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diff --git a/42827-0.txt b/42827-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85164c9 --- /dev/null +++ b/42827-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2880 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42827 *** + +_BANNERTAIL_ + +_THE STORY OF A GRAYSQUIRREL_ + + + + +BANNERTAIL + +THE STORY OF A GRAYSQUIRREL + +[Illustration] + +With 100 Drawings by Ernest Thompson Seton + + Author of + + Wild Animals I have Known + Trail of the Sandhill Stag + Biography of a Grizzly + Lives of the Hunted + Monarch The Big Bear + + New York + Charles Scribner's Sons + 1922 + + + + + Copyright, 1922, by + ERNEST THOMPSON SETON + + Printed in the United States of America + + + + +_FOREWORD_ + +_These are the ideas that I have aimed to set forth in this tale._ + +_1st. That although an animal is much helped by its mother's teaching, +it owes still more to the racial teaching, which is instinct, and can +make a success of life without its mothers guidance, if only it can live +through the dangerous time of infancy and early life._ + +_2d. Animals often are tempted into immorality--by which I mean, any +habit or practice that would in its final working, tend to destroy the +race. Nature has rigorous ways of dealing with such._ + +_3d. Animals, like ourselves, must maintain ceaseless war against +insect parasites--or perish._ + +_4th. In the nut forests of America, practically every tree was planted +by the Graysquirrel, or its kin. No squirrels, no nut-trees._ + +_These are the motive thoughts behind my woodland novel. I hope I have +presented them convincingly; if not, I hope at least you have been +entertained by the romance._ + +[Illustration: signature] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + Chapter Page + I. The Foundling 1 + II. His Kittenhood 9 + III. The Red Horror 15 + IV. The New and Lonely Life 19 + V. The Fluffing of His Tail 25 + VI. The First Nut Crop 31 + VII. The Sun Song of Bannertail 39 + VIII. The Cold Sleep 49 + IX. The Balking of Fire-eyes 57 + X. Redsquirrel, the Scold of the Woods 65 + XI. Bannertail and the Echo Voice 71 + XII. The Courting of Silvergray 77 + XIII. The Home in the High Hickory 85 + XIV. New Rivals 91 + XV. Bachelor Life Again 97 + XVI. The Warden Meets an Invader 103 + XVII. The Hoodoo on the Home 109 + XVIII. The New Home 117 + XIX. The Moving of the Young 125 + XX. The Coming-out Party 135 + XXI. Nursery Days of the Young Ones 141 + XXII. Cray Hunts for Trouble 147 + XXIII. The Little Squirrels Go to School 151 + XXIV. The Lopping of the Wayward Branch 157 + XXV. Bannertail Falls into a Snare 163 + XXVI. The Addict 173 + XXVII. The Dregs of the Cup 181 + XXVIII. The Way of Destruction 185 + XXIX. Mother Carey's Lash 191 + XXX. His Awakening 199 + XXXI. The Unwritten Law 205 + XXXII. Squirrel Games 213 + XXXIII. When Bannertail Was Scarred for Life 221 + XXXIV. The Fight with the Black Demon 229 + XXXV. The Property Law among Animals 243 + XXXVI. Gathering the Great Nut Harvest 251 + XXXVII. And To-day 261 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + Facing Page + His kittenhood 12 + Baffling Fire-eyes 60 + They twiddled whiskers good night 82 + With an angry "Quare!" Silvergray scrambled up again 130 + The little squirrels at school 154 + Cray sank--a victim to his folly 160 + A dangerous game 226 + The battle with the Blacksnake 238 + + + + +_THE FOUNDLING_ + + + + +CHAPTER I + +THE FOUNDLING + + +IT was a rugged old tree standing sturdy and big among the slender +second-growth. The woodmen had spared it because it was too gnarled and +too difficult for them to handle. But the Woodpecker, and a host of +wood-folk that look to the Woodpecker for lodgings, had marked and used +it for many years. Its every cranny and borehole was inhabited by some +quaint elfin of the woods; the biggest hollow of all, just below the +first limb, had done duty for two families of the Flickers who first +made it, and now was the homing hole of a mother Graysquirrel. + +[Illustration] + +She appeared to have no mate; at least none was seen. No doubt the +outlaw gunners could have told a tale, had they cared to admit that they +went gunning in springtime; and now the widow was doing the best she +could by her family in the big gnarled tree. All went well for a while, +then one day, in haste maybe, she broke an old rule in Squirreldom; she +climbed her nesting tree openly, instead of going up its neighbor, and +then crossing to the den by way of the overhead branches. The farm boy +who saw it, gave a little yelp of savage triumph; his caveman nature +broke out. Clubs and stones were lying near, the whirling end of a stick +picked off the mother Squirrel as she tried to escape with a little one +in her mouth. Had he killed two dangerous enemies the boy could not have +yelled louder. Then up the tree he climbed and found in the nest two +living young ones. With these in his pocket he descended. When on the +ground he found that one was dead, crushed in climbing down. Thus only +one little Squirrel was left alive, only one of the family that he had +seen, the harmless mother and two helpless, harmless little ones dead in +his hands. + +[Illustration] + +Why? What good did it do him to destroy all this beautiful wild life? He +did not know. He did not think of it at all. He had yielded only to the +wild ancestral instinct to kill, when came a chance to kill, for we must +remember that when that instinct was implanted, wild animals were either +terrible enemies or food that must be got at any price. + +The excitement over, the boy looked at the helpless squirming thing in +his hand, and a surge of remorse came on him. He could not feed it; it +must die of hunger. He wished that he knew of some other nest into +which he might put it. He drifted back to the barn. The mew of a young +Kitten caught his ear. He went to the manger. Here was the old Cat with +the one Kitten that had been left her of her brood born two days back. +Remembrance of many Field-mice, Chipmunks and some Squirrels killed by +that old green-eyed huntress, struck a painful note. Yes! No matter what +he did, the old Cat would surely get, kill, and eat the orphan Squirrel. + +Then he yielded to a sudden impulse and said: "Here it is, eat it now." +He dropped the little stranger into the nest beside the Kitten. The Cat +turned toward it, smelled it suspiciously once or twice, then licked its +back, picked it up in her mouth, and tucked it under her arm, where half +an hour later the boy found it taking dinner alongside its new-found +foster-brother, while the motherly old Cat leaned back with chin in +air, half-closed eyes and purring the happy, contented purr of mother +pride. Now, indeed, the future of the Foundling was assured. + + + + +_HIS KITTENHOOD_ + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS KITTENHOOD + +[Illustration] + + +LITTLE Graycoat developed much faster than his Kitten foster-brother. +The spirit of play was rampant in him, he would scramble up his mother's +leg a score of times a day, clinging on with teeth, arms and claws, then +mount her back and frisk along to climb her upright tail; and when his +weight was too much, down the tail would droop, and he would go merrily +sliding off the tip to rush to her legs and climb and toboggan off +again. The Kitten never learned the trick. But it seemed to amuse the +Cat almost as much as it did the Squirrelet, and she showed an amazing +partiality for the lively, long-tailed Foundling. So did others of +importance, men and women folk of the farmhouse, and neighbors too. The +frisky Graycoat grew up amid experiences foreign to his tastes, and of a +kind unknown to his race. + +[Illustration] + +The Kitten too grew up, and in midsummer was carried off to a distant +farmhouse to be "their cat." + +[Illustration: HIS KITTENHOOD] + +Now the Squirrel was over half-grown, and his tail was broadening out +into a great banner of buff with silver tips. His life was with the old +Cat; his food was partly from her dish. But many things there were to +eat that delighted him, and that pleased her not. There was corn in the +barn, and chicken-feed in the yard, and fruit in the garden. Well-fed +and protected, he grew big and handsome, bigger and handsomer than his +wild brothers, so the house-folk said. But of that he knew nothing; he +had never seen his own people. The memory of his mother had faded +out. So far as he knew, he was only a bushy-tailed Cat. But inside was +an inheritance of instincts, as well as of blood and bone, that would +surely take control and send him herding, if they happened near, with +those and those alone of the blowsy silver tails. + + + + +_THE RED HORROR_ + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE RED HORROR + + +IN the Hunting-moon it came, just when the corn begins to turn, and in +the dawn, when Bannertail Graycoat was yielding to the thrill that comes +with action, youth and life, in dew-time. + +There was a growing, murmuring sound, then smoke from the barn, like +that he had seen coming from the red mystery in the cook-house. But this +grew very fast and huge; men came running, horses frantically plunging +hurried out, and other living things and doings that he did not +understand. Then when the sun was high a blackened smoking pile there +was where once had stood the dear old barn; and a new strange feeling +over all. The old Cat disappeared. A few days more and the house-folk, +too, were gone. The place was deserted, himself a wildwood roving +Squirrel, quite alone, without a trace of Squirrel training, such as +example of the old ones gives, unequipped, unaccompanied, unprepared for +the life-fight, except that he had a perfect body, and in his soul +enthroned, the many deep and dominating instincts of his race. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE NEW AND LONELY LIFE_ + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE NEW AND LONELY LIFE + + +THE break was made complete by the Red Horror, and the going of the +man-people. Fences and buildings are good for some things, but the tall +timber of the distant wooded hill was calling to him and though he came +back many a time to the garden while there yet was fruit, and to the +field while the corn was standing, he was ever more in the timber and +less in the open. + +Food there was in abundance now, for it was early autumn; and who was to +be his guide in this: "What to eat, what to let alone?" These two guides +he had, and they proved enough: _instinct_, the wisdom inherited from +his forebears, and his keen, discriminating _nose_. + +Scrambling up a rotten stub one day, a flake of bark fell off, and here +a-row were three white grubs; fat, rounded, juicy. It was instinct bade +him seize them, and it was smell that justified the order; then which, +it is hard to say, told him to reject the strong brown nippers at one +end of each prize. That day he learned to pry off flakes of bark for the +rich foodstuffs lodged behind. + +[Illustration] + +At another time, when he worked off a slab of bark in hopes of a meal, +he found only a long brown millipede. Its smell was earthy but strange, +its many legs and its warning feelers, uncanny. The smell-guide seemed +in doubt, but the inborn warden said: "Beware, touch it not." He hung +back watching askance, as the evil thing, distilling its strange +pestilent gas, wormed Snake-like out of sight, and Bannertail in a +moment had formed a habit that was of his race, and that lasted all his +life. Yea, longer, for he passed it on--this: Let the hundred-leggers +alone. Are they not of a fearsome poison race? + +[Illustration] + +Thus he grew daily in the ways of woodlore. He learned that the +gum-drops on the wounded bark of the black birch are good to eat, and +the little faded brown umbrella in the woods is the sign that it has a +white cucumber in its underground cellar; that the wild bees' nests have +honey in them, and grubs as good as honey; but beware, for the bee has a +sting! He learned that the little rag-bundle babies hanging from vine +and twig, contain some sort of a mushy shell-covered creature that is +amazingly good to eat; that the little green apples that grow on the +oaks are not acorns, and are yet toothsome morsels of the lighter sort, +while nearly every bush in the woods at autumn now had strings of +berries whose pulp was good to eat and whose single inside seed was as +sweet as any nut. Thus he was learning woodcraft, and grew and +prospered, for outside of sundry Redsquirrels and Chipmunks there were +few competitors for this generous giving of the Woods. + + + + +_THE FLUFFING OF HIS TAIL_ + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE FLUFFING OF HIS TAIL + + +THERE are certain stages of growth that are marked by changes which, if +not sudden, are for a time very quick, and the big change in Bannertail, +which took place just as he gave up the tricks and habits learned from +his Cat-folk, and began to be truly a Squirrel, was marked by the +fluffing of his tail. Always long and long-haired, it was a poor wisp of +a thing until the coming of the Hunting-moon. Then the hairs grew out +longer and became plumy, then the tail muscles swelled and worked with +power. Then, too, he began a habit of fluffing out that full and +flaunting plume every few minutes. Once or twice a day he combed it, and +ever he was most careful to keep it out of wet or dirt. His coat might +be stained with juice of fruit or gum of pine, and little he cared; but +the moment a pine drop or a bit of stick, moss, or mud clung to his tail +he stopped all other work to lick, clean, comb, shake, fluff and +double-fluff that precious, beautiful member to its perfect fulness, +lightness, and plumy breadth. + +[Illustration: Fluffing his Tail] + +Why? What the trunk is to the elephant and the paw to the monkey, the +tail is to the Graysquirrel. It is his special gift, a vital part of his +outfit, the secret of his life. The 'possum's tail is to swing by, the +fox's tail for a blanket wrap, but the Squirrel's tail is a parachute, a +"land-easy"; with that in perfect trim he can fall from any height in +any tree and be sure of this, that he will land with ease and +lightness, and on his feet. + +This thing Bannertail knew without learning it. It was implanted, not by +what he saw in Kitten days, or in the woods about, but by the great +All-Mother, who had builded up his athlete form and blessed him with an +inner Guide. + + + + +_THE FIRST NUT CROP_ + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE FIRST NUT CROP + + +THAT year the nut crop was a failure. This was the off-year for the red +oaks; they bear only every other season. The white oaks had been nipped +by a late frost. The beech-trees were very scarce, and the chestnuts +were gone--the blight had taken them all. Pignut hickories were not +plentiful, and the very best of all, the sweet shag-hickory, had +suffered like the white oaks. + +October, the time of the nut harvest, came. Dry leaves were drifting to +the ground, and occasional "thumps" told of big fat nuts that also were +falling, sometimes of themselves and sometimes cut by harvesters; for, +although no other Graysquirrel was to be seen, Bannertail was not +alone. A pair of Redsquirrels was there and half a dozen Chipmunks +searching about for the scattering precious nuts. + +[Illustration] + +Their methods were very different from those of the Graysquirrel race. +The Chipmunks were carrying off the prizes in their cheek-pouches to +underground storehouses. The Redsquirrels were hurrying away with their +loads to distant hollow trees, a day's gathering in one tree. The +Graysquirrels' way is different. With them each nut is buried in the +ground, three or four inches deep, one nut at each place. A very precise +essential instinct it is that regulates this plan. It is inwrought with +the very making of the Graysquirrel race. Yet in Bannertail it was +scarcely functioning at all. Even the strongest inherited habit needs a +starter. + +How does a young chicken learn to peck? It has a strong inborn readiness +to do it, but we know that that impulse must be stimulated at first by +seeing the mother peck, or it will not function. In an incubator it is +necessary to have a sophisticated chicken as a leader, or the chickens +of the machine foster-mother will die, not knowing how to feed. +Nevertheless, the instinct is so strong that a trifle will arouse it to +take control. Yes, so small a trifle as tapping on the incubator floor +with a pencil-point will tear the flimsy veil, break the restraining +bond and set the life-preserving instinct free. + +Like this chicken, robbed of its birthright by interfering man, was +Bannertail in his blind yielding to a vague desire to hide the nuts. He +had never seen it done, the example of the other nut-gatherers was not +helpful--was bewildering, indeed. + +Confused between the inborn impulse and the outside stimulus of example, +Bannertail would seize a nut, strip off the husk, and hide it quickly +anywhere. Some nuts he would thrust under bits of brush or tufts of +grass; some he buried by dropping leaves and rubbish over them, and a +few, toward the end, he hid by digging a shallow hole. But the real, +well-directed, energetic instinct to hide nut after nut, burying them +three good inches, an arm's length, underground, was far from being +aroused, was even hindered by seeing the Redsquirrels and the Chipmunks +about him bearing away their stores, without attempting to bury them at +all. + +So the poor, skimpy harvest was gathered. What was not carried off was +hidden by the trees themselves under a layer of dead and fallen leaves. + +High above, in an old red oak, Bannertail found a place where a broken +limb had let the weather in, so the tree was rotted. Digging out the +soft wood left an ample cave, which he gnawed and garnished into a warm +and weather-proof home. + +The bright, sharp days of autumn passed. The leaves were on the ground +throughout the woods in noisy dryness and lavish superabundance. The +summer birds had gone, and the Chipmunk, oversensitive to the crispness +of the mornings, had bowed sedately on November 1, had said his last +"good-by," and had gone to sleep. Thus one more voice was hushed, the +feeling of the woods was "_Hush, be still!