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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18630-h.zip b/18630-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..91e2cbb --- /dev/null +++ b/18630-h.zip diff --git a/18630-h/18630-h.htm b/18630-h/18630-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7279c8e --- /dev/null +++ b/18630-h/18630-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2346 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Tale of Frisky Squirrel, by Arthur Scott Bailey</title> + <style type="text/css"> + /*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: 180%;} + h2 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: 120%;} + h3 {text-align: center; clear: both; font-size: 100%;} + table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto; text-align: center;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} + hr.full {width:100%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.major {width:75%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width:30%; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .tnote {border: dotted 1px; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; + padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; + font-size: 90% } + ins {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin dotted gray;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps} + .ul {text-decoration: underline;} + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .caption {font-size: 80%;} + pre {font-size: 80%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Tale of Frisky Squirrel, by Arthur Scott +Bailey, Illustrated by Eleanore Fagan</h1> +<pre> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: The Tale of Frisky Squirrel</p> +<p>Author: Arthur Scott Bailey</p> +<p>Release Date: June 19, 2006 [eBook #18630]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL***</p> +<p> </p> +<h3>E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> + + +<table width='400' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='' border='1'> + <col style='width:100%;' /> + <tr> + <td align='center'> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'><br /><i><span class='ul'>SLEEPY-TIME TALES</span></i></span><br /><br /> + <span style='font-size: 220%;'>THE TALE OF</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 220%;'>FRISKY</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 220%;'>SQUIRREL</span><br /><br /><br /> + <span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>By</i></span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 140%;'><span class='smcap'>Arthur Scott Bailey</span></span><br /><br /> + <span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>Author of</i></span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>SLEEPY-TIME TALES</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>ETC.</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'><span class='ul'> </span></span><br /><br /> + <span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>Illustrated by</i></span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>ELEANORE FAGAN</span><br /><br /><br /> + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 80%;'>PUBLISHERS — NEW YORK</span><br /><br /> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p style='text-align:center'>Copyright, 1915, by +A. S. BAILEY</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-001' id='illus-001'></a> +<img src='images/illus-001.png' alt='' title='' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>“Tails and Ears”</span> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h2><a name='Contents' id='Contents'></a>Contents</h2> +<div class='smcap'> +<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents'> +<col style='width:20%;' /> +<col style='width:70%;' /> +<col style='width:10%;' /> +<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'> Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do</td><td align='right'><a href='#I'>9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'> Frisky Squirrel has a Fall</td><td align='right'><a href='#II'>13</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'> The Stone that Walked</td><td align='right'><a href='#III'>17</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'> The Picnic</td><td align='right'><a href='#IV'>22</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'> Some Lively Dodging</td><td align='right'><a href='#V'>27</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'> Mr. Hawk Returns</td><td align='right'><a href='#VI'>31</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'> A Brave Little Bird</td><td align='right'><a href='#VII'>35</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'> Uncle Sammy Coon</td><td align='right'><a href='#VIII'>40</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'> A Bag of Corn</td><td align='right'><a href='#IX'>44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'> Tails and Ears</td><td align='right'><a href='#X'>49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'> Jimmy Rabbit is too Late</td><td align='right'><a href='#XI'>53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'> Frisky Visits the Gristmill</td><td align='right'><a href='#XII'>57</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'> Fun on the Milldam</td><td align='right'><a href='#XIII'>62</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'> Mrs. Squirrel Has a Visitor</td><td align='right'><a href='#XIV'>67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'> Helpful Mr. Crow</td><td align='right'><a href='#XV'>72</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'> Caught in the Attic</td><td align='right'><a href='#XVI'>77</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'> Farmer Green’s Cat</td><td align='right'><a href='#XVII'>82</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'> The Threshing-machine</td><td align='right'><a href='#XVIII'>86</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'> Frisky’s Prison</td><td align='right'><a href='#XIX'>91</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'> Johnnie Green Forgets Something</td><td align='right'><a href='#XX'>95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'> That Disagreeable Freddie Weasel</td><td align='right'><a href='#XXI'>101</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'> Catching Freddie Weasel Asleep</td><td align='right'><a href='#XXII'>106</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + + +<hr class='major' /> +<h1>THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL</h1> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='I' id='I'></a> +<a name='illus-003' id='illus-003'></a> +<img src='images/illus-005.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_9' id='Page_9'>[Pg 9]</a></span> +<h2>I</h2><h3>Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do</h3> +</div> + + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was a lively little chap. And he was very bold, too. You +see, he was so nimble that he felt he could always jump right out of +danger—no matter whether it was a hawk chasing him, or a fox springing +at him, or a boy throwing stones at him. He would chatter and scold at +his enemies from some tree-top. And it was seldom that he was so +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_10' id='Page_10'>[Pg 10]</a></span>frightened that he ran home and hid inside his mother’s house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Squirrel’s house was in a hollow limb of a hickory tree. It was a +very convenient place to live; for although the tree was old, it still +bore nuts. And it is very pleasant to be able to step out of your house +and find your dinner all ready for you—simply waiting to be picked.</p> + +<p>Of course, Frisky Squirrel and his mother couldn’t find their dinner on +the tree the whole year ’round—because it was only in the fall that +there were nuts on it. But luckily there were other things to eat—such +as seeds, of which there were many kinds in the woods. And then there +was Farmer Green’s wheat—and his corn, too, which Frisky liked most of +all.</p> + +<p>The woods where Mrs. Squirrel and her son lived were full of the finest +trees to climb that anybody could wish for. And Frisky loved to go +leaping from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. He was<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_11' id='Page_11'>[Pg 11]</a></span> so +fearless that he would scamper far out on the ends of the smallest +limbs. But no matter how much they bent and swayed beneath his weight, +he was never afraid; in fact, that was part of the fun.</p> + +<p>As she watched Frisky whisking about among the trees, now swinging on +this branch, now leaping far out to that one, Mrs. Squirrel sometimes +wondered how he could keep dashing about so madly. Though the old lady +was pretty spry, herself, she was content to sit still <i>some</i> of the +time. But Frisky Squirrel was almost never still except when he was +asleep. There was so much to do! Frisky wished that the days were +longer, for though he tried his hardest, he couldn’t climb <i>all</i> the +trees in the forest. Each night he had to give up his task, only to +begin all over again the next morning. If there had been nothing to do +but <i>climb</i> the trees<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_12' id='Page_12'>[Pg 12]</a></span> Frisky would have been able to climb more of +them. But there were other things that took time.</p> + +<p>There were the birds, for instance. Frisky simply had to tease them. +Perhaps it was just because he was so full of fun—or mischief, as it is +sometimes called. Anyhow, he delighted in visiting their nests; and +chasing them; and scolding at them. And it was not always the littlest +birds, either, that Frisky teased. There was that loud-mouthed fellow, +Jasper Jay, the biggest blue jay in the whole neighborhood. Frisky liked +nothing better than bothering Jasper Jay—for Jasper always lost his +temper and flew straight at Frisky. And then would follow the finest +sport of all.</p> + +<p>But a time came at last when Frisky teased Jasper Jay almost once too +often, though that is another story.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-004' id='illus-004'></a> +<img src='images/illus-007.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='II' id='II'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_13' id='Page_13'>[Pg 13]</a></span> +<h2>II</h2><h3>Frisky Squirrel has a Fall</h3> +</div> + +<p>One day Frisky Squirrel came upon Jasper Jay’s nest when Jasper and his +wife were both away from home. And Frisky simply couldn’t resist tearing +a few twigs out of it. He had not done much damage, however, before Mrs. +Jay returned. When she saw what was happening she screamed loudly for +her husband. And soon Jasper came flying up as fast as he could come. He +made a noise exactly like a red-tailed hawk; but he did not frighten +Frisky at all, for Frisky knew all of Jasper’s tricks. Jasper Jay was +always trying to scare people by calling like bigger<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_14' id='Page_14'>[Pg 14]</a></span> birds—such as +red-shouldered hawks, and red-tailed hawks, and sparrow hawks.</p> + +<p>When Frisky heard him calling he just laughed and skipped up the trunk +of the tree, with Jasper and his wife chasing him. Now, with Jasper and +Mrs. Jay both flying at him, Frisky had to be sprier than ever. But he +was not afraid. He never thought of danger at all. And he ran down the +thick tree-trunk like a flash and bounded across the ground and tore up +the tree where he and his mother lived.</p> + +<p>“I’ll peck your eyes out!” Jasper shouted, as he followed close behind +Frisky. Now, no matter how bold one may be, it is not pleasant to hear a +thing like that said. And it made Frisky hurry a little faster.</p> + +<p>“I’ll peck his tongue out!” screamed Mrs. Jay. And somehow it disturbed +Frisky the least bit to hear Jasper’s wife<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_15' id='Page_15'>[Pg 15]</a></span> say that. He decided that he +would go home at once. And he gave a great spring toward the hollow limb +where he lived.</p> + +<p>Then something happened that was a great surprise to Frisky Squirrel. He +was right in the middle of his leap when Jasper struck him with a wing. +The blow did not hurt Frisky. But it sent him tumbling. He missed the +hollow limb, and down he went, head over heels, toward the ground.</p> + +<p>Even while he was falling, Frisky Squirrel laughed. You see, he thought +it was a good joke on himself. And being a merry little fellow, he was +always ready to laugh when anybody played a joke on him. As for the +fall, that did not trouble him at all. He knew that he could land on his +feet.</p> + +<p>It was after he had lighted upon the ground that Frisky was really +frightened.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_16' id='Page_16'>[Pg 16]</a></span> For when he looked up, whom should he see but Tommy Fox, +not three jumps away! And Tommy Fox was smiling in the most horrid +fashion, as if to say—“Ah! I’ve got you now, my fine fellow!” And then +Tommy Fox leaped.</p> + +<p>But quick as Tommy was, Frisky Squirrel was even quicker. While Tommy +was making one big leap, Frisky was making three smaller leaps. And when +Tommy came down on the spot where Frisky had been he found nothing but a +heap of dry leaves beneath his paws; and in a moment more Frisky +Squirrel’s gray tail was disappearing through the doorway of his +mother’s house.</p> + +<p>It was very unlucky for Tommy Fox; but then, one might say that it was +very lucky for Frisky Squirrel.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-005' id='illus-005'></a> +<img src='images/illus-009.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-006' id='illus-006'></a> +<img src='images/illus-011.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='III' id='III'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_17' id='Page_17'>[Pg 17]</a></span> +<h2>III</h2><h3>The Stone that Walked</h3> +</div> + +<p>One day Frisky Squirrel was playing in the woods when he came upon a +chestnut bur which had lain upon the ground all winter. And in a +twinkling Frisky had picked the nut from inside it and popped it into +his mouth. Then he started home to show his mother what he had found.</p> + +<p>But on the way home Frisky began to feel hungry. Just carrying that nut +inside his cheek was a little more than he could stand. And he decided +that he would eat the nut at once, and <i>tell</i> his mother about it, +instead of <i>showing</i> it to her.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_18' id='Page_18'>[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + +<p>So Frisky hopped up on the top of a broad, flat rock. And sitting down +right in the center of it, he began to gnaw at the chestnut. He was so +busy and so interested in what he was doing that before he knew it the +rock began to move. It moved so slowly that it was not until it started +to climb a little hummock, and nearly tipped Frisky over on his back, +that he noticed what was happening.</p> + +<p>At first Frisky thought he must be dreaming. He nipped himself with his +sharp teeth to make sure that he was awake. And when he saw that the +rock was really walking right away with him he forgot all about eating +the chestnut. He let it fall out of his paws and roll away; for he had +never seen a rock move like that before.</p> + +<p>It was very exciting, though Frisky had never traveled so slowly +before. You<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_19' id='Page_19'>[Pg 19]</a></span> see, whenever he went anywhere he always hurried as if he +had the most important business to attend to. But it was quite different +with that rock. It crawled along just as if it didn’t care whether it +ever got anywhere or not.