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| author | pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org> | 2025-10-13 19:22:03 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | pgww <pgww@lists.pglaf.org> | 2025-10-13 19:22:03 -0700 |
| commit | 790580050aedd8a48b1d67ba7d82864b7e7b62b5 (patch) | |
| tree | e02678fcf0977b9737381aba13f822acedcd20a2 /77049-h | |
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diff --git a/77049-h/77049-h.htm b/77049-h/77049-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..55ddfb6 --- /dev/null +++ b/77049-h/77049-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5664 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html lang="en"> + <head> + <meta charset="UTF-8"> + <title>The Adventures of Twinkly Eyes | Project Gutenberg</title> + <link rel="icon" href="images/cover.jpg" type="image/x-cover"> + <style> + body { margin-left: 8%; margin-right: 10%; } + h1 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.4em; } + h2 { text-align: center; font-weight: normal; font-size: 1.2em; } + .pageno { right: 1%; font-size: x-small; background-color: inherit; color: silver; + text-indent: 0em; text-align: right; position: absolute; + border: thin solid silver; padding: .1em .2em; font-style: normal; + font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; } + p { text-indent: 0; margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: justify; } + .sc { font-variant: small-caps; } + .large { font-size: large; } + .xlarge { font-size: x-large; } + .small { font-size: small; } + .lg-container-b { text-align: center; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-b { clear: both; } + .lg-container-l { text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-l { clear: both; } + .lg-container-r { text-align: right; } + .x-ebookmaker .lg-container-r { clear: both; } + .linegroup { display: inline-block; text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .linegroup { display: block; margin-left: 1.5em; } + .linegroup .group { margin: 1em auto; } + .linegroup .line { text-indent: -3em; padding-left: 3em; } + div.linegroup > :first-child { margin-top: 0; } + .linegroup .in4 { padding-left: 5.0em; } + .ul_1 li {padding-left: 1em; text-indent: -1em; } + ul.ul_1 {padding-left: 0; margin-left: 2.78%; margin-top: .5em; + margin-bottom: .5em; list-style-type: disc; } + div.pbb { page-break-before: always; } + hr.pb { border: none; border-bottom: thin solid; margin-bottom: 1em; } + .x-ebookmaker hr.pb { display: none; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; 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} + .c009 { vertical-align: top; text-align: justify; text-indent: -1em; + padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; } + .c010 { vertical-align: top; text-align: right; } + .c011 { font-size: 80%; } + .c012 { vertical-align: top; text-align: center; padding-right: 1em; } + .c013 { vertical-align: top; text-align: center; } + .c014 { vertical-align: top; text-align: justify; padding-right: 1em; } + .c015 { vertical-align: top; text-align: justify; } + div.tnotes { padding-left:1em;padding-right:1em;background-color:#E3E4FA; + border:thin solid silver; margin:2em 10% 0 10%; font-family: Georgia, serif; + clear: both; } + .covernote { visibility: hidden; display: none; } + div.tnotes p { text-align: justify; } + .x-ebookmaker .covernote { visibility: visible; display: block; } + .figcenter {font-size: .9em; page-break-inside: avoid; max-width: 100%; + max-height: 100%; } + h1 {line-height: 150%; } + .chapter { clear: both; page-break-before: always; } + body {font-family: Garamond, Georgia, serif; text-align: justify; } + table {font-size: .9em; padding: 1.5em .5em 1em; page-break-inside: avoid; + clear: both; } + div.titlepage {text-align: center; page-break-before: always; + page-break-after: always; } + div.titlepage p {text-align: center; text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; + line-height: 1.5; margin-top: 3em; } + .ph1 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: xx-large; + margin: .67em auto; page-break-before: always; } + .ph2 { text-indent: 0em; font-weight: bold; font-size: x-large; margin: .75em auto; + page-break-before: always; } + .double {border-style: double;border-width: 4px; padding: 1em; clear: both; } + .right {text-align: right; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: 0em; + max-width: 50%; } + .x-ebookmaker p.dropcap:first-letter { float: left; } + </style> + </head> + <body> +<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77049 ***</div> + +<div class='tnotes covernote'> + +<p class='c000'><strong>Transcriber’s Note:</strong></p> + +<p class='c000'>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the public domain.</p> + +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_001.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Bump—Slide—Splash!—and he plunged beneath the surface of the icy lake.”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_3'>3</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class='titlepage double'> + +<div> + <h1 class='c001'><span class='large'>THE ADVENTURES OF</span><br> Twinkly Eyes<br> <span class='large'>THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR</span></h1> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c002'> + <div><span class='xlarge'>By ALLEN CHAFFEE</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>Author of TALES OF THE TIMID, Little Stories of</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>the Lives and Habits of the Wild, Told for</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>Children and Their Elders.</span></div> + <div class='c003'><span class='small'>Illustrated by PETER DARU</span></div> + <div class='c003'>1919</div> + <div>MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY</div> + <div>SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div><span class='small'><i>Copyright 1919</i></span></div> + <div><span class='small'>By MILTON BRADLEY COMPANY</span></div> + <div><span class='small'>Springfield, Massachusetts</span></div> + <div><span class='small'><i>All Rights Reserved</i></span></div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-l c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>Bradley Quality Books</div> + <div class='line in4'><span class='small'><i>for</i> Children</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c005'>INTRODUCTION</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>These little stories, which are intended both +for children and their elders, are really true +to natural science.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Disguised in fiction form, the reader gets a +taste of biology, botany, zoology, and meteorology.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>On the other hand, my readers have thus +far included a large proportion of quite grown-up +little boys.</p> + +<div class='lg-container-r'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'><span class='sc'>Allen Chaffee.</span></div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div>To</div> + <div>HOWARD FOLSOM BROCK</div> + <div>whose great heart had in it a corner</div> + <div>for even the furred and</div> + <div>feathered folk.</div> + </div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <h2 class='c005'>INDEX</h2> +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c008'>Chapter</th> + <th class='c009'> </th> + <th class='c010'>Page</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>I.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Gets a Ducking</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_1'>1</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>II.</td> + <td class='c009'>Mother Black Bear to the Rescue</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_4'>4</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>III.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Stern Lesson</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_7'>7</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>IV.</td> + <td class='c009'>But He Learns It</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_10'>10</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>V.</td> + <td class='c009'>Mrs. Porcupine Shows Fight</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_13'>13</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>VI.</td> + <td class='c009'>Driven from Their Pond</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_17'>17</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>VII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Sink or Swim</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_20'>20</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>VIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Writho, the Black Snake</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_23'>23</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>IX.</td> + <td class='c009'>“Whoof! Whoof!”</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_26'>26</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>X.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Better Part of Valor</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_29'>29</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XI.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Tip on Thunder-Storms</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_32'>32</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XII.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Wild Mother’s Love</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_35'>35</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Gets Even</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_38'>38</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XIV.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Different Twinkly Eyes</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_41'>41</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XV.</td> + <td class='c009'>There’s Many a Slip</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_45'>45</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XVI.