, and slippery;
half covered with coarse seaweed, that
was brown as leaves in winter, and did not look
like any growing thing. But, selecting a higher
ledge, which the sun had dried, stork asked Minnie
to sit here and rest, while he went in search
of food.</p>
<p>At first she watched the beautiful glittering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>
foam, which leaped so lightly into the air, and
then rolled back from the stones, in scattered
drops, like showers of red pearls.</p>
<p>Then a croak called Minnie's attention; and,
looking across the rocks, she saw stork almost
choking himself with trying to swallow a fish
too large for his throat. Down it went, at last;
and now she watched how cautiously and silently
stork crept from stone to stone, lifting his wings
that he might easier walk on tip-toe with his
clumsy feet. Suddenly down went his snaky
neck, and, when it rose, another fish was writhing
in his bill.</p>
<p>The little girl was so absorbed in watching
her friend at his work, that she did not notice
how night was falling, until a gust of cold sea-air
made a chill creep over her.</p>
<p>Then, looking about, she found that the water
had risen on every side, so as almost to cover
the rocks on which she sat. Stars one by one
were coming out in the sky, and she called loudly
for stork to take her back to the shore.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2>
<p class="center">THE SEA-SHORE.</p>
<p>Minnie did not call the stork a minute too
soon. He had just caught sight of his mate, and,
rather stupid with eating so hearty a supper, was
about to fly away, forgetting his new friend.</p>
<p>He did not tell her this, but treated her more
kindly, perhaps, when he thought how near she
came to being drowned by his neglect. For the
tide, which rose every minute, would soon have
swept her away.</p>
<p>What should he find for Minnie's supper? She
was not partial to raw fish. It was too dark now
to look for checkerberries and violet buds. Ah!
he would find some snails, and she should pick
them out from their pretty white shells. They
were sweet as smelts, he told her.</p>
<p>But, when Minnie came to look at them, it
seemed to her like eating worms, or bugs; and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 101]</a></span>
though stork assured her that in England he had
seen some of the finest people eat these snails,
she could not make up her mind to put one in
her mouth.</p>
<p>So, a bright thought struck stork. Leaving
Minnie on the beach, he seized a clam, rose high
in the air, and let it fall with such force that the
shell broke; out dropped its contents, and the
little girl was hungry enough to eat them with a
relish.</p>
<p>And, on their way home, stork stopped where
there were birds' eggs in plenty. Minnie remembered
yellow-bird's grief over the loss of his
young, and could not bear to rob the nests at
first. But hunger drove her to it afterwards.</p>
<p>Stork settled into his own quiet nest at last,
and Minnie, creeping under his wing to keep
warm, slept soundly, lulled by the music of the
waves.</p>
<p>The next morning Minnie found the beach all
over star-shaped tracks, too small for the stork's
great feet. She found, soon, that these belonged
to a curious little bird, that came in flocks.
These skipped about the beach, as if they were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>
trying to dance, or learning to take their steps.
They were not larger than a robin, but had long
legs and bills, so as to wade and catch fish among
the waves.</p>
<p>Minnie made friends with them, and offered to
give them lessons in dancing, of which they
seemed so fond; but they told her they had
only learned their droll steps from a habit of
skipping away from waves when the tide was
coming in.</p>
<p>Still, they allowed her to arrange them for a
contra dance, and, though she had some trouble
in persuading part to wait while the others
went through their figure, Minnie laughed till
she was tired, with the funny sight they made.</p>
<p>As the tide left the beach, Minnie found plenty
of rocks, and all along the crevices of the rock
were snails, such as stork had brought her the
night before; and, on the sides, barnacles, a kind
of fish that, except it is white and hard, looks
like some plant growing. In hollows, where
there were pools of water, she saw purple mussels,
their shells half open that they might enjoy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>
the sun.</p>
<p>Then the seaweeds were different from anything
she had ever seen. They were shaped
like trees,--apple-trees, or willows, or elms;
but were of the gayest colors you can think,--bright
red, pink, purple, yellow, green, and some
were jet black, and pretty shades of brown.
