The Curious Lobster

by Richard W. Hatch

  Mr. Lobster thought that over for a minute to be sure that Mr. Badger was not having a joke.

  “Why, I can never find out everything,” he said then.

  “Of course not,” agreed Mr. Badger.

  “Then I shall be curious as long as I live!” exclaimed Mr. Lobster, partly in wonder and partly in delight.

  “Exactly!” cried Mr. Badger. “It is a wonderful thought, you see. I know because I am just as curious as you are. You know, I once used to go out only at night, as most respectable badgers do, but I was so curious about what went on in the daytime I changed my habits entirely. I am so curious that the very first morning I wake up and find that I am not curious I shall know I am dead.”

  “And so shall I, I suppose,” said Mr. Lobster. “I certainly hope I never wake up and find myself dead!”

  Mr. Lobster was serious about that, but for some reason Mr. Badger laughed and laughed, as he did when he heard a good joke.

  “You want to be careful each morning before you wake up,” he said. And he laughed again.

  Of course, now that Mr. Lobster’s terrible experience in the woods was a thing of the past, Mr. Badger looked back upon it with a great deal of pleasure.

  “Never think seriously about the disasters of the past,” he said. “Think only of the pleasures. You had the narrowest escape of the whole summer, and you are lucky, indeed. That should be a joy to you as long as you live if you think of it as you should.”

  And Mr. Bear, who came down to the beach almost every day now, also looked back upon Mr. Lobster’s escape with a good deal of pleasure.

  “I am very grateful to you,” he said to Mr. Lobster, “for having such a narrow escape. It gave me a chance to save a life. You two were always saving each other’s lives and being heroes. Now I have some claim to distinction and honor. Now we are all heroes.”

  Mr. Badger laughed at that. He loved to tease Mr. Bear and make him growl.

  “You are not so much of a hero as you think,” he said. “I was the one who saved Mr. Lobster’s life. I carried him on my back, you may remember. You simply carried me on your back, and I didn’t need any saving. Why, if I had not been right on the spot, Mr. Lobster would be right there in the woods now.”

  Mr. Lobster shuddered at the thought.

  Mr. Bear gave a good hard growl.

  “How dare you say such a thing!” he demanded. “If I hadn’t been there, you wouldn’t have accomplished a thing, and Mr. Lobster would never have been saved!”

  Mr. Lobster interrupted.

  “Mr. Badger is only joking,” he said. “Of course, you saved my life. I would have been lost but for your great strength and courage. You both saved my life, and you are both heroes.”

  “Well, I certainly think I am,” said Mr. Bear, and after that he was more friendly than he had ever been before.

  For a good many days the three good friends and heroes were content to walk on the beach together or go fishing along the river to get a supper for Mr. Bear. It seemed as if their adventures of the summer were all over, for there were now only a few days left before the glad season would be ended and autumn would come to color the hills.

  Mr. Bear was well satisfied with the life he was leading, for he was getting plenty to eat without hard work, and he was a known hero. Mr. Lobster also felt that life was pleasant indeed.

  But Mr. Badger was restless.

  “Nothing is happening,” he said.

  “And a very good thing it is, too,” said Mr. Bear quickly. “Making things happen doesn’t always turn out the way you expect it to.”

  “Yes, that is why I like making things happen,” said Mr. Badger. “You never can tell what will be the end of what you start. You just wait—one of these days I am going to have a great idea.”

  Mr. Bear gave a low, unhappy moan.

  “I dread thinking of it,” he said. “I shall hate to see that day.”

  Mr. Lobster didn’t feel that way at all, for he was curious about what Mr. Badger’s newest idea would be.

  For a day or so Mr. Badger said nothing. Then there came a day when the sun was bright and the Ocean had a lovely sparkle because the sunshine danced upon the wide blue water. All the trees and grass moved in a light breeze—just enough of a breeze to cool your finger if you wet it in your mouth and held it up in the air. A few clouds which had been freshly washed and were much whiter even than snow were out sailing in the sky, every one of them sailing from the land out over the Ocean and then far and far until they were out of sight.