</p> + +<p>For a long time Frisky clung there. Now and then he almost slipped off +as the rock tilted. But it never tipped quite over; and Frisky managed +to stick on. And then, at last, he decided that he had better hop off +onto the ground, for he noticed that the rock was moving straight toward +the river. It went down the bank at a faster pace. And Frisky leaped off +just in time to escape a wetting, for the next moment the rock dropped +splash! into the water.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel waited on the shore and watched it, with eyes wide open +with astonishment. He had expected to see it<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_20' id='Page_20'>[Pg 20]</a></span> sink to the bottom of the +river. But the rock swam away as easily as you please. That was the +strangest part of it all—a rock which could not only walk, but could +swim as well!</p> + +<p>Frisky turned about and ran for home as fast as he could jump. This time +he certainly did have important business. He had such a strange thing to +tell his mother! He reached home quite out of breath. And as soon as he +could, he told Mrs. Squirrel what he had seen.</p> + +<p>That good lady did not know what to think. She had always found her son +to be truthful. But this was certainly a queer story. She lay awake a +long time that night thinking about the matter. And early the next +morning she took Frisky and set out for Swift River. Frisky led her to +the very spot where the stone had swum away.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_21' id='Page_21'>[Pg 21]</a></span></p> + +<p>“There it is! There it is now!” he cried, as they paused upon the bank +and he pointed down toward the water’s edge.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Squirrel saw what Frisky was pointing at she no longer +wondered.</p> + +<p>“It’s a mud turtle!” she exclaimed. “You had a ride on a mud turtle and +you never knew it.” She smiled, because she was amused; and because she +was happy, too. For she knew that Frisky had told the truth.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-007' id='illus-007'></a> +<img src='images/illus-013.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-008' id='illus-008'></a> +<img src='images/illus-015.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='IV' id='IV'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_22' id='Page_22'>[Pg 22]</a></span> +<h2>IV</h2><h3>The Picnic</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was a fine spring day—so pleasant that the children from the little +red schoolhouse over the hill came to the woods where Frisky Squirrel +lived. They came for the first picnic of the season, and such a noise as +they made had never been heard in those woods before.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was frightened at first. But at last he grew accustomed +to the uproar, and he crept out on the limb where he lived—not too far +away from the door—and looked down and watched the fun.</p> + +<p>He was enjoying the picnic quite as much as the merry-makers +themselves—until<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_23' id='Page_23'>[Pg 23]</a></span> a boy spied him. And then several boys began to throw +acorns at him. Frisky did not like that so well; and he hid in a crotch +of the tree where he could not be seen from below, until the boys forgot +all about him.</p> + +<p>When the picnickers went away, Frisky lost no time. He slipped down the +tree in a hurry. You see, he had seen the children eating their lunch +and he hoped he would be able to find some tidbit which they had left +behind them.</p> + +<p>Sure enough! there was a feast waiting for him. He was not the only one +who was there to enjoy it. For there were three ruffianly red squirrels +and a half-dozen chipmunks who appeared on the spot as if by magic.</p> + +<p>This second picnic soon came to an end, for the dainties did not last +long. But what Frisky found, he enjoyed very much.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_24' id='Page_24'>[Pg 24]</a></span> Most of all he liked +a bit of something that was covered with a white coating, which looked a +good deal like snow. But it did not taste like snow at all; it was as +sweet as sweet could be!</p> + +<p>Rusty Red-squirrel found a piece of the same dainty, and he explained to +Frisky that it was called “cake.”</p> + +<p>“I ate some once at Farmer Green’s house,” he said. “Farmer Green’s wife +makes it.” And Frisky decided on the spot that he would pay a visit to +the farmhouse. It was too late to go that day. But the next morning +Frisky set out for Farmer Green’s house.</p> + +<p>In the distance he could see white smoke curling from the red chimney. +And though he did not know it, that meant that it was baking-day, and +Farmer Green’s wife was just as busy as she could be, making good things +for her hungry family.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_25' id='Page_25'>[Pg 25]</a></span></p> + +<p>When Frisky Squirrel reached the farmhouse he found the kitchen window +wide open. And after making sure that there was no one inside the room, +he stole in and jumped up on a shelf where there was a row of dishes +with all sorts of tempting things on them.</p> + +<p>To Frisky’s joy, he found a whole cake exactly like the bit he had +discovered in the woods. And he ate all he wanted; there seemed to be no +reason why he shouldn’t, there was so much of it.</p> + +<p>And then a door slammed somewhere. The noise startled Frisky Squirrel +and he fell right off the shelf, backwards, and landed plump in the +flour-barrel.</p> + +<p>He was nearly smothered. And he was frightened, too. But he managed to +scramble out again. And you should have seen the white streak that went +shooting across the kitchen floor, out the door, and<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_26' id='Page_26'>[Pg 26]</a></span> away. It was +Frisky Squirrel, of course, covered with flour. He never stopped running +until he was half-way home. And then he climbed a tree and sat down to +lick himself clean again. To his astonishment, he found that the white +powder that covered him tasted very good. It reminded him of wheat. And +that is not surprising, since the flour was made of wheat which Farmer +Green had grown in his own fields, and which had been ground into flour +by the miller who lived further up Swift River.</p> + +<p>Though the flour tasted good, Frisky did not like it as well as the +cake. He wished he had been covered with that sweet, snowlike frosting.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-009' id='illus-009'></a> +<img src='images/illus-017.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-010' id='illus-010'></a> +<img src='images/illus-019.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>“The Picnic”</span> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-011' id='illus-011'></a> +<img src='images/illus-021.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='V' id='V'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_27' id='Page_27'>[Pg 27]</a></span> +<h2>V</h2><h3>Some Lively Dodging</h3> +</div> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was having his usual fun, leaping through the tree-tops. +He went skipping and scrambling among the boughs as if a hundred jays +were after him. But they were only make-believe enemies. And after a +while Frisky grew tired of playing all alone. He wished he could find +Jasper Jay again. He would have liked to tease the rude fellow, until +Jasper chased him.</p> + +<p>As Frisky paused for a moment to catch his breath he heard a long-drawn, +squealing whistle, somewhat like the sound of escaping steam.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_28' id='Page_28'>[Pg 28]</a></span></p> + +<p>“There’s Jasper Jay right now!” he exclaimed. “And he’s trying to make +people think he’s a red-tailed hawk. But he can’t fool me that way. I’ll +just go and find him. And then maybe I won’t tease him!”</p> + +<p>Frisky started toward the place where he had heard that whistle. He +called to Jasper Jay; but there was no answer. Nor did he hear the +whistle again. He hunted all around; but no Jasper Jay could he find. +And he was just going to give up the search when there was a sudden rush +through the air.</p> + +<p>Frisky dodged just in time; and a big body, grayish-brown, with a +rusty-red tail, went tearing past him. He had been mistaken. It wasn’t +Jasper Jay he had heard whistling, but this fierce red-tailed hawk. Here +was even more fun than Frisky had hoped for!<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_29' id='Page_29'>[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>As soon as Mr. Hawk could stop his swift flight he turned and came back +again. And there followed the liveliest sort of dodging for Frisky +Squirrel. It was well for him that he had had plenty of practice all the +spring, or I am afraid he would never have escaped.</p> + +<p>He was not afraid. And now and then he laughed at Mr. Hawk. And now and +then he shouted “Robber!” at him, and “Thief!” And he asked him how many +of Farmer Green’s chickens he had stolen lately.</p> + +<p>But Mr. Hawk never once answered—except to whistle sometimes as he went +sailing past. He paid strict attention to what he was doing. And he +seemed to have no idea of stopping until he got Frisky Squirrel in his +claws.</p> + +<p>After a while Frisky began to tire of the sport. But not Mr. Hawk! He +kept flying<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_30' id='Page_30'>[Pg 30]</a></span> back and forth, back and forth, past Frisky. And his cruel +eyes glared terribly every time he came near.</p> + +<p>“You’d better go along home,” Frisky called to him. “You can never catch +me, if you try till snow flies.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Hawk lighted on a near-by tree and looked at Frisky. Frisky was a +plump little squirrel and Mr. Hawk hated to give him up. But as he +thought the matter over he seemed to decide that Frisky was a little too +spry for him. And with one more whistle he mounted up above the trees +and sailed calmly away.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel went home then; and he told his mother what sport he had +had, and how Mr. Hawk had at last flown away in despair. “I hope he’ll +come back again to-morrow,” said Frisky.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Squirrel shook her head. She wished that Frisky was less +daring.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-012' id='illus-012'></a> +<img src='images/illus-023.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='VI' id='VI'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_31' id='Page_31'>[Pg 31]</a></span> +<h2>VI</h2><h3>Mr. Hawk Returns</h3> +</div> + +<p>After he escaped from the fierce red-tailed hawk you would naturally +think that Frisky Squirrel would have been glad to keep away from such a +great, strong enemy. But the very next day found Frisky searching +everywhere for that cruel, hook-nosed Mr. Hawk. He wanted more of that +fine sport that he had had the day before, dodging and twisting around +the limbs of the trees, while Mr. Hawk swooped down and tried to seize +him. There was another reason, too, why Frisky wanted to find Mr. Hawk +again—and that was because he knew that it annoyed Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_32' id='Page_32'>[Pg 32]</a></span> Hawk very much +not to be able to catch him. You see, Frisky Squirrel was a great tease.</p> + +<p>Well, as I said, Frisky hunted all through the woods for the red-tailed +hawk. But he couldn’t find him. There was a good reason why—and that +was because Mr. Hawk was waiting for Frisky in the top of a tree near +Mrs. Squirrel’s home. He was waiting and watching—was Mr. Hawk. When +Frisky had given up his search and was almost home he heard the smaller +birds warning one another of the danger, telling of the savage old +fellow who was half-hidden on a high branch of the tall elm. Frisky +first heard a flicker calling to a towhee; and the towhee told a robin; +and the robin told a little song sparrow that he had better keep out of +sight unless he wanted Mr. Hawk to catch him. You may be sure that the +little song sparrow<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_33' id='Page_33'>[Pg 33]</a></span> was very careful after that. He gave a few <i>chips</i>, +just to do his share in warning the other forest-people to look out for +the red-tailed hawk; and then he crept into a thicket and kept just as +still as a mouse.</p> + +<p>When Frisky heard the news—for he knew what the birds were telling one +another—he hurried along joyfully. <i>He</i> was not afraid of Mr. Hawk. Mr. +Hawk was the very person he was looking for.</p> + +<p>“Hello, you old ruffian!” Frisky called, as soon as he spied Mr. Hawk. +It certainly was a very impolite thing to say, even if it <i>was</i> true.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hawk turned his cruel eyes upon Frisky Squirrel and then he dashed +toward him as fast as he knew how. He dropped down like lightning from +his high perch, and Frisky had to dodge quickly to escape him; but that +was part of the fun.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_34' id='Page_34'>[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel laughed as Mr. Hawk went sailing by him. And then +something happened—something Frisky was not expecting. He heard a rush +through the air, and a nervous little wren screamed to him to look out. +Frisky didn’t know what the trouble was; but he gave a great leap to one +side.</p> + +<p>He was just in time. He had hardly left the limb to which he had been +clinging when Mr. Hawk’s wife went coursing past. You see, Mr. Hawk had +made up his mind that he was going to catch Frisky Squirrel, even if he +had to bring Mrs. Hawk along to help him.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-013' id='illus-013'></a> +<img src='images/illus-025.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-014' id='illus-014'></a> +<img src='images/illus-027.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='VII' id='VII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_35' id='Page_35'>[Pg 35]</a></span> +<h2>VII</h2><h3>A Brave Little Bird</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was not long before Frisky Squirrel began to see that he had got +himself into something very like a fix. It had been fairly easy to dodge +Mr. Hawk alone. But things were quite different now. Mr. Hawk would come +hurtling down upon him from one direction; and Mrs. Hawk would swoop +down upon him from another. It was all very confusing, because Frisky +could not watch both of them at once.</p> + +<p>He called to his mother, because he began to be frightened. But Mrs. +Squirrel was not at home. Frisky did not know what to do. He tried to +reach his home in<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_36' id='Page_36'>[Pg 36]</a></span> the big hickory tree near-by; but Mr. and Mrs. Hawk +wouldn’t let him go near it. And when he felt one of Mr. Hawk’s sharp +talons dig into his back Frisky thought that his end had come. But he +escaped that time, though Mrs. Hawk nearly caught him just two seconds +later.</p> + +<p>I am afraid <i>The Tale of Frisky Squirrel</i> would have ended right here, +if somebody had not come to Frisky’s help. Fortunately, there was a +small, olive-green bird who lived with his wife not far from Frisky +Squirrel’s home. Mr. Kinglet was his name. And though he was a tiny +fellow he had a heart like a lion’s. I suppose that in all the country +around Blue Mountain there was no braver fellow than he. And his wife +was brave too. Although they both wore very dull-colored clothes, if you +took a good look at Mr. Kinglet you could see that he always wore a +bright<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_37' id='Page_37'>[Pg 37]</a></span> red crown. He was very modest about his crown, and generally +wore it so that only a little of it showed. But whenever he went out to +fight, as the forest-people are often obliged to, that beautiful red +crown might be seen as plain as could be.</p> + +<p>Now, it happened that Mrs. Kinglet heard Mr. and Mrs. Hawk talking to +each other, as they tried to capture Frisky Squirrel, and she heard the +other forest-people shouting, too. So she called to Mr. Kinglet that +somebody seemed to be in trouble; and he came hurrying up at once.</p> + +<p>When the little frightened wren screamed, Mr. Kinglet made up his mind +that it was time for him to do something. And he pushed his red crown up +on the top of his head where it would show better and he flew straight +toward Mr. Hawk.</p> + +<p>Mr. Kinglet flew up over Mr. Hawk’s<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_38' id='Page_38'>[Pg 38]</a></span> head, and then he darted down and +lighted right in the middle of Mr. Hawk’s broad back, and began pecking +him as hard as he could with his sharp little bill.</p> + +<p>Mr. Hawk stopped trying to catch Frisky. He had all he wanted to do to +shake that bold little fellow off his back. And though Mrs. Hawk still +swooped down at Frisky Squirrel, brave Mr. Kinglet’s brave little wife +began to fly at <i>her</i> so fiercely that Mrs. Hawk couldn’t keep Frisky +from reaching the tree where he lived.</p> + +<p>He was very glad to get home, you may be sure. And he dived in through +the door and was out of sight in no time. But pretty soon he stuck his +head out again to see what was happening. Mr. and Mrs. Hawk had +vanished. And all the forest-people were thanking Mr. and Mrs. Kinglet +for driving them away. Frisky<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_39' id='Page_39'>[Pg 39]</a></span> Squirrel thanked them, too. And when he +remembered how he had sometimes teased Mrs. Kinglet by visiting her nest +he felt very much ashamed, and he promised himself that he would never +trouble her again.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-015' id='illus-015'></a> +<img src='images/illus-029.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-016' id='illus-016'></a> +<img src='images/illus-031.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='VIII' id='VIII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_40' id='Page_40'>[Pg 40]</a></span> +<h2>VIII</h2><h3>Uncle Sammy Coon</h3> +</div> + +<p>One day Frisky Squirrel was looking for something to eat in the woods, +when whom should he meet but Uncle Sammy Coon, a good-for-nothing old +fellow who lived over in the swamp.</p> + +<p>“Well, young man!” said Uncle Sammy, “what are you doing here?”</p> + +<p>“I’m trying to find a few seeds to eat,” Frisky explained.</p> + +<p>“I know where there’s some corn,” said Uncle Sammy Coon. “It’s last +year’s corn, to be sure; but it’s good, just the same.”</p> + +<p>“Where is it?” Frisky asked him.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_41' id='Page_41'>[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Hm—” said Uncle Sammy. “If I told you would you get some of it for me? +It would be easy for a spry young chap like you to take all you wanted +of it. But I’ve a lame knee, you know, and I can’t climb so well as I +used to.”</p> + +<p>“Of course I’ll get some corn for you,” Frisky promised. “Where is it?”</p> + +<p>“I’ll take you to it,” said Uncle Sammy—“this very night.” He was a +suspicious old chap—which means that he was afraid that if he told +Frisky then, Frisky would go off alone and take what corn he wanted +without giving Uncle Sammy any.</p> + +<p>“To-night!” Frisky exclaimed. “Oh, I don’t stay out late at night, you +know, as you do.” Uncle Sammy Coon was known to keep very late hours.</p> + +<p>“Well—right after sundown, then,” the old rascal said. “We’ll meet over +by the<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_42' id='Page_42'>[Pg 42]</a></span> brook. Don’t tell your mother. It will be a pleasant surprise +for her, when you bring home a fine bagful of corn.”</p> + +<p>“All right! I’ll be there,” Frisky told him.</p> + +<p>And sure enough! Just as the sun sank out of sight that evening, Frisky +appeared on the bank of the brook. And he hadn’t told his mother what he +was going to do, either.</p> + +<p>Pretty soon Uncle Sammy Coon came along. He had an old sack slung over +his shoulder and a wide grin on his face.</p> + +<p>“Come on, young man!” he said, “and we’ll go over to Farmer Green’s +place.”</p> + +<p>“Farmer Green’s!” Frisky cried. “I don’t want to go there.” He +remembered the fright he had had when he fell into the flour-barrel in +Farmer Green’s kitchen.</p> + +<p>“You promised,” Uncle Sammy reminded him. “And unless you want<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_43' id='Page_43'>[Pg 43]</a></span> +something you won’t like nearly so well as corn, you had better march +right along with me.”</p> + +<p>He was so cross that Frisky Squirrel thought he had better mind him. But +Frisky wished he had not come. And he wished he had told his mother what +he was going to do, too. But he trotted along with Uncle Sammy—only he +was careful not to get too close to the tricky old gentleman, for there +was no knowing when Uncle Sammy might suddenly decide that he would +rather have a nice, tender, young gray squirrel to eat than all the last +year’s corn in the world. You see, the little forest-people have to +think of many things—especially when they walk out alone with a person +like Uncle Sammy Coon.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-017' id='illus-017'></a> +<img src='images/illus-033.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-018' id='illus-018'></a> +<img src='images/illus-035.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='IX' id='IX'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_44' id='Page_44'>[Pg 44]</a></span> +<h2>IX</h2><h3>A Bag of Corn</h3> +</div> + +<p>When Frisky Squirrel and Uncle Sammy Coon arrived at Farmer Green’s +place, the moon was just rising. It wasn’t dark, but Uncle Sammy said +that they would have no trouble at all, because Farmer Green’s family +would be in the house, eating their evening meal.</p> + +<p>“There’s the corn-house,” he said, pointing to an old stone building. +“There’s a hole in the wall up there under the roof. All you have to do +is to climb that tree, run out on that limb, crawl through the hole, and +there you are—inside. Then you can bring the corn up to<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_45' id='Page_45'>[Pg 45]</a></span> the hole, drop +it out onto the ground, and I’ll stay outside and pick it up and put it +in this sack and watch out for old dog Spot.”</p> + +<p>“You see,” he went on, “I’ll be doing most of the work, for I’ll be +doing three things, while all you’ll have to do will be to drop the corn +out of the hole in the wall.... But I don’t mind doing more than my +share.”</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel couldn’t quite understand how Uncle Sammy would be doing +most of the work. But since the old gentleman said it was so, Frisky +supposed it was the truth. There was one thing, however, that puzzled +him still more.</p> + +<p>“Have you brought a bag for my share of the corn?” he asked.</p> + +<p>“Oh, we’ll divide this bagful,” said Uncle Sammy. “When we get over the +hill we’ll sit down and divide it.”</p> + +<p>“All right!” said Frisky. And then he<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_46' id='Page_46'>[Pg 46]</a></span> hurried up the tree. In no more +than a jiffy he was inside the old stone building; and pretty soon the +corn began to patter, patter, down upon the ground where Uncle Sammy +waited.</p> + +<p>Frisky had been working steadily for some time. And he began to wonder +if the bag was not full. He thought he would just peep out of the hole +in the wall and see. So he stuck his head out. To his surprise, Uncle +Sammy had vanished. And as Frisky looked all around he caught sight of +Uncle Sammy Coon with the bag of corn on his back, hurrying up the road. +For an old gentleman with a lame knee he was going at a very fast pace.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel wondered why he had run away. But he didn’t wonder long, +for a dog barked; and the bark came from right underneath the hole in +the wall. Then Farmer Green came running up the<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_47' id='Page_47'>[Pg 47]</a></span> path which led to the +corn-house. He had a gun in his hand, too.</p> + +<p>Frisky didn’t wait to see anything more. He whisked out of the hole, and +climbed the roof, and jumped into another tree on the other side of the +corn-house. And soon he too was running like mad along the road—only he +was going in exactly the opposite direction to that in which Uncle Sammy +had vanished.</p> + +<p>He never stopped running until he had reached the woods. And since he +could not bring any corn home with him, he thought that there was really +no sense in telling his mother anything about his adventure.</p> + +<p>The next day, as Frisky was playing in a tree-top, he came across Uncle +Sammy Coon sunning himself.</p> + +<p>“Where’s my corn?” asked Frisky Squirrel.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_48' id='Page_48'>[Pg 48]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Corn!” Uncle Sammy exclaimed, as if he had forgotten all about such a +thing. “Oh! you mean that corn that we got last night. Now, I’m sorry to +say that the bag was so heavy I had to drop it, because old dog Spot was +after me, you know. And when I went back to get it, later, it wasn’t +there.... We’ll have to try again, some other time,” he added.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel began to see that the old fellow had tricked him. Uncle +Sammy’s sides looked very plump, as if he had had an unusually good +meal. And he smiled so pleasantly that Frisky Squirrel became very +angry.</p> + +<p>“You’ll get your own corn next time,” he snapped. And as he skipped away +he heard Uncle Sammy Coon laugh heartily—just as though something had +amused him.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-019' id='illus-019'></a> +<img src='images/illus-037.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='X' id='X'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_49' id='Page_49'>[Pg 49]</a></span> +<h2>X</h2><h3>Tails and Ears</h3> +</div> + +<p>Among all his friends, Frisky Squirrel liked to play with Jimmy Rabbit +best. You see, Jimmy never wanted to eat him. He was so fond of tender +young sprouts, and of Farmer Green’s vegetables, that he wouldn’t have +taken even the smallest bite out of Frisky. He would have laughed at the +very idea.</p> + +<p>There was something else, too, about Jimmy Rabbit, that Frisky Squirrel +liked; he was always thinking of new things to do—new places to visit, +new games, new tricks to play on other forest-people.</p> + +<p>To be sure, Jimmy and Frisky did not<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_50' id='Page_50'>[Pg 50]</a></span> always agree—but that is not +surprising, because their tastes were so different. For instance, there +was nothing that Frisky Squirrel liked better than a hickory nut, while +Jimmy Rabbit never would so much as touch one. But if anybody said +“cabbage” to Jimmy Rabbit he would have to stop playing and hurry to +Farmer Green’s garden. You see how fond of cabbage Jimmy was.</p> + +<p>There were other things, too, on which Frisky and Jimmy held different +views. They were forever disputing about ears and tails. Frisky +Squirrel, as you know, had a beautiful, long, bushy tail, and short +little ears; while Jimmy Rabbit had ears half as long as he was, and +almost no tail at all!</p> + +<p>“Really, Frisky, you ought to have that tail of yours cut off,” Jimmy +said one day. “It’s terribly out of fashion to wear a tail<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_51' id='Page_51'>[Pg 51]</a></span> so long as +yours. As a special favor, I’ll be willing to cut it off for you, with a +big pair of shears that my mother has.”</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was just a bit angry at this remark about his tail.</p> + +<p>“What about your ears?” he asked. “Not one of the forest-people—except +rabbits—wears his ears so long as you do. I must say that they look +very queer. How’d you like to have me trim them for you?”</p> + +<p>“Tell you what we’ll do,” Jimmy Rabbit said. “I’ll cut off your tail and +you’ll cut off my ears. What do you say?”</p> + +<p>Somehow or other, Frisky did not quite like the idea of losing his tail. +He was so used to having it that he was afraid he might miss it +dreadfully. And he even thought that he would rather keep it—even if it +<i>was</i> out of fashion.</p> + +<p>But Jimmy Rabbit ran home to get his<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_52' id='Page_52'>[Pg 52]</a></span> mother’s shears. And when he came +back with them Frisky couldn’t think of any good excuse for not letting +Jimmy cut off his tail for him. As Jimmy came hopping up with the +shears, Frisky Squirrel put out his paw.</p> + +<p>“What do you want?” asked Jimmy.</p> + +<p>“The shears!” Frisky said. “I’m going to trim your ears, you know.”</p> + +<p>“Oh—yes!” Jimmy answered. “But I thought of this <i>first</i>, you remember. +So I’ll cut your tail off first. Then you’ll have your turn—see?” He +kept a firm hold on the shears. And almost before Frisky knew what was +happening Jimmy had stepped behind him and had placed Frisky’s tail +between the big shears.</p> + +<p>“Will it hurt?” Frisky asked, as he looked behind him.</p> + +<p>“It’ll all be over in a jiffy,” said Jimmy Rabbit.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-020' id='illus-020'></a> +<img src='images/illus-039.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XI' id='XI'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_53' id='Page_53'>[Pg 53]</a></span> +<h2>XI</h2><h3>Jimmy Rabbit is too Late</h3> +</div> + +<p>It was just as Jimmy Rabbit had said. You remember that as he stood +behind Frisky Squirrel’s back with his mother’s big shears, all ready to +cut off Frisky’s tail, he had told Frisky that “it would all be over in +a jiffy”?</p> + +<p>Well, it <i>was</i>. But things didn’t happen just as Jimmy Rabbit had +expected. He had taken a good, firm grip on the shears, and he was just +about to shut them upon Frisky’s tail with a snap, when somebody called +Frisky’s name. Frisky knew who it was right away. It was his mother! And +like most of us, when our mothers<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_54' id='Page_54'>[Pg 54]</a></span> catch us doing something we ought not +to do, Frisky was so surprised and so startled that he gave a great +jump.</p> + +<p>That jump was all that saved Frisky’s tail. For just as Mrs. Squirrel +called, Jimmy Rabbit shut the shears together as hard as he could. But +Jimmy was too late. When Frisky jumped, his tail followed him, of +course. It whisked out from between the shears; and they closed upon +nothing at all.</p> + +<p>“Now, that’s too bad!” Jimmy exclaimed. He had been so interested in +what he was doing that he had never heard Mrs. Squirrel at all. “Come +back here and we’ll try again.”</p> + +<p>The words were scarcely out of Jimmy Rabbit’s mouth when he received a +terrific box on the ear. Now, it’s bad enough for anybody to have his +ears boxed. But Jimmy’s ears were so big that I dare say it<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_55' id='Page_55'>[Pg 55]</a></span> hurt him +three times as much as it would have hurt anyone else. And it surprised +him, too. For he hadn’t heard Mrs. Squirrel as she stole up behind him. +Anyhow, he ran off howling, taking his mother’s shears with him.