_"--was all-expectant of some +new event, that the tentacles of high-strung wood-folk sensed and +appraised as sinister. Backward they shrank, to hide away and wait. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE SUN SONG OF BANNERTAIL_ + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SUN SONG OF BANNERTAIL + + +THE sun was rising in a rosy mist, and glinting the dew-wet overlimbs, +as there rang across the bright bare stretch of woodland a loud "_Qua, +qua, qua, quaaaaaaa!_" Like a high priest of the sun on the topmost peak +of the temple stood Bannertail, carried away by a new-born inner urge. A +full-grown wildwood Graysquirrel he was now, the call of the woods had +claimed him, and he hailed the glory of the east with an ever longer +"_Qua, qua, quaaaaaaaaaa!_" + +This was the season of the shortest days, though no snow had come as yet +to cover the brown-leaved earth. Few birds were left of the summer +merrymakers. The Crow, the Nuthatch, the Chickadee, and the Woodwale +alone were there, and the sharp tang of the frost-bit air was holding +back their sun-up calls. But Bannertail, a big Graysquirrel now, found +gladness in the light, intensified, it seemed, by the very lateness of +its coming. + +"_Qua, qua, qua, quaaaaaa_," he sang, and done into speech of man the +song said: "_Hip, hip, hip, hurrahhh!_" + +[Illustration] + +He had risen from his bed in the hollow oak to meet and greet it. He was +full of lusty life now, and daily better loved his life. "_Qua, qua, +qua, quaaaa!_"--he poured it out again and again. The Chickadee quit his +bug hunt for a moment to throw back his head and shout: "_Me, too!_" The +Nuthatch, wrong end up, answered in a low, nasal tone: "_Hear, hear, +hear!_" Even the sulky Crow joined in at last with a "_'Rah, 'rah, +'rah!_" and the Woodwale beat a long tattoo. + +"_Hip, hip, hip, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!_" shouted Bannertail as the +all-blessed glory rose clear above the eastern trees and the world was +aflood with the Sun-God's golden smile. + +A score of times had he thus sung and whip-lashed his tail, and sung +again, exulting, when far away, among the noises made by birds, was a +low "_Qua, quaaa!_"--the voice of another Graysquirrel! + +His kind was all too scarce in Jersey-land, and yet another would not +necessarily be a friend; but in the delicate meaningful modulations of +sound so accurately sensed by the Squirrel's keen ear, this far-off +"_Qua, qua_," was a little softer than his own, a little higher-pitched, +a little more gently modulated, and Bannertail knew without a moment's +guessing. "Yes, it was a Graysquirrel, and it was not one that would +take the war-path against him." + +[Illustration] + +The distant voice replied no more, and Bannertail set about foraging for +his morning meal. + +[Illustration] + +The oak-tree in which he had slept was only one of the half-a-dozen beds +he now claimed. It was a red oak, therefore its acorns were of poor +quality; and it was on the edge of the woods. The best feeding-grounds +were some distance away, but the road to them well known. Although so +much at home in the trees, Bannertail travelled on the ground when going +to a distance. Down the great trunk, across an open space to a stump, a +pause on the stump to fluff his tail and look around, a few bounds to a +fence, then along the top of that in three-foot hops till he came to the +gap; six feet across this gap, and he took the flying leap with pride, +remembering how, not so long ago, he used perforce to drop to the +ground and amble to the other post. He was making for the white oak and +hickory groves; but his keen nose brought him the message of a big red +acorn under the leaves. He scratched it out and smelled it--yes, good. +He ripped off the shell and here, ensconced in the middle, was a fat +white grub, just as good as the nut itself, or better. So Bannertail had +grub on the half-shell and nuts on the side for his first course. Then +he set about nosing for hidden hickory-nuts; few and scarce were they. +He had not found one when a growing racket announced the curse-beast of +the woods, a self-hunting dog. Clatter, crash, among the dry leaves and +brush, it came, yelping with noisy, senseless stupidity when it found a +track that seemed faintly fresh. Bannertail went quietly up a near +elm-tree, keeping the trunk between himself and the beast. From the elm +he swung to a basswood, and finished his meal of basswood buds. Keeping +one eye on the beast, he scrambled to an open platform nest that he had +made a month ago, where he lazed in the sun, still keeping eyes and ears +alert for tidings from the disturber below. + +The huge brute prowled around and found the fresh scent up the elm, and +barked at it, too, but of course he was barking up the wrong tree, and +presently went off. Bannertail watched him with some faint amusement, +then at last went rippling down the trunk and through the woods like a +cork going down a rushing stream. + +[Illustration] + +He was travelling homeward by the familiar route, on the ground, in +undulated bounds, with pauses at each high lookout, when again the alarm +of enemies reached him--a dog, sniffing and barking, and farther off a +hunter. Bannertail made for the nearest big tree, and up that he went, +keeping ever the trunk between. Then came the dog--a Squirrel Hound--and +found the track and yelped. Up near the top was a "dray," or platform +nest, one Bannertail had used and partly built, and in this he stretched +out contentedly, peering over the edge at the ugly brutes below. The dog +kept yelping up the trunk, saying plainly: "_Squirrel, squirrel, +squirrel, up, up, up!_" And the hunter came and craned his neck till it +was cricked, but nothing he saw to shoot at. Then he did what a hunter +often does. He sent a charge of shot through the nest that was in plain +view. There were some heavy twigs in its make-up, and it rested on a +massive fork, or the event might have gone hard with Bannertail. The +timber received most of the shock of the shot, but a something went +stinging through his ear tip that stuck beyond the rim. It hurt and +scared him, and he was divided between the impulse to rush forth and +seek other shelter, and the instinct to lie absolutely still. +Fortunately he lay still, and the hunter passed on, leaving the Squirrel +wiser in several ways, for now he knew the danger of the dray when +gunners came and the wisdom of "lay low" when in doubt. + + + + +_THE COLD SLEEP_ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +THE COLD SLEEP + + +NEXT day there was a driving storm of snow, and whether the sun came up +or not Bannertail did not know. He kept his nest, and, falling back on +an ancient spend-time of the folk he kins with, he curled up into a +sleep that deepened with the cold. This is partly a deliberate sleep. +The animal voluntarily lets go, knowing that life outside is +unattractive; he, by an act of the will, induces the cold sleep, that is +like a chapter of forgetfulness, with neither hunger nor desire, and +after it is over, no pain in punishment or remorse. + +For two days the storm raged, and when the white flakes ceased to pile +upon the hills and trees, a cutting blast arose that sent snow-horses +riding across the fields and piled them up in drifts along the fences. + +It made life harder for the Squirrel-Folk by hiding good Mother Earth +from their hungry eyes; but in one way the wind served them, for it +swept the snow from all the limbs that served the tree-folk as an +over-way. + +For two days the blizzard hissed. The third day it was very cold; on the +fourth day Bannertail peeped forth on the changed white world. The wind, +the pest of wild life in the trees, had ceased, the sky was clear, and +the sun was shining in a weak, uncertain way. It evoked no enthusiasm in +the Graycoat's soul. Not once did he utter his Sun-salute. He was stiff +and sleepy, and a little hungry as he went forth. His hunger grew with +the exercise of moving. Had he been capable of such thought he might +have said: "Thank goodness the wind has swept the snow from the +branches." He galloped and bounded from one high over-way to another, +till a wide gap between tree-tops compelled him to descend. Over the +broad forest floor of shining white he leaped, and made for the beloved +hickory grove. Pine-cones furnish food, so do buds of elm and +flower-buds of maple. Red acorns are bitter yet eatable, white acorns +still better, and chestnuts and beechnuts delicious, but the crowning +glory of a chosen feast is nuts of the big shag hickory--so hard of +shell that only the strongest chisel teeth can reach them, so precious +that nature locks them up in a strong-box of stone, enwrapped in a +sole-leather case; so sought after, that none of them escape the hungry +creatures of the wood for winter use, except such as they themselves +have hidden for just such times. Bannertail quartered the surface of the +snow among the silent bare-limbed trees, sniffing, sniffing, alert for +the faintest whiff. + +A hound would not have found it--his nose is trained for other game. +Bannertail stopped, swung his keen "divining-rod," advanced a few hops, +moved this way and that, then at the point of the most alluring whiff, +he began to dig down, down through the snow. + +[Illustration] + +Soon he was out of sight, for here the drift was nearly two feet deep. +But he kept on, then his busy hind feet replacing the front ones as +diggers for a time, sent flying out on the white surface brown leaves, +then black loam. Nothing showed but his tail and little jets of +leaf-mould. His whole arm's-length into the frosty ground did he dig, +allured by an ever-growing rich aroma. At last he seized and dragged +forth in his teeth a big fat hickory-nut, one buried by himself last +fall, and, bounding with rippling tail up a tree to a safe perch that +was man-high from the ground, he sawed the shell adroitly and feasted on +the choicest food that is known to the Squirrel kind. + +A second prowl and treasure-hunt produced another nut, a third produced +an acorn, a visit to the familiar ever-unfrozen spring quenched his +thirst, and then back he undulated through the woods and over the snow +to his cosey castle in the oak. + + + + +_THE BALKING OF FIRE-EYES_ + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +THE BALKING OF FIRE-EYES + + +[Illustration] + +OTHER days were much like this as the Snow-moon slowly passed. But one +there was that claimed a place in his memory for long. He had gone +farther afield to another grove of hickories, and was digging down so +deep into the snow that caution compelled him to come out and look +around at intervals. It was well he did so, for a flash of brown and +white appeared on a near log. It made toward him, and Bannertail got an +instinctive sense of fear. Small though it was, smaller than himself, +the diabolic fire in its close-set eyes gave him a thrill of terror. He +felt that his only safety lay in flight. + +Now it was a race for the tall timber, and a close one, but Bannertail's +hops were six feet long; his legs went faster than the eye could see. +The deep snow was harder on him than on his ferocious enemy, but he +reached the great rugged trunk of an oak, and up that, gaining a little. +The Weasel followed close behind, up, up, to the topmost limbs, and out +on a long, level branch to leap for the next tree. Bannertail could leap +farther than Fire-eyes, but then he was heavier and had to leap from +where the twigs were thicker. So Fire-eyes, having only half as far to +go, covered the leap as well as the Squirrel did, and away they went as +before. + +[Illustration: BAFFLING FIRE-EYES] + +Every wise Squirrel knows all the leaps in his woods, those which he can +easily make, and those which will call for every ounce of power in +his legs. The devilish pertinacity of the Weasel, still hard after him, +compelled him to adopt a scheme. He made for a wide leap, the very limit +of his powers, where the take-off was the end of a big broken branch, +and racing six hops behind was the Brown Terror. Without a moment's +pause went Bannertail easily across the six-foot gap, to land on a +sturdy limb in the other tree. And the Weasel! He knew he could not make +it, hung back an instant, gathered his legs under him, snarled, glared +redder-eyed than ever, bobbed down a couple of times, measured the +distance with his eye, then wheeled and, racing back, went down the +tree, to cross and climb the one that sheltered the Squirrel. Bannertail +quietly hopped to a higher perch, and, when the right time came, leaped +back again to the stout oak bough. Again the Weasel, with dogged +pertinacity, raced down and up, only to see the Graysquirrel again leap +lightly across the impassable gulf. Most hunters would have given up +now, but there is no end to the dogged stick-to-itiveness of the Weasel; +besides, he was hungry. And half-a-dozen times he had made the long +circuit while his intended victim took the short leap. Then Bannertail, +gaining confidence, hit on a plan which, while it may have been meant +for mere teasing, had all the effect of a deep stratagem played with +absolute success. + +When next the little red-eyed terror came racing along the oak limb, +Bannertail waited till the very last moment, then leaped, grasped the +far-side perch, and, turning, "yipped" out one derisive "_grrrf, grrrf, +grrrf_" after another, and craned forward in mockery of the little fury. +This was too much. Wild with rage, the Weasel took the leap, fell far +short, and went whirling head over heels down seventy-five feet, to land +not in the soft snow but on a hard-oak log, that knocked out his cruel +wind, and ended for the day all further wish to murder or destroy. + + + + +_REDSQUIRREL, THE SCOLD OF THE WOODS_ + + + + +CHAPTER X + +REDSQUIRREL, THE SCOLD OF THE WOODS + + +[Illustration] + +THE Snow-moon was waning, the Hunger-moon at hand, when Bannertail met +with another adventure. He had gone far off to the pine woods of a deep +glen, searching for cones, when he was set on by a Redsquirrel. +Flouncing over the plumy boughs it came, chattering: "_Squat, squat, +quit, quit, quit_"--"_git, git, git_"--and each moment seemed more +inclined to make a tooth-and-nail attack on Bannertail. And he, what had +he to fear? Was he not bigger and stronger than the Red-headed One? Yes, +very well able to overmatch him in fight, but his position was much +like that of a grown man who is assailed by a blackguard boy. There is +no glory in the fight, if it comes to that. There is much unpleasant +publicity, and the man usually decides that it is better to ignore the +insult and retreat. This was Bannertail's position exactly. He hated a +row--most wild things do--it brings them into notice of the very +creatures they wish to avoid. Besides, the Redsquirrel was not without +some justification, for these were his pine-trees by right of long +possession. Bannertail, without touch of violence or fear of it, yielded +to the inward impulses, yielded and retreated, closely pursued by the +Redsquirrel, who kept just out of reach, but worked himself up into a +still noisier rage as he saw the invader draw off. It was characteristic +of the Red One that he did not stop at the border of his own range but +followed right into the hickory country, shrieking: "_Git, git, ye +brute ye, ye brute ye, git!