The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book (Annotated)

Aug 14, Linden rated it really liked it. Found this in an elementary school reading log. No memory of it, but the title's tugging at me like it was something I enjoyed.

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It might be worth revisiting! From the first illustration it began tugging at my memory and the story of the menagerie was quite familiar. It's so interesting to read again as an adult! The dialect seems quite ordinary to me at this point in the book, but I do find the gender roles quite old-fashioned. Instead of feeling Found this in an elementary school reading log. Instead of feeling put out, though, it was interesting to read such gentle discussion of handling spats between friends and sadness at heartbreak in a male-oriented story. It provides a subtle counter to the idea that men shouldn't ever feel sad.

This was my favorite book when I was a little girl. Esthy rated it it was amazing May 17, Boo rated it it was amazing Oct 19, Estott rated it really liked it Jul 06, Terese Neudecker Ebnet rated it it was amazing Feb 18, Katherine rated it it was amazing Jul 02, Gregory rated it it was amazing Sep 23, Matt Digby rated it it was amazing Nov 29, Isaac D'Souza rated it liked it Feb 11, April Whitt rated it it was amazing Aug 12, Edward Young rated it it was amazing Jan 13, Allan added it Sep 23, Monica marked it as to-read Jul 10, Richard R marked it as to-read Nov 22, Sue-Leigh marked it as to-read Feb 07, Dog had brought a lot of good things, too, which he had borrowed from Mr.

Man's house, so they had the finest Christmas dinner that you can think of, and plenty for the next day when it would be even better, because chicken and turkey and dressing and such things are always better the next day, and even the third day, with gravy, than they are when they are first cooked.

Then, when they were all through and were standing around, smoking their new pipes and looking at each other's [Pg 24] new neckties and other Christmas things, Mr. Crow said that he and Mr. Squirrel would clear off the table if the others would get in some wood and stir up the fire and set the room to rights, so they could gather round and be comfortable by-and-by; and then, he said, it might snow as much as it liked as long as they had plenty of wood and things to eat inside. So then they all skurried around getting on their things to go out after wood—all except Mr.

Squirrel, who set about clearing off the table and doing up the dishes. And pretty soon Mr. Coon and the rest were hopping about where the snow was falling so soft and silent among the big, leafless trees, gathering nice pieces of wood and [Pg 25] brushing the snow off of them and piling them into the first down-stairs of the Hollow Tree, which the 'Coon and 'Possum and Old Black Crow use for their wood-house and general store-room.

It was great fun, and they didn't feel the least bit cold after their warm dinner and with all that brisk exercise. Robin didn't help carry the wood in. He was hardly strong enough for that, but he hopped about and looked for good pieces, and when he found one he would call to Mr. Robin likes to say pleasant things to his friends, and is always popular. And each one tried to carry the biggest load of wood to show how strong he was, and pretty soon they had the lower room of the Hollow Tree piled up high with the finest chunks and kindling pieces to be found anywhere. Then they all hurried up-stairs, stamping the snow off their feet, and gathered around the nice warm fire in the big parlor which was just below the three big hollow branches where the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow had their rooms.

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Squirrel were through with the table by this time, and all hands lit their pipes, and looked into the fire, and smoked, and rested, and thought a little before they began talking—thinking, of course, of what a good time they were having, and how comfortable and nice it was to be inside and warm when such a big snow was falling outside. He said he had been thinking of what Mr. Robin had said about them being outside of a menagerie, and that, come to think about it, he believed he didn't know what a menagerie was, unless it was a new name for a big dinner, as that was the only thing [Pg 27] he could think of now that they were outside of, and he said if that was so, and if he could get outside of two menageries, he thought he could carry in a bigger chunk than any two chunks there were down-stairs.

Then all the others laughed a good deal, and Mr. Robin said that it didn't mean either of those things. He said he didn't really know what it did mean himself, but that it must be some kind of a place that had a great many large creatures in it, for he had heard his grandmother quite often call his grandfather the biggest goose outside of a menagerie, though, being very young then, Mr.

Robin couldn't remember just what she had meant by it. Rabbit said he thought that the word "menagerie" sounded like some kind of a picnic, with swings and nice lively games, and Mr. Crow said that once when he was flying he passed over a place where there was a big sign that said Menagerie on it, and that there were some tents and a crowd of people and a great noise, but that he hadn't seen anything that he could carry off without being noticed, so he didn't stop.

Squirrel thought that from what Mr. Crow said it [Pg 28] must be a place where there would be a lot of fine things to see, and Mr. Turtle said that he was a good deal over three hundred years old and had often heard of a menagerie, but that he had never seen one. He said he had always supposed that it was a nice pond of clear water, with a lot of happy turtles and fish and wild geese and duck and such things in it, and maybe some animals around it, all living happily together, and taken care of by Mr.

Man, who brought them a great many good things to eat. He had always thought he would like to live in a menagerie, he said, but that nobody had ever invited him, and he had never happened to come across one in his travels. Dog hadn't been saying anything all this time, but he knocked the ashes out of his pipe now, and filled it up fresh and lit it, and cleared his throat, and began to talk.

It made him smile, he said, to hear the different ways people thought of a thing they had never seen. He said that Mr. Turtle was the only one who came anywhere near to what a menagerie really was, though of course Mr. Crow had seen one on the outside. I went once with Mr. Man, though I wasn't really invited to go. Man invited me to stay at home, and tried to slip off from me; but I watched which way he went, and took long roundin's [Pg 29] on him, and slipped in behind him when he went into the tent.

