The Good Wolf

had to put his hand under his pillowand touch the whip before he could go to sleep.

  It was curious, but the first thing when he wakened in the morninghe found himself sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes and sayingaloud to himself:

  "Was it? Was it? Was it?"

  Then he remembered the tiny whip and he darted his hand under hispillow, but he felt nothing. He lifted the pillow and looked underit, but he saw nothing. He jumped out of bed and shook the sheetand shook it, but he felt nothing. The tiny whip was gone.

  He just stood and stared, and then he said rather slowly:

  "Well, if it was a dream it was the nicest one I ever had and I'mglad I had it. Perhaps some night I shall have it again." And hedressed himself quickly and ran downstairs.

  And this was the first thing his mother said to him as she came infrom the wood shed:

  "I've just been looking at your new sled, Barty, and it is thenicest one I ever saw."

  "Oh!" Barty almost shouted, "is it in the woodshed? Is it?" And heflew out to look, and there it was! And it was just as red and justas jingling and just as beautiful as ever.

  "The Good Wolf wasn't a dream," he cried joyfully. "And so theother wasn't."

  But as the days went by and he wished more and more that he couldfind the little whip and make sure that the tiny lions and tigersand elephants had been real, he used to go and sit down very hardon the red sled and say out loud ever so many times:

  "It wasn't a dream--it wasn't--it wasn't--it wasn't one! and thatwould make him feel quite cheerful."

  One quite beautiful morning, after the snow had gone away, he wasin his bedroom and he suddenly caught sight of something bright,shining under a wardrobe.

  "I wonder what that is," he said, feeling his heart begin to beat.He crept to the wardrobe as if he thought the bright thing wouldget away if it heard him, and suddenly he dropped on his knees,thrust his arm far under the wardrobe, quite against the wall, andpulled out the bright thing--and it was the whip. The bright partwas the gold handle. It had rolled out from under the pillow andhad rested on the edge of the bed until it had been shaken off androlled under the wardrobe and stayed there. Barty gave a shout.

  "There," he cried, "I said it wasn't a dream--and it wasn't one!"

  He was so excited that he almost did a dangerous thing. He almostcracked the whip right in his bedroom, but he remembered just intime that if he did, and the little animals came and his mothercame too, they would grow big all at once at sight of her, and itwould be enough to frighten any mother to death--besides the roombeing so small that it wouldn't hold even a single elephant. 87

  "I'd better be careful," he said to himself, "I'm glad I thought ofthat in time."

  When he got outside he really couldn't wait until he got into thedeep forest, and was under the trees, flying along the path whichled to the bushes which hid his secret place. It was a very secretplace. You had to crawl through a sort of tunnel until you crawledthrough a hole into a clear green place with a close hedge ofbushes round it, except where there was a high rock at the back--agreat big rock with a cave in it. Barty had never been into thecave because it rather frightened him. He thought it looked like aRobber's Cave, though he had never seen any robbers about, andanyway there was only a long narrow slit in the rock for any one tosqueeze in and out of. A fat robber could never have got in. Bartycrawled through the hole in the bushes and stood up on his feet,quite out of breath. His eyes were sparkling with joy.

  "Now then," he said when he had his breath again. "Now then!" Andhe stood in the middle of the green circle and cracked his whip.

  It was such a little whip that it made only a little crack. And atfirst nothing came.

  "Shake yourself once--shake yourself twice--shake yourself threetimes," he said. "Perhaps I had better crack it three times." Andthree times he cracked it as loud as ever he could. After he haddone it he stood quite still and listened.

