XXIV
THE BUSHYTAILS HAVE COMPANY
BILLIE BUSHYTAIL was so anxious to get home to his nest and see what trick the fairy hen was to perform for his special benefit, that he ran ahead of Johnnie and Sister Sallie.
“Can't you wait?” called Johnnie after his brother.
“No,” answered Billie, “I can't. I want to see what it is”--just as you children do on Christmas morning, you know.
Well, as he was running through the woods he met Grandma and Grandpa Lightfoot, and Jennie Chipmunk.
“Where are you going in such a hurry?” asked grandpa, who, being a little lame, from having stepped on a pine needle, walked with a cane.
“I am going home to see what trick the fairy hen has done,” answered Billie.
“Well, we are going to your house; so tell your papa and mamma we are coming,” added grandma, and as for Jennie Chipmunk, she just laughed, she was so glad to see Billie again.
When Billie got to the nest he scrambled up the tree as fast as he could, as fast as a fly walking on a window-pane, I do believe. The first thing he saw was a sharp little nose poked out from the hollow in the tree, then he saw some wiggily whiskers, and next two of the sharpest eyes he had ever beheld.
“This must be the trick,” he thought. “I wonder what it is?” and he trembled, he was so anxious. Then he looked again, and saw some sharp teeth, and, a moment later, what should happen but that Nurse Jane Fuzzy- Wuzzy sprang up and looked right at him. You remember Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy--Sammie and Susie Littletail's nurse?
“Oh!” exclaimed Billie, just the least bit disappointed. “I thought there was going to be a trick here.”
“There is,” said Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. “I am the trick and here are two more,” and she waved her paw, and what should happen but that Sammie and Susie Littletail, those little bunny rabbits, came running out of the leaves where they had been hidden at the foot of the tree, and sat up on their hind legs. Just then up came Johnnie Bushytail and Sister Sallie, and they wanted to know what the trick was that the fairy hen had done. They all agreed, even Billie, that it was a wonderful thing for the hen to know without being there, that something strange was going to be at the squirrels' nest.
“How do you suppose she did it?” asked Johnnie.
“Easy enough,” answered Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. “I happened to meet Mrs. Cluck-Cluck in the woods, and I told her we were coming here, so, of course, she knew.”
“Then it isn't a trick at all,” declared Billie.
“Well, it's a sort of a trick,” said Sammie Littletail. “I think that fairy hen is wonderful. We are going to have some of her eggs to color for Easter, Susie and I.”
Then who should come along but Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot, and Jennie Chipmunk. Mr. and Mrs. Bushytail and Sister Sallie began to set the table, for they wanted their friends and relatives to have a quiet cup of tea, and Sammie and Susie and Billie and Johnnie began to play about in the leaves.
Then, all at once, along came Papa and Mamma Littletail, and, right behind them, limping on his crutch, which Jane Fuzzy- Wuzzy had gnawed out of a cornstalk, walked Uncle Wiggily Longears, and his rheumatism was almost as bad as ever. Doesn't it make you sorry to hear that?
“Well, well!” cried Uncle Wiggily Longears, “this is quite a family party. Oh, my, yes, and some pepper-hash besides!”
“Where did you come from?” asked Papa Bushytail of Papa Littletail. “I haven't seen you in some time.”
“No,” answered the rabbit, “my family and I have been away on a visit.”
Then Papa Bushytail told the rabbits how glad he was to see them again, and Johnnie and Billie and Sister Sallie told about meeting the fairy hen and the trick she had performed.
“I can do some tricks too, if some one will help me,” said Sammie Littletail. “I learned them in a circus.”
“I'll help you,” agreed Billie Bushytail.
“Then come over here where we can practise,” whispered Sammie, and so the little boy rabbit and the little boy squirrel went behind a big tree. Pretty soon they were all ready to do their tricks. They had quite an audience, and they used a large, flat stump for a platform. They turned single and double somersaults, they stood on each other's head, they jumped over each other's back, and they juggled acorns until you would wonder how they did it. Then they stood on their hind legs and danced, and Billie Bushytail took a stick and chewed it in three pieces, right in front of the audience. Oh, it was a most delightful time! and I wish you all could have been there. I'm sure you would have enjoyed it.
