Father Thrift and His Animal Friends

  But the foxes did not stop eating. And they did not stop wearingclothes.

  Just as many foxes as ever were eating food and wearing clothes. Yetonly about half as many were left at home to make the things to eatand the clothes to wear. The rest of the foxes were away at war.

  So, of course, there were only half as many things to eat and to wearas there had been before. And because there were only half as many,and every one wanted these, they cost twice as much.

  Now it seemed as though the poor foxes wouldn't have money enough tobuy food and clothes. And they worried as to how they could get along.

  But the rich foxes, like Young Fox and his friends, could still buyall the things _they_ wanted, because they had plenty of money. Theybought more than they needed.

  "This will never do!" declared Governor Gray Fox. "Everybody must eat,and everybody must wear clothes.

  "Hereafter every one will get an equal share of the food, and nothingmust be wasted. And clothes will cost just so much and no more."

  The poor foxes said that that was fair enough, for they hadn'tanything to waste. But the rich foxes complained bitterly. They saidthe Governor was trying to starve them.

  Still, they had to do as the Governor said. And it was good for themto do with less. It is true that the fat foxes lost their bigstomachs, but that made them look handsomer. It also made them feelmuch better.

  No one ever left anything on his plate now. No one spent his moneyfoolishly. No one broke his things purposely, or tore his clothesneedlessly. There was an end to all the wastefulness.

  And when the war was over the Gray Foxes grew prosperous again. Onlythis time there were no foxes as poor as there had been before thewar. Neither were there any quite so rich.

  But every one had plenty. And because all shared fairly, they alllived more happily.

  * * * * *

  "Which shows," added Father Thrift, "that everything which happens isfor the best, and the world is a good place to live in, after all."

  RED SQUIRREL AND BUNNY COTTONTAIL

  The ground was covered deep with snow, and it was bitter cold in theforest.

  But Mr. Red Squirrel and his family were quite comfortable in theircozy home.

  Mr. Red Squirrel lived with his wife and three children in the hollowof an old oak tree. They were a thrifty and industrious family.

  They always had plenty to eat, besides something laid away for a rainyday.

  That is because Mr. Red Squirrel was very careful about little things,and brought up his family to be the same.

  Before the nuts were fully ripe, the squirrels would climb the trees,gnaw the stems, and drop the nuts to the ground.

  Then they would scamper down and gather them into neat piles. Theywould eat some of the new nuts for breakfast, and put the rest away inthe granaries.

  They worked hard all the summer and autumn, getting food for thewinter. And never a thing was wasted in Mr. Squirrel's house.

  On this cold winter's night Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel and the three littlesquirrels sat warm and snug in their home in the old oak tree.Suddenly there came a tiny tap at the door.

  It might have been the wind. Mrs. Squirrel was not sure. She listened.The sound came again. Yes, some one certainly was knocking at theirdoor.

  Who could it be, this bitter cold night?

  Mr. Squirrel got up and opened the door. At first he saw no one.

  "Who's there?" he called, in his pleasant, cheery voice.

  "It is I, neighbor," answered a weak voice, sadly. "Please let me in!I am cold and hungry!"

  Mr. Squirrel opened the door wide, and said: "Yes, come in, come in.It is a bitter cold night, to be sure. Come in and let me shut thedoor. My tail is nearly frozen just from standing here."

  Then there came hopping into the hollow of the tree trunk a rabbit.Poor Bunny Cottontail, how miserable he did look!

  His coat was all dirty and ragged. And his poor little tail hung downbehind instead of standing up straight and stiff, as a rabbit's tailought to do.

  His ears drooped, and his whiskers were broken and limp. He hadrheumatism in one hind leg, and his eyes, which should have been asbright as Mr. Squirrel's, were dull and dim.

  Altogether he looked as shabby and sad as a bunny could look--not atall like a respectable, well-brought-up rabbit.

