Andiron Tales Page 6

  CHAPTER V.

  The Poker Concludes His Story

  "It was just as I feared," said the Poker. "Rollo knew a good thing whenhe had it."

  "'I'm satisfied, the way things are now,' said he. 'I wouldn't change backand be a Scotch terrier for all the world.'

  "Then the Fairy turned to me and said, 'I'm sorry, my dear, but if Rollowon't consent to the change you'll have to be contented to remain as youare--unless you'd like to try being an eagle for a while.'

  "'I'll never consent,' said Rollo, selfishly, though I couldn't reallyblame him for it.

  "'Then make me an eagle,' I said. 'Make me anything but what I am.'

  "'Very well,' said the Fairy. 'Good-night.'

  "Next morning," continued the Poker, "when I waked up I was cold andstiff, and when I opened my eyes to look about me I found myself seated ona great ledge of rock on the side of a mountain. Far below me were tops ofthe trees in a forest I never remembered to have seen before, while aboveme a hard black wall of rock rose straight up for a thousand feet. Toclimb upward was impossible; to climb down, equally so.

  "'What on earth does this mean?' thought I; and then, in attempting towalk, I found that I had but two legs, where the night before I had fallenasleep with four.

  "'Am I a boy again?' I cried with delight.

  "'No,' said a voice from way below me in the trees. 'You are now an eagleand I hope you will be happy.'

  "You never were an eagle, were you, Dormy?" said the Poker, gazingearnestly into Tom's face.

  "No," said Tom, "never. I've never been any kind of bird."

  "EAGLES NEVER HAVE UMBRELLAS."]

  "Well, don't you ever be one," said the Poker, with a knowing shake of thehead. "It's all very beautiful to think about, but being an eagle isentirely different from what thinking about it is. I was that eagle forone whole month, and the life of a Scotch terrier is bliss alongside ofit. In the first place it was fight, fight, fight for food. It was lots offun at first jumping off the crag down a thousand feet into the valley,but flying back there to get out of the way of the huntsmen was worse thanpulling a sled with rusty runners up a hill a mile long. Then, when stormscame up I had to sit up there on that mountain side and take 'em all asthey came. I hadn't any umbrella--eagles never have--to keep off therain; and no walls except on one side, to keep off the wind, and noshutters to close up so that I couldn't see the lightning. It wasterrible. All I got to eat in the whole month was a small goat and achicken hawk, and those I had to swallow wool, feathers and all. Then Igot into fights with other eagles, and finally while I was looking forlunch in the forest I fell into a trap and was caught by some men who putme in a cage so that people could come to see me."

  "Ever been shut up in a cage?" queried the Poker at this point.

  "No," said Tom, "only in a dark closet."

  "Never had to stay shut up, though, more than ten minutes, did you?"

  "No," answered Tom, "never."

  "Well, think of me cooped up in an old cage for two weeks!" said thePoker. "That was woe enough for a lifetime, but it wasn't half what I hadaltogether. The other creatures in the Zoo growled and shrieked all nightlong; none of us ever got a quarter enough to eat, and several times themonkey in the cage next to me would reach his long arm into my prison andyank out half a dozen of my feathers at once. In fact, I had nothing butmishaps all the time. As the poet says:

  "Talk about your troubles, Talk about your woes, Yours are only bubbles, Sir, compared with those.

  "At the end of two weeks I was nearly frantic. I don't think I could havestood it another week--but fortunately at the end of the month back camethe Fairy again.

  "'How do you like being an eagle?' she said.

  "'I'd rather be a tree rooted to the ground in the midst of a dense forestthan all the eagles in the world,' said I.

  "'Very well,' said she. 'It shall be so. Good-night.'

  "In the morning I was a tree--and if there is anything worse than being adog or an eagle it's being a tree," said the Poker. "I could hearprocessions going by with fine bands of music in the distance, but Icouldn't stir a step to see them. Boys would come along and climb up intomy branches and shake me nearly to pieces. Cows came and chewed up myleaves, and one day the wood-cutters came and were just about to cut medown when the Fairy appeared again and sent them away.

  "'They will be back again tomorrow,' she said. 'Do you wish to remain atree?'

  "'No, no, no,' I cried. 'I'll be content to be anything you choose if youwill save me from them.'

  "'There,' she said. 'That's the point. If you will keep that promise youwill finally be happy. If you will only look on the bright side of things,remembering the pleasant and forgetting the unpleasant, you will be happy.If you will be satisfied with what you are and have and not go aboutswelling up with envy whenever you see anyone or anything that has or cando things that you have not or cannot do, you will be happy in spite ofyourself. Will you promise me this?'

  "'Indeed I will,' I said.

  "'Even if I change you into so poor a thing as a Poker?'

  "'Yes,' said I.

  "ONE DAY THE WOODCUTTERS CAME."]

  "'Very well,' said she. 'It shall be so. Good-night.'

  "Next morning I waked up to find myself as you see--nothing more than aPoker, but contented to be one. I have kept my promise with the Fairy, andI am simply the happiest thing in the world. I don't sit down and groanbecause I have to poke the fire. On the contrary, when I am doing that I'malways thinking how nice it will be when I get done and I lean up againstthe rack and gaze on all the beautiful things in the room. I always thinkabout the pleasant things, and if you don't know it, Dormy, let me tellyou that that's the way to be happy and to make others happy. Sometimespeople think me vain. The Fender told me one night I was the vainestcreature he ever knew. I'm not really so. I only will not admit that thereis anything or anybody in the world who is more favored than I am. That isall. If I didn't do that I might sometime grow a little envious in spiteof myself. As it is I never do and haven't had an unhappy hour since Ibecame a contented Poker."

  Tom was silent for a few minutes after the Poker had completed his story,and then he said:

  "Don't you sometimes feel unhappy because you are not the boy you used tobe?"

  "No," said the Poker. "I am not because Rollo makes a better boy than Iwas. He is a contented boy and I was not."

  "But don't you miss your father and mother?" queried Tom.

  "Of course not," said the Poker, "because the Fairy was good enough tohave me made into the Poker used in their new house. My parents moved awayfrom the railroad just after Rollo became me, and built themselves a newhouse, and of course they had to have a new Poker to go with it--so Ireally live home, you see, with them."

  A curious light came into Tom's eyes.

  "Mr. Poker," said he. "Who was this boy you used to be?"

  "Tom," said the Poker.

  "I'm not Rollo," roared Tom, starting up.

  "Nobody said you were," retorted the Poker. "You are Dormy. Tom isRollo--but, I say, here come the Andirons and the Bellows."

  Tom looked down from the cloud, and sure enough the three were coming upas fast as the wind, and in the excitement of the moment the littletraveler forgot all about the Poker's story, in which he seemed himself tohave figured without knowing it.

  "SO I REALLY LIVE HOME."]