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diff --git a/35014.txt b/35014.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7e19d7d --- /dev/null +++ b/35014.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4105 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Among the Night People, by Clara Dillingham Pierson + +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: Among the Night People + +Author: Clara Dillingham Pierson + +Illustrator: F. C. Gordon + +Release Date: January 20, 2011 [EBook #35014] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMONG THE NIGHT PEOPLE *** + + + + +Produced by Heather Clark and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + [Illustration: _Frontispiece_ COLLIE CHASED HIM AWAY _Page 138_] + + + + + AMONG THE NIGHT PEOPLE + + BY + CLARA DILLINGHAM PIERSON + Author of "Among the Meadow People," "Pond People," etc. + + Illustrated by F. C. GORDON + + [Illustration] + + NEW YORK + E. P. DUTTON AND COMPANY + 31 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET + + + + COPYRIGHT, 1902 + by + E. P. DUTTON & CO. + + + The Knickerbocker Press, New York + + + + +TO + +RACHEL W. PIERSON + +THIS BOOK IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED + + + + +[Illustration] + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + THE BLACK SPANISH CHICKENS 1 + THE WIGGLERS BECOME MOSQUITOES 15 + THE NAUGHTY RACCOON CHILDREN 30 + THE TIMID LITTLE GROUND HOG 43 + THE YOUNG RACCOONS GO TO A PARTY 55 + THE SKUNKS AND THE OVEN-BIRD'S NEST 68 + THE LAZY CUT-WORMS 82 + THE NIGHT-MOTH'S PARTY 94 + THE LONELY OLD BACHELOR MUSKRAT 110 + THE GREEDY RED FOX 131 + THE UNFORTUNATE FIREFLIES 148 + THE KITTENS COME TO THE FOREST 160 + THE INQUISITIVE WEASELS 176 + THE THRIFTY DEER-MOUSE 190 + THE HUMMING-BIRD AND THE HAWK-MOTH 208 + + + + +[Illustration] + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + PAGE + THEY WERE FREE TO GO WHERE THEY CHOSE 6 + KNOCKED HIS BROTHER DOWN 40 + HE STARTED OFF FOR A NIGHT'S RAMBLE 72 + THEY LIVED IN THE FOREST AFTER THAT 109 + THE MARSH SEEMED SO EMPTY AND LONELY 127 + COLLIE CHASED HIM AWAY _Frontispiece_ 138 + TWINKLING WITH HUNDREDS OF TINY LIGHTS 157 + IN WINTER THEY TURNED WHITE 178 + THE MICE MAKE WINTER THEIR PLAYTIME 195 + THE HUMMING-BIRD AND THE HAWK-MOTH 218 + + + + +[Illustration] + + +MY DEAR LITTLE FRIENDS:--You can never guess how much I have enjoyed +writing these stories of the night-time, and I must tell you how I first +came to think of doing so. I once knew a girl--and she was not a very +little girl, either,--who was afraid of the dark. And I have known three +boys who were as brave as could be by daylight, but who would not run on +an errand alone after the lamps were lighted. They never seemed to think +what a beautiful, restful, growing time the night is for plants and +animals, and even for themselves. I thought that if they knew more of +what happens between sunset and sunrise they would love the night as +well as I. + +It may be that you will never see Bats flying freely, or find the Owls +flapping silently among the trees without touching even a twig. Perhaps +while these things are happening you must be snugly tucked in bed. But +that is no reason why you should not be told what they do while you are +dreaming. Before this, you know, I have told you more of what is done by +daylight in meadow, forest, farmyard, and pond. It would be a very queer +world if we could not know about things without seeing them for +ourselves, and you may like to think, when you are going to sleep, that +hundreds and thousands of tiny out-of-door people are turning, and +stretching, and going to find their food. In the morning, when you are +dressing in your sunshiny rooms, they are cuddling down for a good day's +rest. + +I think I ought to tell you that I have not been alone when writing +these stories. I have often been in the meadow and the forest at night, +and have seen and heard many interesting things, but my good Cat, +Silvertip, has known far more than I of the night-doings of the +out-of-door people. He has been beside me at my desk, and although at +times he has shut his eyes and taken Cat-naps while I wrote, there have +been many other times when he has taken the pen right out of my hand. He +has even tried running the typewriter with his dainty white paws, and he +has gone over every story I have written. I do not say that he has +written any himself, but you can see that he has been very careful what +I wrote, and I have learned a great deal from him that I never knew +before. He is a very good and clever Cat, and if you like these stories +I am sure it must be partly because he had a paw in the writing of them. + + Your friend, + CLARA D. PIERSON. + + STANTON, MICHIGAN, + April 15th, 1901. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE BLACK SPANISH CHICKENS + + +When the Speckled Hen wanted to sit there was no use in trying to talk +her out of the idea, for she was a very set Hen. So, after the farmer's +wife had worked and worked, and barred her out of first one +nesting-place and then another, she gave up to the Speckled Hen and +fixed her a fine nest and put thirteen eggs into it. They were Black +Spanish eggs, but the Speckled Hen did not know that. The Hens that had +laid them could not bear to sit, so, unless some other Hen did the work +which they left undone, there would have been no Black Spanish Chickens. +This is always their way, and people have grown used to it. Now nobody +thinks of asking a Black Spanish Hen to sit, although it does not seem +right that a Hen should be unwilling to bring up chickens. Supposing +nobody had been willing to bring her up? + +Still, the Black Spanish Hens talk very reasonably about it. "We will +lay plenty of eggs," they say, "but some of the common Hens must hatch +them." They do their share of the farmyard work, only they insist on +choosing what that share shall be. + +When the Speckled Hen came off the nest with eleven Black Chickens (two +of the eggs did not hatch), she was not altogether happy. "I wanted them +to be speckled," said she, "and not one of the whole brood is." That was +why she grew so restless and discontented in her coop, although it was +roomy and clean and she had plenty given her to eat and drink. She was +quite happy only when they were safely under her wings at night. And +such a time as they always had getting settled! + +When the sunbeams came more and more slantingly through the trees, the +Chickens felt less and less like running around. Their tiny legs were +tired and they liked to cuddle down on the grass in the shadow of the +coop. Then the Speckled Hen often clucked to them to come in and rest, +but they liked it better in the open air. The Speckled Hen would also +have liked to be out of the coop, yet the farmer kept her in. He knew +what was best for Hens with little Chickens, and also what was best for +the tender young lettuce and radishes in his garden. + +When the sun was nearly down, the Speckled Hen clucked her come-to-bed +cluck, which was quite different from her food cluck or her Hawk cluck, +and the little Black Chickens ran between the bars and crawled under her +feathers. Then the Speckled Hen began to look fatter and fatter and +fatter for each Chicken who nestled beneath her. Sometimes one little +fellow would scramble up on to her back and stand there, while she +turned her head from side to side, looking at him with first one and +then the other of her round yellow eyes, and scolding him all the time. +It never did any good to scold, but she said she had to do something, +and with ten other children under her wings it would never do for her to +stand up and tumble him off. + +All the time that they were getting settled for the night the Chickens +were talking in sleepy little cheeps, and now and then one of them would +poke his head out between the feathers and tell the Speckled Hen that +somebody was pushing him. Then she would be more puzzled than ever and +cluck louder still. Sometimes, too, the Chickens would run out for +another mouthful of cornmeal mush or a few more drops of water. There +was one little fellow who always wanted something to drink just when he +should have been going to sleep. The Speckled Hen used to say that it +took longer for a mouthful of water to run down his throat than it would +for her to drink the whole panful. Of course it did take quite a while, +because he couldn't hurry it by swallowing. He had to drink, as all +birds do, by filling his beak with water and then holding it up until +the last drop had trickled down into his stomach. + +When the whole eleven were at last safely tucked away for the night, the +Speckled Hen was tired but happy. "They are good children," she often +said to herself, "if they are Black Spanish. They might be just as +mischievous if they were speckled; still, I do wish that those +stylish-looking, white-eared Black Spanish Hens would raise their own +broods. I don't like to be hatch-mother to other Hens' chickens." Then +she would slide her eyelids over her eyes, and doze off, and dream that +they were all speckled like herself. + +There came a day when the coop was raised and they were free to go where +they chose. There was a fence around the vegetable garden now and +netting around the flower-beds, but there were other lovely places for +scratching up food, for nipping off tender young green things, for +picking up the fine gravel which every Chicken needs, and for wallowing +in the dust. Then the Black Spanish Chickens became acquainted with the +other fowls whom they had never met before. They were rather afraid of +the Shanghai Cock because he had such a gruff way of speaking, and they +liked the Dorkings, yet the ones they watched and admired and talked +most about were the Black Spanish Cock and Hen. There were many fowls on +the farm who did not have family names, and the Speckled Hen was one of +these. They had been there longer than the rest and did not really like +having new people come to live in the poultry-yard. It was trying, too, +when the older Hens had to hatch the eggs laid by the newcomers. + + [Illustration: THEY WERE FREE TO GO WHERE THEY CHOSE. _Page 6_] + +It is said that this was what made the Speckled Hen leave the eleven +little Black Spanish Chickens after she had been out of the coop for a +while. They had been very mischievous and disobedient one day, and she +walked off and left them to care for themselves while she started to +raise a family of her own in a stolen nest under the straw-stack. + +When night came, eleven little Black Spanish Chickens did not know what +to do. They went to look for their old coop, but that had been given to +another Hen and her family. They walked around looking very small and +lonely, and wished they had minded the Speckled Hen and made her love +them more. At last they found an old potato-crate which reminded them of +a coop and so seemed rather homelike. It stood, top down, upon the +ground and they were too big to crawl through its barred sides, so they +did the best they could and huddled together on top of it. If there had +not been a stone-heap near, they could not have done that, for their +wing-feathers were not yet large enough to help them flutter. The +bravest Chicken went first, picking his way from stone to stone until he +reached the highest one, balancing himself awhile on that, stretching +his neck toward the potato-crate, looking at it as though he were about +to jump, and then seeming to change his mind and decide not do so after +all. + +The Chickens on the ground said he was afraid, and he said he wasn't any +more afraid than they were. Then, after a while, he did jump, a queer, +floppy, squawky kind of jump, but it landed him where he wanted to be. +After that it was his turn to laugh at the others while they stood +teetering uncertainly on the top stone. They were very lonely without +the Speckled Hen, and each Chicken wanted to be in the middle of the +group so that he could have others to keep him warm on all sides. + +Somebody laughed at the most mischievous Chicken and told him he could +stand on the potato-crate's back without being scolded, and he pouted +his bill and said: "Much fun that would be! All I cared about standing +on the Speckled Hen's back was to make her scold." It is very shocking +that he should say such things, but he did say exactly that. + +They slept safely that night, and only awakened when the Cocks crowed a +little while after midnight. After that they slept until sunrise, and +when the Shanghais and Dorkings came down from the apple-tree where +they had been roosting, the Black Spanish Chickens stirred and cheeped, +and looked at their feathers to see how much they had grown during the +night. Then they pushed and squabbled for their breakfast. + +Every night they came back to sleep on the potato-crate. At last they +were able to spring up into their places without standing on the +stone-pile, and that was a great day. They talked about it long after +they should have been asleep, and were still chattering when the +Shanghai Cock spoke: "If you Black Spanish Chickens don't keep still and +let us sleep," said he, "some Owl or Weasel will come for you, and I +shall be glad to have him!" + +That scared the Chickens and they were very quiet. It made the Black +Spanish Hen uneasy though, and she whispered to the Black Spanish Cock +and wouldn't let him sleep until he had promised to fight anybody who +might try to carry one of the Chickens away from the potato-crate. + +The next night first one Chicken and then another kept tumbling off the +potato-crate. They lost their patience and said such things as these to +each other: + +"You pushed me! You know you did!" + +"Well, he pushed me!" + +"Didn't either!" + +"Did too!" + +"Well, I couldn't help it if I did!" + +The Shanghai Cock became exceedingly cross because they made so much +noise, and even the Black Spanish Cock lost his patience. "You may be my +children," said he, "but you do not take your manners from me. Is there +no other place on this farm where you can sleep excepting that old +crate?" + +"We want to sleep here," answered the Chicken on the ground. "There is +plenty of room if those fellows wouldn't push." Then he flew up and +clung and pushed until some other Chicken tumbled off. + +"Well!" said the Black Spanish Cock. And he would have said much more if +the Black Spanish Hen had not fluttered down from the apple-tree to see +what was the matter. When he saw the expression of her eyes he decided +to go back to his perch. + +"There is not room for you all," said the Black Spanish Hen. "One must +sleep somewhere else." + +"There _is_ room," said the Chickens, contradicting her. "We have always +roosted on here." + +"There is _not_ room," said the Black Spanish Hen once more. "How do +your feathers grow?" + +"Finely," said they. + +"And your feet?" + +"They are getting very big," was the answer. + +"Do you think the Speckled Hen could cover you all with her wings if she +were to try it now?" + +The Chickens looked at each other and laughed. They thought it would +take three Speckled Hens to cover them. + +"But she used to," said the Black Spanish Hen. She did not say anything +more. She just looked at the potato-crate and at them and at the +potato-crate again. Then she walked off. + +After a while one of the Chickens said: "I guess perhaps there isn't +room for us all there." + +The mischievous one said: "If you little Chickens want to roost there +you may. I am too large for that sort of thing." Then he walked up the +slanting board to the apple-tree branch and perched there beside the +young Shanghais. You should have seen how beautifully he did it. His +toes hooked themselves around the branch as though he had always perched +there, and he tucked his head under his wing with quite an air. Before +long his brothers and sisters came also, and heard him saying to one of +his new neighbors, "Oh, yes, I much prefer apple-trees, but when I was a +Chicken I used to sleep on a potato-crate." + +"Just listen to him!" whispered the Black Spanish Cock. "And he hasn't a +tail-feather worth mentioning!" + +"Never mind," answered the Black Spanish Hen. "Let them play that they +are grown up if they want to. They will be soon enough." She sighed as +she put her head under her wing and settled down for the night. It made +her feel old to see her children roosting in a tree. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE WIGGLERS BECOME MOSQUITOES + + +It was a bright moonlight night when the oldest Wigglers in the +rain-barrel made up their mind to leave the water. They had always been +restless and discontented children, but it was not altogether their +fault. How could one expect any insect with such a name to float +quietly? When the Mosquito Mothers laid their long and slender eggs in +the rain-barrel, they had fastened them together in boat-shaped masses, +and there they had floated until the Wigglers were strong enough to +break through the lower ends of the eggs into the water. It had been +only a few days before they were ready to do this. + +Then there had been a few more days and nights when the tiny Wigglers +hung head downward in the water, and all one could see by looking across +the barrel was the tips of their breathing tubes. Sometimes, if they +were frightened, a young Wiggler would forget and get head uppermost for +a minute, but he was always ashamed to have this happen, and made all +sorts of excuses for himself when it did. Well-bred little Wigglers +tried to always have their heads down, and Mosquitoes who stopped to +visit with them and give good advice told them such things as these: +"The Wiggler who keeps his head up may never have wings," and, "Up with +your tails and down with your eyes, if you would be mannerly, healthy, +and wise." + +When they were very young they kept their heads way down and breathed +through a tube that ran out near the tail-end of their bodies. This tube +had a cluster of tiny wing-like things on the very tip, which kept it +floating on the top of the water. They had no work to do, so they just +ate food which they found in the water, and wiggled, and played tag, and +whenever they were at all frightened they dived to the bottom and stayed +there until they were out of breath. That was never very long. + +There were many things to frighten them. Sometimes a stray Horse stopped +by the barrel to drink, sometimes a Robin perched on the edge for a few +mouthfuls of water, and once in a while a Dragon-Fly came over to visit +from the neighboring pond. It was not always the biggest visitor who +scared them the worst. The Horses tried not to touch the Wigglers, while +a Robin was only too glad if he happened to get one into his bill with +the water. The Dragon-Flies were the worst, for they were the hungriest, +and they were so much smaller that sometimes the Wigglers didn't see +them coming. Sometimes, too, when they thought that a Dragon-Fly was +going the other way, some of them stayed near the top of the water, only +to find when it was too late that a Dragon-Fly can go backward or +sidewise without turning around. + +When they were a few days old the Wigglers began to change their skins. +This they did by wiggling out of their old ones and wearing the new ones +which had been growing underneath. This made them feel exceedingly +important, and some of them became disgracefully vain. One Wiggler would +not dive until he was sure a certain Robin had seen his new suit. It was +because of that vanity he never lived to be a Mosquito. + +After they had changed their skins a few times, they had two +breathing-tubes apiece instead of one, and these two grew out near their +heads. And their heads were much larger. At the tail-end of his body +each Wiggler now had two leaf-like things with which he swam through +the water. Because they used different breathing-tubes, those Wigglers +who had moulted or cast their skins several times now floated in the +water with their heads just below the surface and their tails down. When +a Wiggler is old enough for this, he is called a Pupa, or half-grown +one. + +There are often young Mosquito children of all ages in the same +barrel--eggs, Wigglers, and Pupae all together. There is plenty of room +and plenty of food, but because they have no work to do there is much +time for quarrelling and talking about each other. + +This year the Oldest Brother had put on so many airs that nobody liked +it at all, and several of the Wigglers had been heard to say that they +couldn't bear the sight of him. He had such a way of saying, "When I was +a young Wiggler and had to keep my head down," or repeating, "Up with +your tails and down with your eyes, if you would be mannerly, healthy, +and wise." One little Wiggler crossed his feelers at him, and they say +that it is just as bad to do that as to make faces. Besides, it is so +much easier--if you have the feelers to cross. + +Now the Oldest Brother and those of his brothers and sisters who had +hatched from the same egg-mass were talking of leaving the rain-barrel +forever. It was a bright moonlight night and they longed to get their +wings uncovered and dried, for then they would be full-grown Mosquitoes, +resting most of the day and having glorious times at night. + +The Oldest Brother was jerking himself through the water as fast as he +could, giving his jointed body sudden bends, first this way and then +that, and when he met anyone nearly his own age he said, "Come with me +and cast your skin. It is a fine evening for moulting." + +Sometimes they answered, "All right," and jerked or wiggled or swam +along with him, and sometimes a Pupa would answer, "I'm afraid I'm not +old enough to slip out of my skin easily." + +Then the Oldest Brother would reply, "Don't stop for that. You'll be +older by the time we begin." That was true, of course, and all members +of Mosquito families grow old very fast. So it happened that when the +moon peeped over the farmhouse, showing her bright face between the two +chimneys, twenty-three Pupae were floating close to each other and making +ready to change their skins for the last time. + +It was very exciting. All the young Wigglers hung around to see what was +going on, and pushed each other aside to get the best places. The Oldest +Brother was much afraid that somebody else would begin to moult before +he was ready, and all the brothers were telling their sisters to be +careful to split their skins in the right place down the back, and the +sisters were telling them that they knew just as much about moulting as +their brothers did. Every little while the Oldest Brother would say, +"Now wait! Don't one of you fellows split his old skin until I say so." + +Then two or three of his brothers would become impatient, because their +outer skins were growing tighter every minute, and would say, "Why not?" +and would grumble because they had to wait. The truth was that the +Oldest Brother could not get his skin to crack, although he jerked and +wiggled and took very deep breaths. And he didn't want any one else to +get ahead of him. At last it did begin to open, and he had just told the +others to commence moulting, when a Mosquito Mother stopped to lay a few +eggs in the barrel. + +"Dear me!" said she. "You are not going to moult to-night, are you?" + +"Yes, we are," answered the Oldest Brother, giving a wiggle that split +his skin a little farther. "We'll be biting people before morning." + +"You?" said the Mosquito Mother, with a queer little smile. "I wouldn't +count on doing that. But you young people may get into trouble if you +moult now, for it looks like rain." + +She waved her feelers upward as she spoke, and they noticed that heavy +black clouds were piling up in the sky. Even as they looked the moon was +hidden and the wind began to stir the branches of the trees. "It will +rain," she said, "and then the water will run off the roof into this +barrel, and if you have just moulted and cannot fly, you will be +drowned." + +"Pooh!" answered the Oldest Brother. "Guess we can take care of +ourselves. I'm not afraid of a little water." Then he tried to crawl out +of his old skin. + +The Mosquito Mother stayed until she had laid all the eggs she wanted +to, and then flew away. Not one of the Pupae had been willing to listen +to her, although some of the sisters might have done so if their +brothers had not made fun of them. + +At last, twenty-three soft and tired young Mosquitoes stood on their +cast-off pupa-skins, waiting for their wings to harden. It is never easy +work to crawl out of one's skin, and the last moulting is the hardest of +all. It was then, when they could do nothing but wait, that these young +Mosquitoes began to feel afraid. The night was now dark and windy, and +sometimes a sudden gust blew their floating pupa skins toward one side +of the barrel. They had to cling tightly to them, for they suddenly +remembered that if they fell into the water they might drown. The oldest +one found himself wishing to be a Wiggler again. "Wigglers are never +drowned," thought he. + +"Who are you going to bite first?" asked one of his brothers. + +He answered very crossly: "I don't know and I don't care. I'm not +hungry. Can't you think of anything but eating?" + +"Why, what else is there to think about?" cried all the floating +Mosquitoes. + +"Well, there is flying," said he. + +"Humph! I don't see what use flying would be except to carry us to our +food," said one Mosquito Sister. She afterward found out that it was +good for other reasons. + +After that they didn't try to talk with their Oldest Brother. They +talked with each other and tried their legs, and wished it were light +enough for them to see their wings. Mosquitoes have such interesting +wings, you know, thin and gauzy, and with delicate fringes around the +edges and along the line of each vein. The sisters, too, were proud of +the pockets under their wings, and were in a hurry to have their wings +harden, so that they could flutter them and hear the beautiful singing +sound made by the air striking these pockets. They knew that their +brothers could never sing, and they were glad to think that they were +ahead of them for once. It was not really their fault that they felt so, +for the brothers had often put on airs and laughed at them. + +Then came a wonderful flash of lightning and a long roll of thunder, and +the trees tossed their beautiful branches to and fro, while big +rain-drops pattered down on to the roof overhead and spattered and +bounded and rolled toward the edge under which the rain-barrel stood. + +"Fly!" cried the Oldest Brother, raising his wings as well as he could. + +"We can't. Where to?" cried the rest. + +"Fly any way, anywhere!" screamed the Oldest Brother, and in some +wonderful way the whole twenty-three managed to flutter and crawl and +sprawl up the side of the building, where the rain-drops fell past but +did not touch them. There they found older Mosquitoes waiting for the +shower to stop. Even the Oldest Brother was so scared that he shook, and +when he saw that same Mosquito Mother who had told him to put off +changing his skin, he got behind two other young Mosquitoes and kept +very still. Perhaps she saw him, for it was lighter then than it had +been. She did not seem to see him, but he heard her talking to her +friends. "I told him," she said, "that he might better put off moulting, +but he answered that he could take care of himself, and that he would be +out biting people before morning." + +"Did he say that?" cried the other old Mosquitoes. + +"He did," she replied. + +Then they all laughed and laughed and laughed again, and the young +Mosquito found out why. It was because Mosquito brothers have to eat +honey, and only the sisters may bite people and suck their blood. He had +thought so often how he would sing around somebody until he found the +nicest, juiciest spot, and then settle lightly down and bite and suck +until his slender little body was fat and round and red with its +stomachful of blood. And that could never be! He could never sing, and +he would have to sit around with his stomach full of honey and see his +eleven sisters gorged with blood and hear them singing sweetly as they +flew. If Mosquito Fathers had ever come to the barrel he might have +found this out, but they never did. He sneaked off by himself until he +met an early bird and then--well, you know birds must eat something, and +the Mosquito was right there. Of course, after that, his brothers and +sisters had a chance to do as they wanted to, and the eleven sisters +bit thirteen people the very next night and had the loveliest kind of +Mosquito time. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE NAUGHTY RACCOON CHILDREN + + +There was hardly a night of his life when the Little Brother of the +Raccoon family was not reproved by his mother for teasing. Mrs. Raccoon +said she didn't know what she had done to deserve such a child. When she +spoke like this to her neighbors they sighed and said, "It must be +trying, but he may outgrow it." + +The Oldest Wolverene, though, told the Skunk that his cousin, Mrs. +Raccoon's husband, had been just as bad as that when he was young. "I do +not want you to say that I said so," he whispered, "because he might +hear of it and be angry, but it is true." The Oldest Wolverene didn't +say whether Mr. Raccoon outgrew this bad habit, yet it would seem that +his wife had never noticed it. + +You must not think that Mr. Raccoon was dead. Oh, no, indeed! Every +night he was prowling through the forest on tiptoe looking for food. But +Mrs. Raccoon was a very devoted mother and gave so much time and +attention to her children that she was not good company for her husband. +He did not care much for home life, and the children annoyed him +exceedingly, so he went away and found a hole in another tree which he +fitted up for himself. There he slept through the day and until the +setting of the sun told him that it was time for his breakfast. Raccoons +like company, and he often had friends in to sleep with him. Sometimes +these friends were Raccoons like himself with wives and children, and +then they would talk about their families and tell how they thought +their wives were spoiling the children. + +The four little Raccoons, who lived with their mother in the dead branch +of the big oak-tree, had been born in April, when the forest was sweet +with the scent of wild violets and every one was happy. Beautiful pink +and white trilliums raised their three-cornered flowers above their +threefold leaves and nodded with every passing breeze. Yellow +adder's-tongue was there, with cranesbill geraniums, squirrel-corn, and +spring beauties, besides hepaticas and windflowers and the dainty +bishop's-cap. The young Raccoons did not see these things, for their +eyes would not work well by daylight, and when, after dark, their mother +let them put their heads out of the hole and look around, they were too +far from the ground to see the flowers sleeping in the dusk below. They +could only sniff, sniff, sniff with their sharp little turned-up noses, +and wonder what flowers look like, any way. + +When their mother was with them for a time, and that was while they were +drinking the warm milk that she always carried for them, she told them +stories of the flowers and trees. She had begun by telling them animal +stories, but she found that it made them cowardly. "Just supposing," one +young Raccoon had said, "a great big, dreadful Snail should come up this +tree and eat us all!" + +The mother told them that Snails were small and slow and weak, and never +climbed trees or ate people, but it did no good, and her children were +always afraid of Snails until they had seen one for themselves. After +that she told them stories of the flowers, and when they asked if the +flowers would ever come to see them, she said, "No, indeed! You will +never see them until you can climb down the tree and walk among them, +for they grow with their feet in the ground and never go anywhere." +There were many stories which they wanted over and over again, but the +one they liked best of all was that about the wicked, wicked Poison Ivy +and the gentle Spotted Touch-me-not who grew near him and undid all the +trouble that the Ivy made. + +When the night came for the young Raccoons to climb down from their tree +and learn to hunt, all the early spring blossoms were gone, and only the +ripening seed-vessels showed where nodding flowers had been. You would +have expected the Raccoon children to be disappointed, yet there were so +many other things to see and learn about that it was not until three +nights later that they thought much of the flowers. They might not have +done so then if Little Sister had not lost her hold upon the oak-tree +bark and fallen with her forepaws on a scarlet jack-in-the-pulpit berry. + +They had to learn to climb quickly and strongly up all sorts of trees. +Perhaps Mrs. Raccoon had chosen an oak for her nest because that was +rough and easily climbed. There were many good places for Raccoons to +grip with their twenty strong claws apiece. After they had learned oaks +they took maples, ironwoods, and beeches--each a harder lesson than the +one before. + +"When you climb a tree," said their mother, "always look over the trunk +and the largest branches for hiding-places, whether you want to use one +then or not." + +"Why?" asked three of the four children. Big Brother, who was rather +vain, was looking at the five beautiful black rings and the beautiful +black tip of his wonderful bushy tail. Between the black rings were +whitish ones, and he thought such things much more interesting than +holes in trees. + +"Because," said the Mother Raccoon, "you may be far from home some +night and want a safe place to sleep in all day. Or if a man and his +Dogs are chasing you, you must climb into the first hiding-place you +can. We Raccoons are too fat and slow to run away from them, and the +rings on our tails and the black patches on our broad faces might show +from the ground. If the hole is a small one, make it cover your head and +your tail anyway, and as much of your brown body fur as you can." + +Mother Raccoon looked sternly at Big Brother because he had not been +listening, and he gave a slight jump and asked, "W-what did you say?" + +"What did I say?" she replied. "You should have paid better attention." + +"Yes 'm," said Big Brother, who was now very meek. + +"I shall not repeat it," said his mother, "but I will tell you not to +grow vain of your fur. It is very handsome, and so is that of your +sisters and your brother. So is mine, and so was your father's the last +time I saw him. Yet nearly all the trouble that Raccoons have is on +account of their fur. Never try to show it off." + +The time came for the young Raccoons to stop drinking milk from their +mother's body, and when they tried to do so she only walked away from +them. + +"I cannot work so hard to care for you," said she. "I am so tired and +thin, now, that my skin is loose, and you must find your own food. You +are getting forty fine teeth apiece, and I never saw a better lot of +claws on any Raccoon family, if I do say it." + +They used to go hunting together, for it is the custom for Raccoons to +go in parties of from five to eight, hunt all night, and then hide +somewhere until the next night. They did not always come home at +sunrise, and it made a pleasant change to sleep in different trees. One +day they all cuddled down in the hollow of an old maple, just below +where the branches come out. Mother Raccoon had climbed the tree first +and was curled away in the very bottom of the hole. The four children +were not tired and hadn't wanted to go to bed at all. Little Sister had +made a dreadful face when her mother called her up the tree, and if it +had not already been growing light, Mrs. Raccoon would probably have +seen it and punished her. + +Big Sister curled down beside her mother and Little Sister was rather +above them and beside mischievous Little Brother. Last of all came Big +Brother, who had stopped to scratch his ear with his hind foot. He was +very proud of his little round ears, and often scratched them in this +way to make sure that the fur lay straight on them. He was so slow in +reaching the hole that before he got into it a Robin had begun his +morning song of "Cheerily, cheerily, cheerup!" and a Chipmunk perched +on a stump to make his morning toilet. + +He got all settled, and Little Brother was half asleep beside him, when +he remembered his tail and sat up to have one more look at it. Little +Brother growled sleepily and told him to "let his old tail alone and +come to bed, as long as they couldn't hunt any more." But Big Brother +thought he saw a sand-burr on his tail, and wanted to pull it out before +it hurt the fur. Then he began to look at the bare, tough pads on his +feet, and to notice how finely he could spread his toes. Those of his +front feet he could spread especially wide. He balanced himself on the +edge of the hole and held them spread out before him. It was still dark +enough for him to see well. "Come here, Little Brother," he cried. "Wake +up, and see how big my feet are getting." + +Mother Raccoon growled at them to be good children and go to sleep, but +her voice sounded dreamy and far away because she had to talk through +part of her own fur and most of her daughters'. + +Little Brother lost his patience, unrolled himself with a spring, jumped +to the opening, and knocked his brother down. It was dreadful. Of course +Big Brother was not much hurt, for he was very fat and his fur was both +long and thick, but he turned over and over on his way to the ground +before he alighted on his feet. He turned so fast and Little Brother's +eyes hurt him so that it looked as though Big Brother had about three +heads, three tails, and twelve feet. He called out as he fell, and that +awakened the sisters, who began to cry, and Mother Raccoon, who was so +scared that she began to scold. + + [Illustration: KNOCKED HIS BROTHER DOWN. _Page 40_] + +Such a time! Mother Raccoon found out what had happened, and then she +said to Little Brother, "Did you mean to push him down?" + +"No, ma'am," answered Little Brother, hanging his head. "Anyhow I didn't +mean to after I saw him going. Perhaps I did mean to before that." You +see he was a truthful Raccoon even when he was most naughty, and there +is always hope for a Raccoon who will tell the truth, no matter how hard +it is to do so. + +Big Brother climbed slowly up the trunk of the oak-tree, while more and +more of the daytime people came to look at him. He could not see well +now, and so was very awkward. When he reached the hole he was hot and +cross, and complained to his mother. "Make him quit teasing me," he +said, pointing one forepaw at Little Brother. + +"I will," answered Mother Raccoon; "but you were just as much to blame +as he, for if you had cuddled down quietly when I told you to, you would +have been dreaming long ago. Now you must sleep where I was, at the +lower end of the hole. Little Brother must go next, and I do not want to +hear one word from either of you. Sisters next, and I will sleep by the +opening. You children must remember that it is no time for talking to +each other, or looking at claws, or getting sand-burrs out of your tails +after you have been sent to bed. Go to sleep, and don't awaken until the +sun has gone down and you are ready to be my good little Raccoons +again." + +Her children were asleep long before she was, and she talked softly to +herself after they were dreaming. "They do not mean to be naughty," she +said. "Yet it makes my fur stand on end to think what might have +happened.... I ought not to have curled up for the day until they had +done so.... Mothers should always be at the top of the heap." Then she +fixed herself for a long, restful day's sleep. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE TIMID LITTLE GROUND HOG + + +It was not often that the little Ground Hogs were left alone in the +daytime. Before they were born their mother had been heard to say that +she had her opinion of any Ground Hog who would be seen out after +sunrise. Mr. Ground Hog felt in the same way, and said if he ever got to +running around by daylight, like some of his relatives, people might +call him a Woodchuck. He thought that any one who ate twigs, beets, +turnips, young tree-bark, and other green things from sunset to sunrise +ought to be able to get along until the next sunset without a lunch. He +said that any Ground Hog who wanted more was a Pig. + +After the baby Ground Hogs were born, matters were different. They could +not go out at night to feed for themselves, and their stomachs were so +tiny and held so little at a time that they had to be filled very often. +Mr. Ground Hog was never at home now, and the care all fell upon his +hard-working wife. + +"You know, my dear," he had said, "that I should only be in the way if I +were to stay at home, for I am not clever and patient with children as +you are. No, I think I will go away and see to some matters which I have +rather neglected of late. When the children are grown up and you have +more time to give me, I will come back to you." + +Then Mr. Ground Hog trotted away to join a party of his friends who had +just told their wives something of the same sort, and they all went +together to the farmer's turnip patch and had a delightful time until +morning. Mrs. Ground Hog looked after him as he trotted away and wished +that she could go too. He looked so handsome with the moonlight shining +down on his long, thick, reddish fur, and showing the black streak on +his back where the fur was tipped with gray. He was fat and shaky, with +a baggy skin, and when he stopped to sit up on his haunches and wave his +paws at her and comb his face-fur, she thought him just as handsome as +he had been in the early spring when they first met. That had been in a +parsnip patch where there was good feeding until the farmer found that +the Ground Hogs were there, and dug the rest of his vegetables and +stored them in his cellar. Such midnight meals as they had eaten there +together! Mrs. Ground Hog said she never saw a parsnip afterward without +thinking of their courtship. + +She had been as handsome as he, and there were many other Ground Hogs +who admired her. But now she was thin and did not have many chances to +comb her fur with her fore paws. She could not go with him to the turnip +patch because she did not wish to go so far from her babies. Thinking of +that reminded her to go into her sidehill burrow and see what they were +doing. Then she lay down and let them draw the warm milk from her body. +While they were feeding she felt of them, and thought how fast they were +growing. It would be only a short time before they could trot around the +fields by themselves and whistle shrilly as they dodged down into their +own burrows. "Ah!" said she, "this is better than turnip patches or even +parsnips." + +When they had finished, their mother left them and went out to feed. She +had always been a hearty eater, but now she had to eat enough more to +make the milk for her babies. She often thought that if Ground Hog +babies could eat anything else their father might have learned to help +feed them. She thought of this especially when she saw the Great Horned +Owl carrying food home to his son and daughter. "It is what comes of +being four-legged," said she, "and I wouldn't be an Owl for anything, so +I won't grumble." After this she was more cheerful. + +When she left the burrow she always said: "I am going out to feed, and I +shall not be gone very long. Don't be afraid, for you have a good +burrow, and it is nice and dark outside." + +The children would cry: "And you will surely come home before sunrise?" + +"Surely," she always answered as she trotted away. Then the children +would rest happily in their burrow-nest. + +But now Mrs. Ground Hog was hungry, and it was broad daylight. She knew +that it was because her children grew bigger every day and had to have +more and more milk. This meant that she must eat more, or else when they +wanted milk there would not be enough ready. She knew that she must +begin to feed by day as well as by night, and she was glad that she +could see fairly well if the sun were not shining into her eyes. + +"Children," said she to them, just as they finished their morning lunch, +"I am very hungry and I am going out to feed. You will be quite safe +here and I want you to be good while I am gone." + +The young Ground Hogs began to cry and clutch at her fur with their weak +little paws. "Oh, don't go," they said. "Please don't go. We don't want +to stay alone in the daytime. We're afraid." + +"I must," said she, "or I shall have no milk for you. And then, you +wouldn't have me lie here all day too hungry to sleep, would you?" + +"N-no," said they; "but you'll come back soon, won't you?" + +"Yes," said she, and she shook off their clinging paws and poked back +the daughter who caught on again, and trotted away as fast as she +could. It was the first time that she had been out by daylight, and +everything looked queer. The colors looked too bright, and there seemed +to be more noise than usual, and she met several people whom she had +never seen before. She stopped for a minute to look at an Ovenbird's +nest. The mother-bird was inside, sitting there very still and brave, +although she was much frightened. + +"Good-morning," said Mrs. Ground Hog. "I was just admiring your nest. I +have never seen it by daylight." + +"Good-morning," answered the Ovenbird. "I'm glad you fancy my nest, but +I hope you don't like to eat meat." + +"Meat?" answered Mrs. Ground Hog. "I never touch it." And she smiled and +showed all her teeth. + +"Oh," exclaimed the Ovenbird, "I see you don't, for you have +gnawing-teeth, rather like those of the Rabbits." Then she hopped out +of the nest and let Mrs. Ground Hog peep in to see how the inside was +finished and also to see the four speckled eggs which lay there. + +"It is a lovely nest," said Mrs. Ground Hog, "and those eggs are +beauties. But I promised the children that I would hurry. Good-by." She +trotted happily away, while Mrs. Ovenbird settled herself upon her eggs +again and thought what a pleasant call she had had and what an excellent +and intelligent person Mrs. Ground Hog was! + +All this time the children at home were talking together about +themselves and what their mother had told them. Once there was a long +pause which lasted until the brother said: "I'm not afraid, are you?" + +"Of course not," said they. + +"Because there isn't anything to be afraid of," said he. + +"Not anything," said they. + +"And I wouldn't be afraid anyway," said he. + +"Neither would we," answered the sisters. + +There was another long pause. + +"She said we'd be just as safe as if it were dark," said the big sister. + +"Of course," said the brother. + +"And she said she'd come back as soon as she could," said the second +sister. + +"I wish she'd come now," said the smallest sister. + +There was another long pause. + +"You don't suppose anybody would come here just to scare us, do you?" +asked the second sister. + +"See here," said the brother, "I wish you'd quit saying things to make a +fellow afraid." + +"You don't mean that you are frightened!" exclaimed the three sisters +together. And the smallest one added: "Why, you are, too! I can feel +you tremble." + +"Well, I don't care," said the brother. "I'm not afraid of people, +anyhow. If it were only dark I wouldn't