Green Forest Stories by Thornton W. Burgess (best e ink reader for manga txt) đź“•
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American naturalist and conservationist Thornton W. Burgess was the author of more than one hundred books for children; the best-remembered of these is Old Mother West Wind, which was originally written for his young son. Burgess also wrote dozens of books about the creatures of the northern North American forest, four of which are collected here as the Green Forest Stories.
This Green Forest Stories compilation focuses on Lightfoot the Deer, Blacky the Crow, Whitefoot the Wood Mouse, and twin bear cubs Woof-Woof and Boxer. Readers may have encountered these characters in other of Burgess’s stories about the “little people” of the Massachusetts forest. Burgess’s earliest ventures into animal fantasy are roughly contemporary with Rudyard Kipling’s Just So Stories and Beatrix Potter’s tales of various animals, and represent the most lasting American entry into this genre.
Animal fantasy is a sub-genre of children’s literature in which animals are anthropomorphized into human-like characters and use language like humans. It is often criticized by those who want readers to experience more realistic representations of animals and the natural world, but animal fantasies engage a millennia-old tradition, in the Western canon reaching back at least as far as Aesop’s Fables; animal characters feature in teaching stories for children (and adults) in cultures around the world. Burgess’s stories are intended for children in the early elementary grades. The challenges and triumphs of the “little people” in his stories will feel identifiable to many young readers, and the snippets of moralizing and authorial commentary interleaved with the actions of the plot reflect a teaching device with a long history.
In the late twentieth century, Burgess fell out of favour with teachers and librarians. This shift occurred in part due to changing tastes in literary style and in part due to a changing society. Burgess is entirely a writer of his time. Most of the animals he depicts are male, and many of the female animals who wander into the stories are more passive and more stereotyped than the kinds of representation preferred for girls today. (Such is not the case, however, of Old Granny Fox, who may be the smartest of the little people Burgess represents and certainly does not lack agency or self-determination.)
The style of Burgess’s storytelling is undeniably old-fashioned but still deserves consideration. Although the writing is often simple and plain, there are rhetorical flourishes that reveal the author’s attention to craft. In particular, Burgess’s use of formulaic expressions such as “jolly, round, bright Mr. Sun” and “the Merry Little Breezes” links these tales to an orality that stretches back to at least The Iliad and The Odyssey of Homer (think of phrases such as “the wine-dark sea,” “rosy-fingered Dawn,” and “bright-eyed Athena”). Through his broader use of repetition and through onomatopoeia, Burgess underscores characteristics of his characters’ real-life forest counterparts—the way a chickadee calls, a squirrel scolds, or a rabbit lopes, for example.
In these stories, as in the Green Meadow Stories collection, we observe features that signal Burgess’s experience as a writer for periodicals and as an early radio broadcaster. Each chapter begins with reminders about the previous chapter, and chapters end with either a strong, propulsive conclusion or a traditional cliff-hanger. The chapters are generally quite short—a comfortable size to read as a bedtime story, and just long enough to hold a new reader’s attention without demanding too much of that reader’s energy. The strong narrative voice sounds distinctly like oral storytelling. One can almost imagine a small group of young people seated in a circle at the storyteller’s feet.
That image captures the essence of these animal tales. They are light, bright peeks into a complex and beautiful world, a world any girl or boy may want to pursue through study or personal explorations. As humanity faces the daily loss of animal species, stories that delight readers and listeners, that encourage them to learn about and respect the creatures of the non-human world, deserve our renewed attention and respect.
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- Author: Thornton W. Burgess
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“What!” screamed the twins, quite horrified. “That dreadful fellow our father!”
“Just so,” growled Mrs. Bear. “Just so. And he isn’t dreadful at all. You mustn’t speak of your father that way.”
“But if it isn’t dreadful for a father to want to eat his own children, I guess I don’t know what dreadful means,” declared Boxer in a most decided tone. “I call it dreadful, and I hate him. I do so.”
“Softly, Boxer. Softly,” chided Mother Bear. “You see, he didn’t know you were his children. He knows it now, but until he saw me coming to your rescue he didn’t know it. He never had seen you before. You were simply two tempting-looking little strangers who, if I do say it, look good enough to eat.” She squeezed them and patted them fondly. “His name,” she added, “is Buster Bear.”
