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Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories
Digitized by tine Internet Archive in
2010
http://www.arcliive.org/details/chimneyfarmbedtiOObest
Books for young people by Henry Beston CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES THE SONS OF KAI HENRY BESTON's FAIRY TALES THE TREE THAT RAN AWAY FIVE BEARS AND MIRANDA
Books
for
young people by Elizabeth Coatsworth CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES THE PLACE JON THE UNLUCKY THE LAST FORT DOOR TO THE NORTH
Holt, Rinehart
New York
and Winston San Francisco
Chicago
Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories
^
Told by
and set down by
HENRY BESTON ^
ELIZABETH COATSWORTH
ILLUSTRATED BY MAURICE DAY
With love for Meg and Pussy, for whom these stories
were originally
told.
©
Copyright 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1966 by Henry Beston Illustrations copyright 1966 by Maurice Day
©
•
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form Published simultaneously in Canada by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited Library of Congress Catalog Card Num•
•
AC- 66-10108
First Edition • 90921-0516 Printed United States of America. The stories which appear in this volume were first published in The Christian Science Monitor and are used with its ber:
in the
permission
•
•
Contents The Bluebird's Green Umbrella Robin and the Cuckoo Clock
•
The Animals' Neighborly Turn The Deserting Farm Nellie
Came by Mail
The Royal Barge Mr. Bear
Was Fond
of
27
•
31
•
40
•
Reading
The Bears Go Berrying
•
Yvo and the Bears
58
•
Mrs. Chipmunk Investigates
The Blue Tie
•
74
51
•
9
•
15 •
22
The Bluebird's Green Umbrella ONCE UPON A TIME, there were two bluebirds who chose a particubranch on which to build their nest. But when the nest was finished and the eggs were laid, a heavy rainstorm came one evening, and the lady bluebird complained that the roof leaked and the rain kept running down her neck. She found it a most uncomfortable thing to have to stay on her nest under such larly nice
conditions, but of course she couldn't leave her eggs.
In the morning when he could see better, the father bluebird examined the roof of leaves, and tried to pull them about to stop the leaks, but it was of no use. When the next shower came, the lady bluebird was wet again. "It's terrible,"
she said. "I've never been so miserable."
9
The could.
father bluebird comforted her
And
and promised to do what he
then he flew away. First he went to the club to talk
the matter over and get advice. It was early and of the club weren't there yet, but fortunately the
dropped all
in for breakfast.
He went on
many members woodchuck had
eating toast, with his eyes
the time on his newspaper, while the bluebird told his story,
but just when the bluebird thought he hadn't heard a word, he looked up and said
gruffly:
"Get an umbrella!"
"The very
thing!" cried the bluebird in high spirits,
started off at once.
But
in a
moment he
and he
flew back.
"Where?" he asked. "In a store," said the woodchuck, with his mouth
full of toast.
"The very thing!" repeated the bluebird, and of! he darted But in a moment he was back, looking embarrassed.
lO
again.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Woodchuck," he so often, but I don't beUeve
I
said. "I
hate to interrupt you
quite heard where the store
you buy umbrellas." The woodchuck frowned and slowly folded
his paper.
is
at which
He
looked
straight at the bluebird.
"I
am leaving something to your initiative," he said, and stamped
away
to his
own burrow. You
see he, himself, didn't
know where
the store was.
The bluebird soon brightened and began members of the club.
to ask questions of
other
"I went to a store once," said the mouse. "Did they have any umbrellas?" asked the bluebird. "No, they had nothing but marbles," said the mouse.
11
"What I
went
a
to,
silly
store that was!" exclaimed the fox.
when
boat parts,
all
"Now
the store
was young, was very different. They kept motorkinds of parts, very handy for anyone with a broken I
motorboat!"
"But
I
haven't a motorboat," said the bluebird. "I leave that
kind of thing to the water birds. Hasn't anyone ever gone to an umbrella shop?"
At
last
"I've
a beetle spoke up in a
been waiting to see
knew anything," he
said,
if I
little,
dry, cross voice.
was the only fellow
and laughed
in
in the club that
a high, self-satisfied way,
"I crawl around, a few feet at a time, but I
seem to notice, and remember what I notice, better than all you fellows with paws and wings. Mr. Frog's store down by the brook is what you're looking for, Mr. Bluebird. He sells umbrellas and nothing but umbrellas."
The
bluebird thanked the beetle very gratefully, in spite of his
somewhat disagreeable manner, and off he flew down the bank of the brook, past the willows, and along the rushes that edged its course, keeping a sharp eye out for
12
Mr. Frog's
store.
Sure enough,
he soon found
it,
with a wattled green roof and a fine green sign
hanging from a bulrush at
The
its
door.
frog sold four kinds of umbrellas: white ones for winter, blue
ones for spring, green ones for summer, and red ones for
fall.
The
bluebird hesitated for a long time between a blue one and a green one, but finally chose a green one, as being in style longer.
"How much "A
is
it?"
he asked the
frog,
who was
waiting on him.
dime, a penny, and two jibby-bibbies," said the frog.
"Oh, dear!" cried the bluebird. "I have a dime and a penny, but I
haven't any jibby-bibbies!"
"There aren't any jibby-bibbies," said the
frog,
wrapping up the
parcel.
13
The mother
bluebird was deUghted with her present and could
scarcely wait for the next rain. Sure enough,
not a drop
fell
down her
when
at last
it
came,
neck, and she praised Father Bluebird's
kindness and cleverness to the skies.
But the other proud and
come
lazy.
birds said that the
Whenever any
flying with them, they
new
bluebird babies were very
of their friends
were apt to
reply,
asked them to
"No, thank you,
—you know, the one under the green
we're going back to our nest
umbrella."
14
Robin and the Cuckoo Clock AT THE FARM there was a cuckoo clock of which everyone was very fond.
But one day something went wrong with
machinery, and
its
the Httle wooden cuckoo would no longer pop out of
door
its
and cry "cuckoo" at the hours and the half hours. Of course the farmer and
his wife telephoned the clock repairer,
but the clock repairer could not find out what was wrong.
"We
shall
have to send the cuckoo to Switzerland where
made," said the clock repairer. "Only the
man who made
it
was
it will
understand what needs to be done."
"But then "and
it is
it
only
won't be back until spring!" cried the farmer's wife, fall
now.
can't hear our cuckoo?
How
The
shall
we be happy
all
children will always be
winter
if
we
late for school,
I'm afraid."
15
The
clock repairer shrugged his shoulders
broken cuckoo to the post
office
and
carried off the
to begin its long journey to
Switzerland.
