Woodland Tales

Part 1

Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Music transcribed by Linda Cantoni

WOODLAND TALES

WOODLAND TALES

BY ERNEST THOMPSON SETON

WITH 100 DRAWINGS

THE AUTHOR

AUTHOR OF "WILD ANIMALS AT HOME," "WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN," "TWO LITTLE SAVAGES," "BIOGRAPHY OF A GRIZZLY," "LIFE HISTORIES OF NORTHERN ANIMALS," "ROLF IN THE WOODS," "THE BOOK OF WOODCRAFT." CHIEF OF THE WOODCRAFT LEAGUE OF AMERICA

GARDEN CITY NEW YORK DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY 1922

COPYRIGHT, 1905, 1920, 1921, BY

ERNEST THOMPSON SETON

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN LANGUAGES, INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN

COPYRIGHT 1903, 1904, BY THE CENTURY COMPANY

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS, GARDEN CITY, N. Y.

PREFACE

To the Guide

These Mother Carey Tales were written for children of all ages, who have not outgrown the delight of a fairy tale. It might almost be said that they were written chiefly for myself, for I not only have had the pleasure of telling them to the little ones, and enjoying their quick response, but have also had the greater pleasure of thinking them and setting them down.

As I write, I look from a loved window, across a landscape that I love, and my eye rests on a tall beautiful pine planted with my own hands years ago. It is a mass of green fringes, with gem-like tips of buds and baby cones, beautiful, exquisitely beautiful, whether seen from afar as a green spire, or viewed close at hand as jewellery. It is beautiful, fragile and--unimportant, as the world sees it; yet through its wind-waved mass one can get little glimpses of the thing that backs it all, the storm-defying shaft, the enduring rigid living growing trunk of massive timber that gives it the nobility of strength, and adds value to the rest; sometimes it must be sought for, but it always surely is there, ennobling the lesser pretty things.

I hope this tree is a fair image of my fairy tale. I know my child friends will love the piney fringes and the jewel cones, and they can find the unyielding timber in its underlying truth, if they seek for it. If they do not, it is enough to have them love the cones.

All are not fairy tales. Other chapters set forth things to see, thing to do, things to go to, things to know, things to remember. These, sanctified in the blue outdoors, spell "Woodcraft," the one pursuit of man that never dies or palls, the thing that in the bygone ages gifted him and yet again will gift him with the seeing eye, the thinking hand, the body that fails not, the winged soul that stores up precious memories.

It is hoped that these chapters will show how easy and alluring, and how good a thing it is.

While they are meant for the children six years of age and upward, it is assumed that Mother (or Father) will be active as a leader; therefore it is addressed, first of all, to the parent, whom throughout we shall call the "Guide."

* * * * *

Some of these stories date back to my school days, although the first actually published was "Why the Chicadee Goes Crazy Twice a Year." This in its original form appeared in "Our Animal Friends" in September, 1893. Others, as "The Fingerboard Goldenrod," "Brook-Brownie," "The Bluebird," "Diablo and the Dogwood," "How the Violets Came," "How the Indian Summer Came," "The Twin Stars," "The Fairy Lamps," "How the Littlest Owl Came," "How the Shad Came," appeared in slightly different form in the Century Magazine, 1903 and 1904.

* * * * *

My thanks are due to the Authorities of the American Museum who have helped me with specimens and criticism; to the published writings of Dr. W. J. Holland and Clarence M. Weed for guidance in insect problems; to Britton and Browne's "Illustrated Flora, U. S. and Canada"; and to the Nature Library of Doubleday, Page & Co., for light in matters botanic; to Mrs. Daphne Drake and Mrs. Mary S. Dominick for many valuable suggestions, and to my wife, Grace Gallatin Seton, for help with the purely literary work.

Also to Oliver P. Medsger, the naturalist of Lincoln High School, Jersey City, N. J., for reading with critical care those parts of the manuscript that deal with flowers and insects, as well as for the ballad of the Ox-eye, the story of its coming to America, and the photograph of the Mecha-meck.

