THE WIDOW CROW'S BOARDING-HOUSE
EARLY DOINGS OF THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE AND HOW THEY FOUND A HOME
ANYBODY can tell by her face that the Little Lady has some plan of herown when the Story Teller is ready next evening to "sit by the fire andspin."
"I want you to tell me," she says, climbing up into her place, "how the'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow ever got to living together inthe Hollow Tree."
That frightens the Story Teller. He is all ready with somethingdifferent.
"Good gracious!" he says, "that is an old story that all the Deep WoodsPeople have known ever so long."
"But I don't know it," says the Little Lady, "and I'd like to know thatbefore you tell anything else. Rock, and tell it."
So the Story Teller rocks slowly, and smokes, and almost forgets theLittle Lady in remembering that far-away time, and presently he begins.
Well, it was all so long ago that perhaps I can't remember it very well.Mr. 'Possum was a young man in those days--a nice spry young fellow; andhe used to think it was a good deal of fun to let Mr. Dog--who wasn'tfriendly then, of course--try to catch him; and when Mr. Dog would getpretty close and come panting up behind him, Mr. 'Possum would scrambleup a tree, and run out on to the longest limb and swing from it, headdown, and laugh, and say:
"Come right up, Mr. Dog! Always at home to you, Mr. Dog! Don't stop toknock!"
And then Mr. Dog would race around under the tree and make a great todo, and sometimes Mr. 'Possum would swing back and forth, and prettysoon give a great big swing and let go, and Mr. Dog would think surelyhe had him then, and bark and run to the place where he thought he wasgoing to drop. Only Mr. 'Possum didn't drop--not far; for he had hislimb all picked out, and he would catch it with his tail as he went by,and it would bend and sway with him, and he would laugh, and call again:
"Don't go, Mr. Dog! Mr. Man can get up the cows alone to-night!"
CAME CLATTERING DOWN RIGHT IN FRONT OF MR. DOG]
And then Mr. Dog would remember that he was a good ways from home, andthat if he wasn't there in time to help Mr. Man get up the cows theremight be trouble; and he would set out lickety-split for home, with Mr.'Possum calling to him as he ran.
But one time Mr. 'Possum made a mistake. He didn't know it, but he wasgetting older and a good deal fatter than he had been at first, and whenhe swung out for another limb that way, and let go, he missed the limband came clattering down right in front of Mr. Dog. He wasn't hurt much,for the ground was soft, and there was a nice thick bed of leaves; but Itell you he was scared, and when Mr. Dog jumped right on top of him, andgrabbed him, he gave himself up for lost, sure enough.
But Mr. 'Possum is smart in some ways, and he knows how to play "dead"better than any other animal there is. He knew that Mr. Dog would wantto show him to Mr. Man, and that he was too heavy for Mr. Dog to carry.He had thought about all that, and decided what to do just in thatlittle second between the limb and the ground, for Mr. 'Possum can thinkquick enough when anything like that happens.
So when he struck the ground he just gave one little kick with his hindfoot and a kind of a sigh, as if he was drawing his last breath, andlaid there: and even when Mr. Dog grabbed him and shook him he never leton, but acted almost deader than if he had been really dead and nomistake.
Then Mr. Dog stood with his paws out and his nose down close, listening,and barking once in a while, and thinking maybe he would come to prettysoon, but Mr. 'Possum still never let on, or breathed the least littlebit, and directly Mr. Dog started to drag him toward Mr. Man's house.
That was a hard job, and every little way Mr. Dog would stop and shakeMr. 'Possum and bark and listen to see if he was really dead, and aftera while he decided that he was, and started to get Mr. Man to come andfetch Mr. 'Possum home. But he only went a few steps, the first time,and just as Mr. 'Possum was about to jump up and run he came hurryingback, and stood over him and barked and barked as loud as ever he couldfor Mr. Man to come and see what he had for him. But Mr. Man was too faraway, and even if he heard Mr. Dog he didn't think it worth while tocome.
So then Mr. Dog tried to get Mr. 'Possum on his shoulder, to carry himthat way; but Mr. 'Possum made himself so limp and loose and heavy thatevery time Mr. Dog would get him nearly up he would slide off again andfall all in a heap on the leaves; and Mr. Dog couldn't help believingthat he was dead, to see him lying there all doubled up, just as hehappened to drop.