The farmer
sat
and thought and thought and at
last
he wrote
out a dozen neat notices, which he tacked up, here and there, on the trees and the fence posts particularly frequented by birds. There were still many flocks about, for they had not yet migrated south, and they gathered near the signs and read them with much twittering and tittering.
The
signs
were
all
alike
and read:
"Comfortable home for the winter in a cuckoo clock for the right bird. Bird seed
and
tion to call the hours as
please rap at
first
Well, the birds
16
fresh water supplied daily.
much
left-hand all
like
Only
obliga-
a cuckoo as possible. Applicants
window
for interview."
read the notice and laughed.
"As though we'd give up our palms and sunshine!" they
"Why, migration dren!
Summer
off for travel all
is
is
but domestic
nice,
and
cried.
our time of adventure, after raising the
Catch any
fun!
life is
fuU of cares.
of us living in
Now
chil-
we're
a cuckoo clock
winter!"
The
bluebirds and the finches, the robins and the bobolinks, the
thrushes and the catbirds
all
said about the
same
thing, all except
one young robin who kept coming back to read the time to
"It's
"Why
are
fly! It's
time to
fly!" called his
signs.
brothers and
you wasting your time reading that
notice,
sisters.
you
silly
thing?"
the yoimg robin. "I'm just different, and same thing, whatever you all may think. You want go south and see those alligators and pink flamingos again, but
"I'm not
silly," cried
that's not the
to
I've seen them once. I really wonder what it's like inside a house, and what a human being does, sitting by the fire. I wonder if I'd like bird seed? I wonder if I can make a noise like a cuckoo?" His brothers and sisters all stared at this strange bird, who had been hatched, like them, from a pretty blue egg, and who had
17
grown up
in the
same round nest under
yet wanted to do and
know
and want to do or
their mother's wing,
things they didn't
know at all. "Do you really mean
it?" they asked, and at the awe in their young robin decided that he did really mean it. So before he could change his mind, he hopped to the first left-hand window and tapped on it with his bill, and the farmer's wife opened it, and called her husband and they made an agreement, which included angleworms, whenever possible. "All right," said the young robin, and then he called over his shoulder to his waiting brothers and sisters, speaking more boldly than he really felt, "I'll be seeing you in the spring!" "In the spring!" they echoed, and away they flew south, south,
tone, the
south.
moment the robin had the time of his life. Everynew to him. He liked his apartment in the clock, and he liked keeping regular hours. At first he tried to make noises like a cuckoo, but his own song was so pretty that the farm family suggested that, after all, he might as weU use it, and he varied it, From
that
thing was
as usual, according to the weather outside.
He
loved watching the
tains of
snow
icicles
falling across
beyond the window and the
a white world.
He
cur-
liked to hear the
farmer at the door, stamping the caked snow from his feet before
18
he came ner.
in.
He
liked to see the farmer's wife bringing in the din-
He watched
the children at their games.
the privacy of being able to close his sit in his
own warm
little
And
then he enjoyed
own door when he chose
to
room.
and the robin got on very happily but as spring came, and the last icicle started to drip,
All winter the farm family together,
19
and the green grass began to push up through the old leaves on the ground, the robin grew restless.
"There are buds on the flying! I rain,
want
trees,"
he sighed. "Oh,
to run along the grass with
and to turn
my
my
I
wish
I
were
feet pattering like
ear to the ground to listen to the high voices
to sing in a wind, I want to wake up want to be out!" But he remembered his agreement and stayed where he was. After this had been going on for a week or so, the postman one day brought a registered package from Switzerland. Yes! You are right! The wooden cuckoo had made its return journey from across the sea and was all ready to take up its usual duties. "I hope it's not too early for you to be out?" the farmer asked of the angleworms! I
at
dawn
in a hedge!
want
Oh,
I
the robin.
"Oh, no!" sang the robin. "I've had a beautiful winter indoors,
thank you, and now I'm ready
and as the away he flew. And just then, who should come flying down from the sky but his brothers and sisters? They had only the usual migration stories for spring outdoors,"
farmer's wife opened the window,
to teU,
which robins have been
telling for
thousands of years, but
the young robin had wonders to relate, such as no robin had ever
known
before.
He became
a leader
among
the robins, and chose
the prettiest robin lady to be his wife, and picked out the finest crotch in the best tree for his nest, and sang the gladdest and loudest songs.
But now and then he would tap on the window, and the farmer would open it, and the robin
or his wife or one of the children
.20
would drop
in for a short social visit to
be sure that
all
was going
well in the house.
And
little ahead of what was happening, for, of course, it could hear the robin's voice. And then it would cry "cuckoo" with particular care, and bow and bow particularly low, just to show the robin how a
then the real cuckoo would hurry out, a
time, to see
real artist should perform!
21
The Animals' Neighborly Turn THERE WAS ONCE a nice old faiTner. He lived alone on a small farm bottom of a wooded hill, and he was very kind to his neighbors in the woods. He set no traps, and allowed no gimners on his land, and when the weather was bad and food was scarce, he left hay for the deer at the edge of the fields, and didn't pick up all the apples under the apple trees. If he found a porcupine busy eating an apple, he didn't shout and brandish his arms, but walked along, paying no attention. Because he was so nice to them, the animals were all grateful, and they were careful never to hurt his crops or take more than he meant them to. One day in the late fall, the old farmer got a letter from his at the
22
lawyer,
who wanted him
he had to the get
go,
first snow him back
to
come
to
town on
though he didn't want to at of the season
might
fall
until after nightfall.
all.
soon,
business. It
and
Of course
looked as though his train wouldn't
The farmhouse would be dark
empty all day, and he didn't like to think would seem. But he went, since he knew he ought to, putting on a warm overcoat and his rubbers, and taking a lantern to leave at the station for his walk back to the farm in and cold
how
after being
cheerless
it
the dark.
Everything went well
in
town, but the day seemed long and the
evening was cold and the the old farmer got
off
first
snow was indeed
falling
when
He
found
the train at the country station.
23
and lighted it, and trudged home along the snowy road. "My, but the house is going to seem dark and cold," he thought. He had left wood in the kitchen stove, but that would have burned
his lantern
out long ago. Going into the house after his long walk, would be like stepping into
a refrigerator.
But as he turned in at his gate he could scarcely believe his eyes. The lamps were all lighted. Squares of brightness made patches of yellow light on the new fallen snow. He could see smoke curling from the kitchen chimney.
Full of wonder, the old farmer hurried to one of the kitchen
windows.
The room was glowing with hght. By the stove, stood a bear an armful of wood into the firebox, while a kettle
carefully putting
steamed merrily.
