University of Virginia Library

25. XXV
JOHNNIE BUSHYTAIL IN A TREE

OF course, as soon as Billie Bushytail got home he told his brother Johnnie about the little green fairy man turning into an eagle and flying after the hawk that had caught the little squirrel boy. That's the story I mentioned to you last night, you remember. Well, Johnnie laughed when Billie told him that a fairy had helped Sammie Littletail at the rescue.

“I'm not going to believe in fairies, even if you do,” said Johnnie. Oh, dear, isn't it terrible when people or squirrels don't believe in fairies? It's so troublesome, I think. Now I know you children aren't that way.

If you were I'm afraid I could never tell you another bedtime story. Anyhow, Johnnie didn't believe, just as usual.

But one day Johnnie was out all alone in the woods. He was looking for some last year's acorns to take home to Sister Sallie, and he skipped up one tall tree and another, and down to the ground again, chattering to himself and feeling as happy as you do when you're going to have a party.

All at once Johnnie saw a big tree, and the minute he saw it he knew that it was hollow, that is, it had a big hole in it, and, what's more, he knew the hole was full of acorns. How he knew I can't tell, except that he was a very wise little squirrel.

“Now I'll get some nice acorns for Sister Sallie,” he cried, and he ran up that tree, and down the inside before you could rub the kittie's back three times and a quarter. “Oh,

what a nice lot of acorns there are!” said Johnnie, as he saw them.

The little boy squirrel was gathering up a whole lot of them to take home when, all of a sudden, he heard a noise outside the tree. It was a funny sort of noise, and when he looked up at the hole by which he had come in — a sort of front door to the hollow tree, you know — why, if that hole wasn't all dark. Yes, sir, that hole was shut tight, and there poor Johnnie was, a prisoner in the hollow tree. Oh, how frightened he was, and he wondered who had been so cruel as to stop up the hole. Then, all at once he heard some one exclaim:

“There, I guess I've got you now, Johnnie Bushytail! You won't get out of there in a hurry!”

And who do you suppose it was that shut that little squirrel up? Why, nobody but

that bad old fox. Yes it was, really. Not the one who was turned into a village called Foxtown, but another fox entirely.

“Now I've got you!” the fox cried, “and to-night I am coming back and eat you all up — all up — all up!” and he laughed something terrible, did that fox.

Well, of course poor Johnnie tried to get out. He looked for a back door to the tree, but there wasn't any. Then he looked for a window, but there wasn't any.

“Oh, dear!” he cried, “I guess I've got to gnaw my way out.”

Well, he tried that, but he couldn't do it. You see, the tree was too thick for him to gnaw through. He could bite through a hickory nut, or maybe a black walnut, but not the big tree. Then he felt very badly indeed, and he feared he would never see his brother, or Sister Sallie, or his papa, or

mamma again. Then, as quick as the cat can wiggle her whiskers, if Johnnie didn't hear another noise outside the tree. At first he thought it was the fox who had come back, but it wasn't. It was a bird called the woodpecker.

The woodpecker pecks holes in trees to get at worms and bugs to eat. As soon as Johnnie knew it was a bird pecking he called:

“Please help me out.”

“Of course I will,” answered the bird, very kindly, and he tried, but his bill wasn't strong enough.

“Maybe you can knock out the stone which that bad fox put in the front door,” suggested Johnnie. So the woodpecker tried, but he couldn't.

“No,” he said, “it's all stopped up but the keyhole, and I don't s'pose you can get through that.”

“No,” answered Johnnie, “I can't,” and he felt worse than ever. Well, the woodpecker said he would fly off to get a lot of birds, to see if they couldn't peck a hole in that tree, but in the meanwhile something happened. Johnnie was sitting there in the dark, thinking of his home, when, all of a sudden, right through the keyhole (which, you know, was a knot-hole in the tree) there shone the loveliest colors you ever saw! Oh, they were just fine! As soon as Johnnie saw them he cried:

“Is that a rainbow shining in here?”

“No,” answered a voice, “it is not a rainbow. Those are colors from my wings.”

“Who are you?” asked Johnnie.

“I am the sky-blue-pink fairy,” replied the voice. “You see, I live near a rainbow, and that's why I am colored so prettily.”

“Oh, won't you please help me out of

[Description: Full page color illustration by Louis Wisa. A squirrel looks around a tree-root at a very small woman with a wand, probably a fairy.]

here?” asked Johnnie, who was nearly crying now, and I don't blame him, either.

“Of course I will,” answered the sky-blue-pink fairy.

So she took up a stone, and hammered three times on the outside of that tree, and all at once a little door opened in the bark, and Johnnie could come out as nicely as you please. And when he saw the beautiful fairy he thanked her six times, he was so glad.

“Why!” he cried, “you must be the fairy who colored Sammie Littletail, the day he fell in the dye for the Easter Eggs.”

“I am,” she said with a smile. “But run along home now, Johnnie, before that bad fox comes back, and never again say you don't believe in fairies.”

“I'll not,” he replied, and he never did. Then the fairy turned into pussy cat and ran

away, and when the woodpecker and some of his friends came back to try to get Johnnie out, there wasn't anything for them to do, for which they were very glad. But a little while after this that bad fox came back to get the little boy squirrel, and what happened then I'll tell you to-morrow night, if you don't tumble out of bed.