brownie and the cherry-tree
the "next time" was quick in coming, which was not wonderful, considering there was a brownie in the house. otherwise the house was like most other houses, and the family like most other families. the children also: they were sometimes good, sometimes naughty, like other children; but, on the whole, they deserved to have the pleasure of a brownie to play with them, as they declared he did—many and many a time.
a favorite play-place was the orchard, where grew the biggest cherry-tree you ever saw. they called it their "castle," because it rose up ten feet from the ground in one thick stem, and then branched out into a circle of boughs, with a flat place in the middle, where two or three children could sit at once. there they often did sit, turn by turn, or one at a time—sometimes with a book, reading; and the biggest boy made a sort of rope-ladder by which they could climb up and down—which they did all winter, and enjoyed their "castle" very much.
but one day in spring they found their ladder cut away! the gardener had done it, saying it injured the tree, which was just coming into blossom. now this gardener was a rather gruff man, with a growling voice. he did not mean to be unkind, but he disliked children; he said they bothered him. but when they complained to their mother about the ladder, she agreed with gardener that the tree must not be injured, as it bore the biggest cherries in all the neighborhood—so big that the old saying of "taking two bites at a cherry," came really true.
"wait till the cherries are ripe," said she; and so the little people waited, and watched it through its leafing and blossoming—such sheets of blossom, white as snow!—till the fruit began to show, and grew large and red on every bough.
at last one morning the mother said, "children, should you like to help gather the cherries to-day?"
"hurrah!" they cried, "and not a day too soon; for we saw a flock of starlings in the next field—and if we don't clear the tree, they will."
"very well; clear it, then. only mind and fill my basket quite full, for preserving. what is over you may eat, if you like."
"thank you, thank you!" and the children were eager to be off; but the mother stopped them till she could get the gardener and his ladder.
"for it is he must climb the tree, not you; and you must do exactly as he tells you; and he will stop with you all the time and see that you don't come to harm."
this was no slight cloud on the children's happiness, and they begged hard to go alone.
"please, might we? we will be so good!"
when the gardener was steadying his ladder against the trunk of the cherry-tree when the gardener was steadying his ladder against the trunk of the cherry-tree
the mother shook her head. all the goodness in the world would not help them if they tumbled off the tree, or ate themselves sick with cherries. "you would not be safe, and i should be so unhappy!"
to make mother "unhappy" was the worst rebuke possible to these children; so they choked down their disappointment, and followed the gardener as he walked on ahead, carrying his ladder on his shoulder. he looked very cross, and as if he did not like the children's company at all.
they were pretty good, on the whole, though they chattered a good deal; but gardener said not a word to them all the way to the orchard. when they reached it, he just told them to "keep out of his way and not worrit him," which they politely promised, saying among themselves that they should not enjoy their cherry-gathering at all. but children who make the best of things, and try to be as good as they can, sometimes have fun unawares.
when the gardener was steadying his ladder against the trunk of the cherry-tree, there was suddenly heard the barking of a dog, and a very fierce dog, too. first it seemed close beside them, then in the flower-garden, then in the fowl-yard.
gardener dropped the ladder out of his hands. "it's that boxer! he has got loose again! he will be running after my chickens, and dragging his broken chain all over my borders. and he is so fierce, and so delighted to get free. he'll bite any body who ties him up, except me."
"hadn't you better you go and see after him?"
gardener thought it was the eldest boy who spoke, and turned round angrily; but the little fellow had never opened his lips.
here there was heard a still louder bark, and from a quite different part of the garden.
"there he is—i'm sure of it! jumping over my bedding-out plants, and breaking my cucumber frames. abominable beast!—just let me catch him!" off gardener darted in a violent passion, throwing the ladder down upon the grass, and forgetting all about the cherries and the children.
the instant he was gone, a shrill laugh, loud and merry, was heard close by, and a little brown old man's face peeped from behind the cherry-tree.
"how d'ye do?—boxer was me. didn't i bark well? now i'm come to play with you."
the children clapped their hands; for they knew they were going to have some fun if brownie was there—he was the best little playfellow in the world. and then they had him all to themselves. nobody ever saw him except the children.
