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Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories
Digitized by tine Internet Archive in
2010
http://www.arcliive.org/details/chimneyfarmbedtiOObest
Books for young people by Henry Beston CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES THE SONS OF KAI HENRY BESTON's FAIRY TALES THE TREE THAT RAN AWAY FIVE BEARS AND MIRANDA
Books
for
young people by Elizabeth Coatsworth CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES THE PLACE JON THE UNLUCKY THE LAST FORT DOOR TO THE NORTH
Holt, Rinehart
New York
and Winston San Francisco
Chicago
Chimney Farm Bedtime Stories
^
Told by
and set down by
HENRY BESTON ^
ELIZABETH COATSWORTH
ILLUSTRATED BY MAURICE DAY
With love for Meg and Pussy, for whom these stories
were originally
told.
©
Copyright 1938, 1940, 1941, 1943, 1944, 1966 by Henry Beston Illustrations copyright 1966 by Maurice Day
©
•
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form Published simultaneously in Canada by Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Limited Library of Congress Catalog Card Num•
•
AC- 66-10108
First Edition • 90921-0516 Printed United States of America. The stories which appear in this volume were first published in The Christian Science Monitor and are used with its ber:
in the
permission
•
•
Contents The Bluebird's Green Umbrella Robin and the Cuckoo Clock
•
The Animals' Neighborly Turn The Deserting Farm Nellie
Came by Mail
The Royal Barge Mr. Bear
Was Fond
of
27
•
31
•
40
•
Reading
The Bears Go Berrying
•
Yvo and the Bears
58
•
Mrs. Chipmunk Investigates
The Blue Tie
•
74
51
•
9
•
15 •
22
The Bluebird's Green Umbrella ONCE UPON A TIME, there were two bluebirds who chose a particubranch on which to build their nest. But when the nest was finished and the eggs were laid, a heavy rainstorm came one evening, and the lady bluebird complained that the roof leaked and the rain kept running down her neck. She found it a most uncomfortable thing to have to stay on her nest under such larly nice
conditions, but of course she couldn't leave her eggs.
In the morning when he could see better, the father bluebird examined the roof of leaves, and tried to pull them about to stop the leaks, but it was of no use. When the next shower came, the lady bluebird was wet again. "It's terrible,"
she said. "I've never been so miserable."
9
The could.
father bluebird comforted her
And
and promised to do what he
then he flew away. First he went to the club to talk
the matter over and get advice. It was early and of the club weren't there yet, but fortunately the
dropped all
in for breakfast.
He went on
many members woodchuck had
eating toast, with his eyes
the time on his newspaper, while the bluebird told his story,
but just when the bluebird thought he hadn't heard a word, he looked up and said
gruffly:
"Get an umbrella!"
"The very
thing!" cried the bluebird in high spirits,
started off at once.
But
in a
moment he
and he
flew back.
"Where?" he asked. "In a store," said the woodchuck, with his mouth
full of toast.
"The very thing!" repeated the bluebird, and of! he darted But in a moment he was back, looking embarrassed.
lO
again.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Woodchuck," he so often, but I don't beUeve
I
said. "I
hate to interrupt you
quite heard where the store
you buy umbrellas." The woodchuck frowned and slowly folded
his paper.
is
at which
He
looked
straight at the bluebird.
"I
am leaving something to your initiative," he said, and stamped
away
to his
own burrow. You
see he, himself, didn't
know where
the store was.
The bluebird soon brightened and began members of the club.
to ask questions of
other
"I went to a store once," said the mouse. "Did they have any umbrellas?" asked the bluebird. "No, they had nothing but marbles," said the mouse.
11
"What I
went
a
to,
silly
store that was!" exclaimed the fox.
when
boat parts,
all
"Now
the store
was young, was very different. They kept motorkinds of parts, very handy for anyone with a broken I
motorboat!"
"But
I
haven't a motorboat," said the bluebird. "I leave that
kind of thing to the water birds. Hasn't anyone ever gone to an umbrella shop?"
At
last
"I've
a beetle spoke up in a
been waiting to see
knew anything," he
said,
if I
little,
dry, cross voice.
was the only fellow
and laughed
in
in the club that
a high, self-satisfied way,
"I crawl around, a few feet at a time, but I
seem to notice, and remember what I notice, better than all you fellows with paws and wings. Mr. Frog's store down by the brook is what you're looking for, Mr. Bluebird. He sells umbrellas and nothing but umbrellas."
