be afraid," he went on with a laugh. "They are not sharp enough to
cut you. But if you will lie down behind me, with your back toward
the ends of my rockers, I will sway to and fro. The rocker ends will
move up and down and scratch your back nicely."
"Oh, joy!" grunted the pig. "I do so need a back-scratch!"
Out he stretched behind the chair, close to the rocker ends. To and
fro swayed Racky, and "scritchy-scratchy" went the somewhat sharp
ends on the pig's back.
"Uff! Uff!" grunted the wild porker. "That feels fine! It gives me
an appetite! Now I will go out and get a breakfast of acorns!"
"What, in all this rain?" exclaimed Racky.
"Oh, I don't mind the rain!" grunted the pig, and out he waddled.
Racky thought he was going to be lonesome in the cave, after the wild
pig had left, but as the rain kept up, and it grew lighter in the dim
cavern, the chair saw a small, gray animal come scampering in. It
seemed to be in trouble.
"Oh, I can't do it! I can't do it!" chattered the small, gray chap.
"What can't you do?" asked Racky, who saw, now, that the animal was a
squirrel.
"I can't crack this hard nut!" was the answer. "I've tried and I've
tried, but the nut is too hard for me to crack or gnaw! You see I am
only a this-year's squirrel," went on the bushy fellow. "When I grow
older, I will know more about cracking nuts. But now I am so hungry,
and I can't get at the meat in this one! Oh, dear!"
"I'll crack the nut for you," said Racky.
"What! You, a rocking chair, will crack a nut! How?" chattered the
squirrel.
"Put the nut down on the floor of the cave," said the chair. "I will
rock over it and crack the shell for you. It will be easy for me, as
I am strong."
The squirrel placed the nut down on a low, flat rock. Racky swayed
to and fro, traveling closer and closer, until one of the rockers was
right over the shell. Then, suddenly:
"Crunch! Crack!"
"There you are--the nut is broken open!" cried Racky, and surely
enough, it was.
"Oh, thank you!" chattered the gray squirrel as he began nibbling the
sweet meat and casting aside the bits of broken shell.
Racky cracked several more nuts for the little chap, who then
scampered out of the cave. The rocker was wishing the rain would
stop, so he could travel on, when a white animal, larger than the
squirrel, came hopping in, carrying in her paws a tiny, furry
creature.
"Hush now! Go to sleep. Rock-a-bye-baby!" crooned the mother
rabbit, for that is what this new animal was. "Go to sleep, my dear!"
"I don't want to go to sleep! I'm not sleepy!" whined the baby
rabbit. "I'm going to stay awake for ever!"
"Oh, what is mother going to do with you?" sighed the grown-up
rabbit. "Please go to sleep!"
"No! No!" whined the baby rabbit.
Racky felt sorry for the mother bunny, who looked so tired out and
bedraggled from the rain.
"If you will put your little baby girl rabbit up on my soft cushions
I will rock her to sleep," kindly offered the chair.
"Oh, that is so good of you," said the mother rabbit.
"But I'm not going to sleep!" whined the cross, peevish little bunny.
"We'll see about that, my dear," murmured the old, brown chair, who
more than once, when they were small, had rocked Nat and Weezie to
sleep in their mother's arms.
The mother bunny put the little rabbit up on the chair's soft
cushions. They were snug and warm, The teeny, weeny bunny cuddled
down as if in a little nest.
"But I'm not going to sleep!" she said.
Slowly, to and fro, Racky commenced to sway. To and fro he rocked,
gently, gently, gently. The mother bunny crooned a little song.
"I'm not--going--not going to--I'm not going--to--to--I'm
not--------going," murmured the baby bunny.
And then, all of a sudden, she fell asleep in the rocker.
"I'm so glad," sighed the tired mother bunny. Then she, too, cuddled
up on Racky's cushions and went to sleep.
It was noon when the little bunny child awakened, no longer cross or
tired after her slumber.
"The rain has stopped," said Mrs. Rabbit. "Come, Hopper, we shall go
out and get a bit of cabbage to nibble." And away they scampered,
after thanking Racky.
"Well, if the rain is over," murmured the chair, which he could see
was the case, by looking out of the cave, "if the rain is over, I
must travel on and find more adventures. I haven't had half enough!"
Away rocked Racky, away from the cave, off through the forest. The
rain had stopped, but it was getting colder. All of a sudden it
began to snow! The air was filled with white, swirling flakes.
"Oh!" cried the runaway rocker, "I don't like this! The rain was
bad, but the snow is worse! What shall I do! I must find shelter!"