</p> + +<p>“That awful Rabbit boy!” Mrs. Squirrel said. “A moment more and he would +have cut off your beautiful tail—your best feature, too!”</p> + +<p>“What’s a feature, Mother?” Frisky asked.</p> + +<p>“Why—your nose, and your eyes, and your ears—anything of that sort,” +Mrs. Squirrel said. “It makes me feel faint just to think what almost +happened.”</p> + +<p>“But Jimmy Rabbit says long tails are out of fashion,” said Frisky.</p> + +<p>“Out of fashion indeed!” Mrs. Squirrel sniffed. “He’s jealous—that’s +what’s the trouble with him. He wishes he had a<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_56' id='Page_56'>[Pg 56]</a></span> fine, long, bushy tail +himself. Goodness me! I’m all of a flutter—I’m so upset.” And poor Mrs. +Squirrel sat right down and fanned herself with her sun-bonnet. “Now, +don’t you ever let anybody try to cut off your tail again,” she said to +Frisky. “You have your father’s tail. And everybody always said that he +had the most beautiful tail that was ever seen in these woods.”</p> + +<p>Frisky didn’t quite understand what his mother meant. If he had his +father’s tail, then where was his? And if it was his, then where was his +father’s? All the way home he kept asking himself questions like those. +But whatever the answers might be, Frisky was glad that he still bore +that beautiful brush. He began to see that he would have looked very +queer, with just a short stub like Jimmy Rabbit’s.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-021' id='illus-021'></a> +<img src='images/illus-041.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XII' id='XII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_57' id='Page_57'>[Pg 57]</a></span> +<h2>XII</h2><h3>Frisky Visits the Gristmill</h3> +</div> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was very fond of wheat-kernels. Somehow or other he +heard that there was a place on Swift River called the gristmill, where +there was almost all the wheat in the world—at least that is what +Frisky heard. So he started out, one day, to find the gristmill. He +thought he could have a very pleasant time there.</p> + +<p>Frisky had no trouble at all in finding the gristmill. It was just below +the mill-dam. And everybody knew where that was.</p> + +<p>The gristmill was an old stone building<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_58' id='Page_58'>[Pg 58]</a></span> with a red roof. And once +inside it Frisky saw great heaps of wheat-kernels everywhere. And there +were sacks and sacks too—some of them stuffed with kernels, which +Frisky was so fond of, and some of them filled with a fine white powder, +which Frisky didn’t like so well, because it got in his eyes, and up his +nose, and made him sneeze. It was the same sort of powder into which he +had fallen one time at Farmer Green’s house. It was flour, of +course—you must have guessed that.</p> + +<p>The gristmill was a quiet sort of building. There seemed to be nobody +there at all. And Frisky helped himself freely to wheat-kernels, for it +was very early in the morning and he had not had his breakfast. He was +just telling himself what a delightful place the gristmill was, and how +glad he was that he had heard about it, when<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_59' id='Page_59'>[Pg 59]</a></span> suddenly there was a +terrible noise—a grinding, and whirring, and buzzing, and pounding. The +very floor trembled and shook, and Frisky expected that in another +instant the roof would come crashing down on him.</p> + +<p>He leaped away from the bag of wheat-kernels on which he had been +breakfasting and he bounded through the great doorway and ran along the +rail-fence, far up the road, thinking that each moment would be his +last. For Frisky believed that the end of the world had come. And he +never stopped running until he was safe inside his mother’s house.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Squirrel was not at home. And it was so long before she came in and +found Frisky that he had begun to think he would never see her again.</p> + +<p>“Whatever is the matter?” Mrs. Squirrel asked. Frisky was making a<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_60' id='Page_60'>[Pg 60]</a></span> +dreadful noise, for he was crying as if he would never stop.</p> + +<p>“It’s the end of the world!” Frisky sobbed. “I didn’t think you were +coming back.”</p> + +<p>Bit by bit Mrs. Squirrel managed to learn where Frisky had been and what +had happened to him. And she smiled when she found out what had +frightened him. Since it was quite dark inside their home in the hollow +limb of the big hickory tree, Frisky could not see his mother smiling. +But her voice sounded very cheerful when she said—</p> + +<p>“Now stop crying, my son. There’s nothing to cry about. The end of the +world hasn’t come. And <i>that’s</i> something you and I don’t need to worry +about, anyhow.”</p> + +<p>“What you heard was only the mill-wheels turning. You must have reached<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_61' id='Page_61'>[Pg 61]</a></span> +the gristmill before the miller had come to begin his day’s work. That +was why everything was so still. I don’t wonder you were frightened when +all that noise began. But gristmills are always like that. They make a +terrible noise when they grind the wheat.”</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel stopped sobbing then. He was glad that his mother knew +exactly what had happened. But he made up his mind that whenever he +wanted any wheat-kernels to eat he would not go to the gristmill for +them. Luckily the gristmill had not <i>quite</i> all the wheat in the world.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-022' id='illus-022'></a> +<img src='images/illus-043.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-023' id='illus-023'></a> +<img src='images/illus-045.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XIII' id='XIII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_62' id='Page_62'>[Pg 62]</a></span> +<h2>XIII</h2><h3>Fun on the Milldam</h3> +</div> + +<p>There was something about the dam across Swift River that Frisky +Squirrel simply couldn’t keep away from—after he had forgotten, +somewhat, his fright at the gristmill. Only a few days passed after +Frisky had run home from the mill in a panic, before he was back again. +He liked to run across the top of the dam and look down at his +reflection in the water on one side. Here and there a narrow stream +spilled over the top of the dam. Frisky felt very brave as he leaped +over those little rivulets. And he loved to watch them as they fell in +thin, silvery<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_63' id='Page_63'>[Pg 63]</a></span> cascades upon the rocks far below. It was great sport.</p> + +<p>One day when Frisky reached the dam he heard a dog bark not far away. It +was the miller’s dog. He had seen Frisky as he crossed the road. And he +at once hurried toward him.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was annoyed. He had just been thinking what a good time +he was going to have. But when that dog started to bark Frisky knew that +his fun was spoiled. He wasn’t frightened. Oh, no! But he was sure that +the dog would not go away until <i>he</i> did.</p> + +<p>“Well, I’ll just take one run across the dam,” Frisky said to himself. +“I’ll stay on the other side of the river until he grows tired of +waiting. And then I’ll come back.”</p> + +<p>He hurried on to the bank of the river; and in a few moments he was +skipping<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_64' id='Page_64'>[Pg 64]</a></span> along the dam. The dog was still barking. And Frisky looked +around at him. To his great surprise, there was the dog following him, +right along the top of the dam. But even then Frisky was not frightened. +He simply hurried a little faster. He had not dreamed that the miller’s +dog would chase him across Swift River. But there he was. And he was +running fast, too.</p> + +<p>Then something happened that really frightened Frisky Squirrel. At first +he could hardly believe it. But it was true. It really was another dog +that was barking—another dog that was waiting on the other side of +Swift River. And almost as soon as Frisky saw him, that other dog +started right across the dam, to meet Frisky!</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-024' id='illus-024'></a> +<img src='images/illus-047.png' alt='' title='' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>Fun on the mill dam</span> +</div> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_65' id='Page_65'>[Pg 65]</a></span>There was no time to lose. Frisky had to make up his mind very quickly. +He gave just one look at the deep mill pond. He could swim—if he had +to. But he just hated to get wet. And he knew that the dogs were much +faster swimmers than he was. So he looked away from the water with a +shudder. And he peeped over the steep side of the dam and gazed at the +rocks below, where the water splashed into countless drops.</p> + +<p>Those rocks were a long way beneath him. But there was one thing about +Frisky Squirrel—he never was the least bit dizzy, or afraid, when he +looked down from high places. Perhaps there were too many other things +to be afraid of—such as coons and foxes—and dogs.</p> + +<p>The miller’s dog was drawing nearer now, because Frisky had stopped. And +the dog from the other side of the river was only about six jumps away!</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel didn’t wait another instant.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_66' id='Page_66'>[Pg 66]</a></span> He jumped right down the +face of the dam. Where he had stood a moment before the two dogs came +together with a bump. Probably they would have started to fight, if they +had not been so interested in Frisky Squirrel. There they stood, with +their necks stretched out over the edge of the dam, watching Frisky as +he went rolling and tumbling down to the bed of the river. And when they +saw him pick himself up and go skipping from stone to stone until he +reached the shore and scampered away, they looked very foolish indeed.</p> + +<p>In fact, they felt foolish, too. And without saying one word they turned +about and each crept back to his own side of Swift River.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-025' id='illus-025'></a> +<img src='images/illus-049.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-026' id='illus-026'></a> +<img src='images/illus-051.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XIV' id='XIV'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_67' id='Page_67'>[Pg 67]</a></span> +<h2>XIV</h2><h3>Mrs. Squirrel Has a Visitor</h3> +</div> + +<p>Fatty Coon was very hungry. And he stole along through the woods very +quietly, hoping to find something to eat. To his great joy, it was not +long before he discovered Mrs. Squirrel’s home. He crept up to the nest +silently; for he hoped to catch Mrs. Squirrel and Frisky inside. But +Mrs. Squirrel and her son were both away.</p> + +<p>Fatty was disappointed. But he made up his mind to go into the house +anyhow, to see what he could find there. So he pushed through the narrow +doorway. It was a tight squeeze; but Fatty managed<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_68' id='Page_68'>[Pg 68]</a></span> to get inside. And +there he found a fine lot of beechnuts, which Mrs. Squirrel had brought +home and stored, in order to have something to eat during the winter.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon just loved beechnuts. And he squatted down on the floor and +began to eat. He ate and ate until he was half-buried in +beechnut-shells. And he never stopped until he had finished the very +last beechnut. He wished there had been more, though you would think he +had had quite enough, for Fatty’s sides bulged out so that he was +rounder than ever. He smiled as he thought of the surprise Mrs. Squirrel +would have when she came home and found her winter food all gone. And +then he stood up, shook the shells out of his coat, and started to climb +through the doorway.</p> + +<p>Fatty was still smiling as he stuck his head through the opening in the +tree. But<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_69' id='Page_69'>[Pg 69]</a></span> all at once his smile faded away. You remember that he had +had hard work to squeeze through the narrow doorway when he entered the +house? Well, now his sides stuck out so far that he couldn’t get through +it at all. He tried and tried; but though he struggled hard, Fatty found +that he simply could not squeeze through. He had stuffed himself so full +of beechnuts that he was too big to get out of the hole. And there he +was—caught fast by his own greediness! Yes! Fatty Coon was a prisoner.</p> + +<p>Fatty had smiled because he thought Mrs. Squirrel would be surprised +when she came home. And he had not been mistaken about that. When Mrs. +Squirrel and her son Frisky scampered up the tree about sundown that +evening they had the surprise of their lives—though not just the sort +of surprise Fatty had expected.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_70' id='Page_70'>[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>They looked in through their doorway and scolded. And they ordered Fatty +to get out of their house at once.</p> + +<p>He would have been glad enough to leave, you may be sure. But he +couldn’t go just then. And at last Frisky Squirrel and his mother had to +go and spend the night in the house of a friend.</p> + +<p>When they came back to the old hickory tree the next morning Fatty Coon +had gone. He had tried the whole night long to get through the doorway. +And at last—just as the sun was rising—he managed to slip out.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Squirrel knew that Fatty had had a hard time, because he had left a +good deal of his fur behind him. It clung to the sides of the doorway. +And Mrs. Squirrel spent half the day picking it off and throwing the +beechnut-shells out of her house. She was a very neat housekeeper;<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_71' id='Page_71'>[Pg 71]</a></span> and +she was quite annoyed to find her house upset.</p> + +<p>As for Frisky, he began to bring home another store of nuts that very +day. After what had happened neither he nor his mother had any fear that +Fatty Coon would ever trouble them again.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-027' id='illus-027'></a> +<img src='images/illus-053.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-028' id='illus-028'></a> +<img src='images/illus-055.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XV' id='XV'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_72' id='Page_72'>[Pg 72]</a></span> +<h2>XV</h2><h3>Helpful Mr. Crow</h3> +</div> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel’s mother had often told him not to have anything to do +with Mr. Crow. “He’s such a tricky old fellow!” she said. “He seems to +have nothing to do but get folks into trouble. Don’t go near him, and +don’t have anything to say to him.”</p> + +<p>Now, I’m sure Frisky Squirrel wanted to mind his mother. But he couldn’t +help feeling that she was mistaken about Mr. Crow. He was so solemn, and +he always looked so like a preacher—for he usually wore shiny, black +clothes—that Frisky Squirrel thought him a very nice old<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_73' id='Page_73'>[Pg 73]</a></span> gentleman. +And he told such interesting stories, too! Frisky could listen to him by +the hour.