The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book

by Albert Bigelow Paine

  MR. 'POSSUM'S GREAT STORY

  MR. 'POSSUM TELLS THE STRANGE ADVENTURES OF THE 'POSSUM FAMILY, TO THESURPRISE OF HIS FRIENDS

  "NOW this," said the Story Teller, "is the story that Mr. 'Possum toldthe 'Snowed-In' Literary Club in the Hollow Tree. It must be a truestory, 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 outof his head."

  The Little Lady doesn't quite like that.

  "But Mr. 'Possum is smart," she says. "He knows ever so much."

  "Oh yes, of course, and that's why he never _has_ to make up things. Hejust tells what he knows, and this time he told

  HOW UNCLE SILAS AND AUNT MELISSY MOVED

  "You may remember," he said, "my telling you once about Uncle Silas andAunt Melissy Lovejoy, who lived in a nice place just beyond the WidePaw-paw Hollows, and how Uncle Silas once visited Cousin Glenwood intown and came home all dressed up, leading a game chicken, and with abag of shinny-sticks, and a young man to wait on him; and how AuntMelissy--instead of being pleased, as Uncle Silas thought she wouldbe--got mad when she saw him, and made him and the young man take offall their nice clothes and go to work in the garden, and kept them at itwith that bag of shinny-sticks until fall.[B]

  "Well, this story is about them, too. I went to live with them soonafter that, because I lost both of my parents one night when Mr. Man washunting in the Black Bottoms for something to put in a pan with somesweet potatoes he had raised that year, and I suppose I would have beenused with sweet potatoes too if I hadn't come away from there prettylively instead of trying our old playing-dead trick on Mr. Man and hisfriends.

  "I thought right away that Mr. Man might know the trick, so I didn'twait to try it myself, but took out for the Wide Paw-paw Hollows, tovisit Uncle Silas Lovejoy, who was an uncle on my mother's side, andAunt Melissy and my little cousins; and they all seemed glad to see me,especially my little cousins, until they found they had to give me someof their things and most of their food, because I was young andgrowing, besides being quite sad about my folks, and so, of course, hadto eat a good deal to keep well and from taking my loss too hard.

  "But by-and-by Uncle Lovejoy said that he didn't believe that he and thehired man--who was the same one he had brought home to wait on him whenhe came from town--to be his valet, he said--though he got to be a hiredman right after Aunt Melissy met him and got hold of theshinny-sticks--Aunt Melissy being a spry, stirring person who liked tosee people busy. I remember how she used to keep me and my littlecousins busy until sometimes I wished I had stayed with my folks and putup with the sweet potatoes and let Uncle Silas and his family alone."

  Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe, and Mr. Rabbit said that hesupposed, of course, Mr. 'Possum knew his story and how to tell it, butthat if he ever intended to finish what Uncle Lovejoy had said abouthimself and the hired man he wished he'd get at it pretty soon.

  Mr. 'Possum said of course he meant to, as soon as he could get hisbreath, and think a minute. "Well, then," he said, "Uncle Silas toldAunt Melissy that he didn't believe he and the hired man could raise andcatch enough for the family since I had come to stay with them, and hethought they had better move farther west to a place where the land wasbetter and where Mr. Man's chickens were not kept up in such close,unhealthy places, but were allowed to roost out in the open air, on thefences and in the trees. He said he didn't think their house was quitestylish enough either, which he knew would strike Aunt Melissy, who wasa Glenwood, and primpy, and fond of the best things.

  "So then we began to pack up right away, and Uncle Silas and AuntMelissy quarrelled a good deal about what was worth taking and whatwasn't, and they took turns scolding the hired man about a good manythings he didn't do and almost all of the things he did do, and mylittle cousins and I had a fine time running through the empty rooms andplaying with things we had never seen before, but we had to keep out ofAunt Melissy's reach if we wanted to enjoy it much.

  "Well, by-and-by we were all packed up and ready to start. We hadeverything in bundles or tied together, and Aunt Melissy had arranged abig bundle for Uncle Silas to carry, and several things to tie and hangabout on his person in different places, and she had fixed up the hiredman too, besides some bundles for me and my little cousins.

  "Aunt Melissy said she would take charge of the lunch-basket and leadthe way, and she was all dressed up and carried an umbrella, and didn'tlook much as if she belonged to the rest of our crowd.