The
bluebird thanked the beetle very gratefully, in spite of his
somewhat disagreeable manner, and off he flew down the bank of the brook, past the willows, and along the rushes that edged its course, keeping a sharp eye out for
12
Mr. Frog's
store.
Sure enough,
he soon found
it,
with a wattled green roof and a fine green sign
hanging from a bulrush at
The
its
door.
frog sold four kinds of umbrellas: white ones for winter, blue
ones for spring, green ones for summer, and red ones for
fall.
The
bluebird hesitated for a long time between a blue one and a green one, but finally chose a green one, as being in style longer.
"How much "A
is
it?"
he asked the
frog,
who was
waiting on him.
dime, a penny, and two jibby-bibbies," said the frog.
"Oh, dear!" cried the bluebird. "I have a dime and a penny, but I
haven't any jibby-bibbies!"
"There aren't any jibby-bibbies," said the
frog,
wrapping up the
parcel.
13
The mother
bluebird was deUghted with her present and could
scarcely wait for the next rain. Sure enough,
not a drop
fell
down her
when
at last
it
came,
neck, and she praised Father Bluebird's
kindness and cleverness to the skies.
But the other proud and
come
lazy.
birds said that the
Whenever any
flying with them, they
new
bluebird babies were very
of their friends
were apt to
reply,
asked them to
"No, thank you,
—you know, the one under the green
we're going back to our nest
umbrella."
14
Robin and the Cuckoo Clock AT THE FARM there was a cuckoo clock of which everyone was very fond.
But one day something went wrong with
machinery, and
its
the Httle wooden cuckoo would no longer pop out of
door
its
and cry "cuckoo" at the hours and the half hours. Of course the farmer and
his wife telephoned the clock repairer,
but the clock repairer could not find out what was wrong.
"We
shall
have to send the cuckoo to Switzerland where
made," said the clock repairer. "Only the
man who made
it
was
it will
understand what needs to be done."
"But then "and
it is
it
only
won't be back until spring!" cried the farmer's wife, fall
now.
can't hear our cuckoo?
How
The
shall
we be happy
all
children will always be
winter
if
we
late for school,
I'm afraid."
15
The
clock repairer shrugged his shoulders
broken cuckoo to the post
office
and
carried off the
to begin its long journey to
Switzerland.
The farmer
sat
and thought and thought and at
last
he wrote
out a dozen neat notices, which he tacked up, here and there, on the trees and the fence posts particularly frequented by birds. There were still many flocks about, for they had not yet migrated south, and they gathered near the signs and read them with much twittering and tittering.
The
signs
were
all
alike
and read:
"Comfortable home for the winter in a cuckoo clock for the right bird. Bird seed
and
tion to call the hours as
please rap at
first
Well, the birds
16
fresh water supplied daily.
much
left-hand all
like
Only
obliga-
a cuckoo as possible. Applicants
window
for interview."
read the notice and laughed.
"As though we'd give up our palms and sunshine!" they
"Why, migration dren!
Summer
off for travel all
is
is
but domestic
nice,
and
cried.
our time of adventure, after raising the
Catch any
fun!
life is
fuU of cares.
of us living in
Now
chil-
we're
a cuckoo clock
winter!"
The
bluebirds and the finches, the robins and the bobolinks, the
thrushes and the catbirds
all
said about the
same
thing, all except
one young robin who kept coming back to read the time to
"It's
"Why
are
fly! It's
time to
fly!" called his
signs.
brothers and
you wasting your time reading that
notice,
sisters.
you
silly
thing?"
the yoimg robin. "I'm just different, and same thing, whatever you all may think. You want go south and see those alligators and pink flamingos again, but
"I'm not
silly," cried
that's not the
to
I've seen them once. I really wonder what it's like inside a house, and what a human being does, sitting by the fire. I wonder if I'd like bird seed? I wonder if I can make a noise like a cuckoo?" His brothers and sisters all stared at this strange bird, who had been hatched, like them, from a pretty blue egg, and who had
17
grown up
in the
same round nest under
yet wanted to do and
know
and want to do or
their mother's wing,
things they didn't
know at all. "Do you really mean
it?" they asked, and at the awe in their young robin decided that he did really mean it. So before he could change his mind, he hopped to the first left-hand window and tapped on it with his bill, and the farmer's wife opened it, and called her husband and they made an agreement, which included angleworms, whenever possible. "All right," said the young robin, and then he called over his shoulder to his waiting brothers and sisters, speaking more boldly than he really felt, "I'll be seeing you in the spring!" "In the spring!" they echoed, and away they flew south, south,
tone, the
south.
moment the robin had the time of his life. Everynew to him. He liked his apartment in the clock, and he liked keeping regular hours. At first he tried to make noises like a cuckoo, but his own song was so pretty that the farm family suggested that, after all, he might as weU use it, and he varied it, From
that
thing was
as usual, according to the weather outside.
