CHAPTER XV.
YES, the end was come! The woodchuck sounded, the next morning, the notewhich had for days been vibrating in the hearts of all the wildcreatures, but which they had been loth to strike, for Toto's sake.
"Come!" he said. "It is time we were off. I don't know what you are allthinking of, to stay on here after you are awake. I smelt the wet earthand the water, and the sap running in the trees, even in that dungeonwhere you had put me. The young reeds will soon be starting beside thepool, and it is my work to trim them and thin them out properly;besides, I am going to dig a new burrow, this year. I tell you I must beoff."
And the squirrel with a chuckle, and the wood-pigeon with a sigh, andthe raccoon with a strange feeling which he hardly understood, butwhich was not all pleasure, echoed the words, "We must be off!" Only thebear said nothing, for he was in the wood-shed, splitting kindling-woodwith a fury of energy which sent the chips flying as if he were asaw-mill.
So it came to pass that on a soft, bright day in April, when the sun wasshining sweetly, and the wind blew warm from the south, and the budswere swelling on willow and alder, the party of friends stood around thedoor of the little cottage, exchanging farewells, half merry, half sad,and wholly loving.
"After all, it is hardly good-by!" said the squirrel, gayly. "We shallbe here half the time, just as we were last summer; and the other half,Toto will be in the forest. Eh, Bruin?"
But Bruin rubbed his nose with his right paw, and said nothing.
"And you will come to the forest, too, dear Madam!" cried the raccoon,"will you not? You will bring the knitting and the gingerbread, and wewill have picnics by the pool, and you will learn to love the forest asmuch as Toto does. Won't she, Bruin?"
But Bruin rubbed his nose with his left paw, and still said nothing.
"And when my nest is made, and my little ones are fledged," cooed thewood-pigeon in her tender voice, "their first flight shall be to you,dear Madam, and their first song shall tell you that they love you, andthat we love you, every day and all day. For we do love you; don't we,Bruin?"
But the bear only looked helplessly around him, and scratched his head,and again said nothing.
"Well," said Toto, cheerily, though with a suspicion of a quiver in hisvoice, "you are all jolly good fellows, and we have had a merry wintertogether. Of course we shall miss you sadly, Granny and I; but as yousay, Cracker, we shall all see each other every day; and I am longingfor the forest, too, almost as much as you are."
"Dear friends," said the blind grandmother, folding her hands upon herstick, and turning her kindly face from one to the other of thegroup,--"dear friends, merry and helpful companions, this has indeedbeen a happy season that we have spent together. You have, one and all,been a comfort and a help to me, and I think you have not beendiscontented yourselves; still, the confinement has of course beenstrange to you, and we cannot wonder that you pine for your free,wildwood life. Coon, give me your paw! it is a mischievous paw, but ithas never played any tricks on me, and has helped me many and many atime. My little Cracker, I shall miss your merry chatter as I sit at myspinning-wheel. Mary, and Pigeon Pretty, let me stroke your softfeathers once more, by way of 'good-by.' Woodchuck, I have seen littleof you, but I trust you have enjoyed your visit, in your own way.
"And now, last of all, Bruin! my good, faithful Bruin! come here and letme shake your honest, shaggy paw, and thank you for all that you havedone for me and for my boy." She paused, but no answer came.
"Why, where _is_ Bruin?" cried Toto, starting and looking round; "surelyhe was here a minute ago. Bruin! Bruin! where are you?"
But no deep voice was heard, roaring cheerfully, "Here, Toto boy!" Noshaggy form came in sight. Bruin was gone.
"He has gone on ahead, probably," said the raccoon; "he said something,this morning, about not liking to say good-by. Come, you others, we mustfollow our leader. Good-by, dear Madam! See you to-morrow, Toto!"
"Good-by!"
"Good-by!"
"Good-by!" cried all the others.
And with many a backward glance, and many a wave of paw, or tail, orfluttering wing, the party of friends took their way to the forest home.
Boy Toto stood with his hands in his pockets, looking after them withbright, wide-open eyes. He did not cry,--it was a part of Toto's creedthat boys did not cry after they had left off petticoats,--but he feltthat if he had been a girl, the tears might have come in spite of him.So he stared very hard, and puckered his mouth in a silent whistle, andfelt of the marbles in his pockets,--for that is always a soothing andcomforting thing to do.
"Toto, dear," said his grandmother, "do you think our Bruin is really_gone_, without saying a word of farewell to us?"
"So it seems!" said the boy, briefly.
