Текст книги "Snoutie and His Friends"

CHAPTER FIVE,

IN WHICH A BEAK APPEARS ON A SNOWMAN, A TOP HAT RUNS THROUGH THE FOREST, AND GOSLING JULIENNE CHANGES HIS LIFE

A snowy winter had arrived in the Big Forest. One night an especially surprising amount of snow fell, and the next morning the creatures of the Forest found themselves snowed in.

Many were deep asleep in their warm homes and planned on waking up only in the spring. Others had a great deal of fun running through the snow-covered fields. Housey Mousey and Romantic Mousey was entranced by the sight of the tops of the pine trees in the bright morning sun, and she sighed with delight because the glimmering winter Forest seemed so fantastically beautiful to her. Croaky the Feel Good Froggy nibbled happily at an icicle with a gnat frozen inside, while Loppy the Believing Bunny hopped all over the place and happily slipped and slid in circles over the frozen pond. Meanwhile, Burly Boary went cross-country skiing through the forest, noisily sucking in the fresh, icy air through his wet snout, and Young Ostrich, who was seeing snow for the very first time, looked in amazement at the deep tracks his long legs left in the snow.

At this time of the year, Snoutie and his friends enjoyed having snowball fights. On that day, after they had played to their heart’s content, the friends decided to build a big snowman. Sniffling busily, Burly Boary spent a long time rolling a snowball across the field to make it grow bigger and bigger. Finally, when it was almost as big as Boary himself, Boary grunted contentedly and stopped in the exact middle of the meadow. Housey Mousey and Croaky the Feel Good Froggy rolled up another snowball, which was just a bit smaller than Boary’s, and raised it up on top of the first snowball. For his part, Young Ostrich continued to walk slowly around the field, lifting his feet up high and never ceasing to be amazed by his deep tracks. Snoutie had brought a red pail and a large broom from home, and Loppy the Believing Bunny had dragged over an orange carrot from his supplies.

Suddenly a small snowball rolled down from the hill where the big oak tree grew. It skittered down the slope and stopped right next to Snoutie. The friends were a little surprised, but they picked up this snowball and made it into a head for the snowman. Then they gave him a carrot for a nose. Before they could complete their work by presenting the snowman with his broom, the snowman suddenly came alive and blinked his eyes. The carrot fell down to the ground, and a small, black beak appeared in its place.

“Holey moley!” croaked Croaky, so baffled he had to sit down on a stump.

“Winter wonders!” squeaked an amazed Housey Mousey, stuffing her frozen paws deeper into her warm mittens.

“Young Ostrich, come here! The snowman has a beak!” shouted Snoutie. “Maybe you know who he is?”

But Young Ostrich couldn’t tell them anything they didn’t already know. Meanwhile, the snowman’s head toppled off onto the ground, and two little pink feet appeared from under it and started stamping down the snow. The snowball with the black beak tripped and tumbled around the field on its pink feet, peeping softly. But Burly Boary was in its way. The snowball flew into Boary and broke into pieces. Boary grunted crossly, and suddenly a Little Penguin appeared out of nowhere in the place of the snowball.

Little Penguin shook the snow off his feet, looked at Boary, tilted his head to the side, blinked his eyes, and squeaked loudly:

“I’m hungry!”

At first Boary had no idea what to say, but he didn’t want anyone to see how confused he was, so he said the first thing that came into his head:

“How about some tea with acorns?”

Without reacting to Boary’s kind offer, Little Penguin turned around and ran quickly over to Housey Mousey, who was standing nearby. Economical Mousey, who always had an extra piece of cheese in her pocket, smiled and handed it to Little Penguin. He poked at the cheese with his beak, squeaked, ran over to Snoutie, and gave him a light peck.

“I’m hungry!” he peeped again.

“What do penguins eat?” asked Snoutie of no one in particular.

