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diff --git a/77049-0.txt b/77049-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc08df3 --- /dev/null +++ b/77049-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3982 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77049 *** + + +[Illustration: + + “Bump—Slide—Splash!—and he plunged beneath the surface of the icy + lake.” + + —Page 3 +] + + + + + THE ADVENTURES OF + Twinkly Eyes + THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR + + + By ALLEN CHAFFEE + + Author of TALES OF THE TIMID, Little Stories of + the Lives and Habits of the Wild, Told for + Children and Their Elders. + + Illustrated by PETER DARU + + 1919 + MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY + SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS + + + + + _Copyright 1919_ + By MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY + Springfield, Massachusetts + _All Rights Reserved_ + + + Bradley Quality Books + _for_ Children + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + +These little stories, which are intended both for children and their +elders, are really true to natural science. + +Disguised in fiction form, the reader gets a taste of biology, botany, +zoology, and meteorology. + +Such a taste may or may not lead the child to further study along those +lines, but it will certainly give him a heightened appreciation of +out-door life. Incidentally, he will have accumulated in the easiest +possible way a great many facts that he will retain all his life. + +The tales should also create a kindlier attitude toward our friends in +fur and feathers, as well as instilling some of the stern virtues of the +wilderness. + +That these tales may be suitable for bedtime reading, no animal hero is +ever killed. The big words are explained, and the adventure of each +chapter harks back to the preceding in a way to refresh the memory of +the reader who only takes time for a chapter an evening. + +On the other hand, my readers have thus far included a large proportion +of quite grown-up little boys. + + ALLEN CHAFFEE. + + + + + To + HOWARD FOLSOM BROCK + whose great heart had in it a corner + for even the furred and + feathered folk. + + + + + INDEX + + + Chapter Page + I. Twinkly Gets a Ducking 1 + II. Mother Black Bear to the Rescue 4 + III. A Stern Lesson 7 + IV. But He Learns It 10 + V. Mrs. Porcupine Shows Fight 13 + VI. Driven from Their Pond 17 + VII. Sink or Swim 20 + VIII. Writho, the Black Snake 23 + IX. “Whoof! Whoof!” 26 + X. The Better Part of Valor 29 + XI. A Tip on Thunder-Storms 32 + XII. A Wild Mother’s Love 35 + XIII. Twinkly Eyes Gets Even 38 + XIV. A Different Twinkly Eyes 41 + XV. There’s Many a Slip 45 + XVI. The Bee Tree 48 + XVII. Twinkly Eyes and Trouble 51 + XVIII. Twinkly Shows His Mettle 54 + XIX. Down But Not Downed 57 + XX. Twinkly Applies First Aid 60 + XXI. Mammy Cottontail’s Secret 63 + XXII. One of Twinkly’s Neighbors 66 + XXIII. Introducing Bobby Lynx 69 + XXIV. A Bunny Ball 72 + XXV. Twinkly Eyes Attends a Frolic 75 + XXVI. A Joke On The Little Black Bear 78 + XXVII. School For Bunnies 81 + XXVIII. A Boy and A Bear 84 + XXIX. The Tables Are Turned 87 + XXX. A Climbing Match 90 + XXXI. The Bear Gets The Best of It 93 + XXXII. The Little Bears Go Fishing 96 + XXXIII. Twinkly Again Meets The Porcupine 99 + XXXIV. A Good Sport 102 + XXXV. Bobby Lynx Learns A Lesson 104 + XXXVI. Twinkly Watches Again 108 + XXXVII. Foxy Counsel 111 + XXXVIII. A Jolly World 114 + XXXIX. Who Will be Sorriest? 117 + XL. Twinkly Eyes Plays Safe 121 + XLI. Twinkly Eyes Gets a Great Surprise 124 + XLII. Twinkly Eyes Plots Mischief 127 + XLIII. Twinkly Teases Unk Wunk 130 + XLIV. Twinkly Eyes Gets His 133 + XLV. Bobby Lynx Goes Fishing 136 + XLVI. A New Acquaintance 139 + XLVII. The Hired Man Drops a Match 142 + XLVIII. The Forest Aflame 146 + XLIX. In the Face of a Common Peril 149 + L. While There is Life, There is Hope 153 + LI. The Boy from the Valley Farm 156 + LII. Twinkly’s Fellow Refugees 160 + LIII. A Way for the Squirrel Family 163 + LIV. What Happened to Fleet Foot 166 + LV. Twinkly Eyes Goes House-Hunting 169 + LVI. At the Sugar Camp 173 + LVII. A Feast and a Fast 176 + LVIII. The First Snow 179 + LIX. Twinkly Eyes Goes to Bed 182 + + + + + THE ADVENTURES OF + + Twinkly Eyes + + THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR + + + + + I + TWINKLY GETS A DUCKING + + +Two such roly-poly babies you never did see! + +Mother Black Bear had named them Woof and Twinkly Eyes.—And you never in +all your life met two such rollicking black balls of mischief as those +two cubs! + +Small wonder that Mother Black Bear needed such long black claws, long +white teeth, and such a terrifying growl, with two such treasures to +protect. + +Why, she wouldn’t even let Father Black Bear come near them when they +were so young, for fear some time they would plague him too far and make +him lose his temper! + +As the warm days of July ripened the blueberries along the slopes she +used to lead the cubs down Mt. Olaf into the lowlands on berrying +expeditions. And my! How they did enjoy these trips! How they stuffed +themselves on the luscious fruit, snatching up great pawfuls of it, +leaves and all, till their fuzzy sides rounded out like puff balls! + +Then, too, there were often the most delicious sour-tasting ants under +the logs and boulders that Mother Black Bear turned over for them! Life +was one feast, what with the abundant food provided by Mother Black Bear +herself and that found everywhere in the woods about them! Those cubs +hadn’t a complaint to make! + +True, they climbed right over one another in their eagerness to get the +best of everything, and they growled little baby growls in imitation of +their mother and squealed little piggish squeals of delight. But that +was all a part of the game. + +When there was nothing to eat in sight—or rather when they were too full +to hold any more—they began to yawn and stretch and curl themselves up +together like so many sleepy kittens. + +Then when they had slept enough there were wrestling matches and boxing +bouts and playing pranks on mother,—pulling her ears and clambering over +her till she was forced to box their ears. + +One lazy afternoon Twinkly was just nodding off to sleep, all curled up +in a little fuzzy ball, when Woof came up from behind and gave him a +shove. Now, as it happened, Twinkly had been lying at the top of a steep +incline that led down to Lone Lake, and he went down that incline like a +rubber ball, before ever Mother Black Bear could stop him. +Bump—slide—splash!—and he plunged beneath the surface of the icy lake. + +[Illustration: [Bears]] + + + + + II + MOTHER BLACK BEAR TO THE RESCUE + + +It is so wonderfully snug and comfy to be drowsing off on a warm +afternoon, all curled up in a fuzzy little ball. So, at least, thought +Twinkly Eyes, Mother Black Bear’s littlest cub. + +But what an awful contrast to find oneself rolling down the bank like a +rubber ball, till one came, bump, slide, splash, to the icy water! + +And then to go down, down, down, gasping for breath and so horribly +frightened that one thought the end had come! + +It was certainly a terrible experience for the five-months-old cub, when +his brother Woof gave him that mischievous shove! + +Mother Black Bear was really frightened. Not that she was afraid of Lone +Lake—not a good swimmer like Mother Black Bear; and not that she feared +being unable to rescue the little fellow. But Mothers are always +frightened when anything happens to their babies. Mother Black Bear was +no exception. + +She was just like any other mother in believing that her babies were the +brightest and the handsomest and the most wonderful little creatures +that anyone ever had. + +So she didn’t even stop to think when she saw Twinkly’s little body +rolling down the bank with its legs still wound around its nose. She +just slid!—Afterwards there was a long trench where she had slid down +that bank on her haunches! + +She reached the water the very moment he did, and it wasn’t two seconds +before she had plunged into the blue depths and grabbed the struggling +youngster by the nape of his neck. + +Dragging him straight back up the bank, she spread him out in the +sunshine and began licking him dry, while he whimpered and coaxed for +sympathy. + +“This teaches you a lesson, young man,” she told him, when she had made +sure he wasn’t hurt and wasn’t going to catch cold. “Never sleep on the +edge of a bank. And Woof, don’t you ever again shove anyone over the +bank like that,—not unless it’s someone you never want to see again,” +and she gave Woof a good cuff on the ear to help him remember. + +“But I’m glad, in one way, that this had to happen. Because it shows +that you must learn to swim at once. Life is uncertain at best, in the +woods, and you never can tell when you may need to know.” + +“Ow! the water is too cold!” squealed Twinkly Eyes, backing away into +the brush. + +“We’ll go where it isn’t,” said Mother Black Bear firmly. “But we’re +going this very afternoon. Come along!” + +[Illustration: [Bears]] + + + + + III + A STERN LESSON + + +“Oo! I don’t want to learn to swim!” squealed Twinkly Eyes. + +“Why don’t you?” asked Mother Black Bear, though she had quite made up +her mind to give the cubs a lesson that very afternoon. + +When Mother Black Bear had made up her mind to a thing, that was all +there was to be said about it, so far as the cubs were considered. + +Her word was law. Still, that did not prevent them from complaining at +times. It is a certain amount of relief to complain, even when one knows +it won’t do any good, isn’t it? At least the two cubs found it so. + +“The water’s so-o-o-o cold,” wailed Twinkly Eyes, whose wet fur made him +shiver. + +“You won’t be cold, once you get to paddling about,” said Mother Black +Bear. “Come on, quick! There’s a shallow place farther on where the sun +has warmed the water.” + +She led the way through the bushes, Woof trotting obediently at her +heels. Twinkly tried to run away, but he didn’t get very far. Mother +Black Bear quickly found his hiding place. + +“Come!” she insisted away down deep in her throat, with that rumbly +sound that the cubs knew meant business. + +Since the accident she felt it was not safe to let another day go by +without making sure that they could at least keep from drowning. + +“Come here!” she growled to Twinkly in no uncertain tone. That small imp +simply didn’t dare disobey! + +Woods babies generally are that way, and it is a lucky thing for them, +let me tell you, or no telling what would happen to them! + +Puffing and panting as they tumbled after her, the fat cubs soon found +their mother seated on her haunches beside a quiet pool, where the sun +danced through the leaves till the water seemed all mottled. Tall ferns +grew all about them and every now and again a frightened frog would say, +“K’dunk!” and go splashing to the bottom of the pond. + +[Illustration: + + “Twinkly Eyes, are you coming?” + + —Page 9 +] + +“Now, then, just follow me,” said Mother Black Bear, when they had +stared at the water for a moment. She waded off till she stood shoulder +deep. + +Twinkly braced himself firmly with all four feet and cocked one ear at +the depths before him. His unexpected plunge when Woof had rolled him +off the bank had shaken his faith in water, even for drinking purposes. + +“Come!” commanded Mother Black Bear, and he knew he would have to wade +in or get a good boxing. He whimpered, wondering which would be worse. +He was a most unhappy little bear cub, for one so roly-poly! + +Woof on the other hand, had waded in after his mother, and now—much to +his own surprise—found his fat sides floating with just a stroke or two +of his broad forepaws. + +“Twinkly Eyes, are you coming?” called Mother Black Bear, wading back to +where he stood. + +“I don’t want to know how to swim,” wept the little black rascal, +backing away still farther. + +The next instant Mother Black Bear seized him by the scruff of the neck +and dropped him straight into the pool! + + + + + IV + BUT HE LEARNS IT + + +He had been badly frightened, had Twinkly Eyes, the littlest bear cub, +when Woof shoved him into the lake. + +But underneath it all he had had a comfortable feeling that Mother Black +Bear would somehow come to the rescue. There had never been a time, in +all the five months of his existence, when she had not solved his +troubles for him. + +But now! To have Mother herself drop him in! It was too much! There was +no hope anywhere. No one to rescue him! No way ever to get out again +unless he found a way himself! + +As this fact dawned on him he struck out with his broad fore paws, his +nose turned to shore. So vigorous were his efforts that the first thing +his untrained little body did was to go down, down, down to the very +bottom of the pond. + +But he held his breath, because he remembered the time before, when he +had swallowed so much water. + +Somehow, he scarcely knew just how it happened, he found himself coming +up again, safely enough. + +“Wuhr! Splurf!” he gasped. + +“Good work,” encouraged Mother Black Bear. “You see, you couldn’t drown +if you wanted to!” + +But already Twinkly Eyes had gone under water again, and this time he +made the mistake of losing his nerve and trying to squeal for help. Of +course that filled his nose with water, and that frightened him still +more, till the first thing he knew, he was flapping about on the bottom +of the pond with the most awful feeling he had ever known. His eyes he +kept tight closed to keep the water out and not knowing where he had +landed made it all the worse. + +As an actual fact he hadn’t been under a minute before Mother Black Bear +had pulled him out again. But to the five months cub, it seemed an hour. +“Help, Help!” he gasped, the minute his nose came above water. + +His mother, seeing how terrified he had become, towed him gently to the +bank and left him there to shake himself dry in the sun while she +finished with his brother Woof. + +This fat fellow had been enjoying Twinkly’s struggles as he paddled +slowly about the pond, and his little black eyes danced with laughter. + +But Twinkly had not given it up. That laughter was more than he could +stand. “I’ll get you for that,” he growled in his high-pitched little +voice, running around the bank to the point nearest his brother. With +one mighty leap he landed fairly on top of Woof. + +And Woof? Why, he simply took one deep breath and went under, and +Twinkly went under with him. But this time he was too mad to be afraid. +He forgot even to shut his eyes. Being able to see how near the bottom +of the pond really was did more than you can imagine to give him +confidence in himself. + +The next thing Mother Black Bear knew, both cubs were swimming with all +the zest of small boys. + +But her pleasure was short lived. For rattling through the underbrush at +that very moment came Mrs. Porcupine with three prickly babies, headed +straight for their pond! + + + + + V + MRS. PORCUPINE SHOWS FIGHT + + +Yes, sir, Mother Black Bear’s pleasure was short lived. For no sooner +had the cubs started off side by side across the pond than there was a +curious rattling sound behind her, like the rattling of dry twigs. + +She turned her head like a flash. It was Mrs. Porcupine, her quills +rattling together as she walked. She was headed straight for the little +pond, and Mother Black Bear knew there was going to be trouble. + +Not that she would have cared, had she been alone. She would have given +it up willingly enough. In fact, had she been alone, she would have +preferred a larger pond for her swim. + +But Mother Black Bear was not alone. She had fat little Woof and Twinkly +Eyes to look out for. And it certainly was too bad, now that they were +really making headway with their swimming lesson, to have to give up +their pond. Twinkly had at last forgotten to be afraid, but if they had +to give up the pond to Mrs. Porcupine, he might lose his nerve again, +and all her work would have gone for nothing. + +Yet learn to swim he must, before ever another accident befell him. Of +this Mother Black Bear felt very certain. + +She, therefore, eyed Mrs. Porcupine a bit anxiously; the more so when +she spied the three little porcupines creeping along behind her. + +Of all the folk that live in the Deep Woods, there is probably none more +absolutely fearless than Mrs. Porcupine, and for a very good reason. She +knows that nothing can so much as touch her without getting badly hurt +on her barbed quills. + +Where everyone else darts along the forest trails alert to catch the +slightest sight or sound or smell that might mean an enemy, she strolls +along with the utmost calm. She knows that no one can touch even her +babies without getting hurt. For they are just as full of quills as she +is, and their little quills are even sharper. + +But if she fears no attack, neither will she harm other animals unless +attacked. It is only when they come too near that she strikes at them +with her barbed tail. + +This afternoon she was headed for the self-same little pond that Mother +Black Bear had selected, and for the self-same reason, as we shall see. +When she saw Mother Black Bear and the two cubs, she didn’t stop for +even an instant. She came right on to the edge of the pond as if there +were no one already occupying it. She looked straight past Mother Black +Bear as if she hadn’t been there at all, and grunted to her babies to +climb on her back. + +Mother Black Bear gave a growl. “We got here first,” said she, crossly. +But Mrs. Porcupine pretended not to hear. She just went on into the +water with her babies on her back—she had flattened down her quills for +them—and from all the concern she showed, you would have thought she +didn’t know the bears were there. That was her way of showing fight. She +hadn’t a doubt in the world that they would give their places to her. + +“Come—quick!” Mother Black Bear called to her cubs, losing her nerve as +the quilly creature allowed herself to float over on the side the cubs +were on. “Quick, I tell you!