The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
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Thornton W. Burgess >> The Adventures of Johnny Chuck
But of course Johnny Chuck didn't know this, and over in his new house
in the far corner of the old orchard, he and Polly Chuck were worrying
and worrying, for they felt sure that now every one would know their
secret, and it wouldn't be safe for the dear little baby Chucks to so
much as put their funny little noses outside the door.
XXII
JOHNNY CHUCK IS KEPT BUSY
Johnny Chuck is naturally lazy. You see, Johnny has very simple tastes
and usually he is contented. He does not have to go far from his own
doorstep to get all he wants to eat. He does not have to hunt for his
food, as so many of the little meadow and forest people do, and so he
has a great deal of time to sit on his doorstep and watch the world go
by and dream pleasant daydreams and grow fat. Now people who do not
have to work usually become lazy. It is the easiest habit in the world
to learn and the hardest to get over. And so, because he seldom has to
work, Johnny Chuck quite naturally is lazy.
But Johnny can work when there really is need of it. No one, unless it
is Digger the Badger or Miner the Mole, can dig faster than Johnny
Chuck. And when there is real need of working, Johnny works with a
will. When he was a very tiny Chuck, old Mother Chuck had taught him
this:
"When work there is that must be done
Don't fret and whine and spoil the day!
The quicker that you do your work
The longer time you'll have to play."
Johnny never has forgotten this, and when it is really necessary that
he should work, no one works harder than he does. But he always first
makes sure that it is necessary work and that he will not be wasting
his time in doing foolish, unnecessary things.
And now Johnny Chuck was the busiest he had ever been in all his life.
If he felt lazy these beautiful spring days, he didn't have time to
think about it. No, Sir, he actually didn't have time to remember that
he is naturally lazy. You see, he had a family to look out for--three
babies to find sweet, tender young clover for and to teach all the
things that every Chuck should know, and to watch out for, that no
harm should come to them. So Johnny Chuck was busy, so busy that he
hardly had time to get enough to eat.
Every morning Johnny would come out as soon as jolly, round, red Mr.
Sun began his daily climb up in the blue, blue sky. He would look this
way and look that way to make sure that Reddy Fox or Granny Fox or
Redtail the Hawk or Bowser the Hound or any other danger was nowhere
near. And he never forgot to look up in the apple-trees to make sure
that Sammy Jay was not there. Then he would call to Polly Chuck and
the three baby Chucks.
Polly Chuck would come out with a very worried air, and after her
would come the three funny little baby Chucks, who would roll and
tumble over each other on the doorstep. When he thought they had
played enough, Johnny Chuck would lead the way along a little private
path which he had made through the grass. After him, one behind
another, would trot the three little Chucks, and behind them would
march Polly Chuck, to see that none went astray.
When they reached the patch of tender, sweet, young clover, Johnny
Chuck would sit up very straight and still, watching as sharp as he
knew how for the least sign of danger. When the three little stomachs
were full of sweet, tender, young clover, he would proudly lead the
way home again, and then as before he would sit up very straight and
watch for danger, while the three baby Chucks sprawledout on the
doorstep for a sun-nap.
Oh, those were busy days for Johnny Chuck, and anxious days, too! You
see he had not forgotten that Sammy Jay had found out his secret, and
he hadn't the least doubt in the world that Sammy Jay would tell Reddy
Fox. So, from the first thing in the morning until the very last thing
at night, Johnny Chuck was on the watch for danger.
And all the time, though Johnny didn't know it, a pair of sharp eyes
were watching him from a snug hiding-place in one of the old apple-
trees. Whose were they? Why, Sammy Jay's, to be sure. You see, Sammy
Jay hadn't told Johnny Chuck's great secret, after all.
XXIII
THE SCHOOL IN THE OLD ORCHARD
Little Foxes, little Chucks,
Little Squirrels, Mice and Mink,
Just like little boys and girls,
Go to school to learn to think.
You didn't know that, did you? Well, it's a fact. Yes, Sir, it's a
fact. All the babies born in the Green Forest or on the Green Meadows
or around the Smiling Pool have to go to school just as soon as they
are big enough to leave their own doorsteps. They go to the greatest
school in the world, and it is called the School of Experience.
Old Mother Nature has charge of it, but the teachers usually are
father and mother for the first few weeks, anyway. After that Old
Mother Nature herself gives them a few lessons, and a very stern
teacher she is. They just HAVE to learn her lessons. If they don't,
something dreadful is almost sure to happen.
Of course Sammy Jay knew all this, because he had had to go to school
when he was a little fellow. So Sammy was not much surprised when,
from his snug hiding-place in one of the old apple-trees, he
discovered that there was a school in Farmer Brown's old orchard.
Johnny Chuck was the teacher and his three baby Chucks were the
pupils. Sammy Jay was so interested in that funny little school
in the old orchard that he quite forgot to think about mischief.
The very first lesson that the three little Chucks had to learn was
obedience. Johnny Chuck was very particular about that. You see he
knew that unless they learned this first of all, none of the other
lessons would do them much good. They must first learn to mind
instantly, without asking questions. Dear me, dear me, Johnny Chuck
certainly did have his hands full, teaching those three little Chucks
to mind! They were such lively little chaps, and there was so much
that was new and wonderful to see, that it was dreadfully hard work to
sit perfectly still, just because Johnny Chuck told them to. But if
they didn't mind instantly, they were sure to have their ears soundly
boxed, and sometimes were sent back to the house without a taste of
the sweet, tender, young clover of which they were so fond.
