Green Meadow Stories by Thornton W. Burgess (good short books .txt) đ
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 animalsâ Great World.
The animals of Burgessâs 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 childâthis is fiction, after allâbut Burgessâs âlittle people of the forestâ are not simply humans dressed in fur and feathers. The original illustrations in Burgessâs books (by Harrison Cady, not reproduced in this edition) show the animals wearing clothes, but Burgessâs own descriptions of animals are more natural and metaphorical, and less fantastic. For example, he describes Chatterer the Red Squirrel, âwho always wears a red coat with vest of white,â a compact way of communicating the look of a squirrel that many of todayâs children will never have seen with their own eyes. Less pleasantly, it is Peter Rabbitâs fur and flesh that is rent when Hooty the Owl tears Peterâs âcoatâ 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 âNature, red in tooth and claw,â 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 Jackâs 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 animalsâ lives.
Burgess is a clear conservationist in his representations of hunting. The animals are highly aware of hunters and their âdreadful guns.â It is a notable moment in this collection when Farmer Brownâs 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 pairingsâsuch as when Peter Rabbit meets the dainty Little Miss Fuzzytail, the future Mrs. Rabbitâare vague but sentimental and soon lead to proud new families of Rabbits, Ducks, Deer, and Owls. The âlittle peopleâ celebrate the arrival of each springâs babies, mark each otherâs new relationships and homes, play together, and even help each other survive. They laugh, tease, and trick each otherâa fanciful interpretation of animal behaviour that could lead to a readerâs life-long fascination with, and respect for, forest creaturesâand 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 todayâs childrenâs books, Burgessâs sentences have a somewhat old-fashioned cadence, creating the distinct and appealing music of traditional storytelling. Burgessâs 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 âchapter books,â 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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Poor Old Granny Fox! For once in her life she had been caught napping. She hadnât the least hope in the world. Farmer Brownâs boy had only to fire that dreadful gun, and that would be the end of her. She knew it.
VIII What Farmer Brownâs Boy DidIn time of danger heed this rule:
Think hard and fast, but pray keep cool.
Poor Old Granny Fox! She had thought that she had been in tight places before, but never, never had she been in such a tight place as this. There stood Farmer Brownâs boy looking along the barrel of his dreadful gun straight at her, and only such a short distance, such a very short distance away! It wasnât the least bit of use to run. Granny knew that. That dreadful gun would go âbang!â and that would be the end of her.
For a few seconds she stared at Farmer Brownâs boy, too frightened to move or even think. Then she began to wonder why that dreadful gun didnât go off. What was Farmer Brownâs boy waiting for? She got to her feet. She was sure that the first step would be her last, yet she couldnât stay there.
How could Farmer Brownâs boy do such a dreadful thing? Somehow, his freckled face didnât look cruel. He was even beginning to grin. That must be because he had caught her napping and knew that this time she couldnât possibly get away from him as she had so many times before. âOh!â sobbed Old Granny Fox under her breath.
And right at that very instant Farmer Brownâs boy did something. What do you think it was? No, he didnât shoot her. He didnât fire his dreadful gun. What do you think he did do? Why, he threw a snowball at Old Granny Fox and shouted âBoo!â That is what he did and all he did, except to laugh as Granny gave a great leap and then made those black legs of hers fly as never before.
Every instant Granny expected to hear that dreadful gun, and it seemed as if her heart would burst with fright as she ran, thinking each jump would be the last one. But the dreadful gun didnât bang, and after a little, when she felt she was safe, she turned to look back over her shoulder. Farmer Brownâs boy was standing right where she had last seen him, and he was laughing harder than ever. Yes, sir, he was laughing, and though Old Granny Fox didnât think so at the time, his laugh was good to hear, for it was good-natured and merry and all that an honest laugh should be.
âGo it, Granny! Go it!â shouted Farmer Brownâs boy. âAnd the next time you are tempted to steal my chickens, just remember that I caught you napping and let you off when I might have shot you. Just remember that and leave my chickens alone.â
Now it happened that Tommy Tit the Chickadee had seen all that had happened, and he fairly bubbled over with joy. âDee, dee, dee, Chickadee! It is just as I have always saidâ âFarmer Brownâs boy isnât bad. Heâd be friends with everyone if everyone would let him,â he cried.
âMaybe, maybe,â grumbled Sammy Jay, who also had seen all that had happened. âBut heâs altogether too smart for me to trust. Oh, my! oh, my! What news this will be to tell! Old Granny Fox will never hear the end of it. If ever again she boasts of how smart she is, all we will have to do will be to remind her of the time Farmer Brownâs boy caught her napping. Ho! ho! ho! I must hurry along and find my cousin, Blacky the Crow. This will tickle him half to death.â
As for Old Granny Fox, she feared Farmer Brownâs boy more than ever, not because of what he had done to her but because of what he had not done. You see, nothing could make her believe that he wanted to be her friend. She thought he had let her get away just to show her that he was smarter than she. Instead of thankfulness, hate and fear filled Grannyâs heart. You knowâ â
People who themselves do ill
For others seldom have good will.
Though you may think another wrong
And be quite positive youâre right,
Donât let your temper get away;
And try at least to be polite.
Sammy Jay hurried through the Green Forest, chuckling as he flew. Sammy was brimming over with the news he had to tellâ âhow Old Granny Fox had been caught napping by Farmer Brownâs boy. Sammy wouldnât have believed it if anyone had told him. No, sir, he wouldnât. But he had seen it with his own eyes, and it tickled him almost to pieces to think that Old Granny Fox, whom everybody thought so sly and clever and smart, had been caught actually asleep by the very one of whom she was most afraid, but at whom she always had turned up her nose.
Presently Sammy spied Reddy Fox trotting along the Lone Little Path. Reddy was forever boasting of how smart Granny Fox was. He had boasted of it so much that everybody was sick of hearing him. When he saw Reddy trotting along the Lone Little Path, Sammy chuckled harder than ever. He hid in a thick hemlock-tree and as Reddy passed he shouted:
âHad I such a stupid old Granny
As some folks who think they are smart,
I never would boast of my Granny,
But live by
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