And off through the snow-storm rocked the chair as fast as it could
go.
"What will happen next?" thought Racky.
ADVENTURE VIII
A LITTLE OLD WOMAN
Racky, the runaway rocker, swayed out of the cave where he had
scratched the back of the wild pig, where he had cracked the nut for
the squirrel and where he had rocked the baby rabbit to sleep. It
was just about the same time that Nat and the other children started
to search for the missing chair.
"What shall we do with Racky if we find him?" asked Weezie of her
brother, as the four slipped through the hole in the fence and ran
across the lots.
"Well bring him back to Grandma, of course," answered Nat.
"Do you think her glasses will be in the chair cushions?" asked Addie.
"I hope so," was Nat's answer. "For without her glasses Grandma
can't read us any stories. Yes, I think the glasses will be in the
cushions when we find the chair," he decided.
"Oh, but don't you remember?" suddenly called Weezie, as the children
hurried toward the clump of weeds where they had seen the strange
marks.
"Don't we remember what?" asked Nat.
"About the runaway gas stove," went on Weezie. "That had a lot of
good things to eat in the warming oven when it ran away. But when we
found it in the woods, and the elephant brought it home on his back,
there wasn't a single thing left--_not a single thing_!"
"Oh, well, that was different," said Nat. "Hungry people must have
eaten what was in the gas stove--that was all right!"
"You can't eat glasses!" said Rodney.
"That's true!" agreed his chum. "Nobody will take Grandma's glasses
out of the chair cushions. You'll see--we'll find them!"
"I hope we do," murmured Addie, for she and her brother loved the
dear old lady, who lived next door to them, almost as much as did Nat
and Weezie.
Skipping along over the vacant lots, still damp and spongy from the
rain, which had only just stopped, the children soon reached the big
clump of weeds where Nat had noticed the two marks of the chair's
rockers in the soft earth. The marks were just like those made when
the old chair in the attic was dragged through the dust.
"Maybe the marks will all be washed away by the rain," suggested
Rodney.
"They were deep in the ground," answered Nat, "and I guess we'll see
part of 'em." And so it turned out. On the edge of the patch of
weeds, and straggling through them, so that some of the stalks were
bent down and broken, were the tracks made when Racky ran away from
Thump. Though the rain had washed away some of the chair's trail,
still it was plain enough for the children to see.
"Come on!" cried Nat, joyfully excited. "The chair was here all
right! Now all we'll have to do will be to follow these marks and
we'll find Racky. Come on!"
He led the way, followed by the others who were quite as happily
excited as he was. It would be wonderful to find the runaway rocker
and Grandma's glasses, the children thought.
"How far do you think we'll have to go!" asked Weezie, when they had
followed the chair's trail quite a distance over the lot.
"Oh, not very far, I guess," answered her brother. "Why, don't you
want to come?"
"Yes, of course I want to come," replied Weezie. "But I don't want
to go too far from home."
"I don't, either," said Addie. "And it looks like it was going to
rain some more." She glanced up at the clouds.
"I guess it will snow," declared her brother. "It's getting colder."
"If it snows, it will be lots of fun, and we can find Racky easier,"
stated Nat.
"How?" asked Rodney.
"Why, the tracks will be plainer in the snow," said Nat. "And we can
slide down hill, too, after we find the chair and take Grandma's
glasses back to her. Let's run! I can see where the chair has been
along here," and he pointed to the marks in the soft ground--marks
that looked as if a two-wheeled cart had been hauled along there.
They were the tracks of Racky's rockers, plain enough.
Forward ran the children, laughing and shouting until, all of a
sudden, Addie exclaimed:
"Hark! Some one is calling us!"
They stopped to listen. They heard a noise behind them. Then Rodney
began to laugh.
"That's our dog Thump," he said. "We forgot to take him with us, and
he's following after."
"Good! Let him come!" decided Nat. "He can smell along the track,
where it only shows faint, and help us find Racky."
"Come on, Thump! Help us find Racky!" and Rod pointed to the marks
on the ground.
Thump knew what this meant, of course. He could tell that the
rocking chair had come this way, and now Thump knew the children were
seeking Racky. What should Thump do?
"I can lead those children on the wrong trail, away from where Racky
went, and tease them off into the deep woods, where they can never
find that chair," thought Thump to himself. "I can do that, or I can
lead them straight to where Racky is hiding. He cannot be far off,
for he is a slow rocker."