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Bee Tree</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_48'>48</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XVII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes and Trouble</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_51'>51</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XVIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Shows His Mettle</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_54'>54</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XIX.</td> + <td class='c009'>Down But Not Downed</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_57'>57</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XX.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Applies First Aid</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_60'>60</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXI.</td> + <td class='c009'>Mammy Cottontail’s Secret</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_63'>63</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXII.</td> + <td class='c009'>One of Twinkly’s Neighbors</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_66'>66</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Introducing Bobby Lynx</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_69'>69</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXIV.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Bunny Ball</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_72'>72</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXV.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Attends a Frolic</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_75'>75</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXVI.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Joke On The Little Black Bear</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_78'>78</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXVII.</td> + <td class='c009'>School For Bunnies</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_81'>81</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXVIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Boy and A Bear</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_84'>84</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXIX.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Tables Are Turned</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_87'>87</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXX.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Climbing Match</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_90'>90</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXI.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Bear Gets The Best of It</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_93'>93</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXII.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Little Bears Go Fishing</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_96'>96</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Again Meets The Porcupine</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_99'>99</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXIV.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Good Sport</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_102'>102</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXV.</td> + <td class='c009'>Bobby Lynx Learns A Lesson</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_104'>104</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXVI.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Watches Again</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_108'>108</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXVII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Foxy Counsel</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_111'>111</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXVIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Jolly World</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_114'>114</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XXXIX.</td> + <td class='c009'>Who Will be Sorriest?</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_117'>117</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XL.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Plays Safe</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_121'>121</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLI.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Gets a Great Surprise</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_124'>124</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Plots Mischief</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_127'>127</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Teases Unk Wunk</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_130'>130</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLIV.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Gets His</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_133'>133</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLV.</td> + <td class='c009'>Bobby Lynx Goes Fishing</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_136'>136</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLVI.</td> + <td class='c009'>A New Acquaintance</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_139'>139</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLVII.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Hired Man Drops a Match</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_142'>142</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLVIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Forest Aflame</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_146'>146</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>XLIX.</td> + <td class='c009'>In the Face of a Common Peril</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_149'>149</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>L.</td> + <td class='c009'>While There is Life, There is Hope</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_153'>153</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LI.</td> + <td class='c009'>The Boy from the Valley Farm</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_156'>156</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LII.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly’s Fellow Refugees</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_160'>160</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Way for the Squirrel Family</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_163'>163</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LIV.</td> + <td class='c009'>What Happened to Fleet Foot</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_166'>166</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LV.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Goes House-Hunting</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_169'>169</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LVI.</td> + <td class='c009'>At the Sugar Camp</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_173'>173</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LVII.</td> + <td class='c009'>A Feast and a Fast</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_176'>176</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LVIII.</td> + <td class='c009'>The First Snow</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_179'>179</a></td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'>LIX.</td> + <td class='c009'>Twinkly Eyes Goes to Bed</td> + <td class='c010'><a href='#Page_182'>182</a></td> + </tr> +</table> + +<div class='chapter ph1'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div><span class='large'>THE ADVENTURES OF</span></div> + <div class='c003'>Twinkly Eyes</div> + <div class='c003'><span class='large'>THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR</span></div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_1'>1</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>I</span><br> TWINKLY GETS A DUCKING</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Two such roly-poly babies you never did +see!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_2'>2</span>themselves on the luscious fruit, snatching +up great pawfuls of it, leaves and all, till +their fuzzy sides rounded out like puff balls!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then when they had slept enough there +were wrestling matches and boxing bouts and +playing pranks on mother,—pulling her ears +<span class='pageno' id='Page_3'>3</span>and clambering over her till she was forced +to box their ears.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_012.jpg' alt='[Bears]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_4'>4</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>II</span><br> MOTHER BLACK BEAR TO THE RESCUE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>And then to go down, down, down, gasping +for breath and so horribly frightened that one +thought the end had come!</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was certainly a terrible experience for the +five-months-old cub, when his brother Woof +gave him that mischievous shove!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_5'>5</span>the little fellow. But Mothers are always +frightened when anything happens to their +babies. Mother Black Bear was no exception.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_6'>6</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Ow! the water is too cold!” squealed +Twinkly Eyes, backing away into the brush.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“We’ll go where it isn’t,” said Mother +Black Bear firmly. “But we’re going this +very afternoon. Come along!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_015.jpg' alt='[Bears]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_7'>7</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>III</span><br> A STERN LESSON</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“Oo! I don’t want to learn to swim!” +squealed Twinkly Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“The water’s so-o-o-o cold,” wailed +Twinkly Eyes, whose wet fur made him shiver.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_8'>8</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Come!” she insisted away down deep in +her throat, with that rumbly sound that the +cubs knew meant business.