they were sure he was gone they thought they would come down and
celebrate. But they didn't do it--not just yet. There wasn't one of them
that could unwind himself from his limb, except old Mr. Waters, who had
got only a teaspoonful of the medicine, which very likely was just about
the right amount. Mr. Waters swung quite loose and free from his limb,
and got down without much trouble, and it took him all the afternoon
to go around from tree to tree and pry the rest of my ancestors loose,
and unwind them, because those new-fangled tails would snap together
like springs, and it took several days' steady practice and
straightening before they were really useful at a moment's notice. By
that time another strange thing had happened: The fur on them had curled
so tight at first that it was like very close wool; then it kept right
on getting tighter and tighter until it seemed to curl itself clear out,
and by the end of the week there wasn't one of our family whose tail
wasn't as bare as your hand, except old Mr. Waters, who had a handsome
curly plume, like Somers's, and became a great curiosity, the only one
that we ever had like that in our tribe.
"All the others thought the fur would grow again, but it never did, and
when they got used to its absence they decided they were much better off
without it, especially since they had learned the Somers habit, which
they said worked easier and better in the new, smooth form. They were
sorry, at first, that Mr. Somers had not left them the recipe for that
medicine, on account of the new little 'Possums that would be coming
along. But they didn't need the recipe. That medicine was strong enough,
the amount they took, to do our family at least a thousand generations,
and maybe more. Somers never came back, and they never heard of him
again. Some of my ancestors used to say that he was not a real person at
all, but something that could take different shapes and work magic, just
as Mr. Painter believed he did. Anyhow, he was a great blessing to our
family, as you may have noticed."
Mr. 'Possum moved over to the Edge of the World in the sun, hooked his
tail about the same little bush, and went to sleep again. The other Deep
Woods people looked at the way he did it, as if it was something new
that they had never seen before.
Mr. 'Coon said: "I think I'd like a little, just a little, of that
medicine; Mr. 'Possum's gift certainly would come handy at times."
Mr. Squirrel nodded.
Mr. Rabbit looked out over the Deep Nowhere, and said nothing at all.
THE END
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Duplicate chapter titles were removed.
Illustrations were moved from their original locations to locations
nearer the caption text.
Page 44, "an ice" changed to "a nice" (a nice little person)