—Scramble!” + +[Illustration: [Bears & porcupine]] + + + + + VI + DRIVEN FROM THEIR POND + + +Well it was for Woof and Twinkly Eyes, the fat bear cubs, that they had +learned obedience. + +For had they not scrambled out of the pond the instant their mother bade +them they would have got badly hurt. + +Mrs. Porcupine is not a neighbor to be treated with disrespect, as +Mother Black Bear knew. Had one of the cubs gone an inch too near her +prickly babies, their little tails would have gone slap, slap right in +the faces of the cubs, leaving their barbed quills behind them. + +That is why, even though Mrs. Black Bear felt she had first right to the +swimming pool, she gave it up to Mrs. Porcupine the minute that lady +entered the water. + +The bear cubs didn’t in the least understand why they should be asked to +scramble out of the pond so hastily; but they didn’t stop to ask why. +They just scrambled! + +Once safely on the bank, Mother Black Bear hurried them to the shelter +of the tall ferns and bracken. Here she posted them side by side where +they could see the pond. + +“Just watch,” she whispered, “and see—what you will see!” + +The pair settled themselves on their awkward little haunches, eyes +dancing with excitement. They did love a mystery! + +Now Mrs. Porcupine is covered thick with quills, and these are as sharp +as needles. When she meets an enemy she can make them stand out all over +her back till she looks like a giant pincushion. But she can also +flatten them down as smooth as a bale of hay. + +Just on the edge of the pond, she flattened them all so nicely that the +three baby porcupines were able to clamber aboard and sail out into the +pond on her back. + +“Gee! that must be fun,” thought Woof. + +“I’ll bet they fall off,” thought Twinkly Eyes. + +Mother Black Bear, who knew just what was going to happen, thought to +herself, “I might have tried that myself if only I had thought in time!” + +“Unk wunk, unk wunk, unk wunk!” sang Mrs. Porcupine, pulling up the +water lily pads and munching the juicy roots. + +“Unk wunk, unk wunk,” mimicked the little porcupines, nibbling at the +bits she took in her mouth to see what they were like. + +Lower and lower swam Mrs. Porcupine, till the babies had to climb higher +on her back to keep from getting wet. Mother Black Bear’s eyes fairly +twinkled at what was about to happen. + +Lower still sank the living raft, till it was half under. The babies +didn’t mind, once the surprise of getting wet was over. But the raft was +sinking lower still. Now Mrs. Porcupine just had her nose out. + +Then—suddenly—she dived clear under! + +[Illustration: [Porcupine]] + + + + + VII + SINK OR SWIM + + +“Ooh! They’ll drown!” squealed Twinkly Eyes, as Mrs. Porcupine went +under water with her babies on her back. + +But they didn’t! + +It had come so gradually, for one thing, that they weren’t the least bit +frightened. Mrs. Porcupine has simply flattened her quills down smooth +and taken them on her back while she swam out for lily pads. They had +nibbled the pads and thought they were having the finest kind of ride. + +As Mrs. Porcupine went deeper into the water and the babies got their +feet wet, they scarcely noticed, so warm was the water in the little +pond and so sure were they that Mother was right there. + +When she sank till they were all half under, they only thought it fun. +They had no idea of what was going to happen before they reached dry +land again. Had they known what was going to happen, they would have +been dreadfully frightened. In fact, they wouldn’t have ventured out at +all, even on their mother’s back. + +It is often that way with people. If they knew just what was going to +happen next, they would lose their nerve entirely. Yet generally when it +does happen, it isn’t nearly so bad as they feared. Sometimes it isn’t +bad at all. + +If the baby porcupines had had any idea that their mother was going to +dive clear under water with them, they never in this world would have +ventured one foot from shore. But that was one of the things Mrs. +Porcupine kept to herself. She was very good at keeping things to +herself, was Mrs. Porcupine, and it saved her a lot of trouble. + +At any rate, from being in the warm pond water with their feet safely +planted on Mother’s back, the babies suddenly found themselves in the +water with nothing under their feet but water, and Mother coming up away +on the other side of the pond. + +The two cubs, watching from the bracken, smiled from ear to ear, their +little black eyes dancing with enjoyment. + +“Come!” said Mrs. Porcupine, swimming about just out of reach. And the +three baby porcupines simply had to strike out for themselves. + +To their own very great surprise they found that their hollow quills +floated them beautifully. In fact, it is easier for a porcupine to swim +than it is for almost any other animal. + +“What do you think of that?” Mother Black Bear asked her cubs. + +“Pretty slick,” said Woof. + +“Gee, I wish you’d taught me that way,” said Twinkly Eyes. + +“I’m going to teach you something else now,” said Mother Black Bear, +“Come!” and she started up a water maple that grew hard by. + +“Oo—ee! I can’t climb,” Twinkly was just beginning, when he heard a +curious rustling in the grass behind him. Turning his head he spied +Writho, the Black Snake, making straight toward him! + +[Illustration: + + “He found himself staring straight at Writho the black snake.” + + —Page 23 +] + + + + + VIII + WRITHO, THE BLACK SNAKE + + +Now Twinkly Eyes had been perfectly certain a moment before that he +could never climb that tree after his mother. + +The next instant there had been a queer little rustling in the tall +grass, and he found himself staring straight at Writho the Black Snake. + +He had never seen a black snake before, but he would have known just +from the smell of him that he was some one to avoid. + +“Climb! Climb!” rumbled Mother Black Bear from the water maple. Had he +needed warning, her anxious tone would have been enough. + +And Twinkly Eyes climbed—my, how he scrambled up that tree! He didn’t +once stop to wonder if he might fall off. He just drove his sharp little +claws into the bark and up he went, faster than he would ever have +dreamed possible! + +Mother Black Bear smiled to herself. She had learned something from +watching Mrs. Porcupine dive from under the little porcupines. She had +learned that if a youngster is given his choice of sinking or swimming +he will find a way to swim. Of course, she could have leaped to the +rescue the instant Writho became dangerous. She wouldn’t have let him +hurt her cub! But when she saw him wriggling through the grass she knew +that Twinkly Eyes would need no coaxing to take to the tree. In that she +was not mistaken. + +Meantime, where was Woof? He had climbed the tree on the other side of +the trunk, quite without urging, and he now came out on a limb some +distance from the ground. + +“Good boy!” said Mother Black Bear, patting him fondly. + +This was too much for Twinkly Eyes. Had not Woof caused all of his +troubles that afternoon by rolling him into the water? Then, too, he +felt that he was a good boy himself for having scrambled up the tree so +readily. To have his brother get all the praise! + +Fat little Woof was just licking up a delicious big black ant when +Twinkly crept up behind him. The next instant he received a blow in the +ribs that fairly knocked the breath out of him. + +The wrestling match that followed sent both cubs spinning from their +branch. But so fat they were, and so roly-poly, that they minded their +fall about as much as they would have a box on the ear. They just rolled +over and over and over in each other’s arms all over the ferns and +bracken, still punching and biffing one another. + +In fact, they rolled about so fast that the first thing they knew they +had come down on something cold and slippery that writhed out from under +them with an angry hiss. + +Woof, ever the quicker of the two, was back up his tree in a twinkling, +but poor Twinkly Eyes was for the second time staring straight into the +angry eyes of Writho. And the snake was between him and the tree! + +[Illustration: [Bear & snake]] + + + + + IX + “WHOOF! WHOOF!” + + +“Trouble again!” thought Twinkly Eyes, as he found himself staring into +the angry face of Writho, the Black Snake. + +“You rolled right on me,” scolded Writho. “Haven’t you any consideration +for other people at all?” + +“I’m sorry,” pleaded the cub, “I had no idea—” + +“You want to look where you’re going,” scolded Writho. “I could bite you +for what you did!” + +“Oh, please don’t,” squealed Twinkly Eyes, retreating toward the pond, +as Writho wriggled closer. Then he remembered Mrs. Porcupine and her +family, whom he could hear grunting “unk wunk” as they nibbled lily +pads. It would never do to back up too close to those prickly creatures. +Neither would it do to turn his back on Writho, whose red forked tongue +hissed at him from between two of the sharpest looking fangs he had ever +seen. + +“Truly, I didn’t mean to step on you, Mr. Writho,” said the little bear, +and his voice sounded very sorry and very much afraid. + +But he kept backing around nearer and nearer his tree, until it was +right behind him. + +“Whoof, whoof!” he suddenly roared at the snake, stamping a fore foot +loudly. + +Writho was so amazed that he stood stone still, and in that instant the +cub had raced up his tree in safety. + +“Why didn’t you think of that before?” laughed Mother Bear. “Writho is +an awful bluffer. He didn’t really mean to bite at all. The trouble was, +it hurt his pride to be stepped on.” + +“So was I a bluffer,” confessed Twinkly Eyes. + +“No, you weren’t, my son. You could have killed him with one blow on the +back of his neck, had he really tried to bite you.” + +“Wish I’d known,” sighed the cub. “I certainly had a bad scare.” + +“Now climb up here in the sun and dry your fur,” said Mother Black Bear, +“while I talk to you. As a rule I don’t advise bluffing. I don’t advise +making any threat you cannot back up with tooth or claw. Because once +people find you out, they will have no more respect for you. + +“But with a coward and a bluffer like Writho it often works. Most snakes +are cowards. All they want is to be left in peace. They’ll only attack a +big animal like you when you step on them and make them mad. They hiss +and stick out their tongues at us just for a bluff. + +“I’ve never seen Writho attack any animal larger than a hare or a +chipmunk in all my life. + +“But you’ll do well to keep clear out of the way of Mrs. Porcupine and +the whole porcupine family, big and little,” and she peered back into +the pond, where the three prickly babies were just following their +mother out of the pond. + +“Hello, there! I do believe they are making for our tree!” + +[Illustration: [Porcupines]] + + + + + X + THE BETTER PART OF VALOR + + +Mother Black Bear sighed as she saw Mrs. Porcupine making for her maple +tree. + +“If she wants it, I suppose she will have to have it,” she told the +cubs. “Wisdom is the better part of valor.” + +“What is wisdom?” asked Woof, the larger of the fat cubs. + +“Wisdom,” said Mother Black Bear, “in this case is giving up our tree +rather than having a fight with Mrs. Porcupine about it.” + +“But we got here first,” shrilled Twinkly Eyes, the smaller cub. “She +has no right to it.” + +“That makes no difference with Mrs. Porcupine,” growled Mother Black +Bear. “She has no sense of right and wrong. She is too well armed with +those awful quills to value other people’s rights. She just about has +things all her own way in the Deep Woods, because few of us care to +fight with her. It’s lucky that all she wants is her own stubborn way. +She is a ve-ge-tarian, you know. She eats no meat. + +“Just why she should decide on our maple tree—of all the trees she has +to choose between—is more than I can see. Though, of course, it IS easy +for the little ones to climb.” + +“Will they have to climb up there in the sun and dry off, too?” asked +Twinkly Eyes. + +“Where else would they get any sun?” asked Woof, gazing up at the forest +roof. In this part of the woods the trees all grew so high and so close +together that their upper branches interlaced, so that one only got a +patch of the sky here and there. + +Woof, peering through the green gloom, could see Mrs. Porcupine and the +three little Porcupines slowly making toward their maple. + +“Don’t let her have it,” he begged Mother Black Bear, who loved nothing +better than to see a scrap. “You could lick her, Mother!” + +“Well, no, I shouldn’t like to try it, not with you youngsters along,” +she answered, swinging her long head from side to side uneasily, as she +prepared to lead the way to the ground. “Your father might, but I +shouldn’t like to try it.” + +“Why, the old ‘Unk Wunk!’” + +“First she chased us out of our pond, now out of our tree,” complained +Twinkly Eyes. “Can’t we bluff her off, the way I did Writho, the black +snake?” + +“I should say not,” said Mother Black Bear in alarm. “Nothing on this +earth could frighten Mrs. Porcupine. Come along here,” and she reached +up and gave each cub a spank that sent them hurrying to the ground. It +was not a moment too soon, for as they landed on one side of the trunk +the Porcupine family started up the other, though for all the sign they +made, Mother Black Bear and the cubs didn’t even exist. + +But the latter’s peace of mind was short-lived. + +“We are certainly going to have a thunder-storm,” exclaimed Mother Black +Bear, as she sniffed the air. + +“Are you scared, Mother?” asked Twinkly Eyes. + +“Well, that all depends on how fast you cubs can beat it out of these +woods!” + + + + + XI + A TIP ON THUNDER-STORMS + + +“No sir-ee! I certainly don’t like the looks of things,” said Mother +Black Bear, hurrying the cubs through the green gloom of the forest +aisles. + +“Mrs. Porcupine is welcome to our maple tree! There’s going to be a +thunder-storm, and it’s going to be a big one,” and she pointed her nose +skyward to sniff. + +Out over the lake the black clouds were banking up over the sky at a +great rate. The cubs crowded close to her sides, as the rolling and +rumbling of clouds banging together came to their ears. + +The air was full of the peculiar fresh odor you always notice before a +shower. + +“Are you scared, mother?” Twinkly Eyes kept asking. + +Mother Black Bear glanced about, this way and that. + +On every side, as far as she could see, there were just five or six +kinds of trees, oaks, poplars, willows, maples, elms and ash trees, all +growing to nearly the same height. Here and there was a blackened trunk +standing gaunt and naked where the lightning had struck. For these +trees, as every woodsman knows, are the very ones most likely to be +struck. + +“I don’t like to get caught in these woods,” insisted Mother Black Bear, +starting off at a brisk pace along the southern border of the lake. It +was all the cubs could do to follow, paddling along on their chubby legs +with panting breath and red tongues lolling from their little black +muzzles. + +“I can’t keep up,” whispered Twinkly Eyes who brought up the rear. + +“Lightning waits for no one,” rumbled Mother Black Bear, refusing to +slow down even a mite. A nearer crash of thunder, as the first big +raindrops began to fall, sent her forward on the run. + +“Where are we going?” asked Woof, who rather enjoyed the excitement. + +“We’re going to find the kind of trees lightning doesn’t strike,” Mother +Black Bear flung behind her without stopping. + +“Beech, birch, chestnut, basswood!” She broke into a run. + +“Oh, mother—those white birches over behind Pollywog pond,” gasped Woof, +trying his best to keep up with her through the pelting rain. + +“Just where we are headed,” rumbled Mother Black Bear. “If only—we can +reach them—in time!” + +A blinding flash of lightning darted down the trunk of a huge old oak to +the left. This time the thunder seemed to come at the same instant. + +Mother Black Bear looked back over her shoulder. Woof was close +behind,—but where was Twinkly Eyes? + +She turned instantly to find out. + + + + + XII + A WILD MOTHER’S LOVE + + +At the instant of the lightning flash that came so near, Mother Black +Bear had been racing for dear life to get to the safe shelter of the +birch grove. + +She knew that lightning is not so apt to strike in a birch grove as in +the giant oaks where the storm had found them. + +But then the cubs had both been close at her heels. The instant she +missed Twinkly Eyes she turned back to find him. He lay flat on the +ground, his heels in the air, just where he had tumbled when the big +crash came. He was so frightened that he could scarce regain his feet. +His legs trembled till he could go no further. + +Mother Black Bear tried her best to carry him in her mouth, but he was +so fat and roly-poly and wiggled so at every clap of thunder that she +had to give it up. + +Woof, who was close at her heels every minute, was all for climbing the +tallest tree they could find, but Mother Black Bear selected a +comparatively open patch with no tree higher than its neighbors; and +there she crouched beside the cubs, covering them with her own body when +the big drops turned to hailstones. + +“It’s bad to be caught among the oaks in a thunder storm,” she told the +cubs as they waited. “It’s bad to be caught under any tall tree. Better +far, when a storm comes up, abandon your tree and wait out in the open +where there is nothing to attract the lightning. + +“There are only two things in all the Deep Woods that a bear ought +really to be afraid of, and one of those is lightning—for there’s no +fighting back,” said Mother Black Bear. + +“What is the other thing you are afraid of, Mother?” asked Woof, “Mrs. +Porcupine?” + +“No, I’m not afraid of Mrs. Porcupine, if I did think best to let her +have our tree. I just believe in keeping out of her way, that’s all.” + +“Then what is the other thing you are afraid of?” asked Twinkly Eyes, +whose trembling had ceased as the storm passed around to the south. + +“Men with guns,” said Mother Black Bear im-press-ive-ly. (When you say a +thing im-press-ive-ly, you try to impress it on other people’s minds, so +they will never forget.) “You can’t fight men with guns. That is once +when a bear just simply has to run away.” + +“That would suit Twinkly Eyes, all right,” laughed Woof, poking his +brother in the ribs. “Eh, there?” + +The smaller cub gave a growl. “Just because I didn’t want to learn to +swim!—I’ll teach you to be afraid yourself, one of these days! You see +if I don’t!” he growled in his baby throat, as he thought of how Woof +had pushed him into the lake. + + + + + XIII + TWINKLY EYES GETS EVEN + + +He’d get even, somehow, Twinkly told himself, seizing his brother’s +nose; and as the fat cubs clinched the storm was forgotten. + +Mother Black Bear gave them each a cuff, then stalked away, leaving them +unprotected in the pelting hail. + +Such clawing and biting and squealing as followed you never did see! + +The clouds rolled away toward Mount Olaf and the hail changed to rain, +and the rain suddenly gave way to a red glow in the West where the sun +goes to bed. But the cubs fought on. + +Mother Black Bear stood and watched, feeling that they were gaining a +training in the use of their muscles that would stand them in good stead +later on. She would interfere only if she saw that one of them was +really getting hurt. + +[Illustration: + + “Such clawing and biting and squealing—you never did see!” + + —Page 38 +] + +Now just behind the circle of brushwood in which they had sought safety +from the thunder storm there was an old root that sloped straight down a +15-foot incline. + +To this Twinkly was trying his best to shove his brother, and though he +was somewhat lighter than Woof, weighing a bare six pounds to Woof’s six +and a half, he was also quicker on his feet, and he did finally succeed +in backing the other up to the incline. + +True, there was no lake at the bottom, as there had been when Woof +shoved him down the bank in his sleep, but at least the teaser should +find out what it felt like to be sent rolling in a helpless ball. + +With a sudden wrench he sprang free, just as he had the larger cub +humped up at the top of the slide, defending his head with all four +paws. The result was that fat Woof rolled like a rubber ball straight +down the incline, whirling around and around till he came up, plunk, +against the trunk of a tree. + +But to Twinkly Eyes’ surprise Woof not only picked himself up with a +laugh of enjoyment, but he raced back up the slope to try it again, +ducking his tiny head and doubling up into a ball for the purpose. + +Again and again he tobogganed down that slope, Twinkly staring after him +wide-eyed. So that was the way he had thought to get even! + +He was so surprised that he stood clear up on his hind legs, staring. +Then he tried it himself! + +[Illustration: [Bears]] + + + + + XIV + A DIFFERENT TWINKLY EYES + + +Summer passed, with its lessons. And thanks to Mother Black Bear, there +wasn’t an animal his size in all the Deep Woods that Twinkly Eyes was +afraid of, when at last the long sleep came. + +Emerging in the spring from the snug den in which he and his brother had +drowsed away the long months, snuggled close into their mother’s furs, +he was a different Twinkly Eyes. + +He was both older and wiser,—and oh, so much thinner! His voice had +deepened, too. + +Soon he began hunting by himself. For Mother Black Bear now had two new +little roly-poly cubs. And sometimes he didn’t find much to eat. + +One morning he met Tattle-tale the Jay. + +Now Tattletale was not really a mean fellow: he was just mischievous. He +loved to play pranks. His tattling was for the most part a warning to +the smaller forest folk of the approach of their enemies, Cooper the +Hawk and Bobby Lynx, and Mother Black Bear. + +When any of these were out for game, he would fly from one tree-top to +another just ahead of them, screaming his warning at the top of his +lungs, till there wasn’t a hare or a wood mouse anywhere that did not +have a chance to run to hiding. + +Now, though, he was so furious with the Red Squirrels for smashing two +of Mrs. Jay’s pretty eggs that he made up his mind to get even. It never +once entered his head that he was the first offender. For if he hadn’t +begun the quarrel by robbing Shadow Tail, of his poor little hoard of +seeds, Mother Red Squirrel would never have harmed the eggs. + +If he had thought, he might have called it square, instead of making a +bad matter worse. But Tattletale didn’t stop to think. All he could see +was his own grievance. Besides, Mrs. Jay felt so bad about the eggs that +he had to promise her something that would soothe her ruffled feelings. + +The very next morning, just as the first pink rays of the rising sun +began glinting off the dew-wet leaves in the open places, he was +flitting about after grasshoppers when he spied Twinkly Eyes, the little +Black Bear, slouching along the little trail to Pollywog Pond. + +“Good morning, Mr. Bear,” he chirped. + +“Good morning,” rumbled the yearling cub, peering and blinking into the +treetops at the flash of blue wings. Twinkly’s eyes are very poor, +though his ears are so sharp and his nose sharper. He could hear the +squeak of a wood mouse a long way off, and he could tell just by +sniffing whether or not he would find those delicious sour-tasting ants +underneath a fallen log. + +“How do you find the hunting these days?” asked Tattletale politely. + +“Oh, nothing extra—nothing extra at all,” grumbled Twinkly Eyes. +“Haven’t had much of anything but roots and frogs so far this spring. +Blueberries aren’t ripe yet, there won’t be any nuts till fall, to say +nothing of green corn. And a bear of my size can’t make much of a living +off of grubs and mice, of course. I do wish I could find a bee tree!” + +“I don’t suppose, now,” ventured the Jay, “that you’d be interested in a +nest of young squirrels?” + +“Try me—just try me once!” chuckled the little bear. + +“All right; see that old oak?” directed Tattletale, flying on ahead. