Howard Roger Garis

“ The snow storm ceased in the afternoon, when Roger and Adrian, donning their boots, mufflers, and short jackets, trudged off to the hill, dragging clipper sleds with them. They found the coasting-place black and swarming with boys and girls,—hearty, sturdy youngsters, who laughed and shouted as they pelted each other with snowballs. The white flakes had not become packed down hard enough yet to make the going good, but beneath the hundreds of tramping feet and the scores of sled runners, that process would not take long. ”

“ In an instant all seemed to get black before the eyes of the boy—much blacker than the blackness of approaching night. A queer, dizzy feeling came over Rick. He appeared to be sinking away down deep—as if into the depths of the ocean out of which Ruddy had come to him.
And the last thing Rick remembered was the distant barking of his dog. Then the boy fell into the drift, making a hole as he plunged into the soft mass of snow. Down, down he went, he and his sled. And then Rick disappeared from the view of Ruddy up on top of the hill. ”

“ Then Alice Wibblewobble cried out!
"Why, this isn't an enchanted castle at all!"
"No?" asked the yellow bird, putting its head on one side, so as to see better. "Why, we always call this our enchanted castle; always."
"No," answered Alice. "It is only a fountain in a stone pile in somebody's flower garden. I've seen one before, near our house."
"Well, it looks like an enchanted castle," said the bird, "and I'm sure it's just as pretty as one. Isn't it as good as your fairy prince?"
"Well," replied the little duck girl. "I suppose it is. But it's only water, such as I swim in." ”

“ And then, all of a sudden, it began to snow. The storm swooped down over the children, just as it had done over Racky, who was swaying his way along, hardly knowing where he was going or what to do.
But while Racky did not like the swirling, white flakes, the children did, laughing and shouting in glee as they felt the melting, white crystals cool their warm, red cheeks.
"Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!" they shouted. "It's snowing! It's snowing! Soon it will be Thanksgiving and Christmas! Santa Claus will come with his sleigh and reindeer when it snows! ”

“ So the poor dog, with his ragged clothes which made him look almost like a tramp, came through the bushes, close to Uncle Wiggily.
"My, but you're stylish!" said the dog, as he saw Uncle Wiggily's tall, silk hat.
"That isn't anything," sadly said the bunny rabbit gentleman. "Tall hats do not make for happiness. I'd rather have on an old, ragged cap, like yours, and be free, than wear a diamond and gold crown like a king and be held fast here."
"Yes, it isn't fun to be caught in a trap," barked the poor dog. "But I think I can gnaw through one of those logs and set you free." ”

“ Thus had so little a thing as hunger made us forget strong passions for a time.
The fire crackled, the waves beat upon the sands with thunderous noise, and we four sat there. How many and how varied were the thoughts in each of our minds.
For myself I rejoiced that I had found Lucille again, and found her with my love in her heart. Of the duel to take place on the morrow I gave little heed. For I had confidence in my sword and arm, though, as it afterward proved, I needed all my skill. Then I went back over my wanderings and my adventures since I had first ridden to Salem. ”

“ Dick could not repress a shudder as he thought of his uncle's gloomy home in Dankville, a house amid a clump of fir trees, so dark, so quiet and so lonesome that it reminded him of a vault in the cemetery.
"I think my father has made up his mind to send me to the military academy," said the boy.
"Well, perhaps I can make him change his mind. He doesn't know what's good for boys."
How Uncle Ezra Larabee could understand what lads needed, never having had any sons of his own, was more than Dick could fathom, but he said nothing. ”

“ Sit still!” cried Uncle Wiggily like a policeman life-saver dog at Asbury Park. “Do not jump over the moon, or anywhere else.”
“But we are falling down!” cried the cow. “We shall be hurt when we hit the ground. I must jump before it is too late.”
“Stay right in!” said Uncle Wiggily, as he steered the falling airship out of the way of a church steeple. “The soft sofa cushions, filled with Wibblewobble duck feathers, will not let us be hurt. We will fall on them!” cried the rabbit gentleman. “Don’t be in the least afraid. We shall fall on the cushions!” ”

“ When Professor Rat and Miss Lady Bug started off, Toodle Flat-tail, who had forgotten to bring his geography book, sort of looked at his brother and said:
"Well, it seems to me that this is just as good as if we went home ourselves. We have no one to teach us—no lessons to say—come, let us be jolly! No one will mind!"
"That's what I say!" cried Susie Littletail, and then such fun as there was in the hollow stump school. And, really, have you the heart to blame those little animal children? ”