24
By
the sink, a raccoon was drying the last of the
breakfast dishes, which the farmer had stacked that morning imtil
and as he watched, a woodchuck came in with the warm by the oven door. "Bless their hearts," the farmer murmured, deeply touched. Now I suppose you think he hurried in to thank the animals for their kindness, but you're wrong. He had not Uved next to the
his return;
farmer's pajamas to
woods
all
these years without having leai'ned something.
for instance, that his
He knew,
neighbors were kind, but shy. Talking with
humans, even humans they
liked,
embarrassed them.
made a
So the good old fanner went to the front door and deal of noise while he knocked the snow
off his rubbers,
a great deal of time finding his key and getting
it
great
and took
into the lock.
Just as he entered the front hall he heard scuttling
and
giggling,
and the back door slammed, leaving the house empty, but oh, so
and warm! The farmer went to his cupboard yesterday's baked beans, which he meant to heat for friendly
He
for
some
of
his supper.
got everything ready, and even set his place at the kitchen
25
and put out half an apple pie and some cheese. Then thinking that he had given the animals time enough, he opened the back door. There in the new fallen snow were three sets of tracks, a big set and two smaller ones, headed for the wooded hill behind table,
the farm. "Bless their kind hearts," the old farmer said again. I
"And now
suppose they'll go to sleep for the winter. Pleasant dreams,
friends!"
26
The Deserting
Farm YOU HAVE OFTEN HEARD
of a deserted farm,
heard of a deserting farm?
And
a hollow of land from which birds passed right over
it,
it
but have you ever
yet there once was one. It lay in
could see nothing; the winds and
and even the
rain
seemed to come to
that farm less often than to others, while the dust blew about the fields,
and there were too many rabbits burrowing
The farm
in its soil.
didn't like the farmer, either, or the farmer's wife, or
Bungo. The farm thought they were lazy and cross and didn't keep the farm looking as well as it could look. It grew more and more dissatisfied vmtil. Well, one morning the farmer was awakened by a fly buzzing in his ears. When his eyes opened, he forgot aU about the fly, he was their little son,
.
.
27
so surprised.
He was
flung every which
lying in his
way on a
own
chair beside
iron it,
bed with
his clothes
but there was nothing
no room, no walls, no ceiling, no floor, no orchard beyond, no no barn, no cock crowing, no cow mooing to be milked, nothing but his wife in her own iron bed with her clothes on her chair, and Bungo asleep in his bed, with his clothes on the bare ground. All three of them had been deserted by the farm. Nothing like it had ever before happened in the world. They hunted everywhere for some trace of their farm, but they could else,
hayfield,
find only a post with a little
broken barbed wire hanging from
it,
and one old hoe, and finally a pig that had always been known for its obstinacy, and had apparently refused to do whatever it was the rest of the farm had done.
28
No, there was no farm at climbed a
tree, his
sharp
all in
little
the hollow, and
and when the farmer's wife looked up into the two crows passing overhead, cawing. "This
is
wouldn't "It's
your
mend
your
when Bungo
eyes could see no sign of their farm,
fault," said the farmer's wife to
the gate, and the
bam
fault," said the farmer.
roof
"You
sky, she
her husband.
was leaking
let
saw only
"You
terribly."
a lot of dust get into
the milk, and half the time you forgot to feed the hens."
"Anyhow, It isn't
it isn't
my
fault," said
Bungo.
easy to be a farmer, even a bad farmer, without a farm,
man and
and Bungo hired an automobile and was very unpleasant because at every crossroads the farmer wanted to go to the right, the farmer's wife wanted to go to the left, and Bungo wanted to go home. "But we haven't got any home to go to!" his parents would shout at him together. so at last the
went to look
'
his wife
for theirs.
The
trip
*»//Vi»(^y//i///UAJ/K\'^'M »S\//IUy.
.
'^ -^y.. .\J/
>
29
Bungo would shout back. weeks and weeks but they never found their farm, though twice they drove right by it, and did not recognize it, where it lay on a slope above a beautiful lake, in the place it had "That's your fault!"
So they drove
for
carefully selected.
The
fields
looked so green, the animals so contented, the house
so newly painted, the view so fine that even Bungo's sharp
eyes never saw that
r>~~.-.»
i'
it
was
their old
little
farm come to flower.
/'.^T^'
\Wjr<^ ®,:#;"5^c ^,^«
^J
But the farm recognized them and held its breath till they were Then with a sigh of relief, it settled comfortably back to enjoy itself in the charge of the pleasant, hard-working and cheerful young couple, who had happened to walk up the road one day and found a farm lying in what had been a pasture the day before, a farm looking as though it needed to be taken and loved and gone.
cared
30
for, in fact
a farm that needed just them.
Nellie
Came by Mail THE farmer's wife looked up from the
list
she was writing to
where, in the light of the lamp, the farmer was reading the news-
paper on the other side of the kitchen table. It was after the children's bedtime,
"Why
and
all
three of
them were
fast asleep.
don't you send to the mail-order house for a pair of blue
pants?" she asked. "Joe Plow has some and they're elegant."
The farmer was deep in his paper and didn't know that his wife had spoken. So she said again, "Why don't you send for some elegant pants like Joe Plow's?" "What?" the farmer asked. "Oh, yes, yes, to be sure."
And he
put down his paper, and got the pen and ink and pad,
31
and wrote to the mail-order house, and sent in his wife's list, too. But he was getting sleepy, and instead of "Pants No. 754," as he should have wTitten, he wTOte, "elegant pants" in a very careless sort of handwriting.
About a week house.
He
later,
he received a
make head nor
couldn't
tail
letter
out of
from the mail-order it.
The
letter talked
about how the mail-order house always tried to please tomers, and to send
had taken to
it
32
fill
them whatever they wanted, and what
his order,
its
cus-
trouble
and that Nellie was being forwarded
the same day, and that the mail-order house hoped the farmer
would be
satisfied, as
The farmer and day waited
the call for this kind of goods was not great.
his wife read the letter a
for the mail carrier
dozen times, and next
with a great deal of curiosity.
He
and when he finally drove his car into the dooryard he looked mad. And you can't blame him, for what do you think he had, fastened to the back of the car? A large gray was three hours
late,
elephant!
"And when she
and my car stops!" ashamed of yourselves,
gets tired, she just sits down,
the mail carrier shouted.
"You ought
to be
buying elephants at your age!" "It's all
a dreadful mistake," the farmer began, but just then
Nellie wrapped her dusty trunk lovingly about down at him sadly.
his
neck and looked
33
"Elephant, elephant, elephant," the farmer's wife repeated. And suddenly she guessed what had happened, and turned to her hus-
band. "Did you write 'elegant pants' when you wrote to the mailorder house?"