He didn't know for a while that I was there, and I wasn't there so very long. But it was plenty long enough—a good deal longer than I'd ever stay again, unless I was tied. They had a lot of cages full of them and they had some outside of cages, though I don't know why they should leave any of those [Pg 30] dangerous animals around where they could damage folks that happened to come in reach, as I did. Those animals outside didn't look as wild and fierce as those in the cages, but they were. Man at first, and nobody knew I was there, but by-and-by he climbed up into a seat to watch some people all dressed up in fancy clothes ride around a ring on horses, which I didn't care much about, so I slipped away, and went over to where there were some things that I wanted to take my time to see quietly.

He wasn't the least bit tame, and I'm sure now that he wasn't smiling. He grabbed me before I had a chance to say a word, and when I jerked loose, which I did right away, for I didn't want to stir up any fuss there, I left quite a piece of my ear with the tame hyena, and tripped backward over the rope and rolled right in front of a creature called an elephant, about as big as a house and not as useful.

Man, where he sat looking at the fancy people riding, and told him that I had had enough of the show, and if he wanted to take any of me home, he ought not to wait very long, but come over that way and see if he couldn't get the tame elephant to practise that performance on the hyena or the next dog, because I had had plenty, and was willing to go home just as I was, all in one piece, even if not very lively.

Man came , too, and so did a lot of the others. They [Pg 33] seemed to think that I was more to look at than those riding people; and some of them laughed, though what there was happening that was funny I have never been able to guess to this day. I kept right on telling Mr. Man what I wanted him to do, and mebbe I made a good deal of noise about it, for it seemed to stir up those other animals. There was a cage full of lions that started the most awful roaring you can think of, and a cage of crazy-looking things they called monkeys that screeched and howled and swung back and forth in rings and held on to the bars, and all the other things joined in, until I couldn't tell whether I was still saying anything or not.

I suppose they were all jealous of the elephant because of the fun he was having, and howling to be let out so they could get hold of me too. It nearly broke up the show. Everybody ran over to look, and even the riding people stopped their horses to enjoy it, too. If it only hadn't been so dangerous and unpleasant I should have been proud of the way they came to see me perform.

Man didn't seem to like it much. I heard him tell somebody, as loud as he could, that I would be killed, and that I was the best dog he ever had, and that if I was killed he'd sue the show. Man could get over there.

Man did get hold of me, he said that I'd better take what was left of me home, for they were going to feed the animals pretty soon, and that I would likely get mixed up with the bill of fare. They have just a big tent, like the one Mr. Crow saw, and a lot of cages inside. They keep most of the animals in cages, and they ought to keep them all there, and I don't think they feed them [Pg 35] very much, nor the best things, or they wouldn't look so fierce and hungry.

Man and his friends to look at and talk about, and if Mr. Turtle will take my advice he will keep out of a menagerie and live in the Wide Blue Water where he was born. I wouldn't have gone there again unless I had been tied and dragged there, or unless they had put those tame animals into cages with the others.

No doubt there are some very fine, strong animals in a menagerie, but they wouldn't be there if they could help it, and if anybody ever invites any [Pg 36] of you to join a menagerie, take my advice and don't do it. Dog knocked the ashes out of his pipe again, and all the other Deep Woods People knocked the ashes out of their pipes, too, and filled them up fresh, and one said one thing, and one said another about being in a menagerie or out of it, and every one thought it would be a terrible thing to be shut up in a cage, except Mr.

The Story Teller looked down at the quiet figure in his lap. The Little Lady's head was nestled close to his shoulder, and her eyes were [Pg 38] straining very hard to keep open. Dog had just told about being at the menagerie, you know, and Mr. Robin and Jack Rabbit and Mr. Squirrel—knocked the ashes out of their pipes and filled them up fresh—". Well, anyway, as soon as they got to smoking and settled back around the fire again Mr. Man's chickens roosted, when all at once he heard a fierce bark close behind him, and he barely had time to get up a tree himself when a strange and very noisy Mr.

Dog was leaping about at the foot of the tree, making a great fuss, and calling every moment for Mr. Man to hurry, for he had a young 'coon treed. Man would most likely have a gun, so I got into a bunch of leaves and brush that must have been some kind of an old nest and scrooched down so that none of me would show. Man with a long gun, and I noticed that he wore a thing on his head—a sort of hat, I suppose—made of what looked to be the skin of some relative of mine.

I hadn't cared so much until I saw that; but I said right then to myself that any one who would do such a thing as that never could be a friend of mine, no matter how much he tried. So I scrooched down and laid low in that old nest, and didn't move or let on in any way that I was there. Man walking around the tree and talking to his dog and telling him that there wasn't anything up in that tree at all, and that Mr. Dog had just been fooling him. I could tell by his voice that he was getting mad at Mr. Dog, and I hoped that he'd get mad enough pretty soon to take a stick to him for chasing me up a tree like that, and then calling for Mr.

Man to come and see me when there wasn't really anything to look at. Dog kept galloping around the tree and barking out, over and over, that I was there; that he had seen me, and that he knew that I was hiding up there somewhere; and pretty soon I heard Mr. Man going away, and I peeked over again. Dog was staying [Pg 45] right there, sitting under the tree and looking up and making a good deal more noise than there was any need of to let me know he hadn't gone.

