THE NAUGHTY RACCOON CHILDREN
There was hardly a night of his life when the Little Brother of theRaccoon family was not reproved by his mother for teasing. Mrs. Raccoonsaid she didn't know what she had done to deserve such a child. When shespoke like this to her neighbors they sighed and said, "It must betrying, but he may outgrow it."
The Oldest Wolverene, though, told the Skunk that his cousin, Mrs.Raccoon's husband, had been just as bad as that when he was young. "I donot want you to say that I said so," he whispered, "because he mighthear of it and be angry, but it is true." The Oldest Wolverene didn'tsay whether Mr. Raccoon outgrew this bad habit, yet it would seem thathis wife had never noticed it.
You must not think that Mr. Raccoon was dead. Oh, no, indeed! Everynight he was prowling through the forest on tiptoe looking for food. ButMrs. Raccoon was a very devoted mother and gave so much time andattention to her children that she was not good company for her husband.He did not care much for home life, and the children annoyed himexceedingly, so he went away and found a hole in another tree which hefitted up for himself. There he slept through the day and until thesetting of the sun told him that it was time for his breakfast. Raccoonslike company, and he often had friends in to sleep with him. Sometimesthese friends were Raccoons like himself with wives and children, andthen they would talk about their families and tell how they thoughttheir wives were spoiling the children.
The four little Raccoons, who lived with their mother in the dead branchof the big oak-tree, had been born in April, when the forest was sweetwith the scent of wild violets and every one was happy. Beautiful pinkand white trilliums raised their three-cornered flowers above theirthreefold leaves and nodded with every passing breeze. Yellowadder's-tongue was there, with cranesbill geraniums, squirrel-corn, andspring beauties, besides hepaticas and windflowers and the daintybishop's-cap. The young Raccoons did not see these things, for theireyes would not work well by daylight, and when, after dark, their motherlet them put their heads out of the hole and look around, they were toofar from the ground to see the flowers sleeping in the dusk below. Theycould only sniff, sniff, sniff with their sharp little turned-up noses,and wonder what flowers look like, any way.
When their mother was with them for a time, and that was while they weredrinking the warm milk that she always carried for them, she told themstories of the flowers and trees. She had begun by telling them animalstories, but she found that it made them cowardly. "Just supposing," oneyoung Raccoon had said, "a great big, dreadful Snail should come up thistree and eat us all!"
The mother told them that Snails were small and slow and weak, and neverclimbed trees or ate people, but it did no good, and her children werealways afraid of Snails until they had seen one for themselves. Afterthat she told them stories of the flowers, and when they asked if theflowers would ever come to see them, she said, "No, indeed! You willnever see them until you can climb down the tree and walk among them,for they grow with their feet in the ground and never go anywhere."There were many stories which they wanted over and over again, but theone they liked best of all was that about the wicked, wicked Poison Ivyand the gentle Spotted Touch-me-not who grew near him and undid all thetrouble that the Ivy made.
When the night came for the young Raccoons to climb down from their treeand learn to hunt, all the early spring blossoms were gone, and only theripening seed-vessels showed where nodding flowers had been. You wouldhave expected the Raccoon children to be disappointed, yet there were somany other things to see and learn about that it was not until threenights later that they thought much of the flowers. They might not havedone so then if Little Sister had not lost her hold upon the oak-treebark and fallen with her forepaws on a scarlet jack-in-the-pulpit berry.
They had to learn to climb quickly and strongly up all sorts of trees.Perhaps Mrs. Raccoon had chosen an oak for her nest because that wasrough and easily climbed. There were many good places for Raccoons togrip with their twenty strong claws apiece. After they had learned oaksthey took maples, ironwoods, and beeches--each a harder lesson than theone before.
"When you climb a tree," said their mother, "always look over the trunkand the largest branches for hiding-places, whether you want to use onethen or not."
"Why?" asked three of the four children. Big Brother, who was rathervain, was looking at the five beautiful black rings and the beautifulblack tip of his wonderful bushy tail. Between the black rings werewhitish ones, and he thought such things much more interesting thanholes in trees.
"Because," said the Mother Raccoon, "you may be far from home somenight and want a safe place to sleep in all day. Or if a man and hisDogs are chasing you, you must climb into the first hiding-place youcan. We Raccoons are too fat and slow to run away from them, and therings on our tails and the black patches on our broad faces might showfrom the ground. If the hole is a small one, make it cover your head andyour tail anyway, and as much of your brown body fur as you can."
Mother Raccoon looked sternly at Big Brother because he had not beenlistening, and he gave a slight jump and asked, "W-what did you say?"
"What did I say?" she replied. "You should have paid better attention."
