WHAT WAS THE MATTER WITH FARMER BROWN'S BOY?
He who climbs the highest has the farthest to fall,
but often it is worth the risk.
_Happy Jack._
All the way home from his visit to Farmer Brown's house Happy Jack
Squirrel puzzled and wondered over what he had seen. He had peeped in at
a window and seen Farmer Brown's boy lying all covered up, with only his
head showing. Happy Jack couldn't see very well, but somehow that head
didn't look just right. One thing was sure, and that was there was
something wrong with Farmer Brown's boy. He never would have been lying
still like that if there hadn't been.
Happy Jack had been so troubled by what he saw that he had hardly tasted
the nuts he had found on the window-sill. "I am going to make him
another call to-morrow," said he when he and Tommy Tit were once more
back in the Green Forest.
"Of course," replied Tommy. "I expected you would. I will be around for
you at the same time. You're not afraid any more to go up there, are
you?"
"No-o," replied Happy Jack, slowly. The truth is, he was still a little
afraid. It seemed to him a terribly venturesome thing to cross that
open dooryard, but having done it once in safety, he knew that it would
be easier the next time. It was. The next morning he and Tommy Tit went
just as before, and this time Happy Jack scampered across the dooryard
the very first time he tried. They found things just as they had been
the day before. They saw Farmer Brown's boy, but he didn't see them.
Tommy Tit was just going to tap on the window to let him know they were
there, when a door inside opened, and in walked Mrs. Brown. It
frightened them so that Tommy Tit flew away without tasting a single
nut, and Happy Jack nearly fell as he scrambled back into the tree close
by the window. You see, they never had made her acquaintance, and
having her walk in so suddenly frightened them terribly. They didn't
stop to think that there was nothing to fear because there was the
window between. Somehow they couldn't understand that queer stuff that
they could see through but which shut them out. If they had seen Mrs.
Brown go to the window and put more cracked nuts on the sill, perhaps
they would have been less afraid. But they had been too badly frightened
to look back, and so they didn't know anything about that.
The next morning Tommy Tit was on hand as usual, but he found Happy
Jack a little doubtful about paying another visit. He wasn't wholly over
his scare of the day before. It took him some time to make up his mind
to go, but finally he did. This time when they reached the tree close by
the house, they found a great surprise awaiting them. Farmer Brown's boy
was sitting just inside the window, looking out. At least, they thought
it was Farmer Brown's boy, but when they got a little nearer, they grew
doubtful. It looked like Farmer Brown's boy, and yet it didn't. His
cheeks stuck way out just as Striped Chipmunk's do when he has them
stuffed full of corn or nuts.
Happy Jack stared at him very hard. "My goodness, I didn't know he
carried his food that way!" he exclaimed. "I should think it would be
dreadfully uncomfortable."
If Farmer Brown's boy could have heard that, he certainly would have
tried to laugh, and if he had--well, it was bad enough when he tried to
smile at the sight of Tommy Tit and Happy Jack. He didn't smile at all
but made up an awful face instead and clapped both hands to his cheeks.
Happy Jack and Tommy Tit didn't know what to make of it, and it was some
time before they made up their minds that it really was Farmer Brown's
boy, and that they had nothing to fear. But when they finally ventured
on to the sill and, as they helped themselves to nuts, saw the smile in
his eyes, though he did not smile with his mouth at all, they knew that
it was he, and that he was glad that they had called. Then they were
glad too.
But what was the matter with Farmer Brown's boy? Happy Jack puzzled over
it all the rest of the day, and then gave it up.