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Come here!” she growled to Twinkly in +no uncertain tone. That small imp simply +didn’t dare disobey!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_018.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Twinkly Eyes, are you coming?”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_9'>9</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_9'>9</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Twinkly Eyes, are you coming?” called +Mother Black Bear, wading back to where he +stood.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I don’t want to know how to swim,” wept +the little black rascal, backing away still farther.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The next instant Mother Black Bear seized +him by the scruff of the neck and dropped him +straight into the pool!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_10'>10</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>IV</span><br> BUT HE LEARNS IT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>He had been badly frightened, had Twinkly +Eyes, the littlest bear cub, when Woof shoved +him into the lake.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_11'>11</span>But he held his breath, because he remembered +the time before, when he had swallowed +so much water.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Somehow, he scarcely knew just how it +happened, he found himself coming up again, +safely enough.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Wuhr! Splurf!” he gasped.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Good work,” encouraged Mother Black +Bear. “You see, you couldn’t drown if you +wanted to!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_12'>12</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>This fat fellow had been enjoying Twinkly’s +struggles as he paddled slowly about the pond, +and his little black eyes danced with laughter.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The next thing Mother Black Bear knew, +both cubs were swimming with all the zest of +small boys.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_13'>13</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>V</span><br> MRS. PORCUPINE SHOWS FIGHT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_14'>14</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Yet learn to swim he must, before ever +another accident befell him. Of this Mother +Black Bear felt very certain.</p> + +<p class='c007'>She, therefore, eyed Mrs. Porcupine a bit +anxiously; the more so when she spied the +three little porcupines creeping along behind +her.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_15'>15</span>as she is, and their little quills are even +sharper.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_16'>16</span>“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!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_027.jpg' alt='[Bears & porcupine]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_17'>17</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>VI</span><br> DRIVEN FROM THEIR POND</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Well it was for Woof and Twinkly Eyes, the +fat bear cubs, that they had learned obedience.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For had they not scrambled out of the pond +the instant their mother bade them they would +have got badly hurt.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_18'>18</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Just watch,” she whispered, “and see—what +you will see!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>The pair settled themselves on their awkward +little haunches, eyes dancing with +excitement. They did love a mystery!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Gee! that must be fun,” thought Woof.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I’ll bet they fall off,” thought Twinkly +Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_19'>19</span>“Unk wunk, unk wunk, unk wunk!” +sang Mrs. Porcupine, pulling up the water +lily pads and munching the juicy roots.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Unk wunk, unk wunk,” mimicked the +little porcupines, nibbling at the bits she took +in her mouth to see what they were like.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then—suddenly—she dived clear under!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_030.jpg' alt='[Porcupine]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_20'>20</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>VII</span><br> SINK OR SWIM</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“Ooh! They’ll drown!” squealed Twinkly +Eyes, as Mrs. Porcupine went under water +with her babies on her back.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But they didn’t!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_21'>21</span>been dreadfully frightened. In fact, they +wouldn’t have ventured out at all, even on +their mother’s back.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The two cubs, watching from the bracken, +smiled from ear to ear, their little black eyes +dancing with enjoyment.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_22'>22</span>“Come!” said Mrs. Porcupine, swimming +about just out of reach. And the three baby +porcupines simply had to strike out for themselves.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“What do you think of that?” Mother +Black Bear asked her cubs.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Pretty slick,” said Woof.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Gee, I wish you’d taught me that way,” +said Twinkly Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_034.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“He found himself staring straight at Writho the black snake.”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_23'>23</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_23'>23</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>VIII</span><br> WRITHO, THE BLACK SNAKE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Now Twinkly Eyes had been perfectly +certain a moment before that he could never +climb that tree after his mother.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Climb! Climb!” rumbled Mother Black +Bear from the water maple. Had he needed +warning, her anxious tone would have been +enough.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_24'>24</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Good boy!” said Mother Black Bear, patting +him fondly.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>Fat little Woof was just licking up a delicious +big black ant when Twinkly crept up +<span class='pageno' id='Page_25'>25</span>behind him. The next instant he received a +blow in the ribs that fairly knocked the breath +out of him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_038.jpg' alt='[Bear & snake]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_26'>26</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>IX</span><br> “WHOOF! WHOOF!”</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“Trouble again!” thought Twinkly Eyes, +as he found himself staring into the angry face +of Writho, the Black Snake.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“You rolled right on me,” scolded Writho. +“Haven’t you any consideration for other +people at all?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I’m sorry,” pleaded the cub, “I had no +idea—”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“You want to look where you’re going,” +scolded Writho. “I could bite you for what +you did!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_27'>27</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But he kept backing around nearer and +nearer his tree, until it was right behind him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Whoof, whoof!” he suddenly roared at +the snake, stamping a fore foot loudly.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Writho was so amazed that he stood stone +still, and in that instant the cub had raced up +his tree in safety.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“So was I a bluffer,” confessed Twinkly +Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Wish I’d known,” sighed the cub. “I +certainly had a bad scare.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_28'>28</span>back up with tooth or claw. Because once +people find you out, they will have no more +respect for you.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I’ve never seen Writho attack any animal +larger than a hare or a chipmunk in all my life.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Hello, there! I do believe they are making +for our tree!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_041.jpg' alt='[Porcupines]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_29'>29</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>X</span><br> THE BETTER PART OF VALOR</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Mother Black Bear sighed as she saw Mrs. +Porcupine making for her maple tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“If she wants it, I suppose she will have to +have it,” she told the cubs. “Wisdom is the +better part of valor.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“What is wisdom?” asked Woof, the larger +of the fat cubs.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Wisdom,” said Mother Black Bear, “in +this case is giving up our tree rather than +having a fight with Mrs. Porcupine about it.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“But we got here first,” shrilled Twinkly +Eyes, the smaller cub. “She has no right to +it.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_30'>30</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Will they have to climb up there in the sun +and dry off, too?” asked Twinkly Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Woof, peering through the green gloom, +could see Mrs. Porcupine and the three little +Porcupines slowly making toward their maple.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_31'>31</span>to the ground. “Your father might, but I +shouldn’t like to try it.