Then Thump thought again:
"If I lead the children to Racky, he will never forgive me, for he
does not want to be found and brought back to Happy Home. But winter
is coming on, there will be snow and ice, soon. Racky may catch cold
in his legs. I think it will be best if the children find him and
bring him home. After all, he may thank me for it. Perhaps Grandma
Marden will not sit on him so hard after he comes back. Yes, I'll
lead the children to Racky!"
Having thus made up his mind to do something that, perhaps, the chair
might not like, at first, Thump just went ahead and did it. He
sniffed at the tracks and started off on a run, barking loudly.
"Come on!" shouted Rodney, who knew, by these signs, that his dog was
"on the trail," as it is called. "Thump will lead us just where the
chair went! Now we'll find it!"
"And Grandma's glasses, too, I hope!" murmured Weezie, as she and
Addie followed the two boys.
Thump ran quite fast, and so did Nat and Rod. The girls tried to
keep up with their brothers, but it was hard work. Once Addie fell
down, and bruised her knees, but she got up again, without crying,
and hurried on. And once Weezie's dress caught on a bramble bush and
was torn. But Rodney happened to have a safety pin in his pocket, so
the dress was mended, after a fashion, and the chase kept up.
The children, led by the dog, reached the top of the hill, down which
Racky had coasted. Here the trail was so faint that the children
could not see it on the grass. But with Thump along, to sniff at the
track left by the chair, they were able to follow.
Down the hill, and up to the cottage of the Singing Girl, Thump led
the way. The dog was barking loudly and the Singing Girl opened the
door.
"Oh, hello, Children and Dog!" she greeted them, pausing in her song.
"What do you want?"
"We are after a runaway rocking chair," answered Nat.
"Have you seen it?" asked Rodney, politely taking off his cap, which
Nat did, also, a moment later.
"Oh, yes," replied the Singing Girl. "Yesterday I found a brown
rocking chair outside our door. It came sliding down the hill, and I
lassoed it with a towel and took it inside."
"Is it there now?" asked Weezie eagerly, "and has it cushions on with
Grandma's glasses in?"
"The chair had cushions," answered the Singing Girl, "but it is gone,
now. Some one came in the night and took it."
"No," said Nat, slowly shaking his head, "no one took the chair away.
It ran off by itself, just as it did from our house."
"Why, I never heard of such a thing!" exclaimed the Singing Girl,
with a laugh. "A runaway rocking chair! Truly, though, I saw it
come sliding down hill, but I thought it had fallen off some moving
wagon!"
"No, it ran away from us and it ran away from you," explained Nat.
"Well, we are on Racky's trail, anyhow. He has been here and gone
away. Come on!" he cried.
"Go ahead, Thump!" ordered his master, and the dog, who had been
impatiently leaping around, for he knew the chair was no longer in
the cottage, started off through the woods.
"I hope you find Racky!" the Singing Girl called to the children, as
they ran along after Thump. Then she went back in the cottage,
humming a little tune.
On and on through the woods Thump led Nat and the others on the trail
of Racky. Well it was that the children had the dog along for,
without him, they never would have been able to follow Racky's
winding trail.
But Thump led them to the cave in the side of the hill, where the
chair had slept the second night. There were the marks of his
rockers going in, and the marks of his rockers coming out.
"Racky isn't in there," reported Nat and Rod, who ventured into the
dim cavern, which Weezie and Addie would not do.
The wild pig, whose back had been so kindly scratched by the chair,
the squirrel for whom Racky had cracked a nut, and the mother rabbit
whose little bunny had been rocked to sleep, were no longer in the
cave, so they could not tell the children where Racky had gone.
"But Thump will find him!" declared Rodney. "Go on!" he called to
his pet, and the dog, looking back to see that the children were
following, led the way deeper into the forest.
And then, all of a sudden, it began to snow. The storm swooped down
over the children, just as it had done over Racky, who was swaying
his way along, hardly knowing where he was going or what to do.
But while Racky did not like the swirling, white flakes, the children
did, laughing and shouting in glee as they felt the melting, white
crystals cool their warm, red cheeks.
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" they shouted. "It's snowing! It's
snowing! Soon it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas! Santa Claus
will come with his sleigh and reindeer when it snows! Hurray!
Hurray! Hurray!"
But as the snow came down thicker and faster, the children could not
see which way to go. They were in the middle of the woods. Even
Thump did not know what to do, for now he could no longer sniff at
the track, or trail, made by the runaway rocker. The snow had quite
covered it.
"I thought it would be easier in the snow, but it's harder," said Nat.
"What are we going to do?" asked his sister. "I like the snow, but I
don't want to be lost in the storm."
"I guess we'd better go home," murmured Addie.