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XV + THERE’S MANY A SLIP + + +Fortunately for most of us, there is many a slip ’twixt the cup and the +lip, which only means that many a plan is laid that doesn’t pan out just +as it was expected to. + +It was so in the case of Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear. It was +lucky for him and it was lucky for Shadow Tail, the Red Squirrel, and it +was lucky for Tattletale, the Jay. For if Tattletale had really been the +means of leading the little Bear to Mother Red Squirrel’s nest, she’d +never have forgiven Tattletale, but surely would have gone back and +broken the rest of the eggs on which he had left Mrs. Jay sitting so +patiently. + +And if Twinkly Eyes had really caught the squirrel babies, as he wanted +to, he’d have made such an enemy of every squirrel in all the woods +around that he’d never have known peace again. For they’d have followed +through the treetops, everywhere he went, scolding him and warning the +mice and frogs and snakes to beware of his coming. + +But there was one thing Tattletale the Jay had not stopped to consider +when he led Twinkly Eyes to the tree in which Mother Red Squirrel had +located. He didn’t stop to realize that the squirrel babies were far too +clever to be caught napping. + +No sooner did Shadow Tail and his brothers hear Twinkly’s great claws +scrambling up the tree trunk than they promptly leaped into another +tree, and the bear had his climb for his trouble. + +Sliding down the trunk like a bag of meal, he tried the next tree, on +the Jay’s advice, but with the same success. The little squirrels raced +from branch to branch around him, hurling taunts and laughter at him, +till he really began to be angry. But it was Mr. Jay he was angry with! + +“See here,” he grumbled, “I do believe you have just been playing a +prank on me!” + +“Oh, no, I assure you,” began Tattletale, flying down beside the bear. + +But Twinkly Eyes would have none of it. He suddenly remembered how often +the Jay had warned his quarry away from him by flying just overhead and +shrieking, “Look out, look out! A bear!” + +With this memory bitter upon him, he made a sudden slap at Tattletale +with his great barbed paw. But the bird was too quick for him. He was +back in the tree tops before the little Bear knew what had happened. + +“All right,” said Tattletale, “if you feel that way about it! You can’t +do me any harm,” and he was off with a flash of his blue wings. + +For a while Twinkly wandered on, hungrily listening for the squeak of a +shrew mouse. Then suddenly he pricked up his ears. It was—it certainly +was the buzzing of a honey bee! It came from a little wild rose bush. + +Now a honey bee meant but one thing to Twinkly Eyes—a bee tree, and a +bee tree meant honey. He would follow the sound when the bee flew home, +and then—Um! His mouth fairly watered. + + + + + XVI + THE BEE TREE + + +As Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, heard that buzzing from the wild +rose bushes, he forgot his troubles with the Jay. + +Indeed, he fairly danced for joy. For had he not been waiting greedily +all spring for the sound of a honey bee? + +Now he would find the bee tree, and feast on honey to his heart’s +content! For of all the good things in the great green woods—mice and +berries and grubs, and fish and frogs, and sour-tasting little red ants, +to say nothing of juicy roots, and the nuts of autumn—he loved nothing +half so well as honey. + +He had had a taste just once, but he had never forgotten! + +While wrestling with his brother one day the spring before, when they +were three months cubs, their mother had suddenly called them to follow +and trailing straight after a bee her sharp ears had discovered, she led +them to a hollow tree where the yellow comb lay in great fragrant +chunks. + +Twinkly Eyes licked his chops at the memory. Then Mother Black Bear had +shown them how to hide their noses and shut their eyes when the bees +came too near these unprotected places. Otherwise the angry insects +could try as hard as they would, and they could not reach through the +glossy fur. + +Twinkly Eyes had escaped without a sting and he had decided in his +infant mind that Mother was altogether too cautious for any use. + +This year Mother Black Bear had a new set of cubs to teach and train, +and Twinkly and his brother were living in bachelor quarters. + +A moment Twinkly watched, and then the bee had all the honey she could +carry. Buzzing happily, she started back through the woods toward an +open glade on the other side of Pollywog Pond. + +Twinkly followed, his sharp ears guiding him where his little +near-sighted eyes could not, till his eager sniffings brought to his +nostrils the first faint fragrance of the bee tree. + +Now other bees began to join the first one, till there was quite a +little swarm headed for a hollow pine—a great, gaunt tree that had been +hollowed out by lightning and now stood, scarred and blackened, on the +top of a hillock. + +“It’s a pretty good world, after all,” Twinkly Eyes decided, as he +ambled up the slope. + +[Illustration: [Bees]] + + + + + XVII + TWINKLY EYES AND TROUBLE + + +“Yes, sir, it’s a pretty good world after all,” mused Twinkly Eyes, the +little Black Bear, as he neared the bee tree. + +Certainly everything about him promised a blissful day. + +Warblers sung happily from every treetop, swallowtail butterflies danced +above the wild rose bushes, and puffy white clouds shadowed the blue of +the sky. There was just enough breeze to feel good as it ruffled his +glossy fur. Then too, blueberries were nearly ripe, and the fragrance of +wild grape vines promised delights to come. + +But best of all was that heavy hum of a thousand bees carrying their +golden honey into the hollow pine tree. + +It was a tall old pine that had once been struck by lightning. One side +was scored and blackened; near the top was a small dark hole, into which +the returning bees poured steadily, while others poured steadily out +again. + +And oh! The wonderful odor that came from that hole! How it made his +mouth water! There was nothing whatever to indicate that trouble might +be near. + +Now Twinkly Eyes had been in his mother’s charge the first time he had +climbed a bee tree, and thanks to her warnings he had escaped unstung. +It seemed to him now, as he thought of that wonderful day, that his +mother had been altogether more cautious than there was any need of +being. + +But, no sooner had his claws begun to rattle upon the trunk of the +hollow pine than the buzzing grew louder, and it seemed to Twinkly Eyes +that there was a new note in it, quite different from the contented hum +he had heard before. In fact, he began to wonder if there might be +trouble after all. Still, he was not one to give up at this point! The +sweet comb would be worth a lot of trouble! He scrambled faster, till +one paw clutched the edge of the hole. + +Instantly the bees had settled thick upon his coat, trying their best to +ram their red-hot stings into his glossy fur, but it was too thick for +them, and Twinkly minded not at all. + +Suddenly a red-hot needle struck him on the lip. + +“Hoof—woof!” he protested, licking the burnt place. It hurt dreadfully. + +Another needle pricked him, this time on the tip of his protruding +tongue. This time Twinkly slapped so angrily that he flattened the bee, +but it didn’t help his tongue, and his lip began to swell. + +But there was no time to think about that. As he reached for a better +hold, his paw tore a strip of the rotten bark away, and he had to shut +his eyes and cover his nose with his paw while the angry swarm darted +about his head in a buzzing fury. + + + + + XVIII + TWINKLY SHOWS HIS METTLE + + +No, indeed, Twinkly Eyes was not the Bear to give up just when he had +one paw in the honey! + +For the same paw that covered his nose from the angry insects, as he +clung to the old pine, also brought to his tongue the most wonderful +flavor he had ever known. + +All the smarting and burning in tongue and lip could not spoil that +flavor. He must have more of it, and that at once! For what had he +watched and waited these long weeks if not for this very chance? Was he +to be driven from the feast by a little brown insect with a barb in the +end of its tail? + +No indeed! No mere honey bee could make him turn back now. + +Struggling still nearer that dark round hole from which the fragrance +issued he drew a long breath and plunged in. + +[Illustration: + + “My how his little black eyes danced with the delight of it!” + + —Page 55 +] + +Another needle point, red hot, stung him, this time on the lid of his +right eye; and if the sting on his lip had tortured him, this was +something far, far worse. He whimpered unhappily, and rubbed the sore +place gently against his upraised foreleg. + +My! how those bees did buzz and threaten him! But they couldn’t reach +him through his fur, so long as he kept his face protected. He clung to +his hole just the same, and by and by he dug his free paw deep into the +honeycomb within and brought a great luscious chunk to his mouth. + +Now that their little store was really disappearing, despite all they +could do the bees at once began setting to work to rescue some of their +treasure. Still there were enough left on guard to give Twinkly cause +for watchfulness. + +He grabbed another mouthful, and gulped it down, with the bees that +still clung to it. My, how his little black eyes danced with the delight +of it! + +If only that eyelid would not smart so dreadfully! It was swelling, too, +and he could hardly see out of that eye at all. + +His tongue was swollen, too, on the tip end where the bee had stung him, +till it began to feel so big he feared he wouldn’t be able to close his +jaws in another minute. + +But he would not give up! Not Twinkly Eyes! Not till every last smell of +that honey was gone! Now that he had risked it thus far, he reasoned, he +might as well have something to sweeten his pain. + +The little Black Bear was nothing if not persistent, and persistence is +a virtue that stands one in good stead in the wilderness. + +Then suddenly a most surprising thing happened. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XIX + DOWN BUT NOT DOWNED + + +A great many things can happen to a bear cub that he doesn’t expect to +happen. + +It was so with Twinkly Eyes. No sooner had he made up his mind to enjoy +his feast in the bee tree in spite of his stings when—zipp! Off came a +great long strip of the rotten bark! And while it disclosed even more of +the yellow comb, it also happened to be the very strip of bark to which +the little bear was clinging with his left forepaw. + +Now his right paw was deep in the honey at the time, and a bear cannot +cling in the top of a pine tree with his hind legs alone. The result was +that there was a wild scrambling, then the sound of claws rattling +noisily over the bark that they could not get a grip in, and finally the +snapping of a hazel bush that stood just beneath. + +Twinkly Eyes had come down like a bag of meal! + +He gave one big grunt, then a series of whimpers. For even if you are a +yearling cub and your bones are padded with great heavy muscles and +thick fur, it isn’t the most comfortable thing in the world to fall +crashing out of the top of a bee tree. + +Fortunately for Twinkly Eyes, he had hugged the trunk just enough, as he +descended, to break the fall. Then, too, he landed on the hazel bush, +which sprang under him in a way still further to soften his landing. But +even at that, things whirled about him for a few minutes there. + +Then he arose, a bit groaningly, it is true—what with his swollen eyelid +and his burning lip and tongue. And what do you suppose he did next? + +Most anyone would have felt that he had had enough adventure to last him +for some time. But not so Twinkly Eyes! That was not the kind of mettle +he was made of! + +Though his little near-sighted eyes could not see the crack that now +reached for nearly his own length down the hollow trunk, his keen brown +nose told him that the scent of honey was even stronger than before. +And, though his black sides already stuck out, his mouth still watered +for more. + +He sniffed longingly, then tried to soothe his swelling eyelid with his +paw. He certainly felt bunged up, to say nothing of the jolting he had +just received. He couldn’t see out of his right eye at all now, and +there was a lump the size of a walnut on his lip. + +But, oh, the delicious fragrance! The honey he had waited a year to +find! In his long winter’s sleep he had dreamed of it more than once, +and licked his paws in vain. Throughout the lean spring, as he grubbed +for roots, he had listened in vain for the very buzzing that now filled +the air all about him. + +It was too much! He would try again! + + + + + XX + TWINKLY APPLIES FIRST AID + + +There was no resisting that odor of wild honey dripping from the +comb—not to one who loved wild honey like Twinkly Eyes, the little Black +Bear! + +He must have more! His eye swollen shut, his tongue stinging like fury +with the hot flame of the bee’s sting, he pulled himself together and +started up the tree again. + +The bees were working like mad to carry away at least a part of their +store before he should devour it; but they were not too busy to try once +more to drive him off. A fourth bee gave up his life to thrust his +barbed and poisonous sting into his nose. But Twinkly Eyes only became +the more stubborn in his desire to clean out the tree. + +Bracing himself in the crotch of a branch just beneath the opening, he +thrust one paw in deeply and brought it back dripping with yellow liquid +and dotted with black bees. Bees and all went into his eager mouth, and +he crunched joyously handful after handful. Once a bee tried to come too +near, and with one sticky sweep of his honeyed paw he imprisoned the +insect, whose wings stuck so fast he could only buzz helplessly, +traveling back and forth from the place where the bees wanted the honey +to the place where Twinkly Eyes wanted to have it. + +Thus, in time, the treasure of the pine tree disappeared,—and my, you +should have seen how that little bear’s sides stuck out! It was a lucky +thing for him that the honey was all gone, I tell you! + +And what a sight he presented, as he slid down the trunk and ambled off +to Pollywog Pond! His face by this time was smeared with honey from ear +to ear. Flying leaves and little chips of bark clung to it as if they +had been pasted there. Add to that his swollen eyelid, which by now had +raised a great black welt, and his nose and his mouth all lumpy from the +poisonous stings, and one would certainly have said he had been in a +fight. + +But he felt so perfectly blissful with his sides rounded out with honey +the way they were that he wasn’t the least bit sorry. Not Twinkly Eyes! +He would have done the same thing over again the next day had he had the +chance. + +He knew just what to do with his wounds, and he did it. Searching along +the banks until he found some particularly sticky clay, he plastered it +freely all over his tortured face until he looked, if possible, worse +than before. + +But he felt a whole lot better, let me tell you. The wet clay soon began +to draw the poison, and besides, bears get over things like that quicker +than human beings would. So by the time he had had a nice long snooze +and a drink and a stretch, and the round yellow moon began to rise from +behind the firs, Twinkly Eyes was ready for almost anything. + + + + + XXI + MAMMY COTTONTAIL’S SECRET + + +Now Twinkly Eyes had a lively bump of curiosity on that furry black head +of his. He was much interested in other people’s affairs. And he used to +lie hidden by the hour, just to find out what other wood-folk were up +to. But of all the dwellers in that wilderness, none interested him so +much as the Cottontail family. That is, none except his old enemy the +porcupine! + +One day, lying under a clump of high-bush blue-berry bushes, in the +early spring sunshine, he learned a secret. + +“We have a secret at our house! Truly, truly, truly,” sang Betty +Bluebird, sitting on a fencepost with her red blouse turned to the +warming glow of the early morning sunshine. + +“We have too, we have too, we have too!” trilled Robin Red-breast, +running along the roadway with a weather eye for worms. + +And down in the marsh behind the barn, Conqueree, the Red Winged +Blackbird, was shrilling at the Crows like a little soldier in red +epaulettes: “Clear out! Or I’ll put you out! I’m Conqueree! Conqueree! +Conqueree!” + +“You cawn’t, cawn’t, cawn’t!” the crows retorted, trying to drown out +his threats with a hoarse chorus of denial, as they swirled around and +around him, keeping just barely out of reach of his swift beak. “We have +secrets we won’t tell! Such secrets!—Round, gray green secrets, four to +a nest, hidden away up in the tops of the tallest pine trees! And you +cawn’t, cawn’t, cawn’t guess what they are!