everybody in the Wide Blue Water came to hear about it, and they told it
to others, and Old Man Moccasin heard so much about how Mr. Eagle had
fooled him, and how I had fooled Mr. Eagle, that he moved to another
drift, farther down, and probably lives there still. And Mr. Eagle heard
so much about the way he tried to teach me to fly that he made up a
story of his own and flew in all directions, telling it; and that is the
story most people know about to-day and the one that Mr. Man put into
his books. But it isn't true, and I can prove it."
Mr. Turtle got up and turned around toward the Hollow Tree people. He
had his coat off, and he reached back and pointed to a place about in
the center of his shell.
"Feel right there," he said, which Mr. Rabbit did, and said:
"Why, there's quite a lump there. It hardly shows, but you can feel it
plainly."
[Illustration: "YES," SAID MR. TURTLE, "THAT'S WHERE I STRUCK"]
"Yes," said Mr. Turtle, "that's where I struck. It was quite sore for a
good while. There was a lump there, at first, as big as an egg. It
flattened a good deal afterward, but it never quite went away. Feel how
smooth it is. It kept just about as it was when it happened."
Then all those other Deep Woods people came up and felt of the queer
lump on Mr. Turtle's back, and said how perfectly that proved everything
and how Mr. Turtle always could prove things, and they noticed the
inscription about the old race with Mr. Hare, and said in some ways Mr.
Turtle was about the most wonderful person anywhere and they were
certainly proud to be his friend.
Then Mr. Turtle said they might all sit there and talk about it a
little, while he went in to cook the fish and make a pan of biscuits and
a nice salad for dinner.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] "Mr. Turtle's Thunder Story" in _The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods
Book_.
THE DEEP WOODS ELOPEMENT
MR. 'POSSUM TELLS ABOUT AUNT
MELISSY AND UNCLE SILAS AND
THE ROMANCE OF MINTY GLENWOOD
One night in the Hollow Tree, when the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old
Black Crow had finished their supper and were sitting around the fire,
smoking, Mr. 'Possum said that he thought he had heard Mr. Frog trying
off a few notes to-day, over in the Wide Grasslands, so that he knew
that it must be coming spring, and Mr. 'Coon said that over Mr. Man's
way he had smelled burning leaves, which was a pretty sure sign. Then
Mr. Crow said that some of his wild relatives had been cawing about
lately, and that was a sign, too. Then they all smoked some more, and
looked in the fire, and were glad that winter was about over, and
presently Mr. 'Possum said that every time he smelled the spring smell,
and heard the spring sounds, it reminded him of something that happened
a long time ago, when he was quite young and lived with his Uncle Silas
and Aunt Melissy Lovejoy, over beyond the Wide Blue Water. Then the
'Coon and the Old Black Crow begged Mr. 'Possum to tell about it,
because they said Mr. 'Possum's stories always sounded so unbelievable,
and yet always turned out to be almost founded on fact.
"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "you remember I told you about Uncle Silas
Lovejoy going to the city, once, and coming home all stylish, with a
young man to wait on him, and how Aunt Melissy, when she saw them,
turned the young man into just a plain hired help and set them both to
work in the garden;[2] and you may remember how I once told you about
all our folks, including the hired man, being moved by a balloon across
the Wide Blue Water and set down right at the very door of a fine hollow
tree, which we moved into and enjoyed for a long time--my little cousins
and myself growing up there, and some of them still living there to this
day."[3]
Mr. 'Possum stopped to fill his pipe again, and the others all said they
remembered, and Mr. 'Coon said he always liked the nice slow and
reminding way Mr. 'Possum began his stories, as it brought everything up
fresh, and one didn't have to be trying to think of what had happened
before, but could just sit back and listen. Mr. 'Possum nodded, and lit
his pipe, and leaned back and drew a few puffs, as if he enjoyed them
so much that he didn't care to go on with his story. But pretty soon he
said:
"We lived there till I grew up, and all my little cousins, too, and the
hired man stayed with us. He was a very good young man; though, being
brought up in town, of course it took him a little while to get used to
country ways. But Aunt Melissy was a stirring person and she didn't let
it take as long as it might have in another family. Aunt Melissy was
quite primpy herself, and said that she guessed she could carry what
style there was in our family (being a Glenwood, and having married
beneath her), and that Uncle Silas and the rest of us would do pretty
well if we managed to keep up with the work she laid out for us; and
that was so.
