"So then we began to pack up right away, and Uncle Silas and Aunt Melissy quarrelled a good deal about what was worth taking and what wasn't, and they took turns scolding the hired man about a good many things he didn't do and almost all of the things he did do, and my little cousins and I had a fine time running through the empty rooms and playing with things we had never seen before, but we had to keep out of Aunt Melissy's reach if we wanted to enjoy it much.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AUNT MELISSY HAD ARRANGED A BUNDLE FOR UNCLE SILAS, AND SHE HAD FIXED UP THE HIRED MAN TOO]

"Well, by-and-by we were all packed up and ready to start. We had everything in bundles or tied together, and Aunt Melissy had arranged a big bundle for Uncle Silas to carry, and several things to tie and hang about on his person in different places, and she had fixed up the hired man too, besides some bundles for me and my little cousins.

[Ill.u.s.tration: DIDN'T LOOK AS IF SHE BELONGED TO THE REST OF OUR CROWD]

"Aunt Melissy said she would take charge of the lunch-basket and lead the way, and she was all dressed up and carried an umbrella, and didn't look much as if she belonged to the rest of our crowd.

"It was pretty early when we started, for it was getting dangerous to camp out in that section, and we wanted to get as far as we could the first day, though we didn't any of us have any idea then how long a trip we _would_ make that day, nor of the way we were going to make it.

n.o.body could guess a guess like that, even if he was the best guesser in the world and made his living that way."

Mr. 'Possum stopped to light his pipe again, and said that if anybody wanted a chance to guess how far they went that first day and how they travelled, they could guess now. But the Hollow Tree People said they didn't want to guess, and they did want Mr. 'Possum to go ahead and tell them about it.

"Well," said Mr. 'Possum, "we travelled fifty miles that first day, and we travelled it in less than two hours."

"Fifty miles in two hours!" said all the Hollow Tree People. And Jack Rabbit said:

"Why, a menagerie like that couldn't travel fifty miles in two years!"

"But we did, though," said Mr. 'Possum; "we travelled it in a balloon."

"In a balloon!"

"Well, not exactly in a balloon, but _with_ a balloon. It happened just as I'm going to tell you.

"We went along pretty well until we got to the Wide Gra.s.s Lands, though Aunt Melissy scolded Uncle Silas a good deal because he got behind and didn't stand up in a nice stylish way with all the things he had to carry, and she used her umbrella once on the hired man because he dropped the clock.

"When we got out to the Wide Gra.s.s Lands there was a high east wind blowing, getting ready for a storm, and when we got on top of a little gra.s.sy hill close to the Wide Blue Water it blew Uncle Silas and the hired man so they could hardly stand up, and it turned Aunt Melissy's umbrella wrong side out, which made her mad, and she said that it was Uncle Silas's fault and mine, and that she had never wanted to move anyway.

"But just then one of my little cousins looked up in the sky and said, 'Oh, look at that funny bird!' and we all looked up, and there was a great big long bag of a thing coming right toward us, not very high up, and Uncle Silas spoke up and said 'That's a balloon,' for Uncle Silas had seen one in town when he was there visiting Cousin Glenwood, and the hired man, too. Then while we were all standing there watching it, we saw that there was a long rope that hung from the balloon most to the ground, and that it had something tied to the end of it (a big iron thing with a lot of hooks on it), and that it was swooping down straight toward us.

"Uncle Silas called out as loud as he could, 'That's the anchor! Look out!' but it was too late to look out, for it was coming as fast as the wind blew the balloon, and Uncle Silas and the hired man being loaded with the things couldn't move very quick, and the rest of us were too scared to know which way to jump, and down came that thing right among us, and I saw it catch among Uncle Silas's furniture and the hired man's, and I heard Uncle Silas say, 'Grab hold, all of you' and we all did, some one way and some another, and away we went.

"Well, it was certainly very curious how we all were lucky enough to get hold of that anchor, with all our bundles and things; but of course we could do it better than if we had not been given those nice useful tails which belong to our family. I had hold that way, and some of the others did, too. Uncle Silas didn't need to hold on at all, for some of the furniture was tied to him, and he just sat back in a chair that was hung on behind and took it easy, though he did drop some of his things when he first got aboard, and Aunt Melissy scolded him for that as soon as she caught her breath and got over being frightened and was sitting up on her part of the anchor enjoying the scenery.

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BALLOON WENT OVER THE WIDE BLUE WATER JUST AFTER IT GOT OUR FAMILY]

"I never had such a trip as that before, and never expect to have one again. The balloon went over the Wide Blue Water just after it got our family, and we were all afraid we would be let down in it and drowned; but the people who were in the balloon threw out something heavy which we thought at first they were throwing at us, but it must have been something to make the balloon go up; for we did go up until Aunt Melissy said if we'd just get a little nearer one of those clouds she'd step out on it and live there, as she'd always wanted to do since she was a child.

"Then we all sat up and held on tight, above and below, and said what a nice day it was to travel, and that we'd always travel that way hereafter; and Uncle Silas and the hired man unhooked their furniture, so they could land easier when the time came, and Aunt Melissy pa.s.sed around the lunch, and we looked down and saw the water and the land again and a lot of houses and trees, and Aunt Melissy said that n.o.body could ever make her believe the world was that big if she hadn't seen it with her own eyes.

