John of the Woods written by Abbie Farwell Brown

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JOHN-OF-THE-WOODS

BY

ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

ILLUSTRATIONS BY

E. BOYD SMITH

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

BOSTON AND NEW YORK

THE RIVERSIDE PRESS CAMBRIDGE

COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY ABBIE FARWELL BROWN

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Published October 1909

To J.D. and K.D.

Kindest of neighbors and best of friends

to all the world and its

Animal Kingdom

CONTENTS

I. THE TUMBLERS
II. THE FALL
III. THE RUNAWAY
IV. THE OX-CART
V. THE HUNCHBACK
VI. THE SILVER PIECE
VIX. THE WANDERER
VIII. THE RESCUE
IX. THE ANIMAL KINGDOM
X. THE HERMIT
XI. THE PUPIL
XII. THE BEAU
XIII. A FOREST RAMBLE
XIV. THE WOLF-BROTHER
XV. THE GREEN STRANGER
XVI. THE HUNT
XVII. THE MESSENGER
XVIII. THE CARRIER PIGEON
XIX. THE JOURNEY
XX. THE ARRIVAL
XXI. THE PALACE
XXII. THE PRINCE'S CHAMBER
XXIII. THE CURE
XXIV. THE KING
XXV. THE FETE
XXVI. THE TALISMAN
CONCLUSION

ILLUSTRATIONS

THE THREE TUMBLERS
GIGI RUNS AWAY
HAVE YOU GOT MY BOY?
A QUAINT PAIR OF WANDERERS
THE CIRCLE OF ANIMALS WATCHED HIM
JOHN TALKED WITH THEM
YOU SHALL NOT KILL MY FRIEND THE BEAR
THE KING SENDS FOR YOU
A STRANGE COMPANY
JOHN WAS PROTECTED BY POWERFUL FRIENDS
HE STROKED THE SOFT BALL OF FUR
I WISH I COULD DO IT MYSELF
JOHN URGED THE CLUMSY FELLOW TO DANCE
TO ME, MY BROTHERS!
THE KING AND PRINCESS CAME TO VISIT HIM

JOHN OF THE WOODS

I

THE TUMBLERS

It was late of a beautiful afternoon in May. In the hedges outside the
village roses were blossoming, yellow and white. Overhead the larks
were singing their happiest songs, because the sky was so blue. But
nearer the village the birds were silent, marveling at the strange
noises which echoed up and down the narrow, crooked streets.

"Tom-tom; tom-tom; tom-tom"; the hollow thud of a little drum sounded
from the market-place. Boys and girls began to run thither, crying to
one another:--

"The Tumblers! The Tumblers have come. Hurry, oh, hurry!"

Three little brothers, Beppo, Giovanni, and Paolo, who had been poking
about the market at their mother's heels, pricked up their ears and
scurried eagerly after the other children.

Jostling one another good-naturedly, the crowd surged up to the
market-place, which stood upon a little hill. In the middle was a
stone fountain, whence the whole village was wont to draw all the water
it needed. In those long-ago days folk were more sparing in the use of
water than they are to-day, especially for washing. Perhaps we should
not be so clean, if we had to bring every bucket of water that we used
from the City Square!

"Tom-tom; tom-tom; tom-tom"; the little drum sounded louder and louder
as the crowd increased. Men and women craned their necks to see who
was beating it. The children squirmed their way through the crowd.

On the highest step of the fountain stood a man dressed in red and
yellow, with little bells hung from every point of his clothing, which
tinkled with each movement he made. In his left hand he held a small
drum, from which hung streamers of red and green and yellow ribbon.
This drum he beat regularly with the palm of his skinny right hand. He
was a lean, dark man, with evil little red-rimmed eyes and a hump
between his shoulders.

"Ho! Men and women! Lads and lasses!" he cried in a shrill, cracked
voice of strange accent. "Hither, hither quickly, and make ready to
give your pennies. For the tumbling is about to begin,--the most
wonderful tumbling in the whole round world!"