"Why, maybe as
I
I did,"
remember. Perhaps
He was now
sitting
said the farmer, I
ran
on
my
"and
I
was rather
sleepy,
words together."
where she had gently
Nellie's head,
placed him. "She'll
have to go straight back,"
better give her a pail of water
first.
his wife declared.
She looks kind
"She's not going back," said the farmer, "I like her. "It's
still
"But you'd
of thirsty."
high up in the
Sometimes the work gets pretty heavy
not a matter of liking," his wife reasoned.
air.
for the horses."
"How would you
feed her? You'd have to get rid of the horses and the cows, too; she'd eat so "I'll
Now
much
get rid of
hay."
them
if
I
have
to," said the farmer. "Nellie stays."
knew
that she was married to a very up her hands and went back to the kitchen, and made a blueberry pie, and a chocolate cake, and three dozen doughnuts, and two kinds of cookies to relieve her feelings,
the farmer's wife
obstinate man, so she threw
down the them had by telephone from the neighbors up
while the mail carrier drove on, telling
road about the farmer's
new
already heard about Nellie
all
elephant.
the neighbors
But most
of
who had seen her. Meanwhile the farmer took Nellie down to the pond at the edge of the hayfield and let her drink all she wanted and go wading, too. They came back after a jolly afternoon, and he fed her half the lettuces, and a lot of carrots, and finished off her supper with the road,
34
an armful or two
of hay.
school, they helped
The
And when
him feed
Nellie,
the children got
home from
and she took them
riding.
horses and cows didn't care for NeUie, but that didn't mat-
ter, for
the farmer told
them they'd
just
"You'll be ruined," his wife declared, stairs curtains to relieve
For a while
it
have to get used to
and washed
all
her.
the down-
her feelings.
did look as though the family might be ruined,
She plowed the heaviand when she came to a great boulder, around which the farmer and his ancestors had plowed for a hundred years, she pushed it with her forehead, and dug at it with her tusks, and carried it away with her trunk to the stone pile. Soon the neighbors hardly did any work on their own farms, because they spent but not
for long. Nellie did her best to help.
est field,
all
their time
hanging around, watching
plowed were the smoothest
Nellie.
The
fields
she
in the county.
35
When
the farmer and his wife and the children wanted to go to
town, they rode on Nellie. At said she'd surely
fall off,
first
the farmer's wife squealed and
but soon she grew to
like
it,
and always
wore her best dress and carried her parasol. "It seems kind of suitable
when you
ride
an elephant," she
explained to her friends.
As
for the children,
friends ran along
When
by
they had the time of their
Nellie's side
and begged
lives,
and
their
for rides.
the farmer wanted to paint the house, Nellie let him
stand on her head and held the paint pot for him with her trunk
She wiped the upper windows clean for his wife. She pushed the lawn mower and picked the cat out of a tree, when uplifted.
36
the cat was afraid to
the
way she had gone was very
Nellie
come down up.
obliging.
All over the state the chief subject of conversation
and what she had
was Nellie
last done.
After a while the farmer saw that
it
to turn
would be a good thing all this
interest into ac-
count. So he put
up a canvas
fence along the road and charged
people ten cents to come in to
and a quarter if they went for a ride on her back around the barn. You'd be surprised how the
see Nellie,
money kept pouring of the
in.
Instead
farmer being ruined, as his
wife
had
well
off.
feared, they
And
at the
were soon
same
time,
they had such fun! In the
when
fall,
the hay was in the barn,
and the beans were drying on the poles, and the corn and pumpkins were harvested, the country fairs began, and all the family went to the nearby ones, riding Nellie.
37
At
first
much
they went to see the
fairs,
and the managers
interest,
to stay, that at last the farmer built a
during the
them
little
so
much money
house on wheels, and,
and and gave exhibitions three times a day.
Nellie pulled the caravan to the fair grounds,
fall,
the whole family lived in
The
but their arrival caused so
offered
it,
rest of the time they
enjoyed themselves getting acquainted
with the midgets and fortune-tellers and the other performers.
They
the shows free on passes, and lived largely on cream cones. For Nellie's performances the farmer's wife wore a scarlet dress and the farmer wore a dress suit and the three children wore their party clothes. They all had the time of got into
hot dogs and
their lives.
38
all
ice
In the winter they would
sit in
front of the
wood
stove and talk
about the interesting things which had happened at the
fairs,
the people they had met, and at Christmas they got so
and
many
Christmas cards from the midgets and fortune-tellers and the other
make a special trip out many months had passed by, the other
performers, that the mail carrier had to to their farm.
And
before
animals on the place were as proud of NeUie as the family was,
and they,
too,
spent happy winter days hearing Nellie's stories
about the
fairs
she had visited.
All this happiness
was due to Nellie. And the farmer's wife was was that he had been sleepy that eve-
just as glad as the farmer
ning,
when he wrote with such
careless handwriting for "elegant
pants" to the nice, kind mail-order house, which always tried to fill
every order, no matter
how
peculiar
it
might
be.
39
The Royal Barge WHEN THE DAUGHTER
of the
King
of the Seals
was
to be married,
everyone in the Arctic was invited. The occasion was to be very grand, and the penguins, the eider ducks, the hares, the walruses,
the whales, and the caribou
made
great preparations.
"Alas!" cried the King of the Polar Bears to his wife,
no suitable way "Can't
of traveling to the wedding, so
we swim?" asked
"How would
that look?"
we
will,
demanded the bear King. "Who ever
I'm sure," protested the Queen.
"We're not whales," said the King. "Can't
40
we
have
his wife.
heard of swimming to a wedding?"
"The whales
"We
can't go."
walk, then?" suggested the Queen.
"Royalty never goes on foot to weddings, according to the quette books
I
"Well, then, you'll have to find
"Summon
eti-
read," said the King.
some other way,"
said the Queen.
the wise bears of your kingdom and offer a reward for
the best idea."
So a meeting
of wise bears
was
called,
the finest fish was offered to the bear idea.
And
and a reward
of fifty of
who came up with
the best
the wise bears sat in a circle and thought and thought,
"•''///
while the northern lights danced wildly above their heads. At last
one old bear rose and whispered looked pleased, and said to the
in the King's ear
and the King
rest,
"You may all go home." "But we haven't had our ideas bears. "They might be better than
yet," protested the other wise his."
41
"His
is
the best," said the King. "Don't argue with a king!
home, when
I tell
you
to!
