Part 25

“Well, of all the funny workers he was the funniest! But the funniest of all—that is—it was the funniest to us, was that he didn’t know us at all.”

“He didn’t know you,” exclaimed the beans.

“No,” grinned the peas, in their vegetable way, “he didn’t know whether we were flowers or vegetables. He looked at us from a little distance away and he said:

“‘Are these flowers or vegetables?’”

“Think of that,” exclaimed the beans.

“Yes, he didn’t know peas,” said the peas.

“Well,” said the beans, “we’ve heard of creatures who didn’t know beans, but we’ve never heard of creatures who didn’t know peas.”

OCTOBER 24: Tiger West’s Food

“Tiger West,” said daddy, “had been off on a number of trips with his cat friends who lived down the street.

“Now Tiger West lived in great grandeur. He had a special bed of cushions and a blanket to curl under. He had a rug of white, soft, fluffy material which he could lie upon whenever he wanted. And he wore a beautiful bow to match his mistress’ gown.

“His master was a very rich man, and Tiger West was used to the best of food. But he had missed adventures and when he became friendly with the cats down the street he certainly did have enough. He narrowly escaped having horrid cold water thrown on him from an upper window one time, because he had been getting some goodies out of an ash tin. ‘Meow,’ he said to himself, ‘what a joke it would be if the master could see me with my whiskers quite dirty and my beautiful fur ruffled up. Well, I know how to make myself look like a gentleman cat when I am ready to go home.’

“Days passed and Tiger West still went on trips with his cat friends. One day there was to be a meeting on the back fence of the cats of the neighborhood, and Tiger West was asked to be present. Now, Mr. Black Cat was very different looking from Tiger West. Mr. Black Cat’s fur was not handsome, and he had a thin look, not at all becoming to a cat. He looked as though he had to hunt for his food and had to exercise entirely too soon after eating. Tiger imagined he must have been chased away after every meal he took.

“Still Mr. Black Cat was a leader in the cat neighborhood. He was President of the Night Singing Club, Vice-President of the Ash Can Visitors, Secretary of the Hunt Mice Club, and Treasurer of the Garbage Guild. He was always chosen as the judge of all the trials held in the cat neighborhood and for this reason he was always called ‘Your Honor.’

“Now it made Tiger West very much annoyed to hear such a common cat called by such a fine name. ‘Do you like strawberries and cream?’ he asked.

“‘Never ate any,’ said Mr. Black Cat.

“‘I do,’ said Tiger West, ‘and I eat them in and out of season. My master always gets them for me, or else he gets something else that is nice for my breakfast with cream.’

“‘It doesn’t satisfy my hunger to hear what you have had to eat,’ said Mr. Black Cat.

“Still Tiger West wanted to show that he amounted to something and was better than Mr. Black Cat. ‘I never eat any kind of meat on a chicken but the tenderest white meat,’ he said. ‘And I am particularly fond of ice-cream. I like all the best food, and I get it too.’

“Mr. Black Cat raised his back and snarled. ‘This cat,’ he said, ‘tries to be superior to us. Let’s put him out of the club.’

“The cats were chasing Tiger West now, but he got away from them and back home. ‘How foolish I was,’ he said to himself as he began to drink a bowl of rich milk, ‘to leave a home like this for such terrifying adventures. But my curiosity is satisfied, and now I will stay home and live in luxury as I should.’”

OCTOBER 25: Autumn Leaves

“Ah,” said the autumn leaves, “now is the time of the year for our great and wonderful party.”

“Are you going to have one soon?” asked Mr. Wind.

“We hope to have one very, very soon,” said the leaves as they blew about.

“The reason I asked,” said Mr. Wind, “was because I did not want to have any other engagement on the day that you give your party. It would be the sort of a party I would enjoy and I trust you will invite me.”

“Well,” laughed the leaves, “we couldn’t very well have the sort of a party we want without you. We want your help in the races and jumps and scampers. We need you to say, ‘Ready, Set, Go.’ We could never go without you, Mr. Wind. And so we talked about this party right before you, hoping you would show a great interest.”

And Mr. Wind came to the party and helped to make it a huge success.

