Green Meadow Stories by Thornton W. Burgess (good short books .txt) ๐
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 animalsโ Great World.
The animals of Burgessโs 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 childโthis is fiction, after allโbut Burgessโs โlittle people of the forestโ are not simply humans dressed in fur and feathers. The original illustrations in Burgessโs books (by Harrison Cady, not reproduced in this edition) show the animals wearing clothes, but Burgessโs own descriptions of animals are more natural and metaphorical, and less fantastic. For example, he describes Chatterer the Red Squirrel, โwho always wears a red coat with vest of white,โ a compact way of communicating the look of a squirrel that many of todayโs children will never have seen with their own eyes. Less pleasantly, it is Peter Rabbitโs fur and flesh that is rent when Hooty the Owl tears Peterโs โcoatโ 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 โNature, red in tooth and claw,โ 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 Jackโs 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 animalsโ lives.
Burgess is a clear conservationist in his representations of hunting. The animals are highly aware of hunters and their โdreadful guns.โ It is a notable moment in this collection when Farmer Brownโs 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 pairingsโsuch as when Peter Rabbit meets the dainty Little Miss Fuzzytail, the future Mrs. Rabbitโare vague but sentimental and soon lead to proud new families of Rabbits, Ducks, Deer, and Owls. The โlittle peopleโ celebrate the arrival of each springโs babies, mark each otherโs new relationships and homes, play together, and even help each other survive. They laugh, tease, and trick each otherโa fanciful interpretation of animal behaviour that could lead to a readerโs life-long fascination with, and respect for, forest creaturesโand 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 todayโs childrenโs books, Burgessโs sentences have a somewhat old-fashioned cadence, creating the distinct and appealing music of traditional storytelling. Burgessโs 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 โchapter books,โ 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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Presently they came to the bank of the Big River. Old Granny Fox told Reddy to sit still while she crept up behind some bushes where she could peek out over the Big River. He grinned as he watched her. He was still grinning when she tiptoed back. He expected to see her face long with disappointment. Instead she looked very much pleased.
โQuacker is there,โ said she, โand I think he will make us a very good dinner. Creep up behind those bushes and see for yourself, then come back here and tell me what you think weโd better do to get him.โ
So Reddy stole up behind the bushes, and this time it was Granny who grinned as she watched. As he crept along, Reddy wondered if it could be that for once Quacker had come ashore. Granny seemed so sure they could catch him that this must be the case. But when he peeped through the hushes, there was Quacker way out in the middle of the open water just where he had been the day before.
III Reddy Is Sure Granny Has Lost Her SensesPerhaps โtis just as well that we
Canโt see ourselves as others see.
โJust as I thought,โ muttered Reddy Fox as he peeped through the bushes on the bank of the Big River and saw Quacker swimming about in the water where it ran too swiftly to freeze. โWeโve got just as much chance of catching him as I have of jumping over the moon. Thatโs what Iโll tell Granny.โ
He crept back carefully so as not to be seen by Quacker, and when he had reached the place where Granny was waiting for him, his face wore a very impudent look.
โWell,โ said Granny Fox, โwhat shall we do to catch him?โ
โLearn to swim like a fish and fly like a bird,โ replied Reddy in such a saucy tone that Granny had hard work to keep from boxing his ears.
โYou mean that you think he canโt be caught?โ said she quietly.
โI donโt think anything about it; I know he canโt!โ snapped Reddy. โNot by us, anyway,โ he added.
โI suppose you wouldnโt even try?โ retorted Granny.
โIโm old enough to know when Iโm wasting my time,โ replied Reddy with a toss of his head.
โIn other words you think Iโm a silly old Fox who has lost her senses,โ said Granny sharply.
โNo-o. I didnโt say that,โ protested Reddy, looking very uncomfortable.
โBut you think it,โ declared Granny. โNow look here, Mr. Smarty, you do just as I tell you. You creep back there where you can watch Quacker and all that happens, and mind that you keep out of his sight. Now go.โ
Reddy went. There was nothing else to do. He didnโt dare disobey. Granny watched until Reddy had readied his hiding-place. Then what do you think she did? Why, she walked right out on the little beach just below Reddy and in plain sight of Quacker! Yes, sir, that is what she did!
Then began such a queer performance that it is no wonder that Reddy was sure Granny had lost her senses. She rolled over and over. She chased her tail round and round until it made Reddy dizzy to watch her. She jumped up in the air. She raced back and forth. She played with a bit of stick. And all the time she didnโt pay the least attention to Quacker the Duck.
Reddy stared and stared. Whatever had come over Granny? She was crazy. Yes, sir, that must be the matter. It must be that she had gone without food so long that she had gone crazy. Poor Granny! She was in her second childhood. Reddy could remember how he had done such things when he was very young, just by way of showing how fine he felt. But for a grown-up Fox to do such things was undignified, to say the least. You know Reddy thinks a great deal of dignity. It was worse than undignified; it was positively disgraceful. He did hope that none of his neighbors would happen along and see Granny cutting up so. He never would hear the end of it if they did.
Over and over rolled Granny, and around and around she chased her tail. The snow flew up in a cloud. And all the time she made no sound. Reddy was just trying to decide whether to go off and leave her until she had regained her common sense, or to go out and try to stop her, when he happened to look out in the open water where Quacker was. Quacker was sitting up as straight as he could. In fact, he had his wings raised to help him sit up on his tail, the better to see what old Granny Fox was doing.
โAs I live,โ muttered Reddy, โI believe that fellow is nearer than he was!โ
Reddy crouched lower than ever, and instead of watching Granny he watched Quacker the Duck.
IV Quacker the Duck Grows CuriousThe most curious thing in the world is curiosity.
Old Granny FoxOld Granny Fox never said a truer thing than that. It is curious, very curious, how sometimes curiosity will get the best of even the wisest and most sensible of people. Even Old Granny Fox herself has been known to be led into trouble by it. We expect it of Peter Rabbit, but Peter isnโt a bit more curious than some others of whom we do not expect it.
Now Quacker the Wild Duck is the last one in the world you would expect to be led into trouble by curiosity. Quacker had spent the summer in the Far North with Honker the Goose. In fact,
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