Old Rough the miser

"Old Rough the miser" by Lily F. Wesselhoeft is a children's animal fable written in the late 19th century. Set on a farm and in the surrounding woods, it follows a community of talking animals—chiefly Old Rough, a greedy water-rat; Old Caw, a shrewd patriarchal crow; Blinkeye, a solemn owl; Bobtilla, a gentle field-mouse; two prankish young crows; kindly chipmunks; and Johnny, a vain bullfrog—as a long-standing feud over a cornfield rekindles and tests their codes of conduct and compassion. It explores greed, mischief, and neighborliness through “laws of the woods” and mounting tensions that threaten the peace of the meadow. The opening of the story recounts an old dispute between a crow and a water-rat over a cornfield, “settled” by an owl in favor of the crow but never accepted by the rat, allowing the feud to persist into a later generation. We meet Old Rough at home, a harsh miser who bullies his meek wife and refuses even a tender root to Bobtilla for her sick child. Two saucy young crows mock the rat and later, under the wary eye of their grandfather Old Caw, raid the newly planted corn until a warning sends them skyward. Old Rough evicts Bobtilla and narrowly escapes Blinkeye at dusk, while elsewhere Johnny the bullfrog laments a lost love, is duped by the crows into serenading the stout Widow O’Warty, and then, prodded by Old Rough’s lies, declares war on all field-mice. Swift the swallow overhears this and warns the chipmunks, who help Bobtilla and their own family relocate to a safer home beneath the roots of an old oak. As rumors of war spread and the frogs gather, Old Rough quietly rejoices at the havoc to come.

Old Rough the miser, by Lily F. Wesselhoeft. Republished by OpenStories from Project Gutenberg eBook #77858.