He
loved watching the
tains of
snow
icicles
falling across
beyond the window and the
a white world.
He
cur-
liked to hear the
farmer at the door, stamping the caked snow from his feet before
18
he came ner.
in.
He
liked to see the farmer's wife bringing in the din-
He watched
the children at their games.
the privacy of being able to close his sit in his
own warm
little
And
then he enjoyed
own door when he chose
to
room.
and the robin got on very happily but as spring came, and the last icicle started to drip,
All winter the farm family together,
19
and the green grass began to push up through the old leaves on the ground, the robin grew restless.
"There are buds on the flying! I rain,
want
trees,"
he sighed. "Oh,
to run along the grass with
and to turn
my
my
I
wish
I
were
feet pattering like
ear to the ground to listen to the high voices
to sing in a wind, I want to wake up want to be out!" But he remembered his agreement and stayed where he was. After this had been going on for a week or so, the postman one day brought a registered package from Switzerland. Yes! You are right! The wooden cuckoo had made its return journey from across the sea and was all ready to take up its usual duties. "I hope it's not too early for you to be out?" the farmer asked of the angleworms! I
at
dawn
in a hedge!
want
Oh,
I
the robin.
"Oh, no!" sang the robin. "I've had a beautiful winter indoors,
thank you, and now I'm ready
and as the away he flew. And just then, who should come flying down from the sky but his brothers and sisters? They had only the usual migration stories for spring outdoors,"
farmer's wife opened the window,
to teU,
which robins have been
telling for
thousands of years, but
the young robin had wonders to relate, such as no robin had ever
known
before.
He became
a leader
among
the robins, and chose
the prettiest robin lady to be his wife, and picked out the finest crotch in the best tree for his nest, and sang the gladdest and loudest songs.
But now and then he would tap on the window, and the farmer would open it, and the robin
or his wife or one of the children
.20
would drop
in for a short social visit to
be sure that
all
was going
well in the house.
And
little ahead of what was happening, for, of course, it could hear the robin's voice. And then it would cry "cuckoo" with particular care, and bow and bow particularly low, just to show the robin how a
then the real cuckoo would hurry out, a
time, to see
real artist should perform!
21
The Animals' Neighborly Turn THERE WAS ONCE a nice old faiTner. He lived alone on a small farm bottom of a wooded hill, and he was very kind to his neighbors in the woods. He set no traps, and allowed no gimners on his land, and when the weather was bad and food was scarce, he left hay for the deer at the edge of the fields, and didn't pick up all the apples under the apple trees. If he found a porcupine busy eating an apple, he didn't shout and brandish his arms, but walked along, paying no attention. Because he was so nice to them, the animals were all grateful, and they were careful never to hurt his crops or take more than he meant them to. One day in the late fall, the old farmer got a letter from his at the
22
lawyer,
who wanted him
he had to the get
go,
first snow him back
to
come
to
town on
though he didn't want to at of the season
might
fall
until after nightfall.
all.
soon,
business. It
and
Of course
looked as though his train wouldn't
The farmhouse would be dark
empty all day, and he didn't like to think would seem. But he went, since he knew he ought to, putting on a warm overcoat and his rubbers, and taking a lantern to leave at the station for his walk back to the farm in and cold
how
after being
cheerless
it
the dark.
Everything went well
in
town, but the day seemed long and the
evening was cold and the the old farmer got
off
first
snow was indeed
falling
when
He
found
the train at the country station.
23
and lighted it, and trudged home along the snowy road. "My, but the house is going to seem dark and cold," he thought. He had left wood in the kitchen stove, but that would have burned
his lantern
out long ago. Going into the house after his long walk, would be like stepping into
a refrigerator.
But as he turned in at his gate he could scarcely believe his eyes. The lamps were all lighted. Squares of brightness made patches of yellow light on the new fallen snow. He could see smoke curling from the kitchen chimney.
Full of wonder, the old farmer hurried to one of the kitchen
windows.