Queen and me when we
And
But you may come back
wave
Go
to the
set off for the wedding."
truly the royal departure
bear's heart with pride.
to
was a great
The day was
fine,
sight
and
filled
every
the sun shone brightly
over miles of icebergs and sparkling water, and glittered on the
crowns of their majesties and on their
little
proud eyes and their
long polished claws.
But most
brightly of
sat the royal bears. It
all
the light shone on the boat in which
was carved from a
solid
cake of
ice,
with a
curving prow shaped like the head of an ice-dragon, and ten bears sat along its sides, with oars of polished ice in their paws, while
the royal couple were seated in the stem on two thrones under a
canopy
of snow, fringed with icicles.
"Hurrah, hurrah for their majesties!" shouted the other bears,
42
as the ice blades dipped into the water
and the
beautifiil vessel
moved away.
And at the
the bears had a right to be proud, for no one else arrived
wedding
to this day, is
of the Seal Princess in
when anyone
very wonderful, he
and Queen
such regal
style,
and even
in the Arctic wishes to say that a thing
calls it as
wonderful as the barge of the King
of the Polar Bears.
43
Mr. Bear
Fond
of
Was
Reading
ONCE UPON A TIME there was a bear who lived by himself and was He had two large books which he read over and over and over. On pleasant days he read Lives of Good Bears, but when it rained or hailed or there was a blizzard, he took down the other book from the shelf beside the fireplace and read Lives very fond of reading.
of
Bad Bears. One particularly
feted
by wind and
drinking a
he could
disagreeable evening, squalls of rain
mug of hot chocolate He went to bed
and
when the house was
hail,
buf-
he had a delightful time
while he read
and
all
the worst lives to sleep,
and
But then he was disturbed to discover that he could not
find
didn't
44
find.
wake up
till
late,
fell fast
nine o'clock the next morning.
Lives of
Bad Bears anywhere. He hunted, and he hunted, and he
hunted.
He
He
searched under things, on top of things, and in things.
even went to the woodshed, and looked in the bread box. At
last, in despair,
he called to an owl who was passing by.
"Oh, Mr. Owl, Mr. Owl!
I just can't find
Lives of
Bad Bears
anywhere." "Pull down the shades and I will help you look," said the owl. The bear pulled down all the shades and in the dusk the owl
looked under things, on top of things, and in things, too, but he did not find the lost book.
45
When tions,
he had gone, the bear tried to turn to his usual occupa-
but
in vain.
He
kept thinking of new places where he had
not looked. As he was searching under the windowboxes, a raccoon passed by with his two
little
boys on their way to town for straw-
berry ice cream sodas. But seeing the bear's troubled look, he inquiries
and then he and the boys came
made
in to help in the search.
Goodness, what a turmoil those two boys made! They never remembered to close the drawers they opened, or to shut the doors! They left things on the floor and seemed possessed that the book
46
must be back of the honey jar. When the bear found marks of honey all over his kitchen, he suggested that maybe the raccoon had better take the boys to have their sodas, and when they were gone, he spent the next hour getting his little house snug and neat again.
But he
couldn't
make
himself eat or do anything, until the book
turned up. So that evening he gave a Hunt-the-Book Party for his neighbors,
The
and they
squirrels
all
came
in couples.
kept looking in absurd places,
like the tops of cur-
and the snakes, hissing gently, insisted on searching down cracks and pipes. The foxes were found thoroughly explortain rods,
ing the refrigerator, and the old lady toad declared upstairs: she
was
sure, she said,
it
must be
because she had never before had
47
a chance to see the upstairs of the bear's house, and intended
When
now
she
to.
join them,
the others had at last given up the hunt, she didn't and when her husband called up the stairs to her, she
just called
down
"I'm
all
in a sleepy voice,
Hop, you come get
all right,
The poor bear
me when
tried to be jolly as
you're ready to go."
he handed out the refresh-
ments, but anyone could see that he could think of nothing but his lost book.
"I'd give anything to get that
book back," he sighed to himself, brown arm against the mantel. "Would you allow me to live here in peace, and give me a bit of
leaning a big
cheese every Saturday night?" squeaked a
little
voice from behind
the unlighted logs in the fireplace. that mouse again!" cried the bear. "I thought I told you week to pack your things and get out, and stay out, too!" "I came back for my socks," said the little voice humbly. Then it brightened. "But what if I tell you where your book is, Mr. Bear?" "Have you taken it?" asked the bear. "Of course not," came an indignant squeak. "You know I see everything, and I saw where you put that book. But I've been "It's
last
afraid to tell you.
You were
"I should think I
"You
my
had a
so cross the last time
right to be cross,"
we met."
grumbled the bear.
if you could." you must promise me both kinds of pieces," argued the mouse, "peace of mind and a piece of cheese on Saturday nights, and I'll promise on my word of
ate
"If I tell
48
last
apple
tart,
without asking
you where your book
is,
honor never to gnaw after ten o'clock or to take anything you don't give me." "All right," said the bear.
Then the mouse came out from
his hiding place
and they
shook paws.
"It's
bed
under your pillow," said the mouse. "You made up your
this
morning without turning your
"Goodness me,
pillow."
friends," said the bear. "I'm
ashamed
of
my
housekeeping."
"Oh, that's nothing," said the badgers, the squirrels, the foxes, the raccoons, and
all
the
rest.
that will happen," and they
all
"We
understand how things
followed
him up the
like
stairs.
Sure enough, Lives of Bad Bears was under his pillow, but he it right away. He had to wake up Old Lady Toad
couldn't get
49
who had made
first,
herself very comfortable
on
his quilt, with
the comforter drawn up under her big chin, and had gone fast to sleep vintil the party
who
likes
50
my
sleep."
was
over, for as she always said, "I'm
one
The Bears Go Berrying ONE VERY FINE MORNING in early August, Father Bear woke the family up early. "Get up! Get up, Mother! Get up, children! Today is a day to go blueberrying!"
When Mother Bear was dressed, she found that Father Bear had the fire going, and breakfast already on the stove, and was busy making Uttle baskets of birch bark, folded cleverly, just the size for
a
paw
to hold comfortably.
The twins helped
to pack
on the grass, when the family started off for the pastures on top of Green Hill. The climb was long, but the air was still cool and the bears the picnic box, and the
dew was
still
were very merry.
51
"Where's your basket, Papa?" asked one of the twins, when they
came
to the
axe in his
"While you cutting a
blueberry bushes. But Father Bear pointed to the
first
belt. all
little
are picking blueberries," he said, "I'm going to be
firewood for the winter."
