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diff --git a/16077.txt b/16077.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3504ebf --- /dev/null +++ b/16077.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6367 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Children of the Wild, by Charles G. D. Roberts + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Children of the Wild + + +Author: Charles G. D. Roberts + + + +Release Date: June 16, 2005 [eBook #16077] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN OF THE WILD*** + + +E-text prepared by Al Haines + + + +CHILDREN OF THE WILD + +by + +CHARLES G. D. ROBERTS + +Author of "Kings in Exile," "The Feet of the Furtive," etc. + +New York +The MacMillan Company + +1922 + + + + + + + +CONTENTS + + I. THE LITTLE FURRY ONES THAT SLIDE DOWN HILL + + II. THE BLACK IMPS OF PINE-TOP + + III. YOUNG GRUMPY AND THE ONE-EYED GANDER + + IV. LITTLE SWORD AND THE INKMAKER + + V. ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP + + VI. TEDDY BEAR'S BEE TREE + + VII. THE SNOWHOUSE BABY + + VIII. LITTLE SILK WING + + IX. A LITTLE ALIEN IN THE WILDERNESS + + X. WHAT HE SAW WHEN HE KEPT STILL + + XI. THE LITTLE VILLAGER AND HIS UNFRIENDLY GUESTS + + XII. THE BABY AND THE BEAR + + XIII. THE LITTLE SLY ONE + + XIV. THE DARING OF STRIPES TERROR-TAIL + + XV. DAGGER BILL AND THE WATER BABIES + + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE LITTLE FURRY ONES THAT SLIDE DOWN HILL + +In the brown, balsam-smelling log cabin on the shores of Silverwater, +loveliest and loneliest of wilderness lakes, the Babe's great thirst +for information seemed in a fair way to be satisfied. Young as he was, +and city-born, the lure of the wild had nevertheless already caught +him, and the information that he thirsted for so insatiably was all +about the furred or finned or feathered kindreds of the wild. And here +by Silverwater, alone with his Uncle Andy and big Bill Pringle, the +guide, his natural talent for asking questions was not so firmly +discouraged as it was at home. + +But even thus early in this adventurous career, this fascinating and +never-ending quest of knowledge, the Babe found himself confronted by a +most difficult problem. He had to choose between authorities. He had +to select between information and information. He had to differentiate +for himself between what Bill told him and what his Uncle Andy told +him. He was a serious-minded child, who had already passed through +that most painful period of doubt as to Santa Claus and the Fairies, +and had not yet reached the period of certainty about everything. He +was capable of both belief and doubt. So, naturally, he had his +difficulties. + +Bill certainly knew an astonishing lot about the creatures of the wild. +But also, like all guides who are worth their salt, he knew an +astonishing lot of things that weren't so. He had imagination, or he +would never have done for a guide. When he knew--which was not +often--that he did _not_ know a thing, he could put two and two +together and make it yield the most extraordinary results. He felt it +one of his first duties to be interesting. And above all, he felt it +his duty to be infallible. No one could be expected to have implicit +faith in a guide who was not infallible. He never acknowledged +insufficient information about anything whatever that pertained to the +woods and waters. Also he had a very poor opinion of what others might +profess to know. He felt convinced that so long as he refrained from +any _too_ lively contributions to the science of animal life, no one +would be able to discredit him. But he was conscientious in his +deductions. He would never have permitted himself to say that blue +herons wore gum boots in wading, just because he had happened to find +an old gum boot among the reeds by the outlet of the lake, where the +herons did most of their fishing. He remembered that that gum boot was +one of a pair which had been thrown away by a former visitor to +Silverwater. + +Uncle Andy, on the other hand, knew that there was an astonishing lot +_he didn't_ know about animals, and he didn't hesitate to say so. He +was a reformed sportsman, who, after spending a great part of his life +in happily killing things all over the earth, had come to the quaint +conclusion that most of them were more interesting alive than dead, +especially to themselves. He found a kindred spirit in the Babe, whose +education, along the lines of maiming cats and sparrows with sling shot +or air gun, had been absolutely neglected. + +Uncle Andy was wont to say that there was only one man in all the world +who knew _all_ about all the animals--and that he was not Andrew +Barton, Esq. At this, Bill would smile proudly. At first this modesty +on Uncle Andy's part was a disappointment to the Babe. But it ended in +giving him confidence in whatever Uncle Andy told him; especially after +he came to realize that when Uncle Andy spoke of the only man in the +world who knew _all_ about animals, he did _not_ mean Bill. + +But though the whole field of animal lore was one of absorbing interest +to the Babe, from the day when he was so fortunate as to witness a +mother fish-hawk teaching her rather unwilling and unventuresome young +ones to fly, it was his fellow babes of the wild that he was most +anxious to hear about. In this department of woods lore, Bill was so +deeply ignorant that, not caring to lean _too_ heavily on his +imagination, lest it should break and stick into him, he used to avoid +it quite obstinately. He would say--"Them youngsters is all alike, +anyhow, an' it ain't worth while to waste no time a-studyin' 'em!" So +here Uncle Andy had the field all to himself. Whenever he undertook to +enlighten the Babe on any such subject, Bill would go off somewhere and +scornfully chop down trees. + + * * * * * * + +Silverwater was fed by many brooks from the deep-wooded surrounding +hills. Toward one of these, on a certain golden afternoon, Uncle Andy +and the Babe were betaking themselves along the shadowy trail, where +the green-brown moss was soft under foot and their careful steps made +no noise. When they spoke it was in quiet undertones; for the spirit +of the woods was on the Babe, and he knew that by keeping very quiet +there was always the chance of surprising some fascinating mystery. + +The two were going fishing--for Uncle Andy, with a finely human +inconsistency, was an enthusiastic fisherman, and the stream toward +which they were making their way was one of deep pools and cool +"stillwaters" where the biggest fish were wont to lie during the hot +weather. Uncle Andy had a prejudice against those good people who were +always sternly consistent, and he was determined that he would never +allow himself to become a crank; so he went on enthusiastically killing +fish with the same zest that he had once brought to the hunting of +beast and bird. + +While they were yet several hundred yards from the stream, suddenly +there came to their ears, unmistakable though muffled by the +intervening trees, the sound of a brisk splash, as if something had +fallen into the water. Uncle Andy stopped short in his tracks, +motionless as a setter marking his bird. The Babe stopped likewise, +faithfully imitating him. A couple of seconds later came another +splash, as heavy as the first; and then, in quick succession, two +lighter ones. + +For a moment or two the Babe kept silence, though bursting with +curiosity. Then he whispered tensely--"What's that?" + +"Otter," replied Uncle Andy, in a murmur as soft as the wind in the +sedge-tops. + +"Why?" continued the Babe, meaning to say--"But what on earth are they +doing?" and trusting that Uncle Andy would appreciate the +self-restraint of the monosyllable. + +"Sliding down hill," muttered Uncle Andy, without turning his head. +Then, holding up his hand as a sign that there were to be no more +questions asked, he crept forward noiselessly; and the Babe followed at +his heels. + +After two or three minutes the sounds were repeated in the same +succession as before--first two heavy splashes, and then two lighter +ones. Unable to ask questions, the Babe was obliged to think for +himself. + +He had only a vague idea what otters were like, but he knew a good deal +about sliding down hill. He pictured to himself a high, rough bank +leading down to the water; but as not even Bill's daring imagination +would have represented the gamesome beasts as employing toboggans or +hand-sleds, he thought it must be rather bumpy and uncomfortable work +coasting over the roots and rocks on one's own unprotected anatomy. + +The sounds continued, growing louder and louder, till the two +adventurers must have been within thirty or forty feet of the stream; +and they were creeping as noiselessly as a shadow slips over the grass, +in the hope of catching the merrymakers at their game. But suddenly +there came one great splash, heavy and prolonged, as if all the sliders +had come down close together. And then silence. Uncle Andy crouched +motionless for several minutes, as if he had been turned into a stump. +Then he straightened himself up with a disappointed air. + +"Gone!" he muttered. "Cleared out! They've heard us or smelt us!" + +"Oh!" exclaimed the Babe in a voice of deep concern; though, as a +matter of fact, he was immensely relieved, the strain of the prolonged +tension and preternatural stillness having begun to make him feel that +he must make a noise or burst. + +Two minutes later they came out on the banks of the stream. + +The stream at this point was perhaps twenty-five feet in width, deep, +dark, and almost without current. Only by noting the bend of the long +watergrasses could one tell which way it ran. The hither bank was low +and grassy, with a fallen trunk slanting out into the water. But the +shore opposite was some twelve or fifteen feet high, very steep, and +quite naked, having been cut by the floods from a ridge of clay. Down +the middle of this incline a narrow track had been worn so smooth that +it gleamed in the sun almost like ice. + +As he stared across the water a dozen questions crowded to the Babe's +lips. But he realized in time that the answers to them were fairly +obvious to himself, and he heroically choked them back. Had he not +that very morning been rebuked by his uncle for asking too many of what +he called "footy" questions? But one burst forth now, in spite of +himself. + +"What do they do it for?" he demanded--having perhaps a vague idea that +all the motives of the wild creatures were, or ought to be, purely +utilitarian. + +Uncle Andy turned upon him a withering look; and he shifted his feet +uneasily, convicted of another "footy" question. + +"What do you slide down hill for?" inquired Uncle Andy sarcastically. + +"Oh!" said the Babe hastily. "I see. And now are we going to catch +some fish?" + +But Uncle Andy had stood his rod in a bush and sat down on the fallen +tree; and now he was getting out his old black pipe. + +"Well now," he answered presently, "I don't think it would be much use +trying. What do you think?" + +"Of course not," answered the Babe. "Otter have scared 'em all away." + +"You really are doing very well," said Uncle Andy, "if you _did_ ask +that one fool question. When we were creeping up on the otter, to try +and get a look at them while they were playing, you did very well +indeed. You stepped as light as a cat, and that's not easy mind, I +tell you, when one's not trained to it. You didn't even breathe too +hard--and I know you must have been just bursting with excitement. +You've got the makings of a first-rate woodsman in you, if you take +pains." + +The Babe's small chest swelled with pride; for commendation from Uncle +Andy was a scarce article. He too sat down on the fallen trunk and +began digging at the bark with his knife to hide his exultation. + +"I suppose now," went on Uncle Andy presently, when his pipe was +drawing well, "you know quite a lot about otter." + +"Nothing at all but what Bill's told me," answered the Babe with fine +diplomacy. + +"Forget it!" said Uncle Andy; and went on smoking in thoughtful +silence. Presently he remarked--"This otter family appears to have +been having a pretty good time!" + +"Great!" said the Babe laconically. + +"Well," continued Uncle Andy, regarding him with approval, "there was +once another otter family, away up on the Little North Fork of the +Ottanoonsis, that used to have such good times till at last they struck +a streak of bad luck." + +"Did you know them?" asked the Babe. + +"Well, not as you might say intimately," answered Uncle Andy, with a +far-away look in his grey eyes. "You see, they had no way of knowing +how nice I was, so they never admitted me into their family circle. +But I knew a lot more about them than they ever guessed, I can tell +you. When the flies weren't too bad I used to lie by the hour behind a +thick bush, never stirring a finger, and watch them." + +"My, but how tired you must have got!" interrupted the Babe feelingly. + +"I don't _have_ to twiddle my fingers, and scratch my head, and jump up +and down every two minutes and a half," said Uncle Andy rather +severely. "But, as I was going to say, they also got used to seeing me +sitting on the bank, quiet and harmless, till they no longer felt so +shy of me as they did of Jim Cringle, my guide. They knew Jim was an +enemy, and they gave him a wide berth always. But they seemed to think +I wasn't of much account." + +"Oh!" protested the Babe politely. It did not seem to him quite right +that Uncle Andy should be regarded lightly, even by an otter. + +"Well, you know, I _wasn't_ of much account. I was neither dangerous, +like Jim Cringle, nor good to eat, like a muskrat or a pickerel. So I +don't appear any more in this yarn. If you find yourself wondering how +I came to know about some of the things I'm going to tell you, just +make believe I got it from the chickadee, who is the most confidential +little chap in the world, or from the whisky-Jack, who makes a point, +as you may have observed, of knowing everybody else's business." + +"Or from Jim Cringle?" inquired the Babe demurely. + +But Uncle Andy only frowned. He always discouraged the Babe's attempts +at raillery. + +"The two Little Furry Ones," he continued, after pressing down the +tobacco in his pipe, "were born in a dry, warm, roomy den in the bank, +under the roots of an old birch that slanted out over the water. The +front door was deep under water. But as the old otters had few enemies +to dread, being both brave and powerful, they had also a back entrance +on dry land, hidden by a thicket of fir bushes. The two furry 'pups' +were at first as sprawling and helpless as newborn kittens, though of +course a good deal bigger than any kittens you have ever seen. And +being so helpless, their father and mother never left them alone. One +always stayed with them while the other went away to hunt trout or +muskrat." + +"Why, what _could_ get at them in there?" interrupted the Babe. + +"You see," explained Uncle Andy graciously, "either a fox or a weasel +_might_ come in by the back door--if they were hungry enough to take +the risk. Or what was much more likely, that slim, black, murderous +robber, the mink, might come swimming in by the front entrance, pop his +narrow, cruel head above the water, see the youngsters alone, and be at +their throats in a twinkling. The old otters, who were very devoted +parents, were not running any risks like that, I can tell you." + +"I guess not!" agreed the Babe, wagging his head wisely. + +"Well," went on Uncle Andy, "just _because_ those level-headed old +otters were always ready for it, nothing happened. You'd better make a +note of that. If you are always ready for trouble when the other +fellow makes it, he will be pretty shy about beginning. That's why the +foxes and the weasels and the minks never came around. + +"When the Little Furry Ones were about the size of five months' kittens +they were as handsome a pair of youngsters as you are ever likely to +set eyes upon. Their fur, rich and soft and dark, was the finest ever +seen. Like their parents, they had bodies shaped for going through the +water at a tremendous speed--built like a bulldog's for strength, and +like an eel's for suppleness." + +"Not _slimy_!" protested the Babe, who had hated eels whole-heartedly +ever since the day when he had tried to take one off the hook. + +"Of course not!" answered Uncle Andy impatiently. "As I was going to +say, they were shaped a good deal like those seals you've seen in the +Zoo, only that instead of flippers they had regulation legs and feet, +and also a tail. It was a tail worth having, too, and not merely +intended for ornament. It was very thick at the base and tapering, +something like a lizard's, and so powerful that one twist of it could +drive its owner through the water like a screw." + +"Wish I could swim that way!" murmured the Babe, trying to do the +movement, as he imagined it, with his legs. + +"But though the Little Furry Ones were just built for swimming," +continued Uncle Andy, graciously overlooking the interruption, "they +were actually afraid of it. They liked to see their father or their +mother dive smoothly down into the clear, goldy-brown water of their +front door, and out into that patch of yellow sunlight shimmering on +the weedy bottom. But when invited to follow, they drew back into the +corner and pretended to be terribly busy. + +"One fine morning, however, to their great delight they were led out by +the back door, under the bush, and introduced to the outside world. +How huge and strange it looked to them! For a few minutes they stole +about on their absurdly short, sturdy legs, poking their noses into +everything, and jumping back startled at the strange smells they +encountered; while their parents, lying down nearby, watched them +lazily. At last, beginning to feel more at home in this big, airy +world, they fell to romping with each other on the sunny bank, close +beside the water. Presently their parents got up and came over beside +them. The father slipped gracefully in, and began diving, darting this +way and that, and throwing himself half-way out of the water. It was +most interesting, I can tell you, and the two little Furry Ones stopped +their play, at the very edge of the bank, to watch him. But when he +called to them coaxingly to come in with him and try it, they turned +away their heads and pretended to think it wasn't worth looking at +after all. They would rather look at the trees and the sky, and kept +staring up at them as if perfectly fascinated. And _while_ they were +staring upwards in this superior way, they got a great surprise. Their +mother slily slipped her nose under them and threw them, one after the +other, far out into the water." + +"Ow!" exclaimed the Babe with a little gasp of sympathy. He himself +felt the shock of that sudden, chill plunge. + +Uncle Andy chuckled. + +"That's just the way they felt," said he. "When they came to the top +again they found, to their surprise, that they could swim; and feeling +most indignant and injured they struck out straight for shore. But +there, between them and the good dry ground, swam their mother, and +would not let them land. They did not see how mothers could be so +heartless. But there was no help for it; so they swam out again very +haughtily and joined their father in mid-stream. And before they knew +it they were enjoying themselves immensely. + +"And now life became much more interesting to them. For a bit it was +harder to keep them out of the water than it had been to get them into +it. They had their first lessons in fishing. And though they were too +clumsy at first to catch even a slow, mud-grubbing sucker, they found +the attempt most interesting. The stream just opposite their home was +deep and quiet, but a little way below, the current ran strong; and +once, having ridden down it gaily for a couple of hundred yards, they +found themselves unable to swim back against it. At first they battled +bravely and were most surprised to find themselves making so little +progress. Then they grew tired; and then frightened, and they were +just being carried off down stream by this strange, soft, irresistible +force when their mother arrived. The current was nothing to her. She +took them on her back, and shot off up stream again with them. After +that they would ride on her back, or on their father's whenever they +got tired. And their parents began to take them on long trips up and +down stream. You see, their housekeeping being so simple, they didn't +mind going away even for a couple of days at a time, and leaving the +house to look after itself." + +"I don't think I'd like to be wet like that _all_ the time, even in +summer," remarked the Babe, shaking his head thoughtfully. + +"Oh, they weren't that. They used to go ashore and, in spite of their +ridiculously short legs, make most respectably long journeys through +the woods to some other stream, pretending, I suppose, that the fish +over there had a different flavor. Sometimes, too, when they came upon +a patch of smooth, mossy ground, they would have a wild romp, as if +they had just been let out of school--a sort of game of tag, in which +the father and mother played just as hard as the youngsters. Or they +would have a regular tug of war, pulling on opposite ends of a stick, +till the moss was all torn up as if a little cyclone had loafed along +that way. Then one day they came to a clay bank, something like that +one across yonder. The old ones had been there before, but not for +some time, and the clay had got all dry and hard. But the father and +mother knew very well how to fix that. When they had slid down a +couple of times with their fur all dripping the track was smooth as +oil. As for the youngsters, you may depend upon it they did not need +any coaxing or persuasion to make them believe _that_ was a good game." + +"I should think not!" murmured the Babe, looking longingly over the +stream to where the wet slide glistened in the sun, and wishing that he +might try it without any regard whatever to the seat of his little +trousers. + +"Taking it all together it was a pretty jolly life, I can tell you, +there in the sweet-smelling, shadowy woods and sunny waters. Then one +day all at once, as quick as falling off a log, everything was changed." + +Uncle Andy paused to relight his pipe. After a few seconds the Babe's +impatience got the better of him; and before he could stop himself he +blurted out "Why?" The moment he had spoken he knew it was a fool +question to ask, and he flushed. But to his grateful relief Uncle did +not seem to hear. + +"A hunter from the city came that way. He had a good eye, a repeating +rifle, and no imagination whatever. With the luck that sometimes comes +to those fellows, he was sitting under a tree near the bank, staring +across at the otter-slide (which did not mean anything whatever or +suggest anything to him, but was merely a strip of bare clay), when the +otter family came to slide. The father started down. It was most +interesting--so the stranger under the tree, who was as spry as a +sparrowhawk, shot instantly; and the otter came down in a crumpled +heap. The mother might have escaped; but for just one second she +hesitated, glancing round to see if her little ones were out of danger. +That second was enough for the smart shot across the water. She +dropped. It was good shooting, of course. The two little ones, +horrified by the spiteful noise, and quite unable to understand what +had happened, shrank away into some thick bushes and lay very still, +waiting for their mother to come and tell them the danger was past." + +"And she could never come!" murmured the Babe thoughtfully. + +"Well, she didn't," snorted Uncle Andy, the discourager of sentiment. +Fairly reeking with sentiment himself, at heart, he disliked all +manifestation of it in himself or others. He liked it left to the +imagination. "They never stirred for an hour or more," he went on. +"Then at last they stole out and began looking everywhere for those +lost parents. All about the slide they hunted--among the bushes at the +top, in the water and the rushes at the bottom--but they found nothing. +For the man had come in his canoe and carried off his victims. + +"All day long the two Little Furry Ones continued their search. But +you would not have known them for the same creatures as those which had +started out that morning. Then they had played carelessly and gone +boldly, thinking not of enemies and fearing none. Now they crept +noiselessly, sniffing this way and that, and never showing their noses +outside a thicket without first taking observations. For life was now +a very different matter with them. Never in all their lives before had +they come across so many hostile and threatening smells as they +encountered this one afternoon. But then, to be sure, they had never +looked for them before. They were all the time running into trails of +mink, or weasel, or wildcat; and it seemed to them as if the world had +suddenly become quite full of foxes. They were painfully surprised, +for they had never thought there were so many disagreeable creatures in +the world. You see, being so young and inexperienced, it never +occurred to them that one fox or one weasel could make quite a lot of +trails. So they kept having palpitations every other minute. + +"It was just as well, however, that they got such an exaggerated idea +of the numbers of their enemies. For it was astonishing how quickly +the news got around that the old otters were dead. Toward sunset that +evening, when the two lonely youngsters, puzzled and miserable, stole +back to their old den under the bank, they found that a mink had dared +to kill a big trout in their own pool. There were the remains, and the +presumptuous intruder's tracks, almost at their very door. They were +indignant, and the thick hair bristled on their necks. But, realizing +suddenly how hungry they were, they did not scorn to eat the stranger's +leavings. Then they dived into their den; and after sniffing about and +whimpering lonesomely for a while, they curled themselves up close +together and went to sleep. It had been a strange and dreadful day. + +"As you may imagine, these two youngsters had never yet been trained to +the useful habit of sleeping with one ear open. They had left that to +their parents. But to-night, even while they slept most soundly, +something within them seemed to keep watch. Whatever it was, suddenly +it woke them. And instantly they were tremendously wide awake. Before +they knew why they did it, they were uncurled from the ball in which +they slept and, crouching side by side, glaring savagely up the narrow +passage that led to their back door. + +"There they saw a pair of cruel eyes, small and flaming, and set very +close together, which seemed to float slowly down towards them." + +Here Uncle Andy was so inconsiderate as to pause, as if he wanted to +think. The Babe could not hold himself in. + +"Was it a snake?" he demanded breathlessly. + +"There you go again, interrupting," growled Uncle Andy, most unfairly. +"And who ever heard of a snake's eyes flaming? But the Little Furry +Ones knew what it was at once; and the hair stood straight up on their +necks. Of course they were frightened a little. But most of all were +they in a rage at such an impudent intrusion. There was no sign of +fear, I can tell you, in the low growl which came from between their +long, white, snarling teeth. And those stealthy eyes halted. For half +a minute, motionless, they studied the crouching and defiant +youngsters, evidently surprised to see how big and strong they had +grown. Then, very slowly and with dignity, they withdrew and presently +disappeared. For the weasel, though perhaps the most fearless assassin +that prowls the woods, is no fool. And he saw that the otter children +had grown too big for him to handle. + +"The youngsters were a good deal set up, of course, by this +unexpectedly easy rebuff of so venomous an enemy; but there was no more +thought of sleep for them. It made them terribly anxious, the idea of +anything stealing in on them that way, by the back door. For a long +time they lay there motionless, their wide eyes staring into the dark, +their ears straining to every faint, mysterious sound, their sensitive +noses questioning every scent that came breathing in to them from the +still night forest. At last they heard a stealthy footfall outside the +back door. It was as light--oh, lighter than a falling leaf. But +_they_ heard it. If you and I had such ears as that, maybe we could +hear the grasses growing." + +"_That_ would be fun," muttered the Babe. + +"And then," continued Uncle Andy, "they smelt a faint, musky scent. I +_don't_ think it would be fun if we had such noses as that. We'd smell +so many smells we did not want to. Eh? And I tell you, the youngsters +did not want to smell that smell. It was a fox. They couldn't fight a +fox. Not yet. With their hearts in their throats they backed softly +down to the front door, and waited, ready to slip into the water. + +"But fortunately the fox was cunning, and proud of it. He had heard a +rumor that the old otters were dead. But he was much too cunning to +believe all he heard. It would be just like them, he thought, to +pretend they were dead, so that he might come in and get caught. +Assuredly there was a good, strong, live otter smell coming up out of +that hole. He poked his nose down and gave a very loud sniff, then +cocked his ear sharply and listened. Nothing stirred. Had it been +only the little ones, down there all by themselves, he thought, they +would have been frightened enough to jump. So, it was plainly a trap. +Waving his great bushy tail complaisantly, he tiptoed off to hunt +rabbits, pleased with the notion that somebody else was going to get +taken in. + +"The youngsters stayed where they were, close beside the water. The +first glimmer of dawn, striking on the misty surface of the pool +outside, struggled up into the den. The youngsters turned to greet it, +with the thought, perhaps, that it was time to go fishing. Just at +this moment the mink, who had been looking for the remnants of his +trout where he had left them on the bank (he was a fool, of course, +ever to have left them there), came diving into the deep front door of +the den to avenge himself on the unprotected little ones. His slim +black form was visible as it rose through the greying water. As the +pointed head popped above the surface, it was confronted by two +grinning heads which snarled savagely in its face and snapped at it in +fearless defiance. The mink was surprised and pained. He had expected +to find those two youngsters huddled together and already half +frightened to death just at being alone. He had _not_ expected to find +them half so big. In fact, there at home, and guarding their own +domain, they looked to him much bigger than they really were. A very +small man, you know, may look about seven feet high when he stands in +his own door and tells you to keep out. Eh, what? Well, the mink +suddenly felt sort of bashful about intruding. He discreetly withdrew, +without thinking to make inquiry about the fish. And his sudden +diffidence was very fortunate for the two Little Furry Ones. For the +mink, let me tell you, would have been a tough proposition for them to +tackle. + +"This sudden departure of the terrible mink made the two youngsters +feel almost bigger than was good for them. But the otter, fortunately, +is born cautious, no matter how courageous he may be. So the +youngsters were not spoiled by their good luck. They waited a few +minutes, to give the mink a chance to get good and far away. Then they +dived forth into the misty pool. Never before had they seen one +quarter so many fish in it. They breakfasted very well on a couple of +plump, silvery chub--though they would have preferred trout, of +course--and then, just for sport, began killing as many as they could, +only swallowing a bite out of each, from the thick, flaky meat behind +the head. They were young, you see--though not more foolish than lots +of sportsmen we hear about. In a very few minutes, of course, every +fish that could get away had got away as far as possible from that +deadly pool. And then the two reckless fishermen crawled ashore and +began a tug of war with a stick. They could just not help playing, you +see, any more than kittens or puppies could; though they were still +lonely and anxious. And in their play they kept very close to the +water's edge, in case the fox should happen along to inquire after +their parents. + +"The fox did not turn up. But after some time they caught sight of a +great, dark bird winnowing his way slowly above the tree tops. Just to +be on the safe side, they got into the water so quickly that one of +them, to save time, threw himself in backwards. They did not know that +it was only a fishhawk, an amiable soul, quite indifferent to such +delicacies as young otters. Another thing they did not know was that +if the fishhawk _had_ wanted them, he could have caught them more +comfortably in the water than on shore. + +"When the great bird was well out of sight they started off down +stream, partly to have another look for their lost parents, partly +because they had nothing better to do. But they did not go very far +that day, or have any more very exciting adventures. They spent most +of their time in the water, where they had no foe to watch out for +except the mink. And, as the fish had now learned to beware of them, +they had enough to do in satisfying their lively appetites. That night +they slept in the den, lying close to the water's edge, lest the fox +should come. And they had no visitors. + +"The next day they were feeling more confident, more sure of +themselves. So they set out on a longer expedition. In the course of +the morning they killed a big muskrat, after a sharp fight, and felt +terribly proud of themselves. They got bitten, of course, and had +their fur all mussed up, so it meant a long, elaborate toilet in the +warm grass by the water's edge. And it was not till early in the +afternoon that they came once more to the fateful slide where their +parents had so mysteriously vanished. + +"At the sight of it, as they came upon it suddenly around a bend of the +stream, their fur bristled and they crouched flat, glancing angrily +this way and that. Then they stole forward, and once more explored the +whole place minutely. At last, finding nothing to alarm them, in an +absent-minded way one of the two went down the slide, splash into the +cool brown water. The other followed at once. The temptation was +simply not to be resisted, you know. And in a minute more they were +both hard at it, having the time of their lives--hawks, foxes, minks, +and vanished parents alike forgotten." + +"Oh!" protested the Babe in a shocked voice. + +"You may say 'Oh!'" retorted Uncle Andy, "but let me tell you, if the +wild creatures hadn't pretty short memories, they would have a very +unhappy time. + +"Well, they had been enjoying themselves and forgetting their troubles +for some little time, when, just as it came down the slide, one of them +was grabbed and pulled under. The mink had arrived and decided to +settle accounts with the youngsters. He had probably been thinking it +over, and come to the conclusion that they were getting too bumptious. +Darting up through the water, he had snapped savagely at the careless +player's throat. + +"But the latter--it was the female, and spry, I can tell you--had felt +that darting terror even before she had time to see it, and twisted +aside like an eel. So instead of catching her by the throat, as he had +so amiably intended, the mink only got her leg, up close by the +shoulder. It was a deep and merciless grip; but instead of +squealing--which she could not have done anyhow, being already under +water--the Little Furry One just sank her sharp white teeth into the +back of her enemy's neck, and held on for dear life. It was _exactly_ +the right thing to do, though she did not know it. For she had got her +grip so high up on the mink's neck that he could not twist his head +around far enough to catch her by the throat. Deep down at the bottom +of the pool the two rolled over and over each other; and the mink was +most annoyed to find how strong the youngster was, and how set in her +ways. Moreover, he had been under water longer than she had, and was +beginning to feel he'd like a breath of fresh air. He gave a kick with +his powerful hind legs, and, as the Little Furry One had no objection, +up they came. + +"Now, the other youngster had not been able, just at first, to make out +what was happening. He thought his sister had gone down to the bottom +for fun. But when he saw her coming up, locked in that deadly struggle +with their old enemy, his heart swelled with fury. He sprang clear out +into the deep water when the struggling pair reached the surface, +lashing and splashing, and the mink had only bare time to snatch a +single breath of air before he found another adversary on his back, and +was borne down inexorably to the bottom. + +"Just about this time a perfectly new idea flashed across the mink's +mind, and it startled him. For the first time in his life he thought +that perhaps he was a fool. Young otters seemed to be so much older +than he had imagined them, so much more unreasonable and bad-tempered, +and to have so many teeth. It was a question, he decided--while he was +being mauled around among the water weeds--that would bear some +thinking over. He wanted to think about it right away. There was no +time like the present for digesting these new ideas. Seeing a big root +sticking out of the bank, close to the bottom, with a tremendous effort +he clawed himself under it and scraped off his antagonists. Shooting +out on the other side, he darted off like an eel through the water +grass, and hurried away up stream to a certain hollow log he knew, +where he might lick his bites and meditate undisturbed. The two Little +Furry Ones stared after him for a moment, then crawled out upon the +bank and lay down in the sunny grass." + +Uncle Andy got up with an air of decision. "Let's go catch some fish," +he said. "They ought to be beginning to rise about now, over by Spring +Brook." + +"But what became of the two Little Furry Ones after that?" demanded the +Babe, refusing to stir. + +"Well, _now_," protested Uncle Andy in an injured voice, "you _know_ I +ain't like Bill and some other folk. I don't know everything. But +I've every reason to believe that, with any kind of otter luck, they +lived to grow up and have families of their own--and taught every one +of them, you may be sure, to slide down hill. As likely as not, that +very slide over yonder belongs to one of their families. Now come +along and don't ask any more questions." + + + + +CHAPTER II + +THE BLACK IMPS OF PINE-TOP + +"I think I'd _like_ to be a bird," murmured the Babe, wistfully gazing +up at the dark green, feathery top of the great pine, certain of whose +branches were tossing and waving excitedly against the blue, although +there was not a breath of wind to ruffle the expanse of Silverwater. +"I _think_ I'd like it--rather." He added the qualification as a +prudent after-thought, lest Uncle Andy should think him foolish. + +"In _summer_!" suggested Uncle Andy, following the Babe's eyes toward +the agitated pine-top. + +"Of _course_ in summer!" corrected the Babe hastily. "It must be awful +to be a bird in winter!" And he shuddered. + +"You'd better not say 'of course' in that confident way," said Uncle +Andy rather severely. "You know so many of the birds go away south in +the winter; and they manage to have a pretty jolly time of it, I should +think." + +For a moment the Babe looked abashed. Then his face brightened. + +"But then, it _is_ summer, for _them_, isn't it?" said he sweetly. + +Uncle Andy gave him a suspicious look, to see if he realized the +success of his retort. "Had me there!" he thought to himself. But the +Babe's face betrayed no sign of triumph, nothing but that eager +appetite for information of which Uncle Andy so highly approved. + +"So it depends on what kind of a bird, eh, what?" said he, deftly +turning the point. Then he scratched a sputtering sulphur match on the +long-suffering leg of his trousers. + +"Yes," said the Babe, with more decision now. "I'd like to be a crow." + +Uncle Andy smoked meditatively for several minutes before replying, +till the Babe began to grow less confident as to the wisdom of his +choice. But as he gazed up