Green Meadow Stories by Thornton W. Burgess (good short books .txt) 📕
Description
Thornton W. Burgess was an American naturalist and the author of dozens of books for children, the most enduring of which are Old Mother West Wind and The Burgess Bird Book for Children. Burgess was a passionate twentieth-century conservationist who dedicated his life to teaching children and their families about the importance of the natural life of the northern North American forest.
The Green Meadow Stories compilation is made up of four distinct but entwined tales: those of Happy Jack Squirrel, Mrs. Peter Rabbit, Bowser the Hound, and Old Granny Fox. Through the adventures of these focal characters readers are introduced to the wider territory of the Green Meadows, the Green Forest, and the Smiling Pond as well as to the animals’ Great World.
The animals of Burgess’s stories are anthropomorphized, undoubtedly, but not caricatured: these are not the twee creatures of Disney cartoons. Their behaviour is explained in ways that would be understandable to a human child—this is fiction, after all—but Burgess’s “little people of the forest” are not simply humans dressed in fur and feathers. The original illustrations in Burgess’s books (by Harrison Cady, not reproduced in this edition) show the animals wearing clothes, but Burgess’s own descriptions of animals are more natural and metaphorical, and less fantastic. For example, he describes Chatterer the Red Squirrel, “who always wears a red coat with vest of white,” a compact way of communicating the look of a squirrel that many of today’s children will never have seen with their own eyes. Less pleasantly, it is Peter Rabbit’s fur and flesh that is rent when Hooty the Owl tears Peter’s “coat” one night on the Old Pasture.
Burgess has tremendous respect for the creatures he depicts, as well as for their natural home. While the presentation of the Green Meadow is hardly “Nature, red in tooth and claw,” it is surprisingly unsentimental. Peter Rabbit, for example, lives a highly anxious life under threat from the many predators who would enjoy having him for dinner; similarly, Happy Jack Squirrel experiences days and nights of terror when Shadow the Weasel discovers Happy Jack’s home and hunts him relentlessly. During a long, hard winter, Granny Fox and Reddy Fox come close to starving, and Old Man Coyote leads Bowser the Hound on a dangerous chase that may result in one or the other dying. Despite other fanciful, sentimental elements of storytelling, Burgess does not sugarcoat prey/predator relationships or the precarity of wild animals’ lives.
Burgess is a clear conservationist in his representations of hunting. The animals are highly aware of hunters and their “dreadful guns.” It is a notable moment in this collection when Farmer Brown’s Boy decides he will no longer use his gun to harm the little people of the Green Meadow and the Green Forest. The stories are also notable in their detailed representation of a largely intact forest, something few children in the twenty-first century will experience.
On the other hand, these are books for children, and they contain plenty of sweetness and light. Animal pairings—such as when Peter Rabbit meets the dainty Little Miss Fuzzytail, the future Mrs. Rabbit—are vague but sentimental and soon lead to proud new families of Rabbits, Ducks, Deer, and Owls. The “little people” celebrate the arrival of each spring’s babies, mark each other’s new relationships and homes, play together, and even help each other survive. They laugh, tease, and trick each other—a fanciful interpretation of animal behaviour that could lead to a reader’s life-long fascination with, and respect for, forest creatures—and for generations of readers, they did just that.
The stories are also more didactic than most twenty-first-century authors would dare to be. There are morals associated with most stories, often attributed to the animal about whom the story is being told. Through this practical teaching, Burgess suggests a correspondence between how animals and humans live; but he consistently clarifies that animal intelligence is different from, but certainly no less than, human intelligence.
Unlike the bouncy rhyming verses of many of today’s children’s books, Burgess’s sentences have a somewhat old-fashioned cadence, creating the distinct and appealing music of traditional storytelling. Burgess’s episodic chapters are eminently readable and particularly come to life when they are voiced by animated reading-aloud. For older readers looking for something different to share with children, or for new readers beginning to tackle “chapter books,” the tales of the Green Meadow Stories collection are a delightful place to discover Burgess and his animal friends.
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- Author: Thornton W. Burgess
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“No,” replied Tommy, “he hasn’t gone away, but I think there is something the matter with him.”
Happy Jack grew very sober. “What makes you think so?” he demanded.
“If you’ll give me time to get my breath, I’ll tell you all about it,” retorted Tommy Tit.
“All right, only please hurry,” replied Happy Jack, and tried to look patient even if he wasn’t.
