The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book / being a continuation of the stories about the Hollow Tree and Deep Woods people

by Albert Bigelow Paine

THEY WENT ALONG, SAYING WHAT A NICE MAN THEY THOUGHT MR. BEAR WAS

So the Hollow Tree People went along, saying what a nice man they thought Mr. Bear was, and saying it quite loud, and looking every which way, because Mr. Bear might be out for a walk too.

But they didn't see him anywhere, and by-and-by they got right to the door of his cave and knocked a little, and nobody came. Then they listened, but couldn't hear anything at first, until Mr. 'Coon, who has very sharp ears, said that he was sure he heard Mr. Bear breathing and that he must be still asleep. Then the others thought they heard it, too, and pretty soon they were sure they heard it, and Mr. 'Possum said it was too bad to let Mr. Bear oversleep himself this fine weather, and that they ought to go in and let him know how late it was.

So then they pushed open the door and went tiptoeing in to where Mr. Bear was. They thought, of course, he would be in bed, but he wasn't. He was sitting up in a big armchair in his dressing-gown, with his feet up on a low stool, before a fire that had gone out some time in December, with a little table by him that had a candle on it which had burned down about the time the fire went out. His pipe had gone out too, and they knew that Mr. Bear had been smoking, and must have been very tired and gone to sleep right where he was, and hadn't moved all winter long.

MR. BEAR MUST HAVE BEEN VERY TIRED AND GONE TO SLEEP RIGHT WHERE HE WAS

It wasn't very cheerful in there, so Mr. 'Possum said maybe they'd better stir up a little fire to take the chill off before they woke Mr. Bear, and Mr. 'Coon found a fresh candle and lighted it, and Mr. Crow put the room to rights a little, and wound up the clock, and set it, and started it going. Then when the fire got nice and bright they stood around and looked at Mr. Bear, and each one said it was a good time now to wake him up, but nobody just wanted to do it, because Mr. Bear isn't always good-natured, and nobody could tell what might happen if he should wake up cross and hungry, and he'd be likely to do that if his nap was broken too suddenly. Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. Crow was the one to do it, as he had first thought of this trip, and Mr. Crow said that it was Mr. 'Possum's place, because it had been in his dream. Then they both said that as Mr. 'Coon hadn't done anything at all so far, he might do that.

Mr. 'Coon said that he'd do it quick enough, only he'd been listening to the way Mr. Bear breathed, and he was pretty sure he wouldn't be ready to wake up for a week yet, and it would be too bad to wake him now when he might not have been resting well during the first month or so of his nap and was making it up now. He said they could look around a little and see if Mr. Bear's things were keeping well, and perhaps brush up his pantry so it would be nice and clean when he did wake.

Then Mr. Crow said he'd always wanted to see Mr. Bear's pantry, for he'd heard it was such a good place to keep things, and perhaps he could get some ideas for the Hollow Tree; and Mr. 'Possum said that Mr. Bear had the name of having a bigger pantry and more things in it than all the rest of the Deep Woods People put together.