Susan Connell
| all the way.... | |||
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Lully's Mountain | ||||||||
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Words and Pictures by Susan Connell | ||||||||
| Copyright © 2004, Susan Cheney Connell, All Rights Reserved | ||||||||
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| Once upon a time, there were two nice goats named Jocko and Lully who lived in a flat place by the Sea with their good cat Minou. Jocko spent all his days keeping the ship's watch on a Boat, and Lully spent all her days dreaming of the Mountains. While she washed dishes she thought of the Mountains. While she made beds, she thought of the Mountains. While she taught Minou his lessons (Bug-Catching 1-2, The Art of Fur-Washing, Hide-and-Seek for the Beginner, and other such things), she thought of the Mountains. Jocko knew when she burned the spinach and stepped on Minou's tail it was because her mind was on Other Things. | ||||||||
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| He tried to make her happy. Sometimes he took her out in the Boat and they watched the sun going down behind layers of clouds and pretended that the clouds were Mountains. But it took lots of Pretending..... | ||||||||
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| One day in September, Lully said to Jocko, "Couldn't we please go to the Mountains?" | ||||||||
| Jocko said, "I have already had two weeks vacation: How can we go to the Mountains?" | ||||||||
| And Minou said, "Me-ilk," which was the only word he knew, as he was Very Young. | ||||||||
| "Couldn't you take Two Weeks Vacation again?" asked Lully, as she darned the socks. | ||||||||
| "No." said Jocko. "Absolutely No. But maybe I can get Friday Off. I will call The Admiral." | ||||||||
| So he did, and The Admiral said, "Very well"..... | ||||||||
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| "How will we get there?" asked Lully. "It's too far to walk." | ||||||||
| "We will ride our bicycles," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "What shall we take?" asked Lully. | ||||||||
| "Our Jungle Hammocks to sleep in," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Our Eskimo Coats in case it's cold," said Lully. | ||||||||
| "Our Sunglasses in case it's hot," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Minou's Bed-Basket," said Lully, excitedly sewing two socks together. | ||||||||
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| "Things to eat," said Jocko, "like candy bars. They aren't very heavy, and they're good for you." | ||||||||
| "Me-ilk," said Minou. | ||||||||
| "A Pot," said Lully, dropping her thimble, "and Cups for tea." | ||||||||
| "And Matches for a fire and a Map and my Pocketknife for cutting things and the Penny Collection," said Jocko, who was very Practical. He shook the piggy bank. "How many pennies do we have?" | ||||||||
| Six hundred and sixty-two," said Lully, forgetting socks altogether, "Minou and I counted them yesterday." | ||||||||
| "We will go tomorrow," said Jocko..... | ||||||||
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| So when the sun was coming up, Jocko and Lully climbed on their bikes, put Minou in his basket, and started for the Mountains. | ||||||||
| "What fun!" said Lully after a half hour. | ||||||||
| "I'm so glad we came," said Lully after an hour. | ||||||||
| "It's a long way to the Mountains," said Lully after an hour and a half. | ||||||||
| "Do you think you could carry some of my things?" said Lully after two hours..... | ||||||||
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| So Jocko did. | ||||||||
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| "Look, look!" said Jocko. "There's the Mountains!" | ||||||||
| "Oooo," said Lully. "Are we almost there?" | ||||||||
| "No." said Jocko. "Absolutely No. You can see the Mountains hours before you get there." | ||||||||
| "They look like clouds," said Lully, happily tucking a Black-Eyed Susan between an ear and a horn. "Have a Jelly and Peanut Butter Sandwich, and then we will go to the Mountains"..... | ||||||||
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| "I'm awfully tired," said Lully later. | ||||||||
| "We will go beneath this bridge and sit by this brook for a while, then," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "I see a fish," said Lully. "Do you think we can catch it?" | ||||||||
| Minou saw the Fish, too, and reached his paw for it. He was very surprised to find that the water was Very Wet and Cold on the Paws. He put his head down nearer to see better, and found the water is also Very Wet and Cold on the Nose. Just then, the Fish flapped his tail and Minou fell in. | ||||||||
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| "Oh dear," said Lully as she pulled him out. "Maybe I should have given him Swimming Lessons." | ||||||||