The room was glowing with hght. By the stove, stood a bear an armful of wood into the firebox, while a kettle
carefully putting
steamed merrily.
24
By
the sink, a raccoon was drying the last of the
breakfast dishes, which the farmer had stacked that morning imtil
and as he watched, a woodchuck came in with the warm by the oven door. "Bless their hearts," the farmer murmured, deeply touched. Now I suppose you think he hurried in to thank the animals for their kindness, but you're wrong. He had not Uved next to the
his return;
farmer's pajamas to
woods
all
these years without having leai'ned something.
for instance, that his
He knew,
neighbors were kind, but shy. Talking with
humans, even humans they
liked,
embarrassed them.
made a
So the good old fanner went to the front door and deal of noise while he knocked the snow
off his rubbers,
a great deal of time finding his key and getting
it
great
and took
into the lock.
Just as he entered the front hall he heard scuttling
and
giggling,
and the back door slammed, leaving the house empty, but oh, so
and warm! The farmer went to his cupboard yesterday's baked beans, which he meant to heat for friendly
He
for
some
of
his supper.
got everything ready, and even set his place at the kitchen
25
and put out half an apple pie and some cheese. Then thinking that he had given the animals time enough, he opened the back door. There in the new fallen snow were three sets of tracks, a big set and two smaller ones, headed for the wooded hill behind table,
the farm. "Bless their kind hearts," the old farmer said again. I
"And now
suppose they'll go to sleep for the winter. Pleasant dreams,
friends!"
26
The Deserting
Farm YOU HAVE OFTEN HEARD
of a deserted farm,
heard of a deserting farm?
And
a hollow of land from which birds passed right over
it,
it
but have you ever
yet there once was one. It lay in
could see nothing; the winds and
and even the
rain
seemed to come to
that farm less often than to others, while the dust blew about the fields,
and there were too many rabbits burrowing
The farm
in its soil.
didn't like the farmer, either, or the farmer's wife, or
Bungo. The farm thought they were lazy and cross and didn't keep the farm looking as well as it could look. It grew more and more dissatisfied vmtil. Well, one morning the farmer was awakened by a fly buzzing in his ears. When his eyes opened, he forgot aU about the fly, he was their little son,
.
.
27
so surprised.
He was
flung every which
lying in his
way on a
own
chair beside
iron it,
bed with
his clothes
but there was nothing
no room, no walls, no ceiling, no floor, no orchard beyond, no no barn, no cock crowing, no cow mooing to be milked, nothing but his wife in her own iron bed with her clothes on her chair, and Bungo asleep in his bed, with his clothes on the bare ground. All three of them had been deserted by the farm. Nothing like it had ever before happened in the world. They hunted everywhere for some trace of their farm, but they could else,
hayfield,
find only a post with a little
broken barbed wire hanging from
it,
and one old hoe, and finally a pig that had always been known for its obstinacy, and had apparently refused to do whatever it was the rest of the farm had done.
28
No, there was no farm at climbed a
tree, his
sharp
all in
little
the hollow, and
and when the farmer's wife looked up into the two crows passing overhead, cawing. "This
is
wouldn't "It's
your
mend
your
when Bungo
eyes could see no sign of their farm,
fault," said the farmer's wife to
the gate, and the
bam
fault," said the farmer.
roof
"You
sky, she
her husband.
was leaking
let
saw only
"You
terribly."
a lot of dust get into
the milk, and half the time you forgot to feed the hens."
"Anyhow, It isn't
it isn't
my
fault," said
Bungo.
easy to be a farmer, even a bad farmer, without a farm,
man and
and Bungo hired an automobile and was very unpleasant because at every crossroads the farmer wanted to go to the right, the farmer's wife wanted to go to the left, and Bungo wanted to go home. "But we haven't got any home to go to!" his parents would shout at him together. so at last the
went to look
'
his wife
for theirs.
The
trip
*»//Vi»(^y//i///UAJ/K\'^'M »S\//IUy.
.
'^ -^y.. .\J/
>
29
Bungo would shout back. weeks and weeks but they never found their farm, though twice they drove right by it, and did not recognize it, where it lay on a slope above a beautiful lake, in the place it had "That's your fault!"
So they drove
for
carefully selected.
The
fields
looked so green, the animals so contented, the house
so newly painted, the view so fine that even Bungo's sharp
eyes never saw that
r>~~.-.»
i'
it
was
their old
little
farm come to flower.