_" with insolence born of his success, though +its real explanation was beyond him. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_BANNERTAIL AND THE ECHO VOICE_ + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +BANNERTAIL AND THE ECHO VOICE + + +THE Hunger-moon, our February, was half worn away when again the sky +gods seemed to win against the powers of chill and gloom. Food was ever +scarcer, but Bannertail had enough, and was filled with the vigor of +young life. The sun came up in a cloudless sky that day, and blazed +through the branches of still, tense woodland, the air was crisp and +exhilarating, and Bannertail, tingling with the elation of life, leaped +up for the lust of leaping, and sang out his loudest song: + +"_Qua, qua, qua, quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!_" from a high perch. Ringing +across the woodland it went, and the Woodwales drummed on hardwood +drums, in keen responsiveness, to the same fair, vernal influence of the +time. + +Though he seemed only to sing for singing's sake, he was conscious +lately of a growing loneliness, a hankering for company that had never +possessed him all winter; indeed, he had resented it when any hint of +visitors had reached him, but now he was restless and desireful, as well +as bursting with the wish to sing. + +"_Qua, qua, qua, quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!_" he sang again and again, and on +the still, bright air were echoes from the hills. + +"_Qua, qua, quaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!_" He poured it out again, and the echo +came, "_Qua, quaaaaa!_" Then another call, and the echo, "_Quaaa!_" + +Was it an echo? + +He waited in silence--then far away he heard the soft "_Qua, quaa_" that +had caught his ear last fall. The voice of another Graycoat, but so soft +and alluring that it thrilled him. Here, indeed, was the answer to the +hankering in his heart. + +[Illustration] + +But even as he craned and strained to locate its very place, another +call was heard: + + "_Qua, qua, qua, quaaaaaa_" + +from some big strong Graycoat like himself, and all the fighting blood +in him was stirred. He raced to the ground and across the woodland to +the hillside whence the voice came. + +On a log he stopped, with senses alert for new guidance. "_Qua, qua, +quaaa_," came the soft call, and up the tree went Bannertail, a silvery +tail-tip flashed behind the trunk, and now, ablaze with watchfulness, he +followed fast. Then came a lone, long "_Qua, qua_," then a defiant +"_Grrff_," like a scream, and a third big Graysquirrel appeared, to +scramble up after Bannertail. + + + + +_THE COURTING OF SILVERGRAY_ + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +THE COURTING OF SILVERGRAY + + +AWAY went Silvergray, undulating among the high branches that led to the +next tree, and keen behind came the two. Then they met at the branch +that had furnished the footway for the Gray Lady, and in a moment they +clinched. Grappling like cats, they drove their teeth into each other's +shoulders, just where the hide was thickest and the danger least. + +In their combat rage they paid no heed to where they were. Their every +clutch was on each other, none for the branch, and over they tumbled +into open space. + +[Illustration] + +Two fighting cats so falling would have clutched the harder and hoped +each that the other would be the one to land on the under side. +Squirrels have a different way. Sensing the fall, at once they sprang +apart, each fluffed his great flowing tail to the utmost--it is nature's +own "land-easy"--they landed gently, wide apart, and quite unshaken even +by the fall. Overhead was the Lady of the tourney, in plain view, and +the two stout knights lost not a moment in darting up her tree; again +they met on a narrow limb, again they clutched and stabbed each other +with their chisel teeth, again the reckless grapple, clutch, and the +drop in vacant air--again they shot apart, one landed on the solid +ground, but the other--the echo voice--went splash, plunge into the +deepest part of the creek! In ten heart-beats he was safely on the bank. +But there is such soothing magic in cold water, such quenching of all +fires, be they of smoke or love or war, that the Echo Singer crawled +forth in quite a different mood, and Bannertail, flashing up the great +tree trunk, went now alone. + +To have conquered a rival is a long step toward victory, but it is not +yet victory complete. When he swung from limb to limb, ever nearer the +Silvergray, he was stirred with the wildest hankering of love. Was she +not altogether lovely? But she fled away as though she feared him; and +away he went pursuing. + +There is no more exquisite climbing action than that of the Squirrel, +and these two, half a leap apart, winding, wending, rippling through the +high roof-tree of the woods, were less like two gray climbing things +than some long, silvery serpent, sinuating, flashing in and out in +undulating coils with endless grace and certainty among the trees. + +[Illustration] + +Now who will say that Silvergray really raced her fastest, and who will +deny that he did his best? He was strong and swift, the race must end, +and then she faced him with anger and menace simulated in her face and +pose. He approached too near; her chisel teeth closed on his neck. He +held still, limp, absolutely unresisting. Her clutch relaxed. Had he not +surrendered? They stood facing each other, an armed neutrality +established, nothing more. + +Shyly apart and yet together, they drifted about that day, feeding at +feed time. But she was ready to warn him that his distance he must keep. + +By countless little signs they understood each other, and when the night +came she entered a familiar hollow tree and warned him to go home. + +[Illustration: THEY TWIDDLED WHISKERS GOOD NIGHT] + +Next day they met again, and the next, for there is a rule of +woodland courtship--three times he must offer and be refused. Having +passed this proof, all may be well. + +Thus the tradition of the woods was fully carried out, and Bannertail +with Silvergray was looking for a home. + + + + +_THE HOME IN THE HIGH HICKORY_ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE HOME IN THE HIGH HICKORY + + +BANNERTAIL was very well satisfied with the home in the red oak, and +assumed that thither he should bring his bride. But he had not reckoned +with certain big facts--that is, laws--for the reason that he had never +before met them. The female wild thing claims all authority in matters +of the home, and in the honeymoon time no wild mate would even challenge +her right to rule. + +So the red oak den was then and there abandoned. Search in the hickory +grove resulted in a find. A Flicker had dug into the trunk of a tall +hickory where it was dead. Once through the outer shell the inner wood +was rotten punk, too easy for a Flicker to work in, but exactly right +and easy for a Graysquirrel. Here, then, the two set to work digging out +the soft rotten wood till the chamber was to their liking, much bigger +than that the Woodpecker would have made. + +[Illustration] + +March, the Wakening-moon, was spent in making the home and lining the +nest. Bark strips, pine-needles, fine shreds of plants that had defied +the wind and snow, rags of clothes left by winter woodmen, feathers, +tufts of wool, and many twigs of basswood with their swollen buds, and +slippery-elm, and one or two--yes, Silvergray could not resist the +impulse--fat acorns found from last year's crop and hidden now deep in +the lining of the nest. There can be no happier time for any wild and +lusty live thing than when working with a loving mate at the building +and making of the nest. Their world is one of joy--fine weather, fair +hunting, with food enough, overwhelming instincts at their flush of +compulsion--all gratified in sanest, fullest measure. This sure is joy, +and Bannertail met each yellow sun-up with his loudest song of praise, +as he watched it from the highest lookout of his home tree. His "_qua_" +song reached afar, and in its vibrant note expressed the happy time, and +expressing it, intensified it in himself. There seemed no ill to mar the +time. Even the passing snow-storms of the month seemed trifles; they +were little more than landmarks on the joyful way. + + + + +_NEW RIVALS_ + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +NEW RIVALS + + +[Illustration] + +THE stormy moon of March was nearly over when a change came on their +happy comradeship. Silvergray seemed to beget a coolness, a singular +aloofness. If they were on the same branch together she did not sit +touching him. If he moved to where she chanced to stand, and tried, as a +thousand times before, to snuggle up, she moved away. The cloud, +whatever it was, grew bigger. In vain he sought by pleasing acts to win +her back. She had definitely turned against him, and the climax came +when one evening they climbed to their finished, set, and furnished +house. She whisked in ahead of him, then, turning suddenly, filled the +doorway with her countenance expressing defiance and hostility, her +sharp teeth menacingly displayed. She said as plainly as she could: "You +keep away; you are not wanted here." + +And Bannertail, what could he do? Hurt, rebuffed, not wanted in the +house he had made and loved, turned away perforce and glumly sought his +bachelor home in the friendly old red oak. + +[Illustration] + +Whatever was the cause, Bannertail knew that it was his part to keep +away, at least to respond to her wishes. Next morning, after feeding, he +swung to the nesting tree. Yes, there she was on a limb--but at once she +retreated to the door and repeated the signal, "You are not wanted +here." The next day it was the same. Then on the third day she was +nowhere to be seen. Bannertail hung about hoping for a glimpse, but +none he got. Cautiously, fearfully, he climbed the old familiar +bark-way; silently arriving at the door, he gently thrust in his head. +The sweet familiar furry smell told him "yes, she was there." + +He moved inward another step. Yes, there she lay curled up and +breathing. One step more; up she started with an angry little snort. +Bannertail sprang back and away, but not before he had seen and sensed +this solving of the mystery. There, snuggling together under her warm +body were three tiny little baby Squirrels. + +[Illustration] + +For this, indeed, it was that Mother Nature whispered messages and rules +of conduct. For this time it was she had dowered this untutored little +mother Squirrel with all the garnered wisdom of the folk before. Nor did +she leave them now, but sent the very message to Mother Squirrel and +Father Squirrel, and the little ones, too, at the very time when their +own poor knowledge must have failed. + +It was the unspoken hint from her that made the little mother-soon-to-be +hide in the nesting-place some nuts with buds of slippery-elm, twigs of +spice bush, and the bitter but nourishing red acorns. In them was food +and tonic for the trying time. Water she could get near by, but even +that called for no journey forth, it chanced that a driving rain +drenched the tree, and at the very door she found enough to drink. + + + + +_BACHELOR LIFE AGAIN_ + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +BACHELOR LIFE AGAIN + + +[Illustration] + +BANNERTAIL was left to himself, like a bachelor driven to his club. He +had become very wise in woodlore so that the food question was no longer +serious. Not counting the remnant of the nuts still unearthed, the +swelling buds of every sweet-sapped tree were wholesome, delicious food, +the inner bark of sweet birch twigs was good, there were grubs and +borers under flakes of bark, the pucker berries or red chokeberries that +grow in the lowlands still hung in clusters. Their puckery sourness last +fall had made all creatures let them alone, but a winter weathering had +sweetened them, and now they were toothsome as well as abundant +sustenance. + +[Illustration] + +Another, wholly different food, was added to the list. With the bright +spring days the yellow Sapsucker arrived from the South. He is a crafty +bird and a lover of sweets. His plan is to drill with his sharp beak a +hole deep through the bark of a sugar-maple, so the sap runs out and +down the bark, lodging in the crevices; and not one but a score of trees +he taps. Of course the sun evaporates the sap, so it becomes syrup, and +even sugar on the edges. This attracts many spring insects, which get +entangled in the sticky stuff, and the Sapsucker, going from tree to +tree in the morning, feasts on a rich confection of candied bugs. But +many other creatures of the woods delight in this primitive sweetmeat, +and Bannertail did not hesitate to take it when he could find it. +Although animals have some respect for property law among their own +kind, might is the only right they own in dealing with others. + +Amusement aplenty Bannertail found in building "drays," or tree nests. +These are stick platforms of the simplest open-work, placed high in +convenient trees. Some are for lookouts, some for sleeping-porches when +the night is hot, some are for the sun-bath that every wise Squirrel +takes. Here he would lie on his back in the morning sun with his belly +exposed, his limbs outsprawling, and let the healing sun-rays strike +through the thin skin, reaching every part with their actinic power. + +Bannertail did it because it was pleasant, and he ceased doing it when +it no longer pleased him. Is not this indeed Dame Nature's way? Pain is +her protest against injury, and soothingness in the healthy creature is +the proof that it is doing good. Many disorders we know are met or +warded off by this sun-bath. We know it now. Not long ago we had no +fuller information than had Bannertail on such things. We knew only that +it felt good at the time and left us feeling better; so we took it, as +he took it, when the need of the body called for it, and ceased as he +did, when the body no longer desired it. + + + + +_THE WARDEN MEETS AN INVADER_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE WARDEN MEETS AN INVADER + + +[Illustration] + +THE bond between them had kept Bannertail near his mate, and her warning +kept him not too near. Yet it was his daily wont to come to the nesting +tree and wait about, in case of anything, he knew not what. Thus it was +that he heard a rustling in the near-by limbs one day, then caught a +flash of red. A stranger approaching the tree of trees. All Bannertail's +fighting blood was aroused. He leaped by well-known jumps, and coursed +along well-known overways, till he was on the nesting tree, and +undulated like a silvery shadow up the familiar trunk to find himself +facing the very Redsquirrel whose range he once had entered and from +whom he, Bannertail, had fled. But what a change of situation and of +heart! Redhead scoffed and shook his flaming tail. He shrieked his +"_skit, skit_" and stood prepared to fight. Did Bannertail hold +back--he, Bannertail, that formerly had declined the combat with this +very rogue? Not for an instant. There was new-engendered power within +compelling him. He sprang on the Red bandit with all his vigor and drove +his teeth in deep. The Redhead was a fighter, too. He clinched and bit. +They clung, wrestled and stabbed, then, losing hold of the tree, went +hurling to the earth below. In air they flung apart, but landing unhurt +they clinched again on the ground; then the Redhead, bleeding from many +little wounds, and over-matched, sought to escape, dodged this way and +that, found refuge in a hole under a root; and Bannertail, breathless, +with two or three slight stabs, swung slowly up the tree from which +Silvergray had watched the fight of her mate. + +There never yet was feminine heart that withheld its meed of worship +from her fighting champion coming home victorious--which reason may not +have entered into it at all. But this surely counted: The young ones' +eyes were opened, they were no longer shapeless lumps of flesh. They +were fuzzy little Squirrels. The time had come for the father to rejoin +the brood. + +With the come-together instinct that follows fight, he climbed to the +very doorway; she met him there, whisker to whisker. She reached out and +licked his wounded shoulder; when she reentered the den he came in too; +nosing his brood to get their smell, just as a woman mother buries her +nose in the creasy neck of her baby; he gently curled about them all, +and the reunited family went sound asleep in their single double bed. