WHEN Toto came home, as he did just when night was closing in around the
little cottage, he was whistling merrily, as usual; and the first sound
of his clear and tuneful whistle brought Coon, Cracker, and Miss Mary
all running to the door, to greet, to tell, and to warn him. The boy
listened wide-eyed to the story of the attempted robbery, and at the end
of it he drew a long breath of relief.
"I am _so_ glad you didn't let Granny know!" he cried. "That was clever
of you. She never would have slept quietly again. And, I say! what a
good fellow you are, Coon! Shake paws, old boy! And Miss Mary, you are a
trump, and I would give you a golden nose-ring like your Princess's if
you had a nose to wear it on. To think of you two defending the castle,
and putting the enemy to flight, horse, foot, and dragoons!"
"What is dragoons?" asked the parrot, gravely. "I don't think he had any
about him, unless it was concealed. He had no horse, either; but he had
two feet,--and very ugly ones they were. He danced on them when the
kettle poured hot water over his legs,--danced higher than ever you did,
Toto."
"Did he?" laughed Toto, who was in high spirits. "Ha! ha! I am delighted
to hear it. But," he added, "it is so dark that you do not see our
guest, whom I have brought home for a little visit. Where are you, Jim
Crow? Come here and be introduced to the family!"
Thus adjured, the crow hopped solemnly forward, and made his best bow to
the three inmates, who in turn saluted him, each after his or her
fashion. The raccoon was gracious and condescending, the squirrel
familiar and friendly, the parrot frigidly polite, though inwardly
resenting that a crow should be presented to her,--to _her_, the
favorite attendant of the late lamented Princess of Central
Africa,--without her permission having been asked first. As for the
crow, he stood on one leg and blinked at them all in a manner which
meant a great deal or nothing at all, just as you chose to take it.
"Distinguished persons!" he said, gravely, "it is with pleasure that I
make your acquaintance. May this day be the least happy of your lives!
Lady Parrot," he added, addressing himself particularly to Miss Mary,
"grant me the honor of leading you within. The evening air is chill for
one so delicate and fragile."
Miss Mary, highly delighted at being addressed by such a stately title
as "Lady Parrot," relaxed at once the severity of her mien, and
gracefully sidled into the house in company with the sable-clad
stranger, while Toto and the two others followed, much amused.
After a hearty supper, in the course of which Toto related as much of
his and Bruin's adventures in the hermit's cave as he thought proper,
the whole family gathered around the blazing hearth. Toto brought the
pan of apples and the dish of nuts; the grandmother took up her
knitting, and said, with a smile: "And who will tell us a story, this
evening? We have had none for two evenings now, and it is high time that
we heard something new. Cracker, my dear, is it not your turn?"
"I think it is," said the squirrel, hastily cramming a couple of very
large nuts into his cheek-pouches, "and if you like, I will tell you a
story that Mrs. Cow told me a day or two ago. It is about a cow that
jumped over the moon."
"What!" cried Toto. "Why, I've known that story ever since I was a baby!
And it isn't a story, either, it's a rhyme,--
"Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow--"
"Yes, yes! I know, Toto," interrupted the squirrel. "She told me that,
too, and said it was a pack of lies, and that people like you didn't
know anything about the real truth of the matter. So now, if you will
just listen to me, I will tell you how it really happened."
THE MOON-CALF.
There once was a young cow, and she had a calf.
"And that's half!" said Toto, in rather a provoking manner.
"No, it isn't, it's only the beginning," said the little squirrel,
indignantly; "and if you would rather tell the story yourself, Toto, you
are welcome to do so."
"Beg pardon! Crackey," said Toto, apologetically. "Won't do so again,
Crackey; go on, that's a dear!" and the squirrel, who never bore malice
for more than two minutes, put his little huff away, and continued:--
* * * * *
This young cow, you see, she was very fond of her calf,--very fond
indeed she was,--and when they took it away from her, she was very
unhappy, and went about roaring all day long.
"Cows don't roar!" said Toto the irrepressible. "They _low_. There's a
piece of poetry about it that I learned once:--
"'The lowing herd--'
do something or other, I don't remember what."