OCTOBER 26: Blackie’s Escape

“A little girl named Doris,” said daddy, “was devoted to her pet dog, Blackie. He had long black curly hair and was her constant companion.

“Wherever Doris went, Blackie followed. He took long walks with her, and when she stopped to gather ferns and lovely wild flowers, Blackie would romp through the fields, playing and chasing his shadow, sticks, and sometimes his tail!

“One day Doris was very busy. She was getting ready for a magic lantern show she was going to give for some of her little friends that evening.

“Blackie went out alone. He thought at first he would take a long scamper over the hills and then he decided that he would go and see some of the other dogs in the village where Doris lived. He thought perhaps they would like to take a run, and it would be so much more fun to have companions. He knew his mistress would not be able to leave the house for she had told him so, and Blackie always understood.

“He went up into the village and before he had met any of his special friends he came across a big bone. He had met several dogs he knew well enough to sniff at and wag his tail to as he went by, but he was waiting to see some of his really good friends when he happened upon the bone.

“‘This looks good,’ he said to himself. ‘I do believe I’ll take it home and spend the afternoon munching on the bone.’

“Blackie ran home and into the side yard. What a time he did have, but it was not long before Doris saw him.

“‘What, back again?’ she said. And Blackie wagged his tail. ‘Maybe I’ll get through in time for a little scamper.’

“Of course Blackie knew perfectly well what a scamper meant and he barked delightedly.

“‘What have you got there?’ asked Doris as she noticed the bone.

“Somehow it had a peculiar look and a very peculiar odor and in a moment Doris thought of poison. That was always the danger about bones that were found. She thought to herself, as she took the bone and looked at it, that there have been people cruel enough to put poison around on bones so dogs would eat it.

“She threw the bone away and though Blackie looked very much disappointed he knew that it must be quite a horrid bone if his mistress wouldn’t let him have it. For she knew how much he loved bones and would never take it away from him if she didn’t have to do so.

“‘I think I’ll be able to leave now,’ said Doris. For the bone still worried her and she thought perhaps it would be good for Blackie to have a run.

“Blackie was very happy again, but when they were a little way out of the village, Blackie didn’t seem to want to run, and he stopped every few moments to eat grass. Dogs usually do that when they are feeling ill.

“Again Doris thought of the bone and how worried she was. Blackie didn’t want to run, and was so unlike himself.

“Pretty soon she decided to go home and Blackie seemed very glad of that. She telephoned her little friends and said that the magic lantern show would be put off for Blackie was ill.

“How badly they all felt, for they knew how much she loved Blackie. But she didn’t forget about the other little dogs. She told all her friends to watch their pets, for she imagined a cruel person who wanted to poison dogs was around.

“During the evening Blackie grew worse! Oh, how sick he was! He was so hot, and Doris kept sponging his head with cool water. He would look at her out of his brown eyes and tell her how grateful he was, and he would try to say that he did not want to leave his mistress—life had been so happy for him.

“‘Oh, Blackie,’ whispered Doris, as she bathed his head, and as her tears rolled down on his black shaggy hairs, ‘would they kill little dogs who are people’s pets—just because they are so mean and don’t know what it is to understand and love an animal? And they put the poison around anywhere so that the good are just as apt to eat it as perhaps one dog who is naughty.’

“But Blackie got well, and perhaps the cruel person heard about it, for there was no more dog poisoning in that village.”

OCTOBER 27: A Talk with the Sun

“A little boy named Melville,” said daddy, “had heard that day that every one should make hay while the sun was shining.

“‘Make hay while the sun shines,’ was what Melville had been told. The one who had told him this was his teacher in school.

“How could any one make hay in the winter time and the sun shone in the winter time as well as in the summer time? he thought.

“He wondered about it more and more as he felt the warmth of Mr. Sun shining into his window. He was sitting curled up in a big arm chair.

“How he wished he could ask Mr. Sun what it meant. Of course he could ask his teacher to-morrow. There must be some meaning to it, or some catch to it which he didn’t understand.

“Mr. Sun looked very pleasant and as though he would be quite willing to tell Melville if only Melville knew how to ask him so he would hear.