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE HOODOO ON THE HOME_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +THE HOODOO ON THE HOME + + +NOT many days later they had a new unfriendly visitor. It was in the +morning rest hour that follows early breakfast. The familiar _cluck, +cluck_ of a Flicker had sounded from a near tree-top. Then his stirring +_tattoo_ was heard on a high dead limb of the one tree. A little later a +scratching sound, and the hole above was darkened by the head and +shoulders of a big bird peering down at them through the opening. His +long, sharp beak was opened to utter a loud startling "_clape!_" Up +leaped Bannertail to meet and fight off the invader. There was little +fighting to be done, for the Flicker sprang back, and on to a high +limb. His fighting feathers were raised, and his threatening beak did +look very dangerous, but he did not wait for Bannertail to spring on +him. He swooped away in a glory of yellow wings, and with a chuckle of +derision. It was a small incident, but it made a second break in their +sense of secrecy. + +Then came another little shock. The Bluejay, the noisy mischief-maker, +was prowling around the farmhouse, and high on a ledge he found a +handful of big horse-chestnuts gathered by the boy "to throw at cats." +Had he been hungry the Jay would have eaten them, but choice food was +plentiful, so now his storage instincts took charge. The Bluejay nearly +sprained his bill getting a hold on a nut, then carried it off, looking +for a hollow tree in which to hide it, as is the custom of his kind. The +hole he found was the Squirrel's nest. He meant to take a good look in +before dropping it, but the nut was big and heavy, smooth and round. It +slipped from his beak plump into the sleeping family, landing right on +Bannertail's nose. Up he jumped with a snort and rushed to the door. The +Bluejay was off at a safe distance, and chortled a loud "_Tooral, +tooral, jay, jay!_" in mischievous mockery, then flew away. Bannertail +might have taken that nut for a friendly gift, but its coming showed +that the den was over-visible. There was something wrong with it. + +Later the very same day, the Bluejay did this same thing with another +big chestnut. Evidently now he enjoyed the commotion that followed the +dropping of the nut. + +[Illustration] + +One day later came a still more disturbing event. A roving, prowling cur +found the fresh Squirrel track up the tree, and "yapped" so +persistently that two boys who were leagued with the dog for all manner +of evil, came, marked the hole and spent half an hour throwing stones at +it, varying their volleys with heavy pounding on the trunk to "make the +Squirrel come out." + +Of course, neither Bannertail nor Silvergray did show themselves. That +is very old wood-wisdom. "Lay low, keep out of sight when the foe is on +the war-path." And at last the besiegers and their yap-colleague tramped +away without having seen sign or hair of a Squirrel. + +There was very little to the incident, but it sank deep into +Silvergray's small brain. "This nest is ill-concealed. Every hostile +creature finds it." + +There was yet another circumstance that urged action. Shall I tell it? +It is so unpicturesque. A Squirrel's nest is a breeding-ground for +vermin; a nest that is lined with soft grass, feathers, and wool +becomes a swarming hive. Bannertail's farm upbringing had made him all +too familiar with feathers and wool. His contribution to the home +furnishing had been of the kind that guaranteed a parasitic scourge. +This thing he had not learned--for it is instilled by the smell of their +mother nest--cedar bark and sassafras leaves, with their pungent oils, +are needed to keep the irritating vermin swarm away. And Silvergray, was +she at fault? Only in this, the purifying bark and leaves were scarce. +She was weak compared with Bannertail. His contributions had so far +outpointed hers that the nest had become unbearable. Their only course +was to abandon it. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE NEW HOME_ + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE NEW HOME + + +TWICE a day now Silvergray left the little ones, to forage for herself, +soon after sunrise and just before sunset. It was on the morning outing +that she went house hunting. And Bannertail went too. Ever he led to the +cosey home in his old red oak. But there is a right that is deeply +rooted in custom, in logic, and in female instinct, that it is the +she-one's privilege to select, prepare, and own the home. Every +suggestion that he made by offered lead or actual entry, was scorned and +the one who made it, snubbed. She did her own selecting, and, strangest +thing of all, she chose the rude stick nest of a big-winged Hawk, +abandoned now, for the Hawk himself, with his long-clawed mate, was +nailed to the end of the barn. + +[Illustration] + +Winter storm and beaming sun had purged and purified the rough old +aerie; it was high on a most unclimbable tree, yet sheltered in the +wood, and here Silvergray halted in her search. All about the nest and +tree she climbed, and smelled to find the little owner marks, of musk or +rasping teeth, if such there should be--the marks that would have warned +her that this place was already possessed. But none there were. The +place was without taint, bore only through and through the clean, sweet +odor of the woods and wood. + +And this is how she took possession: She rubbed her body on the rim of +the nest, she nibbled off projecting twiglets, she climbed round and +round the trunk below and above, thus leaving her foot and body scent +everywhere about, then gathered a great mouthful of springtime twigs, +with their soft green leaves, and laid them in the Hawk nest for the +floor-cloth of her own. + +[Illustration] + +She went farther, and found a sassafras, with its glorious flaming smell +of incense, its redolence of aromatic purity, and with a little surge of +joy instinctive she gathered bundle after bundle of the sweet, strong +twigs, spread them out for the rug and matting of the house. And +Bannertail did the same, and for a while they worked in harmony. Then +was struck a harsh, discordant note. + +Crossing the forest floor Bannertail found a rag, a mitten that some +winter woodcutter had cast away, and, still obsessed with the nursery +garnish of his own farm-kitten days, he pounced on this and bore it +gleefully to the nest that they were abuilding. And Silvergray, what +said she, as the evil thing was brought? She had no clear ideas, no +logic from the other ill-starred home. She could not say: "There was +hoodoo on it, and this ragged woollen mitt seems hoodoo-like to me." But +these were her strange reactions. "The smell of that other nest was like +this; that smell is linked with every evil memory. I do not want it +here." Her instinct, the inherited wisdom of her forebears, indorsed +this view, and as she sniffed and sniffed, the smell inspired her with +intense hostility, a hostility that in the other nest was somewhat +offset by the smell of her loved brood, but this was not--it was wholly +strange and hostile. Her neck hair rose, her tail trembled a little, as, +acting under the new and growing impulse of violent dislike, she hurled +the offending rag far from the threshold of her nest. Flop it went to +the ground below. And Bannertail, not quite understanding, believed +this to be an accident. Down he went as fast as his fast feet could +carry him, seized on the ragged mitten, brought it again to the +home-building. But the instinct that had been slow arousing was now +dominant in Silvergray. With an angry chatter she hurled the accursed +thing afar, and made it clear by snort and act that "such things come +not there." + +This was the strenuous founding of the new nest, and these were among +the hidden springs of action and of unshaped thoughts that ruled the +founding. + +The nest was finished in three days. A rain roof over all of fresh flat +leaves, an inner lining of chewed cedar bark, an abundance of aromatic +sassafras, one or two little quarrels over accidental rags that +Bannertail still seemed to think worth while. But the new nest was +finished, pure and sweet with a consecrating, plague-defying aroma of +cedar and of sassafras to be its guardian angel. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE MOVING OF THE YOUNG_ + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +THE MOVING OF THE YOUNG + + +[Illustration] + +IT was very early in the morning, soon after sunrise, that they took the +hazard of moving the young. Silvergray had fed the babies and looked out +and about, and had come back and looked again. Then, picking up the +nearest by the scruff of its neck, she rose to the doorway. Now a great +racket sounded in the woods. Silvergray backed in again and down, +dropped the young one, then put her head out. The noise increased, the +trampling of heavy feet. She backed till only her nose was out, and +watched. Soon there came in view huge red-and-white creatures with +horns. She had often seen them, and held them harmless, but why were +they moving so fast? There were other noises coming, much smaller, +indeed, but oh, how much more dangerous were the two that followed and +drove the herd!--a tow-topped boy and a yellow-coated dog. At war with +all the world of harmless wood-folk, these two would leave a trail of +slaughtered bodies in their wake, if only their weapons were as deadly +as their wishes. So Silvergray sank back and brooded over the nursery, +varying her loving mothering with violent scratching of a hind foot, or +sudden pounce to capture with her teeth some shiny, tiny creeping thing +among the bed stuff or on the young ones' fluffy skins. + +The sun was up above the trees. The Bluejay sang +"_Too-root-el-too-root-el_," which means, "all clear." And the glad Red +Singing-Hawk was wheeling in great rhythmic swoops to the sound of his +own wild note, "_Kyo-kyo-kyoooo._" He wheeled and rejoiced in his song +and his flight. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +"All's clear! All's well!" sang Crow and Bluejay--these watchful ones, +watchful, perforce, because their ways of rapine have filled the world +with enemies. And Silvergray prepared a second time for the perilous +trip. She took the nearest of her babies, gently but firmly, and, +scrambling to the door, paused to look and listen, then took the final +plunge, went scurrying and scrambling down the trunk. On the ground she +paused again, looked forward and back, then to the old nest to see her +mate go in and come out again with a young one in his mouth, as though +he knew exactly what was doing and how his help was needed. With an +angry "_Quare!_" she turned and scrambled up again, bumping the baby +she bore with many a needless jolt, and met Bannertail. Nothing less +than rage was in her voice, "_Quare, quare, quare!_" and she sprang at +him. He could not fail to understand. He dropped the baby on a broad, +safe crotch, and whisked away to turn and gaze with immeasurable +surprise. "Isn't that what you wanted, you hothead?" he seemed to say. +"Didn't we plan to move the kids?" Her only answer was a hissing +"_Quare!_" She rushed to the stranded little one, made one or two vain +efforts to carry it, as well as the one already in her mouth, then +bounded back to the old home with her own charge, dropped it, came +rushing back for the second, took that home, too, then vented all her +wrath and warnings in a loud, long "_Qua!_" which plainly meant: "You +let the kids alone. I don't need your help. I wouldn't trust you. +This is a mother's job." + +[Illustration: WITH AN ANGRY "QUARE!" SILVERGRAY SCRAMBLED UP AGAIN] + +She stayed and brooded over them a long time before making the third +attempt. And this time the impulse came from the tickling crawlers in +the bed. She looked forth, saw Bannertail sitting up high, utterly +bewildered. She gave a great warning "_Qua!_" seized number one for the +third time, and forth she leaped to make the great migration. + +The wood was silent except for its own contented life, and she got +half-way to the new nest, when high on a broad, safe perch she paused +and set her burden down. Was it the maddening tickling of a crawler that +gave the hint, or was it actual wisdom in the lobes behind those liquid +eyes? Who knows? Only this is sure, she looked that baby over from end +to end. She hunted out and seized in her teeth and ground to shreds ten +of the plaguing crawlers. She combed herself, she scratched and +searched her coat from head to tail, and on her neck, where she could +not see, she combed and combed, till of this she was certain, no insects +of the tickling, teasing kind were going with her to the new home. Then +seizing her baby by the neck-scruff, up she bounded, and in ten +heart-beats he was lying in their new and fragrant bed. + +For a little while she cuddled him there, to "bait him to it," as the +woodsmen say. Then, with a parting licking of his head, she quit the +nest and hied away for the rest of the brood. + +Bannertail had taken the hint. He was still up high, watching, but not +going near the old nest. + +Silvergray took number two and did the very same with him, deloused him +thoroughly on the same old perch, then left him with the first. The +third went through the same. And Silvergray was curled up with the +three in the new high nest for long, before Bannertail, after much +patient, watchful waiting, seeing no return of Silvergray, went swinging +to the old nest to peep in, and realized that it was empty, cold, +abandoned. + +[Illustration] + +He sat and thought it over. On a high, sunny perch that he had often +used, he made his toilet, as does every healthy Squirrel, thoroughly +combed his coat and captured all, that is, one or two of the crawlers +that had come from the old nest. He drank of the spring, went foraging +for a while, then swung to the new-made nest and shyly, cautiously, +dreading a rebuff, went slowly in. Yes, there they were. But would she +take him in? He uttered the low, soft, coaxing "_Er-er-er-er_," which +expresses every gentleness in the range of Squirrel thought and feeling. +No answer. He made no move, but again gave a coaxing "_Er-er-er_," a +long pause, then from the hovering furry form in the nest came one soft +"_Er_," and Bannertail, without reserve, glided in and curled about them +all. + + + + +_THE COMING-OUT PARTY_ + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THE COMING-OUT PARTY + + +APRIL, the Green-grass Moon, was nearly gone, the Graycoats in their new +high home were flourishing and growing. Happy and ed now, it was an +event like a young girl's coming-out, when first these Squirrelets came +forth from the nest "on their own," and crawling on their trembling +legs, with watchful mother nigh. They one by one scrambled on to the +roof of the home, and, with a general air of "Aren't we big; aren't we +wonderful?" they stretched and basked in the bright warm morning sun. + +[Illustration] + +A Hawk came wheeling high over the tree tops. He was not hunting, for he +wheeled and whistled as he wheeled. Silvergray knew him well, and marked +his ample wings. She had seen a Redtail raid. This might not be of the +bandit kind, but a Hawk is a Hawk. She gave a low, warning "_Chik, +chik_" to the family, to which they paid not a whit of attention. So she +seized each in turn by the handy neck-scruff, and bundled him indoors to +safety. + +[Illustration] + +Three times this took place on different days. Three times the mother's +vigorous lug home was needed, and by now the lesson was learned. "_Chik, +chik_" meant "Look out; danger; get home." + +They were growing fast now. Their coats were sleek and gray. Their tails +were as yet poor skimps of things, but their paws were strong and their +claws were sharp as need be. They could scramble all about the old Hawk +nest and up and down the rugged bark of the near trunk. Their different +dispositions began to show as well as their different gifts and +make-up. + + + + +_NURSERY DAYS OF THE YOUNG ONES_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +NURSERY DAYS OF THE YOUNG ONES + + +[Illustration] + +SQUIRRELS do not name their babies as we do; they do not think of them +by names; and yet each one is itself, has individual looks or ways that +stand for that one in the mother's mind, so is in some sort its name. +Thus the biggest one had a very brown head and a very gray coat. He was +stronger than the others, could leap just a little farther and was not +so ready to bite when playing with the rest. The second brother was not +so big as Brownhead, and he had an impatient way of rebelling at any +little thing that did not please him. He would explode into a shrill +"_Cray!