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Why, the old ‘Unk Wunk!’”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But the latter’s peace of mind was short-lived.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“We are certainly going to have a thunder-storm,” +exclaimed Mother Black Bear, as she +sniffed the air.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Are you scared, Mother?” asked Twinkly +Eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Well, that all depends on how fast you +cubs can beat it out of these woods!”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_32'>32</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XI</span><br> A TIP ON THUNDER-STORMS</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The air was full of the peculiar fresh odor +you always notice before a shower.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Are you scared, mother?” Twinkly Eyes +kept asking.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Mother Black Bear glanced about, this way +and that.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_33'>33</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I can’t keep up,” whispered Twinkly Eyes +who brought up the rear.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Where are we going?” asked Woof, who +rather enjoyed the excitement.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_34'>34</span>“We’re going to find the kind of trees +lightning doesn’t strike,” Mother Black Bear +flung behind her without stopping.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Beech, birch, chestnut, basswood!” She +broke into a run.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Oh, mother—those white birches over +behind Pollywog pond,” gasped Woof, trying +his best to keep up with her through the pelting +rain.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Just where we are headed,” rumbled +Mother Black Bear. “If only—we can reach +them—in time!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Mother Black Bear looked back over her +shoulder. Woof was close behind,—but where +was Twinkly Eyes?</p> + +<p class='c007'>She turned instantly to find out.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_35'>35</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XII</span><br> A WILD MOTHER’S LOVE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_36'>36</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“What is the other thing you are afraid of, +Mother?” asked Woof, “Mrs. Porcupine?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Then what is the other thing you are +afraid of?” asked Twinkly Eyes, whose +<span class='pageno' id='Page_37'>37</span>trembling had ceased as the storm passed +around to the south.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“That would suit Twinkly Eyes, all right,” +laughed Woof, poking his brother in the ribs. +“Eh, there?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_38'>38</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XIII</span><br> TWINKLY EYES GETS EVEN</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>He’d get even, somehow, Twinkly told himself, +seizing his brother’s nose; and as the fat +cubs clinched the storm was forgotten.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Mother Black Bear gave them each a cuff, +then stalked away, leaving them unprotected +in the pelting hail.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Such clawing and biting and squealing as +followed you never did see!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_052.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Such clawing and biting and squealing—you never did see!”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_38'>38</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_39'>39</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_40'>40</span>it again, ducking his tiny head and doubling +up into a ball for the purpose.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>He was so surprised that he stood clear up +on his hind legs, staring. Then he tried it +himself!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_055.jpg' alt='[Bears]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_41'>41</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XIV</span><br> A DIFFERENT TWINKLY EYES</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He was both older and wiser,—and oh, so +much thinner! His voice had deepened, too.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>One morning he met Tattle-tale the Jay.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Now Tattletale was not really a mean fellow: +he was just mischievous. He loved to play +<span class='pageno' id='Page_42'>42</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_43'>43</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Good morning, Mr. Bear,” he chirped.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“How do you find the hunting these days?” +asked Tattletale politely.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_44'>44</span>course. I do wish I could find a bee tree!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I don’t suppose, now,” ventured the Jay, +“that you’d be interested in a nest of young +squirrels?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Try me—just try me once!” chuckled +the little bear.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“All right; see that old oak?” directed +Tattletale, flying on ahead.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_059.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_45'>45</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XV</span><br> THERE’S MANY A SLIP</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_46'>46</span>scolding him and warning the mice and frogs +and snakes to beware of his coming.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“See here,” he grumbled, “I do believe +you have just been playing a prank on me!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Oh, no, I assure you,” began Tattletale, +flying down beside the bear.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But Twinkly Eyes would have none of it. +He suddenly remembered how often the Jay +<span class='pageno' id='Page_47'>47</span>had warned his quarry away from him by flying +just overhead and shrieking, “Look out, +look out! A bear!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_48'>48</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XVI</span><br> THE BEE TREE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>As Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, +heard that buzzing from the wild rose bushes, +he forgot his troubles with the Jay.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Indeed, he fairly danced for joy. For +had he not been waiting greedily all spring +for the sound of a honey bee?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He had had a taste just once, but he had +never forgotten!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_49'>49</span>to a hollow tree where the yellow comb lay +in great fragrant chunks.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly Eyes had escaped without a sting +and he had decided in his infant mind that +Mother was altogether too cautious for any +use.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly followed, his sharp ears guiding +him where his little near-sighted eyes could +not, till his eager sniffings brought to his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_50'>50</span>nostrils the first faint fragrance of the bee +tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“It’s a pretty good world, after all,” +Twinkly Eyes decided, as he ambled up the +slope.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_065.jpg' alt='[Bees]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_51'>51</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XVII</span><br> TWINKLY EYES AND TROUBLE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“Yes, sir, it’s a pretty good world after +all,” mused Twinkly Eyes, the little Black +Bear, as he neared the bee tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Certainly everything about him promised +a blissful day.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But best of all was that heavy hum of a +thousand bees carrying their golden honey +into the hollow pine tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_52'>52</span>hole, into which the returning bees poured +steadily, while others poured steadily out +again.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_53'>53</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Suddenly a red-hot needle struck him on +the lip.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Hoof—woof!” he protested, licking the +burnt place. It hurt dreadfully.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_54'>54</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XVIII</span><br> TWINKLY SHOWS HIS METTLE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>No, indeed, Twinkly Eyes was not the Bear +to give up just when he had one paw in the +honey!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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?</p> + +<p class='c007'>No indeed! No mere honey bee could make +him turn back now.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Struggling still nearer that dark round hole +from which the fragrance issued he drew a +long breath and plunged in.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_070.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“My how his little black eyes danced with the delight of it!”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_55'>55</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_55'>55</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>If only that eyelid would not smart so +dreadfully! It was swelling, too, and he +could hardly see out of that eye at all.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_56'>56</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The little Black Bear was nothing if not +persistent, and persistence is a virtue that +stands one in good stead in the wilderness.