The Curious Lobster

by Richard W. Hatch

  Mr. Lobster did not understand that at all, but for the time being he decided to ask no more about it. Instead he crawled around the tree several times, studying the whole situation and thinking about the grapes and about the tops of trees. What Mr. Badger had said did not wholly satisfy his curiosity, for he had been curious about the tops of trees for a long time, and now he felt that he must learn about them.

  “Mr. Badger,” he said, finally, “do you ever climb trees?”

  “I should say not,” answered Mr. Badger. “The ground is the place for me. I wouldn’t think of going into a tree without wings. It wouldn’t be sensible.”

  “How about you, Mr. Bear?” asked Mr. Lobster. “Do bears climb trees?”

  “Oh, yes,” answered Mr. Bear with some pride. “You mustn’t pay any attention to Mr. Badger. Everyone knows that it is fun to climb trees, and the only ones who never climb them are those who don’t know how.” Mr. Bear chuckled at his own remark. He was still feeling important, and the honey had made him exceedingly good-natured. Also, it pleased him to tease Mr. Badger.

  “Would you mind climbing that tree and getting some grapes for me, then?” asked Mr. Lobster.

  Mr. Bear went over to the tree and stood on his hind legs and looked up to the very top. It was a slender tree, and it looked very bendy.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “This tree isn’t big enough for me. If I climbed it, I am afraid it would break and I would come crashing down. Large bears never climb small trees—and I am a very large bear.”

  Mr. Lobster was disappointed. And he was more curious than ever. It seemed as though he must find out about the grapes himself. So he kept crawling around the tree. He even wondered if he could climb it, although he knew that lobsters never did such things; but when he tried to reach up the tree he saw that he could not even reach the first branch.

  He started to crawl away, and it was then, just as it seemed as if he would have to give up the whole idea, that he saw something hanging down from the top of the tree. He had not noticed it before because he had been crawling near the trunk of the tree. He crawled over to the thing now, and he saw that it looked like a small rope and that it hung from the top of the tree to the ground.

  “What is this?” he asked.

  Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear came over to look.

  “It is one of the grapevines,” said Mr. Badger.

  “I wonder if it is strong.”

  Mr. Bear reached up and took hold of the vine and pulled. As he did so, the top of the tree bent down.

  “Look!” exclaimed Mr. Lobster. “It bends the tree down! If you could pull that down farther and farther, Mr. Bear, you could bring it right down to the ground and I could see the grapes and the top of the tree.”

  Mr. Bear began to pull slowly on the vine. The tree bent over and over, like a long bow.

  Mr. Lobster was delighted. At last he was going to see the top of a tree. And at the thought of satisfying his curiosity he became so excited that he trembled in every joint of his shell.

  Nearer and nearer came the tree top, and he could see the bunches of shining blue grapes.

  “It pulls hard now,” said Mr. Bear, grunting. “Something seems to be pulling it back.”

  “Oh, please pull it all the way to the ground,” begged Mr. Lobster. “It is almost here.”

  “I’ll help,” said Mr. Badger, and he took hold of the vine, too.

  Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear were both grunting now, and both pulling as hard as they could. The top of the tree came down until the leaves were touching the ground.

  “Hurry up!” panted Mr. Badger. “We can’t hold it down very long!”

  Mr. Lobster crawled in among the leaves. What a satisfaction it was to be right in the top of a tree! It was almost as good as being a bird!

  He reached up a big claw to get a bunch of grapes, but he couldn’t quite touch the bunch he wanted. So he grabbed a small branch and pulled himself up into the tree top so that he was not touching the ground at all.

  Just then something happened, no one knew how or why. Mr. Bear felt the vine slipping out of his grasp, and he pulled down with all his strength. Mr. Badger pulled, too.

  Snap! The vine broke!

  Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear shouted at the same time.

  “Look out!”

  It was too late. Mr. Lobster didn’t have time to get back on the ground. All that he could do was hold on to a branch. And the tree straightened up, and the top of it with the grapes and Mr. Lobster went flying through the air with a rush and a swish that took his breath away in a terrifying manner. Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear were left in horrified silence. The tree was standing straight as an arrow, and Mr. Lobster was perched in the very top of it, in the midst of the grapes and leaves.

