Albert Bigelow Paine

“ So then the Story Teller looks, and, sure enough, there they are, and more things, too; and pretty soon the Little Lady and he go down to a very quiet place under some hemlock-trees by a big rock where there is a clear brook and a spring close by, and they sit down, and the Little Lady spreads the picnic all out—and there is ham too, and bread-and-butter, and doughnuts and they are so hungry that they eat everything, and both dip into one bowl when they get to huckleberries and cream. ”

“ Turtle said he guessed he must go too, so they both set out for home, and when Jack Rabbit got out of sight of the Hollow Tree and into a little open moonlight place, he just laid down on the ground and rolled over and laughed and kicked his feet, and sat up and rocked and looked at the moon and laughed; and he capered and laughed all the way home at the good joke he had all to himself on Mr. Crow.
For Mr. Rabbit had been lying awake in bed that morning when Mr. Crow was in his garden, and he had seen Mr. Crow all the time. ”

“ Rabbit always expressed himself better in poetry than anybody else could in prose, and how the words and rhymes just seemed to flow along as if he were reeling it off of a spinning-wheel and could keep it up all day. ”

“ He said that he wasn't a judge of stories, but that he was a judge of ducks—young ducks, or old either—and that no young duck could pass the night in the Big Deep Woods and get home at sunrise or any other time, unless all the other animals were snowed in or locked up in a menagerie, and that the animal that had met Erastus might have robbed him, of course, but he would have eaten him first, and then carried off what was left, unless, of course, that robber was a rabbit, and he said that he didn't believe any rabbit would have spunk enough to be in that business. ”

“ Oh, it's nice to have a garden
Especially for my neighbors.
Everybody said that was a nice poem and sounded just like Mr. Rabbit, who was always so free-hearted—all except Mr. Crow, who tried to say it was nice, and couldn't. Then Mr. Rabbit said they'd better go out now to see the Hollow Tree garden, but Mr. Crow said really he couldn't stand it yet, and they could see by his looks that he was feeling pretty sick, and Mr. Turtle said it was too bad to think of taking Mr. Crow out in the sun when he had worked so hard. ”

“ So the Old Black Crow tried to step around lively and look pleasant, to keep anybody from noticing, because he thought it might turn warm that day and melt the snow; and when breakfast was ready he put on what there was and said he hadn't cooked very much because he had heard that light breakfasts were better for people who stayed in the house a good deal, and as for himself, he said he guessed he wouldn't eat any breakfast that morning at all. ”

“ Then the Deep Woods People all said there was never anybody who knew so much and could do so many things as Mr. Jack Rabbit, and how proud they all were to have him in their midst, and Mr. Rabbit showed them how to do all the tricks he knew, and they all practised them and tried them on each other until Mr. Crow said he must look after the supper, and Mr. 'Possum ran right off after an armful of stove-wood, and everybody helped with everything there was to do, for they were having such a good time and were so hungry. ”

“ That's what a menagerie is—it's a place where they have all the kinds of animals and things in the world, for show, and a good many birds, and maybe turtles, too, but they don't have any fine clear pond. They have just a big tent, like the one Mr. Crow saw, and a lot of cages inside. They keep most of the animals in cages, and they ought to keep them all there, and I don't think they feed them [36] very much, nor the best things, or they wouldn't look so fierce and hungry. ”

“ It is better to be well fed than well dressed. It is better to be well dressed than not dressed at all. It is better to be not dressed at all than not fed at all. Ladies and gentlemen, I thank you for your kind attention and applause"—though they hadn't applauded yet, but they did, right away, and said it was a good speech, and Mr. Crow said it reminded him that it was about dinner-time, and that he would need some more wood.
So Mr. 'Possum got right up to get the stove-wood again, which everybody thought was very good of Mr. 'Possum, who wasn't usually so spry and willing. ”