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then suddenly a most surprising thing +happened.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_073.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_57'>57</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XIX</span><br> DOWN BUT NOT DOWNED</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>A great many things can happen to a bear +cub that he doesn’t expect to happen.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_58'>58</span>Twinkly Eyes had come down like a bag of +meal!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>Though his little near-sighted eyes could +not see the crack that now reached for nearly +his own length down the hollow trunk, his +<span class='pageno' id='Page_59'>59</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was too much! He would try again!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_60'>60</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XX</span><br> TWINKLY APPLIES FIRST AID</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Bracing himself in the crotch of a branch +just beneath the opening, he thrust one paw +in deeply and brought it back dripping with +<span class='pageno' id='Page_61'>61</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_62'>62</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_63'>63</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXI</span><br> MAMMY COTTONTAIL’S SECRET</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>One day, lying under a clump of high-bush +blue-berry bushes, in the early spring sunshine, +he learned a secret.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“We have too, we have too, we have too!” +trilled Robin Red-breast, running along the +roadway with a weather eye for worms.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_64'>64</span>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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_65'>65</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Do you suppose they’ve all got the same +kind of secrets?” whispered Mammy Cottontail +delightedly.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Nothing to compare with ours,” sniffed +Daddy, then stopped suddenly, as the little +Bear snapped a twig in his effort to creep +nearer.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_082.jpg' alt='[Rabbits]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_66'>66</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXII</span><br> ONE OF TWINKLY’S NEIGHBORS</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>Away up almost at the top of Mount Olaf +a great cat, three times as heavy as barnyard +Tamas, was creeping, creeping, creeping along +<span class='pageno' id='Page_67'>67</span>through the underbrush, on great furry feet +that made no sound.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_68'>68</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“It’s enough to make any one jump out of +his skin,” said Daddy.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Yes, Mammy,” whispered six timid little +voices.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_69'>69</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXIII</span><br> INTRODUCING BOBBY LYNX</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But tonight he was teaching some one else +the trick.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_70'>70</span>one of two great, scraggly kittens, as heavy-pawed +and bob-tailed and fierce-looking as +anything that could be imagined.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_71'>71</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly Eyes was later to share a couple +of interesting adventures with young Bobby +Lynx.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_088.jpg' alt='[Lynx]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_72'>72</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXIV</span><br> A BUNNY BALL</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Mammy Cottontail, the little brown hare, +had been living in the Old Apple Orchard for +several weeks now and the bunnies were half-grown.</p> + +<p class='c007'>One moonlight night toward the end of +June—the self-same night that Twinkly Eyes +had found the bee tree, Mammy said:</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Now they crept under a patch of huckleberry +bushes, and now they hugged the +shadow of a grapevine. Straight across the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_73'>73</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Within the circle of the moonlit glade a +dozen hares were already assembled, and more +were coming in from every side.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_74'>74</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then, so suddenly that Mammy’s heart +gave an extra beat, there came the warning +thump! thump! thump! just behind them!</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_091.jpg' alt='[Rabbit]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_75'>75</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXV</span><br> TWINKLY EYES ATTENDS THE FROLIC</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Now Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, +had no idea when he awoke of all that was +going on so near him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In an instant every one of the bunnies +which a moment before had been capering +madly in the moonlight had sought cover.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Mammy Cottontail and her little brood, +watching from the shadow of their tree trunk, +were already hidden, hearts beating bumpety-bump +in their anxiety.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_76'>76</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_77'>77</span>his foot. When he really wants to, +he can move like a shadow.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Crouched in the shadow of the very log +where a little while before Mammy and her +six had hidden, he watched and waited.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_094.jpg' alt='[Rabbits]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_78'>78</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXVI</span><br> A JOKE ON THE LITTLE BLACK BEAR</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Saucy fellows, he told himself, as they +flapped their long brown ears or leaped high +in the air.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_096.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Leaping high in the moonlight”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_79'>79</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>Oddly enough, so silently had the little +Bear approached that not one of the outposts +<span class='pageno' id='Page_79'>79</span>was aware of his presence. The wind was +blowing directly toward him, so that they +did not even get his scent.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_80'>80</span>moon would have shown them the first +instant an intruder thrust a paw within the +charm-ed circle.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then Wriggly Nose, more daring than the +others, crept very, very silently toward that +dreadful odor. He peered amazed at what he +saw.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly Eyes had fallen fast asleep.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_099.jpg' alt='[Bear & rabbit]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_81'>81</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXVII</span><br> SCHOOL FOR BUNNIES</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Yes, sir, there was Twinkly Eyes, the +little Black Bear, fast asleep!</p> + +<p class='c007'>How Wriggly Nose and Paddy Paws and +the rest did wiggle their long brown ears at +the sight!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“So he had been spying on our frolic!” +whispered Flap Ears with a giggle.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Huh, he knew we could run the faster,” +and Paddy Paws threw his chest out.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_82'>82</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Bravo,” said Mammy Cottontail. “That +is as good as I could do myself!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“I can leap farther,” boasted Wriggly Nose, +and shooting like a coiled spring from the +ground, he landed a good ten feet away.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Right!” agreed Daddy Cottontail. “The +great secret of training the young is to make +it play for them. Now when I was a +youngster—”</p> + +<p class='c007'>He stopped to prick up his ears.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_83'>83</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Instantly every bunny in the glade had +dashed to cover, and gone scuttling for home +along the crookedest little rabbit road it +could find.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For the taint on the wind was that of +Frisky Fox, out on a little spree of his own.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_102.jpg' alt='[Fox]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_84'>84</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXVIII</span><br> A BOY AND A BEAR</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_85'>85</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_86'>86</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>The little Black Bear gave a start of surprise, +and for just one instant his head was +exposed to the boy’s startled gaze.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_105.jpg' alt='[Fishing]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_87'>87</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXIX</span><br> THE TABLES ARE TURNED</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>The Boy from the Valley Farm held his +head high with pride.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For had he not—on the self-same day—landed +a big fat trout and seen a bear cub!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>Why, of course, the little Black Bear whom +he had startled out of the underbrush!