/'.^T^'
\Wjr' far. At last, Mrs. Chipmunk insisted that he should stop work to eat the one musty nut she had discovered on a shelf in the pantr\'. "I don't understand it," she said. "You'd think there'd be somethe front door.
thing to eat in this fine house."
A
very small, disagreeable voice from the ceiling remarked,
"There
The
is."
voice was so faint that the
chipmunks could hardly hear
"What's that?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. "There is," repeated the small, high voice.
68
it.
"Do speak a little louder," said Mr. Chipmunk. "We can scarcely hear you."
"Then
listen harder," said the voice,
more
at aU louder than before. After a minute
disagreeable, but not
went on, "Everyone and you can't believe how irritating it is." "Excuse me," said Mrs. Chipmimk, "but didn't you say that there was something to eat?" "Now you're talking sense and not personalities," said the voice. "Look behind the picture of the tree where Mr. Squirrel was bom and you'll find a cupboard, which he filled with nuts before he went tells
me to speak
it
louder,
to visit his brother."
Sure enough, there was the hidden cupboard and a nuts, but,
fine larder of
hungry as they were, before eating their supper, the chipto thank the owner of the voice. They found on the
munks went ceiling
a small wizened spider in a cap,
whom they could just make
69
out in a single ray of light from a knot hole. She had become quite pleasant and shook hands with one of her
hands as she introduced
am
"I
two
Celia," she said,
sisters.
ing."
And
They
call
she went
many
small and hairy
herself.
me
"and
I
Uve in the
squirrel's
house with
my
Celia because I prefer to hve on the ceil-
off into
a thin cackle of laughter.
After they had thanked her, the chipmunks
through the darkness toward the
table,
felt
where they had
their left
way
enough
nuts for supper. Something else seemed to be moving in the dark,
and just as they were reaching out for chairs, a match spurted and someone lighted a candle. There was another spider, even too,
smaller than the
first,
with a bigger cap.
"Oh, thank you so much!" cried the chipmunks together.
"Thought you might as well have a
70
light," said
the second spider
grumpily, as she put the candlestick on the table and quickly sidled
back to the door, which she climbed
in a jiffy to
a crack where she
could swing her legs out.
"What's your name?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. "I'm Dora, because with a
I live
on the door," said the second spider
titter.
Just as the chipmunks were finishing their supper, a third
"When you
get through, I've something to
Now, by the est of
all,
little
them from somewhere below.
voice spoke to
tell
you."
candlelight, they could see a third spider, the small-
watching them from a corner of the
floor.
She was so
little
that they hadn't noticed her, in spite of her big cap, which was the biggest of the three.
"What
you
will
"I said,
tell
'When you
in a voice that
was
The chipmunks
us?" asked Mr. Chipmunk. get through,' didn't I?" asked the third spider
like
a trickle of vinegar.
hurried to finish the last nut and brush
up the
crumbs.
"We're
all
through now," said Mrs. Chipmunk.
"You'll find an extra key in the bean pot over there," said the littlest spider, pointing.
Sure enough, the key was there and opened the door beautifully.
But eager
as they were to be gone, the
chipmunks took time to be
polite.
"To whom
are
we
indebted,
ma'am?" asked Mr. Chipmunk, with
old-fashioned courtesy.
"I'm Flora, and of the spiders.
I
Uve on the
"And now be
floor," said
off so I
the
littlest
and sourest
can go to sleep in peace, and
let
71
this teach
you to keep out
of other people's houses,"
and without
waiting for their reply, she closed her eyes and began to nod her head.
Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk looked at Celia, but she, and so did Dora in her crack
asleep in her high web,
too,
seemed
in the door,
•/ --
and now Flora was snoring a little, high snore in her bed on the They tiptoed out, and found that outside there was a golden simset, very thrilling after the long, dark day they had spent. But before they left for home, they brought back from their own sacks a basket of fine nuts to replace the ones they had eaten, and as they floor.
stood in the doorway, they whispered a last thanks to the three ladies, who paid no attention. Mr. and Mrs. Chipmunk were glad to get to bed that night. Mr. Chipmunk's jaw was tired from the long hours of gnawing he had put in. But for a while, Mrs. Chipmunk couldn't get to sleep.
nid-nodding spider
"I did sweep didn't
72
I,
up the shavings you made trying
to
open the door,
dear?" she asked, and later she said, "They weren't very
And then, just as Mr. Chipmunk was going to sleep, he heard her say, low, as though to herself, "It may have been wrong to go into Mr. Squirrel's house, but
pretty, but they certainly were kind."
