  LITTLE TOM'S EXPEDITION BEFORE THE COTTAGE. One bright summer morning, as his Godmother was getting herself ready to go to the village, she said to him, »Dear Little Tom, if you want to see what God's world is like, I will let you come out in front of the hut; although I am afraid that you will lose your way, or that some animal will harm you.« Tom encouraged her by saying that he would put on his weapons and that he knew how to defend himself. She did not give much thought to his valour but she felt that, because of his small size, no animal would notice him; so she took him in her hand and carried him outside in front of the hut, through the garden and barn to the brook, pointing out everything of interest and telling him the name of objects and places so that he could recognize them again. Then she put him on the ground before the door and told him, in a severe voice, that he should not run far away; she hoped to return soon and, in the meantime, he would not meet with any misfortune. When she had crossed the bridge, she turned around, but no longer saw him. He had absolutely disappeared among the stones of the path. He was very pleased that he could make an exploration on his own account and felt that he was now much more clever. He understood what a human dwelling was, a garden, a path, a brook and a lime tree; and he was not afraid of anything. He decided to go over the same way his Godmother had taken him around the hut, so that he might see for himself all its surroundings. First, he went around the fence to the field, crossed the path and passed into the thick, rustling grain. He felt he was in a vast, old forest. Above him buzzed wasps, flies, gnats and gadflies. All around him were worms, insects and caterpillars, which took no notice of him whatsoever, but kept diligently about their own work. He seemed to be in a new world and found so many strange objects and animals, that he had not time to look at all of them carefully. He strode forward into the grain, but was careful not to go too far and lose his way. As he walked along the edge of the path, he looked at the grain, thinking that he would like to cut down one of the stalks and make a good, light lance out of it. While he was trying to select one that would suit him, he came upon a cobweb stretched between two thistles. It was beautifully woven of thin, well-tied threads, and seemed to Tom to be a powerful net which some hunter had placed there as a trap for wild game. He wished to see the hunter and learn how game is caught, so he sat down in some wild thyme not far away and waited; but nothing happened. Then he got up and went nearer, feeling the lines with his hand to see how tightly they were drawn. But no sooner had he touched the net than he felt it shake and saw, running across it, a great, eight-footed creature, with a cross on its back and horrible jaws, rushing straight at him. He drew his sword at once, but a strong, elastic rope was thrown around his body, binding his hips and legs. He struggled to free himself, but more and more Brave Little Tom waved his sword; this frightened the spider, which drew back. At once he cut the ropes around him, tore himself out of the net and ran, beside himself with fear, until he fell rolling on the gravel in the path. He expected the monster to rush out after him and eat him; but when the spider saw that his prey had escaped him, he started to repair his net and paid no further heed to Tom. Tom was glad to have escaped so easily and no longer wished to go in the field and cut down a stalk. He went back very rapidly along the path, deciding that he would remain near the hut. He wanted to see his Godmother's farm, so he passed through the gate to the little grassy place beyond among the daisies and dandelions. As soon as he reached the spot, a lot of little yellow chickens came running to him and, gathering around him, looked at him with surprised eyes; for that kind of a worm these little chicks had never seen before. Little Tom was frightened, for these birds appeared to him as large as the ostriches his Godmother had shown him in the natural history book, only they were yellow. The chickens looked at him sideways, peeping and calling the mother hen. She was scratching in some sweepings not far away and when she heard the peeping, she hurried up, all a flutter, to see what was the matter and who the enemy was. When she saw only Little Tom, she pecked at him angrily with her bill, then picked him up, but let him drop as he did not seem good for eating. Scolding her chicks, she drove them away in search of real worms. Tom was so badly hurt that he fell down as if dead. His coat was torn and his hand was bleeding. After a moment, he struggled to his feet and fled out of the yard, away from such terrible enemies. In front of the yard, the Godmother's woolly-haired dog, Rover, was running about. Without seeing Tom he stepped on him with his great, hard foot. When Tom cried out in pain, Rover stopped, turned around and smelled at Tom with his moist nose. Little Tom was overcome with another