The Tale of Solomon Owl - Arthur Scott Bailey (best way to read books TXT) 📗
- Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
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Now, Benjamin Bat was in Solomon's house all the time. And the reason why Solomon Owl hadn't found him was a very simple one. It was merely that Solomon hadn't looked in the right place.
Benjamin Bat was hidden—as you might say—where his hungry host never once thought of looking for him. And being asleep all the while, Benjamin didn't once move or make the slightest noise.
If he had snored, or sneezed, or rustled his wings, no doubt Solomon Owl would have found him.
When Benjamin awakened, late in the afternoon, Solomon was still sleeping. And Benjamin crept through the door and went out into the gathering twilight, without arousing Solomon.
“I'll thank him the next time I meet him,” Benjamin Bat decided. And he staggered away through the air as if he did not quite know, himself, where he was going. But, of course, that was only his queer way of flying.
[pg 071]When he told his friends where he had spent the day they were astonished.
“How did you ever dare do anything so dangerous as sleeping in Solomon Owl's house?” they all asked him.
But Benjamin Bat only said, “Oh! There was nothing to be afraid of.” And he began to feel quite important.
[pg 072]Hanging By The Heels
It was several nights before Solomon Owl and Benjamin Bat chanced to meet again in the forest.
“Hullo!” said Solomon.
“Hullo!” said Benjamin Bat. “I'm glad to see you, because I want to thank you for letting me spend the day in your house, so I wouldn't have to stay out in the storm.”
“You must be a light sleeper,” Solomon observed. (He did not tell Benjamin that he was welcome!)
“What makes you think that?” Benjamin Bat inquired.
[pg 073]“Why—you left my house before noon,” Solomon told him.
“Oh, no!” said Benjamin. “I slept soundly until sunset. When I came away the crickets were chirping. And I was surprised that you hadn't waked up yourself.”
“You were gone before midday,” Solomon Owl insisted. And they had something very like a dispute, while Solomon Owl sat in one tree and Benjamin Bat hung head downward from another. “I ought to know,” said Solomon. “I was awake about noon; and I looked everywhere for you.”
“What for?” asked Benjamin.
Naturally, Solomon didn't like to tell him that he had intended to eat him. So he looked wise—and said nothing.
“You didn't look on the ceiling, did you?” Benjamin Bat inquired.
[pg 074]“No, indeed!” Solomon Owl exclaimed.
“Well, that's where I was, hanging by my feet,” Benjamin Bat informed him.
Solomon Owl certainly was surprised to hear that.
“The idea!” he cried. “You're a queer one! I never once thought of looking on the ceiling for a luncheon!” He was so astonished that he spoke before he thought how oddly his remark would sound to another.
When he heard what Solomon Owl said, Benjamin Bat knew at once that Solomon had meant to eat him. And he was so frightened that he dropped from the limb to which he was clinging and flew off as fast as he could go. For once in his life he flew in a straight line, with no zigzags at all, he was in such a hurry to get away from Solomon Owl, who—for all he knew—might still be very hungry.
[pg 075]But Solomon Owl had caught so many mice that night that he didn't feel like chasing anybody. So he sat motionless in the tree, merely turning his head to watch Benjamin sailing away through the dusky woods. He noticed that Benjamin didn't dodge at all—except when there was a tree in his way. And he wondered what the reason was.
“Perhaps he's not so crazy as I supposed,” said Solomon Owl to himself. And ever afterward, when he happened to awake and feel hungry, Solomon Owl used to look up at the ceiling above him and wish that Benjamin Bat was there.
But Benjamin Bat never cared to have anything more to do with Solomon Owl.
He said he had a good reason for avoiding him.
[pg 076]And ever afterward he passed for a very brave person among his friends. They often pointed him out to strangers, saying, “There's Benjamin Bat! He doesn't know what fear is. Why, once he even spent a whole day asleep in Solomon Owl's house! And if you don't think that was a bold thing to do, then I guess you don't know Solomon Owl.”
[pg 077]Disputes Settled
Solomon Owl looked so wise that many of his neighbors fell into the habit of going to him for advice. If two of the forest folk chanced to have a dispute which they could not settle between them they frequently visited Solomon and asked him to decide which was in the right. And in the course of time Solomon became known far and wide for his ability to patch up a quarrel.