I
wouldn't have missed
it
for anything."
73
The Blue Tie ONE DAY JIMMY CHIPMUNK found a blue
tie in
the woods. It was of
the most beautiful color he had ever seen, and he loved ately,
but
it
had a hole torn
in
one end. So he took
it
it
immedi-
to the tailor,
who was a spider. The spider handled it carefully. "A beautiful piece of goods, Mr. Chipmunk," he said. "I don't know when I ever handled finer. But it needs a patch where that big three-cornered tear
is,
and
I
haven't anything that would
match."
Everything that the spider said made
and more, so putting cloth to match it.
74
it
in his pocket,
Jimmy admire the tie more
he set out to find a piece of
But north
or south, east or west, he could find nothing of that
beautiful blue.
So at
last
he went to see the wise woodchuck.
Jimmy Chipmunk found him on
the terrace in front of his hole
The woodchuck looked up long Jimmy and then bowed over his puzzle again.
doing a jig-saw picture puzzle.
enough to nod to
75
came to ask you where I could find something to match this Jimmy. But the woodchuck only moved a piece of the puzzle into the wrong place and then picked it up again, sighing and shaking his head. Then he tried another piece, but that was "I
tie," said
wrong, too.
Jimmy, who had very sharp little eyes, saw just the piece that would fit and pointed it out. The woodchuck got up and danced a jig. "I've been hunting for that thing for a month," he exclaimed. "Now, let me see, didn't you ask me a question?" So Jimmy repeated his question, and the woodchuck thought for a long time.
"On the mountain," he highest tree in the world.
said at last, "there I
is
a tree that
thing from that tree, though
I,
of course,
the
have never climbed
myself."
'^^;^^^
i>
76
is
should think that you could see everyit,
So Jimmy Chipmunk thanked the woodchuck and set out.
he had to climb the mounand that was a very hard thing for a chipmunk to do. But on the top he saw the great tree, so high First
tain,
that the clouds were caught its
among
branches.
Tightening his
He
gan climbing.
belt,
Jimmy
be-
climbed for days
and days and who knows what would have happened if the tree had not been an oak tree? As it was, poor
Jimmy
little
could find
something to eat whenever he be-
came exhausted, and every night he slept in his
in
a crotch, with one
pocket to
make
paw
sure that the
precious tie was safe.
At
last
he came to the top, and
there was a green
boughs having
and tea.
in
it
room made people
They were very
of
were sur-
prised at seeing a chipmunk,
you
may
be
told
them
his story
his
sure,
but
Jimmy
and showed them
tie.
77
is very easify mended," said one of the people, "and you have been so brave, the least we can do is to help you," and drawing a pair of scissors from his pocket, he snipped out a good piece of sky and handed it to Jimmy. The way down the tree seemed short, indeed, and as fast as his four legs could carry him, Jimmy ran down the mountain and
"Oh, that
since
to the spider,
who mended
his tie with eight needles at once, so
it
was done in a minute. The match was so perfect that by day even a chipmunk could not have told that there had ever been a tear in that tie. But at night the patch turned dark and there were stars in it.
78
Henry Beston and
his wife,
Elizabeth Coatsworth,
are no strangers to the world of children's books. Mr.
Beston,
who wrote
at Harvard,
his first fairy tale for
the author of
is
an English course
many books
for children,
among them Henry Beston's Fairy Tales, The Tree That Ran Away, Five Bears and Miranda, and The Sons of Kai. In 1964, in honor of The Outermost House by Mr. Beston of
—long
modem
considered one of the finest nature books
times
—The Outermost House, the
little
house
on the Nauset dunes of Cape Cod where he wrote the
Monument" by Governor Peabody of Massachusetts. Elizabeth Coatsworth is a Newbery Medal winner and author of over fifty
book, was declared a "National Literary
books, including
Jon the Unlucky and The
Place.
CHIMNEY FARM BEDTIME STORIES Were told by Mr. Beston to their two daughters when they were little girls, and later to their grandchildren, and were set down by Miss Coatsworth. Often, the subjects were suggested by the animals or incidents around their Maine farm, from which the book takes
its
name and where
the Bestons stiU
live,
winter and summer.
Maurice Day,
a neighbor of the Bestons in Maine,
trated the stories
The
when they were published
illus-
originally
by
Christian Science Monitor.
79
I