Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/491

Rh “I thought you would know me,” barked the dog. “I am the same dog right along: I never belonged to a witch. If a witch came around I would bark at her. Hello! there ’s the Ugly Duckling. I guess I ’ll bark at her.” But the wary old duck scampered off.

“How is it that you all are here?” asked Walter. “I thought you all were dead a long time ago. And I do not see how you can live in the fire.”

“Oh, the fire does not hurt us,” said the Cock that Crew in the Morn, before any of the others could answer. “And we did not die. We never die; and we live in the fire: not always in this fire, for we like to go about from one place to another, but some of us are here most of the time. You can see us in any fire if you look carefully. The best time to see us is in the evening, just before the lights are lit; then we come out to see what is going on.”

“And you ’ll see something going on now,” snapped a red fox, jumping from behind a pile of coals and dashing at the rooster. The rooster dodged to one side and gave a derisive crow.

“Just let that old rooster alone,” growled a deep voice; and Walter, looking into a corner of the fireplace, saw a great bear. “I am the Big Bear who lived in the wood,” said Bruin. “Here comes my son, the Little Bear.”

“Whatever became of Goldenlocks?” asked Walter of the Little Bear. “Would you have hurt her if you had caught her when she came to your house in the wood and sat in your chair?”

“No,” said the Little Bear, laughing. “I would have played with her, and told her where the best berries grew that summer.

“And what fun we do have in summer!” said the Sly Old Fox. “Do you know, Little Bo-peep was watching her sheep one day when—”

“Walter, Walter! come to supper,” some one called suddenly, and at the sound of the voice all the birds and beasts scuttled for nooks and crannies in the coals, “I ’ll tell you that tale another time,” said the Sly Old Fox, and dodged into his hole just as Walter's elder sister came into the room.

“Wake up, Walter; supper is ready, ”she said, shaking him by the shoulder; but Walter declared that he had not been asleep at all, but was just watching the animals. After supper he went back to the fire, but there were too many people in the room, and although he caught a glimpse of one or two of the animals, none of them came out and spoke to him.

But Walter hopes that sometime, in the twilight, he will see them all again, and that then the Sly Old Fox will finish the story of “how Bo-peep’s sheep all ran away.”