"EGGS! eggs!" cried Toto, springing lightly into the barn, and waving a
basket round his head. "Mrs. Speckle, Mrs. Spanish, Dame Clucket, where
are you all? I want all the fresh eggs you can spare, please!
directly-now-this-very-moment!" and the boy tossed his basket up in the
air and caught it again, and danced a little dance of pure enjoyment,
while he waited for the hens to answer his summons.
Mrs. Speckle and Dame Clucket, who had been having a quiet chat together
in the mow, peeped cautiously over the billows of hay, and seeing that
Toto was alone, bade him good-morning.
"I don't know about eggs, to-day, Toto!" said Dame Clucket. "I want to
set soon, and I cannot be giving you eggs every day."
"Oh, but I haven't had any for two or three days!" cried Toto. "And I
_must_ have some to-day. Good old Clucket, dear old Cluckety, give me
some, please!"
"Well, I never can refuse that boy, somehow!" said Dame Clucket, half to
herself; and Mrs. Speckle agreed with her that it could not be done.
Indeed, it would have been hard to say "No!" to Toto at that moment, for
he certainly was very pleasant to look at. The dusty sunbeams came
slanting through the high windows, and fell on his curly head, his
ruddy-brown cheeks, and honest gray eyes; and as the eyes danced, and
the curls danced, and the whole boy danced with the dancing sunbeams,
why, what could two soft-hearted old hens do but meekly lead the way to
where their cherished eggs lay, warm and white, in their fragrant nests
of hay?
"And what is to be done with them?" asked Mrs. Speckle, as the last egg
disappeared into the basket.
"Why, don't you know?" cried the boy. "We are going to have a party
to-night,--a real party! Mr. Baldhead is coming, and Jim Crow, and
Ger-Falcon. And Granny and Bruin are making all sorts of good
things,--I'll bring you out some, if I can, dear old Speckly,--and these
eggs are for a custard, don't you see?"
"I see!" said Mrs. Speckle, rather ruefully.
"And Coon and I are decorating the kitchen," continued he; "and Cracker
is cracking the nuts and polishing the apples; and Pigeon Pretty and
Miss Mary are dusting the ornaments,--so you see we are all very busy
indeed. Ho! ho! what fun it will be! Good-by, Mrs. Speckle! good-by,
Cluckety!" and off ran boy Toto, with his basket of eggs, leaving the
two old hens to scratch about in the hay, clucking rather sadly over the
memories of their own chickenhood, when they, too, went to parties,
instead of laying eggs for other people's festivities.
In the cottage, what a bustle was going on! The grandmother was at her
pastry-board, rolling out paste, measuring and filling and covering, as
quickly and deftly as if she had had two pairs of eyes instead of none
at all. The bear, enveloped in a huge blue-checked apron, sat with a
large mortar between his knees, pounding away at something as if his
life depended on it. On the hearth sat the squirrel, cracking nuts and
piling them up in pretty blue china dishes; and the two birds were
carefully brushing and dusting, each with a pair of dusters which she
always carried about with her,--one pair gray, and the other soft brown.
As for Toto and the raccoon, they were here, there, and everywhere, all
in a moment.
"Now, then, where are those greens?" called the boy, when he had
carefully deposited his basket of eggs in the pantry.
"Here they are!" replied Coon, appearing at the same moment from the
shed, dragging a mass of ground-pine, fragrant fir-boughs, and
alder-twigs with their bright coral-red berries. "We will stand these
big boughs in the corners, Toto. The creeping stuff will go over the
looking-glass and round the windows. Eh, what do you think?"
"Yes, that will do very well," said Toto. "We shall need steps, though,
to reach so high, and the step-ladder is broken."
"Never mind!" said Coon. "Bruin will be the step-ladder. Stand up here,
Bruin, and make yourself useful."
The good bear meekly obeyed, and the raccoon, mounting nimbly upon his
shoulders, proceeded to arrange the trailing creepers with much grace
and dexterity.
"This reminds me of some of our honey-hunts, old fellow!" he said,
talking as he worked. "Do you remember the famous one we had in the
autumn, a little while before we came here?"
"To be sure I do!" replied the bear. "That was, indeed, a famous hunt!