[Illustration: SHE WOULD MAKE WINTERS HELP MY YOUNG LADY COUSIN DO THE
DISHES]
"She kept Uncle Silas and Winters--that was the name of the hired
man--busier than anybody, as she never quite got over the trip to town
and the way they came home. She used to set Uncle Silas to peeling
potatoes, after supper, for next morning, and would make Winters help my
young lady cousin do the dishes, which you would not think he would
like; but he did. Aunt Melissy didn't know that he would like it so
much, or she would have set him at the potatoes, and Uncle Silas at the
dishes.
"I don't suppose any of you can guess why our hired man wanted to help
my cousin, Minta Glenwood Lovejoy, with the dishes. I couldn't, even
after I saw that he was so fond of the job, that he could hardly wait
until the supper was cleared away and it was ready for him. I used to
wonder how that young man, brought up in town, could take so to such
work, and then, after a while, I got to wondering why it took him and
Minty Glenwood, as we always called her, so long to get through.
[Illustration: UNCLE SILAS HAD GONE TO SLEEP WITH A POTATO IN HIS HAND]
"That was the first thing Aunt Melissy wondered, too. She generally knit
a little, after supper, and went to sleep over it, and would wake up
suddenly and look at the clock and begin to knit as fast as she could,
so we would not think she had been asleep. But one night she slept a
long time, and when she looked at the clock it was so late that she
said, 'Land's sakes, it's bedtime!' and she went over and shook Uncle
Silas, who had gone to sleep with a potato in his hand, and scolded him
to bed, and shook up the rest of us, and then noticed that Cousin Minty
and Winters were missing, and went straight to the kitchen door and
opened it, and found them sitting close together, and Winters holding
Cousin Minty's hand and telling her that unless she would set up
housekeeping with him he would go back to the city and lead a fearful
life; and Cousin Minty Lovejoy looking very scared.
"But she didn't look half as scared as she did when she saw Aunt
Melissy, nor the hired man, either. He had to make two trials before he
could get up, even after Aunt Melissy told him to, and Cousin Minty
Glenwood began to cry, and Aunt Melissy told her to go to bed at once,
and made a swing at her, and missed her, as she went by. She didn't
miss the hired man, though; and I guess he had something else to think
of besides Minty Glenwood and housekeeping, for a few minutes, anyway.
"Then Aunt Melissy Lovejoy told him he could take himself out of that
house, and not come back except for meals, and she said he could sleep
over in the shop, which was an old, leaky, broken stump of a tree where
we kept our garden tools. Then I happened to be sitting in the way, and
Aunt Melissy tripped over my feet, and when she righted herself she made
a swing at me, too; and if I had not dodged in time I might have been
injured for life. As it was, she drove me out with Winters to stay in
the shop, and I wasn't sorry, for it was an awful time in our house.
"Next morning, Aunt Melissy Lovejoy was still dangerous, and at
breakfast she broke out at things in general, and said the idea that
she, a Glenwood, should live to see a hired man sitting up to a child of
hers, especially one who was a Glenwood herself, resembling the family
as she did, and being named that way, too; which seemed worse, somehow,
than anything that ever happened to a Glenwood before, except her own
case; and she gave an awful look at Uncle Silas, who got a little
spunky--the only time I ever saw him that way--and said he thought that
Winters was quite a good fellow and would make as good a husband as _he_
had, meaning himself, of course, and Aunt Melissy said, 'Yes, just
about,' and asked him if he wanted his daughter to have as hard a row to
hoe as _she_ had, meaning _herself_, though it was Uncle Silas who had
the hard hoeing in that family, if I could judge.
[Illustration: THAT NIGHT WINTERS AND I TALKED IT OVER]
"Well, that night in the shop, Winters and I talked it over, and he
decided to go away and take Minty Glenwood with him. He might go to the
city, he said, to his folks, who had disowned him because he had been
quite wild, but very likely would take him back now that he had reformed
and was ready to be tamed by a nice little person like Minty Glenwood.
He and Minty would have to elope, of course, and he told me to tell her
just what to do, because I could get to see her alone, which he
couldn't. There was a little sapling grew near the tree, and one of its
limbs stuck out above her window. Winters said he would go out on that
limb and bend it down, about midnight, and Minty Glenwood could be there
and climb out on it, and they would go away together quite a distance
from Aunt Melissy, and live happy ever after.