mind." + +"Oh, are you afraid of the daylight too?" cried each of the sisters. "So +am I!" Then they all trembled together. + +"I tell you what let's do," said the smallest sister. "Let's all stop +looking toward the light end of the burrow, and cuddle up together and +cover our eyes and make believe it's night." They did this and felt +better. They even played that they heard the few noises of the +night-time. A Crow cawed outside, and the brother said, "Did you hear +that Owl? That was the Great Horned Owl, the one who had to hatch the +eggs, you know." + +When another Crow cawed, the smallest sister said, "Was that his cousin, +the Screech Owl?" + +"Yes," answered the big sister. "He is the one who used to bring things +for the Great Horned Owl to eat." + +So they amused themselves and each other, and really got along very well +except when, once in a while, they opened their eyes a little crack to +see if it were not getting really dark. Then they had to begin all over +again. At last their mother came, and what a comfort it was! How glad +she was to be back, and how much she had to tell them! All about the +Ovenbird's nest and the four eggs in it, and how the Ovenbirds spent +their nights in sleeping and their days in work and play. + +"I wonder if the little Ovenbirds will be scared when they have to stay +alone in the daytime?" said the smallest sister. + +"They would be more scared if they had to stay alone at night," said +their mother. + +"At night!" exclaimed all the young Ground Hogs. "Why, it is dark +then!" + +"They might be afraid of the darkness," said their mother. Then the +children laughed and thought she was making fun of them. They drank some +milk and went to sleep like good little Ground Hogs, but even after he +was half asleep the big brother laughed out loud at the thought of the +Ovenbird babies being scared at night. He could understand any one's +being afraid of daylight, but darkness----! + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE YOUNG RACCOONS GO TO A PARTY + + +It was not very many nights after Big Brother had tumbled from the +maple-tree, when he and the other children were invited to a Raccoon +party down by the pond. The water was low, and in the small pools by the +shore there were many fresh-water clams and small fishes, such as +Raccoons like best of all. A family of six young Raccoons who lived very +near the pond had found them just before sunrise, when they had to climb +off to bed. They knew there was much more food there than they could eat +alone, so their mother had let them invite their four friends who lived +in the hollow of the oak-tree. The party was to begin the next evening +at moonrise, and the four children who lived in the oak-tree got their +invitation just as they were going to sleep for the day. They were very +much excited over it, for they had never been to a party. + +"I wish we could go now," said Big Brother. + +"Yes, lots of fun it would be now!" answered Little Brother. "The sun is +almost up, and there are no clouds in the sky. We couldn't see a thing +unless we shaded our eyes with our fore paws, and if we had to use our +fore paws in that way we couldn't eat." + +"You do eat at parties, don't you?" asked Little Sister, who had not +quite understood what was said. + +"Of course," shouted her brothers. "That is what parties are for." + +"I thought maybe you talked some," said Big Sister. + +"I suppose you do have to, some," said Big Brother, "but I know you +eat. I've heard people tell about parties lots of times, and they always +began by telling what they ate. That's what makes it a party." + +"Oh, I wish it were night and time to go," sighed Little Brother. + +"I don't," said Little Sister. "I wouldn't have any fun if I were to go +now. I'd rather wait until my stomach is empty." + +"There!" said their mother. "You children have talked long enough. Now +curl down and go to sleep. The birds are already singing their morning +songs, and the Owls and Bats were dreaming long ago. It will make +night-time come much sooner if you do not stay awake." + +"We're not a bit sleepy," cried all the young Raccoons together. + +"That makes no difference at all," said their mother, and she spoke +quite sternly. "Cuddle down for the day now, cover your eyes, and stop +talking. I do not say you must sleep, but you must stop talking." + +They knew that when she spoke in that way and said "must," there was +nothing to do but to mind. So they cuddled down, and every one of them +was asleep before you could drop an acorn. Mother Raccoon had known it +would be so. + +When they awakened, early the next night, each young Raccoon had to make +himself look as neat as possible. There were long fur to be combed, +faces and paws to be washed, and twenty-three burrs to be taken out of +Little Brother's tail. He began to take them out himself, but his mother +found that whenever he got one loose he stuck it onto one of the other +children, so she scolded him and made him sit on a branch by himself +while she worked at the burrs. Sometimes she couldn't help pulling the +fur, and then he tried to wriggle away. + +"You've got enough out," he cried. "Let the rest go." + +"You should have thought sooner how it would hurt," she said. "You have +been told again and again to keep away from the burrs, and you are just +as careless as you were the first night you left the tree." Then she +took out another burr and dropped it to the ground. + +"Ouch!" said he. "Let me go!" + +"Not until I am done," she answered. "No child of mine shall ever go to +a party looking as you do." + +After that Little Brother tried to hold still, and he had time to think +how glad he was that he hadn't stuck any more burrs on the other +children. If he had gotten more onto them, he would have had to wait +while they were pulled off again, and then they might have been late for +the party. If he had been very good, he would have been glad they didn't +have to be hurt as he was. But he was not very good, and he never +thought of that. + +When he was ready at last, Mother Raccoon made her four children sit in +a row while she talked to them. "Remember to walk on your toes," said +she, "although you may stand flat-footed if you wish. Don't act greedy +if you can help it. Go into the water as much as you choose, but don't +try to dive, even if they dare you to. Raccoons can never learn to dive, +no matter how well they swim. And be sure to wash your food before you +eat it." + +All the young Raccoons said "Yes'm," and thought they would remember +every word. The first moonbeam shone on the top of the oak-tree, and +Mrs. Raccoon said: "Now you may go. Be good children and remember what I +told you. Don't stay too long. Start home when you see the first light +in the east." + +"Yes'm," said the young Raccoons, as they walked off very properly +toward the pond. After they were well away from the oak-tree, they heard +their mother calling to them: "Remember to walk on your toes!" + +Raccoons cannot go very fast, and the moon was shining brightly when +they reached the pond and met their six friends. Such frolics as they +had in the shallow water, swimming, twisting, turning, scooping up food +with their busy fore paws, going up and down the beach, and rolling on +the sand! They never once remembered what their mother had told them, +and they acted exactly as they had been in the habit of doing every day. +Big Brother looked admiringly at his own tail every chance he got, +although he had been told particularly not to act as if he thought +himself fine-looking. Little Brother rolled into a lot of sand-burrs and +got his fur so matted that he looked worse than ever. Big Sister +snatched food from other Raccoons, and not one of them remembered about +walking on tiptoe. Little Sister ate half the time without washing her +food. Of course that didn't matter when the food was taken from the +pond, but when they found some on the beach and ate it without +washing--that was dreadful. No Raccoon who is anybody at all will do +that. + +The mother of the family of six looked on from a tree near by. The +children did not know that she was there. "What manners!" said she. "I +shall never have them invited here again." Just then she saw one of her +own sons eat without washing his food, and she groaned out loud. "My +children are forgetting too," she said. "I have told him hundreds of +times that if he did that way every day he would do so at a party, but +he has always said he would remember." + +The mother of the four young Raccoons was out hunting and found herself +near the pond. "How noisy those children are!" she said to herself. +"Night people should be quiet." She tiptoed along to a pile of rocks and +peeped between them to see what was going on. She saw her children's +footprints on the sand. "Aha!" said she. "So they did walk flat-footed +after all." + +She heard somebody scrambling down a tree near by. "Good-evening," said +a pleasant Raccoon voice near her. It was the mother of the six. "Are +you watching the children's party?" asked the newcomer. "I hope you did +not notice how badly my son is behaving. I have tried to teach my +children good manners, but they will be careless when I am not looking, +and then, of course, they forget in company." + +That made the mother of the four feel more comfortable. "I know just how +that is," said she. "Mine mean to be good, but they are so careless. It +is very discouraging." + +The two mothers talked for a long time in whispers and then each went to +her hole. + +When the four young Raccoons came home, it was beginning to grow light, +and they kept close together because they were somewhat afraid. Their +mother was waiting to see them settled for the day. She asked if they +had a good time, and said she was glad they got home promptly. They had +been afraid she would ask if they had washed their food and walked on +their toes. She even seemed not to notice Little Brother's matted coat. + +When they awakened the next night, the mother hurried them off with her +to the same pond where they had been to the party. "I am going to visit +with the mother of your friends," said she, "and you may play around and +amuse yourselves." + +The young Raccoons had another fine time, although Little Brother found +it very uncomfortable to wear so many burrs. They played tag in the +trees, and ate, and swam, and lay on the beach. While they were lying +there, the four from the oak-tree noticed that their mother was walking +flat-footed. There was bright moonlight and anybody might see her. They +felt dreadfully about it. Then they saw her begin to eat food which she +had not washed. They were so ashamed that they didn't want to look their +friends in the eye. They didn't know that their friends were feeling in +the same way because they had seen their mother doing ill-mannered +things. + +After they reached home, Big Brother said, very timidly, to his mother: +"Did you know you ate some food without washing it?" + +"Oh, yes," she answered; "it is such a bother to dip it all in water." + +"And you walked flat-footed," said Little Brother. + +"Well, why shouldn't I, if I want to?" said she. + +The children began to cry: "P-people will think you don't know any +b-better," said they. "We were d-dreadfully ashamed." + +"Oh!" said their mother. "Oh! Oh! So you think that my manners are not +so good as yours! Is that it?" + +The young Raccoons looked at each other in a very uncomfortable way. "We +suppose we don't always do things right ourselves," they answered, "but +you are grown up." + +"Yes," replied their mother. "And you will be." + +For a long time nobody spoke, and Little Sister sobbed out loud. Then +Mrs. Raccoon spoke more gently: "The sun is rising," said she. "We will +go to sleep now, and when we awaken to-morrow night we will try to have +better manners, so that we need not be ashamed of each other at parties +or at home." + +Long after the rest were dreaming, Big Sister nudged Big Brother and +awakened him. "I understand it now," she said. "She did it on purpose." + +"Who did what?" asked he. + +"Why, our mother. She was rude on purpose to let us see how it looked." + +Big Brother thought for a minute. "Of course," said he. "Of course she +did! Well she won't ever have to do it again for me." + +"Nor for me," said Big Sister. Then they went to sleep. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE SKUNKS AND THE OVEN-BIRD'S NEST + + +The Skunks did not go into society at all. They were very unpopular, and +so many people feared or disliked them that nobody would invite them to +a party. Indeed, if they had been invited to a party and had gone, the +other guests would have left at once. The small people of the forest +feared them because they were meat-eaters, and the larger ones disliked +them because of their disagreeable habits. The Skunks were handsome and +quiet, but they were quick-tempered, and as soon as one of them became +angry he threw a horrible smelling liquid on the people who displeased +him. It was not only horrible smelling, but it made those who had to +smell it steadily quite sick, and would, indeed, have killed them if +they had not kept in the fresh air. If a drop of this liquid got on to a +person, even his wife and children had to keep away from him for a long +time. + +And the Skunks were so unreasonable. They would not stop to see what was +the real trouble, but if anybody ran into them by mistake in the +darkness, they would just as likely as not throw the liquid at once. +Among themselves they seemed to be quite happy. There were from six to +ten children born at a time in each family. These children lived in the +burrow with their father and mother until the next spring, sleeping +steadily through the coldest weather of winter, and only awakening when +it was warm enough for them to enjoy life. When spring came, the +children found themselves grown-up and went off to live their own lives +in new holes, while their mothers took care of the six or seven or +eight or nine or ten new babies. + +There was one very interesting Skunk family in the forest, with the +father, mother, and eight children living in one hole. No two of them +were marked in exactly the same way, although all were stoutly built, +had small heads, little round ears, and beautiful long tails covered +with soft, drooping hair. Their fur was rather long and handsome and +they were dark brown or black nearly all over. Most of them had a streak +of white on the forehead, a spot of it on the neck, some on the tail, +and a couple of stripes of it on their backs. One could see them quite +easily by starlight on account of the white fur. + +The Skunks were really very proud of their white stripes and spots. "It +is not so much having the white fur," Mrs. Skunk had been heard to say, +"as it is having it where all can see it. Most animals wear the dark fur +on their backs and the light on their bellies, and that is to make them +safer from enemies. But we dare to wear ours in plain sight. _We_ are +never afraid." + +And what she said was true, although it hardly seemed modest for her to +talk about it in that way. It would have been more polite to let other +people tell how brave her family were. Perhaps, however, if somebody +else had been telling it, he would have said that part of their courage +was rudeness. + +Father Skunk always talked to his children as his father had talked to +him, and probably as his grandfather had also talked when he was raising +a family. "Never turn out of your way for anybody," said he. "Let the +other fellow step aside. Remember that, no matter whom you meet and no +matter how large the other people may be. If they see you, they will get +out of your path, and if they can't it is not your fault. Don't speak +to them and don't hurry. Always take your time." + +Father Skunk was slow and stately. It was a sight worth seeing when he +started off for a night's ramble, walking with a slow and measured gait +and carrying his fine tail high over his back. He always went by +himself. "One is company, two is a crowd," he would say as he walked +away. When they were old enough, the young Skunks began to walk off +alone as soon as it was dark. Mother Skunk also went alone, and perhaps +she had the best time of all, for it was a great rest not to have eight +babies tumbling over her back and getting under her feet and hanging on +to her with their thirty-two paws, and sometimes even scratching her +with their one hundred and sixty claws. They still slept through the +days in the old hole, so they were together much of the time, but they +did not hunt in parties, as Raccoons and Weasels do. + + [Illustration: HE STARTED OFF FOR A NIGHT'S RAMBLE. _Page 72_] + +One of the brothers had no white whatever on his tail, so they called +him the Black-tailed Skunk. He had heard in some way that there was an +Ovenbird's nest on the ground by the fern bank, and he made up his mind +to find it the very next night and eat the eggs which were inside. + +Another brother was called the Spotted Skunk, because the spot on his +neck was so large. He had found the Ovenbird's nest himself, while on +his way home in the early morning. He would have liked to rob it then, +but he had eaten so much that night that he thought it better to wait. + +So it happened that when the family awakened the next night two of the +children had important plans of their own. Neither of them would have +told for anything, but they couldn't quite keep from hinting about it as +they made themselves ready to go out. + +"Aha!" said the Black-tailed Skunk. "I know something you don't know." + +"Oh, tell us!" cried four or five of the other children, while the +Spotted Skunk twisted his head and said, "You don't either!" + +"I do too!" replied the Black-tailed Skunk. + +"Children! Children!" exclaimed Mrs. Skunk, while their father said that +he couldn't see where his children got their quarrelsome disposition, +for none of his people had ever contradicted or disputed. His wife told +him that she really thought them very good, and that she was sure they +behaved much better than most Skunks of their age. Then their father +walked off in his most stately manner, putting his feet down almost +flat, and carrying his tail a little higher than usual. + +"I do know something that you don't," repeated the Black-tailed Skunk, +"and it's something nice, too." + +"Aw!" said the Spotted Skunk. "I don't believe it, and I don't care +anyhow." + +"I know you don't know, and I know you'd want to know if you knew what I +know," said the Black-tailed Skunk, who was now getting so excited that +he could hardly talk straight. + +"Children!" exclaimed their mother. "Not another word about that. I do +wish you would wake up good-natured." + +"He started it," said the Spotted Skunk, "and we're not quarrelling +anyhow. But I guess he'd give a good deal to know where I'm going." + +"Children!" repeated their mother. "Go at once. I will not have you +talking in this way before your brothers and sisters. Do not stop to +talk, but go!" + +So the two brothers started out for the night and each thought he would +go a roundabout way to fool the other. The Black-tailed Skunk went to +the right, and the Spotted Skunk went to the left, but each of them, +you know, really started to rob the Ovenbird's nest. It was a very dark +night. Even the stars were all hidden behind thick clouds, and one could +hardly see one's forepaws while walking. But, of course, the +night-prowlers of the forest are used to this, and four-footed people +are not so likely to stumble and fall as two-footed ones. Besides, young +Skunks have to remember where logs and stumps of trees are, just as +other people have to remember their lessons. + +So it happened that, while Mrs. Ovenbird was sleeping happily with her +four eggs safe and warm under her breast, two people were coming from +different ways to rob her. Such a snug nest as it was! She had chosen a +tiny hollow in the fern bank and had cunningly woven dry grasses and +leaves into a ball-shaped nest, which fitted neatly into the hollow and +had a doorway on one side. + +The Black-tailed Skunk sneaked up to the nest from one side. The Spotted +Skunk sneaked up from the other side. Once the Black-tailed Skunk +thought he heard some other creature moving toward him. At the same +minute the Spotted Skunk thought he heard somebody, so he stopped to +listen. Neither heard anything. Mrs. Ovenbird was sure that she heard a +leaf rustle outside, and it made her anxious until she remembered that a +dead twig might have dropped from the beech-tree overhead and hit the +dry leaves below. + +Slowly the two brothers crept toward the nest and each other. They moved +very quietly, because each wanted to catch the mother-bird if he could. +Close to the nest hollow they crouched and sprang with jaws open and +sharp teeth ready to bite. There was a sudden crashing of leaves and +ferns. The two brothers had sprung squarely at each other, each was +bitten, growled, and ran away. And how they did run! It is not often, +you know, that Skunks go faster than a walk, but when they are really +scared they move very, very swiftly. + +Mrs. Ovenbird felt her nest roof crush down upon her for a minute as two +people rolled and growled outside. Then she heard them running away in +different directions and knew that she was safe, for a time at least. In +the morning she repaired her nest and told her bird friends about it. +They advised her to take her children away as soon as possible after +they were hatched. "If the Skunks have found your nest," they said, "you +may have another call from them." + +When the Black-tailed Skunk came stealing home in the first faint light +just before sunrise, he found the Spotted Skunk telling the rest of the +family how some horrible great fierce beast had pounced upon him in the +darkness and bitten him on the shoulder. "It was so dark," said he, +"that I couldn't see him at all, but I am sure it must have been a +Bear." + +They turned to tell the Black-tailed Skunk about his brother's +misfortune, and saw that he limped badly. "Did the Bear catch you, too?" +they cried. + +"Yes," answered he. "It must have been a Bear. It was so big and strong +and fierce. But I bit him, too. I wouldn't have run away from him, only +he was so much bigger than I." + +"That was just the way with me," said the Spotted Skunk. "I wouldn't +have run if he hadn't been so big." + +"You should have thrown liquid on him," said their father. "Then he +would have been the one to run." + +The brothers hung their heads. "We never thought," they cried. "We think +it must have been because we were so surprised and didn't see him +coming." + +"Well," said their father sternly, "I suppose one must be patient with +children, but such unskunklike behavior makes me very much ashamed of +you both." Then the two bitten brothers went to bed in disgrace, +although their mother was sorry for them and loved them, as mothers will +do, even when their children are naughty or cowardly. + +One night, some time later, these two brothers happened to meet down by +the fern bank. It was bright moonlight and they stopped to visit, for +both were feeling very good-natured. The Black-tailed Skunk said: "Come +with me and I'll show you where there is an Ovenbird's nest." + +"All right," answered the Spotted Skunk, "and then I'll show you one." + +"I've just been waiting for a bright night," said the Black-tailed +Skunk, "because I came here once in the dark and had bad luck." + +"It was near here," said the Spotted Skunk, "that I was bitten by the +Bear." + +They stopped beside a tiny hollow. "There is the nest," said the +Black-tailed Skunk, pointing with one of his long forefeet. + +"Why, that is the one I meant," exclaimed the Spotted Skunk. + +"I found it first," said the Black-tailed Skunk, "and I'd have eaten the +eggs before if that Bear hadn't bitten me." + +Just at that minute the two Skunks had a new idea. "We do believe," +cried they, "that we bit each other!" + +"We certainly did," said the Spotted Skunk. + +"But we'll never tell," said the Black-tailed Skunk. + +"Now," they added together, "let's eat everything." + +But they didn't. In fact, they didn't eat anything, for the eggs were +hatched, and the young birds had left the nest only the day before. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE LAZY CUT-WORMS + + +Now that spring had come and all the green things were growing, the +Cut-Worms crawled out of their winter sleeping-places in the ground, and +began to eat the tenderest and best things that they could find. They +felt rested and hungry after their quiet winter, for they had slept +without awakening ever since the first really cold days of fall. + +There were many different kinds of Cut-Worms, brothers and sisters, +cousins and second cousins, so, of course, they did not all look alike. +They had hatched the summer before from eggs laid by the Owlet Moths, +their mothers, and had spent the time from then until cold weather in +eating and sleeping and eating some more. Of course they grew a great +deal, but then, you know, one can grow without taking time especially +for it. It is well that this is so. If people had to say, "I can do +nothing else now. I must sit down and grow awhile," there would not be +so many large people in the world as there are. They would become so +interested in doing other things that they would not take the time to +grow as they should. + +Now the Cut-Worms were fine and fat and just as heedless as Cut-Worms +have been since the world began. They had never seen their parents, and +had hatched without any one to look after them. They did not look like +their parents, for they were only worms as yet, but they had the same +habit of sleeping all day and going out at night, and never thought of +eating breakfast until the sun had gone down. They were quite popular in +underground society, and were much liked by the Earthworms and May +Beetle larvae, who enjoyed hearing stories of what the Cut-Worms saw +above ground. The May Beetle larvae did not go out at all, because they +were too young, and the Earthworms never knew what was going on outside +unless somebody told them. They often put their heads up into the air, +but they had no eyes and could not see for themselves. + +The Cut-Worms were bold, saucy, selfish, and wasteful. They were not +good children, although when they tried they could be very entertaining, +and one always hoped that they would improve before they became Moths. +Sometimes they even told the Earthworms and May Beetle larvae stories +that were not so, and that shows what sort of children they were. It was +dreadful to tell such things to people who could never find out the +difference. One Spotted Cut-Worm heard a couple of Earthworms talking +about Ground Moles, and told them that Ground Moles were large birds +with four wings apiece and legs like a Caterpillar's. They did not take +pains to be entertaining because they wanted to make the underground +people happy, but because they enjoyed hearing them say: "What bright +fellows those Cut-Worms are! Really exceedingly clever!" And doing it +for that reason took all the goodness out of it. + +One bright moonlight night the Cut-Worms awakened and crawled out on top +of the ground to feed. They lived in the farmer's vegetable garden, so +there were many things to choose from: young beets just showing their +red-veined leaves above their shining red stems; turnips; clean-looking +onions holding their slender leaves very stiff and straight; radishes +with just a bit of their rosy roots peeping out of the earth; and crisp, +pale green lettuce, crinkled and shaking in every passing breeze. It +was a lovely growing time, and all the vegetables were making the most +of the fine nights, for, you know, that is the time when everything +grows best. Sunshiny days are the best for coloring leaves and blossoms, +but the time for sinking roots deeper and sending shoots higher and +unfolding new leaves is at night in the beautiful stillness. + +Some Cut-Worms chose beets and some chose radishes. Two or three liked +lettuce best, and a couple crawled off to nibble at the sweet peas which +the farmer's wife had planted. They never ate all of a plant. Ah, no! +And that was one way in which they were wasteful. They nibbled through +the stalk where it came out of the ground, and then the plant tumbled +down and withered, while the Cut-Worm went on to treat another in the +same way. + +"Well!" exclaimed one Spotted Cut-Worm, as he crawled out from his +hole. "I must have overslept! Guess I stayed up too late this morning." + +"You'd better look out," said one of his friends, "or the Ground Mole +will get you. He likes to find nice fat little Cut-Worms who sleep too +late in the evening." + +"Needn't tell me," answered the Spotted Cut-Worm. "It's the early Mole +that catches the Cut-Worm. I don't know when I have overslept myself so. +Have you fellows been up ever since sunset?" + +"Yes," they answered; and one saucy fellow added: "I got up too early. I +awakened and felt hungry, and thought I'd just come out for a lunch. I +supposed the birds had finished their supper, but the first thing I saw +was a Robin out hunting. She was not more than the length of a bean-pole +from me, and when I saw her cock her head on one side and look toward +me, I was sure she saw me. But she didn't, after all. Lucky for me that +I am green and came up beside the lettuce. I kept still and she took me +for a leaf." + +"St!" said somebody else. "There comes the Ground Mole." They all kept +still while the Mole scampered to and fro on the dewy grass near them, +going faster than one would think he could with such very, very short +legs. His pink digging hands flashed in the moonlight, and his pink +snout showed also, but the dark, soft fur of the rest of his body could +hardly be seen against the brown earth of the garden. It may have been +because he was not hungry, or it may have been because his fur covered +over his eyes so, but he went back to his underground run-way without +having caught a single Cut-Worm. + +Then the Cut-Worms felt very much set up. They crawled toward the hole +into his run-way and made faces at it, as though he were standing in +the doorway. They called mean things after him and pretended to say them +very loudly, yet really spoke quite softly. + +Then they began to boast that they were not afraid of anybody, and while +they were boasting they ate and ate and ate and ate. Here and there the +young plants drooped and fell over, and as soon as one did that, the +Cut-Worm who had eaten on it crawled off to another. + +"Guess the farmer will know that we've been here," said they. "We don't +care. He doesn't need all these vegetables. What if he did plant them? +Let him plant some more if he wants to. What business has he to have so +many, anyhow, if he won't share with other people?" You would have +thought, to hear them, that they were exceedingly kind to leave any +vegetables for the farmer. + +In among the sweet peas were many little tufts of purslane, and +purslane is very good to eat, as anybody knows who has tried it. But do +you think the Cut-Worms ate that? Not a bit of it. "We can have purslane +any day," they said, "and now we will eat sweet peas." + +One little fellow added: "You won't catch me eating purslane. It's a +weed." Now, Cut-Worms do eat weeds, but they always seem to like best +those things which have been carefully planted and tended. If the +purslane had been set in straight rows, and the sweet peas had just come +up of themselves everywhere, it is quite likely that this young Cut-Worm +would have said: "You won't catch me eating sweet peas. They are weeds." + +As the moon rose higher and higher in the sky, the Cut-Worms boasted +more and more. They said there were no Robins clever enough to find +them, and that the Ground Mole dared not touch them when they were +together, and that it was only when he found one alone underground that +he was brave enough to do so. They talked very loudly now and bragged +dreadfully, until they noticed that the moon was setting and a faint +yellow light showed over the tree-tops in the east. + +"Time to go to bed for the day," called the Spotted Cut-Worm. "Where are +you going to crawl in?" They had no regular homes, you know, but crawled +into the earth wherever they wanted to and slept until the next night. + +"Here are some fine holes already made," said a Green Cut-Worm, "and big +enough for a Garter Snake. They are smooth and deep, and a lot of us can +cuddle down into each. I'm going into one of them." + +"Who made those holes?" asked the Spotted Cut-Worm; "and why are they +here?" + +"Oh, who cares who made them?" answered the Green Cut-Worm. "Guess +they're ours if we want to use them." + +"Perhaps the farmer made them," said the Spotted Cut-Worm, "and if he +did I don't want to go into them." + +"Oh, who's afraid of him?" cried the other Cut-Worms. "Come along!" + +"No," answered the Spotted Cut-Worm. "I won't. I don't want to and I +won't do it. The hole I make to sleep in will not be so large, nor will +it have such smooth sides, but I'll know all about it and feel safe. +Good-morning." Then he crawled into the earth and went to sleep. The +others went into the smooth, deep holes made by the farmer with his hoe +handle. + +The next night there was only one Cut-Worm in the garden, and that was +the Spotted Cut-Worm. Nobody has ever seen the lazy ones who chose to +use the smooth, deep holes which were ready made. The Spotted Cut-Worm +lived quite alone until he was full-grown, then he made a little oval +room for himself in the ground and slept in it while he changed into a +Black Owlet Moth. + +After that he flew away to find a wife and live among her people. It is +said that whenever he saw a Cut-Worm working at night, he would flutter +down beside him and whisper,--"The Cut-Worm who is too lazy to bore his +own sleeping-place will never live to become an Owlet Moth." + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE NIGHT MOTH'S PARTY + + +From the time when she was a tiny golden-green Caterpillar, Miss +Polyphemus had wanted to go into society. She began life on a maple leaf +with a few brothers and sisters, who hatched at the same time from a +cluster of flattened eggs which their mother had laid there ten days +before. The first thing she remembered was the light and color and sound +when she broke the shell open that May morning. The first thing she did +was to eat the shell out of which she had just crawled. Then she got +acquainted with her brothers and sisters, many of whom had also eaten +their egg-shells, although two had begun at once on maple leaves. It was +well that she took time for this now, for the family were soon +scattered and several of her sisters she never saw again. + +She found it a very lovely world to live in. There was so much to eat. +Yes, and there were so many kinds of leaves that she liked,--oak, +hickory, apple, maple, elm, and several others. Sometimes she wished +that she had three mouths instead of one. In those days she had few +visitors. It is true that other Caterpillars happened along once in a +while, but they were almost as hungry as she, and they couldn't speak +without stopping eating. They could, of course, if they talked with +their mouths full, but she had too good manners for that, and, besides, +she said that if she did, she couldn't enjoy her food so much. + +You must not think that it was wrong in her to care so much about +eating. She was only doing what is expected of a Polyphemus Caterpillar, +and you would have to do the same if you were a Polyphemus Caterpillar. +When she was ten days old she had to weigh ten times as much as she did +the morning that she was hatched. When she was twenty days old she had +to weigh sixty times as much; when she was a month old she had to weigh +six hundred and twenty times as much; and when she was fifty days old +she had to weigh four thousand times as much as she did at hatching. +Every bit of this flesh was made of the food she ate. That is why eating +was so important, you know, and if she had chosen to eat the wrong kind +of leaves just because they tasted good, she would never have become +such a fine great Caterpillar as she did. She might better not eat +anything than to eat the wrong sort, and she knew it. + +Still, she often wished that she had more time for visiting, and thought +that she would be very gay next year, when she got her wings. "I'll +make up for it then," she said to herself, "when my growing is done and +I have time for play." Then she ate some more good, plain food, for she +knew that there would be no happy Moth-times for Caterpillars who did +not eat as they should. + +She had five vacations of about a day each when she ate nothing at all. +These were the times when she changed her skin, crawling out of the +tight old one and appearing as fresh and clean as possible in the new +one which was ready underneath. After her last change she was ready to +plan her cocoon, and she was a most beautiful Caterpillar. She was about +as long as a small cherry leaf, and as plump as a Caterpillar can be. +She was light green, with seven slanting yellow lines on each side of +her body, and a purplish-brown V-shaped mark on the back part of each +side. There were many little orange-colored bunches on her body, which +showed beautiful gleaming lights when she moved. Growing out of these +bunches were tiny tufts of bristles. + +She had three pairs of real legs and several pairs of make-believe ones. +Her real legs were on the front part of her body and were slender. These +she expected to keep always. The make-believe ones were called pro-legs. +They grew farther back and were fat, awkward, jointless things which she +would not need after her cocoon was spun. But for them, she would have +had to drag the back part of her body around like a Snake. With them, +the back part of her body could walk as well as the front, although not +quite so fast. She always took a few steps with her real legs and then +waited for her pro-legs to catch up. + +As the weather grew colder the Polyphemus Caterpillar hunted around on +the ground for a good place for her cocoon. She found an excellent twig +lying among the dead leaves, and decided to fasten to that. Then began +her hardest work, spinning a fluffy mass of gray-white silk which clung +to the twig and to one of the dry leaves and was almost exactly the +color of the leaf. Other Caterpillars came along and stopped to visit, +for they did not have to eat at cocoon-spinning time. + +"Better fasten your cocoon to a tree," said a pale bluish-green +Promethea Caterpillar. "Put it inside a curled leaf, like mine, and wind +silk around the stem to strengthen it. Then you can swing every time the +wind blows, and the silk will keep the leaf from wearing out." + +"But I don't want to swing," answered the Polyphemus Caterpillar. "I'd +rather lie still and think about things." + +"Fasten to the twig of a tree," advised a pale green Cecropia +Caterpillar with red, yellow, and blue bunches. "Then the wind just +moves you a little. Fasten it to a twig and taper it off nicely at each +end, and then----" + +"Yes," said the Polyphemus Caterpillar, "and then the Blue-Jays and +Chickadees will poke wheat or corn or beechnuts into the upper end of +it. I don't care to turn my sleeping room into a corn-crib." + +Just here some other Polyphemus Caterpillars came along and agreed with +their relative. "Go ahead with your tree homes," said they. "We know +what we want, and we'll see next summer who knew best." + +The Polyphemus cocoons were spun on the ground where the dead leaves had +blown in between some stones, and no wandering Cows or Sheep would be +likely to step on them. First a mass of coarse silk which it took half a +day to make, then an inside coating of a kind of varnish, then as much +silk as a Caterpillar could spin in four or five days, next another +inside varnishing, and the cocoons were done. As the Polyphemus +Caterpillars snuggled down for the long winter's sleep, each said to +himself something like this: "Those poor Caterpillars in the trees! How +cold they will be! I hope they may come out all right in the spring, but +I doubt it very much." + +And when the Cecropia and Promethea Caterpillars dozed off for the +winter, they said: "What a pity that those Polyphemus Caterpillars would +lie around on the ground. Well, we advised them what to do, so it isn't +our fault." + +They all had a lovely winter, and swung or swayed or lay still, just as +they had chosen to do. Early in the spring, the farmer's wife and little +girl came out to find wild flowers, and scraped the leaves away from +among the stones. Out rolled the cocoon that the first Polyphemus +Caterpillar had spun and the farmer's wife picked it up and carried it +off. She might have found more cocoons if the little girl had not +called her away. + +This was how it happened that one May morning a little girl stood by the +sitting-room window in the white farmhouse and watched Miss Polyphemus +crawl slowly out of her cocoon. A few days before a sour, milky-looking +stuff had begun to trickle into the lower end of the cocoon, softening +the hard varnish and the soft silken threads until a tiny doorway was +opened. Now all was ready and Miss Polyphemus pushed out. She was very +wet and weak and forlorn. "Oh," said she to herself, "it is more fun to +be a new Caterpillar than it is to be a new Moth. I've only six legs +left, and it will be very hard worrying along on these. I shall have to +give up walking." + +It was discouraging. You can see how it would be. She had been used to +having so many legs, and had looked forward all the summer before to the +time when she should float lightly through the air and sip honey from +flowers. She had dreamed of it all winter. And now here she was--wet and +weak, with only six legs left, and four very small and crumpled wings. +Her body was so big and fat that she could not hold it up from the +window-sill. She wanted to cry--it was all so sad and disappointing. She +would have done so, had she not remembered how very unbecoming it is to +cry. When she remembered that, she decided to take a nap instead, and +that was a most sensible thing to do, for crying always makes matters +worse, while sleeping makes them better. + +When she awakened she felt much stronger and more cheerful. She was +drier and her body felt lighter. This was because the fluids from it +were being pumped into her wings. That was making them grow, and the +beautiful colors began to show more brightly on them. "I wonder," she +said to herself, "if Moths always feel so badly when they first come +out?" + +If she had but known it, there were at that very time hundreds of Moths +as helpless as she, clinging to branches, leaves, and stones all through +the forest. There were many Polyphemus Moths just out, for in their +family it is the custom for all to leave their cocoons at just about +such a time in the morning. Perhaps she would have felt more patient if +she had known this, for it does seem to make hard times easier to bear +when one knows that everybody else has hard times also. Of course other +people always are having trouble, but she was young and really believed +for a time that she was the only uncomfortable Moth in the world. + +All day long her wings were stretching and growing smooth. When it grew +dark she was nearly ready to fly. Then the farmer's wife lifted her +gently by the wings and put her on the inside of the wire window-screen. +When the lights in the house were all put out, the moonbeams shone in on +Miss Polyphemus and showed her beautiful sand-colored body and wings +with the dark border on the front pair and the lighter border on the +back pair. + +On the back ones were dark eye-spots with clear places in the middle, +through which one could see quite clearly. + +"I would like to fly," sighed Miss Polyphemus, "and I believe I could if +it were not for this horrid screen." She did not know that the farmer's +wife had put her there to keep her safe from night birds until she was +quite strong. + +The wind blew in, sweet with the scent of wild cherry and shad-tree +blossoms, and poor Miss Polyphemus looked over toward the forest where +she had lived when she was a Caterpillar, and wished herself safely +there. "Much good it does me to have wings when I cannot use them," said +she. "I want something to eat. There is no honey to be sucked out of +wire netting. I wish I were a happy Caterpillar again, eating leaves on +the trees." She was not the first Moth who has wished herself a +Caterpillar, but she soon changed her mind. + +There fluttered toward her another Polyphemus Moth, a handsome fellow, +marked exactly as she was, only with darker coloring. His body was more +slender, and his feelers were very beautiful and feathery. She was fat +and had slender feelers. + +"Ah!" said he. "I thought I should find you soon." + +"Indeed?" she replied. "I wonder what made you think that?" + +"My feelers, of course," said he. "They always tell me where to find my +friends. You know how that is yourself." + +"I?" said she, as she changed her position a little. "I am just from my +cocoon. This was my coming-out day." + +"And so you have not met any one yet?" he asked. "Ah, this is a strange +world--a very strange world. I would advise you to be very careful with +whom you make friends. There are so many bad Moths, you know." + +"Good-evening," said a third voice near them, and another Polyphemus +Moth with feathery feelers alighted on the screen. He smiled sweetly at +Miss Polyphemus and scowled fiercely at the other Moth. It would have +ended in a quarrel right then and there, if a fourth Moth had not come +at that minute. One after another came, until there were nine handsome +fellows on the outside and Miss Polyphemus on the inside of the screen +trying to entertain them all and keep them from quarrelling. It made her +very proud to think so many were at her coming-out party. Still, she +would have enjoyed it better, she thought, if some whom she had known as +Caterpillars could be there to see how much attention she was having +paid to her. There was one Caterpillar whom she had never liked. She +only wished that she could see her now. + +Still, society tires one very much, and it was hard to keep her guests +from quarrelling. When she got to talking with one about maple-trees, +another was sure to come up and say that he had always preferred beech +when he was a Caterpillar. And the two outside would glare at each other +while she hastily thought of something else to say. + +At last those outside got to fighting. There was only one, the +handsomest of all, who said he thought too much of his feelers to fight +anybody. "Supposing I should fight and break them off," said he. "I +couldn't smell a thing for the rest of my life." He was very sensible, +and really the eight other fellows were fighting on account of Miss +Polyphemus, for whenever they thought she liked one best they began to +bump up against him. + + [Illustration: THEY LIVED IN THE FOREST AFTER THAT. _Page 109_] + +Toward morning the farmer's wife awakened and looked at Miss Polyphemus. +When she saw that she was strong enough to fly, she opened the screen +and let her go. By that time three of those with feathery feelers were +dead, three were broken-winged and clinging helplessly to the screen, +and two were so busy fighting that they didn't see Miss Polyphemus go. +The handsome great fellow who did not believe in fighting went with her, +and they lived in the forest after that. But she never cared for society +again. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE LONELY OLD BACHELOR MUSKRAT + + +Beyond the forest and beside the river lay the marsh where the Muskrats +lived. This was the same marsh to which the young Frog had taken some of +the meadow people's children when they were tired of staying at home and +wanted to travel. When they went with him, you remember, they were gay +and happy, the sun was shining, and the way did not seem long. When they +came back they were cold and wet and tired, and thought it very far +indeed. One could never get them to say much about it. + +Some people like what others do not, and one's opinion of a marsh must +always depend on whether he is a Grasshopper or a Frog. But whether +people cared to live there or not, the marsh had always been a pleasant +place to see. In the spring the tall tamaracks along the edge put on +their new dresses of soft, needle-shaped green leaves, the +marsh-marigolds held their bright faces up to the sun, and hundreds of +happy little people darted in and out of the tussocks of coarse grass. +There was a warm, wet, earthy smell in the air, and near the +pussy-willows there was also a faint bitterness. + +Then the Marsh Hens made their nests, and the Sand-pipers ran mincingly +along by the quiet pools. + +In summer time the beautiful moccasin flowers grew in family groups, and +over in the higher, dryer part were masses of white boneset, tall spikes +of creamy foxglove, and slender, purple vervain. In the fall the +cat-tails stood stiffly among their yellow leaves, and the Red-winged +Blackbirds and the Bobolinks perched upon them to plan their journey to +the south. + +Even when the birds were gone and the cat-tails were ragged and +worn--even then, the marsh was an interesting place. Soft snow clung to +the brown seed clusters of boneset and filled the open silvery-gray pods +of the milkweed. In among the brown tussocks of grass ran the dainty +footprints of Mice and Minks, and here and there rose the cone-shaped +winter homes of the Muskrats. + +The Muskrats were the largest people there, and lived in the finest +homes. It is true that if a Mink and a Muskrat fought, the Mink was +likely to get the better of the Muskrat, but people never spoke of this, +although everybody knew that it was so. The Muskrats were too proud to +do so, the Minks were too wise to, and the smaller people who lived +near did not want to offend the Muskrats by mentioning it. It is said +that an impudent young Mouse did say something about it once when the +Muskrats could overhear him and that not one of them ever spoke to him +again. The next time he said "Good-evening" to a Muskrat, the Muskrat +just looked at him as though he didn't see him or as though he had been +a stick or a stone or something else uneatable and uninteresting. + +The Muskrats were very popular, for they were kind neighbors and never +stole their food from others. That was why nobody was jealous of them, +although they were so fat and happy. Their children usually turned out +very well, even if they were not at all strictly brought up. You know +when a father and mother have to feed and care for fifteen or so +children each summer, there is not much time for teaching them to say +"please" and "thank you" and "pardon me." Sometimes these young +Muskrats did snatch and quarrel, as on that night when fifteen of them +went to visit their old home and all wanted to go in first. You may +recall how, on that dreadful night, their father had to spank them with +his scaly tail and their mother sent them to bed. They always remembered +it, and you may be very sure their parents did. It makes parents feel +dreadfully when their children quarrel, and it is very wearing to have +to spank fifteen at once, particularly when one has to use his tail with +which to do it. + +There was one old Bachelor Muskrat who had always lived for himself, and +had his own way more than was good for him. If he had married, it would +not have been so, and he would have grown used to giving up to somebody +else. He was a fine-looking fellow with soft, short, reddish-brown fur, +which shaded almost to black on his back, and to a light gray +underneath. There were very few hairs on his long, flat, scaly tail, +and most of these were in two fringes, one down the middle of the upper +side, and the other down the middle of the lower side. His tiny ears +hardly showed above the fur on his head, and he was so fat that he +really seemed to have no neck at all. To look at his feet you would +hardly think he could swim, for the webs between his toes were very, +very small and his feet were not large. + +He was like all other Muskrats in using a great deal of perfume, and it +was not a pleasant kind, being so strong and musky. He thought it quite +right, and it was better so, for he couldn't help wearing it, and you +can just imagine how distressing it would be to see a Muskrat going +around with his nose turned up and all the time finding fault with his +own perfume. + +Nobody could remember the time when there had been no Muskrats in the +marsh. The Ground Hog who lived near the edge of the forest said that +his grandfather had often spoken of seeing them at play in the +moonlight; and there was an old Rattlesnake who had been married several +times and wore fourteen joints in his rattle, who said that he +remembered seeing Muskrats there before he cast his first skin. And it +was not strange that, after their people had lived there so long, the +Muskrats should be fond of the marsh. + +One day in midsummer the farmer and his men came to the marsh with +spades and grub-hoes and measuring lines. All of them had on high rubber +boots, and they tramped around and measured and talked, and rooted up a +few huckleberry bushes, and drove a good many stakes into the soft and +spongy ground. Then the dinner-bell at the farmhouse rang and, they went +away. It was a dull, cloudy day and a few of the Muskrats were out. If +it had been sunshiny they would have stayed in their burrows. They +paddled over to where the stakes were, and smelled of them and gnawed at +them, and wondered why the men had put them there. + +"I know," said one young Muskrat, who had married and set up a home of +his own that spring. "I know why they put these stakes in." + +"Oh, do listen!" cried the young Muskrat's wife. "He knows and will tell +us all about it." + +"Nobody ever told me this," said the young husband. "I thought it out +myself. The Ground Hog once said that they put small pieces of potato +into the ground to grow into whole big ones, and they have done the same +sort of thing here. You see, the farmer wanted a fence, and so he stuck +down these stakes, and before winter he will have a fence well grown." + +"Humph!" said the Bachelor Muskrat. It seemed as though he had meant to +say more, but the young wife looked at him with such a frown on her +furry forehead that he shut his mouth as tightly as he could (he never +could quite close it) and said nothing else. + +"Do you mean to tell me," said one who had just sent five children out +of her burrow to make room for another lot of babies, "that they will +grow a fence here where it is so wet? Fences grow on high land." + +"That is what I said," answered the young husband, slapping his tail on +the water to make himself seem more important. + +"Well," said the anxious mother, "if they go to growing fences and such +things around here I shall move. Every one of my children will want to +play around it, and as like as not will eat its roots and get sick." + +Then the men came back and all the Muskrats ran toward their burrows, +dived into the water to reach the doors of them, and then crawled up the +long hallways that they had dug out of the bank until they got to the +large rooms where they spent most of their days and kept their babies. + +That night the young husband was the first Muskrat to come out, and he +went at once to the line of stakes. He had been lying awake and thinking +while his wife was asleep, and he was afraid he had talked too much. He +found that the stakes had not grown any, and that the men had begun to +dig a deep ditch beside them. He was afraid that his neighbors would +point their paws at him and ask how the fence was growing, and he was +not brave enough to meet them and say that he had been mistaken. He went +down the river bank and fed alone all night, while his wife and +neighbors were grubbing and splashing around in the marsh or swimming +in the river near their homes. The young Muskrats were rolling and +tumbling in the moonlight and looking like furry brown balls. After it +began to grow light, he sneaked back to his burrow. + +Every day the men came in their high rubber boots to work, and every day +there were more ditches and the marsh was drier. By the time that the +flowers had all ripened their seeds and the forest trees were bare, the +marsh was changed to dry ground, and the Muskrats could find no water +there to splash in. One night, and it was a very, very dark one, they +came together to talk about winter. + +"It is time to begin our cold-weather houses," said one old Muskrat, "I +have never started so soon, but we are to have an early winter." + +"Yes, and a long one, too," added his wife, who said that Mr. Muskrat +never told things quite strongly enough. + +"It will be cold," said another Muskrat, "and we shall need to build +thick walls." + +"Why?" asked a little Muskrat. + +"Sh!" said his mother. + +"The question is," said the old Muskrat who had first spoken, "where we +shall build." + +"Why?" asked the little Muskrat, pulling at his mother's tail. + +"Sh-h!" said his mother. + +"There is no water here except in the ditches," said the oldest Muskrat, +"and of course we would not build beside them." + +"Why not?" asked the little Muskrat. And this time he actually poked his +mother in the side. + +"Sh-h-h!" said she. "How many times must I speak to you? Don't you know +that young Muskrats should be seen and not heard?" + +"But I can't be seen," he whimpered. "It is so dark that I can't be +seen, and you've just got to hear me." + +Of course, after he had spoken in that way to his mother and interrupted +all the others by his naughtiness, he had to be punished, so his mother +sent him to bed. That is very hard for young Muskrats, for the night, +you know, is the time when they have the most fun. + +The older ones talked and talked about what they should do. They knew, +as they always do know, just what sort of winter they were to have, and +that they must begin to build at once. Some years they had waited until +a whole month later, but that was because they expected a late and mild +winter. At last the oldest Muskrat decided for them. "We will move +to-morrow night," said he. "We will go to the swamp on the other side of +the forest and build our winter homes there." + +All the Muskrats felt sad about going, and for a minute it was so still +that you might almost have heard a milkweed seed break loose from the +pod and float away. Then a gruff voice broke the silence. "I will not +go," it said. "I was born here and I will live here. I never have left +this marsh and I never will leave it." + +They could not see who was speaking, but they knew it was the Bachelor. +The oldest Muskrat said afterward that he was so surprised you could +have knocked him over with a blade of grass. Of course, you couldn't +have done it, because he was so fat and heavy, but that is what he said, +and it shows just how he felt. + +The other Muskrats talked and talked and talked with him, but it made no +difference. His brothers told him it was perfectly absurd for him to +stay, that people would think it queer, and that he ought to go with the +rest of his relatives. Yet it made no difference. "You should stay," he +would reply. "Our family have always lived here." + +When the Muskrat mothers told him how lonely he would be, and how he +would miss seeing the dear little ones frolic in the moonlight, he +blinked and said: "Well, I shall just have to stand it." Then he sighed, +and they went away saying to each other what a tender heart he had and +what a pity it was that he had never married. One of them spoke as +though he had been in love with her some years before, but the others +had known nothing about it. + +The Muskrat fathers told him that he would have no one to help him if a +Mink should pick a quarrel with him. "I can take care of myself then," +said he, and showed his strong gnawing teeth in a very fierce way. + +It was only when the dainty young Muskrat daughters talked to him that +he began to wonder if he really ought to stay. He lay awake most of one +day thinking about it and remembering the sad look in their little eyes +when they said that they should miss him. He was so disturbed that he +ate only three small roots during the next night. The poor old Bachelor +had a hard time then, but he was so used to having his own way and doing +what he had started to do, and not giving up to anybody, that he stayed +after all. + +The others went away and he began to build his winter house beside the +biggest ditch. He placed it among some bushes, so that if the water in +the ditch should ever overflow they would help hold his house in place. +He built it with his mouth, bringing great mouthfuls of grass roots and +rushes and dropping them on the middle of the heap. Sometimes they +stayed there and sometimes they rolled down. If they rolled down he +never brought them back, for he knew that they would be useful where +they were. When it was done, the house was shaped like a pine cone with +the stem end down, for after he had made it as high as a tall milkweed +he finished off the long slope up which he had been running and made it +look like the other sides. + +After that he began to burrow up into it from below. The right way to +do, he knew, was to have his doorway under water and dive down to it. +Other winters he had done this and had given the water a loud slap with +his tail as he dived. Now there was not enough water to dive into, and +when he tried slapping on it his tail went through to the ditch bottom +and got muddy. He had to fix the doorway as best he could, and then he +ate out enough of the inside of his house to make a good room and poked +a small hole through the roof to let in fresh air. + + [Illustration: THE MARSH SEEMED SO EMPTY AND LONELY. _Page 127_] + +After the house was done, he slept there during the days and prowled +around outside at night. He slept there, but ate none of the roots of +which it was made until the water in the ditch was frozen hard. He knew +that there would be a long, long time when he could not dig fresh roots +and must live on those. + +At night the marsh seemed so empty and lonely that he hardly knew what +to do. He didn't enjoy his meals, and often complained to the Mice that +the roots did not taste so good to him as those they used to have when +he was young. He tried eating other things and found them no better. +When there was bright moonlight, he sat upon the highest tussock he +could find and thought about his grandfathers and grandmothers. "If they +had not eaten their houses," he once said to a Mouse, "this marsh would +be full of them." + +"No it wouldn't," answered the Mouse, who didn't really mean to +contradict him, but thought him much mistaken. "If the houses hadn't +been eaten, they would have been blown down by the wind and beaten down +by rains and washed away by floods. It is better so. Who wants things to +stay the way they are forever and ever? I'd rather see the trees drop +their leaves once in a while and grow new ones than to wear the same old +ones after they are ragged and faded." + +The Bachelor Muskrat didn't like this very well, but he couldn't forget +it. When he awakened in the daytime he would think about it and at night +he thought more. He was really very forlorn, and because he had nobody +else to think about he thought too much of himself and began to believe +that he was lame and sick. When he sat on a tussock and remembered all +the houses which his grandparents had built and eaten, he became very +sad and sighed until his fat sides shook. He wished that he could sleep +through the winter like the Ground Hog, or through part of it like the +Skunk, but just as sure as night came his eyes popped open and there he +was--awake. + +When spring came he thought of his friends who had gone to the swamp and +he knew that last year's children were marrying and digging burrows of +their own. The poor old Bachelor wanted to go to them, yet he was so +used to doing what he had said he would, and disliked so much to let +anybody know that he was mistaken, that he chose to stay where he was, +without water enough for diving and with hardly enough for swimming. How +it would have ended nobody knows, had the farmer not come to plough up +the old drained marsh for planting celery. + +Then the Bachelor went. He reached his new home in the early morning, +and the mothers let their children stay up until it was quite light so +that he might see them plainly. "Isn't it pleasant here?" they cried. +"Don't you like it better than the old place?" + +"Oh, it does very well," he answered, "but you must remember that I only +moved because I had to." + +"Oh, yes, we understand that," said one of the mothers, "but we hope you +will really like it here." + +Afterward her husband said to her, "Don't you know he was glad to come? +What's the use of being so polite?" + +"Poor old fellow," she answered. "He is so queer because he lives alone, +and I'm sorry for him. Just see him eat." + +And truly it was worth while to watch him, for the roots tasted sweet to +him, and, although he had not meant to be, he was very happy--far +happier than if he had had his own way. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE GREEDY RED FOX + + +The Red Fox had been well brought up. His mother was a most cautious +person and devoted to her children. When he did things which were wrong, +he could never excuse himself by saying that he did not know better. Of +course it is possible that he was like his father in being so reckless, +yet none of his two brothers and three sisters were like him. They did +not remember their father. In fact, they had never seen him, and their +mother seldom spoke of him. + +His mother had taken all the care of her six children, even pulling fur +from her own belly to make a soft nest covering for them when they were +first born. They were such helpless babies. Their eyes and ears were +closed for some time, and all they could do was to tumble each other +around and drink the warm milk that their mother had for them. + +They had three burrows to live in, all of them in an open field between +the forest and the farmhouse. Sometimes they lived in the first, +sometimes in the second, and sometimes in the third. One night when +their mother went out to hunt, she smelled along the ground near the +burrow and then came back. "There has been a man near here," she said, +"and I shall take you away." + +That excited the little Foxes very much, and each wanted to be the first +to go, but she hushed them up, and said that if they talked so loudly as +that some man might catch them before they moved, and then--. She said +nothing more, yet they knew from the way she moved her tail that it +would be dreadful to have a man catch them. + +While she was carrying them to another burrow one at a time, those who +were left behind talked about men. "I wish I knew why men are so +dreadful," said the first. "It must be because they have very big mouths +and sharp teeth." + +"I wonder what color their fur is," said another. + +Now these young Foxes had seen nobody but their mother. If she had not +told them that different animals wore different colored furs, they would +have thought that everybody looked just like her, with long +reddish-yellow fur and that on the hinder part of the back quite +grizzled; throat, belly, and the tip of the tail white, and the outside +of the ears black. They were very sure, however, that no other animal +had such a wonderful tail as she, with each of its long, reddish hairs +tipped with black and the beautiful brush of pure white at the end. In +fact, she had told them so. + +The next time their mother came back, the four children who were still +there cried out, "Please tell us, what color is a man's fur?" + +She was a sensible and prudent Fox, and knew it was much more important +to keep her children from being caught than it was to answer all their +questions at once. Besides, she already had one child in her mouth when +they finished their question, and she would not put him down for the +sake of talking. And that also was right, you know, for one can talk at +any time, but the time to do work is just when it needs to be done. + +After they were snugly settled in the other burrow, she lay down to feed +them, and while they were drinking their milk she told them about men. +"Men," she said, "are the most dreadful animals there are. Other animals +will not trouble you unless they are hungry, but a man will chase you +even when his stomach is full. They have four legs, of course,--all +animals have,--but they use only two to walk upon. Their front legs they +use for carrying things. We carry with our mouths, yet the only thing I +ever saw a man have in his mouth was a short brown stick that was afire +at one end. I thought it very silly, for he couldn't help breathing some +of the smoke, and he let the stick burn up and then threw the fire away. +However, men are exceedingly silly animals." + +One of the little Red Foxes stopped drinking long enough to say, "You +didn't tell us what color their fur is." + +"The only fur they have," said Mother Fox, "is on their heads. They +usually have fur on the top and back parts of their heads, and some of +them have a little on the lower part of their faces. They may have +black, red, brown, gray, or white fur. It is never spotted." + +The children would have liked to ask more questions, but Mother Fox had +eaten nothing since the night before, and was in a hurry to begin her +hunt. + +One could never tell all that happened to the little Red Foxes. They +moved from burrow to burrow many times; they learned to eat meat which +their mother brought them instead of drinking milk from her body, they +frolicked together near the doorway of their home, and while they did +this their mother watched from the edge of the forest, ready to warn +them if she saw men or dogs coming. + +She had chosen to dig her burrows in the middle of a field, because then +there was no chance for men or Dogs to sneak up to them unseen, as there +would have been in the forest, yet she feared that her children would be +playing so hard that they might forget to watch. They slept most of the +day, and at night they were always awake. When they were old enough, +they began to hunt for themselves. Mother Fox gave them a great deal of +good advice and then paid no more attention to them. After that, she +took her naps on a sunny hillside, lying in a beautiful soft +reddish-yellow bunch, with her bushy tail curled around to keep her feet +warm and shade her eyes from the light. + +The six brothers and sisters seldom saw each other after this. Foxes +succeed better in life if they live alone, and of course they wanted to +succeed. The eldest brother was the reckless one. His mother had done +her best by him, and still he was reckless. He knew by heart all the +rules that she had taught him, but he did not keep them. These were the +rules: + +"Always run on hard, dry things when you can. Soft, wet places take more +scent from your feet, and Dogs can follow your trail better on