</p> + +<p>So, in spite of his mother’s warnings, whenever he met Mr. Crow Frisky +Squirrel would always stop and ask the old gentleman how his cold was. +You see, Mr. Crow’s voice was never what you would call <i>clear</i>. You +might say that there was a decided croak in it. And very often, even on +hot summer days, he would have a muffler wound about his throat.</p> + +<p>It happened that one day when Frisky came across Mr. Crow in the woods, +something reminded Mr. Crow that he knew where there were plenty of +butternuts—just waiting to be eaten.</p> + +<p>“Is that so?” Frisky exclaimed. “Have you had some of them?”</p> + +<p>“No! I don’t care for butternuts,” Mr. Crow said, with a slight cough. +“I’ve always<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_74' id='Page_74'>[Pg 74]</a></span> considered them bad for my throat. I’ve made it a rule +never to eat them. You don’t happen to like them, do you?”</p> + +<p>Now, if there was one thing that Frisky Squirrel liked a little better +than anything else, it was butternuts. And when he answered Mr. Crow’s +question he was so excited that his voice shook just the least bit.</p> + +<p>“I’m <i>very</i> fond of them,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Well, well!” Mr. Crow exclaimed. “I’m glad I happened to mention the +matter. They’re there—heaps of ’em—great brown piles of ’em—thousands +of ’em!”</p> + +<p>“<i>Where</i> are they?” Frisky asked him eagerly.</p> + +<p>“Oh—I thought I told you,” Mr. Crow said. “Why—they’re in Farmer +Green’s attic. His boy put them up there to dry. I saw them through the +window, this very day.”</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel was disappointed.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_75' id='Page_75'>[Pg 75]</a></span></p> + +<p>“I mustn’t go to Farmer Green’s house,” he said.</p> + +<p>“Pooh! Why not?” asked Mr. Crow.</p> + +<p>“It isn’t safe. I went there once to get some cake, and I nearly lost my +life in the kitchen.”</p> + +<p>“Ah! But this is different,” Mr. Crow explained. “You don’t have to go +into the kitchen at all. All you have to do is to climb that big tree +close by the house. And you can hop right through the attic window. +There’s nobody upstairs in the daytime. In fact, I should call it one of +the safest places to go that I know of.”</p> + +<p>When Mr. Crow said that, Frisky believed him. Mr. Crow was so old, and +so wise, and so solemn, that Frisky thought that anything he said must +be true.</p> + +<p>“I’m going past Farmer Green’s house right now,” Mr. Crow told Frisky. +“I have a little matter to attend to over in the<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_76' id='Page_76'>[Pg 76]</a></span> cornfield. And if you +want to come along with me I don’t mind stopping to show you where the +butternuts are. But of course if you’re afraid—” Mr. Crow stopped to +cough. He buttoned his coat closer around his throat. And then he looked +sideways at Frisky Squirrel.</p> + +<p>“Afraid!” Frisky exclaimed. “I’m not afraid at all.”</p> + +<p>“Good!” said Mr. Crow. “Now, then, young fellow! You skip along over to +Farmer Green’s and I’ll be waiting for you down the road a bit.”</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Crow flapped himself away then. And Frisky Squirrel hurried off +in a straight line for the farmhouse.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-029' id='illus-029'></a> +<img src='images/illus-057.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-030' id='illus-030'></a> +<img src='images/illus-059.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XVI' id='XVI'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_77' id='Page_77'>[Pg 77]</a></span> +<h2>XVI</h2><h3>Caught in the Attic</h3> +</div> + +<p>Long before Frisky Squirrel reached Farmer Green’s place, he began to +worry for fear Mr. Crow had grown tired of waiting for him. To be sure, +he knew that the butternuts were up in the attic. But to tell the truth, +Frisky felt uneasy about visiting the farmhouse. And he hoped that Mr. +Crow would show him just how to get through the attic window, as he had +promised.</p> + +<p>Just as he came in sight of the farmhouse Frisky heard Mr. Crow calling +to him from a tall tree close by the road. He was glad to hear the old +gentleman’s husky<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_78' id='Page_78'>[Pg 78]</a></span> voice. And he couldn’t help thinking how kind Mr. +Crow was, and how mistaken his mother had been to believe that Mr. Crow +liked to get folks into trouble.</p> + +<p>“Come on!” said Mr. Crow, as Frisky paused beneath the tall tree. “I’m +going to fly over to that tree right next the farmhouse. You run along +the stone-wall and climb up beside me.”</p> + +<p>“Now, then!” said Mr. Crow a few minutes later, when Frisky had joined +him. “There’s the window—wide open. And there are the butternuts, lying +on the floor.”</p> + +<p>Frisky could see great heaps of nuts. And without another word he crept +out on a limb that brushed the window-sill and in another moment he was +inside Farmer Green’s attic. Frisky forgot to thank Mr. Crow. He never +once thought of that, he was in such a hurry to taste those nuts.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_79' id='Page_79'>[Pg 79]</a></span></p> + +<p>He just ate and ate and ate; and he was so busy cracking the nuts and +picking out the meats that he never noticed that it was growing dark.</p> + +<p>At last, to his astonishment, the attic door opened. Frisky leaped +behind a pile of butternuts and hid, while someone walked across the +floor. Then there was a bang. And Frisky shivered when he heard it. But +the person left the attic at once and went downstairs.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel breathed easily again. And he stole out from behind the +pile of nuts. Somehow, he did not care to eat any more. He wanted to get +out of the house. So he went to the window. And then Frisky Squirrel was +really frightened. The window was shut!</p> + +<p>You see, while Frisky was so busy eating butternuts, a storm was +gathering. And it grew so dark, and the wind howled<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_80' id='Page_80'>[Pg 80]</a></span> so shrilly, that +Farmer Green’s wife thought she had better shut the attic window, to +keep the rain from beating in.</p> + +<p>How Frisky Squirrel did wish he had minded his mother and kept away from +old Mr. Crow! Poor Frisky looked out through the little square panes of +glass. His friend Mr. Crow was nowhere to be seen. Frisky had hoped that +the old gentleman would be waiting for him, and that since Mr. Crow had +told him how to get inside the attic he would be able to tell him how to +get out again.</p> + +<p>The wind swept the branches of the tall tree back and forth across the +window. How easy it would have been—if the window had been open—to hop +out upon one of those swaying limbs! Frisky pressed his soft little body +close against the glass and pushed as hard as he could. But he couldn’t +break out of his prison. It was a<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_81' id='Page_81'>[Pg 81]</a></span> queer thing—that glass! He could see +through it just as if there was nothing there; and yet it held him fast. +Frisky could not understand it.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-031' id='illus-031'></a> +<img src='images/illus-061.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-032' id='illus-032'></a> +<img src='images/illus-063.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XVII' id='XVII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_82' id='Page_82'>[Pg 82]</a></span> +<h2>XVII</h2><h3>Farmer Green’s Cat</h3> +</div> + +<p>There were plenty of nuts in the attic of Farmer Green’s house, where +Frisky Squirrel found himself a prisoner. And you might think that he +wouldn’t have felt so unhappy to be there. But Frisky was unhappy. He +was so frightened that he crept into a corner and stayed there, +shivering, for a long time. And he couldn’t have eaten a single one of +those nuts if he had tried. He wanted to be free. He wanted to be out of +doors. He wanted to go home.</p> + +<p>After a time the storm passed. The wind stopped blowing. And the sun +shone<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_83' id='Page_83'>[Pg 83]</a></span> again. But nobody came to the attic to open the window. When it +grew quite light Frisky did not feel so frightened. And at last he crept +out of his corner and went nosing about the room, hoping to find a hole +big enough to squeeze through.</p> + +<p>Now, you must not think Frisky Squirrel was stupid, when I tell you that +the door was open all this time. It was open just the smallest crack, +for Farmer Green’s wife hadn’t quite closed it when she went downstairs. +Frisky had been too frightened to notice it. Besides, the attic had been +dark, you know.</p> + +<p>Well, when Frisky found that crack he was the happiest little fellow you +ever saw. It was only a narrow opening; but he slipped through it. And +there he was, right at the head of the stairs! So downstairs he hurried. +The door below was wide open. And in less time than it takes<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_84' id='Page_84'>[Pg 84]</a></span> to tell +the story, Frisky was in Farmer Green’s kitchen. He remembered that room +very well, for he had been there when he came to taste that +white-frosted cake.</p> + +<p>But this time Frisky did not stop to look for any cake. He just +scampered across the floor toward the wide doorway. And as he bounded +across the room something sprang out from behind the stove and started +after him.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel saw that some animal had leaped at him. He didn’t stop +to take a good look; but he supposed that it was a small dog that had +been drying himself by the fire. Frisky knew that dogs couldn’t climb +trees. So he sprang through the door, never touching the big stone +doorstep at all, and hurried toward a tree in Farmer Green’s yard. He +laughed as he scurried up the tree-trunk. And then he looked down at his +enemy.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_85' id='Page_85'>[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>Then Frisky Squirrel’s heart almost stood still. That small animal was +coming right up the tree after him! Of course, it wasn’t a dog at all. +It was Farmer Green’s cat. Frisky had never seen a cat before and he +began to wonder whether the small creature could fly, as well as climb +trees. He scampered to the top of the tree; and then he leaped upon a +branch of another tree close by.</p> + +<p>No! The small animal could not fly. She climbed as high as she dared. +And then she stopped. Her eyes glared fiercely; and her tail grew as big +as Frisky’s own. But that didn’t help her at all. She could only sit +there and watch Frisky Squirrel as he dropped from branch to branch, +until she lost sight of him among the leaves.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-033' id='illus-033'></a> +<img src='images/illus-065.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XVIII' id='XVIII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_86' id='Page_86'>[Pg 86]</a></span> +<h2>XVIII</h2><h3>The Threshing-machine</h3> +</div> + +<p>One day, late in the summer, Frisky Squirrel saw something that caused +him great excitement. Right into the center of one of Farmer Green’s +fields he saw Farmer Green’s horses drag a queer sort of wagon. It was +bigger than any other wagon he had ever seen, and had wheels upon it in +all sorts of strange places, instead of just at the four corners, like +all the wagons he had ever noticed before.</p> + +<p>Frisky climbed a tree, in order to get a better view of what was +happening. As he watched, he saw still another odd wagon hauled upon the +field alongside the first one. This wagon carried a broad<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_87' id='Page_87'>[Pg 87]</a></span> walk which +led from the back and went right up what you might call a hill, to the +front of the wagon. And there it stopped, with a wooden bar blocking the +way. Frisky Squirrel thought that that was the strangest path he had +ever seen, for it seemed to lead to nowhere, and why it should have a +bar at the top, to keep anyone from going nowhere at all, was more than +even his lively mind could puzzle out.</p> + +<p>In and out and about these strange wagons were as many as a dozen men, +and one boy—each of them as busy as he could be. And as for the boy, +Johnnie Green, he was busier than anybody else. He seemed to be +everywhere at once, and in everybody’s way. And Frisky couldn’t see that +he was doing anything at all. But he noticed that Johnnie appeared to be +having a fine time.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_88' id='Page_88'>[Pg 88]</a></span></p> + +<p>As Frisky Squirrel looked down upon this unusual sight from his perch in +the tree he saw that Farmer Green’s wagons—the kind Frisky had often +seen before—were bringing up sheaves of wheat. And pretty soon—and +this made Frisky’s eyes almost pop out of his head—he saw a man lead a +pair of horses up that short, steep walk and tie them to the bar at the +top of it.</p> + +<p>Then the horses began to walk. Now, probably you wouldn’t think there +was anything strange about that. But there was. The odd thing about that +was that although the horses walked, they didn’t get anywhere at all. So +far as Frisky Squirrel could see, they just walked and walked, and that +was all there was to it. After they had walked for a long time they +still stayed right in the same place, tied fast to the wooden bar in +front of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_89' id='Page_89'>[Pg 89]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, when the horses were walking, the other wagon began to set up a +great noise. It reminded Frisky of the time the gristmill began to +grind, when he thought the world was coming to an end. Those queer +wheels on the wagon began to turn, too. But Frisky didn’t pay much +attention to them. What caught his eye and kept him puzzling was those +two horses, always walking, but never going anywhere.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel stayed in his tree as long as he could, until at last he +simply had to hurry home and beg his mother to come over to the field +with him.</p> + +<p>As it happened, Mrs. Squirrel was not very busy that day, so she dropped +her knitting, or whatever it was that she was doing, and pretty soon she +and Frisky were up in the tree that he had climbed before.</p> + +<p>“Oh! they’re threshing!” Mrs. Squirrel<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_90' id='Page_90'>[Pg 90]</a></span> said, after she had taken one +good look at what was going on. “They’re threshing out the +wheat-kernels, so the miller can grind them into flour.”</p> + +<p>“But those horses—” said Frisky. “Why is it that they don’t walk right +against that bar, and break it, and tumble off onto the ground?”</p> + +<p>“That’s a horse-power,” Mrs. Squirrel explained. “The path the horses +are treading on moves, and that’s why they stay right in the same place. +The path moves ’round and ’round all the time, like a broad chain. +That’s what makes the wheels turn on the threshing-machine.”</p> + +<p>“It must be fun,” said Frisky Squirrel. “I wish I could be a horse, and +make that horse-power turn like that.”</p> + +<p>“Nonsense!” said his mother. “You’d soon grow tired of it.”</p> + +<p>But Frisky Squirrel knew better.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-034' id='illus-034'></a> +<img src='images/illus-067.png' alt='' title='' /><br /> +<span class='caption'>Caught in the attic</span> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-035' id='illus-035'></a> +<img src='images/illus-069.