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“The rascal!” exclaimed the Boy, half +amused, half crest-fallen. Well, I only hope +he needed it more than I did.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_88'>88</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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?”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_108.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Oh you rascal!” shouted the boy, in delight<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_89'>89</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_89'>89</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Oh, you rascal!” shouted the boy, in +delight. “I’ll get you for that!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_110.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_90'>90</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXX</span><br> A CLIMBING MATCH</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“You Scalawag!” the Boy kept laughing, +as he stared at Twinkly Eyes, the little Black +Bear, in the top of the beech tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“So it was you who stole my fish?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Moreover, he had long been wishing he +might catch a cub for a pet. Therefore, he +started to climb the tree.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly Eyes, who did not know the kindness +of the Boy’s intentions—and who certainly +<span class='pageno' id='Page_91'>91</span>would not have wanted to be caught if he +had—decided it was time to show fight.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Whoof! Whoof!” he growled, slapping his +heavy paws on the tree trunk.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_92'>92</span>It was well for the Boy from the Valley +Farm that Twinkly Eyes had no mind to let +him try it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Yes, sir, it was lucky for that Boy!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_113.jpg' alt='[Bear & boy]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_93'>93</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXI</span><br> THE BEAR GETS THE BEST OF IT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, had +crept to the end of the drooping limb with an +air of—</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Now catch me if you can!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“You funny little rascal,” laughed the Boy +from the Valley Farm, as he hitched himself +astride the other end of the limb.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_94'>94</span>But he received no response from the other +end of the limb.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_95'>95</span>claws, as they galloped away down the +wet river bank.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Well, I declare!” said the Boy. “If you +haven’t got the best of me again, you clever +rascal!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_116.jpg' alt='[Boy]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_96'>96</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXII</span><br> THE LITTLE BEARS GO FISHING</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, galloped +across the pine needles as noiselessly as a +shadow.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Meantime the Boy from the Valley Farm +was running into a danger of which he little +dreamed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_97'>97</span>stream along which he was searching for footprints.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_98'>98</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Meantime, where was the Boy from the +Valley Farm?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_119.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_99'>99</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXIII</span><br> TWINKLY AGAIN MEETS THE PORCUPINE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly Eyes, the little Black Bear, cocked +first one ear and then another.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly, after all, had had but one +experience with bees, and it is not surprising +that these insects should have fooled him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_100'>100</span>feast, the honey had been in a great mass of +comb inside the hollow trunk.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But then, he trusted more to his nose than +either of them,—at least generally.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>So on he went, straight to the end of the +swaying limb! Then he sat down to think it +over.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_101'>101</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Unk Wunk, the yearling porcupine, who +had been watching from the tree across the +way, gave a grunt of amusement.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Hello, there,” grinned Twinkly Eyes. +“I’m not afraid!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_102'>102</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXIV</span><br> A GOOD SPORT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“No, sir, I’m not afraid,” said Twinkly Eyes, +the Little Black Bear.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>What else could these buzzing insects be, he +asked? And where bees were, there was +honey. His mouth watered at the thought.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>If it should prove to be wasps—whatever +THEY were—how Unk Wunk would jeer at +him! He wished the little porcupine would +<span class='pageno' id='Page_103'>103</span>go away instead of sitting there watching with +that spiteful gleam in his little black eyes.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Out poured the angry insects by the +hundreds!</p> + +<p class='c007'>But Twinkly took his medicine without +a yelp to betray to Unk Wunk that he minded.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_104'>104</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXV</span><br> BOBBY LYNX LEARNS A LESSON</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Now Bob Kitten, Madam Lynx’s young +hopeful, was due to have an experience that +he would not forget in a hurry.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>He peered into the tree-top, his round eyes +gleaming through the shadow in which he +<span class='pageno' id='Page_105'>105</span>stood. There was a dark ball swaying far +out on a slender bough, and it did not look the +least bit for-mid-able.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Suddenly there was rattle as of so many dry +twigs clacking together, and the round ball +suddenly fluffed itself out to twice its size, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_106'>106</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_128.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“He gave voice to a howl of pain”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_106'>106</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>Bob certainly felt as if he had been shot, as +he scuttled back to earth with paw smarting +<span class='pageno' id='Page_107'>107</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was from quite another quarter that he +had to be on guard.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_130.jpg' alt='[Lynx]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_108'>108</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXVI</span><br> TWINKLY WATCHES AGAIN</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Hurry! There’s our supper now!” he had +yipped joyously.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Why not?” insisted Frisky, though under +his breath, for his mother was still within +<span class='pageno' id='Page_109'>109</span>nipping distance. “It smells perfectly great!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>But Unk Wunk was also listening, and no +sooner had he detected the faint snap of a tiny +<span class='pageno' id='Page_110'>110</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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?</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_133.jpg' alt='[Fox & porcupine]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_111'>111</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXVII</span><br> FOXY COUNSEL</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“He who fights and runs away</div> + <div class='line'>Lives to fight another day.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>But young Frisky Fox didn’t even fight. +He just ran away!</p> + +<p class='c007'>Yes, sir, there was something about that +prickly ball, about the way the quills rattled +as he curled up tighter, that sounded ominous.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“<span class='sc'>Always Leave Porcupines Strictly +Alone</span>,” his mother scolded, as he went trotting +back after her, crestfallen and shamefaced.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_112'>112</span>place where it would have been a mighty +serious matter.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Yes, sir-ee! It would have been a mighty +serious matter!</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“My!” gasped the Red Fox pup.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Next time,” Mother Red Fox continued, +rather rubbing it in, “you’d do well to take +your mother’s word for a thing.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“There, now!—Listen to that!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>And through the moonlit woods, still in +their April nakedness, the Fox family could +plainly see a dark, round form slowly and +<span class='pageno' id='Page_113'>113</span>deliberately climbing into a birch tree, where +it resumed its gnawing.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“He’s dangerous only when you attack +him,” explained Mother Red Fox, seating +herself with the youngsters in a half circle +before her.