“ But seeing the children remind me of the days in India," added Umboo.
"And it reminded me also," spoke Snarlie. "Well do I recall how little Princess Toto rode on the back of a great elephant like yourself, Umboo, and how it was then I first saw her. Afterward I went to live with her, and there was a palace, with a fountain in it where the water sparkled in the sun."
"What's a palace?" asked Chako, the monkey. "Is it something good to eat, like a cocoanut?"
"Indeed it is not," said Snarlie. "A palace is a big house, like this circus tent, only it is made of stone. ”

“ CHAPTER VIII THE SKATING RACE Daddy Blake and the two children glided to and fro over the ice of the frozen lake on their sharp steel skates. Soon all their cheeks were red and rosy, and they felt as warm inside as though they had taken some hot chocolate at the corner drug store.
"Daddy," asked Hal, "what makes you warm when you run fast, or skate?"
"It is because your heart pumps so much more blood up inside your body," explained Daddy Blake. "Our blood is just the same to our bodies as coal is to a steam engine. ”

“ All this while Sammie Littletail sat on the bank of the pond, too frightened, at the sight of the alligator, to hop away. He was afraid the savage creature might, at any moment, spring out and grab him also, and the rabbit boy just sat there, not knowing what to do.
“I wish I could save Bawly,” thought Sammie, “but how can I? I can’t fight a big alligator, and if I throw stones at him it will only make him more angry. Oh, if only there was a fireman or a policeman in the woods, I’d tell him, and he’d hit the alligator, and make him go away. But there isn’t a policeman or a fireman here!” ”

“ Dick only drew his belt tighter, and gazed off into space, hoping against hope that he would see a ship. He wet his parched lips, and prayed silently—not so much for himself, as for the others, while Grit whined at his feet, and licked his hand.
The little puppy, not being able to stand the strain, died, and, rather sorrowfully, they cast him overboard.
It was on the ninth day out—a hot, broiling day—when the sun seemed fairly to sizzle through the bagging awning, and force out every drop of moisture from one's body. There was not an ounce of water left, and death stared them in the face. ”

“ It's a big cloud of bad, biting mosquitoes. It is the buzzing of their wings we hear! Oh, Uncle Wiggily, you haven't your talcum powder bean-shooter gun with you, and here come a billion-million mosquitoes!"
"That's right!" cried the bunny uncle, as he, too, saw them. "We must hide or they will bite even our shoes off!"
So he and Alice looked for a place to hide, but there was none, and the buzzing mosquitoes cried:
"Ah, ha! Now we have that Uncle Wiggily Longears rabbit. He can't get away now, for he isn't a soldier today! And we'll get Alice from Wonderland, too!" ”

“ So Uncle Wiggily Longears put on his glasses again, and he cried out:
"Why, goodness me! Oh, my suz-dud! Oh, turnips and carrots and a chocolate cake! Oh, my goodness me!"
"What's the matter?" asked Susie.
"Why, everything looks different," answered her uncle. "Oh, how much better I feel! Whoop-de-doodle-do!" and he began to dance a jiggity-jig. "Who would have thought my glasses were so dark and gloomy?" he went on. "I feel ever so much better, now. Come on, Sammie and Susie, and I'll buy you some cabbage ice cream. And you too, little pink fairy." ”

“ He wasn't at all a good, nice bear like Beckie or Neddie Stubtail.
"Bur-r-r-r-r!" growled the bear at Uncle Wiggily. "I guess I'll scratch you."
"Oh, please don't," begged the bunny uncle.
"Yes, I shall!" grumbled the bear. "And I'll hug you, too!"
"Oh, no! I'd rather you wouldn't!" said the bunny uncle. For well he knew that a bear doesn't hug for love. It's more of a hard, rib-cracking squeeze than a hug. If ever a bear wants to hug you, just don't you let him. Of course if daddy or mother wants to hug, why, that's all right. ”

“ Well, after the giant had gone away, Uncle Wiggily crawled out from under the sand, and he said to the ants:
"I guess I'd better not stay around here, for it is too dangerous. I'll never find my fortune here, and if that giant were to see me he'd step on me, and make me as flat as a sheet of paper. I'm going."
"But wait," said the biggest ant of all. "You know there are two giants around here. One is a good one, and one is bad. Now if you go to the good giant I'm sure he will help you find your fortune."
"I'll try it," said the rabbit. "Where does the good giant live?" ”

“ Some one is happy!” thought the bunny uncle. “That’s a good sign—whistling. I wonder who it is?”
He looked around the stump corner and he saw a little animal chap, with blue rompers on, and a fur cap stuck back of his left ear, and this little animal chap was whistling away as merrily as a butterfly eating butterscotch candy.
“Why, that must be the third little pig!” exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. “Hello!” called the rabbit gentleman. “Are you Twisty-Tail?”
“That’s my name,” answered the little pig, “and, as you see, I am building my house of bricks, just as it tells about in the Mother Goose book.” ”