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XIX' id='XIX'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_91' id='Page_91'>[Pg 91]</a></span> +<h2>XIX</h2><h3>Frisky’s Prison</h3> +</div> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel simply couldn’t keep away from the field where the wheat +was being threshed. He was on hand before the men came in the morning, +and he was the last to leave the place at night. He ate all his meals +right on the spot, and went home only to sleep.</p> + +<p>Now, it was not long before Johnnie Green spied Frisky Squirrel +loitering about the field. And he made up his mind that that young +squirrel was altogether too bold. So Johnnie Green rigged up a trap, +which he made from an old box, a few sticks, and a bit of string. And +one noon,<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_92' id='Page_92'>[Pg 92]</a></span> while the men were eating their lunch under some trees a +little way from the threshing-machine, Frisky Squirrel was just reckless +enough to steal up and try to get his luncheon too, by eating some of +the wheat-kernels. He noticed a tempting little heap of kernels, right +beside a little box. And he had just stopped to eat them when all at +once the box toppled over on him, and there he was—caught!</p> + +<p>When Johnnie Green discovered that he had captured that young squirrel +he was just as glad as Frisky was sorry and frightened. That, you see, +is just the difference between <i>catching</i> and <i>being caught</i>. It makes a +great difference whether you are outside the trap, or in it. And Frisky +Squirrel was in it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get away.</p> + +<p>He made up his mind that if anybody<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_93' id='Page_93'>[Pg 93]</a></span> tried to lift him out of the box he +would bite him. But Johnnie Green had caught squirrels before. He pulled +on a pair of heavy gloves, and all Frisky’s biting did no good—or +harm—at all.</p> + +<p>When Johnnie reached home he put his prize into a neat little wire cage. +As soon as Frisky found himself inside it he looked all around, to see +if there wasn’t some opening big enough to squeeze through. And sure +enough! there was a little door. And in a twinkling Frisky had popped +himself through it and had started to run.</p> + +<p>He ran and ran. But strange to say, all his running took him nowhere at +all. At first he couldn’t discover what was the matter. But after a +while he saw that he was inside a broad wheel, made of wire. And when he +ran the wheel simply spun ’round and ’round.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_94' id='Page_94'>[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>He stopped running then. For he thought of the horses that made the +horse-power go. He was in just the same fix that they were in. He could +run as fast as he pleased, but he would still stay right there inside +the wheel.</p> + +<p>Poor Frisky Squirrel crept back into his cage. He remembered what his +mother had said, when he wished he could be a horse, and make the +tread-mill go. “You’d soon grow tired of it,” she had told him.</p> + +<p>At the time, Frisky hadn’t believed her. But now he knew that his mother +was wiser than he was. And he wondered if he was ever going to see her +again.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-036' id='illus-036'></a> +<img src='images/illus-071.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-037' id='illus-037'></a> +<img src='images/illus-073.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XX' id='XX'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_95' id='Page_95'>[Pg 95]</a></span> +<h2>XX</h2><h3>Johnnie Green Forgets Something</h3> +</div> + +<p>Although Johnnie Green took good care of Frisky Squirrel, that once +lively young chap did not like his new home in the wire cage at all. His +young master gave him plenty to eat—nuts and grain—all the things that +Frisky had always liked before. But now nothing tasted the same. Frisky +never felt really hungry. He just sat in his cage and moped and sulked.</p> + +<p>Once in a great while he would go out into his wheel, and run and run +until he was so tired that he was ready to drop. Whenever Johnnie Green +saw him running<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_96' id='Page_96'>[Pg 96]</a></span> inside the wheel that young man would laugh aloud—he +was so pleased.</p> + +<p>But nothing ever pleased Frisky Squirrel any more. He grew peevish and +cross and sulky. Being cooped up in that little wire prison day after +day made an entirely different squirrel of him. He longed to be free +once more—free to scamper through the tree-tops, and along the +stone-walls and the rail-fences. And at night he dreamed of hunting for +beechnuts, and chestnuts, and hickorynuts, on which he would feast to +his heart’s content—in his dreams. But in the daytime, when his young +master put some of those very same nuts into his cage, Frisky would +hardly touch them. He lost his plumpness. His smooth coat grew rough. +And his tail—that beautiful tail that Jimmy Rabbit had tried to cut +off—alas!<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_97' id='Page_97'>[Pg 97]</a></span> it was no longer beautiful. It was thin and ragged-looking.</p> + +<p>At last Johnnie Green began to be worried about his pet squirrel. And +one day when Frisky refused to eat a single nut Johnnie Green thought +that he must be really ill. So he opened the door of the cage, which he +always kept carefully fastened, and forgetting all about his thick +gloves he put his hand inside the little wire house, picked Frisky up by +the back of his neck, just as if he were a kitten, and lifted him out of +his prison.</p> + +<p>Johnnie wanted to see if he could find out what was the trouble with the +little fellow. He thought that perhaps he had a bad tooth, which +prevented his eating. And Johnnie tried to look inside of Frisky’s +mouth.</p> + +<p>At first Frisky kept perfectly still. He<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_98' id='Page_98'>[Pg 98]</a></span> could hardly believe that he +was outside that horrid, cramped cage. But it was true! And when Johnnie +Green began to poke at his mouth with a bare finger Frisky Squirrel +thought that it was high time for him to do something.</p> + +<p>So he did it. He didn’t wait another second. Quick as a flash he sank +his sharp teeth into Johnnie Green’s finger.</p> + +<p>Poor Johnnie Green! He gave such a yell that you could have heard him +far away on the other side of Swift River. That was the first thing he +did. And the next thing that Johnnie did was to drop Frisky right on the +ground.</p> + +<p>That was exactly what Frisky wanted. He no sooner touched the ground +than he was away like a shot. It was not at all like running inside the +wheel. Every leap carried him further away from Farmer Green’s house. +And he had<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_99' id='Page_99'>[Pg 99]</a></span> crossed the road and disappeared behind the stone-wall +before Johnnie Green knew what had happened.</p> + +<p>For several days after that Johnnie Green had to keep his finger bound +up in a bandage. And he felt very sad at losing his pet squirrel.</p> + +<p>But Frisky Squirrel was not sad at all. And neither was his mother. At +first, when Frisky tumbled inside her house she hardly knew him. For a +long time she had almost stopped believing he would ever come home +again. And now that he had come he was so changed that she could +scarcely believe it was he.</p> + +<p>The first thing that Mrs. Squirrel did was to set before Frisky some +choice seeds which she had gathered that very day. And Frisky ate every +one of them. You see, he had found his appetite again.</p> + +<p>For several days after that Frisky<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_100' id='Page_100'>[Pg 100]</a></span> Squirrel did very little except eat. +And it was surprising—the way he began to grow fat. His sides soon +stuck out more than they ever had before, and his coat began to grow +sleek and shiny. And as for his tail—though it took longer for <i>that</i> +to look beautiful again, in the course of time it became just as thick +and handsome as ever. Mrs. Squirrel was very glad of that. For Frisky +reminded her of his father once more.</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-038' id='illus-038'></a> +<img src='images/illus-075.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-039' id='illus-039'></a> +<img src='images/illus-077.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XXI' id='XXI'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_101' id='Page_101'>[Pg 101]</a></span> +<h2>XXI</h2><h3>That Disagreeable Freddie Weasel</h3> +</div> + +<p>Almost everybody liked Frisky Squirrel, he was such a happy little +fellow. But there were a few of the forest-people with whom Frisky never +was able to make friends. <i>They</i> were the disagreeable, selfish kind, +who never liked anyone except themselves.</p> + +<p>Freddie Weasel was one of the few with whom Frisky Squirrel never could +have a good time. Frisky often tried to play with him. But their games +always ended in trouble; and I must say that it was not Frisky’s fault.</p> + +<p>Now, Frisky had often heard it said<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_102' id='Page_102'>[Pg 102]</a></span> among his neighbors that no one had +ever caught Freddie Weasel asleep. Indeed, Jimmy Rabbit claimed that +Freddie Weasel never slept at all.</p> + +<p>That seemed very strange to Frisky. He could hardly believe it. And he +made up his mind that he would watch Freddie Weasel and see whether it +was really true.</p> + +<p>So one evening, just after sundown, when Frisky met Freddie Weasel in +the woods, he thought it would be a good time to spy upon him. Of course +it wasn’t at all a polite thing to do. But Frisky was very curious. And +anyhow, he meant no harm.</p> + +<p>“Hello, Freddie!” he said, as he came face to face with the sly, slim +chap.</p> + +<p>“Hello, yourself!” said Freddie Weasel in a disagreeable tone.</p> + +<p>“Where you going?” Frisky inquired pleasantly enough.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_103' id='Page_103'>[Pg 103]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Never you mind,” Freddie Weasel answered. “And you’d better keep out of +my way, or I’ll bite your head off.”</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel didn’t know what to say. Very few people—except Jasper +Jay and one or two other quarrelsome forest-folk—had ever spoken to him +like that. So he just stood still and stared.</p> + +<p>That seemed to make Freddie angrier than ever. He darted toward Frisky +and tried to bite his neck. But Frisky was quick, too. He ran up a tree +before Freddie Weasel could catch him, and smiled at the bad-tempered +fellow.</p> + +<p>“You’d better go home and take a nap,” Frisky told him. “You’re crosser +than ever to-day.”</p> + +<p>Freddie looked up at Frisky as if he would just like to get hold of him +for about one second.</p> + +<p>“I never sleep,” he said. “I’m always<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_104' id='Page_104'>[Pg 104]</a></span> awake. And some night when you’re +dreaming, I’m coming to your house and I’m going to eat you.” And then +he hurried away.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel ran down the tree and dashed after Freddie. He didn’t +make any noise at all. And he was careful not to let Freddie see him. He +was going to find out for himself whether Freddie stayed awake all +night.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Squirrel was worried because Frisky didn’t come home. Of course he +ought to have let her know what he was about. But he felt that he +mustn’t lose sight of Freddie. And he saw no one at all by whom he could +send word to his mother as to where he was and what he was doing.</p> + +<p>Frisky had the busiest sort of time following Freddie. It grew so dark +that it was very hard to see Freddie Weasel as he<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_105' id='Page_105'>[Pg 105]</a></span> sneaked along through +the bushes, hunting for small birds that build their nests on the +ground.</p> + +<p>Freddie Weasel caught several sleeping birds. And Frisky could not help +being sorry for them. He began to feel very guilty for having teased +them, and for having eaten their eggs.</p> + +<p>Finally it grew so dark that Frisky had just about decided that he would +have to give up spying on Freddie and hurry home, when he saw Freddie +slip into a hole in a bank and vanish.</p> + +<p>Was Freddie Weasel at last going to bed and to sleep?</p> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-040' id='illus-040'></a> +<img src='images/illus-079.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-041' id='illus-041'></a> +<img src='images/illus-081.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='XXII' id='XXII'></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_106' id='Page_106'>[Pg 106]</a></span> +<h2>XXII</h2><h3>Catching Freddie Weasel Asleep</h3> +</div> + +<p>When Frisky Squirrel saw Freddie Weasel disappear in the hole in the +bank he became greatly excited. He forgot all about going home. And +though he had begun to feel somewhat sleepy, he was wide awake again in +no time. He sat right down, a little way from the hole, and he never +once took his eyes off it.</p> + +<p>Frisky hoped that perhaps he would hear Freddie snoring in there, if he +waited long enough. But no such thing happened. There seemed to be but +one way to discover whether Freddie was asleep,<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_107' id='Page_107'>[Pg 107]</a></span> and <i>that</i> was to creep +into the hole himself and find out.</p> + +<p>Now, Frisky Squirrel was no coward, as you know. But he did not like the +idea of crawling into that narrow, dark place. He knew that Freddie +Weasel’s teeth were very sharp. And he knew that Freddie was quick to +use them, too.</p> + +<p>Frisky was trying hard to think of some good way to catch Freddie +asleep, when who should come strolling along but Henry Skunk! Frisky +always supposed that he was called “Henry” because he was so fond of +<i>hens</i>—for he visited Farmer Green’s hen-house oftener than any other +of the forest-people—but whether <i>that</i> was why he was so named I +should really not want to say.</p> + +<p>“Well, well! You’re out pretty late,” Henry Skunk called, as soon as he +saw Frisky.<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_108' id='Page_108'>[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel held a paw to his mouth, so Henry Skunk would not talk +too loudly.</p> + +<p>“What’s going on?” Henry Skunk asked, with growing interest. “You +haven’t seen a hen around here, have you?”</p> + +<p>Frisky shook his head.</p> + +<p>“It’s Freddie Weasel—” he explained, pointing at the hole. “He’s in +there; and I’m trying to catch him asleep.”</p> + +<p>Henry Skunk came nearer.</p> + +<p>“Why don’t you go inside?” he asked.</p> + +<p>Frisky shook his head again.</p> + +<p>“I don’t see very well in the dark,” he said, “and I’d rather not.”</p> + +<p>Henry nodded.</p> + +<p>“I can see first rate at night,” he told Frisky. “I’ll find out for you +if Freddie Weasel is asleep. And if he is, I’ll come right back and tell +you, and then you can go in with me and see for yourself.”<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_109' id='Page_109'>[Pg 109]</a></span></p> + +<p>“Good!” said Frisky. “That’s very kind of you, I’m sure.”</p> + +<p>So Henry Skunk walked up to the hole. It was entirely too small for him +to enter.</p> + +<p>“I’ll have to make it bigger,” he remarked.</p> + +<p>“Won’t Freddie hear you?” Frisky Squirrel inquired.</p> + +<p>“I’ll be very quiet about it,” Henry Skunk replied. “So if he’s asleep I +hardly think I’ll disturb him.” And at that Henry set to work.