"'The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea,'"
quoted the grandmother, softly.
"What do they wind?" asked the raccoon. "Yarn, or a chain-pump like the
one in the yard, or what?"
"I don't know what you mean by _low_, Toto!" said the squirrel, without
noticing Coon's remarks. "Your cow roared so loud the other day that I
fell off her horn into the hay. I don't see anything _low_ in that."
"Why, Cracker, can't you understand?" cried Toto. "They _low_ when they
_moo_! I don't mean that they moo _low_, but 'moo' _is_ 'low,' don't you
see?"
"No, I do _not_ see!" replied the squirrel, stoutly. "And I don't
believe there is anything _to_ see, I don't. So there, now!"
At this point Madam interfered, and with a few gentle words made the
matter clear, and smoothed the ruffled feathers--or rather fur.
The raccoon, who had been listening with ears pricked up, and keen eyes
glancing from one to the other of the disputants, now murmured, "Ah,
yes! very explicit. Quite what I should have said myself!" and relapsed
into his former attitude of graceful and dignified ease.
The squirrel repeated to himself, "Moo! low! loo! mow! moo!" several
times, shook his head, refreshed himself with a nut, and finally, at the
general request, continued his story:
* * * * *
So, as I said, this young cow was very sad, and she looed--I mean
mowed--all day to express her grief. And she thought, "If I could only
know where my calf is, it would not be quite so dreadfully bad. But they
would not tell me where they were taking him, though I asked them
politely in seven different tones, which is more than any other cow here
can use."
Now, when she was thinking these thoughts it chanced that the maid came
to milk the cows, and with the maid came a young man, who was talking
very earnestly to her.
"What is it, Molly?" says he. "Doesn't thee know me well enough?"
"I knows a moon-calf when I sees him!" says the maid; and with that she
boxed his ears, and sat down to milk the cow, and he went away in a
huff.
But the cow heard what the maid said, and began to wonder what
moon-calves were, and whether they were anything like her calf.
Presently, when the maid had gone away with the pail of milk, she said
to the Oldest Ox, who happened to be standing near,--
"Old Ox, pray tell me, what is a moon-calf?"
The Oldest Ox did not know anything about moon-calves, but he had no
idea of betraying his ignorance to anybody, much less to a very young
cow; so he answered promptly, "It's a calf that lives in the moon, of
course."
"Is it--are they--like other calves?" inquired the cow, timidly, "or a
different sort of animal?"
"When a creature is called a calf," replied the Ox, severely, "it _is_ a
calf. If it were a cat, a hyena, or a toad with three tails, it would be
called by its own name. Now do you understand?"
Then he shut his eyes and pretended to be asleep, for he did not like to
answer questions on matters of which he knew nothing; it fatigued his
brain, and oxen should always avoid fatigue of the brain.
But the young cow had one more question to ask, and could not rest till
it was answered; so mustering all her courage, she said, desperately,
"Oh, Old Ox! before you go to sleep, please--_please_, tell me if people
ever take calves to the moon from here?"
"Frequently!" said the Oldest Ox. "I wish you were there, now. I am
asleep. Good-night to you!" and in a few minutes he really was asleep.
But the young cow stood still, thinking. She thought so hard that when
the farmer's boy came to drive the cattle into the barn, she hardly saw
where she was going, but stumbled first against the door and then
against the wall, and finally walked into Old Brindle's stall instead of
her own, and got well prodded by the latter's horns in consequence.
"This cow is sick!" said the farmer's boy. "I must give her a warm mash,
and cut an inch or two off her tail to-morrow."
Next day the cows were driven out into the pasture, for the weather was
warm, and they found it a pleasant change from the barn-yard. They
cropped the honey-clover, well seasoned with buttercups and with just
enough dandelions scattered about to "give it character," as Mother
Brindle said. They stood knee-deep in the cool, clear stream which
flowed under the willows, and lay down in the shade of the great
oak-tree, and altogether were as happy as cows can possibly be.