—you cawn’t.” + +“Trust a crow to tell all he knows!” chuckled Daddy and Mammy +Cottontail, crouched on guard before a small round hole scooped out of +the turf and lined with bits of fur from Mammy Cottontail’s breast. “We +could tell a pretty cunning secret ourselves, only we have better sense +than to shout our affairs to the four winds,” and their slim ears +waggled wisely. + +Sure enough, packed snugly back under a blanket of dried grass, six of +the softest, roundest little wriggly-nosed babies that ever made a bunny +feel like kicking his heels in the moonlight slept with their long ears +folded close along their backs and their long hind legs doubled up under +their fuzzy brown bodies. + +“Do you suppose they’ve all got the same kind of secrets?” whispered +Mammy Cottontail delightedly. + +“Nothing to compare with ours,” sniffed Daddy, then stopped suddenly, as +the little Bear snapped a twig in his effort to creep nearer. + +[Illustration: [Rabbits]] + + + + + XXII + ONE OF TWINKLY’S NEIGHBORS + + +Twinkly Eyes had roamed to quite another part of the woods when the +twilight stillness was pierced by a sudden screech from up on Mount +Olaf. + +Mammy Cottontail’s timid heart quailed within her. Mother Red Squirrel +could scarce be blamed for all but dropping from her limb; and even +Father Red Fox looked anxious at the thought of the red-brown pups in +the rocky den on the hill-top. + +Far down at the Valley Farm, “Lynx!” whispered the Boy, wide-eyed, “Hope +he isn’t coming down to make trouble for our wood folks. He’s mighty +fond of baby bunnies.” + +Away up almost at the top of Mount Olaf a great cat, three times as +heavy as barnyard Tamas, was creeping, creeping, creeping along through +the underbrush, on great furry feet that made no sound. + +His broad ears bore little tufts at their tips, his jowls were squared +off with the most ferocious-looking whiskers, and his thick tail was no +more than a stub. + +“Children,” quavered Mammy Cottontail, “That was a lynx! Now, I want to +tell you something, and I want you to listen with all your ears, because +it is very, very serious! + +“Old man Lynx and his family live up on that mountain top, and while +they don’t come down this far once in a coon’s age, we’ve got to be +prepared! Because it would be a terrible thing if they did! Terrible for +us, and terrible for everyone we know! + +“I’ll tell you why he screeched that way! It was to scare timid folks +like us, so that we’d jump and betray our whereabouts. Yes’m, that’s +exactly what he screeched for! To make us jump! + +“Because, you see, when Mother Nature invented little brown bunnies and +grouse hens and muskrats and all the rest of us forest folk, she knew +exactly what she was about. And she gave us our brown coats so that we’d +match the ground, and couldn’t be seen by the big prowling creatures +that are always trying to have rabbit and grouse for dinner. And just so +long as we keep as still as field mice, we stand a fighting chance of +not being seen. + +“But Old Man Lynx knows this as well as we do. He knows that when he +goes hunting o’nights, none but the foolish will be stirring a hair’s +breadth from their own warm beds. And if there are no foolish ones that +he can sneak up on, with his great padded paws that tip-toe so silently +through the underbrush, he screams in the hope that it will startle some +of us so dreadfully that we will forget to keep still, and jump.” + +“It’s enough to make any one jump out of his skin,” said Daddy. + +“But that’s exactly what the Old Man figures on. And if you can’t +control your nerves any better than to jump when he screeches, he can +see exactly where you are! If he’s anywhere near, that is! Well, you +children had better go to sleep now. But just you remember this: Lie +still when you hear him scream, and ten to one he’ll never know where +you are.” + +“Yes, Mammy,” whispered six timid little voices. + + + + + XXIII + INTRODUCING BOBBY LYNX + + +It was not often that Old Man Lynx gave voice to the pangs of hunger. +For he knew that for every grouse or hare or baby fox he startled into +betraying its whereabouts, he scared a dozen so far away that it made +hunting harder next time. + +But tonight he was teaching some one else the trick. + +At the very time that Father Red Fox was viewing his own red-brown pups +with such mingled pride and amusement, and Mother Douglas was driving +Father Douglas out of the old oak tree, lest he should step on one of +the squirrel babies, and Mammy and Daddy Cottontail were taking turn and +turn about guarding the six brown bunnies on the edge of the cornfield, +Madam Lynx—away up on the top of Mt. Olaf—was just as proud as any one +of two great, scraggly kittens, as heavy-pawed and bob-tailed and +fierce-looking as anything that could be imagined. + +At first even these ferocious creatures were as blind and helpless and +appealing as any tame kittens could have been, though without their +grace. And as soon as they learned the use of their legs, they rolled +and tumbled, and growled and spat, and boxed one another about, fully as +mischievously as had Fluff, the maltese kitten at the farm, when she and +her little brothers lived in the basket behind the kitchen stove. + +But Old Man Lynx was kept mighty busy, let me tell you, as soon as they +were weaned and could eat meat; for the two youngsters were such +ravenous creatures and they grew so fast, and the mountain air was so +stimulating, that it just seemed as if he couldn’t bring in enough to +keep his share of the larder filled. + +So it was by way of teaching young Bob Kitten and his brother how to +hunt that old Man Lynx had screamed in such a blood-curdling manner. + +Decidedly Wriggly Nose and Shadow Tail, and even fat young Frisky Fox, +were going to have a very much harder time of it making their way in the +world, now that there was a new young lynx on the top of Mount Olaf. + +Twinkly Eyes was later to share a couple of interesting adventures with +young Bobby Lynx. + +[Illustration: [Lynx]] + + + + + XXIV + A BUNNY BALL + + +Mammy Cottontail, the little brown hare, had been living in the Old +Apple Orchard for several weeks now and the bunnies were half-grown. + +One moonlight night toward the end of June—the self-same night that +Twinkly Eyes had found the bee tree, Mammy said: + +“Children, we are going on a frolic tonight. So come along, Flap Ears +and Furtive Feet, and Wriggly Nose and Paddy Paws, and Fuzzy Wuzz and +Hippity Skip! Daddy’s there waiting for us now!” + +Through the moonlight woods she led them in one long line along a little +briar-grown rabbit path, the youngsters kicking their heels high in +their excitement. + +Now they crept under a patch of huckleberry bushes, and now they hugged +the shadow of a grapevine. Straight across the blueberry burn, they +galloped,—under the fruit-laden bushes, then across a corner of wild +meadow where the daisies gleamed high above their heads, and all about +them was the aroma of sweet fern. + +Their path ran zig-zag, this way and that, here circling back upon +itself, there darting off at right angles, till anyone trying to follow +it would have had an interesting time, to say the least. + +But after various turnings and twistings through the woods, and +doublings around the rocky hilltop behind Pollywog Pond, they found +themselves away back on the border of a little glade, an opening in the +trees where the grass was short and fine like that in a fairy ring. And +the moon streamed down, making it all as light as day. + +Here on every side were outposts, and the mere crunching of a dead leaf +by any creature larger than a rabbit would be the signal for the warning +tap-tap of the long hind feet of those on guard. + +Within the circle of the moonlit glade a dozen hares were already +assembled, and more were coming in from every side. + +Mammy Cottontail drew up in the shadow of a tree trunk, that the +youngsters might get their courage up before joining those in the open. +Soon there were half a hundred bunnies, young and old, together, +scampering about and having a glorious good time. They pranced and they +danced and they raced one another. They leapt back and forth across a +log and they leap-frogged over one another, kicking their heels to the +moon. There was never a sound to break the stillness save the chirping +of crickets away back in the meadow they had left. + +Then, so suddenly that Mammy’s heart gave an extra beat, there came the +warning thump! thump! thump! just behind them! + +[Illustration: [Rabbit]] + + + + + XXV + TWINKLY EYES ATTENDS THE FROLIC + + +Now Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, had no idea when he awoke of +all that was going on so near him. + +But ambling down to Pollywog Pond for a drink after his feast of honey, +the sound of his crunching over a dead twig was enough to warn the sharp +ears that ringed about the rabbit frolic; and from first one outpost and +then another came the thump, thump, thump, of a half hundred padded feet +on the forest floor. + +In an instant every one of the bunnies which a moment before had been +capering madly in the moonlight had sought cover. + +Mammy Cottontail and her little brood, watching from the shadow of their +tree trunk, were already hidden, hearts beating bumpety-bump in their +anxiety. + +For perhaps ten minutes they listened, their hearts sounding like trip +hammers in the breathing stillness of the forest night, in which no +creature larger than an insect moved, save the silent-winged bats and +owls. + +At least, that was what the listening bunnies thought! But Twinkly Eyes, +the sly one!—had heard the thump, thump of the outposts; and he knew +just what it meant. Although his little sides were already rounded from +his feast of honey, a bear is always hungry. And Twinkly Eyes decided to +attend the frolic. + +If Mammy Cottontail, anxious little mother that she was, had known all +that was being plotted in the head of the little Bear, she would have +started her brood for home on the fastest gallop. + +But Twinkly Eyes, for all his weight, had paws padded so softly that he +can, when he wants to, steal through the underbrush without a sound to +warn his quarry of his coming. + +Yes, sir, that little rascal can slip through the woods as still as a +mouse, and you could sit straining your ears but you would never hear so +much as the crunching of a leaf beneath his foot. When he really wants +to, he can move like a shadow. + +Now he had decided to attend the frolic, but not to join in the play! +Mammy Cottontail, never dreaming of the sleek black form that crept so +silently to the edge of the clearing, led her six out among the +merry-makers. Soon Wriggly Nose and Paddy Paws, and Flap Ears and +Furtive Feet, and Fuzzy Wuzz and Hippity Skip were leaping and dancing +as gaily as the best of them. + +The full moon, shining down on the little glade, showed their furry +forms so plainly that even Twinkly with his near-sighted little eyes, +could see them kick their heels in air. + +Crouched in the shadow of the very log where a little while before Mammy +and her six had hidden, he watched and waited. + +[Illustration: [Rabbits]] + + + + + XXVI + A JOKE ON THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR + + +Twinkly Eyes had his mind all made up, as he hid there in the shadow of +the tree trunk, to add a rabbit to his feast of honey. + +He therefore crouched with his great steel paw ready to give the one +crushing blow that would be necessary the moment the first brown bunny +was so foolish as to pass within his reach. + +He watched gleefully as he saw their sleek brown forms dancing so +care-free in the moonlight. “Hippity skip and away we go!” their soft +feet seemed to sing, as they galloped back and forth across a fallen +log. + +Saucy fellows, he told himself, as they flapped their long brown ears or +leaped high in the air. + +[Illustration: + + “Leaping high in the moonlight” + + —Page 79 +] + +Oddly enough, so silently had the little Bear approached that not one of +the outposts was aware of his presence. The wind was blowing directly +toward him, so that they did not even get his scent. + +Only Mammy Cottontail, prancing gaily around to the right, thought for +just an instant that she had caught an alien odor. Leaping high in the +moonlight, she struck her long hind feet three times upon the ground, to +see if she could startle whatever it was into betraying its whereabouts. + +At her danger signal, every bunny in the glade stopped stone still to +stare and listen; but Twinkly Eyes was not to be thus betrayed. He was +too big to be startled by her stamping, and too wise to come out into +the open, where every rabbit, once warned, could easily outrun him. + +Not he! Twinkly Eyes just bided his time, huddled down as still as any +frightened field mouse. He sat so long in one position that his legs got +cramped and he began to feel distinctly drowsy. Why on earth didn’t one +of those fat bunnies come just a wee bit closer? How weird they looked, +now chasing one another, now pausing to nibble a few grasses, but always +well within the open glade where the moon would have shown them the +first instant an intruder thrust a paw within the charm-ed circle. + +After a while, though, the wind died down, and with the bear scent that +now suddenly came to the merrymakers, there was a series of frightened +squeaks, and in less time than the twinkle of a moonbeam, every last +bunny of them had darted under the ferns or into the deep shadows, and +the little glade was as empty as if they had never been there. + +Then Wriggly Nose, more daring than the others, crept very, very +silently toward that dreadful odor. He peered amazed at what he saw. + +Twinkly Eyes had fallen fast asleep. + +[Illustration: [Bear & rabbit]] + + + + + XXVII + SCHOOL FOR BUNNIES + + +Yes, sir, there was Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, fast asleep! + +How Wriggly Nose and Paddy Paws and the rest did wiggle their long brown +ears at the sight! + +“So he had been spying on our frolic!” whispered Flap Ears with a +giggle. + +“Yes, he thought he’d have hare for supper. Why do you suppose he didn’t +catch one of us, when he came so near?” asked Wriggly Nose, his eyes +a-twinkle. + +“Huh, he knew we could run the faster,” and Paddy Paws threw his chest +out. + +“He was waiting to knock you down the instant you came near enough,” +said Mammy Cottontail, suddenly appearing in the midst of her little +brood. “Don’t go too near! He might wake up at any minute!” + +“Aw, come on,” urged Flap Ears to the younger bunnies. “I’ll bet you +can’t jump as high as I can,” and he vaulted fully five feet into the +air. + +“Bravo,” said Mammy Cottontail. “That is as good as I could do myself!” + +“I can leap farther,” boasted Wriggly Nose, and shooting like a coiled +spring from the ground, he landed a good ten feet away. + +“They’ll soon be able to take care of themselves,” chuckled Daddy +Cottontail, hopping over beside Mammy at this moment. “We must have more +of these drills.” + +“Yes,” whispered Mammy, “but don’t let ’em know it’s a part of their +schooling. Let ’em think it’s only play, or they won’t take any pleasure +in it.” + +“Right!” agreed Daddy Cottontail. “The great secret of training the +young is to make it play for them. Now when I was a youngster—” + +He stopped to prick up his ears. + +“What is it?” whispered Mammy, with an anxious eye on the little +bunnies, who were now playing leap-frog with the hares from the other +side of Pollywog Pond. + +“Didn’t you get a sniff of something, just then, when the wind changed?” +asked Daddy. “I could have sworn—there! A fox! A fox!” he signaled with +that tap—tap—tap of his long hind legs that sounded so much like +drumming on a hollow log. + +Instantly every bunny in the glade had dashed to cover, and gone +scuttling for home along the crookedest little rabbit road it could +find. + +For a Fox has sharper eyes than a bear, a keener nose and better ears, +and on top of everything else, he can run as fast as the fastest hare +that ever grew. At least, a large fox could, and even young Frisky Fox +had grown into a foe worth keeping at a distance. + +For the taint on the wind was that of Frisky Fox, out on a little spree +of his own. + +[Illustration: [Fox]] + + + + + XXVIII + A BOY AND A BEAR + + +Human ears are never so sharp as those of the wood folk who have to live +by their wits. So when the Boy from the Valley Farm heard nothing, and +saw nothing, he concluded there was nothing there. + +But Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, was following him none the +less, half fearful and half curious to see what this two-legged creature +might be up to in his woods. + +It was a pleasant afternoon, with just enough of a haze to subdue the +sunlight. The rain had left the earth fresh and green in the open +patches, and the air was sweet with the perfume of Steeple Bush and Joe +Pye Weed and pink Sweet Clover. From away down by the meadow back of the +Farm came the tinkle of a cowbell, the only sound to break the +stillness, save the faint lapping of the river against a boulder. + +The Boy stopped beside a pool half-shadowed by an overhanging log. His +sharp eyes could just make out a big fat trout that lay headed +up-stream, lazily fanning the water with his fins, to keep himself in +position. + +Now Twinkly Eyes, who had concealed himself in a clump of bushes a +little downstream, began to see the meaning of the long black pole with +the line dangling from the end of it. + +First the Boy took a tin can from his pocket, a can with holes punched +in the top. Selecting a fat white angle worm, of a sort that the little +Black Bear well knew grew in the wet places, he fastened it on his hook +and dangled it before the trout. But to no avail! That canny fellow knew +perfectly that no such worms of soft fat whiteness were ever found in +his stream. The kind of worms he sometimes found when there was a +cave-in from the bank were strong, slim black ones.—He refused even to +nibble. + +The Boy next tried a cricket, then a grasshopper, and finally a fat +white grub—but with the same result. Then, quite by chance, he chose a +black worm. + +But before he cast it, he saw a shining green turtle about as big around +as a good-sized crab-apple floating about, just a little upstream. And +carefully laying his pole along the bank, he made a grab for the fellow. +That roiled the water, and although he didn’t get the turtle, it was one +of the luckiest things he could have done. For when he cast his worm +into the pool again, the water was so muddy that the old trout thought, +of course, the bank had caved in above there, and he made for that black +bank-worm as if he had fasted for a week. + +A tweak at the line, and the boy was so excited that he swung his fish +fully two rods through the air, landing him in the very bush behind +which Twinkly Eyes was hiding! + +The little Black Bear gave a start of surprise, and for just one instant +his head was exposed to the boy’s startled gaze. + +[Illustration: [Fishing]] + + + + + XXIX + THE TABLES ARE TURNED + + +The Boy from the Valley Farm held his head high with pride. + +For had he not—on the self-same day—landed a big fat trout and seen a +bear cub! + +That would certainly be something to tell at home, even for a backwoods +boy! His mouth watered as he thought of the way his mother would broil +his fish. + +But alas, for the best laid plans of mice and men! When he found the +place where he had landed his catch, there was no fish there. Could it +be that he had only dreamed he caught it? But no, here was its tail on +the trampled ground. Someone had stolen it. But who? That was the +question! + +Why, of course, the little Black Bear whom he had startled out of the +underbrush! + +“The rascal!” exclaimed the Boy, half amused, half crest-fallen. Well, I +only hope he needed it more than I did. + +“Now I suppose they will never believe me at home when I tell of my big +catch.” He started whistling ruefully, as he set about mending his +broken horsehair line, which had got badly tangled in the bushes. + +Then his eye fell on something that made him pause, wide-eyed. Being a +backwoods boy, he was almost as keen at reading the signs about him as +were the wood folk themselves—that is, so far as he was able! Of course +his nose and ears were very much less sharp than theirs, but he had even +better eyes than most of them. + +Here was evidence his eyes could not deny, though he reached out and +felt of it to be sure. One fin of his stolen trout lay caught in the +very top of a hazel bush. + +“Now, how on earth did that get there?” he asked himself. People who are +much alone are very apt to talk to themselves. “If that cub ate the fish +down here, where the ground is trampled, how did he come to drop the fin +in a bush higher than his head?” + +[Illustration: + + “Oh you rascal!” shouted the boy, in delight + + —Page 89 +] + +Then a bright idea popped into his mind. “Why, of course, it must have +dropped from above. A sly fellow like that wouldn’t have stopped to eat +his fish down here. He’s carried it up in the top of some tree where he +could feast in peace. I’ll bet it was this very tree I’m standing +under—for how else could the fin have fallen on top of the bush?” He +raised his eyes to peer into the green shadows of the tree-top. + +There, sure enough—so high that the Boy’s sharp eyes could barely make +him out against the tree trunk, sat Twinkly Eyes astride a limb, and +between his clever forepaws he held what must have been the last of the +trout. + +“Oh, you rascal!” shouted the boy, in delight. “I’ll get you for that!” + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XXX + A CLIMBING MATCH + + +“You Scalawag!” the Boy kept laughing, as he stared at Twinkly Eyes, the +little Black Bear, in the top of the beech tree. + +“So it was you who stole my fish?” + +But Twinkly Eyes said never a word. He just sat still, like a bump on a +log, in the hope that the Boy might yet be deceived into thinking him +only a blackened limb. + +But the Boy from the Valley Farm was not to be deceived. He, and his +father before him, had lived all their lives in the north woods where +footprints are very clear—and the little Bear’s footprints led straight +to the tree. + +Moreover, he had long been wishing he might catch a cub for a pet. +Therefore, he started to climb the tree. + +Twinkly