SO THEN MR. DOG TRIED TO GET MR. 'POSSUM ON HIS SHOULDER]
So, then, by-and-by Mr. Dog really did start for Mr. Man's, and Mr.'Possum lay still, and just opened one eye the least bit to see howfar Mr. Dog had gone, and when he had gone far enough Mr. 'Possum jumpedup quick as a wink and scampered up a tree, and ran out on a limb andswung with his head down, and called out:
"Don't go away, Mr. Dog! We've had such a nice visit together! Don't gooff mad, Mr. Dog! Come back and stay till the cows come home!"
Then Mr. Dog was mad, I _tell_ you, and told him what he'd do next time;and he set out for home fast as he could travel, and went in the backway and hid, for Mr. Man was already getting up the cows when he gotthere.
Well, Mr. 'Possum didn't try that swinging trick on Mr. Dog any more. Hefound out that it was dangerous, the way he was getting, and that madehim think he ought to change his habits in other ways too. For onething, he decided he ought to have some regular place to stay where hecould eat and sleep and feel at home, instead of just travelling aboutand putting up for the night wherever he happened to be.
Mr. 'Possum was always quite stylish, too, and had a good many niceclothes, and it wasn't good for them to be packed about all the time;and once some of his best things got rained on and he had to sleep onthem for a long time to get them pressed out smooth again.
So Mr. 'Possum made up his mind to find a home. He was an old bachelorand never wanted to be anything else, because he liked to have his ownway, and go out all times of the night, and sleep late if he wanted to.So he made up his mind to look up a good place to board--some place thatwould be like a home to him--perhaps in a private family.
One day when he was walking through the woods thinking about it, andwondering how he ought to begin to find a place like that, he met Mr. Z.'Coon, who was one of his oldest friends in the Big Deep Woods. They hadoften been hunting together, especially nights, for Mr. 'Coon and Mr.'Possum always like that time best for hunting, and have better luck inthe dark than any other time. Mr. 'Coon had had his troubles with Mr.Dog, too, and had come very near getting caught one night when Mr. Manand some of his friends were out with Mr. Dog and his relatives andseveral guns looking for a good Sunday dinner. Mr. 'Coon _would_ havegot caught that time, only when Mr. Man cut the tree down that he was inhe gave a big jump as the tree was falling and landed in another tree,and then ran out on a limb and jumped to another tree that wasn't so faraway, and then to another, so that Mr. Man and his friends and all thedog family lost track of him entirely.
HE WAS AN OLD BACHELOR AND LIKED TO HAVE HIS OWN WAY]
But Mr. 'Coon was tired of that kind of thing too, and wanted someplace where he could be comfortable, and where he could lock the doornights and feel safe. Mr. 'Coon was a bachelor, like Mr. 'Possum, thoughhe had once been disappointed in love, and told about it sometimes, andlooked sad, and even shed tears.
So when he met Mr. 'Possum that day they walked along and talked aboutfinding a place to live, and just as they were wondering what they oughtto do they happened to notice, right in front of them, a little piece ofbirch bark tacked up on a tree, and when they read it, it said:
MRS. WIDOW CROW. WILL TAKE A FEW GUESTS. SINGLE GENTLEMEN PREFERRED; PLEASANT LOCATION NEAR RACE-TRACK.
Then Mr. 'Possum scratched his head and tried to think, and Mr. 'Coonscratched _his_ head and tried to think, and pretty soon Mr. 'Coon said:
THEY SAW MR. CROW OUT IN THE YARD CUTTING WOOD FOR HISMOTHER-IN-LAW]
"Oh yes, I know about that. That's Mr. Crow's mother-in-law. He had awife
until last year, and his mother-in-law used to live with them. Ibelieve she was pretty cross, but I've heard Mr. Crow say she was a goodcook, and that he had learned to cook a great many things himself. Iheard some time ago that she had moved over by the race-track, andperhaps Mr. Crow is boarding with her. Let's go over and see."
So away they went, saying how nice it would be to be really settled, andpretty soon they got over to Mrs. Widow Crow's, and there, sure enough,they saw Mr. Crow out in the yard cutting wood for his mother-in-law;and when they asked him about the advertisement, he said he was helpingher to get started, and she had two nice rooms, and that Mr. 'Possum andMr. 'Coon would be just the ones to fill them.
So they went right in and saw Mrs. Widow Crow about it, and by nightthey had their things moved and were all settled, and Widow Crow got anice supper for them, and Mr. Crow helped her, and worked as hard as ifhe were a hired man instead of a boarder like the others, which he was,because he paid for his room as much as anybody, and got scolded besideswhen he didn't do things to suit his mother-in-law.
The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book Page 7