“Ya-Ha!” said the raccoon, yawning and stretching himself. “Ya-a-hoo! Hm-a-yeaow! oh, dear me! what a pity!”

“What, for instance, is the matter?” demanded the squirrel, dropping a hickory-nut down on the raccoon’s nose. “I knew a raccoon once who yawned till his head broke in two, and the top rolled off.”

“Hm!” said the raccoon. “Not much loss if it was like some people’s heads.

“I was sighing,” he continued, “you very stupid Cracker! to think that summer is gone, and that winter will be here before we can say ‘Beechnuts.’”

“Ah!” said the squirrel, looking grave. “That, indeed! To be sure; yes.”

“The leaves are falling fast,” continued the raccoon meditatively; “the birds are all gone, except Pigeon Pretty and Miss Mary, and they are going in a day or two. Very soon, my Cracker, we shall have to roll ourselves up and go to sleep for the winter. No more gingerbread and jam, my boy. No more pleasant afternoons at the cottage; no more stories. Nothing but a hollow tree and four months’ sleep. Ah, dear me!” and Coon sighed again, and shook his head despondingly.

“By the way,” said Cracker, “Toto tells me that he and his people don’t sleep in winter any more than in summer. Queer, isn’t it? I suppose it has something to do with their having only two legs.”

“Something to do with their having two heads!” growled the raccoon. “They don’t sleep with their legs, do they, stupid?”

“They certainly don’t sleep without them!” said the squirrel rather sharply.

“Look here!” replied the raccoon, rising and shaking himself, “should you like me to bite 220 about two inches off your tail? It won’t take me a minute, and I would just as lief do it as not.”

Affairs were becoming rather serious, when suddenly the wood-pigeon appeared, and fluttered down with a gentle “Coo!” between the two friends, who certainly seemed anything but friendly.

“What are you two quarrelling about?” she asked. “How extremely silly you both are! But now make friends, and put on your very best manners, for we are going to have a visitor here in a few minutes. I am going to call Chucky and Miss Mary, and do you make everything tidy about the pool before she comes.” And off flew Pigeon Pretty in a great hurry.

“She?” said Cracker inquiringly, looking at Coon.

“She said ‘she’!” replied Coon, bestirring himself, and picking up the dead branches that had fallen on the smooth green moss-carpet.

“Perhaps it is that aunt of Chucky’s who has been making him a visit,” suggested the squirrel.

“Oh, well!” said the raccoon, stopping short in his work. “If Pigeon Pretty thinks I am going to put this place in order for a woodchuck’s aunt, she is very much mistaken, that’s all. I never heard of such—” But here he stopped, for a loud rustling in the underbrush announced that the visitor, whoever she might be, was close at hand.

The bushes separated, and to the utter astonishment of both Coon and Cracker, who should appear but the grandmother herself, escorted by Toto and Bruin, and attended also by the wood-pigeon and the parrot, who fluttered about her head with cries of pleasure.

Toto led the old lady to the mossy bank beside the pool, where she sat down, rather out of breath, and a little bewildered, but evidently much pleased at having accomplished such a feat.

The raccoon hastened to express his delight in the finest possible language, while the little squirrel turned a dozen somersaults in succession, by way of showing how pleased he was. As for the 222 worthy Bruin, he fairly beamed with pleasure, and even went so far as to execute a sort of saraband, which, if the grandmother could have seen it, would certainly have alarmed her a good deal.

“My dear friends,” said the old lady, “it gives me great pleasure to be here, I assure you. Toto has for some time had his heart quite set on my seeing you once—though, alas! my seeing is only hearing—in your own pleasant home, before you separate for the winter. So, thanks to our kind friend, Mr. Bruin, I am actually here. How warm and soft the air is!” she continued. “What a delightful cushion you have found for me! and is that a brook, that is tinkling so pleasantly?”

“That is the spring, Granny!” said Toto eagerly. “It bubbles up, as clear as crystal, out of a hole in the rock, and then it falls over into the pool. And the pool is round, as round as a cup; and there are ferns and purple flags growing all around it, and the trees are all reflected in it, you know; and there are turtles in it, and there used to be a muskrat, only Coon ate him, and—and—oh! 223 it’s so jolly!” and here Toto paused, fairly out of breath.

Indeed, it was very lovely by the pool, in the soft glow of the Indian summer day. The spring murmured and tinkled and sang to them; the trees dropped yellow leaves on them, like fairy gold; and then the sun laughed, and sent down flights of his golden arrows, to show them what a very poor thing earthly gold was, after all. So they all sat and talked around the pool, of the summer that was past and the winter that was coming. Then the grandmother made a little speech which she had been thinking over for some time. It was a very short speech; but it was very much to the point.

“Dear friends,” she said, “you are all sad at the prospect of the long winter; but I have a plan which will make the winter a joyous season, instead of a melancholy one. I have plenty of room in my cottage, warmth, and food, and everything comfortable; and I want you all to come and spend the winter with Toto and me. There 224 is a large wood-pile where you can climb or sit when you are tired of the house. You shall sleep when you please, and wake when you please; and we will be a happy and united family. Come, my friends, what do you say?”

What did they say? Indeed, they did not know what to say. There was silence around the pool for a few minutes. Then the bear looked at the raccoon, the raccoon looked at the squirrel, and the squirrel looked at the wood-pigeon; and 225 finally the gentle bird answered, as she usually did, for all.

“Dear, dear madam,” she said, “we can imagine nothing so delightful as to live with you and our dear Toto. We all accept your invitation thankfully and joyfully; and we will all do our best to be a help, rather than a burden, to you.”

All the animals nodded approval. Then Toto, who had been waiting breathless for the answer, seized the bear by the paws, and the raccoon seized the squirrel, and they all danced round and round till there was no breath left in their bodies; and the woodchuck—who had been asleep behind a tree, and had waked up just in time to hear the grandmother’s speech—danced all alone on his hind-legs, to the admiration of all beholders. And then Cracker went and brought some nuts, and Coon brought apples, and Bruin brought great shining combs of honey, and they sat and feasted around the pool, and were right merry.

And then they all went back to the cottage,—the grandmother, and Toto, and Bruin, and Coon, 226 and Cracker, and Chucky, and Pigeon Pretty, and Miss Mary,—and there they all lived and were happy; and if you ever lead half such a merry life as they did, you may consider yourself extremely fortunate.

THE END.