  The three friends were walking, and Mr. Badger was watching the white clouds.

  “I have observed,” he said, “that the clouds go right out to sea like ships. I am sure there must be some land beyond the Ocean, even if we can’t see anything.”

  “What is the use of thinking about something we can’t see?” asked Mr. Bear.

  “Because I have an idea,” answered Mr. Badger. “Yes, at last I have another idea! It is even more than stupendous!”

  “Oh, please tell us at once!” begged Mr. Lobster. “I have been curious for days.”

  “Just a minute, please,” put in Mr. Bear in a great hurry. “Would you mind waiting until I have started home and have walked far enough so that I can’t hear you?”

  “You will regret it if you don’t listen,” said Mr. Badger.

  “I am afraid I shall regret it much more if I have anything to do with it,” answered Mr. Bear.

  “At any rate,” said Mr. Badger, “it is very impolite to walk away when a person is about to express an idea. Of course, if you want to be impolite . . .”

  Mr. Bear hesitated. He considered it perfectly proper to be cross, being a bear, but he wanted always to be considered highly civilized, and he knew that highly civilized people were always polite.

  “I agree with Mr. Badger,” said Mr. Lobster. “Besides, we have to listen to other people’s ideas to get knowledge.”

  “All we get from Mr. Badger’s ideas is into trouble,” said Mr. Bear crossly, “but I suppose I shall have to listen. Go ahead and do your worst.”

  The three friends stopped walking and sat down on a sand dune from which they could look out over the Ocean.

  “Here is my idea,” said Mr. Badger. “If there is another land and another beach on the other side of the Ocean, why shouldn’t we see it? We have had delightful times this summer, with our narrow escapes and our picnic. But we have never traveled. Now there is a big sailing boat tied up to the wharf in the river, and it came sailing in from the Ocean, from way out farther than we can see, where the clouds go. So it must have come from somewhere. I say, let’s hide aboard that ship and travel to the other side of the Ocean!”

  “And stay there?” asked Mr. Lobster. He was curious at once, but he also thought instantly of his fine home.

  “Oh, no,” answered Mr. Badger. “Travelers never stay anywhere. They haven’t time. We can see the other end of the Ocean and then return when the ship comes back here to our river.”

  “If you will excuse me,” said Mr. Bear, “I think I would rather just hibernate. It’s about time I got ready, and I might be late if I traveled.”

  “What do you mean by that?” asked Mr. Lobster. “What do you do when you hibernate, as you call it?”

  Mr. Bear looked proud.

  “Hibernating,” he explained, “is a very superior arrangement. It means eating a good big dinner and then going to sleep and sleeping through all the cold and stormy winter weather. Anyone who is really wise hibernates, and I shall soon make my plans for this winter’s sleep, as I see that the end of the summer is here.”

  “How wonderful you are!” exclaimed Mr. Lobster.

  “Of course,” agreed Mr. Bear.

  “Pooh!” said Mr. Badger. “We shall get back here in plenty of time to hibernate. That is no excuse.”

  “Well, anyway,” said Mr. Bear, “it is a very foolish idea, this business of going across the Ocean. And it sounds dangerous. I haven’t forgotten the first ti
me I went out in a boat. That was your idea, too.”

  “I thought that you were a hero,” said Mr. Badger.

  “I am!” Mr. Bear gave a low growl.

  “Heroes are not afraid of dangerous ideas. That is the difference between heroes and ordinary people.” Mr. Badger pretended to be very serious. “And a hero would go on such a voyage in a minute. I am sorry to have to say this, Mr. Bear, but I am afraid that all those who do not go on this trip can’t be heroes.”

  Mr. Badger looked around, very much pleased with himself.

  “Now,” he said, “I shall take a vote to see who is going. I am a hero. So of course I am going. And how about you, Mr. Lobster?”

  Mr. Lobster really had not made up his mind to go. It seemed to him a much longer and possibly more dangerous trip than even his long walk to the woods, and he would never forget how that turned out. And yet he was very curious. And he knew that he could never give up being a hero. So he said:

  “I vote to go.”

