“This is all wonderful, but what I really need is a top hat!” he decided. “Otherwise, how can I take it off when I greet my friends if I don’t even have one? What’s more, if I ever get bored for some reason, I can always set it on the floor and drum on it with my wings. I can also stand it importantly next to me when I’m in a skybox at the stadium, or leave it at the hatcheck when I go to the theater or the opera. And sometimes I can just turn it over and climb up on top of it!”
Then Little Penguin headed to the office with Another Special Need, certain that now his Especially Important Question would not go unanswered. But Little Penguin was wrong again. Papa Snoutie did not at all believe that a top hat counted as a Special Need, and he had no plans whatsoever to stop working, so he again sent Little Penguin off to play on his own.
Feeling angry, Little Penguin returned to the living room, fluffing out his feathers, his Especially Important Question unanswered. Forgetting the rules of good behavior and without even asking for permission, the naughty little fellow continued his search for a top hat in Papa Snoutie’s closet. He soon met with success; he removed the object of his search from the depths of the closet and dragged it close to the mirror in the living room.
“Now that’s what I call a gentleman!” he said with satisfaction, looking at himself admiringly in the mirror.
The only problem was that this true gentleman had to balance the hat on his head with both wings because it was quite a bit bigger than Little Penguin himself. What’s more, the old top hat was quite dusty because it hadn’t been worn in many years, so the mischievous sharp dresser sneezed several times. He finally gave a sneeze so great that it made him jump a little and even flap his wings. The top hat took advantage of this and slipped down over his head, covering his entire body.
Everything went dark and Little Penguin felt confused, but then he quickly understood what had happened. After several unsuccessful attempts to get out from under the top hat, he pecked at it in annoyance from inside. But then he was happy to find that his strong beak had poked two holes through the top hat and that light was coming in.
“This is even better!” exclaimed Little Penguin. “And it’s more comfortable because I don’t have to hold it on with my wings.” Satisfied Little Penguin ran all around the room and could see everything clearly.
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.
“French or not, I don’t know, but I do know that the cooking is excellent because our Royal Chef Rabbit cooks better than anyone!” Croaky croaked proudly. “And I have never been to France, so I wouldn’t know about that.”
“You haven’t even been to France? Hmm… Then I really can’t see that I have anything to talk about with you,” said Gosling scornfully, flapping a wing. “But I guess I’ll come anyway.”
Lunch at Chez Royal Chef Rabbit was amazing as usual. Gosling sampled and resampled all the dishes with obvious pleasure. When he had eaten to his heart’s content, he leaned back in his chair and crossed his legs.