"I am very much grieved!" cried the old lady, putting her handkerchiefto her sightless eyes,--"very, very much grieved! If it had been Coon,now, I should not have been so much surprised; but for Bruin, ourfaithful friend and helper, to leave us so, seems--"
"_Hello!_" cried Toto, starting suddenly, "what is that noise?"
Both listened, and, lo! on the quiet air came the sharp crashing soundof an axe.
"He's there!" cried the boy. "He _isn't_ gone! I'll go--" and with thathe went, as if he had been shot out of a catapult.
Rushing into the wood-shed, he caught sight of the well-beloved shaggyfigure, just raising the axe to deliver a fearful blow at an unoffendinglog of wood. Flinging his arms round it (the figure, not the axe nor thelog), he gave it such a violent hug that bear and boy sat down suddenlyon the ground, while the axe flew to the other end of the shed.
"Oh, Bruin, Bruin!" cried Toto, "we thought you were gone, withoutsaying a word to us. How could you frighten us so?"
The bear rubbed his nose confusedly, and muttered something about "a fewmore sticks in case of cold weather."
But here Toto burst out laughing in spite of himself, for the shed waspiled so high with kindling-wood that the bear sat as it were at thebottom of a pit whose sides of neatly split sticks rose high above hishead.
"You old goose!" cried the boy. "There's kindling-wood enough here tolast us ten years, at the very least. Come away! Granny wants you. Shethought--"
"There will be more butter to make, now, Toto, since that new calf hascome," said the bear, breaking in with apparent irrelevance.
"I suppose there will!" said the boy, staring. "What of it?"
"And that pig is getting too big for you to manage," continued Bruin, ina serious tone. "He was impudent to _me_ the other day, and I had totake him up by the tail and swing him, before he would apologize. Now,you _couldn't_ take him up by the tail, Toto, much less swing him, andthere is no use in your deceiving yourself about it."
"Of course I couldn't!" cried Toto. "No one could, except you, oldmonster. But what _are_ you thinking about that for, now? Come along, Itell you! Granny will think you are gone, after all." And catching thebear by the ear, he led him back in triumph to the cottage-door, crying,"Granny, Granny! here he is! Now give him a good scolding, please, forfrightening us so."
But the grandmother never scolded. She only stroked the shaggy blackfur, and said, "Bruin, dear! my good, faithful, true-hearted Bruin! Icould not bear to think that you had left me without saying good-by.That hurt me very much. But you would not have done it, would you,Bruin? We ought to have known you better."
The bear looked about him distractedly, and bit his paw severely, as ifto relieve his feelings. "Yes I would!" he cried. "At least, if I meantto say good-by. I wouldn't say it, because I couldn't. But I don't meanto say it,--I mean I don't mean to do it. If you don't want me in thehouse,--being large and clumsy, as I am well aware, and ugly too,--I cansleep out by the pump, and come in to do the work. But I cannot leavethe boy, please, dear Madam, nor you. And the calf wants attention, andthat pig _ought_ to be swung at least once a week, and--and--"
But there was no need of further speech, for Toto's arms were clinginground his neck, and Toto's voice was shouting exc
lamations of delight;and the grandmother was shaking his great black paw, and calling himher best friend, her dearest old Bruin, and telling him that he shouldnever leave them.
And, in fact, he never did leave them. He settled down quietly in thelittle cottage, and washed and churned, baked and brewed, milked the cowand kept the pig in order. Happy was the good bear, and happy was Toto,in those pleasant days. For every afternoon, when the work was done,they welcomed one or all of their forest friends; or else they soughtthe green, beloved forest themselves, and sat beside the fairy pool, andwandered in the cool green mazes where all was sweetness and peace, withrustle of leaves and murmur of water, and chirp of bird and insect. Butevening found them always at the cottage door again, bringing theirwoodland joyousness to the blind grandmother, making the kitchen ringwith laughter as they related the last exploits of the raccoon or thesquirrel, or described the courtship of the parrot and the crow.
And if you had asked any of the three, as they sat together in theporch, who was the happiest person in the world, why, Toto and theGrandmother would each have answered, "I!" But Bruin, who had neverstudied grammar, and knew nothing whatever about his nominatives and hisaccusatives, would have roared with a thunder-burst of enthusiasm,
"ME!!!"
University Press: John Wilson & Son, Cambridge.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 44, illustration caption, "Wah-song! Wah-song!" changed to"Wah-Song! Wah-Song!" (Golden Dragon. "Wah-Song! Wah-Song! Awake!")
Page 194, "gigantie" changed to "gigantic" (statement, the gigantic)
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