“Fish!” called a voice from the edge of the field. “All penguins love fish, my friends,” continued Beaver the Builder. “Look, I’ve just caught some fish from under the ice for the cubs. Have some, little one,” said Beaver, placing a bucket filled with fresh fish in front of Little Penguin.

Just how the strange newcomer appeared in the Big Forest remained a mystery to its creatures. But after receiving permission from his Mama and Papa, Snoutie decided to let his new little friend stay at his house, at least for a while.

When it was especially cold outside and a freezing wind was blowing or wet snow was falling, Snoutie and Little Penguin would play happily in the house. Snoutie showed his friend his train tracks and his red engine with blue cars. Little Penguin gaily chased the train around the room, peeping loudly, and pretending to be the engine’s horn. He also loved to scramble up on a chest of drawers and sit very quietly until someone found him.

One day Snoutie and Mama went out to run some errands and Papa and Little Penguin stayed at home. Papa was working at his desk in his office. He had some important business to take care of, so he explained that Little Penguin should not come in and disturb him.

“What, I can’t bother you at all? I can’t even come in?” asked Little Penguin sadly. “Can I just peek in from time to time?”

“Fine,” answered Papa Snoutie. “Let’s agree on that.”

And they did.

“Now,” said Papa Snoutie, “you go off and play, and I’ll take care of my business. But if something especially important happens, or if you have a Special Need of some kind, then you can come in and tell me about it.”

Little Penguin agreed, nodded happily, and ran out into the other room. He played for a little while, but he got bored quickly: he knew all the toys too well, and he had no desire to play with them without his friend Snoutie. So he started looking around the living room in search of something new to keep him busy. That’s when he noticed his own reflection in the large mirror standing by the fireplace.

“How elegant I am,” he thought. “Black plumage on my wings and back, white down on my chest; it’s as if I’m dressed up in a tuxedo!” he decided, looking at himself from all sides. “All I need is a bow tie,” he said to himself, remembering how Papa Snoutie looked when he was dressed up for a special occasion.

So he decided that such an important problem as a missing part of a tuxedo was exactly the kind of Special Need that Papa Snoutie had mentioned. He bounced back into the office, certain that his entrance would fall under their agreement, but to his great surprise, Papa Snoutie did not share this opinion.

Deciding not to wait for any assistance with the bow tie, Little Penguin took matters into his own wings and soon found the piece he needed in Snoutie’s closet.

“Well, that makes all the difference in the world!” exclaimed a satisfied Little Penguin, looking himself over in the mirror. “But I think this outfit calls for gloves. I can’t be a gentleman without gloves!”

He couldn’t find any gloves in Snoutie’s closet, so he decided that now this was definitely a case of Special Need. He marched confidently into Papa Snoutie’s office, but he did not meet with the understanding he expected this time either. However, he didn’t feel especially disappointed because he soon found gloves in another one of Snoutie’s closets. Little Penguin was quite satisfied with himself, but he hadn’t spent much time enjoying his reflection in the mirror before he was struck by another thought.

“This is all wonderful, but what I really need is a top hat!” he decided. “Otherwise, how can I take it off when I greet my friends if I don’t even have one? What’s more, if I ever get bored for some reason, I can always set it on the floor and drum on it with my wings. I can also stand it importantly next to me when I’m in a skybox at the stadium, or leave it at the hatcheck when I go to the theater or the opera. And sometimes I can just turn it over and climb up on top of it!”

Then Little Penguin headed to the office with Another Special Need, certain that now his Especially Important Question would not go unanswered. But Little Penguin was wrong again. Papa Snoutie did not at all believe that a top hat counted as a Special Need, and he had no plans whatsoever to stop working, so he again sent Little Penguin off to play on his own.

Feeling angry, Little Penguin returned to the living room, fluffing out his feathers, his Especially Important Question unanswered. Forgetting the rules of good behavior and without even asking for permission, the naughty little fellow continued his search for a top hat in Papa Snoutie’s closet. He soon met with success; he removed the object of his search from the depths of the closet and dragged it close to the mirror in the living room.

