Laura Elizabeth Howe Richards

“ Indeed, if it were not for my dear little Toto, I should lead quite the life of a hermit.”
“What is a hermit?” asked the bear, who had an inquiring mind, and liked to know the meaning of words.
“It is a crab,” said the parrot. “I have often seen them in the West Indies. They get into the shells of other crabs, and drive the owners out. A wretched set!”
“Oh, dear!” cried the grandmother. “That is not at all the kind of hermit I mean. A hermit in this country is a man who lives quite alone, without any companions, in some uninhabited region, such as a wood or a lonely hillside.” ”

“ But here Toto broke in upon the stream of eloquence. “Oh, come, Coon!” he cried, “your politeness is as bad as Bruin’s shyness. Why can’t we all be jolly, as we usually are? You need not be afraid of Granny.
“Come,” he continued, “let us have our story. We can all sit down in a circle, and fancy ourselves around the pool. Whose turn is it to-day? Yours, isn’t it, Cracker?”
“No,” said the squirrel. “It is Coon’s turn. I told my story yesterday.”
“You see, Granny,” said Toto, turning to his grandmother, “we take turns in telling stories, every afternoon. It is such fun! ”

“ He winked at Toto, by way of greeting, and sat down by the pool, curling his tail round his legs, and then looking into the water to see if the effect was good. At the same moment a pretty wood-pigeon fluttered down, with a soft “Coo!” and settled on Toto’s other shoulder.
“Now then!” said the squirrel, flicking the boy’s nose with his tail, “go on, and tell us all about it!”
So Toto began again. “My grandmother, you see: she is blind; and she’s all alone most of the time when I’m out here playing with all of you, and it makes her lonely.” ”

“ Presently the hippopotamouse looked up sharply. “Well,” he said, “what do you want? Do you think I am pretty?”
“N-no!” replied the young bear. “You may be good; but I don’t think you are pretty. I want,” he continued, “to marry the Flamingo Princess. I am the Prince of the Poles, son of the Solar-Polarity of the Hypopeppercorns. You may have heard of my father.”
“Oh! ah! yes!” said the hippopotamouse. “I’ve heard of him. Well, why don’t you marry her?”
“Because I have four legs,” answered the Prince sadly; “and it is against the law for a flamingo to marry any one with more than two.” ”

“ Come, let me go home quietly, and I’ll promise not to come into your part of the wood again.
“I’m sure, there’s no inducement for coming,” he added in a lower tone. “It’s the scraggiest part of the whole forest,—only fit for owls to live in!”
“Hoo! hoo!” cried Mother Growler in a rage. “I’m afraid of Coon, am I? A nasty, thieving creature, with an amount of tail that is simply disgusting! And our wood is scraggy, is it? Hoo! Give it to him, children!”
“Peck him!” cried all the owls in chorus; “scratch him! tear him! hustle him!” and, with wings and claws spread, they came flying at Toto. ”

“ The woodchuck stopped, and glanced around with his sharp little eyes. “Is any one with you, Toto?” he asked,—“Coon, or Cracker, or any of those fellows?”
“No,” answered Toto in some surprise. “I was just going to find them. Do you want them?”
“No, indeed!” exclaimed the woodchuck. “You see,” and he lowered his voice confidentially, “I am going to a rinktum, and I don’t want those fellows to know about it.”
“What is a rinktum?” asked Toto. “And why don’t you want them to know about it?”
“Why, a rinktum is a rabbit’s ball, of course. What else should it be?” answered Chucky. ”

“ The feast seemed to be highly enjoyed by all.
“Well, Bruin, how do you like jam?” asked Toto.
“Very much, very much indeed!” replied the bear. “Something like honey, isn’t it, only entirely different? What kind of creatures make it? Butterflies?”
“Lady makes it herself, stupid!” muttered the woodchuck, who was out of temper, having just tried to get a spoonful out of turn, and failed. “Didn’t you hear her say so? Butterflies never make anything except butter.”
The little squirrel sat nibbling his gingerbread in a state of great satisfaction. ”

“ There was silence around the pool for a few minutes. Then the bear looked at the raccoon, the raccoon looked at the squirrel, and the squirrel looked at the wood-pigeon; and finally the gentle bird answered, as she usually did, for all.
“Dear, dear madam,” she said, “we can imagine nothing so delightful as to live with you and our dear Toto. We all accept your invitation thankfully and joyfully; and we will all do our best to be a help, rather than a burden, to you.” ”

“ Stand there and be rushed at by a thing that was neither horse nor man? Not if he knew it! And just when the bear was close upon him, Gray Berold, with a squeal of mingled terror and anger, wheeled short round. The bear made a spring, and caught the charger by the tail. The terrified animal bounded forward; the Baron made a downward stroke with his battle-axe that would have felled an ox, and Master Bruin (no offence to you, my dear fellow! it’s the name of all your family, you know) rolled over and over in the dust. ”