After a few lessons of this kind, they found out that it was always
best to obey instantly, and then Johnny began to teach them other
things, things which it is very important that every Chuck should
know.
First, there were signals. When Johnny whistled a certain way, it
meant "A stranger in sight; possible danger!"
Then each little Chuck would sit up very straight and not move the
teeniest, weeniest bit, so that from a little distance they looked for
all the world like tiny stumps. But all the time their sharp little
eyes would be looking this way and that way, to see what the danger
might be. After a while Johnny would give another little whistle,
which meant "Danger past." Then they would once more begin to fill
their little stomachs with sweet, tender, young clover.
Sometimes, however, Johnny would whistle sharply. That meant "Run!"
Then they would scamper as fast as they could along the nearest little
path to the house under the old apple-tree in the far corner, and
never once look around. They would dive head first, one after the
other, in at the doorway, and not show their noses outside again until
Johnny or Polly Chuck told them they could.
Then there was a still different whistle. It meant "Danger very near;
lie low!" When they heard that, they flattened themselves right down
in the grass just wherever they happened to be, and held their breath
and didn't move until Johnny signaled that they might. Of course,
there never was any real danger. Johnny was just teaching them, so
that when danger did come, as it surely would, sooner or later, they
would know just what to do.
It surely was a funny little school, and sometimes Sammy Jay had hard
work to keep from laughing right out.
XXIV
SAMMY JAY PROVES THAT HE IS NOT ALL BAD
Sammy Jay hadn't had so much fun for a long time as he found in
watching the funny little school in Farmer Brown's old orchard, where
Johnny Chuck was teaching his three baby Chucks the things that every
little Chuck must learn, if he would grow up into a big Chuck. When
they had learned to mind without waiting to ask why, and had learned
the signals which told them just what to do when danger was near,
Johnny began to lead them farther and farther away from home.
He took them up along the old stone wall and showed them how to find
safe hiding-places among the stones. Then he took them off a little
way and suddenly gave the danger signal. It was funny, very funny
indeed to see the three little Chucks scamper for the old stone wall
and crawl out of sight.
The first time, two of them tried to squeeze into the same hole
together, and each was in such a hurry that he wouldn't let the other
go first. Then both lost their tempers and they began to fight about
it, quite forgetting that if there was really any danger near, they
surely would come to harm. Such a scolding as Johnny Chuck did give
those two little Chucks! Then he made them try it all over again.
Once he found a foot print which Reddy Fox had made in some soft earth
during the night, and made each little Chuck smell of it, while he
told them all about Reddy and old Granny Fox and how smart and sly
they were and how very, very fond they were of tender young Chucks for
dinner.
The three little Chucks shivered when they smelled of Reddy's track,
and the hair along their backs stood up in a way that was very funny
to see.
Then Johnny Chuck took them over to the edge of the old orchard, where
they could peep out over the Green Meadows. He pointed out old
Whitetail the Marshhawk, sailing back and forth over the meadows, and
told them how once, when he was a little Chuck and had run away from
home, old Whitetail had nearly caught him. He told them about Farmer
Brown's boy and about Bowser the Hound and a great many other things
that little Chucks should learn about.
Now all the time that Johnny Chuck was teaching these things, he was
keeping the sharpest kind of a watch for danger, and there were many
times when he would give the danger signal. Then they would all lie
flat down in the grass and keep perfectly still, or else scamper as
fast as they could along the little paths which Johnny had made, to
the safety of the snug home under the old apple-tree. But even the
most watchful are surprised sometimes.
One morning, when Johnny Chuck had led the three little Chucks farther
from home than usual, Farmer Brown's boy took it into his head to
visit the old orchard. Johnny Chuck did not see him coming. You see,
the orchard grass had grown so tall that even when he sat up his very
straightest, Johnny could not always see over the top of it. So this
morning he failed to see Farmer Brown's boy coming.
But Sammy Jay, sitting in his snug hiding-place in the top of one of
the old apple-trees, saw him. At first Sammy Jay's sharp eyes
twinkled. There would be some fun now! Perhaps Farmer Brown's boy
would catch one of the little Chucks! Sammy Jay could picture to
himself the fright of Johnny Chuck and the three little Chucks. He
fairly hugged himself in delight, for you know Sammy Jay dearly loves
to see other people in trouble.
Then he thought of all the fun he had had watching those three little
Chucks learn their lessons, and suddenly the thought of anything
happening to them made Sammy Jay feel uncomfortable. Almost without
stopping to think, he screamed at the top of his lungs:
"Run, Johnny Chuck, run! Here comes Farmer Brown's boy!"
And Johnny Chuck ran. He didn't wait to ask questions or even to look.
He started the three little Chucks ahead of him, and he nipped their
heels to make them run faster. And just in time they reached the snug
house under the old apple-tree in the far corner.
Farmer Brown's boy was just in time to see them disappear. He watched
Sammy Jay flying over to the Green Forest and screaming "Thief!
thief!" as he flew.
"I wonder now if that jay warned those chucks purposely," said he, as
he scratched his head thoughtfully.
If Peter Rabbit had been there, he could have told him that Sammy Jay
did, for he knows all about Sammy Jay and his tricks. But Peter wasn't
there. The fact is, Peter was very busy doing the most foolish of all
the foolish things he has ever done--trying to change his name. You
may read all about it in The Adventures of Peter Cottontail. You see
it takes a whole book to tell all about Peter and his doings.