  “And you, Mr. Bear?” Mr. Badger’s beady eyes twinkled. He knew that Mr. Bear could never refuse now no matter how much he wanted to. And he knew that Mr. Bear would be furious at being tricked that way, which pleased mischievous Mr. Badger a good deal.

  “All right,” said Mr. Bear. “You know very well I am a hero, and now probably I shall be a dead hero. But I will go. Somehow I always lose out in every argument with you, but some day I’ll have my turn.”

  Mr. Badger made all the plans and gave all the directions to Mr. Lobster and Mr. Bear. The next day, which was the day set for the start of the great voyage, Mr. Lobster was so curious about the other side of the Ocean, and so excited, that he could hardly wait for the time to come when he was to go ashore. But he ate a tremendous dinner, just as Mr. Badger had told him to, and when the tide was right he went ashore and met Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear.

  The three friends waited on the beach until the sun had set and the night was dark. Mr. Bear grumbled and growled a little. He even trembled, but he said that was only because the night was cold.

  Mr. Lobster trembled in his shell, but as no one could see what went on under his shell, he did not have to explain.

  Mr. Badger was in the best of spirits, as he always was when something was about to happen.

  “This is the greatest adventure of the summer,” he said.

  Very slowly and very carefully they walked across the bridge and approached the ship like three thieves.

  “We must be cautious,” whispered Mr. Badger, “for we haven’t exactly been invited on this ship, and I think it would be just as well if we take care not to be seen.”

  “I knew it,” said Mr. Bear. “There is always something shady in your schemes.”

  The crew of the ship were all ashore, and no one saw the three friends, although Mr. Bear kept looking around as though at least a dozen enemies were following.

  “I don’t like doing things by night,” he complained. “I make it a rule to stay at home after dark.”

  Mr. Lobster thought that was a good rule himself. He was sure that he wasn’t afraid, for he knew that he was a hero; but he did think it would be pleasant to be home at such a dark time.

  THEY APPROACHED THE SHIP LIKE THREE THIEVES.

  Fortunately there was a little more than half a moon shining; so they could see fairly well.

  “Right this way,” said Mr. Badger cheerfully.

  They went along the wharf, climbed aboard the ship, and looked around.

  Mr. Bear and Mr. Lobster were lagging behind. For some reason they did not feel in a hurry.

  “Right this way!” cried Mr. Badger again.

  There was nothing to do but follow. So Mr. Bear and Mr. Lobster followed Mr. Badger through a little door and down some steps, which were very hard for Mr. Lobster because he had to go down backwards, hanging on with his tail.

  Mr. Badger led the way to a dark little cabin which had just one round window. Then he shut the door, and they all waited.

  After a while Mr. Bear said, “I suppose we shall have to stay in this miserable dark little place all night.”

  “Oh, more than that,” answered Mr. Badger. “It may take us days to get to the other side of the Ocean. That is why I told you to eat a big dinner today.”

  “Days!” exclaimed Mr. Bear in terror. “And with no food! I am going straight home. I am sick of being a hero, and I resign if I have to go hungry.”

  Mr. Bear would have walked right away then and there, but just at that moment there was a great shuffling of feet on deck, and the noise of pulling and hoisting and casting off lines.

  “Too late to go now,” said Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Bear gave a low sad growl.

  “I am already hungry just at the thought of days without food,” he said. “I have even forgotten what I had for my dinner.”

  Mr. Badger looked out of the round window, which was very near the water.

  “We’re off!” he cried.

  And so the voyage was started.

  In some ways the voyage started out to be anything but a great success. After the night melted away and the sun rose up over the Ocean the three friends looked out of the little round window and saw nothing but water, with no land anywhere in sight. That was a little fearful. And then, besides, Mr. Bear was hungry, and when he was hungry he was unhappy, and when he was unhappy he growled.

  “I am starving,” he said.

  He walked back and forth and back and forth most miserably, the way bears always do when they are unhappily kept in a small place. And to make matters worse, someone on the ship cooked fish every few hours, and the smell of the frying fish came down to Mr. Bear and made him furious.