Tommy Tit smoothed out some rumpled feathers and was most provokingly slow about it. “When I left here,” he began at last, “I flew straight up to Farmer Brown’s house, as I said I would. I flew all around it, but all I saw was that horrid Black Pussy on the back doorsteps, and she looked at me so hungrily that she made me dreadfully uncomfortable. I don’t see what Farmer Brown keeps her about for, anyway.”
“Never mind her; go on!” interrupted Happy Jack.
“Then I flew all around the barn, but I didn’t see anyone there but that ugly little upstart, Bully the English Sparrow, and he wanted to pick a fight with me right away.” Tommy looked very indignant.
“Never mind him, go on!” cried Happy Jack impatiently.
“After that I flew back to the big maple tree close by the house,” continued Tommy. “You know Farmer Brown’s boy has kept a piece of suet tied in that tree all winter for me. I was hungry, and I thought I would get a bite to eat, but there wasn’t any suet there. That pig of a Sammy Jay had managed to get it untied and had carried it all away. Of course that made me angry, and twice as hungry as before. I was trying to make up my mind what to do next when I happened to look over on the window sill, and what do you think I saw there?”
“What?” demanded Happy Jack eagerly.
“A lot of cracked hickory nuts!” declared Tommy. “I just knew that they were meant for me, and when I was sure that the way was clear, I flew over there. They tasted so good that I almost forgot about Farmer Brown’s boy, when I just happened to look in the window. You know those windows are made of some queer stuff that looks like ice and isn’t, and that you can see right through.”
Happy Jack didn’t know, for he never had been near enough to see, but he nodded, and Tommy Tit went on.
“There were many queer things inside, and I was wondering what they could be when all of a sudden I saw him. He was lying down, and there was something the matter with him. I tapped on the window to him and then I hurried back here.”
XVIII Happy Jack Decides to Make a CallYou’ll find when all is said and done
Two heads are better far than one.
Happy Jack Squirrel hadn’t slept very well. He had had bad dreams. Ever so many times in the night he had waked up, a very unusual thing for Happy Jack. The fact is, he had something on his mind. Yes, sir, Happy Jack had something on his mind, and that something was Farmer Brown’s boy. He often had had Farmer Brown’s boy on his mind before, but in a very different way. Then it had been in the days when Farmer Brown’s boy hunted through the Green Forest and over the Green Meadows with his terrible gun. Then everybody had Farmer Brown’s boy on their minds most of the time. Happy Jack had hated him then, hated him because he had feared him. You know fear almost always leads to hate. But now it was different. Farmer Brown’s boy had put away his terrible gun. Happy Jack no longer feared him. Love had taken the place of hate in his heart, for had not Farmer Brown’s boy saved him from Shadow the Weasel, and brought him nuts and corn when food was scarce? And now Tommy Tit had brought word that some thing was the matter with Farmer Brown’s boy. It was this that was on Happy Jack’s mind and had given him such a bad night.
As soon as it was daylight, Happy Jack scrambled out of bed to look for Tommy Tit. He didn’t have long to wait, for Tommy is quite as early a riser as Happy Jack.
“Dee, dee, chickadee!
I hope you feel as well as me!”
sang Tommy merrily, as he flitted over to where Happy Jack was looking for his breakfast. The very sound of Tommy’s voice made Happy Jack feel better. One must feel very badly indeed not to be a little more cheerful when Tommy Tit is about. The fact is, Tommy Tit packs about so much good cheer in that small person of his, that no one can be downhearted when he is about.
“Hello, Tommy,” said Happy Jack. “If I could make other people feel as good as you do, do you know what I would do?”
“What?” asked Tommy.
“I’d go straight up to Farmer Brown’s house and try to cheer up Farmer Brown’s boy,” replied Happy Jack.
“That’s the very thing I have in mind,” chuckled Tommy. “I’ve come over here to see if you won’t come along with me. I’ve been up to his house so often that he won’t think half so much of a visit from me as he will from you. Will you do it?”
Happy Jack looked a little startled. You see, he never had been over to Farmer Brown’s house, and somehow he couldn’t get over the idea that it would be a very dangerous thing to do. “I—I—do you really suppose I could?” he asked.
“I’m sure of it,” replied Tommy Tit. “There’s no one to be afraid of but Black Pussy and Bowser the Hound, and it’s easy enough to keep out of their way. You can hide in the old stone wall until the way is clear and then run across to the big
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