Forest and stopped in his favorite hemlock-tree to rest, he was still
chuckling. But by that time it was a different kind of a chuckle. Yes,
Sir, it was a different kind of a chuckle. It was a better chuckle to
hear. The fact is, Sammy Jay was no longer chuckling over the thought
of the trouble he could make. He was laughing at the memory of how funny
those three little baby Chucks had looked sitting up on Johnny Chuck's
doorstep and trying to do whatever Johnny Chuck did. The more he thought
about it, the more he tickled and laughed.
Right in the midst of his laughter along came Redtail the Hawk. Sammy
Jay opened his mouth to call to Redtail and tell him about Johnny
Chuck's secret. Then he closed it again with a snap.
“I won't tell him yet,” said Sammy to himself, “for he might catch one
of those baby Chucks, and they are such funny little fellows that that
would really be too bad. I guess I'll wait a while.” And with that, off
flew Sammy Jay to hunt for some other mischief. You see, he had had a
change of heart. The little goodness way down deep inside had come out
of hiding.
But of course Johnny Chuck didn't know this, and over in his new house
in the far corner of the old orchard, he and Polly Chuck were worrying
and worrying, for they felt sure that now every one would know their
secret, and it wouldn't be safe for the dear little baby Chucks to so
much as put their funny little noses outside the door.
XXII. JOHNNY CHUCK IS KEPT BUSY
Johnny Chuck is naturally lazy. You see, Johnny has very simple tastes
and usually he is contented. He does not have to go far from his own
doorstep to get all he wants to eat. He does not have to hunt for his
food, as so many of the little meadow and forest people do, and so he
has a great deal of time to sit on his doorstep and watch the world go
by and dream pleasant daydreams and grow fat. Now people who do not have
to work usually become lazy. It is the easiest habit in the world to
learn and the hardest to get over. And so, because he seldom has to
work, Johnny Chuck quite naturally is lazy.
But Johnny can work when there really is need of it. No one, unless
it is Digger the Badger or Miner the Mole, can dig faster than Johnny
Chuck. And when there is real need of working, Johnny works with a will.
When he was a very tiny Chuck, old Mother Chuck had taught him this:
“When work there is that must be done
Don't fret and whine and spoil the day!
The quicker that you do your work
The longer time you'll have to play.”
Johnny never has forgotten this, and when it is really necessary that he
should work, no one works harder than he does. But he always first makes
sure that it is necessary work and that he will not be wasting his time
in doing foolish, unnecessary things.
And now Johnny Chuck was the busiest he had ever been in all his life.
If he felt lazy these beautiful spring days, he didn't have time to
think about it. No, Sir, he actually didn't have time to remember that
he is naturally lazy. You see, he had a family to look out for--three
babies to find sweet, tender young clover for and to teach all the
things that every Chuck should know, and to watch out for, that no harm
should come to them. So Johnny Chuck was busy, so busy that he hardly
had time to get enough to eat.
Every morning Johnny would come out as soon as jolly, round, red Mr. Sun
began his daily climb up in the blue, blue sky. He would look this way
and look that way to make sure that Reddy Fox or Granny Fox or Redtail
the Hawk or Bowser the Hound or any other danger was nowhere near. And
he never forgot to look up in the apple-trees to make sure that Sammy
Jay was not there. Then he would call to Polly Chuck and the three baby
Chucks.
Polly Chuck would come out with a very worried air, and after her would
come the three funny little baby Chucks, who would roll and tumble over
each other on the doorstep. When he thought they had played enough,
Johnny Chuck would lead the way along a little private path which he had
made through the grass. After him, one behind another, would trot the
three little Chucks, and behind them would march Polly Chuck, to see
that none went astray.
When they reached the patch of tender, sweet, young clover, Johnny Chuck
would sit up very straight and still, watching as sharp as he knew how
for the least sign of danger. When the three little stomachs were full
of sweet, tender, young clover, he would proudly lead the way home
again, and then as before he would sit up very straight and watch for
danger, while the three baby Chucks sprawledout on the doorstep for a
sun-nap.