“Now that’s what I call a gentleman!” he said with satisfaction, looking at himself admiringly in the mirror.

The only problem was that this true gentleman had to balance the hat on his head with both wings because it was quite a bit bigger than Little Penguin himself. What’s more, the old top hat was quite dusty because it hadn’t been worn in many years, so the mischievous sharp dresser sneezed several times. He finally gave a sneeze so great that it made him jump a little and even flap his wings. The top hat took advantage of this and slipped down over his head, covering his entire body.

Everything went dark and Little Penguin felt confused, but then he quickly understood what had happened. After several unsuccessful attempts to get out from under the top hat, he pecked at it in annoyance from inside. But then he was happy to find that his strong beak had poked two holes through the top hat and that light was coming in.

“This is even better!” exclaimed Little Penguin. “And it’s more comfortable because I don’t have to hold it on with my wings.” Satisfied Little Penguin ran all around the room and could see everything clearly.

Little Penguin found this game to be so much fun that he decided not to tell anyone about it yet. And he also wasn’t particularly anxious to admit that he had gone into Papa Snoutie’s closet without permission, taken out his top hat, and then ruined it. Now he was so involved in this new game that he decided to tell the others about his antics some other time.

After these events, Snoutie started to notice the Little Penguin was spending more and more time away from home so that he could take “nature walks.” This didn’t bother Snoutie at all, because he knew that nothing bad could happen to Little Penguin in the Big Forest.

Meanwhile, strange rumors were going around the forest. Everyone was talking about how they had seen a strange, oddly shaped, black creature that looked something like a hat. It moved quite quickly between the trees, jumped out from behind snow-covered spruces, ran quickly down the paths, peeping in a low voice, and generally startled all the other creatures of the forest. This went on all winter long and all spring long, too. Naturally, these puzzling events caused quite a stir. Goose in particular became quite worried when for the umpteenth time he saw the black top hat running among some bushes.

“We need to orga-ga-ga-nize an emergency meeting on this matter,” announced Goose. “Things can’t go on like this.”

And so a meeting was organized. At the meeting, the strange, black creature that looked like a top hat was called simply He.

“He has obviously gotten into my supplies!” peeped Housey Mousey crossly. “I saw Him run by my bags of grain several times.”

“It seems to me that He is obviously scared of water,” said Croaky the Feel Good Froggy scornfully. “He ran right by the river, but he didn’t have the courage to swim, even though the weather was excellent. Cro-o-o-a-a-a-k-k-k!”

“I have lived in this Forest for a very long time, but I have never seen anything like this,” stated Grumbling Turtle. “And my grandmother never told me about anything like this either. Could the world really have changed so much?”

“I think He loves acorns,” Burly Boary announced. “Once He appeared right next to me as I was gathering acorns under the big oak tree. I gave Him a friendly grunt and asked Him to join me, but He ran right off into the depths of the Forest.”

“What I would like to know is: Is He dangerous?” asked Loppy the Believing Bunny. “I once saw Him near a thicket of burdock, but I was very busy, so I hid in my den…I mean, what I meant to say was that I hopped off on some Very Important Errands.”

“At first I thought it was all my imaga-ga-ganation, that is, imagination,” admitted Goose, “because there was nothing about it in the newspapers. But then my Goosey Opinion changed.”

The meeting went on for quite a long time, but the participants could not agree on what to do. Snoutie, who had grown slightly tired listening to his friends express their opinions one after the other, wrote the following song:

He’s a strange little fellow,

He’s not a raccoon or a cat,

Mysterious and funny,

He looks just like a hat.

He cannot fly,

He cannot swim.

He cannot climb high

Up onto a limb.

He cannot roar,

He cannot scream,

He just peeps softly

As if in a dream.

Wise Old Owl did not take part in the meeting, but he did listen closely to the discussion, eyes closed as usual. Owl knew for certain that nothing bad was happening in the forest, which meant that there was no reason to worry and that everything would soon fall into place.