"You like to keep in the shade," Mother Bear said. eats our berries now, children, we'll sit
so
I
guess that's
fair,"
and she laughed a
began sweeping whole pawfuls All
warm by
day the bears picked
big,
"Well,
if
Papa
his fire next winter,
comfortable laugh and
of berries into the basket she carried.
berries or
chopped wood, except when
they ate their picnic together under a pine tree in the middle of the pasture. "It's
very natural for bears to like berries," said Mother Bear.
"Bears, berries; berries, bears. in 'berries,' children?"
52
You see how it is. Who put the
'bear'
"Who put
the 'berries in bears,' that's what I'd Uke to know?"
said Father Bear, tipping
up a whole basket so that the
lovely blue
globes of sweetness ran into his mouth.
"Stop! Stop!" shouted the twins. "You'll eat
them
all.
Papa!"
"Well, you can pick more," said Father Bear.
Of course he didn't eat them
much
that they did eat a good
all,
but the family loved
many berries
fruit so
with their sandwiches.
By
afternoon, there were fewer berries to be found on the bushes, and the bear family picked more and more slowly. In the woods, the sound of chopping stopped, for Father Bear was taking a nice little nap. At sunset time he was as cheerful as ever, but Mother Bear and the twins were a little hot and cross.
53
"Let's not go back through the fields," tired of bushes
and
fences. Let's
Mother Bear
said.
"I'm
go back by the road."
"Let's," agreed the twins.
So by the road they went.
Part way down the hill, they found a car parked under the trees. The people who had come in it were off in another field berrying
and the bears could hear their distant voices. Father Bear's eye was caught by a sign
in the rear
window:
"Drive yourself."
He little
54
stopped, looked at the sign a moment, and shook his head a doubtfully.
"Well, get I
can do
in,
everyone," he said at
last.
"I'm not sure, but
I
think
it."
Mrs. Bear's mouth
fell
open in astonishment.
"Why, you don't know how to drive," she gasped. But Father Bear had made up his mind. "I watched a man start a car one day, when I was sitting in a tree gathering nuts," he said. "Get in, get in. It must be easy or it wouldn't say 'Drive yourself.'
A moment familiar
"
later the people
sound
who had
rented the car heard the
of the engine, then a wild honk.
By
the time they
saw their automobile careening down the hiU, leaving behind it a track Uke that of a speeding snake. From time to time the horn sounded loudly.
had run out to the
road, they
55
"They'll tip
it
over!" cried the
man.
"Look, they're almost in the ditch!" cried his wife.
But Father Bear was straighter course.
learning,
and now he was steering a
When he got to the bottom of the hill, he was even
able to turn into their
own
lane.
Here he pulled out the key and stopped the cai". "Well, how did you like that?" he asked. "It was wonderful!" cried the twins. "Wait till I can catch my breath," gasped Mother Bear.
They could hear
distant shouts behind them.
wonder who's making that noise?" asked Father Bear. "Goodness, I'd never have done it if the car hadn't told me to itself, but it was exciting, wasn't it? I suppose we'd better be getting on." By the time the himian beings had reached the abandoned car, there was no sign to show who was responsible for its sudden departure. With some difficulty they backed the automobile to the main road. "I
56
"Gracious, there are blueberries squashed over everything," said
the wife. "We'd better get out and clean up
if
we
don't
want
it
looking like a perfect bear's den."
Even then, they never suspected what had really happened. But back home, Mother Bear was taking off the old straw hat which she kept
"A
for berrying.
"Thanks to your was a wonderful day. Some time we must really
delightful time," she said to her husband.
driving us home,
have a car
of our
it
own."
57
Yvo and the Bears boy named Yvo, who woke up one morning He looked at the bed in which he lay, but he had never seen it before. It was a wooden bed painted green. He looked at the furniture, which was large and sohd. He had never seen it before, either. Then he ran to the window and looked out. Below him lay a garden flooded with sunlight, and in the garden he saw two figures in blue overalls at work among the flowers, but there was something strange about the figures. They were large, and moved slowly, and their hands seemed very brown and clumsy. THERE WAS ONCE a
little
in a perfectly strange house.
When they turned, Yvo saw that both the gardeners were bears. He ran back to the green bed and jumped in and pulled the bedclothes over his head.
58
Soon he heard heavy steps coming down the
hall,
and there was a knock at
his door.
Then
the door opened, and
a very pleasant looking bear in a white apron came into the room.
Yvo peeked
at her through the bedclothes,
and her face seemed so
kind that he was no longer afraid. "Your bath in
is
ready," she said,
a deep voice.
59
Downstairs,
all
the rooms were large and cheerful, and the wall
papers were green or sometimes brown, and the pictures were of trees, or of
good smell
honeycombs or of bears. From the kitchen came the bacon and toast, and Yvo caught a glimpse of a very
of
something on the stove. "That must be the cook," he thought. "Everything is well run here. But what am I doing in this place?" By this time Yvo was hungry and naturally he was glad to sit fat lady bear in a blue apron, stirring
down
to a delicious breakfast.
As the days went on, Yvo knew that he liked living with the bears very much. They were always polite and always kind. The garden and stables were filled with things that interested him, and when it rained he found many books of adventure and a shelf piled with games. There was a young bear about his own size who was the page boy and ran errands. When he was not busy, he would play ping pong and shuffleboard with Yvo indoors, or, on pleasant days, tennis, which he could play with remarkable speed, all
bears,
he could move very
Yvo enjoyed
fast
when he wanted
for, like
to.
himself, but he discovered that the bears,
them-
had one great sorrow. They did not like being bears. The house was an old one, and shook when they walked, and that made them feel awkward and ashamed. Then there were mice and rats in the house, and that seemed to bother them. In fact, they often
selves,
spoke about how
much they disliked being bears, especially who sometimes had dreams that she was something else. One cold winter night they were all gathered about the open
the
cook,
listening to the
wind howl
in the
mallows. Suddenly the cook said,
60
fire,
chimney while they toasted marsh-
"Do you remember ments?
It tells
in the library that big
aU kinds
of magical things,
book
full of
enchant-
even how shapes can be
changed."
know just where it is," said the waitress bear. "I always read when I dust the shelves." But when she came to look for it, she kept pointing to the wrong "I
its title
book, which was always the biggest, heaviest, and highest book,
thought Yvo, who was scrambling up the step ladder to get them for her.
But
finally,
under a
pile of old
magazines, the book was
found, and, sure enough, Yvo, turning over the pages, discovered
the
spell.
"Are you sure you really want to be changed?" he asked. All the bears
nodded solemnly, and each ate another marsh-
mallow.