at those green pine-tops, so clear against +the blue, all astir with black wings and gay, excited _ca_-ings, he +took courage again. Certainly _those_ crows, at least, were enjoying +themselves immensely. + +And he had always had a longing to be able to play in the tops of the +trees. + +"Well," said Uncle Andy at last, "perhaps you're not so _very_ far off, +this time. If I couldn't be an eagle, or a hawk, or a wild goose, or +one of those big-horned owls that we hear every night, or a +humming-bird, then I'd rather be a crow than most. A crow has got +enemies, of course, but then he's got brains, so that he knows how to +make a fool of most of his enemies. And he certainly does manage to +get a lot of fun out of life, taking it all in all, except when the owl +comes gliding around his roosting places in the black nights, or an +extra bitter midwinter frost catches him after a rainy thaw." + +He paused and drew hard on his pipe, with that far-away look in his +eyes which the Babe had learned to regard as the forerunner to a story. +There were some interesting questions to ask, of course; but though +bursting with curiosity as to why anyone should find it better to be a +wild goose, or even a hummingbird, than a crow, the Babe sternly +repressed himself. He would ask those questions by and by, that he +promised himself. But he had learned that to speak inopportunely was +sometimes to make Uncle Andy change his mind and shut up like an +oyster. He was determined that he would not open his mouth till the +story should be well under way, till his uncle should be himself too +much interested to be willing to stop. And then, to his horror, just +as he was recording this sagacious resolution in his mind, he heard +himself demanding: + +"But why after a rainy thaw?" + +It was out before he could choke it back. There was nothing for him to +do but stick to it and gaze at his uncle with disarming innocence. +Uncle Andy turned upon him a glance of slow contumely. + +"If you were going to be caught out in a blizzard, would you rather be +in dry clothes or in wet ones?" he inquired. + +The Babe smiled apologetically and resumed his study of the agitated +pine-tops, whence, from time to time, a crow, or two or three, would +burst forth for a brief, whirling flight, as if to show how it was +done. Then other flights were made, which seemed to the Babe extremely +brief and hesitating, as if the flyers were nervous when they found +themselves out clear of the branches and suspended on their own wings +over the empty deeps of air. Presently there was a sudden tumultuous +outburst of _ca_-ing, the branches shook, and a whole flock, perhaps +two score or more, swarmed into the air. After a few moments of +clamorous confusion they all flew off in the direction of the muddy +flats at the lower end of the lake. The pine-tops subsided into +stillness. But an occasional hoarse croak or muttered guttural showed +that a few of their occupants had been left at home. The Babe wondered +what it had all been about, but he succeeded in holding his tongue. + +In a moment or two this heroic self-restraint had its reward. + +"Trying to show some of the youngsters how to fly, and jeering at the +timid ones and the stupid ones!" explained Uncle Andy. + +"Oh!" said the Babe, with a long, appreciative inflection. + +Uncle Andy paused, leaving an opening for more questions. But the Babe +refused to be drawn, so presently, with a comprehending grin, he went +on: + +"It's rather a small affair for crows, you know, this colony of theirs +here on Silverwater. I suppose they've been crowded out from the +places they really prefer, along the skirts of the settlements on the +other side of the Ridge. They would rather live always somewhere near +the farms and the cleared fields. Not that they have any special +affection for man. Far from it. They dislike him, and distrust him, +and seem to think him a good deal of a fool, too. His so-called +'scarecrows' are a great joke to them, and have been known at times to +afford some fine materials for the lining of their nests. But they +find him so useful in many really important ways that they establish +their colonies in his neighborhood whenever they possibly can." + +Here Uncle Andy made another long pause. He looked at the Babe +suspiciously. + +"Is anything the matter?" he demanded. + +"No, thank you, Uncle Andy," replied the Babe politely. + +"But you haven't asked a single question for at least seven minutes," +said Uncle Andy. + +"I was too busy listening to you," explained the Babe. "But there's +one I'd like to ask, if it's all the same to you." + +"Well, fire away," said his uncle. + +"_Why_ did they all fly away like that, as if they had just remembered +something awfully important? And why would you rather be a little tiny +humming-bird than a crow? And why did it take the whole flock that way +to teach the young ones to fly? And--and why are they afraid, when +they are _born_ to fly? And why do they make fun of the stupid ones? +And why would you like to be a wild goose? And, and--" + +"Stop! stop!" cried Uncle Andy. "I didn't know you had a Gatling +about you when I told you to fire away. You wait and shoot those +questions at Bill, just like that, to-night." + +"Well, but why--" + +"No, you must not interrupt," insisted Uncle Andy. + +"But you _asked_ me! I was just as quiet--" + +"I didn't know what I was doing!" said his uncle. "And I can't +possibly answer all those questions. Why, I could never begin to +remember half of them." + +"I can," interposed the Babe. + +"Oh, you needn't mind," said Uncle Andy, hastily. "But perhaps, if you +listen with great care, you _may_ find answers to some of them in what +I am going to tell you. Of course, I don't promise, for I don't know +what you asked me. But _maybe_ you'll hear something that will throw +some light on the subject." + +"Thank you very much," said the Babe. + +"There were only two young ones in the nest," said Uncle Andy, in his +sometimes irrelevant way, which seemed deliberately designed to make +the Babe ask questions. "The nest was a big, untidy structure of +sticks and dead branches; but it was strongly woven for all its +untidiness, because it had to stand against the great winds sweeping +down over the Ridge. Inside it was very nicely and softly lined with +dry grass, and some horse-hair, and a piece of yellow silk from the +lining of what had once been a ruffle or something like that that women +wear. The nest was in a tall pine, which stood at one end of a grove +of ancient fir trees overlooking a slope of pasture and an old white +farmhouse with a big garden behind it. Nearly all the trees had crows' +nests in their tops, but in most of the other nests there were three or +four young crows." + +As Uncle Andy paused again at this point the Babe, who was always +polite, felt that he was really expected to ask a question here. If he +did not, it might look as if he were not taking an interest. He would +rather ask too many questions than run the risk of seeming +inappreciative. + +"_Why_ were there only two young ones in the nest in the pine tree?" he +inquired. + +It was very hard to know sometimes just what would please Uncle Andy, +and what wouldn't. But this time it was quite all right. + +"Now, that's a proper, sensible question," said he. "I was just coming +to that. You see, there ought to have been four youngsters in that +nest, too, for there had been four greeny-blue, brown-spotted eggs to +start with. But even crows have their troubles. And the pair that +owned this particular nest were a somewhat original and erratic couple. +When the mother had laid her last egg and was getting ready to sit, she +decided to take an airing before settling down to work. Though her +mate was not at hand to guard the nest, she flew off down to the farm +to see if there was anything new going on among those foolish men, or +perhaps to catch a mouse among the cornstalks." + +"Do _crows_ eat _mice_?" demanded the Babe in astonishment. + +"Of course they do," answered Uncle Andy impatiently. "Everybody that +eats meat at all eats mice, except us human beings. And in some parts +of the world we, too, eat them, dipped in honey." + +"Oh--h--h!" shuddered the Babe. + +"Well, as I was going to say when you interrupted me, no sooner was she +well out of the way than a red squirrel, who had been watching from the +nearest fir tree, saw his chance. It was a rare one. Nobody liked +eggs better than he did, or got fewer of them. Like a flash he was +over from the fir branches into the pine ones, and up and into the nest. + +"His sharp teeth went into the nearest egg, and he drank its contents +greedily--and cleverly, let me tell you, for it's not so easy to manage +without getting it all over your fur. He was just going to begin on +another when there was a sharp hiss of wings just above him and a loud +_ca-ah_ of alarm. The father bird was back and swooping down upon him. +He threw himself clear of the nest, fell to a lower branch, and raced +out to its tip to spring into his fir tree. At this moment the furious +father struck him, knocking him clean off into the air. + +"The air was now full of black wings and angry cries, as the crows from +neighboring nests flocked to the help of their fellow citizen. But the +little red robber was brave and kept his head. Spreading his legs wide +and flat, he made a sort of parachute of himself, and, instead of +falling like a stone, he glided down to another branch. Those beating +wings and terrible jabbing beaks were all about him, but they got in +each other's way. And he was a wonder at dodging, I can tell you, now +that he was among the bigger branches, and, though he got several nasty +thrusts, which covered his fine coat with blood, he gained his hole, +halfway down the tree, and whisked into it safely. + +"Into this narrow retreat, of course, none of the crows dared to follow +him, knowing that they would there be at the mercy of his teeth. But +they gathered in fierce excitement about the entrance, scolding the +audacious thief at the top of their voices, and threatening him with +every kind of vengeance when he should dare to come out. And from time +to time one or another of the boldest would alight on the very edge of +the hole, cock his head, and peer in, to bounce away again instantly +with a startled squawk as the squirrel would jump up at him, chattering +with rage. + +"In the midst of all this excitement the careless mother came hurrying +back. She had heard the row, of course. One could hear it all over +the parish. Unobserved, she flew straight to the nest. Her big, dark, +cunning eyes blazed for an instant, but she knew it was all her fault, +and she thought it best to make no fuss. Hastily she dropped the empty +shell over the side of the nest, and then took her place dutifully on +the three remaining eggs. In a few minutes the rest of the crows got +tired of scolding the squirrel in his hole and came _ca_-ing back to +the pine tree to talk the matter over. When her mate, all in a fume, +hopped onto the edge of the nest, the mother looked up at him with eyes +of cold inquiry, as much as to say: 'Well, I'd like to know what all +this fuss is about. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, acting that +way about a wretched squirrel!' Of course, she may not have said all +that. But she certainly gave all the other crows the impression that +there was nothing wrong about _her_ nest, and that they had better go +and look after their own. Thereupon they all said sarcastic things to +their fellow citizen and left him indignantly. He, poor fellow, found +it impossible to explain or justify himself, because his mate was +sitting on the eggs; so he flew off in a huff to try and find a +sparrow's nest to rob. When he came back he had taken pains to forget +just how many eggs there had ever been in the nest. + +"Oh, yes, I know there were still three. Well, three or four days +later a boy came up from the farmhouse and climbed the pine tree, He +was not the kind of a boy that robs birds' nests, but he was making a +collection. He wanted just one crow's egg, and he had a theory that +birds cannot count. He liked crows--in fact, on that farm no one was +ever allowed to shoot crows or any other birds except the murderous +duck hawk, and he felt that the crows owed him _one_ egg, anyhow, in +return for the protection they enjoyed on his father's property. + +"Now, you must not think he chose the pine tree because it was the +easiest to climb," went on Uncle Andy hurriedly, seeing in the Babe's +eyes that this point had to be cleared up at once. "In fact, it was +the _hardest_ to climb. Any one of the fir trees would have been +easier, and they all had crows' nests in them. But the boy knew that +he could not climb any of them without getting his clothes all over +balsam, which would mean a lot of inconvenient explanations with his +mother. So he went up the pine tree, of course, and spared his +mother's feelings. + +"The crows displayed no sense of gratitude whatever. He might have +eggs, of course, that boy, but not _their_ eggs! They flapped around +him savagely, and made so much noise in his ears that he could not hear +himself think. But he kept his big straw hat pulled down well over his +eyes, and paid no attention whatever to the indignant birds. And +because he was so quiet and positive about it, not one of them _quite_ +dared to actually touch him. The mother bird hopped off the nest +sullenly just as he was about to put his hand on her. He took one egg, +put it in his pocket, examined the nest with interest, and climbed down +again. Just as he was nearing the ground he broke the egg. This, of +course, made him feel not only sticky but somewhat embarrassed. He saw +that he might have some difficulty in explaining that pocket to his +mother. Even a great deal of balsam would have been better than _that_ +egg. But he comforted himself with the thought that he would never +have been able to blow it, anyhow, on account of its being so advanced. + +"And that's why there were only two young crows in that particular nest. + +"But they were an altogether unusual pair, these two. In the first +place, receiving all the food and all the attention that were usually +divided among four or five, they had grown and feathered +extraordinarily fast, till now they were ready for flight, while their +fellows in the neighboring nests were still ragged and 'quilly' +looking. In the second place, they had inherited from their eccentric +parents an altogether surprising amount of originality. Their feathers +were beautifully firm and black and glossy, their beaks sharp and +polished; and in their full, dark, intelligent eyes there was an +impishness that even a crow might regard as especially impish." + +"What's _impish_?" demanded the Babe. + +"Goodness me! Don't you know what _impish_ is?" exclaimed Uncle Andy. +He thought a moment, and then, finding it a little difficult to +explain, he added with convenient severity: + +"If you will listen, you'll find out, perhaps." + +"Well, the two grew so fast that, before their parents realized at all +what precocious youngsters they were, they had climbed out upon the +edge of the nest and begun to stretch their fine wings. With hoarse +expostulations their father tried to persuade them back. But their +mother, who was not so conservative, chuckled her approval and flew off +to hunt young mice for them. Thus encouraged, they ignored their +father's prudent counsels, and hopped out, with elated squawks, upon +the branch. Whereupon the father, somewhat huffed, flew up to the very +topmost branch of the tree and perched there, swaying in the breeze, +and trying to forget his family cares. From this high post of +observation he presently caught sight of an eagle, winging his way up +from the swamp at the lower end of the valley. With a sharp signal cry +for volunteers, he dashed off in pursuit. He was joined by two other +crows who happened to be at leisure; and the three, quickly overtaking +the majestic voyager, began to load him with impertinence and abuse. +With their comparatively short but very broad wings the crows could +dodge so nimbly in the air that if was quite impossible for their great +enemy to catch them. He made no attempt to do so. Indignantly he +changed the direction of his flight, and began to soar, climbing +gradually into the blue in splendid, sweeping circles; while the crows, +croaking mockery and triumph, kept flapping above him and below, +darting at his eyes, and dashing with open beaks at the shining +whiteness of his crown. They dared not come near enough to actually +touch him, but they succeeded in making themselves most unpleasant. +The eagle glared at them steadily with his fierce, black-and-yellow +eyes, but otherwise seemed to pay them no attention whatever. Only he +kept mounting higher and higher, till at last his impish +tormentors--_impish_, I said--dared follow him no farther. They came +fluttering down hurriedly to more congenial levels, and flew back to +the grove to boast of their 'great victory.'" + +"My, but that eagle must have felt awfully ashamed!" exclaimed the Babe. + +"The _next_ day," continued Uncle Andy, without noticing the +interruption, "the two old crows began to think it would soon be time +to teach this independent pair of youngsters to fly. And they thought, +too, that they'd be able to manage it all by themselves, without any +help or advice from the rest of the flock. While they were thinking +about it, in the next tree, for they were not a great pair to stay at +home, you know, one of the youngsters, the female, gave an impatient +squawk, spread her wings, and fell off her branch. She thought it was +flying, you know, but at first she just fell, flapping her wings +wildly. In two seconds, however, she seemed to get the hang of it, +more or less. With a violent effort, she rose, gained the next tree, +alighted, panting, beside her parents and looked at them with a +superior air, as if she thought that they could never have accomplished +such a thing at her age. That was perhaps true, of course, but it was +not for her to think so." + +"Huh! I should think not, indeed!" agreed the Babe severely. + +"Well," continued Uncle Andy, now quite absorbed in his narrative, "the +other youngster, not to be outdone, went hopping up in great excitement +from branch to branch, till he was some ten feet above the rest of the +family. Then, launching himself boldly, he went fluttering down to +them with no difficulty at all. He was less impetuous and more +sagacious than his sister. + +"After this the parents continued to feed their independent offspring +for a number of days, just because they had been accustomed to feed +their nestling for a certain length of time, till at last the +youngsters started off to forage on their own account, and the family, +as a family, broke up. From habit, however, or from good will, the +youngsters kept coming back to roost on the branches beside the nest, +and remained on the most friendly, though easy-going, relations with +their father and mother. + +"In every crow flock, large or small, there seems to be some kind of +discipline, some kind of obedience to the wise old leaders of the +flock. But the two black imps of Pine-Top were apparently, for the +time at least, exempted from it. They did about as they liked and were +a nuisance to everybody but their two selves, whom they admired +immensely. Being too young for the old crows to take seriously, their +pranks were tolerated, or they would soon have been pecked and beaten +into better manners. Too big and too grown-up for the young +crows--whom they visited in their nests and tormented till driven away +by the indignant parents--they had no associates but each other. So +they followed their own whims; and the flock was philosophically +indifferent as to what might happen to them. + +"You must not think, however, that they did not learn anything, these +two. They were sharp. They listened to what was being said around +them, and the crows, you know, are the greatest talkers ever; so they +soon knew the difference between a man with a gun and a man without +one. They knew that an owl in the daytime is not the same thing as an +owl at night. They gathered that a scarecrow is not as dangerous as it +looks. And many other things that a crow needs to know and believe +they condescended to learn, because learning came easy to them. But +common caution they did not learn, because it did not seem to them +either interesting or necessary. So it was often just luck that got +them out of scrapes, though they always thought it was their own +cleverness. + +"It was just lucky, of course, that day when they went exploring in the +patch of dark woods down in the valley, that the big brown owl did not +get one or the other of them. He was asleep on a big dead branch as +brown as himself, and looking so like a part of it that they were just +going to alight, either upon him or within reach of his deadly clutch, +when a red squirrel saw them and shrieked at them. Two great, round, +glaring orange eyes opened upon them from that brown prong of the +branch, so suddenly that they gave two startled squawks and nearly fell +to the ground. How the red squirrel tittered, hating both the owl and +the crows. But the imps, when they got over their start, were furious. +Flying over the owl's head, they kept screaming at the top of their +voices something which probably meant 'an owl! an owl! an owl!'; and +immediately every other crow within hearing took up the cry, till in +two minutes half the flock were gathered in the patch of woods. They +swarmed screaming about the owl's head, striking at him with their +sharp beaks and strong black wings, but always too wary to come quite +within his reach. The great night prowler knew that in the daylight he +could not catch them--that, indeed, if he did succeed in catching one +in his claws the others would throw caution to the winds and all be +down upon him at once. He sat there, straight and stiff, for a while, +snapping his terrible beak and hissing at them like an angry cat. Till +at last, realizing that there was no more chance of a peaceful sleep +for him there, he spread his huge, downy wings and sailed off smoothly +to seek some more secluded neighborhood. The whole flock pursued him, +with their tormenting and abuse, for perhaps a couple of miles; and +then, at some signal from their leaders, dropped the chase suddenly and +turned their attention to what looked like a sort of game of tag, in a +wide, open pasture where no enemy could steal upon them unawares. The +imps felt themselves great heroes, but if it had not been for that red +squirrel, the owl, sleepy though he was, would certainly have got one +of them." + +The Babe wanted to ask whether the squirrel had warned them out of +friendliness or just out of dislike to the owl, but before he could +frame his question quite satisfactorily, or get out anything more than +a hasty "But why--?" Uncle Andy had gone on with an emphasis which +discouraged interruption. + +"It was lucky for them, too, that no guns were fired on the big farm +below the grove--the crows were there believed to earn the corn they +stole by the grubs and cutworms and mice they killed. That was _very_ +lucky for the two imps, for they were forever hanging about the +farmyard and the big locust trees that ran along the foot of the +garden. The farmer himself and his hired hands paid no attention to +them, but the boy, the one who had prevented there being three imps +instead of two, he was tremendously interested. At first they were shy +of him, because, perhaps, they felt him watching them out of the +corners of his keen blue eyes. But at last they decided he was no more +dangerous than the rest, and made sarcastic remarks about him in a +language which he couldn't understand. + +"There was always food to be picked up around the farmyard when the men +were absent in the fields, the womenfolk busy in the kitchen, and the +boy somewhere out of sight. And it was food doubly sweet because it +had to be stolen from the fussy hens or the ridiculous ducks or the +stupid, complacent pigeons. Then there was always something +interesting to be done. It was fun to bully the pigeons and to give +sly, savage jabs to the half-grown chicks. It was delightful to steal +the bright tops of tin tomato cans--they _thought_ they were stealing +them, of course, because they could not imagine such fascinating things +being thrown away, even by those fool men--to snatch them hurriedly, +fly off with them to the tall green pine-top, and hide them in their +old nest till they got it looking quite like a rubbish dump, and good +pasture for a goat. And most of all, perhaps, was it fun to tease the +lazy old kitchen cat, till her tail would get as big as a bottle brush +with helpless indignation." + +"The _cat_?" exclaimed the Babe. "Why, weren't they afraid of _her_?" + +"Wait and see!" remarked Uncle Andy simply, with no apologies whatever +to the Prime Minister. "Well, as I was about to say, their method was +simple and effective. They would wait till they found the cat lying +along the narrow top of the rail fence, sunning herself. It was her +favorite place, though it can hardly have been comfortable, it was so +narrow. The He imp would alight on the rail, about ten feet in front +of her, and pretend to be very sick, squawking feebly and drooping his +black wings with a struggling flutter, as if it was all he could do to +keep his perch. The cat, her narrow eyes opening very wide, would +start to creep up to him. The She imp would then alight on the rail +behind her and nip her sharply by the tail, and go hopping clumsily off +down the rail. The cat would wheel with an angry _pfiff-ff_, and start +after this new quarry. Whereupon the He imp would again nip her tail. +This would be repeated several times before the cat would realize that +she was being made a fool of. Then she would bounce down from the +fence and race off to the kitchen in a towering rage, and the impudent +youngsters would fly up into the nearest tree top and _ca_ about it +delightedly. + +"Then there was the scarecrow, in the middle of the big strawberry +patch down at the foot of the huge garden. It did not scare these two +young rascals, not in the least. It was an excellently made scarecrow, +and did strike terror to the heart of many of the smaller birds. But +its hat was packed with straw, and the imps found it was a pleasant +game pulling the straws out through a couple of holes in the crown, and +strewing them over the strawberry bed. Incidentally, they liked +strawberries, and ate a good many of them as sauce to their ordinary +diet of grubs and mice and chicken feed. And it was this weakness of +theirs for strawberries that led to their misunderstanding with the +Boy, and then with the big rat that lived under the tool shed. + +"That strawberry patch was one of the things that the Boy took a +particular interest in. When he saw that the imps also took such an +interest in it, eating the berries instead of the grubs, he began to +get annoyed. From his window, which overlooked the garden, he had seen +what liberties the imps took with the scarecrow, so he realized there +was no help for him in scarecrows. But _something_ must be done, that +he vowed, and done at once, or his strawberries were going to be mighty +scarce. He didn't want to do any real harm to even such a troublesome +pair of birds as the imps, but he was determined to give them a lesson +that might teach them some respect, not only for strawberry patches, +but even for scarecrows. + +"On the crown of the scarecrow's old hat, which he had observed to be a +favorite perch of the imps, he arranged a noose of light cord. From +the noose he ran the cord down the scarecrow's single leg (scarecrows, +you know, have usually only one leg), across to the hedge, along the +hedge to the house, and up and into his room. He fixed it so it ran +without a hitch. He was very proud of it altogether. Much pleased +with himself, he got a book and a couple of apples, and seated himself +at his window to wait for his chance. + +"As it happened, however, the imps were just then away in the meadow, +hunting mice. For a whole hour the Boy saw no sign of them. Then, +being called away to go on an errand into the village, he tied the end +of the cord to his bedpost, and left it with a word of advice to do +what it could in his absence. + +"Well, it did! For a mere bit of string, all by itself, it didn't do +badly. First the old brown rat, with his fierce little eyes and +pointed, whiskered nose, came out from under the toolhouse and began +exploring the strawberry patch. He didn't think much of strawberries +in themselves, but he was apt to find fat grubs and beetles and sleepy +June bugs under the clustering leaves. He came upon the string, +stretched taut. He was just about to bite it through and try to carry +it off to his nest when it occurred to him it might be a trap. He +turned away discreetly, and snapped up a plump June bug. + +"Then the imps came sailing along. The He imp, with a loud _ca-ah_, +perched in the top of a locust and reconnoitred the situation. The She +imp alighted on the head of the scarecrow, cocked her head to one side, +and peered down upon the rat with a wicked and insulting eye. +'_Cr-r-r-r_,' she said sarcastically. But, as the rat paid no +attention to her, she hopped up and down on her toes, half-lifting her +wings in the effort to attract his eye. She hated to be ignored. But +still the rat ignored her, though he saw her perfectly well and would +have loved to eat her. At last, in her excitement, she caught sight of +the cord running over the edge of the scarecrow's hat. Snatching it up +in her beak, she gave it an energetic and inquiring tug. She learned +something interesting about it at once. It grabbed her by one leg. + +"Startled into a panic, as all wild things are at the least suggestion +of restraint, she squawked and flapped into the air. The noose +tightened rebukingly and pulled her up short. + +"For one astounded moment she settled back onto the scarecrow's head, +frightened into stillness. Then she tweaked savagely at the cord on +her leg, but, of course, could do nothing with it. As far as knots +were concerned, her education had been utterly neglected. At last she +sprang once more into the air, determined to have nothing more to do +with the treacherous scarecrow who had stuck that thing on her leg. + +"Of course, she didn't fly far--just about six feet--and she was again +brought up with a jerk. And now she went quite wild. Squawking and +flapping and whirling round and round, she made an amazing exhibition +of herself. Her brother, in the top of the locust, stared down upon +her in astonished disapproval. And the brown rat, interested at last, +came creeping stealthily to the scarecrow's foot and looked up at her +performance with cruel, glinting eyes. + +"Now, as you may well imagine, this performance was something which +even the imp, strong as she was, could not keep up very long. In about +a minute she had to stop and take breath. She was going to alight on +the ground, when she remembered the rat. Yes, there he was. So she +had to take refuge once more on the hated and treacherous scarecrow. +But no sooner had she done so, alighting with open beak and +half-spread, quivering wings, than the rat came darting up the leg of +the scarecrow's ragged trousers and pounced at her. She _just_ +escaped, and that was all, leaping into the air with a squawk of terror +and flapping there violently at the end of those six feet of free cord. + +"It was a horrifying position for her, let me tell you--" + +"I guess _so_!" muttered the Babe in spite of himself, wagging his head +sympathetically. He did not like rats. + +"She was too frightened to save her strength, of course, and so kept +flapping with all her might, as if she thought to fly away with +scarecrow and all. The rat, however, was impatient. He clutched at +the cord with his handlike claws and began trying to pull the imp down +to him. At first he couldn't make much out of it, but as the imp +weakened with her frantic efforts the cord began to shorten. Just +about now the He imp, who had come down from the locust top and +fluttered over the scene in pained curiosity, realized what was +happening. He was game, all right, however bumptious and +self-satisfied. He set up a tremendous _ca-a-a-ing_, as a signal for +all the crows within hearing to come to the rescue, and then made a +sudden, savage side swoop at the foe. + +"Taken thoroughly by surprise, the rat was toppled from his unsteady +perch and fell among the strawberries. His head ringing from the +stroke of that sturdy black wing, his plump flank smarting and bleeding +from a fierce jab of that pointed beak of the imp's, he squeaked with +rage and clambered up again to the battle. Mr. Rat, you know, is no +coward and no quitter. + +"And now he was more dangerous, because he was ready. He sat warily on +his haunches, squeaking angrily, and turning his sharp head from side +to side as he followed every swoop and rush of the He imp, snapping so +dangerously that the latter did not dare come quite close enough to +deliver another really effective blow. At the same time, being very +clever indeed, the rat kept tugging, tugging, tugging at the cord. And +the She imp, being quite gone out of her mind with the terror of that +clutch on her leg, kept flapping crazily at the end of the cord instead +of turning to, like a sensible crow, and helping her brother in the +fight. + +"As she grew weaker and weaker in her struggles, the cunning rat drew +her lower and lower, till at last she seemed fairly within his reach. +He lifted himself on his hindquarters to snap his long teeth into her +thigh and spring to the ground with her, where he would have her +completely at his mercy. But as he rose the He imp, at sight of his +sister's deadly peril, lost all sense of caution, and struck again with +all his strength of beak and wing. And once more the rat, fairly +bursting with rage, was swept to the ground. + +"He was back to the attack again in a moment, and now more dangerous +than ever. And at the same time the She imp, utterly worn out at last +by her panic terror and her foolish violence, sank shuddering down upon +her perch. Her brother struck the rat again frantically when the +latter was halfway up the scarecrow's leg, but this time failed to +dislodge him. And it looked as if the poor She imp would never again +steal a strawberry or worry a pigeon. But at this moment the Boy +appeared in the garden. He came running up noiselessly, anxious to see +all that was happening. But the rat heard him. The rat had no use for +the Boy whatever. He knew that the whole human race was his enemy. He +dropped from the scarecrow's trouser leg and scurried off to his hole +beneath the toolhouse. The Boy, his face a mixture of amusement and +concern, picked up the captive without noticing her feeble pecks, undid +the noose from her leg, and carried her over the hedge to rest and +recover herself. + +"'Now,' said he, 'you little imp of Satan, maybe you'll not come +stealing any more of my strawberries or pulling any more straw out of +my poor scarecrow's head!' + +"And she never did!" concluded Uncle Andy, rising and stretching his +legs. "Those two were not _reformed_, you may be sure. But they kept +clear, after that, of the Boy's strawberry patch, and of _all +scarecrows_. It's time we were getting back to camp for supper, or +Bill will be feeling sour." + +"But you haven't told me," protested the Babe, who had a most tenacious +memory, "why those crows all flew away out of the pine-top so suddenly, +as if they had just remembered something. And you haven't told me why +you'd rather be a humming-bird than a crow. And you haven't--" + +But Uncle Andy stopped him. + +"If you think I'm going to tell you all I know," said he, "you're +mistaken. If I did, you'd know as much as I do, and it wouldn't be any +fun. Some day you'll be glad I've left something for you to find out +for yourself." + + + + +CHAPTER III + +YOUNG GRUMPY AND THE ONE-EYED GANDER + +"My gracious! What's that?" cried the Babe, and nearly jumped out of his +boots. A gray thing had come right at him, with an ugly, scurrying rush. +The bushes and bracken being thick, he had not got a very clear view of +it--and he did not stop to try for a better one. In two seconds he was +back at Uncle Andy's side, where the latter sat smoking on his favorite +log by the water. + +The Babe's eyes were very wide. He looked a bit startled. + +"It ran _straight_ at me!" he declared. "What could it have been?" + +"A bear, I suppose!" said Uncle Andy sarcastically. + +"Of course not," answered the Babe in an injured voice. "If it had been +a bear, I'd have been _frightened_." + +"Oh!" said Uncle Andy. "I see. Well, what was it like? Seems to me you +didn't take much time to look at it, even if you weren't frightened." + +"I _did_ look," protested the Babe, glancing again, a little nervously, +at the bushes. "It was like--like a tre-_mend_ous big fat guinea pig, +with a fat tail and all kind of rusty gray." + +"Now, that's not at all bad, considering you were in something of a +hurry," said Uncle Andy approvingly. "That's really a very good +description of a woodchuck. No one could possibly mistake it for a +lobster or a lion." + +"Of course, I couldn't see it very _plain_," added the Babe hastily, +wondering if Uncle Andy was laughing at him. "But why did it run at me +that way?" + +"You see," said Uncle Andy seriously, repenting of his mockery, "the +woodchuck is a queer, bad-tempered chap, with more pluck than sense +sometimes. Once in a while he would run at anything that was new and +strange to him, no matter how big it was, just to see if he couldn't +frighten it." + +"Would he run at you or Bill that way?" demanded the Babe in a voice of +awe at the very thought of such temerity. + +"Oh, he has seen lots of _men_," replied Uncle Andy. "We're nothing new +to him. But most likely he had never seen a small boy before, and he did +not know what kind of an animal it was. The very fact that he did not +know made him angry--he's sometimes so quick-tempered, you know!" + +"I'm glad he didn't frighten me--so _very_ much!" murmured the Babe, +beginning to forget the exact degree of his alarm. + +"I noticed you got out of his way pretty smart!" said Uncle Andy, eyeing +him from under shaggy brows. "But perhaps that was just because you were +in a hurry to tell me about it!" + +"No-o!" answered the Babe, hesitating but truthful. "I thought perhaps +he was going to bite my legs, and I didn't want him to." + +"That seems reasonable enough," agreed Uncle Andy heartily. "No sensible +person wants a fool woodchuck biting his legs." + +"But would he _really_ have bitten me?" asked the Babe, beginning to +think that perhaps he ought to go back and find the presumptuous little +animal and kick him. + +"As I think I've already said, you never can tell exactly what a +woodchuck is going to do," replied Uncle Andy. "You know that old rhyme +about him: + + "'How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, + If a woodchuck could chuck wood? + He'd chuck as much wood as a woodchuck could + If a woodchuck could chuck wood.' + +"Now that goes to show what uncertainty people have about him. And it's +no more than right. For instance, I was traveling through a wild part of +New Brunswick once in a big red automobile, when, coming suddenly around +a turn, we saw just ahead of us two old woodchucks sitting up on their +fat haunches by the side of the road. I was beside the chauffeur, and +could see just what happened. How those woodchucks' eyes stuck out! It +was not more than three seconds before we were right up to them. Then +one of the two, frightened to death, fairly turned a back somersault into +the bushes. But the other was a hero. Perhaps he thought he was St. +George and the automobile a dragon. Anyhow, he did all a hero could. He +jumped straight on to the front wheel and bit wildly at the tire. We +stopped so short that we almost went out on our heads--but too late! The +wheel had gone clean over him. We felt so sorry that we stopped and dug +a hole by the roadside and gave the flattened little hero a very +distinguished burial." + +"Oh, but he must have been crazy!" exclaimed the Babe, rubbing his leg +thoughtfully and congratulating himself that he had not lingered to study +the being which had rushed at him in the underbrush. + +"Perhaps," said Uncle Andy