The Hollow Tree Snowed-in Book

  Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online DistributedProofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file wasproduced from images generously made available by TheInternet Archive/American Libraries.)

  [See p. 28

  THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS PEOPLE

  Mr. Crow, Mr. Turtle, Mr. 'Coon, Mr. 'Possum, Mr. Robin, Mr. Squirrel,Mr. Dog, Mr. Rabbit

  THEN MR. DOG SAID: "I KNOW ALL ABOUT MENAGERIES, FOR I HAVE BEEN TOONE"]

  THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK

  BEING A CONTINUATION OF THE STORIES ABOUT THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODSPEOPLE

  BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

  AUTHOR OF "THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK"

  WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY J. M. CONDE

  NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS M C M X

  BOOKS BY ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

  THE HOLLOW TREE SNOWED-IN BOOK. Crown 8vo $1.50

  THE SHIP-DWELLERS. Illustrated 8vo 1.50

  THE TENT-DWELLERS. Illustrated Post 8vo 1.50

  THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS BOOK. Illustrated. Post 8vo 1.50

  FROM VAN-DWELLER TO COMMUTER. Ill'd. Post 8vo 1.50

  LIFE OF THOMAS NAST. Ill'd 8vo _net_ 5.00

  HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, N. Y.

  Copyright, 1910, by HARPER & BROTHERS Published October, 1910 _Printed in the United States of America_

  TO ALL DWELLERS IN THE BIG DEEP WOODS OF DREAM

  MAP OF THE HOLLOW TREE AND DEEP WOODS COUNTRY]

  EXPLANATION OF MAP

  THE top of the map is South. This is always so with the Hollow TreePeople. The cross on the shelf below the edge of the world (where theladder is) is where Mr. Dog landed, and the ladder is the one brought byMr. Man for him to climb back on. The tree that Mr. Man cut down showstoo. The spot on the edge of the world is where the Hollow Tree Peoplesometimes sit and hang their feet over, and talk. A good many pathsshow, but not all by a good deal. The bridge and plank near Mr. Turtle'shouse lead to the Wide Grass Lands and Big West Hills. The spots alongthe Foot Race show where Grandpaw Hare stopped, and the one across thefence shows where Mr. Turtle landed. Most of the other things tell whatthey are, and all the things are a good deal farther apart than theylook. Of course there was not room on the map for everything.

  TO FRIENDS OLD AND NEW

  I WONDER if you have ever heard a story which begins like this: "Onceupon a time, in the far depths of the Big Deep Woods, there was a BigHollow Tree with three hollow branches. In one of these there lived a'Coon, in another a 'Possum, and in the third a Big Black Crow."

  That was the way the first story began in a book which told about theHollow Tree People and their friends of the Big Deep Woods who used tovisit them, and how they all used to sit around the table, or by thefire, in the parlor-room down-stairs, where they kept most of theirthings, and ate and talked and had good times together, just likefolk.[A]

  And the stories were told to the Little Lady by the Story Teller, andthere were pictures made for them by the Artist, and it was all a longtime ago--so long ago that the Little Lady has grown to be almost a biglady now, able to read stories for herself, and to write them, too,sometimes.

  But the Story Teller and the Artist did not grow any older. The years donot make any difference to them. Like the Hollow Tree People they remainalways the same, for though to see them you might think by their facesand the silver glint in their hair that they are older, it would not beso, because these things are only a kind of enchantment, made todeceive, when all the time they are really with the Hollow Tree Peoplein the Big Deep Woods, where years and enchantments do not count. It wasonly Mr. Dog, because he lived too much with Mr. Man, who grew old andwent away to that Far Land of Evening which lies beyond the sunset,taking so many of the Hollow Tree stories with him. We thought thesestories were lost for good when Mr. Dog left us, but that was not true,for there came another Mr. Dog--a nephew of our old friend--and he grewup brave and handsome, and learned the ways of the Hollow Tree People,and their stories, and all the old tales which the first Mr. Dog did nottell.

  And now, too, there is another Little Lady--almost exactly like thefirst Little Lady--and it may be that it is this Little Lady, after all,who keeps the Artist and the Story Teller young, for when she thoughtthey might be growing older, and forgetting, she went with them awayfrom the House of Many Windows, in the city, to the House of LowCeilings and Wide Fireplaces--a queer old house like Mr. Rabbit's--builtwithin the very borders of the Big Deep Woods, where they could bealways close to Mr. 'Coon and Mr. 'Possum and the Old Black Crow, andall the others, and so learn all the new tales of the Hollow Tree.

  FOOTNOTE:

  [A] _The Hollow Tree and Deep Woods Book_, by the same author andartist.