X
THE ADVENTURES OF A SQUIRREL FAMILY
"I'll bet I kin make a Woodpecker come out of that hole," saidSapwood, one day as the three Red-men proceeded, bow in hand, througha far corner of Burns's Bush. He pointed to a hole in the top of atall dead stub, then going near he struck the stub a couple of heavyblows with a pole. To the surprise of all there flew out, not aWoodpecker, but a Flying Squirrel. It scrambled to the top of thestub, looked this way and that, then spread its legs, wings and tailand sailed downward, to rise slightly at the end of its flight againsta tree some twenty feet away. Yan bounded to catch it. His fingersclutched on its furry back, but he got such a cut from its sharp teeththat he was glad to let it go. It scrambled up the far side of thetrunk and soon was lost in the branches.
Guy was quite satisfied that he had carried out his promise ofbringing a Woodpecker out of the hole, "For ain't a Flying Squirrel akind of Woodpecker?" he argued. He was, in consequence, very "cocky"the rest of the day, proposing to produce a Squirrel whenever theycame to a stub with a hole in it, and at length, after many failures,had the satisfaction of driving a belated Woodpecker out of its nest.
The plan was evidently a good one for discovering living creatures.Yan promptly adopted it, and picking up a big stick as they drew nearanother stub with holes, he gave three or four heavy thumps. A RedSquirrel scrambled out of a lower hole and hid in an upper one;another sharp blow made it pop out and jump to the top of the stub,but eventually back into the lower hole.
The boys became much excited. They hammered the stub now withoutmaking the Squirrel reappear.
"Let's cut it down," said Little Beaver.
"Show you a better trick than that," replied the Woodpecker. He lookedabout and got a pole some twenty feet long. This he placed against arough place high up on the stub and gave it a violent push, watchingcarefully the head of the stub. Yes! It swayed just a little. Samrepeated the push, careful to keep time with the stub and push alwaysjust as it began to swing away from him. The other boys took hold ofthe pole and all pushed together, as Sam called, "Now--now--now--"
A single push of 300 or 400 pounds would scarcely have moved the stub,but these little fifty-pound pushes at just the right time made itgive more and more, and after three or four minutes the roots, thathad begun to crack, gave way with a craunching sound, and down crashedthe great stub. Its hollow top struck across a fallen log and burstopen in a shower of dust, splinters and rotten wood. The boys rushedto the spot to catch the Squirrel, if possible. It did not scrambleout as they expected it would, even when they turned over thefragments. They found the front of the stub with the old Woodpeckerhole in it, and under that was a mass of finely shredded cedar bark,evidently a nest. Yan eagerly turned it over, and there lay the RedSquirrel, quite still and unharmed apparently, but at the end of hernose was a single drop of blood. Close beside her were five littleSquirrels, evidently a very late brood, for they were naked, blind andhelpless. One of them had at its nose a drop of blood and it lay asstill as the mother. At first the hunters thought the old one wasplaying 'Possum, but the stiffness of death soon set in.
Now the boys felt very guilty and sorry. By thoughtlessly giving wayto their hunting instincts they had killed a harmless mother Squirrelin the act of protecting her young, and the surviving little ones hadno prospect but starvation.
Yan had been the most active in the chase, and now was far moreconscience-stricken than either of the others.
"What are we going to do with them?" asked the Woodpecker. "They aretoo young to be raised for pets."
"Better drown them and be done with them," suggested Sappy, recallingthe last honours of several broods of Kittens at home.
"I wish we could find another Squirrel's nest to put them into,"said Little Beaver remorsefully, and then as he looked at the foursquirming, helpless things in his hand the tears of repentance filledhis eyes. "We might as well kill them and end their misery. We can'tfind another Squirrel's nest so late as this." But after a littlesilence he added, "I know some one who will put them out of pain. Shemay as well have them. She'd get them anyway, and that's the old graywild Cat. Let's put them in her nest when she's away."