  “I am going to get some of that fried fish!” he declared.

  “If you do,” warned Mr. Badger, “you will probably be thrown overboard and have to swim to shore.”

  At the thought of such an impossible swim Mr. Bear collapsed.

  And then, in the middle of the afternoon, although there was no sun in the little cabin, Mr. Lobster began to feel dry.

  “There you are!” said Mr. Bear angrily. “You are starving me to death and drying up Mr. Lobster. Your ideas are certainly fine for your friends, aren’t they?” He growled hard.

  “I will tend to that,” said Mr. Badger, who was never at a loss for ideas.

  He opened the little round window. The next minute the ship rolled, and the water came pouring in the window, flooding the cabin. It was delightful to Mr. Lobster and refreshed him at once, but Mr. Bear got soaking wet, and he hated water almost as much as he hated work and hunger.

  “I give you fair warning!” he cried. “There’s nothing so cross as a wet bear!”

  Mr. Badger was soaking wet too, but he laughed.

  “That’s a good joke on everybody but Mr. Lobster,” he said. “That’s the way it goes when you are off on an adventure. There must be many hardships to travel so that you appreciate your home when you return. I wonder what will happen next.”

  “I know,” said Mr. Bear.

  “What?” asked the curious Mr. Lobster.

  “Something else unpleasant,” answered Mr. Bear.

  Mr. Badger closed the window, and it was arranged that after that when Mr. Lobster got dry Mr. Bear could open the door and go outside and wait while the window was opened again. But he must look out first, for they must not be seen.

  They traveled thus all the first night, all the first day, and all the second night. Mr. Bear got hungrier and hungrier and vowed that although he had been willing this once to try just one more of Mr. Badger’s ideas this was positively the last time. All that he wanted now was to hibernate.

  “I look forward to sleeping all winter more than I ever have before,” he growled. “I will know when I go to sleep this time that at last I am safe from Mr. Badger.”

  On the morning of the second day the ship stopped sailing. The three friends rushed to the window to look out and see the other side of the Ocean. But when they looked, there w
as nothing to see but water everywhere. The ship had stopped in the middle of the Ocean.

  “I never want to see water again,” said Mr. Bear. “If we don’t get somewhere tomorrow, I am going to do something desperate.”

  Even Mr. Badger and Mr. Lobster were hungry. Mr. Lobster felt hollow under his shell, but he didn’t care to mention it because he had voted for the voyage.

  “Perhaps this is another mistake, though I should think I couldn’t make a mistake every time,” he said to himself. “Besides, if the worst happens, I can crawl out through the window and drop into the Ocean. But I am a hero and must not desert my friends.”

  There was a great deal of noise on the ship all that day.

  “I think they are fishing,” said Mr. Badger. “Afterwards we shall move on.”

  Just before nightfall the ship started moving again. There sprang up a fine strong wind, and the brave ship dashed along, driving through the waves so that the water splashed up on the little window all the time.

  They sailed all that night and all the next day. Mr. Lobster was very hungry. Mr. Badger was even hungrier, but as the voyage was his idea, of course he could not say anything. In fact, if the truth were told, the three adventurers were all pretty miserable now, for it looked as though the voyage would never end. Mr. Bear was growling practically all of the time, which got on Mr. Lobster’s nerves, and Mr. Badger was unusually silent.

  Once Mr. Badger did speak a little sadly.

  “It seems a pity,” he said, “that sometimes things planned just for pleasure end just the other way.”

  “That is particularly true of your ideas,” said Mr. Bear unkindly.

  “We must be brave and unafraid,” said Mr. Badger. “A badger is never afraid.”

  “Probably you are not hungry,” said Mr. Bear.

  “I am hungry,” admitted Mr. Badger. “And I confess that this voyage is taking a little longer than I expected. The Ocean must be very wide.”

  “Well, I am going to look for food,” said Mr. Bear. And with those words he opened the door of the cabin and walked out, slamming the door behind him.