· “Don’t understand? I’ll tell you what I don’t understand, young chip. I don’t understand how a chappie like yourself who is supposed to be a great warrior can lie there moping any longer. You’re like an old lady otter who’s just lost a fish. If old Methuselah were here now, he’d chuck a jug of water over you and turf you right out of that bed on your fat little head!”
Matthias sat up and sniffed.
“D’you think so, Basil?”
The hare slapped his ‘injured’ leg, winced, then laughed aloud. “Think so? I know so! Do you imagine that old mouse sacrificed his life so that you could lie about feeling sorry for yourself? Huh, he’d have told you himself. That’s not the way of a warrior. Get up, sir, stir yourself, make Methuselah proud of you!”
Death, in any situation, is a hard thing to get past. I think that children sometimes don’t know how to move on after someone close passes on. Many adults treat the situation as something kids cannot handle and just avoid talking about it with them. It is easier for a parent to say that Granny went to God, instead of explaining the situation and talking it over with their kids. I know that when my grandmother died, I was not allowed to go to the funeral and my parents would not talk about it with me. It took me quite a while to believe she was never coming back, and then I wasn’t sure if I could talk to my parents about it because they hadn’t talked to me. The way Basil Stag Hare turned Matthias’s grief into something he could use to better himself was very moving. Thru the book, Matthias looses both of his father figures, Methuselah and Abbot Mortimer. Since all of Mossflower Woods is such a close family, it shows how strong ties, from both friends and family, can keep the fight going and push us to be the best person we can be.
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