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_114'>114</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXVIII</span><br> A JOLLY WORLD</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_115'>115</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_116'>116</span>There was certainly a tantalizing odor in +the air,—for those that have noses as sharp +as have the Forest Folk.</p> + +<p class='c007'>What could it be?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_117'>117</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XXXIX</span><br> WHO WILL BE SORRIEST</h2> +</div> + +<div class='lg-container-b c002'> + <div class='linegroup'> + <div class='group'> + <div class='line'>“Never trouble trouble</div> + <div class='line'>Till trouble troubles you.”</div> + </div> + </div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>At least that is a mighty good plan where +porcupines are concerned.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_118'>118</span>“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!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_119'>119</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_120'>120</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Twinkly’s heart beat faster. What should +he do?</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_143.jpg' alt='[Bear & porcupine]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_121'>121</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XL</span><br> TWINKLY EYES PLAYS SAFE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly Eyes was certainly put to it to +know what to do.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_122'>122</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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! +<span class='pageno' id='Page_123'>123</span>Something deep inside him had suddenly +decided there was more fun in playing safe.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And it wasn’t till he was half way down the +mountain-side that he remembered he was +hungry.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_124'>124</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLI</span><br> TWINKLY EYES GETS A GREAT SURPRISE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_125'>125</span>his head. It would be worth trying, just to +see what would happen.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Suddenly swish, thump, thumpety-thumpety-bump, +came something straight +down the side of a ledge!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_126'>126</span>scraping and crackling that was quite unlike +anything Twinkly Eyes had ever heard before.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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?”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_149.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_127'>127</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLII</span><br> TWINKLY EYES PLOTS MISCHIEF</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“A rolling stone gathers no moss.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Porcupines always do go by contraries.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_128'>128</span>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_129'>129</span>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_152.jpg' alt='[Porcupine]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_130'>130</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLIII</span><br> TWINKLY TEASES UNK WUNK</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_131'>131</span>fatly padded, and he simply found himself +in another place as good as the one he had +left.</p> + +<p class='c007'>So once more he began creaking contentedly +in his nasal voice his never ending chorus +“Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Beyond that, all he had to do was to keep +quills out, and none could interfere with his +pleasure.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_132'>132</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_155.jpg' alt='[Frogs]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_156.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“Hurled Unk Wunk against the tree trunk”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_132'>132</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_133'>133</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLIV</span><br> TWINKLY EYES GETS HIS</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>If Twinkly Eyes had thought for a moment +that the matter was ended, he had reckoned +without his host.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_134'>134</span>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Quick as lightning, slap, slap! Unk Wunk +snapped his barbed tail back and forth, and +Twinkly gave a howl of pain.</p> + +<p class='c007'>A handful of the torturing quills had +im-paled the tormentor’s scalp!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_135'>135</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Henceforth Unk Wunk would be given a +wide berth by one more of his neighbors.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_160.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_136'>136</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLV</span><br> BOBBY LYNX GOES FISHING</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_137'>137</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_138'>138</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_139'>139</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLVI</span><br> A NEW ACQUAINTANCE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The trouble with Bob, and, indeed, the +entire Lynx family, was that, although they +are so strong and their claws and teeth so +<span class='pageno' id='Page_140'>140</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Bobby watched craftily from under a +canopy of leaves, his gray-brown body flattened +<span class='pageno' id='Page_141'>141</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then, too, Twinkly Eyes had never seen +a lynx before, and the unknown is always to +be distrusted.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_142'>142</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLVII</span><br> THE HIRED MAN DROPS A MATCH</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In fact, if the truth were known, Bobby +Lynx was more afraid of Twinkly Eyes than +Twinkly was of Bobby.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“What is the use?” Twinkly had asked +himself. “I don’t want his old fish, and I +<span class='pageno' id='Page_143'>143</span>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.”</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>With the smell came a soft gray cloud +floating through the aisles of trees from Pollywog +Pond.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_144'>144</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_145'>145</span>the whole area between the pond and the +river was ablaze and the underbrush going +like kindling.</p> + +<p class='c007'>It was the smoke of this red ruin that had +so terrified both bear and lynx that they forgot +their feud.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_172.jpg' alt='[Bear & lynx]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_146'>146</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLVIII</span><br> THE FOREST AFLAME</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>It takes a common peril to make people +forget their hard feelings toward one another.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>His first thought was concealment, and he +leaped into a tall pine and clambered to the +topmost branches that would hold him.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>What Bobby saw from his outlook was a +wall of fire. This advanced rapidly on the +freshening wind. It devoured the underbrush +<span class='pageno' id='Page_147'>147</span>that covered the forest floor, and it all but +outsped the creatures he dimly saw were fleeing +before it.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Bobby turned to peer longingly across the +river, which here stretched wider than he +dared to swim.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>He crept stealthily down his pine tree on +<span class='pageno' id='Page_148'>148</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_175.jpg' alt='[Flames]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_149'>149</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>XLIX</span><br> IN THE FACE OF A COMMON PERIL</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But to the Forest Folk whose homes were +in the burned area, the fire seemed the most +<span class='pageno' id='Page_150'>150</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Almost on the heels of the hares loped Red +Fox and his family, whom a sudden shift of +<span class='pageno' id='Page_151'>151</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_152'>152</span>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_179.jpg' alt='[Fleeing]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_153'>153</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>L</span><br> WHILE THERE IS LIFE THERE IS HOPE</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Yet there was no way out, save the River +which here ran wide and deep.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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?</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_154'>154</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_155'>155</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_156'>156</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LI</span><br> THE BOY FROM THE VALLEY FARM</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Landed on the other shore, Twinkly hid +in a tree-top to see what else he might see.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Now it often looks darkest just before +daylight.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The wind had veered upstream, driving +the smoke with it, but the heat was fast +becoming unbearable.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_157'>157</span>have flown across, her chicks could not, and +she of course would not leave them.</p> + +<p class='c007'>All these stared with wide, hopeless eyes +as the flames ate their way toward them. +Their throats were parched and their hearts +beat visibly.