"Yes," agreed Weezie. "Do you know which way home is?" she inquired
of her brother.
"Well, not exactly," Nat replied. "But I guess Rod knows."
"No, I don't, either," confessed Rodney. "But I'm sure Thump does!
Hi, Thump!" he called to his pet. "Take us home!"
But, instead of barking, and rushing off through the storm as he
should have done, Thump drooped his tail between his legs and
whimpered, cuddling close to Rodney's legs.
"Oh, he's afraid of something!" whispered Addie. "Thump doesn't know
how to lead us home. He's lost, too, and he's afraid of something!"
Truly, the dog did act strange, and as if a little fearful of what
was going to happen. The wind was howling and moaning through the
bare branches of the trees. The snow flakes were swirling down
thicker than ever. All about the children was a pale, frosty mist
through which they could see nothing.
Suddenly Weezie whispered:
"I hear some one coming!"
They all listened. Above the noise of the storm they could hear the
breaking and snapping of twigs and branches on the ground, as heavy
feet trod on them.
"Maybe it's the circus elephant coming for us," said Addie in a low
voice.
"Elephants don't come out in winter," declared Nat. "It's too cold
for them."
"Oh, look!" cried Weezie. "See there!"
She pointed off among the trees and there, walking through the storm,
toward the children, was a little old woman, wrapped in a big fur
coat. She tramped over the snow and over the underbrush like a man.
"Come with me!" cried the old woman, waving her hands toward the
children. "Come with me and bring your dog!"
[Illustration: "COME WITH ME!" CRIED THE OLD WOMAN.]
And, hardly knowing why they did so, the children followed the
strange woman through the storm, with Thump whining and keeping close
to Rodney and Nat.
ADVENTURE IX
SANTA CLAUS
For Racky, caught out in the snow storm, just as the children had
been, did not know what to do. The cold, white flakes swirled around
his legs, and fell on his stiff, wooden arms, chilling him all the
way into his glue, by which he was held together.
"If the snow gets into my cracks, it will melt, and be just like
rain," thought Racky as he swayed along. "Then I shall fall apart!
Or I shall get the rheumatism, and creak worse, than when fat Grandma
sits on me! Oh, dear! I almost wish I had not run away!"
He found that he could travel faster though, with the snow on the
ground. For he would rock a little way, then suddenly stop, and he
would slide ahead ten feet or more, just as children do on a slippery
place.
"Well, there is something good in the snow, anyhow," said the chair
to himself. "I can go very fast on it."
But it was getting colder, and the flakes were now so thick that
Racky could hardly see more than a little distance in front of him.
Once, after a slide, he bumped into an evergreen tree, whose thick
branches were white with the crystal flakes.
"Whoa there!" exclaimed the tree. "Where are you going, chair?"
"Oh, excuse me!" murmured Racky. "I am so sorry! I didn't mean to
bump into you. But I am running away, and the snow blinded me!"
"That is quite all right," sighed the evergreen tree, kindly. "I
have often thought, myself, that I would like to run away. But I am
rooted fast in the ground and must stay here forever. Tell me, is it
nice to run away?"
"It was at first," answered Racky, "but I am not so sure about it,
now. I have had some wonderful adventures, and I may have more. But
just now the snow is sifting down my back and I fear--a-ker-choo!" he
suddenly sneezed. "I fear I am catching a--ker-snitzio--I beg your
pardon--I fear I am catching cold!"
"I am quite certain of it," said the tree. "But if you want shelter
from the storm, rock yourself in beneath my thick branches."
"Thank you, I will," said Racky, noticing that the low-hanging boughs
of the evergreen tree made a sort of tent.
Even during the short time the chair had been standing still, talking
to the tree, the snow had drifted over his rockers, so that now, when
he wanted to move again he found it not easy. But he swayed to and
fro, and, at last, managed to get in beneath the thick, green
branches.
It was warmer there, almost as warm and sheltered as it had been in
the cave, and Racky was thinking he could stay there until the storm
was over, when, all of a sudden, he sneezed again:
"Ker-choo! Ker-foo! Ker-snitzio!"
"Oh, that isn't so good!" sighed the tree. "You have sneezed three
times at once."
"What is that a sign of?" asked Racky.
"I should say it was a sign that you now have a cold, and ought to be
in a snug, warm place, near a blazing, hot fire," answered the tree.
"I fear it is a bit breezy out here, even under my thick, green
branches."
This was quite true, and then, as Racky stood there, shivering in
spite of the warm cushions, all at once a shower of snow fell on him.