"So I told Cousin Minty Glenwood about the plan, and just what to do,
and she was as scared as a chicken, but said she would do anything to
save the hired man from that awful city life he had mentioned. She said
she knew something would happen when she tried to climb out her window,
but she would have to do it, as it was the only way to get out without
going through Aunt Melissy's room, which would be much worse.
"Well, that night Winters and I got everything ready, and had all his
things packed in a bundle at the foot of the tree, and a little before
midnight by the full moon, Winters went up and crawled out on the limb
to bend it down, but when he got there it wouldn't bend far enough to
reach Minty Glenwood's window--him being a light-weight person, though
I've heard he got fatter later on. He couldn't jump on it, for fear of
waking up Aunt Melissy, so he came down and said I would have to go out
on the limb, and he would stay on the ground with the things, because I
was always pretty solid, even in those days. So then I went out and
crawled along on that limb, which bent down with me, all right, but
didn't quite reach Minty Glenwood's window, and I couldn't see how she
was going to get on it unless she jumped, which I never thought she'd
do.
[Illustration: SENT ME SAILING UP INTO THE SKY]
"But you never can tell what a young person in love _will_ do. She was
there waiting, all dressed in her Sunday things, with a big bundle of
what she was going to take along, and when I asked her, in a whisper, if
she could jump and grab the limb, she didn't wait to think about it, or
to give me notice to get ready, but just jumped, bundle and all, and
grabbed the limb with one hand and me with the other, and down we swung,
for Minty Glenwood was plump, too, and quite heavy with the bundle, and
then she let go and dropped, which I should have done, only I forgot
it, and a second later that limb sprung back and sent me sailing up into
the sky just about in the direction of the full moon.
"Minty Glenwood landed all right--on her bundle, I heard later--and she
and Winters had probably got a good ways on their wedding journey by the
time I came down in a brush-heap, where we had been clearing up a new
potato-patch. It broke my fall, but it was very stiff, scratchy brush,
and when I got out I felt as if I had been in an argument with Mr.
Wildcat. I was limping, too, and afraid I was injured internally, for I
didn't feel hungry, which is always a bad sign. I was taking on a good
deal, and making some noise, I suppose, for when I got to the shop and
was going to drag myself up to bed, I heard Aunt Melissy's voice call
out the window:
"'What's the matter with you out there? What have you been doing?' And
then all at once she gave a howl, for she was in Minty Glenwood's room,
and had suddenly discovered that Cousin Minty wasn't in her bed, and
hadn't been in it that night. About five seconds later she came tearing
out there in the moonlight and grabbed me and says:
"'What does this mean?' she says. 'Where's your Cousin Minty Glenwood
and that hired creature, Winters?'
"I could tell from Aunt Melissy's looks and voice that it was not a
good time to tell it just as it was. I said I had done all I could to
save Minty Glenwood from sorrow, but I had been bruised and scratched in
the attempt, and she could see herself that I was bleeding in as many as
fifty places and could hardly walk. Very likely, I said, I would not
live long enough to tell all the tale, and that I didn't know which way
those two fierce young people had gone, which was true enough.
[Illustration: HE LAUGHED MORE THAN I EVER SAW HIM LAUGH AT ANYTHING]
"Then Uncle Silas came out and pretended to be very mad, too, and said
it was a shame the way I had been treated. As for Minty Glenwood, she
was not worth hunting for, and he would disown her from that moment,
though I knew he was as glad as he could be that it had happened, and
had a pretty good idea I had something to do with it. Aunt Melissy she
stormed and carried on, and said her family was ruined and that she was
going back to her folks; but she had gotten more peaceful-like by
morning, and put some poultices and bandages on me, and said she didn't
see how in time that little, spindly hired man and a mere girl could get
a big, strong fellow like me into such a state, though she said, of
course Minty was a Glenwood and the Glenwoods were always fighters. Then
she took me back to the tree, and gave me Minty Glenwood's room; and
when she was out Uncle Silas came to sit with me, and I told him all
about it, and he laughed more than I ever saw him laugh at anything,
especially when I told about how I went sailing into that brush-heap.
Uncle Silas always did like anything funny, and he hadn't many chances
to show his taste.
