The Curious Lobster

by Richard W. Hatch

  Mr. Badger did not dare interrupt again.

  Mr. Lobster, who had the softest heart under his hard shell, felt even sorrier for Mr. Bear than before.

  “For hours I remained in that hideous plight,” Mr. Bear went on, when he saw that they were listening carefully to each word. “And then, sometime in the darkest and most dangerous part of the night, the island began to get smaller and smaller. It was sinking in the river.”

  “Pardon me for speaking,” put in Mr. Lobster, “but perhaps the tide was coming in and covering the island.”

  “When the island began to sink,” continued Mr. Bear, just as though no one had spoken, “I realized that the end had come. So my suffering and peril increased every minute. And there was no one to help me.”

  He looked sharply at his friends to be sure they understood, and both Mr. Lobster and Mr. Badger trembled with sympathy and looked very distressed and said, “Do go on.”

  Mr. Bear was pleased at the trembling and again continued. “Finally, there was no dry land left on the island. I was not only surrounded by water. I was standing in water. First it covered my feet; then it came higher and higher. I am sure no one has been in a more terrible situation. But then, just when I was about to be gone, this fine boat came floating down the river, and it came so near that I was able to climb aboard. It was a great struggle, but I saved myself.”

  “How clever and brave you are!” exclaimed Mr. Badger tactfully.

  “Yes, indeed,” murmured Mr. Lobster.

  “WHEN THE ISLAND BEGAN TO SINK,” CONTINUED MR. BEAR, “I REALIZED THAT THE END HAD COME.”

  “So I drifted down the river,” Mr. Bear said. “And someone had left a large package of fried fish on the boat, and I ate all of them. It was necessary for me to eat them, for I had been starving all the time I was on the island. When the boat drifted into this creek, I came ashore. I was so exhausted that I fell asleep.”

  Mr. Bear could not pretend any longer that he was miserable. He was really so satisfied with himself that it was perfectly plain to Mr. Badger and Mr. Lobster.

  “Perhaps you fell asleep because you were so full of fish,” remarked Mr. Badger, who saw that Mr. Bear was in fine condition and had had a large meal. Mr. Badger’s usual good spirits had returned, and there was a twinkle in his eye.

  “Such suffering as mine is nothing to joke about,” said Mr. Bear. But he looked so full and comfortable that it was impossible for him to impress Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Lobster was too wise to say anything to spoil Mr. Bear’s story, but he thought to himself : “Mr. Bear had a fine supper, and Mr. Badger and I haven’t eaten a thing. Mr. Bear has been sleeping comfortably for hours while we have been looking for him. I know now that the persons who do the worrying suffer more than the person who has the adventure. I shall remember that and not get lost and cause my friends suffering.”

  He looked over to Mr. Bear. “You have had a hard time, indeed,” he said, “and Mr. Badger and I are delighted to find you safe and well. Now I should like to look at your boat a little more closely.”

  “So should I,” said Mr. Badger. “We must do something with it.”

  “Please remember that it is my boat,” said Mr. Bear.

  “And please remember that we all used my land boat,” replied Mr. Badger. “No friend is ever selfish. That is one of the ways you know friends.”

  “I shall not be selfish,” said Mr. Bear, “but I must protect myself against your ideas. You are both welcome to look at my boat.”

  It was a sailboat, which is the most beautiful kind of boat there is. It was more than twenty feet long and painted white, with a forward deck big enough for even Mr. Bear to stand on, and a cockpit big enough for all three of the friends. On the deck was a large anchor fastened to a large coil of rope. The sail, which was new and neat, was furled on the boom. Everything about the little vessel was shipshape and clean.

  “A sailboat!” exclaimed Mr. Badger joyfully. “I have always wanted to go skimming over the water in a boat like this.”

  “Boats mean work,” remarked Mr. Bear. “I remember how I worked when we went fishing. I did all the rowing.”

  “But sailboats go without rowing,” explained Mr. Badger eagerly. “All you have to do is sit still, and the wind blows you along. It is like going down-hill all the time, but of course not so fast. I could spend the rest of my life sailing.”

