Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1901-06-08

Yes. tell us" said Fun Ting.
II could tell you, but it is a long
story. Buffo won't wait till it is over.
He'd be asleep before it was nan
through
No. / am not in Il hurry to be off,
said Bufro For my part ! wish
was a plant and need never move
again. oh, what blessed enjoyment to
be fast in one place and to cat-cat
all the time from the ground.
THAT'S what you think. And that
is lust what you are. That's the Ica-
son that you arc toad, ana mop
about the ground so slow. and take All
day to think Il little thought as big as
a mustard seed. Why don't you sur
yourself? BE up and exercise before
the sun, the Great Master? l nave
known your family for ten thousand,
thousand years. and they have all been
the same. IT'S some sort OF Il curse.
! why. you're not much better than the
| crawling, crinSlng, thouShtleSS
| Hcpaticac. Why. for more years than
there are thoughts in my mind, you
and yours have been going back, back
down the hill to Dirt and Dust. and
Nothing. There is no family pride in
You That's it, And the sarsaparilla
| Curlcd it's fine green leaves in scorn.
| The toad was unmovcd. and listened
| contcntedly for the story. "A little sun
shonc through the high branches over
head, and touched his left hind leg
| lightly He srunted and pulled away
| from it, hiding under the shade of the
ferns and grasses. always friendly OHM
| and willing to befricnd him because
| he ate the flies that crawled over them
and worried them.
Fun Ting took sudden dislike to
him and poked him with Il straw.
Euffo gruntcd again and looked re-
proachfHl.
The brook ran through a little valley
between the hills here. and all the
wild things snugglcd in the ravine
close to it, and the great trees. because
they were tall and mighty, took most of
tie Masters light and heat. and left the
others the stray beams of sunshine as
they escaped. pcrcolating through the
dense undcrbrush. Up over the hill on
one side was sand bank that had
! once been a grove, but that the wild
plants had long since deserted, and
nearer still were trees of the PinuS
family. and under them a spring where
|
strange. lively. noisy. upright crea-
; lures like Fun Ting. They came for
water sometimes in dry seasons. They
were really the hired men from the
farm. and once or twice Joel himself
had remembered the spring where
Mary Esed to love to go. and had gone
there for water at the close of some
hot. hard day in summer. The up
folt no tp,- off i'm
sels that always made the pitcher
plant turn yellow with envy. and
caused it TO say to the flowers round
about: See. There go animals that
have pitchers like mine. No doubt
shall soon walk like them. and shall
come 10 the spring under the trees for
| water in my pitchers. Yes. | am sure
/ shall soon be free. I shall walk"
Up the bank of the ravine on the other
side was field with many tall white
stones in it, and queer. brilliantly
calcrcd foreign plants growing beside
the little knobs hat filled the place
These plants held no communion with
the wild flowers They had but one
ambition. and that was to be beauti-
full. They never said a word about
the good time. when all the plants
gods. and the plants should walk like
the animals. They were luggards. and
grew no better than their grand
fathers and grandmothers We're before
them. They We're just lovely and that
was all. And SO it was that the wild
plants i'll the ravinc next to the brook
knew nothing of them except what the
bees told them. or the toad-the sloth-
! hOnpinr q
came back into the ravine from going
among the low mounds up above. 1t
WAS cemetery up there. if the plants
oni" knew it. And it was the toad.
too. who told about the strange up
right folk who came to sit among
these mounds and be silent and still
fer long time. All. he told such odd
stories of the upright folk being put in
the ground like seeds, only they never
! Sprouted and grew but lay there in
the sand, in their boxes. and We're
lost. like the moes that die in their
cellars. 1t was the brook that cheered
the valley between the hills. and alone
had no trouble with the hundred thou
sand different creatures-animal and
vegetable and insect life. along its
bank. 1t cuddled the lively trout in
its palms. Tapped the roots of the
thirsting trees and was not above
giving itself freely to the poor,
thouGhtlcss. insignificant cellular life
that chung desperately near to its tiny
wet waves along the shore. and was
despiscd by all the other plants be-
cause the tribe had never given evil
dence of having a language. or being
able to talk, or think. 1t was the
brook that came tumblinC mcrrily
down the ravine day and night. night
and day, and laughed with those who
laughed. sighed with those who sighed,
and wcpt gentle moisture about the
leaves and roots of the plants when
the sad and lonely sleeping time came
in the fall. 1t was the brook who
tore wildly down the hill in the spring
shouting and roaring and awoke
everyone to the new life when winter
was gone. and the seeds began to
swell and crack and put out little
shoots ready for the terrible battle for
III" that was to follow. The brook
was partial to no one. and when three
or four thousand seeds fell on a little
square foot of ground in the nook
whore The sun Shonc close to the trout
pool III the fall and in the. spring all
II them began To swell and take root