"Yes 'm," said Big Brother, who was now very meek.
"I shall not repeat it," said his mother, "but I will tell you not togrow vain of your fur. It is very handsome, and so is that of yoursisters and your brother. So is mine, and so was your father's the lasttime I saw him. Yet nearly all the trouble that Raccoons have is onaccount of their fur. Never try to show it off."
The time came for the young Raccoons to stop drinking milk from theirmother's body, and when they tried to do so she only walked away fromthem.
"I cannot work so hard to care for you," said she. "I am so tired andthin, now, that my skin is loose, and you must find your own food. Youare getting forty fine teeth apiece, and I never saw a better lot ofclaws on any Raccoon family, if I do say it."
They used to go hunting together, for it is the custom for Raccoons togo in parties of from five to eight, hunt all night, and then hidesomewhere until the next night. They did not always come home atsunrise, and it made a pleasant change to sleep in different trees. Oneday they all cuddled down in the hollow of an old maple, just belowwhere the branches come out. Mother Raccoon had climbed the tree firstand was curled away in the very bottom of the hole. The four childrenwere not tired and hadn't wanted to go to bed at all. Little Sister hadmade a dreadful face when her mother called her up the tree, and if ithad not already been growing light, Mrs. Raccoon would probably haveseen it and punished her.
Big Sister curled down beside her mother and Little Sister was ratherabove them and beside mischievous Little Brother. Last of all came BigBrother, who had stopped to scratch his ear with his hind foot. He wasvery proud of his little round ears, and often scratched them in thisway to make sure that the fur lay straight on them. He was so slow inreaching the hole that before he got into it a Robin had begun hismorning song of "Cheerily, cheerily, cheerup!" and a Chipmunk perchedon a stump to make his morning toilet.
He got all settled, and Little Brother was half asleep beside him, whenhe remembered his tail and sat up to have one more look at it. LittleBrother growled sleepily and told him to "let his old tail alone andcome to bed, as long as they couldn't hunt any more." But Big Brotherthought he saw a sand-burr on his tail, and wanted to pull it out beforeit hurt the fur. Then he began to look at the bare, tough pads on hisfeet, and to notice how finely he could spread his toes. Those of hisfront feet he could spread especially wide. He balanced himself on theedge of the hole and held them spread out before him. It was still darkenough for him to see well. "Come here, Little Brother," he cried. "Wakeup, and see how big my feet are getting."
Mother Raccoon growled at them to be good children and go to sleep, buther voice sounded dreamy and far away because she had to talk throughpart of her own fur and most of her daughters'.
Little Brother lost his patience, unrolled himself with a spring, jumpedto the opening, a
nd knocked his brother down. It was dreadful. Of courseBig Brother was not much hurt, for he was very fat and his fur was bothlong and thick, but he turned over and over on his way to the groundbefore he alighted on his feet. He turned so fast and Little Brother'seyes hurt him so that it looked as though Big Brother had about threeheads, three tails, and twelve feet. He called out as he fell, and thatawakened the sisters, who began to cry, and Mother Raccoon, who was soscared that she began to scold.
KNOCKED HIS BROTHER DOWN. _Page 40_]
Such a time! Mother Raccoon found out what had happened, and then shesaid to Little Brother, "Did you mean to push him down?"
"No, ma'am," answered Little Brother, hanging his head. "Anyhow I didn'tmean to after I saw him going. Perhaps I did mean to before that." Yousee he was a truthful Raccoon even when he was most naughty, and thereis always hope for a Raccoon who will tell the truth, no matter how hardit is to do so.
Big Brother climbed slowly up the trunk of the oak-tree, while more andmore of the daytime people came to look at him. He could not see wellnow, and so was very awkward. When he reached the hole he was hot andcross, and complained to his mother. "Make him quit teasing me," hesaid, pointing one forepaw at Little Brother.
"I will," answered Mother Raccoon; "but you were just as much to blameas he, for if you had cuddled down quietly when I told you to, you wouldhave been dreaming long ago. Now you must sleep where I was, at thelower end of the hole. Little Brother must go next, and I do not want tohear one word from either of you. Sisters next, and I will sleep by theopening. You children must remember that it is no time for talking toeach other, or looking at claws, or getting sand-burrs out of your tailsafter you have been sent to bed. Go to sleep, and don't awaken until thesun has gone down and you are ready to be my good little Raccoonsagain."
Her children were asleep long before she was, and she talked softly toherself after they were dreaming. "They do not mean to be naughty," shesaid. "Yet it makes my fur stand on end to think what might havehappened.... I ought not to have curled up for the day until they haddone so.... Mothers should always be at the top of the heap." Then shefixed herself for a long, restful day's sleep.