Mother West Wind "how" Stories

Part 1

Produced by Mark C. Orton, Thomas Strong, Linda McKeown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

BURGESS TRADE QUADDIES MARK

MOTHER WEST WIND "HOW" STORIES

THORNTON W. BURGESS

Illustrations by HARRISON CADY

GROSSET & DUNLAP

PUBLISHERS NEW YORK

By arrangement with Little, Brown, and Company

Copyright, 1916, BY THORNTON W. BURGESS.

All rights reserved

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

To the cause of conservation of wild life and to increase of love for our little friends of the Green Forest and the Green Meadows through awakened interest in them and a better understanding of their value to us as faithful workers in carrying out the plans of wise Old Mother Nature, this little book is dedicated.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. HOW OLD KING EAGLE WON HIS WHITE HEAD 3

II. HOW OLD MR. MINK TAUGHT HIMSELF TO SWIM 17

III. HOW OLD MR. TOAD LEARNED TO SING 31

IV. HOW OLD MR. CROW LOST HIS DOUBLE TONGUE 45

V. HOW HOWLER THE WOLF GOT HIS NAME 59

VI. HOW OLD MR. SQUIRREL BECAME THRIFTY 73

VII. HOW LIGHTFOOT THE DEER LEARNED TO JUMP 87

VIII. HOW MR. FLYING SQUIRREL ALMOST GOT WINGS 103

IX. HOW MR. WEASEL WAS MADE AN OUTCAST 117

X. HOW THE EYES OF OLD MR. OWL BECAME FIXED 131

XI. HOW IT HAPPENS JOHNNY CHUCK SLEEPS ALL WINTER 145

XII. HOW OLD MR. OTTER LEARNED TO SLIDE 161

XIII. HOW DRUMMER THE WOODPECKER CAME BY HIS RED CAP 175

XIV. HOW OLD MR. TREE TOAD FOUND OUT HOW TO CLIMB 191

Part 2

XV. HOW OLD MR. HERON LEARNED PATIENCE 205

XVI. HOW TUFTY THE LYNX HAPPENS TO HAVE A STUMP OF A TAIL 219

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PAGE

"CAW, CAW, CAW, CAW, CAW!" YELLED BLACKY AT THE TOP OF HIS VOICE Frontispiece

"OLD KING BEAR, WHO WAS KING NO LONGER, WOULD GROWL A DEEP, RUMBLY-GRUMBLY GROWL" 64

"ONE DAY MR. RABBIT SURPRISED MR. WEASEL MAKING A MEAL OF YOUNG MICE" 120

"HIS LEGS WERE SO LONG AND HIS NECK WAS SO LONG THAT ALL HIS NEIGHBORS LAUGHED AT HIM" 216

HOW OLD KING EAGLE WON HIS WHITE HEAD

MOTHER WEST WIND "HOW" STORIES

HOW OLD KING EAGLE WON HIS WHITE HEAD

Peter Rabbit sat on the edge of the dear Old Briar-patch, staring up into the sky with his head tipped back until it made his neck ache. Way, way up in the sky was a black speck sailing across the snowy white face of a cloud. It didn't seem possible that it could be alive way up there. But it was. Peter knew that it was, and he knew who it was. It was King Eagle. By and by it disappeared over towards the Great Mountain. Peter rubbed the back of his neck, which ached because he had tipped his head back so long. Then he gave a little sigh.

"I wonder what it seems like to be able to fly like that," said he out loud, a way he sometimes has.

"Are you envious?" asked a voice so close to him that Peter jumped. There was Sammy Jay sitting in a little tree just over his head.

"No!" snapped Peter, for it made him a wee bit cross to be so startled.

"No, I'm not envious, Sammy Jay. I'm not envious of any bird. The ground is good enough for me. I was just wondering, that's all."

"Have you ever seen King Eagle close to?" asked Sammy.

