"You may remember," he said, "my telling you once about Uncle Silas and
Aunt Melissy Lovejoy, who lived in a nice place just beyond the Wide
Paw-paw Hollows, and how Uncle Silas once visited Cousin Glenwood in
town and came home all dressed up, leading a game chicken, and with a
bag of shinny-sticks, and a young man to wait on him; and how Aunt
Melissy--instead of being pleased, as Uncle Silas thought she would
be--got mad when she saw him, and made him and the young man take off
all their nice clothes and go to work in the garden, and kept them at it
with that bag of shinny-sticks until fall.[B]
"Well, this story is about them, too. I went to live with them soon
after that, because I lost both of my parents one night when Mr. Man was
hunting in the Black Bottoms for something to put in a pan with some
sweet potatoes he had raised that year, and I suppose I would have been
used with sweet potatoes too if I hadn't come away from there pretty
lively instead of trying our old playing-dead trick on Mr. Man and his
friends.
"I thought right away that Mr. Man might know the trick, so I didn't
wait to try it myself, but took out for the Wide Paw-paw Hollows, to
visit Uncle Silas Lovejoy, who was an uncle on my mother's side, and
Aunt Melissy and my little cousins; and they all seemed glad to see me,
especially my little cousins, until they found they had to give me some
of their things and most of their food, because I was young and
growing, besides being quite sad about my folks, and so, of course, had
to eat a good deal to keep well and from taking my loss too hard.
"But by-and-by Uncle Lovejoy said that he didn't believe that he and the
hired man--who was the same one he had brought home to wait on him when
he came from town--to be his valet, he said--though he got to be a hired
man right after Aunt Melissy met him and got hold of the
shinny-sticks--Aunt Melissy being a spry, stirring person who liked to
see people busy. I remember how she used to keep me and my little
cousins busy until sometimes I wished I had stayed with my folks and put
up with the sweet potatoes and let Uncle Silas and his family alone."
Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe, and Mr. Rabbit said that he
supposed, of course, Mr. 'Possum knew his story and how to tell it, but
that if he ever intended to finish what Uncle Lovejoy had said about
himself and the hired man he wished he'd get at it pretty soon.
Mr. 'Possum said of course he meant to, as soon as he could get his
breath, and think a minute. "Well, then," he said, "Uncle Silas told
Aunt Melissy that he didn't believe he and the hired man could raise and
catch enough for the family since I had come to stay with them, and he
thought they had better move farther west to a place where the land was
better and where Mr. Man's chickens were not kept up in such close,
unhealthy places, but were allowed to roost out in the open air, on the
fences and in the trees. He said he didn't think their house was quite
stylish enough either, which he knew would strike Aunt Melissy, who was
a Glenwood, and primpy, and fond of the best things.
"So then we began to pack up right away, and Uncle Silas and Aunt
Melissy quarrelled a good deal about what was worth taking and what
wasn't, and they took turns scolding the hired man about a good many
things he didn't do and almost all of the things he did do, and my
little cousins and I had a fine time running through the empty rooms and
playing with things we had never seen before, but we had to keep out of
Aunt Melissy's reach if we wanted to enjoy it much.
"Well, by-and-by we were all packed up and ready to start. We had
everything in bundles or tied together, and Aunt Melissy had arranged a
big bundle for Uncle Silas to carry, and several things to tie and hang
about on his person in different places, and she had fixed up the hired
man too, besides some bundles for me and my little cousins.
"Aunt Melissy said she would take charge of the lunch-basket and lead
the way, and she was all dressed up and carried an umbrella, and didn't
look much as if she belonged to the rest of our crowd.
[Illustration: AUNT MELISSY HAD ARRANGED A BUNDLE FOR UNCLE SILAS, AND
SHE HAD FIXED UP THE HIRED MAN TOO]
"It was pretty early when we started, for it was getting dangerous to
camp out in that section, and we wanted to get as far as we could the
first day, though we didn't any of us have any idea then how long a trip
we _would_ make that day, nor of the way we were going to make it.
Nobody could guess a guess like that, even if he was the best guesser in
the world and made his living that way."
Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe again, and said that if anybody
wanted a chance to guess how far they went that first day and how they
travelled, they could guess now. But the Hollow Tree People said they
didn't want to guess, and they did want Mr. 'Possum to go ahead and tell
them about it.