Stretching out his arm, he pointed to the group below him. The crowd
pressed forward and stood on tiptoe to see better. Beppo and Giovanni
and Paolo wriggled through the forest of legs and skirts and came out
into the open space which had been left about the fountain. And then
they saw what the backs of the butcher and baker and candlestick-maker
had hidden from them.

From the back of a forlorn little donkey that was tethered behind the
fountain a roll of carpet had been taken and spread out on the ground.
Beside this stood the three tumblers. One of them was a thin, dark
man, small and wicked-looking, dressed, like the drum-beater, in red
and yellow. The second tumbler was a huge fellow more than six feet
tall, with a shaggy mane of black hair. His muscles stood out in great
knots under the suit of green tights which he wore.

"A Giant he is! Faith, he could toss me over his shoulder like a
meal-bag!" muttered the Blacksmith, who stood with crossed arms looking
over the heads of the crowd. "And the wicked face of him! Ugh! I
would not wish a quarrel with him!"

But the little boys in the front row were most interested in the third
tumbler, who stood between the other two, with his arms folded, ready
to begin.

This also was a figure in green, with short trunks of tarnished
cloth-of-gold. But beside the Giant, in the same dress, he looked like
a pigmy or a fairy mite. This third tumbler was a little fellow of
about eight, very slender and childish in form, but lithe and
well-knit. Instead of being dark and gypsy-like, as were the other
three of the wandering band, this boy was fair, with a shock of golden
hair falling about his shoulders, and with a skin of unusual whiteness,
despite his life of exposure to sun and hard weather. And the eyes
that looked wistfully at the children in front of him were blue as the
depths into which the skylarks were at that moment diving rapturously.
On the upper eyelid of the boy's left eye was a brown spot as big as an
apple-seed. And this gave him a strange expression which was hard to
forget. When he was grave, as now, it made him seem about to cry. If
he should smile, the spot would give the mischievous look of a wink.
But Gigi so seldom smiled in those days that few perhaps had noted
this. On his left cheek was a dark spot also. But this was only a
bruise. Bruises Gigi always had. But they were not always in the same
place.

"Oh, the sweet Cherub!" said a motherly voice in the crowd. "I wonder
if they are good to him. They look like cut-throats and murderers, but
he is like the image of the little Saint John in church. Wolves, with
a lamb in their clutches! Save us all! Suppose it were my Beppo!"

At these words of his mother's, Beppo giggled, and the boy looked at
him gravely. The Hunchback with the drum had heard, too, and darted a
furious glance into the crowd where the woman stood. Then, giving a
loud double beat on the drum, he signaled for the tumbling to begin.

The three kicked off the sandals which protected their feet, stepped
upon the carpet, and saluted the spectators. The Giant stretched
himself flat, and, seizing Gigi in his strong arms, tossed him up in
the air as one would toss a rubber ball. Up, down, then back and forth
between the elder tumblers, flew the little green figure, when he
touched ground always landing upon his toe-tips, and finishing each
trick with a somersault, easy and graceful. The boy seemed made of
thistledown, so light he was, so easily he rebounded from what he
touched. The children in the circle about him stared open-mouthed and
admiring. Oh! they wished, if only they could do those things! They
thought Gigi the most fortunate boy in the world.

But Gigi never smiled. At the end of one trick the Giant growled a
word under his breath, and made a motion at which the boy cringed.
Something had gone not quite right, and trouble threatened. He bit his
lip, and the performance went on as before.

Now Gigi had to do the most difficult trick of all. With the Giant as
the base, and Cecco, the other tumbler, above, Gigi made the top of a
living pyramid that ran, turned, twisted, and capered as the great
strength of the Giant willed. At a signal they managed somehow to
reverse their positions. All stood upon their heads; Gigi, with his
little green legs waving in the air, heard shouts of applause which
always greeted this favorite act. But the sound gave him no pleasure.
He was tired; he was sore from a beating of the previous night, and his
head ached from the blow which had made that ugly mark on his cheek.
Gigi grew dizzy--

II

THE FALL

Suddenly a woman's voice screamed from the crowd:--

"Ah! The Cherub!"