But, after a while, it was time for the rabbits to go home, and they started off. Billie Bushytail said he would walk a short distance with Sammie, and he did.
“If you see any horse chestnuts save me one,” begged Uncle Wiggily Longears. “I need it for my rheumatism. Even though the red fairy did cure it for a while, it came back on account of me getting my feet wet the other night. Oh, dear, yes, and a bit of horse-radish besides!”
So Billie and Sammie said they would, and they went off looking for the horse chestnuts, and the first thing they were all alone in the woods, the others having gone on ahead. Well, they found a horse chestnut, and soon caught up to Mamma and Papa Littletail, and Susie and Uncle Wiggily and Nurse Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy. Then, at last, they were at the rabbit house, and Sammie asked Billie:
“Can't you come and stay a few days with me?”
“I guess so,” answered Billie, “if I could send word home.”
“Oh, I'll go tell your papa and mamma,” offered Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, and she went as quick as you can blow out a match.
Well, Billie stayed with Sammie several days, and he had quite an adventure, too. It was one day when Sammie was out trying to dig a hole down through to China. A big hawk grabbed Billie and carried him away up in the air, and Sammie was so frightened he didn't know what to do. But if a little green fairy man whom Sammie knew didn't suddenly appear, and change into an eagle, and chase after that hawk! And the eagle took Sammie on his back, and Sammie hit the hawk with a stick and saved Billie Bushytail, which adventure you can read all about in the first book of this series, entitled, “Bedtime Stories: Sammie and Susie Littletail.” Well, you know you never can tell when fairies are going to appear, nor what they are going to do, and, as it happens, some are going to appear in this book, and to-morrow night I'll tell you a fairy story about Johnnie Bushytail, and how he was shut up in a hollow tree by a bad fox, and how he got out again. Now, go to sleep, and wait for to-morrow.
XXV
JOHNNIE BUSHYTAIL IN A TREE
OF course, as soon as Billie Bushytail got home he told his brother Johnnie about the little green fairy man turning into an eagle and flying after the hawk that had caught the little squirrel boy. That's the story I mentioned to you last night, you remember. Well, Johnnie laughed when Billie told him that a fairy had helped Sammie Littletail at the rescue.
“I'm not going to believe in fairies, even if you do,” said Johnnie. Oh, dear, isn't it terrible when people or squirrels don't believe in fairies? It's so troublesome, I think. Now I know you children aren't that way. If you were I'm afraid I could never tell you another bedtime story. Anyhow, Johnnie didn't believe, just as usual.
But one day Johnnie was out all alone in the woods. He was looking for some last year's acorns to take home to Sister Sallie, and he skipped up one tall tree and another, and down to the ground again, chattering to himself and feeling as happy as you do when you're going to have a party.
All at once Johnnie saw a big tree, and the minute he saw it he knew that it was hollow, that is, it had a big hole in it, and, what's more, he knew the hole was full of acorns. How he knew I can't tell, except that he was a very wise little squirrel.
“Now I'll get some nice acorns for Sister Sallie,” he cried, and he ran up that tree, and down the inside before you could rub the kittie's back three times and a quarter. “Oh, what a nice lot of acorns there are!” said Johnnie, as he saw them.
> The little boy squirrel was gathering up a whole lot of them to take home when, all of a sudden, he heard a noise outside the tree. It was a funny sort of noise, and when he looked up at the hole by which he had come in--a sort of front door to the hollow tree, you know--why, if that hole wasn't all dark. Yes, sir, that hole was shut tight, and there poor Johnnie was, a prisoner in the hollow tree. Oh, how frightened he was, and he wondered who had been so cruel as to stop up the hole. Then, all at once he heard some one exclaim:
“There, I guess I've got you now, Johnnie Bushytail! You won't get out of there in a hurry!”
And who do you suppose it was that shut that little squirrel up? Why, nobody but that bad old fox. Yes it was, really. Not the one who was turned into a village called Foxtown, but another fox entirely.
“Now I've got you!” the fox cried, “and to-night I am coming back and eat you all up--all up--all up!” and he laughed something terrible, did that fox.
