HOW THE STORY BEGAN
Her name was Elsie and she was asleep
in a cozy nook in the woods, which was the beginning
of it all.
Many strange things may happen to
a little girl who falls asleep in the woods, but there
never happened to any other little girl, either asleep
or awake, in the woods or at home, a more important
thing than that which had its start for Elsie while
she lay there under the green boughs beside a bubbling
spring of crystal-clear water, the scent of pines
and flowers sweetening the still air. A robin
redbreast whistled melodiously for “rain, rain,
rain,” and the cows in the pasture, who do not
like rain as well as they do sunshine, lifted up their
voices in protest, calling “oo-oo-ohh! moo-oo-hh!
noo-oo-hh!” as if they were trying to say “no,
no, no!” and could not speak the English language
well. It was a peaceful woodland scene, a scene
into which, if you were awake, you would expect that
a railroad train would be about the last thing that
could possibly enter.
But Elsie was asleep, and in her dreams
she was sure she saw a great locomotive engine charging
down upon her with frightful speed. As soon as
she saw it she tried to cry out, but could not do so.
Somehow she could not send a single sound from her
lips. Then she tried to jump out of the way,
but was unable to do that either. She could not
even move in the slightest degree. So, full of
terror, she thought she stood there, helplessly, while
the engine rushed nearer and nearer, puffing forth
vast clouds of black smoke, and roaring and hissing
and clanking. Again she tried to scream, and
could not: again she tried to run aside, but
could not move. She seemed so small, so tiny and
weak, beside that monster! And she wondered how
it could possibly bear to hurt her, a big, powerful
thing like that it was not fair! But bang! The cowcatcher caught her
up
And she awoke to see a fuzzy bumble-bee
just alighting on her nose!
Though Elsie did not, as a general
thing, care much for bumble-bees, and would rather
have their room than their company, she was so highly
relieved to find that the gigantic engine was only
a bumble-bee that she said, “Oh!” with
such violence of surprise and gladness that the bee,
doubtless as much afraid of her as she had been of
the dream-engine, shot out of sight in an instant
and she never saw him afterward, that she knew of.
She sat a moment staring after him,
trying to collect herself, for she was confused with
her sudden awakening, and then she jumped up laughing.
“What a funny bumble-bee!”
she exclaimed. “I wouldn’t have
hurt him!” Then in conscious dignity, proud
to think that she was now big enough for something
to be afraid of, she took up the pail of water that
she had come to get from the spring and hurried homeward.
Now if this were all the story it
would not amount to much, and it never would have
got itself told in these pages. And, if Elsie
had been like some girls, who are not chums with their
mothers, the story would never have been told here
either, because she would not have repeated the adventure
to her mamma, in which case her mamma would not have
taken the story up where the daughter left it, and
shown its importance. But Elsie and her mother
were like two sisters, a big and a little one, and
there were not many things that happened to the one
that the other did not hear of very soon. So away
went Elsie singing and laughing and swinging her pail
of water, her bright hair blowing in wisps around
her sweet face with its red lips and cheeks and white
teeth, the prettiest, loveliest picture in the whole
lovely landscape of foliage and flowers and pastures
and meadows.
Nobody in the world ever yet found
a prettier picture anywhere than a fresh and clean
girl is, as everybody will admit if asked, and Elsie
was fresh and clean even if she had just been rudely
aroused from sleep. She bathed her whole body
twice every day, washed her face and hands often,
brushed her teeth always after eating, smiled a great
deal, and got plenty of fresh air and sunshine, and
this was enough to make any girl fresh and clean and
pretty, or almost enough.
Of course a girl must eat sufficient
food, and must brush her hair and take care of her
nails, and all those little things everybody
knows that. But the main things, beside food,
the things, too, that some little girls fail in, are
air, sunshine, water and smiles. Elsie had all
these and therefore she looked clean and fresh and
pretty.
She had on a dress too, naturally,
but I don’t know just what kind of a one it
was, for that is a small matter compared with the body
itself. I think it was some kind of a calico,
made for vacation frolicing, for Elsie was a city
girl staying in the country for the summer, and almost
anything was good enough for that.
So Elsie, fresh and clean, dancing
and singing up the lane, swinging her pail of crystal
water, the loveliest sight in the whole lovely landscape,
came in view of the house where they were staying.
And no sooner had she caught a glimpse of her mother
on the porch than, eager to tell her funny experience,
she ran forward in pleasant excitement, crying out:
“Oh, mamma! Such a queer
thing Oh, Oh, it was an engine, the biggest,
biggest you ever saw and and
it stepped on my nose I mean it was only
a bumble-bee and it it almost
ran right over me
“Isn’t my little girl
somewhat mixed in her speech!” smiled her mother
as Elsie paused for breath.
“I I guess I I
am!” Elsie faltered. “But then, I’m
so excited!”
“Yes, you are excited,”
smiled her mother, putting her arm around her shoulders
and walking with her to the kitchen. “And
when you are calm you may tell me all about it.”
So Elsie carried the pail of water
to the sink and set it on its shelf. And when
she had worked off her surplus energy in this way she
felt sober enough to tell her story clearly, and she
did so, snuggled in her mother’s arms in the
hammock on the porch. She finished by saying:
“Wasn’t that a funny thing,
mamma, that I should dream that the bumble-bee was
an engine just going to run over me!”
Then the really important part of
the story began. Her mother answered: