Well, by and by the Story Teller, and the Artist who drew the pictures, put the Hollow Tree and Deep Woods stories into a book to preserve them, for they thought that was going to be all of them, because Mr. Dog, who told them, had gone away and they did not know where they could ever find any more. Even when other Little Ladies and their brothers wrote and asked for more Hollow Tree stories there were no more to send for a very long time. But then one day the Story Teller and the Artist themselves moved into the very edge of the Big Deep Woods, and there they found some more stories about the 'Coon and 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, because Mr. Dog had left a young relative, very fine and handsome, who was also friends with the Hollow Tree people and could tell everything as it happened, right along. So the Story Teller and the Artist made up The Hollow Tree Snowed-In Book which was all about once when the Hollow Tree people and their friends were "snowed in" and had to sit around the fire and eat good things and play games and tell stories to pass the time.
How Little Ladies do slip away from us! The first Hollow Tree stories were told for one who is now a Big Lady, and the Snowed-In stories for another, who will soon be a Big Lady, too. But in the Deep Woods the years do not count. The Hollow Tree people never grow any older, but stay always the same, and the Story Teller and the Artist have to keep stepping backward to find out the new Hollow Tree stories and to tell them to the new Little People that come along.
So now after a good many years we have a third Hollow Tree book, which will surely be the last one, because things are so likely to go in threes, like three cheers, and three trials, and three strikes and out. The Deep Woods people will never desert the Hollow Tree, and though after this we should not hear from them again, we may imagine they are doing many of the same things, and keeping safe and happy during all the future Hollow Tree Nights and Days.
CONTENTS
[EXPLANATION OF THE NEW MAP]
[GREETINGS FROM THE STORY TELLER AND THE ARTIST]
[CONTENTS]
[ILLUSTRATIONS]
[LITTLE JACK RABBIT AND BUNTY BUN]
[MR. 'POSSUM'S SICK SPELL]
[MR. TURTLE'S FLYING ADVENTURE]
[THE DEEP WOODS ELOPEMENT]
[COUSIN REDFIELD AND THE MOLASSES]
[IN MR. MAN'S CAR]
[MR. 'POSSUM'S CAR]
[MR. BEAR'S EARLY SPRING CALL]
[HOW MR. 'POSSUM'S TAIL BECAME BARE]
[A DEEP WOODS WAR]
[MR. CROW AND THE WHITEWASH]
[MR. 'COON'S STAR STORY]
[MR. RABBIT'S STAR STORY]
[MR. CROW'S STAR STORY]
[MR. JACK RABBIT BRINGS A FRIEND]
[MR. RABBIT'S WEDDING]
ILLUSTRATIONS
["I KNOW," HE SAID, "I KNOW A WAY"]
[A NEW MAP OF THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS COUNTRY]
[MR. RABBIT SAID HE CERTAINLY DID APPRECIATE BEING INVITED TO THE HOLLOW TREE]
[I USED TO RUN OUT AND GET BEHIND, WITH BUNTY, AND TAKE HER BOOKS]
[NEW FLOWERS THAT SHE WANTED ME TO DIG UP FOR HER]
[I HAD MADE A MISS-DIP, AND EVERYBODY WAS LOOKING AT ME]
[MR. RABBIT SAID HE COULD HARDLY GET TO HICKORY WHACK'S DESK]
[MR. OWL LOOKED AT HIS TONGUE AND FELT HIS PULSE]
[IN A LITTLE WHILE HE HAD THIS FINE, FAT CHICKEN]
[MR. CROW SAID IF MR. 'POSSUM WAS STILL WITH THEM NEXT MORNING THEY WOULD SEND FOR ANOTHER DOCTOR]
[WHEN THE DUMPLING WAS GONE HE FISHED UP A LEG AND ATE THAT]
["WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY SUNDAY COAT ON?"]