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_158'>158</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Oh, see!” cried the Girl, pityingly, as she +saw the group on the river bank.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Let’s get ’em!” proposed the Boy.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>At that instant a flaming branch fell hissing +almost into the boat.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Pull out, quick!” gasped the Boy, swinging +the boat around.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_159'>159</span>“Oh, but the Fawn!” wailed the Girl. “We +can’t leave the Fawn!”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“We’ve got to!” commanded the boy, +sternly, “or that whole tree will be down on +us!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_186.jpg' alt='[Fleeing]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_160'>160</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LII</span><br> TWINKLY’S FELLOW REFUGEES</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_188.jpg' alt='' class='ig001'> +<div class='ic001'> +<p>“He lifted her bodily into the boat”<br> <br> <span class='right'>—Page <a href='#Page_161'>161</a></span></p> +</div> +</div> + +<p class='c007'>The Boy dropped his oar again and stepped +ashore, while his sister held the boat, with +its cargo of brown bunnies, in position, by +<span class='pageno' id='Page_161'>161</span>reaching out and clinging to an overhanging +bush.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>In vain, too, the Boy pursued the Grouse +chicks, while the sparks began showering all +around them.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_162'>162</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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!”</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_191.jpg' alt='[Hen]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_163'>163</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LIII</span><br> A WAY FOR THE SQUIRREL FAMILY</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Poor, poor bunnies!” sighed the Girl, as +one was all but crowded over the edge of the +boat.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“Aw, they’ll be all right once they’re on +the other side,” said the Boy. “Get in there, +<span class='pageno' id='Page_164'>164</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_165'>165</span>The Boy’s eyes shone. “It didn’t take them +long to make up their minds,” he chuckled.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_194.jpg' alt='[Squirrels]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_166'>166</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LIV</span><br> WHAT HAPPENED TO FLEET FOOT</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>“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?”</p> + +<p class='c007'>“You think her mother got away then?” +asked the Girl.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_167'>167</span>“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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_168'>168</span>and leaped out of sight, tail raised like a little +white flag behind to show the fawn which way +to follow.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And “He-w!” said Fleet Foot, with a tiny +stamp, and followed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And Twinkly Eyes, the bear cub, took it all +in, from the hiding of his tree-top.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id001'> +<img src='images/i_197.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_169'>169</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LV</span><br> TWINKLY EYES GOES HOUSE-HUNTING</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>But with all his searching, Twinkly Eyes +never once ceased to eat everything good he +came to.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_170'>170</span>No, indeed, Twinkly Eyes was not the bear +to stop eating just because he was busy +house-hunting.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_171'>171</span>north here winter was not far away, he decided +to explore these woods.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>For his mother had taught him as a cub +to know mushrooms.</p> + +<p class='c007'>The ground here slanted up a rocky +knoll, and here and there were boulders, and +here and there a fallen tree trunk.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>No, decidedly, the pine woods would not +do.—Where, then, should he search?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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. +<span class='pageno' id='Page_172'>172</span>So now he went over the ground again and +through the brush around the lake, and back +up the slippery hillside.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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?</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_173'>173</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LVI</span><br> AT THE SUGAR CAMP</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly sniffed and sniffed.</p> + +<p class='c007'>From the tumble-down shack on the +mountain-side came the most wonderful odor! +It fairly made his mouth water.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_174'>174</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>By dint of much shoving he finally got his +head clear inside the cask. Then he was +happy. My, how that bear enjoyed the +<span class='pageno' id='Page_175'>175</span>next half-hour! By stretching his neck +farther and farther through the narrow opening +he could just scrape the delicious contents +with his teeth.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>And as he jerked and banged about in +growing alarm, his heels sent everything in +the cabin spinning about his shanks.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_176'>176</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LVII</span><br> A FEAST AND A FAST</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Twinkly Eyes was a most un-com-fort-able +bear.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_177'>177</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>After that he slept awhile with his little +black tummy rounded out till he could hardly +<span class='pageno' id='Page_178'>178</span>move. For that is what makes a bear feel +happiest, when he is eating his last meal for +five months.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Next day he once more started on his +lumbering tramp over the slopes of Mount +Olaf to find his winter’s resting place.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Winter would set in early this year, the +wild ducks had shouted as they honked their +way southward that fall.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>Then one morning he awoke to find a world +of white! And still he had found no cave to +shelter him.</p> + +<div class='figcenter id002'> +<img src='images/i_207.jpg' alt='[Bear]' class='ig001'> +</div> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_179'>179</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LVIII</span><br> THE FIRST SNOW</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>Yes, sir, Twinkly Eyes awoke to find it +snowing!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'><span class='pageno' id='Page_180'>180</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_181'>181</span>him now, and he longed to begin his hi-ber-na-tion.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>If only the winter had been as easy a +problem for Twinkly Eyes! What was he to +do?</p> + +<div class='chapter'> + <span class='pageno' id='Page_182'>182</span> + <h2 class='c005'><span class='c011'>LIX</span><br> TWINKLY EYES GOES TO BED</h2> +</div> + +<p class='c006'>What should he do, asked Twinkly Eyes +as he stared about at the falling snow-flakes?</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>His father had a cave, too, somewhere, he +supposed. But Twinkly Eyes would not +have dared to enter that, much less to lie <a id='t182'></a>himself +down to sleep beside that great, growling +monster. Like most cubs, Twinkly was +wholesomely afraid of his father.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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!</p> + +<p class='c007'>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 +<span class='pageno' id='Page_183'>183</span>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<p class='c007'>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.</p> + +<div class='pbb'> + <hr class='pb c003'> +</div> +<div class='tnotes x-ebookmaker'> + +<div class='chapter ph2'> + +<div class='nf-center-c0'> +<div class='nf-center c004'> + <div>TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES</div> + </div> +</div> + +</div> + +<table class='table0'> + <tr> + <th class='c012'>Page</th> + <th class='c012'>Changed from</th> + <th class='c013'>Changed to</th> + </tr> + <tr> + <td class='c008'><a href='#t182'>182</a></td> + <td class='c014'>have dared to enter that, much less to lie him</td> + <td class='c015'>have dared to enter that, much less to lie himself</td> + </tr> +</table> + + <ul class='ul_1'> + <li>Typos fixed; non-standard spelling and dialect retained. + </li> + </ul> + +</div> + +<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 77049 ***</div> + </body> + <!-- created with ppgen.py 3.57e (with regex) on 2025-10-13 23:20:41 GMT --> +</html> + diff --git a/77049-h/images/cover.jpg b/77049-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..510ba34 --- /dev/null +++ b/77049-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/77049-h/images/i_001.jpg b/77049-h/images/i_001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ecd6471 --- /dev/null +++ b/77049-h/images/i_001.jpg diff --git a/77049-h/images/i_012.jpg b/77049-h/images/i_012.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a977da0 --- /dev/null +++ b/77049-h/images/i_012.jpg diff --git a/77049-h/images/i_015.jpg b/77049-h/images/i_015.jpg Binary files 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