_" which was a well-known Squirrel exclamation, only he made it +very thin and angry. Even to father and mother he would shriek "_Cray!_" +if they did in the least a thing that was not to his wish. + +The third and smallest was a little girl-Squirrel, very shy and gentle. +She loved to be petted and would commonly snuggle up to mother, whining +softly, "_Nyek, nyek_," even when her brothers were playing, as well as +at feeding-time. So in this sort they named themselves, Brownhead, Cray, +and Nyek-nyek. + +The first lesson in all young wild life is this, "Do as you are told"; +the penalty of disobedience is death, not always immediate, not clearly +consequent, but soon or late it comes. This indeed is the law, driven +home and clinched by ages of experience: "Obey or die." + +[Illustration] + +If the family is outstretched in the sun, and keen-eyed mother sees a +Hawk, she says, "_Chik, chik_," and the wise little ones come home. They +obey and live. The rebellious one stays out, and the Hawk picks him up, +a pleasant meal. + +If the family is scrambling about the tree trunk and one attempts to +climb a long, smooth stretch, from which the bark has fallen, mother +cries "_Chik, chik_," warning that he is going into danger. The obedient +one comes back and lives. The unruly one goes on. There is no clawhold +on such trunks. He falls far to the ground and pays the price. + +If one is being carried from a place of danger, and hangs limp and +submissive from his mother's mouth, he is quickly landed in a place of +safety. But one that struggles and rebels, may be cut by mother's +tightening teeth, or dropped by her and seized on by some enemy at +hand. There are always enemies alert for such a chance. Or if he swings +to drink at the familiar spring and sees not what mother sees, a +Blacksnake lurking on a log, or heeds not her sharp "Keep back," he +goes, and maybe takes a single sip, but it is his last. + +If one, misled by their bright color, persists in eating fruit of the +deadly nightshade, ignoring mother's warning, "_Quare, quare!_" he eats, +he has willed to eat; and there is a little Squirrel body tumbled from +the nest next day, to claim the kindly care of growing plants and +drifting leaves that will hide it from the view. + +[Illustration] + +Yes, this is the law, older than the day when the sun gave birth to our +earth that it might go its own way yet still be held in law: "Obey and +live; rebel and die." + + + + +_CRAY HUNTS FOR TROUBLE_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +CRAY HUNTS FOR TROUBLE + +[Illustration] + + +BOISTEROUS, strong, and merry was Brownhead, the very son of his father. +Eager to do and ready to go; yet quick to hear when the warning came, +"_Quare_," or the home call, "_Chik, chik_." Well-fleshed was he and +deeply fur-clad, although it was scarcely mid-May, and his tail already +was past the switch stage and was frilling out with the silver frill of +his best kin. Frolicsome, merry, and shy, very shy was Nyek-nyek. In +some speech she would have been styled a "mammy pet." Happy with mother, +playing with her brothers, but ever ready to go to mother. Slight of +body, but quick to move, quick to follow, and nervously quick to obey, +she grew and learned the learning of her folk. + +Last was Cray, quickest of them all, not so heavy as Brownhead, yet +agile, inquisitive, full of energy, but a rebel all the time. He would +climb that long, smooth column above the nest. His mother's warning held +him not. And when the clawhold failed he slipped, but jumped and landed +safe on a near limb. + +He would go forth to investigate the loud trampling in the woods, and +far below him watched with eager curiosity the big, two-legged thing +that soon discovered him. Then there was a loud crack like a heavy limb +broken by the wind, and the bark beside his head was splintered by a +blow that almost stunned him with its shock, although it did not touch +him. He barely escaped into the nest. Yes, he still escaped. + + + + +_THE LITTLE SQUIRRELS GO TO SCHOOL_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +THE LITTLE SQUIRRELS GO TO SCHOOL + + +THESE are among the lessons that a mother Squirrel, by example, teaches, +and that in case of failure are emphasized by many little reproofs of +voice, or even blows: + +Clean your coat, and extra-clean your tail; fluff it out, try its trig +suppleness, wave it, plume it, comb it, clean it; but ever remember it, +for it is your beauty and your life. + +[Illustration] + +When there is danger on the ground, such as the trampling of heavy feet, +do not go to spy it out, but hide. If near a hole, pop in; if on a big +high limb, lie flat and still as death. Do not go to it. Let it come to +you, if it will. + +In the air, if there is danger near, as from Hawks, do not stop until +you have at least got into a dense thicket, or, better still, a hole. + +If you find a nut when you are not hungry, bury it for future use. +Nevertheless this lesson counted for but little now, as all last year's +nuts were gone, and this year's far ahead. + +If you must travel on the ground, stop every little while at some high +place to look around, and fail not then each time to fluff and jerk your +tail. + +When in the distant limbs you see something that may be friend or foe, +keep out of sight, but flirt your white tail tip in his view. If it be a +Graycoat, it will answer with the same, the wigwag: "I'm a Squirrel, +too." + +[Illustration: THE LITTLE SQUIRRELS AT SCHOOL] + +Learn and practise, also, the far jumps from tree to tree. You'll +surely need them some day. They are the only certain answer to the +Red-eyed Fury that lives on Mice, but that can kill Squirrels, too, if +he catches them; that climbs and jumps, but cannot jump so far as the +Graycoats, and dare not fall from high, for he has no plumy tail, +nothing but a useless little tag. + +Drink twice a day from the running stream, never from the big pond in +which the grinning Pike and mighty Snapper lie in wait. Go not in the +heat of the day, for then the Blacksnake is lurking near, and quicker is +he even than a Squirrel, on the ground. + +Go not at dusk, for then the Fox and the Mink are astir. Go not by +night, for then is the Owl on the war-path, silent as a shadow; he is +far more to be feared than the swish-winged Hawk. Drink then at sunrise +and before sunset, and ever from a solid log or stone which affords +good footing for a needed sudden jump. And remember ever that safety is +in the tree tops--in this and in lying low. + +These were the lessons they slowly learned, not at any stated time or +place, but each when the present doings gave it point. Brownhead was +quick and learned almost overfast; and his tail responding to his daily +care was worthy of a grown-up. Lithe, graceful Nyek-nyek too, was +growing wood-wise. Cray was quick for a time. He would learn well at a +new lesson, then, devising some method of his own, would go ahead and +break the rules. His mother's warning "_Quare_" held him back not at +all. And his father's onslaught with a nip of powerful teeth only +stirred him to rebellious fight. + + + + +_THE LOPPING OF THE WAYWARD BRANCH_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +THE LOPPING OF THE WAYWARD BRANCH + + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +CURIOSITY may be the trail to knowledge, but it skirts a dangerous +cliff. The Rose moon, June, was on the hills, its thrill joy set the +whole wood world joy-thrilling. The Bannertail family had frolicked in a +game of tag-and-catch all around the old Hawk nest, and up the long +smooth pole went Cray to show that he could do it. His mother warned +him, "_Quare!_" but up he went, and down he came without a hint of +failure. Then they scattered, scampering for a game of hide-and-seek, +when the heavy sound of some big brute a-coming was wind-borne to them. +The mother gave the warning "_Chik_." Three of them quickly got to the +safe old nest. Silvergray flattened on the up side of a rugged limb; +Cray, seeing nothing near, and scoffing at their flurry, made for a big +crotch into which he could sink from sight if need be, and waited. In +vain his mother cried, "_Chik_"; Cray wouldn't "_chik_"; he wanted to +know what it was all about. The heavy trampling sound came near. +Silvergray peeped over and could see very well; it was the two-legged +Brute with the yellow yapping four-legs that she more than once had met +before. They rambled slashingly around; the Yap-cur eagerly wagging his +hideous tail. He swung his black snout in the air, gave out a long +"_Yap!_" another and another. Then the Two-legs came slowly nearer, +staring up into the rooftrees and moving awkwardly sidewise round and +round the tree. Cray peered out farther to watch him. In vain the +wise little mother Squirrel whispered "_Chik, chik!_" No, he would not +"_chik_." As the Ground-brute circled the tree, Cray, trying to keep him +in sight, quit all attempt at hiding. The yellow four-legs yapped +excitedly. Then the big Ground-brute held very still. Cray was amused at +this; he felt so safe that he called out a derisive "_Qua!_" There was a +loud sound like thunder, a flash like lightning, and Cray fell headlong, +splashing the gold-green leaves with his bright, hot young blood. His +mother saw him go with a clutching of her mother heart. And Mother Carey +saw him go, and said: "It had to be." For this is the fulfilling of the +law; this is the upbuilding of the race; this is the lopping of the +wayward branch. + +[Illustration: CRAY SANK--A VICTIM TO HIS FOLLY] + +[Illustration] + +The big Ground-beast below seized on the quivering, warm young body, +and yelled aloud: "Billy, Billee, I got him; a great big Silvergray! +Yahoo!" + +But the meaning of that was unknown to the little mother and the rest. +They only knew that a huge, savage Brute had killed their little +brother, and was filling the woods with its hideous blood-curdling +roars. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_BANNERTAIL FALLS INTO A SNARE_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +BANNERTAIL FALLS INTO A SNARE + + +BANNERTAIL was now in fresh midsummer coat of sleekest gray. His tail +was a silver plume, and bigger than himself. His health was perfect. And +just so surely as a sick one longs to be and to stay at home, so a lusty +Squirrel hankers to go a-roaming. + +Swinging from tree to tree, leaping the familiar jump-ways, he left the +family one early morning, drank deeply at the spring brook, went on +aground "hoppity-hop" for a dozen hops, then stopped to look around and +frisk his tail. Then on, and again a look around. So he left the +hickory woods, and swung a mile away, till at last he was on the far +hillside where first he met the Redhead. + +High in a tasselled pine he climbed and sat, and his fine nose took in +the pleasant gum smells with the zest that came from their strangeness +as much as from their sweetness. + +[Illustration] + +As he sat he heard a rustling, racketty little noise in the thicket +near. Flattening to the bough and tightening in his tail he watched. +What should appear but his old enemy, the Redhead, dragging, struggling +with something on the ground, stopping to sputter out his energetic, +angry "_Snick, snick_," as the thing he dragged caught in roots and +twigs. Bannertail lay very low and watched intently. The Redsquirrel +fussed and worked with his burden, now close at hand. Bannertail saw +that it was a flat, round thing, like an acorn-cup, only many times +larger, and reddish, with a big, thick stem on the wrong side--a stem +that was white, like new-peeled wood. + +Bannertail had seen such growing in the woods, once or twice; little +ones they were, but his nose and his inner guide had said: "Let them +alone." And here was this fiery little Redsquirrel dragging one off as +though he had a prize! Sometimes he lifted it bodily and made good +headway, sometimes it dragged and caught in the growing twigs. At last +it got fixed between two, and with the energy and fury that so often go +with red hair, the Redhead jerked, shoved, and heaved, and the brittle, +red-topped toadstool broke in two or three crisp pieces. As he sputtered +and Squirrel-cussed, there was a warning Bluejay note. Redhead ran up +the nearest tree; as it happened, the one in which was Bannertail, and +in an instant the enemies were face to face. "Scold and fight" is the +Redsquirrel's first impulse, but when Bannertail rose up to full height +and spread his wondrous tail the Red one was appalled. He knew his foe +again; his keen, discriminating nose got proofs of that. The memory of +defeat was with him yet. He retreated, snick-sputtering, and finally +went wholly out of sight. + +When all was still, Bannertail made his way to the broken mushroom; rosy +red and beautiful its cap, snowy white its stem and its crisp, juicy +flesh. + +[Illustration] + +But of this he took no count. The smelling of it was his great chemic +test. It had the quaint, earthy odor of the little ones he had seen +before, and yet a pungent, food-like smell, like butternuts, indeed, +with the sharp pepper tang of the rind a little strong, and a whiff, +too, of the many-legged crawling things that he had learned to shun. +Still, it was alluring as food. And now was a crucial time, a veritable +trail fork. Had Bannertail been fed and full, the tiny little sense of +repulsion would have turned the scale, would have reasserted and +strengthened the first true verdict of his guides--"Bad, let it alone." +But it had an attractive nut-like aroma that was sweetly appetizing, +that set his mouth a-watering; and this thing turned the scale--he was +hungry. + +[Illustration] + +He nibbled and liked it, and nibbled yet more. And though it was a big, +broad mushroom, he stopped not till it all was gone. Food, good food it +surely was. But it was something more; the weird juices that are the +earth-child's blood entered into him and set the fountains of his life +force playing with marvellous power. He was elated. He was full of +fight. He flung out a defiant "_Qua!_" at a Hen-hawk flying over. He +rummaged through the pines to find that fighting Redsquirrel. He leaped +tree gaps that he would not at another time have dared. Yes, and he +fell, too; but the ample silver plume behind was there to land him +softly on the earth. He made a long, far, racing journey, saw hills and +woods that were new to him. He came to a big farmhouse like the one his +youth had known, but passed it by, and galloped to another hillside. +From the top of a pine he vented his wild spirits in a boisterous +song--the song of spring and fine weather, and the song of autumn time +and vigor. + +The sun was low when, feeling his elation gone, feeling dumb and drowsy, +indeed, he climbed the homestead tree and glided into the old Hawk nest +to curl in his usual place beside his family. + +Silvergray sniffed suspiciously; she smelled his whiskers, she +nibble-nibbled with tongue and lips at the odd-smelling specks of +whitish food on his coat, and the juices staining his face and paws. +New food; it was strange, but pleased her not. A little puzzled, she +went to sleep, and Bannertail's big tail was coverlet for all the +family. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE ADDICT_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +THE ADDICT + + +THE sun came up, with its joyous wakening of the woods. All the Squirrel +world was bright and alert--all but one. Mother went forth to the sun-up +meal, Brownhead went rollicking forth, and Nyek-nyek went gliding, too. +But Bannertail lay still. He had no words to state his case; he did not +know that he had a case to state. He only knew that he was dull and sad, +and did not feel the early morning call of joy. The juices of his weird +feast were dried on paws and head, and the smell of them, though faint, +was nauseating to him. + +He did not move that day; he had no desire to move. The sun was low when +at length he went forth and down. At the crystal spring he drank deep +and drank again. Silvergray licked his fur when he came back with the +youngsters to the nest. He was better now, and next sun-up was himself +again, the big, boisterous, rollicking Squirrel of the plumy tail, the +playmate of the young ones, the husband of his wife. And their merry +lives went on, till one morning, on the bank of the creek that flowed +from the high hill-country, he found a tiny, shiny fragment of the weird +spellbinding mushroom. A table scrap, no doubt, flood-borne from a +Redhead feast. He sniffed, as he sniffed all new, strange things. A moon +back it would have been doubtful or repellent, but he had closed his +ears to the first warning of the inner guide; so the warning now was +very low. He had yielded to the slight appetite for this weird taste, +so that appetite was stronger. He eagerly gobbled the shining, broken +bit, and, possessed of keen desire for more, went bounding and pausing +and fluffing, farther, farther off, nor stopped till once more high in +the hill-country, among the pines and the banks where the toadstools of +black magic grew. + +[Illustration] + +Very keen was Bannertail when he swung from the overhead highway of the +pines to the ground, to gallop over banks with nose alert. Nor had he +far to go. This was toadstool time, and a scattered band of these +embodied earth-sprites was spotting a sunlit bank with their smooth and +blushing caps. + +Was there in his little soul still a warning whisper? Yes. Just a +little, a final, feeble "Beware, touch it not!"--very faint compared +with the first-time warning, and now to be silenced by counter-doings, +just as a single trail in the sand is wholly blotted out by a later +trail much used that goes counterwise across it. + +[Illustration] + +Just a little pause made he, when the sick smell of the nearest +toadstool was felt and measured by his nose. The lust for that strong +foody taste was overdominating. He seized and crunched and revelled in +the flowing juices and the rank nut taste, the pepper tang, the +toothsome mouthiness, and gobbled with growing unreined greed, not one, +but two or three--he gorged on them; and though stuffed and full, still +filled with lust that is to hunger what wounding is to soft caress. He +rushed from one madcap toadstool to another, driving in his teeth, +revelling in their flowing juices, like the blood of earthy gnomes, and +rushed for joy up one tall tree after another. Then, sensing the +Redsquirrels, pursued them in a sort of berserker rage, eager for fight, +desperate fight, any fight, fight without hate, that would outlet his +dangerous, boiling power, his overflow of energy. Joy and power were +possessing his small brain and lusty frame. He found another bank of +madcap cups; he was too gorged to eat them, but he tossed and chewed the +juicy cups and stems. He raced after a fearsome Water-snake on a sunny +bank, and, scared by the fury of his onslaught, the Snake slipped out of +sight. He galloped up a mighty pine-tree, on whose highest limbs were +two great Flickers, clacking. He chased them recklessly, then, clinging +to a bark flake that proved loose, he was launched into the air, a +hundred feet to fall. But his glorious tail was there to serve, and it +softly let him down to earth. It was well for him that he met no cat or +dog that day, for the little earth-born demon in his soul had cast out +fear as well as wisdom. + +And Mother Carey must have wept as she saw this very dear one take into +his body and his brain a madness that would surely end his life. She +loved him, but far more she loved his race. And just a little longer she +would wait, and give him yet one chance. And if he willed not to be +strong, then must he pay the price. + +Not happy was his homecoming that night. Silvergray sniffed at his +whiskers. She liked not his breath. There was no kindness in her voice, +her only sound a harsh, low "_Grrrff!_" + +And the family life went on. + + + + +_THE DREGS OF THE CUP_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +THE DREGS OF THE CUP + + +BUT next morning! Why should it be told? It was as before, but far +worse. So high as the peak is above the plain, so far is the plain below +the peak. A crushed and broken Bannertail it was that lay enfeebled in +the nest next day when the family went forth to feed and frolic. + +[Illustration] + +Not that day did he go out, or wish to go. Sick unto death was he; so +sick he did not care. The rest let him alone. They did not understand, +and there was something about him which made them keep away. Next day he +crawled forth slowly and drank at the spring. That day he lay on the +sunning dray and ate but little. More than one sun arose and set before +he was again the strong, hale, hearty Bannertail, the father of his +family, the companion and protector of his wife. + + + + +_THE WAY OF DESTRUCTION_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII + +THE WAY OF DESTRUCTION + + +THE little mother did not understand; she only had a growing sense of +distrust, of repulsion, and an innate hatred of that strange complexity +of smells. The children did not understand, but something there was +about their father these times that made them much afraid. + +They knew only the sorrow of it. They had no knowledge of how it came or +how to prevent its coming. But big and everywhere is the All-Mother, +Mother Carey, the wise one who seeks to have her strong ones build the +race. Twice had she warned him. Now he should have one more chance. + +[Illustration] + +The Thunder-moon, July, was dominating Jersey woods, when the lusty life +force of the father Graycoat inevitably sent him roving to the woods of +the madcaps. Plenty they were now, and many had been stored by the +Redsquirrels for winter use, for this is the riddle of their being, that +the Redsquirrels long ago have learned. On the bank, when they are +rooted in the earth, their juices from the underworld are full of +diabolic subtlety, are tempting in the mouth as they are deadly in the +blood and sure destruction at the last. They must be uprooted, carried +far from the ground and the underground, and high hung in the blessed +purifying pine tops, where Father Sun can burn away their evil. There, +after long months of sun and wind and rain purgation, their earth-born +bodies are redeemed, are wholesome Squirrel food. This was the lesson +Mother Carey had taught the Redheads, for their country is the country +of the fool-trap toadstools. But the Graycoats know it not. And +Bannertail came again. + + + + +_MOTHER CAREY'S LASH_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX + +MOTHER CAREY'S LASH + + +THE wise men tell us that it is the same as the venom of Snakes. They +tell us that it comes when the fool-trap toadstool is grown stale, and +by these ye may know its hidden presence: When the cap is old and +upturned at the edge, when hell-born maggots crawl and burrow and revel +in the stem, when drops of gummy, poisonous yellow blood ooze forth, +when both its smells--the warning smell of the crawling hundred-legger +and the alluring smell of strong green butternuts--are multiplied to +fourfold power. + +[Illustration] + +Their day was nearly over. They were now like old worn hags, whose +beauty is gone, and with it their power to please--hags who have become +embittered and seek only to destroy. So the fool-trap toadstools waited, +silently as hunters' deadfalls wait, until the moment comes to strike. + +[Illustration] + +It was the same sweet piny woods, the same bright sparkling stream, and +the Song-hawk wheeled and sang the same loud song, as Bannertail came +once again to seek his earth-born food, to gratify his growing lust. + +And Mother Carey led him on. + +Plentifully strewn were the unholy madcaps, broad bent and wrinkled now, +their weird aroma stronger and to a morbid taste more alluring. Even yet +a tiny warning came as he sniffed their rancid, noxious aura. The nut +allurement, too, was strong, and Bannertail rejoiced. + +The feast was like the other, but shorter, more restrained. There were +little loathsome whiffs and acrid hints that robbed it of its zest. +Long before half a meal, the little warden that dwells somewhere betwixt +mouth and maw began to send offensive messages to his brain, and even +with a bite between his teeth there set in strong a fearful devastating +revulsion, a climax of disgust, a maw-revolt, an absolute loathing. + +His mouth was dripping with its natural juice, something gripped his +throat, the last morsel was there and seemed to stick. He tight closed +his eyes, violently shook his head. The choking lump was shaken out. +Pains shot through his body. Limbs and lungs were cramped. He lay flat +on the bank with head down-hill. He jerked his head from side to side +with violent insistence. His stomach yielded most of the fateful mass. +But the poison had entered into his body, already was coursing in his +veins. + +Writhing with agony, overwhelmed with loathing, he lay almost as dead, +and the smallest enemy he ever had might now and easily have wreaked the +limit of revenge. It was accident so far as he was concerned that made +him crawl into a dense thicket and like dead to lie all that day and the +night and the next day. And dead he would have been but for the unusual +vigor of his superb body. Good Mother Carey kept his enemies away. + +Back at the home nest the mate and family missed him, not much or +pointedly, as would folk of a larger brain and life, but they missed +him; and from the tall, smooth shaft that afternoon the little mother +sent a long "_qua_" call. But there was no answering "_qua_." She had no +means of knowing; she had no way of giving help had she known. + +The sun was low on Jersey hills that second day when poor broken +Bannertail, near-dead Bannertail, came to himself, his much-enfeebled +self. His head was throbbing, his body was cramped with pain, his mouth +was dry and burning. Down-hill he crawled and groped slowly to the +running stream and drank. It revived him a little, enough so he could +crawl up the bank and seek a dry place under a log to lie in peace--sad, +miserable, moaning peace. + +Three days he suffered there, but the fever had turned on that first +night; from the moment of that cooling drink he was on the mend. For +food he had no wish, but daily and deeply he drank at the stream. + +On that third day he was well enough to scramble up the hill; he passed +a scattering group of the earthy madcaps. Oh, how he loathed them; their +very smell set his mouth a-dripping, refusing its own proper juice. + +[Illustration] + +Good things there were to eat on the ground, but he had little appetite, +though for three days he had not eaten. He passed by fat white grubs and +even nuts, but when he found some late wild strawberries he munched them +eagerly. Their acid sweetness, their fragrant saneness, were what his +poor sick body craved. He rested, then climbed a leaning tree. He had +not strength for a real climb. In an old abandoned Flicker hole he +curled himself in safety, and strong, gentle Mother Nature, Mother +Carey, loving ever the brave ones that never give up, now spread her +kindly influence, protecting, round about him and gave him blessed, +blessed sleep. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_HIS AWAKENING_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXX + +HIS AWAKENING + + +IT was late on that fourth day when Bannertail awoke. He was a little +better now. He slowly went down that tree, tail first; very sick, +indeed, is a Squirrel when he goes down a tree tail first. Sweet, +cooling water was his need, and again a fragrant meal of the tonic +strawberries; then back to the tree. + +[Illustration] + +Next day he was up with the morning Robins, and now was possessed of the +impulse to go home. Vague pictures of his mate and little ones, and the +merry home tree, came on his ever-clearer brain. He set out with a few +short hops, as he used to go, and, first sign of sanity, he stopped to +fluff his tail. He noticed that it was soiled with gum. Nothing can +dethrone that needful basic instinct to keep in order and perfect the +tail. He set to work and combed and licked each long and silvered hair; +he fluffed it out and tried its billowy beauty, and having made sure of +its perfect trim he kept on, cleaned his coat, combed it, went to the +brook-side and washed his face and paws clean of every trace of that +unspeakable stuff, and in the very cleansing gave himself new strength. +Sleek and once more somewhat like himself he was, when on he went, +bounding homeward with not short bounds, but using every little lookout +on the way to peer around and fluff and jerk his tail. + +Back at the home tree at last, nearly seven suns had come and gone since +the family had seen him. + +[Illustration] + +The first impulse of the little mother was hostility. A stranger is +always a hostile in the woods. But he flicked the white flag on his tail +tip, and slowly climbed the tree. The youngsters in alarm had hidden in +the nest at mother's "_Chik, chik_." She came cautiously forward. His +looks were familiar yet strange. Here now was the time to use caution. +He swung up nearly to the door. She stood almost at bay, uttered a +little warning "_Ggrrrfffhh_." He crawled up closer. She spread her +legs, clutched firmly on the bark above him. He wigwagged his silver +tail-tip and, slowly drawing nearer, reached out. Their whiskers met; +she sniffed, smell-tested him. No question now. A little changed, a +little strange, but this was surely her mate. She wheeled and went into +the nest. He came more slowly after, put in his head, gave a low, soft +"_Er_." There was no reply and no hostile move. He crawled right in, +his silver plume was laid about them all, and the reunited family slept +till the hour arrived for evening meal. + + + + +_THE UNWRITTEN LAW_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI + +THE UNWRITTEN LAW + + +THIS is the law of the All-Mother, the more immovable because unwritten; +this is the law of surfeit. + +Many foods there are which are wholesome, except that they have in them +a measure of poison. + +For these the All-Mother has endowed the wild things' bodies with a +subtle antidote, which continues self-replenishing so long as the +containing flask is never wholly emptied. But if it so chance that in +some time of fearful stress the flask is emptied, turned upside down, +drained dry, it never more will fill. The small alembic that distils it +breaks, as a boiler bursts if it be fired while dry. Thenceforth the +toxin that it overcame has virulence and power; that food, once +wholesome, is a poison now. + +[Illustration] + +A "surfeit" men call this breaking of the flask; all too well is it +known. By this, unnumbered healthful foods--strawberries, ice-cream, +jam, delicate meat, eggs, yes, even simple breads can by the devastating +drain of one rash surfeit be turned into very foods of death. The poison +always was there, but the secret, neutralizing chemical is gone, the +elixir is destroyed, and by the working of the law its deadly power is +loosed. As poor second now to this lost and subtle protection, the +All-Mother endows the body with another, one of a lower kind. She makes +that food so repellent to the unwise, punished creature that he never +more desires it. She fills him with a fierce repulsion, the bodily +rejection that men call "nausea." + +This is the law of surfeit. Bannertail had fallen foul of it, and Mother +Carey, loving him as she ever loves her strong ones, had meted out the +fullest measure of punishment that he, with all his strength, could bear +and yet come through alive. + +[Illustration] + +The Red Moon of harvest was at hand. The Graycoat family was grown, and +happy in the fulness of their lives, and Bannertail was hale and filled +with the joy of being alive, leading his family beyond old bounds, +teaching them the ways of the farther woods, showing them new foods that +the season brings. He, wise leader now, who once had been so unwise. +Then Mother Carey put him to the proof. She led, he led them farther +than they had ever gone before, to the remotest edge of the hickory +woods. On a bank half sunlit as they scampered over the leaves and down +the logs, he found a blushing, shining gnome-cap, an earth-born madcap. +Yes, the very same, for in this woods they came, though they were rare. +One whiff, one identifying sniff of that Satanic exhalation, and +Bannertail felt a horrid clutching at his throat, his lips were quickly +dripping, his belly heaved, he gave a sort of spewing, gasping sound, +and shrank back from that shining cap with eyes that bulged in hate, as +though he saw a Snake. There is no way of fully telling his bodily +revulsion. The thing that once was so alluring, was so loathsome that he +could not stand its fetid odor on the wind. And the young ones were +caught by the unspoken horror of the moment, they took it in; they got +the hate sense. They tied up that horror in their memories with that +rank and sickly smell. They turned away, Bannertail to drink in the +running brook, to partly forget in a little while, yet never quite to +forget. He was saved, the great All-Mother had saved him, which was a +good thing, but not in itself a great thing. This was the great thing, +that in that moment happened--the loathing of the earth-born fiend was +implanted in his race, and through them would go on to bless his +generations yet to be. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_SQUIRREL GAMES_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII + +SQUIRREL GAMES + + +GAMES are used among wild animals for the training of the young. King of +the castle, tag, hide-and-seek, follow-my-leader, catch-as-catch-can, +wrestling, coasting, high-dive, and, in rare cases, even ball games are +enjoyed. Most of them were in some sort played by the young Squirrels. +But these are world-wide, they had one or two that were peculiarly their +own, and of these the most exciting was the dangerous game of "teasing +the Hawk." + +[Illustration] + +Three kinds of big Hawks there are in the Squirrel woods in summertime: +the Hen-hawk that commonly sails high in the air, screaming or +whistling, and that at other times swoops low and silent through the +woods, and always is known by his ample wings and bright red tail; the +gray Chicken-hawk that rarely soars, but that skims among the trees or +even runs on the ground, whose feathers are gray-brown, and whose voice +is a fierce _crek, crek, creek_; and the Song-hawk or Singer, who is the +size of the Chicken-hawk, but a harmless hunter of mice and frogs, and +known at all seasons by the stirring song that he pours out as he wheels +like a Skylark high in the blue. + +[Illustration] + +The inner guide had warned the boisterous Bannertail to beware of all of +them. Experience taught him that they will attack, and yet are easily +baffled, if one does but slip into a hole or thicket, or even around the +bole of a tree. + +Many times that summer did Bannertail avoid the charge of Redtail or +Chicken-hawk by the simple expedient of going through a fork or a maze +of branches. There was no great danger in it, as long as he kept his +head; and it did not disturb him, or cause his heart a single extra +beat. It became a regular incident in his tree-top life, just as a stock +man is accustomed to the daily danger of a savage Bull, but easily +eludes any onset by slipping through a fence. It does not cause him a +tremor, he is used to it; and men there are who make a sport of it, who +love to tease the Bull, who enjoy his helpless rage as he vainly tries +to follow. His mighty strength is offset by their cunning and agility. +It is a pretty match, a very ancient game, and never quite loses zest, +because the Bull does sometimes win; and then there is one less +Bull-teaser on the stock-range. + +This was the game that Bannertail evolved. Sure of himself, delighting +in his own wonderful agility, he would often go out to meet the foe, if +he saw the Hen-hawk or the Chicken-hawk approaching. He would flash his +silver tail, and shrill "_Grrrff, grrrff_," by way of challenge. + +[Illustration] + +The Hen-hawk always saw. "Keen-eyed as a hawk" is not without a reason. +And, sailing faster than a driving leaf, he would swish through the +hickory woods to swoop at the challenging Squirrel. But just as quick +was Bannertail, and round the rough trunk he would whisk, the Hawk, +rebounding in the air to save himself from dashing out his brains or +being impaled, would now be greeted on the other side by the head and +flashing tail of the Squirrel, and another with loud, defiant +"_Ggrrrffhh, grggrrrffhh_." + +Down again would swoop the air bandit, quicker than a flash, huge black +claws advanced, and Bannertail would wait till the very final instant, +rejoicing in his every nerve at tension, and just as those deadly +grappling-irons of the Hawk were almost at his throat, he would duck, +the elusive, baffling tail would flash in the Hawk's very face, and the +place the Graycoat had occupied on the trunk was empty. The grapnels of +the Hawk clutched only bark; and an instant later, just above, the +teasing head and the flaunting tail of Bannertail would reappear, with +loudly voiced defiance. + +The Hawk, like the Bull, is not of gentle humor. He is a fierce and +angry creature, out to destroy; his anger grows to fury after such +defeat, he is driven wild by the mockery of it, and oftentimes he begets +such a recklessness that he injures himself by accident, as he charges +against one of the many sharp snags that seem ever ready for the +Squirrel-kind's defense. + +Yes, a good old game it is, with the zest of danger strong. But there is +another side to it all. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_WHEN BANNERTAIL WAS SCARRED FOR LIFE_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII + +WHEN BANNERTAIL WAS SCARRED FOR LIFE + + +IT makes indeed merry play, with just enough of excitement when you bait +the Bull, and dodge back to the fence to laugh at his impotent raging. +But it makes a very different chapter when a second Bull comes on the +other side of the fence. Then the game is over, the Bull-baiter must +find some far refuge or scramble up the nearest sheltering tree, or pay +the price. + +Bannertail had an ancient feud with the big Hen-hawk, whose stick nest +was only a mile away, high in a rugged beech. There were a dozen +farmyards that paid unwilling tribute to that Hawk, a hundred little +meadows with their Mice and Meadowlarks, and one open stretch of marsh +with its Muskrats and its Ducks. But the hardwood ridges, too, he +counted on for dues. The Squirrels all were his, if only he could catch +them. Many a game had he and Bannertail, a game of life and death. + +[Illustration] + +They played again that morning in July. It was the same old swooping of +the whistling pinions, and the grasping of strong yellow feet with hard +black claws, grasping at nothing, where was a Graycoat half a heartbeat +back, the same flaunting silver flag, the mocking "_Grrrff, grrrff_," +the teasing and daring of the Hawk to make another swoop. Then did that +big Hen-hawk what he should have done before. He filled the air with his +war-cry, the long screaming "_Yek-yek-yeeeek!_" Coursing low and swift +came another, his mate, the lady bandit, even fiercer than himself. +Swift and with little noise she came. And when savage old Yellow-eyes +swooped and Bannertail whisked around the tree, he whisked right into +the clutches of the deadlier she-one. He barely escaped by a marvellous +side rush around the trunk. Here again was Yellow-eyes, but right in his +face Bannertail dashed his big silvery tail. The Hawk in his haste +clutched at its nothingness, or he would have got the Graycoat. But luck +was with Bannertail, and again he dodged around the trunk. Alas, the she +Hawk was there, and struck; her mighty talons grazed his haunch, three +rips they made in his glossy, supple coat. In an instant more the +Redtail would have trussed him, for there was no cover, only the big, +outstanding trunk, with the Hen-hawks above and below. A moment more +and Bannertail's mate, helpless in the distant nest, would have seen +him borne away. But as they closed, he leaped--leaped with all his +strength, far from them into open air, and faster than they could fly in +such a place, down, down, his silver plume in function just behind him, +down a hundred feet to fall and land in a thicket of laurel, wounded and +bleeding, but safe. He scrambled into a thicker maze, and gazed with new +and tenser feelings at the baffled Hen-hawks, circling, screaming high +above him. + +[Illustration] + +Soon the bandits gave up. Clearly the Graycoat had won, and they flew to +levy their robber-baron tribute on some others that they held to be +their vassals. + +[Illustration: A DANGEROUS GAME] + +Yes, Bannertail had won, by a narrow lead. He had taken a mighty hazard +and had learned new wisdom--Never play the game with death till you have +to, for if you win one hundred times and lose once you have lost your +whole stake. On his haunch he carried, carries yet, the three long +scars, where the fur is a little paler--the brand of the robber +baroness, the slash of the claws that nearly got him. + +[Illustration] + +Have you noted that in the high Alleghenies, where the Graycoats seldom +see hunters of any kind, they scamper while the enemy is far away; but +they peer from upper limbs and call out little challenges? In Jersey +woods, where a wiser race has come, they never challenge a near foe; +they make no bravado rushes. They signal if they see an enemy near, then +hide away in perfect stillness till that enemy, be it Hawk in air or +Hound on earth, is far away, or in some sort ceases to be a menace. + +And menfolk hunters, who tell of their feats around the glowing stove in +the winter-time, say there is a new race of Graycoats come. Any gunner +could kill one of the old sort, but it takes a great hunter such as +themselves to get one of the new. This latter-day Graycoat has gotten +much wisdom into his little brain, and one of the things he knows: "It +never pays to gamble with destruction." + +The new race, they say, began in a certain hickory wood. We know that +wood, and we have seen a little how the wisdom came, and can easily +reason why it spread. + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE FIGHT WITH THE BLACK DEMON_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIV + +THE FIGHT WITH THE BLACK DEMON + + +NEXT in importance to the Squirrels, after the towering trees with their +lavish bounty, was the brook that carried down scraps of the blue sky to +inlay them with green moss, purple logs, and gold-brown stones, that +sang its low, sweet song both day and night, and that furnished to the +family their daily drink. + +"Do not drink at the pond" is a Squirrel maxim, for in it lurks the +fearful Snapping Turtle and the grinning Pike. Its banks are muddy, too, +and the water warm. It is better to drink from some low log, along the +brook itself. + +[Illustration] + +And do not drink in the blinding sunlight, which makes it hard to see if +danger is near; then, too, it is that the Blacksnake crawls out to seek +some basking place in the hottest sun. + +[Illustration] + +Yes, this is Squirrel wisdom; the morning drink is at sunrise, the +evening at sunset, when the cool shade is on the woods but darkness not +begun. + +The Graycoat family held together still, though the Harvest-moon was red +in the low eastern sky. Some Squirrel families break up as soon as the +young are nearly grown. But some there are that are held together +longer, very long, by unseen bonds of sympathy with which they have been +gifted in a little larger measure than is common. Brownhead was much +away, living his own life. Still, he came home. Nyek-nyek, gentle, +graceful Nyek-nyek, clung to her mother and the old nest, like a very +weanling; and rest assured that in Squirrel-land, as in others, love is +begotten and intensified by love. + +The morning drink and the morning meal were the established daily +routine. Then came a time of exercise and play. But all Squirrels that +are hale and wise take a noonday nap. + +Each was stretched on one or other of the sleeping platforms, lying +lazily at ease one noontime. The day was very hot, and the sun swung +round so it glared on Nyek-nyek's sleeping-porch. Panting soon with the +heat, she decided to drink, swung to the gangway of their huge trunk and +started down the tree. The little mother, ever alert, watched the young +one go. There was in her heart just a shadow of doubt, of distrust, much +as a human mother might feel if she saw her toddler venture forth alone +into the night. + +Nyek-nyek swung to the ground, coursed in billowy ripples of +silver-gray along a log, stopped on a stump to look around and +religiously fluff her tail, while mother dreamily watched through +half-closed eyes. Then out into the brilliant sunlight she went. Some +creatures are dazed and made lazy by the hot, bright glare, some find in +it a stimulant, a multiplier of their life force; it sets their senses +on a keener edge; it gifts them with new speed, intensifies their every +power. + +The Graycoats are of the first kind, and of the second was Coluber, the +long, black, shiny, blue-black Snake that was lying like a limp and +myriad-linked chain flung across a big, low log--a log that sucked the +sun heat as it lay, just where the brook expanded to the pond. Never a +blink was there in those gray-green eyes, never a quiver in that long, +lithe tongue. One not knowing would have said he is dead; one knowing +him well would have said he is filling up his storage-batteries to the +full. Never a wriggle was there in even the nervous tail tip, that +nearly always switches to and fro; yet not a move of the Squirrel since +she left her sleeping porch was lost on him. + +What was it gave a new pathway to the young Graycoat? Was it Mother +Carey who led her with a purpose? Not to the familiar log she went, +where the family had always found an ideal footing when they took the +morning drink, but down-stream, toward the pond and on to the little +muddy shore. + +[Illustration] + +The mother Squirrel saw that, and her feeling of doubt grew stronger. +She rose up to follow, but gazed a moment to see a sudden horror. Just +as the little Nyek-nyek stooped and sank her face deep to her eyes in +the cooling flood, the Blacksnake sprang, sprang from his coil as a +Blacksnake springs, when the victim is within the measured length. +Sprang with his rows of teeth agape, clinched on her neck, and in a +trice the heavy coils, tense with energy, ridged with muscle, +flash-lapped around her neck and loins, gripped in an awful grip, while +the lithe, live scaly tail wrapped round a branch to anchor both killer +and victim to the place. One shriek of "_Qua_," another fainter, and a +final gasp, and no more sound from Nyek-nyek. But she struggled, a +hopeless, helpless struggle. The mother saw it all. Fear of that +terrible Snake was forgotten. Not one moment did she pause. She did not +clamber down that tree. She leaped to the next and a lower yet, and +along a log; five heart-beats put her on the spot; and with all her +force she drove her teeth into the hard, scaly coil of the beast that +she held in mortal fear. With a jerk the monster quit his neck hold on +the young one. She was helpless, bound in his coil, and the Snake's +dread jaws with the rows of pointed teeth clamped on the mother's neck, +and another fold of that long, hellish length was hitched around her +throat. Scratch she could and struggle, but bite she could not, for the +coil held her as in a vise. For a moment only could she make a sound, +the long, long, screaming "_Queeee_," the