"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "we travelled fifty miles that first day, and
we travelled it in less than two hours."
"Fifty miles in two hours!" said all the Hollow Tree People. And Jack
Rabbit said:
"Why, a menagerie like that couldn't travel fifty miles in two years!"
"But we did, though," said Mr. 'Possum; "we travelled it in a balloon."
"In a balloon!"
"Well, not exactly in a balloon, but _with_ a balloon. It happened just
as I'm going to tell you.
[Illustration: DIDN'T LOOK AS IF SHE BELONGED TO THE REST OF OUR CROWD]
"We went along pretty well until we got to the Wide Grass Lands, though
Aunt Melissy scolded Uncle Silas a good deal because he got behind and
didn't stand up in a nice stylish way with all the things he had to
carry, and she used her umbrella once on the hired man because he
dropped the clock.
"When we got out to the Wide Grass Lands there was a high east wind
blowing, getting ready for a storm, and when we got on top of a little
grassy hill close to the Wide Blue Water it blew Uncle Silas and the
hired man so they could hardly stand up, and it turned Aunt Melissy's
umbrella wrong side out, which made her mad, and she said that it was
Uncle Silas's fault and mine, and that she had never wanted to move
anyway.
"But just then one of my little cousins looked up in the sky and said,
'Oh, look at that funny bird!' and we all looked up, and there was a
great big long bag of a thing coming right toward us, not very high up,
and Uncle Silas spoke up and said 'That's a balloon,' for Uncle Silas
had seen one in town when he was there visiting Cousin Glenwood, and the
hired man, too. Then while we were all standing there watching it, we
saw that there was a long rope that hung from the balloon most to the
ground, and that it had something tied to the end of it (a big iron
thing with a lot of hooks on it), and that it was swooping down straight
toward us.
"Uncle Silas called out as loud as he could, 'That's the anchor! Look
out!' but it was too late to look out, for it was coming as fast as the
wind blew the balloon, and Uncle Silas and the hired man being loaded
with the things couldn't move very quick, and the rest of us were too
scared to know which way to jump, and down came that thing right among
us, and I saw it catch among Uncle Silas's furniture and the hired
man's, and I heard Uncle Silas say, 'Grab hold, all of you!' and we all
did, some one way and some another, and away we went.
"Well, it was certainly very curious how we all were lucky enough to get
hold of that anchor, with all our bundles and things; but of course we
could do it better than if we had not been given those nice useful tails
which belong to our family. I had hold that way, and some of the others
did, too. Uncle Silas didn't need to hold on at all, for some of the
furniture was tied to him, and he just sat back in a chair that was hung
on behind and took it easy, though he did drop some of his things when
he first got aboard, and Aunt Melissy scolded him for that as soon as
she caught her breath and got over being frightened and was sitting up
on her part of the anchor enjoying the scenery.
[Illustration: THE BALLOON WENT OVER THE WIDE BLUE WATER JUST AFTER IT
GOT OUR FAMILY]
"I never had such a trip as that before, and never expect to have one
again. The balloon went over the Wide Blue Water just after it got our
family, and we were all afraid we would be let down in it and drowned;
but the people who were in the balloon threw out something heavy which
we thought at first they were throwing at us, but it must have been
something to make the balloon go up; for we did go up until Aunt Melissy
said if we'd just get a little nearer one of those clouds she'd step out
on it and live there, as she'd always wanted to do since she was a
child.
"Then we all sat up and held on tight, above and below, and said what a
nice day it was to travel, and that we'd always travel that way
hereafter; and Uncle Silas and the hired man unhooked their furniture,
so they could land easier when the time came, and Aunt Melissy passed
around the lunch, and we looked down and saw the water and the land
again and a lot of houses and trees, and Aunt Melissy said that nobody
could ever made her believe the world was that big if she hadn't seen it
with her own eyes.
"And Uncle Silas and the hired man said that of course this was going
pretty fast, but that they had travelled a good deal faster sometimes
when they were in town with Cousin Glenwood, and pretty soon he showed
us the town where Cousin Glenwood lived, and he and the hired man tried
to point out the house to us, but they couldn't agree about which it was
because the houses didn't look the same from up there in the air as they
did from down on the ground.