  “I prefer to spend the rest of my life on dry land,” said Mr. Bear.

  “Anyone who has spirit loves to sail,” insisted Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Lobster was afraid that Mr. Badger and Mr. Bear would have an argument about boats. Also, Mr. Badger’s words interested him. Mr. Lobster had ridden on a turtle and on Mr. Bear’s back and in a land boat and in a rowboat. But he had never skimmed over the sea in a sailboat. So naturally, since he was always curious about new things and eager for new experiences, he wanted to sail in Mr. Bear’s boat.

  “I should like to try sailing,” he said. “I think we might try it to see whether we like it. Then we can decide. Certainly it is unwise to dislike a new thing before you try it.”

  “Your wisdom is perfect, Mr. Lobster,” said Mr. Badger.

  “You think his ideas are perfect because they agree with yours,” said Mr. Bear.

  “Of course,” assented Mr. Badger readily. “That’s the best way to tell a perfect thing. How can anything be perfect if it doesn’t agree with you?”

  Mr. Bear was sure Mr. Badger was wrong, but he didn’t know what to say. It seemed to him that Mr. Badger had an answer to everything, and Mr. Bear kept hoping that someday he would be able to say something so brilliant that it would leave Mr. Badger in stunned silence.

  “Where could we go?” asked Mr. Bear of Mr. Lobster.

  Mr. Lobster was very quiet, thinking as hard as he could. He was afraid Mr. Badger would have an idea first, and Mr. Bear would surely disagree with it.

  “I am sick of this river and the meadow,” Mr. Bear went on. “There’s too much trouble here. I want to get away from it all.”

  They were almost the very words the talkative turtle had used, Mr. Lobster realized. “I know!” he answered. “The turtle told me that when he wanted to get away from things he went exploring; so why can’t we continue our exploring in your boat? We can explore the sea. I am sure explorers do not have to stay on the bottom of the ocean or on land.”

  “But what is there to explore on the sea?” asked Mr. Bear. “It is nothing but water, and water looks just the same and just as wet and dangerous, no matter where it is. What did the turtle find?”

  Mr. Lobster was not eager to answer that question, but he always told the truth. So he said, “Islands.”

  “Islands!” exclaimed Mr. Bear in horror. “Never! Imagine going to all the trouble of exploring and running all kinds of risks just to find islands, which are dangerous and always surrounded by water! Never!”

  “But there are big islands with trees and caves which are perfectly safe,” declared Mr. Badger.

  “From my experience an island is never safe,” insisted Mr. Bear.

  It looked as though the three friends could not agree. Mr. Lobster and Mr. Badger were eager to sail away exploring for islands, but Mr. Bear was firm. And the sailboat was Mr. Bear’s.

  Mr. Lobster said to himself: “It is always wisest to make important decisions when one is not hungry or tired or cross. Perhaps we all shall be happier after a good supper and a good night’s sleep at home.”

  So he said to Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger:

  “Let us all go home and think the matter over, and let us return to this place day after tomorrow. Then we can take a vote.”

  It was agreed to do what Mr. Lobster suggested, although it was a long distance from home for each of them.

  Mr. Bear examined his boat to make sure that it would not float away.

  “I don’t see why you want the boat, if you don’t want to sail the sea in it,” observed Mr. Badger.

  “I just like to own it,�
�� answered Mr. Bear. “I like to know it is my property.” He hoped that would silence Mr. Badger.

  “Property is a nuisance,” said Mr. Badger cheerfully. “I don’t own anything except a fish line, and I am one of the happiest creatures in the world.”

  Mr. Lobster thought that Mr. Badger was right, but he didn’t say a word. He slipped into the water and started down the river, resolved to have several good meals before he settled down in his home for the night.

  A Mystery at Sea

  WHEN THE three friends met again on the meadow the sailboat was still safe in the creek, and Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger were on the friendliest terms. Everyone was happy. The sun was shining brightly. The sky was summer blue. It was a perfect day for the beginning of a pleasant adventure.