Squirrel call for help; and +Bannertail, lazily dozing on his sunning perch, sprang up and set his +ears acock. + +[Illustration] + +It was not repeated, but the sound of struggle was there, and the +keen-eyed father Squirrel saw the flash of a silver tail, the signal of +his kind. And from that perch high in the air he leaped in one long, +parachuting leap; he landed on the ground, and in three mighty bounds he +was at the place. The horror of the Snake was on him. It set his coat +a-bristling; but it did not hold him back. It only added desperation to +his onset. Clutching that devilish scaly neck with both his arms, he +drove in his chisel teeth and ground them in, down to the very bone, as +Silvergray could not have done. He worked and tugged and stabbed again, +and the Snake, sensing a new and stronger foe, relaxed on Silvergray, +snapped with his hateful jaws, seized Bannertail's strong shoulder just +where he best could stand it--where the skin is thick and strong the +Blacksnake drove in and gripped. And Bannertail, as quick, quit his +first hold on the coil that was strangling Nyek-nyek, and by good luck, +or maybe by better wisdom than his own, drove, fighting fierce, into the +demon's throat, the weak spot in that scaly armor. Deep sank the +Squirrel's teeth, and pangs of mortal agony went thrilling through the +reptile's length. But he was strong, and a desperate fighter, too. The +coils unloosed on the senseless form of Nyek-nyek and lapped in a +trice on Bannertail, three times round, straining, crushing, while his +rows of cruel fangs were sunk in the Squirrel's silvery side. + +[Illustration: THE BATTLE WITH THE BLACKSNAKE] + +[Illustration] + +But in throwing all his force against Bannertail he released the little +Gray mother. She flung herself again on the black horror, and bit with +all her power the head that was gripped on the shoulder of her mate. +Very narrow is the demon reptile's head, and only one place was open, +offered to her grip. She bit with all her force across the eyes, her +long, sharp chisels entered in. His eyes were pierced, his brain was +stung. With an agonizing last convulsion he wrenched on Bannertail, +then, quivering with a palsy that changed to a springing open of the +coils, he dashed his head from side to side, lashed his tail, heaved +this way and that, coiled up, then straightened out. The Squirrels +leaped back, the monster lashed in writhing convolutions, felt the cool +water that he could no longer see, went squirming out upon it, working +his frothy jaws, lashing, thrashing with his tail. Then up from the +darkest depths came a hideous goggle-eyed head, a monstrous head, as big +as a Squirrel's whole body, and on it a horny beak, which, opening, +showed a huge red maw, and the squirming Blacksnake was seized by the +bigger brute. Crushed and broken in those mighty jaws was the Black +One's supple spine; torn open by those great claws was his belly, ended +was his life. The Snapper sank, taking the Blacksnake with him. It was +the finish of an ancient feud between them, and down in the dark depths +of the pond the Water Demon feasted on the body of his foe. + +[Illustration] + +And Bannertail, the brave fighter, with the heroic little Mother and +Nyek-nyek now revived, drew quickly back to safety. A little cut they +were, but mostly breathless, their very wind squeezed out by those dread +coils. The ripples on the pool had scarcely died before they were all +three again in the dear old nest, with Brownhead back anew from a far +journey. Without words, were they to tell of their thrills and fears, or +their joy; but this reaction came: They cuddled up in the nest, a little +closer than before, a little more at one, a little less to feel the +scatteration craze that comes in most wild families when the young are +grown; which meant these young will have for a little longer the good +offices of their parents, and are thereby fitted a little better for the +life-battle, a little more likely to win. + +Is it not by such accumulating little things that brain and brawn and +the world success of every dominating race of creatures has been built? + +[Illustration] + + + + +_THE PROPERTY LAW AMONG ANIMALS_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXV + +THE PROPERTY LAW AMONG ANIMALS + + +THAT was the year of the wonderful nut crop. It is commonly so; the year +of famine is followed by one of plenty. Red oaks and white were laden, +as well as the sweet shag hickories. And the Bannertail family in their +grove watched with a sort of owner pride the thick green hanging +clusters of their favorite food. + +[Illustration] + +Like small boys too eager to await the baking of their cake, nibbling at +the unsatisfactory half-done dough, they cut and opened many a growing +nut. Its kernel, very small as yet, was good; but the rind, oozing its +green-brown juices, stained their jaws and faces, yes,--their arms and +breasts, till it was hard to recognize each other in these dark-brown +masks. For the disfigurement they cared nothing. Only when the thick +sap, half drying, gummed his silvery plume, did Bannertail abandon other +pursuits to lick and clear and thoroughly comb that priceless tail; and +what he did, the others, by force of his energetic example, were soon +compelled to do. + +The Hunting-moon, September, came. The nuts were fully grown but very +green. "Who owns the nuts?" is an old question in the woods. Usually +they are owned by the one who can possess them effectively, although +there are some restraining, unwritten laws. + +[Illustration] + +Squirrels have three well-marked ideas of property. First, of the +nesting-place which they have possessed, and the nest which they have +built; second, the food which they have found or stored; third, the +range which is their homeland--the boundaries of which are not +well-defined--but most jealously held against those of their own kind. +The Homeland is also held against all who eat their foods so that it is +part of the food-property sense. All three were strong in Bannertail; +and his growing pride in the coming nut yield was much like that of a +farmer who, by the luck of good weather, is blessed with a bumper crop +of corn. + +It seemed as though word of the coming feast had spread to other and +far-off places, for many other nut-eaters kept drifting that way, +turning up in the hickory woods that the Graycoats thought their own. + +[Illustration] + +The Bluejay and the Redheaded Woodpecker came. They pecked long and hard +at the soggy husks to get at the soft, sweet, milk-white meat. They did +little damage, for their beaks were not strong enough to twist off the +nuts and carry them away, but the Graycoats felt that these were +poachers and drove them off. Of course it was easy for the birds to keep +out of reach, but they hovered about, stealing--yes, that was what the +Squirrels thought about it--stealing the hickory harvest when they +could. + +[Illustration] + +Then came other poachers, the Redsquirrel with his mate, cheeky, +brazen-fronted, aggressive as usual; they would come quietly, when the +Graycoats were asleep or elsewhere, and proceed to cut the nut bunches. +Many times the only notice of their presence was the sudden "thump, +thump" of the nut bunch striking the ground after the Red One had cut it +loose. His intention had been to go down quietly after it, split the +husks, and carry off the luscious, half-ripe nuts to his storehouse. +But the racket called the Graycoats' attention. Bannertail and Brownhead +would rush forth like settlers to fight off an Indian raid, or like +householders to save their stuff from burglars. + +There was little actual fighting to do with the Red Ones, for they had +learned to fear and fly from the Graycoats, but they did not fly far. +Their safest refuge was a hole underground, where Graycoats could not or +would not follow, and after waiting for quiet the Red Robber would come +out again, and sometimes, at least, get away with a load of the prized +nuts. + +New enemies approached one day, nothing less than other Graycoats, some +Squirrels of their own kind, travelling from some other land, +travelling, maybe, like Joseph and his brethren, away from a place of +famine, till now they found an Egypt, a land of plenty. + +Against them Bannertail went vigorously to war. It is well known that +the lawful owner fights more valiantly, with more heart, with +indomitable courage indeed, while the invader is in doubt. He lacks the +backing of a righteous cause. He half expects to be put to flight, even +as he goes forth to battle. And the Bannertails were able to make good +their claims to the hickory grove. Yet it kept them ever alert, ever +watchful, ever ready to fight. + +Partly because the nuts were already good food, and partly because it +kept others from stealing them, the Graycoats cut some of the crop in +September. + + + + +_GATHERING THE GREAT NUT HARVEST_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVI + +GATHERING THE GREAT NUT HARVEST + + +IN the Leaf-falling-moon, October, the husks began to dry and split, and +the nuts to fall of themselves. Then was seen a wild, exciting time, the +stirring of habits and impulses laid in the foundations of the race. + +[Illustration] + +No longer wabbly or vague, as in that first autumn, but fully aroused +and dominating was the instinct to gather and bury every precious, +separate nut. Bannertail had had to learn slowly and partly by seeing +the Redsquirrels making off with the prizes. But he had learned, and his +brood had the immediate stimulus of seeing him and their mother at +work; and because he was of unusual force, it drove him hard, with an +urge that acted like a craze. He worked like mad, seizing, stripping, +smelling, appraising, marking, weighing every nut he found. + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration] + +What, weighing it? Yes, every nut was weighed by the wise harvester. +How? By delicate muscular sense. It was held for a moment between the +paws, and if it seemed far under weight it was cast aside as worm-eaten, +empty, worthless; if big, but merely light in weight, that meant +probably a fat worm was within. Then that nut was split open and the +worm devoured. A wormy nut was never stored. If the nut was heavy, +round, and perfect, the fine balance in the paws and the subtle sense of +smell asserted the fact, and then it was owner-marked. How? By turning +it round three times in the mouth, in touch with the tongue. This left +the personal touch of that Squirrel on it, and would protect it in a +measure from being carried off by other Graysquirrels, especially when +food abounded. Then, rushing off several hops from the place where the +last nut was buried, Bannertail would dig deep in the ground, his full +arm's length, ram down the nut held in his teeth; then, pushing back the +earth with snout and paws, would tamp that down, replacing the twigs and +dry leaves so the nut was safely hidden. Then to the next, varying the +exercise by dashing, not after the visiting Graysquirrels--they kept +their distance--but after some thieving Chipmunk or those pestiferous +Redsquirrels who sought sometimes to unearth his buried treasure. Or, he +would dart noisily up the tree, to chase the Bluejays who were trying to +rob them of the nuts not yet fallen; then back to earth again, where was +his family--Silvergray, Brownhead, and Nyek-nyek--inspired by his +example, all doing as he did, working like beavers, seizing, husking, +weighing, marking, digging, dig-dig-digging and burying nuts all day +long. Hundreds of these little graves they dug, till the ground under +every parent tree was a living, crowded burying-ground of the tree's own +children. Morning, noon, and evening they worked, as long as there was +light enough to see. + +A cool night and another drying day brought down another hickory shower. +And the Graycoats worked without ceasing. They were tired out that +night. They had driven off a score of robbers, they had buried at least +a thousand nuts, each in a separate hole. The next day was an even more +strenuous time. For seven full days they worked, and then the precious +nut harvest was over. Acorns--red and white and yellow--might come +later, and some be buried and some not. The Bluejays, Woodpeckers, and +the Redsquirrels would get a handsome share, and pile them up in +storehouses, a day's gathering in one place, for such is their way, but +the hickory-nuts were the precious things that counted for the +Bannertail brood. Ten thousand at least had the Graycoats buried, each +an arm's length down, and deftly hidden, with the trash of the forest +floor replaced. + +This undoubtedly was their only impulse, to bury the rich nuts for +future use as food. But Nature's plan was larger. There were other foods +in the woods at this season. The Squirrels would not need the precious +hickories for weeks or months; all sign that might mark the burial-place +would be gone. When really driven by need the Squirrels would come and +dig up these caches. Memory of the locality first, then their exquisite +noses would be their guides. They would find most of the nuts again. +But not all. Some would escape the diggers, and what would happen to +these? _They would grow._ Yes, that was Nature's plan. The acorns +falling and lying on the ground can burst their thin coats, send down a +root and up a shoot at once, but the hickory must be buried or it will +dry up before it grows. This is the hickory's age-old compact with the +Graysquirrel: You bury my nuts for me, plant my children, and you may +have ninety-five per cent of the proceeds for your trouble, so long only +as you save the other five per cent and give them a chance to grow up +into hickory-trees. + +[Illustration] + +This is the unwritten but binding bargain that is observed each year. +And this is the reason why there are hickory-trees wherever there are +Graysquirrels. Where the Graycoats have died out the hickory's days are +numbered. And foolish man, who slays the Graysquirrel in his reckless +lust for killing, is also destroying the precious hickory-trees, whose +timber is a mainstay of the nation-feeding agriculture of the world. He +is like the fool on a tree o'erhanging the abyss, who saws the very limb +on which depends his life. + + + + +_AND TO-DAY_ + + + + +CHAPTER XXXVII + +AND TO-DAY + + +HIS race still lives in Jersey woods; they have come back into their +own. Go forth, O wise woodman, if you would become yet wiser. Go in the +dew-time after rain, when the down, dry leaves have lost their tongues. +Go softly as you may, you will see none of the Squirrel-kind, for they +are better woodmen than you. But sit in silence for half an hour, so the +discord of your coming may be forgotten. + +Then a little signal, "_Qua_," like the quack of a Wild-duck, will be +answered by the countersign, "_Quaire_"; then there will be wigwag +signal flashes with silver tail-tips. "All's well!" is the word they +are passing, and if you continue very discreet and kind, they will take +up their lives again. The silent trees will give up dryad forms, not +many, not hundreds, not even scores, but a dozen or more, and they will +play and live their greenwood lives about you, unafraid. They will come +near, if you still emanate unenmity, so you may see clearly the liquid +eyes, the vibrant feelers on their legs and lips. And if these be +tree-top wood-folk, very big and strong of their kind, with silvery +coats and brownie caps, and tails that are of marvellous length and +fluff, like puffs of yellow smoke with silver frills or flashes of a +white light about them, then be sure of this, by virtue of the sleek, +lithe beauty of their outer forms and the quick wood-wisdom of their +little brains--you are watching a clan of Bannertail's own brood. + +[Illustration] + +And, further, rest assured that when the hard nuts fall next +autumn-time, Mother Carey has at hand a chosen band of planters for her +trees, and a noble forest for another age will be planted on these +hills, timber for all time. + +[Illustration] + + * * * * * + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 27, "growthth at" changed to "growth that" (growth that are marked) + +Page 46, "off" changed to "of" (of basswood buds) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Bannertail, by Ernest Thompson Seton + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 42827 *** |