  For a minute or two no one could say a word.

  Finally Mr. Badger spoke in a very small voice.

  “Are you there, Mr. Lobster?” he asked.

  “Yes, I’m here,” answered Mr. Lobster, also in a very small voice.

  He looked down through the leaves at the ground, and it looked so far away that he shivered. He said to himself, “If I ever fall from here I shall break all to pieces,” and he hung on for dear life with both big claws.

  MR. LOBSTER WENT FLYING THROUGH THE AIR WITH A RUSH AND A SWISH.

  “You will have to pull me down now,” he called to his two friends below.

  “We can’t,” said Mr. Bear miserably. “The vine is gone. There isn’t anything to pull by.”

  Mr. Bear had spoken the terrible truth. There was no way to pull the tree down, and yet Mr. Lobster was at the top of it, and no lobster could ever live in the top of a tree for very long. The very worst had happened.

  “This is terrible!” exclaimed Mr. Lobster. “I shall get dry up here, and then I’ll be gone.”

  “At least you won’t starve,” said Mr. Badger, trying to be cheerful. “You can eat grapes.”

  “I don’t feel hungry,” said Mr. Lobster unhappily.

  “It is a disaster,” moaned Mr. Bear. “I should have known things were going too smoothly. Whenever things go too smoothly there is some serious trouble that follows, and this is the worst trouble we have ever had. Before, Mr. Lobster was always with us to help us, but this time he is in the top of a tree. A terrible disaster—a terrible disaster!”

  “Perhaps I shouldn’t have pulled,” said Mr. Badger.

  “I know I shouldn’t have pulled. I am too powerful,” said Mr. Bear.

  “No, it was my own fault,” insisted Mr. Lobster, like a true friend and hero. “It was all caused by my own curiosity. You must blame no one but me.”

  But Mr. Lobster’s words did not make things any better. They all knew that once a bad thing has happened it does no good to talk about the blame, for the only thing that does any good is to set matters right.

  “We must think,” said Mr. Badger. “We must all think hard until we have an idea.”

  Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger sat down under the tree to think. Mr. Badger was always silent when he was thinking, and now he did not make a sound. Mr. Bear was thinking, too, but he was never silent when he was unhappy, and he was most unhappy now. So he growled and moaned softly all the time. It was a dismal scene.

  Up in the tree Mr. Lobster held on tightly.

  “This is worse than when I was lost in the woods,” he said to himself. “And all my own fault. Sometimes being wise is no help at all. I am afraid curiosity is stronger than wisdom or I shouldn’t be here. If I could only get back into the ocean I should be especially happy, for I have flown through the air like a bird, and I have been in the top of a tree and looked around. But now I am only miserable. There are times when one’s finest accomplishments give no satisfaction at all.”

  He looked down on the island and the ocean sadly. There was the ocean so near, and yet he could not possibly enter it. He had never before looked at the blue water and felt sad, but now the sight of the sea, which he knew was cool and salt, made him so unhappy that he decided
to look the other way and see nothing but woods.

  While the three friends were thinking desperately, the day was passing. Fortunately Mr. Lobster was somewhat shaded by leaves, and the afternoon was dark and cloudy, so he did not suffer yet from dryness. But in the back of his mind he knew that he would get dry sooner or later.

  “Have you thought of anything yet?” he called down finally. “It won’t be long before I’ll be getting dry.”

  “I can think of nothing but beavers,” said Mr. Bear. “If there were only a beaver here he could gnaw the tree down.”

  “And I can think of nothing but wings,” said Mr. Badger. “If only I had wings I could fly up and save you.”

  “Thank you both,” said Mr. Lobster, “but there are no beavers here, and we have no wings.”

  “True,” said Mr. Badger.

  No one seemed to be having very comforting thoughts.

  “It might be a good idea to ask the snake’s advice,” said Mr. Bear. “Perhaps he knows someone who could help us. I will go and get him.”