"Well, my appetite came back, but I didn't get well till I had to,
because as long as I could be in bed and seem dangerous Uncle Silas had
an excuse to sit with me, and we had a fine time. But by and by Aunt
Melissy made up some of the worst medicine I ever tasted, which she said
she thought would cure me if anything would; which it did, the first
dose. Aunt Melissy stayed pretty savage, though, until one day word came
from Minty Glenwood, who was now Mrs. Winters, that they were living in
town, and that Mr. Winters's people were very fine and stylish and well
off, and had taken him back because he had married so well and reformed,
and she was as happy as could be. Then you ought to have seen Aunt
Melissy show off. Any one would have thought she had made the match, and
she couldn't talk enough about Minty Glenwood living in the city, and
our fine Winters relatives; and told Uncle Silas he ought to be ashamed
of the things he'd said about Minty Glenwood, and ordered him to take
them all back, which he did. Then, by and by, she went to visit the
Winters folks, and stayed a long time, and Uncle Silas and I and my
other cousins had the best time we ever had in our lives. When Aunt
Melissy came back she looked as fancy and put on almost as many airs as
Uncle Silas had the time he came home and brought the young man who by
and by was to marry Minty Glenwood."
Mr. 'Possum sleepily knocked the ashes out of his pipe and yawned and
looked into the fire.
"Did you or Uncle Silas ever tell Aunt Melissy about helping Minty
Glenwood and Winters to get away?" asked Mr. Crow.
"No," said Mr. 'Possum, drowsily; "we knew Aunt Melissy, and thought it
was a pretty good plan to let well enough alone."
FOOTNOTES:
[2] _Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book._
[3] _Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book._
COUSIN REDFIELD AND THE MOLASSES
COUSIN REDFIELD BEAR MISBEHAVES
AND IS CURED OF HIS TASTE FOR MOLASSES
The Little Lady has been to the circus during the afternoon and has come
home full of it. There were ever so many things to see there, but nicest
of all were some little bears--three of them--who rolled over one
another in their cage and seemed to be having the best time in the
world. She tells the Story Teller all about them after supper; then she
says:
"Do you know any story about little bears? Did the Bear family in the
Big Deep Woods ever come visiting to the Hollow Tree?"
The Story Teller thinks.
"Yes," he said; "or rather, Mr. Bear came once alone, but that is
another story. I know one story, though, about a little bear, a story
that Mr. Crow told one night when he had been over to spend the
afternoon with Mr. Bear, they being very good friends."
"Mr. Bear told me this afternoon," Mr. Crow said, "about something that
happened in his uncle's family some years ago. His uncle's name was
Brownwood--Brownwood Bear--and he had a little boy named Redfield, but
they called him Reddie, for short. Uncle Brownwood lost his wife one
night when she went over to get one of Mr. Man's pigs, and he and little
Redfield used to live together in a nice cave over near the Wide Blue
Water, not far from the place where Mr. Turtle lives now. Uncle
Brownwood used to be gone a good deal to get food and whatever they
needed, and Reddie would stay at home and sleep in the cave, or play
outside and roll and tumble about in the sun and have a very good time.
He had a number of playthings, too, and plenty of nice things to eat,
and every morning, before Uncle Brownwood Bear started out he would put
out enough to last Cousin Redfield all day--some ripe berries, and
apples, with doughnuts, and such things, and always some bread and
butter and molasses to finish up on.
[Illustration: HE DIDN'T EAT THE BREAD AT ALL, BUT JUST ATE UP THE
MOLASSES]
"Little Reddie Bear liked all these things very much, but best of all he
liked the molasses. Not bread and molasses, but just molasses; and he
used to beg Uncle Brownwood to give him a whole saucer of molasses to
dip his bread in; but once when his father did that he didn't eat the
bread at all, but just ate up the molasses, and was sick that night,
though he said it wasn't the molasses that did it, but carrying in
some wood and washing the dishes, which he had to do every evening.
"But Uncle Brownwood didn't give Cousin Redfield any more molasses in a
saucer; he spread his bread for him every morning, and set the
molasses-jug on a high shelf, out of reach, and Reddie used to stand and
look at it, when his father was gone, and wonder how long it would be
before he would be tall enough to get it down and enjoy himself with the
contents.
"One day when Cousin Redfield was looking at the jug he had an idea.
Just outside of the cave his father had made a bear-ladder for Reddie to
learn to climb on. A bear-ladder is a piece of a tree set up straight in
the ground. It has short, broken-off limbs, and little bears like to run
up and down on it, and big bears, too, for it gives them exercise and
keeps them in practice for climbing real trees.
"When Reddie had the idea, he ran out and looked at his bear-ladder;
then he ran back and looked at the jug. If only that bear-ladder was in
the cave, he thought, he could walk right up it and get the jug and have
the best time in the world. The bear-ladder would go in the cave, for it
was a very high cave, and the ladder was not a very tall one.
