ADVENTURE THE SECOND
BROWNIE AND THE CHERRY-TREE
THE "next time" was quick in coming, which was not wonderful,considering there was a Brownie in the house. Otherwise the house waslike most other houses, and the family like most other families. Thechildren also: they were sometimes good, sometimes naughty, like otherchildren; but, on the whole, they deserved to have the pleasure of aBrownie to play with them, as they declared he did--many and many atime.
A favorite play-place was the orchard, where grew the biggestcherry-tree you ever saw. They called it their "castle," because it roseup ten feet from the ground in one thick stem, and then branched outinto a circle of boughs, with a flat place in the middle, where two orthree children could sit at once. There they often did sit, turn byturn, or one at a time--sometimes with a book, reading; and the biggestboy made a sort of rope-ladder by which they could climb up anddown--which they did all winter, and enjoyed their "castle" very much.
But one day in spring they found their ladder cut away! The Gardenerhad done it, saying it injured the tree, which was just coming intoblossom. Now this Gardener was a rather gruff man, with a growlingvoice. He did not mean to be unkind, but he disliked children; he saidthey bothered him. But when they complained to their mother about theladder, she agreed with Gardener that the tree must not be injured, asit bore the biggest cherries in all the neighborhood--so big that theold saying of "taking two bites at a cherry," came really true.
"Wait till the cherries are ripe," said she; and so the little peoplewaited, and watched it through its leafing and blossoming--such sheetsof blossom, white as snow!--till the fruit began to show, and grew largeand red on every bough.
At last one morning the mother said, "Children, should you like to helpgather the cherries to-day?"
"Hurrah!" they cried, "and not a day too soon; for we saw a flock ofstarlings in the next field--and if we don't clear the tree, they will."
"Very well; clear it, then. Only mind and fill my basket quite full, forpreserving. What is over you may eat, if you like."
"Thank you, thank you!" and the children were eager to be off; but themother stopped them till she could get the Gardener and his ladder.
"For it is he must climb the tree, not you; and you must do exactly ashe tells you; and he will stop with you all the time and see that youdon't come to harm."
This was no slight cloud on the children's happiness, and they beggedhard to go alone.
"Please, might we? We will be so good!"
When the Gardener was steadying his ladder against thetrunk of the cherry-tree]
The mother shook her head. All the goodness in the world would not helpthem if they tumbled off the tree, or ate themselves sick with cherries."You would not be safe, and I should be so unhappy!"
To make mother "unhappy" was the worst rebuke possible to thesechildren; so they choked down their disappointment, and followed theGardener as he walked on ahead, carrying his ladder on his shoulder. Helooked very cross, and as if he did not like the children's company atall.
They were pretty good, on the whole, though they chattered a good deal;but Gardener said not a word to them all the way to the orchard. Whenthey reached it, he just told them to "keep out of his way and notworrit him," which they politely promised, saying among themselves thatthey should not enjoy their cherry-gathering at all. But children whomake the best of things, and try to be as good as they can, sometimeshave fun unawares.
When the Gardener was steadying his ladder against the trunk of thecherry-tree, there was suddenly heard the barking of a dog, and a veryfierce dog, too. First it seemed close beside them, then in theflower-garden, then in the fowl-yard.
Gardener dropped the ladder out of his hands. "It's that Boxer! He hasgot loose again! He will be running after my chickens, and dragging hisbroken chain all over my borders. And he is so fierce, and so delightedto get free. He'll bite any body who ties him up, except me."
"Hadn't you better you go and see after him?"
Gardener thought it was the eldest boy who spoke, and turned roundangrily; but the little fellow had never opened his lips.
Here there was heard a still louder bark, and from a quite differentpart of the garden.
"There he is--I'm sure of it! jumping over my bedding-out plants, andbreaking my cucumber frames. Abominable beast!--just let me catch him!"Off Gardener darted in a violent passion, throwing the ladder down uponthe grass, and forgetting all about the cherries and the children.
The instant he was gone, a shrill laugh, loud and merry, was heard closeby, and a little brown old man's face peeped from behind thecherry-tree.
"How d'ye do?--Boxer was me. Didn't I bark well? Now I'm come to playwith you."