“ The squirrel took a flying leap, and alighted on Toto’s shoulder. At the same moment a louder rustling was heard, among the bushes this time, a sound of cracking and snapping twigs, and presently a huge black bear poked his nose out of the bushes, and sniffed inquiringly. ”

“ While we roam about in the untutored forest” (“Hear! hear!” interrupted the squirrel. “‘Untutored forest’ is good!”) , “you remain in the elegant atmosphere of your polished home. While we fare hardly, snatching a precarious and scanty subsistence from roots and herbs, you, lapped in intellectual and highly cultivated leisure, while away the hours by manufacturing gingerbread and—a—jam.” The raccoon here waved his tail, and gave Toto a look whose craftiness cannot be described in words. ”

“ These little creatures had arranged themselves in patterns all over the walls and roof of the cave, and were shining with all their might. The effect was truly lovely, and Toto could not help wishing that his grandmother’s cottage were lighted in the same way. The floor was crowded with rabbits of every size and color, and they were all dancing. Black rabbits, brown rabbits, white rabbits, big and little rabbits, racing round and round, jumping up and down, shaking their ears, and wiggling their noses. ”

“ Away rolled the bogghun, away and away, over the meadows and into the forest; away and away bounded the Princess in pursuit. The golden nose-ring flashed and glittered in the sunlight; the golden bangles on her wrists and ankles tinkled and rang their tiny bells as she went. Faster and faster! faster and faster! The monkeys, swinging by their tails from the branches, chattered with astonishment at us; the wild parrots screamed at us; all the birds sang and chirped and twittered ”

“ It’s a solitary life here, though you are too young to feel it, Toto, and I am very glad of that. But I do wish, sometimes, that I had some one to talk to, who could tell me what is going on in the world. It is a long time since any one has been here. The travelling pedler comes only once a year, and the last time he came he had a toothache, so that he could not talk. Ah, deary me! it’s a solitary life.” And the grandmother shook her head again, and went on with her knitting. ”

“ Then the traveller, who had formerly been an ogre by profession, said, “’Tis an ill wind that blows nobody any good! My dinner was very insufficient;” and he ate both the little old man and the cook, and proceeded on his journey with a cheerful heart.
“The traveller was a sensible man,” said Bruin. “Did you make up that story, Toto?”
“Yes,” replied Toto. “I made it up the other day,—one of those rainy days. I found a forked radish in the bunch we had for tea, and it had a kind of nose, and looked just like a funny little red man. ”

“ Will you kindly explain to him, dear madam?”
“Ugh!” grunted the woodchuck. “I don’t believe you know yourself, Coon, for all your airs! You said this morning it was a kind of vegetable, and now—”
“Stop quarrelling, and listen to the story, will you?” said Bruin. “Wow!”
When the bear said “Wow” in that manner, all the others knew it meant business; and as he lay down at the grandmother’s feet, they all drew nearer, and were silent in expectation.
“A giant,” said the grandmother, “is like a man, only very much bigger; very, very much bigger. ”

“ To-morrow afternoon? The sooner the better, I think.”
The raccoon looked critically at his reflection in the water. “Chucky bit my ear yesterday,” he said, “and it doesn’t look very well for making visits. Suppose we wait till it is healed over. Nothing like making a good impression at first, you know.”
“Nonsense, Coon!” growled the bear. “You are always thinking about your looks. I never saw such a fellow. Let us go to-morrow if we are going.”
“Besides,” said Toto, laughing, “Granny is blind, and will not know whether you have any ears or not, Master Coon. So I shall expect you all to-morrow. ”

“ In the morning Granny is busy, so she has not time to be lonely. It’s only in the afternoon, when she sits still and knits. So I say, why shouldn’t you all come over to the cottage in the afternoon, and talk to Granny instead of talking here to each other? I don’t mean every afternoon, of course, but two or three times a week. She would enjoy the stories and things as much as I do; and she would give you gingerbread, I’m sure she would; and perhaps jam too, if you were very good.”
“What’s gingerbread?” asked the bear. “And what’s jam? You do use such queer words sometimes, Toto.” ”

“ What’s that?” asked the raccoon.
“I know what it is!” said the bear. “It’s when there aren’t any blueberries, and you’ve hurt your paw so that you can’t climb. It’s a horrid feeling. Isn’t that it, Toto?”
“N-no, not exactly,” said Toto, “for my grandmother never climbs trees, anyhow. She hasn’t anybody to talk to, or listen to; nobody comes to see her, and she doesn’t know what is going on in the world. That’s what she means by ‘lonely.’”
“Humph!” said the raccoon, waving his tail thoughtfully. “Why don’t you both come and live in the wood? ”