</p> + +<p>Now, in order to dig, he had to stick his head into the hole. But he +knew he could see Freddie Weasel if Freddie tried to bite his nose; so +Henry was not afraid. How he did make the dirt fly! Frisky wished that +he could dig like that. He thought it must be great fun. And he watched +Henry so closely that he never saw that slim, sneaking form that crept +up behind<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_110' id='Page_110'>[Pg 110]</a></span> him. And when Frisky felt something jump right on top of him, +and when a terrible, sharp pain seized his shoulder, he was scared half +out of his wits.</p> + +<p>It was Freddie Weasel! He had left his home through another hole, which +Frisky knew nothing about.</p> + +<p>Frisky Squirrel called for help. He shouted Henry Skunk’s name again and +again, as he rolled over and over on the ground, trying to shake Freddie +off his back.</p> + +<p>But how could Henry Skunk hear him, with his head buried inside the +hole? <i>He</i> didn’t know what was happening. And if Frisky and Freddie +hadn’t rolled right upon him he probably would never have looked around +until it was too late.</p> + +<p>But when Henry felt that rolling, tumbling, fighting pair bump against +him he<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_111' id='Page_111'>[Pg 111]</a></span> drew his head out of the hole in a hurry. And as soon as he saw +what was happening he sunk his own sharp teeth deep into Freddie +Weasel’s back.</p> + +<p>Freddie let go of Frisky Squirrel at once. And he gave Henry Skunk’s +nose such a savage nip that Henry just had to squeal—it hurt him so. In +order to squeal, of course he had to open his mouth. And when he opened +his mouth he had to let go of Freddie Weasel.</p> + +<p>That was exactly what Freddie Weasel wanted. He sprang up and dashed +into the bushes. He was not afraid of Frisky Squirrel. But Henry Skunk +was altogether too big. Freddie did not enjoy fighting <i>him</i>.</p> + +<p>Well! Frisky, with his aching shoulder, and Henry Skunk, with his sore +nose, went off together. They didn’t say a word to<span class='pagenum'><a name='Page_112' id='Page_112'>[Pg 112]</a></span> each other, until +they reached the hickory tree where Frisky lived. And then all they said +was “Good-night!”</p> + +<p>Frisky never spied on anybody again. He had learned that it is better +not to meddle in other people’s private affairs. So, after all, perhaps +it was a good thing that he tried, just once, to catch Freddie Weasel +asleep.</p> + +<p style='text-align: center'>THE END</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 300px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name='illus-042' id='illus-042'></a> +<img src='images/illus-083.png' alt='300' title='' /><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='full' /> + +<div class='tnote'><h3>Transcriber’s Notes</h3> +<p>1. Punctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards.</p> +<p>2. Frontispiece illustration relocated to after copyright notice.</p> +<p>3. Roman numerals in original Table of Contents retained and applied at chapter headings.</p> +<p>4. Typographic errors corrected in original:<br/> + p. 12 Friskly to Frisky (“Frisky simply had”)<br/> + p. 49 like to liked (“Frisky Squirrel liked to play”)<br/> +</p> +</div> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 18630-h.txt or 18630-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18630">http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/6/3/18630</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Tale of Frisky Squirrel + + +Author: Arthur Scott Bailey + + + +Release Date: June 19, 2006 [eBook #18630] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL*** + + +E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 18630-h.htm or 18630-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18630/18630-h/18630-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18630/18630-h.zip) + + + + + +Sleepy-Time Tales + +THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL + +by + +ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY + +Author of +The Cuffy Bear Books +Sleepy-Time Tales +Etc. + +Illustrated by Eleanore Fagan + + + + + + + +Grosset & Dunlap +Publishers--New York +Copyright, 1915, by A. S. Bailey + + + + +[Illustration: "Tails and Ears"] + + + + +CONTENTS + +I Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do 9 +II Frisky Squirrel has a Fall 13 +III The Stone that Walked 17 +IV The Picnic 22 +V Some Lively Dodging 27 +VI Mr. Hawk Returns 31 +VII A Brave Little Bird 35 +VIII Uncle Sammy Coon 40 +IX A Bag of Corn 44 +X Tails and Ears 49 +XI Jimmy Rabbit is too Late 53 +XII Frisky Visits the Gristmill 57 +XIII Fun on the Milldam 62 +XIV Mrs. Squirrel Has a Visitor 67 +XV Helpful Mr. Crow 72 +XVI Caught in the Attic 77 +XVII Farmer Green's Cat 82 +XVIII The Threshing-machine 86 +XIX Frisky's Prison 91 +XX Johnnie Green Forgets Something 95 +XXI That Disagreeable Freddie Weasel 101 +XXII Catching Freddie Weasel Asleep 106 + + + + +THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL + +I + +Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do + + +Frisky Squirrel was a lively little chap. And he was very bold, too. +You see, he was so nimble that he felt he could always jump right out +of danger--no matter whether it was a hawk chasing him, or a fox +springing at him, or a boy throwing stones at him. He would chatter +and scold at his enemies from some tree-top. And it was seldom that he +was so frightened that he ran home and hid inside his mother's house. + +Mrs. Squirrel's house was in a hollow limb of a hickory tree. It was a +very convenient place to live; for although the tree was old, it still +bore nuts. And it is very pleasant to be able to step out of your +house and find your dinner all ready for you--simply waiting to be +picked. + +Of course, Frisky Squirrel and his mother couldn't find their dinner +on the tree the whole year 'round--because it was only in the fall that +there were nuts on it. But luckily there were other things to eat--such +as seeds, of which there were many kinds in the woods. And then there +was Farmer Green's wheat--and his corn, too, which Frisky liked most of +all. + +The woods where Mrs. Squirrel and her son lived were full of the +finest trees to climb that anybody could wish for. And Frisky loved to +go leaping from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. He was so +fearless that he would scamper far out on the ends of the smallest +limbs. But no matter how much they bent and swayed beneath his weight, +he was never afraid; in fact, that was part of the fun. + +As she watched Frisky whisking about among the trees, now swinging on +this branch, now leaping far out to that one, Mrs. Squirrel sometimes +wondered how he could keep dashing about so madly. Though the old lady +was pretty spry, herself, she was content to sit still _some_ of the +time. But Frisky Squirrel was almost never still except when he was +asleep. There was so much to do! Frisky wished that the days were +longer, for though he tried his hardest, he couldn't climb _all_ the +trees in the forest. Each night he had to give up his task, only to +begin all over again the next morning. If there had been nothing to do +but _climb_ the trees Frisky would have been able to climb more of +them. But there were other things that took time. + +There were the birds, for instance. Frisky simply had to tease them. +Perhaps it was just because he was so full of fun--or mischief, as it +is sometimes called. Anyhow, he delighted in visiting their nests; and +chasing them; and scolding at them. And it was not always the littlest +birds, either, that Frisky teased. There was that loud-mouthed fellow, +Jasper Jay, the biggest blue jay in the whole neighborhood. Frisky +liked nothing better than bothering Jasper Jay--for Jasper always lost +his temper and flew straight at Frisky. And then would follow the +finest sport of all. + +But a time came at last when Frisky teased Jasper Jay almost once too +often, though that is another story. + + + + +II + +Frisky Squirrel has a Fall + + +One day Frisky Squirrel came upon Jasper Jay's nest when Jasper and +his wife were both away from home. And Frisky simply couldn't resist +tearing a few twigs out of it. He had not done much damage, however, +before Mrs. Jay returned. When she saw what was happening she screamed +loudly for her husband. And soon Jasper came flying up as fast as he +could come. He made a noise exactly like a red-tailed hawk; but he did +not frighten Frisky at all, for Frisky knew all of Jasper's tricks. +Jasper Jay was always trying to scare people by calling like bigger +birds--such as red-shouldered hawks, and red-tailed hawks, and sparrow +hawks. + +When Frisky heard him calling he just laughed and skipped up the trunk +of the tree, with Jasper and his wife chasing him. Now, with Jasper +and Mrs. Jay both flying at him, Frisky had to be sprier than ever. +But he was not afraid. He never thought of danger at all. And he ran +down the thick tree-trunk like a flash and bounded across the ground +and tore up the tree where he and his mother lived. + +"I'll peck your eyes out!" Jasper shouted, as he followed close behind +Frisky. Now, no matter how bold one may be, it is not pleasant to hear +a thing like that said. And it made Frisky hurry a little faster. + +"I'll peck his tongue out!" screamed Mrs. Jay. And somehow it +disturbed Frisky the least bit to hear Jasper's wife say that. He +decided that he would go home at once. And he gave a great spring +toward the hollow limb where he lived. + +Then something happened that was a great surprise to Frisky Squirrel. +He was right in the middle of his leap when Jasper struck him with a +wing. The blow did not hurt Frisky. But it sent him tumbling. He +missed the hollow limb, and down he went, head over heels, toward the +ground. + +Even while he was falling, Frisky Squirrel laughed. You see, he +thought it was a good joke on himself. And being a merry little +fellow, he was always ready to laugh when anybody played a joke on +him. As for the fall, that did not trouble him at all. He knew that he +could land on his feet. + +It was after he had lighted upon the ground that Frisky was really +frightened. For when he looked up, whom should he see but Tommy Fox, +not three jumps away! And Tommy Fox was smiling in the most horrid +fashion, as if to say--"Ah! I've got you now, my fine fellow!" And then +Tommy Fox leaped. + +But quick as Tommy was, Frisky Squirrel was even quicker. While Tommy +was making one big leap, Frisky was making three smaller leaps. And +when Tommy came down on the spot where Frisky had been he found +nothing but a heap of dry leaves beneath his paws; and in a moment +more Frisky Squirrel's gray tail was disappearing through the doorway +of his mother's house. + +It was very unlucky for Tommy Fox; but then, one might say that it was +very lucky for Frisky Squirrel. + + + + +III + +The Stone that Walked + + +One day Frisky Squirrel was playing in the woods when he came upon a +chestnut bur which had lain upon the ground all winter. And in a +twinkling Frisky had picked the nut from inside it and popped it into +his mouth. Then he started home to show his mother what he had found. + +But on the way home Frisky began to feel hungry. Just carrying that +nut inside his cheek was a little more than he could stand. And he +decided that he would eat the nut at once, and _tell_ his mother about +it, instead of _showing_ it to her. + +So Frisky hopped up on the top of a broad, flat rock. And sitting down +right in the center of it, he began to gnaw at the chestnut. He was so +busy and so interested in what he was doing that before he knew it the +rock began to move. It moved so slowly that it was not until it +started to climb a little hummock, and nearly tipped Frisky over on +his back, that he noticed what was happening. + +At first Frisky thought he must be dreaming. He nipped himself with +his sharp teeth to make sure that he was awake. And when he saw that +the rock was really walking right away with him he forgot all about +eating the chestnut. He let it fall out of his paws and roll away; for +he had never seen a rock move like that before. + +It was very exciting, though Frisky had never traveled so slowly +before. You see, whenever he went anywhere he always hurried as if he +had the most important business to attend to. But it was quite +different with that rock. It crawled along just as if it didn't care +whether it ever got anywhere or not. + +For a long time Frisky clung there. Now and then he almost slipped off +as the rock tilted. But it never tipped quite over; and Frisky managed +to stick on. And then, at last, he decided that he had better hop off +onto the ground, for he noticed that the rock was moving straight +toward the river. It went down the bank at a faster pace. And Frisky +leaped off just in time to escape a wetting, for the next moment the +rock dropped splash! into the water. + +Frisky Squirrel waited on the shore and watched it, with eyes wide +open with astonishment. He had expected to see it sink to the bottom +of the river. But the rock swam away as easily as you please. That was +the strangest part of it all--a rock which could not only walk, but +could swim as well! + +Frisky turned about and ran for home as fast as he could jump. This +time he certainly did have important business. He had such a strange +thing to tell his mother! He reached home quite out of breath. And as +soon as he could, he told Mrs. Squirrel what he had seen. + +That good lady did not know what to think. She had always found her +son to be truthful. But this was certainly a queer story. She lay +awake a long time that night thinking about the matter. And early the +next morning she took Frisky and set out for Swift River. Frisky led +her to the very spot where the stone had swum away. + +"There it is! There it is now!" he cried, as they paused upon the bank +and he pointed down toward the water's edge. + +When Mrs. Squirrel saw what Frisky was pointing at she no longer +wondered. + +"It's a mud turtle!" she exclaimed. "You had a ride on a mud turtle +and you never knew it." She smiled, because she was amused; and +because she was happy, too. For she knew that Frisky had told the +truth. + + + + +IV + +The Picnic + + +It was a fine spring day--so pleasant that the children from the little +red schoolhouse over the hill came to the woods where Frisky Squirrel +lived. They came for the first picnic of the season, and such a noise +as they made had never been heard in those woods before. + +Frisky Squirrel was frightened at first. But at last he grew +accustomed to the uproar, and he crept out on the limb where he +lived--not too far away from the door--and looked down and watched the +fun. + +He was enjoying the picnic quite as much as the merry-makers +themselves--until a boy spied him. And then several boys began to throw +acorns at him. Frisky did not like that so well; and he hid in a +crotch of the tree where he could not be seen from below, until the +boys forgot all about him. + +When the picnickers went away, Frisky lost no time. He slipped down +the tree in a hurry. You see, he had seen the children eating their +lunch and he hoped he would be able to find some tidbit which they had +left behind them. + +Sure enough! there was a feast waiting for him. He was not the only +one who was there to enjoy it. For there were three ruffianly red +squirrels and a half-dozen chipmunks who appeared on the spot as if by +magic. + +This second picnic soon came to an end, for the dainties did not last +long. But what Frisky found, he enjoyed very much. Most of all he +liked a bit of something that was covered with a white coating, which +looked a good deal like snow. But it did not