Gigi had fallen from the top of the pyramid. He fell on his shoulder,
and for a moment lay still. But presently he was on his feet, kissing
his hand prettily to the crowd, and trying to pretend that he had
fallen on purpose, as he had been taught. The Giant and Cecco were
also quickly on their feet, and the three bowed, side by side, as a
sign that the show was over.

Cecco hissed a word into Gigi's ear, and he knew what to fear next. He
shuddered and tried to draw aside; but the Giant turned to him, livid
with rage, and with one blow of his heavy hand struck him to the ground.

"So! You spoil us again!" he muttered. "You good-for-nothing! I'll
teach you! Now take the tambourine and gather up the coins from the
crowd. You'll get a beating anyway for this. But if you don't take up
more than we had at the last town, you'll have such a trouncing as you
never yet knew. Now then!"

Dazed and trembling, Gigi took the tambourine, and, shaking its little
bells appealingly, went about among the people. They had already begun
to scatter, with the wonderful agility of a crowd which has not paid.
Some, however, still lingered from curiosity and with the hope of a
second performance. A number of small copper coins Jingled into Gigi's
tambourine. He approached the good woman who had shown an interest in
him. She stooped down and thrust a piece of silver into his hand,
whispering,--

"It is for yourself, child. Do not give it to the cruel men! Keep it
to spend upon a feast-day, darling!"

Gigi looked at her, surprised. People so seldom spoke kindly to him!
The brown spot upon his eyelid quivered. He seemed about to cry. The
woman patted him on the head kindly.

"If they are cruel to you, I'd not stay with them," she whispered.
"I'd run away.--Hey, Beppo! Hey, Giovanni! Paolo!" she called, "we
must be off." And she turned to gather up her young ones, who were
shouting about the market-place, trying to stand upon their heads as
Gigi had done.

Gigi clasped the silver piece tightly in his hand, and went on, shaking
the tambourine after the retreating crowd. But few more pennies were
coaxed away. Presently he made his way back to the group of tumblers,
now seated on the fountain-steps.

"Well, what have you?" growled the Giant. Gigi presented the
tambourine with the few pennies rattling around somewhat lonesomely.

"Humph!" snarled Cecco. "Less than last time. Is that all?"

"A beating you get!" roared the Giant.

Gigi shivered. "No,--not all," he said. "Here is a silver piece," and
he held out the coin which the kind woman had given him.

"Ah, silver! that is better!" cried Tonio the Hunchback, with his eyes
shining greedily. "Give it here"; and he snatched it and thrust it
Into his pouch. Tonio was the treasurer of the gypsy band. But the
Giant had been eyeing Gigi with an ugly gleam.

"He was keeping it!" he growled. "He did not mean to give it up. He
would have stolen it!"

"It was mine!" cried Gigi with spirit. "She gave it to me and told me
to keep it for a fiesta. But I gave it up because--because I did not
want to be beaten again."

"You did not give it up soon enough!" roared the Giant, working himself
into a terrible rage. "You shall smart for this, you whelp! After
supper I will beat you as never a boy was beaten yet. But I must eat
first. I must get up my strength. No supper for you, Gigi. Do you
watch the donkey here while we go to the inn and spend the silver
piece. Then, when we are camped outside the town,--then we will attend
to you!"

III

THE RUNAWAY

It was but a step to the inn around the corner. Off went the three
gypsies, leaving Gigi with the donkey beside the fountain. The poor
animal stood with hanging head and flopping ears. He too was weary and
heart-broken by a hard life and many beatings. His back was piled with
the heavy roll of carpet and all the poor belongings of the band,
including the tent for the night's lodging. For on these warm spring
nights they slept in the open, usually outside the walls of some town.
They were never welcome visitors, but vagrants and outcasts.