I didn't see why he stayed there. I wished he'd go away and tend to his own business. It was a good way to go, for the tree I had climbed was over close to the edge of the world where the sun and moon rise, and you all know that's a good way, even from here. Man, hurrying back, this time with an axe. I knew, right then, there was going to be trouble.

I knew they were going to cut that tree down, and that I should most likely have quite a fuss with Mr. Dog, and perhaps go home with a black eye and a scratched nose, and then get whipped again for fighting, after I got there. Turtle to bring a stick of wood from down-stairs, and when it was blazing up high and bright again they all stepped over to the window a minute, to see how hard it was snowing and [Pg 46] banking up outside, then went back to their chairs around the fire, and stretched out their feet and leaned back and smoked, and listened to the rest of Mr.

I wished the tree would hurry up and drop, so we could have what muss we were going to, and get it over with. I'd have got out of that old nest and made a jump for another tree if there had been any near enough, but there wasn't, so I just laid low and gritted my teeth [Pg 47] and let him chop.

THE HOLLOW TREE

It seemed to teeter a little at first, this way and that; then it went very slow in one direction; then it went a little faster; then it went a good deal faster; then I suddenly felt like a shooting-star, I came down so fast, and there was a big crash, and I thought I had turned into a lot of stars, sure enough, and was shooting in every direction, and the next I knew I was tied to a tree, hand and foot and around the middle, and Mr. Dog were sitting and looking at me, and grinning, and talking about what they were going to do.

Man wasn't scolding Mr. He was [Pg 48] telling him what a good thing it was they had caught me alive, for now they could sell me to a show and get a great deal more for me than they could for my skin. I didn't know what a show was, then, or that a show is a menagerie, but I know now, and I can see just what they meant. Dog to stay there and watch me while he went home after a box to put me in. He said he didn't think it would be safe to carry me in his arms, and he was right about that.

Man walked off, and left Mr. Dog guarding me, and saying unpleasant things to me now and then. Dog,' I said, 'I know a good story, if you'd like me to tell it. Man may be a good while getting that box, and mebbe you'd like to hear something to pass the time. Dog said he would. Man would most likely have to make the box, and he didn't suppose he knew where the hammer and nails were, and it might be dark before Mr. Dog say that, and I told him a story I knew about how Mr. Rabbit lost his tail, and Mr. Dog laughed and seemed to like it, and said, 'Tell me another. Rabbit said that of course if that old tale had helped Mr.

Then they all said that they hoped he would, for they'd always wanted to hear that story told right, and then Mr. Coon said that when Mr. Dog said, 'Tell me another,' he knew he was in a good-humor, and that he felt better and better himself. Man didn't come back too soon," he said, "I might get along pretty well with Mr. Dog,' I said—'the funniest story there is. It would make you laugh until you fell over the edge of the world, but I can't tell it here. Dog came over and untied my hands, for he said he could tie them again before Mr. Man came back, because he knew Mr.

Man hadn't found that hammer yet. And one day the Old Wise Man of the Woods told him if he would rub his chest with one hand and pat his head with the other, it might draw the pain out the top and cure him. So the man with the pain in his chest tried it, and he did it this way. Dog just how he did it, and Mr. Dog thought that was funny, and laughed a good deal. Dog, I'm so sorry, but I can't tell the rest of that story here, and it's the funniest part, too. I know you'd laugh till you rolled over the edge of the world.

Dog came over and untied my feet. He said he knew that Mr. Man hadn't found the nails or the pieces to make the box yet, and there would be plenty of time to tie me again before Mr. So then the man with the pain rubbed his back and patted his head this way,' and I showed Mr. Dog how he did it; and I rubbed a good while about where the knot was, and made a face to show [Pg 54] how the man with the pain looked, and then I said the pain came back into his chest again instead of being drawn out at the top; and I changed about and rubbed there awhile, and then I went around to my back again, chasing that pain first one side and the other; and then I said that the Old Wise Man of the Woods came along one day and told him that he must kick with his feet too if he ever wanted to get rid of that pain, because, after all, it might have to be kicked out at the bottom; and when I began to kick and dance with both feet and to rub [Pg 55] with my hands at the same time, Mr.

Dog gave a great big laugh—the biggest laugh I ever heard anybody give—and fell right down and rolled over and over, and did roll off the edge of the world, sure enough. Dog, who had lodged in a brier patch on a shelf about ten feet below the edge, where Mr. Man would have to get him up with a ladder or a rope. Man, for I didn't want to waste any more time, though I missed my supper and got a scolding besides. Man didn't get back in time with that box, or I might be in a menagerie this minute instead of sitting here smoking and telling stories and having a good time on Christmas Day.

Anybody can tell by her face that the Little Lady has some plan of her own when the Story Teller is ready next evening to "sit by the fire and spin. Rock, and tell it. So the Story Teller rocks slowly, and smokes, and almost [Pg 60] forgets the Little Lady in remembering that far-away time, and presently he begins. Dog—who wasn't friendly then, of course—try to catch him; and when Mr. Dog would get pretty close and come panting up behind him, Mr. Dog would race around under the tree and make a great to do, and sometimes Mr.

Dog would think surely he had him then, and bark and run to the place where he thought he was going to drop. Dog would remember that he was a good ways from home, and that if he wasn't there in time to help [Pg 61] Mr. Man get up the cows there might be trouble; and he would set out lickety-split for home, with Mr. But one time Mr. He didn't know it, but he was getting older and a good deal fatter than he had been at first, and when he swung out for another limb that way, and let go, he missed the limb [Pg 62] and came clattering down right in front of Mr. He wasn't hurt much, for the ground was soft, and there was a nice thick bed of leaves; but I tell you he was scared, and when Mr.