“How nice and warm Mr. Sun was. More and more sleepy did Melville become, and after a few moments he was sound asleep. Then it seemed as though Mr. Sun came and sat on the window sill. ‘It is true,’ said Mr. Sun, ‘that one can only make hay when the season allows it, and the season doesn’t allow it when it is winter, most assuredly.

“‘But the expression, “Make hay while the sun shines,” has nothing to do with the seasons.

“‘It is simply an expression meaning to take advantage of the good weather or the good time or the good season and prepare for ones which aren’t so good.

“‘For example, when daddies and mothers are well and strong they try to save a little money for the days when illness may come. That is making hay while the sun shines, for they’re saving during the time when they get a chance to save.

“‘When children study when they’re young they’re making hay while the sun shines for they’re taking advantage of the opportunities they have which will make them wise when they’re men and women.

“‘When people are wise and take advantage of time it is making hay while the sun shines, for it is not losing time. The expression, as you see, means taking advantage of good times to prepare for bad times, and it started by some one telling some one else to see about the hay while the sun was shining, for the rain might come, and then it would be too late.

“‘And,’ continued the sun, ‘it is a wise saying, a very wise saying, indeed.’”

OCTOBER 28: The Squash

“It’s all right to be a winter vegetable or to be a summer vegetable, and it’s all right to be any kind of a vegetable at all a vegetable wishes to be,” said the squash, “but it’s sad above everything to be a squash.”

“And why so?” asked one of the potatoes.

“Because there is something flat about being a squash.

“Just think of the family name, for example—squash! Doesn’t it sound flat and squashed and trampled upon and walked upon and squashed down flat? It has such a hopeless sound!”

“It does sound that way,” said the potato. “But still you aren’t all trampled upon and squashed down flat. In fact, I don’t know that I ever saw folks going around and trampling upon you. To be sure, your name has a flat, trampled-upon sound.”

“And, oh, dear,” said the squash, “we’re such a dull sort of family. There is no interest to us. We’re not fascinating and pretty, like the tomatoes, and we’re not even loved by some and hated by others, like the cucumbers.

“They are interesting, for they have both friends and enemies.

“Now we haven’t any who really love us. Most people think we’ll do and that we do no harm and that we’re all right, but no one even gets excited over squash. It is indeed sad to be nothing but a squash!”

OCTOBER 29: Jack O’Lantern

“I was made by a very fine boy,” said Jack O’Lantern. “I was a little nervous when he was cutting out my nose for fear he’d give me a crooked nose.

“But he didn’t. I have a fine nose, haven’t I?”

“Indeed, your nose is a thing of beauty,” said Billie Brownie.

“And my eyes are nice, eh?” asked Jack O’Lantern.

“There is nothing the matter with your eyes,” grinned Billie Brownie.

“Good,” said Jack O’Lantern.

“And,” he added after a moment, “I do hope you feel like admiring my mouth. It is such a nice big mouth.”

“It is a nice big mouth,” laughed Billie Brownie. “Yes, I think you’re a fine fellow, and I love the head piece of a bit of green stalk you wear at the top of your head. It makes you look quite dashing.

“And I’m sure your candle will shine through beautifully when it is lighted,” Billie Brownie added.

“And then I will go Hallowe’en calling,” said Jack O’Lantern. “What joy that will be!

“Yes, I will go calling on many people, and I will sit on their door-steps all by myself with no one to tell me what to do and no one to tell me how to act.

“For I will know how to act. I will smile at the people and that is why I am glad my mouth is big, for if I hadn’t a big mouth I mightn’t look as though I were smiling. I mightn’t look as though I were grinning my best grin.

“I tell you, Billie Brownie, I’m a cheerful fellow.”

OCTOBER 30: Daddy’s Hallowe’en

“I am going to tell you,” said daddy, “of the things I did when I was a boy at Hallowe’en time. First of all I used to love bobbing in a tub for apples. I wore a bathing cap so if it was a cold evening my mother wouldn’t be afraid I’d get my hair wet and catch cold because she knew how far down I’d dive into the tub of water!

“And we all did the same. The girls needed the bathing caps on their heads more than the boys did and they certainly could dive with hair all held in so dry and safe by their caps.

“Then we would play games and one of our favorite games was to run races carrying peanuts on knives.

