Virginia was a very little girl when she visited the home of the animals under the garnet hill. She was the only person who had ever been there, as the good Mrs. Fox assured her, and the only way, indeed, that she can prove that she had actually been there at all is to ask her pet cat, who accompanied her, whether it is all true or not. Always the cat blinks his eyes with the most knowing air, and nods his head. So that is proof enough.
Virginia was gathering blueberries and she had strayed farther and farther away from the farm house until she suddenly found that she could no longer see the top of the red chimney, nor the peak of the barn. Never had her little feet carried her so far into the pastures as this. To make it worse, she could not seem to find her way back. The low birch trees and the sweet fern seemed taller, and the light beneath them was not so warm and bright.
Virginia started to run, but she had taken only a few steps when she tripped and fell. It almost seemed that the briary vine in the grass had reached out and entangled her. But she was a brave little girl and would sooner do anything than cry out. It was discouraging to have all the berries in her pail spilled over the ground, but she set to work picking them out of the moss and leaves, while she kept wishing that somebody would come to help her.
Then she pricked her finger on a thorn. It was then, she knows, that she began to hear lovely voices; for no sooner had she felt the sharp scratch than she heard a sweet sighing song all around her.
Of all the wishes in her life the greatest was to know what the trees and the birds were saying. Now she knew.
For on all sides the voices were as sweet as music. "What pretty blue eyes she has!" and "How lovely her cheeks are!" and "Just see her golden hair!" were remarks she caught between the sounds of silvery laughter.
She jumped up, leaving her berries on the ground, and started again to run. For she was suddenly afraid of these voices, even though they were so sweet.
A familiar Me-ew greeted her. It was her pet cat, Tiger, who then began talking to her as plainly as though he had been to school and could read and write.
"How fine this is!" he exclaimed. "To think you can hear at last!" and he went on explaining that no one had ever understood what he was saying before.
"How often," he purred, "have I followed you into the pasture, hoping that you would prick your finger on the right sort of thorn, so that at last we could talk things over! My, but won't all the world be glad to know of this!" he added. "Why, it doesn't happen once in a thousand years!"
With that the beautiful gray cat ran off into the woods, only to return accompanied by troops and troops of beautiful little creatures: the field mice, who didn't seem to object to the cat at all, and the squirrels, even the shiny moles, and some very excited birds, who flew round and round the little girl, calling her name, and telling her how they loved her.
Why she should have followed the cat into the woods, Virginia did not know, but he ran ahead and bade her follow, and she seemed only too willing to do so. The trees spoke so pleasantly as she passed them that it was impossible not to go on.
"How she does resemble her great-grandmother!" said one of the trees. It was an aged oak who had known Virginia's family ever since it had settled in those parts. She felt that she must stop and return the greetings, for she was always carefully polite to old people.
"Why, it was my little brother," the tree continued, "who was ordained to the ministry in your grandfather's church. Your grandfather did the preaching, and my brother held the floor up. He also was cut by the builders to carry the major load of the roof. You see I have known your family a long while. I am the oldest white oak in this woodland."
But before he could say another word, a beautiful red fox jumped out of the bushes and told the tree to stop talking.
"Don't weary that little girl with all your memories," Red Fox said. "If you get started, you'll never stop. And she has an invitation to Mother Fox's Hospital. She must come immediately."
All this was very strange. Virginia wished to talk to the good old oak some more, but Red Fox gave her a knowing look and held out his hand in such a cordial way, and so urgently, that she bade the venerable tree good-afternoon and ran to catch up with her new friend, who was already beckoning to her from some distance ahead. Bounding along the path beside her came Tiger Kitty, whom Virginia was indeed glad to have with her.
She was no longer on familiar ground. The woods were dense, and she felt that she was running a long way from home.
But suddenly Red Fox stopped. They had come to what appeared a jagged and moss-grown rock. It was the side of an old pit that had been dug into the shoulder of the hill, and at any other time Virginia would have remembered it as the old quarry where once she had been taken by her brothers and sisters on a picnic. But now she saw that it concealed in reality a doorway. Moss-grown and dark, the door was hardly discoverable, but it opened easily enough when Red Fox applied his key. And standing there to greet Virginia and Tiger Kitty was a wonderful old fox, with spectacles and a frilled bonnet and the kindliest face in the world.
"This is my mother," said Red Fox; "she's the matron."
"Yes," the good old soul admitted, "I am Mother Fox, and this charitable home for the destitute of the field and forest is named after me."
Virginia was embarrassed, but only for a minute, for sweet old Mother Fox invited her into the parlor and then, after she had been offered the most delicious of cakes, and the creamiest of milk, and had eaten a refreshing supper, she was shown through the home.