  AUNT MELISSY HAD ARRANGED A BUNDLE FOR UNCLE SILAS, ANDSHE HAD FIXED UP THE HIRED MAN TOO]

  "It was pretty early when we started, for it was getting dangerous tocamp out in that section, and we wanted to get as far as we could thefirst day, though we didn't any of us have any idea then how long a tripwe _would_ make that day, nor of the way we were going to make it.Nobody could guess a guess like that, even if he was the best guesser inthe world and made his living that way."

  Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe again, and said that if anybodywanted a chance to guess how far they went that first day and how theytravelled, they could guess now. But the Hollow Tree People said theydidn't want to guess, and they did want Mr. 'Possum to go ahead and tellthem about it.

  "Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "we travelled fifty miles that first day, andwe travelled it in less than two hours."

  "Fifty miles in two hours!" said all the Hollow Tree People. And JackRabbit said:

  "Why, a menagerie like that couldn't travel fifty miles in two years!"

  "But we did, though," said Mr. 'Possum; "we travelled it in a balloon."

  "In a balloon!"

  "Well, not exactly in a balloon, but _with_ a balloon. It happened justas I'm going to tell you.

  DIDN'T LOOK AS IF SHE BELONGED TO THE REST OF OUR CROWD]

  "We went along pretty well until we got to the Wide Grass Lands, thoughAunt Melissy scolded Uncle Silas a good deal because he got behind anddidn't stand up in a nice stylish way with all the things he had tocarry, and she used her umbrella once on the hired man because hedropped the clock.

  "When we got out to the Wide Grass Lands there was a high east windblowing, getting ready for a storm, and when we got on top of a littlegrassy hill close to the Wide Blue Water it blew Uncle Silas and thehired man so they could hardly stand up, and it turned Aunt Melissy'sumbrella wrong side out, which made her mad, and she said that it wasUncle Silas's fault and mine, and that she had never wanted to moveanyway.

  "But just then one of my little cousins looked up in the sky and said,'Oh, look at that funny bird!' and we all looked up, and there was agreat big long bag of a thing coming right toward us, not very high up,and Uncle Silas spoke up and said 'That's a balloon,' for Uncle Silashad seen one in town when he was there visiting Cousin Glenwood, and thehired man, too. Then while we were all standing there watching it, wesaw that there was a long rope that hung from the balloon most to theground, and that it had something tied to the end of it (a big ironthing with a lot of hooks on it), and that it was swooping down straighttoward us.

  "Uncle Silas called out as loud as he could, 'That's the anchor! Lookout!' but it was too late to look out, for it was coming as fast as thewind blew the balloon, and Uncle Silas and the hired man being loadedwith the things couldn't move very quick, and the rest of us were tooscared to know which way to jump, and down came that thing right amongus, and I saw it catch among Uncle Silas's furniture and the hiredman's, and I heard Uncle Silas say, 'Grab hold, all of you!' and we alldid, some one way and some another, and away we went.

  "Well, it was certainly very curious how we all were lucky enough to gethold of that anchor, with all our bundles and things; but of course wecould do it better than if we had not been given those nice useful tailswhich belong to our family. I had hold that way, and some of the othersdid, too. Uncle Silas didn't need to hold on at all, for some of thefurniture was tied to him, and he just sat back in a chair that was hungon behind and took it easy, though he did drop some of his things whenhe first g
ot aboard, and Aunt Melissy scolded him for that as soon asshe caught her breath and got over being frightened and was sitting upon her part of the anchor enjoying the scenery.

  THE BALLOON WENT OVER THE WIDE BLUE WATER JUST AFTER ITGOT OUR FAMILY]

  "I never had such a trip as that before, and never expect to have oneagain. The balloon went over the Wide Blue Water just after it got ourfamily, and we were all afraid we would be let down in it and drowned;but the people who were in the balloon threw out something heavy whichwe thought at first they were throwing at us, but it must have beensomething to make the balloon go up; for we did go up until Aunt Melissysaid if we'd just get a little nearer one of those clouds she'd step outon it and live there, as she'd always wanted to do since she was achild.

  "Then we all sat up and held on tight, above and below, and said what anice day it was to travel, and that we'd always travel that wayhereafter; and Uncle Silas and the hired man unhooked their furniture,so they could land easier when the time came, and Aunt Melissy passedaround the lunch, and we looked down and saw the water and the landagain and a lot of houses and trees, and Aunt Melissy said that nobodycould ever made her believe the world was that big if she hadn't seen itwith her own eyes.

