It was not repeated, but the sound of struggle was there, and thekeen-eyed father Squirrel saw the flash of a silver tail, the signal ofhis kind. And from that perch high in the air he leaped in one long,parachuting leap; he landed on the ground, and in three mighty bounds hewas at the place. The horror of the Snake was on him. It set his coata-bristling; but it did not hold him back. It only added desperation tohis onset. Clutching that devilish scaly neck with both his arms, hedrove in his chisel teeth and ground them in, down to the very bone, asSilvergray could not have done. He worked and tugged and stabbed again,and the Snake, sensing a new and stronger foe, relaxed on Silvergray,snapped with his hateful jaws, seized Bannertail's strong shoulder justwhere he best could stand it--where the skin is thick and strong theBlacksnake drove in and gripped. And Bannertail, as quick, quit hisfirst hold on the coil that was strangling Nyek-nyek, and by good luck,or maybe by better wisdom than his own, drove, fighting fierce, into thedemon's throat, the weak spot in that scaly armor. Deep sank theSquirrel's teeth, and pangs of mortal agony went thrilling through thereptile's length. But he was strong, and a desperate fighter, too. Thecoils unloosed on the senseless form of Nyek-nyek and lapped in atrice on Bannertail, three times round, straining, crushing, while hisrows of cruel fangs were sunk in the Squirrel's silvery side.
THE BATTLE WITH THE BLACKSNAKE]
But in throwing all his force against Bannertail he released the littleGray mother. She flung herself again on the black horror, and bit withall her power the head that was gripped on the shoulder of her mate.Very narrow is the demon reptile's head, and only one place was open,offered to her grip. She bit with all her force across the eyes, herlong, sharp chisels entered in. His eyes were pierced, his brain wasstung. With an agonizing last convulsion he wrenched on Bannertail,then, quivering with a palsy that changed to a springing open of thecoils, he dashed his head from side to side, lashed his tail, heavedthis way and that, coiled up, then straightened out. The Squirrelsleaped back, the monster lashed in writhing convolutions, felt the coolwater that he could no longer see, went squirming out upon it, workinghis frothy jaws, lashing, thrashing with his tail. Then up from thedarkest depths came a hideous goggle-eyed head, a monstrous head, as bigas a Squirrel's whole body, and on it a horny beak, which, opening,showed a huge red maw, and the squirming Blacksnake was seized by thebigger brute. Crushed and broken in those mighty jaws was the BlackOne's supple spine; torn open by those great claws was his belly, endedwas his life. The Snapper sank, taking the Blacksnake with him. It wasthe finish of an ancient feud between them, and down in the dark depthsof the pond the Water Demon feasted on the body of his foe.
And Bannertail, the brave fighter, with the heroic little Mother andNyek-nyek now revived, drew quickly back to safety. A little cut theywere, but mostly breathless, their very wind squeezed out by those dreadcoils. The ripples on the pool had scarcely died before they were allthree again in the dear old nest, with Brownhead back anew from a farjourney. Without words, were they to tell of their thrills and fears, ortheir joy; but this reaction came: They cuddled up in the nest, a littlecloser than before, a little more at one, a little less to feel thescatteration craze that comes in most wild families when the young aregrown; which meant these young will have for a little longer the goodoffices of their parents, and are thereby fitted a little better for thelife-battle, a little more likely to win.
Is it not by such accumulating little things that brain and brawn andthe world success of every dominating race of creatures has been built?
_THE PROPERTY LAW AMONG ANIMALS_
CHAPTER XXXV
THE PROPERTY LAW AMONG ANIMALS
THAT was the year of the wonderful nut crop. It is commonly so; the yearof famine is followed by one of plenty. Red oaks and white were laden,as well as the sweet shag hickories. And the Bannertail family in theirgrove watched with a sort of owner pride the thick green hangingclusters of their favorite food.
Like small boys too eager to await the baking of their cake, nibbling atthe unsatisfactory half-done dough, they cut and opened many a growingnut. Its kernel, very small as yet, was good; but the rind, oozing itsgreen-brown juices, stained their jaws and faces, yes,--their arms andbreasts, till it was hard to recognize each other in these dark-brownmasks. For the disfigurement they cared nothing. Only when the thicksap, half drying, gummed his silvery plume, did Bannertail abandon otherpursuits to lick and clear and thoroughly comb that priceless tail; andwhat he did, the others, by force of his energetic example, were sooncompelled to do.
The Hunting-moon, September, came. The nuts were fully grown but verygreen. "Who owns the nuts?" is an old question in the woods. Usuallythey are owned by the one who can possess them effectively, althoughthere are some restraining, unwritten laws.