Eyes, who did not know the kindness of the Boy’s intentions—and +who certainly would not have wanted to be caught if he had—decided it +was time to show fight. + +“Whoof! Whoof!” he growled, slapping his heavy paws on the tree trunk. + +“You can’t scare me!” laughed the Boy. “You’re nothing but a yearling +cub. And I’m the best wrestler at the Cross-roads School!” And on he +came regardless. + +Now here was where ignorance was bliss. For while it was true that cubs +have been caught and tamed, the Boy from the Valley Farm had much to +learn about how it is done. And there was one thing he did not know. + +He did not know that if it came to a wrestling match with Twinkly Eyes, +the Boy would be the one to get very much the worst of it all. The cub +was so small and cunning, so like an over-grown Newfoundland puppy, that +the Boy would not have believed, had you told him, what a scrapper he +could be. + +Grown bears the Boy feared, but this little fellow didn’t look the least +bit dangerous as he clung to his tree-top. And the Boy was only +fourteen. That is to say, he held the firm belief that he could lick his +weight in wildcats—to say nothing of bear cubs. + +It was well for the Boy from the Valley Farm that Twinkly Eyes had no +mind to let him try it. + +Yes, sir, it was lucky for that Boy! + +As it was, no sooner had he scrambled painfully half way up the trunk +than Twinkly Eyes climbed to the very topmost branch; and as the Boy +still came after him, he crept so near the tip that it swayed beneath +his weight. Here he felt sure the Boy could not follow, and his courage +returning with a bound, he turned to “Whoof!” at his pursuer. + +“Ho! ho!” laughed the Boy from the Valley Farm. “I can shake you off, +you rascal, if that’s your game.” For you see his natural kindness was +forgotten in the thrill of the chase, and he was bound and determined +now to have that bear. + +[Illustration: [Bear & boy]] + + + + + XXXI + THE BEAR GETS THE BEST OF IT + + +Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, had crept to the end of the +drooping limb with an air of— + +“Now catch me if you can!” + +“You funny little rascal,” laughed the Boy from the Valley Farm, as he +hitched himself astride the other end of the limb. + +“I’m going to wait right here till you get tired of it. So you might as +well make up your mind to getting caught. You won’t mind in the least, +though, once you find out what it’s like to be tame. I’ll bring you all +the fish you can eat. Sweet corn, too! And every time you learn to do a +trick I’ll give you a lump of maple sugar. How’ll you like that, sir?” +And the Boy fished a lump of his favorite sweet from his overalls pocket +and held it out to the cub. + +But he received no response from the other end of the limb. + +Indeed, had the cub really understood what the Boy was saying, the +result would have been no different. For freedom means more to a +wilderness creature than life itself. Better a dinner of bark and his +freedom than a banquet of honey served at the end of a rope, Twinkly +Eyes could have told him. + +Then an idea came to him. He began shaking the limb to which clung the +cub. He shook and shook, till he was tired—but the harder he swung the +limb, the tighter clung the little Black Bear to the swaying tip. + +The lump of maple sugar dropped from the Boy’s busy fingers. The cub +gazed after it with a hungry sniff, then—as easily as a bag of meal—he +dropped to the ground, grabbed the sugar, and made off with it between +his jaws. + +The Boy stared in surprise, then let himself slide down the trunk. But +fast as he came, the little bear was faster, and all he found for his +afternoon’s adventure were the boy-like tracks of the padded feet, with +their doglike claws, as they galloped away down the wet river bank. + +“Well, I declare!” said the Boy. “If you haven’t got the best of me +again, you clever rascal!” + +But he didn’t give up the chase. Not for an instant. The cowbell found +him deaf, and for once the supper hour was forgotten. For now he wanted +nothing on earth so much as to catch that cub. + +Following the broad footprints till they turned off among the thick pine +needles, he fell to his knees to study the ground for signs of the +little bear’s trail. + +[Illustration: [Boy]] + + + + + XXXII + THE LITTLE BEARS GO FISHING + + +Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, galloped across the pine needles as +noiselessly as a shadow. + +His drop from the tree-top had taken only a second, while the Boy had +used up fully half a minute sliding down the trunk. So that, by the time +the Boy began looking for footprints, the bear was away up stream in the +top of another tree, peacefully licking up the ants from the bark. + +Meantime the Boy from the Valley Farm was running into a danger of which +he little dreamed. + +Being a backwoods boy, he knew that a mother bear with cubs is a person +to avoid. But he did not know that Mother Black Bear had brought her two +new cubs to the very stream along which he was searching for footprints. + +True, they were on the other side of the river. And the wind was blowing +in quite the wrong direction, so that Mother Black Bear’s nose could not +warn her of his approach. Thus, if he kept on the way he was headed, he +was due to stumble upon the little family very soon, and give both them +and himself an unpleasant surprise. + +For Mother Black Bear was mighty touchy where her cubs were concerned. +She was in a mood these days for clawing anyone who so much as looked at +them, so precious were the two fat babies to her. + +The last red glow of the setting sun was glinting off the river between +the shadows of the trees. And Mother Black Bear was catching fish. The +two fat, roly-poly cubs, Twinkly’s baby sisters, sat on the bank and +watched gravely, while their mother waded in up to her neck, paddling so +carefully downstream that she scarcely made a ripple in the mirror that +it made. A trout might well have taken her for a log floating gently +with the current. + +Her arms she held well down to her sides with claws spread. Suddenly she +felt a smooth form glide against her side! With one swift clutch of her +curved iron claws she had her fish, and was flinging it ashore to the +babies. + +The next fish she carried ashore in her jaws for her own supper. Then +back she led the cubs up-stream to where the riffles glittered in the +sunset red. Here, standing perfectly still in the shallow water, she +waited till a trout came by, when with one sharp blow on the head she +finished his career. + +Meantime, where was the Boy from the Valley Farm? + +Deciding at length that it was getting too dark to see foot-prints, he +became aware that the cow-bell was again tinkling and remembered with a +guilty pang that his father was probably waiting for the cows that +minute. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XXXIII + TWINKLY AGAIN MEETS THE PORCUPINE + + +Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, cocked first one ear and then +another. + +There was certainly a buzzing somewhere that sounded mighty like the +sound that honey bees made. The memory of his feast at the bee tree made +him lick his chops in delight. + +He followed the sound to the tree around which it centered, clambered up +the trunk, and was soon following the particular limb on the end of +which most of the “bees” were clustered. + +Twinkly, after all, had had but one experience with bees, and it is not +surprising that these insects should have fooled him. + +True, he had not expected to find the honey out at the end of the branch +inside a round gray ball. The time he had had that feast, the honey had +been in a great mass of comb inside the hollow trunk. + +But then, one never could tell. His ears told him that there were bees, +and he always trusted more to his ears than his eyes. + +But then, he trusted more to his nose than either of them,—at least +generally. + +At any other time he would have listened to the warning of his nose. +This time he wondered why he could not smell the honey as he had before. +But perhaps he didn’t want to be warned. He hoped so dreadfully that +there was honey that he tried to persuade himself it was there, even if +he couldn’t smell it. + +So on he went, straight to the end of the swaying limb! Then he sat down +to think it over. + +It was certainly very peculiar, that huge gray ball into which the +“bees” were pouring. For while a few tried to sting the intruder and +only got as far as his fur, so quiet had been his approach that most of +them were going inside as if he had not been there. There is no animal +in all the Deep Woods that can move as noiselessly as a little Black +Bear when he wants to. + +Finally, when every “bee” had gone into the gray ball through a little +round hole, he cautiously put out one paw and tried to reach after them. +But it was too small for him; he only succeeded in closing it so the +“bees” couldn’t get out. An angry buzz answered this move on his part. + +Unk Wunk, the yearling porcupine, who had been watching from the tree +across the way, gave a grunt of amusement. + +“Those aren’t bees,” he jeered. “Those are wasps. So you won’t find any +honey. I’d hate to be in your place when you take your paw off that +hole!” + +“Hello, there,” grinned Twinkly Eyes. “I’m not afraid!” + +He really thought Unk Wunk was trying to drive him away from his find in +order to enjoy it himself. He didn’t believe for an instant that it was +really a nest full of angry wasps he had imprisoned. + + + + + XXXIV + A GOOD SPORT + + +“No, sir, I’m not afraid,” said Twinkly Eyes, the Little Black Bear. + +He suspicioned that Unk Wunk the porcupine had been trying to drive him +away from his find, as he had from Lone Lake, in order to enjoy it +himself. For Twinkly Eyes really believed that he was in a bee tree. + +What else could these buzzing insects be, he asked? And where bees were, +there was honey. His mouth watered at the thought. + +The only peculiar thing about it was that the bees should have gone into +this huge gray ball that hung from the end of the limb. Twinkly held his +paw over the opening, keeping his “bees” prisoners, while he thought it +over. + +If it should prove to be wasps—whatever THEY were—how Unk Wunk would +jeer at him! He wished the little porcupine would go away instead of +sitting there watching with that spiteful gleam in his little black +eyes. + +But Unk Wunk had no intention of going away. While he did not care to go +to the trouble of taking the impudent scamp down a peg, he told himself +he would just as soon the wasps did it for him. So he settled himself +comfortably on his limb to watch what would happen when Twinkly took his +paw off the hole in the wasp’s nest. + +“I suppose that pin-cushiony fellow is just aching to see me get hurt,” +Twinkly told himself. “But I shan’t let him know, if I do. + +“So far as I can figure it out, there are about six chances to half a +dozen that this is wild honey, and I’m going to take one of the six on +it!” + +With an extra screw to his courage and a great show of enjoyment for Unk +Wunk’s benefit, the little Black Bear tore open the wasps’ nest. + +Out poured the angry insects by the hundreds! + +But Twinkly took his medicine without a yelp to betray to Unk Wunk that +he minded. + + + + + XXXV + BOBBY LYNX LEARNS A LESSON + + +Now Bob Kitten, Madam Lynx’s young hopeful, was due to have an +experience that he would not forget in a hurry. + +Never yet had he so much as crossed the trail of any creature he could +not get the best of with tooth and nail, if he did not paralyze it with +his terrifying howl. He therefore assumed that there was no one anywhere +that he need fear. + +But one night when the moon rose round and yellow from behind the firs, +Bob Kitten heard that curious gnawing again, and this time it came from +right above his head, in a birch tree. Not only that, but he got a whiff +of the most tantalizing scent! It simply made his mouth water! + +He peered into the tree-top, his round eyes gleaming through the shadow +in which he stood. There was a dark ball swaying far out on a slender +bough, and it did not look the least bit for-mid-able. + +Bob let out his blood-curdling yowl, hoping that the thing might be so +scared it would drop right down at his feet, and save him the trouble of +climbing; but the dark ball never moved a muscle. It simply hung there +gnawing the bark as if it hadn’t a care in the world. + +This angered Bob, and he was up in that birch tree, and out on the +swaying branch, without even stopping to think. One blow of his heavy +paw, and the creature would be felled to earth! + +But still the round ball did not even glance up from its gnawing. The +impudence of it, thought Bob! Didn’t the creature even know enough to be +afraid? He crept nearer. Now he could see the rather mild-looking face +and the fat, hairy body ending in a stubby, pointed tail. Its hair was +certainly coarse looking, gleaming lighter on the ends in the moonlight. +He had never seen fur like that before. + +Suddenly there was rattle as of so many dry twigs clacking together, and +the round ball suddenly fluffed itself out to twice its size, +confronting Bob with every quill erect. For it was a young porcupine Bob +had trapped in this awkward position, and he simply tucked his face down +between his paws till he was all bristles, and waited. + +And Twinkly Eyes, the yearling cub, also waited, in the shelter of a +neighboring ironwood tree. For this was Unk Wunk, his old enemy of the +swimming hole. + +This would have been an excellent time for Bob to have revised his plan +of action. But ignorance was bliss,—and with a yell of defiance, he +struck out at his adversary. + +The next instant he gave voice to a howl of pain, for his sensitive paw +struck a handful of quills,—and it was exactly like slapping at the +points of so many needles. Nay, worse, as Bob was to find,—for each +punishing quill was barbed at the end. + +Bob’s reaction came with the swiftness of unreasoning instinct. With one +lunge he was down on the branch below, and traveling earthward as fast +as three sets of powerful claws would let him. + +[Illustration: + + “He gave voice to a howl of pain” + + —Page 106 +] + +Bob certainly felt as if he had been shot, as he scuttled back to earth +with paw smarting from the slap he had given the little brown ball in +the tree-top. And for days to come, he was to nurse a foot that was so +sore he went on three legs, and picked out the soft spots. + +He needed no further teaching to keep his distance, when he saw a +harmless black ball gnawing a supper of birch bark, or lying all humped +up like a mammoth chestnut burr. No, decidedly, Unk Wunk had nothing +further to fear from Bob. + +It was from quite another quarter that he had to be on guard. + +[Illustration: [Lynx]] + + + + + XXXVI + TWINKLY WATCHES AGAIN + + +The little Black Bear was non-plussed. Surely it would be rash to try to +punish Unk Wunk. But young Frisky Fox was like many another youngster. +He wanted to find out for himself. Therefore, one night when Mother Red +Fox had taken the pups all out for a hunt, Frisky had caught a whiff of +that tan-ta-liz-ing smell that had made Bob’s mouth water. + +“Hurry! There’s our supper now!” he had yipped joyously. + +“Sh!—Do you want to scare everything within earshot?” Mother Red Fox had +whispered, as she nipped his ear. “Besides, that’s nothing we can eat at +this time of year.” + +“Why not?” insisted Frisky, though under his breath, for his mother was +still within nipping distance. “It smells perfectly great!” + +“It tastes great, too! But we can’t catch porcupines at this time of +year, I tell you; it takes deep snow to catch them.” + +This satisfied him for the moment. But as they came nearer and nearer to +the tempting odor, he sniffed and sniffed till he could hardly stand it. +Then suddenly he saw where it came from, just a little dark lump on the +ground—that’s all it was! It didn’t look in the least like a creature +that could run away. + +“Why, I could catch that fellow myself, just as easily as not!” he told +himself. “I wonder why on earth mother thought I couldn’t? I’d just like +to show her, anyway!” And he felt strongly tempted to slip on ahead and +try it. + +He did, in fact, tiptoe along behind a fallen log, till he came to a +little clump of bushes right beside the porcupine. And there he stood +watching and listening, and wondering for all he was worth why he +couldn’t leap right on the creature and set his teeth in his throat. And +the little Bear watched too! + +But Unk Wunk was also listening, and no sooner had he detected the faint +snap of a tiny twig down the hillside than he tucked his head under his +paws and doubled up under his prickles, and there wasn’t so much as an +inch of him that anyone could get at. + +Frisky stared and stared at the strange creature. Here was that +delicious-smelling supper right at his very feet, but—could Mother Red +Fox have been right after all? + +[Illustration: [Fox & porcupine]] + + + + + XXXVII + FOXY COUNSEL + + + “He who fights and runs away + Lives to fight another day.” + +But young Frisky Fox didn’t even fight. He just ran away! + +Yes, sir, there was something about that prickly ball, about the way the +quills rattled as he curled up tighter, that sounded ominous. + +It was just this habit of looking the situation over before he leaped +that was to make Frisky so much wiser than some of his neighbors. + +“ALWAYS LEAVE PORCUPINES STRICTLY ALONE,” his mother scolded, as he went +trotting back after her, crestfallen and shamefaced. + +“At the first touch, that fellow would have snapped his tail in your +face, and you’d have got a handful of quills in your mouth or some place +where it would have been a mighty serious matter. + +“Yes, sir-ee! It would have been a mighty serious matter! + +“You couldn’t have rubbed them out, for every move you made would only +have driven them deeper, what with their barbed tips, till you’d be +lucky if they didn’t finish you once and for all.” + +“My!” gasped the Red Fox pup. + +“Next time,” Mother Red Fox continued, rather rubbing it in, “you’d do +well to take your mother’s word for a thing. + +“There, now!—Listen to that!” + +Frisky pricked up his ears. From back up the slope of Mount Olaf, where +he had come so near making a fatal mistake, there sounded a rattling as +of dry twigs. It was Unk Wunk shaking his quills. + +“Unk Wunk! Unk Wunk! Unk Wunk!” he was muttering over and over to +himself. “I just guess people had better leave me alone, if they know +what’s good for them!” + +And through the moonlit woods, still in their April nakedness, the Fox +family could plainly see a dark, round form slowly and deliberately +climbing into a birch tree, where it resumed its gnawing. + +“Whew! He’s not afraid of anything! Guess I’ll keep away from his part +of the woods!” breathed Frisky Fox a bit unsteadily. For he could not +help imagining how it would be to have his face full of quills. “But +who’d ever think to look at him he could be so dangerous?” + +“He’s dangerous only when you attack him,” explained Mother Red Fox, +seating herself with the youngsters in a half circle before her. + +“He wouldn’t touch you if you didn’t come too near. He never goes out of +his way an inch to make trouble. He’s far too fat and lazy. He just +simply goes his way in peace unless someone tries to molest him. + +“Even then he just waits, all curled up like a burr, knowing there isn’t +the least bit of danger so far as he himself is concerned. That is, +except when there is deep snow on the ground, and a fellow can sneak up +underneath him, and grab where there are no quills. + +“Otherwise he knows there isn’t a creature in all these woods but would +get the worst of it—with the exception, possibly, of Twinkly Eyes, the +bear.” + + + + + XXXVIII + A JOLLY WORLD + + +Now there wasn’t a creature in all the Deep Woods that wouldn’t have had +the worst of it in an encounter with Unk Wunk, the porcupine—unless +possibly Twinkly Eyes. + +And even Twinkly would be hurt as badly as anyone, were he to get a +handful of quills slapped into his face with Unk Wunk’s punishing tail. +But Twinkly Eyes had a way of managing an encounter that was all his +own. + +In the first place, he had always found the world such a jolly place to +live in that his little black eyes twinkled at whatever they looked at. +It was such fun to climb trees and see what was going on round about +him, as he nibbled buds or shook down beech nuts. + +He never had one bit of trouble getting down, because when he was ready +he just let go and slid, landing like a rubber ball. That was the way he +took life generally! + +Then there were other delightful things to do. For one thing, there was +fishing in Pollywog Pond. It was full of frogs at this time of year, +while as for fish!