When you were little, O Guide! didn"t you delight in the tales of gnomes or _nibelungen_, those strange underground creatures that lived hidden from the light, and busied themselves with precious stones and metals?
How unwillingly we gave up those glad beliefs, as we inevitably grew old and lost our fairyland eyes!
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Cat"s eye Toad (life size)]
But you must not give up all your joyful creeds; you must keep on believing in the weird underground dwarfs; for I am going to tell you of one that the cold calculating Professor Science has at last accepted, and that lives in your own back-yard. That is, the Cat"s-eye Toad or Spadefoot. It is much like a common Toad, but a little smoother, the digging spade on its hind foot is bigger and its eye, its beautiful gold-stone eye, has the pupil up and down like that of a Cat, instead of level as in its cousin, the warty Hoptoad.
But the wonderful thing about the Cat"s-eye is that it spends most of its life underground, coming out in the early springtime for a few days of the most riotous honeymoon in some small pond, where it sings a loud chorus till mated, lays a few hundred eggs, to be hatched into tadpoles, then backs itself into its underground world by means of the boring machine on its hind feet, to be heard no more that season, and seen no more, unless some one chance to dig it out, just as Hans in the story dug out the mole-gnome.
In the fairy tale the Shepherd-boy was rewarded by the gnome for digging him out; for he received both gold and precious stones. But our gnome does not wish us to dig him out; nevertheless, if you do, you will be rewarded with a golden fact, and a glimpse of two wonderful jewel eyes.
According to one who knows him well, the Cat"s-eye buries itself far underground, and sleeps days, or weeks, _perhaps years_ at a time. Once a grave-digger found a Cat"s-eye three feet two inches down in the earth with no way out.
How and when are we then to find this strange creature? Only during his noisy honeymoon in April.
Do you know the soft trilling whistle of the common Hoptoad in May? The call of the Cat"s-eye is of the same style but very loud and harsh, and heard early in April. If on some warm night in springtime, you hear a song which sounds like a cross between a Toad"s whistle and a Chicken"s squawk, get a searchlight and go quietly to the place. The light will help you to come close, and in the water up to his chin, you will see him, his gold-stone eyes blazing like jewels and his throat blown out like a mammoth pearl, each time he utters the "squawk" which he intends for a song. And it is a song, and a very successful one, for a visit to the same pond a week or two later, will show you--not the Cat"s-eye or his mate, they have gone a-tunnelling--but a swarm of little black pin-like tadpole Cat"s-eyes, born and bred in the glorious sunlight but doomed and ready, if they live, to follow in their parents" tracks far underground. Sure proof that the song did win a mate, and was crowned with the success for which all woodland, and marshland song first was made.
TALE 5
How the Bluebird Came
Nana-bo-jou, that some think is the Indian name for El Sol and some say is Mother Carey, was sleeping his winter"s sleep in the big island just above the thunder-dam that men call Niagara. Four moons had waned, but still he slept. The frost draperies of his couch were gone; his white blanket was burnt into holes. He turned over a little; then the ice on the river cracked like near-by thunder. When he turned again, it began to slip over the big beaver-dam of Niagara, but still he did not awake.
[Ill.u.s.tration: How the Bluebird Came]
The great Er-Beaver in his pond, that men call Lake Erie, flapped his tail, and the waves rolled away to the sh.o.r.e, and set the ice heaving, cracking, and groaning; but Nana-bo-jou slept on.
Then the Ice-demons pounded the sh.o.r.e of the island with their clubs.
They pushed back the whole river-flood till the channel was dry, then let it rush down like the end of all things, and they shouted together:
"Nana-bo-jou! Nana-bo-jou! Nana-bo-jou! Wake up!"
But still he slept calmly on.
Then came a soft, sweet voice, more gentle than the mating turtle of Miami. It was in the air, but it was nowhere, and yet it was in the trees, in the water, and it was in Nana-bo-jou too. He felt it, and it awoke him. He sat up and looked about. His white blanket was gone; only a few tatters of it were to be seen in the shady places. In the sunny spots the shreds of the fringe with its beads had taken root and were growing into little flowers with beady eyes, Spring Beauties as they are called now. The small voice kept crying: "Awake! the spring is coming!"
Nana-bo-jou said: "Little voice, where are you? Come here."
But the little voice, being everywhere, was nowhere, and could not come at the hero"s call.
So he said: "Little voice, you are nowhere because you have no place to live in; I will make you a home."