The children clapped their hands; for they knew they were going to havesome fun if Brownie was there--he was the best little playfellow in theworld. And then they had him all to themselves. Nobody ever saw himexcept the children.
"Come on!" cried he, in his shrill voice, half like an old man's, halflike a baby's. "Who'll begin to gather the cherries?"
A little brown old man's face peeped from behind thecherry-tree.--Page 20]
They all looked blank; for the tree was so high to where the branchessprang, and besides, their mother had said they were not to climb. Andthe ladder lay flat upon the grass--far too heavy for little hands tomove.
"What! you big boys don't expect a poor little fellow like me to liftthe ladder all by myself? Try! I'll help you."
Whether he helped or not, no sooner had they taken hold of the ladderthan it rose up, almost of its own accord, and fixed itself quite safelyagainst the tree.
"But we must not climb--mother told us not," said the boys, ruefully."Mother said we were to stand at the bottom and pick up the cherries."
"Very well. Obey your mother. I'll just run up the tree myself."
Before the words were out of his mouth Brownie darted up the ladder likea monkey, and disappeared among the fruit-laden branches.
The children looked dismayed for a minute, till they saw a merry brownface peeping out from the green leaves at the very top of the tree.
"Biggest fruit always grows highest," cried the Brownie. "Stand in arow, all you children. Little boys, hold out your caps: little girls,make a bag of your pinafores. Open your mouths and shut your eyes, andsee what the queen will send you."
They laughed and did as they were told; whereupon they were drowned in ashower of cherries--cherries falling like hailstones, hitting them ontheir heads, their cheeks, their noses--filling their caps andpinafores, and then rolling and tumbling on to the grass, till it wasstrewn thick as leaves in autumn with the rosy fruit.
What a glorious scramble they had--these three little boys and threelittle girls! How they laughed and jumped and knocked their headstogether in picking up the cherries, yet never quarreled--for there weresuch heaps, it would have been ridiculous to squabble over them; andbesides, whenever they began to quarrel, Brownie always ran away. Now hewas the merriest of the lot; ran up and down the tree like a cat, helpedto pick up the cherries, and was first-rate at filling the largemarket-basket.
"We were to eat as many as we liked, only we must first fill thebasket," conscientiously said the eldest girl; upon which they all setto at once, and filled it to the brim.
"Now we'll have a dinner-party," cried the Brownie; and squatted downlike a Turk, crossed his queer little legs, and sticking his elbows uponhis knees, in a way that nobody but a Brownie could manage. "Sit in aring! sit in a ring! and we'll see who can eat fastest."
The children obeyed. How many cherries they devoured, and how fast theydid it, passes my capacity of telling. I only hope they were not illnext day, and that all the cherry-stones they swallowed by mistake didnot disagree with them. But perhaps nothing does disagree with one whenone dines with a Brownie. They ate so much, laughing in equalproportion, that they had quite forgotten the Gardener--when, all of asudden, they heard him clicking angrily the orchard gate, and talking tohimself as
he walked through.
"That nasty dog! It wasn't Boxer, after all. A nice joke! to find himquietly asleep in his kennel after having hunted him, as I thought, fromone end of the garden to the other! Now for the cherries and thechildren--bless us, where are the children? And the cherries? Why, thetree is as bare as a blackthorn in February! The starlings have been atit, after all. Oh dear! oh dear!"
"Oh dear! oh dear!" echoed a voice from behind the tree, followed byshouts of mocking laughter. Not from the children--they sat as demure aspossible, all in a ring, with their hands before them, and in the centrethe huge basket of cherries, piled as full as it could possibly hold.But the Brownie had disappeared.
"You naughty brats, I'll have you punished!" cried the Gardener, furiousat the laughter, for he never laughed himself. But as there was nothingwrong; the cherries being gathered--a very large crop--and the ladderfound safe in its place--it was difficult to say what had been the harmdone and who had done it.
So he went growling back to the house, carrying the cherries to themistress, who coaxed him into good temper again, as she sometimes did;bidding also the children to behave well to him, since he was an oldman, and not really bad--only cross. As for the little folks, she hadnot the slightest intention of punishing them; and, as for Brownie, itwas impossible to catch him. So nobody was punished at all.