| Minou shook himself and lapped at his fur, and then with As Much Dignity as Possible climbed into the hood of one of the Eskimo Coats to Dry Off and Warm Up. | ||||||||
| "Even the Fur-Washing Lessons didn't seem to help," said Lully sadly as she tried to sponge off the wetness with her handkerchief. "Where do you suppose I left his towel?" said she, peering into the basket. "Oh dear!" she said again, "I seem to have brought my Sewing Basket instead of Minou's Bed-Basket." (Lully was somewhat forgetful.) "But here's six or seven socks to dry him with," she said happily. | ||||||||
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| Meanwhile Jocko was figuring A Better Way to Catch A Fish than Minou had tried. He cut some strong reeds from the edge of the stream. | ||||||||
| "Now if you only had some Black String," he said to Lully. | ||||||||
| "I only have Pink Thread," said Lully, "Will that do?" She took some thread out of the basket and started to untangle it from the Pincushion where it was caught on two or three fishhooks. She had rather a hard time, and had to use her teeth. | ||||||||
| "Fine," said Jocko, "extremely Fine. What shall we use for bait?" | ||||||||
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| "I didn't eat the crusts from my sandwiches," said Lully. | ||||||||
| "For Shame," said Jocko. "Everyone knows Goats eat Everything." But he didn't seem very upset, as he tied the bread to the hook, the hook to the pink thread, the pink thread to the reed, the reed to his foreleg, and dangled the hook in the water. Very soon the Fish bit, and he hauled it in. | ||||||||
| "Oooo," said Lully as she wrapped it in Clean Green Leaves, "can I fish too?" | ||||||||
| "Certainly," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| So Lully make herself a fishing rod like Jocko's and one for Minou (although Minou only jumped at his, and bit it, and played with the string), and very soon they had a nice pile of little Sunfish on the bank..... | ||||||||
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| Two bouncy Spotty Dogs came galloping down the band and waded into the brook. | ||||||||
| "Cold," said one. | ||||||||
| "Lovely," said the other. | ||||||||
| "Come on in; the swimming's fine," he called to Jocko and Lully. | ||||||||
| "We might as well," grumbled Jocko, a little cross to have his fishing ended. So he and Lully splashed across the rocks to the sandy-bottomed pool all overhung with laurel bushes. | ||||||||
| The dogs showed them how to lie on their backs in the shallow stream, and float with the rumbling current all the way to the Big Tree, then hop out and run back and float down all over again. | ||||||||
| Minou watched safely from his basket, where it was Very Warm and Dry All Over..... | ||||||||
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| "I suppose we have to get going, if we are going to get to the Mountains," said Jocko, as he lay contentedly drying in the sunshine. | ||||||||
| "Let's camp right here," said Lully. | ||||||||
| So Jocko unrolled the Jungle Hammocks and fastened them to nearby tree; with the roof parts hung from high branches, and the hammock parts hung low to get into better, and the netting to keep out Mosquitos in-between. | ||||||||
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| And Lully made tea from the water in the brook, and poured milk for Minou, and cooked the fish they had caught in the pot, and she and Jocko ate all the Middles, and Minou ate all the Tails. Then as it got darker and darker they sat by the fire and toasted marshmallows and fed them to each other, and to Minou, who got sticky marshmallow all over his Whiskers, and the peepers Peeped and the crickets Squeaked and..... | ||||||||
| "Let's go to sleep," said Jocko.... | ||||||||
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| The rain pattered softly on the leaves..... | ||||||||
| "Yow, yow! Yow, yow! Yow, yow! Yow, yow!" | ||||||||
| "Jocko!" said Lully in a little voice, a little frightened because the woods were Very Dark and Not-at-all Quiet. "Do you hear a bear?" | ||||||||
| "Umr," said Jocko sleepily. | ||||||||
| "Yow, yow! Yow, yow! Yow..." | ||||||||
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| "Minou!" said Lully delightedly. "It's You! Are you scared?" | ||||||||
| "Cat's crying," said Jocko sleepily. | ||||||||
| "Me-ilk," said Minou. | ||||||||
| "Come jump in my Nice and Dry Hammock, you silly kitten." | ||||||||
| Minou climbed out of the basket where he had been sitting on the Pins and Needles and jumped into Lully's Hammock. He curled up on her shoulder and purred, "putter-putter-putter-putter," till they were both fast asleep..... | ||||||||
| The Rain pattered softly on the leaves..... | ||||||||
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| "Cold," said Jocko as he peered out of his snug hammock at the Wet and Foggy woods. | ||||||||
| "Cold," said Lully, as she climbed out of her Jungle Hammock and started to do the morning things. | ||||||||