It gave us our whole winter's supply of honey. And we might have got
twice as much more, if it hadn't been for the accident."
"Tell us about it," said Toto. "I wasn't with you, you know; and then
came the moving, and I forgot to ask you."
"Well, it was a funny time!" said the bear. "Ho! ho! it was a funny
time! Coon, you see, had discovered this hive in a big oak-tree, hollow
from crotch to ground. He couldn't get at it alone, for the clever bees
had made it some way down inside the trunk, and he couldn't reach far
enough down unless some one held him on the outside. So we went
together, and I stood on my hind tip-toes, and then he climbed up and
stood on my head, and I held his feet while he reached down into the
hole."
"Dear me!" said the grandmother, "that was very dangerous, Bruin. I
wonder you allowed it."
"Well, you see, dear Madam," replied the bear, apologetically, "it was
really the only way. I couldn't stand on Coon's head and have him hold
_my_ feet, you know; and we couldn't give up the honey, the finest crop
of the season. So--"
"Oh, it was all right!" broke in the raccoon. "At least, it was at
first. There was such a quantity of honey,--pots and pots of it!--and
all of the very best quality. I took out comb after comb, laying them in
the crotch of the tree for safe-keeping till I was ready to go down."
"But where were the bees all the time?" asked Toto.
"Oh, they were there!" replied the raccoon, "buzzing about and making a
fine fuss. They tried to sting me, of course, but my fur was too much
for them. The only part I feared for was my nose, and that I had covered
with two or three thicknesses of mullein-leaves, tied on with stout
grass. But as ill-luck would have it, they found out Bruin, and began to
buzz about him, too. One flew into his eye, and he let my feet go for an
instant,--just just for the very instant when I was leaning down as far
as I could possibly stretch to reach a particularly fine comb. Up went
my heels, of course, and down went I."
"Oh, oh!" cried the grandmother. "My _dear_ Coon! do you mean--"
"I mean _down_, dear Madam!" repeated the raccoon, gravely,--"the very
downest down there was, I assure you. I fell through that hollow tree as
the falling star darts through the ambient heavens. Luckily there was a
soft bed of moss and rotten wood at the bottom, or I might not have had
the happiness of being here at this moment. As it was--"
"As it was," interrupted the bear, "I dragged him out by the tail
through the hole at the bottom. Ho! ho! I wish you could have seen him.
He had brought the whole hive with him. Indeed, he looked like a hive
himself, covered from head to foot with wax and honey, and a cloud of
bees buzzing about him. But he had a huge piece of comb in each paw, and
was gobbling away, eating honey, wax, bees and all, as if nothing had
happened."
"Naturally," said the raccoon, "I am of a saving disposition, as you
know, and cannot bear to see anything wasted. It is not generally known
that bees add a slight pungent flavor to the honey, which is very
agreeable. Ve-ry agreeable!" he repeated, throwing his head back, and
screwing up one eye, to contemplate the arrangement he had just
completed. "How is that, Toto; pretty, eh?"
"Very pretty!" said Toto. "But, see here, if you keep Bruin there all
day, we shall never get through all we have to do. Jump down, that's a
good fellow, and help me to polish these tankards."
When all was ready, as in due time it was, surely it would have been
hard to find a pleasanter looking place than that kitchen. The clean
white walls were hung with wreaths and garlands, while the great
fir-boughs in the corners filled the air with their warm, spicy
fragrance. Every bit of metal--brass, copper, or steel--was polished so
that it shone resplendent, giving back the joyous blaze of the crackling
fire in a hundred tiny reflections. The kettle was especially glorious,
and felt the importance of its position keenly.
"I trust you have no unpleasant feeling about this," it said to the
black soup-kettle. "Every one cannot be beautiful, you know. If you are
useful, you should be content with that."
"Hubble! bubble! Bubble! hubble!
Some have the fun, and some have the trouble!"
replied the soup-kettle. "My business is to make soup, and I make it.
That is all I have to say."