"come on!" cried he, in his shrill voice, half like an old man's, half like a baby's. "who'll begin to gather the cherries?"
a little brown old man's face peeped from behind the cherry-tree.—page 20 a little brown old man's face peeped from behind the cherry-tree.
they all looked blank; for the tree was so high to where the branches sprang, and besides, their mother had said they were not to climb. and the ladder lay flat upon the grass—far too heavy for little hands to move.
"what! you big boys don't expect a poor little fellow like me to lift the ladder all by myself? try! i'll help you."
whether he helped or not, no sooner had they taken hold of the ladder than it rose up, almost of its own accord, and fixed itself quite safely against the tree.
"but we must not climb—mother told us not," said the boys, ruefully. "mother said we were to stand at the bottom and pick up the cherries."
"very well. obey your mother. i'll just run up the tree myself."
before the words were out of his mouth brownie darted up the ladder like a monkey, and disappeared among the fruit-laden branches.
the children looked dismayed for a minute, till they saw a merry brown face peeping out from the green leaves at the very top of the tree.
"biggest fruit always grows highest," cried the brownie. "stand in a row, all you children. little boys, hold out your caps: little girls, make a bag of your pinafores. open your mouths and shut your eyes, and see what the queen will send you."
they laughed and did as they were told; whereupon they were drowned in a shower of cherries—cherries falling like hailstones, hitting them on their heads, their cheeks, their noses—filling their caps and pinafores, and then rolling and tumbling on to the grass, till it was strewn thick as leaves in autumn with the rosy fruit.
what a glorious scramble they had—these three little boys and three little girls! how they laughed and jumped and knocked their heads together in picking up the cherries, yet never quarreled—for there were such heaps, it would have been ridiculous to squabble over them; and besides, whenever they began to quarrel, brownie always ran away. now he was the merriest of the lot; ran up and down the tree like a cat, helped to pick up the cherries, and was first-rate at filling the large market-basket.
"we were to eat as many as we liked, only we must first fill the basket," conscientiously said the eldest girl; upon which they all set to at once, and filled it to the brim.
"now we'll have a dinner-party," cried the brownie; and squatted down like a turk, crossed his queer little legs, and sticking his elbows upon his knees, in a way that nobody but a brownie could manage. "sit in a ring! sit in a ring! and we'll see who can eat fastest."
the children obeyed. how many cherries they devoured, and how fast they did it, passes my capacity of telling. i only hope they were not ill next day, and that all the cherry-stones they swallowed by mistake did not disagree with them. but perhaps nothing does disagree with one when one dines with a brownie. they ate so much, laughing in equal proportion, that they had quite forgotten the gardener—when, all of a sudden, they heard him clicking angrily the orchard gate, and talking to himself as he walked through.
"that nasty dog! it wasn't boxer, after all. a nice joke! to find him quietly asleep in his kennel after having hunted him, as i thought, from one end of the garden to the other! now for the cherries and the children—bless us, where are the children? and the cherries? why, the tree is as bare as a blackthorn in february! the starlings have been at it, after all. oh dear! oh dear!"
"oh dear! oh dear!" echoed a voice from behind the tree, followed by shouts of mocking laughter. not from the children—they sat as demure as possible, all in a ring, with their hands before them, and in the centre the huge basket of cherries, piled as full as it could possibly hold. but the brownie had disappeared.
"you naughty brats, i'll have you punished!" cried the gardener, furious at the laughter, for he never laughed himself. but as there was nothing wrong; the cherries being gathered—a very large crop—and the ladder found safe in its place—it was difficult to say what had been the harm done and who had done it.
so he went growling back to the house, carrying the cherries to the mistress, who coaxed him into good temper again, as she sometimes did; bidding also the children to behave well to him, since he was an old man, and not really bad—only cross. as for the little folks, she had not the slightest intention of punishing them; and, as for brownie, it was impossible to catch him. so nobody was punished at all.
