PANSY’S FORTUNE.
“I’m not going to stay in this field any longer,” said Pansy the spotted cow to old Mrs. Spot, her aunt. “Nothing ever happens here—it’s so dull. I shall go out into the world.”
“Don’t talk stuff and nonsense!” said Mrs. Spot. “Whoever heard of a cow being dull? It’s not a cow’s business to be anything else? Come now, you’re behaving as if you were a young calf. There’s a nice patch of buttercups over there. Go and eat them and you’ll feel better. It’s only the weather that’s making you feel like this.”
Well, Pansy walked away and ate the buttercups but she didn’t feel better. “I knew I shouldn’t,” she said to herself. “I shall go and seek my fortune.”
Now it happened that Jim, the stable boy, had left the gate of the field open, and Pansy slipped through without anyone seeing her.
“I can’t go alone,” she said; “I must find some other cow to go with me.”
She walked down the lane, stopping every now and then to nibble a twig from the hedge.
“Everything tastes much sweeter out here,” she said. “I’m glad I came.”
Presently she saw some more cows in a field, and she mooed to make them look at her.
“Will any of you come and seek your fortunes with me?” she called. None of them spoke, but a large old cow sitting under the hedge said sharply: “Cows don’t have fortunes, so it’s no use seeking them.”
Pansy was walking away when she heard a soft voice say: “I will come with you,” and, looking round, saw a brown cow, with short horns, following her. She was very glad to have someone to go with her; for to tell the truth she was feeling a little frightened and had already begun to want to go back to her own field.
“What is your name?” she asked.
“Reddy,” said the brown cow. “I have lived all my life in that field and I think I should like to see the world.”
“Very well, then, follow me and I will show you many beautiful places,” said Pansy, proudly.
Of course we know that Pansy had never been out of her field before, but Reddy thought she had travelled a great deal and followed her humbly.
They walked a long way down the lane until they came to the crossroads.
“Which way shall we go?” said Pansy; “you may choose.”
“Let’s go different ways,” said Reddy. “I don’t expect we shall find two fortunes growing on one tree, so it will be better to go different ways.”
You see, Reddy and Pansy did not know at all what fortunes were. They had heard of people seeking their fortunes so they thought they were some special kind of flower or leaf to eat. Pansy was not frightened now so they agreed to part and Pansy went down the road to the right.
We won’t say any more about Reddy in this story, only I will tell you that she went a little way and then felt lonely so she turned back and got safely home.
But Pansy was braver and went on and on until she came to a wood.
“The very thing to find a fortune in,” she cried in delight, and went in. Perhaps you think a cow would get scratched by the brambles in a wood, because of course you know how one has to push one’s way through a wood sometimes, but the wood was not a very thick one and Pansy was able to walk through without any trouble. Suddenly she heard a voice right at her feet say “Take care now, take care! Mind where you are putting your great paws!” and looking down, saw a funny little brown person, with long ears, just beside her front hoofs.
“Who are you?” she asked rather timidly, because although this creature was so small it seemed very severe.
“Fancy having to ask who I am!” said the little creature, and sat up on its hind legs proudly. “Why, I and my relations own the whole wood, and could turn you out in the bobbing of a tail.”
Of course, we should have said “in the twinkling of an eye,” but rabbits (you must have guessed that this little person was a rabbit) don’t know anything about twinkling eyes and so they don’t talk about them.
“I won’t do any harm to your wood,” said Pansy; “I have only come to look for my fortune. Can you tell me where I could find it?”
“Well, there now!” said the rabbit quite kindly, “I’m sure I don’t know, but if you walk through the gate at the end of the wood you may find something nice; many of my relations have been in there and they say that the most wonderful things grow on the other side of the gate, but one has to take care not to get caught. Still, you are so much larger than we are that I don’t think there is any danger for you. Come, I will show you the way. But be careful not to step on me. You are a little clumsy about the paws, my dear, but I daresay it’s not your fault.”
The rabbit ran on in front of Pansy until they came to a little wicket-gate.
“There!” said the rabbit, “I quite forgot that you were so big; you see, our folk run underneath the gate, but I’m afraid you can’t possibly do that.”
“Perhaps I can open it,” said Pansy, and pushed against it with her shoulder. It opened with a sharp click, and startled little Mrs. Bunny so much that she scuttled back into the wood, without once turning round to wave to Pansy.
Now, although Pansy did not know it, she had got into a garden, and it happened that on that day—the weather being warm and sunny—the lady who lived in the house had told her two little girls that they might have their tea in the garden with their dollies. So when Pansy walked up the path and on to the lawn she came right into the middle of the doll’s tea-party.
She mooed gently, but both little girls jumped up and ran away screaming, which was very silly of them, because, of course, Pansy did not mean to hurt them. Then Pansy sniffed all round the tea-table and ate up the little cakes that were ready for the dolls’ tea. She was just wondering whether those cakes were her fortune when she saw two red spiky things coming at her. They were really only two red sunshades, which the little girls were carrying in front of them, but Pansy had never seen anything so dreadful before and she ran down the path as hard as she could, through the gate into the wood, and through the wood into the lane, never looking back until she reached her own field. It was just milking time and Jim was driving the cows into the farmyard. She had not been missed. As she went past the door of the farm house, the farmer’s baby, who was sitting on the step, stretched out its arms to her and screamed “Wuffy-Duff!”
“Oh!” said Pansy, “after all it is nice to be called a Wuffy-Duff by that dear baby, and so I’m not sorry I came home again, even if I haven’t got a fortune.”
Printed in Bavaria.