THAT YELLOW CUCUMBER
ONE summer day the St. Claires were the guests of a farmer who lived a
few miles from town. Ella stayed in the house with her mother and the
farmer's wife, but Marian saw the farm; the cows and the sheep and the
fields of grain. She asked more questions that day than the hired man
ever answered at one time in his life before, and when night came he
and Marian were tired.
"She knows as much about farming as I do," the man said with a laugh
as he put the sleepy child on the back seat of the carriage when the
family were ready to go home.
"I've had a lovely time, Mr. Hired Man," Marian roused herself to
remark, "and to-morrow I'm going to play farm."
"Good haying weather," the man suggested with a smile; "better get your
barns up quick's you can."
"I'm going to," was the response; "it's a lovely game."
Whatever Marian saw or heard that pleased her fancy, she played.
Stories that were read to the little Ella were enacted again and again
in Marian's room if the day was rainy, out in the orchard or the locust
grove if the day was fair. Farming promised to be the most interesting
game of all.
Early the next morning Marian visited what she called the yarrow jungle
ever since Uncle George read jungle stories to Ella. More than one
queer looking creature tried to keep out of sight when her footsteps
were heard. The old black beetle scampered away as fast as his six legs
would carry him, though it can't be possible he remembered the time
when Marian captured him for her museum. Crickets gathered up their
fiddles, seeking safety beyond the fence. Perhaps they thought Marian
wanted them to play in the orchestra at another snail wedding. Even the
ants hastened to the hills beyond the jungle, leaving only the old toad
to wink and blink at the happy one of whom he had no fear.
"Well, Mr. Toad," said she, "why don't you hop along? I've come to
make my farm out here where the yarrow grows. Why don't you live in
the garden land? I would if I were you. Don't you know about the cool
tomato groves and the cabbage tents? I've got to clear away this jungle
so the sun may shine upon my farm the way the country man said. You
really must go, so hop along and stop winking and blinking at me." The
old toad wouldn't stir, so for his sake Marian spared the yarrow jungle.
"After all, I'll make my farm here on the border-land," said she, while
the daisies nodded and the buttercups shone brighter than before.
"Only, I'll tell you one thing, Mr. Toad, that maybe you won't like.
If you will stay there, you'll have to be an elephant in the jungle.
There, now, I s'pose you are sorry. I say--be an elephant and now you
are one." The toad didn't mind a bit. He was so used to being changed
into all sorts of animals that he never seemed to notice whether he was
an elephant or a kangaroo.
Day after day Marian worked upon her farm, enclosing fields and
meadows with high stone walls, clearing roads and planting trees.
Whatever she touched became what she wished it to be. Pasteboard
match-boxes became houses and barns. Sticks became men working upon
the farm and spools were wagons bearing loads of hay from place to
place. At a word from her, green apples, standing upon four twigs, were
instantly changed, becoming pigs, cows, sheep and horses. Kernels of
yellow corn were chickens. It was a wonderful farm and for many a sunny
hour Marian was happy. Even the old toad, winking and blinking beneath
the shadow of the yarrow jungle, must have known it.
At last there came a morning when the child went strolling through the
garden. Suddenly, while singing her usual merry song, the joyous look
faded from her face. She no longer saw the butterflies floating about
nor cared that the bumble-bee wore his best velvet coat. There were
tiny green cucumbers in that garden, just the right size for horses on
the little girl's farm. There were a great many cucumbers, so many that
Marian felt sure no one would ever miss a few. She picked a handful
and knew that she was stealing. The sun went under a cloud. A blue jay
mocked at her and a wren scolded. Though far from happy, Marian hurried
away to her farm. The old toad saw her sticking twigs in the cucumbers.
Then she placed them in a row.
"Now be animals!" she commanded, but the spell was broken--she was no
longer a farmer with magic power, but a pink-faced little girl who had
done what she knew was wrong. And the cucumbers refused to be anything
but cucumbers.
Again the little girl went to the garden, returning with one big yellow
cucumber that had gone to seed. "Now I guess I'll have a cucumber
animal," she said, in tones so cross the daisies seemed to tremble.
"You bad old cucumber, you're no good anyway, nobody could eat you, nor
make a pickle of you, so you may just turn yourself into a giant cow
right off this minute! There you are, standing on four sticks. Now be a
cow, I say."
The old cucumber wouldn't be a cow. There it stood, big and yellow,
spoiling the looks of the farm.
"What's the matter with you, old toad?" went on the little girl. "I
tell you that's a cow, and if you don't believe it you can just get
off my farm quick's you can hop. You're homely anyway, and you turned
yourself back into a toad when I said be an elephant."
How surprised the toad was when the little girl took a stick and poked
him along ahead of her. The poor old fellow had never been treated like
that in his life. When he reached the garden he hid beneath the nearest
cabbage plant. The little girl went on but came back in a short time
with her apron full of cucumbers.
"I guess I'll sit down here and put the sticks in them," she said:
but instead of touching the cucumbers the child sat on the ground
beside the toad forever so long, looking cross, oh, so cross. The toad
kept perfectly still and by and by he and the little girl heard a man
whistling. In a few minutes there was a long whistle and then no sound
in the jungle save the buzzing of flies and the chirping of birds. The
little girl was afraid of her uncle who had been her one friend in that
land of strangers. Soon she heard them calling and with her apron full
of cucumbers, Marian rose to meet him.
It may be that the old toad, as he hopped back to the yarrow jungle,
thought that he should never again see the little girl: but the next
morning in the midst of brightest sunshine, Marian returned, her
head drooping. With her little feet she destroyed the farm and then,
throwing herself face downward among the ruins, wept bitterly. When she
raised her head the old toad was staring solemnly at her, causing fresh
tears to overflow upon the round cheeks.
"Don't look at me, toad, nobody does," she wailed. "I'm dreadfully bad
and it doesn't do a bit of good to be sorry. Nobody loves me and nobody
ever will. Aunt Amelia says that Nanna wouldn't love me now. Uncle
George doesn't love me, he says he's disappointed in me! Oh, dear, oh,
dear! Nobody in this world loves me, toad, and oh, dear, I've got to
eat all alone in the kitchen for two weeks, and even the housemaid
doesn't love me and can't talk to me! Oh, dear, what made me do it!"
What could an old toad do but hide in the yarrow jungle: yet when he
turned away Marian felt utterly deserted. It was dreadful to be so bad
that even a toad wouldn't look at her.