dryly. "If I remember rightly, that's just +what has been said of lots of heroes before now." + +He tapped his pipe on the log beside him to knock out the ashes, and +proceeded thoughtfully to fill it up again. This second filling the Babe +had learned to regard as a very hopeful sign. It usually meant that +Uncle Andy was in the vein. Seating himself on the grass directly in +front of his uncle, the Babe clasped his arms around his bare little +brown, mosquito-bitten knees, and stared upward hopefully with grave, +round eyes, as blue as the bluebells nodding beside him. + +"Speaking of woodchucks," began Uncle Andy presently, "I've known a lot +of them in my time, and I've almost always found them interesting. Like +some people we know, they're sometimes most amusing when they are most +serious." + +"_Amusing_!" exclaimed the Babe, with a world of meaning in his voice. +That was the last word he expected to apply to such a bad-tempered little +beast. + +But his uncle paid no heed to the interruption. + +"There was 'Young Grumpy,' now," he continued musingly. "As sober-minded +a woodchuck as ever burrowed a bank. From his earliest days he took life +seriously, and never seemed to think it worth his while to play as the +other wild youngsters do. Yet in spite of himself he was sometimes quite +amusing. + +"He had the good fortune to be born in the back pasture of Anderson's +Farm. That was where the Boy lived, you know, and where no one was +allowed to shoot the crows. Being a place where no one did any more +killing than was absolutely necessary, it was rather lucky for any of the +Babes of the Wild to be born there--except weasels, of course." + +"Why not for weasels?" demanded the Babe. + +"Well, now, you might know that without my having to tell you," replied +Uncle Andy. "The weasels are such merciless and murderous little killers +themselves, killing just for the fun of it when they are already too full +to eat what they have killed, that both Mr. Anderson and the Boy had no +sympathy for them, and thought them better out of the way. I don't want +to be too hard, even on a weasel; but I'm bound to say that most of the +wild creatures feel much the same way about that blood-thirsty little +pirate." + +"I should think so!" agreed the Babe indignantly, resolving to devote his +future largely to the extermination of weasels, and hoping thus to win +the confidence and gratitude of the kindred of the wild. + +"Young Grumpy's home life," continued Uncle Andy, "with his father and +mother and four brothers and sisters was not a pampered one. There are +few wild parents less given to spoiling their young than a pair of +grumbling old woodchucks. The father, who spent most of his time +sleeping, rolled up in a ball at the bottom of the burrow, paid them no +attention except to nip at them crossly when they tumbled over him. They +were always relieved when he went off, three or four times a day, down +into the neighboring clover field to make his meals. The little ones did +not see what he was good for, anyhow, till one morning, when the +black-and-yellow dog from the next farm happened along. The youngsters, +with their mother, were basking in the sun just outside the front door. +As the dog sprang at them they all fairly fell, head over heels, back +into the burrow. The dog, immensely disappointed, set to work +frantically to dig them out. He felt sure that young woodchuck would be +very good to eat. + +"It was then that Old Grumpy showed what he was made of. Thrusting his +family rudely aside, he scurried up the burrow to the door, where the dog +was making the earth fly at a most alarming rate. Without a moment's +hesitation he sank his long, cutting teeth into the rash intruder's nose +and held on. + +"The dog yelped and choked, and tried to back out of the hole in a hurry. +But it was no use. The old woodchuck had a solid grip and was pulling +with all his might in the other direction. Panic-stricken and half +smothered by the dry earth, the dog dug in his hind claws, bent his back +like a bow, and pulled for all he was worth, yelling till you might have +thought there were half a dozen dogs in that hole. At last, after +perhaps three or four minutes--which seemed to the dog much longer--the +old woodchuck decided to leave go. You see, he didn't really want that +dog, or even that dog's nose, in the burrow. So he opened his jaws +suddenly. At that the dog went right over backward, all four legs in the +air, like a wooden dog. But the next instant he was on his feet again, +and tearing away like mad down the pasture, ki-yi-ing like a whipped +puppy, although he was a grown-up dog and ought to have been ashamed of +himself to make such a noise. And never after that, they tell me, could +he be persuaded under any circumstances to go within fifteen feet of +anything that looked like a woodchuck hole." + +"I'm not one bit sorry for him," muttered the Babe in spite of himself. +"He had no business there at all." + +"The mother of the woodchuck family," went on Uncle Andy, "was not so +cross as the father, but she was very careless. She would sit upon her +fat haunches in the door of the burrow while the babies were nibbling +around outside, pretending to keep an eye on them. But half the time she +would be sound asleep, with her head dropped straight down on her +stomach, between her little black paws. One day, as she was dozing thus +comfortably, a marsh hawk came flapping low overhead, and pounced on one +of the youngsters before it had time to more than squeak. At the sound +of that despairing squeak, to be sure, she woke up and made a savage rush +at the enemy. But the wary bird was already in the air, with the prize +drooping from his talons. And the mother could do nothing but sit up and +chatter after him abusively as he sailed away to his nest. + +"You see, the mother was brave enough, as I said before, but very +careless. She was different from the ordinary run of woodchucks, in that +she had only three feet. She had lost her left hind paw." + +"Was that because she was so careless?" asked the Babe. + +Uncle Andy looked at him suspiciously. Like so many other story-tellers, +he preferred to make all the jokes himself. He was suspicious of other +people's jokes. But the Babe's round, attentive eyes were as innocent as +the sky. + +"No," said he gravely; "_that_ was something she could not help. It was +an accident. It has nothing to do with Young Grumpy, but since you've +asked me about it I had better tell you at once and save interruptions. + +"You see it was this way. Before she came to live on the Anderson Farm +she used to have a burrow over on the other side of the Ridge, where the +people went in for a good deal of trapping and snaring. One day someone +set a steel trap just in front of her burrow. Of course she put her foot +into it at the first chance. It was terrible. You know the grip of +those steel jaws, for I've seen you trying to open them. She was game, +however--they're always game, these woodchucks. Instead of squealing and +hopping about and losing her wits and using up her strength, she just +popped back into her hole and dragged the trap in with her as far as it +would go. That was not very far, of course, because the man who set it +had chained it to a stump outside. But she thought it better, in such a +trouble, to be out of range of unsympathetic eyes. There in the hole she +tugged and wrenched at the cruel biting thing till even her obstinacy had +to acknowledge that it was impossible to pull herself free. Then she +tried blocking up the hole behind her, thinking perhaps that the trap, on +finding itself thus imprisoned in the burrow, would get frightened and +let go its hold. Disappointed in this hope, she decided to adopt heroic +measures. With magnificent nerve she calmly set to work and _gnawed off_ +the foot which had been so idiotic as to get itself caught. She would +have nothing more to do with the fool thing. She just left it there in +the trap, with her compliments, for the man--a poor little, crumpled, +black-skinned paw, with a fringe of short brownish fur about the wrist, +like a fur-lined gauntlet." + +The Babe shuddered, but heroically refrained from interrupting. + +"Of course the stump soon healed up," continued Uncle Andy, "but she +always found the absence of that paw most inconvenient, especially when +she was digging burrows. She used to find herself digging them on the +bias, and coming out where she did not at all expect to. + +"But to return to Young Grumpy. While he was yet very young his +three-legged mother, who had seen him and his brothers and sisters eating +grass quite comfortably, decided that they were big enough to look out +for themselves. She refused to nurse them any more. Then she turned +them all out of the burrow. When they came presently scurrying back +again, hoping it was all an unhappy joke, she nipped them most +unfeelingly. Their father snored. There was no help in that quarter. +They scurried dejectedly forth again. + +"Outside, in the short pasture grass and scattered ox-eye daisies, they +looked at each other suspiciously, and each felt that somehow it was the +other fellow's fault. Aggrieved and miserable, they went rambling off, +each his own way, to face alone what Fate might have in store for him. +And Young Grumpy, looking up from a melancholy but consoling feast which +he was making on a mushroom, found himself alone in the world. + +"He didn't care a fig. You see, he was so grumpy. Not knowing where to +go, he strolled up the hill and into the fir woods. Here he came upon a +very old, moth-eaten, feeble-looking woodchuck, who was very busy in a +half-hearted way digging himself a hole. Suddenly he stopped. Young +Grumpy did not think it was any sort of a hole for a woodchuck, but the +old fellow seemed satisfied with it. He curled himself up in it, almost +in plain view, and went straight to sleep. Young Grumpy strolled off +scornfully. When he came back that way, a few hours later, he found the +old woodchuck still in exactly the same position as before. He never +stirred or scolded even when Young Grumpy came up and squeaked quite +close to his ear. Seized suddenly with a vague uneasiness, Young Grumpy +nosed at him curiously. The old woodchuck's body was chill and rigid. +It created a most unpleasant impression, and, not knowing why he did so, +Young Grumpy hurried forth from the dark wood and down into the sunlit +pasture to which he was accustomed. + +"For some days he wandered about the pasture, sleeping under stumps and +in mossy hollows, and fortunately escaping, by reason of his light, +rusty-gray color, the eyes of passing hawks. At last chance, or his nose +for good living, led him down to the clover meadow adjoining Anderson's +barnyard. + +"It was here that his adventures may be said to have begun. + +"Just as he was happily filling himself with clover, a white dog, with +short-cropped ears standing up stiffly, came by and stopped to look at +him with bright, interested eyes. Young Grumpy, though the stranger was +big enough to take him in two mouthfuls, felt not frightened but annoyed. +He gave a chuckling squeak of defiance and rushed straight at the dog. + +"Now, this was the Boy's bull terrier, Major, and he had been severely +trained to let small, helpless creatures alone. He had got it into his +head that all such creatures were the Boy's property, and so to be +guarded and respected. He was afraid lest he might hurt this cross +little animal, and get into trouble with the Boy. So he kept jumping out +of the way, stiff-leggedly, as if very much amused, and at the same time +he kept barking, as if to call the Boy to come and see. Young Grumpy, +feeling very big, followed him up with short, threatening rushes, till he +found himself just at the open gate leading into the farmyard. + +"Parading solemnly before the gate was a big gray gander with only one +eye. That one eye, extra keen and fierce, caught sight of Young Grumpy, +and probably mistook him for an immense rat, thief of eggs and murderer +of goslings. With a harsh hiss and neck outstretched till it was like a +snake, the great bird darted at him. + +"Young Grumpy hesitated. After the manner of his kind, he sat upon his +haunches to hesitate. The gander seemed to him very queer, and perhaps +dangerous. + +"At this critical moment the white dog interfered. In his eyes Young +Grumpy belonged to the Boy, and was therefore valuable property. He ran +at the gander. The gander, recognizing his authority, withdrew, haughty +and protesting. Young Grumpy followed with a triumphant rush, and, of +course, took all the credit to himself. + +"This led him into the farmyard. Here he promptly forgot both the dog +and the gander. It was such a strange place, and full of such strange +smells. He was about to turn back into the more familiar clover when, as +luck would have it, he stumbled upon a half-eaten carrot which had been +dropped by one of the horses. How good it smelled! And then, how good +it tasted! Oh, no! the place where such things were to be found was not +a place for him to leave in a hurry! + +"As he was feasting greedily on the carrot the Boy appeared, with the +white dog at his heels. He did not look nearly so terrible as the +gander. So, angry at being disturbed, and thinking he had come for the +carrot, Young Grumpy ran at him at once. + +"But the Boy did not run away. Surprised at his courage, Young Grumpy +stopped short, at a distance of two or three feet from the Boy's stout +shoes, sat upon his haunches with his little skinny black hands over his +chest, and began to gurgle and squeak harsh threats. The Boy laughed, +and stretched out a hand to touch him. Young Grumpy snapped so savagely, +however, that the Boy snatched back his hand and stood observing him with +amused interest, waving off the white dog lest the latter should +interrupt. Young Grumpy went on blustering with his muffled squeaks for +perhaps a minute. Then, seeing that the Boy was neither going to run +away nor fight, he dropped on all fours indifferently and returned to his +carrot. + +"There was nothing pleased the Boy better than seeing the harmless wild +creatures get familiar about the place. He went now and fetched a saucer +of milk from the dairy, and set it down beside Young Grumpy, who scolded +at him, but refused to budge an inch. The yellow cat--an amiable soul, +too well fed to hunt even mice with any enthusiasm--followed the Boy, +with an interested eye on the saucer. At sight of Young Grumpy her back +went up, her tail grew big as a bottle, and she spat disapprovingly. As +the stranger paid her no attention, however, she sidled cautiously up to +the milk and began to lap it. + +"The sound of her lapping caught Young Grumpy's attention. It was a +seductive sound. Leaving the remains of his carrot, he came boldly up to +the saucer. The yellow cat flattened back her ears, growled, and stood +her ground till he was within a foot of her. Then, with an angry +'_pf-f-f_' she turned tail and fled. The stranger was so calmly sure of +himself that she concluded he must be some new kind of skunk--and her +respect for all skunks was something tremendous. + +"Having finished the milk and the carrot, Young Grumpy felt a pressing +need of sleep. Turning his back on the Boy and the dog as if they were +not worth noticing, he ambled off along the garden fence, looking for a +convenient hole. The one-eyed gander, who had been watching him with +disfavor from the distance, saw that he was now no longer under the +protection of the white dog, and came stalking up from the other end of +the yard to have it out with him--thief of eggs and murderer of goslings +as the bird mistook him to be! But Young Grumpy, having found a +cool-looking hole under the fence, had whisked into it and vanished. + +"As matters stood now, Young Grumpy felt himself quite master of the +situation. His heartless mother was forgotten. Farmyard, clover-field, +and cool green garden were all his. Had he not routed all presumptuous +enemies but the Boy? And the latter seemed very harmless. But a few +days the garden occupied all his attention--when he was not busy +enlarging and deepening his hole under the fence and digging a second +entrance to it. He noticed that the Boy had a foolish habit of standing +and watching him; but to this he had no serious objection, the more so as +he found that the Boy's presence was often accompanied by a saucer of +milk. + +"It was not till after several days of garden life that, lured by the +memory of the carrot, he again visited the barnyard. At first it seemed +to be quite deserted. And there was no sign of a carrot anywhere. Then +he caught sight of the yellow cat, and scurried toward her, thinking +perhaps it was her fault there were no carrots. She fluffed her tail, +gave a yowl of indignation, and raced into the barn. Neither the white +dog, nor the Boy, nor the one-eyed gander was anywhere in sight. + +"Young Grumpy decided that it was a poor place, the barnyard. He was on +the point of turning back to the green abundance of the garden, when a +curious clucking sound attracted his attention. At the other side of the +yard he saw a red hen in a coop. A lot of very young chickens, little +yellow balls of down, were running about outside the coop. Young Grumpy +strolled over. The chickens did not concern him in the least. He didn't +know what they were, and, as no flesh was in his eyes good to eat, he +didn't care. But he hoped they might have such a thing as a carrot about +them." + +"Oh-h-h! What would _they_ have a carrot for?" protested the Babe. + +Uncle Andy scorned to notice this remark. "When Young Grumpy approached +the coop," he continued, "the red hen squawked frantically, and the +chickens all ran in under her wings. Young Grumpy eyed her with +curiosity for a moment, as she screamed at him with open beak and ruffled +up all her feathers. But in the coop was a big slice of turnip, at which +she had been pecking. He knew at once this would be good, perhaps as +good as a carrot, and he flattened himself against the bars trying to get +in at it. + +"The next moment he got a great surprise. The red hen hurled herself at +him with such violence that, although the bars protected him, he was +almost knocked over. He received a smart jab from her beak, and her +bristling feathers came through the bars in a fashion that rather took +away his breath. He was furious. Again and again he strove to force his +way in, now on one side, now on the other. But always that fiery bunch +of beak and claw and feathers seemed to burst in his face. Had it not +been for the bars, indeed, the red hen would have given him an awful +mauling. But this, of course, he was too self-confident to suspect. +With characteristic obstinacy, he kept up the struggle for fully five +minutes, while the terrified chickens filled the air with their pipings +and the hen screamed herself hoarse. Then, feeling a little sore, to be +sure, but very certain that he had impressed the hen, he strolled off to +look for some delicacy less inaccessible than that piece of turnip. + +"At this point the one-eyed gander came waddling up from the goose pond. +He was lonely and bad-tempered, for his two wives had been killed by a +fox that spring, and the Boy had not yet found him a new mate. Young +Grumpy looked at the big gray bird and recalled the little unpleasantness +of their previous encounter. + +"'Oh, ho!' said he to himself--if woodchucks ever _do_ talk to +themselves--'I'll just give that ugly chap beans, like I did the other +day.' And he went scurrying across the yard to see about it. + +"To his surprise, the gander paid him no attention whatever. You see, he +was on the side of the gander's blind eye. + +"Now, Young Grumpy was so puzzled by this indifference that, instead of +rushing right in and biting the haughty bird, he sat up on his haunches +at a distance of some five or six feet and began to squeak his defiance. +The gander turned his head. Straightway he opened his long yellow bill, +gave vent to a hiss like the steam from an escape pipe, stuck out his +snaky neck close to the ground, lifted his broad gray-and-white wings, +and charged. + +"Before Young Grumpy had time even to wonder if he had been imprudent or +not, the hard elbow of one of those wings caught him a blow on the ear +and knocked him head over heels. At the same time it swept him to one +side, and the gander rushed on straight over the spot where he had been +sitting. + +"Young Grumpy picked himself up, startled and shaken. The thing had been +so unexpected. He would have rather liked to run away. But he was too +angry and too obstinate. He just sat up on his haunches again, intending +to make another and more successful attack as soon as his head stopped +buzzing. + +"The gander, meanwhile, was surprised also. He could not understand how +his enemy had got out of the way so quickly. He stared around, and then, +turning his one eye skyward, as if he thought Young Grumpy might have +gone that way, he trumpeted a loud _honka-honka-honk--kah_. + +"For some reason this strange cry broke Young Grumpy's nerve. He +scuttled for his hole his jet-black heels kicking up the straws behind +him. As soon as he began to run, of course, the gander saw him and swept +after him with a ferocious hissing. But Young Grumpy had got the start. +He dived into his hole just as the gander brought up against the fence. + +"Now, the moment he found himself inside his burrow, all Young Grumpy's +courage returned. He wheeled and stuck his head out again, as much as to +say, 'Now come on, if you dare!" + +"The gander came on promptly--so promptly, in fact, that the lightning +stroke of his heavy bill knocked Young Grumpy far back into the hole +again. + +"In a great rage, the gander darted his head into the hole. Chattering +with indignation, Young Grumpy set his long teeth into that intruding +bill, and tried to pull it further in. The gander, much taken aback at +this turn of affairs, tried to pull it out again. For perhaps half a +minute it was a very good tug-of-war. Then the superior weight and +strength of the great bird, with all the advantage of his beating wings, +suddenly triumphed, and Young Grumpy, too pig-headed to let go his hold, +was jerked forth once more into the open. + +"The next moment another blow from one of those mighty wing elbows all +but stunned him, and his grip relaxed. He made a groping rush for the +burrow, but in that same instant the gander's great bill seized him by +the back of the neck and lifted him high into the air. + +"This was very near being the end of Young Grumpy, for the one-eyed +gander would have bitten and banged and hammered at him till he was as +dead as a last year's June bug. But happily the Boy and the white dog +came running up in the nick of time. The gander dropped his victim and +stalked off haughtily. And poor Young Grumpy, after turning twice around +in a confused way, crawled back into his hole. + +"The white dog opened his mouth from ear to ear, and looked up at the Boy +with an unmistakable grin. The Boy, half laughing, half sympathetic, +went and peered into the hole. + +"'I guess you'd better keep out of Old Wall-Eye's way after this!' said +he. + +"And Young Grumpy did. Whenever the one-eyed gander was in the yard, +then Young Grumpy stayed in the garden." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +LITTLE SWORD AND THE INKMAKER + +Out across the shining expanse of Silverwater, now lying unruffled by +any breath of wind, went flickering a little blue butterfly, as blue as +if a gentian blossom had taken to itself wings or a speck of sky had +fluttered down to meet its bright reflection in the lake. It was a +foolish expedition for the little explorer, so far from shore, and over +that lonely, treacherous element which has such scant mercy for +butterflies. The turquoise wings dipped and rose, sometimes coming so +close to the water that the Babe caught his breath, thinking the frail +voyager's eyes were unable to distinguish between the crystal purity of +the water and that of the air. At last a wing tip, or more likely the +tip of the velvet tail, brushed the surface. It was only the lightest +touch; and instantly, suddenly, as if startled by the chill contact, +the azure flutterer rose again. In the same instant the water swirled +heavily beneath her, a little sucking whirlpool appeared shattering the +mirror, and circular ripples began to widen quickly and smoothly from +the break. + +"That was a big fellow!" exclaimed Uncle Andy. But the Babe said +nothing, being too intent upon the aerial voyager's career. + +For two or three moments the flake of sky fluttered higher. Then, as +the ripples smoothed themselves out, she seemed to forget, and began to +descend again as if lured downward by her own dainty reflection. Yet +she had not quite forgotten, for now she only came within six or seven +inches of the traitorous surface. Now her heavenly wings supported her +for a moment almost motionless. + +In that moment a splendid shape, gleaming like a bolt of silver, shot a +clear foot into the air and fell back with a massive splash. The +turquoise butterfly was gone. + +"Oh--h!" cried the Babe, almost with a sob in his voice. He loved the +blue butterflies as he loved no others of their brilliant and perishing +kindred. + +"_Gee_!" exclaimed Uncle Andy. "But he's a _whale_!" + +The Babe, in his surprise at this remarkable statement, forgot to mourn +for the fate of the blue butterfly. + +"Why, Uncle Andy," he protested. "I didn't know whales could live here +in this little lake." + +Uncle Andy made a despairing gesture. "Oh," he murmured wearily, "a +fellow has to be _so_ careful what he says to you! The next time I +make a metaphorical remark in your presence, I'll draw a diagram to go +with it!" + +The Babe looked puzzled. He was on the point of asking what "a +metaphorical" was, and also "a diagram"; but he inferred that there +were no whales, after all, in Silverwater. He had misunderstood Uncle +Andy's apparently simple statement of fact. And he felt convicted of +foolishness. Anxious to reinstate himself in his uncle's approval by +an unexpected display of knowledge he waived "metaphorical" aside, let +"diagram" remain a mystery, and remarked disinterestedly: + +"Well, I'm glad there ain't any _swordfish_ in Silverwater." + +"Bless the child!" cried Uncle Andy. "Whatever has been putting +swordfish into your head?" + +"Bill!" replied the Babe truthfully. + +"And what do you know about swordfish, then?" proceeded his uncle. + +The Babe was much flattered at the unusual favor of being allowed to +air his information. + +"They're awful!" he explained. "They're as big as a canoe. And +they've got a sword as long as your leg, Uncle Andy, right in their +tail, so they can stab whales and porpoises with it, just carelessly, +without looking round, so as to make pretend it was an accident. And +they're quicker than greased lightning, Bill says. So you see, if +there was one here in the lake, we couldn't ever go in swimming." + +Uncle Andy refrained from smiling. He puffed thoughtfully at his pipe +for half a minute, while the Babe waited for his verdict. At length he +said, between puffs: + +"Well, now, there's quite a lot of truth in that, considering that it's +one of Bill's yarns. The swordfish does carry a sword. And he does +jab it into things, whales, sharks, boats, seals, anything whatever +that he thinks might be good to eat or that he does not like the looks +of. And _you_ are quite correct in thinking that the lake would not be +a health-resort for us if it was occupied by a healthy swordfish. But +in one particular Bill has got you badly mixed up. The swordfish +carries his sword not in his tail, but on the tip of his snout more +like a bayonet than a sword. I don't think Bill has ever been at all +intimate with swordfish--eh, what?" + +The Babe shook his blonde head sadly over this instance of Bill's +inaccuracy. + +"And are they as big as Bill says?" he inquired. + +"Oh, yes! He's all right _there_!" assented Uncle Andy. "When they +are quite grown up they are sometimes as long as a canoe, a seventeen +or eighteen foot canoe. And they _are_ quick as 'greased lightning' +all right!" + +"But how big are they when they're little?" pursued the Babe, getting +around to his favorite line of investigation. + +"Well now, that depends on how little you take them!" answered Uncle +Andy. "As they are hatched out of tiny, pearly eggs no bigger than a +white currant, which the little silver crabs can play marbles with on +the white sand of the sea-bottom till they get tired of the game and +eat them up, you've got a lot of sizes to choose from in a growing +sword-fish." + +"I don't mean when they're so very little," answered the Babe, who did +not find things just hatched very interesting. + +"I see," said Uncle Andy, understandingly. "Of course when they are +first hatched, and for a long time afterwards, they are kept so busy +trying to avoid getting eaten up by their enemies that I don't suppose +one in ten thousand or so ever manages to survive to the stage where he +begins to make things interesting for his enemies in turn. But _then_ +things begin to hum." + +"Tell me how they hum!" said the Babe eagerly, his eyes round with +anticipation. + +"Well," began Uncle Andy slowly, looking far across the lake as if he +saw things that the Babe could not see, "in one way and another, partly +by good luck and partly by good management, Little Sword succeeded in +dodging his enemies till he had grown to be about two feet in length, +without counting the six inches or so of sharp, tapering blade that +stood straight out from the tip of his nose. He was as handsome a +youngster as you would wish to see, slender, gracefully tapering to the +base of the broad, powerful tail, wide-finned, radiant in silver and +blue-green, and with a splendid crest-like dorsal fin of vivid +ultramarine extending almost the whole length of his back. His eyes +were large, and blazed with a savage fire. Hanging poised a few feet +above the tops of the waving, rose-and-purple sea-anemones and the +bottle-green trailers of seaweed, every fin tense and quivering, he was +ready to dart in any direction where a feast or a fight might seem to +be waiting for him. + +"You see, the mere fact that he was alive at all was proof that he had +come triumphantly through many terrible dangers, so it was no wonder he +had a good deal of confidence in himself. And his shapely little body +was so packed full of energy, so thrilling with vitality, that he felt +himself already a sort of lord in those shoal-water domains. + +"But with all his lively experiences, there were things, lots of +things, which Little Sword didn't know even yet." + +"I _guess_ so!" murmured the Babe, suddenly impressed with the extent +of his own ignorance. + +"For instance," Uncle Andy went on, ignoring the interruption, "he had +not yet learned anything about the Inkmaker." + +Here he paused impressively, as if to lure the Babe on. But into the +latter's head popped so many questions all together, at the mention of +a creature with so strange a name, that for the moment he could not for +the life of him get any one of them into words. He merely gasped. And +Uncle Andy, delighted with this apparent self-restraint, went on +graciously. + +"You're improving a lot," said he. "You're getting quite a knack of +holding your tongue. Well, you're going to know all about it in half a +minute. + +"Little Sword caught sight of a queer, watery-pinkish, speckled +creature on the bottom, just crossing a space of clear sand. It was +about twice as long as himself, with a pair of terrible big, ink-black +eyes, and a long bunch of squirming feelers growing out of its head +like leaf-stalks out of the head of a beet. He noticed that two of +these feelers were twice as long as the rest, which did not seem to him +a matter of the least importance. But he noticed at the same time that +the creature looked soft and good to eat. The next instant, like a ray +of light flashed suddenly, he darted at it. + +"But swift as he was, the pale creature's inky eyes had noted him in +time. His feelers bunched suddenly tight and straight, and he shot +backwards, at the same moment spouting a jet of black fluid from +beneath his beaked mouth. The black jet spread instantly in a thick +cloud, staining the clear, green water so deeply that Little Sword +could not see through it at all. Instead of the soft flesh he had +expected it to pierce, his sword met nothing but a mass of sticky +anemones, shearing them from their base. + +"In a fury, Little Sword dashed this way and that, trusting to luck +that he would strike his elusive enemy in the darkness. But that +enemy's eyes, with their enormous bulging surface and the jetty +background to their lenses, could see clearly where the jewel-like eyes +of the young swordfish could make out nothing. Little Sword, emerging +into the half light at the edge of the cloud, was just about to give up +the idle search, when something small but firm fastened itself upon his +side, so sharply that it seemed to bite into the flesh. + +"Little Sword's tense muscles quivered at the shock, and he gave a +mighty leap which should, by all his customary reckoning, have carried +him fifty feet from the spot. To his horrified amazement he did not go +as many inches, nor the half of it! And then another something, small +but terrible, fastened itself upon his shoulder. + +"Then the black, murky cloud thinned quite away; and Little Sword saw +what had happened. The pale creature, having reached a rock to which +he could anchor himself with a couple of his feelers, had turned +savagely upon his rash assailant. Little Sword was the prisoner of +those two longer tentacles. They were trying to drag him down within +reach of the other feelers, which writhed up at him like a lot of +hideous snakes." + +"Ugh!" cried the Babe with a shudder. "But how did they hold on to +him?" + +"You see," said Uncle Andy, "every feeler, long or short, had a row of +saucer-shaped suckers along its underside, like the heads of those +rubber-tipped arrows which I've seen you shooting at the wall, and +which stick where they strike. Only _these_ suckers could _hold on_, I +can tell you, so fast that _you_ could never have pulled off even the +littlest of them. + +"Little Sword looked down into the awful eyes of the Inkmaker, and +realized that he had made a great mistake. But he was game all +through. It was not for a swordfish, however young, to give in to any +odds. Besides, just below those two great eyes, which stared up at him +without ever a wink, he saw a terrible beak of a mouth, which opened +and shut as if impatient to get hold of him. This sight was calculated +to encourage him to exert himself, if he had needed any more +encouragement than the grip of those two, pale, writhing feelers on his +flesh. + +"Now, for his size, Little Sword was putting up a tremendous fight. +His broad, fluked tail and immense fins churned the water amazingly, +and enabled him to spring this way and that in spite of all the efforts +of the two long tentacles to hold him still. Nevertheless, he was +slowly drawn downwards, till one of the shorter feelers reached for a +hold upon him. He darted at it, and by a lucky plunge of his sword cut +its snaky tip clean off. It twisted back out of the way, like a +startled worm; and Little Sword lunged at the next one. He pierced it +all right, but at a point where it was so thick that the stroke did not +sever it, and the tip, curling over, fastened upon him. At the same +moment another feeler fixed itself upon the base of his tail, half +paralyzing his struggles. + +"Little Sword was now being drawn implacably downwards. In his fierce +rage he struck at everything in reach, but he was too closely held to +inflict any serious wounds. He was within eight or nine inches of +those awful, unwinking, ink-black eyes. The great beak opened upwards +at him eagerly. It looked as if his career was at an end--when the +Fates of the Deep Sea decided otherwise. Apparently they had more use +for Little Sword than they had for the Inkmaker. A long shadow dropped +straight downward. It missed Little Sword by an inch or two. And the +gaping, long-toothed jaws of an immense barracouta closed upon the head +of the Inkmaker, biting him clean in halves. The blind body curled +backwards spasmodically; and the tentacles, shorn off at the roots, +fell aimlessly and helplessly apart. Little Sword flashed away, +trailing his limp captors behind him till they dropped off. And the +barracouta ate the remains of the Inkmaker at his leisure. He had no +concern to those swordfish when there was tender and delicious squid to +be had; for the Inkmaker, you know, was just a kind of big squid, or +cuttlefish." + +"But what's a barracouta?" demanded the Babe hurriedly. + +"Well, he's just a fish!" said Uncle Andy. "But he's a very savage and +hungry fish, some three or four feet long, with tremendous jaws like a +pickerel's. And he lives only in the salt water, fortunately. _He's_ +not a nice fellow, either, to have around when you're swimming, I can +tell you!" + +"Why?" queried the Babe. + +But Uncle Andy ignored the question firmly, and went on with his story. + +"After this adventure Little Sword kept a very sharp look-out for the +pallid, squirming tentacles, sometimes reaching out from a dark hole in +the rocks or from under a mantle of seaweed, which he knew to belong to +one of the Inkmakers. He hated the whole tribe with bitter hatred; but +at the same time his caution was unsleeping. He bided his time for +vengeance, and used his sword on crabs and flatfish and fat groupers. +And so he grew at a great rate, till in the swelling sense of his power +and swiftness his caution began to fade away. Even the incident itself +faded from his memory, but not the hatred which had sprung from it, or +the knowledge which it had taught him. + +"When Little Sword was about five feet in length he carried a weapon on +his snout not far from a foot long. By this time he was a great rover, +hunting in the deep seas or the inshore tides as the whim of the chase +might lead him, and always spoiling for a fight. He would jab his +sword into the belly of a twenty-foot grampus just to relieve his +feelings, and be off again before the outraged monster, bleeding +through his six inches of blubber, had time to even make a pretense of +charging him. And he was already a terror to the seals, who, for all +their speed and dexterity, could neither catch him nor escape him. + +"But he was getting a little careless. And one day, as he was +sleeping, or basking, some ten feet below the surface, the broad, dark +form of a sawfish arose beneath him and thrust at him with his dreadful +saw. The pleasant idea of the sawfish was to rip up the sleeper's +silver belly. But Little Sword awoke in time to just escape the horrid +attack. He swept off in a short circle, came back with a lightning +rush, and drove his sword full length into the stealthy enemy's +shoulder just behind the gills. The great sawfish, heavy muscled and +slow of movement, made no attempt to defend himself, but plunged +suddenly downward into the gloomy depths where he loved to lie in wait. +After relieving his indignation by a couple more vicious thrusts. +Little Sword realized that he was too small to accomplish anything +against this sneaking and prowling bulk, and shot off to look for a +less dangerous basking place. + +"It was soon after this close shave with the sawfish that Little Sword +came once more across the path of the Inkmaker. He--" + +But the Babe could contain himself no longer. He had been bursting +with questions for the last ten minutes, and had heroically restrained +himself. But this was too much for him. + +"Why, Uncle Andy," he cried. "I thought the Inkmaker was dead. I +thought the barracouta had eaten him up, feelers and eyes and all." + +"Oh, you're a lot too particular!" grumbled Uncle Andy. "This was +_another_ Inkmaker, of course. And a very much bigger and more +dangerous one, moreover, as you'll see presently. It was little _he_ +had to fear from the barracoutas. In fact, he had just fixed one of +his longer tentacles on a vigorous four-foot barracouta, and was slowly +drawing him down within reach of the rest of the feelers, when Little +Sword's shining eyes alighted upon the struggle. + +"This particular Inkmaker was crouching in a sort of shallow basin +between rocks which were densely fringed with bright-striped weeds, +starry madrepores, and sea-anemones of every