The table was covered with a snowy cloth, and set with glistening
crockery--white and blue--and clean shining pewter. The great tankard
had been brought out of its cupboard, and polished within an inch of its
life; while the three blue ginger-jars, filled with scarlet
alder-berries, looked down complacently from their station on the
mantelpiece. As for the floor, I cannot give you an idea of the
cleanness of it. When everything else was ready and in place, the bear
had fastened a homemade scrubbing-brush to each of his four feet, and
then executed a sort of furious scrubbing-dance, which fairly made the
house shake; and the result was a shining purity which vied with that
of the linen table-cloth, or the very kettle itself.
And you should have seen the good bear, when his toilet was completed!
The scrubbing-brushes had been applied to his own shaggy coat as well as
to the floor, and it shone, in its own way, with as much lustre as
anything else; and in his left ear was stuck a red rose, from the
monthly rose-bush which stood in the sunniest window and blossomed all
winter long. It is extremely uncomfortable to have a rose stuck in one's
ear,--you may try it yourself, and see how you like it; but Toto had
stuck it there, and nothing would have induced Bruin to remove it. And
you should have seen our Toto himself, carrying his own roses on his
cheeks, and enough sunshine in his eyes to make a thunder-cloud laugh!
And you should have seen the great Coon, glorious in scarlet
neck-ribbon, and behind his ear (_not_ in it! Coon was not Bruin) a
scarlet feather, the gift of Miss Mary, and very precious. And you
should have seen the little squirrel, attired in his own bushy tail,
and rightly thinking that he needed no other adornment; and the parrot
and the wood-pigeon, both trim and elegant, with their plumage arranged
to the last point of perfection. Last of all, you should have seen the
dear old grandmother, the beloved Madam, with her snowy curls and cap
and kerchief; and the ebony stick which generally lived in a drawer and
silver paper, and only came out on great occasions. How proud Toto was
of his Granny! and how the others all stood around her, gazing with
wondering admiration at her gold-bowed spectacles (for those she usually
wore were of horn) and the large breastpin, with a weeping-willow
displayed upon it, which fastened her kerchief.
"Made out of your grandfather's tail, did you say, Toto?" said the bear,
in an undertone. "Astonishing!"
"No, no, Bruin!" cried the boy, half pettishly. "Made out of his _hair_!
Surely you might know by this time that we have no tails."
"True! true!" murmured the bear, apologetically. "I beg your pardon,
Toto, boy. You are not really vexed with old Bruin?"
Toto rubbed his curly head affectionately against the shaggy black one,
in token of amity, and the bear continued:--
"When Madam was a young grandmother, was she as beautiful as she is
now?"
"Why, yes, I fancy so," replied Toto. "Only she wasn't a grandmother
then, you know."
"How so?" inquired Bruin. "What else could she be? You never were
anything but a boy, were you?"
"Oh, no, of course not!" said Toto. "But that is different. When Granny
was young, she was a girl, you see."
"I don't believe it!" said the bear, stoutly. "I--do--_not_--believe it!
I saw a girl once--many years ago; it squinted, and its hair was frowzy,
and it wore a hideous basket of flowers on its head,--a dreadful
creature! Madam never can have looked like _that_!"
At this moment a knock was heard at the door. Toto flew to open it, and
with a beaming face ushered in the old hermit, who entered leaning on
his stick, with his crow perched on one shoulder and the hawk on the
other.
Then, what greetings followed! What introductions! What bows and
courtesies, and whisking of tails and flapping of wings! The hermit's
bow in greeting to the old lady was so stately that Master Coon was
consumed with a desire to imitate it; and in so doing, he stepped back
against the nose of the tea-kettle and burned himself, which caused him
to retire suddenly under the table with a smothered shriek. (But the
kettle was glad.) And the hawk and the pigeon, the raccoon and the crow,
the hermit and the bear, all shook paws and claws, and vowed that they
were delighted to see each other; and what is more, they really _were_
delighted, which is not always the case when such vows are made.
Now, when all had become well acquainted, and every heart was prepared
to be merry, they sat down to supper; and the supper was not one which
was likely to make them less cheerful. For there was chicken and ham,
and, oh, such a mutton-pie! You never saw such a pie; the standing crust
was six inches high, and solid as a castle wall; and on that lay the
upper-crust, as lightly as a butterfly resting on a leaf; while inside
was store of good mutton, and moreover golden eggballs and tender little
onions, and gravy as rich as all the kings of the earth put together.