—Um! There was nothing to beat them. Not even the +delicious sour ants that he sometimes found beneath loose bark. + +The Deep Woods were simply full of enticing things to do, and Twinkly +Eyes had the happiest kind of time all day long. Nor was he all +appetite. There was much that interested him that had nothing whatever +to do with getting a square meal. In fact, he had a lively bump of +curiosity, had Twinkly Eyes. + +But while curiosity is a great thing to have, if you want to learn what +is going on around you, it is also rather dangerous at times, as we +shall see. On this particular evening, no sooner had the great red sun +began to disappear behind the fir trees than Twinkly sauntered forth to +take the air and see what the prospects were for supper. Sleeping nearly +all day as he did, up there in his den on Mount Olaf, he seldom came out +much before dusk, and it was even later that Twinkly suddenly stopped in +his tracks to sniff. + +There was certainly a tantalizing odor in the air,—for those that have +noses as sharp as have the Forest Folk. + +What could it be? + +He climbed a log and sniffed again. It seemed to come from the top of +that old beech tree! He stood on his hind legs and peered through the +budding branches. + +Then suddenly he heard a low, monotonous grunting. “Unk, Wunk! Unk +Wunk!” that came from a dark hump as round and fat and care-free as if +winter had never been,—for the porcupine does not sleep in winter, but +climbs the trees as the snow mounts higher, and eats his fill of their +bark. + +Peering far up into the beech tree, Twinkly Eyes could see a +surly-looking fellow that rattled his quills as he moved, with a sound +like dry twigs crackling one against another. + +The fellow was the same who had laughed when the little Bear got into +the wasps’ nest. He was the same young porcupine, what is more, who had +driven Twinkly Eyes from the Lone Lake swimming hole the summer before, +when Unk Wunk had had his mother to help him! + + + + + XXXIX + WHO WILL BE SORRIEST + + + “Never trouble trouble + Till trouble troubles you.” + +At least that is a mighty good plan where porcupines are concerned. + +And Twinkly Eyes knew that as well as he knew how to climb. But that +odor was so terribly inviting, and Twinkly had such a score to settle +that he could hardly resist poking his nose in where he knew he had no +business. + +Sometimes young folks will do that way. They just can’t help it; and +they always come out of the experience wiser than they were +before,—provided, of course, that they come out of it at all. + +“He’s certainly fat enough, if it IS the spring of the year!” thought +Twinkly Eyes, hungrily, as he watched Unk Wunk away up in the beech +tree, chiseling off the rough outer bark to nibble the juicy inner +layer. “He can make a meal off of anything.” + +“I wonder—” and Twinkly’s eyes began to dance more mischievously than +ever, “I just wonder, now, if I could shake that saucy fellow off! It +certainly would be a peck of fun to see him come tumbling down like a +chestnut burr right on his own quills!” + +And the little Black Bear fairly rolled off the log in his excitement. +Picking himself up as softly as he could and tiptoeing over till he +stood just beneath the gnawing one, huddled up there in the moonlight +with a glint on the tip of every quill, Twinkly Eyes began, oh, ever so +cautiously, to climb the beech tree. + +He would climb just as high as he possibly could without getting in +reach of Unk Wunk’s terrible barbed tail, and then he would shake the +tree, and perhaps the prickly one would lose his hold and go pelting to +the ground—like a great chestnut burr! + +Now, as always when one’s nerves are at a tension, Twinkly Eyes was +conscious of all the little sounds and odors about him. It certainly was +a jolly world to be taking such a risk in. From away down the +mountainside in Pollywog Pond, his sharp ears could just make out the +croak-croak, croak-croak of the frogs as they called to one another or +gossiped back and forth through the April night. And from farther +still—from the Valley Farm, perhaps, came the faint fragrance of wood +smoke where the pasture lot had been burned over a bit recklessly. + +“Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk!” said the dark form above him, but without really +being aware of any one but himself. So confident was the little +porcupine that no one in all that wilderness could harm him, no matter +how they tried, that he didn’t even take the trouble to look beneath +him. + +Twinkly Eyes drew a long breath and began to shake the tree. Unk Wunk +went on gnawing, quite as if it had been no more than a passing breeze +that had swayed him. Twinkly drew another breath and shook the harder, +then dodged back to the opposite side of the trunk from Unk Wunk, +prepared to watch the fall. + +But still nothing happened. The self-confident one simply kept on +clinging with his long nails that had held him safe through many a +wind-storm, even, sometimes, when their owner slept. + +Suddenly he turned his head. His narrow little eyes looked Twinkly over +coolly, even indifferently. There was a bit of tender-looking bark just +below him, and he began slowly descending. + +Twinkly’s heart beat faster. What should he do? + +[Illustration: [Bear & porcupine]] + + + + + XL + TWINKLY EYES PLAYS SAFE + + +Twinkly Eyes was certainly put to it to know what to do. + +He had planned simply to shake the beech tree till Unk Wunk should fall +off. Then one of two things would happen. Either he would crack like a +chestnut burr, and supper would be an easy matter, or else it would be a +fight on level ground, where Twinkly knew a trick or two. + +But to have Unk Wunk turning on him in this fashion! It was not at all +the situation that he had counted on. For Unk Wunk wouldn’t for an +instant stop going wherever he wanted to go. Certainly not for a little +black bear whose face he could slap with a tailful of barbed quills if +said bear got too fresh. + +Up to this moment Twinkly Eyes had never dreamed that a porcupine would +actually turn on any one that hadn’t even touched him yet. + +As an actual fact, the prickly one had no intention of striking Twinkly +Eyes. He had simply been un-a-ware of his presence up to that very +moment, and unless the little Bear made a hostile move, he certainly +wouldn’t be the first one to attack. + +Should Twinkly make a sudden move in his direction, though, he’d turn +his back like lightning and slap, slap his armored tail, driving +whatever might be in its way full of quills. One slap would be more than +enough. + +However that may be, Twinkly made a sudden resolution, and it didn’t +take him as long to carry it out as it does to read about it. He just +let go and came down! Yes, sir, Twinkly just let go and slid! No careful +searching for a foot hold, not even hand-over-hand work—nothing but +ker-biff! And the little Black Bear had bounced down on his own fat self +like a rubber ball, and out from under that beech tree, as fast as if +Unk Wunk were going to try to drop on him—Yes, sir, he was somewhere +else before you could have said Jack Robinson! Something deep inside him +had suddenly decided there was more fun in playing safe. + +Twinkly always came down that way, falling perfectly limp, like a fat +butter ball, and it never hurt him any more than it would to roll off a +log. + +And it wasn’t till he was half way down the mountain-side that he +remembered he was hungry. + +“Hoo-wuff!” he sighed as he slowed down for breath, once more catching +the croak-croak from Pollywog Pond. “That was a most amazing fellow! I’m +not surprised that people keep their distance. I’d rather starve than +try that again, anyway,—at least I think I would. + +“I wonder, though—how I wonder what he would do if I were to find him +some day just plodding along the ground, and I were to flip a clod of +earth at him? I really am curious to see what would happen, the old +slow-poke! By ginger, I’ve half a mind to try it!” + + + + + XLI + TWINKLY EYES GETS A GREAT SURPRISE + + +Twinkly Eyes was certainly as full of curiosity as a pond is of frogs. +And though he went on and caught himself a nice dinner in Pollywog Pond, +he wondered all the way why Unk Wunk was such a curious fellow, and what +he would do if he were provoked. + +The idea of his going on gnawing as if nothing had happened, with +Twinkly shaking the tree for all he was worth! And then to stare down at +his tormentor with that cold in-dif-fer-ence! It was too much for +Twinkly Eyes. + +No sooner had he filled his tummy comfortably full than his courage all +came back to him, and he determined to go back and get a rise out of +that old grizzly grouch. + +These things he turned over and over in his curious mind, as he padded +noiselessly back along the furtive trail, his eyes twinkling at a little +plan that began forming in the back of his head. It would be worth +trying, just to see what would happen. + +Suddenly swish, thump, thumpety-thumpety-bump, came something straight +down the side of a ledge! + +Twinkly’s first thought was that it must be a man, for certainly no +Forest Folk would make such an out-ra-geous racket. Even a bear could +pad along through the underbrush without more than cracking a twig, +while as for foxes and rabbits and owls, and even lynxes, if they made +that much noise just once, they’d deserve to have all their enemies come +on the run! + +No, assuredly, it must be some creature that had no place in the +wilderness; and as it was coming altogether too near his line of march, +he decided to climb the nearest tree and wait till he saw what the +excitement was all about. + +Bang, bump, thump, came the sounds again. Then something struck a clump +of high-bush blueberry bushes in a way that crushed them flat, and a +great ragged ball of dry oak leaves emerged, with a sound of scraping +and crackling that was quite unlike anything Twinkly Eyes had ever heard +before. + +It went on a little farther, then brought up against a boulder. Eyes +fairly popping with curiosity, Twinkly slid down his tree-trunk, +bounding off into a covert of low bushes, from which he might peer at +the astounding mass at the foot of the boulder. + +After a time it began unrolling, and gradually out of the turmoil +appeared none other than Unk Wunk, the porcupine, who proceeded to +stretch his legs and yawn, quite as if nothing had happened. + +“If that is his usual method of traveling,” thought Twinkly Eyes, “I’d +rather not meet him, that’s sure. Wonder who was after him that time. +I’ll bet he never intended to do all that rolling. Or is that just one +of his queer ways?” + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XLII + TWINKLY EYES PLOTS MISCHIEF + + +“A rolling stone gathers no moss.” + +But Unk Wunk was just the opposite. In his roll down hill he had +gathered several pecks of moss and leaves on the points of his quills. + +Porcupines always do go by contraries. + +And Twinkly Eyes, the Bear, was no sooner convinced that that great +jagged mass of dry leaves was his foe of the swimming hole experience +than his little black eyes began twinkling more merrily than ever. For +here was opportunity knocking at his very door. + +Now Twinkly Eyes was different to this extent from most of the folk that +lived in the deep woods. He had a sense of humor. + +To Mammy Cottontail and her brood, life was one perpetual effort to +escape the jaws and claws and beaks and bills of the enemies on every +side. The mere matter of finding enough to eat had its dangers. + +While young Frisky Fox occasionally smiled at his own cleverness, it +took the fat little bear to find amusement in everything that happened. +In the first place, he was thus far afraid of nothing under all the wide +blue sky. He was so much stronger and better-armed than almost any other +creature in the wilderness! + +True, he wasn’t as well armed as Bobby Lynx, but then, Bobby had no +desire to dine off of any one that could fight like Twinkly Eyes. So, +being unafraid, Twinkly could enjoy life. And being happily able to eat +almost anything that came his way with relish, he had time to spare for +play. + +Just now, as he approached that bristling ball of oak leaves that had +come so near to rolling square upon him, his little black eyes danced +with mischief. Twinkly had a plan whereby he meant to have some fun at +the prickly one’s expense! + +He waited till Unk Wunk, indifferent to his presence, had stretched his +legs and begun lazily gnawing the tree trunk that was nearest to his +nose. “Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk!” he began to sing in his two monotonous +notes. “Here I am again, right side up with care, and I don’t care the +flip of my tail who sees me, nor what they try to do with me. Because +I’m dead sure they’ll get the worst of it every time.” + +“Woo-huff!” snorted Twinkly Eyes, sitting up on his haunches. “Sure and +I’m going to find that out for myself! I’ll bet I know a trick that will +take you down a peg, you old grouch, you! I saw my mother do it once +last year, and I’ve never had so much fun since.” + +With this, to which the porcupine paid not the slightest attention, +Twinkly arose and began padding cautiously forward. For a few minutes he +stood directly over the gnawer, but Unk Wunk accorded him not even the +glance of an eye. + +[Illustration: [Porcupine]] + + + + + XLIII + TWINKLY TEASES UNK WUNK + + +Little did Unk Wunk dream of the trick that was being plotted against +him, as he sat there lazily gnawing at the root of the handiest tree. + +To be sure he knew that Twinkly Eyes was there. He was not that stupid. +Only he felt so thoroughly entrenched beneath his quills that he never +even dreamed that the little Black Bear would dare to attack him. + +Indeed, if worst came to worst, could he not remove himself with the +same speed with which he had just rolled down hill? That had been pure +accident. Curling up at the approach of some prowler of the night,—he +had not troubled to find out who,—he had suddenly lost his balance, and +gone hurtling down the slope in the manner that had so startled Twinkly +Eyes. It just made one more trick in his bag! For his bones were fatly +padded, and he simply found himself in another place as good as the one +he had left. + +So once more he began creaking contentedly in his nasal voice his never +ending chorus “Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk!” + +Life certainly looked good from the porcupine standpoint, now that the +trees were full of sap, and the great round yellow moon shown softly +through the budding branches, lighting up every cranny of the forest +floor. + +The hylas in the marsh below chirped as musically as distant sleigh +bells, reminding one that grass was lush and green, and there would be +no more cold and snow,—nothing but one grand feast, more months than he +could look ahead. + +Beyond that, all he had to do was to keep quills out, and none could +interfere with his pleasure. + +But underneath, on the side where there were no quills,—as Twinkly Eyes +suspected,—the little porcupine was as soft and vul-ner-able as any of +the forest folk,—and it was this very fact that Twinkly meant to make +the most of. + +He therefore opened his offensive by flipping a clod of earth at the +armored one. That had no visible effect, so he flipped a second. The +third one struck the porcupine square on his unprotected nose, and Unk +Wunk gave a grunt of annoyance, and started to transfer his person to a +more distant tree. + +Swift as thought, the little Bear thrust a cautious paw clear beneath +one of the quilled sides, and with one blow hurled Unk Wunk against the +tree trunk. + +[Illustration: [Frogs]] + +[Illustration: + + “Hurled Unk Wunk against the tree trunk” + + —Page 132 +] + + + + + XLIV + TWINKLY EYES GETS HIS + + +If Twinkly Eyes had thought for a moment that the matter was ended, he +had reckoned without his host. + +He might well have called it off with Unk Wunk’s prob-able amaze-ment. +But the little porcupine, though somewhat bruised, was still so set in +his self-esteem that he could not imagine its happening a second time. +And, feeling the need of an im-me-di-ate stim-u-lant, he once more +uncurled from the ball he had doubled himself into in mid-air, and +resumed his gnawing. + +Imagine Twinkly Eyes’ astonishment, as he turned, his shoulder all but +dislocated from the force of the thrust, to find the enemy still +in-dif-fer-ent to his presence! + +Hot-headed now with the thrill of battle, he padded across to Unk Wunk, +who happened quite by chance to be nearly en-trenched between his tree +and a hollow log. Then, being nothing but a yearling cub, he quite +forgot the caution with which he had once seen Mother Black Bear manage +the ma-nœuv-re. Whereupon he flipped his clod again, hoping to drive the +porcupine from behind his log, and with a neat success, for the clod +landed plop on the pacifist’s nose again! + +With a squeak of righteous indignation, the quilled one thrust his +unprotected face into the hollow log, and there he waited! Even now he +felt no fear, only a desire to punish, to fight for peace. + +And Twinkly Eyes—rash fellow—lumbered closer, and once more thrust his +paw beneath the porcupine. But this time he allowed himself to come too +close. + +Quick as lightning, slap, slap! Unk Wunk snapped his barbed tail back +and forth, and Twinkly gave a howl of pain. + +A handful of the torturing quills had im-paled the tormentor’s scalp! + +But for one chance this would have been the finish of the little Black +Bear. It so happened that his head was down, and the quills struck +directly over the hard bone of the skull. Into this they could not +pen-e-trate. He was simply a bear with a mighty sore head. It was sore +for long afterward, though with his good blood and the life of the open, +it did finally heal, leaving him just a little scarred and more than a +little chastened. + +Henceforth Unk Wunk would be given a wide berth by one more of his +neighbors. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + XLV + BOBBY LYNX GOES FISHING + + +Now Twinkly’s neighbor Bobby was a sadder but a wiser young lynx kitten +before ever Whoo Lee the owl had finished with him. For Bobby had +climbed to the nest in the pine tree, rash fellow! + +It but put the finishing touches on his lesson when the bark to which he +was clinging with his one free paw gave way beneath his weight and sent +him tumbling. + +Not that Bobby minded, after the first shock of falling. Like all +members of the cat family, large and small, he managed to double into a +somersault in mid-air and so came down right side up, more hurt in his +feelings than anywhere else. Indeed, he twice broke his fall by catching +at passing limbs, and he need not have come to the ground at all, save +that he preferred not to occupy the same tree as Whoo Lee. + +In fact, no sooner had Bobby reached all fours in safety than he went +slinking off through the shadows, as fast as ever his heavy feet could +carry him. + +After a time he sat down to wash his face and lick the places where the +owl had clawed him. Then he realized that he was very, very thirsty, and +hungry to boot, and he made his way to Pollywog Pond. + +Here, unfortunately, he found Mother Red Fox and Frisky Fox and the +other four Fox youngsters just finishing a lesson in catching frogs, and +he was in no mood for meeting any one of that family. + +So on and on he crept, through the ravine and on down to Rapid River. +Here his mother had once brought him to teach him to catch trout, and +here, after drinking deep of the chill waters, he crouched along a +boulder to await the dawn. + +At the first faint flush of pink along the sky, the first lightening of +the shadows of the forest, and the first wee notes of awakening +warblers, Bobby stretched one paw out over the water’s edge, claws set +for a sudden swoop,—and waited silently. + +For so long that Bobby all but went to sleep, his half-shut eyes could +see no gleam of speckled scales in the silver water,—not, at least, +within the reach of the waiting paw,—though that paw hung over the rim +of one of the deepest pools, where trout were likeliest. The fish had to +come pretty near the surface for him to strike successfully. + +Then suddenly his mouth began to water, for a great fat beauty was +swimming straight towards him. Bob’s eyes gleamed hungrily, his whiskers +twitched with nervousness, and the green muscles tensed along his ready +forearm. + +Then a quick dart of his barbed paw, a flash of silver, and Bob had +squared himself with a growl to as juicy a breakfast as anyone could +ask. + +Great ravenous bites he took, growling as he crunched, to warn all +comers that a hungry lynx is not the person from whom it would be wise +to try to steal. + +The next instant there was a resounding splash in the stream behind him, +and Bob in his surprise jumped full three feet in the air, landing on a +limb of the nearest tree. + + + + + XLVI + A NEW ACQUAINTANCE + + +It is always annoying to be disturbed in the midst of one’s +breakfast,—the more so if one has just had a painful scrimmage with a +great barred owl whose nest one was trying to rob. + +It is therefore not surprising that Bobby Lynx looked murderously about +him from the limb to which he had leaped at the sound of the splash. + +It must have been a large animal, he reasoned, to make so much noise; +and Bob was after all but a kitten, whose life had thus far been one +long adventure from the day he had had it out with Unk Wunk, the +porcupine, to his recent falling out with the angry owl. + +Someone, he felt sure, meant to rob him of his trout, and, +unfortunately, in his surprise he had left it on the boulder beside the +River. + +The trouble with Bob, and, indeed, the entire Lynx family, was that, +although they are so strong and their claws and teeth so sharp, their +eyes are little good to them. In the woods, where nearly every creature +is colored like the tree trunks, they cannot see anything unless it +moves. + +Otherwise it would be too easy for a lynx to make his kill, and the +grouse and the hares and the toads and the meadow mice would have no +chance at all in the game of life. + +Not only were Bobby’s eyes not good, but his nose wasn’t half as keen as +the noses of most wood-folks. He would walk right past a grouse hen +without getting a smell of her. + +That is why Bobby was always so alarmed when a sudden sound came from +behind. He never knew what it might be until he saw the creature move. + +This time he had not long to wait. A glossy form came ambling by, and +Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, sat down on his haunches not ten +feet away, to devour his catch. For he, too, had been fishing, and the +splash that had startled Bobby was the sound of his great paw slapping +through the water at his trout. + +Bobby watched craftily from under a canopy of leaves, his gray-brown +body flattened along the limb. Then convinced that Twinkly Eyes had no +design on his person, he began to wonder if the intruder would try to +make off with his fish. + +But the little Bear knew the law of the wilderness as well as any one. +He knew that to steal another’s catch would mean a fight if the owner +caught him. Though he could not see the hidden claimant of the +half-eaten trout, his nose was keen enough to tell that another’s scent +clung to the rock on which it lay, and he had no mind for calling that +other’s wrath upon his head. + +He was just slouching past, pretending he did not see it, in order to +fish farther up the stream, when there was a snarl and a splutter, as +Bobby leaped, spitting and clawing back to his fish. + +Twinkly stared at the strange creature, his little black eyes showing +red lights, as he squared himself for the scrap that he feared would +follow. + +What had he done, anyway, to call forth such an exhibition of bad +temper, he asked crossly with a growl deep down in his throat. + +Then, too, Twinkly Eyes had never seen a lynx before, and the unknown is +always to be distrusted. + + + + + XLVII + THE HIRED MAN DROPS A MATCH + + +What Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, could not know as he stared at +Bobby Lynx crouched beside his fish was that Bobby was quite as much +afraid as he was. + +In fact, if the truth were known, Bobby Lynx was more afraid of Twinkly +Eyes than Twinkly was of Bobby. + +But, of course, it never does to show one’s fear. So the two only glared +at each other, green eyes staring into black, the bear cub poised on his +hind legs ready for a wrestling match, the lynx kitten ready to spring +should the other make a hostile move. + +Then Twinkly Eyes began backing away, ever so gradually, while Bobby +watched through half closed lids, a growl deep down in his throat and +his bob tail lashing from side to side. + +“What is the use?” Twinkly had asked himself. “I don’t want his old +fish, and I don’t want to fight. This isn’t my idea of going fishing at +all! Though, of course, if no one had been there to claim that trout, I +certainly shouldn’t have let it go to waste.” + +Then suddenly both youngsters turned to sniff, as a new odor stole +through the forest on the breath of the wind,—an odor so acrid and +alarming that their fear of each other was forgotten in the face of a +common peril. + +With the smell came a soft gray cloud floating through the aisles of +trees from Pollywog Pond. + +Here the timber was chiefly hardwood, though an occasional birch reached +white arms up against the green, and a tangle of high-bush blueberries +and wild blackberry vines grew densely to as high as Twinkly Eyes could +see from on tiptoe. + +It had been a dry spring in the region around Mount Olaf. For weeks +there had been no rain, and though Rapid River still ran broad and full +from the thaw, the hot sun had drunk up every drop of moisture it could +draw from the forest floor of dead leaves and fallen branches. + +On the very night that the Red Fox family had gone frogging at Pollywog +Pond, and Unk Wunk the Porcupine had amused himself by rolling down +hill, and Bobby Lynx had met Twinkly Eyes on a fishing trip, the Hired +Man at the Farm had set forth an hour before cock-crow to set a line of +skunk traps. + +Following the Old Logging Road toward Pollywog Pond, he had paused on a +fallen log to tie his shoe-string and light his pipe, and as he rose he +had given his match a shake and thrown it away. + +Now of course the Hired Man meant to put his match out before he dropped +it, but he didn’t look behind him to make sure. No sooner was his back +turned than a thin flame sprung up in the dead leaves beside the fallen +log, and soon a healthy bon-fire was snapping and curling around the +log. + +A white birch, with its paper bark, had caught a spark and started a red +snake of flame that crept along the ground with the wind, first back +towards the Farm, then around to the River. And before ever the Hired +Man could race back home for help, the fire had gained such headway that +the whole area between the pond and the river was ablaze and the +underbrush going like kindling. + +It was the smoke of this red ruin that had so terrified both bear and +lynx that they forgot their feud. + +[Illustration: [Bear & lynx]] + + + + + XLVIII + THE FOREST AFLAME + + +It takes a common peril to make people forget their hard feelings toward +one another. + +Bobby Lynx was quite as willing as Twinkly Eyes to overlook the little +matter of the fish, once they had sniffed the acrid smoke that now came +creeping between the aisles of trees. + +It was not big as forest fires go, and the trees were mostly hardwood, +which go slowly. But the fire lay between Bobby and home. It was to the +Lynx kitten a peril new to his experience. + +His first thought was concealment, and he leaped into a tall pine and +clambered to the topmost branches that would hold him. + +Twinkly Eyes, mere curiosity once the first shock of his alarm was past, +went shambling through the underbrush to see whence came that pungent +cloud. + +What Bobby saw from his outlook was a wall of fire. This advanced +rapidly on the freshening wind. It devoured the underbrush that covered +the forest floor, and it all but outsped the creatures he dimly saw were +fleeing before it. + +Here leaping flames climbed to the very tree-tops on the arms of the +paper birches, and even the hard pines gave up their deadwood and +smaller branches. + +Long arms of scarlet raced through the open patches, devouring the dead +pine needles and dry oak leaves. Their snapping and crackling widened +Bobby’s eyes with terror as he flattened himself along his limb. + +Soon, as Twinkly Eyes discovered before he had gone very far, the +thickening smoke cloud was becoming uncomfortably hot. Its breath stung +his nostrils and closed his eyes, and he gasped and stumbled, and +finally turned back in one mad dash of terror. + +Bobby turned to peer longingly across the river, which here stretched +wider than he dared to swim. + +He feared the water almost more than these unknown creatures of fire and +smoke that seemed to be circling in on him now from every other side. + +He crept stealthily down his pine tree on the side opposite the flames, +and on to another that all but overhung the water, and there he lay, +green eyes dilating nervously as he peered down at the scene around him. + +Twinkly Eyes dashed first up-stream, then down, in his anxiety to get +back to his den on Mount Olaf. For added to all his other troubles it +was by now broad daylight, and he wanted to hide himself away and sleep +till the shelter of the dark came round again. But there was no way out, +and he took his stand at the edge of the water, eying the swift current, +loath to venture the long swim to the other shore unless compelled to. + +[Illustration: [Flames]] + + + + + XLIX + IN THE FACE OF A COMMON PERIL + + +As the morning wore on, the wind grew stronger, blowing the leaping +flames straight toward the river bank, where Bob and Twinkly Eyes +huddled side by side in terror. + +It was not a big fire, but it swept through the dry underbrush of the +hardwood grove from Pollywog Pond to the plowed fields at the Valley +Farm, and from the Old Logging road to the river. + +Had the trees not been of hardwood, a fire might have started that would +have eaten its way over miles of woodland. As it was, everyone at the +farm turned out with wet gunny sacks to beat back every flame that +leaped across the road as it wound from the pond on around at right +angles to the river. It should at least be kept within those natural +boundaries. + +But to the Forest Folk whose homes were in the burned area, the fire +seemed the most terrible thing that had ever happened to them. To those +who crouched, waiting, on the bank of the river, the approaching flames +and the long swim across the current to the opposite bank seemed equally +impossible to face. Bobby Lynx, coughing and blinking in the acrid +smoke, as he clung to the limb of his pine tree, felt, catlike, that it +would scarce be worse to stay where he was than to plunge into the +water. + +Twinkly Eyes, sitting like a black stump beneath, stared with amazement +as a band of hares, cousins of Mammy Cottontail, came galloping madly +before the racing flames. They were gasping for breath, their round eyes +bulging in terror and their hearts beating like trip-hammers in their +furry chests. + +One scatter-brained brown bunny so far lost his wits as to circle around +and go dashing straight back into the advancing fire, while another +sought shelter fairly between Twinkly’s black feet. But the little Bear +was far too interested in the crackle of the flames to notice. + +Almost on the heels of the hares loped Red Fox and his family, whom a +sudden shift of the wind had cut off from safety. But they likewise gave +the hares no more than a passing glance, but sat down opposite them at +the river’s brink to watch, and cough, and blink their smoke-stung eyes. + +Next came Mother Red Squirrel and others of her kin, leaping from branch +to branch above the smoking ground till they had taken up their places +directly above the stream’s edge. + +Here, too, came Betty Bluebird and Conqueree the Blackbird, and Mother +Grouse Hen, hurrying her fledglings along as best she could. Jim Crow +and his black brothers, frightened from their nest in the top of the +Pine, had gone soaring high above the smoke line, and so off to a point +from which they could watch in safety. + +There were other creatures, too, who sought haven along the River Bank. +There was Writho the Black Snake, and Timothy Field Mouse, and Fleet +Foot, the Spotted Fawn who had strayed too far from her mother. The +little deer huddled with the hares as far from Twinkly Eyes and Red Fox +as they could crowd, without actually leaping off the bank. + +The Red Squirrel family hid out of sight of both Bobby Lynx and Red Fox, +and Timothy Field Mouse and his deadliest enemy, the Black Snake, both +tried to hide in the same hole under the very nose of Red Fox, without +any one of the three having a thought beyond their common peril. + +[Illustration: [Fleeing]] + + + + + L + WHILE THERE IS LIFE THERE IS HOPE + + +Yes, Sir, “while there is life there is hope!” But things certainly +looked bad for Bobby Lynx and Twinkly Eyes and Red Fox and his family as +the flames licked nearer and nearer through the circling trees. + +The heat fairly seared their eyeballs, the smoke set them gasping every +time the wind turned their way, and the huge sparks that now began to +drop on their fur added pain to their terror. + +Yet there was no way out, save the River which here ran wide and deep. + +But if the larger animals were terror-stricken, imagine the feelings of +Mother Red Squirrel’s family, and the brown bunnies, and Fleet Foot the +Fawn, and Writho the Black Snake, and Timothy Field Mouse! For would +they not escape the red flames and the cutting smoke but to furnish +luncheon for their enemies, at whose very feet they crouched? + +Of a sudden, as a blazing brand fell hissing beside Red Fox, he took a +good grip on his resolution and plunged into the stream, and yelped to +his family to follow. It was, after all, the only thing to do, as he had +known for some time. His hesitation had lain in the fact of the puppies’ +inexperience in the water. But after all, the youngsters of the +wilderness could nearly always swim, once they were forced to it. And +there was Mother Red Fox and himself to help the pups along, should they +become too tired to make the entire distance. + +Young Frisky Fox splashed in like any healthy puppy, his fat legs +paddling so energetically that he had little difficulty in keeping up +with his father. There did come a moment, however, when he felt as if he +would have to rest or sink, and with one of these sudden bright ideas +that make the foxes the cleverest creatures in all the wilderness, he +grabbed the tip of his father’s plumy tail in his teeth and clung. The +wiry fellow, from whom Frisky had inherited both strength and cunning, +cut across the current and towed him to the shallow waters of the +opposite bank. + +Seeing Frisky, Mother Red Fox gave a sharp command to the youngest pup, +while she towed him the same way. Then both parents swam back to aid the +remaining youngsters, one by a timely word of encouragement, another by +holding to his ear, and the third as they had aided the first two. + +Seeing the Fox family making so valiantly for safety, Twinkly Eyes flung +himself into their wake, and began gasping and snorting in his fight +with the current. Bobby Lynx, half blinded by the smoke, peered vaguely +at the sounds beneath his tree, then, with the courage of desperation, +leaped far out into the unknown element. + +But so ill do the great cats take to water that his head went under, and +he felt that now surely it must be all up with him. Then, suddenly, he +clutched at the little Bear’s haunches and was half towed to shore.—Thus +ended their quarrel! + + + + + LI + THE BOY FROM THE VALLEY FARM + + +Landed on the other shore, Twinkly hid in a tree-top to see what else he +might see. + +Now it often looks darkest just before daylight. + +That was the way in this case. The little group of refugees on the shore +were all but ready to leap into the river, preferring death by drowning, +as the flames swept nearer through the underbrush, snapping and +crackling and spitting red sparks. + +The wind had veered upstream, driving the smoke with it, but the heat +was fast becoming unbearable. + +The brown bunnies, huddling close together in their terror, were not +built to swim at all. Fleet Foot, the spotted fawn, was yet too young +for the water, having indeed acquired the art of walking but a few days +before. While Mother Grouse Hen could have flown across, her chicks +could not, and she of course would not leave them. + +All these stared with wide, hopeless eyes as the flames ate their way +toward them. Their throats were parched and their hearts beat visibly. + +Mother Douglas Squirrel and her family were perched on the very tipmost +branch of the tree nearest the water, and there they raged and scolded. +Shadow Tail measured the distance to the nearest tree of the opposite +shore, half tempted to try the leap at the risk of landing in +mid-stream, but Mother Douglas was too wise to attempt it, for any +squirrel with half an eye could have seen it was impossible. + +Then, suddenly, up the stream came creaking a broad, flat-bottomed +row-boat, and at its oar locks sat the Boy from the Valley Farm and his +sister,—the Little Girl on one side of the broad seat, he on the other. + +The two children being too small to aid the men with the fire-fighting, +back along the Old Logging Road, had ventured up here on their own +account, to see if any sparks had leaped across the river to the dry +timber on the other side. Once they had seen a flying brand which the +Boy had gone ashore to quench with mud from the river’s bank. + +Now they rounded the bend just in time to see Twinkly Eyes, the little +Black Bear, and his passenger, Bobby Lynx, climb up the farther bank and +dart off to hiding. + +“Oh, see!” cried the Girl, pityingly, as she saw the group on the river +bank. + +“Let’s get ’em!” proposed the Boy. + +“Let’s!” agreed the Girl, and the pair rowed swiftly up the doomed right +bank and began grabbing the trembling hares by their long brown ears, +dropping them into the bottom of the boat. + +Once the leaders were aboard, some sign seemed to go the rounds, and the +rest of the bunnies did not wait for assistance, but went scuttling over +the side of the boat so fast that the children could scarce find a place +to put their feet. + +At that instant a flaming branch fell hissing almost into the boat. + +“Pull out, quick!” gasped the Boy, swinging the boat around. + +“Oh, but the Fawn!” wailed the Girl. “We can’t leave the Fawn!” + +“We’ve got to!” commanded the boy, sternly, “or that whole tree will be +down on us!” + +[Illustration: [Fleeing]] + + + + + LII + TWINKLY’S FELLOW REFUGEES + + +The Boy’s judgment told him it was not safe for them to linger a moment +longer so near the racing flames. Any moment the wind might shift and +blind them with its yellow smoke cloud, and it was hard enough at best +for the children to handle the heavy row-boat. + +But there stood Fleet Foot, her broad ears turned inquiringly at the +newcomers, whom she was too young to fear, her great velvet eyes round +with terror and her pink nose twitching nervously. + +She was tinier than a three weeks’ calf, and nothing could have been +lovelier than her white-spotted red-brown coat shading into light tan on +throat and chest. + +[Illustration: + + “He lifted her bodily into the boat” + + —Page 161 +] + +The Boy dropped his oar again and stepped ashore, while his sister held +the boat, with its cargo of brown bunnies, in position, by reaching out +and clinging to an overhanging bush. + +In all her three weeks of life the Fawn had never laid eyes on human +kind, nor, indeed, on any creature larger than herself save her mother, +the Doe. She therefore raised trusting eyes to the Boy, licking his palm +as he rubbed her nose, and she made no protest when he lifted her bodily +into the boat, shoving the hares aside till he had found a place for her +at the