Oh, those were busy days for Johnny Chuck, and anxious days, too! You
see he had not forgotten that Sammy Jay had found out his secret, and he
hadn't the least doubt in the world that Sammy Jay would tell Reddy Fox.
So, from the first thing in the morning until the very last thing at
night, Johnny Chuck was on the watch for danger.
And all the time, though Johnny didn't know it, a pair of sharp
eyes were watching him from a snug hiding-place in one of the old
apple-trees. Whose were they? Why, Sammy Jay's, to be sure. You see,
Sammy Jay hadn't told Johnny Chuck's great secret, after all.
XXIII. THE SCHOOL IN THE OLD ORCHARD
Little Foxes, little Chucks,
Little Squirrels, Mice and Mink,
Just like little boys and girls,
Go to school to learn to think.
You didn't know that, did you? Well, it's a fact. Yes, Sir, it's a
fact. All the babies born in the Green Forest or on the Green Meadows
or around the Smiling Pool have to go to school just as soon as they are
big enough to leave their own doorsteps. They go to the greatest school
in the world, and it is called the School of Experience.
Old Mother Nature has charge of it, but the teachers usually are father
and mother for the first few weeks, anyway. After that Old Mother Nature
herself gives them a few lessons, and a very stern teacher she is. They
just HAVE to learn her lessons. If they don't, something dreadful is
almost sure to happen.
Of course Sammy Jay knew all this, because he had had to go to school
when he was a little fellow. So Sammy was not much surprised when, from
his snug hiding-place in one of the old apple-trees, he discovered that
there was a school in Farmer Brown's old orchard. Johnny Chuck was the
teacher and his three baby Chucks were the pupils. Sammy Jay was so
interested in that funny little school in the old orchard that he quite
forgot to think about mischief.
The very first lesson that the three little Chucks had to learn was
obedience. Johnny Chuck was very particular about that. You see he knew
that unless they learned this first of all, none of the other lessons
would do them much good. They must first learn to mind instantly,
without asking questions. Dear me, dear me, Johnny Chuck certainly did
have his hands full, teaching those three little Chucks to mind! They
were such lively little chaps, and there was so much that was new and
wonderful to see, that it was dreadfully hard work to sit perfectly
still, just because Johnny Chuck told them to. But if they didn't
mind instantly, they were sure to have their ears soundly boxed, and
sometimes were sent back to the house without a taste of the sweet,
tender, young clover of which they were so fond.
After a few lessons of this kind, they found out that it was always best
to obey instantly, and then Johnny began to teach them other things,
things which it is very important that every Chuck should know.
First, there were signals. When Johnny whistled a certain way, it meant
“A stranger in sight; possible danger!”
Then each little Chuck would sit up very straight and not move the
teeniest, weeniest bit, so that from a little distance they looked for
all the world like tiny stumps. But all the time their sharp little eyes
would be looking this way and that way, to see what the danger might
be. After a while Johnny would give another little whistle, which meant
“Danger past.” Then they would once more begin to fill their little
stomachs with sweet, tender, young clover.
Sometimes, however, Johnny would whistle sharply. That meant “Run!” Then
they would scamper as fast as they could along the nearest little path
to the house under the old apple-tree in the far corner, and never once
look around. They would dive head first, one after the other, in at the
doorway, and not show their noses outside again until Johnny or Polly
Chuck told them they could.
Then there was a still different whistle. It meant “Danger very near;
lie low!” When they heard that, they flattened themselves right down in
the grass just wherever they happened to be, and held their breath and
didn't move until Johnny signaled that they might. Of course, there
never was any real danger. Johnny was just teaching them, so that when
danger did come, as it surely would, sooner or later, they would know
just what to do.
It surely was a funny little school, and sometimes Sammy Jay had hard
work to keep from laughing right out.
