Thornton W. Burgess - Mother West Wind Where Stories
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Thornton W. Burgess >> Mother West Wind Where Stories
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MOTHER WEST WIND "WHERE" STORIES
by
THORNTON W. BURGESS
Illustrations by Harrison Cady
[Illustration: "Then there was a crash, and everybody's eyes flew open."
FRONTISPIECE. _See Page 243._]
Burgess Trade Quaddies Mark
Grosset & Dunlap
Publishers New York
By arrangement with Little, Brown, and Company
Copyright, 1918,
by Thornton W. Burgess.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. WHERE GRANDFATHER FROG GOT
HIS BIG MOUTH 1
II. WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT
FIRST SET UP SHOP 17
III. WHERE YAP-YAP THE PRAIRIE DOG
USED HIS WITS 31
IV. WHERE YELLOW-WING GOT HIS
LIKING FOR THE GROUND 47
V. WHERE LITTLE CHIEF LEARNED TO MAKE HAY 61
VI. WHERE GLUTTON THE WOLVERINE GOT HIS NAME 77
VII. WHERE OLD MRS. 'GATOR MADE
THE FIRST INCUBATOR 91
VIII. WHERE MR. QUACK GOT HIS
WEBBED FEET 107
IX. WHERE THUNDERFOOT THE BISON
GOT HIS HUMP 123
X. WHERE LIMBERHEELS GOT HIS
LONG TAIL 139
XI. WHERE OLD MR. GOBBLER GOT THE
STRUTTING HABIT 155
XII. WHERE SEEK-SEEK GOT HIS
PRETTY COAT 169
XIII. WHERE OLD MR. OSPREY LEARNED
TO FISH 185
XIV. WHERE OLD MR. BOB-CAT LEFT HIS
HONOR 199
XV. WHERE DIPPY THE LOON GOT THE
NAME OF BEING CRAZY 213
XVI. WHERE BIG-HORN GOT HIS CURVED
HORNS 229
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
"THEN THERE WAS A CRASH, AND EVERYBODY'S
EYES FLEW OPEN" _FRONTISPIECE_
"LITTLE CHIEF'S FATHER TAUGHT HIM HOW
TO MAKE HAY" 74
PETER NOTICED THOSE FEET THE FIRST TIME
HE MET MR. AND MRS. QUACK 122
"DON'T CALL ME STRIPED CHIPMUNK, AND
DON'T CALL ME GOPHER!" SAID HE 170
MOTHER WEST WIND "WHERE" STORIES
I
WHERE GRANDFATHER FROG GOT HIS BIG MOUTH
Everybody knows that Grandfather Frog has a big mouth. Of course! It
wouldn't be possible to look him straight in the face and not know that
he has a big mouth. In fact, about all you see when you look Grandfather
Frog full in the face are his great big mouth and two great big goggly
eyes. He seems then to be all mouth and eyes.
Anyway, that is what Peter Rabbit says. Peter never will forget the
first time he saw Grandfather Frog. Peter was very young then. He had
run away from home to see the Great World, and in the course of his
wanderings he came to the Smiling Pool. Never before had he seen so much
water. The most water he had ever seen before was a little puddle in the
Lone Little Path. So when Peter, who was only half grown then, hopped
out on the bank of the Smiling Pool and saw it dimpling and smiling in
the sunshine, he thought it the most wonderful thing he ever had seen.
The truth is that in those days Peter was in the habit of thinking
everything he saw for the first time the most wonderful thing yet, and
as he was continually seeing new things, and as his eyes always nearly
popped out of his head whenever he saw something new, it is a wonder
that he didn't become pop-eyed.
Peter stared and stared at the Smiling Pool, and little by little he
began to see other things. First he noticed the bulrushes growing with
their feet in the water. They looked to him like giant grass, and he
began to be a little fearful lest this should prove to be a sort of
magic place--a place of giants. Then he noticed the lily-pads, and he
stared very hard at these. They looked like growing things, and yet they
seemed to be floating right on top of the water. It wasn't until a Merry
Little Breeze came along and turned the edge of one up so that Peter saw
the long stem running down in the water out of sight, that he was able
to understand how those lily-pads could be growing there. He was still
staring at those lily-pads when a great deep voice said:
"Chug-a-rum! Chug-a-rum! Don't you know it isn't polite to stare at
people?"
That voice was so unexpected and so deep that Peter was startled. He
jumped, started to run, then stopped. He wanted to run, but curiosity
wouldn't let him. He simply couldn't run away until he had found out
where that voice came from and to whom it belonged. It seemed to Peter
that it had come from right out of the Smiling Pool, but look as he
would, he couldn't see any one there.