Gigi sat on the fountain-step with his aching head between his hands.
He was very hungry, and his heart ached even more than his head or his
empty stomach. He was so tired of their cruelties and their hard ways
with him, which had been ever since he could remember. The kind word
which the good woman had spoken to him had unnerved him, too. She had
advised him to run away. Run away! He had thought of that before.
But how could he do it? Tonio the Hunchback was so wicked and sharp!
He would know just where to find a runaway. Cecco was so swift and
lithe, like a cat! He would run after Gigi and capture him. The Giant
was so big and cruel! He would kill Gigi when he was brought back.
The boy shuddered at the thought.

Gigi pulled around him the old flapping cloak which he wore while
traveling, to conceal his gaudy tumbler's costume. If he only had that
silver piece perhaps he could do something, he thought. Much could be
done with a silver piece. It was long since the band had seen one.
They would be having a fine lark at the inn, eating and drinking! They
would not be back for a long time.

Gigi looked up and around the marketplace. There was no one visible.
The crowd had melted as if by magic. Every one was at supper,--every
one but Gigi. What a chance to escape, if he were ever to try! The
color leaped into the boy's pale cheeks. Why not? Now or never!

He rose to his feet, pulling his cloak closer about him, and looked
stealthily up and down. The donkey lifted his head and eyed him
wistfully, as if to say, "Oh, take me away, too!" But Gigi paid no
attention to him. He was not cruel, but he had never learned to be
kind. Without a pang, without a farewell to the beast who had been his
companion and fellow-sufferer for so many long months, he turned his
back on the fountain and stole down one of the darkest little side
streets.

He ran on down, constantly down, for the village was on the side of a
hill, and the market-place was at its top. Around sharp curves he
turned, dived under dark archways and through dirty alleys, down
flights of steps, until he was out of breath and too dizzy to go
further. He had come out on the highroad, it seemed. The little brown
cottages were farther apart here. It was more like the country, which
Gigi loved. He turned into an enclosure and hid behind a stack of
straw, panting.

[Illustration: Gigi runs away.]

He wondered if by this time they had discovered his flight, and he
shivered to think of what Tonio and Cecco were saying if it were so.
He looked up and down the road. There was something familiar about it.
Yes, it was surely the road up which they had toiled that very
afternoon, coming from the country and a far-off village. They had
been planning to go on from here down the other side of the hill to the
next village, Gigi knew. But now would they retrace their steps to
look for him?

Just then he spied a black speck moving down the road toward him.
Gigi's heart sank. Could they be after him already? He crouched
closer behind the straw-stack, trembling. They must not find him!

Nearer and nearer came the speck. At last Gigi saw that it was a cart
drawn by a team of white oxen, which accounted for the slowness of the
pace. He sighed with relief. This at least he need not fear. As it
came nearer, Gigi saw that in the cart were a woman and three little
boys of about his own age. And presently, as he watched the lumbering
team curiously, he recognized the very woman who had given him the
silver piece an hour before. These, too, were the little boys who had
faced him in the crowd. A sudden hope sprang into Gigi's heart.
Perhaps she would help him to escape. Perhaps she would at least give
him a lift on his way. He decided to risk it.

IV

THE OX-CART

Gigi waited until the cart was nearly opposite, and he could hear the
voices of the woman and the children talking and laughing together.
Then he crept out from behind the stack and stepped to the side of the
road.

The great, lumbering oxen eyed him curiously, but did not pause. The
children stopped talking, and one of them pointed Gigi out to his
mother.

"Look, Mama! A little boy!"

"Hello!" cried the woman in her hearty, kind voice, stopping the team.
"What are you doing here, little lad?"