Dog jumped right on top of him, and grabbed him, he gave himself up for lost, sure enough. He knew that Mr. Dog would want to show him to Mr. Man, and that he was too heavy for Mr. He had thought about all that, and decided what to do just in that little second between the limb and the ground, for Mr. So when he struck the ground he just gave one little kick with his hind foot and a kind of a sigh, as if he was drawing his last breath, and laid there: Dog grabbed him and shook him he never let on, but acted almost deader than if he had been really dead and no mistake.

Dog stood with his paws out and his nose down close, listening, and barking once in a while, and thinking maybe he would come to pretty soon, but Mr. Dog started to drag him toward Mr. That was a hard job, and every little way Mr. Dog would stop and shake Mr. Man to come and fetch Mr. But he only went a few steps, the first time, and just as Mr. Man to come and see what he had for him.

Man was too far away, and even if he heard Mr. Dog he didn't think it worth while to come. Dog tried to get Mr. Dog would get him nearly up he would slide off again and fall all in a heap on the leaves; and Mr. Dog couldn't help believing that he was dead, to see him lying there all doubled up, just as he happened to drop.

So, then, by-and-by Mr. Dog really did start for Mr. Dog had gone, and when he had gone far enough Mr. We've had such a nice visit together!

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Don't go off mad, Mr. Come back and stay till the cows come home! Dog was mad, I tell you, and told him what he'd do next time; and he set out for home fast as he could travel, and went in the back way and hid, for Mr. Man was already getting up the cows when he got there. He found out that it was dangerous, the way he was getting, and that made [Pg 65] him think he ought to change his habits in other ways too.

For one thing, he decided he ought to have some regular place to stay where he could eat and sleep and feel at home, instead of just travelling about and putting up for the night wherever he happened to be. He [Pg 66] was an old bachelor and never wanted to be anything else, because he liked to have his own way, and go out all times of the night, and sleep late if he wanted to. So he made up his mind to look up a good place to board—some place that would be like a home to him—perhaps in a private family. One day when he was walking through the woods thinking about it, and wondering how he ought to begin to find a place like that, he met Mr.

They had often been hunting together, especially nights, for Mr. Man and some of his friends were out with Mr. Dog and his relatives and several guns looking for a good Sunday dinner. Man cut the tree down that he was in he gave a big jump as the tree was falling and landed in another tree, and then ran out on a limb and jumped to another tree that wasn't so far away, and then to another, so that Mr. Man and his friends and all the dog family lost track of him entirely.

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So when he met Mr. He had a wife until last year, and his mother-in-law used to live with them. I believe she was pretty cross, but I've heard Mr. Crow say she was a good cook, and that he had learned to cook a great many things himself. I [Pg 70] heard some time ago that she had moved over by the race-track, and perhaps Mr.

Crow is boarding with her. Let's go over and see. So away they went, saying how nice it would be to be really settled, and pretty soon they got over to Mrs. Widow Crow's, and there, sure enough, they saw Mr. Crow out in the yard cutting wood for his mother-in-law; and when they asked him about the advertisement, he said he was helping her to get started, and she had two nice rooms, and that Mr. So they went right in and saw Mrs. Widow Crow about it, and by night they had their things moved and were all settled, and Widow Crow got a nice supper for them, and Mr.

Crow helped her, and worked as hard as if he were a hired man instead of a boarder like the others, which he was, because he paid for his room as much as anybody, and got scolded besides when he didn't do things to suit his mother-in-law. Well, the Widow Crow set a very good table, and everything in her boarding-house went along quite well for a while, and Mr. Crow said so too, though he didn't look as if he enjoyed it as much as he said, for his mother-in-law kept him so busy cutting and carrying wood and helping her with the cooking that he never had any time for himself at all.

Rabbit and some of his friends had the great fall handicap race he had to stay at home and peel potatoes, and not see it, besides being scolded all the time for wanting to go to such a thing as a rabbit race anyway. Crow was sad because it reminded him of his [Pg 74] married life, which he was trying to forget—Mrs. Crow having been the image of his mother-in-law and exactly like her about races and peeling potatoes and such things. Widow Crow got so she scolded them, too, about their habits, especially about being out nights and lying in bed next morning, and she wouldn't give them any breakfast unless they got up in time.

At last she even asked them to take care of their own rooms and to do other work, the same as Mr. Crow did; and she didn't cook as good things, nor as many of them, as she did when they first came. Then one day when they complained a little—not very much, for they were afraid of the Widow Crow, but a little—she told them that if they didn't like what she gave them they could find a place they liked better, and that [Pg 75] she was tired of their ways anyhow.

Crow said they might be pretty tired of it, but that they couldn't in a hundred years, thinking night and day, think how tired of it he was. He said if they would just say the word he would take the things that belonged to him out of that house, and the three of them would find some good place and all live together, and never have anything more to do with mothers-in-law or their families. He said he knew how to cook as [Pg 76] well as she did, and really liked to cook when he was in a pleasant place and wasn't henpecked to death. And he said if they moved his things they had better do it at night while his mother-in-law was asleep, so as not to disturb her.