"If you please," said Peter timidly, "I'm not staring at anybody." All
the time he was staring down into the Smiling Pool with eyes fairly
popping out of his head.
"Chug-a-rum! Have a care, young fellow! Have a care how you talk to your
elders. Do you mean to be impudent enough to tell me to my face that I
am not anybody?" The voice was deeper and gruffer than ever, and it made
Peter more uncomfortable than ever.
"Oh, no, Sir! No, indeed!" exclaimed Peter. "I don't mean anything of
the kind. I--I--well, if you please, Sir, I don't see you at all, so how
can I be staring at you? I'm sure from the sound of your voice that you
must be somebody very important. Please excuse me for seeming to stare.
I was just looking for you, that is all."
A little movement in the water close to a big green lily-pad caught
Peter's eyes, and then out on the big green lily-pad climbed Grandfather
Frog. If Peter had stared before he doubly stared now, eyes and mouth
wide open. Grandfather Frog was looking his very best in his handsome
green coat and white-and-yellow waistcoat. But Peter had hardly noticed
these at all.
"Why, you're all mouth!" he exclaimed, and then looked very much ashamed
of his impoliteness.
Grandfather Frog's great goggly eyes twinkled. He knew that Peter was
very young and innocent and just starting out in the Great World. He
knew that Peter didn't intend to be impolite.
"Not quite," said he good-naturedly. "Not quite all mouth, though I must
admit that it is of good size. The fact is, I wouldn't have it a bit
smaller if I could. If it were any smaller, I should miss many a good
meal, and if I were forced to do that, I am afraid I should be very
ill-tempered indeed. The truth is, I am very proud of my big mouth. I
don't know of any one who has a bigger one for their size."
He opened his mouth wide, and it seemed to Peter that Grandfather
Frog's whole head simply split in halves. He hadn't supposed anybody in
all the Great World possessed such a mouth.
"Where did you get it?" gasped Peter, and then felt that he had asked a
very foolish question.
Grandfather Frog chuckled. "I got it from my father, and he got his from
his father, and so on, way back to the days when the world was young and
the Frogs ruled the world," said he. "Would you like to hear about it?"
"I'd love to!" cried Peter. So he settled himself comfortably on the
bank of the Smiling Pool for the first of many, many stories he was to
hear from Grandfather Frog.
"Chug-a-rum!" began Grandfather Frog. You know he always begins a story
that way. "Chug-a-rum! Once upon a time the Great World was mostly
water, and most of the people lived in the water. It was in those days
that my great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather lived. Those were happy
days for the Frogs. Yes, indeed, those were happy days for the Frogs. Of
course they had enemies, but those enemies were all in the water. They
didn't have to be watching out for danger from the air and from the
land, as I do now. There was plenty to eat and little to do, and the
Frog tribe increased very fast. In fact, the Frogs increased so fast
that after a while there wasn't plenty to eat. That is, there wasn't
plenty of the kind of food they had been used to, which was mostly water
plants, and water bugs and such things.
"Of course there were many fish, and these also increased very fast,
and the big fish ate the Frogs whenever they could catch them, just as
they do to this day. The big fish also ate the little fish, and it
wasn't long before the Frogs and the little fish took to living where
the water was not deep enough for the big fish to swim, and this made it
all the harder to get enough to eat. The mouths of the Frogs in those
days were not big. In fact, they were quite small. You see, living on
the kind of food they did, they had no need of big mouths.
"One day as a Great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather Frog sat with just
his head out of water, wondering what it would seem like to have his
stomach really filled, a school of little fish came swimming about him,
and it popped into his head that if little fish were good for big fish
to eat, they might be good for a Frog to eat. So he caught the first
one that came within reach, and he found it was good to eat. He liked it
so well that after that he caught fish whenever he could. Of course he
swallowed them whole. He had to, because he had no chewing or biting
teeth.
"Now the Frogs always have been famous for their appetites, and
Great-grandfather Frog found that it took a great many of these teeny
weeny fish to make a comfortable meal. He was thinking of this one day
when a larger fish came within reach, and almost without realizing what
he was doing Great-grandfather snapped at and caught him. He caught the
fish by the tail and at once began to swallow it, which, of course, was
no way to swallow a fish. But Great-grandfather Frog had much to learn
in those day, and so he tried to swallow that fish tail first instead
of head first. He got the tail down and the smallest part of the body,
and then that fish stuck. Yes, Sir, that fish stuck. The fact was,
Great-grandfather Frog's mouth wasn't wide enough. It was bad enough not
to be able to swallow all of that fish, but what was worse was the
discovery that he couldn't get up again what he had swallowed. That fish
was stuck! It would go neither down nor up.