them. + +"Never go into any place unless you are sure you can get out. + +"Keep your tail dry. A Fox with a wet tail cannot run well. + +"If Dogs are chasing you, jump on to a rail fence and run along the top +of it or walk in a brook. + +"Always be willing to work for your food. That which you find all ready +and waiting for you may be the bait of a trap. + +"Always walk when you are hunting. The Fox who trots will pass by that +which he should find." + +For a while he said them over to himself every night when he started +out. Then he began to skip a night once in a while. Next he got to +saying them only when he had been frightened the day before. After that +he stopped saying them altogether. "I am a full-grown Fox now," he said +to himself, "and such things are only good for children. I guess I know +how to take care of myself." + +He often went toward the farmhouse to hunt, sometimes for grapes, +sometimes for vegetables, and sometimes for heartier food. Collie had +chased him away, but Collie was growing old and fat and had to hang his +tongue out when he ran, so the Red Fox thought it only fun. He trotted +along in the moonlight, his light, slender body seeming to almost float +over the ground, and his beautiful tail held straight out behind. His +short, slender legs were strong and did not tire easily, and as long as +he could keep his tall dry he outran Collie easily. Sometimes he would +get far ahead and sit down to wait for him. Then he would call out saucy +things to the panting Dog, and only start on when Collie's nose had +almost touched him. + +"Fine evening!" he once said. "Hope your nose works better than your +legs do." + +That was a mean thing to say, you know, but Collie always keeps his +temper and only answered, "It's sweating finely, thank you." He answered +that way because it is the sweat on a Dog's nose which makes it possible +for him to smell and follow scents which dry-nosed people do not even +know about. + +Then the Fox gave a long, light leap, and was off again, and Collie had +to lie down to breathe. "I think," said he, "that I can tend Sheep +better than I can chase Foxes--and it is a good deal easier." Still, +Collie didn't like to be beaten and he lay awake the rest of the night +thinking how he would enjoy catching that Fox. Every little while he +heard the Red Fox barking off in the fields, and it made him twitch his +tail with impatience. + +Now the Red Fox was walking carefully toward the farmhouse and planning +to catch a Turkey. He had watched the flocks of Turkeys all afternoon +from his sleeping-place on the hillside. Every time he opened his eyes +between naps he had looked at them as they walked to and fro in the +fields, talking to each other in their gentle, complaining voices and +moving their heads back and forth at every step. If his stomach had not +been so full he would have tried to catch one then. He made up his mind +to try it that night, and decided that he would rather have the plump, +light-colored one than any of her darker sisters. He did not even think +of catching the old Gobbler, for he was so big and strong and +fierce-looking. He had just begun to walk with the Turkey mothers and +children. During the summer they had had nothing to do with each other. + +When the Red Fox reached the farmyard, he found them roosting on the low +branches of an apple-tree. A long board had been placed against it to +let the Chickens walk up. Now the Chickens were in the Hen-house, but +the board was still there. The Red Fox looked all around. It was a +starlight night. The farmhouse was dark and quiet. Collie was nowhere to +be seen. Once he heard a Horse stamp in his sleep. Then all was still +again. + +The Red Fox walked softly up the slanting board. The Gobbler stirred. +The Red Fox stopped with one foot in the air. When he thought him fast +asleep he went on. The Gobbler stirred again and so did the others. The +Red Fox sprang for the plump, light-colored one. She jumped also, and +with the others flew far up to the top of the barn. The Red Fox ran down +the board with five buff tail-feathers in his mouth. He was much out of +patience with himself. "If I hadn't stopped to pick for her," he said, +"I could have caught one of the others easily enough." + +He sneaked around in the shadows to see if the noise made by the turkeys +had awakened the farmer or Collie. The farmhouse was still and dark. +Collie was not at home. "I will look at the Hen-house," said the Red +Fox. + +He walked slowly and carefully to the Hen-house. The big door was closed +and bolted. He walked all around and into the poultry yard. There was a +small opening through which the fowls could pass in and out. The Red Fox +managed to crawl though, but it was not easy. It squeezed his body and +crushed his fur. He had to push very hard with his hind feet to get +through at all. When he was inside it took him some time to get his +breath. "That's the tightest place I ever was in," said he softly, "but +I always could crawl through a very small hole." + +He found the fowls all roosting too high for him. Perhaps if the +Hen-house had been larger, he might have leaped and caught one, but +there was not room for one of his finest springs. He went to the nests +and found many eggs there. These he broke and ate. They ran down in +yellow streams from the corners of his mouth and made his long fur very +sticky. You can just imagine how hard it would be to eat raw eggs from +the shell with only your paws in which to hold them. + +One egg was light and slippery. He bit hard to break that one, and when +it broke it was hollow. Not a drop of anything to eat in it, and then it +cut his lip a little, too, so that he could not eat more without its +hurting. He jumped and said something when he was cut. The Shanghai +Cock, who was awakened by the noise, said that he exclaimed, "Brambles +and traps!" but it may not have been anything so bad as that. We will +hope it was not. + +The Shanghai Cock awakened all the other fowls. "Don't fly off your +perch!" he cried. "Stay where you are! _Stay where where you are!_ STAY +WHERE YOU ARE!" The other Cocks kept saying "Eru-u-u-u," as they do when +Hawks are near. The Hens squawked and squawked and squawked, until they +were out of breath. When they got their breath they squawked some more. + +The Red Fox knew that it was time for him to go. The farmer would be +sure to hear the noise. He put his head out of the hole through which he +had come in, and he pushed as hard as he could with his hind feet and +scrambled with his fore feet. His fur was crushed worse than ever, and +he was squeezed so tightly that he could hardly breathe. You see it had +been all he could do to get in through the hole, and now he had nine +eggs in his stomach (excepting what had run down at the corners of his +mouth), and he was too large to pass through. + +The fowls saw what was the matter, and wanted to laugh. They thought it +very funny, and yet the sooner he could get away the better they would +like it. The Red Fox had his head outside and saw a light flash in the +farmer's room. Then he heard doors open, and the farmer came toward the +Hen-house with a lantern in his hand. Collie came trotting around the +corner of the house. The Red Fox made one last desperate struggle and +then lay still. + +When the farmer picked him up and tied a rope around his neck, he had to +pull him backward into the Hen-house to do it. The Red Fox was very +quiet and gentle, as people of his family always are when caught. Collie +pranced around on two legs and barked as loudly as he could. The fowls +blinked their round yellow eyes in the lantern light, and the farmer's +man ran out for an empty Chicken-coop into which to put the Red Fox. +Collie was usually quite polite, but he had not forgotten how rude the +Red Fox had been to him, and it was a fine chance to get even. + +"Good evening!" he barked. "Oh, good evening! I'm glad you came. Don't +think you must be going. Excuse me, but your mouth worked better than +your legs, didn't it?" + +The Red Fox shut his eyes and pretended not to hear. The dirt from the +floor of the Hen-house had stuck to his egg-covered fur, and he looked +very badly. They put him in a Chicken-coop with a board floor, so that +he couldn't burrow out, and he curled down in a little heap and hid his +face with his tail. Collie hung around for a while and then went off to +sleep. After he was gone, the Red Fox cleaned his fur. "I got caught +this time," he said, "but it won't happen again. Now I must watch for a +chance to get away. It will surely come." + +It did come. But that is another story. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE UNFORTUNATE FIREFLIES + + +Several very large families of Fireflies lived in the marsh and were +much admired by their friends who were awake at night. Once in a while +some young Firefly who happened to awaken during the day would go out +and hover over the heads of the daylight people. He never had any +attention paid to him then, however, for during the day he seemed like a +very commonplace little beetle and nobody even cared to look at him a +second time. The only remarkable thing about him was the soft light that +shone from his body, and that could only be seen at night. + +The older Fireflies told the younger ones that they should get all the +sleep they could during the daytime if they were to flutter and frisk +all night. Most of them did this, but two young Fireflies, who cared +more about seeing the world than they did about minding their elders, +used to run away while the rest were dreaming. Each thought herself very +important, and was sure that if the others missed her they wouldn't +sleep a wink all day. + +One night they planned to go by daylight to the farthest corner of the +marsh. They had heard a couple of young Muskrats talking about it, and +thought it might be different from anything they had seen. They went to +bed when the rest did and pretended to fall asleep. When she was sure +that the older Fireflies were dreaming, one of them reached over with +her right hind leg and touched the other just below the edge of her left +wing-cover. "Are you ready?" she whispered. + +"Yes," answered the friend, who happened to be the smaller of the two. + +"Come on, then," said the larger one, picking her way along on her six +tiptoes. It was already growing light, and they could see where they +stepped, but, you know, it is hard to walk over rough places on two +tiptoes, so you can imagine what it must be on six. There are some +pleasant things about having many legs. There are also some hard things. +It is a great responsibility. + +When well away from their sleeping relatives, they lifted their +wing-covers, spread their wings, and flew to the farthest corner of the +marsh. They were not afraid of being punished if caught, for they were +orphans and had nobody to bring them up. They were afraid that if the +other Fireflies awakened they would be called "silly" or "foolish young +bugs." They thought that they were old enough to take care of +themselves, and did not want advice. + +"Oh, wouldn't they make a fuss if they knew!" exclaimed the Larger +Firefly. + +"They think we need to be told every single thing," said the Smaller +Firefly. + +"Guess we're old enough now to go off by ourselves," said the Larger +Firefly. + +"I guess so," answered the Smaller Firefly. "I'm not afraid if it is +light, and I can see pretty near as well as I can at night." + +Just then a Flycatcher darted toward them and they had to hide. He had +come so near that they could look down his throat as he flew along with +his beak open. The Fireflies were so scared that their feelers shook. + +"I wish that bird would mind his own business," grumbled the Larger +Firefly. + +"That's just what he was doing," said a voice beside them, as a Garter +Snake drew himself through the grass. Then their feelers shook again, +for they knew that snakes do not breakfast on grass and berries. + +"Did you ever see such luck?" said the Smaller Firefly. "If it isn't +birds it is snakes." + +"Perfectly dreadful!" answered the other. "I never knew the marsh to be +so full of horrid people. Besides, my eyes are bothering me and I can't +see plainly." + +"So are mine," said the Smaller Firefly. "Are you going to tell the +other Fireflies all about things to-night?" + +"I don't know that I will," said the Larger Firefly. "I'll make them ask +me first." + +Then they reached the farther corner of the marsh and crawled around to +see what they could find. Their eyes bothered them so that they could +not see unless they were close to things, so it was useless to fly. They +peeped into the cool dark corners under the skunk cabbage leaves, and +lay down to rest on a bed of soft moss. A few stalks of last year's +teazles stood, stiff and brown, in the corner of the fence. The Smaller +Firefly alighted on one and let go in such a hurry that she fell to the +ground. "Ouch!" she cried. "It has sharp hooks all over it." + +While they were lying on the moss and resting, they noticed a queer +plant growing near. It had a flower of green and dark red which was +unlike any other blossom they had ever seen. The leaves were even +queerer. Each was stiff and hollow and grew right out of the ground +instead of coming from a stalk. + +"I'm going to crawl into one of them," said the Larger Firefly. "There +is something sweet inside. I believe it will be lots better than the +skunk cabbage." She balanced herself on the top of a fresh green leaf. + +"I'm going into this one," said the other Firefly, as she alighted on +the edge of a brown-tipped leaf. "It looks nice and dark inside. We must +tell about this at the party to-night, even if they don't ask us." + +Then they repeated together the little verse that some of the pond +people use when they want to start together: + + "Tussock, mud, water, and log, + Muskrat, Snake, Turtle, and Frog, + Here we go into the bog!" + +When they said "bog" each dropped quickly into her own leaf. + +For a minute nobody made a sound. Then there was a queer sputtering, +choking voice in the fresh green leaf and exactly the same in the +brown-tipped one. After that a weak little voice in the green leaf said, +"Abuschougerh! I fell into water." + +Another weak voice from the brown-tipped one replied, "Gtschagust! So +did I." + +On the inside of each leaf were many stiff hairs, all pointing downward. +When the Fireflies dropped in, they had brushed easily past these hairs +and thought it rather pleasant. Now that they were sputtering and +choking inside, and wanted to get out, these same hairs stuck into their +eyes and pushed against their legs and made them exceedingly +uncomfortable. The water, too, had stood for some time in the leaves and +did not smell good. + +Perhaps it would be just as well not to tell all the things which those +two Fireflies said, for they were tired and out of patience. After a +while they gave up trying to get out until they should be rested. It was +after sunset when they tried the last time, and the light that shone +from their bellies brightened the little green rooms where they were. +They rested and went at it carefully, instead of in the angry, jerky way +which they had tried before. Slowly, one foot at a time, they managed to +climb out of the doorway at the top. As they came out, they heard the +squeaky voice of a young Mouse say, "Oh, where did those bright things +come from?" + +They also heard his mother answer, "Those are only a couple of foolish +Fireflies who have been in the leaves of the pitcher-plant all day." + +After they had eaten something they flew toward home. They knew that it +would be late for the party, and they expected to surprise and delight +everybody when they reached there. On the way they spoke of this. "I'm +dreadfully tired," said one, "but I suppose we shall have to dance in +the air with the rest or they will make a fuss." + +"Yes," said the other. "It spoils everything if we are not there. And +we'll have to tell where we've been and what we've done and whom we have +seen, when we would rather go to sleep and make up what we lost during +the daytime." + + [Illustration: TWINKLING WITH HUNDREDS OF TINY LIGHTS. _Page 157_] + +As they came near the middle of the marsh they were surprised to see the +mild summer air twinkling with hundreds of tiny lights as their friends +and relatives flew to and fro in the dusk. "Well," said the Larger +Firefly, "I think they might have waited for us." + +"Humph!" said the Smaller Firefly. "If they can't be more polite than +that, I won't play." + +"After we've had such a dreadfully hard time, too," said the Larger +Firefly. "Got most eaten by a Flycatcher and scared by a Garter Snake +and shut up all day in the pitcher-plant. I won't move a wing to help on +their old party." + +So two very tired and cross young Fireflies sat on a last year's +cat-tail and sulked. People didn't notice them because they were sitting +and their bright bellies didn't show. After a long time an elderly +Firefly came to rest on the cat-tail and found them. "Good evening," +said he. "Have you danced until you are tired?" + +They looked at each other, but before either could speak one of their +young friends alighted beside them and said the same thing. Then the +Smaller Firefly answered. "We have been away," said she, "and we are not +dancing to-night." + +"Going away, did you say?" asked the elderly Firefly, who was rather +deaf. "I hope you will have a delightful time." Then he bowed and flew +off. + +"Don't stay long," added their young friend. "We shall be so lonely +without you." + +After he also was gone, the two runaways looked into each other's eyes. +"We were not even missed!" they cried. "We had a bad time and nobody +makes any fuss. They were dancing without us." Poor little Fireflies! + +They were much wiser after that, for they had learned that two young +Fireflies were not so wonderfully important after all. And that if they +chose to do things which it was never meant young Fireflies should do, +they would be likely to have a very disagreeable time, but that other +Fireflies would go on eating and dancing and living their own lives. To +be happy, they must keep the Firefly laws. + +[Illustration] + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE KITTENS COME TO THE FOREST + + +One day the three big Kittens who lived with their mother in the +farmer's barn had a dreadful quarrel. If their mother had been with +them, she would probably have cuffed each with her fore paw and scolded +them soundly. She was not with them because she had four little new +Kittens lying beside her in the hay-loft over the stalls. + +You would think that the older Kittens must have been very proud of +their baby brothers and sisters, yet they were not. They might have done +kind little things for their mother, but they didn't. They just hunted +food for themselves and never took a mouthful of it to her. And this +does not prove that they were bad Kittens. It just shows that they were +young and thoughtless. + +The Brown Kitten, the one whose fur was black and yellow mixed so finely +as to look brown, had climbed the barn stairs to see them. When he +reached their corner he sat down and growled at them. His mother said +nothing at first, but when he went so far as to switch his tail in a +threatening way, she left her new babies and sprang at him and told him +not to show his whiskers upstairs again until he could behave properly. + +His sisters, the Yellow Kitten and the White Kitten, stayed downstairs. +They didn't dislike babies so much as their brother. They just didn't +care anything about them. Cats never care much about Kittens, you know, +unless they are their own, and big brothers always say that they can't +bear them. + +Now these three older Kittens were perfectly able to care for +themselves. It was a long time since their mother stopped feeding them, +and they were already excellent hunters. They had practised crouching, +crawling, and springing before they left the hay-loft. Sometimes they +hunted wisps of hay that moved when the wind blew in through the open +door. Sometimes they pounced on each other, and sometimes they hunted +the Grasshoppers who got brought in with the hay. It was when they were +doing this once that they were so badly scared, but that is a story +which has already been told. + +There was no reason why they should feel neglected or worry about +getting enough to eat. If one of them had poor luck in hunting, all he +had to do was to hang around the barn when the Cows were brought up, and +go into the house with the man when he carried the great pails full of +foamy milk. Then if the Kittens acted hungry, mewed very loudly, and +rubbed up lovingly against the farmer's wife they were sure to get a +good, dishful of warm milk. + +You can see how unreasonable they were. They had plenty to eat, and +their mother loved them just as much as ever, but they felt hurt and +sulked around in corners, and answered each other quite rudely, and +would not run after a string which the farmer's little girl dangled +before them. They were not cross all the time, because they had been up +the whole night and had to sleep. They stopped being cross when they +fell asleep and began again as soon as they awakened. The Hens who were +feeding around became so used to it that as soon as they saw a Kitten +twist and squirm, and act like awakening, they put their heads down and +ran away as fast as they could. + +They did not even keep themselves clean. Oh, they licked themselves +over two or three times during the day, but not thoroughly. The Yellow +Kitten did not once try to catch her tail and scrub it, and actually +wore an unwashed tail all day. It didn't show very plainly because it +was yellow, but that made it no cleaner. The White Kitten went around +with her fore paws looking really disgraceful. The Brown Kitten scrubbed +his ears in a sort of half-hearted way, and paid no attention to the +place under his chin. When he did his ears, he gave his paw one lick and +his ear one rub, and repeated this only six times. Everybody knows that +a truly tidy Cat wets his paw with two licks, cleans his ear with two +rubs, and does this over and over from twenty to forty times before he +begins on the other ear. + +Toward night they quarrelled over a dishful of milk which the farmer's +wife gave them. There was plenty of room for them all to put their heads +into the dish at once and lap until each had his share. If it had not +been for their whiskers, there would have been no trouble. These hit, +and each told the others to step back and wait. Nobody did, and there +was such a fuss that the farmer's wife took the dish away and none of +them had any more. They began to blame each other and talk so loudly +that the man drove them all away as fast as they could scamper. + +Now that they were separated, each began to grow more and more +discontented. The Brown Kitten had crawled under the carriage house, and +as soon as it was really dark he stole off to the forest. + +"My mother has more Kittens," he said, "and my sisters get my whiskers +all out of shape, and I'll go away and never come back. I won't say +good-by to them either. I guess they'll feel badly then and wish they'd +been nicer to me! If they ever find me and want me to come back, I won't +go. Not if they beg and beg! I'll just turn my tail toward them and +walk away." + +The Brown Kitten knew that Cats sometimes went to live in the woods and +got along very well. He was not acquainted with one who had done this; +his mother had told him and his sisters stories of Cats who chose to +live so. She said that was one thing which showed how much more clever +they were than Dogs. Dogs, you know, cannot live happily away from men, +although there may