XIX The Cubs Talk It OverThings seem good or things seem bad
According to the view you’ve had.
That is why people so often cannot agree. Each sees a thing from a different point of view and so it looks different. Just take the case of Buster Bear and the twins. When Boxer and Woof-Woof looked down at Buster Bear climbing the tree after them, he seemed a terrible fellow. But when they saw him running from Mother Bear, he didn’t seem so very terrible after all.
Of course it was a great surprise to the cubs to learn that Buster Bear was their father. They couldn’t think or talk of anything else the rest of that day.
“Did you notice what a beautiful black coat he had?” asked Boxer, glancing at his own little black coat with pride.
“I like brown better myself,” sniffed Woof-Woof, whose coat was brown like their mother’s.
“He really is very big and handsome,” continued Boxer.
“And a coward,” sniffed Woof-Woof. “You noticed how he ran from Mother Bear.”
“That was because he discovered his mistake about us. Of course he wouldn’t fight then,” Boxer said in defense.
“I don’t care, I think he is a poor sort of a father, and I’m not a bit proud of him,” persisted Woof-Woof.
“I hope I grow up to be as big and handsome as he is. I’m glad my coat is black,” Boxer declared.
“Huh!” sniffed Woof-Woof. “A black coat may cover a black heart. We are lucky not to be inside that black coat of his right now.”
This was true, and Boxer knew it. He wisely attempted no reply. “Where do you suppose he lives?” he ventured.
“I haven’t the least idea, but I hope it isn’t near here. I don’t want to see him again ever,” retorted Woof-Woof.
“But he is your own father,” protested Boxer.
“I don’t care. If all fathers are like him, I don’t think much of fathers,” sputtered Woof-Woof.
Mother Bear came up just in time to hear this. “Tut, tut, tut,” said she. “I won’t have you talking that way about your father. By and by you will know him better and learn to respect him. He is the handsomest Bear I have ever seen, and some day you will be proud that he is your father.”
“I like mothers best,” confided Woof-Woof, snuggling up to Mother Bear. Mother Bear’s face suddenly grew very stern. “I want to know,” said she, “how he happened to find you up that tree.”
“We-we met him and he chased us up that tree,” explained Boxer.
“And how did you happen to meet him?” persisted Mother Bear. “That tree was a long way from where I left you at play and charged you to stay.”
The cubs hung their heads.
“We-we-we found his tracks and followed them,” stammered Boxer in a low voice.
“And got a fright, which was no more than you deserved,” declared Mother Bear. “You ought to be spanked, both of you, for your disobedience. Now you see what comes of not minding. I hope the fright you have had will be a lesson you never will forget. And don’t let me hear you say another word against your father.”
“No’m,” replied the twins meekly.
XX The Twins Get Their First BathYou cannot learn to swim on land,
So waste no time in trying.
And if you keep from getting wet
You’ll never need a drying.
Wonderful days were these for the twins, Boxer and Woof-Woof. Every day there was something new to see or hear or taste or smell or feel. And then there had to be tucked away in each funny little head where it could not be forgotten the memory of exactly how each of these new things looked or sounded or tasted or smelled or felt. Mother Bear was very particular about this. So, though the twins didn’t know it, they were really going to school all the time that they thought they were simply having good times and wonderful adventures.
One day Mother Bear led them over to the pond of Paddy the Beaver. How the cubs did stare when they got their first glimpse of that pond. The Laughing Brook was the only water they were acquainted with, and in that part of the Green Forest it was narrow and the pools were very small. They had not supposed there was so much water in all the Great World as now lay before them in the pond of Paddy the Beaver.
Mother Bear led the way straight to one end of the dam which Paddy had built to make that pond. She started across that dam. The twins followed. Every few steps they stopped to wonder at that pond. The Merry Little Breezes of Old Mother West Wind were dancing across the middle of it and making little ripples that sparkled as the Jolly Little Sunbeams kissed them.
Close to the dam the water was smooth, for the Merry Little Breezes had not come in there. Boxer and Woof-Woof looked down. Perhaps you can guess how they felt when they saw two little
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