Old Rough the miser : $b A fable for children
| Language | en |
|---|---|
| First published | 2026-02-04 |
| Rights | Public domain in the USA. |
| Gutenberg ID | #77858 |
Description
"Old Rough the miser" by Lily F. Wesselhoeft is a children's fable written in the late 19th century. It follows a community of talking woodland creatures led into mischief and conflict by Old Rough, a cruel, miserly water-rat, and a rival crow clan, while a solemn owl, kindly chipmunks, a timid field-mouse, and a melodramatic bull-frog navigate the “Laws of the Woods.” Expect a lively animal morality tale about greed, community, and cunning, driven by pranks, power plays, and forest lore. The opening of the book sets up a generations-old feud over a cornfield between the crows and a water-rat, first “settled” by a wise owl’s ruling but never accepted by the rat. We meet Old Rough at home—bullying his wife, refusing charity to the ailing child of the gentle mouse Bobtilla, and skirmishing with saucy young crows—while Old Caw, the one-eyed elder, leads a stealthy cornfield raid thwarted by Rough’s meddling. A moonlit brush with the owl shows Rough’s craftiness, and, meanwhile, chipmunks Squirrello and Squirrella help Bobtilla relocate after Rough evicts her. Comic intrigue arrives when two crows trick a lovelorn bull-frog into serenading the Widow O’Warty; the ruse backfires into a broad “war” the bull-frogs declare on field-mice, a threat overheard by the swallow Swift, who warns the chipmunks and Bobtilla and prompts a cautious move to safer homes—while Rough delights in the coming chaos. (This is an automatically generated summary.)