"Poor Great-grandfather Frog was in a terrible fix. Big tears rolled
down his cheeks. He choked and choked and choked, until it looked very
much as if he might choke to death. Just in time, in the very nick of
time, who should come along but Old Mother Nature. She saw right away
what the trouble was, and she pulled out the fish. Then she asked how
that fish had happened to be in such a place as Great-grandfather Frog's
mouth. When he could get his breath, he told her all about it--how food
had been getting scarce and how he had discovered that fish were good to
eat, and how he had make a mistake in catching a fish too big for his
mouth. Old Mother Nature looked thoughtful. She saw the great numbers of
young fish. Suddenly she reached over and put a finger in
Great-grandfather Frog's mouth and stretched it sideways. Then she did
the same thing to the other corner. Great-grandfather Frog's mouth was
three times as big as it had been before.
"'Now,' said she, 'I don't believe you'll have any more trouble, and I'm
going to do the same thing for all the other Frogs.'
"She did that very day, and from then on the Frogs no longer had any
trouble in getting plenty to eat. So that is where I got my big mouth,
and I tell you right now I wouldn't trade it for anything anybody else
has got," concluded Grandfather Frog, as he snapped up a foolish green
fly who came too near.
"I think it is splendid, perfectly splendid," cried Peter. "I wish I had
one just like it." And then he wondered why Grandfather Frog laughed so
hard.
II
WHERE MISER THE TRADE RAT FIRST SET UP SHOP
It was quite by accident that Peter Rabbit first heard of Miser the
Trade Rat. You know how it is with Peter; he is forever using those big
ears of his to learn interesting things. That is what ears are for; but
there is a right way and a wrong way to use them, and I am afraid that
Peter isn't always over-particular in this respect. I suspect, in fact I
know, that Peter sometimes listens when he has no business to listen and
knows he has no business to listen. Again he sometimes overhears things
quite by accident when he cannot very well help hearing. It was in this
way that he first heard of Miser the Trade Rat.
Peter had crept into a hollow log in the Green Forest to rest and to
feel absolutely safe while he was doing it. He had been there only a
little while when he heard light footsteps outside and a moment later a
voice which made him shiver a little in spite of himself and the
knowledge that he was perfectly safe. The footsteps and the voice were
Old Man Coyote's.
Very carefully Peter peeped out. Old Man Coyote had sat down close by
the log in which Peter was hiding. On a dead tree close at hand sat Ol'
Mistah Buzzard, who had come up from way down south for the summer, and
it was to him that Old Man Coyote was talking.
"I was over by Farmer Brown's barn last night," said Old Man Coyote,
"and I caught a glimpse of Robber the Brown Eat. What a disgrace he is
to the whole Rat tribe! For that matter, he is a disgrace to all who
live on the Green Meadows and in the Green Forest. He isn't much like
his cousin, Miser the Trade Rat."
"Mah goodness! Do yo' know Miser?" exclaimed Ol' Mistah Buzzard.
"Do I know Miser? I should say I do!" replied Old Man Coyote. "I've
tried to catch him enough times to know him. He kept a junk shop very
near where I used to live way out west. Do you know him, Mr. Buzzard?"
"Ah cert'nly does," chuckled Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Ah cert'nly does. Ah
never did see such a busy fellow as he is. Ah done see his junk shop
many times, and always it done be growin' bigger. Ah wonders, Brer Coyote,
if yo' ever heard the story of his Great-great-ever-so-great-gran'-daddy,
the first of the family, and how and where he started the business that's
been kept in the family ever since."
"No," said Old Man Coyote, "I never did, and I've wondered about it a
great deal."
Peter Rabbit almost forgot that he was hiding. He was so eager to hear
that story that he was right on the point of speaking up and begging Ol'
Mistah Buzzard to tell it when he remembered Old Man Coyote. Just in the
nick of time he clapped a hand over his mouth. It seemed to Peter a
long, long time before Old Man Coyote said:
"I'd like to hear that story, Mr. Buzzard, if it isn't too much to ask
of you."
"Not at all, Brer Coyote; not at all. Ah'll be mor'n pleased to tell it
to yo'. Ah cert'nly will," said Ol' Mistah Buzzard, and Peter settled
himself comfortably to listen.