All this time, one creature at the meeting found it very funny that everyone was calling him He. He walked among the trees, smelled the spring flowers, and pretended that he was not at all interested in the discussion.

As it happened, his identity was revealed during the meeting. Little Penguin, who had grown tired of walking around the garden in silence, decided to surprise all the creatures. Seeing the very same mysterious creature they were talking about running around between the garden beds, Snoutie grabbed him easily and pulled the top hat off a very surprised and satisfied Little Penguin. The friends all laughed for a long time over the naughty little fellow’s trick.

“Oh, I almost forga-ga-ga-got to tell you,” said Goose suddenly, when all the creatures were getting ready to leave. “My unbearable little nephew Julienne is arriving tomorrow from Paris.”

And just as Goose said, the next day his French relative Gosling Julienne arrived in the Forest.

And then it all began…

First Croaky the Feel Good Froggy gave Gosling Julienne an invitation to lunch at the restaurant from Royal Chef Rabbit.

“Restaurant? Do you really mean to say that there is a restaurant in your Forest?” laughed Julienne meanly. “And what type of cooking does this restaurant offer? I hope it’s French?” he asked Croaky, raising his eyebrows and taking a step back.

“French or not, I don’t know, but I do know that the cooking is excellent because our Royal Chef Rabbit cooks better than anyone!” Croaky croaked proudly. “And I have never been to France, so I wouldn’t know about that.”

“You haven’t even been to France? Hmm… Then I really can’t see that I have anything to talk about with you,” said Gosling scornfully, flapping a wing. “But I guess I’ll come anyway.”

Lunch at Chez Royal Chef Rabbit was amazing as usual. Gosling sampled and resampled all the dishes with obvious pleasure. When he had eaten to his heart’s content, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs.

“I hope you enjoyed it?” asked the hospitable Royal Chef Rabbit of his new guest.

“I guess it wasn’t bad…” said Gosling slowly and not very thoughtfully as he furrowed his beak. “But it’s not French cooking, of course, and it was a little heavy for lunch. Not to mention the long wait between courses. And, of course, it’s a little tight in here and stuffy…. All told, it’s not Paris!”

Royal Chef Rabbit looked scornfully at Goose’s nephew. He said nothing and then hopped off to give orders in the kitchen. Gosling was not invited to Chez Royal Chef Rabbit again.

One morning Gosling went out for a walk. He saw Snoutie, Loppy the Believing Bunny, and Burly Boary playing ball in the field.

“Come play with us, Julienne!” invited Snoutie.

During the game, Loppy slipped as he was throwing the ball and fell down heavily on the grass.

“Look at how clumsy he is!” honked Gosling loudly.

“You know, Julienne, we don’t say things like that here,” answered Snoutie, helping Loppy get up. “And really, that’s not very sportsmanlike.”

“But it is funny!” he answered, continuing to cackle.

“I don’t see anything funny about someone falling and hurting himself,” objected Snoutie. “Friends don’t behave that way.”

Julienne was getting ready to say something to Snoutie, when he noticed that Burly Boary was staring closely at him. He suddenly started to feel uncomfortable. Grunting threateningly, Boary showed Gosling the forest path with his snout. Neck drooping and feathers pressed up against his sides, the guest from abroad hurried homeward.

Soon almost no creature could be found in the forest who wanted to talk to Gosling Julienne. The only companion he had was Young Ostrich, who, like Julienne, lived in Postman Goose’s house.

Young Ostrich had recently taken up painting. On that morning, he had taken his easel out into the garden, set up his paints, and gotten down to his favorite hobby. His paintings were getting better and better, and that day it was going especially well. Gosling, who had been walking tiredly around the garden with a bored expression on his face, came up close to the easel and started studying Young Ostrich’s work, scornfully furrowing his beak as usual.

“This isn’t the hobby for you,” he finally honked meanly. “You’re just wasting your time; nothing will ever come of it.”