| "Cold," said Jocko as he put his feet on the ground and reached for his Eskimo Coat. | ||||||||
| "Cold," said Lully as she dipped water from the brook for tea. | ||||||||
| "Me-ilk," said Minou as he wound around her legs affectionately. | ||||||||
| "Wet," said Jocko as he searched for a few dry sticks for the fire. | ||||||||
| "Wet," said Lully as Minou wound too far and fell into the brook. | ||||||||
| "They never learn," said Lully sadly as she fished him out..... | ||||||||
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| "Do you suppose we're at the Mountains yet?" asked Lully. "I can't see anything but Fog." | ||||||||
| "We're certainly going up," said Jocko with a grunt, as he pumped the pedals still harder. | ||||||||
| "Now we're not," said Lully, as they whizzed down a little incline. | ||||||||
| "Now we are," said Jocko, pumping hard again. | ||||||||
| And Up and Up they went. At least mostly Up. The Down was really much nicer, because it was coasting, but it was always shorter..... | ||||||||
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| "Isn't this funny," said Jocko, "barreling along in the Fog, not seeing where we're going, or were we've been or what's to either side. It's sort of You and Me and Minou going on forever, and no World at all, only this little piece around us." | ||||||||
| "Like floating," said Lully... | ||||||||
| And Up and Up they went..... | ||||||||
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| Pretty soon there began to be patches of sunshine among the patches of fog. | ||||||||
| "The Fog is a big cloud caught in the Valley," said Jocko, "and we are getting so high we are above the cloud and can look down on it." | ||||||||
| "Looks like great fields of snow," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Oooo," said Lully, jumping up and down and beginning to get excited about being so high. "I can see a Farm, with cows in the barnyard; and there's a whole Town, with more Farms beyond. And it goes on and on right to the Sea. Can we see the Sea?" | ||||||||
| "See the Sea, see the Sea," she sung, not waiting for an answer..... | ||||||||
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| "Are we going to climb a Mountain?" asked Lully. | ||||||||
| "Yes," said Jocko, "absolutely Yes. This one, if you want." | ||||||||
| So they wheeled their bicycles off the road, and covered them over with Brush and Bushes. | ||||||||
| "Maybe we should eat before we go," said Lully. | ||||||||
| She took the basket and began to pick blueberries. Jocko climbed a tress and threw down some apples. Minou dug out a treasure of hickory nuts that the squirrels had stored for the winter, and chased them around like little balls. (Goats have sharp hooves, and can crack nuts very easily.) | ||||||||
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| When they had finished, Minou jumped up to ride on Jocko's head and hold on to his horns. Up and Up they went, trotting along on all four feet like Old-Fashioned Goats. | ||||||||
| "Oooo," said Lully as they came to each new View, "Let's go higher." | ||||||||
| "Maybe I have Mountain Goat blood in me," said Lully. | ||||||||
| "I hope Not," said Jocko, "they're very stupid animals"...... | ||||||||
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| Up and Up and Up they went to the very top... | ||||||||
| "Oooo," said Lully, "ahhh. Look-look-look- we're at the top of the whole World! You can see Everywhere." | ||||||||
| They lay down on the sunny rocks and hung their heads over the edge, Jocko holding on to Minou's tail to Keep Track of him. | ||||||||
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| "You can see Everywhere - that way is everywhere we've been; and there, that's everywhere to the Sea; and that direction is everywhere mountains, mountains, mountains, and the last way is a Steep Deep Valley and bright woods where no one lives at all - Jocko, do you think we are the first goats ever on the Mountain? Are we just Discovering it? I shall call it Lully's Mountain. Are we really Explorers?" | ||||||||
| "No." said Jocko. "Absolutely No. And people do live in the Valley: I see a roof"... | ||||||||
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| "Per-ROOF," said Minou, and he jumped away. | ||||||||
| "He's learning to talk," said Lully absentmindedly. | ||||||||
| "Minou!" she called, as she suddenly realized he was gone. "He certainly did learn his Hide-and-Seek Lessons well. Oh Jocko, do you think he has fallen in? He fell in the brook twice; what if he fell here?" She hung her head low over the edge. | ||||||||
| "He's there," said Jocko calmly, pointing. And they climbed down and around two Blueberry Bushes and Jocko reached for Minou.... | ||||||||
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| And Minou flicked away beneath a pine tree and over a rock... | ||||||||
| They scrambled beneath the pine tree and over the rock...and Minou disappeared into a crevice...and... | ||||||||