“Two at a time would race against each other. The end of the race would be a big bowl set on the floor and we would start off at the other end of the room.

“Then we would each have a lot of peanuts and we would carry as many as we could on our knife until we had gotten rid of all of them.

“We had to take all the peanuts to the bowl without letting any drop off.

“It was most exciting, for though none of the other children could push us or joggle us they could make funny remarks to us and we would start laughing and sometimes our knife would shake and we’d drop the peanuts and have to start all over again.

“Sometimes we would only take one at a time because we could get them all to the bowl more quickly that way in the long run.

“Sometimes the one who starts off fastest does not win, you know. And then of course we went calling each with a Jack O’Lantern, and how mad we were at those who hadn’t enough fun in them to like these Hallowe’en callers!”

OCTOBER 31: Hallowe’en

The preparations for the party to be given at Janet’s house that Hallowe’en evening had already begun. Already they were hanging apples attached firmly by strings from a door-way and as soon as the guests came and the tricks began they would all try to bite these apples, which would swing so annoyingly away from them!

And there was going to be a dish of flour in the kitchen after supper and the children were all going to try to find a twenty-five cent piece hidden there. They were going to hunt for it with their teeth! And there were apples bobbing in a great tub of water. And these had to be caught by the teeth too. Some of these held pennies!

There would be fortune-telling, too, and Janet’s mother had promised to be the fortune-telling witch who would sit by her caldron which was now being made of red cheese-cloth. At the bottom of it, barely hidden, there would be a flashlight which would be kept going all the time, of course!

Oh, the party was going to be splendid. Janet knew that. And yet—and yet—she wished she knew why they had a party—not that she didn’t want a party! But just why was it for this evening with the strange name. What did Hallowe’en really mean? She hated to ask for she felt she should know and that she would be laughed at for not knowing.

“Why, Janet,” her mother said that afternoon late as she caught sight of Janet’s little worried face, “this isn’t the time to look sad when we’re having a party! What is the trouble, my darling?”

There was something in the understanding, sweet way that her mother asked her that made Janet ask what she thought was so foolish a question.

“Mother dear,” she began, “just what does Hallowe’en mean?”

“October thirty-first,” her mother said, “is the vigil of All Saints’ Day, or Hallowe’en, for Hallow means to devote time to holy purposes and e’en is short for evening. So that it means the evening before the religious day which is known as All Saints’ Day.

“But Hallowe’en, while coming before a religious day, has always been an evening of festivity and frolic and fun for children. In all countries they celebrate it—it is a real children’s evening—though in various countries the children have their own little ways of celebrating.

“Our way, though, is used by children of many countries and we have make-believe witches just as they have, for in the olden days in the old countries those who were superstitious or given to imagining things not so, thought witches came out on Hallowe’en.”

And somehow, Janet never enjoyed a party so much, for it was so nice to know just what the day meant and to know too that in many countries children on this very evening were having a celebration of such a weirdly wonderful kind!

NOVEMBER 1: The Brownies Help

“A little girl, whose name was Kitty, was very anxious to win the prize,” said daddy. “‘I shall work so hard over it,’ she said to herself, and she refused an invitation to walk with her friends that afternoon.

“She put her hand to her head and thought hard—but she couldn’t think of anything to write! She dipped her pen into the ink-well and only made two smudge spots on the paper in front of her.

“‘Oh,’ she sighed, ‘I wish I had gone for a walk. I feel so sleepy—and staying in the house all afternoon is so silly!’ She really was much annoyed with herself and soon she put her head down on her desk and went sound, sound asleep.

“Pretty soon the two smudge spots grew larger and larger. They seemed to get round and funny and fat—and she almost saw them grinning at her!

“Soon she saw that around one spot was a wide band of white on which were written the words:

“‘I’m Mr. Pen and I’ll write you a story.’

“And around the other spot was written:

“‘I’m Mr. Ink and I’ll write you a story.’

“‘But I don’t want two stories,’ cried Kitty. ‘I only want one. If I write two they will think I want to have two chances while every one else has one. That will never do.’

“But the round, smudgy spots proved to be Billie Brownie and Bennie Brownie, and it was around their hats that the words were written about Mr. Pen and Mr. Ink.