“ Rabbit told him that he was making a good deal of noise for a dead man, and that if he'd get up and pick up all the things he'd upset maybe he'd come to life again.
Then little Jack Rabbit got up and ran to his mother and cried against her best dress and got some tears on it, and Mrs. Rabbit sat down in her rocker and looked at her stove and rocked him until he felt better. And by-and-by she changed her dress and went to cleaning her stove while little Jack picked up all the things—all the spools and buttons and needles and knitting-work—every single thing. ”

“ MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY MR. 'POSSUM TELLS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE 'POSSUM FAMILY, TO THE SURPRISE OF HIS FRIENDS
"Now this," said the Story Teller, "is the story that Mr. Possum told the Snowed-In Literary Club in the Hollow Tree. It must be a true story, because Mr. 'Possum said so, and, besides, anybody that knows Mr. 'Possum would know that he could never in the world have made it up out of his head."
The Little Lady doesn't quite like that.
"But Mr. 'Possum is smart," she says. "He knows ever so much." ”

“ Crow kept whispering over and over were: "Old Hungry-Wolf! Old Hungry-Wolf! Old Hungry-Wolf!"
All the Deep Woods People know what that means. They know that when Old Hungry-Wolf comes, or even [Pg 198] when you hear him bark, it means that there is no food left in the Big Deep Woods for anybody, and that nobody can tell how long it will be before there will be food again. ”

“ Mr. 'Possum said that his uncle Silas Lovejoy always had a garden, and he had worked it a good deal when he was young, but that he had forgotten just how things should be planted, though he knew the moon had something to do [243] with it, and if you didn't get the time right the things that ought to grow up would grow down and the down things would all grow up, so that you'd have to dig your pease and pick your potatoes when the other way was the fashion and thought to be better in this climate. ”

“ Rabbit, who is quite literary, and a good poet, said it would be better to make it a kind of a club, and each have a poem, or a story, or a song; or if anybody couldn't do any of those he must dance a jig. ”

“ West Hills, and he used to settle the question; and sometimes, when somebody that wasn't very old, and maybe was plump and tender, had done something that wasn't just right, King Lion would look at him and growl and say it was too bad for any one so young to do such things, and especially for them to grow up and keep on doing them; so he would have him for breakfast, or maybe for dinner, and that would settle everything in the easiest and shortest way. ”

“ A famine, you know, is when one is very hungry and there is nothing to eat. I don't think Mr. 'Possum was very hungry, and he had all those nice things laid away, so he would not care much about that old shadow wolf, which is only another name for hunger."
The Little Lady clings very close to the Story Teller.
"Will we ever see Old Hungry-Wolf and hear his bark?"
The Story Teller sits up quite straight, and gathers the Little Lady tight. ”

“ Then Grandpaw Hare got right up and said, 'Good-day' and backed out and made tracks for the rest of his family, and told them that King Lion had just got up from a sick spell that had given him an appetite for long-tailed rabbits. He said that the King had sent him out to get one, and that King Lion would most likely be along himself pretty soon. He said the sooner the Rabbit family took pattern after the new cotton-tailed style the more apt they'd be to live to a green old age and have descendants. ”

“ Man didn't get back in time with that box, or I might be in a menagerie this minute instead of sitting here smoking and telling stories and having a good time on Christmas Day."
The Story Teller looks down at the Little Lady.
"I'm glad Mr. 'Coon didn't get into the menagerie, aren't you?" she says.
"Very glad," says the Story Teller.
"He went lickety-split home, didn't he?"
"He did that!"
"I like them to go lickety-split better than lickety-cut, don't you?" says the Little Lady. "They seem to go so much faster."
"Ever so much faster," says the Story Teller. ”

“ Man and his friends to look at and talk about, and if Mr. Turtle will take my advice he will keep out of a menagerie and live in the Wide Blue Water where he was born. I wouldn't have gone there again unless I had been tied and dragged there, or unless they had put those tame animals into cages with the others. No doubt there are some very fine, strong animals in a menagerie, but they wouldn't be there if they could help it, and if anybody ever invites any of you to join a menagerie, take my advice and don't do it. ”