be the best of hunting around them. + +"I will find a good hollow tree," said he, "for my home, and I will +sleep there all day and hunt at night. I will eat so much that I shall +grow large and strong. Then, when I go out to hunt, the forest people +will say, 'Sh! Here comes the Brown Cat.'" + +As he thought this he was running softly along the country road toward +the forest. Once in a while he stopped to listen, and stood with his +head raised and turned and one fore foot in the air. He kept his ears +pointed forward all the time so as to hear better. + +When he passed the marsh he saw the Fireflies dancing in the air. +Sometimes they flew so low that a Kitten might catch them. He thought he +would try, so he crawled through the fence and toward the place where +they were dancing. He passed two tired ones sitting on a leaf and never +saw them. That was because their wings covered their sides so well that +no light shone past, and their bright bellies were close to the leaf. He +had almost reached the dancers when he found his paws getting wet and +muddy. That made him turn back at once, for mud was something he +couldn't stand. "I wish I had something to eat," he said, as he took a +bite of catnip. "This is very good for a relish, but not for a whole +meal." + +He trotted on toward the forest, thinking about milk and Fireflies and +several other things, when he was stopped by some great winged person +flying down toward him and then sweeping upward and alighting on a +branch. The Brown Kitten drew back stiffly and said, "Ha-a-ah!" + +"Who? Who? To who?" asked the person on the branch. + +The Brown Kitten answered, "It is I." But the question came again: "Who? +Who? To who?" + +That made the Brown Kitten remember that, since his voice was not known +in the forest, nobody could tell anything by his answer. This time he +replied: "I am the Brown Kitten, if you please, and I have come to live +in the forest." + +"Who? Who? To who?" was the next question, and the Brown Kitten thought +he was asked to whose home he was going. + +"I am not going to anybody," he said. "I just wanted to come, and left +my old home suddenly. I shall live alone and have a good time. I didn't +even tell my mother." + +"Who? Who? To who?" said the Great Horned Owl, for it was he. + +"My m-mother," said the Brown Kitten, and then he ran away as fast as he +could. He had seen the Owl more clearly as he spoke, and the Owl's face +reminded him a little of his mother and made him want to see her. He ran +so fast that he almost bumped into the Skunk, who was taking a dignified +stroll through the forest and sniffing at nearly everything he saw. It +was very lucky, you know, that he did not quite run into the Skunk, for +Skunks do not like to be run into, and, if he had done so, other people +would soon have been sniffing at him. + +The Brown Kitten thought that the Skunk might be related to him. They +were about the same size, and the Brown Kitten had been told that his +relatives were not only different colors, but different shapes. His +mother had told of seeing some Manx Kittens who had no tails at all, and +he thought that the Skunk's elegant long-haired one needn't prevent his +being a Cat. + +"Good evening," said the Brown Kitten. "Would you mind telling me if you +are a Cat." + +"Cat? No!" growled the Skunk. "They sometimes call me a Wood-Kitty, but +they have no right to. I am a Skunk, _Skunk_, SKUNK, and I am related to +the Weasles. Step out of my path." + +A family of young Raccoons in a tree called down teasingly to him to +come up, but after he had started they told him to go down, and then +laughed at him because he had to go tail first. He did not know that +forest climbers turn the toes of their hind feet backward and scamper +down head first. Still, it would have made no difference if he had +known, for his toes wouldn't turn. + +He found something to eat now and then, and he looked for a hollow tree. +He found only one, and that was a Bee tree, so he couldn't use it. All +around him the most beautiful mushrooms were pushing up from the ground. +White, yellow, orange, red, and brown they were, and looked so plump and +fair that he wanted to bite them. He knew, however, that some of them +were very poisonous, so he didn't even lick them with his eager, rough +little pink tongue. He was just losing his Kitten teeth, and his new Cat +teeth were growing, and they made him want to bite almost everything he +saw. One kind of mushroom, which he thought the prettiest of all, grew +only on the trunks of fallen beech trees. It was white, and had a great +many little branches, all very close together. + +Most of the plants which he saw were sound asleep. Every plant has to +sleep, you know, and most of them take a long nap at night. Some of +them, like the water-lilies, also sleep on cloudy days. He was very fond +of the clovers, but they had their leaflets folded tight, and only the +mushrooms, the evening primroses, and a few others were wide awake. +Everybody whom he met was a stranger, and he began to feel very lonely. +Cats do not usually mind being alone. Indeed, they rather like it; +still, you can see how hard it would be for a Kitten who had always been +loved and cared for to find himself alone in a dark forest, where great +birds ask the same questions over and over, and other people make fun of +him. You wouldn't like it yourself, if you were a Kitten. + +At last, when he was prowling along an old forest road and hoping to +meet a tender young Wood-Mouse, he saw a couple of light-colored +animals ahead of him. They looked to him very much like Kittens, but he +remembered how the Skunk had snubbed him when taken for a Cat, and he +kept still. He ran to overtake them and see more clearly, and just as he +reached them they all came to a turn in the road. + +Before he could speak or they could notice that he was there, the wind +roared through the branches above, and just ahead two terrible great +eyes glared at them out of an old log. They all stopped with their +back-fur bristling and their tails arched stiffly. Not a sound did one +of them make. They lifted first one foot and then another and backed +slowly and silently away. When they had gone far enough, they turned +quickly and ran down the old road as fast as their twelve feet could +carry them. They never stopped until they were in the road for home and +could look back in the starlight and be sure that nobody was following +them. Then they stared at each other--the Yellow Kitten, the White +Kitten, and the Brown Kitten. + +"Did you run away to live in the forest?" asked the sisters. + +"Did you?" asked the Brown Kitten. + +"You'll never tell?" said they. + +"Never!" said he. + +"Well then, we did run away, and met each other just before you came. We +meant to live in the forest." + +"So did I," said he. "And I couldn't find any hollow tree." + +"Did you meet that dreadful bird?" said they,--"the one who never hears +your answers and keeps asking you over and over?" + +"Yes," said he. "Don't you ever tell!" + +"Ha-ha!" screamed a laughing little Screech-Owl, who had seen what had +happened in the old forest road and flapped along noiselessly behind +them. + +"Three big Kittens afraid of fox-fire! O-ho! O-ho!" + +Now all of them had heard about fox-fire and knew it was the light which +shines from some kinds of rotten wood in the dark, but they held up +their heads and answered, "We're not afraid of fox-fire." + +"Ha-ha!" screamed the Screech-Owl again. "Thought you saw big eyes +glaring at you. Only fox-fire. Dare you to come back if you are not +afraid." + +"We don't want to go back," answered the Brown Kitten. "We haven't +time." + +"Ha-ha!" screamed the Screech-Owl. "Haven't time! Where are you going?" + +"Going home, of course," answered the Brown Kitten. And then he +whispered to his sisters, "Let's!" + +"All right," said they, and they raced down the road as fast as they +could go. To this day their mother does not know that they ever ran away +from home. + +But it was only fox-fire. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE INQUISITIVE WEASELS + + +The Weasels were very unpopular with most of the forest people, the pond +and meadow people did not like them, and those who lived in the farmyard +couldn't bear them. Something went wrong there every time that a Weasel +came to call. Once, you know, the Dorking Hen was so frightened that she +broke her wonderful shiny egg, and there were other times when even +worse things had happened. Usually there was a Chicken or two missing +after the Weasel had gone. + +The Weasels were very fond of their own family, however, and would tell +their best secrets to each other. That meant almost as much with them as +to share food, for they were very inquisitive and always wanted to know +all about everything. They minded their own business, but they minded +everybody's else as well. If you told a thing to one Weasel you might be +sure that before the night was over every Weasel in the neighborhood +would know all about it. They told other people, too, when they had a +chance. They were dreadful gossips. If they saw a person do something +the least unusual, they thought about it and talked about it and +wondered what it meant, and decided that it meant something very +remarkable and became very much excited. At such times, they made many +excuses to go calling, and always managed to tell about what they had +seen, what they had heard, and what they were perfectly certain it +meant. + +They went everywhere, and could go quietly and without being noticed. +They were small people, about as long as Rats, but much more slender, +and with such short legs that their bodies seemed to almost lie on the +ground. All their fur was brown, except that on their bellies and the +inside of their legs, which was pure white. Sometimes the fur on their +feet matched their backs and sometimes it matched their bellies. That +was as might happen. You can easily see how they could steal along over +the brown earth or the dead leaves and grass without showing plainly. In +winter they turned white, and then they did not show on the snow. The +very tip of their short tails stayed a pale brown, but it was so tiny as +hardly to be noticed. Any Hawk in the air, who saw just that bit of +brown on the snow beneath him, would be likely to think it a leaf or a +piece of bark and pay no more attention to it. + +The Weasel mothers were very careful of their children and very brave. +It made no difference how great the danger might be, they would stay by +their babies and fight for them. And such workers as they were! It made +no difference to them whether it was day or night, they would burrow or +hunt just the same. When they were tired they slept, and when they +awakened they began at once to do something. + + [Illustration: IN WINTER THEY TURNED WHITE. _Page 178_] + +Several families lived in the high bank by the edge of the forest, just +where the ground slopes down to the marsh. They had lived there year +after year, and had kept on adding to their burrows. There was only one +doorway to each burrow and that was usually hidden by some leaves or a +stone. They were hardly as large as Chipmunk's holes and easily hidden. +"It is a good thing to have a fine, large home," said the Weasels, "but +we build for comfort, not for show." + +All the Weasel burrows began alike, with a straight, narrow hall. Then +more halls branched off from this, and every little way there would be a +room in which to turn around or rest. In some of these they stored +food; in others they had nothing but bones and things which were left +from their meals. Each burrow had one fine, large room, bigger than an +Ovenbird's nest, with a soft bed of leaves and fur. Some of the rooms +were so near the top of the ground that a Weasel could dig his way up in +a few minutes if he needed another door. They were the loveliest sort of +places for playing hide-and-seek, and that is a favorite Weasel game, +only every Weasel wants to seek instead of hiding. There was never a bit +of loose earth around these homes, and that is the one secret which +Weasels will not tell out of the family--they never tell what they do +with the earth they dig out. It just disappears. + +Weasels like to hunt in parties. They say there is no fun in doing +anything unless you have somebody with whom to talk it over. One night +four of them went out together as soon as it was dark. They were young +fellows and had planned to go to the farmer's Hen-house for the first +time. They started to go there, but of course they wanted to see +everything by the way. They would run straight ahead for a little while, +then turn off to one side, as Ants do, poking into a Chipmunk's hole or +climbing a tree to find a bird's nest, eating whatever food they found, +and talking softly about everything. + +"It is disgraceful the way that Chipmunk keeps house," said one of them, +as he came back from going through a burrow under a tree. "Half-eaten +food dropped right on the floor of the burrow in the most careless way. +It was only a nut. If it had been anything I cared for, I would have +eaten it myself." + +Then they gossiped about Chipmunks, and said that, although they always +looked trim and neat, there was no telling what sort of housekeepers +they were; and that it really seemed as though they would do better to +stay at home more and run about the forest less. The Chipmunk heard all +this from the tree where he had hidden himself, and would have liked to +speak right out and tell them what he thought of callers who entered +one's home without knocking and sneaked around to see how things were +kept. He knew better than to do so, however. He knew that when four +hungry Weasels were out hunting their supper, it was an excellent time +to keep still. He was right. And there are many times when it is better +for angry people to keep still, even if they are not afraid of being +eaten. + +After they had gone he came down. "It was lucky for me," he said, "that +I awakened hungry and ate a lunch. If I hadn't been awake to run away +there's no telling where I would be now. There are some things worse +than having people think you a poor housekeeper." + +Just as the Chipmunk was finishing his lunch, one of the Weasels +whispered to the others to stop. "There is somebody coming," said he. +"Let's wait and see what he is doing." + +It was the Black-tailed Skunk, who came along slowly, sniffing here and +there, and once in a while stopping to eat a few mouthfuls. + +"Doesn't it seem to you that he acts very queerly?" said one of the +Weasels to the rest. + +"Very," replied another. "And he doesn't look quite as usual. I don't +know that I ever saw him carry his tail in just that way." + +"I'd like to know where he is going," said another. "I guess he doesn't +think anybody will see him." + +"Let's follow him," said the fourth Weasel, who had not spoken before. + +While he was near them they hid behind a hemlock log out of which many +tiny hemlocks were growing. Once in a while they peeped between the soft +fringy leaves of these to see what he was doing. They were much excited. +"He is putting his nose down to the ground," one would say. "It must be +that he has found something." + +Then another would poke his little head up through the hemlocks and look +at the Skunk. "He couldn't have found anything after all," he would say. +"I can't hear him eating." + +"It is very strange," the rest would murmur. + +Now it just happened that the Black-tailed Skunk had scented the Weasels +and knew that they were near. He had also heard the rustling behind the +hemlock log. He knew what gossips Weasels are, and he guessed that they +were watching him, so he decided to give them something to think about. +He knew that they would often fight people larger than themselves, but +he was not afraid of anybody. He did not care to fight them either, for +if he got near enough to really enjoy it they would be likely to bite +him badly, and when a Weasel has set his teeth into anybody it is not +easy to make him let go. "I rather think," said he to himself, "that +there will be four very tired young Weasels sleeping in their burrows +to-morrow." + +"He's walking away," whispered one of the Weasels. "Where do you suppose +he is going?" + +"We'll have to find out," said the others, as they crept quietly out of +their hiding-places. + +The Skunk went exactly where he wanted to. Whenever he found food he ate +it. The Weasels who followed after found nothing left for them. They +became very hungry, but if one of them began to think of going off for +a lunch, the Skunk was certain to do something queer. Sometimes he would +lie down and laugh. Then the Weasels would peep at him from a +hiding-place and whisper together. + +"What do you suppose makes him laugh?" they would ask. "It must be that +he is thinking of something wonderful which he is going to do. We must +not lose sight of him." + +Once he met the Spotted Skunk, his brother, and they whispered together +for a few minutes. Then the Spotted Skunk laughed, and as he passed on, +the Black-tailed Skunk called back to him: "Be sure not to tell any one. +I do not want it known what I am doing." + +Then the four young Weasels nudged each other and said, "There! We knew +it all the time!" + +After that, nobody spoke about being hungry. All they cared for was the +following of the Black-tailed Skunk. Once, when they were in the marsh, +they were so afraid of being seen that they slipped into the ditch and +swam for a way. They were good swimmers and didn't much mind, but it +just shows how they followed the Skunk. Once he led them over to the +farm and they remembered their plan of going to the Hen-house. They were +very, very hungry, and each looked at the others to see what they +thought about letting the Skunk go and stopping for a hearty supper. +Still, nobody spoke of doing so. One Weasel whispered: "Now we shall +surely see what he is about. He ought to know that he cannot do wrong or +mischievous things without being found out. And since we discover it +ourselves, we shall certainly feel free to speak of it." + +Collie, the watch-dog, was sleeping lightly, and came rushing around the +corner of the house to see what strangers were there, but when he saw +who they were, he dropped his tail and walked away. He was old enough +to know many things, and he knew too much to fight either a Skunk or a +Weasel. Every one lets Skunks alone, and it is well to let Weasels alone +also, for although they are so small they bite badly. + +Now the Black-tailed Skunk turned to the forest and walked toward his +hole. The Screech-Owl passed them flying homeward, and several times +Bats darted over their heads. When they went by the Bats' cave they +could tell by the sound that ten or twelve were inside hanging +themselves up for the day. A dim light showed in the eastern sky, and +the day birds were stirring and beginning to preen their feathers. + +"What do you think it means?" whispered the Weasels. "He seems to be +going home. Do you suppose he has changed his mind?" + +When he reached his hole the Black-tailed Skunk stopped and looked +around. The Weasels hid themselves under some fallen leaves. "I bid you +good-morning," said the Skunk, looking toward the place where they were. +"I hope you are not _too_ tired. This walk has been very easy for me, +but I fear it was rather long for Weasels. Besides, I have found plenty +to eat and have chosen smooth paths for myself. Good-morning! I have +enjoyed your company!" + +When even the tip of his tail was hidden in the hole, the Weasels +crawled from under the leaves and looked at each other. + +"We believe he knew all the time that we were following him," they said. +"He acted queerly just to fool us. The wretch!" + +Yet after all, you see, he had done only what he did every night, and it +was because they were watching and talking about him that they thought +him going on some strange errand. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE THRIFTY DEER MOUSE + + +When the days grew short and chilly, and bleak winds blew out of the +great blue-gray cloud banks in the west, many of the forest people went +to sleep for the winter. And not only they, but over in the meadow the +Tree Frog and the Garter Snake had already crawled out of sight and were +dreaming sweetly. The song birds had long before this started south, and +the banks of the pond and its bottom of comfortable soft mud held many +sleepers. Under the water the Frogs had snuggled down in groups out of +sight. Some of the Turtles were there also, and some were in the bank. + +The Ground Hogs had grown stupid and dozy before the last leaves +fluttered to the ground, and had been the first of the fur-bearers to +go to bed for the winter. There were so many interesting things to see +and do in the late fall days that they tried exceedingly hard to keep +awake. + +A Weasel was telling a Ground Hog something one day--and it was a +very interesting piece of gossip, only it was rather unkind, and so +might better not be told here--when he saw the Ground Hog winking +very slow and sleepy winks and letting his head droop lower and lower. +Once he asked him if he understood. The Ground Hog jumped and opened +his eyes very wide indeed, and said: "Oh, yes, yes! Perfectly! +Oh-ah-ah-ah-ah-ah." His yawn didn't look so big as it sounds, because +his mouth was so small. + +He tried to act politely interested, but just as the Weasel reached the +most exciting part of his story, the Ground Hog rolled over sound +asleep. The next day he said "good-by" to his friends, wished them a +happy winter, and said he might see some of them before spring, as he +should come out once to make the weather. "I only hope I shall awaken in +time," he said, "but I am fat enough to sleep until the violets are up." + +He had to be fat, you know, to last him through the cold weather without +eating. He was so stout that he could hardly waddle, his big, +loose-skinned body dragged when he walked, and was even shakier than +ever. He really couldn't hurry by jumping and he was so short of breath +that he could barely whistle when he went into his hole. + +The Raccoons went after the Ground Hog and the Skunks were later still. +They never slept so very long, and said they didn't really need to at +all, and wouldn't except that they had nothing to do and it made +housekeeping easier. It saved so much not to have to go out to their +meals in the coldest weather. + +When the large people were safely out of the way, the smaller ones had +their best times. The Muskrats were awake, but they had their big houses +to eat and were not likely to trouble Mice and Squirrels. There was not +much to fear except Owls and Weasels. The Ground Hogs had once tried to +get the Great Horned Owl to go south when the Cranes did, and he had +laughed in their faces. "To-whoo!" said he. "Not I! I'm not afraid of +cold weather. You don't know how warm feathers are. I never wear +anything else. Furs are all right, but they are not feathers." + +He and his relatives sat all day in their holes, and seldom flew out +except at night. Sometimes, when the day was not too bright, they made +short trips out for luncheon. It was very unfortunate for any Mouse to +be near at those times. + +Now the snow had fallen and the beautiful still cold days had come. The +Weasels' fur had changed from brown to white, as it does in cold +countries in winter. The Chipmunks had taken their last scamper until +early spring, and were living, each alone, in their comfortable burrows. +They were most independent and thrifty. No one ever heard of a Chipmunk +lacking food unless some robber had carried off his nuts and corn. The +Mice think that it must be very dull for a Chipmunk to stay by himself +all