Ay! and besides all that there was white bread like snow, and brown
bread as sweet as clover-blossoms, and jam and gingerbread, and apples
and nuts, and pitchers of cream and jugs of buttermilk. Truly, it does
one's heart good to think of such a supper, and I only wish that you and
I had been there to help eat it. However, there was no lack of hungry
mouths, with right good-will to keep their jaws at work, and for a time
there was little conversation around the table, but much joy and comfort
in the good victuals.
The good grandmother ate little herself, though she listened with
pleasure to the stirring sound of knives and forks, which told her that
her guests were well and pleasantly employed. Presently the hermit
addressed her, and said:--
"Honored Madam, you will be glad to know that there has been a great
change in the weather during the past week. Truly, I think the spring is
at hand; for the snow is fast melting away, the sun shines with more
than winter's heat, and the air to-day is mild and soft."
At these words there was a subdued but evident excitement among the
company. The raccoon and the squirrel exchanged swift and significant
glances; the birds, as if by one unconscious impulse, ruffled their
feathers and plumed themselves a little. But boy Toto's face fell, and
he looked at the bear, who, for his part, scratched his nose and looked
intently at the pattern on his plate.
"It has been a long, an unusually long, season," continued the hermit,
"though doubtless it has seemed much shorter to you in your cosey
cottage than to me in my lonely cavern. But I have lived the
forest-life long enough to know that some of you, my friends," and he
turned with a smile to the forest-friends, "must be already longing to
hear the first murmur of the greenwood spring, and to note in tree and
shrub the first signs of awakening life."
There was a moment of silence, during which the raccoon shifted uneasily
on his seat, and looked about him with restless, gleaming eyes. Suddenly
the silence was broken by a singular noise, which made every one start.
It was a long-drawn sound, something between a snort, a squeal, and a
snore; and it came from--where _did_ it come from?
"Was it you?" said one.
"No! was it you?"
"It seemed to come," said the hawk, who sat facing the fire, "from the
wall near the fireplace."
At this moment the sound was heard again, louder and more distinct, and
this time it certainly _did_ come from the wall,--or rather from the
cupboard in the wall, near the fireplace.
"Yaw-haw! yaw-ah-hee!" Then came a muffled, scuffling sound, and finally
a shrill peevish voice cried, "Let me out! let me out, I say! Coon, I
know your tricks; let me out, or I'll tell Bruin this minute!"
The bear burst into a volcanic roar of laughter, which made the hermit
start and turn pale in spite of himself, and going to the cupboard he
drew out the unhappy woodchuck, hopelessly entangled in his worsted
covering, from which he had been vainly struggling to free himself.
Oh, how they all laughed! It seemed as they would never have done
laughing; while every moment the woodchuck grew more furious,--squeaking
and barking, and even trying to bite the mighty paw which held him. But
the wood-pigeon had pity on him, and with a few sharp pulls broke the
worsted net, and begged Bruin to set him down on the table. This being
done, Master Chucky found his nose within precisely half an inch of a
most excellent piece of dried beef, upon which he fell without more ado,
and stayed not to draw breath till the plate was polished clean and
dry.
That made every one laugh again, and altogether they were very merry,
and fell to playing games and telling stories, leaving the woodchuck to
try the keen edge of his appetite upon every dish on the table.
By-and-by, however, this gentleman could eat no more; so he wiped his
paws and whiskers, brushed his coat a little, and then joined in the
sport with right good-will.
It was a pleasant sight to see the great bear blindfolded, chasing Toto
and Coon from one corner to another, in a grand game of blindman's buff;
it was pleasant to see them playing leap-frog, and spin-the-platter, and
many a good old-fashioned game besides. Then, when these sat down to
rest and recover their breath, what a treat it was to see the four birds
dance a quadrille, to the music of Toto's fiddle! How they fluttered and
sidled, and hopped and bridled! How gracefully Miss Mary courtesied to
the stately hawk; and how jealous the crow was of this rival, who stood
on one leg with such a perfect grace!
Ah! altogether that was a party worth going to. And when late in the
evening it broke up, and the visitors started on their homeward walk,
all declared it was the merriest time they had yet had together, and all
wished that they might have many more such times. And yet each one knew
in his heart,--and grieved to know,--that it was the last, and that the
end was come.