In a moonlit forest where shadows danced upon the ground, lived Olivia the Owl. She was not like other owls; her bright little eyes sparkled with intelligence. Animals wise or simple, big or small, loved to come to her to ask questions and hear her advice.
One night, just as the sun was setting and the moon was appearing, a Dear came rushing up to Olivia’s house. Breathless and bewildered, he said, “Oh, Olivia, do come and help us. A fierce fierce Fox has come into the forest, and he is prowling around in a most dangerous manner. He has already gobbled up some of our friends. Please come and do something to scare the horrid brute away!”
“I am sorry to hear that,” said Olivia; “but what do you want me to do?”
“Well, we thought that perhaps you would come and hoot with us,” said the Deer. “It might frighten away the Fox.”
“Hoot with you!” said the astonished Olivia. “Hoot with you! How can such a thing as that keep a Fox away?”
“Well,” said the Deer, “we thought that perhaps if you would only come and get up in a tree, we certainly would all hoot at the Fox, and he would go away.”
“It is some consolation,” said Olivia, “to know that you can use your horns to protect yourself. Good-night!”
The next night two Bats came to Olivia’s house. “Have you seen a Fox about here?” they said. “He is catching all our friends, and we hardly know what to do.”
“Oh, I am so sorry,” said Olivia. “What do you want me to do?”
“I do not know,” said the Bats. “Perhaps you can tell us something,” and they sat down and thought.
“My mother always said to me,” said Olivia, “that when you do not know you should never be afraid to say you do not know.”
The Bats went away feeling a little ashamed, but by and by a quarrelsome Woodpecker came by whose name was Red-headed Harry; he pounced down and said immediately: “Oh, Olivia, will you please come down to my house?”
Olivia politely said, “Yes,” and followed Harry home. On the way he began to scold her. “You Owl People are so stupid,” he cried out. “Don’t you know that a certain Woodpecker found a snake the other day? He was so stupid he could not find it again.”
When Olivia reached the Woodpecker’s house, she found three other Woodpeckers quarrelling together.
[Here follows an account of their quirrel which occupies some little space.]
“I always think,” said Red-headed Harry, “when my friends quarrel I also get the ill will that other people have towards them.”
When the four Pigeons which lived at the foot of a tree where Olivia was sitting up, heard Harry’s remarks to Olivia, they said, “it is a good idea.”
“It is a good idea,” echoed a Rook which had come up just at the time. “I was myself just thinking that all the blame of all the quarrels and unkindness of one’s friends always comes back to oneself. To be sure I do not go about repeating all their little secrets; but whenever one Rook does a thing, it is customary to throw all the blame on a Bird somewhat higher up.”
In a short time they all grew so unpleasant towards Olivia that she departed, saying, “Please do not blame me if I am not responsible for your friends’ quarrels.”
As soon as she was gone, they began to quarrel among themselves. “Oh, dear! where will all this end?” said a squirrel who sat above them eating a nut. “You will forget that all the blame that is borne by your friends’ quarrels falls back upon you.”
Before long they also grew weary of each other, and parted, feeling cross with whom they had just been speaking.
So it went on every night; a Newt, or a Water-hen, or a Brier Goose, or a Sea Your Click Clak, or a great ox-eyed Daisy, or some other creature who had friends who were quarelling came to Olivia, and she always said: “If your friends quarrel be sure you do not take either side, for the blame of every one rests with yourself.”
If the whole forest had come to know all she knew, and to do all she could tell them to do, it would not have been such a pleasant place to pass the night in.
But it was some consolation to Olivia to know that she did not quarrel and bear tales about her friends to one another.
And from all she saw, she knew that the being thoughtless of those about you makes one think herself more clever than other creatures either human or Brutal.