This seemed a reasonable, simple and merciful way of getting rid ofthe orphans. So the boys made for the "canon" part of the brook. Atone time of the afternoon the sun shone so as to show plainly all thatwas in the hole. The boys went very quietly to Yan's lookout bank, andseeing that only the Kittens were there, Yan crept across and droppedthe young Squirrels into the nest, then went back to his friends towatch, like Miriam, the fate of the foundlings.
They had a full hour to wait for the old Cat, and as they were verystill all that time they were rewarded with a sight of many prettywild things.
A Humming-bird "boomed" into view and hung in a misty globe of wingsbefore one Jewel-flower after another.
"Say, Beaver, you said Humming-birds was something or other awfulbeautiful," said Woodpecker, pointing to the dull grayish-green birdbefore them.
"And I say so yet. Look at that," as, with a turn in the air, thehanging Hummer changed its jet-black throat to flame and scarlet thatsilenced the critic.
After the Humming-bird went away a Field-mouse was seen for a momentdodging about in the grass, and shortly afterward a Shrew-mole, not sobig as the Mouse, was seen in hot pursuit on its trail.
Later a short-legged brown animal, as big as a Rabbit, came nosing upthe dry but shady bed of the brook, and as it went beneath them Yanrecognized by its little Beaver-like head and scaly oar-shaped tailthat it was a Muskrat, apparently seeking for water.
There was plenty in the swimming-pond yet, and the boys realized thatthis had become a gathering place for those wild things that were"drowned out by the drought," as Sam put it.
The Muskrat had not gone more than twenty minutes before anotherdeep-brown animal appeared. "Another Muskrat; must be a meeting,"whispered the Woodpecker. But this one, coming close, proved a verydifferent creature. As long as a Cat, but lower, with broad, flat headand white chin and throat, short legs, in shape a huge Weasel, therewas no mistaking it; this was a Mink, the deadly enemy of the Muskrat,and now on the track of its prey. It rapidly turned the corner, nosingthe trail like a Hound. If it overtook the Muskrat before it got tothe pond there would be a tragedy. If the Muskrat reached the deepwater it might possibly escape. But just as sure as the pond became agathering place for Muskrats it would also become a gathering placefor Mink.
Not five minutes had gone since the Mink went by before a silent grayform flashed upon the log opposite. Oh, how sleek and elegant itlooked! What perfection of grace she seemed after the waddling, hunchyMuskrat and the quick but lumbering Mink. There is nothing more suppleand elegant than a fine Cat, and men of science the world over havetaken the Cat as the standard of perfection in animal make-up. Pussyglanced about for danger. She had brought no bird or Mouse, for theKittens were yet too young for such training. The boys watched herwith intensest interest. She glided along the log to the hole--theSkunk-smelling hole--uttered her low "_purrow, purrow_," thatalways sets the hungry Kittens agog, and was curling in around them,when she discovered the pink Squirrel-babies among her own. Shestopped licking the nearest Kitten, stared at a young Squirrel, andsmelled it. Yan wondered what help that could be when everythingsmelled of Skunk. But it did seem to decide her, for she licked ita moment, then lying down she gathered them all in her four-leggedembrace, turned her chin up in the air and Sappy announced gleefullythat "The little Squirrels were feeding with the little Cats."
The boys waited a while longer, then having made sure that the littleSquirrels had been lovingly adopted by their natural enemy, they wentquietly back to camp. Now they found a daily pleasure in watching themixed family.
And here it may be as well to give the rest of the story. The old grayCat faithfully and lovingly nursed those foundlings. They seemedto prosper, and Yan, recalling that he had heard of a Cat actuallyraising a brood of Rabbits, looked forward to the day when Kittensand Sq
uirrelets should romp together in the sun. After a week Sappymaintained that only one Squirrel appeared at the breakfast table, andin ten days none. Yan stole over to the log and learned the truth. Allfour were dead in the bottom of the nest. There was nothing to tellwhy. The old Cat had done her best--had been all love and tenderness,but evidently had not been able to carry out her motherly intentions.
Four tiny headstones]