Well, of course poor Johnnie tried to get out. He looked for a back door to the tree, but there wasn't any. Then he looked for a window, but there wasn't any.
“Oh, dear!” he cried, “I guess I've got to gnaw my way out.”
Well, he tried that, but he couldn't do it. You see, the tree was too thick for him to gnaw through. He could bite through a hickory nut, or maybe a black walnut, but not the big tree. Then he felt very badly indeed, and he feared he would never see his brother, or Sister Sallie, or his papa, or mamma again. Then, as quick as the cat can wiggle her whiskers, if Johnnie didn't hear another noise outside the tree. At first he thought it was the fox who had come back, but it wasn't. It was a bird called the woodpecker.
The woodpecker pecks holes in trees to get at worms and bugs to eat. As soon as Johnnie knew it was a bird pecking he called:
“Please help me out.”
“Of course I will,” answered the bird, very kindly, and he tried, but his bill wasn't strong enough.
“Maybe you can knock out the stone which that bad fox put in the front door,” suggested Johnnie. So the woodpecker tried, but he couldn't.
“No,” he said, “it's all stopped up but the keyhole, and I don't s'pose you can get through that.”
“No,” answered Johnnie, “I can't,” and he felt worse than ever. Well, the woodpecker said he would fly off to get a lot of birds, to see if they couldn't peck a hole in that tree, but in the meanwhile something happened. Johnnie was sitting there in the dark, thinking of his home, when, all of a sudden, right through the keyhole (which, you know, was a knot-hole in the tree) there shone the loveliest colors you ever saw! Oh, they were just fine! As soon as Johnnie saw them he cried:
“Is that a rainbow shining in here?”
“No,” answered a voice, “it is not a rainbow. Those are colors from my wings.”
“Who are you?” asked Johnnie.
“I am the sky-blue-pink fairy,” replied the voice. “You see, I live near a rainbow, and that's why I am colored so prettily.”
“Oh, won't you please help me out of here?” asked Johnnie, who was nearly crying now, and I don't blame him, either.
“Of course I will,” answered the sky-blue- pink fairy.
So she took up a stone, and hammered three times on the outside of that tree, and all at once a little door opened in the bark, and Johnnie could come out as nicely as you please. And when he saw the beautiful fairy he thanked her six times, he was so glad.
“Why!” he cried, “you must be the fairy who colored Sammie Littletail, the day he fell in the dye for the Easter Eggs.”
“I am,” she said with a smile. “But run along home now, Johnnie, before that bad fox comes back, and never again say you don't believe in fairies.”
“I'll not,” he replied, and he never did. Then the fairy turned into pussy cat and ran away, and when the woodpecker and some of his friends came back to try to get Johnnie out, there wasn't anything for them to do, for which they were very glad. But a little while after this that bad fox came back to get the little boy squirrel, and what happened then I'll tell you to-morrow night, if you don't tumble out of bed.
XXVI
SALLIE AND THE BAD FOX
SISTER SALLIE was very glad when Johnnie came back home with the acorns, but she felt sorry that he had had so much trouble in getting them, and had been in such danger.
“Oh, but it was all right when the sky- blue-pink fairy came and let me out,” he explained. “I'd like to punish that bad fox, though,” he went on, and he snapped his teeth.
“So would I,” spoke Billie, when he heard his brother tell about being shut in the tree.
“Oh, don't go near him!” exclaimed Sister Sallie. “I would be afraid to speak to him, even,” and then Sister Sallie said, “Oh. dear!”
“What's the matter?” asked Billie.
“Oh, dear!” cried Sister Sallie again. “I just wish I could see a fairy some day. Of course, I know that when you want to see one you never do, never, never, but I can't help wishing all the same. You've seen one, Billie, and so has Johnnie, and so did Sammie and Susie Littletail, and Uncle Wiggily Longears, and I never have.”
“You saw the fairy prince who was at Alice and Lulu Wibblewobble's party,” said Johnnie.
“Oh, well, so did every one else. That doesn't count. I want to see a fairy all by my own self,” and then she exclaimed, “Oh, dear!” again, and just as she did, there sounded, up in the air, the blast of a silver trumpet blowing “Ta-ra-ta-ra-ta-ra!”
“What was that?” cried Johnnie.