Living there was every poor animal that Virginia had ever known. And they were all in such supreme comfort and having such a good time that she was sure she had never seen so many people so happy all at once, never in her whole life.
"Our only discontented inmate is Mr. Wolf," said the matronly Mrs. Fox. "Would you like to see him?"
She led the way down a long hall to where Mr. Wolf was seated in a little room of his own, gnawing and snapping at his nurses, who were none other than the hedgehog and the big snapping turtle.
"Two rather sharp people for nurses," Red Fox remarked, almost in apology; "but you see it takes some one with a good deal of character to handle him."
In a great room which was a dining-hall, with high tables for the big animals, and low ones for the little folk, she saw the animals that were privileged to be there eating the most tempting dishes. There was lettuce salad for the rabbits, and corn-bread for the field mice, and blackberry pudding for the whole partridge family, and persimmon jam for the 'possums, and even lily roots creamed and on toast for the poor old muskrats.
"All charity," said Red Fox. "All charity! Out in the world every one of these poor animals was cruelly hurt, or starved. Of course, we're hunted and stoned, and chased, and shot at. That's all men want—a chance to kill us. Here's where we take care of our cripples and paupers."
Virginia was wonderstruck and was about to ask a question, when a lame but beautiful lady tapped Mother Fox's shoulder and asked her to introduce the visitor.
"Oh, surely! Pardon me, Lady Orchid."
Lady Orchid put the sweetest, tenderest hand into Virginia's, and the little girl looked into the loveliest flower face in the world.
"I'm Lady Arethusa," the wonderful creature breathed, as she curtsied very low to the little girl. "You see I'm crippled. I was pulled up by the roots in such a careless way. You did it yourself, if you remember, only the other day."
The little girl wanted to cry, but the lovely orchid repented having come too close to the truth, and quickly added:
"No; it was your brother, possibly. At any rate, I beg you never to pull any of us out in that violent way again. I am sure we all love you too much. We Arethusas have lived on your place a great many years. The small white violets, by the way, that live by the door-step at your home, tell me that they can't get close enough to you and your sweet mother, they love you so. And there is a lovely begonia living here whom your mother lost, despite her care. Some one neglected it, and it died of thirst. Your mother was visiting at the time, I believe."
"Yes," said Mother Fox; "that is so often the case. Fathers and brothers are very careless in such matters. They are not so tender as a rule with their plant cousins under their roof."
Then, as they left the dining-room, where the animals were just reaching the dessert, who should come flying up to Virginia but a beautiful oriole. He too, it seems, knew the little girl.
"Yes, indeed, dear child," he sang out to her; "I have known you a long time. I live in the elm-tree. And I want to thank you for those lovely threads that you put out on the lawn for me when I was refurnishing my house. I am here to call on some relatives, but I will sing to you by your window in the morning."
Then Virginia remembered that a ball of beautiful worsted had been missing from her mother's work-basket after it had been left on the porch. This explained it all. She was astonished, but the gray cat laughed out merrily:
"Yes, he stole it; but the dear bird thinks you left it there for him. If you look out of the attic window when we get home you can see his nest in the elm. It's mostly blue worsted."
"Why didn't you tell me before, if you knew it?" Virginia asked, really grieved at Tiger Kitty's lack of confidence.
"Why," repeated the cat, and then he only smiled very broadly, "because you were always deaf, my dear."
Presently, while they were walking down the corridor, the merriest music burst on Virginia's ear. In a room all to themselves, the rabbits were rehearsing for a minstrel show. They were dancing in the most giddy fashion, and she could not help laughing aloud as she watched them.
But as she laughed, something happened, and the cat, who had just opened his mouth to say something, closed it with a sudden look of disappointment.
"You see, she spilled the berries, and fell asleep while trying to pick them up."
It was a familiar voice. Virginia turned around. Her mother and big brother and little sister were kneeling beside her in the ferns. It was evening and she could hear the cows calling to be let through the farm gate.
"And I never said good-by to Mr. Red Fox!" she exclaimed. Then she rubbed her eyes and smiled, for they were all kissing her, and big brother was putting her on his shoulder.
Her strange experience she kept to herself for a long time. But she talked it all over with Tiger Kitty, and he seemed to understand it, every word. Most of all when she climbed the attic stairs and looked at the bird's nest, it was of blue worsted, as plain as plain could be.
And she was sure then and for the rest of her life that the birds and the flowers loved the old home with its trees and its gardens as much as she did.
And she always thought of sweet Lady Orchid when she gathered wild flowers.