Squirrels have three well-marked ideas of property. First, of thenesting-place which they have possessed, and the nest which they havebuilt; second, the food which they have found or stored; third, therange which is their homeland--the boundaries of which are notwell-defined--but most jealously held against those of their own kind.The Homeland is also held against all who eat their foods so that it ispart of the food-property sense. All three were strong in Bannertail;and his growing pride in the coming nut yield was much like that of afarmer who, by the luck of good weather, is blessed with a bumper cropof corn.
It seemed as though word of the coming feast had spread to other andfar-off places, for many other nut-eaters kept drifting that way,turning up in the hickory woods that the Graycoats thought their own.
The Bluejay and the Redheaded Woodpecker came. They pecked long and hardat the soggy husks to get at the soft, sweet, milk-white meat. They didlittle damage, for their beaks were not strong enough to twist off thenuts and carry them away, but the Graycoats felt that these werepoachers and drove them off. Of course it was easy for the birds to keepout of reach, but they hovered about, stealing--yes, that was what theSquirrels thought about it--stealing the hickory harvest when theycould.
Then came other poachers, the Redsquirrel with his mate, cheeky,brazen-fronted, aggressive as usual; they would come quietly, when theGraycoats were asleep or elsewhere, and proceed to cut the nut bunches.Many times the only notice of their presence was the sudden "thump,thump" of the nut bunch striking the ground after the Red One had cut itloose. His intention had been to go down quietly after it, split thehusks, and carry off the luscious, half-ripe nuts to his storehouse.But the racket called the Graycoats' attention. Bannertail and Brownheadwould rush forth like settlers to fight off an Indian raid, or likehouseholders to save their stuff from burglars.
There was little actual fighting to do with the Red Ones, for they hadlearned to fear and fly from the Graycoats, but they did not fly far.Their safest refuge was a hole underground, where Graycoats could not orwould not follow, and after waiting for quiet the Red Robber would comeout again, and sometimes, at least, get away with a load of the prizednuts.
New enemies approached one day, nothing less than other Graycoats, someSquirrels of their own kind, travelling from some other land,travelling, maybe, like Joseph and his brethren, away from a place offamine, till now they found an Egypt, a land of plenty.
Against them Bannertail went vigorously to war. It is well known thatthe lawful owner fights more valiantly, with more heart, withindomitable courage indeed, while the invader is in doubt. He lacks thebacking of a righteous cause. He half expects to be put to flight, evenas he goes forth to battle. And the Bannertails were able to make goodtheir claims to the hickory grove. Yet it kept them ever alert, everwatchful, ever ready to fight.
Partly because the nuts were already good food, and partly because itkept others from stealing them, the Graycoats cut some of the crop inSeptember.
_GATHERING THE GREAT NUT HARVEST_
CHAPTER XXXVI
GATHERING THE GREAT NUT HARVEST
IN the Leaf-falling-moon, October, the husks began to dry and split, andthe nuts to fall of themselves. Then was seen a wild, exciting time, t
hestirring of habits and impulses laid in the foundations of the race.
No longer wabbly or vague, as in that first autumn, but fully arousedand dominating was the instinct to gather and bury every precious,separate nut. Bannertail had had to learn slowly and partly by seeingthe Redsquirrels making off with the prizes. But he had learned, and hisbrood had the immediate stimulus of seeing him and their mother atwork; and because he was of unusual force, it drove him hard, with anurge that acted like a craze. He worked like mad, seizing, stripping,smelling, appraising, marking, weighing every nut he found.
What, weighing it? Yes, every nut was weighed by the wise harvester.How? By delicate muscular sense. It was held for a moment between thepaws, and if it seemed far under weight it was cast aside as worm-eaten,empty, worthless; if big, but merely light in weight, that meantprobably a fat worm was within. Then that nut was split open and theworm devoured. A wormy nut was never stored. If the nut was heavy,round, and perfect, the fine balance in the paws and the subtle sense ofsmell asserted the fact, and then it was owner-marked. How? By turningit round three times in the mouth, in touch with the tongue. This leftthe personal touch of that Squirrel on it, and would protect it in ameasure from being carried off by other Graysquirrels, especially whenfood abounded. Then, rushing off several hops from the place where thelast nut was buried, Bannertail would dig deep in the ground, his fullarm's length, ram down the nut held in his teeth; then, pushing back theearth with snout and paws, would tamp that down, replacing the twigs anddry leaves so the nut was safely hidden. Then to the next, varying theexercise by dashing, not after the visiting Graysquirrels--they kepttheir distance--but after some thieving Chipmunk or those pestiferousRedsquirrels who sought sometimes to unearth his buried treasure. Or, hewould dart noisily up the tree, to chase the Bluejays who were trying torob them of the nuts not yet fallen; then back to earth again, where washis family--Silvergray, Brownhead, and Nyek-nyek--inspired by hisexample, all doing as he did, working like beavers, seizing, husking,weighing, marking, digging, dig-dig-digging and burying nuts all daylong. Hundreds of these little graves they dug, till the ground underevery parent tree was a living, crowded burying-ground of the tree's ownchildren. Morning, noon, and evening they worked, as long as there waslight enough to see.