Coon both spoke right up and said they'd go in a minute, and that they'd hunt up the place to live that very day, though it wasn't the best time of year to move. It's the biggest tree in the Big Deep Woods. It has three big hollow branches that would do for rooms, and with a little work it could be made into the finest place anywhere. The Old Wise Man of the Woods once lived there and fixed it all up with nice stairs, and a fireplace, and windows, and doors with good latches on them, and it's still just as he left it.

All it needs are a few repairs, and we could move right in. I found it once as I was flying over, and I could tell you , so you could find it. It's in a thick swampy place, and you would never guess it was there if you didn't know it. Dog knows about it, but he never could get in if we kept the door latched, and it's not so far away from Mr. Man's that we could not borrow, when we ran out of little things we needed.

Crow, and went right off to look at the Hollow Tree that very day, and decided they'd take it, and pitched in to clean it up and get it ready to live in. And next day they came with a hammer and some nails and worked all day again, and Mr. Rabbit heard the noise and came over and looked through the place and said how nice it was; and they were so tired at night that they never thought of going out, and were up early for breakfast.

Widow Crow was so surprised she forgot what she had always scolded them for before, and scolded them this time for getting up so early that they had to stand around and wait for breakfast to be put on the table. But they didn't seem to mind the scolding at all, and Mr. Crow looked happier than he had looked for months, and skipped around and helped set the table, and brought in a big wood-box full of wood, and when Widow Crow scolded him for getting chips on the floor he laughed.

Then she boxed his ears and told him he ought to remember the poor Missing One at such a time, and Mr. Crow said he did, and could almost imagine she was there now. The Widow Crow was pretty fat, and liked to go to bed early, and sleep sound, and leave Mr. Crow to do the evening dishes; and that evening Mr. Possum [Pg 78] pitched in and helped him, and they got through in a jiffy and began to move. Crow said he knew his own things, and that he wouldn't take any that belonged to the Missing One, because they had mostly come from her mother; and, besides, they would be a sad reminder, and didn't seem to go with the kind of a place they had planned to have.

He said if they didn't have enough things they could borrow a few from Mr. Man went away and left his windows open, and that they wouldn't need much to begin with. So then they got Mr. Crow's cook-stove out of the back store-room, and a table that was his, and some chairs from different parts of the house, and a few dishes which had come to him from his side of the family, and they tiptoed around and listened now and then at Widow Crow's door to be [Pg 79] sure she was asleep.

They knew she was by the sound; but still they were very quiet until Mr. Crow's down-stairs and somehow got his legs through the rounds and fell and rolled clear to the bottom, expressing his feelings as he came down. That woke up Widow Crow with a jump, and she sat up in bed and called "Thieves! Crow ran to her door and said that it wasn't anything, only those scamps Mr.

Man's beehives and had dropped it because the bees woke up just as they were climbing the stairs. Crow called out quick, and said for him not to dare to open that door and let those pesky bees into her room, and that she hoped they'd sting that 'Possum and 'Coon until they wouldn't be able to tell themselves apart. She said she bet she'd get that pair out of her house if she lived through the night.

Then she rolled over and went to sleep again, and Mr. It was moonlight and Mr. Crow led the way, and the minute they were far enough off to be sure they wouldn't wake up Widow Crow they sang the [Pg 81] chorus of a song that Mr. Rabbit had made for them the day before when he called at the Hollow Tree, and they had told him what they were going to do.

That was the Hollow Tree Song, which, of course, everybody in the Big Deep Woods knows now, but it had never been sung there before, and when they joined in the chorus,. And here's to the hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow, hollow— Then here's to the Hollow Tree, [Pg 82]. Owl, who was watching them from a limb overhead, thought he had never heard anything quite so fine.

Well, they couldn't get along very fast, for the things got so heavy and they had to rest so often that it began to look as if they wouldn't get to the Hollow Tree by morning. But just as they got out into a little open place that was about half-way there they saw somebody coming, and who do you suppose it was? No, it wasn't the Old Wise Man; it was Mr. Turtle, coming to help them move. Rabbit had gone all the way to the Wide Blue Water after Mr.

Turtle because he is so strong, and they would have been there a good deal sooner, only Mr. Turtle didn't get home till late, and [Pg 83] travels slow. Well, it wasn't so hard to move after that. They just set the cook-stove on Mr. Turtle's back and piled on as much as would stay on, and he kept telling them to put on more, until pretty soon Mr. Crow and the rest walked and carried what was left. And when they got to the Hollow Tree it was just about sun-up, and Mr.

Crow told him that he and Mr. Rabbit came to help them, and just as they got it about up it all came down again, and Mr. Crow said that if they'd all go away he'd set up the stove himself; which [Pg 85] he did in about a minute, and had a fire in it and the coffee on in no time. Then the others rushed around and got the things straightened out, and a fire in the fireplace, and they said how nice rooms were, and when Mr. Crow called they all came hurrying down, and in about another minute the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, with Mr.

Turtle, all sat down to the first meal in the Hollow Tree. It was then that Jack Rabbit read all of the "Hollow Tree Song" he had made for them, and they all sang it together; and then the storm that Mr. Crow had seen coming did come, and they shut all the doors and [Pg 86] windows tight, and sat before the fire and smoked and went to sleep, because they were so tired with being up all night. And that was the first day in the Hollow Tree, and how the Possum and Coon and Old Black Crow came to live there, and they live there still. The Little Lady waited until the Story Teller had lit his pipe and sat looking into the great open fire, where there was a hickory log so big that it had taken the Story Teller and the Little Lady's mother with two pairs of ice-tongs to drag it to the hearth and get it into place.