| "It's a Cave!" said Lully happily, looking around at the space between the rocks and at the ledge overhead. "Just like a little House! Oh Jocko, let's stay and live here forever and be pioneers! We will have the living room here and the dining room here and the library here..." | ||||||||
| "No." said Jocko. "Absolutely No." | ||||||||
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| So Lully picked up Minou under one of her forelegs and hooked the other through Jocko's and they strolled through the golden leaves down Lully's Mountain..... | ||||||||
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| "We will have to find something for Supper," said Lully, as they uncovered their bicycles, and popped Minou into his basket. They rode easily along on the ridge in the deepening dusk. | ||||||||
| "There's your supper, Lully," said Jock, braking his bicycle, and backing up to a small pile of something beside the road. | ||||||||
| "What is it?" called Lully as she and Minou jumped down and skipped back. | ||||||||
| "It's Corn-on-the-Cob," said Jocko, picking up a half a dozen ears. "We'll roast them for a feast." | ||||||||
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| Splish! | ||||||||
| "Oh dear! It's that Skinny Minny Minou again," said Lully. "Where could he find a Puddle to fall into on top of a Mountain?" | ||||||||
| "It's a Bubbly Spring," said Jocko as he pulled Minou out of the pool. | ||||||||
| "How delightful!" said Lully. "We'll camp Right Here".... | ||||||||
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| So Jocko dug a hole for the corn and built a fire over it and found some crackers in his pocket for Minou, and he and Lully sang songs while they waited for the corn to cook. | ||||||||
| "Oh, Solomon Levi," sang Jocko. | ||||||||
| "A Spanish Cavalier," sang Lully. | ||||||||
| "Bonny, Bonny Eloise," sang Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Toora-loora-loora," sang Lully. | ||||||||
| And Minou singed his Whiskers falling asleep by the fire. | ||||||||
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| The evening grew colder and they snuggled into their Eskimo Coats and just Talked and finally they picked up Minou gently and hung his basket in a tree away from the Ground Damp, and they climbed into their Jungle Hammocks .. and slept .. and slept .. and slept..... | ||||||||
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| "Help!" said Jocko's voice in the dark. | ||||||||
| "Oh dear!" said Lully, "Is it a bear again?" | ||||||||
| "I'm all tangled up in my hammock," said Jocko, "and my horns are caught in the Mosquito Netting." | ||||||||
| Lully sighed and shivered as she climbed out of her hammock and poked her hoof under Minou to find her Sewing Scissors. She started cutting carefully, and soon Jocko was all straightened out and the rip fastened up with Safety Pins. She tucked Minou in with the Sewing Scissors and stumbled back to sleep..... | ||||||||
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| "Lull?" said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Umr?" said Lully. | ||||||||
| "You cut off my Beard," said Jocko. | ||||||||
| "Umr," said Lully..... | ||||||||
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| The sun was long up, and Minou had put in an hour practicing his Bug-Catching when Jocko and Lully sat up in their hammocks and began to think about Breakfast. Lully washed her face at the Bubbly Spring, and Jocko trimmed what was left of his Beard, and they sat down on the blanket of fallen leaves with a Pot Of Tea and a packet of Sweet Buns. | ||||||||
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| "Where shall we go next time?" said Jocko as he fed part of his Bun to a friendly Chipmunk. | ||||||||
| "Peru," said Minou. | ||||||||
| "He's talking!" said Lully. "That was a Sure-Enough Word, not a very useful Word, but a Really Word." | ||||||||
| "Peru," said Minou proudly. | ||||||||
| The Chipmunk scrambled out of Lully's Teacup. "What is your name, Silly Chipmunk?" asked Lully. | ||||||||
| "Peru," said Minou happily, jumping at the Chipmunk. | ||||||||
| "Chit-chit," said Peru the Chipmunk jumping at Minou. | ||||||||
| "Can we keep him?" asked Lully. | ||||||||
| "No." said Jocko. "Absolutely No." | ||||||||
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| And they all went walking through the Fall-bright forest, all red and yellow, across the sunny flower-filled mountain meadow to a spicy grove of Balsams. | ||||||||
| "I'm so Happy," said Lully. | ||||||||
| "Me too," said Jocko. | ||||||||
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| "Jocko..." | ||||||||
| "Um?" | ||||||||
| "Let's go home," said Lully. | ||||||||
| So she picked up Minou and Jocko picked up Peru the Chipmunk and put them in the Sewing Basket, and they climbed on their bikes and coasted..... | ||||||||
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| Original manuscript 1961 |