CONTENTS

Things to See in Springtime

Part 2

The Seeing Eye

TALE NO. PAGE

1. Blue-eyes, the Snow-child, or the Story of Hepatica 3

2. The Story of the Dawnsinger, or How the Bloodroot Came 5

3. The Prairie-girl with Yellow Hair 6

4. The Cat's-eye Toad, a child of Maka Ina 11

5. How the Bluebird Came 14

6. Robin, the Bird that Loves to Make Clay Pots 17

7. Brook Brownie, or How the Song Sparrow Got his Streaks 20

8. Diablo and the Dogwood 20

9. The Woolly-bear 23

10. How the Violets Came 25

11. Cocoons 26

12. Butterflies and Moths 28

13. The Mourning-cloak Butterfly or the Camberwell Beauty 30

14. The Wandering Monarch 32

15. The Bells of the Solomon Seal 35

16. The Silver Bells of the False Solomon Seal 37

Things to See in Summertime

17. How the Mouse-bird made Fun of the Brownie 43

18. The Pot-herb that Sailed with the Pilgrims 44

19. How the Red Clover Got the White Mark on Its Leaves 47

20. The Shamrock and Her Three Sisters 51

21. The Indian Basket-Maker 53

22. Crinkleroot; or Who Hid the Salad? 56

23. The Mecha-meck 61

24. Dutchman's Breeches 63

25. The Seven Sour Sisters 65

Part 3

26. Self-heal or Blue-curls in the Grass 65

27. The Four Butterflies You See Every Summer 67

28. The Beautiful Poison Caterpillar 72

29. The Great Splendid Silk-moth or Samia Cecropia 77

30. The Green Fairy with the Long Train 79

31. The Wicked Hoptoad and the Little Yellow Dragon 82

32. The Fairy Bird or the Humming-bird Moth 85

33. Ribgrass or Whiteman's-Foot 88

34. Jack-in-the-Pulpit 91

35. How the Indian Pipe Came 91

36. The Cucumber Under the Brownie's Umbrella 93

37. The Hickory Horn-Devil 95

Things to See in Autumntime

38. The Purple and Gold of Autumn 103

39. Why the Chicadee Goes Crazy Twice a Year 104

40. The Story of the Quaking Aspen or Poplar 107

41. The Witch-hazel 109

42. How the Shad Came and How the Chestnut Got Its Burrs 112

43. How the Littlest Owl Came 113

44. The Wood-witch and the Bog-nuts 114

45. The Mud-dauber Wasp 117

46. The Cicada and the Katydid 121

47. The Digger Wasp That Killed the Cicada 123

48. How the Indian Summer Came 126

Things to See in Wintertime

49. The North Star, or the Home Star 129

50. The Pappoose on the Squaw's Back 131

51. Orion the Hunter, and his Fight with the Bull 133

Part 4

52. The Pleiades, that Orion Fired at the Bull 134

53. The Twin Stars 136

54. Stoutheart and His Black Cravat 137

55. Tracks and the Stories They Tell 138

56. A Rabbit's Story of His Life 140

57. The Singing Hawk 144

58. The Fingerboard Goldenrod 145

59. Woodchuck Day--February Second 149

Things to Know

The Story of The Trail

60. How the Pine Tree Tells its Own Story 153

61. Blazes 155

62. Totems 155

63. Symbols 159

64. Sign Language 161

65. The Language of Hens 161

66. Why the Squirrel Wears a Bushy Tail 162

67. Why the Dog Wags His Tail 163

68. Why the Dog Turns Around Three Times Before Lying Down 164

69. The Deathcup of Diablo 165

70. The Poison Ivy, or the Three-fingered Demon of the Woods 169

71. The Medicine in the Sky 170

72. The Angel of the Night 172

Things to Do

The Thinking Hand

73. Bird-nesting in Winter 177

74. The Ox-eye Daisy or Marguerite 179

75. The Monkey-hunt 181

Part 5

76. The Horsetail and the Jungle 185

77. The Woods in Winter 186

78. The Fish and the Pond 187

79. Smoke Prints of Leaves 189

80. Bird-boxes 189

81. A Hunter's Lamp 193

82. The Coon Hunt 194

83. The Indian Pot 195

84. Snowflakes 197

85. Are you Alive? Farsight 199

86. Are you Alive? Quicksight 200

87. Are you Alive? Hearing 200

88. Are you Alive? Feeling 201

89. Are you Alive? Quickness 202

90. Are you Alive? Guessing Length 203

91. Are you Alive? Aim or Limb-control 204

92. A Treasure Hunt 205

93. Moving Pictures 205

94. The Natural Autograph Album 207

95. The Crooked Stick 208

96. The Animal Dance of Nana-bo-jou 209

97. The Caribou Dance 212

98. The Council Robe 216

Things to Remember

The Winged Soul that Stores up Precious Memories.

99. How the Wren Became King of the Birds 221

Continue reading Woodland Tales free in the Wunder reader →