She did not recognize Gigi at once in his long traveling cloak. But
suddenly he threw back the folds of it and showed the green tights
underneath.

"Do you remember?" he said. "You told me to run away. Well, I have
done it!"

"It is, the little tumbler! The tumbler, Mama!" cried the boys in one
breath, clapping their hands with pleasure.

But the woman stared blankly. "My faith!" she said at last. "You lost
no time in taking the hint. How did you get here so soon? We were
homeward bound when you had scarcely finished tumbling. Now here you
are before us, on foot!"

"I ran," said Gigi simply. "I came not by the highway, which is long
and winding, but down steep streets like stairs, which brought me here
very quickly."

"See the bruise on his cheek, mother!" cried Beppo, the littlest boy,
pointing. The good woman saw it, and her eyes flashed.

"Oh! Oh!" she clucked. "The wicked men! Did they do that to you?"

"Yes. And they will do more if they catch me now," said Gigi. "I
know. They have beaten me many times till I could not move. But if
they catch me this time, they will kill me because I ran away. Will
you help me?"

"Why, what can I do?" asked the woman uneasily, looking up and down the
road. "If they should come now! You belong to them. I shall get
myself into trouble."

Gigi's face fell. "Very well," he said. "Good-by. You were kind to
me to-day, and I thought--perhaps--" He turned away, with his lips
quivering.

"Stay!" cried the woman. "Where is the silver piece which I gave you?
You can at least buy food and a night's lodging with that."

"They took it from me," said Gigi. "I had to give it up because there
was so little money in the tambourine,--only coppers. They said people
would not pay because I fell; and so they would beat me again."

"They took it from you! The thieves!" cried the woman angrily. "Nay,
then I will indeed help you to escape. Climb in here, boy, among my
youngsters. We have still an hour's ride down the road, and you shall
go so far at least."

Gigi climbed into the cart and nestled down among the children. The
woman clucked to the oxen, and forthwith they moved on down the
highroad. The shadows were beginning to darken, and the birds had
ceased to sing.

"Hiew! Hiew! Come up! Come up!" the woman urged on the great white
oxen. "It is growing late, and the good man will wonder why we are so
long returning from market. This has been our holiday," she explained
to Gigi. "And to think that the Tumblers should have happened to come
to the market this very day! The children will never forget!"

Beppo had been staring at Gigi with fascinated eyes. "How did you
learn?" he asked suddenly. "Could I do it too?"

Gigi laughed. For the first time that day his face lost its sadness,
and the brown spot on his eyelid, falling into one of the little
creases, gave him a very mischievous look. He seemed to wink.
Immediately the whole cartful of peasants began to laugh with him, they
knew not why. They could not help it. This was what happened whenever
Gigi laughed, as he seldom did.

But soon Gigi grew grave once more. "Why do you want to learn?" he
asked. "It does not make me happy. For oh! they are so cruel!"

"Do they beat you much?" asked Paolo sympathetically. Gigi nodded his
head with a sigh. "Very much," he said. "I am always black and blue."

"Am I too big to learn?" demanded Giovanni, the oldest boy, who was
perhaps twelve and heavier than Gigi. "When did you begin?"

Gigi grew thoughtful. "Ever since I remember, I have tumbled," he
said. "Ever since I was a baby, before I could even turn a somersault,
they tossed me back and forth between them and made me kiss my hand to
the people who stood about."

"And did they beat you then?" asked Beppo, doubling up his fists.

Gigi sighed again. "They always beat me," he said simply. "Whatever I
did, they beat me when they were ugly. And that was always."

"Do you belong to them?" asked the woman suddenly. "They are Gypsies,
black men. But you are fair like the people of the North. Where did
they get you, Gigi?"

Gigi shook his head. "I do not know," he said. "I have belonged to
them always, I think."

"Hark!" said Mother Margherita suddenly. "What's that?"

There was a faint noise far off on the road behind them. Gigi
trembled. "They are coming for me!" he said. "What shall I do?"