Pretty soon the Little Lady had crept in between the Story Teller's knees. Then in another minute she was on one of his knees, helping him rock. The Story Teller took his pipe from his mouth a moment, and sat thinking and gazing at the big log, which perhaps reminded him of one of the limbs of the Hollow Tree, where the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow lived and had their friends visit them that long-ago snowy Christmas-time. Rabbit did tell that story. Coon said that if that was so, Mr. Robin laugh, and the rest wondered what those two gigglers had noticed that was funny.

Then they all knocked the ashes out of their pipes again, and walked over to the window, and looked at the snow banking up outside and piling up on the bare limbs of the big trees. They said how early it got dark this time of year, especially on a cloudy day. Crow said they had just about time for one more story before supper, and that Mr.

Rabbit ought to tell now about how, a long time ago, his family had lost their tails. Rabbit didn't seem to feel very anxious to tell it, but they told him that he had promised, and that now was as good a time as any, so they went back and sat down, and Mr. Rabbit told them [Pg 91]. Fox, only a good deal longer and finer and softer, and very handsome. Rabbit said that, Mr. Squirrel sniffed and twitched his nose and gave his nice bushy tail a flirt, but he didn't say anything.

Rabbit went right on. He was my twenty-seventh great-grandfather, and was called Mr. He was young and smart then, and thought he was a good deal smarter than he really was, though he was smart enough and handsome enough to set the style for all the other rabbits, and not much ever happened to him, because he could beat anything running that there was in the Big Deep Woods.

He used to talk about it to almost everybody that came along, and one day when he met one of the Turtle family who used to be called Mr. Turtle, he just smiled a little and said: I believe I can beat you myself! Man's, half a mile away, and then beat you across it. Just travel along, and some time this afternoon, when you get down that way, I'll come back and let you see me go by. But you'll have to look quick if you see me, for I'll be going fast.

Tortoise said he didn't want any start at all, that he was ready to begin the race right then; and that made Grandpaw Hare laugh so loud that Mr. Fox heard him as he was passing, and came over to see what the fun was. Then he said that he hadn't much to do for a few minutes, and that he'd stay and act as judge. He thought a race like that wouldn't last long; and it didn't, though it wasn't at all the kind of a race he had expected.

Tortoise and my twenty-seventh great-grandfather side by side, and then he stood off and said 'Go! He was in no hurry, and he wanted to have some fun with Mr. He looked around to where Mr. Tortoise was coming straddling and panting along, and he laughed and rolled over to see how solemn he looked, and how he was travelling as if he meant to get somewhere before dark. He was down on all fours so he could use all his legs at once, and anybody would think, to look at him, that he really expected to win that race. Tortoise to catch up again.

Are you tied to something? Fox would laugh a good deal, too, and he told my ancestor to go on and finish the race—that he couldn't wait around there all day. And pretty soon he said if they were going to fool along like that, he'd just go down to the fence and take a nap till they got there; and for Grandpaw Rabbit to call to him when he really started to come, so he could wake up and judge the finish. Fox he loped away to the fence and laid down and went to sleep in the shade, and Grandpaw Hare thought [Pg 95] it would be fun to pretend to be asleep, too.

I've heard a story told about it that says that he really did go to sleep, and that Mr. Tortoise went by him and got to the fence before he woke up. But that is not the way it happened. My twenty-seventh great-grandfather was too smart to go to sleep, and even if he had gone to sleep, Mr. Tortoise made enough noise pawing and scratching along through the grass and gravel to wake up forty of our family. What do you want to wake me up for when I'm trying to get a nap? He kept letting Mr. Tortoise get up a little closer and closer every time, until Mr.

The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Hollow Tree Snowed In Book, by Albert Bigelow Paine.

Tortoise would almost step on him before he would move. And that was just what Mr. Tortoise wanted, for about the next time he came along he came right up behind my ancestor, but instead of stepping on him, he gave his head a quick snap, just as if he were catching fish, and grabbed my Grandpaw Hare by that beautiful plumy tail, and held on, and pinched, and my ancestor gave [Pg 96] a squeal and a holler and set out for that rail fence, telling his troubles as he came.

Fox had gone sound asleep and didn't hear the rumpus at first, and when he did, he thought grandpaw was just calling to him to wake up and be ready to judge the race, so he sat up quick and watched them come. He saw my twenty-seventh great-grandfather sailing along, just touching the highest points, with something that looked like an old black wash-pan tied to his tail. Fox saw what it was, he just laid down and laughed and rolled over, and then hopped up on the top rail and called, out 'All right, I'm awake, Mr.

Come right along, Mr. Hare; you'll beat him yet! Tortoise loose, which of course he couldn't do, for, as we all know, whenever any of the Turtle family get a grip they never let go till it thunders, and this was a bright day. So pretty soon [Pg 97] grandpaw was up and running again with Mr.

Tortoise sailing out behind and Mr. Fox laughing to see them come, and calling out: You'll beat him yet! Fox made a mistake about that. Grandpaw Hare was really ahead, of course, when he came down the homestretch, but when he got pretty close to the fence he [Pg 98] made one more try to get Mr. Tortoise loose, and gave himself and his tail a great big swing, and Mr. Tortoise didn't let go quite quick enough, and off came my twenty-seventh great-grandfather's beautiful plumy tail, and away went Mr. Tortoise with it, clear over the top rail of the fence, and landed in a brier patch on the other side.