XXIV. SAMMY JAY PROVES THAT HE IS NOT ALL BAD
Sammy Jay hadn't had so much fun for a long time as he found in watching
the funny little school in Farmer Brown's old orchard, where Johnny
Chuck was teaching his three baby Chucks the things that every little
Chuck must learn, if he would grow up into a big Chuck. When they had
learned to mind without waiting to ask why, and had learned the signals
which told them just what to do when danger was near, Johnny began to
lead them farther and farther away from home.
He took them up along the old stone wall and showed them how to find
safe hiding-places among the stones. Then he took them off a little way
and suddenly gave the danger signal. It was funny, very funny indeed to
see the three little Chucks scamper for the old stone wall and crawl out
of sight.
The first time, two of them tried to squeeze into the same hole
together, and each was in such a hurry that he wouldn't let the other
go first. Then both lost their tempers and they began to fight about it,
quite forgetting that if there was really any danger near, they surely
would come to harm. Such a scolding as Johnny Chuck did give those two
little Chucks! Then he made them try it all over again.
Once he found a foot print which Reddy Fox had made in some soft earth
during the night, and made each little Chuck smell of it, while he told
them all about Reddy and old Granny Fox and how smart and sly they were
and how very, very fond they were of tender young Chucks for dinner.
The three little Chucks shivered when they smelled of Reddy's track, and
the hair along their backs stood up in a way that was very funny to see.
Then Johnny Chuck took them over to the edge of the old orchard, where
they could peep out over the Green Meadows. He pointed out old Whitetail
the Marshhawk, sailing back and forth over the meadows, and told them
how once, when he was a little Chuck and had run away from home, old
Whitetail had nearly caught him. He told them about Farmer Brown's boy
and about Bowser the Hound and a great many other things that little
Chucks should learn about.
Now all the time that Johnny Chuck was teaching these things, he was
keeping the sharpest kind of a watch for danger, and there were many
times when he would give the danger signal. Then they would all lie flat
down in the grass and keep perfectly still, or else scamper as fast as
they could along the little paths which Johnny had made, to the safety
of the snug home under the old apple-tree. But even the most watchful
are surprised sometimes.
One morning, when Johnny Chuck had led the three little Chucks farther
from home than usual, Farmer Brown's boy took it into his head to visit
the old orchard. Johnny Chuck did not see him coming. You see, the
orchard grass had grown so tall that even when he sat up his very
straightest, Johnny could not always see over the top of it. So this
morning he failed to see Farmer Brown's boy coming.
But Sammy Jay, sitting in his snug hiding-place in the top of one of
the old apple-trees, saw him. At first Sammy Jay's sharp eyes twinkled.
There would be some fun now! Perhaps Farmer Brown's boy would catch one
of the little Chucks! Sammy Jay could picture to himself the fright of
Johnny Chuck and the three little Chucks. He fairly hugged himself in
delight, for you know Sammy Jay dearly loves to see other people in
trouble.
Then he thought of all the fun he had had watching those three little
Chucks learn their lessons, and suddenly the thought of anything
happening to them made Sammy Jay feel uncomfortable. Almost without
stopping to think, he screamed at the top of his lungs:
“Run, Johnny Chuck, run! Here comes Farmer Brown's boy!”
And Johnny Chuck ran. He didn't wait to ask questions or even to look.
He started the three little Chucks ahead of him, and he nipped their
heels to make them run faster. And just in time they reached the snug
house under the old apple-tree in the far corner.
Farmer Brown's boy was just in time to see them disappear. He watched
Sammy Jay flying over to the Green Forest and screaming “Thief! thief!”
as he flew.
“I wonder now if that jay warned those chucks purposely,” said he, as he
scratched his head thoughtfully.
If Peter Rabbit had been there, he could have told him that Sammy Jay
did, for he knows all about Sammy Jay and his tricks. But Peter wasn't
there. The fact is, Peter was very busy doing the most foolish of all
the foolish things he has ever done--trying to change his name. You
may read all about it in The Adventures of Peter Cottontail. You see it
takes a whole book to tell all about Peter and his doings.