At last Jimmy Rabbit stopped Solomon Owl one night and suggested that he hang a sign outside his house, so that there shouldn't be anybody in the whole valley that wouldn't know what to do in case he found himself in an argument.
[pg 078]Solomon decided on the spot that Jimmy Rabbit's idea was a good one. So he hurried home and before morning he had his sign made, and put out where everyone could see it. It looked like this:
DISPUTES SETTLED WITHIN
There was only one objection to the sign. As soon as Jimmy Rabbit saw it he told Solomon that it should have said:
DISPUTES SETTLED WITHOUT
“Without what?” Solomon Owl inquired.
[pg 079]“Why, without going into your house!” said Jimmy Rabbit. “I can't climb a tree, you know. And neither can Tommy Fox. We might have a dispute to-night; and how could you ever settle it?”
“Oh, I shall be willing to step outside,” Solomon told him. And he refused to change the sign, declaring that he liked it just as it was.
Now, there was only one trouble with Solomon Owl's settling of disputes. Many of the forest folk wanted to see him in the daytime. And night was the only time he was willing to see them. But he heard so many objections to that arrangement that in the end Solomon agreed to meet people at dusk and at dawn, when it was neither very dark nor very light. On the whole he found that way very satisfactory, because there was just enough light at dusk and at dawn to make him blink. And when Solomon blinked he looked even wiser than ever.
[pg 080]Well, the first disputing pair that came to Solomon's tree after he hung out his new sign were old Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay. They reached the hemlock grove soon after sunset and squalled loudly for Solomon. “Hurry!” Mr. Crow cried, as soon as Solomon Owl stepped outside his door. “It will be dark before we know it; and it's almost our bedtime.”
“What's your difficulty?” Solomon asked them.
Mr. Crow looked at Jasper Jay. And then he looked at Solomon again.
“Maybe you won't like to hear it,” he said. And he winked at Jasper. “But you've put out this sign—so we've come here.”
“You've done just right!” exclaimed Solomon Owl. “And as for my not liking to hear the trouble, it's your dispute and not mine. So I don't see how it concerns me—except to settle it.”
[pg 081]“Very Well,” Mr. Crow answered. “The dispute, then, is this: Jasper says that in spite of your looking so wise, you're really the stupidest person in Pleasant Valley.”
“He does, eh?” cried Solomon Owl, while Jasper Jay laughed loudly. “And you, of course, do not agree with him,” Solomon continued.
“I do not!” Mr. Crow declared.
“Good!” said Solomon, nodding his head approvingly.
“No, I do not agree with Jasper Jay,” Mr. Crow said. “I claim that there's one other person more stupid than you are—and that's Fatty Coon.”
Well, Solomon Owl certainly was displeased. And it didn't make him feel any happier to hear Jasper Jay's boisterous shouts, or the hoarse “haw-haw” of old Mr. Crow.
[pg 082]“I hope you can decide which one of us is right,” Mr. Crow ventured.
“I am, of course!” cried Jasper Jay.
“You're not!” Mr. Crow shouted. And to Solomon Owl he said, “We've been disputing like this all day long.”
Solomon Owl didn't know what to say. If he announced that Jasper was right it would be the same as admitting that he was the stupidest person in the whole neighborhood. And if he said that old Mr. Crow's opinion was correct he would not be much better off. Naturally he didn't want to tell either of them that he was right.
“I'll have to think about this,” Solomon observed at last.
“We don't want to wait,” said Mr. Crow. “If we keep on disputing we're likely to have a fight.”
[pg 083]Now, Solomon Owl hoped that they would have a fight. So he was determined to keep them waiting for his decision.
“Come back to-morrow at this time,” he said.
[pg 084]Nine Fights
The next evening, just at dusk, Jasper Jay and old Mr. Crow returned to Solomon Owl's house, looking much bedraggled. One of Mr. Crow's eyes was almost closed; and Jasper Jay's crest seemed to have been torn half off his head.
“What's the matter?” asked Solomon, as soon as he saw them.
“We've
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