He forgot all about the race at first, and just raved about his great loss, and borrowed Mr. Fox's handkerchief to tie up what was left, and said that he never in the world could show his face before folks again. Fox stopped laughing as soon as he could, and was really quite sorry for him, and even Mr. Tortoise looked through the fence, and asked him if he didn't think it could be spliced and be almost as good as [Pg 99] ever. Hare would live to forgive him, and that now there was no reason why my grandpaw shouldn't beat him in the next race.

Tortoise didn't win the race at all—that he couldn't have covered that much ground in a half a day alone, and he asked Mr. Fox if he was going to let that great straddle-bug ruin his reputation for speed and make him the laughing-stock of [Pg ] the Big Deep Woods, besides all the other damage he had done. Fox scratched his head, and thought about it, and said he didn't see how he could help giving the race to Mr. Tortoise, for it was to be the first one across the fence, and that Mr. Tortoise was certainly the first one across, and that he'd gone over the top rail in style.

He didn't say another word, but just picked up his property that Mr. Tortoise handed him through the fence, and set out for home by a back way, studying what he ought to do to keep everybody from laughing at him, and thinking that if [Pg ] he didn't do something he'd have to leave the country or drown himself, for he had always been so proud that if people laughed at him he knew he could never show his face again. Rabbit, is the true story of that old race between the Hare and the Tortoise, and of how the first Rabbit came to lose his tail.

I've never told it before, and none of my family ever did; but so many stories have been told about the way those things happened that we might just as well have this one, which is the only true one so far as I know. Rabbit lit his pipe and leaned back and smoked. Dog said it was a fine story, and he wished he could [Pg ] have seen that race, and Mr. Turtle looked as if he wanted to say something, and did open his mouth to say it, but Mr.

Crow spoke up, and asked what happened after that to Mr. Rabbit's twenty-seventh great-grandfather, and how it was that the rest of the Rabbits had short tails, too. Rabbit said that that was another story, and Mr. Robin wanted him to tell it right away, but Mr. Crow said they'd better have supper now, and Mr. And all the time the snow was coming down outside and piling higher and higher, and they were being snowed in without knowing it, for it was getting too dark to see much when they tried again to look out the window through the gloom of the Big Deep Woods.

They had been getting ready a good while for just such a time as this, and had carried in a lot of food, and they had a good many nice things down in the store-room where the wood was, but they didn't need those yet. They just put on what they had left from their big dinner, and Mr. Crow stirred up a pan of hot biscuits by his best receipt, and they passed them back and forth across the table so much that Mr. And they talked a good deal about the stories that Mr. Rabbit had told them, and everybody thought how sly and smart Mr. Dog that way; and Mr. He said he didn't think it half as smart as Mr.

Tortoise's trick on Mr. Rabbit's Grandpaw Hare, when he beat him in the foot-race and went over the fence first, taking Mr. Hare's tail with him. And then they wondered if that had all really happened as Mr. Rabbit had told it—all but Mr. Turtle, who just sat and smiled to himself and didn't say anything at all, except "Please pass the biscuits," now and then, when he saw the plate being set down in front of Mr. Then by-and-by they all got through and hurried up and cleared off the table, and lit their pipes, and went back to the fire, and pretty soon Jack Rabbit began to tell.

He put up a sign that said 'Not at Home,' on his door, and then tried a few experiments, to see what could be done. Tortoise had told him he might, but that plan didn't work worth a cent. He never could get it spliced on straight, and if he did get it about right, it would lop over or sag down or something as soon as he moved, and when he looked at himself in the glass he made up his mind that he'd rather do without his nice plumy brush altogether than to go out into society with it in that condition.

Tortoise beat him in a foot-race. Lion lived in the Big Deep Woods in those days, and he was King. Whenever anything happened among the Deep Woods People that they couldn't decide for themselves, they went to where King Lion lived, in a house all by himself over by the Big [Pg ] West Hills, and he used to settle the question; and sometimes, when somebody that wasn't very old, and maybe was plump and tender, had done something that wasn't just right, King Lion would look at him and growl and say it was too bad for any one so young to do such things, and especially for them to grow up and keep on doing them; so he would have him for breakfast, or maybe for dinner, and that would settle everything in the easiest and shortest way.

Fox wouldn't go with him to King Lion, for they would be afraid to, after what they had done, so he made up his mind to go alone and tell him the whole story, because he was as sure as anything that King Lion would decide that he had really won the race, and would be his friend, which would make all the other Deep Woods People jealous and proud of him [Pg ] again, and perhaps make them wish they had nice bunches of white cottony fur in the place of long dragging tails that were always in the way. He had to pass by Mr. Fox's house, and Mr.

Fox called to him, but Grandpaw [Pg ] Hare just set up his ears as proud as could be and went by, lickety-split, without looking at Mr. But that wasn't so. King Lion had been sick for two or three days, and he was still in bed, and had to get up and get something around him before he could let Grandpaw in. But our family have always been pretty quick in their thoughts, and Grandpaw Hare spoke right up as polite as could be, and said he would do anything he could [Pg ] to find a nice young plump rabbit for King Lion, and that he would even be proud to be a king's breakfast himself, only he wasn't so very young nor so very plump, and, besides, there was that old prophecy about the king and the cotton-tailed rabbit, which of course, he said, King Lion must have heard about.