great fear. He was dusty, bruised and bleeding and so unhappy that he did not know what to do. He ran on, stumbling and limping, while Rover, thinking he was some strange insect, ran after him, barking and jumping around him, until he drove him to the brook. Little Tom wanted to hide himself among the leaves near the water; but, as he stepped on them, he slipped and fell head first into the brook. The water refreshed him and, knowing how to swim very well, he was at first pleased to think he had escaped this enemy; but the brook, which seemed to him a river, was carrying him away. He had no idea that he could reach the shore. He already felt himself lost, believing that the waves would dash him against a stone, when, suddenly, a trout came out of the water and gobbled him up in his great mouth. But the trout did not like this morsel and spat him out again into the grass under the bridge. Catching hold of a grass stem, Tom pulled himself into the bushes and sat there, shaking as with a chill. Wet through and cold, with hands bruised and bleeding, he could hardly hold himself on the grass which the wind waved back and forth. As he became weaker and weaker and was about to give up hope that he would ever come of his adventure alive, he suddenly heard his Godmother calling to him. She was coming across the little foot-bridge and calling loudly, so that she might not by mistake step on him. Tom immediately answered as loud as he could shout, »Here I am Godmother. Here I am«. But she had to look a long while before she discovered whence came the thin, little voice. Then she promptly rescued him from his perilous position. Poor Little Tom was so worn out from his bruises and his tremendous exertion, that he could hardly feel anything and it was only after he had eaten well and drunk some milk, that he could tell his Godmother about all the terrible adventures that had befallen him. How in the deep forest of the grain he had been ensnared by the terrible robber in his frightful net; how the great, yellow ostriches had pursued him and, when he was escaping from them, how a rough, hairy dragon had come upon him and chased him into the river, where he was first swallowed by an enormous whale and then cast out upon the shore. The kind Godmother was very, very sorry for poor Little Tom and began to realize the danger of leaving him alone, outside the hut, so she promised him that she herself would take him to the field. Tom no longer wanted to travel alone amid On her breast, the Godmother, had a brooch which pinned together the ends of the kerchief she wore around her throat; so Tom sat down on the pleat of the cloth behind the brooch, grasping the bar to keep his hands steady. As she walked along, he thrust out his little head to look at the field, the meadow and the forest on top of the hill, where he hoped to run around with his Godmother, and wondered what new things he should see. When they reached the meadow under the slope of the hill, the Godmother stood Little Tom upon a stone among the heather and said, »I am going to gather the hay and I must hurry, as the weather looks as if it were going to change. While I am gone, you can walk around on this stone and look at the flowers, but do not crawl down, or you will surely get lost and I would look in vain for you.« Obediently, Tom walked around on the top of his rock. He crawled over the pebbles, peered into the various holes and examined the small, red carnations, the tall, blue monks-hoods and the pink thistles growing there. As he walked along, he heard a great buzzing in the air as if some one were angry and, on coming closer, he perceived a hairy bumble-bee staggering among the blossoms. Tom became confused as he had never seen such a creature before. He thought it might be a wild beast that would attack him. But the bumble-bee was quite harmless and, moreover, he had been sucking the sweet honey from the flowers so steadily since the early morning, that his head had become quite dizzy. As soon as he saw Little Tom, he sidled towards him and welcomed him as if he had known him all his life. »Brother,« he said, »what are you doing here and how are you? I am pleased that I have now found a comrade. Come, let us drink together.« It seemed strange to Tom, that this stout, old gentleman should appear to know him so well and should address him so familiarly. The old fellow went on to urge him, to fly with him up on the monks-hood, saying that there they would find a delicious drink. Tom tried to excuse himself, saying that he had given his promise not to leave the rock; but the bumble-bee said, »Oh just come along with me. I will bring you back. Let us be merry now.