  “We shall now vote to see whether we shall go exploring the sea for islands—large, safe islands,” announced Mr. Badger. It was Mr. Lobster’s idea, of course, but Mr. Badger was so enterprising that every time the three friends started on a new plan he made himself the leader. Somehow, no matter who started things, Mr. Badger was running them without the others knowing just how it came about. “I just want to say,” he went on now, “that as we vote we must remember that we are friends and heroes.”

  “Are we heroes because we were last year?” asked Mr. Bear.

  “ ‘Once a hero always a hero’ is my motto,” replied Mr. Badger.

  “How shall we vote?” asked Mr. Lobster, who was pleased to be reminded that he was a hero.

  “I have here three black stones and three white stones,” said Mr. Badger. “Here is one white stone and one black stone for each of us.” And he gave Mr. Bear and Mr. Lobster each their stones, keeping the last two for himself.

  “I thought it all out last night,” he continued, “and gathered the stones this morning. It is a perfect way to vote without any argument or unpleasantness. If you vote to go exploring for islands, go over behind that tuft of grass and leave your white stone. If you vote not to go, leave your black stone there. After we have all voted, we shall count the stones and see whether black or white wins. As it was Mr. Lobster’s idea to go exploring for islands, he should vote first. As the stones are my idea I shall vote second, if no one objects. As the boat is Mr. Bear’s, he can vote last, which is most important.”

  Mr. Bear had been about to object to being last, but Mr. Badger’s final words were so pleasing to him that he said nothing. As long as he was important he was content.

  Mr. Lobster was eager to vote.

  “Shall I go now?” he asked.

  “Yes, the time has come for us to know our fate,” answered Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Lobster crawled as fast as he could over to the tuft of grass and dropped his white stone, which he had carried in his right claw. The black stone he hid where no one would see it. Then he returned.

  Mr. Badger took but a minute to vote. Then he returned and waited with Mr. Lobster.

  Mr. Bear walked more slowly to the tuft of grass, and he gave a low growl when he got there. But he returned without saying a word.

  “Now we can look,” said Mr. Badger.

  They all hurried over to see the vote.

  Behind the tuft of grass lay three white stones.

  “How glad I am!” exclaimed Mr. Lobster happily.

  “A perfect vote!” declared Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Bear sighed, not exactly unhappily, but with a sound that meant it was no use complaining.

  “When I went to vote there were already two white stones there,” he said. “So I knew there was no use leaving a black one, and I left a white one, too.”

  “It was a fine thing for you to do,” said Mr. Lobster.

  “This will be our greatest adventure!” said Mr. Badger joyfully. He was so delighted he could hardly keep from dancing. “We are friends and heroes, and explorers of land and sea. I claim that we are all remarkable!”

  Mr. Bear agreed with that, naturally, and he looked unusually happy, even though he was about to go exploring again.

  Mr. Lobster was thinking, and he said to himself: “How true it is that if you want people to do something it is best to praise them first. I learn a good deal from Mr. Badger, even if I am older than he is.”

  Mr. Badger thought that he had managed things very well.

  “I have thought of something,” said Mr. Bear. “If we are going to sail the sea I want to take my object with me. I may get thirsty.”

  “And my rope,” said Mr. Lobster.

  “Mr. Bear and I will get everything,” said Mr. Badger. “Come on, Mr. Bear.”

  While they were gone Mr. Lobster went in the river and got thoroughly wet and caught three small flounders and a perch. When Mr. Bear and Mr. Badger returned with the jug and the rope and the fish lines everyone was ready to start.

  Mr. Badger had never sailed a boat, but he loved to experiment, and he was unusually smart. In a few minutes he found out how to hoist the sail and tie the halyards around the cleats. Then he took hold of the sheet, which is not a real sheet at all, but the rope with which the sail is pulled tight so that the wind will fill it and it won’t flap, and sat in the stern where he could steer. Once more he was running things, which made him contented and happy.

  Mr. Bear took his place in the cockpit.

  “As I don’t have to row, I suppose I don’t have to ride backwards in this boat,” he said. And that made him happy.

  There was a very short rope at the stern of the boat which trailed in the water. Evidently it had been broken when the boat drifted away from its rightful place. Mr. Lobster went into the water and took hold of the end of that rope, and Mr. Badger pulled him aboard.