  “And that reminds me of the talkative turtle,” said Mr. Lobster. “He may be coming out of the ocean again by now. Do go and see if you can find him anywhere on the beach. He has been everywhere, and he must know a great deal.”

  “Hang on until we return,” called Mr. Badger, and he started down the beach.

  Mr. Bear plunged into the woods, going in such a hurry that Mr. Lobster could hear him crashing through the bushes and making a great racket. He hoped that Mr. Bear would not frighten the snake.

  Now Mr. Lobster was left all alone, without even the sympathy of his friends to console him, which made his position even worse than before. “Next to being just plain unhappy,” he said to himself, “the worst thing is being unhappy and alone at the same time.”

  And he was alone for a long while, for it was nearly dark before Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger returned.

  Mr. Bear and the snake came first.

  “This is most unfortunate,” said the snake. “I have not forgotten what you did for me, and I will help you if I can, but I don’t know a thing to do at present.”

  Then Mr. Badger and the turtle arrived.

  The turtle looked up into the tree.

  “Well, it’s true,” he said. “It just doesn’t seem possible, but it is. And I say there are limits. First you are walking on a beach, Mr. Lobster, and give me the shock of my life, and now you are up in a tree. Most ridiculous thing I ever heard of. Absurd, I say! Absurd! A lobster in a tree. We must do something about it!”

  “I am very sorry to cause all this trouble,” said Mr. Lobster humbly.

  “Never mind that,” said the turtle briskly. “Too late to be sorry now. Doesn’t do a bit of good. Not a bit of good.”

  Everyone was silent.

  Poor Mr. Lobster wondered about the turtle’s words. “It doesn’t seem to me too late to be sorry,” he thought. “If I had been sorry before this happened it would have been too early; but surely when I am right in the middle of terrible trouble it is just the time to be sorry.”

  The turtle and the snake had evidently met before, for they seemed to know each other.

  “I don’t suppose you climb trees, do you?” the turtle asked the snake now.

  “Oh, no,” replied the snake.

  “Well, then, we shall have to get a bird,” said the turtle calmly, “and all the birds have gone to bed for the night. Can you hold on there all night, Mr. Lobster?”

  “Yes, I think I can if I don’t get entirely dry,” said Mr. Lobster. He did not speak with enthusiasm. The thought of being all night in the tree made him shudder.

  “Don’t worry about that,” said the turtle quickly. “It is going to rain tonight. That’s the reason I am ashore. I love to hear the rain on my shell. It is excellent for my nerves, and I am very nervous today. First I come ashore to get away from everything and meet you on dry land, and now I have come ashore again and met nothing but trouble. But never mind me. I shall help you no matter what it does to my nerves. In the morning we shall see; and now, if you don’t mind, I shall say ‘Good night.’ ”

  With those words he pulled in his head and was ready for the night and the rain.

  The snake said that he would return in the morning, and glided off into the woods.

  Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear and Mr. Lobster said their good nights in small unhappy voices, and Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger went to their own shelters.

  Mr. Lobster was alone again.

  “Everyone is comfortable but me,” he thought sadly.

  Soon the wind began to blow gently, and the tree moved back and forth. Mr. Lobster hung on tightly and hoped for the best, but he felt sure now that nothing could happen but the worst. As the wind blew harder and the tree swayed more and more, he began to feel dizzy. The rustling of the leaves and the thrashing of branches in the storm made a hideous noise. And then it began to rain.

  The rain, even though it was not salt water, of course—and Mr. Lobster liked only salt water—kept him cool and wet all night while he swung back and forth and back and forth in the tree top. Such a night it was—a terrifying night! And it seemed to go on forever!

  But the morning finally came, and the sun came out bright and warm.

  “Now,” thought Mr. Lobster, “if something doesn’t happen pretty soon I shall certainly get completely dry.”

  The turtle put his head out, remarked to himself that it had been a beautiful night and that his nerves were now soothed, and looked about him. The snake came gliding from the woods. Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear came hurrying down the beach together.

  “Are you all right?” called Mr. Badger anxiously.

  “No, I am afraid I am not all right,” Mr. Lobster had to answer. “But I am still alive.”