“ Now, how would you like to have those shavings turned into gold?”
“Very much indeed!” cried the Sky-born.
“Well,” said the jockey, “bring them here, and we will change them for you.”
So the rocking-horse went and fetched the shavings, and the jockeys set fire to them. The flames shot up, bright and yellow.
“See!” cried the jockeys. “The shavings are all turned into gold. Now we will see what we can do for you.” And they took the Sky-born Snorter and put him in the fire, and he turned into gold too, and was all burned up. ”

“ She was wonderfully clever and industrious; and her fingers seemed, in many ways, to see better than some people’s eyes. She kept the cottage always as neat as a new pin. She was an excellent cook, too, and made the best gingerbread and cookies in the world. And she knit—oh! how she did knit!—stockings, mittens, and comforters; comforters, mittens, and stockings: all for Toto. Toto wore them out very fast; but he could not keep up with his grandmother’s knitting. Clickety click, clickety clack, went the shining needles all through the long afternoons, when Toto was away in the wood ”

“ Toto and his grandmother both looked quite bewildered at this; but the raccoon smiled sweetly, and said,—
“Go on, Cracker, my boy! never try to explain things too fully; it’s apt to be a little tedious, and it is always better to leave something to the imagination.”
“I am going on,” said Cracker. “As I said before, people sometimes go into that part of the wood; there are one or two hives not far from it.”
“One or two hives?” interrupted Toto. “What do you mean, Cracker?”
“Why, a lot of houses together,” said the squirrel. “Don’t you call them hives? ”

“ As for Mother Growler—
“I did say,” remarked Bruin, taking some feathers out of his mouth, “that I never would eat another owl unless it was plucked. Feathers are certainly a most inferior article of food; but in a case of this kind it is really the only thing to do. As Coon says, it settles the matter, and there is no further trouble about it. And now,” continued the good bear, “how is my dear boy? Why, Toto! look up, boy. They are all gone, and you are cock of the whole wood. Come, my Toto! ”

“ Moral: always sigh when you want a story written.
Toto was just coming home from the wood, where he had been spending the afternoon, as usual. As he came round the corner of the cottage he heard his grandmother sigh deeply, as if she were very sad about something; and this troubled Toto, for he was an affectionate little boy, and loved his grandmother dearly.
“Why, Granny!” he cried, running up to her and throwing his arms round her neck. “Dear Granny, why do you sigh so? What is the matter? Are you ill?” ”

“ A wild-cat lives in it now, but if your grandmother doesn’t like wild-cats, the bear can easily drive him away. He’s a disagreeable fellow, and we shall be glad to get rid of him and have a pleasanter neighbor. Does—a—does your grandmother scratch?”
“No, certainly not!” said Toto indignantly. “She is the best grandmother in the world. She never scratched anybody in her life, I am sure.” ”

“ I have a cousin who lives in that neighborhood, and he told me about it.”
“Have you ever been over there?” asked Toto.
“Yes, indeed!” replied the squirrel, “hundreds of times. I often go over to spend the day with my cousin, and we amuse ourselves by dropping nuts on the hermit’s head as he sits in front of his cave. I know few things more amusing,” he continued, turning to the grandmother, “than dropping nuts on a bald head. You can make bets as to how high they will go on the rebound. ”

“ It is in the Big Burrow, which is certainly large enough for any reasonable creature. Here we are now at the mouth of the burrow.”
They were crossing a rough, uneven meadow, with trees and shrubs thickly scattered over it; and the woodchuck stopped at a large juniper-bush, in front of which sat a black rabbit.
“How do you do, Woodchuck?” inquired the rabbit. “And who is this with you?”
“This is a—a—a boy, in fact,” said the woodchuck in some embarrassment. “He is a great friend of mine, and has never seen a rinktum in his life, so I ventured to bring him. He—he won’t eat anything!” ”

“ Cracker?”
“He tried to rob my Uncle Munkle of his winter store!” replied the squirrel. “And he got the worst of it, that’s all.”
“Who is your Uncle Munkle?” asked Toto. “I don’t know him, do I?”
“No,” said Cracker. “He lives quite at the other end of the wood, where people sometimes go for fagots and nuts and such things. Nobody ever comes near our end of the wood, because they are afraid of Bruin.
“My uncle is a Munk,” he continued, “and a most excellent person.”
“A monk?” interrupted the grandmother in amazement. ”

“ She has made a new kind of gingerbread, and she wants you to try it. I have tried it, and it is very good indeed.”
“Your grandmother,” said the raccoon, “is in many respects the most delightful person I have ever met. I, for one, will come with pleasure. I can’t tell about the rest; haven’t seen them for a day or two. Suppose we go and hunt them up.”
“With all my heart!” said Toto.
They had not gone far before they met the wood-pigeon flying along with a bunch of berries in her bill.
“Where are you going, Pigeon Pretty?” inquired Toto; “and who is to have those nice berries? ”