lovely color. Disturbed +by the struggle, however, the madrepores and anemones were nervously +closing up their living blooms. The Inkmaker, who always managed +somehow to have his own colors match his surroundings, so that his +hideous form would not show too plainly and frighten his victims away, +was now of a dirty pinkish-yellow, blotched and striped with +purplish-brown; and his tentacles were like a bunch of striped snakes. +Only his eyes never changed. They lay unwinking, two huge round lenses +of terrible and intense blackness, staring upwards from the base of the +writhing tentacles." + +The Babe shuddered again, and wished that the beautiful swordfish would +swim away as quickly as possible from the slimy horror. But he +refrained interrupting. It would be dreadful if Uncle Andy should get +annoyed and stop at this critical point! + +"When Little Sword saw those long feelers dragging the barracouta +down," went on Uncle Andy, after relighting his pipe, "he darted +forward like a blue flame and jabbed his sword right through the +nearest one." + +"Oh, ho!" cried the Babe, forgetting caution. "He remembered how the +barracouta had saved _him_!" + +"Not much!" grunted Uncle Andy. "There's no sentiment about a +swordfish, I can tell you. He'd have jabbed the barracouta, and eaten +him, too, just as quick as look, but he hated the Inkmaker, and could +not think of anything else. With a screwing backward pull he wrenched +his sword out of the feeler, which seemed hardly to notice the wound. +In the same instant another feeler snatched at him, for Mr. Inkmaker, +you know, had ten tentacles, every one of them spoiling for a fight. +It got only a slight hold, however, and Little Sword, whose strength +was now something amazing, tore himself clear with a great livid, +bleeding, burning patch on his side. + +"And now, raging mad though he was, a gleam of sense flashed into his +brain. He saw that it was not much use stabbing those tough tentacles. +Lurching forward as if to stand on his head he shot straight downward, +and drove his sword full length into one of those dreadful eyes. + +"In an instant three or four feelers closed upon him. But they were +now thrashing a little aimlessly, so that they did not work well +together. The monster was confused by that terrible, searching trust. +Little Sword was hampered by the feelers clutching at him, but he still +had room to use his weapon. With all his weight and quivering strength +he drove his sword again deep into the Inkmaker's head, twisting and +wrenching it sideways as he drew it out. Other tentacles closed over +him, but seemed to have lost their clutching power through the attack +upon the source of their nervous energy. The struggling barracouta was +drawn down with them, but blindly; and the water was now utterly black +with the rank ink which the monster was pumping forth. + +"For a few moments all was one boiling convulsion of fish and tentacles +and ink, Little Sword simply stabbing and stabbing at the soft mass +under his weapon. Then, all at once, the tentacles relaxed, falling +away as slack as seaweed. The barracouta, nearly spent, swam off +without even waiting to say 'Thank you.' And Little Sword coming to +his senses as he realized his victory, rose slowly out of the area of +the ink cloud. He knew that the Inkmaker's flesh was very good to eat, +and he merely waited for the cloud to settle before making a meal which +would completely satisfy his vengeance." + +The Babe was thoughtful for a few moments after Uncle Andy stopped +speaking. At length he said positively: + +"I'm glad we don't have any Inkmakers, either, in the lake." + +"Umph!" grunted Uncle Andy, "there are lots of things we don't have +that we can very well do without." + + + + +CHAPTER V + +ROCKED IN THE CRADLE OF THE DEEP + +Casting his flies across the eddying mouth of one of those cold streams +which feed the crystal bosom of Silverwater, Uncle Andy had landed a +magnificent pink-bellied trout--five pounds, if an ounce! + +"Hi, but isn't he a whopper?" he cried exultantly, holding up his prize +for the inspection of the Babe, who had been watching the struggle +breathlessly. + +"A--whopper?" repeated the Babe doubtfully. His idea of a whopper was +something that objectionable little boys have been known to tell in +order to get themselves out of a scrape. No full-fledged fisherman as +yet, he did not see what it could have to do with a trout. + +Uncle Andy seemed to divine his difficulty. + +"I mean," he explained, "isn't he a big one? _Tremendous_?" + +At this again the Babe looked doubtful. The fish was certainly a very +beautiful one; but to the Babe's eyes it did not seem in any way +remarkable for size. Yet he did not like to appear to disagree with +Uncle Andy. + +"Is it _big_?" he inquired politely. "Bill says there's some fish +bigger than a house." + +Uncle Andy looked at him askance. + +"Seems to me," said he, "you're mighty hard to please to-day. And, +anyhow, Bill talks nonsense. They're not fish, those monsters he was +telling you about. They're _whales_." + +"But they live in the water, don't they?" protested the Babe in +surprise. + +"Of course!" agreed Uncle Andy, wrapping his big trout up in wet grass +and seating himself on a handy log for a smoke. + +"Then why aren't they fish?" persisted the Babe, ever anxious to get to +the root of a matter. + +"Because they're not," replied Uncle Andy, impatient at having let +himself in for explanations, which he always disliked. "They're +animals, just as much as a dog or a muskrat." + +The Babe wrinkled his forehead in perplexity. And Uncle Andy relented. + +"You see," he continued, "they're not fish, because they cannot breathe +under water like fish can, but have to come to the surface for air, +just as we would have to. And they're not fish, because they nurse +their babies as a cow or a cat does. And--and there are lots of other +reasons." + +"What are the other reasons?" demanded the Babe eagerly. + +But Uncle Andy had felt himself getting into deep water. He adroitly +evaded the question. + +"Do you suppose this old trout here," said he, pointing to the grassy +bundle, "used to love and take care of its little ones, like the whale +I'm going to tell you about loved and took care of hers? No indeed! +The trout had hundreds of thousands, and liked nothing better than to +eat them whenever it got the chance. But the whale had only one--at a +time, that is--and she always used to think there was nothing else like +it in the world. There are lots of other mothers as foolish as that. +Yours, for instance, now." + +The Babe laughed. It pleased him when he understood one of Uncle +Andy's jokes--which was not always, by any means. He squatted himself +on the moss before the log, where he could stare straight up into Uncle +Andy's face with his blue, steady, expectant eyes. + +"It was a long way off from Silverwater," began Uncle Andy in a +far-away voice, and with a far-away look in his eyes, "that the whale +calf was born. It was up North, where the summer sun swung low over a +world of cold green seas, low grey shores, crumbling white ice-fields, +and floating mountains of ice that flashed with lovely, fairy-like +tints of palest blue and amethyst. The calf himself, with his slippery +greyish-black back and under-parts of a dirty cream color, was not +beautiful--though, of course, his mother thought him so, as he lay +nursing just under her great fin, rocked gently by the long, slow +Arctic swells." + +"What's Arctic swells?" interrupted the Babe, wrinkling his forehead +more than ever. He had a vision of tall, smart-looking Eskimos, in +wonderful furs; and it seemed to him very curious that the old mother +whale should be so tame as to let them come close enough to rock her +baby for her. + +"Rollers, I mean; Big waves!" grunted Uncle Andy discontentedly. "A +fellow has to be so extraordinarily literal with you to-day! Now, if +you interrupt again, I'll stop, and you can get Bill to tell you all +about it. As I was going to say, he--the calf, not Bill--was about +eight or nine feet long. He looked all head. And his head looked all +mouth. And his mouth--but you could not see into that for it was very +busy nursing. His mother, however, lay with her mouth half open, a +vast cavern of a mouth, nearly a third the length of her body--and it +looked all whalebone. For, you must know, she was of the ancient and +honorable family of the Right Whales, who scorn to grow any teeth, and +therefore must live on soup so to speak." + +Here he paused, and looked at the Babe as much as to say, "Now, I +suppose you're going to interrupt again, in spite of all I've said." +But the Babe, restraining his curiosity about the soup, only sat +staring at him with solemn eyes. So he went on. + +"You see, it was a most convenient kind of soup, a _live_ soup, that +they fed upon. The sea, in great spots and patches, is full of tiny +creatures, sometimes jelly-fish, sometimes little squid of various +kinds, all traveling in countless hosts from somewhere-or-other to +somewhere else, they know not why. As the great mother whale lay there +with her mouth open, these swarming little swimmers would calmly swim +into it, never dreaming that it was a mouth. There they would get +tangled among those long narrow strips or plates of whale-bone, with +their fringed edges. Every little while the whale would lazily close +her mouth, thrust forward her enormous fat tongue, and force the water +out through this whalebone sieve of hers. It was like draining a dish +of string beans through a colander. Having swallowed the mess of +jellyfish and squid, she would open her mouth again, and wait for +another lot to come in. It was a very easy and comfortable way to get +a bite of breakfast, while waiting for her baby to finish nursing. And +every little while, from the big blowhole or nostril on top of her head +she would 'spout,' or send up a spray-like jet of steamy breath. And +every little while, too, the big-headed baby under her flipper would +send up a baby spout, as if in imitation of his mother. + +"You must not think, however, that this lazy way of feeding was enough +to keep the vast frame of the mother whale (she was quite sixty feet +long: three times as long as Bill's shanty yonder) supplied with food. +This was just nibbling. When she felt that her baby had nursed enough, +she gave it a signal which it understood. It fell a little back along +her huge side. Then, lifting her enormous tail straight in the air, +she dived slowly downward into the pale, greenish glimmer of the deeper +tide, the calf keeping his place cleverly behind her protecting flipper. + +"Down here the minute life of the ocean waters swarmed more densely +than at the surface. Swimming slowly, the mother whale filled her +mouth again and again with the tiny darting squid, till she had +strained out and swallowed perhaps a ton of the pulpy provender. As +they felt the whalebone strainers closing about them, each one took +alarm and let fly a jet of inky fluid, as if thinking to hide itself +from Fate; and the dim green of the surrounding water grew clouded till +the calf could hardly see, and had to crowd close to his mother's side. +A twist or two of her mighty flukes, like the screw of an ocean liner, +drove her clear of this obscurity, and carried her, a moment later, +into a packed shoal of southward journeying capelin." + +The Babe's mouth opened for the natural question: "What's capelin?" + +But Uncle Andy got ahead of him. + +"That's a little fish something like a sardine," he explained hastily. +"And they travel in such countless numbers that sometimes a storm will +throw them ashore in long windrows like you see in a hay field, so that +the farmers come and cart them away for manure. Well, it did not take +long for the old whale to fill up even _her_ great stomach, when the +capelin were so numerous. She went ploughing through the shoal lazily, +and stopped at last to rub her little one softly with her flipper. + +"All at once she caught sight of a curious-looking creature swimming +just beneath the shoal of capelin, and every now and then opening its +mouth to gulp down a bushel or so of them. It was about fifteen feet +long, of a ghastly grayish white color, and from its snout stood +straight out a sharp, twisted horn perhaps six feet in length. It was +only a stupid narwhal, with no desire in the world to offend his +gigantic neighbor: but she was nervous at the sight of his horn, which +made her think of her dreaded enemy the swordfish. Tucking her baby +well under her fin, she made an hysterical rush at the unoffending +stranger. His little pig-like eyes blinked anxiously, and, darting off +at his best pace, he was speedily lost to view in the cloudy myriads of +the capelin. + +"Having now been under water for some twelve or fifteen minutes, the +mother whale knew that it was time for her baby to breathe +again--though she herself could have held on without fresh air for +another five or even ten minutes without much trouble." + +The Babe gasped. It was like a bad dream to him, the idea of going +along without a breath. + +"Oh, how it must hurt!" he burst forth. "I should think it would kill +them." + +"It would kill you, of course, in about two minutes," replied Uncle +Andy. "But they are built differently. They have a handy way of doing +up a lot of breathing all at once, and then not having to think any +more about it for a while. You can readily see what a convenience that +might be to them. + +"When they got back to the surface, they lay comfortably rocking among +the green swells, while they both blew all the used-up air and steam +out of their lungs. The feathery little jet of the calf rose gravely +beside his mother's high and graceful spout. The calf, always hungry, +because he had such a lot of growing to do and was in such a hurry to +do it, fell at once to nursing again, while the mother lay basking half +asleep. Overhead, some great white gulls flapped and screamed against +the sharp blue, now and then dropping with a splash to snatch some fish +from the transparent slope of a wave. A couple of hundred yards away +three seals lay basking on an ice-floe, and in the distance could be +seen other whales spouting. So the mother knew that she and her baby +were not alone in these wide bright spaces of sea and sky. + +"As a general rule, the great whale was apt to stay not more than two +or three minutes at the surface, but to spend most of her time in the +moderate depths. Now, however, with her big baby to nurse, she would +often linger basking at the surface till her appetite drove her to +activity. In general, also, she was apt to be rather careless about +keeping watch against her enemies. But now she was vigilant even when +she seemed asleep, and anything the least bit out of the ordinary was +enough to make her take alarm. As she lay sluggishly rocking, the +great blackish round of her head and back now all awash, now rising +like a reef above the waves, she suddenly caught sight of a white furry +head with a black tip to its nose, swiftly cleaving the water. She +knew it was only a white bear swimming, and she knew also that it was +not big enough to dare attack her calf. But with her foolish mother +fears she objected to its even being in the neighborhood. She swept +her dark bulk around so as to hide the little one from the white +swimmer's eyes, and lay glaring at him with suspicious fury. The bear, +however, hardly condescended to glance at her. He was after those +basking seals on the ice-floes. Presently he dived, a long, long dive, +and came up suddenly at the very edge of the ice, caught the nearest +seal by the throat just as they were all hurling themselves into the +water. + +"To this unhappy affair the old whale did not give so much as a second +look. So long as the bear kept a respectful distance from her precious +baby she didn't care how many silly seals he killed. + +"But presently she observed, far away among her spouting kindred, the +black, slow-moving shape of a steam whaler. In some past experience +she had learned that these strange creatures, which seemed to have +other creatures, very small, but very, very dangerous, inside of them, +were the most to be dreaded of all the whale's enemies. It was at +present too far off for her to take alarm, but she lay watching the +incomprehensible monster so sharply that she almost forgot to blow. +Presently she saw it crawl up quite close to the unsuspecting shape of +one of her kinsmen. A spiteful flame leapt from its head. Then a +sharp thunder came rapping across the waves, and she saw her giant +kinsman hurl himself clear into the air. He fell back with a terrific +splash, which set the monster rolling, and, for perhaps a minute, his +struggles lashed the sea into foam. Then he lay still, and soon she +saw him drawn slowly up till he clung close to the monster's side. +This unheard-of action filled her with a terror that was quite +sickening. Clutching her calf tremblingly under her fin she plunged +once more into the deep, and, traveling as fast as possible for the +little one, at a depth of perhaps two hundred feet, she headed for +another feeding ground where she trusted that the monster might not +follow. + +"When she came again to the surface, fifteen minutes later, the monster +and all her spouting kinsfolk were out of sight, hidden behind a +mile-long mountain of blue ice-berg. But she was not satisfied. +Remaining up less than two minutes, to give the calf time for breath, +she hurriedly plunged again and continued her journey. When this +manoeuver had been repeated half a dozen times she began to feel more +at ease. At last she came to a halt, and lay rocking in the seas just +off the mouth of a spacious rock-rimmed bay. + +"Here, as luck would have it, she found herself in the midst of the +food which she loved best. The leaden green of the swells was all +flushed and stained with pale pink. This unusual color was caused by +hordes of tiny, shrimplike creatures--distant cousins of those which +you like so well in a salad. The whale preferred them in the form of +soup, so she went sailing slowly through them with her cavernous mouth +very wide open. Every now and then she would shut her jaws and give +two or three great gulps, and her little eyes, away back at the base of +her skull, would almost twinkle with satisfaction. + +"But, as it appeared, she was not the only one that liked shrimps. The +air was full of wings and screams, where gulls, gannets, and skuas +swooped and splashed, quarrelling because they got in one another's way +at the feast. Also, here and there a heavy, sucking swirl on the +smooth slope of a wave would show where some very big fish was taking +toll of the pinky swarms. The whale kept her eye on these ponderous +swirls with a certain amount of suspicion, though not really +anticipating any danger here. + +"She was just about coming to the conclusion that one can have enough, +even of shrimps, when, glancing downwards, she caught sight of a long, +slender, deadly-looking shape slanting up toward her through a space of +clear water between the armies of the shrimps. She knew that grim +shape all too well, and it was darting straight at her baby, its +terrible sword standing out keen and straight from its pointed snout. + +"In spite of her immense bulk and apparently clumsy form, the whale was +capable of marvelously quick action. You see, except for her head she +was all one bundle of muscle. Swift as thought, she whipped herself +clear round, between her calf and the upward rush of the swordfish. +She was just in time. The thrust that would have gone clean through +the calf, splitting its heart in two, went deep into her own side. + +"Withdrawing his terrible weapon, the robber fish whirled about like +lightning and made a second dash at the coveted prize. But the mother, +holding the little one tight under her flipper, wheeled again in time +to intercept the attack, and again received the dreadful thrust in her +own flank. So swift was the swordfish (he was a kind of giant +mackerel, with all the mackerel's grace and fire and nimbleness) that +he seemed to be everywhere at once. The whale was kept spinning around +in a dizzy circle of foam, like a whirlpool, with the bewildered calf +on the inside. The mighty twisting thrusts of her tail, with its +flukes twenty feet wide, set the whole surface boiling for hundreds of +yards about. + +"At last, grown suddenly frantic with rage, with terror for her little +one, and with the pain of her wounds, the tormented mother broke into a +deep booming bellow, as of a hundred bulls. The mysterious sound sent +all the gulls screaming into the air, and frightened the basking +walruses on the ledges three miles away. Every seal that heard it +shuddered and dived, and an old white bear, prowling along the desolate +beach in search of dead fish, lifted his lean head and listened +nervously. + +"Only the swordfish paid no attention to that tremendous and desperate +cry. In the midst of it he made another rush, missed the calf by a +handbreadth, and buried his sword to the socket in the mother's side. + +"At this the old whale seemed to lose her wits. Still clutching the +terrified calf under one flipper, she stood straight on her head, so +that the head and half her body were below the surface, and fell to +lashing the water all around her with ponderous, deafening blows of her +tail. The huge concussions drove the swordfish from the surface, and +for a minute or two he swam around her in a wide circle, about twenty +feet down, trying to get the hang of these queer tactics. Then, swift +and smooth as a shadow, he shot in diagonally, well below the range of +those crashing strokes. His sword went clean through the body of the +calf, through its heart, killing it instantly, and at the same time +forcing it from its mother's hold. The lifeless but still quivering +form fixed thus firmly on his sword, he darted away with it, and was +instantly lost to view beyond the dense, churned hosts of the pink +shrimps. + +"For perhaps a minute the mother, as if bewildered by the violence of +her own exertions, seemed quite unaware of what had happened. At +length she stopped lashing the water, came slowly to the surface stared +about her in a dazed way, and once more bellowed forth her terrible +booming cry. Once more the seabirds sprang terrified to the upper air, +and the old white bear on the far-off shore lifted his head once more +to listen nervously." + +"And she never saw her baby any more," murmured the Babe mournfully. + +Uncle Andy snorted, disdaining to answer such a remark. + +"Oh, I wish somebody would do something to that swordfish," continued +the Babe. And he wiped a tear from his nose. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +TEDDY BEAR'S BEE TREE + +They were exploring the high slopes of the farther shore of +Silverwater. It had been an unusually long trip for the Babe's short +legs, and Uncle Andy had considerately called a halt, on the pretext +that it was time for a smoke. He knew that the Babe would trudge on +till he dropped in his tracks before acknowledging that he was tired. +A mossy boulder under the ethereal green shade of a silver birch +offered the kind of resting place--comfortable yet unkempt--which +appealed to Uncle Andy's taste; and there below, over a succession of +three low, wooded ridges, lay outspread the enchanting mirror of the +lake. Uncle Andy's pipe never tasted so good to him as when he could +smoke it to the accompaniment of a wide and eye-filling view. + +The Babe, who had squatted himself cross-legged on the turf at the foot +of the boulder, would have appreciated that superb view also, but that +his eager eyes had detected a pair of brown rabbits peering out at him +inquiringly from the fringes of a thicket of young firs. + +"Perhaps," he thought to himself, "if we keep very still indeed, +they'll come out and play." + +He was about to whisper this suggestion cautiously to Uncle Andy, when, +from somewhere in the trees behind them, came a loud sound of +scrambling, of claws scratching on bark, followed by a thud, a grunt, +and a whining, and then the crash of some heavy creature careering +through the underbrush. It paused within twenty or thirty paces of +them in its noisy flight, but the bushes were so thick that they could +not catch a glimpse of it. + +The rabbits vanished. The Babe, startled, shrank closer to his uncle's +knee, and stared up at him with round eyes of inquiry. + +"He's in a hurry, all right, and doesn't care who knows it!" chuckled +Uncle Andy. But his shaggy brows were knit in some perplexity. + +"Who's _he_?" demanded the Babe. + +"Well, now," protested Uncle Andy, as much as to say that the Babe +ought to have known that without asking, "you know there's nothing in +these woods big enough to make such a noise as that except a bear or a +moose. And a moose can't go up a tree. You heard that fellow fall +down out of a tree, didn't you?" + +"Why did he fall down out of the tree?" asked the Babe, in a tone of +great surprise. + +"That's just what I--" began Uncle Andy. But he was interrupted. + +"Oh! _Oh_! It's stung me!" cried the Babe shrilly, jumping to his +feet and slapping at his ear. His eyes filled with injured tears. + +Uncle Andy stared at him for a moment in grave reproof. Then he, too, +sprang up as if the boulder had suddenly grown red-hot, and pawed at +his hair with both hands, dropping his pipe. + +"Gee! I see why he fell down!" he cried. The Babe gave another cry, +clapped his hand to his leg where the stocking did not quite join the +short breeches, and began hopping up and down on one foot. A heavy, +pervasive hum was beginning to make itself heard. + +"Come!" yelled Uncle Andy, striking at his cheek angrily and ducking +his head as if he were going to butt something. He grabbed the Babe by +one arm and rushed him to the fir thicket where the rabbits had been. + +"Duck!" he ordered. "Down with you--flat!" And together they crawled +into the low-growing, dense-foliaged thicket, where they lay side by +side, face downwards. + +"They won't follow us in here," murmured Uncle Andy. "They don't like +thick bushes." + +"But I'm afraid--we've brought some in with us, Uncle Andy," replied +the Babe, trying very hard to keep the tears out of his voice. "I +think I hear one squealing and buzzing in my hair. _Oh_!" And he +clutched wildly at his leg. + +"You're right!" said Uncle Andy, his voice suddenly growing very stern +as a bee crawled over his collar and jabbed him with great earnestness +in the neck. He sat up. Several other bees were creeping over him, +seeking an effective spot to administer their fiery admonitions. But +he paid them no heed. They stung him where they would--while he was +quickly looking over the Babe's hair, jacket, sleeves, stockings, and +loose little trousers. He killed half a dozen of the angry crawlers +before they found a chance to do the Babe more damage. Then he pulled +out three stings, and applied moist earth from under the moss to each +red and anguished spot. + +The Babe looked up at him with a resolute little laugh, and shook +obstinately from the tip of his nose the tears which he would not +acknowledge by the attentions of his handkerchief or his fist. + +"Thank you _awfully_," he began politely. "But _oh_! Uncle Andy, your +poor eye is just dreadful. Oh-h-h!" + +"Yes, they _have_ been getting after me a bit," agreed Uncle Andy, +dealing firmly with his own assailants, now that the Babe was all +right. "But this jab under the eye is the only one that matters. +Here, see if you can get hold of the sting." + +The Babe's keen eyes and nimble little fingers captured it at once. +Then Uncle Andy plastered the spot with a daub of wet, black earth, and +peered over it solemnly at the Babe's swollen ear. He straightened his +grizzled hair, and tried to look as if nothing out of the way had +happened. + +"I wish I'd brought my pipe along," he muttered. "It's over there by +the rock. But I reckon it wouldn't be healthy for me to go and get it +just yet!" + +"What's made them so awful mad, do you suppose?" inquired the Babe, +nursing his wounds and listening uneasily to the vicious hum which +filled the air outside the thicket. + +"It's that fool bear!" replied Uncle Andy. "He's struck a bee tree too +tough for him to tear open, and he fooled at it just long enough to get +the bees good and savage. Then he quit in a hurry. And we'll just +have to stay here till the bees get cooled down." + +"How long'll that be?" inquired the Babe dismally. It was hard to sit +still in the hot fir thicket, with that burning, throbbing smart in his +ear and two little points of fierce ache in his leg. Uncle Andy was +far from happy himself; but he felt that the Babe, who had behaved very +well, must have his mind diverted. He fished out a letter from his +pocket, rolled himself, with his heavy pipe tobacco, a cigarette as +thick as his finger, and fell to puffing such huge clouds as would +discourage other bees from prying into the thicket. Then he remarked +irrelevantly but consolingly: + +"It isn't always, by any means, that the bees get the best of it this +way. Mostly it's the other way about. _This_ bear was a fool. But +there was Teddy Bear, now, a cub over the foothills of Sugar Loaf +Mountain, and _he_ was _not_ a fool. When he tackled his first bee +tree--and he was nothing but a cub, mind you--he pulled off the affair +in good shape. I wish it had been _these_ bees that he cleaned out." + +The Babe was so surprised that he let go of his leg for a moment. + +"Why?" he exclaimed, "how could a cub do what a big, strong, grown-up +bear couldn't manage?" He thought with a shudder how unequal _he_ +would be to such an undertaking. + +"You just wait and see!" admonished Uncle Andy, blowing furious clouds +from his monstrous cigarette. "It was about the end of the blue-berry +season when Teddy Bear lost his big, rusty-coated mother and small, +glossy black sister, and found himself completely alone in the world. +They had all three come down together from the high blue-berry patches +to the dark swamps to hunt for roots and fungi as a variation to their +fruit diet. The mother and sister had got caught together in a +deadfall--a dreadful trap which crushed them both flat in an instant. +Teddy Bear, some ten feet out of danger, had stared for two seconds in +frozen horror, and then raced away like mad with his mother's warning +screech hoarse in his ears. He knew by instinct that he would never +see the victims any more; and he was very unhappy and lonely. For a +whole day he moped, roaming restlessly about the high slopes and +refusing to eat, till at last he got so hungry that he just _had_ to +eat. Then he began to forget his grief a little, and devoted himself +to the business of finding a living. But from being the most +sunny-tempered of cubs he became all at once as peppery as could be. + +"As I have told you," continued Uncle Andy, peering at him with strange +solemnity over the mud patch beneath his swollen eye, "the blue-berries +were just about done. And as Teddy would not go down to the lower +lands again to hunt for other kinds of rations, he had to do a lot of +hustling to find enough blue-berries for his healthy young appetite. +Thus it came about that when one day, on an out-of-the-way corner of +the mountain, he stumbled upon a patch of belated berries--large, +plump, lapis-blue, and juicy--he fairly forgot himself in his greedy +excitement. He whimpered, he grunted, he wallowed as he fed. He had +no time to look where he was going. So, all of a sudden, he fell +straight through a thick fringe of blue-berry bushes and went sprawling +and clawing down the face of an almost perpendicular steep. + +"The distance of his fall was not far short of thirty feet, and he +brought up with a bump which left him not breath enough to squeal. The +ground was soft, however, with undergrowth and debris, and he had no +bones broken. In a couple of minutes he was busy licking himself all +over to make sure he was undamaged. Reassured on this point, he went +prowling in exploration of the place he had dropped into. + +"It was a sort of deep bowl, not more than forty feet across at the +bottom, and with its rocky sides so steep that Teddy Bear did not feel +at all encouraged to climb them. He went sniffing and peering around +the edges in the hope of finding some easier way of escape. +Disappointed in this, he lifted his black, alert little nose, and +stared longingly upwards, as if contemplating an effort to fly. + +"He saw no help in that direction; but his nostrils caught a savor +which for the moment put all thought of escape out of his head. It was +the warm, delectable smell of honey. Teddy Bear had never tasted +honey; but he needed no one to tell him it was good. Instantly he knew +that he was very hungry. And instead of wanting to find a way out of +the hole, all he wanted was to find out where that wonderful smell came +from. If he thought any more at all of the hole, it was only to be +glad he had had the great luck to fall into it. + +"From the deep soil at the bottom of the hole grew three big trees, +together with a certain amount of underbrush. Two of those were fir +trees, green and flourishing. The third was an old maple, with several +of its branches broken away. It was quite dead all down one side, +while on the other only a couple of branches put forth leaves. About a +small hole near the top of this dilapidated old tree Teddy Bear caught +sight of a lot of bees, coming and going. Then he knew where that +adorable smell came from. For though, as I think I have said, his +experience was extremely limited, his mother had managed to convey to +him an astonishing lot of useful and varied information. + +"Teddy Bear had an idea that bees, in spite of their altogether +diminutive size, were capable of making themselves unpleasant, and also +that they had a temper which was liable to go off at half-cock. +Nevertheless, being a bear of great decision, he lost no time in +wondering what he had better do. The moment he had convinced himself +that the honey was up that tree, up that tree he went to get it." + +"Oh!" cried the Babe, in tones of shuddering sympathy, as he felt at +his leg and his ear. "Oh! why _didn't_ he stop to think?" + +Uncle Andy did not seem to consider that this remark called for any +reply. He ignored it. Stopping just at this critical point he +proceeded with exasperating deliberation to roll himself another fat +and clumsy cigarette. Then he applied fresh earth to both the Babe's +stings and his own. At last he went on. + +"That tree must have been hollow a long way down, for almost as soon as +Teddy Bear's claws began to rattle on the bark the bees suspected +trouble and began to get excited. When he was not much more than +halfway up, and hanging to the rough bark with all his claws, +_biff_!--something sharp and very hot struck him in the nose. He +grunted, and almost let go in his surprise. Naturally, he wanted to +paw his nose--for _you_ know how it smarted!" + +"I guess _so_!" murmured the Babe in deepest sympathy, stroking the +patch of mud on his ear. + +"But that cub had naturally a level head. He knew that if he let go +with even one paw he would fall to the ground, because the trunk of the +tree at that point was so big he could not get a good hold upon it. So +he just dug his smarting nose into the bark and clawed himself around +to the other side of the tree, where the branches that were still green +sheltered him a bit, and there was a thick shadow from the nearest fir +tree, whose boughs interwove with those of the maple. Here the bees +didn't seem to notice him. He kept very still, listening to their +angry buzz till it had somewhat quieted down. Then, instead of going +about it with a noisy dash, as he had done before, he worked his way up +stealthily and slowly till he could crawl into the crotch of the first +branch. You see, that bear could learn a lesson. + +"Presently he stuck his nose around to see how near he was to the bees' +hole. He had just time to locate it--about seven or eight feet above +him--when again _biff_! And he was stung on the lip. He drew in his +head again quick, I can tell you--quick enough to catch that bee and +smash it. He _ate_ it, indignantly. And then he lay curled up in the +crotch for some minutes, gently pawing his sore little snout and +whimpering angrily. + +"The warm, sweet smell of the honey was very strong up there. And, +moreover, Teddy Bear's temper was now thoroughly aroused. Most cubs, +and some older bears, would have relinquished the adventure at this +point, for, as a rule, it takes a wise old bear to handle a bee tree +successfully. But Teddy Bear was no ordinary cub, let me tell you. He +lay nursing his anger and his nose till he had made up his mind what to +do. And then he set out to do it. + +"Hauling himself up softly from branch to branch, he made no more noise +than a shadow. As soon as he was right behind the bees' hole he +reached around, dug his claws into the edge of it, and pulled with all +his might. The edges were rotten, and a pawful of old wood came. So +did the bees! + +"They were onto him in a second. He grunted furiously, screwed his +eyes up tight, tucked his muzzle down under his left arm--which was +busy holding on--and reached around blindly for another pull. This +time he got a good grip, and he could feel something give. But the +fiery torture was too much for him. He drew in his paw, crouched back +into the crotch, and cuffed wildly at his own ears and face as well as +at the air, now thick with his assailants. The terrific hum they made +somewhat daunted him. For a few seconds he stood his ground, battling +frantically. Then, with an agility that you would never have dreamed +his chubby form to be capable of, he went swinging down from branch to +branch, whining and coughing and spluttering and squealing all the way. +From the lowest branch he slid down the trunk, his claws tearing the +bark and just clinging enough to break his fall. + +"Reaching the ground, he began to roll himself over and over in the dry +leaves and twigs till he had crushed out all the bees that clung in his +fur." + +"But why didn't the rest of the bees follow him? They followed this +other bear to-day!" protested the Babe feelingly. + +"Well, they didn't!" returned Uncle Andy quite shortly, with his +customary objection to being interrupted. Then he thought better of +it, and added amiably: "That's a sensible question--a very natural +question; and I'll give you the answer to it in half a minute. I've +got to tell you my yarn in my own way, you know--you ought to know it +by this time--but you'll see presently just why the bees acted so +differently in the two cases. + +"Well, as soon as Teddy Bear had got rid of his assailants he clawed +down through the leaves and twigs and moss--like _I_ did just now, you +remember, till he came to the damp, cool earth. Ah, how he dug his +smarting muzzle into it, and rooted in it, and rubbed it into his ears +and on his eyelids! till pretty soon--for the bee stings do not poison +a bear's blood as strongly as they poison us--he began to feel much +easier. As for the rest of his body--well, _those_ stings didn't +amount to much, you know, because his fur and his hide were both so +thick. + +"At last he sat up on his haunches and looked around. You should have +seen him!" + +"I'm glad I wasn't there, Uncle Andy," said the Babe, earnestly shaking +his head. But Uncle Andy paid no attention to the remark. + +"His muddy paws drooped over his breast, and his face was all stuck +over with leaves and moss and mud--" + +"_We_ must look funny, too," suggested the Babe, staring hard at the +black mud poultice under his uncle's swollen eye. But his uncle +refused to be diverted. + +"And his glossy fur was in a state of which his mother would have +strongly disapproved. But his twinkling little eyes burned with wrath +and determination. He sniffed again that honey smell. He stared up at +the bee tree, and noted that the opening was much larger than it had +been before his visit. A big crack extended from it for nearly two +feet down the trunk. Moreover, there did not seem to be so many bees +buzzing about the hole." + +The Babe's eyes grew so round with inquiry at this point that Uncle +Andy felt bound to explain. + +"You see, as soon as the bees got it into their cunning heads that +their enemy was going to succeed in breaking into their storehouse, +they decided that it was more important to save their treasures than to +fight the enemy. It's like when one's house is on fire. At first one +fights to put the fire out. When that's no use, then one thinks only +of saving the things. That's the principle the bees generally go upon. +At first they attack the enemy, in the hope of driving him off. But if +they find that he is going to succeed in breaking in and burglarizing +the place, then they fling themselves on the precious honey which they +have taken so much pains to store, and begin to stuff their honey sacks +as full as possible. All they think of then is to carry away enough to +keep them going while they are getting established in new quarters. +The trouble with the fool bear who has got us into this mess to-day was +that he tackled a bee tree where the outside wood was too strong for +him to rip open. The bees knew he couldn't get in at them, so they all +turned out after him, to give him a good lesson. When he got away +through the underbrush so quickly they just turned on us, because they +felt they must give a lesson to somebody." + +"_We_ didn't want to steal their old honey," muttered the Babe in an +injured voice. + +"Oh, I'm not so sure!" said Uncle Andy. "I shouldn't wonder if Bill +and I'd come over here some night and smoke the rascals out. But we +can wait. That's the difference between us and Teddy Bear. He +wouldn't even wait to clean the leaves off his face, he was so anxious +for that honey, and his revenge. + +"This time he went up the tree slowly and quietly, keeping out of sight +all the way. When he was exactly on a level with the entrance he +braced himself solidly, reached his right paw around the trunk like +lightning, got a fine hold on the edge of the new crack, and wrenched +with all his might. + +"A big strip of half-rotten wood came away so suddenly that Teddy Bear +nearly fell out of the tree. + +"A lot of bees came with it; and once more Teddy Bear's head was in a +swarm of little darting, piercing flames. But his blood was up. He +held onto that chunk of bee tree. A big piece of comb, dripping with +honey and crawling with bees, was sticking to it. Whimpering and +pawing at his face, he crunched a great mouthful of the comb, bees and +all. + +"Never had he tasted, never had he dreamed of, anything so delicious! +What was the pain of his smarting muzzle to that ecstatic mouthful? He +snatched another, which took all the rest of the comb. Then he flung +the piece of wood to the ground. + +"The bees, meanwhile--except those which had stung him and were now +crawling, stingless and soon to die, in his fur--had suddenly left him. +The whole interior of their hive was exposed to the glare of daylight, +and their one thought now was to save all they could. Teddy Bear's one +thought was to seize all he could. He clawed himself around boldly to +the front of the tree, plunged one greedy paw straight into the heart +of the hive, snatched forth a big, dripping, crawling comb, and fell to +munching it up as fast as possible--honey, bees, brood-comb, bee-bread, +all together indiscriminately. The distracted bees paid him no more +attention. They were too busy filling their honey sacks." + +The Babe smacked his lips. He was beginning to get pretty hungry +himself. + +"Well," continued Uncle Andy, "Teddy Bear chewed and chewed, finally +plunging his whole head into the sticky mess--getting a few stings, of +course, but never thinking of them--till he was just so gorged that he +couldn't hold another morsel. Then, very slowly and heavily, grunting +all the time, he climbed down the bee tree. He felt that he wanted to +go to sleep. When he reached the bottom he sat up on his haunches to +look around for some sort of a snug corner. His eyelids were swollen +with stings, but his little round stomach was swollen with honey, so he +didn't care a cent. His face was all daubed with honey, and earth, and +leaves, and dead bees. His whole body was a sight. And his claws were +so stuck up with honey and rotten wood and bark that he kept opening +and shutting them like a baby who has got a feather stuck to its +fingers and doesn't know what to do with it, But he was too sleepy to +bother about his appearance. He just waddled over to a sort of nook +between the roots of the next tree, curled up with his sticky nose +between his sticky paws, and was soon snoring." + +"And did he ever get out of that deep hole?" inquired the Babe, always +impatient of the abrupt way in which Uncle Andy was wont to end his +stories. + +"Of course he got out. He climbed out," answered Uncle Andy. "Do you +suppose a bear like that could be kept shut up long? And now I think +we might be getting out, too! I don't hear any more humming outside, +so I reckon the coast's about clear." + +He peered forth cautiously. + +"It's all right. Come along," he said. "And there's my pipe at the +foot of the rock, just where I dropped it," he added, in a tone of +great satisfaction. Then, with mud-patched, swollen faces, and crooked +but cheerful smiles, the two refugees emerged into the golden light of +the afternoon, and stretched themselves. But, as Uncle Andy surveyed +first the Babe and then himself in the unobstructed light, his smile +faded. + +"I'm afraid Bill's going to have the laugh on us when we get home!" +said he. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SNOWHOUSE BABY + +There had been a film of glass-clear ice that morning all round the +shores of Silverwater. It had melted as the sun climbed high into the +bland October blue; but in the air remained, even at midday, a crispness, +a tang, which set the Child's blood tingling. He drew the spicy breath +of the spruce forests as deep as possible into his little lungs, and +outraged the solemn silences with shouts and squeals of sheer ecstasy, +which Uncle Andy had not the heart to suppress. Then, all at once, he +remembered what the thrilling air, the gold and scarlet of the trees, the +fairy ice films, the whirr of the partridge wings, and the sharp cries of +the bluejays all meant. It meant that soon Uncle Andy would take him +back to town, the cabin under the hemlock would be boarded up. Bill the +Guide would go off to the lumber camps beyond the Ottanoonsis, and +Silverwater would be left to the snow and the solitude of winter. His +heart tightened with homesickness. Yet, after all, he reflected, during +the months of cold his beloved Silverwater would be none too friendly a +place, especially to such of the little furred and feathered folk as were +bold enough to linger about its shores. He shivered as he thought of the +difference winter must make to all the children of the wild. + +"Why so solemn all of a sudden?" asked Uncle Andy, eyeing him +suspiciously. "I thought a minute ago you'd take the whole roof off the +forest an' scare the old bull moose across the lake into shedding his new +antlers." + +"I was just thinking," answered the Child. + +"And does it hurt?" inquired Uncle Andy politely. + +But, young as he was, the Child had learned to ignore sarcasm--especially +Uncle Andy's, which he seldom understood. + +"I was just wondering," he replied, shaking his head thoughtfully, "what +the young ones of all the wild creatures would do in the winter to keep +warm. Bill says they all go to sleep. But I don't see how _that_ keeps +them warm, Uncle Andy." + +"Oh, _Bill_!" remarked Uncle Andy, in a tone which stripped all Bill's +statements of the last shreds of authority. "But, as a matter of fact, +there _aren't_ many youngsters around in the woods in winter--not enough +for you to be looking so solemn about. They're mostly born early enough +in spring and summer to be pretty well grown up by the time winter comes +on them." + +"Gee!" murmured the Child enviously. "I wish I could get grown up as +quick as that." + +Uncle Andy sniffed. + +"There are lots of people besides you," said he, "that don't know when +they're well off. But," he continued, seating himself on Bill's chopping +log and meditatively cleaning out his pipe bowl with a bit of chip, +"there _are_ some youngsters who have a fashion of getting themselves +born right in the worst of the cold weather--and that not here in +Silverwater neither, but way up north, where weather is weather, let me +tell you--where it gets so cold that, if you were foolish enough to cry, +the tears would all freeze instantly, till your eyes were shut up in a +regular ice jam." + +"I wouldn't cry," declared the Child. + +"No? But I don't want you to interrupt me any more." + +"Of course not," said the Child politely. Uncle Andy eyed him +searchingly, and then decided to go on. + +"Away up north," he began abruptly--and paused to light his pipe--"away +up north, as I was saying, it was just midwinter. It was also +midnight--which, in those latitudes, is another way of saying the same +thing. The land as far as eye could see in every direction was flat, +dead white, and smooth as a table, except for the long curving windrows +into which the hard snow had been licked up by weeks of screaming wind. +Just now the wind was still. The sky was like black steel sown with +diamonds, and the stars seemed to snap under the terrific cold. Suddenly +their bitter sparkle faded, and a delicate pale green glow spread itself, +opening like a fan, till it covered half the heavens. Almost immediately +the center of the base of the fan rolled itself up till the strange light +became an arch of intense radiance, the green tint shifting rapidly to +blue-white, violet, gold, and cherry rose. A moment more and the still +arch broke up into an incalculable array of upright spears of light, +pointing toward the zenith, and dancing swiftly from side to side with a +thin, mysterious rustle. They danced so for some minutes, ever changing +color, till suddenly they all melted back into the fan-shaped glow. And +the glow remained, throbbing softly as if breathless, uncertain whether +to die away or to go through the whole performance again." + +"I know--" began the Child, but checked himself at once with a +deprecating glance of apology. + +"Except for the dancing wonder of the light," continued Uncle Andy, +graciously pretending not to hear the interruption, "nothing stirred in +all that emptiness of naked space. Of life there was not the least sign +anywhere. This appeared the very home of death and intolerable cold. +Yet at one spot, between two little, almost indistinguishable ridges of +snow, might have been noticed a tiny wisp of vapor. If one had put his +face down close to the snow, so that the vapor came between his eyes and +the light, he would have made it out quite distinctly. And it would have +certainly seemed very puzzling that anything like steam should be coming +up out of that iron-bound expanse." + +Now the Child had once seen, in the depth of winter, a wreath of mist +arising from the snowy rim of an open spring, and for the life of him he +could not hold his tongue. + +"It was a boiling spring," he blurted out. + +Uncle Andy gazed at him for some seconds in a disconcerting silence, till +the Child felt himself no bigger than a minute. + +"It was a bear," he announced at length coldly. Then he was silent again. + +And the Child, mortified at having made such a bad guess, was silent too, +in spite of his pangs of curiosity at this startling assertion. + +"You see," went on Uncle Andy, after he was satisfied that the Child was +not going to interrupt again, at least for the moment, "you see, under +those two ridges of frozen snow there was a little cavern-like crevice in +the rock. It was sheltered perfectly from those terrific winds which +sometimes for days together would drive screaming over the levels. And +in this crevice, at the first heavy snowfall, a big white bear had curled +herself up to sleep. + +"She had had a good hunting season, with plenty of seals and salmon to +eat, and she was fat and comfortable. Though very drowsy, she did not go +quite to sleep at once, but for several days, in a dreamy half-doze, she +kept from time to time turning about and rearranging her bed. All the +time the snow was piling down into the crevice, till at last it was level +full and firmly packed. And in the meantime the old bear, in her sleepy +turnings, had managed to make herself a sort of snowhouse--decidedly +narrow, indeed, but wonderfully snug in its way. There was no room to +take exercise, of course, but that, after all, was about the last thing +she was thinking of. A day or two more and she was too fast asleep to do +anything but breathe. + +"The winter deepened, and storm after storm scourged the naked plain; and +the snow fell endlessly, till the snowhouse was buried away fairly out of +remembrance. The savage cold swept down noiselessly from outer space, +till, if there had been any such things as thermometers up there, the +mercury would have been frozen hard as steel and the thin spirit to a +sticky, ropy syrup. But even such cold as that could not get down to the +hidden snow-house where the old bear lay so sound asleep." + +The Child wagged his head wistfully at the picture, and then cheered +himself with the resolve to build just such a snowhouse in the back yard +that winter--if only there should fall enough snow. But he managed to +hold his tongue about it. + +"Just about the middle of the winter," went on Uncle Andy, after a pause +to see if the Child was going to interrupt him again, "the old bear began +to stir a little. She grumbled, and whimpered, and seemed to be having +uneasy dreams for a day or two. At last she half woke up--or perhaps a +little more than half. Then a little furry cub was born to her. She was +just about wide enough awake to tell him how glad she was to see him and +have him with her, and to lick him tenderly for a while, and to get him +nursing comfortably. When she had quite satisfied herself that he was a +cub to do her credit, she dozed off to sleep again without any anxiety +whatever. You see, there was not the least chance of his being stolen, +or falling downstairs, or getting into any mischief whatever. And that +was where she had a great advantage over lots of mothers whom we could, +think of if we tried." + +"But what made the steam, Uncle Andy?" broke in the Child, somewhat +irrelevantly. He had a way, sometimes rather exasperating to the +narrator, of never forgetting the loose ends in a narrative, and of +calling attention to them at unexpected moments. + +"Can't you see that for yourself?" grunted Uncle Andy impatiently. "It +was breath. Try to think for yourself a little. Well, as I was trying +to say, there was nothing much for the cub to do in the snowhouse but +nurse, sleep, and grow. To these three important but not exciting +affairs he devoted himself entirely. Neither to him nor to his big white +mother did it matter in the least whether the long Arctic gales roared +over their unseen roof, or the unimaginable Arctic cold groped for them +with noiseless fingers. Neither foe could reach them in their warm +refuge. Nothing at all, indeed, could find them, except, once in a +while, when the Northern Lights were dancing with unusual brilliance +across the sky, a dim, pallid glow, which would filter down through the +snow and allow the cub's eyes (if they happened to be open at the time) +to make out something of his mother's gigantic white form. + +"For the youngster of so huge a mother, the snowhouse baby was quite +absurdly small. But this defect, by sticking closely to his business, he +remedied with amazing rapidity. In fact, if his mother had cared to stay +awake long enough to watch, she could fairly have seen him grow. But, of +course, this growth was all at his mother's expense, seeing that he had +no food except her milk. So as he grew bigger and fatter, she grew +thinner and lanker, till you would hardly have recognized this long, +gaunt, white fur bag of bones for the plump beast of the previous autumn. + +"But all passes--even an Arctic winter. The sun began to make short +daily trips across the horizon. It got higher and higher, and hotter and +hotter. The snow began to melt, crumble, shrink upon itself. Up to +within a couple of hundred yards of the hidden snowhouse, what had seemed +to be solid land broke up and revealed itself as open sea, crowded with +huge ice cakes, and walrus, and seals. Sea birds came splashing and +screaming. And a wonderful thrill awoke in the air. + +"That thrill got down into the snowhouse--the roof of which was by this +time getting much thinner. The cub found himself much less sleepy. He +grew restless. He wanted to stretch his sturdy little legs to find out +what they were good for. His mother, too, woke up. She found herself so +hungry that there was no temptation to go to sleep again. Moreover, it +was beginning to feel too warm for comfort--that is, for a polar bear's +comfort, not for yours or mine--in the snowhouse. She got up and shook +herself. One wall of the snowhouse very civilly gave way a bit, allowing +her more room. But the roof, well supported by the rock, still held. +The snowhouse was full of a beautiful pale-blue light. + +"Just at this particular moment a little herd of walrus--two old bulls +and four cows with their fat, oily-looking calves--came sprawling, +floundering and grunting by. They were quite out of place on land, of +course, but for some reason known only to themselves they were crossing +over the narrow neck of low ground from another bay, half a mile away. +Perhaps the ice pack had been jammed in by wind and current on that side, +filling the shallow bay to the bottom and cutting the walrus off from +their feeding grounds. If not that, then it was some other equally +urgent reason, or the massive beasts, who can move on land only by a +series of violent and exhausting flops, would never have undertaken an +enterprise so formidable as a half-mile overland journey. They were +accomplishing it, however, with a vast deal of groaning and wheezing and +deep-throated grunting, when they arrived at the end of the crevice +wherein the snowhouse baby and his mother were concealed. + +"Lifting their huge, whiskered and tusked heads, and plunging forward +laboriously on their awkward nippers, the two old bulls went by, followed +by the ponderous cows with their lumpy, rolling calves. The hindermost +cow, a few feet to the right of the herd, came so close to the end of the +crevice that the edge of the snow gave way and her left nipper slipped +into it, throwing her forward upon her side. As she struggled to recover +herself, close beside her the snow was heaved up, and a terrible, +grinning white head emerged, followed by gigantic shoulders and huge, +claw-armed, battling paws. + +"This sudden and dreadful apparition startled the walrus cow into new +vigor, so that with a convulsive plunge she tore herself free of the +pitfall. For a couple of seconds the old bear towered above her, with +sagacious eyes taking in the whole situation. Then, judiciously ignoring +the mother, she sprang over her, treading her down into the snow, fell +upon the fat calf, and with one tremendous buffet broke its neck. + +"With a hoarse roar of grief and fury the cow wheeled upon her haunches, +reared her sprawling bulk aloft, and tried to throw herself upon the +slayer. The bear nimbly avoided the shock, and whirled round to see +where her cub was. Blinking at the light and dazed by the sudden uproar, +but full of curiosity, he was just crawling up out of the ruins of the +snowhouse. His mother dragged him forth by the scruff of the neck, and +with a heave of one paw sent him rolling over and over along the snow, a +dozen paces out of danger. At the same time something in her savage +growls conveyed to him a first lesson in that wholesome fear which it is +so well for the children of the wild to learn early. As he pulled +himself together and picked himself up he was still full of curiosity, +but at the same time he realized the absolute necessity for keeping out +of the way of something, whatever it was. + +"He soon saw what it was. At the cry of the bereaved mother the two +great walrus bulls had turned. Now, with curious, choked roars, which +seemed to tear their way with difficulty out of their deep chests, they +came floundering back to the rescue. The cub, a sure instinct asserting +itself at once, looked behind him to see that the path of escape was +clear. Then he sat up on his haunches, his twinkling little eyes +shifting back and forth between those mighty oncoming bulks and the long, +gaunt, white form of his mother. + +"For perhaps half a minute the old bear stood her ground, dodging the +clumsy but terrific onslaughts of the cow, and dealing her two or three +buffets which would have smashed in the skeleton of any creature less +tough than a walrus or an elephant. But she had no notion of risking her +health and the future of her baby by cultivating any more intimate +acquaintance with those two roaring mountains of blubber which were +bearing down upon her. When they were within just one more crashing +plunge, she briskly drew aside, whirled about, and trotted off to join +her cub. They were really so clumsy and slow, those walruses, that she +hardly cared to hurry. + +"For a few yards the two bulls pursued her; so she and the cub strolled +off together to a distance of some fifty paces, and there halted to see +what would happen next. Even creatures so dull-witted as those walrus +bulls could see they would waste their time if they undertook to chase +bears on dry land, so they turned back, grumbling under their long tusks, +and joined the cow in inspecting the body of the dead calf. Soon coming +to the conclusion that it was quite too dead to be worth bothering about, +they all three went floundering on after the other cows, who had by this +time got their own calves safely down to the water, and were swimming +about anxiously, as if they feared that the enemy might follow them even +into their own element. Then, after as brief an interval as discretion +seemed to require, the old bear led the way back, sniffed at the body of +the fat walrus calf, and crouched down beside it with a long _woof_ of +deepest satisfaction. For it is not often, let me tell you, that a polar +bear, ravenous after her long winter's fast, is lucky enough to make a +kill like that just at the very moment of coming out of her den." + +Uncle Andy knocked the ashes out of his pipe with that air of finality +which the Child knew so well, and sometimes found so disappointing'. + +"But what became of the snowhouse baby?" he urged. + +"Oh," replied Uncle Andy, getting up from the chopping-log, "you see, he +was no longer a snowhouse baby, because the snowhouse was all smashed up, +and also rapidly melting. Moreover, it was no longer winter, you know; +so he was just like lots of other wild babies, and went about getting +into trouble, and getting out again, and growing up, till at last, when +he was almost half as big as herself and _perfectly_ well able to take +care of himself, his mother chased him away and went off to find another +snowhouse." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +LITTLE SILK WING + +The first of the twilight over Silverwater. So ethereal were the thin +washes of palest orange and apple-green reflection spreading over the +surface of the lake, out beyond the fringe of alder bushes, so +bubble-like in delicacy the violet tones of the air among the trees, +just fading away into the moth-wing brown of dusk, that the Child was +afraid to ask even the briefest questions, lest his voice should break +the incomparable enchantment. Uncle Andy sat smoking, his eyes +withdrawn in a dream. From the other side of the point, quite out of +sight, where Bill was washing the dishes after the early camp supper, +came a soft clatter of tins. But the homely sound had no power to jar +the quiet. + +The magic of the hour took it, and transmuted it, and made it a note in +the chord of the great stillness. From the pale greenish vault of sky +came a long, faint twang as of a silver string, where the swoop of a +night hawk struck the tranced air to a moment's vibration. A minute or +two later the light splash of a small trout leaping, and then, from the +heart of the hemlock wood further down the shore, the mellow +_hoo-hoo-hoo-oo_ of a brown owl. + +The Child was squatting on the mossy turf and staring out, round-eyed, +across the water. Suddenly he jumped, clapped both grimy little hands +to his face, and piped a shrill "Oh!" A bat's wing had flittered past +his nose so close that he might have caught it in his teeth if he had +wanted to--_and_ been quick enough. + +Uncle Andy turned, took his pipe from his mouth with marked +deliberation, and eyed the Child severely. + +"What on earth's the matter?" he inquired, after a disapproving pause. + +"I thought it was trying to bite my nose," explained the Child +apologetically. + +"There's not very much to bite, you know," said Uncle Andy, in a +carping mood at having had his reveries disturbed. + +"I know it's pretty little, and turns up--rather," agreed the Child; +"but I don't want anything to bite it." + +"Nonsense!" said Uncle Andy. "Who'd want to?" + +"It was that bat!" declared the Child, pointing to the shadowy form +zigzagging over the fringe of bushes at the edge of the water. "He +came down and hit me right in the face--almost." + +"That bat bite you!" retorted Uncle Andy with a sniff of scorn. "Why, +he was doing you the most friendly turn he knew how. No doubt there +was a big mosquito just going to bite you, and that little chap there +snapped it up in time to save you. There are lots of folk beside bats +that get themselves misunderstood just when they are trying hardest to +do some good." + +"Oh, I see!" murmured the Child politely--which, of course, meant that +he did not see at all what Uncle Andy was driving at. "_Why_ do bats +get themselves misunderstood, Uncle Andy?" + +His uncle eyed him narrowly. He was always suspecting the Child of +making game of him--than which nothing could be further from the +Child's honest and rather matter-of-fact intentions. The question, to +be sure, was rather a poser. While he pondered a reply to +it--apparently absorbed in the task of relighting his pipe--the Child's +attention was diverted. And forever the question of why bats get +themselves misunderstood remained unanswered. + +The bat chanced at the moment to be zig-zagging only a dozen feet or so +away, when from the empty air above, as if created on the instant out +of nothingness, dropped a noiseless, shadowy shape of wings. It seemed +to catch the eccentric little flutterer fairly. But it didn't--for the +bat was a marvelous adept at dodging. With a lightning swerve it +emerged from under the great wings and darted behind Uncle Andy's head. +The baffled owl, not daring to come so near the hated man-creatures, +winnowed off in ghostly silence. + +At the same moment a tiny, quivering thing, like a dark leaf, floated +to the ground. There, instead of lying quiet like a leaf, it fluttered +softly. + +"What's that?" demanded the Child. + +"_Hush_!" ordered Uncle Andy in a peremptory whisper. + +The shadowy leaf on the ground continued to flutter, as if trying to +rise into the air. Presently the bat reappeared and circled over it. +A moment more and it dropped, touched the ground for a second with +wide, uplifted wings, and then sailed off again on a long, swift, +upward curve. The fluttering, shadowy leaf had disappeared. + +For once the Child had no questions ready. He had so much to ask about +all at once. His eyes like saucers with interrogation, he turned +appealingly to his uncle and said nothing. + +"That was the little one--one of the two little ones," said Uncle Andy +obligingly. + +"But what?--why?--" + +"You see," went on Uncle Andy, hastening to explain before he could be +overwhelmed, "your poor little friend was a mother bat, and she was +carrying her two young ones with her, clinging to her neck with their +wings, while she was busy hunting gnats and moths and protecting your +nose from mosquitoes. When the owl swooped on her, and so nearly +caught her, she dodged so violently that one of the little ones was +jerked from its hold. Being too young to fly, it could do nothing but +flutter to the ground and squat there, beating its wings till the +mother came to look for it. How she managed to pick it up again so +neatly, I can't say. But you saw for yourself how neat it was, eh?" + +The Child nodded his head vigorously and smacked his lips in agreement. + +"But why does she carry them around with her that way?" he inquired. +"It seems to me awfully dangerous. I don't think _I'd_ like it." + +He pictured to himself his own substantial mamma swooping erratically +through the air, with skirts flying out behind and himself clinging +precariously to her neck. And at the thought he felt a sinking +sensation at the pit of his stomach. + +"Well, you know, you're not a bat," said Uncle Andy sententiously. "If +you were you'd probably think it much pleasanter, and far _less_ +dangerous, than being left at home alone while your mother was out +swooping 'round after moths and June bugs.'" + +"Why?" demanded the Child promptly. + +"Well, you just listen a bit," answered Uncle Andy in his exasperating +way. He hated to answer any of the Child's most innocent questions +directly if he could get at them in a roundabout way. "Once upon a +time"--("Ugh!" thought the Child to himself, "_this_ is going to be a +fairy story!" But it wasn't). "Once upon a time," went on Uncle Andy +slowly, "there was a young bat--a baby bat so small you might have put +him into your mother's thimble. He lived high up in the peak of the +roof of an old barn down in the meadows beside the golden, rushing +waters of the Nashwaak stream, not more than five or six miles from +Fredericton. We'll call him Little Silk Wing." + +"_I_'ve been to Fredericton!" interjected the Child with an important +air. + +"Really!" said Uncle Andy. "Well, Little Silk Wing hadn't. And now, +who's going to tell this story, you or I?" + +"I won't interrupt any more!" said the Child penitently. "But why was +he called Little Silk Wing, Uncle Andy?" + +His uncle looked at him in despair. Then he answered, with unwonted +resignation, "His wings weren't really any silkier than those of his +tiny sister. But he got hold of the name _first_, that's all. So it +was his! + +"When the two were first born they were so tiny as to be quite +ridiculous--little shriveled, pale mites, that could do nothing but +hang to their mother's breasts, and nurse diligently, and grow. They +grew almost at once to the same color as their mother, plumped out till +they were so big as to be not quite lost in a thimble and developed a +marvelous power of clinging to their mother's body while she went +careering through the air in her dizzy evolutions. + +"But when they were big enough for their weight to be a serious +interference with their mother's hunting, then she was forced, most +reluctantly, to leave them at home sometimes. She would take them both +together into the narrow crevice between the top beam and the slope of +the roof, and there they would lie motionless, shrouded in their +exquisitely fine, mouse-colored wing membranes, and looking for all the +world like two little bits of dry wood. It was not always lonely for +them, because there were usually at least two or three grown-up bats +hanging by their toes from the edge of a nearby crack, taking brief +rest from the toil of their aerial chase. But it was always +monotonous, unless they were asleep. For all movement was rigorously +forbidden them, as being liable to betray them to some foe." + +"Why, what could get at them, away up there?" demanded the Child, to +whom the peak of a lead always seemed the remotest, most inaccessible, +and most mysterious of spots. + +"Wait and see!" answered Uncle Andy, with the air of an oracle. "Well, +one night a streak of moonlight, like a long white finger, came in +through a crack above and lit up those two tiny huddled shapes in their +crevice. It came so suddenly upon them that Little Silk Wing, under +the touch of that blue-white radiance, stirred uneasily and half +unfolded his wings. The movement caught the great, gleaming eyes of an +immense brown hunting spider who chanced at that moment to be prowling +down the underside of the roof. He was one of the kind that does not +spin webs, but catches its prey by stealing up and pouncing upon it. +He knew that a little bat, when young enough, was no stronger than a +big butterfly, and its blood would be quite good enough to suck. +Stealthily he crept down into the brightness of that narrow ray, +wondering whether the youngster was too big for him to tackle or not. +He made up his mind to have a go at it. In fact, he was just gathering +his immense, hairy legs beneath him for that fatal pounce of his, when +he was himself pounced upon by a flickering shadow, plucked from his +place, paralyzed by a bite through the thorax, and borne off to be +devoured at leisure by a big bat which had just come in." + +"Oh, I see," muttered the Child feelingly. He was himself a good deal +afraid of spiders, and he meant that he understood now why it was less +dangerous for little bats to go swinging wildly through the twilight +clinging to their mother's necks than to stay at home alone. + +But Uncle Andy paid no heed to the interruption. + +"On the following night," he continued, "Little Silk Wing and his +sister found themselves once more alone in the crevice at the end of +the beam. They knew nothing of the peril from which they had been +saved the night before, so they had learned no lesson. On this night +they were restless, for their mother had fluttered away, leaving them +both a little hungry. Hunting had been bad, and she had somewhat less +milk for them than their growing appetites demanded. When once more +that slender finger of moonlight, feeling its way through a chink in +the roof, fell upon them in their crevice, it was the little sister +this time that stirred and fluttered under its ghostly touch. She +stretched one wing clear out upon the beam, and it was with difficulty +that she restrained herself from giving vent to one of her +infinitesimally thin squeaks, tiny as a bead that would drop through +the eye of a needle. + +"There was no great prowling spider to catch sight of her to-night. +But a very hungry mouse, as it chanced, was just at that moment +tip-toeing along the beam, wondering what he could find that would be +good to eat. A lump of toasted cheese, or an old grease rag, or a +well-starched collar, or a lump of cold suet pudding would have suited +him nicely, but inexorable experience had taught him that such +delicacies were seldom to be found in the roof of the barn. Under the +circumstances, any old moth or beetle or spider, dead or alive, would +be better than nothing. + +"How his little black, beadlike eyes glistened as they fell upon that +frail membrane of a wing fluttering on the beam! He darted forward, +straight and swift as a weaver's shuttle, seized the delicate wing in +his strong white teeth, and dragged the baby bat from her hiding place. +Baby as she was, she was game. For one moment she sat up and chattered +angry defiance, in a voice like the winding of a watch, but so thin and +high-pitched that only a fine ear could have caught it. Then the mouse +seized her, bit her tiny neck through, and dragged her off, sprawling +limply, along the beam." + +The Child nodded vigorously. He needed nothing more to convince him of +the superior security of a life of travel and adventure, as compared +with the truly appalling perils of staying at home. + +"I see you take me!" said Uncle Andy approvingly. "But this, as you +will observe, was not Little Silk Wing, but his sister. For Little +Silk Wing life became now more interesting. Having only one baby left, +his mother was able to carry him with her wherever she went. And she +would not have left him alone again for the world, lest the unknown but +dreadful fate which had befallen his sister should overtake him also. + +"He was old enough and wide awake enough by this time to appreciate his +advantages. He could feel the thrill of his mother's long, swinging +swoops through the dewy coolness of the dusk. He could thrill in +sympathy with her excitement of the chase, when she went fluttering up +into the thin pallor of the upper air, following inexorably the +desperate circlings of some high-flying cockchafer. When she dropped +like lead to snap up some sluggish night moth, its wings were not yet +quite dry from the chrysalis, as he clung to the swaying grass tops, +his tiny eyes sparkled keenly. And when she went zigzagging, with +breathless speed and terrifying violence, to evade the noiseless attack +of the brown owl, he hung on to her neck with the tenacity of despair +and imagined that their last hour had come. But it hadn't, for his +mother was clever and expert. She had fooled many owls in her day. + +"This adventurous life of his, of course, was lived entirely at night. +During the day he slept, for the most part, folded in his mother's wing +membranes, while she hung by her toes from the edge of a warped board +in the warm goldy-brown shadows of the peak of the old barn. Outside, +along the high ridge pole, swallows, king birds, jays, and pigeons +gathered under the bright blue day to scream, chatter or coo their +ideas of life, each according to the speech of its kind. And sometimes +a cruel-eyed, hook-beaked, trim, well-bred looking hawk would perch +there on the roof--quite alone, let me tell you--and gaze around as if +wondering where all the other birds could have gone to! And once in a +while also a splendid white-headed eagle would come down out of the +blue, and wing low over the barn, and scream his thin, terrifying yelp, +as if he were hoping there might be something like spring lambs hidden +in the barn. But none of these things, affairs of the garish, +dazzling, common day, moved in the least the row of contented little +bats, all drowsing the useless hours of day away as they hung by their +toes in the soft gloom under the roof. They would wake up now and +again, to be sure, and squeak, and crowd each other a little. Or +perhaps rouse themselves enough to make a long and careful toilet, +combing their exquisitely fine fur with their delicate claws, and +passing every corner of the elastic silken membrane of their wings +daintily between their lips. But as for what went on in the gaudy +light on the outer side of the roof, it concerned them not at all. + +"But Little Silk Wing seems to have been born to illustrate the dangers +which beset the life of the stay-at-home. For two days there had been +an unwonted disturbance in the deep-grassed meadow that surrounded the +barn. There had been the clanking of harness, the long, shrill, +vibrant clatter of the scarlet mowing machine, the snorting of horses, +and the shouting and laughter of men turning the fresh hay with their +forks. Then came carts and children, with shrill laughter and screams +of merriment, and the hay was hauled into the barn, load after load, +fragrant, crackling with grasshoppers; and presently the mows began to +fill up till the men with the pitchforks, sweating over the hot work of +stowing the hay, came up beneath the eaves. + +"Reluctantly and indignantly the bats woke up. Some of them, as the +loads came in with noisy children on top, bestirred themselves +sufficiently to shake the sleep out of their eyes, unfold their draped +wings, flutter down into the daylight, and fly off to the peaceful +gloom of the nearest woods. + +"But the mother of Little Silk Wing was not so easily disturbed. She +opened her tiny black beads of eyes as wide as she could, but gave no +other sign of having noticed the invaders of the old barn's drowsy +peace. She had seen such excitement before, and never known any harm +to come of it. And she hated flying out into the full glare of the sun. + +"But there is such a thing, you know, as being a bit too calm and +self-possessed. As the hay got higher up in the mow, beyond the eaves, +and almost up to the level of the topmost beam, one of the farm hands +noticed the little bat hanging under the ridgepole. He was one of +those dull fools, not cruel at heart, perhaps, but utterly without +imagination, who, if they see something interesting, are apt to kill it +just because they don't know any other way to show their interest. He +up with the handle of his pitchfork and knocked the poor little mother +bat far out into the stubble." + +"_Oh_!" cried the Child. "Didn't it hurt her _dreadfully_?" + +"It killed her," replied Uncle Andy simply. "But by chance it didn't +hurt Little Silk Wing himself, as he clung desperately to her neck. +The children, with cries of sympathy and reprobation, rushed to pick up +the little dark body. But the black-and-white dog was ahead of them. +He raced in and snatched the queer thing up, gently enough, in his +teeth. But he let it drop again at once in huge surprise. It had come +apart. All of a sudden it was two bats instead of one. He couldn't +understand it at all. And neither could the children. And while they +stood staring--the black-and-white dog with his tongue hanging out and +his tail forgetting to wag, and the children with their eyes quite +round--Little Silk Wing fluttered up into the air, flew hesitatingly +this way and that for a moment till he felt sure of himself, and then +darted off to the shelter of those woods where he had so often +accompanied his mother on her hunting." + +The Child heaved a sigh of relief. "I'm so glad he got off," he +murmured. + +"I thought you would be. That's why he did," said Uncle Andy +enigmatically. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +A LITTLE ALIEN IN THE WILDERNESS + +It was too hot and clear and still that morning for the most expert of +fishermen to cast his fly with any hope of success. The broad +pale-green lily pads lay motionless on the unruffled breast of +Silverwater. Nowhere even the round ripple of a rising minnow broke +the blazing sheen of the lake. The air was so drowsy that those sparks +of concentrated energy, the dragonflies, forgot to chase their aerial +quarry and slept, blazing like amethysts, rubies and emeralds, on the +tops of the cattail rushes. Very lazily and without the slightest +reluctance, Uncle Andy ruled in his line, secured his cast, and leaned +his rod securely in a forked branch to await more favorable conditions +for his pet pastime. For the present it seemed to him that nothing +could be more delightful and more appropriate to the hour than to lie +under the thick-leaved maple at the top of the bank, and smoke and gaze +out in lotus-eating mood across the enchanted radiance of the water. +Even the Child, usually as restless as the dragonflies themselves or +those exponents of perpetual motion, the brown water skippers, was +lying on his back, quite still, and staring up with round, +contemplative blue eyes through the diaphanous green of the maple +leaves. + +Though his eyes were so very wide open, it was that extreme but +ephemeral openness which a child's eyes so frequently assume just +before closing up very tight. In fact, in just about three-eights of a +minute he would have been, in all probability, sound asleep, with a +rose-pink light, sifted through his eyelids, dancing joyously over his +dreams. But at that moment there came a strange cry from up the +sweeping curve of the shore--so strange a cry that the Child sat up +instantly very straight, and demanded, with a gasp, "What's that?" + +Uncle Andy did not answer for a moment. Perhaps it was because he was +so busy lighting his pipe, or perhaps he hoped to hear the sound again +before committing himself--for so experienced a woodsman as he was had +good reason to know that most of the creatures of the wild have many +different cries, and sometimes seem to imitate each other in the +strangest fashion. He had not long to wait. The wild voice sounded +again and again, so insistently, so appealingly that the Child became +greatly excited over it. The sound was something between the bleat of +an extraordinary, harsh-voiced kid and the scream of a badly frightened +mirganser, but more penetrating and more strident than either. + +"Oh, it's frightened, Uncle Andy!" exclaimed the Child. "What do you +think it is? What does it want? Let's go and see if we can't help it!" + +The pipe was drawing all right now, because Uncle Andy had made up his +mind. + +"It's nothing but a young fawn--a baby deer," he answered. "Evidently +it has got lost, and it's crying for its mother. With a voice like +that it ought to make her hear if she's anywhere alive--if a bear has +not jumped on her and broken her neck for her. Ah! there she comes," +he added, as the agitated bellowing of a doe sounded from further back +in the woods. The two cries answered each other at intervals for a +couple of minutes, rapidly nearing. And then they were silent. + +The Child heaved a sigh of relief. + +"I'm so glad he found his mother again!" he murmured. "It must be +terrible to be lost in the woods--to be _quite_ alone, and not know, +when you cried, whether it would be your mother or a bear that would +come running to you from under the black trees!" + +"I agree with you," said Uncle Andy, with unwonted heartiness. It was +not too often that he was able to agree completely with the Child's +suggestions in regard to the affairs of the wild. "Yes, indeed," he +added reminiscently; "I tried it myself once, when I was about your +age, away down in the Lower Ottanoonsis Valley, when the country +thereabouts was not settled like it is now. And I didn't like it at +all, let me tell you." + +"What came ?" demanded the Child breathlessly. "Was it your mother, or +a bear?" + +"Neither!" responded Uncle Andy. "It was Old Tom Saunders, Bill's +uncle--only he wasn't old, or Bill's uncle, at that time, as you may +imagine if you think about it." + +"Oh!" said the Child, a little disappointed. He had rather hoped it +was the bear, since he felt assured of his uncle's ultimate safety. + +"And I knew a little Jersey calf once," continued Uncle Andy, being now +fairly started in his reminiscences and unwilling to disappoint the +Child's unfailing thirst for a story, "in the same woods, who thought +she was lost when she wasn't, and made just as much noise over it as if +she had been. That, you see, was what made all the trouble. She was a +good deal of a fool at that time--which was not altogether to be +wondered at, seeing that she was only one day old; and when her mother +left her sleeping under a bush for a few minutes, while she went down +through the swamp to get a drink at the brook a couple of hundred feet +away, the little fool woke up and thought herself deserted. She set up +such a bleating as was bound to cause something to happen in that wild +neighborhood." + +"Yes!" said the Child, almost in a whisper. "And which came _this_ +time--her mother or the bear?" + +"Both!" replied Uncle Andy, most unexpectedly. + +"Oh!" gasped the Child, opening his mouth till it was as round as his +eyes. And for once he had not a single question ready. + +"You see, it was this way," went on Uncle Andy, prudently giving him no +time to think one up. "When the bear heard that noise he knew very +well that the calf was all alone. And, being hungry, he lost no time +in coming to seize the opportunity. What he didn't know was that the +mother was so near. Naturally, he would never think the calf would +make such a fuss if the mother were only down by the brook getting a +drink. So he came along through the bushes at a run, taking no +precautions whatever. And the mother came up from the brook at a run. +And they met in a little open spot, about fifty feet from where the +foolish calf stood, bawling under her bush. She stopped bawling and +stood staring when she saw the bear and her mother meet. + +"The bear was a big one, very hungry, and savage at the slightest hint +that his meal, right there in sight, was going to be interfered with. +The mother was a little fawn-colored Jersey cow, with short, sharp +horns pointing straight forward, and game to the last inch of her trim +make-up. Her fury, at sight of that black hulk approaching her foolish +young one, was nothing short of a madness. But it was not a blind +madness. She knew what she was doing, and was not going to let rage +lose her a single point in the game of life and death. + +"In spite of her disadvantage in being down the slope and so having to +charge straight uphill, she hurled herself at the enemy with a ferocity +that rather took him aback. He wheeled, settled upon his haunches, and +lifted a massive forepaw, to meet the attack of a blow that should +settle the affair at once. But the little cow was not to be caught so. +Almost as the bear delivered his lunging stroke she checked herself, +jumped aside with a nimbleness that no bull could have begun to match, +and sank both horns deep into her great antagonist's flank. Before she +could spring back again beyond his reach, however, with a harsh groan +he swung about, and with the readiness of an accomplished boxer brought +down his other forepaw across her neck, smashing the spine. Without a +sound the gallant little cow crumpled up and fell in a heap against the +bear's haunches. + +"Throwing her off violently, he struck her again and again, as if in a +panic. Then, realizing that she was quite dead, he drew away, bit +fiercely at the terrible wound in his flank, and dragged himself away, +whimpering. For the time, at least, his appetite was quite gone. + +"Uncomprehending, but very anxious, the calf had watched the swift +duel. The finish of it dismayed her, but, of course, she did not know +why. She could only feel that, in spite of the disappearance of the +bear, it was not altogether satisfactory. She had trembled +instinctively at sight of the bear. And now, curiously enough, she +trembled at the sight of her mother, lying there in a heap, so still." + +Uncle Andy's way of putting it was somehow so vivid that the Child +trembled too at that. + +"After a while," continued Uncle Andy, "when she saw that her mother +made no sign of rising and coming to her, she came staggering down from +her place under the bush, her long, awkward legs very difficult to +manage. Reaching her mother's side, she poked her coaxingly with her +wet little muzzle. Meeting no response, she poked her impatiently, and +even butted her. When even this brought no response, a sudden +overwhelming terror chilled her heart, and her weak knees almost gave +way. She had an impulse to run from this thing that looked like her +mother and smelled like her mother, and yet was evidently, after all, +not her mother. She was afraid to stay there. But she was also afraid +to go away. And then she just began to bawl again at the top of her +voice, for she was not only frightened and lonely, but also hungry. + +"Of course, everything in the woods for half a mile around heard her +bawling." + +And just here Uncle Andy had the heartlessness to pause and relight his +pipe. + +"And then--another bear came!" broke in the Child breathlessly. + +"No, not exactly," responded Uncle Andy at last. "Of course, lots of +things came to see what all that queer noise was about--stealthy +things, creeping up silently and peering with round bright eyes from +thickets and weed tufts. But the calf did not see or notice any of +these. All she saw was a tall, dark, ungainly looking, long-legged +creature, half as tall again as her mother had been, with no horns, a +long clumsy head, thick overhanging nose, and big splay hooves. She +didn't quite know whether to be frightened at this great, dark form or +not. But she stopped her noise, I can tell you. + +"Well, the tall stranger stood still, about thirty or forty paces away, +eyeing the calf with interest and the fawn-colored heap on the ground +with suspicion. Then, all at once, the calf forgot her fears. She was +so lonely, you know, and the stranger did not look at all like a bear. +So, with a little appealing _Bah_, she ran forward clumsily, straight +up to the tall stranger's side, paused a moment at the alien smell, and +then, with a cool impudence only possible at the age of twenty-five +hours, began to help herself to a dinner of fresh milk. The tall +stranger turned her great dark head far around, sniffed doubtfully for +a few seconds, and fell to licking the presumptuous one's back +assiduously." + +"I know," said the Child proudly. "It was a moose." + +"I'd have been ashamed of you," said Uncle Andy, "if you hadn't known +that at once from my description. Of course, it was a cow moose. But +where the calf's great piece of luck came in was in the fact that the +moose had lost her calf, just the day before, through its falling into +the river and being swept away by the rapids. Her heart, heavy with +grief and loneliness, her udder aching with the pressure of its milk, +she had been drawn up to see what manner of baby it was that dared to +cry its misery so openly here in the dangerous forest. + +"And when the calf adopted her so confidently, after a brief +shyness--the shyness of all wild things toward the creatures who have +come under man's care--she returned the compliment of adopting the calf. + +"After a little, when the calf had satisfied its appetite, she led it +away through the trees. It followed readily enough for a while--for +perhaps half a mile. Then it got tired, and stopped with its legs +sprawled apart, and bawled after her appealingly. At first she seemed +surprised at its tiring so soon. But with a resigned air she stopped. +The calf at once lay down and resolutely went to sleep. Its wild +mother, puzzled but patient, stood over it protectingly, licking its +silky coat (so much softer than her own little one's had been), and +smelling it all over as if unable to get used to the peculiar scent. +When it woke up she led it on again, this time for perhaps a good mile +before it began to protest against such incomprehensible activity. And +so, by easy stages and with many stops, she led the little alien on, +deep into her secret woods, and brought it, about sunset, to the shore +of a tiny secluded lake. + +"That same evening the farmer, looking for his strayed cow, came upon +the dead body on the slope above the stream. He saw the marks of the +fight and the tracks of the bear, and understood the story in part. +But he took it for granted that the bear, after killing the mother, had +completed the job by carrying off the calf. The tracks of the moose he +paid no attention to, never dreaming that they concerned him in the +least. But the bear he followed, vowing vengeance, till he lost the +trail in the gathering dusk, and had to turn home in a rage, consoling +himself with plans for bear traps. + +"In her home by the lake, caressed and tenderly cared for by her tall +new mother, the calf quickly forgot her real mother's fate. She forgot +about the whole affair except for one thing. She remembered to be +terribly afraid of bears--and that fear is indeed the beginning of +wisdom, as far as all the children of the wild are concerned. She +would start and tremble at sight of any particularly dense and bulky +shadow, and to come unexpectedly upon a big black stump was for some +weeks a painful experience. But the second step in wisdom--the value +of silence--she was very slow to learn. If her new mother got out of +her sight for half a minute she would begin bawling after her in a way +that must have been a great trial to the nerves of a reticent, +noiseless moose cow. The latter, moreover, could never get over the +idea that to cause all that noise some dreadful danger must be +threatening. She would come charging back on the run, her mane stiff +on her back and her eyes glaring, and she would hunt every thicket in +the neighborhood before she could feel quite reassured. Meanwhile, the +calf would look with wonder in her big, velvet-soft eyes, with probably +no slightest notion in her silly head as to what was making her new +mother so excited." + +"How inconvenient that they couldn't talk," exclaimed the Child, who +had great faith in the virtue of explanations. + +Uncle Andy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. + +"I suppose," he said, after a pause, "that the wild creatures _do_ talk +among themselves, more or less and after a fashion. But, you see, such +simple speech as the calf possessed was only what she had inherited, +and that, of course, was cow language and naturally unintelligible to a +moose. However, babies learn easily, and it was not long before she +and her new mother understood each other pretty well on most points of +importance. + +"There were wildcats and foxes and a pair of big, tuft-eared, wild-eyed +lynxes living about the lake, and these all came creeping up one after +another, under the cover of the thickets, to stare in amazement at the +alien little one so tenderly mothered by the great cow moose. They had +seen calves, on the farms of the settlement, and they regarded this one +not only with the greed of the hungry prowler, but with a particularly +cruel hostility as one of the retainers of feared and hated Man. But +for all their anger they took care not to thrust themselves upon the +attention of the moose. They appreciated too well the fury of her +mother wrath, the swiftness and deadliness of the stroke of her +knife-edged forehooves. They were not going to let their curiosity +obscure their discretion, you may be sure, like some of the childish +deer and antelope often do." + +"Why?" interrupted the Child eagerly, being all at once consumingly +anxious to know what the deer and antelope were curious about. But +Uncle Andy paid no attention whatever. + +"Then, one morning," he continued, "two other moose cows came along up +the lake shore, followed by their long-legged, shambling youngsters. +They stopped to discuss the condition of lily roots with their tall +sister; but at the sight of her nursing and petting and mothering a +_calf_--a baby of the cattle tribe whom they despised and hated for its +subservience to man and for living tamely behind fences, they became +quite disagreeable. They sniffed loudly and superciliously. The calf, +however, looking very small and neat and bright in her clean coat of +fawn color beside the gaunt, awkward moose babies, was not in the least +afraid of the disagreeable strangers. She pranced up boldly to +investigate them. + +"They wouldn't be investigated by the saucy little alien, and in a +moment of folly one of them struck at her. The foster mother had been +watching their attitude with jealous eyes and rising wrath, and now her +wrath exploded. With a hoarse bleat she sprang upon the offender and +sent her sprawling down the bank clean into the water. Then she turned +upon the other. But this one, with quick discretion, was already +trotting off hastily, followed by the two awkward youngsters. The +triumphant foster mother turned to the calf and anxiously smelled it +all over to make sure it had not been hurt. And the rash cow in the +water, boiling with wrath, but afraid to risk a second encounter, +picked herself up from among the lily pads and shambled off after her +retreating party. + +"As the summer deepened, however, the calf began to feel and act more +like a moose calf--to go silently and even to absorb some of her foster +mother's smell. The other moose began to get used to her, even quite +to tolerate her; and, the wild creatures generally ceased to regard her +as anything but a very unusual kind of moose. Of course, she _thought_ +she _was_ a moose. She grew strong, sleek and nimble-footed on her +foster mother's abundant milk, and presently learned to browse on the +tender leaves and twigs of the fresh green shrubbery. She soon, +however, found that the short, sweet grasses of the forest glades were +much more to her taste than any leaves or stringy twigs. But the lily +roots which her foster mother taught her to pull from the muddy lake +bottom, as they wallowed luxuriously side by side in the cool water, +defying flies and heat, suited her admirably. The great black moose +bulls--hornless at this season and fat and amiable as sheep--regarded +her with a reserved curiosity; and the moose calves, the strangeness of +her form and color once worn off, treated her with great respect. +Though she was so much smaller and lighter than they, her quickness on +her feet and her extremely handy way of butting made her easily master +of them all. Even the supercilious young cow who had been so +disagreeable to her at first grew indifferently friendly, and all was +peace around the secluded little lake. + +"Late one afternoon, however, when the shadows were getting long and +black across the forest glades, the peace was momentarily broken. The +calf was pasturing in one of the glades, while her foster mother was +wallowing and splashing down among the lilies. A bear creeping up +through the thickets so noiselessly that not even a sharp-eyed +chick-a-dee or a vigilant red squirrel took alarm, peered out between +the branches and saw the calf. + +"As luck would have it, it was the same old bear! He had recovered +from his wound, but naturally he had not forgotten the terrible horns +of the little fawn-colored Jersey cow. When he saw the fawn-colored +calf he flew into a rage, and hurled himself forth at her to avenge in +one stroke the bitter and humiliating memory. + +"But the calf was too quick for him. At the first crackling of the +branches behind her she had jumped away like a deer. From the corner +of her eye she saw the great black shape rushing upon her, and, with a +wild cry, half the bawl of a calf, half the bleat of a young moose, she +went racing, tail in air, down to the water, with the bear at her heels. + +"With a terrific splashing the cow moose hurried to the rescue. She +was a very big moose and she was in a very big rage; and very +formidable she looked as she came plowing her way to shore, sending up +the water in fountains before her. He knew well that a full-grown cow +moose was an awkward antagonist to tackle when she was in earnest. +This one seemed to him to be very much in earnest. He hesitated and +stopped his rush when about halfway down the bank. Caution began to +cool his vengeful humor. After all, it seemed there was really no luck +for him in a fawn-colored calf. He'd try a red one or a +black-and-white one next time. As he came to this conclusion, the +indignant moose came to shore. Whereupon, he wheeled with a grunt and +made off, just a little faster, perhaps, than was _quite_ consistent +with his dignity, into the darkness of the fir thickets. The moose, +with the coarse hair standing up stiffly along her neck, shook herself +and stood glaring after him. + +"Through the summer and autumn the calf found it altogether delightful +being a moose. As the cold began to bite her hair began to thicken up +a protection against it; but, nevertheless, with her thin, delicate +skin she felt it painfully. After the first heavy snowfall she had a +lot of trouble to get food, having to paw down through the snow for +every mouthful of withered grass. When the snow got to be three or +four feet deep, and her foster mother, along with a wide-antlered bull, +three other cows, and a couple of youngsters had trodden out a 'moose +yard' with its maze of winding alleys, her plight grew sore. All along +the bottom edges of these alleys she nibbled the dead grass and dry +herbage, and she tried to browse, like her companions, on the twigs of +poplar and birch. But the insufficient, unnatural food and the sharp +cold hit her hard. She would huddle up beneath her mother's belly or +crowd down among the rest of the herd for warmth, but long before +Christmas she had become a mere bag of bones." + +The Child shivered sympathetically. But, remembering the Snowhouse +Baby, he could not help inquiring: + +"Why didn't she make herself a house in the snow?" + +"Didn't know enough!" answered Uncle Andy shortly. "Did you ever hear +of any of the cow kind having sense enough for that? Well, it's a +pretty sure thing, you may take it, that she would never have pulled +through the winter if something unexpected hadn't happened to change +her luck. + +"It was the farmer--the one who had owned her mother, and who, of +course, really owned her, too. + +"With his hired man and a team of two powerful backwoods horses and a +big sled for axes and food, he had come back into the woods to cut the +heavy spruce timber which grew around the lake. A half-mile back from +the lake, on the opposite shore, he had his snug log camp and his warm +little barn full of hay. He and his man had everything they needed for +their comfort except fresh meat. And when they came upon the winding +paths of the 'moose yard' they knew they were not going to lack meat +for long. + +"On the following day, on snowshoes, the two men explored the 'yard,' +tramping along beside the deep-trodden trails. Soon they came upon the +herd, and marked the lofty antlers of the bull towering over a bunch of +low fir bushes. The farmer raised his heavy rifle. It was an easy +shot. He fired, and the antlered head went down. + +"At the sound of the shot and the fall of their trusted leader, the +herd scattered in panic, breasting down the walls of their paths and +floundering off through the deep snow. The two men stared after them +with interest, but made no motion for another shot, for it was against +the New Brunswick law to kill a cow moose, and if the farmer had +indulged himself in such a luxury it would have cost him a hundred +pounds by way of a fine. + +"Among the fleeing herd appeared a little fawn-colored beast, utterly +unlike any moose calf that the farmer or his man had ever heard of. It +was tremendously nimble at first, bouncing along at such a rate that it +was impossible to get a really good look at it. But its legs were much +too short for such a depth of snow, and before it had gone fifty yards +it was quite used up. It stopped, floundered on another couple of +yards, and then lay down quite helplessly. The two men hurried up. It +turned upon them a pair of large, melting, velvet eyes--frightened, +indeed, but not with that hopeless, desperate terror that comes to the +eyes of the wild creatures when they are trapped. + +"'Well, I'll be jiggered if that ain't old Blossom's calf that we made +sure the bear had carried off!' cried the farmer, striding up and +gently patting the calf's ribs. 'My, but you're poor!' he went on. +'They hain't used yer right out here in the woods, have they? I reckon +ye'll be a sight happier back home in the old barn.'" + +Uncle Andy knocked the ashes out of his pipe and stuck it back in his +pocket. + +"That's all!" said he, seeing that the Child still looked expectant. + +"But," protested the Child, "I want to know--" + +"Now, you know very well all the rest," said Uncle Andy. "What's the +use of my telling you how the calf was taken back to the settlement, +and got fat, and grew up to give rich milk like cream, as every good +Jersey should? You can think all that out for yourself, you know." + +"But the moose cow," persisted the Child. "Didn't she feel _dreadful_?" + +"Well," agreed Uncle Andy, "perhaps she did. But don't you go worrying +about that. She got over it. The next spring she had another calf, a +real moose calf, to look after, you know." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +WHAT HE SAW WHEN HE KEPT STILL + +The Child was beginning to feel that if he could not move very soon +he'd burst. + +Of course, under Uncle Andy's precise instructions he had settled +himself in the most comfortable position possible before starting upon +the tremendous undertaking of keeping perfectly still for a long time. +To hold oneself perfectly still and to keep the position as tirelessly +as the most patient of the wild creatures themselves--this, he had been +taught by Uncle Andy, was one of the first essentials to the +acquirement of true woodcraft, as only such stillness and such patience +could admit one to anything like a real view of the secrets of the +wild. Even the least shy of the wilderness folk are averse to going +about their private and personal affairs under the eyes of strangers, +and what the Child aspired to was the knowledge of how to catch them +off their guard. He would learn to see for himself how the rabbits and +the partridges, the woodchucks and the weasels, the red deer, the +porcupines, and all the other furtive folk who had their habitations +around the tranquil shores of Silverwater, were really accustomed to +behave themselves when they felt quite sure no one was looking. + +Before consenting to the Child's initiation, Uncle Andy had impressed +upon him with the greatest care the enormity of breaking the spell of +stillness by even the slightest and most innocent-seeming movement. + +"You see," had said Uncle Andy, "it's this way! When we get to the +place where we are going to hide and watch, you may think that we're +quite alone. But not so. From almost every bush, from surely every +thicket, there'll be at least one pair of bright eyes staring at +us--maybe several pairs. They'll be wondering what we've come for; +they'll be disliking us for being so clumsy and making such a racket, +and they'll be keeping just as still as so many stones in the hope that +we won't see them--except, of course, certain of the birds, which fly +in the open and are used to being seen, and don't care a hang for us +because they think us such poor creatures in not being able to fly--" + +At this point the Child had interrupted: + +"Wouldn't they be surprised," he murmured, "if we did?" + +"I expect they've got some surprises coming to them that way one of +these days!" agreed Uncle Andy. "But, as I was saying, we'll be well +watched ourselves for a while. But it's a curious thing about the wild +creatures, or at least about a great many of them, that for all their +keenness their eyes don't seem to _distinguish_ things as sharply as we +do. The very slightest movement they detect, sometimes at an +astonishing distance. But when a person is perfectly motionless for a +long time, they seem to confuse him with the stumps and stones and +bushes in a most amazing fashion. Perhaps it is that the eyes of some +of them have not as high a power of differentiation as ours. Perhaps +it is that when a fellow is a long time still they think he's dead. +We'll have to let the scientists work that out for us. But if you go +on the way you're beginning (and I'm bound to say you're doing very +well indeed, considering that you're not _very_ big), you'll often have +occasion to observe that some of the wild creatures, otherwise no +fools, are more afraid of a bit of colored rag fluttering in the wind +than of an able-bodied man who sits staring right at them, if only he +doesn't stir a finger. But only let him wiggle that finger, his very +littlest one, and off they'll be." + +The Child put his hand behind his back and wiggled his little finger +gently, smiling to think what sharp eyes it would take to see _that_ +motion. But his Uncle, as if divining his thoughts, went on to say: + +"It's not as if those sly, shy watchers were all in front of you, you +know. The suspicious eyes will be all around you. Perhaps it may be a +tiny wood-mouse peering from under a root two or three steps behind +you. You have been perfectly still, say, for ten minutes, and the +mouse is just beginning to think that you may be something quite +harmless. She rubs her whiskers, and is just about to come out when, +as likely as not, you move your fingers a little, behind your +back"--here the Child blushed guiltily, and thrust both his grimy +little fists well to the front--"feeling quite safe because you don't +see the movement yourself. + +"Well, the mouse sees it. She realizes at once that you aren't dead, +after all--in fact, that you're a dangerous deceiver. She wisks +indignantly back into her hole. Somebody else sees her alarm, and +follows her example, and in two seconds it's gone all about the place +that you're not a stump or a stone or a harmless dead thing waiting to +be nibbled at, but a terrible enemy lying in wait for them all. So you +see how important it is to keep still, with the real stillness of dead +things." + +The Child winked his eyes rapidly. "But I can't keep from _winking_, +Uncle Andy," he protested. "I'll promise not to wiggle my fingers or +wrinkle my nose. But if I don't wink my eyes sometimes they'll begin +to smart and get full of tears, and then I won't be able to see +anything--and then all the keeping still will be just wasted." + +"Of course, you won't be able to keep from winking," agreed Uncle Andy. +"And, of course, you won't be able to keep from _breathing_. But you +mustn't make a noise about either process." + +"How can I make a noise winking?" demanded the Child in a voice of +eager surprise. If such a thing were possible he wanted to learn how +at once. + +"Oh, nonsense!" returned Uncle Andy. "Now, listen to me! We're nearly +there, and I don't want to have to do any more talking, because the +quieter we are now the sooner the wild folk will get over their first +suspiciousness. Now, after we once get fixed, you won't move a muscle, +not even if two or three mosquitoes alight on you at once and begin to +help themselves?" + +"No!" agreed the Child confidently. He was accustomed to letting +mosquitoes bite him, just for the fun of seeing their gray, scrawny +bodies swell up and redden till they looked like rubies. + +"Well, we'll hope there won't be any mosquitoes!" said Uncle Andy +reassuringly. "And if a yellow-jacket lights on your sock and starts +to crawl up under the leg of your knickers, you won't stir?" + +"N-no!" agreed the Child, with somewhat less confidence. He had had +such an experience before, and remembered it with a pang. Then he +remembered that he had enough string in his pockets to tie up both legs +so securely that not the most enterprising of wasps could get under. +His confidence returned. "No, Uncle Andy!" he repeated, with earnest +resolution. + +"Umph! We'll see," grunted Uncle Andy doubtfully, not guessing what +the Child had in mind. But when he saw him, with serious face, fish +two bits of string from the miscellaneous museum of his pocket and +proceed to frustrate the problematical yellow-jacket he grinned +appreciatively. + +The place for the watching had been well chosen by Uncle Andy--a big +log to lean their backs against, a cushion of deep, dry moss to sit +upon, and a tiny, leafy sapling of silver poplar twinkling its +light-hung leaves just before their faces, to screen them a little +without interfering with their view. Their legs, to be sure, stuck out +beyond the screen of the poplar sapling, in plain sight of every forest +wayfarer. But legs were of little consequence so long as they were not +allowed to kick. + +For just about a minute the Child found it easy to keep still. In the +second minute his nose itched, and he began to wonder how long they had +been there. In the third minute he realized that there was a hard +little stick in the moss that he was sitting on. In the fourth minute +it became a big stick, and terribly sharp, so that he began to wonder +if it would pierce right through him and make him a cripple for life. +He feared that perhaps Uncle Andy had never thought of a danger like +this, and he felt that he ought to call attention to it. But before he +had quite made up his mind to such a desperate measure the fifth minute +came--and with it the yellow-and-black wasp, which made the Child +forget all about the stick in the moss. The wasp alighted on the red, +mosquito-bitten, naked skin above the top of the Child's sock, and +then, sure enough, started to go exploring up under the leg of his +knickers. The Child felt nervous for a moment--and then triumphant. +He just saved himself from laughing out loud at the thought of how he +had fooled the inquisitive insect. + +And so passed the fifth and sixth minutes. The seventh and eighth were +absorbed in bitter doubts of Uncle Andy. The Child felt quite sure +that he had been quite still for at least an hour. If nothing +interesting had happened in all that time, then nothing interesting was +going to happen, nothing interesting could happen. An awful distrust +assailed him. Was it possible that Uncle Andy had merely adopted this +base means of teaching him to keep still? Was it possible that even +now Uncle Andy (whose face was turned the other way) was either +laughing deeply in his sleeve or sleeping the undeservedly peaceful +sleep of the successful deceiver? + +To do the Child justice, he felt ashamed of such doubts as soon as he +had fairly confronted himself with them. Then, in the ninth minute, +both legs began to fill up with pins and needles. This occupied his +attention. It was an axiom with him that under such painful conditions +one should at once get up and move around. Placed thus between two +directly conflicting duties, his conscience was torn. Then he +remembered his promise. His grit was good, and he determined to keep +his promise at all costs, no matter at what fatal consequence to his +legs. And he derived considerable comfort from the thought that, if +his leg should never be any use any more, his Uncle Andy would at least +be stricken with remorse. + +Then, as the tenth minute dragged its enormous, trailing length along, +came that terrible feeling already alluded to--that he must either move +or burst. With poignant self-pity he argued the two desperate +alternatives within his soul. But, fortunately for him, before he felt +himself obliged to come to any final decision, something happened, and +his pain and doubts were forgotten. + +Two big yellow-gray snowshoe rabbits came hopping lazily past, one just +ahead of the other. One jumped clean over Uncle Andy's out-stretched +feet, as if they were of no account or interest whatever to a rabbit. +The other stopped and thumped vigorously on the ground with his strong +hind foot. At this signal the first one also stopped. They both sat +up on their haunches, ears thrust forward in intense interrogation, and +gazed at the two moveless figures behind the poplar sapling. + +The one immediately in front of him absorbed all the Child's attention. +Its great, bulging eyes surveyed him from head to foot, at first with +some alarm, then with half-contemptuous curiosity. Its immensely long +ears see-sawed meditatively, and its queer three-cornered mouth +twinkled incessantly as if it were talking to itself. At last, +apparently having decided that the Child was nothing worth taking +further notice of, it dropped on all fours, nibbled at a leaf, +discarded it, and hopped off to find more tasty provender. Its +companion, having "sized up" Uncle Andy in the same way, presently +followed. But being of the more suspicious disposition, it stopped +from time to time to glance back and assure itself that the strange, +motionless things behind the poplar sapling were not attempting to +follow it. + +The Child was immensely interested. He thought of a lot of questions +to ask as soon as he should be allowed to speak, and he resolved to +remember every one of them. But just as he was getting them arranged a +small, low, long-bodied, snaky-slim, yellowish beast came gliding by +and drove them all clean out of his head. It was a weasel. It almost +bumped into the Child's feet before it noticed them. Then it jumped +back, showing its keen teeth in a soundless snarl of its narrow, +pointed muzzle, and surveyed the Child with the cruellest little eyes +that he had ever even imagined. The savage eyes stared him full in the +face, a red light like a deep-buried spark coming into them, till he +thought the creature was going to spring at his throat. Then gradually +the spark died out, as the little furry reassured itself. The +triangular face turned aside. The working, restless nose sniffed +sharply, catching the fresh scent of the two rabbits, and in the next +instant the creature was off, in long, noiseless bounds, upon the hot +trail. The Child knew enough of woodcraft to realize at once the +meaning of its sudden departure, and he murmured sympathetically in his +heart, "Oh, I do hope he won't catch them!" + +All thoughts of the weasel and the rabbits, however, were speedily +driven from his mind, for at this moment he noticed a fat, yellowish +grub, with a chestnut-colored head, crawling up his sleeve. He hated +grubs, and wondered anxiously if it had any unpleasant design of +crawling down his neck. He squirmed inwardly at the idea. But just as +he was coming to the conclusion that _that_ was something he'd _never_ +be able to stand, a most unexpected ally came to his rescue. With a +blow that _almost_ made him jump out of his jacket, something lit on +the fat grub. It was a big black hornet, with white bands across its +shining body. She gave the grub a tiny prick with the tip of her +envenomed sting, which caused it to roll up into a tight ball and lie +still. Then straddling it, and holding it in place with her front pair +of legs, she cut into it with her powerful mandibles and began to suck +its juices. The Child's nose wrinkled in spite of himself at sight of +this unalluring banquet, but he stared with all eyes. There was +something terrifying to him in the swiftness and efficiency of the +great hornet. Presently the grub, not having received quite a big +enough dose of its captor's anaesthetic, came to under the devouring +jaws and began to lash out convulsively. Another touch of the medicine +in the hornet's tail, however, promptly put a stop to that, and once +more it tightened up into an unresisting ball. Then straddling it +again firmly, and handling it cleverly with its front legs as a raccoon +might handle a big apple, she bit into it here and there, sucking +eagerly with a quick, pumping motion of her body. The fat ball got +smaller and smaller, till soon it was very little bigger than an +ordinary sweet pea. The hornet turned it over and over impatiently, to +see if anything more was to be got out of it; then she spurned it +aside, and bounced into the air with a deep hum. She had certainly +been very amusing, but the Child drew a breath of relief when she was +gone. He had caught the copper-red flicker of her sting, as it barely +touched the victim, and it seemed to him like a jet of live flame. + +When the hornet was gone the Child began once more to remember that +little stick in the soft moss beneath him. How had he ever forgotten +it? He decided that he must have been sitting on it for hours and +hours. But just as it was beginning fairly to burn its way into his +flesh, a queer little rushing sound close at his side brought his heart +into his throat. It was such a vicious, menacing little sound. +Glancing down, he saw that a tiny wood-mouse had darted upon a big +brown-winged butterfly and captured it. The big wings flapped +pathetically for a few seconds; but the mouse bit them off, to save +herself the bother of lagging useless material home to her burrow. She +was so near that the Child could have touched her by reaching out his +hand. But she took no more notice of him than if he had been a rotten +stump. Less, in fact, for she might have tried to gnaw into him if he +had been a rotten stump, in the hope of finding some wood-grubs. + +The mouse dragged away the velvety body of the butterfly to her hole +under the roots. She was no more than just in time, for no sooner was +she out of sight than along came a fierce-eyed little shrew-mouse, the +most audacious and pugnacious of the mouse tribe, who would undoubtedly +have robbed her of her prey, and perhaps made a meal of her at the same +time. He nosed at the wings of the butterfly, nibbled at them, decided +they were no good, and then came ambling over to the Child's feet. +Shoe-leather! That was something quite new to him. He nibbled at it, +didn't seem to think much of it, crept along up to the top of the shoe, +sniffed at the sock, and came at last plump upon the Child's bare leg. +"Was he going to try a nibble at that, too?" wondered the Child +anxiously, his blue eyes getting very big and round. But no. This +live, human flesh--_unmistakably_ alive--and the startling Man smell of +it, were too much for the nerves of his shrewship. With a squeak of +indignation and alarm he sprang backward and scurried off among the +weed-stalks. + +"_There_, now!" thought the Child, in intense vexation. "He's gone and +given the alarm!" But, as good luck would have it, he had done nothing +of the kind. For a red fox, trotting past just then at a distance of +not more than ten or a dozen feet, served to all observers as a more +than ample explanation of the shrew's abrupt departure. The fox turned +his head at the sound of the scurry and squeak, and very naturally +attributed it to his own appearance on the scene. But at the same time +he caught sight of those two motionless human shapes sitting rigid +behind the poplar sapling. They were so near that his nerves received +a shock. He jumped about ten feet; and then, recovering himself with +immense self-possession, he sat up on his haunches to investigate. Of +course, he was quite familiar with human beings and their ways, and he +knew that they never kept still in that unnatural fashion unless they +were either asleep or dead. After a searching scrutiny--head sagely to +one side and mouth engagingly half open--he decided that they might be +either dead or asleep, whichever they chose, for all he cared. He rose +to his feet and trotted off with great deliberation, leaving on the +still air a faint, half-musky odor which the Child's nostrils were keen +enough to detect. As he went a bluejay which had been sitting on the +top of a near-by tree caught sight of him, darted down, and flew along +after him, uttering harsh screeches of warning to the rest of the small +folk of the wilderness. It is not pleasant even in the wilderness to +have "Stop thief! Stop thief! Thief! Thief! Thief!" screeched after +you by a bluejay. And the fox glanced up at the noisy bird as if he +would have been ready to give two fat geese and a whole litter of +rabbits for the pleasure of crunching her impudent neck. + +All this while there had been other birds in view besides the +bluejay--chick-a-dees and nut-hatches hunting their tiny prey among the +dark branches of the fir-trees, Canada sparrows fluting their clear +call from the tree tops, flycatchers darting and tumbling in their +zig-zag, erratic flights, and sometimes a big golden-wing woodpecker +running up and down a tall, dead trunk which stood close by, and +_rat-tat-tat-tatting_ in a most businesslike and determined manner. +But the Child was not, as a rule, so interested in birds as in the +four-footed kindreds. Just now, however, a bird came on the scene +which interested him extremely. It was a birch-partridge (or ruffled +grouse) hen, accompanied by a big brood of her tiny, nimble chicks. +They looked no bigger than chestnuts as they swarmed about her, +crowding to snatch the dainties which she kept turning up for them. +The Child watched them with fascinated eyes, not understanding how +things so tiny and so frail as these chicks could be so amazingly quick +and strong in their movements. Suddenly, at a little distance through +the bushes, he caught sight of the red fox coming back, with an air of +having forgotten something. The Child longed to warn the little +partridge mother, but, realizing that he must not, he waited with +thumping heart for a tragedy to be enacted before him. + +He had no need to worry, however. The little mother saw the fox before +he caught sight of her. The Child saw her stiffen herself suddenly, +with a low _chit_ of warning which sounded as if it might have come +from anywhere. On the instant every chick had vanished. The Child +realized that it was impossible for even such active creatures as they +were to have run away so quickly as all that. So he knew that they had +just made themselves invisible by squatting absolutely motionless among +the twigs and moss which they so exactly resembled in coloring. + +The fox, meanwhile, had been gazing around in every direction but the +right one, to try and see where that partridge cry had come from. He +liked partridge, and it was some time since he had had any. All at +once he was surprised and pleased to see a hen partridge, apparently +badly wounded, drop fluttering on the moss almost under his nose. He +sprang forward to seize her, but she managed to flutter feebly out of +his reach. It was obviously her last effort, and he was not in the +least discouraged. She proved, however, to have many such last +efforts, and the last the Child saw of the fox he was still hopefully +jumping at her, as he disappeared from view among the underbrush. +About three minutes later there was a hard whirr of wings, and the +triumphant little mother reappeared. She alighted on the very spot +whence she had first caught sight of the fox, stood for a moment +stiffly erect, while she stared about her with keen, bright eyes, and +then she gave a soft little call. Instantly the chicks were all about +her, apparently springing up out of the ground as at the utterance of a +spell. And proudly she led them away to another feeding ground. + +What more the Child might have seen had time been allowed him will +never be known, for now the session was interrupted. He was hoping for +a porcupine to come by, or a deer, or a moose. He was half-hoping, +half-fearing that it might be a bear, or a big Canadian lynx with +dreadful eyes and tufted ears. But before any of these more formidable +wonders arrived he heard a sound of rushing--of eager, desperate +flight. Then a rabbit came into view--he felt sure it was one of the +two who appeared at the beginning of his watch. The poor beast was +plainly in an ecstasy of terror, running violently, but as it were +aimlessly, and every now and then stopping short, all of a-tremble, as +if despair were robbing it of its powers. It ran straight past the +poplar sapling, swerved off to the right, and disappeared; but the +Child could hear the sound of its going and perceived that it was +making a circle. A couple of seconds later came the weasel, running +with its nose in the air, as if catching the scent from the air rather +than from the fugitive's tracks. + +The weasel did not seem to be in any hurry at all. It was the picture +of cool, deadly, implacable determination. And the Child hated it +savagely. Just opposite the poplar sapling it paused, seeming to +listen. Then it bounded into the bushes on a short circle, saving +itself unnecessary effort, as if it had accurately estimated the +tactics of its panic-stricken quarry. A few moments later the rabbit +reappeared, running frantically. Just as it came once more before the +poplar sapling--not more than a couple of yards from the Child's feet, +out from under a neighboring bush sprang the weasel, confronting it +fairly. With a scream the rabbit stopped short and crouched in its +tracks, quivering, to receive its doom. + +The weasel leaped straight at its victim's throat. But it never +arrived. For at that moment the Child gave vent to a shrill yell of +indignation and jumped at the slayer with hands, eyes and mouth wide +open. He made such a picture that Uncle Andy exploded. The astonished +weasel vanished. The rabbit, shocked back into its senses, vanished +also, but in another direction. And the Child, pulling himself +together, turned to his uncle with a very red face. + +"I'm sorry!" he said sheepishly. "I'm so sorry, Uncle Andy. But I +just _couldn't_ help it. I didn't think." + +"Oh, well!" said Uncle Andy, getting up and stretching, and rubbing his +stiffened legs tenderly. "I can't say that I blame you I came mighty +near doing the same thing myself when that fool of a rabbit squealed." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +THE LITTLE VILLAGER AND HIS UNFRIENDLY GUESTS + +Across the still surface of Silverwater, a-gleam in the amber and +violet dusk, came a deep booming call, hollow and melancholy and +indescribably wild. _Tooh-hoo-oo-whooh-ooh-oo_, and again +_whooh-ooh-ooh-oo_, it sounded; and though the evening was warm the +Child gave a little shiver of delicious awe, as he always did when he +heard the sunset summons of the great horned owl. + +"That's a bad fellow for you, the Big Horned Owl," growled Uncle Andy. +"He's worse than a weasel, and that's a hard thing to say about any of +the wild folk. He's everybody's enemy, and always ready to kill much +more than he can eat." + +"_Some_ owls aren't bad," suggested the Child. He had a soft spot in +his heart for owls, because they were so downy, and had such round +faces and such round eyes, and looked as if they thought of such +wonderful, mysterious things which they would never tell. + +"How do you know that?" demanded Uncle Andy suspiciously. "Mind, I'm +not saying off-hand that it isn't so, but I'd like to know where you +get your information." + +"Bill told me," said the Child, with more confidence in his tones than +he usually accorded to this authority. + +"Oh, Bill!" sniffed Uncle Andy. "And haven't you got used to Billy's +fairy stories yet?" + +There was an obstinate look in the Child's earnest blue eyes which +showed that this time the imaginative guide had told him a tale which +he was unwilling to discredit. + +"I know very well, Uncle Andy," said he with a judicial air, "that Bill +loves to yarn, and often pretends to know a lot of things that aren't +so. But I think he's telling the truth this time. He said he was. +It's a little owl that lives out West on the big sandy plains. And it +makes its nest in holes on the ground. It knows how to dig these holes +itself, you know; but it can't dig them half, or a quarter, so well as +the prairie dogs can. So it gets the prairie dogs to let it live in +their big, comfortable burrows; and in return for this hospitality it +kills and eats some of the rattlesnakes, the very small ones, I +suppose, of course, which come round among the burrows looking for the +young prairie dogs. Well, you know, Uncle Andy, Bill has been out West +himself, and he's seen the villages of the prairie dogs, and the little +owls sitting on the tops of the hillocks which are on the roofs of the +prairie dogs' houses, and the rattlesnakes coiled up here and there in +the hot, sunny hollows. There were lots and lots of the prairie dogs, +millions and millions of them, Bill said." + +"There'd have been still more if it hadn't been for the little owls," +said Uncle Andy with a grin. But seeing a grieved look on the Child's +face, and remembering that he himself was none too fond of having his +narratives broken in upon, he hastened to add politely, but pointedly, +"I beg your pardon for interrupting. Please go on!" + +"Well, as I was going to say," continued the Child, in quite his +Uncle's manner, "Bill saw--he saw them himself, with his own +eyes--these millions and thousands of prairie dogs, and quite a lot of +the little owls, and only just a very few of the rattlesnakes. So, you +see, it looks as if the owls must have eaten some of the snakes, and, +anyhow, I think Bill was telling the truth _this_ time." + +"Well," said Uncle after puffing at his pipe for a few complimentary +moments of reflection, "there's one important thing which Bill appears +to have neglected. He doesn't seem to have inquired the views of the +prairie dogs on the subject. Now, if he'd got _their_ opinion--" + +"But how _could_ he?" protested the Child reproachfully. He was always +troubled when Uncle Andy displayed anything like a frivolous strain. + +"To be sure! To be sure! You _couldn't_ have expected that of Bill," +agreed Uncle Andy. "Still, you know, the opinion of the prairie dogs +would have been interesting, wouldn't it? Well, I'll tell you a story +just as soon as I can get this old pipe to draw properly, and then you +can judge the opinion of the prairie dogs as to whether the Little +Burrowing Owl is 'good' or not. If their opinion does not agree with +Bill's, why you can choose for yourself between the two." + + +"Prairie Dog Village was of considerable size, covering as it did +perhaps a dozen acres of the dry, light prairie soil. Its houses were +crowded together without any regard to order or arrangement, and so +closely as to suggest that their owners imagined land was scarce in the +neighborhood. It wasn't. For hundreds of miles in every direction the +plains stretched away to the dim horizon. There was room everywhere, +nothing much, in fact, _but_ room, with a little coarse grass and +plenty of clear air. But the population went in for crowding by +preference, and didn't care a cactus whether it was hygienic or not. + +"The houses were ail underground, each with a rounded hillock of earth +beside its front door; and the size of these hillocks was an indication +of the size of the houses beneath, for they were all formed by the +earth brought to the surface in the process of excavating the rooms and +passages. On the tops of these hillocks the owners sat up in the sun +to bark and chatter and gossip with their nearest neighbors, always +ready to dive headlong down their front doors, with a twinkling of +their hind feet, at the approach of danger, + +"But if the village was large, the Little Villager himself was +decidedly small. Some twelve or fifteen inches in length from the tip +of his innocent-looking nose to the end of his short and quite +undistinguished-looking tail, he seldom had occasion to stretch himself +out to his full length, and therefore he seldom got the credit of such +inches as he actually possessed. His ears were short and rounded, his +eyes were large, softly bright, and as innocent-looking as his nose. +His body was plump and rounded, and he looked almost as much a baby +when quite grown up as he had looked when he was still a responsibility +to his talkative little mother. In color he was of a grayish-brown on +top, and of a dingy white underneath, with a black tip to his tail to +give a finish which his costume would otherwise have lacked. + +"Except for unimportant variations in size, there was perhaps some +hundreds of thousands of others, just like the Little Villager, sitting +on their hillocks, or popping in and out of their round doorways, and +chattering and barking in shrill chorus under the pale blue dome of a +lovely sky. But on the hillock next door to the Little Villager sat no +garrulous, furry gossip like himself. That mound top was deserted. +But at its foot, curled up and basking in the still blaze of the sun, +close beside the doorway, lay a thick-bodied, dusty-colored rattler, +the intricate markings on his back dimmed as if by too much light and +heat. His venomous, triangular head, with the heavy jaw base that +showed great poison pockets, lay flat on his coils, and he had the +lazy, well-fed appearance of one who does not have to forage for his +meals. Here and there, scattered at wide intervals throughout the +village, were to be seen other rattlers, of all sizes, from foot-long +youngsters up to stout fellows over a yard in length, either basking in +the hollows or lazily wriggling their way between the hillocks. They +seemed to pay no attention whatever to the furry villagers; for a +rattler likes to make a huge meal when he's about it, and therefore +does not bother often about the, to him, rather laborious process of +dining. The villagers, on their part, also seemed to pay little +attention to the snakes; except that those who chanced to be foraging +on the coarse herbage which grew between the hillocks always got out of +the way with alacrity if a wriggling form approached, and not one of +the coiled baskers ever woke up and shifted its position but that a +hundred pairs of bright, innocent eyes would be fixed upon it until its +intentions became quite clear. + +"The Little Villager, who had just come out of his burrow, sat straight +up on his hind-quarters, on the top of his hillock, with his forepaws +hanging meekly over his breast, and glared all about him to see if any +danger was in sight. The big rattler beside the door of the next +hillock underwent his careful scrutiny, which convinced him that the +reptile had recently made a good meal, and would not be dangerous until +he had slept it off. Then he glanced skyward. A great hawk was +winging its way up from the southern horizon, almost invisible in the +strong, direct glare, but the Little Villager's keen eyes detected it. +He barked a warning, and the sharp signal went around from hillock to +hillock; and in half a minute all the big, babyish eyes were fixed upon +the approach of the skying marauder. Everybody chattered about it +shrilly till the hawk was straight over the village. Then suddenly the +noise was hushed. The great bird half folded its wings and swooped, +the air making a hissing hum in its rigid pinion tips. The swoop was +lightning swift, but even swifter was the disappearance of the Little +Villager, and of all his neighbors for fifty feet about him. Before +the hawk reached earth they had dropped into their burrows. + +"Checking himself abruptly, the hawk flew on over the tops of the +hillocks, making unexpected zigzag rushes to right and left. But +wherever he went, there the villagers had vanished, almost as if the +wind of his approach had whisked them away. Baffled and indignant, he +at last gave up the hope of a dinner of prairie dog, and dropped on a +small rattler which was too sluggish from overeating to have noticed +that there was any particular excitement in the village. Gripping the +reptile in inexorable talons just behind its head, the great bird bit +its backbone through, carried it to the nearest hillock, and proceeded +to tear it to pieces. Calmly he made his meal, glancing around with +eyes glassy hard and fiercely arrogant, while from every burrow in the +neighborhood round, innocent heads peered forth, barking insult and +defiance. They were willing enough that the rattler should be +destroyed, but they wished the hawk to understand that his continued +presence in the villages was not desired. Of the two foes, they +preferred the rattler, to whose methods of administering fate they had +grown so accustomed that they could regard them with something like +philosophy, especially where only a neighborhood was concerned. But +the hawk's attack was so abrupt and violent as to be upsetting to the +nerves of the whole village. + +"When the hawk had finished his meal and wiped his beak on the hard +earth he flew off; and long before he was out of sight all the furry +householders were out on top of their hillocks and chattering at the +tops of their voices about the affair. The Little Villager himself, +having been first to give the alarm, was particularly excited and +important. But even he managed to calm himself down after a while. +And then, feeling hungry from excess of emotion, he descended from his +hillock and fell to nibbling grass stems. + +"He had been but a few minutes at this engrossing occupation when from +the door of a nearby burrow popped suddenly a small brown owl. The +bird appeared with a haste which seemed to ruffle its dignity +considerably. It was followed at once by its mate. The two blinked in +the strong light, and turned to peer down the hole from which they +emerged, as if expecting to be followed. They were snapping their +strong hooked beaks like castanets, and hissing indignantly. But +nothing more came out of the hole. They glared about them for several +minutes with their immense, round, fiercely bright eyes. Then, lifting +themselves like blown thistledown, with one waft of their broad, downy +wings they floated over to the door of the Little Villager's burrow. +They looked at it. They looked at the Little Villager where he sat +holding a half-nibbled grass stem between his paws. They snapped their +beaks once more, with angry decision, and with two or three awkward, +scuttling steps, like a parrot walking on the floor of his cage, they +plunged down, quite uninvited, into the burrow. + +"The Little Villager sat just where he was for perhaps half a minute, +barking with indignation. Then he followed the impertinent visitors. +As he entered he heard a confused sound of shrill, angry chattering, +explosive hissing, and savage snapping of beaks. Being able to see +quite comfortably in the gloom, he distinguished his companion, the +lady villager who was at that time occupying the burrow with him, doing +her best to make the visitors understand that they were not welcome. +Her language might have seemed clear enough. She made little rushes at +them with open mouth and gnashing teeth, and her tones were just as +unpleasant as she knew how to make them. But the guests confronted her +with claws and beaks so ready and so formidable that she did not like +to come to close quarters. + +"Nor, indeed, when the Little Villager himself arrived was the +situation very much altered. One of the owls turned and faced him, +whereupon he, too, lost his resolution and confined himself to threats. +The two owls, for their part, seemed to consider it wise to stand on +the defensive rather than to force a battle to a finish with their +unwilling hosts. For some minutes, therefore, the war of threats and +bad language went on, without fur or feathers actually flying. Then at +last the Little Villager, who was by nature an easy-going, unresentful +soul, chanced to glance aside from his adversary; and it flashed into +his mind that, after all, there was some room to spare in the burrow. +Anyhow, he was tired of the argument. He turned away indifferently and +began to nibble at some tough grass stems which he had brought down in +case of a rainy day. Seeing him thus yield the point at issue, his +mate was not going to fight it out alone. She, too, turned her back +with ostentatious indifference upon her rude guests, and went out and +sat on the top of the hillock to let her feelings calm down. The pair +of owls, well satisfied to have forced themselves upon the Little +Villager's hospitality, huddled together in their own corner, and +resumed the nap which had been so unpleasantly interrupted in their +previous residence." + +"What was it that interrupted?" broke in the Child, glad that it was +not he that could be accused of it, _that_ time. "What was it that +drove them out of their own burrow in such a hurry?" + +"It was a big rattlesnake," answered Uncle Andy, quite politely, +remembering that he himself had recently been guilty of an +interruption. "I ought to have explained that before, but I was +interested in the Little Villager and forgot it. It was a big +rattlesnake which had got tired of its old hole and taken a fancy to +that of the owls. So the owls had had nothing to do but get out, +without even a half-minute to talk over the matter. And hating to stay +out in the full glare of the sun, which was very hard on their eyes, +they had invited themselves to live with the Little Villager just +because his house was the first they came to. + +"All the rest of the day the Little Villager and his companion were +extremely discontented. Their burrow was a very roomy and comfortable +one, but it was spoiled for them by the presence of those two +moon-eyed, hook-beaked, solemn persons sitting side by side in the +opposite corner. So they spent most of their time outside on the +hillock, gossiping about it to their neighbors, who were extremely +interested and full of suggestions, but showed no inclination whatever +to come and help turn the intruders out. That was a thing which had +never been attempted in their village, and the prairie dogs were not +noted for their initiative. In learning to get together and live in +villages they had apparently exhausted it all. They were always ready +to chatter, from morning to night, about anything, and protest against +it, and declare that it must not be permitted, but they always shirked +the bother of united action, even to suppress the most dangerous and +destructive of nuisances. + +"When evening came, however, they had the house to themselves. The +owls, getting lively as the sunset colors faded from the sky, scuttled +forth and sat up side by side on the top of the hillock. As soon as it +was full night, and the stars had come out clear and large in the +deeply crystalline sky, they began hovering hither and thither on their +wide, soundless wings, hunting the tiny prairie mice, which swarmed +among the hillocks after dark. + +"While they were thus pleasantly occupied, the Little Villager and his +companion had an idea. It was not a very usual thing with them, and +they hastened to act upon it lest it should get away. They proceeded +to block up their entrance tunnel about three feet from the door. They +packed the earth hard, and made a good job of it, and flattered +themselves that their guests would not get in in a hurry, even if they +were pretty good burrowers themselves. Then at the extreme opposite +corner of their central chamber they tunneled a new passageway, which +brought them out quite on the other side of the hillock. This done, +they felt very pleased with themselves, and settled down for a +well-earned sleep, curled up in a furry ball together. + +"At daybreak the owls came home. Confidently they ducked their big, +round heads and dived down the old entrance, only to be brought up with +a bump when they had gone about three feet. Out they came in a rage, +fluffing their feathers and snapping their beaks, and stood on each +side of the hole to talk the affair over. First, one and then the +other reentered to investigate. They found it quite inexplicable. +They felt sure this _was_ the way they had previously entered--so sure, +in fact, that again and again they tried it, only growing more and more +puzzled and indignant with each attempt. Finally they came to the +conclusion that they must have made some mistake. They scuttled +solemnly round the hillock, and came upon the new entrance. Ah, of +course, they _had_ been mistaken. Their indignation vanished. They +scurried in cheerfully, one hard upon the other's tail, and took up +their place in their adopted corner. The Little Villager and his mate +opened disgusted eyes upon them for a second, then went to sleep again, +relinquishing all thought of further protest. + +"After this, for a time, there was perfect peace in the house, the +peace of mutual aversion. Hosts and guests ignored each other +scrupulously. But after a while a family was born to the Little +Villager, a litter of absurd, blind, tiny whimperers, all heads and +hungry mouths. The two owls were immensely interested at once, but +their efforts to show their interest were met by such an astonishing +display of ferocity on the part of both the Little Villager and his +mate that they discreetly withdrew their advances and once more kept +strictly to themselves. They knew their business, these owls; and they +knew they would lose nothing in the long run by a little temporary +forbearance. They were well aware, from past experience with prairie +dogs, that the vigilance of the happy parents would relax in course of +time, and that all the while the little ones, growing larger and +plumper every day, would be getting better worth the interest of an +appreciative owl. + +"The event proved they were right. As the days went by, and the young +ones grew lively and independent, the Little Villager and his mate grew +less and less anxious about them. Their soft eyes now wide open, they +would leave the nest and wander about the burrow, in spite of all that +their mother or their father (whichever happened to be in charge at the +time) could do to prevent them. There were so many of them, moreover, +that it was quite impossible to keep an eye on them all at once. + +"Late one afternoon, in that debatable time when the owls in their +corner were just beginning to wake up, two of the youngsters ran over +quite near them. The temptation was irresistible. There was a light +pounce, a light squeak instantly strangled, and _one_ of the +youngsters, badly frightened, ran back to the mother. The other +remained, limp and motionless, in the owl's corner, with a set of +steel-like talons clutching it. + +"The mother started to the rescue boldly. But the moment she left the +rest of the litter the second owl hopped over toward them. She paused +in an agony of irresolution. Then she turned and scurried back. She +could not sacrifice all for the sake of one. But as she gathered the +survivors to her she barked and chattered furious defiance at the +murderer. Her clatter brought down the Little Villager himself, and +together they hurled all the insults they could think of at the owl, +who, however, calmly turned his feathery back upon them and proceeded +to devour his easy prey. + +"For some days there was renewed vigilance, and the little ones kept +close to their parents' side. But the memory of a prairie dog, +especially of a young prairie dog, is distinctly short. Soon there was +more wandering from the nest, and then a lot of childish racing about +the floor of the burrow. Again a youngster went too near the owls' +corner and remained there. This time there was no fuss about it, +because the slaughter was accomplished quite silently, and the mother +did not happen to see. After this there would never be more than two +or three days go by without the sudden disappearance of one or another +of the litter, which, after all, kept the burrow from becoming too +crowded. The youngsters were getting so big by now that their parents +began to lose all interest in them. It became time for them to be +weaned. But as the interest of the owls had been increasing as that of +the parents diminished, it happened by this time that there was not one +left to wean. So the duty of the furry little mother, with her silly +nose and her big, childish eyes, was singularly simplified. It was no +use making more trouble with her unfriendly guests over a matter that +was now past remedy. So all was overlooked, and the burrow settled +down once more to the harmony of mutual aversion." + +Uncle Andy stopped and proceeded to refill his pipe, waiting for the +Child's verdict. The Child's face wore the grieved look of one who has +had an illusion shattered. + +"I shan't ever believe a word Bill tells me again," said he, with +injured decision. + +"Oh," said Uncle Andy, "you mustn't go so far as that. Bill tells lots +of interesting things that are true enough as far as they go. You must +learn to discriminate." + +The Child did not know what "discriminate" meant, and he was at the +moment too depressed to ask. But he resolved firmly to learn it, +whatever it was, rather than be so deceived again. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE BABY AND THE BEAR + +A stiffish breeze was blowing over Silverwater. Close inshore, where +the Babe was fishing, the water was fairly calm--just sufficiently +ruffled to keep the trout from distinguishing too clearly that small, +intent figure at the edge of the raft. But out in the middle of the +lake the little whitecaps were chasing each other boisterously. + +The raft was a tiny one, of four logs pinned together with two lengths +of spruce pole. It was made for just the use which the Babe was now +putting it to. A raft was so much more convenient than a boat or a +canoe when the water was still and one had to make long, delicate casts +in order to drop one's fly along the edges of the lily pods. But the +Babe was not making long, delicate casts. On such a day as this the +somewhat unsophisticated trout of Silverwater demanded no subtleties. +They were hungry, and they were feeding close inshore, and the Babe was +having great sport. The fish were not large, but they were clean, +trim-jawed, bright fellows, some of them not far short of the +half-pound; and the only blue-bottle in the ointment of the Babe's +exultation was that Uncle Andy was not on hand to see his triumph. To +be sure, the proof would be in the pan that night, browned in savory +cornmeal after the fashion of the New Brunswick backwoods. But the +Babe had in him the makings of a true sportsman, and for him a trout +had just one brief moment of unmatchable perfection--the moment when it +was taken off the hook and held up to be gloated over or coveted. + +The raft had been anchored, carelessly enough, by running an inner +corner lightly aground. The Babe's weight, slight as it was, on the +outer end, together with his occasional ecstatic, though silent, +hoppings up and down, had little by little sufficed to slip the +haphazard mooring. This the Babe was far too absorbed to notice. + +All at once, having just slipped a nice half-pounder onto the forked +stick which served him instead of a fishing basket, he noticed that the +wooded point which had been shutting off his view on the right seemed +to have politely drawn back. His heart jumped into his throat. He +turned--and there were twenty yards or so of clear water between the +raft and the shore. The raft was gently but none too slowly gliding +out toward the tumbling whitecaps. + +Always methodical, the Babe laid his rod and his string of fish +carefully down on the logs, and then stood for a second or two quite +rigid. This was one of those dreadful things which, as he knew, _did_ +happen, sometimes, to other people, so that he might read about it. +But that it should actually happen to _him_! Why, it was as if he had +been reading some terrible adventure and suddenly found himself thrust +trembling into the midst of it. All at once those whitecaps out in the +lake seemed to be turning dreadful eyes his way and clamoring for +_him_! He opened his mouth and gave two piercing shrieks which cut the +air like saws. + +"What's the matter?" shouted a very anxious voice from among the trees. + +It was the voice of Uncle Andy. He had returned sooner than he was +expected. And instantly the Babe's terror vanished. He knew that +everything would be all right in just no time. + +"I'm afloat. Bill's raft's carrying me away!" he replied in an injured +voice. + +"Oh!" said Uncle Andy, emerging from the trees and taking in the +situation. "You _are_ afloat, are you! I was afraid from the noise +you made that you were sinking. Keep your hair on, and I'll be with +you in five seconds. And we'll see what Bill's raft has to say for +itself after such extraordinary behavior." + +Putting the canoe into the water, he thrust out, overtook the raft in a +dozen strokes of his paddle, and proceeded to tow it back to the shore +in disgrace. + +"What on earth did you make those dreadful noises for?" demanded Uncle +Andy, "instead of simply calling for me, or Bill, to come and get you?" + +"You see, Uncle Andy," answered the Babe, after some consideration, "I +was in a hurry, rather, and I thought you or Bill might be in a hurry, +too, if I made a noise like that, instead of just calling." + +"Well, I believe," said Uncle Andy, seating himself on the bank and +getting out his pipe, "that at last the unexpected has happened. I +believe, in other words, that you are right. I once knew of a couple +of youngsters who might have saved themselves and their parents a lot +of trouble if they could have made some such sound as you did, at the +right time. But they couldn't, or, at least, they didn't; and, +therefore, things happened, which I'll tell you about if you like." + +The Babe carefully laid his string of fish in a cool place under some +leaves, and then came and sat on the grass at his uncle's feet to +listen. + +"They were an odd pair of youngsters," began Uncle Andy--and paused to +get his pipe going. + +"They were a curious pair, and they eyed each other curiously. One was +about five years old and the other about five months. One was all pink +and white, and ruddy tan, and fluffy gold, and the other all glossy +black. One, in fact, was a baby, and the other was a bear. + +"Neither had come voluntarily into this strange fellowship; and it +would have been hard to say which of the pair regarded the other with +most suspicion. The bear, to be sure, at five months old, was more +grown up, more self-sufficing and efficient than the baby at five +years; but he had the disadvantage of feeling himself an interloper. +He had come to the raft quite uninvited, and found the baby in +possession! On that account, of course, he rather expected the baby to +show her white little teeth, and snarl at him, and try to drive him off +into the water. In that case he would have resisted desperately, +because he was in mortal fear of the boiling, seething flood. But he +was very uneasy, and kept up a whimpering that was intended to be +conciliatory; for though the baby was small, and by no means ferocious, +he regarded her as the possessor of the raft, and it was an axiom of +the wilds that very small and harmless-looking creatures might become +dangerous when resisting an invasion of their rights. + +"The baby, on the other hand, was momentarily expecting that the bear +would come over and bite her. Why else, if not from some such sinister +motive, had he come aboard her raft, when he had been traveling on a +perfectly good tree? The tree looked so much more interesting than her +bare raft, on which she had been voyaging for over an hour, and of +which she was now heartily tired. To be sure, the bear was not much +bigger than her own Teddy Bear at home, which she was wont to carry +around by one leg, or to spank without ceremony whenever she thought it +needed discipline. But the glossy black of the stranger was quite +unlike the wild and grubby whiteness of her Teddy, and his shrewd +little twinkling eyes were quite unlike the bland shoe buttons which +adorned the face of her uncomplaining pet. She wondered when her +mother would come and relieve the strain of the situation. + +"All at once the raft, which had hitherto voyaged with a discreet +deliberation, seemed to become