“ Though to me she seemed the most lovely maid I had ever seen, I was to her, apparently, no more than any one else of the Colony. She bowed to Willis, as she did to me.
At times I would sit idly on a woodland bank, my gun across my knees, the squirrels playing, unharmed, and not afraid, in the trees above me. I pictured to myself Lucille. Her eyes were brown; her hair a deep blue-black, as a fine steel rifle barrel might be shaded. Her face was like--but what it was like, ’tis beyond me to describe. ”

“ Well, every one was wondering how Uncle Wiggily was ever going to walk again, when all of a sudden, as Buddy looked from the window, he cried out:
"Oh, here comes the big, shaggy yellow dog that was going to eat up Brighteyes and Sister Sallie when they were playing with their dolls! He's coming right this way! Run everybody!"
"Wow!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "A dog! Goodness me!" and, land sakes, if he didn't jump up, seize his crutch and run home as fast as if he never had any rheumatism at all. ”

“ Forward shot the boat, impelled by the sturdy muscles of the sailors, Dick and Paul. In another minute the dory was lifted high on the crest of a wave, while the drifting craft was down in the hollow. The pitiful crying-whine sounded more plainly, and a moment later Dick shouted:
"Fellows, it isn't a baby at all. I can see it plainly now. It's a puppy! A little, brown puppy!" And, at the sound of the lad's voice the frantic animal redoubled its cries. ”

“ See, there is a man riding on an ice cake just as if it were a raft of wood."
"Oh, so he is!" cried Hal, as he saw a man, with big boots and a long pole, standing on a glittering white ice-raft. The man was poling himself along in the water, just as Daddy Blake had pushed the boat along when he was spearing eels in the Summer.
"He looks just like a picture I saw, of a Polar bear on his cake of ice, up at the North Pole," spoke Charlie, "only he isn't a bear, of course," the little boy added quickly, thinking the man might think he was calling him names. ”

“ Oh, I love to be sad.”
“Yes,” said Uncle Wiggily, “I guess you do! You look it! But I do not like to be sad. I like to be happy and make others happy if I can.”
“Happy!” cried the Flump. “There is no such thing as happiness! All is sad and gloom! See, it is getting dark. It will soon be night, and I’ll be glad, for then every one will have to go to bed.”
“No, it is not getting night,” said Uncle Wiggily; “that is only the sun going under a cloud. It will soon come out shining again.” And, surely enough it did, but the Flump was not happy. ”

“ Not the mud turtle fairy prince?" asked Alice, fanning herself, so she wouldn't faint.
"The very same," answered the boy. "I got tired of being a mud turtle, but I am still a fairy prince!"
"I don't believe it!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "You are only a little boy on a horse, and not a fairy prince at all!"
"Wait, and you shall see!" cried the boy, waving his hand, and the silver trumpet blew again, "Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!" and the horse reared up on his hind legs. "I certainly am the fairy prince, and to prove it I will do something wonderful. ”

“ Through the gray, damp mist the Albatross was creeping one afternoon, with her whistle sounding mournfully at regular intervals, and Widdy, and another sailor, stationed in the bow to peer through the blanket of whiteness, to give warning when anything should loom up in front of them.
"Wouldn't it be better to anchor, or run in to shore?" suggested Paul, as he and Dick were standing forward, trying in vain to pierce the mist.
"It's just as well to keep on going," explained Widdy, with the freedom engendered by the young millionaire's treatment of him. ”

“ The rabbit's pink nose began twinkling very fast. It always did when he was thinking, and now it was sparkling almost like a star on a frosty night.
"Ha! I have it!" exclaimed Uncle Wiggily. "A crow can become no blacker inside a sooty chimney than outside! If Santa Claus can't go down a black chimney, why a crow can! I'll have these crows pretend to be St. Nicholas!"
No sooner thought of than done! Uncle Wiggily put his paws to his lips and sent out a shrill whistle, just as a policeman does when he wants the automobiles to stop turning somersaults. ”

“ We just grow up here in the woods, where no one sees us, and we never can have any fun. I want to be a big, red rose and grow in a garden."
"Oh, my!" cried Uncle Wiggily. "I never heard of a violet turning into a rose." Then the mother violet spoke and said:
"I tell my little girl-flower that she ought to be happy to grow here in the nice woods, in the green moss, where it is so cool and moist. But she does not seem to be happy, nor are some of the other violets."
"Well, that isn't right," Uncle Wiggily said, kindly. "I am sure you violets can do some good in this world. ”