All but the young red cow. She cared nothing for any of the pleasures
which she had once enjoyed so keenly; she only walked up and down, up
and down, thinking of her lost calf, and looking for the moon. For she
had fully made up her mind by this time that her darling Bossy had been
taken to the moon, and had become a moon-calf; and she was wondering
whether she might not see or hear something of him when the moon rose.
The day passed, and when the evening was still all rosy in the west, a
great globe of shining silver rose up in the east. It was the full moon,
coming to take the place of the sun, who had put on his nightcap and
gone to bed. The young cow ran towards it, stretching out her neck, and
calling,--
"Bossy! Moo! moo! Bossy, are you there?"
Then she listened, and thought she heard a distant voice which said,
"There!"
"I knew it!" she cried, frantically, "I knew it! Bossy is now a
moon-calf. Something must be done about it at once, if I only knew
what!"
And she ran to Mother Brindle, who was standing by the fence, talking to
the neighbor's black cow,--her with the spotted nose.
"Mother Brindle!" she cried. "Have you ever had a calf taken to the
moon? My calf, my Bossy, is there, and is now a moon-calf. Tell me, oh!
tell me, how to get at him, I beseech you!"
"What nonsense is this?" said Mother Brindle, severely. "Compose
yourself! You are excited, and will injure your milk, and that would
reflect upon the whole herd. As for your calf, why should you be better
off than other people? I have lost ten calves, the finest that ever were
seen, and I never made half such a fuss about them as you make over this
puny little red creature."
"But he is _there_, in the moon!" cried the poor cow. "I must find him
and get him down. I _must_, do you hear?"
"Decidedly, your wits must be in the moon, my dear," said the neighbor's
black cow, not unkindly. "They certainly have left you. Who ever heard
of calves in the moon? Not I, for one; and I am not more ignorant than
others, perhaps."
The red cow was about to reply, when suddenly across the meadow came
ringing the farm-boy's call, "Co, Boss! Co, Boss! Co, Boss!"
"Ah!" said Mother Brindle, "can it really be milking-time? What a
pleasant day this has been! Good-evening to you, neighbor. And you,
child," she added, turning to the red cow, "come straight home with me.
I heard James promise you a warm mash, and that will be the best thing
for you."
But at these words the young cow started, and with a wild bellow ran to
the farthest end of the pasture. "Bossy!" she cried, staring wildly up
at the silver globe, which was rising steadily higher and higher in the
sky, "you are going away from me! Jump down from the moon, and come to
your mother! Bossy! Bossy! _Come!_"
And then a distant voice, floating softly down through the air,
answered, "Come! come!"
"He calls me!" cried the red cow. "My darling calls me, and I go. I will
go to the moon; I will be a moon-cow! Bossy, Bossy, I come!"
She ran forward like an antelope, gave a sudden leap into the air, and
went up, up, up,--over the haystacks, over the trees, over the
clouds,--up among the stars.
But, alas! in her frantic desire to reach the moon she overshot the
mark; jumped clear over it, and went down on the other side, nobody
knows where, and she never was seen or heard of again.
And Mother Brindle, when she saw what had happened, ran straight home
and gobbled up the warm mash before any of the other cows could get
there, and ate so fast that she made herself ill.
* * * * *
"That is the whole story," said the squirrel, seriously; "and it seemed
to me a very curious one, I confess."
"Very!" said Toto, dryly. "But there's nothing about the others in
it,--the cat and fiddle, and the little dog, you know."
"Well, they _weren't_ in it really, at all!" replied Cracker. "They were
all lies, Mrs. Cow says, every one of them."
"Humph!" said Toto "Well, Mrs. Cow ought to be a good judge of lies, I
should say."
"What can be expected," said the raccoon loftily, "from a creature who
eats hay? Be good enough to hand me those nuts, Toto, will you? The
story has positively made me hungry,--a thing that has not happened--"
"Since dinner-time!" said Toto. "Wonderful indeed, Coon! But I shall
hand the nuts to Cracker first, for he has told us a very good story,
whether it is true or not."