AT dinner the next day, it was noticed that Coon was very melancholy. He
shook his head frequently, and sighed so deeply and sorrowfully that the
kind heart of the wood-pigeon was moved to pity.
"Are you not well, my dear Coon?" she asked. "Something has gone amiss
with you, evidently. Tell us what it is."
The raccoon shook his head again, and looked unutterably doleful.
"I knew how it would be, Coon," said the bear. "You shouldn't have eaten
that third pie for supper. Two pies are enough for anybody, after such a
quantity of bread and honey and milk as you had."
Coon sighed again, more deeply than before.
"I _didn't_ eat it all," he said; "I only wish I had!"
"Why, Coon," queried Toto, "what's the trouble?"
"Well," said Coon, "there was a piece left. I couldn't eat any more, so
I put it away in the cupboard, thinking I would have it for lunch
to-day. It was a lovely piece. I never saw such a squash pie as that
was, anyhow, and that piece--"
He paused, and seemed lost in the thought of the pie.
"_Well!_" exclaimed Toto. "So you _did_ eat it for your lunch, and now
you are unhappy because you didn't keep it for dinner. Is that it?"
"Not at all!" replied the other, "not at all! I trust I am not _greedy_,
Toto, _whatever_ my faults may be. I went to get it for my luncheon, for
I had been working all the morning like a--"
"Dormouse!"
"Tree-toad!"
"Grasshopper!" murmured the squirrel, the bear, and Toto,
simultaneously.
"Like a RACCOON!" he continued severely. "I can say no more than that;
and I was desperately hungry. I went to the cupboard to get my piece of
pie, and it was--gone!"
"Gone!" exclaimed the grandmother; "why, who can have taken it?"
"That is the point, Madam!" said Coon. "It was some small creature, for
it got in through the crack under the cupboard door, gnawing away the
wood. I have examined the marks," he added, "and they are the marks of
small, very sharp teeth." And he looked significantly at the squirrel.
"What do you mean by looking at me in that way?" demanded little
Cracker, whisking his tail fiercely, and bristling all over. "I've a
good mind to bite your ears with my sharp teeth. I never touched your
old pie. If you say I did, I'll throw this cheese--"
"Cracker! Cracker!" said the grandmother, gently, "you forget yourself!
Good manners at table, you know. I am sure," she added, as Cracker hung
his head and looked much ashamed, "that none of us think seriously for a
moment that you took the pie. Coon loves his joke; but he has a good
heart, and he would not really give you pain, I know. Of course he did
not mean anything. Am I not right, Coon?"
It is only justice to the raccoon to say that he was rather abashed at
this. He rubbed his nose, and gave a deprecatory wink at Bruin, who was
looking very serious; then, recovering himself, he beamed expansively on
the squirrel, who still looked fierce, though respect for "Madam" kept
him silent.
"Mean anything?" he cried. "Dear Madam, do I _ever_ mean
anything,--anything unkind, at least?" he added hastily, as Toto looked
up with a suppressed chuckle. "I beg your pardon, Cracker, my boy, and I
hope you won't bear malice. As for those marks--"
"Those marks," interrupted the bear, who had risen from his seat and was
examining the cupboard door, "were made by mice. I am quite sure of it."
"So am I," said Miss Mary, quietly. "I saw them do it."
"What!"
"You!"
"When?"
"How?"
"Tell us!" exclaimed every one, in a breath.
"Two brown mice," said Miss Mary, "came out from under the cellar-door
about midnight. They gnawed at the cupboard till they had made the crack
wide enough to pass through. Then I heard them say, 'Squash pie!' and
heard them nibbling, or rather gobbling. After a while they came rushing
out as if the cat were after them, and jumped into the water-basin. Then
they tried to climb up Bruin's back, but he yawned like an alligator,
and shook them off, and they ran hurry-scurry under the cellar-door
again."
A great laugh broke out at this recital of Messrs. Squeak and Scrabble's
nocturnal adventure, and under cover of the laughter the raccoon
approached the parrot.
"Why didn't you give the alarm," he asked, "or drive off the mice
yourself? You knew it was my pie, for you saw me put it there."
Miss Mary cocked her bright yellow eye at him expressively.
"I lost two feathers from my tail, yesterday," she said. "Somebody bit
them off while I was asleep. They were fine feathers, and I cannot
replace them."
The two exchanged a long, deep look. At length--
"Miss Mary," said the raccoon aloud, "what was the color of your
lamented husband? You told us once, but I am ashamed to say I'm not
positive that I remember."
"Green!" replied Miss Mary, in some surprise,--"a remarkably fine
emerald green. But why do you ask?"
"Ah, I thought so!" said the raccoon, ingenuously. "That explains his
choice of a wife.--Walk, Toto, did you say? I am with you, my boy!" and
in three bounds he was out of the door, and leaping and frolicking about
in the new-fallen snow.