Some had fruit on them,--dark yellow berries,
or apples, with a rosy side like any on our trees,
only small as the head of a pin. The tallest of
the trees were not higher than the length of
your hand. It was like a little fairy forest.</p>
<p>Then Minnie found, to her surprise, that the
snails, which seemed so fastened into the rocks
by their shell, moved, shell and all. She found
them travelling in every direction,--but O, so
slowly! It made her ache to see them. She
could run across the beach a dozen times before
a snail had moved an inch.</p>
<p>Sometimes she took them in her hands and carried
them to the pool they were trying to reach;
but they always said it made them dizzy and
confused to fly along so fast, and they preferred<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
their own slow way.</p>
<p>Sometimes the snails ran races with each
other. That was a droll thing to watch, for
they all travelled as slowly, it seemed to Minnie,
as the minute-hand on the clock in her father's
office. They would start together, large snails
and little ones, white snails and yellow, brown
and black, striped, spotted, shaded, dragging
their houses after them. There was a pretty
little fellow, with a shell so bright it looked like
gold; he almost always won the race.</p>
<p>One day Minnie picked up a beautiful purple
mussel-shell, lined with pearl, and with a ledge
of pearl inside, that served her for a seat. She
launched this on the waves, and they bore her
out to sea, where she drifted on without a fear,
she knew how to swim so well, in case her boat
upset; and then the beach birds were always
ready to sail alongside of her little bark, and
they could carry tidings home, should any harm
befall her.</p>
<hr style="width: 35%;" />
<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2>
<p class="center">STORM AND CALM.</p>
<p>Minnie was very happy at the shore. A
stranger stork did come one day, and, mistaking
her for a fish, suddenly snatch her from her boat;
but she held his bill so fast that he was glad to
drop her on the beach. And at dark she was
sorely afraid of the lobsters that crawled about
the rocks, blindly stretching their black claws
for food; but they had never harmed her yet,
and, on the whole, the tiny woman thought she
was having a beautiful time.</p>
<p>She loved to chase the little dimpling waves;
she was never tired of watching the flash of sunlight
on the water by day, and at evening the
sweet path of moonlight, that stretched so far,
seemed like a path to her home,--if only she
dared to trust herself on the waves!</p>
<p>Then all the changing colors of the water, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>
the pretty wreaths of foam, delighted her. She
built a house, for herself, of such white pebbles
and shells that it looked like a little marble
palace. And the tables and seats inside, and the
bed, were all beautiful mother-of-pearl.</p>
<p>But a storm came one day, and washed away
her house, and dashed the waves so high upon
the beach, that Minnie fled for her life.</p>
<p>It happened a spruce-tree stood not far from
the shore; so she scrambled up into its branches,
both to be sheltered from, and to watch, the
storm.</p>
<p>It was awful to see the great waves rise and
beat against the beach, as if they meant to wash
the whole world away, and to hear the grating
of the stones they clashed together, and see the
great mats of seaweed they tore from the rocks,
and the shells they swept out of their crevices,
and tossed on the shore in heaps.</p>
<div class="figcenter">
<img src="images/image04_chap32.jpg" alt="Minnie at home." title="Chapter 32" /><br /><span class="smcap">Minnie at home.</span><br /></div>
<p>And the water kept rising, and rising, till it
covered the beach, and came nearer and nearer,
until it reached the roots of the very tree into
which Minnie had climbed. It had been hard
enough to bear the beating of the branches in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>
the wind, but now must she be drowned, so far
from her home, and no one ever dream what had
become of her?</p>
<p>Minnie screamed with fright, and then, through
the storm, she seemed to hear a low song, such
as her mother used to sing, and, instead of the
rough spruce branches, it seemed as if her
mother's arms were about her now.</p>
<p>She opened her eyes in wonder. Could it be
that the soft hand she had missed so long was
stroking her curls once more? that the dear
voice she had never thought to hear again was
singing soft lullabies over her? that Allie was
looking in her face, and Frank was holding her
pale hand in his?</p>
<p>Yes, and, stranger still, her mother and Franky
declared that they had been with her all the
while. On that first day of my story, when the
squirrel came,--it seemed years ago to Minnie,
now,--she had fallen from the fence, and bruised
her head, and had been sick with a fever ever
since, and they thought she must have dreamed
these marvellous things.</p>
<p>Certain it was that, when the little girl looked<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>
in the glass, she found herself large as ever,
though pale and very thin. Her gown, too, was
made of muslin, instead of forest leaves; and,
instead of being perched on a pine-bough, here
she stood in her own father's home!</p>
<p>And here she resolved to stay and be content.
For, whether awake or in a fever-dream, Minnie
had learned this, that, let it be large or small,
there is, in all this great wide world, no place so
safe and pleasant as our home. And this, besides,
that the handsomest, kindest, gayest among
strangers, will never make up for the loss of our
own friends, the parents that have watched over
us ever since we were born, the brothers and
sisters that have played by the same fireside,
and under the same green trees.</p>
<p>Dear children, when you are older, you will
find that all the people in this world have strayed,
like Minnie; that they wander about, making
acquaintance with many creatures, but still unsatisfied;
that they encounter storms, and suffer
weariness and loneliness, and long for those who
dwell in the far-off home.</p>
<p>Yes, and some morning we all shall wake in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>
our Father's house, and find about us the blessed
voices and dear forms of those we have loved;
and then it will be like a dream that we seemed
to lose them once.</p>
<p>That home is on the other side of the stars.
But Frank and Minnie are young yet, and expect
to find it here. They are young, and cannot believe
that their senses may be mistaken, and that
all Minnie's curious changes happened in a dream.
Many an afternoon they still spend in looking for
the wondrous weed that will make them understand
the language of birds, and squirrels, and
butterflies.</p>
<p>And, to tell you the truth, I more than half
believe they will find it yet.</p>
<pre>
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