Virginia was a very little girl when she visited the home of the animals under the garnet hill. She was the only person who had ever been there, as the good Mrs. Fox assured her, and the only way, indeed, that she can prove that she had actually been there at all is to ask her pet cat, who accompanied her, whether it is all true or not. Always the cat blinks his eyes with the most knowing air, and nods his head. So that is proof enough.  
Virginia was gathering¹ blueberries and she had strayed farther and farther away from the farm house until she suddenly found that she could no longer see the top of the red chimney, nor the peak of the barn. Never had her little feet carried her so far into the pastures as this. To make it worse, she could not seem to find her way back. The low birch trees and the sweet fern seemed taller, and the light beneath them was not so warm and bright.
 
Virginia started to run, but she had taken only a few steps when she tripped and fell. It almost seemed that the briary vine in the grass had reached out and entangled² her. But she was a brave little girl and would sooner do anything than cry out. It was discouraging to have all the berries in her pail spilled over the ground, but she set to work picking them out of the moss³ and leaves, while she kept wishing that somebody would come to help her.
 
Then she pricked⁴ her finger on a thorn. It was then, she knows, that she began to hear lovely voices; for no sooner had she felt the sharp scratch than she heard a sweet sighing song all around her.
 
Of all the wishes in her life the greatest was to know what the trees and the birds were saying. Now she knew.
 
For on all sides the voices were as sweet as music. "What pretty blue eyes she has!" and "How lovely her cheeks are!" and "Just see her golden hair!" were remarks she caught between the sounds of silvery laughter.
 
She jumped up, leaving her berries on the ground, and started again to run. For she was suddenly afraid of these voices, even though they were so sweet.
 
A familiar Me-ew greeted her. It was her pet cat, Tiger, who then began talking to her as plainly as though he had been to school and could read and write.
 
"How fine this is!" he exclaimed. "To think you can hear at last!" and he went on explaining that no one had ever understood what he was saying before.
 
"How often," he purred, "have I followed you into the pasture, hoping that you would prick⁵ your finger on the right sort of thorn, so that at last we could talk things over! My, but won't all the world be glad to know of this!" he added. "Why, it doesn't happen once in a thousand years!"
 
With that the beautiful gray cat ran off into the woods, only to return accompanied by troops and troops of beautiful little creatures: the field mice, who didn't seem to object to the cat at all, and the squirrels, even the shiny moles⁶, and some very excited birds, who flew round and round the little girl, calling her name, and telling her how they loved her.
 
Why she should have followed the cat into the woods, Virginia did not know, but he ran ahead and bade her follow, and she seemed only too willing to do so. The trees spoke⁷ so pleasantly as she passed them that it was impossible not to go on.
 
"How she does resemble her great-grandmother!" said one of the trees. It was an aged⁸ oak who had known Virginia's family ever since it had settled in those parts. She felt that she must stop and return the greetings, for she was always carefully polite to old people.
 
"Why, it was my little brother," the tree continued, "who was ordained⁹ to the ministry¹⁰ in your grandfather's church. Your grandfather did the preaching, and my brother held the floor up. He also was cut by the builders to carry the major load of the roof. You see I have known your family a long while. I am the oldest white oak in this woodland."
 
But before he could say another word, a beautiful red fox jumped out of the bushes and told the tree to stop talking.
 
"Don't weary that little girl with all your memories," Red Fox said. "If you get started, you'll never stop. And she has an invitation to Mother Fox's Hospital. She must come immediately."
 
All this was very strange. Virginia wished to talk to the good old oak some more, but Red Fox gave her a knowing look and held out his hand in such a cordial way, and so urgently, that she bade the venerable tree good-afternoon and ran to catch up with her new friend, who was already beckoning¹¹ to her from some distance ahead. Bounding along the path beside her came Tiger Kitty, whom Virginia was indeed glad to have with her.
 
She was no longer on familiar ground. The woods were dense¹², and she felt that she was running a long way from home.
 
But suddenly Red Fox stopped. They had come to what appeared a jagged and moss-grown rock. It was the side of an old pit that had been dug into the shoulder of the hill, and at any other time Virginia would have remembered it as the old quarry¹³ where once she had been taken by her brothers and sisters on a picnic. But now she saw that it concealed¹⁴ in reality a doorway¹⁵. Moss-grown and dark, the door was hardly discoverable, but it opened easily enough when Red Fox applied¹⁶ his key. And standing¹⁷ there to greet Virginia and Tiger Kitty was a wonderful old fox, with spectacles and a frilled bonnet¹⁸ and the kindliest face in the world.
 
"This is my mother," said Red Fox; "she's the matron."
 
"Yes," the good old soul admitted, "I am Mother Fox, and this charitable............