  He listened and listened, and the deep forest seemed so still thathe could hear himself breathe. He listened and listened again, andit seemed so still that he felt as if he could hear himself think.Then he listened again, and he heard a faint, faint rustle. Itsounded far away and he did not know where it came from. Butpresently he knew it was coming nearer. Yes, it was coming nearerand nearer and it seemed to be coming from the right side and fromthe left and from before and behind him, and it grew louder andlouder until it sounded like scampering and like shuffling and likejumping and like little trotting hoofs. And in about three minutestwo little lions jumped over the bushes and two little tigersfollowed them and two little leopards after them, and two littlebears came shuffling through the hole at the end of the tunnel, andtwo tiny hippopotamuses and two rhinoceroses, and two lovelyelephants who marched into the middle of the ring and threw uptheir trunks and trumpeted; and last of all four splendid littlehorses, one snow white and one jet black and two with beautifulbrown spots on them, leaped over the hedge and made a bow to Barty,bending their heads and scraping with their feet, and wheeled aboutand began to gallop round and round the ring as fast as ever theycould, just as if they were at a real circus.

  "Oh, I said it wasn't a dream!" shouted Barty. "And it isn't--itisn't--it isn't! Hooray! Hooray! Hooray! And he jumped up and downand laughed for joy, and stamped and stamped and stamped. Then theyall crowded round him as if they felt just as happy as he did.

  "Didn't you want us before?" they said. "What a long time you werein calling us."

  "I lost my whip," answered Barty, and when they all cried out"Oh-h-h!" he suddenly felt as if he must turn round and lookbehind, and when he did it he saw that the nicest thing in theworld had happened. There sat the Good Wolf near the bushes,smiling at him. He could not help running to him and hugging him.

  "Oh, I am glad! I am glad!" he said. "This is the nicest thing ofall!"

  "It is nice," answered the Good Wolf. "I was hunting in Russia andI wasn't sure I could come. But I must attend to this whipbusiness."

  He shook his blue ear and a narrow, rather long ivory box fell out.

  "That is a whip box," he said, and he began to scratch in the earthuntil he made a rather deep hole under a bush. "Now," he said,"whenever you have done with your whip you must lock it in that boxand put it in this hole, and you will always know where to findit."

  "I will never forget," said Barty.

  The circus they had that morning was ten times as nice as the onethey had had before.

  "Oh, what fun it would be," said Barty, "if we had a little clown."He wasn't hinting in the least, he only said it because it justcame into his head, and he had no sooner said it than the Good Wolfwalked forward.

  "Now I should like to know," he said, "why I never thought once ofthat. It was perfectly ridiculous of me."

  He gave his pink ear a flip and out flew a tiny clown in baggywhite trousers with his hands stuck in the pockets, and a frillround his neck and a red and white painted face. And he turnedsixteen somersaults one after the other and bounced onto his feetand stuck out his tongue, and said in a cracked little shrill voicejust like a big clown: "Here we are again, sir. How are youto-morrow?"

  And this was such a tremendous joke that it was not only Barty wholaughed till he rolled over, but every single little animal laughedtill it rolled over, and the grass was just covered with littleelephants and lions and tigers and bears and the rest, rollingabout and holding their sides. There is no knowing when they wouldhave stopped, but in the midst of it the Good Wolf shook his blueear and out flew the prettiest little circus lady in the world. Shehad pink tights on and wore so many short gauzy spangled skirtsthat she looked like a fairy, and she whirled round and round onthe very tips of her toes, and sprang onto the backs of two of theprettiest horses--one foot on each back--and went galloping roundthe ring like lightning, smiling and kissing her hand to everybody.

  That was why the circus was ten times nicer than it had beenbefore. Everything was there. And Barty went on being ring-masterand the circus grew more and more delightful and more and moree
xciting, until at last the whole entertainment was tired and hadto sit down and rest and fan itself because it was actually hot.

  They all sat in a circle, and because none of the animals were asbig as kittens, Barty looked like a very pretty giant with rosycheeks and curly hair. The animals had grown so fond of him thatthey all sat and looked at him affectionately, and the nearestelephant and lion perfectly cuddled up against him. The beautifullittle lady circus rider perched on his hand and the clown sat downon his shoe.

  "I am very glad to have made your acquaintance," the little ladysaid. "I admire you very much. You make a most delightfulring-master."

  "We all like