winter, since he does not sleep steadily. The Chipmunks do not find +it so. One of them said: "Dull? I never find it dull. When I am awake, I +eat or clean my fur or think. If I had any one staying with me he might +rouse me when I want to sleep, or pick the nut that I want for myself, +or talk when I am thinking. No, thank you, I will go calling when I want +company." + + [Illustration: THE MICE MAKE WINTER THEIR PLAYTIME. _Page 195_] + +The Mice make winter their playtime. Then the last summer's babies are +all grown up and able to look out for themselves, and the fathers and +mother's have a chance to rest. The Meadow Mice come together in big +parties and build groups of snug winter homes under the snow of the +meadow, with many tiny covered walks leading from one to another. Their +food is all around them--grass roots and brown seeds--and there is so +much of it that they never quarrel to see who shall have this root and +who shall have that. They sleep during the daytime and awaken to eat and +visit and have a good time at night. + +Sometimes they are awakened in the daytime, as they were when the Grouse +broke through the snow near them. That was an accident, and the Grouse +felt very sorry about it. They had snuggled down in a cozy family party +near by, and were just starting out for a stroll one morning when the +eldest son stumbled and fell and crushed through the snow into the +little settlement of Meadow Mice. + +The young Grouse was much ashamed of his awkwardness. "I am so sorry," +he said. "I'm not used to my snow-shoes yet. This is the first winter I +have worn them." + +"That is all right," said the Oldest Mouse politely. "It must be hard to +manage them at first. We hope you will have better luck after this." +Then they bowed to each other and the Grouse walked off to join his +brothers and sisters, lifting his feet with their newly grown feather +snow-shoes very high at every step. The Meadow Mice went to work to make +their homes neat again, yet they never looked really right until that +snow had melted and more had fallen. One might think that the Meadow +Mice and the Grouse would care less for each other after that, but it +was not so. It never is so if people who make trouble are quick to say +that they are sorry, and those who were hurt will keep patient and +forgiving. + +It was only the night after this happened that one of the Deer Mice had +a great fright. His home was in a Bee tree in the forest. The Bees and +he had always been the best of friends, and now that they were keeping +close to their honeycomb all winter, the Deer Mouse had taken a small +room in the same tree. It helped to keep him warm when he slept close to +the Bees, for there was always some heat coming from their bodies. Once +in a while, too, he took a nibble of honey, and they did not mind. + +The Deer Mouse did not keep much of his own winter food where he lived. +He had a few beechnuts near by, and when the weather was very stormy +indeed he ate some of these. There was room for many more in the +storeroom (another hole in the Bee tree), but he liked to keep food in +many places. "It is wiser," said he. "Supposing I had them all here and +this tree should be blown down, and it should fall in such a way that I +couldn't reach the hole. What would I do then?" + +He was talking to a Rabbit when he said this. The Rabbit never stored up +food himself, yet he sometimes told other people how he thought it +should be done. He was sure it would be better to have all the nuts in +one place as the Chipmunks did. And now that the Deer Mouse had given +his reasons, he was just as sure as ever. "The Bee tree is not very +likely to blow down in that way," said he. "There is not much danger." + +"Not much, but some," answered the Deer Mouse. "Hollow trees fall more +quickly than solid ones. You may store your food where you please and +I'll take care of mine." + +The Deer Mouse spoke very decidedly, although he was perfectly polite. +His beautiful brown eyes looked squarely at the Rabbit, and you could +tell by the position of his slender long tail that he was much in +earnest. The Rabbit went home. + +The Deer Mouse put away hundreds and hundreds of beechnuts. These he +took carefully out of their shells and laid in nicely lined holes in +tree-trunks. He used leaves for lining these places. Besides keeping +food in the trees, he hid little piles of nuts under stones and logs, +and tucked seeds into chinks of fences or tiny pockets in the ground. He +had worked in the wheatfield after the grain was cut, picking up and +carrying away the stray kernels which had fallen from the sheaves. He +never counted the places where food was stored, but he was happy in +thinking about them. When he lay down to sleep in the morning he always +knew where the next night's meals were coming from. There was not a +thriftier, happier person in the forest. He was gentle, good-natured, +and exceedingly businesslike. He was also very handsome, with large ears +and white belly and feet. + +The night after his cousins, the Meadow Mice, had been so frightened by +the Grouse, this Deer Mouse started out for a good time. He called on +the Meadow Mice, ate a chestnut which he dug up in the edge of the +forest, scampered up a fence-post and tasted of his hidden wheat to be +sure that it was keeping well, and then went to the tree where most of +his beechnuts were stored. He was not quite certain that he wanted to +eat one, but he wished to be sure that they were all right before he +went on. He had been invited to a party by some other Deer Mice, and so, +you see, it wouldn't do for him to spoil his appetite. They would be +sure to have refreshments at the party. + +"I suppose they are all right," said he, as he started to run up the +tree; "still it is just as well to be sure." + +"My whiskers!" he exclaimed, when he reached the hole. "If that isn't +just like a Red Squirrel!" + +The opening into the tree had been barely large enough for him to +squeeze through, and now he could pass in without crushing his fur. +Around the edge of it were many marks of sharp teeth. Somebody had +wanted to get in and had not found the doorway large enough. The Deer +Mouse went inside and sat on his beechnuts. Then he thought and thought +and thought. He knew very well that it was a Red Squirrel, for the Red +Squirrels are not so thrifty as most of the nut-eaters. They make a +great fuss about gathering food in the fall, and frisk and chatter and +scold if anybody else comes where they are busy. For all that, the +Chipmunks and the Deer Mice work much harder than they. It is not +always the person who makes the greatest fuss, you know, who does the +most. + +A Red Squirrel is usually out of food long before spring comes, and +after that he takes whatever he can lay his paws on. Sometimes the +Chipmunks tell them that they should be ashamed of themselves and work +harder. Then the Red Squirrels sigh and answer, "Oh, that is all very +well for you to say, still you must remember that we have not such cheek +pouches as you." + +The Deer Mouse thought of these things. "Cheek pouches!" cried he. "I +have no cheek pouches, but I lay up my own food. It is only an excuse +when they say that. I don't think much of people who make excuses." + +He passed through the doorway several times to see just how big it was. +He found it was not yet large enough for a Red Squirrel. Then he +scampered over the snow to a friend's home. "I'm not going to the +party," said he. "I have some work to do." + +"Work?" said the friend. "Work? In winter?" But before he had finished +speaking his caller had gone. + +All night long the Deer Mouse carried beechnuts from the old +hiding-place to a new one. He wore quite a path in the snow between one +tree and the other. His feet were tiny, but there were four of them, and +his long tail dragged after him. It was not far that he had to go. The +new place was one which he had looked at before. It was in a maple tree, +and had a long and very narrow opening leading to the storeroom. It was +having to go so far into the tree that had kept the Deer Mouse from +using it before. Now he liked it all the better for having this. + +"If that Red Squirrel ever gnaws his way in here," he said, "he won't +have any teeth left for eating." + +When the sun rose, the Deer Mouse went to sleep in the maple tree. The +Red Squirrel came and gnawed at the opening into his old storeroom. If +he had gnawed all day he would surely have gotten in. As it was, he had +to spend much time hunting for food. He found some frozen apples still +hanging in the orchard, and bit away at them until he reached the seeds +inside. He found one large acorn, but it was old and tasted musty. He +also squabbled with another Red Squirrel and chased him nearly to the +farmyard. Then Collie heard them and chased him most of the way back. + +When night came and he ran off to sleep in his hollow tree, he had made +the hole almost, but not quite, large enough. He could smell the +beechnuts inside, and it made him hungry to think how good they would +taste. "I will get up early to-morrow morning and come here," he said. +"I can gnaw my way in before breakfast, and then!" + +He went off in fine leaps to his home and was soon sound asleep. In +summer he often frolicked around half of the night, but now it was cold, +and when the sun went down he liked to get home quickly and wrap up +warmly in his tail. The Red Squirrel was hardly out of sight when the +Deer Mouse came along his path in the snow and up to his old storeroom. +His dainty white feet shook a little as he climbed, and he hardly dared +look in for fear of finding the hole empty. You can guess how happy he +was to find everything safe. + +All night long he worked, and when morning came it was a very tired +little Deer Mouse who carried his last beechnut over the trodden path to +its safe new resting place. He was tired but he was happy. + +There was just one other thing that he wanted to do. He wanted to see +that Red Squirrel when he found the beechnuts gone. He waited near by +for him to come. It was a beautiful, still winter morning when the +hoar-frost clung to all the branches, and the shadows which fell upon +the snow looked fairly blue, it was so cold. The Deer Mouse crouched +down upon his dainty feet to keep them warm, and wrapped his tail +carefully around to help. + +Along came the Red Squirrel, dashing finely and not noticing the Deer +Mouse at all. A few leaps brought him to the tree, a quick run took him +to the hole, and then he began to gnaw. The Deer Mouse was growing +sleepy and decided not to wait longer. He ran along near the Red +Squirrel. "Oh, good-morning!" said he. "Beautiful day! I see you are +getting that hole ready to use. Hope you will like it. I liked it very +well for a while, but I began to fear it wasn't safe." + +"Wh-what do you mean?" asked the Red Squirrel sternly. He had seen the +Deer Mouse's eyes twinkle and he was afraid of a joke. + +"Oh," answered the Deer Mouse with a careless whisk of his tail, "I had +some beechnuts there until I moved them." + +"You had!" exclaimed the Red Squirrel. He did not gnaw any after that. +He suddenly became very friendly. "You couldn't tell me where to find +food, I suppose," said he. "I'd eat almost anything." + +The Deer Mouse thought for a minute. "I believe," said he, "that you +will find plenty in the farmer's barn, but you must look out for the +Dog." + +"Thank you," said the Red Squirrel. "I will go." + +"There!" said the Deer Mouse after he had whisked out of sight. "He has +gone to steal from the farmer. Still, men have so very much that they +ought to share with Squirrels." + +And that, you know, is true. + + + + +[Illustration] + +THE HUMMING-BIRD AND THE HAWK-MOTH + + +The Hawk-Moths are acquainted with nearly everybody and are great +society people. They are invited to companies given by the daylight set, +and also to parties given at night by those who sleep during the day. +This is not because the Hawk-Moths are always awake. Oh dear, no! There +is nobody in pond, forest, meadow, marsh, or even in houses, who can be +well and strong and happy without plenty of sleep. + +The Hawk-Moths were awake more or less during the day, but it was not +until the sun was low in the western sky that they were busiest. When +every tree had a shadow two or three times as long as the tree itself, +then one heard the whir-r-r of wings and the Hawk-Moths darted past. +They staid up long after the daylight people went to bed. The Catbird, +who sang from the tip of the topmost maple tree branch long after most +of his bird friends were asleep, said that when he tucked his head under +his wing the Hawk-Moths were still flying. In that way, of course, they +became acquainted with the people of the night-time. + +There was one fine large Hawk-Moth who used to be a Tomato Worm when he +was young, although he really fed as much upon potato vines as upon +tomato plants. He was handsome from the tip of his long, slender +sucking-tongue to the tip of his trim, gray body. His wings were pointed +and light gray in color, with four blackish lines across the hind ones. +His body was also gray, and over it and his wings were many dainty +markings of black or very dark gray. On the back part of it he had ten +square yellow spots edged with black. There were also twenty tiny white +spots there, but he did not care so much for them. He always felt badly +to think that his yellow spots showed so little. That couldn't be +helped, of course, and he should have been thankful to have them at all. + +Another thing which troubled him was the fact that he couldn't see his +own yellow spots. He would have given a great deal to do so. He could +see the yellow spots of other Hawk-Moths who had been Tomato Worms when +he was, but that was not like seeing his own. He had tried and tried, +and it always ended in the same way--his eyes were tired and his back +ached. His body was so much stouter and stiffer than that of his +butterfly cousins that he could not bend it easily. + +When he got to thinking about his yellow spots he often flew away to +the farmer's potato-fields, where the young Tomato Worms were feeding. +He would fly around them and cry out: "Look at my yellow spots. Are they +not fine?" Then he would dart away to the vegetable-garden and balance +himself in the air over the tomato plants. The humming of his wings +would make the Tomato Worms there look up, and he would say: "If you are +good little Worms and eat a great deal, you may some day become fine +Moths like me and have ten yellow spots apiece." + +Sometimes he even went down to the corner where the farmer had tobacco +plants growing, and showed his yellow spots to the Tomato Worms there. +He never went anywhere else, for these worms do not care for other +things to eat. Everywhere that he went the Tomato Worms exclaimed: "Oh! +Oh! What beautiful yellow spots! What wonderful yellow spots!" When he +flew away they would not eat for a while, but rested on their fat +pro-legs, raised the front part of their bodies in the air, folded their +six little real legs under their chins, and thought and thought and +thought. They always sat in that position when they were thinking, and +they had a great many cousins who did the same thing. It was a habit +which ran in the family. + +When other people saw them sitting in this way, with their real legs +crossed under their chins, they always cried: "Look at the Sphinxes!" +although not one of them knew what a Sphinx really was. And that was +just one of their habits. This was why the Hawk-Moths were sometimes +called Sphinx-Moths. + +It was not kind in the Hawk-Moth to come and make the Tomato Worms +discontented. If he had stayed away, they would have thought it the +loveliest thing in the world to be fat green Tomato Worms with two +sorts of legs and each with a horn standing up on the hind end of his +body. That is not the usual place for horns, still it does very well, +and these horns are worn only for looks. They are never used for poking +or stinging. + +Before the Hawk-Moth came to visit them, the Tomato Worms had thought it +would be quiet, and restful, and pleasant to lie all winter in their +shining brown pupa-cases in the ground, waiting for the spring to finish +turning them into Moths. Now they were so impatient to get their yellow +spots that they could hardly bear the idea of waiting. They did not even +care about the long, slender tongue-case which every Tomato-Worm has on +his pupa-case, and which looks like a handle to it. + +One day the Tomato Worms told the Ruby-throated Humming-Bird about all +this. The Humming-Bird was a very sensible fellow, and would no doubt +have been a hard-working husband and father if his wife had not been so +independent. He had been a most devoted lover, and helped build a +charming nest of fern-wool and plant-down, and cover it with beautiful +gray-green lichens. When done it was about as large as half of a hen's +egg, and a morning-glory blossom would have more than covered it. The +lichens were just the color of the branch on which it rested, and one +could hardly see where it was. That is the nicest thing to be said about +a nest. If a bird ever asks you what you think of his nest, and you wish +to say something particularly agreeable, you must stare at the tree and +ask: "Where is it?" Then, when he has shown it to you, you may speak of +the soft lining, or the fine weaving, or the stout way in which it is +fastened to the branches. + +After this nest was finished and the two tiny white eggs laid in it, +Mrs. Humming-Bird cared for nothing else. She would not go +honey-hunting with her husband, or play in the air with him as she used +to do. He tried to coax her by darting down toward her as she sat +covering her eggs, and by squeaking the sweetest things he could think +of into her ear, but she acted as though she cared more for the eggs +than for him, and did not even squeak sweet things back. So, of course, +he went away, and let her hatch and bring up her children as she chose. +It was certainly her fault that he left her. She might not have been +able to leave the eggs, but she could have squeaked. + +Now that the Ruby-throated Humming-Bird had no home cares, he made many +calls on his friends. They were very short calls, for he would seldom +sit down, yet he heard and told much news while he balanced himself in +the air with his tiny feet curled up and his wings moving so fast that +one could not see them. + +When the Tomato Worms told him how they felt about the Hawk-Moth's +yellow spots, he became very indignant. "Those poor young worms!" he +said to himself. "It is a shame, and something must be done about it." + +The more he thought, the angrier he became, and his feathers fairly +stood on end. He hardly knew what he was doing, and ran his long, +slender bill into the same flowers several times, although he had taken +all the honey from them at first. + +That night, when the sun had set and the silvery moon was peeping above +a violet-colored cloud in the eastern sky, the Ruby-throated +Humming-Bird sat on the tip of a spruce-tree branch and waited for the +Hawk-Moth. + +"I hope nobody else will hear me talking," said he. "It would sound so +silly if I were overheard." He sat very still, his tiny feet clutching +the branch tightly. It was late twilight now and really time that he +should go to sleep, but he had decided that if he could possibly keep +awake he would teach the Hawk-Moth a lesson. + +"I wish he would hurry," said he. "I can hardly keep my eyes open." He +did not yawn because he had not the right kind of mouth for it. You know +a yawn ought to be nearly round. His beak would have made one a great, +great many times higher than it was wide, and that would have been +exceedingly unbecoming to him. + +Yellow evening primroses grew near the spruce-tree, and the tall stalks +were opening their flowers for the night. Above the seed-pods and below +the buds on each stalk two, three, or four blossoms were slowly +unfolding. The Ruby-throated Humming-Bird did not often stay up long +enough to see this, and he watched the four smooth yellow petals of one +untwist themselves until they were free to spring wide open. He had +watched five blossoms when he heard the Hawk-Moth coming. Then he darted +toward the primroses and balanced himself daintily before one while he +sucked honey from it. + +Whir-r-r-r! The Hawk-Moth was there. "Good evening," said he. "Rather +late for you, isn't it?" + +"It is a little," answered the Humming-Bird. "Growing a bit chilly, too, +isn't it? I should think you'd be cold without feathers. Mine are such a +comfort. Feel as good as they look, and that is saying a great deal." + +The Hawk-Moth balanced himself before another primrose and seemed to +care more about sucking honey up his long tongue-tube than he did about +talking. + + [Illustration: THE HUMMING-BIRD AND THE HAWK-MOTH. _Page 218_] + +"I think it is a great thing to have a touch of bright color, too," said +the Humming-Bird. "The beautiful red spot on my throat looks +particularly warm and becoming when the weather is cool. You ought to +have something of the sort." + +"I have yellow spots--ten of them," answered the Hawk-Moth sulkily. + +"You have?" exclaimed the Humming-Bird in the most surprised way. "Oh +yes! I think I do remember something about them. It is a pity they don't +show more. Mrs. Humming-Bird never wears bright colors. She says it +would not do. People would see her on her nest if she did. Excepting the +red spot, she is dressed like me--white breast, green back and head, and +black wings and tail. Green is another good color. You should wear some +green." + +The Hawk-Moth murmured that he didn't see any particular use in wearing +green. + +"Oh," said the Humming-Bird, "it is just the thing to wear--neat, never +looks dusty" (here the Hawk-Moth drew back, for his own wings, you +know, were almost dust color), "and matches the leaves perfectly." + +The Hawk-Moth said something about having to go and thinking that the +primrose honey was not so good as usual. + +"I thought it excellent," said the Humming-Bird. "Perhaps you do not get +it so easily as I. Ah yes, you use a tongue-tube. What different ways +different people do have. Now I like honey, but I could not live many +days on that alone. What I care most for is the tiny insects that I find +eating it. And you cannot eat meat. What a pity! I must say that you +seem to make the best of it, though, and do fairly well. Oh, must you +go? Well, good night." + +The Hawk-Moth flew away feeling very much disgusted. He had always +thought himself the most beautiful person in the neighborhood. He rather +thought so still. Yet it troubled him to know that others did not think +so, and he began to remember how many times he had heard people admire +the Ruby-throated Humming-Bird. He never liked him after that. But +neither did he brag. + +The young Tomato Worms soon forgot what the Hawk-Moth had said to them, +and became happy and contented once more. The Ruby-throated Humming-Bird +never cared to talk about it, yet he was once heard to say that he would +rather offend the Hawk-Moth and even make him a little unhappy than to +have him bothering the poor little Tomato Worms all the time. + +[Illustration] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Among the Night People, by Clara Dillingham Pierson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMONG THE NIGHT PEOPLE *** + +***** This file should be named 35014.txt or 35014.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/5/0/1/35014/ + +Produced by Heather Clark and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +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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