"Good for you! Dee, dee, good for you!" cried Tommy Tit, and started to
lead the way.
CHAPTER XIX
TOMMY TIT AND HAPPY JACK PAY A VISIT
As grows the mighty elm tree,
From just a tiny seed,
So often great things happen
From just a kindly deed.
_Happy Jack._
Great things were happening to Happy Jack Squirrel. He was actually on
his way to Farmer Brown's house, and he had a feeling that other things
were likely to happen when he got there. Now you may not think that it
was anything very great that Happy Jack should be on his way to Farmer
Brown's house. Very likely you are saying, "Pooh! that's nothing!" This
may be true, and then again it may not. Suppose you do a little
supposing. Suppose you had all your life been terribly afraid of a great
giant fifty times bigger than you. Suppose that great giant had stopped
hunting you and by little deeds of kindness had at last won your love.
Suppose you learned that something was the matter with him, and you made
up your mind to visit him at his great castle where there were other
great giants whom you did not know. Wouldn't you think that great things
were happening to you?
Well, that is exactly the way it was with Happy Jack Squirrel, as he
and Tommy Tit the Chickadee started to go over to Farmer Brown's house
to look for Farmer Brown's boy. Tommy Tit had been there often, so he
didn't think anything about it, but Happy Jack never had been there, and
if the truth were known, his heart was going pitapat, pitapat, with
excitement and perhaps just a little fear. Through the Old Orchard they
went, Tommy Tit flitting ahead and keeping a sharp watch for danger.
When they reached the old stone wall on the edge of Farmer Brown's
dooryard, Tommy told Happy Jack to hide there while he went to see if
the way was clear. He was back in a few minutes.
"Dee, dee, everything is all right," said he. "Bowser the Hound is
eating; his breakfast out back where he can't see you at all, and Black
Pussy is nowhere about. All you have to do is to follow me over to that
big tree close to the house, and I will show you where Farmer Brown's
boy is."
"I--I'm afraid," confessed Happy Jack.
"Pooh! There's nothing to be afraid of," asserted Tommy Tit in the most
positive way. "Don't be a coward. Remember how Farmer Brown's boy saved
you from Shadow the Weasel. Come on! Dee, dee, dee, come on!" With that
Tommy flew across to the tree close by the house.
Happy Jack scrambled up on the old stone wall and looked this way and
looked that way. He couldn't see a thing to be afraid of. He jumped down
and ran a few steps. Then his heart failed, and he scampered back to the
old stone wall in a panic. After a few minutes he tried again, and once
more a foolish fear sent him back. The third time he gritted his teeth,
said to himself over and over, "I will! I will! I will!" and ran with
all his might. In no time at all he was across the dooryard and up in
the big tree, his heart pounding with excitement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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