"Yo' see it was this way," began Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Ah got it from mah
gran'daddy, and he got it from his gran'daddy, and his gran'daddy got it
from--"
"I know," interrupted Old Man Coyote. "It was handed down from your
greatest-great-grandfather, who lived in the days when the world was
young and what you are going to tell me about happened. Isn't that it?"
"Yes, Suh," replied Ol' Mistah Buzzard. "Yes, Suh, that's it. Ol' Mother
Nature treat 'em all alike in those days. She's a right smart busy
person, and she ain't got no time fo' to answer foolish questions. No,
Suh, she ain't. So, quick as she get a new kind of critter made, she
turn him loose and tell him if he want to live he got to be right smart
and find out for hisself how to do it. Ah reckons yo' know all about
that, Brer Coyote."
Old Man Coyote nodded, and Ol' Mistah Buzzard scratched his bald head
gently as if trying to stir up his memory. Peter Rabbit almost squealed
aloud in his impatience while he waited for Ol' Mistah Buzzard to go on.
"When Ol' Mother Nature made Brer Trade Rat in the beginning and turned
him loose in the Great World, he was just plain Mistah Rat and nothing
more, same as his no 'count cousin, Robber the Brown Rat," continued Ol'
Mistah Buzzard. "He had to win a name for hisself same as ev'ybody else.
He had mighty sharp wits, had this Mistah Rat, and directly he found he
had to shift for hisself he began to study and study and study what he
gwine to do to live well and be happy. He watched his neighbors to see
what they did, and it didn't take him long to find out that if he would
be respected he must have a home. Those without homes were mostly no
'count folks, same as they are today.
"So Brer Rat made a nest close to the trunk of a tree on the edge of the
Green Forest, a soft, warm nest, and in collectin' the stuff to make it
of he learned the joy of bein' busy. Person'ly, yo' understand, Ah
thinks he was all wrong. Ah never am so happy as when Ah can take a
sun-bath with nothin' to do. But Brer Rat was never so happy as when he
was busy, and when he got that li'l nest finished time began to hang
heavy on his hands. Yes, Suh, it cert'nly did. Just because he didn't
have anything else to do he began to add a little more to his house. One
day he stepped on a thorn. 'Ouch!' cried Brer Rat, and then right away
forgot the pain in a new idea. He would cover his house with thorns,
leavin' just a little secret entrance for hisself! Then he would be
safe, wholly safe from his big neighbors, some of whom had begun to look
at him with such a hungry look in their eyes that they made him right
smart uncomfortable. So he spent his time, did Brer Rat, in huntin' for
the longest and sharpest thorns and in cuttin' the branches on which
they grew. These he carried to his house and piled them around it and on
it until it had become a great pile with sharp thorns stickin' out in
every direction, and the hungriest of the big people of the forest
passed it at a respectful distance.
"When Brer Rat had all the thorns he needed and more, he began to
collect other things and added these to his pile. Yo' see, he had found
that it was great fun to collect things; to find the queerest things he
could and bring them home and look at them and wonder about them. So
little by little his house became a sort of junk shop, the very first
one in all the Great World. Bright stones and shells, bones, anything
that caught his bright eyes and pleased them, he brought home. When he
was tired of huntin' fo' food or more strange things he would sit and
gloat over his treasures and play with them. And then the first thing he
knew he had a name. Yes, Suh, he had a name. He was called Miser.
"Of course Brer Miser hadn't lived ve'y long befo' he found out that
one law of the Great World was that things belonged to whoever could get
them and keep them. He saw that some thought themselves ve'y smart when
they stole from their neighbors. Brer Miser didn't like this at all. He
was ve'y, ye'y honest, was Brer Miser. Perhaps he wasn't really much
tempted, not fo' a long time anyway.
"But at last came a time when he was tempted. Quite by accident he found
one of Mr. Squirrel's storehouses. In it were some nuts different from
any he ever had seen befo'. 'Brer Squirrel won't mind if Ah taste just
one,' said he, and did it. It tasted good; it tasted ve'y good indeed.
Brer Miser began to wish he had some nuts like those. When he got home
he couldn't think of anything but how good those nuts tasted. He knew
that all he had to do was to watch until Brer Squirrel was away and
then go he'p hisself. He knew that was just what any of his neighbors
would do in his place. But Brer Miser couldn't make it seem just right
any way he looked at it. He was too honest, was Brer Miser, to do
anything like that.
"He was sitting staring at his treasures but thinking about those nuts
when an idea popped into his head, an idea that made him smile until Ah
reckons he most split his cheeks. 'Ah knows what Ah'll do,' said he.