"Once," replied Peter. "Once he came down to the Green Meadows and sat in that lone tree over there, and I was squatting in a bunch of grass quite near and could see him very plainly. He is big and fierce-looking, but he looks his name, every inch a king. I've wondered a good many times since how it happens that he has a white head."

"Because," replied Sammy, "he is just what he looks to be,--king of the birds,--and that white head is the sign of his royalty given his great-great-ever-so-great-grandfather by Old Mother Nature, way back in the beginning of things."

Peter's eyes sparkled. "Tell me about it, Sammy," he begged. "Tell me about it, and I won't quarrel with you any more."

"All right, Peter. I'll tell you the story, because it will do you good to hear it. I supposed everybody knew it. All birds do. That is why we all look up to King Eagle," replied Sammy.

"Way back in the beginning of things, old King Bear ruled in the Green Forest, as you know. That is, he ruled the animals and all the little people who lived on the ground, but he didn't rule the birds. You see the birds were not willing to be ruled over by an animal. They wanted one of their own kind. So they refused to have old King Bear as their king and went to Old Mother Nature to ask her to appoint a king of the air. Now Mr. Eagle was one of the biggest and strongest and most respected of all the birds of the air. There were some, like Mr. Goose and Mr. Swan, who were bigger, but they spent most of their time on the water or the earth, and they had no great claws or hooked beak to command respect as did Mr. Eagle. So Old Mother Nature made Mr. Eagle king of the air, and as was quite right and proper, all the birds hastened to pay him homage.

"So King Eagle ruled the air and none dared to cross him or to disobey him. Unlike old King Bear, he accepted no tribute from his subjects but hunted for himself, and instead of growing fat and lazy, as did old King Bear, he grew stronger of wing and feared no one and nothing. Now this was in the days when the world was young, and Old Mother Nature was very busy trying to make the world a good place to live in, so she had very little time to look after the birds and the animals. Thus she left matters very much to King Eagle and old King Bear. They settled all the quarrels between their subjects, and for a while everything went smoothly.

"King Eagle made his home on the cliff of a mountain, so that he could look down on all below and see what was going on. Every day he went down to the Green Forest and sat on the tallest tree while he listened to the complaints of the other birds and settled their disputes, and none questioned his decisions. Now after a while, this little part of the earth where the animals and the birds first lived became overcrowded. It became harder and harder to get enough to eat. Quarrels became more frequent, until King Eagle had little time for anything but straightening out these troubles and trying to keep peace.

"Old Mother Nature had been away a long time trying to make other parts of the world fit to live in. No one knew when she was coming back or just where she was. King Eagle, sitting on the edge of the cliff on the mountain, thought it all over. Old Mother Nature ought to know how things were. He would send a messenger to try to find her. So the next day he called all the birds together and asked who would go out into the unknown Great World to look for Old Mother Nature and take a message to her.

"No one offered. This one had a family to look after. That one was not feeling well. Another had a pain in his wings. One and all they had an excuse until Hummer, the tiniest of all the birds, was reached. He darted into the air before King Eagle. 'I'll go,' said he.

"All the others laughed. The very idea of such a tiny fellow going out to dare the dangers of the unknown Great World seemed to them so absurd that they just had to laugh. But King Eagle didn't laugh. He thanked Hummer and told him that his heart was as big as his body was small, but that he would not send him out into the Great World, for he would go himself. He had been but trying out his subjects, and he had found but one who was worthy, and that one was the smallest of them all. Then King Eagle said things that made all the other birds hang their heads for shame and want to sneak out of sight.

"After that, he told them that no king who was worthy to be king would ask his subjects to do what he would not do himself, and that where there was danger to be faced or something hard to do, it was the king's place to do it, so he himself was going out into the unknown Great World to find Mother Nature and see what could be done to make things better and happier for them. Then he spread his great wings and sailed away, every inch a king. They watched him until he was a speck in the sky, and finally he disappeared altogether.

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