61
"What would you like" to be?" Yvo went on. "Raccoons?" The bears thought for a while and then they shook their heads. "Porcupines?"
They shook
their heads again.
"Deer, then?" "I should like to be a deer," said the waitress bear, but the others
were not so
sure.
The page boy and
the undergardener thought they might like
to be monkeys, but finally
be
it
was decided that they
all
would
like to
cats.
Then Yvo very carefully performed the directions for the spell. At the end, a great roar of thunder sounded out of the winter night, and when Yvo clapped his hands, the bears turned into cats. You never saw anyone so delighted as they were! They ran upstairs and downstairs, lightly; they scurried from room to room; they chased away the rats and mice; they pirouetted, and stood in
62
front of the mirrors admiring themselves; they
erator to
fill
their
mugs with
windowseats to put
went to the
refrig-
milk; they brought cushions from the
they were wild with seemed to Yvo that they would never
in their chairs. Altogether,
excitement and joy, and
it
go to bed.
At
last
he went to bed, anyway, and when he woke up in the
morning, he remembered that something had happened, but couldn't quite recall in the garden
flowers; there
a
little frilly
Yvo walked
what
it
was.
he saw two cats
was a
He
ran to the window and there
in overalls
light tap at the door,
and
working among the
in
walked a cat with
apron to say good-morning, and turn on his bath. As into the hall, a page-boy cat
was
sliding wildly
down
the banister. All the pictures had changed, too, into moonlight
and little sketches of back fences, or fine reproductions of Egyptian cat-gods, and the furniture had grown smaller and softer. scenes,
63
But the same good breakfast waited for
srrtells
came from the
Yvo on
kitchen, the
same good
the dining-room table. It seemed a
with cats, but they were just as polite and kind had been when they were bears, and now they themselves were happy all day long, for the floors no longer shook under their clumsy tread, and there was never a sound of gnawing from little different living
to
him
as they
behind the wainscoting.
64
Mrs. Chipmunk Investigates EARLY ONE MORNING
in October,
window
of his
Jimmy Chipmunk woke
little
bed,
day for nutting," he had breakfast."
"It's a fine
moment
I've
"I'll go, too, if
baked
up, pulled
and looked out through the open house. Then he jumped up briskly.
apart the curtains of his
my bread
said to his wife.
"I'll
go the
you'd like to have me," said Mrs. Chipmunk. "I
and
pies yesterday,
and a day
in the
woods would
be a real pleasure."
For several hours they worked hard, picking up nuts to their sacks, scarcely stopping to rest their backs.
But
stuff in
at last the
nuts on the ground grew scarcer and they began to climb the trees to get those that weren't yet fallen.
65
'jy^
^^ It
was Mrs. Chipmunk who
called from
one
of the biggest trees,
"Oh, do come quickly and see what I've found!" in that excited tone
made Mr. Chipmunk fear she was in difficulties, alhad turned out a hundred times that she was just surprised and pleased by something. This time, too, he dropped his sack, and raced up the big tree, and there was Mrs. Chipmunk peering into the open door of a house built in the trunk. that always
though
66
it
"My
dear!" said Mr.
Chipmunk, a
scramble. "Won't you be embarrassed
little if
out of breath with his
the owner comes back and
catches you peeking?"
kum %^(i
,>.
"He is
isn't
going to come back!" said Mrs. Chipmimk. "See, here
a sign on the door for the paper boy, saying that he's
next week. "Well,
I
mimk, but
It's signed,
'Samuel
don't think
we should go
just the
Squirrel.' in,
of! until
"
anyway," said Mr. Chip-
same he followed Mrs. Chipmunk
as she tiptoed
through the door.
67
The house was much furnished, but
it
larger than theirs
seemed dark.
shuttered, and the only light
heavily shadowed
ready to
by
leaves.
If
and more elaborately
there were windows, they were
came from the doorway which was They could see Uttle and were soon
go.
But just as they were going toward the door, a sudden gust of wind blew it shut, and when Mr. Chipmunk tried to open it, he found that it was locked. The catch had fallen and they were piisoners. If it
had been dark before in Samuel Squirrel's house, it was much when the only light came in narrow slivers through the
darker now,
cracks. Mrs. "It's all
Chipmunk began
my
fault, dear,"
to cr^^
she sobbed. "This will teach
me
to be
less curious."
"I
came
in here just as
much
as
you
did," said
Mr. Chipmimk.
"There must be something we can do."
But the only thing he found to do was to gnaw at the hinges of The wood was so thick that though he gnawed and gnawed and gnawed, he did not get ver>' far. At last, Mrs. Chipmunk insisted that he should stop work to eat the one musty nut she had discovered on a shelf in the pantr\'. "I don't understand it," she said. "You'd think there'd be somethe front door.
thing to eat in this fine house."
A
very small, disagreeable voice from the ceiling remarked,
"There
The
is."
voice was so faint that the
chipmunks could hardly hear
"What's that?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. "There is," repeated the small, high voice.
68
it.
"Do speak a little louder," said Mr. Chipmunk. "We can scarcely hear you."
"Then
listen harder," said the voice,
more
at aU louder than before. After a minute
disagreeable, but not
went on, "Everyone and you can't believe how irritating it is." "Excuse me," said Mrs. Chipmimk, "but didn't you say that there was something to eat?" "Now you're talking sense and not personalities," said the voice. "Look behind the picture of the tree where Mr. Squirrel was bom and you'll find a cupboard, which he filled with nuts before he went tells
me to speak
it
louder,
to visit his brother."
Sure enough, there was the hidden cupboard and a nuts, but,
fine larder of
hungry as they were, before eating their supper, the chipto thank the owner of the voice. They found on the
munks went ceiling
a small wizened spider in a cap,
whom they could just make
69
out in a single ray of light from a knot hole. She had become quite pleasant and shook hands with one of her
hands as she introduced
am
"I
two
Celia," she said,
sisters.
ing."
And
They
call
she went
many
small and hairy
herself.
me
"and
I
Uve in the
squirrel's
house with
my
Celia because I prefer to hve on the ceil-
off into
a thin cackle of laughter.
After they had thanked her, the chipmunks
through the darkness toward the
table,
felt
where they had
their left
way
enough
nuts for supper. Something else seemed to be moving in the dark,
and just as they were reaching out for chairs, a match spurted and someone lighted a candle. There was another spider, even too,
smaller than the
first,
with a bigger cap.
"Oh, thank you so much!" cried the chipmunks together.
"Thought you might as well have a
70
light," said
the second spider
grumpily, as she put the candlestick on the table and quickly sidled
back to the door, which she climbed
in a jiffy to
a crack where she
could swing her legs out.