[A CATFISH NEARLY JERKED HIS POLE OUT OF HIS HANDS]
[OLD MAN MOCCASIN WAS ONLY ABOUT TWENTY FEET AWAY]
["NOW FLY!" HE SAYS, AND DOWN I WENT]
["YES," SAID MR. TURTLE, "THAT'S WHERE I STRUCK"]
[SHE WOULD MAKE WINTERS HELP MY YOUNG LADY COUSIN DO THE DISHES]
[UNCLE SILAS HAD GONE TO SLEEP WITH A POTATO IN HIS HAND]
[THAT NIGHT WINTERS AND I TALKED IT OVER]
[SENT ME SAILING UP INTO THE SKY]
[HE LAUGHED MORE THAN I EVER SAW HIM LAUGH AT ANYTHING]
[HE DIDN'T EAT THE BREAD AT ALL, BUT JUST ATE UP THE MOLASSES]
[SAT DOWN ON THE STONE TO THINK AGAIN AND CRY SOME MORE]
[AND THEN PRETTY SOON IT COMMENCED TO RUN BETTER]
[IT GAVE HIM SUCH A SICK TURN THAT HE NEARLY DIED]
[MR. 'POSSUM TRIED TO TURN THE CRANK A LITTLE]
[MR. 'COON SAT UP IN THE FRONT SEAT]
[MADE A DIVE FOR THE REAR SEAT]
[HE USED TO WALK UP AND DOWN IN THE SUN AND SMOKE, THINKING AND THINKING]
[SIGHTED ACROSS IT TO SEE THAT THEY WERE KEEPING IT STRAIGHT]
[SO THEN MR. 'POSSUM GOT UP INTO THE SEAT TO STEER]
[GOING FASTER AND FASTER EVERY MINUTE]
[MR. TURTLE TOOK MR. 'POSSUM ON HIS BACK, AND EVERYBODY SAID IT WAS FINE]
[MR. 'POSSUM CAME PUFFING UP THE STAIRS]
[DID NOT REALLY INTEND TO GO SOUND ASLEEP]
[WHEN MR. 'POSSUM HEARD THAT HE FAINTED DEAD AWAY]
[FLUNG HIMSELF AGAINST THE DOWN-STAIRS DOOR WITH A GREAT BANG]
["I HOPE MR. 'POSSUM'S FUNERAL WILL BE A SUCCESS"]
[ONE DAY A NEW AND VERY HANDSOME MR. 'POSSUM CAME INTO THE NEIGHBORHOOD]
[CALLING OUT, "MUCH OBLIGED, MR. PAINTER"]
[MR. WATERS HAD TO TAKE WHAT WAS LEFT]
[TOOK HIM ALL THE AFTERNOON TO PRY THE REST OF MY ANCESTORS LOOSE]
[I CAN'T IMAGINE WHAT VIOLET COULD SEE IN HIM]
[ALL DAY LONG CARRIED HONEY OUT OF THE BEE-TREE]
[VIOLET AND THAT BIG CREATURE HAD STARTED HOUSEKEEPING]
[MR. CROW AND MR. RABBIT WENT BACK TO THE FENCE JOB]
[GAVE HIM ANOTHER AND VERY HEAVY COAT]
[WOKE UP AND TOOK ONE LOOK AT THE STRANGE, WHITE CREATURE]
["GOOD GRACIOUS ALIVE! IF THE HOLLOW TREE ISN'T ON FIRE!"]
[MR. 'COON RODE DOWN ON IT LIKE A SLED]
[I WAS VERY YOUNG]
[BUT MOST OF ALL I WAS ANXIOUS TO SEE IN THAT BOX]
[A BIG YELLOW ONE JUST GRAZED MY LEFT EAR]
[I NOTICED A SCARED CHICKEN]
[TOLD WHAT A GRAND PLACE THE SKY WAS]
[THEY PILED UP THAT LADDER IN A STEADY STREAM]
[GRANDPAW WENT ABOUT TWO-THIRDS OF THE WAY UP HIS LADDER, TO SEE]
[I ASKED MINERVA TO TELL ME IN A FEW SIMPLE WORDS WHAT SHE HAD BEEN TALKING ABOUT AT THE MEETING]
[SHE JUST WHEELED AND GAVE ME A CLIP]
[I DIDN'T RECOGNIZE MY MOTHER-IN-LAW]
[EVERYBODY LOOKED UP AT THE TWINKLING SKY]
[I HAVE NEVER HEARD ANYTHING SO WONDERFUL AS THE WAY SHE TELLS IT]
[MISS MYRTLE PAUSED AND WIPED HER EYES]
[SO I WENT HOME WITH MR. ROBIN]
[STOPPED TO TALK A LITTLE WITH EACH ONE]
[JACK RABBIT WOULD HAVE STAYED A BACHELOR IF SHE HADN'T TRIPPED IN HER WEDDING-GOWN]
["MAY YOU BE HAPPY AS LONG AS POSSIBLE, AND LONGER"]
[AND YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN COUSIN REDFIELD DANCE]
[CALLED FOR THE FEATHER BED]
[WENT OUT ON THE OPEN TRACK AND TOOK A LITTLE RUN]