  Mr. Squirrel hastened to put poor Bunny into the warmest corner of thehollow. And Mrs. Squirrel brought him some food, which he ate eagerly.

  The little squirrels were so astonished at the rabbit's appearancethat they did not know what to make of him.

  When Bunny was warm and rested, Mrs. Squirrel sent her little ones tobed.

  Then she and Mr. Squirrel began to try to find out what had happenedto make their poor neighbor so forlorn.

  "How could I help it?" he cried mournfully. "I did not know that itwould be so cold, nor that the snow would be so deep that I should notbe able to get a bit of winter cabbage to eat.

  "I am sure I am willing to work. I would take any trouble, but it isnot a bit of use. Indeed, Neighbor Squirrel, I do not see how you havemanaged."

  And he looked enviously around the neat, warm little nest.

  "It was very simple," replied Mr. Squirrel, gravely. "We all helpedand put away part of everything we found. If we found six nuts, we putaway at least three in our storeroom. And nuts and acorns were veryplentiful this autumn.

  "So, though the winter is very hard, we shall have plenty. We haveplenty for a friend, too. So eat as much as you will, neighbor, anddon't spare the loaf."

  It was very kind of Mr. Squirrel, but he could not help the poorrabbit much.

  Bunny had been such an idle, wandering fellow that he could not becontent to stay with Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel quietly and help to do thework of their little home. So in a few days he wandered away.

  As he shivered in the cold and tried to find enough to eat, he oftenwished that he had been as wise and as thrifty as the Squirrel family.

  And the Squirrel family, being as kind-hearted as they were thrifty,often thought of the poor rabbit with pity. They wondered how he wasgetting on, but they never heard of him again.

  SHAGGY BEAR'S MISTAKE

  Father Thrift was carrying in wood for his fire. It had been a longand hard winter.

  Suddenly he heard footsteps in the snow behind him. He looked around.And there--would you believe it!--stood his old friend, Shaggy Bear.

  Shaggy was as thin as a shadow, and his teeth chattered with the cold.

  "My, my, but you are out early this year!" exclaimed Father Thrift."Come in and warm yourself by the fire."

  Shaggy needed no coaxing. He was so cold that even his voice hadfrozen in his throat! At least he couldn't speak a word until he grewwarm.

  And the way that bear snuggled up to Father Thrift's fire was comicalto see!

  At last he managed to say: "Father Thrift, I shouldn't know this placeif I had not lived here so long. You have a door on the cave, and twowindows. And you have chairs and a table, and--and two beds.

  "Why have you two beds, Father Thrift?"

  "One is for company," answered the queer little old man.

  "If you had just one more bed, I should say this was the House of theThree Bears."

  And Shaggy laughed at his little joke. (Or perhaps the good meal whichFather Thrift had prepared for him tickled his stomach.)

  "Where have you been all winter?" asked Father Thrift.

  "When the cold days came," said the bear, "I crawled into my cave inthe rocks and curled myself up into a big ball. There I meant to stayuntil the warm days of spring.

  "The snow made a door to my cave, and I intended to sleep all winterlong.

  "Then the wind swept the snow away from my door and I awoke and lookedabout. I thought that spring had come.

  "And that is where I made my mistake. I should have gone to sleepagain. But I was hungry, having had nothing to eat all winter. So Icrawled out.

  "The roots and the berries are
still asleep under the snow. The fishare under the ice. There is nothing for me to do but return to my caveand go back to sleep."

  "You must not do that," said Father Thrift. "That would be wastingtime. And time is the most precious thing we have."

  "Is it?" the bear asked in surprise.

  "Indeed it is!" replied Father Thrift. "We may lose wealth, but byhard work and saving we may win it back.

  "We may lose health, and with care and medicine restore it. But timethat is lost is gone forever."

  The bear listened to Father Thrift's wise talk, but he shivered andsaid: "Still, I am cold; and I can find no food to eat."

  "I have a warm fire," said Father Thrift. "And I have food enough forus both, and to spare. I will share with you if you will help me withmy work."