  “Remember that you are a hero,” said Mr. Badger. “A hero never gives up.”

  “We must get a bird,” said the turtle. “Does anyone here know a bird?”

  At first no one seemed to know any birds. Then Mr. Lobster remembered.

  “We know a sea gull,” he said.

  “Oh, yes!” exclaimed Mr. Badger. “There was a sea gull who stole our picnic one time, and we treated him very kindly. Maybe he would help us.”

  “Where does he live?” asked the turtle.

  “By a certain river that flows into the ocean near a big cliff,” said Mr. Badger. “It is a most beautiful place.”

  “I know where that is,” said the turtle. “It is quite a distance, but I have had such a soothing and restful night that I feel able to travel at tremendous speed this morning. We turtles look slow, you know, but you ought to see us under water! I will get the sea gull. Hold on, Mr. Lobster! Just hold on!”

  Before anyone could think of anything else to say, the turtle had crawled into the water and was gone. There was nothing to do now but wait.

  The snake and Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear remained under the tree. Every little while one of them would try to give Mr. Lobster courage by calling out: “Hold on. It won’t be very much longer now.”

  Poor Mr. Lobster held on, but his big claws were now so tired that they ached. And, as the long morning passed, he got drier and drier. By noon his tail felt so dry that he feared he would never be able to curl it tightly again. And when a lobster cannot curl his tail he is in a very bad way.

  “I am getting very dry,” he finally said to his friends. “I fear that the turtle will be too late.”

  “No, no! Don’t say that!” protested Mr. Badger.

  And then Mr. Bear, who was looking out to sea, cried out:

  “Look!”

  It was the sea gull. He came flying straight to the island and landed on the beach.

  “You are saved!” cried Mr. Badger.

  “Here I am,” said the gull. “I remember Mr. Lobster’s kindness to me. What can I do?”

  “Get Mr. Lobster out of the tree!” exclaimed Mr. Badger excitedly. “Hurry!”

  The sea gull flew up to Mr. Lobster. Everyone waited breathlessly to
see him pick up Mr. Lobster and bring him to earth. But, instead of helping Mr. Lobster, the gull flew down to the beach again.

  “I am sorry,” he said, “but Mr. Lobster has grown so big that I could never lift him.”

  “Then I am not saved,” said Mr. Lobster miserably. “Nothing can save me.”

  At this moment the turtle came crawling out of the ocean.

  “Whew!” he said. “I guess that is a record! Never say a turtle can’t hurry. Is everything all right now?”

  “Everything is all wrong,” moaned Mr. Bear. “It always is. Mr. Lobster is too heavy for the sea gull.”

  “What’s that? What’s that? Too heavy?” The turtle was amazed.

  “If you only had a rope,” said the sea gull. “I’ve seen people on ships do all kinds of things with ropes.”

  Mr. Lobster had about lost all hope, and he was so dry and tired now that he could hardly speak. But when he heard the sea gull mention a rope he immediately remembered the wonderful long rope he had brought on the exploration.

  “My rope,” he called down in a weak voice. “It is in Mr. Bear’s boat.”

  “I’ll get it!” cried Mr. Badger, and he dashed up the beach.

  In two minutes he was back, dragging the rope behind him. The sea gull, without wasting an instant, took one end of the rope in his claws and flew up into the tree. There he pulled the rope over a strong branch. Then he gave the end to Mr. Lobster.

  “Here,” he said. “Do just as I say: take this end in one claw and hold on for dear life. Keep the other claw on the tree. When I tell you to let go of the tree, take hold of the rope with both claws. Then we can let you down to the ground.”

  Mr. Lobster followed the sea gull’s directions, and the sea gull flew down to the beach.

  “You are the strongest,” he said to Mr. Bear. “So you take hold of the rope here, and when I tell you to, just let the rope out slowly.”

  Mr. Bear took hold of the rope firmly.

  “Now let go!” called the sea gull to Mr. Lobster.

  Mr. Lobster was terrified, but he let go of the tree. Now he was holding fast to the rope with both claws.

  “Let him down,” said the sea gull to Mr. Bear.