“Don’t bother me, please,” answered Young Ostrich. He turned away, because he didn’t want to start a fight with Goose’s nephew.

Unable to understand why no one wanted to see him, Gosling Julienne went to complain to his Uncle Goose.

“Why doesn’t anyone talk to me anymore?” the offended nephew began in confusion “I’m just stating my opinion about what I see around me. It’s my point of view, my position! And I don’t live off somewhere in some forest! No, I live in France, in Paris itself! Why is it that no one likes what I have to say? They should listen carefully to me, learn from me, and thank me!”

“I knew this would happen,” said Goose in response, shaking his head sadly. “I knew it would end like this. I’ll ask Wise Old Owl to set aside some time for you.”

So the unbearable nephew set off to see Wise Old Owl.

“You must understand, Julienne, that here in the Big Forest, many things are different than they may be in other places, like, for example, the place where you grew up,” began Owl, looking sternly at the Lover of Giving Lessons. “We are one big, happy family here. We are thoughtful and respectful of one another. We always help and take care of one another. You have been mean and disagreeable since you got here. You need to correct your mistakes and, for starters, ask forgiveness of everyone whose feelings you have hurt. Think about it.”

Without waiting for a response, Owl flapped his wings and disappeared into the depths of the forest. A sad and thoughtful Gosling stood without moving for a long time.

“I’ll try to change everything starting today!” he said to himself out loud.

And Gosling followed Wise Old Owl’s advice.

Soon Snoutie and his friends met again at Chez Royal Chef Rabbit. This time Gosling Julienne was also invited. The French guest, who was trying very hard to change his life, asked permission to stay in the Big Forest, which he liked very much.

CONCLUDING CHAPTER,

IN WHICH ALL THE CREATURES GATHER AT CHEZ ROYAL CHEF RABBIT

A hot summer flew quickly by, followed by a rainy fall, and then winter set in again. The friends gathered in the snowy field to play hide-and-seek. It was Burly Boary’s turn to seek, and he let out a happy grunt whenever he found someone. Soon he had found everyone except for Goose.

At first Goose, who had hidden under the snow-laden branches of a pine tree, was quite pleased that Boary was having trouble finding him. But then he started to feel that maybe it was taking a little too long and that perhaps Boary wasn’t trying as hard as he should.

“Maybe they’ve stopped looking for me because they’ve forgotten all about me,” thought Sensitive Goose, falling into his usual sad mood. “Well, I guess if they’re not looking for me, I’ll take advantage of this Poetic Alone Time and work on my Ode.”

Goose slipped out from under the pine without anyone noticing and flew over to the next field. From there he headed over to the river, where ice was already starting to form. He flew up onto the only small, dry tree on the shore and enjoyed the winter sunset as he waited for the arrival of Goosey Inspiration and tried to get into a poetic mood.

“Ga-ga…goose quill…and everything is whiter than white,” he began.

But Goose did not have the chance to continue working on his Ode this time either.

“So that’s where you’ve been hiding!” rang out a happy snort. “I knew I would find you here!” A satisfied Boary ran out onto the shore of the river. “Let’s go! Everyone’s waiting for you. We need to get ready for the big event!”

You see, Snoutie and his friends had decided to have a Christmas costume party and then gather at Chez Royal Chef Rabbit.

While Hedgie the Valiant and Housey Mousey made the costumes, Snoutie wrote another song:

A costume party we’ll hold

With all our friends young and old.

We’ll cut down a bushy Christmas tree

And decorate it for all to see.

Housey Mousey will be the Princess

Robin will be King of All

Burly Boary will be our Master,

And Loppy, well, he’ll be a kind troll.

Froggy will be a pirate,

The nobleman, well, that’s me,

Honorable Goose will be our Hussar,

And Mole will serve the King tea.

Little Penguin will be our clown,

Royal Chef will be Santa Claus,

And our friend Valiant Hedgie

Will sew all the pretty clothes.

That evening there was a special holiday fireworks display over Chez Royal Chef Rabbit.