So Nana-bo-jou took a curl of birch bark and made a little wigwam, and because the voice came from the skies he painted the wigwam with blue mud, and to show that it came from the Sunland he painted a red sun on it. On the floor he spread a sc.r.a.p of his own white blanket, then for a fire he breathed into it a spark of life, and said: "Here, little voice, is your wigwam." The little voice entered and took possession, but Nana-bo-jou had breathed the spark of life into it. The smoke-vent wings began to move and to flap, and the little wigwam turned into a beautiful Bluebird with a red sun on its breast and a shirt of white. Away it flew, but every year it comes as winter wanes, the Bluebird of the spring. The voice still dwells in it, and we feel that it has lost nothing of its earliest power when we hear it cry: "Awake! the spring is coming!"
TALE 6
Robin, the Bird that Loves to Make Clay Pots
Everyone knows the Robin; his reddish-brown breast, gray back, white throat, and dark wings and tail are easily remembered. If you colour the drawing, you will always remember it afterward. The Robin comes about our houses and lawns; it lets us get close enough to see it. It has a loud, sweet song. All birds have a song[A]; and all sing when they are happy. As they sing most of the time, except when they are asleep, or when moulting, they must have a lot of happiness in their lives.
Here are some things to remember about the Robin. It is one of the earliest of all our birds to get up in the morning, and it begins to sing long before there is daylight.
Birds that live in the trees, _hop_; birds that live on the ground, _walk_ or _run_; but the Robin lives partly in the trees and partly on the ground, so sometimes he hops and sometimes he runs.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Robin Making Clay Pots]
When he alights on a fence or tree, he looks at you and flashes the white spots on the outer corners of his tail. Again and again he does this. Why? That is his way of letting you know that he is a Robin. He is saying in signal code--flash and wig-wag--"I"m a Robin, I"m a Robin, I"m a Robin." So you will not mistake him for some bird that is less loved.
The Robin invented pottery before men did; his nest is always a clay pot set in a little pile of straws. Sometime, get a Robin"s nest after the bird is done with it; dry it well, put it on the fire very gently; leave it till all the straws are burned away, and then if it does not go to pieces, you will find you have a pretty good earthen pot.
The Robin loves to make these pots. I have known a c.o.c.k Robin make several which he did not need, just for the fun of making them.
A friend of mine said to me once, "Come, and I will show you the nest of a crazy Robin." We went to the woodshed and there on a beam were six perfectly good Robin nests all in a row; all of them empty.
"There," said my friend. "All of these six were built by a c.o.c.k Robin in about ten days or two weeks. He seemed to do nothing but sing and build nests. Then after finishing the last one, he disappeared. Wasn"t he crazy?"
"No," I said, "not at all. He was not crazy; he was industrious. Let me finish the chapter. The hen Robin was sitting on the eggs, the c.o.c.k bird had nothing else to do, so he put in the time at the two things he did the best and loved the most: singing and nest-building. Then after the young were hatched in the home nest, he had plenty to do caring for them, so he ceased both building and singing, for that season."
I have often heard of such things. Indeed, they are rather common, but not often noticed, because the Robin does not often build all the extra nests in one place.
Do you know the lovely shade called Robin"s-egg blue? The next time you see a Robin"s nest with eggs in it you will understand why it was so named and feel for a moment, when first you see it, that you have found a casket full of most exquisite jewels.
Next to nest-building, singing is the Robin"s gift, and the songs that he sings are full of joy. He says, "_cheerup, cheer up, cheerily cheer-up_"; and he means it too.
TALE 7
Brook Brownie, or How the Song Sparrow Got His Streaks
[Ill.u.s.tration: Brook Brownie]
His Mother was the Brook and his sisters were the Reeds, They, every one, applauded when he sang about his deeds.
His vest was white, his mantle brown, as clear as they could be, And his songs were fairly bubbling o"er with melody and glee.
But an envious Neighbour splashed with mud our Brownie"s coat and vest, And then a final handful threw that stuck upon his breast.
The Brook-bird"s mother did her best to wash the stains away; But there they stuck, and, as it seems, are very like to stay.
And so he wears the splashes and the mud blotch, as you see; But his songs are bubbling over still with melody and glee.
TALE 8
Diablo and the Dogwood
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Dogwood Bloom]
What a glorious thing is the Maytime Dogwood in our woods! How it does sing out its song! More loudly and clearly it sings than any other spring flower! For it is not one, but a great chorus; and I know it is singing that "The spring, the very spring is in the land!"
I suppose if one had King Solomon"s fayland ears, one might hear the Dogwood music like a lot of church bells pealing, like the chorus of the cathedral where Woodthrush is the preacher-priest and the Veeries make responses.