« Catching Tom in his arms, the bumble-bee carried him up the stem and seated him on a flower with an arched, blue bell over it, and then gave him a push right into the blossom. From the heart of this blue bell extended two horns with thick heads, which powdered him with a yellow dust that made him sneeze. At this, the bumble-bee laughed heartily and began to take long drinks from the cup under the blossoms. Carefully, Tom crawled a little lower, stretched himself on his stomach and also drank. The juice was as clear as water and as sweet as honey. He drank gluttonously and, in a little while, became so merry and so light at heart that he could have embraced the whole world. When they had finished this cup, Tom crawled into another blossom and drank again. The bumble-bee had chosen another blossom for himself and between sips contentedly murmured to Tom, »This is my only pleasure. See how good it tastes to you also. Now you can see what it is to be merry«. Tom no longer knew what he was about. He sat in the blossom, singing and drinking, and forgetting everything around him. Presently, the bumble-bee, paying no further attention to Tom, flew away; but Tom did not notice this and was soon so befuddled, that he hardly knew anything at all. After a while, the Godmother came to the rock to see what he was about. Not finding him on top of the stone, she looked carefully around and soon discovered him peeping out of the monks-hood blossom. His little face was very red. He laughed and shouted and paid no attention to her when she spoke to him. At this she became angry, for she saw that he had been up to mischief; so she plucked the flower and took Tom out of it. »Will you not obey,« she said, »there is nothing else to do but to tie you up, or you will lose your life somewhere.« Taking him to the meadow, she pulled a hair from her head and tied him to a great thistle. Tom was so overcome by the sweet juice of the monkshood, that he lay down and immediately fell asleep. When he awoke after a while, he had a severe headache. He thought over what he had done and was very much ashamed that he had allowed himself to be misled by the drunken bumble-bee. He saw that he had been tied up and felt very sorry, wondering how he should excuse himself to his Godmother when she should return to him. In the meantime, Speckle, the cow, who had been grazing not far away, was all the while coming nearer and nearer to the spot where Tom had been fastened. He was lying flat on his back, gazing up into the sky, when suddenly a great mouth opened above him, extending from the earth to the sky, and—presto—as if a strong wind had blown, everything around him disappeared. With a great rattle, the jaws with their powerful teeth closed over him and Tom found himself in complete darkness. All doubled up behind one back tooth, he screamed lustily; but Speckle was moving her tongue and grinding the grass and did not feel Tom at all. Holding his breath, he waited until Speckle opened her mouth, when he ran quickly out on her lip and up on her nose to her forehead, where he held himself by grasping the hair between her horns. He gave a great sigh of relief as he saw that he was saved. When Speckle turned her head, Tom sat quietly, then got up and started for a walk along her neck and head. It happened that the Godmother turned and saw Speckle just as she bit the thistle. »Oh Tom, Tom, you poor little child,« she cried, running towards Speckle as fast as she could. She thought surely that the cow had swallowed him and that would be the last that she should see of him; but, as she came close, she heard a little voice calling from Speckle's back, »Here I am, Godmother, here I am.« She took him carefully in her hand and carried him off to the meadow where she was at work. There she seated him in one of her wooden shoes and saying, »Now you must not move from here until I come,« off she went to her work again; for she had to hurry with the hay, as dark clouds were coming up in the sky. Little Tom sat quietly in the shoe for a while. It was like a big hut to him. Then he thought he would have a look around, so he clambered down the side of the shoe and started to walk a little way on the meadow, when a big rain drop splashed on him and made him all wet. He was greatly surprised, as he did not know what it was that came down in such a flood and splashed on the ground all around him. With the rain came hail stones, like rocks of ice, larger than Tom's head. They bounded away and then came down so thickly, that Tom did not know which way to run. He turned back toward the shoe and ran for it with all his might, but on the way a great hailstone hit him and nearly killed him. He managed to clamber over the side Thus, his expedition with his Godmother turned out very sadly and she saw that, even when he was with her, he could not be sure of his life. When they had thoroughly dried themselves and eaten their supper, the Godmother said, »There is nothing to do, Tom, except for you to stay at home and study and not try for yourself to see the wonders of the world. It is a miracle that you did not die today.« Little Tom himself realized that, outside in the great world, there was no happiness for him and he readily promised that he would stay at home. But it made him sad to think how terrible and cruel the world is, and that in it there seemed to be no safe place for him. CHAPTER SEVEN. |
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