  "That I will, gladly!" cried Shaggy, who was still smacking his lipsover the fine dinner he had eaten. "But how does it happen that youhave food, when the ground has been frozen so long?"

  "When you learn to look ahead," replied Father Thrift, "you will findthat easy enough.

  "In the warm days I prepare for the cold days which I know are coming.I raise my crops. I gather berries and plums, and preserve them. Theapples and the nuts will keep as they are.

  "So, you see, instead of letting go to waste what I cannot use whenfood is plentiful, I save it for the days when food is scarce."

  "Then do you rest all winter?" asked the bear.

  "No!" said Father Thrift. "In the winter many things are waiting to bedone. Then I make my clothes, shoes, furniture, tools, and otherthings."

  "What are you making now?" questioned the bear, as Father Thriftwhittled pieces of wood with his knife.

  "These will be wooden spouts," answered Father Thrift. "You like sweetthings--honey, for instance."

  Father Thrift smiled. Do you know why?

  "Well, maple sirup and maple sugar are about as sweet as honey. Thesespouts will help us get all we want of both."

  "Will they?" cried Shaggy eagerly. "How?"

  "The maple trees, too," Father Thrift told him, "have been sleepingall winter. Most of the sap has been down in their roots. In the earlyspring it travels upward into the trunk and branches and the treesawake.

  "The maple tree does not need all its sap. It is willing to give someof it to us. And when you have maple sirup you won't have to stealhoney from the bees."

  This pleased Shaggy so much that he stood up on his hind legs anddanced a bear dance. How Father Thrift laughed!

  THE SWEETEST THING IN THE FOREST

  Father Thrift spent the next few days in making wooden pails, in whichto gather the maple sap.

  What a lot of measuring and sawing and fitting and finishing it takesto make a few pails!

  Shaggy Bear helped as much as he could. But bears are _such_ clumsythings!

  Finally one day Father Thrift said to Shaggy: "Now everything isready. We have our spouts with which to draw the sap from the trees.And we have the wooden pails and some earthen crocks I made from claylast summer, in which to gather it.

  "There is a large iron kettle we will use for boiling the sap downinto sirup and sugar.

  "To-morrow we will tap our trees."

  "Why to-morrow?" asked the bear. "That seems too long to wait. Why notto-day?"

  "Because," replied Father Thrift, "everything depends on time. Thereisn't time enough left to-day. To-morrow we will start work realearly. And to get up early to-morrow we must get to bed earlyto-night."

  "I don't see how I shall be able to sleep at all," grumbled the bear.

  But in a few moments he was fast asleep where he sat.

  He was a funny fellow!

  Still, Father Thrift did not mind. He liked the quiet. When it wasquiet he could think. In that he was quite different from many people,who like only to talk.

  And he thought to himself: "Suppose that each person wastes one hour aday. A hundred days, a hundred hours. Multiply that by the number ofpeople in the world--"

  But the figures were too large even for Father Thrift to count up.

  "If every one would use that hour each day in reading a good book, orin thinking, or in doing something else that is useful, how muchbetter the world would be in another hundred years!"

  Father Thrift sat and thought for a whole hour.

  Then he waked the bear and each went to his own bed to rest for thenight.

  What a funny sight it was--a man and a bear sleeping side by side inthe same room!

  Early the next morning Father Thrift and the bear went to the maplegrove to tap their trees.

  Father Thrift bored holes in the tree trunks. Then he pounded a littlespout into each hole for the sap to run through.

  As they had no handles on their pails and crocks, they could not hangthem on the spouts. Instead they set them down in the snow under thespouts.

  The sun was getting warm, and was drawing up the sap from the roots ofthe tree into its branches. Soon you could hear it drip, drip,dripping into the pails and the crocks.

  Shaggy Bear was too astonished to talk. He put out his paw, and agreat drop of shining yellow maple sap fell on it. Then he licked hispaw. Then he grunted, a funny bear grunt of surprise and pleasure.

