All little boys and girls who love animals should become acquainted with
Bumper the white rabbit, with Bobby Gray Squirrel, with Buster the bear,
and with White Tail the deer, for they are all a jolly lot, brave and
fearless in danger, and so lovable that you won't lay down any one of the
books without saying wistfully, "I almost wish I had them really and truly
as friends and not just storybook acquaintances." That, of course, is a
splendid wish; but none of us could afford to have a big menagerie of wild
animals, and that's just what you would have to do if you went outside of
the books. Bumper had many friends, such as Mr. Blind Rabbit, Fuzzy Wuzz
and Goggle Eyes, his country cousins; and Bobby Gray Squirrel had his near
cousins, Stripe the chipmunk and Webb the flying squirrel; while Buster
and White Tail were favored with an endless number of friends and
relatives. If we turned them all loose from the books, and put them in a
ten-acre lot--but no, ten acres wouldn't be big enough to accommodate
them, perhaps not a hundred acres.
So we will leave them just where they are--in the books--and read about
them, and let our imaginations take us to them where we can see them
playing, skipping, singing, and sometimes fighting, and if we read very
carefully, and _think_ as we go along, we may come to know them even
better than if we went out hunting for them.
Another thing we should remember. By leaving them in the books, hundreds
and thousands of other boys and girls can enjoy them, too, sharing with us
the pleasures of the imagination, which after all is one of the greatest
things in the world. In gathering them together in a real menagerie, we
would be selfish both to Bumper, Bobby, Buster, White Tail and their
friends as well as to thousands of other little readers who could not
share them with us. So these books of Twilight Animal Stories are
dedicated to all little boys and girls who love wild animals. All others
are forbidden to read them! They wouldn't understand them if they did.
So come out into the woods with me, and let us listen and watch, and I
promise you it will be worth while.
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