Snoutie and His Friends

Little Penguin found this game to be so much fun that he decided not to tell anyone about it yet. And he also wasn’t particularly anxious to admit that he had gone into Papa Snoutie’s closet without permission, taken out his top hat, and then ruined it. Now he was so involved in this new game that he decided to tell the others about his antics some other time.

After these events, Snoutie started to notice the Little Penguin was spending more and more time away from home so that he could take “nature walks.” This didn’t bother Snoutie at all, because he knew that nothing bad could happen to Little Penguin in the Big Forest.

Meanwhile, strange rumors were going around the forest. Everyone was talking about how they had seen a strange, oddly shaped, black creature that looked something like a hat. It moved quite quickly between the trees, jumped out from behind snow-covered spruces, ran quickly down the paths, peeping in a low voice, and generally startled all the other creatures of the forest. This went on all winter long and all spring long, too. Naturally, these puzzling events caused quite a stir. Goose in particular became quite worried when for the umpteenth time he saw the black top hat running among some bushes.

“We need to orga-ga-ga-nize an emergency meeting on this matter,” announced Goose. “Things can’t go on like this.”

And so a meeting was organized. At the meeting, the strange, black creature that looked like a top hat was called simply He.

“He has obviously gotten into my supplies!” peeped Housey Mousey crossly. “I saw Him run by my bags of grain several times.”

“It seems to me that He is obviously scared of water,” said Croaky the Feel Good Froggy scornfully. “He ran right by the river, but he didn’t have the courage to swim, even though the weather was excellent. Cro-o-o-a-a-a-k-k-k!”

“I have lived in this Forest for a very long time, but I have never seen anything like this,” stated Grumbling Turtle. “And my grandmother never told me about anything like this either. Could the world really have changed so much?”

“I think He loves acorns,” Burly Boary announced. “Once He appeared right next to me as I was gathering acorns under the big oak tree. I gave Him a friendly grunt and asked Him to join me, but He ran right off into the depths of the Forest.”

“What I would like to know is: Is He dangerous?” asked Loppy the Believing Bunny. “I once saw Him near a thicket of burdock, but I was very busy, so I hid in my den…I mean, what I meant to say was that I hopped off on some Very Important Errands.”

“At first I thought it was all my imaga-ga-ganation, that is, imagination,” admitted Goose, “because there was nothing about it in the newspapers. But then my Goosey Opinion changed.”

The meeting went on for quite a long time, but the participants could not agree on what to do. Snoutie, who had grown slightly tired listening to his friends express their opinions one after the other, wrote the following song:

He’s a strange little fellow,

He’s not a raccoon or a cat,

Mysterious and funny,

He looks just like a hat.

He cannot fly,

He cannot swim.

He cannot climb high

Up onto a limb.

He cannot roar,

He cannot scream,

He just peeps softly

As if in a dream.

Wise Old Owl did not take part in the meeting, but he did listen closely to the discussion, eyes closed as usual. Owl knew for certain that nothing bad was happening in the forest, which meant that there was no reason to worry and that everything would soon fall into place.

All this time, one creature at the meeting found it very funny that everyone was calling him He. He walked among the trees, smelled the spring flowers, and pretended that he was not at all interested in the discussion.

As it happened, his identity was revealed during the meeting. Little Penguin, who had grown tired of walking around the garden in silence, decided to surprise all the creatures. Seeing the very same mysterious creature they were talking about running around between the garden beds, Snoutie grabbed him easily and pulled the top hat off a very surprised and satisfied Little Penguin. The friends all laughed for a long time over the naughty little fellow’s trick.

“Oh, I almost forga-ga-ga-got to tell you,” said Goose suddenly, when all the creatures were getting ready to leave. “My unbearable little nephew Julienne is arriving tomorrow from Paris.”

And just as Goose said, the next day his French relative Gosling Julienne arrived in the Forest.

And then it all began…

First Croaky the Feel Good Froggy gave Gosling Julienne an invitation to lunch at the restaurant from Royal Chef Rabbit.

“Restaurant? Do you really mean to say that there is a restaurant in your Forest?” laughed Julienne meanly. “And what type of cooking does this restaurant offer? I hope it’s French?” he asked Croaky, raising his eyebrows and taking a step back.