He sat down and asked Grandpaw Hare to tell him how he came to have a tail like that, and grandpaw told him, and it made the King laugh and laugh, until he got well, and he said it was the best joke he ever heard of, and that he'd have given some of the best ornaments off of his crown to have seen that race. He said that the King had sent him out to get one, and that King Lion would most likely be along himself pretty soon. He said the sooner the Rabbit family took pattern after the new cotton-tailed style the more apt they'd be to live to a green old age and have descendants. The Rabbit family got in line by a big smooth stump that they picked out for the purpose, and grandpaw attended to the job for them, and called out 'Next!

He didn't have to wait, either, for they didn't know what minute King Lion might come. Fox came along and stopped to see the job, and helped grandpaw now and then when his arm got tired, and by evening there was a pile of tails by that stump as big as King Lion's house, and there never was such a call for [Pg ] the all-healing ointment as there was that night in the Big Deep Woods. Hare, and he moved out of the country and never came back, and there's never been a king in the Big Deep Woods since, so my twenty-seventh great-grandfather did some good, after all.

Rabbit, "is the whole story of the Hare and the Tortoise and how the Rabbit family lost their tails. It's never been told outside of our family before, but it's true, for it's been handed down, word for word, and if Mr. Tortoise were alive now they would say so. Rabbit filled his pipe and lit it, and Mr. Crow was just about to make some remarks, when Mr. Turtle cleared his throat and said:. Turtle with their mouths wide open, and when they could say anything at all, they said:.

You see, they could never get used to the notion of Mr. Turtle's being so old—as old as their twenty-seventh great-grandfathers would have been, if they had lived. Turtle, "and it all comes back to me as plain as day. It happened two hundred and fifty-eight years ago last June. They used to call us the Tortoise family then, and I was a young fellow of sixty-seven and fond of a joke. But I was surprised when I went sailing over that fence, and I didn't mean to carry off Mr.

Dear me, how time passes! I'm three hundred and twenty-five now, though I don't feel it. Then they all looked at Mr. Turtle again, for though they believed he was old, and might possibly have been there, they thought it pretty strange that he could be the very Mr. Tortoise who had won the race. Turtle got up and began taking off his coat, and all the others began to get out of the way, for they didn't know what was going to happen to Mr.

Turtle, and that Mr. Turtle hadn't understood the way he meant it at all. Turtle wasn't the least bit mad. He just laid off his coat, quietly, and unbuttoned his shirt collar, and told Mr. Crow to look on the back of his shell. Dog held a candle, and they all looked, one after another, and there, sure enough, carved right in Mr.

Turtle's shell, were the words:. And all the rest of the forest people said that a thing like that was worth carving on anybody's shell that had one, and when Mr. Turtle put on his coat they gave him the best seat by the fire, and sat and looked at him and asked questions about it, and finally all went to sleep in their chairs, while the fire burned low and the soft snow was banking up deeper and deeper, outside, in the dark. The Story Teller is not quite ready to answer.

He has to fill his pipe first, and puff a little and look into the fire before he sits down, and the Little Lady climbs into her place. The Little Lady knows the Story Teller, and waits. When he begins to rock a little she knows he has remembered, and then pretty soon he tells her about the Snowed-In Literary Club. Well, the Hollow Tree People went to sleep there by the fire and they stayed asleep a long while, for they were tired [Pg ] with all the good times and all the good things to eat they had been having. And when they woke up once, they thought it was still night, for it was dark, though they thought it must be about morning, because the fire was nearly out, and Mr.

Turtle, who had been drawn up mostly into his shell, and Mr. Dog, who was used to getting up at all hours of the night, stretched and yawned and crept down after some sticks and dry pieces and built up a good fire, and pretty soon they were all asleep again, as sound as ever. And when they woke up next time it was still just as dark, and the fire had gone almost out again, and Mr. Crow, too, said they didn't understand it, at all, for a fire like that would generally keep all night and all day too, and here two fires had burned out and it was still as dark as ever.

Crow lit a splinter and looked at the clock, and said he must have forgotten to wind it, or maybe it was because it was so cold, as it had stopped a little after twelve, and Mr. He said he felt so empty that every time [Pg ] he breathed he could hear the wind whistle through his ribs. Rabbit think of something, and he stepped over to the window. Then he pushed it up a little, and put out his hand. But he didn't put it out far, for it went right into something soft and cold. Rabbit came over to where Mr. Crow was poking up the fire, bringing some of the stuff with him.

The snow is up over the window, and that's why it's so dark. It may be up over the top of the tree, and we may have been asleep here for a week, for all we know. Then they all gathered around to look at the snow, and went to the window and got some more, and tried to tell whether it was day or night, and Mr. And it was day, sure enough, and quite late in the afternoon at that, but they couldn't tell just what day it was, or whether they had slept one night, or two nights, or even longer.

Well, of course the first thing was to get something to eat and a big fire going, and even Mr. They still had a good deal to eat in the Hollow Tree, and they were not much worried. Crow had fed them on Johnnie cake and gravy, and they thought that if everything else gave out it would be great fun to live like that again. When they had finished eating breakfast, or dinner, or whatever it was, for it was nearer supper-time than anything else, they began to think of things to do to amuse themselves, and they first thought they'd have some more stories, like Mr.

Rabbit, who is quite literary, and a good poet, said it would be better to make it a kind of a club, and each have a poem, or a story, or [Pg ] a song; or if anybody couldn't do any of those he must dance a jig.