  "And Uncle Silas and the hired man said that of course this was goingpretty fast, but that they had travelled a good deal faster sometimeswhen they were in town with Cousin Glenwood, and pretty soon he showedus the town where Cousin Glenwood lived, and he and the hired man triedto point out the house to us, but they couldn't agree about which it wasbecause the houses didn't look the same from up there in the air as theydid from down on the ground.

  "I know I shall never forget that trip. We saw ever so many differentMr. Men and Mr. Dogs, and animals of every kind, and houses that hadchimneys taller than any tree, and a good many things that even UncleSilas did not know about. Then by-and-by we came to some woodsagain--the biggest kind of Big Deep Woods--and we saw that we weregetting close to the tree-tops, and we were all afraid we would get hitby the branches and maybe knocked off with our things.

  "And pretty soon, sure enough, that anchor did drop right down among thetrees, and such a clapping and scratching as we did get!

  "We shut our eyes and held on, and some of our furniture was brushed offof Uncle Silas and the hired man, and Aunt Melissy lost her umbrella,and I lost a toy chicken, which I could never find again. Then all atonce there was a big sudden jerk that jarred Uncle Silas loose, and madeAunt Melissy holler that she was killed, and knocked the breath out ofthe rest of us for a few minutes.

  "But we were all there, and the anchor was fast on the limb of a bigtree--a tree almost as big as the Hollow Tree, and hollow, just like it,with a nice handy place to go in.

  "So when we got our senses back we picked up all our things that wecould find, and moved into the new place, and Aunt Melissy looked at theclock, which was still running, and it was just a little over two hourssince we started.

  "Then pretty soon we heard Mr. Man and his friends who had been up inthe balloon coming, and we stayed close inside till they had taken theanchor and everything away, and after that, when it was getting dark,Uncle Silas and the hired man went out and found, not very far off,where there were some nice chickens that roosted in handy places, andbrought home two or three, and Aunt Melissy set up the stove and cookedup a good supper, and we all sat around the kitchen fire, and the stormthat the east wind had been blowing up came along sure enough and itrained all night, but we were snug and dry, and went to sleep mostly inbeds made down on the floor, and lay there listening to the rain andthinking what a nice journey we'd had and what a good new home we'dfound.

  "And it _was_ a good place, for I lived there till I grew up, and if I'mnot mistaken some of Uncle Silas's and Aunt Melissy's children livethere still. I haven't heard from any of them for a long time, but I amthinking of going on a visit over that way in the spring, and if thatballoon is still running I'm going to travel with it.

  "And that," said Mr. 'Possum, "is a true story--all true, every word,for I was there."

  Nobody said anything for a minute or two after Mr. 'Possum had finishedhis story--nobody _could_ say anything.

  Then Mr. Rabbit coughed a little and remarked that he was glad that Mr.'Possum said that the story was true, for no one would ever havesuspected it. He said if Mr. 'Possum hadn't said it was true he wouldhave thought it was one of those pleasant dreams that Mr. 'Possum hadwhen he slept hanging to a peg head down.

  But Mr. Turtle, who had been sitting with his eyes shut and looking asif he were asleep, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and said that whatMr. 'Possum had told them was true--at least, _some_ of it was true; forhe himself had been sitting in the door of his house on the shore of theWide Blue Water when the balloon passed over, and he had seen UncleSilas Lovejoy's family sitting up there anchored and comfortable; and hehad picked up a chair that Uncle Silas had dropped, and he had it in hishouse to this day, it being a good strong chair and better than any thatwas made nowadays.

  Well, of course after that nobody said anything about Mr. 'Possum'sstory not being true, for they remembered how old and wise Mr. Turtlewas and could always prove things, and they all talked about it a greatdeal, and asked Mr. 'Possum a good many questions.

  They said how nice it was to know somebody who had had an adventure likethat, and Mr. Rabbit changed his seat so he could be next to Mr.'Possum, because he said he wanted to write it all down to keep.

  MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD THEM WASTRUE]

  And Mr. 'Possum said he never would forget how good those chickenstasted that first night in the new home, and that Mr. Rabbit mustn'tforget to put them in.

  Then they all remembered that they were hungry now, and Mr. Crow and Mr.Squirrel and Mr. Robin hustled around to get a bite to eat beforebedtime, and Mr. 'Possum hurried down to bring up the stove-wood, andwas gone quite awhile, though nobody spoke of it--not then--even if theydid wonder about it a little--and after supper they all sat around thefire again and smoked and dropped off to sleep while the clock tickedand the blaze flickered about and made queer shadows on the wall of theHollow Tree.

  FOOTNOTE:

  [B] _Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book._