  _Mmmmmm!_ It was good! It was sweet, truly. And what a deliciousflavor it had!

  The bear put out his paw again and again. And how he did lick the sapoff it! My, oh, _my_! it was sweet! Not even the honey of the beetasted so good. It was like nothing else in the whole forest.

  Meanwhile Father Thrift was arranging his kettle and pans and buildinga fire.

  "Now let us pour all the sap into one pail," he said, "and perhaps weshall have enough to start boiling."

  "Oh, but that may spoil it!" cried Shaggy Bear.

  "The sap is made sweeter by boiling," said Father Thrift. But the beardid not see how that could be.

  When the sap began to boil, Father Thrift told Shaggy to stir it, sothat it would not burn.

  Suddenly the bear began jumping about and crying: "Father Thrift, comehere, come here!"

  Father Thrift ran over to see what had happened.

  Shaggy was all excitement.

  "Look!" he cried. "Look in the kettle! We had much there. Now we havelittle. I told you the fire would spoil it!"

  "No," replied Father Thrift, smilingly, "the fire has not spoiledanything. When the sap boils, the water in it goes away in steam. Andthe longer it boils, the more the water goes away.

  "This time we will not let it boil so very long, and then we shallhave sirup. But the next kettle of sap we will boil longer and then weshall have maple sugar."

  When the sirup grew thick, Father Thrift said, "Taste!" And the beartasted.

  "Oh, Father Thrift," he cried in delight, "it is the best thing I haveever tasted! Truly, the boiling improves it."

  Then when the maple sugar was done, Father Thrift called Shaggy.

  "Taste _this_," he said.

  Ah, how good it was! Nothing like it had ever gone into Shaggy Bear'smouth before. Never had he tasted such sweetness.

  And, oh, what a wonderful meal they had that night! Father Thrift madegolden corn cakes, and he and Shaggy ate the hot cakes with freshmaple sirup poured over them.

  * * * * *

  The bear grew thoughtful after supper.

  "Now I know why I used to get into so much trouble," he said. "I havehad too much idle time on my hands.

  "After this I will work hard and learn. I--I think I could help you alot, Father Thrift. Will--you--let--me--stay--if--I--do?"

  "I shall be glad to have you stay, always," said Father Thrift.

  And the bear was so overjoyed at what Father Thrift said that hecried.

  ROBINS, CROWS, AND BLACKBIRDS

  A soft little breeze was blowing. It was warm, and it had in it thesmell of green things growing--trees, and buds, and grass, andflowers.

  Little birds were singing. And they had joy and gladness in theirvoices. And the colors of the rainbow were in their
feathers.

  Little brooks were flowing--flowing and growing into rivers. Theysparkled in the merry sunshine, and their laughter could be heardeverywhere they went.

  The whole forest was glad. Why?

  Because it was spring, merry spring. And spring is the gladdest,happiest time of all the year.

  Father Thrift was plowing his garden and Shaggy Bear was helping him.

  And do you know how they worked together?

  Father Thrift held the handles of the plow and Shaggy pulled it. Hewas the horse. A funnier sight you have never seen!

  The ground was hard, so that no seed could grow in it. Father Thriftturned the earth over with his plow. This loosened the soil and madeit soft.

  The robins followed the plow and found nice large angleworms for theirbreakfast. Then they sang this song:

  Cheerily cheer-up! Cheerily cheer-up! Cheerily cheer, we're glad you're here, Little fat worms. Oh, cheerily cheer-up, Cheerily cheer, we're glad you're here!

  But the little fat worms only turned and squirmed. They sang no songat all.

  The crows and the blackbirds followed Father Thrift, too. They ate thegrub worms and the beetles and other insects which they found.

  Then, when the ground was ready, Father Thrift and Shaggy Bear plantedthe seeds.

  The robins did not follow them now.

  But the crows and the blackbirds did. And do you know what they weredoing?