'Ah'll just he'p mahself to some of those nuts and Ah'll leave something
of mine in place of them. That's what Ah'll do.'
"And that's what he did do. He picked out a bright shell of which he was
very fond and he left it in Brer Squirrel's storehouse to pay fo' the
nuts that he took. After that he always helped himself to anything he
wanted, but he always left something to pay fo' it. It wasn't long befo'
his neighbors found out what he was doing, and then they called him
Miser the Trade Rat. Whenever anybody found something he didn't want
hisself, he took it to the little junk shop of Miser the Trade Rat and
traded it fo' something else, or left it where Miser would find it,
knowing that Miser would leave something in its place.
"And it's been just so with Miser's family ever since. There is one Rat
who is a credit to his family instead of a disgrace," concluded Ol'
Mistah Buzzard.
III
WHERE YAP-YAP THE PRAIRIE DOG USED HIS WITS
Peter Rabbit had just had a great fright. He is used to having great
frights, but this time it was a different kind of a fright. It was not
for himself that he had been afraid but for one of his old friends and
neighbors. Now that it was over, Peter drew a little breath of sheer
relief.
You see it was this way: Peter had started over for a call on Johnny
Chuck. When he reached Johnny Chuck's house he found no one at home. At
first he thought he would go look for Johnny, for he knew that Johnny
must be somewhere near, as he never goes far from his own doorstep. Then
he changed his mind and decided to wait for Johnny to return. So he
stretched himself out in some tall grass beside Johnny Chuck's house,
intending to jump out and give Johnny a scare when he came home. Hardly
had he settled himself when he heard Johnny coming, and he knew by the
sounds that Johnny was running from some danger.
Very, very carefully Peter raised his head to see. Then he ducked it
again and held his breath. Johnny Chuck was running as Peter never had
seen him run before and with very good reason. Just a few jumps behind
Johnny's twinkling little black heels was Old Man Coyote. It looked to
Peter as if Old Man Coyote certainly would catch Johnny Chuck this time.
He was so frightened for Johnny that he quite forgot that he himself
might be in danger. Head first through his doorway plunged Johnny, and
Old Man Coyote's teeth snapped together on nothing.
Old Man Coyote backed away a few steps and sat down with his head on one
side as he studied Johnny Chuck's house in the ground. It was plain to
be seen that he was trying to make up his mind whether it would be worth
while to try to dig Johnny out. Presently Johnny came half-way up his
long hall where he could look out. Then he began to scold Old Man
Coyote. Old Man Coyote grinned.
"I give up, Johnny Chuck," said he. "You did well when you made your
home between the roots of this old tree. If it wasn't for those roots,
I certainly would dig you out. As it is you are safe. You remind me very
much of your cousin, Yap-Yap the Prairie Dog, who lives out where I came
from. There's a fellow who certainly knows how to make a house in the
ground. He doesn't have to depend on the roots of trees to keep from
being dug out. Well, I guess it is a waste of time to hang around here.
You'll make just as good a dinner some other time as you would now, so
I'll wait until then." Old Man Coyote grinned wickedly and trotted off.
Now at the mention of Yap-Yap the Prairie Dog, the long ears of Peter
Rabbit had pricked up at once. It was the first time he had heard of
Yap-Yap, and when at last Johnny Chuck ventured out Peter was as full of
questions as a pea-pod is of peas. But Johnny Chuck knew nothing about
his cousin, Yap-Yap, and wasn't even interested in him. So finally Peter
left him and went back home to the dear Old Briar-patch. But he couldn't
get Yap-Yap out of his mind, and he resolved that the first chance he
got he would ask Old Man Coyote about him. The chance came that very
night. Old Man Coyote came along by the dear Old Briar-patch and stopped
to peer in and grin at Peter. Peter grinned back, for he knew that under
those friendly brambles he was quite safe.
"I heard what you said to Johnny Chuck about his cousin, Yap-Yap," said
Peter.
Old Man Coyote looked as surprised as he felt. "Where were you?" he
demanded gruffly.
"Lying flat in the grass close by Johnny Chuck's house," replied Peter,
and grinned more broadly than ever.
"And to think I didn't know it!" sighed Old Man Coyote. "When I failed
to catch Johnny Chuck, I thought I had missed only one dinner, but it
seems I missed two. Next time I shall look around a little more sharply.
Do you know, the sight of Johnny Chuck always makes me homesick, he
reminds me so much of his cousin, Yap-Yap, and the days when I was
young."
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