CK RABBIT'S THINGS 251
MR. CROW WAS ALMOST AFRAID TO BRING ON THE SALAD 255
JACK RABBIT CAPERED AND LAUGHED ALL THE WAY HOME 259
TOOK HER PARASOL AND HER RETICULE AND A CAN OF BERRIES,
AND STARTED 265
AND HE MADE SOME STRIPES, TOO--MOSTLY ON TOP OF THE STOVE 267
LITTLE JACK KNEW PERFECTLY WELL THAT SHE WASN'T AT ALL PLEASED 269
PROMISED NEVER TO DISOBEY HIS MOTHER AGAIN 271
AND HE TASTED OF THAT A LITTLE, TOO 278
MR. 'POSSUM LEANED HIS BACK AGAINST A TREE AND READ HIMSELF
TO SLEEP 280
SO MR. 'POSSUM PROMISED, AND MR. 'COON UNTIED HIM 282
"AND WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY SAW?" 284

THE FIRST SNOWED-IN STORY

[Illustration: GATHERING NICE PIECES OF WOOD]

THE FIRST SNOWED-IN STORY

IN WHICH THE READER LEARNS TO KNOW THE HOLLOW TREE PEOPLE AND THEIR
FRIENDS, AND THE LITTLE LADY, AND THE STORY TELLER

Now this is the beginning of the Hollow Tree stories which the Story
Teller told the Little Lady in the queer old house which stands in the
very borders of the Big Deep Woods itself. They were told in the Room of
the Lowest Ceiling and the Widest Fire--a ceiling so low that when the
Story Teller stands upright it brushes his hair as he walks, and a fire
so deep that pieces of large trees do not need to be split but can be
put on whole. In the old days, several great-grandfathers back, as the
Hollow Tree People might say, these heavy sticks were drawn in by a
horse that came right through the door and dragged the wood to the wide
stone hearth.

It is at the end of New-Year's Day, and the Little Lady has been
enjoying her holidays, for Santa Claus found his way down the big stone
chimney and left a number of things she wanted. Now, when the night is
coming down outside, and when inside there is a heap of blazing logs and
a rocking-chair, it is time for the Story Teller. The Story Teller
generally smokes and looks into the fire when he tells a Hollow Tree
story, because the Hollow Tree People always smoke and look into the
fire when _they_ tell _their_ stories, and the Little Lady likes
everything to be "just the same," and the stories must be always told
just the same, too. If they are not, she stops the Story Tell