"What's your name?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. "I'm Dora, because with a
I live
on the door," said the second spider
titter.
Just as the chipmunks were finishing their supper, a third
"When you
get through, I've something to
Now, by the est of
all,
little
them from somewhere below.
voice spoke to
tell
you."
candlelight, they could see a third spider, the small-
watching them from a corner of the
floor.
She was so
little
that they hadn't noticed her, in spite of her big cap, which was the biggest of the three.
"What
you
will
"I said,
tell
'When you
in a voice that
was
The chipmunks
us?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. get through,' didn't I?" asked the third spider
like
a trickle of vinegar.
hurried to finish the last nut and brush
up the
crumbs.
"We're
all
through now," said Mrs. Chipmunk.
"You'll find an extra key in the bean pot over there," said the littlest spider, pointing.
Sure enough, the key was there and opened the door beautifully.
But eager
as they were to be gone, the
chipmunks took time to be
polite.
"To whom
are
we
indebted,
ma'am?" asked Mr. Chipmunk, with
old-fashioned courtesy.
"I'm Flora, and of the spiders.
I
Uve on the
"And now be
floor," said
off so I
the
littlest
and sourest
can go to sleep in peace, and
let
71
this teach
you to keep out
of other people's houses,"
and without
waiting for their reply, she closed her eyes and began to nod her head.
Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk looked at Celia, but she, and so did Dora in her crack
asleep in her high web,
too,
seemed
in the door,
•/ --
and now Flora was snoring a little, high snore in her bed on the They tiptoed out, and found that outside there was a golden simset, very thrilling after the long, dark day they had spent. But before they left for home, they brought back from their own sacks a basket of fine nuts to replace the ones they had eaten, and as they floor.
stood in the doorway, they whispered a last thanks to the three ladies, who paid no attention. Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk were glad to get to bed that night. Mr. Chipmunk's jaw was tired from the long hours of gnawing he had put in. But for a while, Mrs. Chipmunk couldn't get to sleep.
nid-nodding spider
"I did sweep didn't
72
I,
up the shavings you made trying
to
open the door,
dear?" she asked, and later she said, "They weren't very
And then, just as Mr. Chipmunk was going to sleep, he heard her say, low, as though to herself, "It may have been wrong to go into Mr. Squirrel's house, but
pretty, but they certainly were kind."
I
wouldn't have missed
it
for anything."
73
The Blue Tie ONE DAY JIMMY CHIPMUNK found a blue
tie in
the woods. It was of
the most beautiful color he had ever seen, and he loved ately,
but
it
had a hole torn
in
one end. So he took
it
it
immedi-
to the tailor,
who was a spider. The spider handled it carefully. "A beautiful piece of goods, Mr. Chipmunk," he said. "I don't know when I ever handled finer. But it needs a patch where that big three-cornered tear
is,
and
I
haven't anything that would
match."
Everything that the spider said made
and more, so putting cloth to match it.
74
it
in his pocket,
Jimmy admire the tie more
he set out to find a piece of
But north
or south, east or west, he could find nothing of that
beautiful blue.
So at
last
he went to see the wise woodchuck.
Jimmy Chipmunk found him on
the terrace in front of his hole
The woodchuck looked up long Jimmy and then bowed over his puzzle again.
doing a jig-saw picture puzzle.
enough to nod to
75
came to ask you where I could find something to match this Jimmy. But the woodchuck only moved a piece of the puzzle into the wrong place and then picked it up again, sighing and shaking his head. Then he tried another piece, but that was "I
tie," said
wrong, too.
Jimmy, who had very sharp little eyes, saw just the piece that would fit and pointed it out. The woodchuck got up and danced a jig. "I've been hunting for that thing for a month," he exclaimed. "Now, let me see, didn't you ask me a question?" So Jimmy repeated his question, and the woodchuck thought for a long time.
"On the mountain," he highest tree in the world.
said at last, "there I
is
a tree that
thing from that tree, though
I,
of course,
the
have never climbed
myself."
'^^;^^^
i>
76
is
should think that you could see everyit,
So Jimmy Chipmunk thanked the woodchuck and set out.
he had to climb the mounand that was a very hard thing for a chipmunk to do. But on the top he saw the great tree, so high First
tain,
that the clouds were caught its
among
branches.
Tightening his
He
gan climbing.
belt,
Jimmy
be-
climbed for days
and days and who knows what would have happened if the tree had not been an oak tree? As it was, poor
Jimmy
little
could find
something to eat whenever he be-
came exhausted, and every night he slept in his
in
a crotch, with one
pocket to
make
paw
sure that the
precious tie was safe.
At
last
he came to the top, and
there was a green
boughs having
and tea.
in
it
room made people
They were very
of
were sur-
prised at seeing a chipmunk,
you
may
be
told
them
his story
his
sure,
but
Jimmy
and showed them
tie.
77
is very easify mended," said one of the people, "and you have been so brave, the least we can do is to help you," and drawing a pair of scissors from his pocket, he snipped out a good piece of sky and handed it to Jimmy. The way down the tree seemed short, indeed, and as fast as his four legs could carry him, Jimmy ran down the mountain and
"Oh, that
since
to the spider,
who mended
his tie with eight needles at once, so
it
was done in a minute. The match was so perfect that by day even a chipmunk could not have told that there had ever been a tear in that tie. But at night the patch turned dark and there were stars in it.
78
Henry Beston and
his wife,
Elizabeth Coatsworth,
are no strangers to the world of children's books. Mr.
Beston,
who wrote
at Harvard,
his first fairy tale for
the author of
is
an English course
many books
for children,
among them Henry Beston's Fairy Tales, The Tree That Ran Away, Five Bears and Miranda, and The Sons of Kai. In 1964, in honor of The Outermost House by Mr. Beston of
—long
modem
considered one of the finest nature books
times
—The Outermost House, the
little
house
on the Nauset dunes of Cape Cod where he wrote the
Monument" by Governor Peabody of Massachusetts. Elizabeth Coatsworth is a Newbery Medal winner and author of over fifty
book, was declared a "National Literary
books, including
Jon the Unlucky and The
Place.
CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES Were told by Mr. Beston to their two daughters when they were little girls, and later to their grandchildren, and were set down by Miss Coatsworth. Often, the subjects were suggested by the animals or incidents around their Maine farm, from which the book takes
its
name and where
the Bestons stiU
live,
winter and summer.
Maurice Day,
a neighbor of the Bestons in Maine,
trated the stories
The
when they were published
illus-
originally
by
Christian Science Monitor.
79
I