agitated. Boiling upthrusts of the +current, caused by some hidden unevenness on the bottom, shouldered it +horridly from beneath, threatening to tear it apart, and unbridled +eddies twisted it this way and that with sickening lurches. The tree +was torn from it and snatched off reluctant all by itself, rolling over +and over in a fashion that must have made the cub rejoice to think that +he had quitted a refuge so eccentric in its behavior. As a matter of +fact, the flood was now sweeping the raft over what was, at ordinary +times, a series of low falls, a succession of saw-toothed ledges which +would have ripped the raft to bits. Now the ledges were buried deep +under the immense volume of the freshet. But they were not to be +ignored, for all that. And they made their submerged presence felt in +a turmoil that became more and more terrifying to the two little +passengers on the raft. + +"There was just one point in the raft, one only, that was farther away +than any other part from those dreadful, seething-crested black +surges--and that was the very center. The little bear backed toward +it, whimpering and shivering, from his corner. + +"From her corner, directly opposite, the baby too backed toward it, +hitching herself along and eyeing the waves in the silence of the +terror. She arrived at the same instant. Each was conscious of +something alive, and warm, and soft, and comfortable--with motherly +suggestion in the contact. The baby turned with a sob and flung her +arms about the bear. The bear, snuggling his narrow black snout under +her arm as if to shut out the fearful sight of the waves, made futile +efforts to crawl into a lap that was many sizes too small to +accommodate him. + +"In some ten minutes more the wild ledges were past. The surges sank +to foaming swirls, and the raft once more journeyed smoothly. The two +little voyagers, recovering from their ecstasy of fear, looked at each +other in surprise--and the bear, slipping off the baby's lap, squatted +on his furry haunches and eyed her with a sort of guilty apprehension. + +"Here it was that the baby showed herself of the dominant breed. The +bear was still uneasy and afraid of her. But she, for her part, had no +more dread of him whatever. Through all her panic she had been dimly +conscious that he had been in the attitude of seeking her protection. +Now she was quite ready to give it--quite ready to take possession of +him, in fact, as really a sort of glorified Teddy Bear come to life; +and she felt her authority complete. Half-coaxingly, but quite firmly, +and with a note of command in her little voice which the animal +instinctively understood, she said: 'Turn here, Teddy!' and pulled him +back unceremoniously to her lap. The bear, with the influence of her +comforting warmth still strong upon him, yielded. It was nice, when +one was frightened and had lost one's mother, to be cuddled so softly +by a creature that was evidently friendly, in spite of the dreaded man +smell that hung about her. His mother had tried to teach him that that +smell was the most dangerous of all the warning smells his nostrils +could encounter. But the lesson had been most imperfectly learned, and +now was easily forgotten. He was tired, moreover, and wanted to go to +sleep. So he snuggled his glossy, roguish face down into the baby's +lap and shut his eyes. And the baby, filled with delight over such a +novel and interesting plaything, shook her yellow hair down over his +black fur and crooned to him a soft, half-articulate babble of +endearment. + +"The swollen flood was comparatively quiet now, rolling full and turbid +over the drowned lands, and gleaming sullenly under a blaze of sun. +The bear having gone to sleep, the baby presently followed his example, +her rosy face falling forward into his woodsy-smelling black fur. At +last the raft, catching in the trees of a submerged islet, came softly +to a stop, so softly as not to awaken the little pair of sleepers. + +"In the meantime two distraught mothers, quite beside themselves with +fear and grief, were hurrying downstream in search of the runaway raft +and its burden. + +"The mother of the baby, when she saw the flood sweeping the raft away, +was for some moments perilously near to flinging herself in after it. +Then her backwoods common sense came to the rescue. She reflected, in +time, that she could not swim--while the raft, on the other hand, could +and did, and would carry her treasure safely enough for a while. +Wading waist deep through the drowned fields behind the house, she +gained the uplands, and rushed dripping along the ridge to the next +farm, where, as she knew, a boat was kept. This farmhouse, perched on +a bluff, was safe from all floods; and the farmer was at home, +congratulating himself. Before he quite knew what was happening, he +found himself being dragged to the boat--for his neighbor was a +strenuous woman, whom few in the settlement presumed to argue with, and +it was plain to him now that she was laboring under an unwonted +excitement. It was not until he was in the boat, with the oars in his +hands, that he gathered clearly what had happened. Then, however, he +bent to the oars with a will which convinced even that frantic and +vehement mother that nothing better could be demanded of him. Dodging +logs and wrecks and uprooted trees, the boat went surging down the +flood, while the woman sat stiffly erect in the stern, her face white +as death, her eyes staring far ahead, while from time to time she +muttered angry phrases which sounded as if the baby had gone off on a +pleasure trip without leave and was going to be called to sharp account +for it. + +"The other mother had the deeper and more immediate cause for anguish. +Coming to the bank where she had left her cub in the tree, she found +the bank caved in and the tree and cub together vanished. Unlike the +baby's mother, she _could_ swim; but she knew that she could run faster +and farther. In stoic silence, but with a look of piteous anxiety in +her eyes, she started on a gallop down the half-drowned shores, +clambering the heaps of debris, and swimming the deep, still estuaries +where the flood had backed up into the valleys of the tributary brooks. + +"At last, with laboring lungs and pounding heart, she came out upon a +low, bare bluff overlooking the flood, and saw, not a hundred yards +out, the raft with its two little passengers asleep. She saw her cub +lying curled up with his head in the baby's arms, his black fur mixed +with the baby's yellow locks. Her first thought was that he was +dead--that the baby had killed him and was carrying him off. With a +roar of pain and vengeful fury, she rushed down the bluff and hurled +herself into the water. + +"Not till then did she notice that a boat was approaching the raft--a +boat with two human beings in it. It was very much nearer the raft +than she was--and traveling very much faster than she could swim. Her +savage heart went near to bursting with rage and fear. She knew those +beings in the boat could have but one object--the slaughter, or at +least the theft, of her little one. She swam frantically, her great +muscles heaving as she shouldered the waves apart. But in that race +she was hopelessly beaten from the first. + +"The boat reached the raft, bumped hard upon it--and the baby's mother +leaped out while the man, with his boathook, held the two craft close +together. The woman, thrusting the cub angrily aside, clutched the +baby hysterically to her breast, sobbing over her and muttering strange +threats of what she would do to her when she got her home to punish her +for giving so much trouble. The baby did not seem in the least +disturbed by these threats--to which the man in the boat was listening +with a grin--but when her mother started to carry her to the boat she +reached out her arms rebelliously for the cub. + +"'Won't go wivout my Teddy Bear,' she announced with tearful decision. + +"'Ye'd better git a move on, Mrs. Murdoch,' admonished the man in the +boat, 'Here's the old b'ar comin' after her young un, an' I've a notion +she ain't exactly ca'm.' + +"The woman hesitated. She was willing enough to indulge the baby's +whim, the more so as she felt in her heart that it was in some respects +her fault that the raft had got away. She measured the distance to +that formidable black head cleaving the waters some thirty yards away. + +"'Well,' said she, 'we may's well take the little varmint along, if +baby wants him.' And she stepped over to pick up the now shrinking and +anxious cub. + +"'You quit that an' get into the boat quick!" ordered the man in a +voice of curt authority. The woman whipped round and stared at him in +amazement. She was accustomed to having people defer to her; and Jim +Simmons, in particular, she had always considered such a mild-mannered +man, + +"'Get in!' reiterated the man in a voice that she found herself obeying +in spite of herself. + +"'D'ye want to see baby et up afore yer eyes?" he continued sternly, +hiding a grin beneath the sandy droop of his big mustache. And with +the baby kicking and wailing and stretching out her arms to the +all-unheeding cub, he rowed rapidly away just as the old bear dragged +herself up upon the raft. + +"Then Mrs. Murdoch's wrath found words, and she let it flow forth while +the man listened as indifferently as if it had been the whistling of +the wind. At last she stopped. + +"'Anything more to say, ma'am?' he asked politely. + +"Mrs. Murdoch snorted a negative. + +"'Then all _I_ hev to say,' he went on, 'is that to _my_ mind _mothers_ +has _rights_. That there b'ar's a mother, an' she's got feelin's, like +you, an' she's come after her young un, like you--an' I wasn't a-goin' +to see her robbed of him.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE LITTLE SLY ONE + +From away up near the top of the rocky hill that rose abruptly across +the inlet came a terrible screech, piercing and startling. + +"Gee!" said the Babe, slipping closer to Uncle Andy, where they sat +together on a log by the water. "I'm glad that's away over there! +What is it, Uncle Andy?" + +"Lynx!" replied Uncle Andy, puffing at his pipe. + +"What did he go and do _that_ for?" + +"Well," said Uncle Andy presently, "if you'll try your level best to +listen without interrupting, I'll tell you." + +"I'm _not_ interrupting!" protested the Babe. + +"_Of_ course not!" agreed Uncle Andy. "Well, you see, the lynx is the +slyest thing that goes on four legs. You think, maybe, a fox is sly. +That fool guide Bill's told you that. Now, a fox is sly when he +chooses to be, and when he wants to be impudent he'd sass King Solomon +to his face. But a lynx is just born sly, and can't even think of +outgrowing it." + +"I don't see anything sly about that noise he made just now!" said the +Babe. + +"There you go!" exclaimed Uncle Andy. Then he stopped and thought for +quite a while. But as the Babe never spoke a word he soon went on +again. + +"You see, I was just coming to that. That awful screech is one of the +slyest things he does. That fellow has been hunting a while without +catching anything. Creeping, creeping on his great furry feet, making +no more sound than the shadow of the leaf on the moss; for all his +quietness he hasn't had any luck. So at last, hiding behind a bush, he +let out that screech just to start things moving. Did you notice how +quick it stopped? Well, he knew if there was any rabbit or partridge +asleep near by it would be so startled it would jump and make a noise; +and then he'd be on it before it could more than get its eyes open. +Don't you call that sly?" + +The Babe merely nodded, being resolved not to interrupt. + +"Good," said Uncle Andy. "You're improving a lot. Now, let me tell +you, the slyest thing of all is the Little Sly One, which those who +know everything call the lynx kitten. The Little Sly One is good +enough for us to call her, for she is even slyer when she is a she than +when he is a he. Is that quite clear?" + +"Of _course_!" exclaimed the Babe. + +"Well, the Little Sly One was a lonely orphan. She had had a mother +and a sister and two brothers; but a man with a dog and a gun had +happened on the mouth of the cave in which they lived. The dog had +hastily gone in. There was a terrible noise in the cave all of a +sudden, and the dog would have hastily come out again, but for the fact +that he was no longer able to come or go anywhere. When the noise had +stopped so that he could see in, the man had shot the mother lynx. +Then he had shot the dog, because that was the only thing to do. And +because he was very sorry and angry about the dog, he also shot the +lynx kittens, where they crowded, spitting savagely, at the back of the +cave. But there were only three of them at the back of the cave. The +Little Sly One, instead of bothering to spit when there were other +things more important to be done, had run up the wall and hidden in a +crevice, so still she didn't even let her tail twitch. Of course, like +all her family, she didn't really have a tail, but merely a little +blunt stub, perhaps two inches long. But that stub could have +twitched, and wanted desperately to twitch, only she would not let it. +She always seemed to think she had a tail, and, if she had had, it +would have stuck out so the man could have seen it, the crevice being +such a very small one. You see how _sly_ she was! + +"Of course, the Little Sly One was lonely for the next few days, but +she was kept so busy hunting breakfasts, and lunches, and dinners, and +suppers that she hadn't time to fret much. She was something like a +three-quarters-grown kitten now, except for her having no tail to speak +of, and curious, fierce-looking tufts to her ears, and pale eyes so +savage and bright that they seemed as if they could look through a log +even if it wasn't hollow. + +"Also, her feet were twice as big as a kitten's would have been, and +her hindquarters were high and powerful, like a rabbit's. Her soft, +bright fur was striped like a tiger's--though by the time she was grown +up it would have changed to a light, shadowy, brownish gray, hard to +detect in the dim thickets. + +"The Little Sly One was so sly and so small that she had no difficulty +in creeping up on birds and woodmice, to say nothing of grasshoppers, +beetles and crickets. But one day she learned, to her great annoyance, +that she was not the only thing in the woods that could do this +creeping up. She had been watching a long time at the door of a +woodmouse burrow, under a tree, when suddenly she seemed to feel danger +behind her. Without waiting to look round, being so sly, she shot into +the air and landed on the trunk of a tree. As she madly clawed up it, +the jaws of a leaping fox came together with a snap just about three +inches behind her, just, in fact, where an ordinary tail would have +been. So, you see, her tail really saved her life, just by her not +having any! + +"Well, when she was safely up the tree, of course she couldn't help +spitting and growling down at the hungry fox for a minute or two, while +he looked up at her with his mouth watering. Then, however, she curled +herself up in a crotch and pretended to go to sleep. And then the fox +went away, because he didn't know when she would wake up, and he didn't +want to wait! You see how sly she was! + +"But once it happened she was not so sly as she might have been. You +see, after all, in spite of her fierce eyes, she was still only a +_kitten_ of a lynx; and she _had_ to _play_ once in a while. At such +times she would pounce on a leaf as if it were a mouse, or just tumble +all over herself pretending she had a real tail and was trying to catch +it. So, of course, when she happened to pass under a low, bushy branch +and caught sight of a slim, smooth, black tip of a tail, no bigger than +your little finger, hanging down from it, she naturally couldn't resist +the temptation. She pranced up on her hind legs and _clawed_ that +black tip of a tail--clawed it hard! + +"The next instant, before she could prance away again, the _other_ end +of that slim, black tip swung out of the branch and whipped itself +round and round her body, and a black head, with sharp fangs in it, hit +her _biff, biff, biff_! on the nose. It was the tail of a black snake +she had tried to play with." + +"Gee! But she wasn't sly that time!" exclaimed the Babe, shaking his +head wisely. + +"The black snake wasn't poisonous, of course," continued Uncle Andy, +"but his fangs hurt the Little Sly One's nose, I can tell you. But the +worst of it was, how he could squeeze! Those black coils tightened, +tightened, till the Little Sly One, who in her first fright had set up +a terrific spitting and yowling, found she had no breath to waste on +noise. Her ribs felt as if they would crack. But, fortunately for +her, her teeth and claws were available for business. She fell to +biting, and ripping, and clawing, till the black snake realized it was +no Teddy Bear he had got hold of. For a minute or two he stood it, +squeezing harder and harder. Then he wanted to let go. + +"And this, I think, was where he made a mistake. As he relaxed his +deadly coils and swung his head round, the Little Sly One struck out +with both forepaws at once, and succeeded in catching the hissing, +darting head. She caught it fairly, and her long, knife-sharp claws +sank in, holding it like a carpenter's vise. The next minute she had +her teeth in the back of the snake's neck, chewing and tearing. + +"Now, the snake's tail was still around the branch, so he tried +furiously to swing the Little Sly One up and crush her against the +branch. But she was too heavy and too strong. So he came down, +instead, and thrashed wildly among the leaves, trying to get a new grip +on her. It was no use, however. He had made too big a mistake. And +the next minute he kind of straightened out. The Little Sly One had +bitten through his backbone, just behind the head. + +"Well, now, you see, she had a good square meal before her. But, being +very sly, she first looked all round to see if anyone was coming to +dine with her. There was no one in sight, but she knew how curiously +things get about sometimes. So she growled, on general principles, +grabbed the snake in her teeth, and climbed up the tree so she might +eat in peace. + +"The tail was no good to eat, so she bit it off and scornfully let it +drop. If that black snake hadn't had a tail, he would never have been +eaten by a kitten lynx; so the Little Sly One, as she considered this +point, and also thought of the fox, said to herself: 'Well, maybe my +tail doesn't amount to much, after all. But there doesn't seem to be +any luck in tails, anyway.' + +"For all that, things in general were keeping her so very, very busy +the Little Sly One felt lonely and homesick at times. And especially +she felt the need of some kind of a nest which she could call her very +own, where she could curl herself up and go to sleep without fear of +unpleasant interruptions. + +"This sort of thing, as you may imagine, was not to be found every day +of the week. Most such places had owners, and the Little Sly One was +not yet big enough and strong enough to turn the owners out. If she +_had_ been big enough-- Well, you see, she hadn't any more +conscience than just enough to get along with comfortably. + +"One fine day, soon after her adventure with the black snake, her +search for a home of her own brought her out into the warm sunshine of +a little, deserted clearing. It was an old lumber camp, all grown up +with tall grass and flowering weeds. The weeds and grass crowded up +around the very threshold of the old gray log cabin. + +"The Little Sly One stopped short, blinking in the strong light and +sniffing cautiously. There was no smell of danger--none whatever, but +a scent came to her nose that she thought was quite the nicest scent in +the world. + +"Where did it come from? Oh, there is was--that bunch of dull-green +weeds! Forgetting prudence, forgetting everything, she ran forward and +began rolling herself over and over in ecstasy in the bed of +strong-smelling weeds." + +"Catnip!" suggested the Babe. + +"Of course!" agreed Uncle Andy impatiently. "What else _could_ it be? + +"The Little Sly One had never heard tell of catnip, but she knew right +off it was something good for every kind of cat. When she had had +_quite_ enough of it, she felt kind of light and silly, and not afraid +of anything. So, as bold as you please, she marched right up to the +cabin. + +"The door was shut. She climbed upon the roof. There was an old bark +chimney, with a great hole rotted in its base. She looked in. + +"It was pleasantly shadowy inside, with a musty smell and no sign of +danger. She dropped upon a narrow shelf. From the shelf, sniffing and +glancing this way and that, she sprang to a kind of wider shelf close +under the eaves. + +"That was a bunk, of course, where one of the lumbermen used to sleep, +though _she_ didn't know _that_. It was full of old dry hay, very +warmy and cozy. And the hay, as the Little Sly One observed at once, +was full of mice. + +"She pounced on one at once and ate it. Decidedly, this was the place +for her. She curled herself up in the warm hay and went to sleep +without fear of any enemies coming to disturb her." + +"But what would she do when the lumbermen came back?" demanded the Babe +anxiously. + +"By _that_ time," answered Uncle Andy, putting away his pipe and rising +to go, "she would no longer be the _Little_ Sly One! She'd be big +enough to take care of herself--and run away as soon as she heard them +coming." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +THE DARING OF STRIPES TERROR-TAIL + +"What would you do if a bear came at you, Uncle Andy?" inquired the +Babe. + +"Run," said Uncle Andy promptly, "unless I had a gun!" + +The Babe thought deeply for a moment. + +"And what would you do if a little, teeny, black-and-white striped +skunk came at you?" he asked. + +"Run like sixty!" responded Uncle Andy, still more promptly. + +"But a skunk's so little!" persisted the Babe. "Will he bite?" + +"Bite!" retorted Uncle Andy scornfully. "He doesn't have to. It +appears to me you don't know skunks very well!" + +"Huh!" said the Babe. "I've smelt 'em. But _smells_ can't hurt +anybody." + +"With your notions of skunks," answered Uncle Andy, "you're going to +get yourself into a heap of trouble one of these days. I'd better tell +you about what happened once when a small young skunk, out walking all +by himself in the dewy twilight, happened to meet a large young bear." + +Now, the Babe had a great respect for bears. + +"Huh!" said he scornfully. "What could _he_ do to a bear?" + +"The little skunk's name," said Uncle Andy, paying no heed to the +interruption, "was Stripes Terror-Tail. He was a pretty fellow, black +and glossy, with two clear white stripes down his back on each side of +his backbone. His tail was long and bushy, and carried high in a +graceful curve; and he was about the size of a half-grown kitten. + +"Generally he went hunting with the rest of his family, for the +Terror-Tails are affectionate and fond of each other's companionship. +But each one does just as he likes, in his easy way; so on this +particular evening little Stripes had strolled off by himself over the +dewy hillocks, catching fat crickets in the dim twilight, and hoping +every minute that he might find a ground sparrow's nest under some +bush." + +"Did he rob birds' nests?" asked the Babe, remembering that this, for +boys, was one of the deadly sins. + +"He certainly did!" said Uncle Andy, who didn't like to be interrupted. +"That is, when he had a chance. Well, as luck would have it, a young +bear was out nosing around the hillocks that evening, amusing himself +with the fat crickets. He wasn't very hungry, being chock full of the +first blueberries. + +"He would sit back on his haunches, like a tremendous, overgrown black +puppy, with his head tilted to one side, his ears cocked shrewdly, and +a twinkle in his little dark eyes; and with one furry forepaw he would +pat a thick bunch of grass till the frightened crickets came scurrying +out to see what was the matter. Then he would almost fall over himself +trying to scoop them all up at once--and while he was chewing those +he'd caught he'd look as disappointed as anything over those that got +away. + +"Well, when he got tired of crickets he thought he'd look for a bird's +nest. He came to a wide, flat, spreading juniper bush, just the kind +that might have a bird's nest under it; and as he nosed around it he +came face to face with little Stripes. You see, they were both after +the same thing, and both had the same idea about the best place to look +for it. + +"Now, that young bear's education had been terribly neglected. He +didn't know any more about skunks than you do. So he thought, maybe +the soft little black-and-white thing with the fluffy tail carried so +airily might be just as good to eat as birds' eggs--besides being more +filling, of course. + +"He would have grabbed little Stripes right off, had the latter tried +to run away. But as Stripes showed no sign of any such intention, the +bear hesitated. After all, there didn't seem to be any great hurry! +He put out a big paw to slap the stranger, but changed his mind and +drew it back again, the stranger seemed so unconcerned. It was +decidedly queer, he thought to himself, that a little scrap of a +creature like that should be taking things so easy when he was around. +He began to feel insulted. + +"As for Stripes, nothing was farther from his mind than running away +from the big black creature that had suddenly appeared in front of him. +It was not for a plump, leisurely little skunk to be taking violent +exercise on a hot night. Yet he didn't want to walk right over the +bear--not at all. And he had no intention of making things +disagreeable for the clumsy-looking stranger." + +"Huh, what could _he_ do to _him_?" interrupted the Babe again. He had +the greatest faith in bears. + +"_Will_ you wait!" groaned Uncle Andy. "But first let me explain to +you the peculiar weapon with which Stripes, and all the Terror-Tail +family, do their fighting when they have to fight--which they are quite +too polite to do unnecessarily. Some distance below his bushy, +graceful tail, sunken between the strong muscles of his thighs, Stripes +had a shallow pit, or sac, of extraordinarily tough skin containing a +curious gland which secreted an oil of terrible power. + +"The strong muscles surrounding this sac kept the mouth of it always so +tightly closed that not an atom could get out to soil the little +owner's clean, dainty fur, or cause the slightest smell. In fact, +Stripes was altogether one of the cleanest and daintiest and most +gentlemanly of all the wild creatures. But when he _had_ to, he could +contract those muscles around the oil sac with such violence that the +deadly oil--blinding and suffocating--would be shot forth to a distance +of several feet, right into the face of the enemy. And _that_, let me +tell you, was never good for the enemy!" + +"Why?" demanded the Babe. + +But Uncle Andy only eyed him scornfully. "When Stripes, quite civilly, +looked at the bear, and then proceeded to smell around under the +juniper bush for that bird's nest, which didn't seem to be there, the +bear was much puzzled. He put out his paw again--and again drew it +back. + +"Then he said 'Wah!' quite loud and sharp, to see if that would +frighten the imperturbable stranger. But Stripes didn't seem to mind +noises like that. His bright, intelligent eyes were on the bear all +the time, you know, though he seemed to be so busy hunting for that +bird's nest. + +"'Pooh!' said the bear to himself, 'he's just plain idiot, that's +what's the matter with him. I'll eat him, anyway!' and he bounced +forward, with paw uplifted, intending to gather Stripes as he would a +fat cricket." + +Here Uncle Andy was so inconsiderate as to pause and relight his pipe. +The Babe clutched his arm. + +"Well," he went on presently, "just at this moment Stripes made as if +he was going to run away, after all. He whisked round and jumped about +two feet, and his fine tail flew up over his back, and in that very +instant the bear thought the whole side of the hill had struck him in +the face. + +"He stopped with a bump, his nose went straight up in the air, and he +squalled: 'Wah-ah! Wah--' But in the middle of these remarks he +choked and strangled and started pawing wildly at his nose, trying to +get his breath. + +"His eyes were shut tight, and that deadly oil clung like glue. His +paws couldn't begin to get it off, and so he fell to rooting his nose +in the turf like a pig, and plowing the grass with his whole face, +fairly standing on his head in his efforts, all the time coughing and +gurgling as if he was having a fit. + +"His behavior, in fact, was perfectly ridiculous; but there was no one +there to laugh at it but Stripes, and he was too polite. He just +strolled on quietly to another bush, and kept looking for that bird's +nest. + +"At last the bear, what with pawing and rooting, managed to get his +breath and open his eyes. He wallowed a bit more, and then sat up, his +nose full of dirt, and moss and grass hanging all over his face. He +was a sight, I tell you! And how he did dislike himself! + +"As he sat there, thinking how he'd ever get away from himself, he +caught sight of Stripes, strolling off quietly over the brown hillocks. +Sitting back on his haunches, he blinked at the little, leisurely +black-and-white figure. + +"'And to think I was going to eat _that_!' he said to himself sadly." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +DAGGER BILL AND THE WATER BABIES + +"What's that?" demanded the Babe nervously, as a peal of wild, crazy +laughter rang out over the surface of the lake. + +"Why, don't you know what _that_ is yet?" Said Uncle Andy with a +superior air. "That's old Dagger Bill, the big black-and-white loon. +Sounds as if he was terribly amused, doesn't he? But he's only calling +to his big black-and-white mate, or the two little Dagger Bills they +hatched out in the spring." + +"What does _he_ do?" asked the Babe. + +"I don't _know_ much about that fellow," answered Uncle Andy. "Now you +see him, and now you don't. Mostly you don't; and, when you do, as +likely as not it's only his snaky black head, with its sharp dagger of +a bill, stuck up out of the water to keep track of you. He's _most_ +unsociable. If anyone tells you he knows all about a loon, you wink to +yourself and pretend you are not listening. But I'll tell you who _do_ +know something about old Dagger Bill--the Water Babies. + +"Who're the Water Babies?" demanded the Babe. + +"Why don't you know _that_? The little muskrats, of course, that live +in the warm, dry, dark nest under the dome of their mud house, out in +the water--the house with its doors so far under water that no one can +get into it without diving and swimming." + +"It must be cozy and awfully safe," said the Babe, who began to want a +place like that himself. + +"Yes, _fine_!" agreed Uncle Andy. "And safe from everything but the +mink; and if _he_ came in by one door, there was always another door +open for them to get out by, so quick that the mink could never see +their tails. + +"Old Dagger Bill, of course, could never get into the house of the +Water Babies, for all his wonderful swimming and diving, because he was +so big--as big as a goose. But, as a rule, he wouldn't want to bother +the Water Babies. Fish were much more to Dagger Bill's taste than +young muskrat; and he could swim so fast under water that few fish ever +escaped him, once he got after them. + +"This summer, however, things were different at Long Pond. Hitherto it +had fairly swarmed with fish--lake trout, suckers, chub, red fins, and +so on. But that spring some scoundrel had dynamited the waters for the +sake of the big lake trout. Few fish had survived the outrage. And +even so clever a fisherman as Dagger Bill would have gone hungry most +of the time had he not been clever enough to vary his bill of fare. + +"'If we can't have all the bread we want,' he said to the family, 'we +must try to get along on cake!'" + +"Dagger Bill _might_ get _bread_ from some camp," interrupted the Babe +thoughtfully, being a matter-of-fact child. "But _what_ could he know +about _cake_, Uncle Andy?" + +"Oh, come on! You know what I mean!" protested Uncle Andy, aggrieved +at the Babe's lack of a sense of humor. "You're too particular, you +are! _You_ know bread meant fish with Dagger Bill--and cake meant +things like winkles and frogs, and watermice, and--Water Babies, of +course! + +"Well, you know, it was no joke hunting the Water Babies, for the old +muskrats could fight, and would, and did! And after Dagger Bill and +his family had breakfasted on two or three Water Babies, there was +great excitement in all the muskrat homes. + +"Dagger Bill was a new enemy, and they were not quite sure how to +manage him. The mink they knew, the fox they knew, and the noiseless, +terrible eagle owl, and the swooping hawk. All these they had their +tricks for evading. And the savage pike they would sometimes fight in +his own element. + +"But Dagger Bill, swimming under water like a fish, and spearing them +from beneath with the deadly javelin of his beak, this was a new and +dreadfully upsetting danger. Furry heads got close together, and there +was a terrible lot of squeaking and squealing before anyone could make +up his mind what to do. And meanwhile Dagger Bill was feeling quite +pleased, because he had found out that Water Babies were good--and +safe!--to eat. + +"Now the Water Babies, I must tell you, had two nests--one in the +waterhouse, a few yards out from shore, and one at the end of the +burrow leading up into the dry bank. Their favorite amusement, as a +rule, was playing tag in the quiet water around the house, sometimes on +the surface, sometimes beneath it. They would catch and nip each other +by the tails or the hind legs, and sometimes grapple and drag each +other down, for all the world like a lot of boys in swimming--but how +they could swim! You'd give your eye teeth to swim like they could." + +"Bet your boots, Uncle Andy," agreed the Babe enthusiastically. +"Specially _these_ teeth, 'cause they're my first, and I'll lose 'em +soon, anyway." + +"Huh!" grunted Uncle Andy, looking at him suspiciously. "But, as I was +saying, the Water Babies _could swim_. They were no match for Dagger +Bill, however, who was quicker than a fish. And when Dagger Bill took +to hunting Water Babies, it was no longer safe for them to play far +from home. They would get themselves well nipped by their relations, I +can tell you, whenever they went outside the little patch of shallow +water between the house and the bank. + +"Now the sharpness of Dagger Bill's eyes was something terrible. From +away across the lake, where no muskrat could see him at all, _he_ could +see the ripple made by the brown nose of the littlest muskrat swimming. +So one day, when the Water Babies were playing tag in what was really, +you know, nothing more nor less than their own back yard, he saw the +swift ripples and splashes crossing and recrossing--and he laughed! +_You_ know how he laughed. + +"And when the muskrats heard that wild laughter, they bobbed up their +furry heads, those in the water; and those on land sat up like +squirrels to listen, and all were as delighted as possible because the +sound was so very far away! Then the Water Babies all began to play +about as boldly as you please, because they knew Dagger Bill was away +over at the other side of the lake. + +"But do you suppose he really was? + +"Not much! The moment he was done laughing he dived, and swam as hard +as he could straight across the lake, under water. He swam and he +swam, a sharp, black-and-white wedge rushing through the golden deep, +as long as he could hold his breath. When he could not hold it a +moment longer he came up, stuck his bill just above water, took a long +breath, and dived again. He was halfway across the lake when he came +up that time. Next time he was _all_ the way across; but, being very +cunning indeed, he came up under a grassy bank, where his black bill +was hidden among the stems. + +"He was not more than twenty paces now from the place where the Water +Babies were splashing and racing and squeaking, and having such a good +time on the smooth, sunny water, under the blue, blue sky. They were +very happy. Dagger Bill sank back into the deep water so noiselessly, +you would have said it was a shadow sinking. Then he rushed forward +like a swordfish, down there in the brown glow, and darted up right +into the game of tag. + +"He had aimed his cruel thrust at the Water Baby who, at that +particular moment, was IT. But, in that same second, as luck would +have it, IT caught the one he was pursuing, nipped his tail, and +doubled back like lightning to escape getting nipped in return. So, +you see, Dagger Bill missed his aim. That javelin of his beak just +grazed the brown tip of IT'S nose, scaring him to death, but nothing +more." + +"Ah-h!' breathed the Babe, relieved in his feelings. + +"In a wink, of course," went on Uncle Andy, "all the Water Babies, with +a wild slapping of tails on the water to warn each other, were +scurrying desperately for the nest. Some dived as deep as possible; +but others lost their wits and swam on the surface. A moment more, and +Dagger Bill, who had sunk at once, darted up again, and this time his +terrible beak pierced right through a little swimmer's body, severing +the backbone." + +"Oh-h-h!" murmured the Babe, drawing in his breath sharply. + +"I can't help it," said Uncle Andy. "But that's the way things go. +Well, now, Dagger Bill rose right out on top of the water, as a bird +should, and swam toward shore with the victim hanging limply from his +beak. But every old muskrat, along the bank or around the waterhouse, +had seen and had understood. Those folks that think muskrats and other +wild creatures have sense, would have said it was all planned out +ahead--it happened so quick. Every muskrat dived like a flash into the +water and disappeared. + +"Dagger Bill was coolly making for shore, not dreaming that anybody +would dare interfere with him, when suddenly his black head went up in +the air, his great beak opened with a hoarse squawk, and he dropped the +dead Water Baby. His dark wings flopped, and his tail was drawn under +so violently that he nearly turned over backward. It seemed to him +that nothing less than the Great Sturgeon, which lived far down the +river, must have grabbed him by the feet." + +"Wish it had been!" said the Babe. + +"Just you wait!" said Uncle Andy. "Well, the next minute he looked +down, and, lo and behold! all the water underneath him was alive with +swimming muskrats, darting up and closing in upon him. Three or four +already had their sharp teeth in his feet. He was mad and frightened, +I can tell you. + +"He struggled and flopped, but his short wings could not raise him from +the water with those weights fastened upon his feet. Then his black +head shot under, and he jabbed savagely this way and that, making +dreadful wounds in those soft, furry bodies. But the muskrats never +heeded a wound. They swarmed upon their enemy with a splendid, +reckless rage. _They'd_ teach him to stab Water Babies! + +"And they did, too! In a minute or so they had pulled the old robber +clean under, where they could all get at him; and, my! you should have +seen how the water boiled! But it was only for a minute or two. Then +two muskrats came up, bleeding, but proud as you please, and then two +or three more; and they all went ashore to lick their wounds and make +their toilets, for, as you may imagine, their hair was somewhat +disarranged. + +"And then, while they were combing their fur with the claws of their +little forepaws, like hands, who should come up but Dagger Bill; but +his feet came up first, and he didn't come up far, anyway, and he +didn't stir. In fact, he was good and dead--so dead that presently a +young chub, and a red-fin, and two sunfish, came up and swam round him +curiously. + +"You see, they thought they might never have another chance to get such +a _good, comfortable_ look at a loon, and be able to talk about it +afterwards." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHILDREN OF THE WILD*** + + +******* This file should be named 16077.txt or 16077.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/6/0/7/16077 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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