Little Girl’s feet. + +Just at that moment they caught sight of the Squirrels. Mother Red +Squirrel and Shadow Tail and his brothers clung to a branch almost above +their heads, and their cries grew shrill as a creeping flame began +ascending the very tree they were on. + +“Oh, please see if you can’t get them!” begged the Girl, calling and +coaxing to make them come down. The Boy tried, too, but in vain. Poor +Mother Red Squirrel didn’t understand, and she feared the children quite +as much as she feared the flames. + +In vain, too, the Boy pursued the Grouse chicks, while the sparks began +showering all around them. + +“Pull out, quick!” he cried. The Girl’s eyes filled as she thought of +Shadow Tail, the squirrel baby she had once held in her hand. + +Mother Grouse Hen had clucked her chicks beneath her wings and now +crouched despairingly on the wet mud of the jutting bank. She would +protect them with her own body till the last possible moment. + +“I have it!” exclaimed the Boy, bending to one strong oar while his +sister took the other. “Let’s get across quick, and then I’ll show you!” + +[Illustration: [Hen]] + + + + + LIII + A WAY FOR THE SQUIRREL FAMILY + + +For the space of four minutes the children bent to their oars, while the +breath of the flames on the shore behind them scorched their cheeks and +parched their nostrils, and the fire ate its way through the brush to +the very water’s edge. + +The bunnies fairly stood on top of one another till they filled the +rowboat with brown billows of soft fur. And Fleet Foot, the little +spotted Fawn, crouched with soft eyes fastened appealingly on the +children’s faces. In all the wilderness there is no creature so innocent +and so helpless and so altogether lovely as a spotted fawn. So at least +the children thought. + +“Poor, poor bunnies!” sighed the Girl, as one was all but crowded over +the edge of the boat. + +“Aw, they’ll be all right once they’re on the other side,” said the Boy. +“Get in there, you!” and he shoved the hare back from the edge with his +foot. His voice was just gruff enough to hide the pity in it. + +But once drawn up on the opposite bank, he paused not even to help lift +the bunnies out, but grabbed the belt axe that a backwoods boy always +carries, and went hacking away at a slender sapling just opposite the +tree the squirrels were on. + +He made quick work of it, I can tell you, for there wasn’t a moment to +lose. Notching it first on the side toward the river, he took care that +it fell so that its slender top reached into the far-hanging branch on +which the little family had taken its last stand. + +As the sapling landed, Mother Red Squirrel’s black eyes snapped with a +sudden hope. I can assure you she needed no second invitation to use the +bridge thus mir-a-cu-lous-ly thrown across to her. With a glad bark to +the youngsters to follow, she raced down the sapling across the stream, +Shadow Tail at her heels. They didn’t even stop to draw breath till they +had scrambled up a pine tree set well back from the sight and the smell +of the fire across the stream. + +The Boy’s eyes shone. “It didn’t take them long to make up their minds,” +he chuckled. + +“Now, get out of here,” and he lifted the last of the bunnies out of the +boat, to go bounding off into the depths of the green woods beyond,—far +too fast for either Bob or Twinkly, I can assure you. + +For the truce of their common peril was over, and the hares well knew if +they didn’t get into hiding before Bobby Lynx got sight of them, he’d +celebrate his escape on one of his fellow-refugees. + +Back on the wet mud of the bank they had left, Mother Grouse Hen seemed +in a fair way to pull through after all, for the fire had stopped at the +River’s brink, and there was now but one great vista of charred and +smoking tree trunks for as far as the eye could reach. + +[Illustration: [Squirrels]] + + + + + LIV + WHAT HAPPENED TO FLEET FOOT + + +“What worries me,” said the Boy, with an amused glance after the fleeing +hares, “is what we are going to do with the Fawn. She’s far too young to +look out for herself,” nodding toward the green depths into which bear +and lynx had disappeared.—Twinkly wondered too. + +“She is certainly too young to get along without her mother,” agreed the +Girl, as the children from the Valley Farm studied the last of the +refugees, who gazed into her face with her great trusting eyes. + +“The trouble is,” said the Boy, “she probably has a mother somewhere, +and then she’s a wild thing. She’d never be really happy with the cows. +I suppose the doe just managed to save the other fawn. Aren’t there +always two?” + +“You think her mother got away then?” asked the Girl. + +“Well I don’t know,” returned the Boy, gazing searchingly across the +River through the charred tree trunks. Here the ground still smoked +yellowly as the fire ate into the damp leaves of the nether layer of the +forest floor. Red embers glowed where the flames had raged through the +underbrush. + +Now, as it happened, the Doe was searching despairingly that very moment +for her Fawn. She had made her escape in good season with the larger +fawn, but Fleet Foot she had missed from her side when it was too late +to return, and a wall of flame had risen between her and her little one. + +The lost Fawn had raced, with the other Wood Folk, on before the flames +to the River’s brink, where the children had found her. + +Meantime her mother had circled clear around the fire with her remaining +little one, trotting up-stream until she came to a narrow part where her +fawn could cross, peering and searching everywhere for Fleet Foot. + +Now suddenly the children heard a dainty stamp and a shrill whistled +“H-e-e-e-yew, he-u!” And over a copse of hazel bushes peered a red-brown +doe, who instantly turned and leaped out of sight, tail raised like a +little white flag behind to show the fawn which way to follow. + +And “He-w!” said Fleet Foot, with a tiny stamp, and followed. + +And Twinkly Eyes, the bear cub, took it all in, from the hiding of his +tree-top. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + LV + TWINKLY EYES GOES HOUSE-HUNTING + + +Betty Bluebird, like most of the other feathered folk, was beginning to +think of starting south. For the wild ducks honking overhead told her it +was going to be a cold winter and advised her to start without delay. + +Twinkly Eyes also heard the warning. And it set him restlessly searching +about for a snug den in which to pass the winter. For Twinkly Eyes was +going to hi-ber-nate. With the first snow-fall he would cuddle up in the +depth of some cave and pull the dead leaves after him, and tuck himself +in bed for a sleep that would last until spring. + +Every day now he rose with the dawn to begin his search. And every night +he kept up till black darkness made it im-pos-sible to see. + +But with all his searching, Twinkly Eyes never once ceased to eat +everything good he came to. + +No, indeed, Twinkly Eyes was not the bear to stop eating just because he +was busy house-hunting. + +Not a bit of it! In fact, if anything he ate more. Though he cut himself +down to one meal, that one meal lasted from the moment he awoke in the +morning to the moment he dropped to sleep in the chill of the autumn +night. + +One effect of so much eating was, of course, to make him as fat as a +ball of butter. Another was to make his fur as thick and warm and glossy +as the finest sleeping bag that ever was invented. + +But search as he would, Twinkly Eyes could not find just the right place +in which to den up for the winter. Of course, the first place he had +visited was the den where he had been born. But his mother was there +with this year’s cubs, and she had made it quite plain that there would +not be room for him too. + +Then he thought of the pine woods on the slope of Mount Olaf, on the +side toward the Valley Farm. And one chill October morning, when a fine +drizzle reminded him that up north here winter was not far away, he +decided to explore these woods. + +The dried pine needles lay like a velvet carpet over the forest floor, +and everywhere was the fragrance of wet pine. Through the thick gloom he +could make out countless mushrooms growing at his feet, and each one he +had sniffed, eating such as he knew would not poison him. + +For his mother had taught him as a cub to know mushrooms. + +The ground here slanted up a rocky knoll, and here and there were +boulders, and here and there a fallen tree trunk. + +But nowhere could Twinkly find a cave. And besides, he smelled lynx +tracks everywhere, and it would never do to go to sleep for the winter +in a place where Old Man Lynx could find him. + +No, decidedly, the pine woods would not do.—Where, then, should he +search? + +Cutting down through a mixed wood that led to a tiny lake, Twinkly soon +found himself neck-high in blueberry shrub. Only now the berries were +all gone. He had been here many times before, only never with a den in +mind. So now he went over the ground again and through the brush around +the lake, and back up the slippery hillside. + +Suddenly a strange, sweet odor smote his nostrils. He was approaching an +old deserted shack, with roof tumbling in and door hanging on one hinge. +It had once been a sugar camp, had Twinkly Eyes but known. And the +knowledge would have hastened his clumsy foot-steps. For that new smell +was the fragrance of maple sugar, the one thing in the world that bears +consider even better than honey. + +There was no thought of danger as Twinkly Eyes approached the shack. +Though had he not been too sleepy to reason it out, he might have known +that anything so delicious as maple sugar would never be left like that. +Not if the bees could get at it! And then how was it that his mother had +never taken a chance on anything so tempting? + + + + + LVI + AT THE SUGAR CAMP + + +Twinkly sniffed and sniffed. + +From the tumble-down shack on the mountain-side came the most wonderful +odor! It fairly made his mouth water. + +But still his natural cunning bade him sniff all about the place before +he ventured within. Though there were hobnailed footprints everywhere, +the man-scent had long since disappeared. + +That twisting thunder-storm last July was doubtless to blame for the +charred and crumbling appearance of the side the door was on. There was +nothing to keep him from walking straight inside. + +There were a number of iron kettles in the shack, and into each of these +Twinkly sniffed with interest. But they were clean and empty. Where, +then, did that sugary odor come from? Ah, over in one corner, where it +had fallen, lay a wooden cask. This, Twinkly’s wriggling nose told him, +was the place. Inside this cask was the delicious something that made +his mouth water so. Successive wettings, as rain and wind had pummeled +through the side of the shack, had wet the contents till they were +oozing liquidly through the cracks. + +Twinkly Eyes put out his tongue and licked the sides, then set joyously +to work with his curved claws to tear an opening into the thing. + +So suddenly that it struck him square in the face, the half of one stave +came off. Then he broke off another, and after that a third. The keg had +not been full, and the part he had torn an opening into was the empty +part. But Twinkly didn’t care. He simply thrust his head in and licked, +and licked, and licked at the sugary cake. + +He could just reach it with the red tip of that greedy tongue. There was +nothing he could reach with his jaws. And presently he began to twist +and wiggle in the effort to get more. + +By dint of much shoving he finally got his head clear inside the cask. +Then he was happy. My, how that bear enjoyed the next half-hour! By +stretching his neck farther and farther through the narrow opening he +could just scrape the delicious contents with his teeth. + +His jaws dripped with the combined delights of an-tic-i-pa-tion and +real-i-za-tion. That the feast would continue till the last crumb was +gone he had no doubt whatever. Not Twinkly Eyes! + +By and by, however, stretch as he might, he could thrust his head no +farther, and he could reach no more. Then what a time there was, as the +little Bear tried to pull himself out of the barrel. + +And as he jerked and banged about in growing alarm, his heels sent +everything in the cabin spinning about his shanks. + +When finally his head came free quite suddenly, he sat down with such +violence that he went sliding across the floor with the huge iron kettle +over-turned on top of him. And, of course, being unable to see what it +was that had imprisoned him, he struck out still more viciously. + + + + + LVII + A FEAST AND A FAST + + +Twinkly Eyes was a most un-com-fort-able bear. + +True, he had freed his head from the sugar cask. But in his blind fury +at the thing that held his head imprisoned he had thrashed about till +all the furniture in the camp had been sent spinning about his heels. +Then at last the huge iron kettle had landed squarely on top of him! + +He finally backed out of the thing and hastened from the cabin, sitting +up on his haunches to nurse his bruised head. All the same, this maple +sugar was mighty good stuff! Was he going to leave it? Not Twinkly Eyes! +Not the little Black Bear who had once robbed the bee tree in spite of +the worst its owners could do with their stings! He would go straight +back there, give that kettle a good, vigorous cuff for its impudence, +and then knock the sugar cask to bits. + +So they thought they could frighten him away, did they? Cautiously he +tiptoed back into the shack. This time he felt sure he had caught the +keg at a dis-ad-van-tage, for with one powerful blow of his great, furry +fist, he sent it whirling into the corner. Then grappling it with his +long steel claws, he wrenched at the syrup-soaked wood. + +For once it did not grab at his head. For he had torn such a hole in the +side that there was room and to spare. Next moment the fat cub had +settled himself at that giant lump of maple sugar with the cask held +tight between his black knees. + +If Twinkly Eyes had been a small boy, he wouldn’t have wanted anything +more to eat for a week. And it is more than likely that he would hate +the smell of maple sugar for the rest of his life. + +But bears are not built that way. And Twinkly Eyes, with that same greed +with which he had gobbled the honey comb, now put that maple sugar +inside till there wasn’t so much as a crumb of it left. + +After that he slept awhile with his little black tummy rounded out till +he could hardly move. For that is what makes a bear feel happiest, when +he is eating his last meal for five months. + +Next day he once more started on his lumbering tramp over the slopes of +Mount Olaf to find his winter’s resting place. + +Winter would set in early this year, the wild ducks had shouted as they +honked their way southward that fall. + +And already the last leaves were falling in yellow swirls that crackled +under-foot. In the pine forest it was still. But everywhere else the +winds swept around the mountain in a way to chill through even Twinkly +Eyes’ thick coat. + +Then one morning he awoke to find a world of white! And still he had +found no cave to shelter him. + +[Illustration: [Bear]] + + + + + LVIII + THE FIRST SNOW + + +Yes, sir, Twinkly Eyes awoke to find it snowing! + +A more surprised young bear you never saw in all your life, for as yet +he had found no cave in which to pass his winter’s sleep. And the winds +that tore around Mount Olaf made goose-flesh underneath his furs. + +He stared about him dazedly. Great soft flakes as big as feathers were +falling, falling, falling through the naked tree-tops. He had never +heard the world so still. And off across the valley the air looked thick +and gray like a blanket. + +And indeed, it was a blanket—was this whirling white stuff that kept +covering over the dead leaves that carpeted the forest floor. It filled +in all the niches, and shut out all the wind. + +It was a blanket for next year’s flowers, and for little young trees and +shrubs too tender yet to meet the winter’s cold. + +It was a blanket for the field mice and the white-footed wood mice, in +their homes under-ground or inside old hollow stumps. It would be a +sheltering blanket for Fatty Chuck in his cave under the barn-yard +fence, down at the Valley Farm. For it would sift down into his entrance +hole and over the earth above until frost could not reach him curled up +in a ball there sound asleep. + +But all this did not help Twinkly Eyes, staring at the falling flakes +while he longed with his whole soul for sleep. If in all his rambles +over the mountainside he had not found even a crevice in the rocks in +which he might den up for the winter, was it likely that further search +would reveal one? He yawned, for he was oh, so dreadfully sleepy! He +longed to curl up right where he was—but he knew if he did, he’d never +wake. He’d just freeze solid, and that would be the end of him! + +His last meal of dried bark and pine needles,—the meal that was to keep +his stomach from feeling empty until spring, just because it wouldn’t +digest,—sat heavy within him now, and he longed to begin his +hi-ber-na-tion. + +Animals that hibernate, you know, sleep away the cold months when food +is hard to find. And when they wake up in the spring, they look very +different from the fat creatures they were in the fall. They are then as +thin as they were plump before. + +But of course, with the season of plenty, they soon make up all they +have lost. Meantime, they have kept safe and warm all through the bitter +winter. For they first close up the entrance to their dens with leaves +and mosses, and then curl up into warm furry balls, with their toes and +their noses inside. Then the snow falls so deep that it keeps the high +winds from finding their way to the sleepers, and there is nothing to +disturb their dreams. + +Fatty Chuck hibernates, too. But Fatty had gone into winter quarters +long before, and was now snoozing away as snug and comfy as anything you +can imagine. + +If only the winter had been as easy a problem for Twinkly Eyes! What was +he to do? + + + + + LIX + TWINKLY EYES GOES TO BED + + +What should he do, asked Twinkly Eyes as he stared about at the falling +snow-flakes? + +He had been driven from the den in which he had slept away his first +winter in the Great North Woods, because his mother’s littlest cubs now +took up all the room. + +His father had a cave, too, somewhere, he supposed. But Twinkly Eyes +would not have dared to enter that, much less to lie himself down to +sleep beside that great, growling monster. Like most cubs, Twinkly was +wholesomely afraid of his father. + +As he stood swaying sleepily, winking the snow-flakes from his heavy +eyelids, Twinkly Eyes had a sudden bright idea. He would simply curl up +under a stump! + +There was an old overturned pine stump not far away, and to its roots +had clung such a mass of earth that he could easily cuddle beneath it. +In fact, the dried leaves with which he would have made his bed, had he +found a cave to stow them in, were already drifted high there. And all +he had to do was to crawl in and wait for the snow to cover his shelter +completely over. + +That was it! The snow would drift over leaves and stump and all, +shutting out the winds and the frost, and hiding him while he slept. + +An hour later, any one passing that way would have seen a huge round +ball of black fur just showing beneath a blanket of leaves under the +stump. And by nightfall they would have found nothing but a deep white +bank with a root sticking out at the top. + +Just enough air would filter through the snow to keep his lungs +supplied, and that was all he needed now for a long time to come. + +Twinkly Eyes, cuddled up snug in his strange feather bed, gave one last +blissful sigh, and was off into a dreamland where honey filled every +hollow tree trunk and blueberries grew everywhere as thick as grass. + +------------------------------------------------------------------------ + + + + + TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES + + + Page Changed from Changed to + + 182 have dared to enter that, much have dared to enter that, much + less to lie him less to lie himself + + ● Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + ● Enclosed italics font in _underscores_. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77049 *** |