St. Nicholas/Volume 32/Number 4/What Walter Saw
What Walter Saw in the Fire.
By Henry Holcomb Bennett.
Walter had been out skating, and the cold wind which swept down over the frozen lake made his toes and fingers tingle, so
that when he got home he hurried to get warm. Kneeling down close in front of the coal fire, which flamed and crackled in the open fireplace, while his brother and sister looked over their Chrisimas portfolio of pictures, he gazed into the glowing coals in the grate. By and by he climbed up into an arm-chair. The heat made him sleepy. and he closed his eyes. He opened them in great astonishment a moment later, when he heard a shrill “Cock-a-doodie-doo!” which sounded very close to him. He knew there were no chickens in the room, because the chickens were all out on the farm in the country, and he was just beginning to think that he had been dreaming, when he heard the “Cock-a-doodle-doo” again. This time it seemed to come from in front of him, and he looked into the fireplace, though how a “cock-a-doodle-doo” could come from the midst of the fire he did not know, As his eyes fell on the fire he gave a jump in the chair and stared as hard as he could. There, in front of him, perched on a piece of coal, was a comical little rooster.
“Well,” said the rooster, “you are the slowest boy to get awake that I ever knew, and I have wakened all kinds of boys in my life. I am the Cock that Crew in the Morn.”
“Did the Priest all Shaven and Shorn wake up?” asked Walter, eagerly.
“Of course he did,” answered the rooster; “else how could he marry
the Milkmaid to the Man all ‘Tattered and Torn?”
“Of course,” said Walter, “I might have thought of that.”
“We thought of it,” said another voice. “We were at the wedding.” And a big black-and-white cat crawled out from a hole in the coals and stood beside the rooster, “I am the Cat. that Caught the Rat,” said he. “Once upon a time I wore boots, and helped my master to
marry the Princess.”
“Bow - wow - wow!” barked a little dog, which came running from a corner.
The cat jumped nimbly to the top of a big piece of coal, where she put up her back at the dog and made a great hissing noise.
“Oho!” said Walter. “I guess you must be the Dog that Worried the Cat, are n’t you?”
“I thought you would know me,” barked the dog. “I am the same dog right along: I never belonged to a witch. If a witch came around I would bark at her. Hello! there ’s the Ugly Duckling. I guess I ’ll bark at her.” But the wary old duck scampered off.
“How is it that you all are here?” asked Walter. “I thought you all were dead a long time ago. And I do not see how you can live
in the fire.”
“Oh, the fire does not hurt us,” said the Cock that Crew in the Morn, before any of the others could answer. “And we did not die. We never die; and we live in the fire: not always in this fire, for we like to go about from one place to another, but some of us are here most of the time. You can see us in any fire if you look carefully. The best time to see us is in the evening, just before the lights are lit; then we come out to see what is going on.”
“And you ’ll see something going on now,” snapped a red fox, jumping from behind a pile of coals and dashing at the rooster. The
rooster dodged to one side and gave a derisive crow.
“Just let that old rooster alone,” growled a deep voice; and Walter, looking into a corner of the fireplace, saw a great bear. “I am the Big Bear who lived in the wood,” said Bruin. “Here comes my son, the Little Bear.”
“Whatever became of Goldenlocks?” asked Walter of the Little Bear. “Would you have hurt her if you had caught her when she came
to your house in the wood and sat in your chair?”
“No,” said the Little Bear, laughing. “I would have played with her, and told her where the best berries grew that summer.
“And what fun we do have in summer!” said the Sly Old Fox. “Do you know, Little Bo-peep was watching her sheep one day when—”
“Walter, Walter! come to supper,” some
one called suddenly, and at the sound of the voice all the birds and beasts scuttled for nooks and crannies in the coals, “I ’ll tell you that tale another time,” said the Sly Old Fox, and dodged into his hole just as Walter's elder sister came into the room.
“Wake up, Walter; supper is ready, ”she said, shaking him by the shoulder; but Walter declared that he had not been asleep at all, but was just watching the animals. After supper he went back to the fire, but there were too many people in the room, and although he caught a glimpse of one or two of the animals, none of them came out and spoke to him.
But Walter hopes that sometime, in the twilight, he will see them all again, and that then the Sly Old Fox will finish the story of “how Bo-peep’s sheep all ran away.”
A Tailpiece.