"And Uncle Silas and the hired man said that of course this was going pretty fast, but that they had travelled a good deal faster sometimes when they were in town with Cousin Glenwood, and pretty soon he showed us the town where Cousin Glenwood lived, and he and the hired man tried to point out the house to us, but they couldn't agree about which it was because the houses didn't look the same from up there in the air as they did from down on the ground.

"I know I shall never forget that trip. We saw ever so many different Mr. Men and Mr. Dogs, and animals of every kind, and houses that had chimneys taller than any tree, and a good many things that even Uncle Silas did not know about. Then by-and-by we came to some woods again--the biggest kind of Big Deep Woods--and we saw that we were getting close to the tree-tops, and we were all afraid we would get hit by the branches and maybe knocked off with our things.

"And pretty soon, sure enough, that anchor did drop right down among the trees, and such a clapping and scratching as we did get!

"We shut our eyes and held on, and some of our furniture was brushed off of Uncle Silas and the hired man, and Aunt Melissy lost her umbrella, and I lost a toy chicken, which I could never find again. Then all at once there was a big sudden jerk that jarred Uncle Silas loose, and made Aunt Melissy holler that she was killed, and knocked the breath out of the rest of us for a few minutes.

"But we were all there, and the anchor was fast on the limb of a big tree--a tree almost as big as the Hollow Tree, and hollow, just like it, with a nice handy place to go in.

"So when we got our senses back we picked up all our things that we could find, and moved into the new place, and Aunt Melissy looked at the clock, which was still running, and it was just a little over two hours since we started.

"Then pretty soon we heard Mr. Man and his friends who had been up in the balloon coming, and we stayed close inside till they had taken the anchor and everything away, and after that, when it was getting dark, Uncle Silas and the hired man went out and found, not very far off, where there were some nice chickens that roosted in handy places, and brought home two or three, and Aunt Melissy set up the stove and cooked up a good supper, and we all sat around the kitchen fire, and the storm that the east wind had been blowing up came along sure enough and it rained all night, but we were snug and dry, and went to sleep mostly in beds made down on the floor, and lay there listening to the rain and thinking what a nice journey we'd had and what a good new home we'd found.

"And it _was_ a good place, for I lived there till I grew up, and if I'm not mistaken some of Uncle Silas's and Aunt Melissy's children live there still. I haven't heard from any of them for a long time, but I am thinking of going on a visit over that way in the spring, and if that balloon is still running I'm going to travel with it.

"And that," said Mr. 'Possum, "is a true story--all true, every word, for I was there."

n.o.body said anything for a minute or two after Mr. 'Possum had finished his story--n.o.body _could_ say anything.

Then Mr. Rabbit coughed a little and remarked that he was glad that Mr.

'Possum said that the story was true, for no one would ever have suspected it. He said if Mr. 'Possum hadn't said it was true he would have thought it was one of those pleasant dreams that Mr. 'Possum had when he slept hanging to a peg head down.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MR. TURTLE SAID THAT WHAT MR. 'POSSUM HAD TOLD THEM WAS TRUE]

But Mr. Turtle, who had been sitting with his eyes shut and looking as if he were asleep, knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and said that what Mr. 'Possum had told them was true--at least, _some_ of it was true; for he himself had been sitting in the door of his house on the sh.o.r.e of the Wide Blue Water when the balloon pa.s.sed over, and he had seen Uncle Silas Lovejoy's family sitting up there anch.o.r.ed and comfortable; and he had picked up a chair that Uncle Silas had dropped, and he had it in his house to this day, it being a good strong chair and better than any that was made nowadays.

Well, of course after that n.o.body said anything about Mr. 'Possum's story not being true, for they remembered how old and wise Mr. Turtle was and could always prove things, and they all talked about it a great deal, and asked Mr. 'Possum a good many questions.

They said how nice it was to know somebody who had had an adventure like that, and Mr. Rabbit changed his seat so he could be next to Mr.

'Possum, because he said he wanted to write it all down to keep.

And Mr. 'Possum said he never would forget how good those chickens tasted that first night in the new home, and that Mr. Rabbit mustn't forget to put them in.

Then they all remembered that they were hungry now, and Mr. Crow and Mr.

Squirrel and Mr. Robin hustled around to get a bite to eat before bedtime, and Mr. 'Possum hurried down to bring up the stove-wood, and was gone quite awhile, though n.o.body spoke of it--not then--even if they did wonder about it a little--and after supper they all sat around the fire again and smoked and dropped off to sleep while the clock ticked and the blaze flickered about and made queer shadows on the wall of the Hollow Tree.

FOOTNOTES:

[2] _Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book_.

THE BARK OF OLD HUNGRY-WOLF

THE BARK OF OLD HUNGRY-WOLF

HOW THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE HAVE A MOST UNWELCOME VISITOR, AND WHAT BECOMES OF HIM

"What made Mr. 'Possum so anxious to get the wood, and what made him stay down-stairs so long when he went after it?" asks the Little Lady next evening, when the Story Teller is lighting his pipe and getting ready to remember the history of the Hollow Tree.

"We're coming to that. You may be sure there was some reason for it, for Mr. 'Possum doesn't hurry after wood or stay long in a cold place if he can help it, unless he has something on his mind. Perhaps some of the Deep Woods People thought of that too, but if they did they didn't say anything--not at the time. I suppose they thought it didn't matter much, anyhow, if they got the wood."