  “That rope will save my tail from destruction, I do believe,” said Mr. Badger. “I approve of acts of friendship and helpfulness, and I am also a hero; but I should be miserable if I had to pull Mr. Lobster up with my tail every time he wanted to get wet. Probably I should lose my tail, and then I should no longer be a badger. Every badger must have a tail.”

  “What would you be?” asked Mr. Lobster instantly.

  No one could answer that question. Mr. Lobster had hit upon a mystery, which is something that can never be explained, for anything that is explained is no longer a mystery.

  The jug and rope and fish lines were on the cockpit floor. Mr. Bear pushed the boat into the river. Mr. Badger pulled in the sheet so that the sail was stiff in the breeze. The little boat heeled over and started for the sea.

  “Hooray!” cried Mr. Badger. “We’re off on the greatest adventure yet!”

  Mr. Lobster felt that it was one of the most important moments of his life.

  Mr. Bear was so proud of his boat that he forgot about danger and being surrounded by water.

  So it was a very happy beginning in every way.

  When they reached the mouth of the river, Mr. Badger steered straight for the open ocean. The bow of the boat pointed for the far horizon, where the blue sky came down to the blue sea, and it looked as if you could easily sail right off the sea into the sky.

  Mr. Bear noticed that immediately and began to worry a little. He enjoyed sailing very much, he found, but he preferred to have some land fairly near at hand.

  “Are you going to keep on in this direction?” he asked Mr. Badger when they had been sailing for some time.

  “Certainly,” answered Mr. Badger. “This is the way the wind is blowing, so we shall go this way.”

  “I don’t see any land ahead of us,” observed Mr. Bear. “I don’t believe we shall come to anything but sky. And suppose we just come to the edge of the ocean?”

  “Don’t worry,” said Mr. Badger confidently. “If we come to the edge of the ocean without finding any land, I shall steer along the edge until we do find some.”

  The next time Mr. Bear looked astern, the land they had left had disappeared entirely; so there was nothing to be seen on all sides but water and sky.

  “I still don’t see any islands,” he said.

  “You must be patient,”
advised Mr. Badger. “An island is practically always a surprise. You don’t see it until you’re almost there.”

  It was hard for Mr. Bear to keep his worries to himself, but he decided to be quiet for a while and think about what he would do if they did not come to an island, and whether there was a good chance of finding honey on islands.

  Mr. Lobster was not worried at all. He knew that he could drop overboard any time he wanted to and land in his own ocean. He had a strange feeling almost like homesickness when they sailed over the very place where he had his home on the ocean bottom, and he almost asked Mr. Badger to stop a moment while he went down to look at his home once more before he left for such a long time. But he decided that would only mean one more departure, and he was enjoying the new experience of sailing so much that he really hated to stop.

  So they sailed on and on.

  The breeze grew stronger, and the little boat went faster, skimming over the sea just as Mr. Badger had dreamed of doing. And he discovered that by pulling the sheet tight and pulling the tiller toward him he could make the boat tip over on its side and fairly dash along, with spray flying and the water rushing past, so near the edge of the cockpit that it looked as though it might come in over the side at any moment.

  Unfortunately, when he made the boat tip, Mr. Bear lost his balance and rolled along until he hit the side of the boat with a bang. He let out a loud growl. Then he looked up and saw the water almost at his very nose.

  SKIMMING OVER THE SEA JUST AS MR. BADGER HAD DREAMED OF DOING.

  “You are sinking my boat!” he cried.

  “Oh, no, there’s no danger,” said Mr. Badger.

  Mr. Lobster was hanging on with both big claws and saying nothing.

  “I thought this was better than a rowboat,” said Mr. Bear unhappily, “but at least a rowboat doesn’t lie on its side.”

  “We are going faster this way,” Mr. Badger explained. He loved the excitement and the flying spray. “We shall reach our island sooner.”

  Mr. Bear crawled back and balanced himself as well as possible, which was not easy for him, as he was not graceful. He tried to duck the spray, for he hated getting wet, but he did not succeed at all, and soon he began to growl softly. As he got wetter and wetter he growled more loudly.