A cool night and another drying day brought down another hickory shower.And the Graycoats worked without ceasing. They were tired out thatnight. They had driven off a score of robbers, they had buried at leasta thousand nuts, each in a separate hole. The next day was an even morestrenuous time. For seven full days they worked, and then the preciousnut harvest was over. Acorns--red and white and yellow--might comelater, and some be buried and some not. The Bluejays, Woodpeckers, andthe Redsquirrels would get a handsome share, and pile them up instorehouses, a day's gathering in one place, for such is their way, butthe hickory-nuts were the precious things that counted for theBannertail brood. Ten thousand at least had the Graycoats buried, eachan arm's length down, and deftly hidden, with the trash of the forestfloor replaced.
This undoubtedly was their only impulse, to bury the rich nuts forfuture use as food. But Nature's plan was larger. There were other foodsin the woods at this season. The Squirrels would not need the precioushickories for weeks or months; all sign that might mark the burial-placewould be gone. When really driven by need the Squirrels would come anddig up these caches. Memory of the locality first, then their exquisitenoses would be their guides. They would find most of the nuts again.But not all. Some would escape the diggers, and what would happen tothese? _They would grow._ Yes, that was Nature's plan. The acornsfalling and lying on the ground can burst their thin coats, send down aroot and up a shoot at once, but the hickory must be buried or it willdry up before it grows. This is the hickory's age-old compact with theGraysquirrel: You bury my nuts for me, plant my children, and you mayhave ninety-five per cent of the proceeds for your trouble, so long onlyas you save the other five per cent and give them a chance to grow upinto hickory-trees.
This is the unwritten but binding bargain that is observed each year.And this is the reason why there are hickory-trees wherever there areGraysquirrels. Where the Graycoats have died out the hickory's days arenumbered. And foolish man, who slays the Graysquirrel in his recklesslust for killing, is also destroying the precious hickory-trees, whosetimber is a mainstay of the nation-feeding agriculture of the world. Heis like the fool on a tree o'erhanging the abyss, who saws the very limbon which depends his life.
_AND TO-DAY_
CHAPTER XXXVII
AND TO-DAY
HIS race still lives in Jersey woods; they have come back into theirown. Go forth, O wise woodman, if you would become yet wiser. Go in thedew-time after rain, when the down, dry leaves have lost their tongues.Go softly as you may, you will see none of the Squirrel-kind, for theyare better woodmen than you. But sit in silence for half an hour, so thediscord of your coming may be forgotten.
Then a little signal, "_Qua_," like the quack of a Wild-duck, will beanswered by the countersign, "_Quaire_"; then there will be wigwagsignal flashes with silver tail-tips. "All's well!" is the word theyare passing, and if you continue very discreet and kind, they will takeup their lives again. The silent trees will give up dryad forms, notmany, not hundreds, not even scores, but a dozen or more, and they willplay and live their greenwood lives about you, unafraid. They will comenear, if you still emanate unenmity, so you may see clearly the liquideyes, the vibrant feelers on their legs and lips. And if these betree-top wood-folk, very big and strong of their kind, with silverycoats and brownie caps, and tails that are of marvellous length andfluff, like puffs of yellow smoke with silver frills or flashes of awhite light about them, then be sure of this, by virtue of the sleek,lithe beauty of their outer forms and the quick wood-wisdom of theirlittle brains--you are watching a clan of Bannertail's own brood.
And, further, rest assured that when the hard nuts fall nextautumn-time, Mother Carey has at hand a chosen band of planters for hertrees, and a noble forest for another age will be planted on thesehills, timber for all time.
* * * * *
Transcriber's Notes:
Obvious punctuation errors repaired.
Page 27, "growthth at" changed to "growth that" (growth that are marked)
Page 46, "off" changed to "of" (of basswood buds)
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