"But the bear-ladder was fast to the ground, and at first Reddie
couldn't budge it. He worked and pushed and tugged, but it would not
move. Then he happened to think that perhaps if he climbed up to the top
of it, and swung his weight back and forth as hard as he could, he
might loosen it that way. So he ran up to the top limbs and caught hold
tight, and rocked this way and that with all his might, and pretty soon
he felt his bear-ladder begin to rock, too. Then he rocked a good deal
harder, and all of a sudden down it went and little Cousin Redfield Bear
flew over into a pile of stove-wood, and for ten minutes didn't know
whether he was killed or not, he felt so poorly. Then he crawled over to
a flat stone and sat down on it, and cried, and felt of himself to see
if he was injured anywhere; and he did not feel at all like bothering
with his bear-ladder any more, or eating molasses, either.
"But that was quite early in the day, and after Cousin Redfield had sat
there awhile he didn't feel so discouraged. His pains nearly all went
away, and he began to feel that if he had some molasses now it would
cure him. So then he got up and went over to look at the ladder, and
took hold of it, and found that it wasn't very heavy, as it was pine,
and very dead and dry. He could drag it to the cave easy enough, but
when he got it there he couldn't set it up straight. He was too short,
and not strong enough, either.
[Illustration: SAT DOWN ON THE STONE TO THINK AGAIN AND CRY SOME MORE]
"So little Cousin Redfield went back and sat down on his stone to think
again and cry some more, because he found several new hurting places
that were not quite cured yet. Then he noticed the clothes-line, and
thought he might do something with that. He could get that down easy
enough, for it was not very high. Cousin Redfield had often hung out
the clothes on it himself. So he untied the ends of the clothes-line and
tied one end of it to the top of his bear-ladder, but didn't know what
to do with the other end, until he happened to see the big hooks in the
top of the cave where his father hung meat when they had a good supply.
"So then Reddie made a bunch of the other end of the rope and threw it
at those hooks, and kept on throwing it until after a while it caught on
one of them, and enough of it hung down for him to get hold of. Cousin
Redfield, for a small bear, was really quite smart to think of all that.
"It wasn't easy, though, even now, to get the bear-ladder up straight.
Reddie pulled, and tugged, and propped his feet against the side of the
cave, and the table and benches, and got out of breath, and was panting
and hot and his sore places hurt him awful, and he thought he'd have to
give it up, but at last the end of the bear-ladder caught on the side of
the cave where the jug was, and stayed there, and Cousin Redfield could
let go of the rope, and get behind the ladder and push, and then, pretty
soon, it was up straight, and he could get the molasses-jug as easy as
anything.
"It was getting along in the afternoon now, and Reddie knew that Uncle
Brownwood Bear was likely to come home before long. So he went right up
and got the jug, and nearly dropped it getting down, it was so heavy.
But he got down with it all right, and then pulled out the cob that
was its stopper, and tipped the jug to pour some of the molasses out in
his hand.
[Illustration: AND THEN PRETTY SOON IT COMMENCED TO RUN BETTER]
"But the jug was quite full, and, the molasses being very thick, would
not run out very well. So he tipped the jug over farther, but could only
get a little. Then he tipped it on its side, and then pretty soon it
commenced to run better, and came out better, and made a nice noise,
'po-lollop, po-lollop, po-lollop,' and formed quite a thick pool right
on the floor of the cave, and little Cousin Redfield Bear got down on
his hands and knees and licked and lapped, and forgot everything but
what a lovely time he was having, and didn't realize that he was getting
it all over himself, until he started to get up, and then found it was
all around him, and his knees were in it, and everything.
"Cousin Redfield didn't get entirely up. He was nearly up when his foot
slipped and he went down flat on his back; when he tried it again he
went down in another position, and kept on getting partly up and falling
in different ways, until he was an awful sight, and there wasn't so much
molasses on the floor any more, because it was nearly all on Cousin
Redfield. Then that little bear--little Reddie Bear--suddenly remembered
that his father would be coming home presently, and that something ought
to be done about it. He was so full of molasses he could hardly move or
see out of his eyes. If he could only wipe it off. He had seen his
father take a wisp of hay or nice, soft grass to wipe up a little that
was sometimes spilled on the table, so Reddie thought hay would be good
for his trouble. He would roll in hay, and that would take off the
molasses.