Toto caught up his cap and followed him, and the two together made their
way out of the yard, and walked, ran, leaped, jumped, tumbled,
scrambled, toward the forest. The sky had cleared, and the sun shone
brilliantly on the fresh white world. On every hand lay the snow,--here
heaped and piled in fantastic drifts and strange half-human shapes;
there spread smooth, like a vast counterpane. The tall trees of the
forest bent under white feathery masses, which came tumbling down on
Toto and his companion, as they lightly pushed the branches aside and
entered the woods.
A winter walk in the woods! It is always a good thing for any one who
has eyes in his head, but it is especially good when you see all that
Coon and Toto saw; when you know, from every tiny track or footmark,
what little creatures have been running or hopping about; when many of
these little creatures are your friends, and all of them at least
acquaintances. How fresh and crisp the air was! how soft and powdery and
generally delightful the snow! What a pleasant world it was, on the
whole!
"Let me see!" said the raccoon, stopping and looking about him. "It is
just about here that Chucky's aunt lives. Yes, I remember, now. You see
that oak-stump yonder, with the moss on it? Well, her burrow is just
under that. Suppose we give her a call, and tell her how her hopeful
nephew is."
"Nonsense!" said Toto, "she is as fast asleep as he is, of course. We
couldn't wake her if we tried, and why should we try?"
"Might have a game of ball with her," suggested the raccoon. "But I
don't know that it's worth while, after all."
"Who lives in that hollow tree, now?" asked Toto. "The wild-cat used to
live there, you know. It is a very comfortable tree, if I remember
right."
"You found it so once, didn't you, Toto?" said Coon. "Do you remember
that day, when a thunder-shower came up, and you crept into that hollow
tree for shelter? Ha! ha! ha! _do_ you remember that day, my boy?"
"I should think I did remember it!" cried Toto. "I am not likely to
forget it. It was raining guns and pitchforks, and the lightning was
cracking and zigzagging all through the forest, it seemed, and the
thunder crashing and bellowing and roaring--"
"Like Bruin, when the bumble-bee stung his nose!" put in the raccoon.
"Exactly!" said Toto. "There I was, curled up well in the hollow,
thinking how lucky I was, when suddenly came two green eyes glowering at
me, and a great spitting and spluttering and meowling.
"'Get out of my house!' said the creature.
'F-s-s-s-s-yeh-yow-s-s-s-s-s-s! get out of my house, I say!'
"'My dear Madam,' I said, 'it is really more than you can expect. You
are already thoroughly wet, and if you come here you will only drip all
over the nice dry hole and spoil it. Now, _I_ am quite dry; and to tell
you the truth, I mean to remain so.'
"Oh, how angry that cat was!
"'My name is Klawtobitz!' she cried. 'I have lived in this tree for
seven years, and I am not going to be turned out of it by a thing with
two legs and no tail. Who are you, I say?'
"'I am a boy!' cried I, getting angry in my turn. 'I wouldn't have a
tail if I was paid for it; and I will _not_ leave this hole!'
"And then the old cat humped her back, and grinned till I saw every
tooth in her head, and came flying at me,--claws spread, and tail as big
round as my arm. There we fought, tooth and nail, fist and claw, till we
were both out of breath. Finally I got her by the throat, and she made
her teeth meet in my arm, and there we both were. I had heard no noise
save the cat's screeching in my ear; but now, suddenly, a great growly
voice, close beside us, cried,--
"'Fair play! fair play! no choking!'
"We both dropped our hold, and looking up, saw--"
"Bruin and me!" interrupted the raccoon, joyously. "We were taking a
quiet prowl in the rain, and hearing the scuffle, stopped to see what
was going on. Such a pretty fight I had not seen in a long time, and it
was really too bad of Bruin to stop it. How old Ma'am Wildcat's tail
went down, though, when she saw him!"
"I am very glad he did stop it," said Toto. "I was quite a little chap
then, you see,--only seven years old,--and it was going hard with me. I
was frightened enough, though, I can tell you, when I saw Bruin standing
there. He looked as big as an elephant, and I fully expected to be eaten
up the next minute. But he said, in his great hearty voice,--
"'Give us your paw, my little fighting-cock! And you, Mrs. Wildcat, be
off! I gave you warning a week ago, when you killed the wood-pigeon's
nestlings. Off with you, now, quick, or--'"
"And she went!" cried Coon. "Oh, yes, my dear, she went! And I went
after her! I chased that cat for ten miles, to the very farthest end of
the forest. She had the start of me, and kept it pretty well, but I was
just overhauling her when we came to the open; she gave a flying leap
from the last tree, and went crash through the window of a farmhouse
which stood close at hand! I thought she would probably be attended to
there; so I went back, and found Bruin and you as sociable and friendly
as if you had been brought up in the same den,--you sitting in the hole,
with your funny red legs hanging out (you were the queerest-looking
animal I had ever seen, Toto!), and he sitting up on his haunches,
talking to you."