“‘We are going to whisper to you the most marvelous of stories,’ they said. And they grinned and hugged each other with delight.

“‘She’ll win the prize,’ said Billie Brownie, and his brother Bennie laughed and said:

“‘She certainly will.’

“And then they told her, while she was napping, the most wonderful story you can imagine. ‘I won’t forget it, will I?’ she asked. And the two Brownies laughed and said:

“‘Forget one of your stories? Never!’

“And then Kitty stretched out her arms until one hand was taking hold of Mr. Pen and the other was bringing Mr. Ink’s Home—the ink-well—forward on the desk.

“‘Ah,’ she said, as she rubbed her eyes and looked at the paper in front of her. ‘What a nice sleep I have had. I feel so fresh and just like writing a composition. I am so glad I didn’t go out—for I know just what I want to write about.’

“Kitty wrote all the afternoon and the very last thing she did was to make a nice, neat copy of the composition. When it was all ready and tied with a little piece of blue string at the top, she put it away in her desk drawer until the time came to hand it in.

“Of course, she won the prize and the teacher said that it was because her composition showed she had taken time to think about it, but Kitty knew it was because of the Brownies!”

NOVEMBER 2: The Butterfly and Bumble-Bee

“Good-by,” said the golden butterfly. “It is late for me to be out and I must leave now. I have come around because it is what they call Indian summer.

“That is when another week of summer comes in the autumn when people have almost become used to cold weather.”

“I must still do a little more work in this warm sunshine,” the bumble-bee said; “you know it has been said of us that we improve each shining hour.”

“But,” said the golden butterfly, “how do you know you’re improving each shining hour? Aren’t the hours all right as they are?”

“Yes,” said the bumble-bee, “that may be so, and they may be all right spent idly by some people. I don’t suppose the hours care so very much, though I have heard they hated to be wasted, and we will never waste them.”

“But they like to give pleasure and to have people take rests and enjoy themselves, too,” said the golden butterfly. And as he waved a golden wing in farewell he said to himself, “Bumble-bees overdo things. They work so hard that they’ve forgotten how to play! And that is the saddest thing about their lives.”

NOVEMBER 3: The Furnace

“Ha, ha,” said the Furnace, as the pieces of coal were being shoved in; “ha, ha,” he laughed. “So they’re becoming anxious to have me working again.

“And I believe they never gave me a moment’s thought all summer long. I’m sure they didn’t. I feel quite certain of it.

“And then they wonder why at times I act crossly and queerly and why I get upset at times. I try not to, but of course when I get thinking of how no one gives the poor old Furnace a thought all summer long, then I can’t help but get upset.

“And when I get upset they all grumble about me, as if I mustn’t get upset, no matter how I may feel.

“Well, it’s a bit unfair. But I try to rise above it and give them heat and no smoke; warmth and no trouble.

“I suppose things aren’t appreciated until they are needed. I’ve heard that window-shades or blinds or whatever one wants to call them have been so good about hiding the light from people’s eyes when they were sleepy, and then when they are old and had holes in them, they were horribly complained about, though never a ‘thank you’ did they get when they were doing their good work.

“And no one ever says:

“‘Ah, what a good pair of socks you are, my dear,’ or, ‘What a lovely pair of stockings you are, Nice Pair.’

“Yet so soon as a hole comes, how they grumble!”

“You’re very useful,” said a piece of coal, “but you aren’t the whole thing. We’re all needed. Matches are needed. Sticks and paper are needed when you are started. Some one is needed to watch over you.

“You require a great deal of watching. You must have a nurse, or furnace man, or watcher of some sort looking after you.

“So, Furnace, you mustn’t become too conceited.” And the Furnace thought the coal was right.

NOVEMBER 4: The Elephant’s Bath

“Steve, the elephant,” said daddy, “wanted to take a bath. He was in the big theater when he had this wish, for he did an act every afternoon and evening on the stage.

“‘Yes,’ Steve said to himself, ‘I feel the need of bathing. I’d like a good plunge in the real water—a river for example, just as I would have if I were free.

“‘Of course, the first thing I must do,’ he continued, ‘is to get out of that side door there and get on the street. Then I will go a-looking for a river.