"Oh!" cried the chair.
"It's too bad, but it can't be helped," said the evergreen. "You see
my branches are covered with snow, and when the wind blows it shakes
the snow off so that it falls on you. I am very sorry!"
"I am catching more--a-ker-choo--more cold!" sneezed the chair. "Is
there no place, Tree, where I could be warm and sheltered? Is there
no place where I can go in, to be away from the storm? After it is
over I shall keep on adventuring."
The evergreen thought for a moment and then, as the wind again shook
its branches, sifting more snow down on poor Racky, the tree said:
"Just beyond this patch of woods, where I am rooted, is a little
house."
"Oh, a little house!" murmured Racky. "That sounds comforting! And
is there a fire in the little house?"
"There must be," answered the evergreen, "a warm, blazing fire. For
a little old woman lives in the house and, each day, she comes here
to the forest to gather up sticks for her fire. So it must be warm
there."
"I wish I could go in the little house," sighed Racky.
"Why don't you?" asked the tree. "I am glad to have you here, under
me, but I cannot help sifting snow on you when the wind blows. And
it is too breezy for one who is catching cold. The little old woman
is kind. I am sure she will let you come in her house."
"Then I am going there, thank you," said Racky, who was now shivering
so that he almost shook Grandma's glasses out from between the
cushions. "How can I find the little house?" he asked.
"Bock yourself straight through the woods until you come to a big
rock," answered the tree. "Around the corner of that rock stands the
house of the little old woman."
And so, with many thanks to the kind evergreen, Racky swayed out from
beneath the sheltering branches into the storm again. The wind was
blowing harder now, and the snow was swirling down more thickly. It
was all the chair could do to slide along. But he held his wooden
arms stiffly to his sides, and swayed forward until he came within
sight of the big rock, and then he noticed the little house.
Just as Racky looked, he saw the little old woman, in the big fur
coat, leading four children and a dog into her cottage. At the sight
of them, the chair shrunk back behind the shelter of the great rock.
"The tree said nothing about children and a dog," murmured the chair.
"I wonder if this is the right house? I couldn't see those boys and
girls very well, nor the dog, either. But if they are going to live
in the cottage, there may be no room for me."
Then the runaway rocker thought of something else.
"I wonder if they could be the children from the Happy Home where I
used to live?" mused Racky. "I wonder if they could be Nat and
Weezie, with Rodney and Addie? And perhaps that dog was Thump.
But--no--they would not be so far from home in the storm. They must
be some other children. I will wait a bit, and then I will knock on
the door. The little old woman may be kind enough to take me in."
But, though Racky was not certain of it, those children were the very
ones he had mentioned--Nat and his sister, Rodney and Addie, and
Thump the dog. The little old woman had seen them in the storm-swept
woods.
"What are you doing out in the snow?" she had asked them.
"We are trying to find our runaway rocking chair, with Grandma's
glasses in," answered Nat. He and the other children were no longer
frightened, nor worried about being lost in the storm, once they had
seen, through the mist of swirling flakes, the kind face of the
little old woman.
"A runaway rocking chair!" she laughed. "I never heard of such a
thing, though I know about lost glasses, for I often lose my own.
But come to my house out of the storm!"
She led the way, and soon the children were snug and warm in the
cottage. Racky had seen them go in, but, as I have told you, he was
not certain that they were the same children whom he knew. So he
stood there in the storm, not knowing what to do.
It did not take the little old woman long to draw chairs up to the
bright, blazing fire on the hearth, so the children could sit in them
and get warm. Thump, the dog, curled up in a round ball on the
hearth, as near the blaze as he dared to go without burning his tail.
"Now, would you like something to eat?" asked the little old woman.
"Oh--would we?" murmured the boys, while the girls bashfully
whispered:
"Oh, yes, very much indeed!"
"Then here you are!" cried the little old woman, and she set on the
table a plate of molasses cookies and a pitcher of milk, with four
glasses. Thump looked up from his place on the hearth, hungrily
sniffing.
"You shall have your share, too," said the little old lady. "I have
a juicy bone in my cupboard for you!"
Soon Thump was gnawing the bone, and the children were eating cookies
and drinking milk. The little old lady sat in a deep, easy chair
near the blazing fire and said:
"Now tell me more about yourselves, my dears; and this strange story
about the runaway rocker. Also, tell me where you live, and I will
try to think of a way to send you home, though I cannot take you
myself. Tell me all about it."
But before any of them could answer, Weezie, with a queer little,
catching sound in her breath, pointed to a window and exclaimed:
"Look! There's Santa Claus!"