"And he invited us both to supper!" cried Toto. "Don't you remember,
Coon? That was the first time I had ever seen any of you people, and I
was dreadfully afraid that I should be the supper myself. But we went to
his den, and had a jolly supper. Bruin ate three large watermelons, I
remember. He _said_ a man gave them to him."
"I think it very likely that he did," said Coon, "if Bruin asked him."
"And I showed you how to play leap-frog," continued Toto; "and we played
it over Bruin's back till it was time for me to go home. And then you
both walked with me to the edge of the forest, and there we swore
eternal friendship."
"Ah!" said the raccoon, "that we did, my boy; and well have we kept the
vow! And so long as Coon's tail has a single hair in it, will he ever
cherish-- Hello! what's that?" he cried with a sudden start, as a tiny
brown creature darted swiftly across the path. "Woodmouse! I say,
Woodmouse! stop a minute; you are just the fellow I want to see."
The woodmouse stopped and turned round, and greeted the two friends
cordially.
"I haven't seen you for an age!" he said. "Coon, I supposed you had been
asleep for a couple of months, at least. How does it happen that you are
prowling about at this season?"
Coon briefly explained the state of the case, and then added:--
"I am specially glad to meet you, Woodmouse, for I want to consult you
about something. There are some mice in the cellar of the
cottage,--brown mice. Very troublesome, thieving creatures they are, and
we want to get rid of them. Now, I suppose they are relatives of yours,
eh?"
"Ahem! well--yes," the woodmouse admitted reluctantly. "Distant, you
know, quite distant; but--a--yes, they _are_ relatives. A wretched,
disreputable set, I have heard, though I never met any of them."
"You have heard quite correctly!" said the raccoon, warmly. "They are a
great annoyance to the Madam, and to all of us. They almost take the
food out of our mouths; they destroy things in the cellar, and--and in
fact, we want to get rid of them."
The woodmouse stared at him in amazement. "Really, Mr. Coon," he said,
laughing, "I should not have supposed, from my past acquaintance with
you, that you would have any difficulty in getting rid of them."
Raccoons cannot blush, or our Coon certainly would have done so. He
rubbed his nose helplessly, somewhat after the fashion of Bruin, and
cast a half-comical, half-rueful glance at Toto. Finally he replied,--
"Well, you see, Woodmouse, things are rather different from usual this
winter. The fact is, our Madam has a strong objection to--a--in point of
fact, to slaughter; and she made it a condition of our coming to spend
the winter with her, that we should not kill other creatures unless it
were necessary. So I thought if we _could_ get rid of those mice in any
other way, it would please her. I suppose there is plenty of room in the
forest for another family of mice?"
"Oh! as far as room goes," replied the woodmouse, "they have a range of
ten miles in which to choose their home. I cannot promise to call on
them, you know; that could not be expected. But if they behave
themselves, they may in time overcome the prejudice against them."
"Very well," said Coon, "I shall send them, then. How are you all at
home?" he added, "and what is going on in your set?"
Now it was the woodmouse's turn to look confused.
"My son is to be married on the second evening after this," he said.
"That is the only thing I know of."
"What?" cried Coon. "Your son Prick-ear? Why, he is one of my best
friends! How strange that I should have heard nothing of it!"
"We didn't know--we really thought--we supposed you were asleep!"
stammered the woodmouse.
"And so you chose this time for the wedding?" said the raccoon. "Now, I
call that unfriendly, Woodmouse, and I shouldn't have thought it of
you."
The woodmouse stroked his whiskers, and looked piteously at his
formidable acquaintance. "Don't be offended, Coon!" he said.
"Perhaps--perhaps you will come to the wedding, after all. Eh? of
course we should be delighted."
"Yes, to be sure I will come!" said the raccoon, cheerily. "_I_ don't
bear malice. Oh, yes! I will come, and Toto shall come, too. Where is it
to take place?"
"We--we have engaged the cave for the evening," said the woodmouse, with
some diffidence. "We have a large family connection, you know, and it is
the only place big enough to hold them all."
Coon stared in amazement, and Toto gave a long whistle.
"The cave, eh?" he said. "I should say this was to be something very
grand indeed. I should like very much to come, Woodmouse, if you think
it would not trouble any of your family. I promise you that Coon shall
be on his very best behavior, and--I'll tell you what!" he added, "I
will provide the music, as I did last summer, at the Rabbit's Rinktum."
"No, not really! will you, though?" cried the little woodmouse, his
slender tail quivering with delight. "We shall be infinitely obliged,
Mr. Toto, infinitely obliged, sir! We shall count upon you both. Bring
Cracker, too, and any other friends who may be staying with you. Would
your grandmother, possibly--eh? care to come?"
"Thank you!" said Toto, gravely, "I think not. My grandmother never goes
out in the evening."
"We might bring Bruin!" suggested Coon, with a sly wink at Toto.
But here the poor little woodmouse looked so unutterably distressed,
that the two friends burst out laughing; and reassuring him by a word,
bade him good-day, and proceeded on their walk.