"No, no," said the woman. "I do not fear that. It is too soon,
surely. But it is growing dark here in the valley. This is a lonely
spot, and there are many wicked men about besides your masters, Gigi."

"Thieves and villains!" whispered Giovanni. "Oh, mother, hide the bag
of silver that you got at market!"

"Sh! Sh!" warned the mother sharply. "Do not speak of it! Hiew,
hiew! Go on! go on!" And she urged the oxen faster.

But the great beasts would not hasten their pace for her. The noise
came nearer. They could hear that it was the trotting of hoofs.

"There is only one animal," said Gigi, whose ears were keen. "I can
hear his four feet patter. I think it is the donkey!"

"I can see him now!" cried Paolo. "It is a little man on a donkey. He
is bending forward and beating it hard."

Gigi strained his eyes to see. "It is Tonio!" he whispered fearfully.
"I know it! Oh, the Hunchback will kill me when he finds me! And he
will take your silver, too!"

"Sh! Sh!" commanded the mother. "He shall not find you. Here, take
this bag, Gigi. It will be safer with you. And here, creep under my
skirts and keep close. He will never guess where you are!"

Mother Margherita spread out her generous draperies, which luckily were
both long and wide, and Gigi crept under them, being wholly covered.
The other boys huddled close, shivering with a not wholly unpleasant
excitement. This was an adventure indeed for a holiday!

The rider drew nearer and nearer, lashing the poor donkey unmercifully.
At last they could see his face, red and lowering.

"Halt!" he cried suddenly. "You in the cart there, halt!"

V

THE HUNCHBACK

The oxen stopped. The cart came to
a standstill. The boys huddled closer,
and Gigi's heart beat like a tambourine.
He was sure that Tonio would hear it.

"What do you want?" asked Mother Margherita,
and her usually kind voice was harsh.

"You seem to have a load of young cubs
there," shouted Tonio. "Have you got my
boy, Gigi the Tumbler, among them? Some
one has stolen the little monster."

[Illustration: "Have you got my boy?"]

"What are you talking about!" answered
Mother Margherita sharply. "I am a respectable
countrywoman returning from market-day
with my children. What business have I
with tumblers and vagrants!"

"That I'll see for myself, woman," said
Tonio, jumping unsteadily down from the
donkey and approaching the cart. Tonio had
been drinking, and his little eyes were red and
fierce.

"Keep your hands off my children!" cried
their plucky mother, brandishing her whip.
But Tonio was not to be kept away.

"I will see them!" he snarled. He thrust
his ugly face into those of the three boys, one
after another, eyeing them sharply in the
growing darkness. But there was little about
these sun-browned, black-eyed youngsters to
suggest the slender, fair-haired Gigi.

Tonio peered into the cart. He even thrust
his long, lean hand into the straw that covered
the floor, and felt about the corners, while the
boys wriggled away from his touch like eels
from a landing-net. Gigi held his breath. But
Mother Margherita would not tamely endure
all this.

"Get along, you vermin!" she cried, striking
at his hands as he approached the forward
end of the cart. "Can't you see that the
boy is not here? What would he be doing in
my cart, anyway? I'll trouble you to let us go
on our way in peace. My man in the house
down yonder will be out to help us with his
crossbow and his dogs, if we scream a bit
louder. Be off with you, and look for your
boy in the village. Is it likely he would have
come so far as this, the poor tired little lad?"

"The others are searching the village,"
growled the Hunchback tipsily. "They'll
find him if he's there. 'Tis likely you are
right. And then! I must be there to help at
the punishing. Oh! that will be sport!--Have
any other teams passed you on the road?" he
asked suddenly. "Have you overtaken no one
on foot?"

"We have passed no one," said Mother
Margherita truthfully, starting up the oxen.
"Hiew! Hiew! Go on! go on," she clucked.
"We must get home to bed."

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