"I know I shall never forget that trip. We saw ever so many different
Mr. Men and Mr. Dogs, and animals of every kind, and houses that had
chimneys taller than any tree, and a good many things that even Uncle
Silas did not know about. Then by-and-by we came to some woods
again--the biggest kind of Big Deep Woods--and we saw that we were
getting close to the tree-tops, and we were all afraid we would get hit
by the branches and maybe knocked off with our things.
"And pretty soon, sure enough, that anchor did drop right down among the
trees, and such a clapping and scratching as we did get!
"We shut our eyes and held on, and some of our furniture was brushed off
of Uncle Silas and the hired man, and Aunt Melissy lost her umbrella,
and I lost a toy chicken, which I could never find again. Then all at
once there was a big sudden jerk that jarred Uncle Silas loose, and made
Aunt Melissy holler that she was killed, and knocked the breath out of
the rest of us for a few minutes.
"But we were all there, and the anchor was fast on the limb of a big
tree--a tree almost as big as the Hollow Tree, and hollow, just like it,
with a nice handy place to go in.
"So when we got our senses back we picked up all our things that we
could find, and moved into the new place, and Aunt Melissy looked at the
clock, which was still running, and it was just a little over two hours
since we started.
"Then pretty soon we heard Mr. Man and his friends who had been up in
the balloon coming, and we stayed close inside till they had taken the
anchor and everything away, and after that, when it was getting dark,
Uncle Silas and the hired man went out and found, not very far off,
where there were some nice chickens that roosted in handy places, and
brought home two or three, and Aunt Melissy set up the stove and cooked
up a good supper, and we all sat around the kitchen fire, and the storm
that the east wind had been blowing up came along sure enough and it
rained all night, but we were snug and dry, and went to sleep mostly in
beds made down on the floor, and lay there listening to the rain and
thinking what a nice journey we'd had and what a good new home we'd
found.
"And it _was_ a good place, for I lived there till I grew up, and if I'm
not mistaken some of Uncle Silas's and Aunt Melissy's children live
there still. I haven't heard from any of them for a long time, but I am
thinking of going on a visit over that way in the spring, and if that
balloon is still running I'm going to travel with it.
"And that," said Mr. 'Possum, "is a true story--all true, every word,
for I was there."
Nobody said anything for a minute or two after Mr. 'Possum had finished
his story--nobody _could_ say anything.
Then Mr. Rabbit coughed a little and remarked that he was glad that Mr.
'Possum said that the story was true, for no one would ever have
suspected it. He said if Mr. 'Possum hadn't said it was true he would
have thought it was one of those pleasant dreams that Mr. 'Possum had
when he slept hanging to a peg head down.
But Mr. Turtle, who had been sitting with his eyes shut and looking as
if he were asleep, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and said that what
Mr. 'Possum had told them was true--at least, _some_ of it was true; for
he himself had been sitting in the door of his house on the shore of the
Wide Blue Water when the balloon passed over, and he had seen Uncle
Silas Lovejoy's family sitting up there anchored and comfortable; and he
had picked up a chair that Uncle Silas had dropped, and he had it in his
house to this day, it being a good strong chair and better than any that
was made nowadays.
Well, of course after that nobody said anything about Mr. 'Possum's
story not being true, for they remembered how old and wise Mr. Turtle
was and could always prove things, and they all talked about it a great
deal, and asked Mr. 'Possum a good many questions.
They said how nice it was to know somebody who had had an adventure like
that, and Mr. Rabbit changed his seat so he could be next to Mr.
'Possum, because he said he wanted to write it all down to keep.
[Illustration: MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD THEM WAS
TRUE]
And Mr. 'Possum said he never would forget how good those chickens
tasted that first night in the new home, and that Mr. Rabbit mustn't
forget to put them in.
Then they all remembered that they were hungry now, and Mr. Crow and Mr.
Squirrel and Mr. Robin hustled around to get a bite to eat before
bedtime, and Mr. 'Possum hurried down to bring up the stove-wood, and
was gone quite awhile, though nobody spoke of it--not then--even if they
did wonder about it a little--and after supper they all sat around the
fire again and smoked and dropped off to sleep while the clock ticked
and the blaze flickered about and made queer shadows on the wall of the
Hollow Tree.