"But----" said Jimmieboy.
"Don"t ask for reasons," returned the snowman, gathering his little s...o...b..ys together and rushing off with them in tow. "I haven"t time to give them. Just read that and you"ll see. Farewell."
Then he made off down the garden path, and as he fled with his babies Jimmieboy picked up the thing the snowman had told him to read, and wandered back into the house, holding it in his hand. It was only a newspaper, but at the top of the first column was an announcement in huge letters:
WARM WAVE TO-NIGHT.
WISE SNOWMEN WILL MOVE NORTH AT ONCE.
When Jimmieboy saw this he knew right away why he had been deserted, but to this day he doesn"t know how he knew it, because at the time this happened he had not learned how to read. At all events he discovered what the trouble was instantly, and then he decided that as he had been left by all of his new friends he would go home. He walked to the front door and opened it, and what do you suppose it opened into?
The garden?
Not a bit of it.
Into Jimmieboy"s nursery itself, and when the door closed upon him after he had stepped through it into the nursery and Jimmieboy turned to look at it, lo, and behold it wasn"t there!
Nor was the snowman to be found the next morning. It was quite evident that he had got away from the warm wave that appeared on the scene the night before, for there wasn"t even a sign of the shoe-b.u.t.ton eyes or the battered hat, as there certainly would have been had he melted instead of run away.
VII.
THE BICYCLOPaeDIA BIRD.
"Boo!" said something.
And Jimmieboy of course was startled. So startled was he that, according to his own statement, he jumped ninety-seven feet, though for my own part I don"t believe he really jumped more than thirty-three. He was too sleepy to count straight anyhow. He had been lolling under his canvas tent down near the tennis-court all the afternoon, getting lazier and lazier every minute, and finally he had turned over square on his back, put his head on a small cushion his mamma had made for him, closed his eyes, and then came the "Boo!"
"I wonder--" he said, as he gazed about him, seeing no sign of any creature that could by any possibility say "Boo!" however.
"Of course you do. That"s why I"ve come," interrupted a voice from the bushes. "More children of your age suffer from the wonders than from measles, mumps, or canthaves."
"What are canthaves?" asked Jimmieboy.
"Canthaves are things you can"t have. Don"t you ever suffer because you can"t have things?" queried the voice.
"Oh, yes, indeed!" returned Jimmieboy. "Lots and lots of times."
"And didn"t you ever have the wonders so badly that you got cross and wouldn"t eat anything but sweet things for dinner?" the voice asked.
"I don"t know exactly what you mean by the wonders," replied Jimmieboy.
"Why, wonders is a disease that attacks boys who want to know why things are and can"t find out," said the voice.
"Oh, my, yes I"ve had that lots of times," laughed Jimmieboy. "Why, only this morning I asked my papa why there weren"t any dandelionesses, and he wouldn"t tell me because he said he had to catch a train, and I"ve been wondering why ever since."
"I thought you"d had it; all boys do get it sooner or later, and it"s a thing you can have any number of times unless you have me around," said the voice.
"What are you anyhow?" asked Jimmieboy.
"I"m what they call the Encyclopaedia Bird. I"m a regular owl for wisdom.
I know everything--just like the Cyclopaedia; and I have two wheels instead of legs, which is why they call me the Bicyclopaedia Bird. I can"t let you see me, because these are not my office hours. I can only be seen between ten and two on the thirty-second of March every seventeenth year. You can get a fair idea of what I look like from my photograph, though."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
As the voice said this, sure enough a photograph did actually pop out of the bush, and land at Jimmieboy"s feet. He sprang forward eagerly, stooped, and picking it up, gazed earnestly at it. And a singular creature the Bicyclopaedia Bird must have been if the photograph did him justice. He had the head of an owl, but his body was oblong in shape, just like a book, and, as the voice had said, in place of legs were two wheels precisely like those of a bicycle. The effect was rather pleasing, but so funny that Jimmieboy really wanted to laugh. He did not laugh, however, for fear of hurting the Bird"s feelings, which the Bird noticed and appreciated.
"Thank you," he said, simply.
"What for?" asked Jimmieboy, looking up from the photograph, and peering into the bush in the vain hope of catching a glimpse of the Bird itself.
"For not laughing," replied the Bird. "If you had laughed I should have biked away at once because I am of no value to any one who laughs at my personal appearance. It always makes me forget all I know, and that does me up for a whole year. If I forget all I know, you see, I have to study hard to learn it all over again, and that"s a tremendous job, considering how much knowledge there is to be had in the world. So you see, by being polite and kind enough not to laugh at me, who can"t help being funny to look at, and who am not to blame for looking that way, because I am not a self-made Bird, you are really the gainer, for I promise you I"ll tell you anything you want to know."
"That"s very nice of you," returned Jimmieboy; "and perhaps, to begin with, you"ll tell me something that I ought to want to know, whether I do or not."
"That is a very wise idea," said the Bicyclopaedia Bird, "and I"ll try to do it. Let me see; now, do you know why the Pollywog is always amiable?"
"No," returned Jimmieboy. "I never even knew that he was, and so couldn"t really wonder why."
"But you wonder why now, don"t you?" asked the voice, anxiously. "For if you don"t, I can"t tell you."
"I"m just crazy to know," Jimmieboy responded.
"Then listen, and I will tell you," said the voice. And then the strange bird recited this poem about
THE POLLYWOG.
"The Pollywog"s a perfect type Of amiability.
He never uses angry speech Wherever he may be.
He never calls his brother names, Or tweaks his sister"s nose; He never pulls the sea-dog"s tail, Or treads upon his toes.
"He never says an unkind word, And frown he never will.
A smile is ever on his lips, E"en when he"s feeling ill.
And this is why: when Pollywog The first came on the scene, He had a temper like a cat"s-- His eye with it was green.
"Now, just about the time when he Began to lose his tail, To change into a croaking frog, He came across a nail-- A nail so rusty that it looked Just like an angle-worm, Except that it was straight and stiff, And so could never squirm.
"And Polly, feeling hungry, to a.s.suage his appet.i.te, Swam boldly up to that old nail, And gave it such a bite, He nearly broke his upper jaw; His lower jaw he bent.
And then he got so very mad, His temper simply went.
"He lost it so completely as He lashed and gnashed around, That though this happened years ago, It has not since been found.
And that is why, at all times, in The Pollywog you see, A model of that virtue rare-- True Amiability."
"Now, I dare say," continued the Bird--"I dare say you might have asked your father--who really knows a great deal, considering he isn"t my twin brother--sixteen million four hundred and twenty-three times why the Pollywog is always so good-natured, and he couldn"t have answered you more than once out of the whole lot, and he"d have been wrong even then."