“It sounded like the horn that blew when the fairy prince came,” answered Billie.
But though they looked up, and though they looked down, they couldn't see anything. But, nevertheless, something happened, or, rather, was soon going to happen, even if they couldn't see anything. You know, I told you something always took place when any one said, “Oh, dear!” three times, in the right way. Well, Sister Sallie had said it.
Pretty soon Mamma Bushytail called to the squirrel children: “Come, my dears, I want you to run over to Grandpa Lightfoot's house with some pudding I have made for him. And you may stay a while and play with Jennie Chipmunk.”
Then they all laughed, they felt so happy, and in a little while they set off through the woods to visit their Grandpa and Grandma Lightfoot. They had a nice time playing with Jennie Chipmunk, the little orphan, who washed the dishes, and smiled so you could see her nice, white teeth. After they had eaten some hickory-nut cake, Johnnie and Billie and Sister Sallie started for home. And, would you believe it? on the way Sister Sallie got lost. The first thing she knew she was all alone, and Billie and Johnnie had gone on ahead. Well, she tried not to be frightened, but she was, just the same, and pretty soon she came to a big hollow tree, and she heard a funny noise. Then out from behind a bush came a funny animal. He was all covered over with leaves.
“Who are you?” the animal asked Sister Sallie. So she told him, and said she was lost, and she asked him who he was. “Oh, I am a fairy,” said the odd creature, and Sister Sallie felt so happy she laughed, even if she was lost.
“Oh, how nice!” cried Sister Sallie. “And will you give me three wishes, fairy, like Susie Littletail had?”
“To be sure I will,” answered the animal all covered with leaves. And now, what do you think? It wasn't a fairy at all, but the bad fox, who had pasted leaves all over himself so as to fool Sister Sallie. But she didn't know that until later.
“May I wish now?” asked the little girl squirrel.
“No, you must first get inside this hollow tree,” spoke the fox, and if he didn't point to the same tree in which he had shut up poor Johnnie Bushytail. “You must get inside this tree, and then you can have as many wishes as you like,” he said.
So Sister Sallie, never thinking anything wrong, got inside the tree, and, no sooner was she there, than that bad fox closed the door on her, and he smacked his lips, and he thought what a good meal he would have. But just then, as true as I'm telling you, if along didn't
come the little green fairy man who once saved Billie Bushytail from the hawk. And he was real angry at that fox for pulling off so many leaves from the trees, to stick on himself to fool Sister Sallie.
“What have you in that hollow tree?” asked the green fairy man very sternly.
“If you please,” replied the fox trembling, for he knew he couldn't deceive the fairy, “I have my dinner in there.”
Then the fairy knew everything, and he decided to play a trick on that fox. So he put a magic spell on him, and made him keep quiet, and then the fairy called out to Sister Sallie, who was shut up in the tree: “Make a wish, my dear,” and Sister Sallie wished for a ring with a blue stone in, like Susie Littletail had, and in an instant if it wasn't on her little paw. Then she wished for a gold bracelet, and got that, and when she was going to make the third wish the green fairy said:
“This third wish I give to thee,
Wish that you were out of that tree.”
Then Sister Sallie did so, for she felt that something was wrong, and in an instant the tree opened, and she could come out. And it's a good thing she wished that, for if she hadn't she would have had to stay there for ever so long, until the sky-blue-pink fairy came, for the green fairy wouldn't have had any power over the tree after Sister Sallie had made her third wish. So everything turned out all right, and to punish that bad fox the green fairy turned him into mosquito that never could bite any one, and the biteless mosquito flew away, buzzing as hard as he could buzz. Then the green fairy showed Sister Sallie the way home, and she reached it safely. Now to-morrow night, if the ceiling doesn't fall down, I'll tell you about Jennie Chipmunk and the fairy dishes.
XXVII
JENNIE CHIPMUNK AND THE FAIRY DISHES
DID you ever have a lot of company come to your house? I suppose you have; uncles and aunts and cousins and brothers-in-law and all sorts of relations. Well, when they come, and have had dinner or supper or whatever it is, aren't there a lot of dishes to wash and dry? Oh, ever so many.
Johnnie and Billie Bushytail Page 7