taste like snow at all; +it was as sweet as sweet could be! + +Rusty Red-squirrel found a piece of the same dainty, and he explained +to Frisky that it was called "cake." + +"I ate some once at Farmer Green's house," he said. "Farmer Green's +wife makes it." And Frisky decided on the spot that he would pay a +visit to the farmhouse. It was too late to go that day. But the next +morning Frisky set out for Farmer Green's house. + +In the distance he could see white smoke curling from the red chimney. +And though he did not know it, that meant that it was baking-day, and +Farmer Green's wife was just as busy as she could be, making good +things for her hungry family. + +When Frisky Squirrel reached the farmhouse he found the kitchen window +wide open. And after making sure that there was no one inside the +room, he stole in and jumped up on a shelf where there was a row of +dishes with all sorts of tempting things on them. + +To Frisky's joy, he found a whole cake exactly like the bit he had +discovered in the woods. And he ate all he wanted; there seemed to be +no reason why he shouldn't, there was so much of it. + +And then a door slammed somewhere. The noise startled Frisky Squirrel +and he fell right off the shelf, backwards, and landed plump in the +flour-barrel. + +He was nearly smothered. And he was frightened, too. But he managed to +scramble out again. And you should have seen the white streak that +went shooting across the kitchen floor, out the door, and away. It was +Frisky Squirrel, of course, covered with flour. He never stopped +running until he was half-way home. And then he climbed a tree and sat +down to lick himself clean again. To his astonishment, he found that +the white powder that covered him tasted very good. It reminded him of +wheat. And that is not surprising, since the flour was made of wheat +which Farmer Green had grown in his own fields, and which had been +ground into flour by the miller who lived further up Swift River. + +Though the flour tasted good, Frisky did not like it as well as the +cake. He wished he had been covered with that sweet, snowlike +frosting. + +[Illustration: "The Picnic"] + + + + +V + +Some Lively Dodging + + +Frisky Squirrel was having his usual fun, leaping through the tree-tops. +He went skipping and scrambling among the boughs as if a hundred jays +were after him. But they were only make-believe enemies. And after a +while Frisky grew tired of playing all alone. He wished he could find +Jasper Jay again. He would have liked to tease the rude fellow, until +Jasper chased him. + +As Frisky paused for a moment to catch his breath he heard a long-drawn, +squealing whistle, somewhat like the sound of escaping steam. + +"There's Jasper Jay right now!" he exclaimed. "And he's trying to make +people think he's a red-tailed hawk. But he can't fool me that way. +I'll just go and find him. And then maybe I won't tease him!" + +Frisky started toward the place where he had heard that whistle. He +called to Jasper Jay; but there was no answer. Nor did he hear the +whistle again. He hunted all around; but no Jasper Jay could he find. +And he was just going to give up the search when there was a sudden +rush through the air. + +Frisky dodged just in time; and a big body, grayish-brown, with a +rusty-red tail, went tearing past him. He had been mistaken. It wasn't +Jasper Jay he had heard whistling, but this fierce red-tailed hawk. +Here was even more fun than Frisky had hoped for! + +As soon as Mr. Hawk could stop his swift flight he turned and came +back again. And there followed the liveliest sort of dodging for +Frisky Squirrel. It was well for him that he had had plenty of +practice all the spring, or I am afraid he would never have escaped. + +He was not afraid. And now and then he laughed at Mr. Hawk. And now +and then he shouted "Robber!" at him, and "Thief!" And he asked him +how many of Farmer Green's chickens he had stolen lately. + +But Mr. Hawk never once answered--except to whistle sometimes as he +went sailing past. He paid strict attention to what he was doing. And +he seemed to have no idea of stopping until he got Frisky Squirrel in +his claws. + +After a while Frisky began to tire of the sport. But not Mr. Hawk! He +kept flying back and forth, back and forth, past Frisky. And his cruel +eyes glared terribly every time he came near. + +"You'd better go along home," Frisky called to him. "You can never +catch me, if you try till snow flies." + +Mr. Hawk lighted on a near-by tree and looked at Frisky. Frisky was a +plump little squirrel and Mr. Hawk hated to give him up. But as he +thought the matter over he seemed to decide that Frisky was a little +too spry for him. And with one more whistle he mounted up above the +trees and sailed calmly away. + +Frisky Squirrel went home then; and he told his mother what sport he +had had, and how Mr. Hawk had at last flown away in despair. "I hope +he'll come back again to-morrow," said Frisky. + +But Mrs. Squirrel shook her head. She wished that Frisky was less +daring. + + + + +VI + +Mr. Hawk Returns + + +After he escaped from the fierce red-tailed hawk you would naturally +think that Frisky Squirrel would have been glad to keep away from such +a great, strong enemy. But the very next day found Frisky searching +everywhere for that cruel, hook-nosed Mr. Hawk. He wanted more of that +fine sport that he had had the day before, dodging and twisting around +the limbs of the trees, while Mr. Hawk swooped down and tried to seize +him. There was another reason, too, why Frisky wanted to find Mr. Hawk +again--and that was because he knew that it annoyed Mr. Hawk very much +not to be able to catch him. You see, Frisky Squirrel was a great +tease. + +Well, as I said, Frisky hunted all through the woods for the red-tailed +hawk. But he couldn't find him. There was a good reason why--and that +was because Mr. Hawk was waiting for Frisky in the top of a tree near +Mrs. Squirrel's home. He was waiting and watching--was Mr. Hawk. When +Frisky had given up his search and was almost home he heard the smaller +birds warning one another of the danger, telling of the savage old +fellow who was half-hidden on a high branch of the tall elm. Frisky +first heard a flicker calling to a towhee; and the towhee told a robin; +and the robin told a little song sparrow that he had better keep out of +sight unless he wanted Mr. Hawk to catch him. You may be sure that the +little song sparrow was very careful after that. He gave a few _chips_, +just to do his share in warning the other forest-people to look out for +the red-tailed hawk; and then he crept into a thicket and kept just as +still as a mouse. + +When Frisky heard the news--for he knew what the birds were telling one +another--he hurried along joyfully. _He_ was not afraid of Mr. Hawk. +Mr. Hawk was the very person he was looking for. + +"Hello, you old ruffian!" Frisky called, as soon as he spied Mr. Hawk. +It certainly was a very impolite thing to say, even if it _was_ true. + +Mr. Hawk turned his cruel eyes upon Frisky Squirrel and then he dashed +toward him as fast as he knew how. He dropped down like lightning from +his high perch, and Frisky had to dodge quickly to escape him; but +that was part of the fun. + +Frisky Squirrel laughed as Mr. Hawk went sailing by him. And then +something happened--something Frisky was not expecting. He heard a rush +through the air, and a nervous little wren screamed to him to look +out. Frisky didn't know what the trouble was; but he gave a great leap +to one side. + +He was just in time. He had hardly left the limb to which he had been +clinging when Mr. Hawk's wife went coursing past. You see, Mr. Hawk +had made up his mind that he was going to catch Frisky Squirrel, even +if he had to bring Mrs. Hawk along to help him. + + + + +VII + +A Brave Little Bird + + +It was not long before Frisky Squirrel began to see that he had got +himself into something very like a fix. It had been fairly easy to +dodge Mr. Hawk alone. But things were quite different now. Mr. Hawk +would come hurtling down upon him from one direction; and Mrs. Hawk +would swoop down upon him from another. It was all very confusing, +because Frisky could not watch both of them at once. + +He called to his mother, because he began to be frightened. But Mrs. +Squirrel was not at home. Frisky did not know what to do. He tried to +reach his home in the big hickory tree near-by; but Mr. and Mrs. Hawk +wouldn't let him go near it. And when he felt one of Mr. Hawk's sharp +talons dig into his back Frisky thought that his end had come. But he +escaped that time, though Mrs. Hawk nearly caught him just two seconds +later. + +I am afraid _The Tale of Frisky Squirrel_ would have ended right here, +if somebody had not come to Frisky's help. Fortunately, there was a +small, olive-green bird who lived with his wife not far from Frisky +Squirrel's home. Mr. Kinglet was his name. And though he was a tiny +fellow he had a heart like a lion's. I suppose that in all the country +around Blue Mountain there was no braver fellow than he. And his wife +was brave too. Although they both wore very dull-colored clothes, if +you took a good look at Mr. Kinglet you could see that he always wore +a bright red crown. He was very modest about his crown, and generally +wore it so that only a little of it showed. But whenever he went out +to fight, as the forest-people are often obliged to, that beautiful +red crown might be seen as plain as could be. + +Now, it happened that Mrs. Kinglet heard Mr. and Mrs. Hawk talking to +each other, as they tried to capture Frisky Squirrel, and she heard +the other forest-people shouting, too. So she called to Mr. Kinglet +that somebody seemed to be in trouble; and he came hurrying up at +once. + +When the little frightened wren screamed, Mr. Kinglet made up his mind +that it was time for him to do something. And he pushed his red crown +up on the top of his head where it would show better and he flew +straight toward Mr. Hawk. + +Mr. Kinglet flew up over Mr. Hawk's head, and then he darted down and +lighted right in the middle of Mr. Hawk's broad back, and began +pecking him as hard as he could with his sharp little bill. + +Mr. Hawk stopped trying to catch Frisky. He had all he wanted to do to +shake that bold little fellow off his back. And though Mrs. Hawk still +swooped down at Frisky Squirrel, brave Mr. Kinglet's brave little wife +began to fly at _her_ so fiercely that Mrs. Hawk couldn't keep Frisky +from reaching the tree where he lived. + +He was very glad to get home, you may be sure. And he dived in through +the door and was out of sight in no time. But pretty soon he stuck his +head out again to see what was happening. Mr. and Mrs. Hawk had +vanished. And all the forest-people were thanking Mr. and Mrs. Kinglet +for driving them away. Frisky Squirrel thanked them, too. And when he +remembered how he had sometimes teased Mrs. Kinglet by visiting her +nest he felt very much ashamed, and he promised himself that he would +never trouble her again. + + + + +VIII + +Uncle Sammy Coon + + +One day Frisky Squirrel was looking for something to eat in the woods, +when whom should he meet but Uncle Sammy Coon, a good-for-nothing old +fellow who lived over in the swamp. + +"Well, young man!" said Uncle Sammy, "what are you doing here?" + +"I'm trying to find a few seeds to eat," Frisky explained. + +"I know where there's some corn," said Uncle Sammy Coon. "It's last +year's corn, to be sure; but it's good, just the same." + +"Where is it?" Frisky asked him. + +"Hm--" said Uncle Sammy. "If I told you would you get some of it for +me? It would be easy for a spry young chap like you to take all you +wanted of it. But I've a lame knee, you know, and I can't climb so +well as I used to." + +"Of course I'll get some corn for you," Frisky promised. "Where is +it?" + +"I'll take you to it," said Uncle Sammy--"this very night." He was a +suspicious old chap--which means that he was afraid that if he told +Frisky then, Frisky would go off alone and take what corn he wanted +without giving Uncle Sammy any. + +"To-night!" Frisky exclaimed. "Oh, I don't stay out late at night, you +know, as you do." Uncle Sammy Coon was known to keep very late hours. + +"Well--right after sundown, then," the old rascal said. "We'll meet +over by the brook. Don't tell your mother. It will be a pleasant +surprise for her, when you bring home a fine bagful of corn." + +"All right! I'll be there," Frisky told him. + +And sure enough! Just as the sun sank out of sight that evening, +Frisky appeared on the bank of the brook. And he hadn't told his +mother what he was going to do, either. + +Pretty soon Uncle Sammy Coon came along. He had an old sack slung over +his shoulder and a wide grin on his face. + +"Come on, young man!" he said, "and we'll go over to Farmer Green's +place." + +"Farmer Green's!" Frisky cried. "I don't want to go there." He +remembered the fright he had had when he fell into the flour-barrel in +Farmer Green's kitchen. + +"You promised," Uncle Sammy reminded him. "And unless you want +something you won't like nearly so well as corn, you had better march +right along with me." + +He was so cross that Frisky Squirrel thought he had better mind him. +But Frisky wished he had not come. And he wished he had told his +mother what he was going to do, too. But he trotted along with Uncle +Sammy--only he was careful not to get too close to the tricky old +gentleman, for there was no knowing when Uncle Sammy might suddenly +decide that he would rather have a nice, tender, young gray squirrel +to eat than all the last year's corn in the world. You see, the little +forest-people have to think of many things--especially when they walk +out alone with a person like Uncle Sammy Coon. + + + + +IX + +A Bag of Corn + + +When Frisky Squirrel and Uncle Sammy Coon arrived at Farmer Green's +place, the moon was just rising. It wasn't dark, but Uncle Sammy said +that they would have no trouble at all, because Farmer Green's family +would be in the house, eating their evening meal. + +"There's the corn-house," he said, pointing to an old stone building. +"There's a hole in the wall up there under the roof. All you have to +do is to climb that tree, run out on that limb, crawl through the +hole, and there you are--inside. Then you can bring the corn up to the +hole, drop it out onto the ground, and I'll stay outside and pick it +up and put it in this sack and watch out for old dog Spot." + +"You see," he went on, "I'll be doing most of the work, for I'll be +doing three things, while all you'll have to do will be to drop the +corn out of the hole in the wall.... But I don't mind doing more than +my share." + +Frisky Squirrel couldn't quite understand how Uncle Sammy would be +doing most of the work. But since the old gentleman said it was so, +Frisky supposed it was the truth. There was one thing, however, that +puzzled him still more. + +"Have you brought a bag for my share of the corn?" he asked. + +"Oh, we'll divide this bagful," said Uncle Sammy. "When we get over +the hill we'll sit down and divide it." + +"All right!" said Frisky. And then he hurried up the tree. In no more +than a jiffy he was inside the old stone building; and pretty soon the +corn began to patter, patter, down upon the ground where Uncle Sammy +waited. + +Frisky had been working steadily for some time. And he began to wonder +if the bag was not full. He thought he would just peep out of the hole +in the wall and see. So he stuck his head out. To his surprise, Uncle +Sammy had vanished. And as Frisky looked all around he caught sight of +Uncle Sammy Coon with the bag of corn on his back, hurrying up the +road. For an old gentleman with a lame knee he was going at a very +fast pace. + +Frisky Squirrel wondered why he had run away. But he didn't wonder +long, for a dog barked; and the bark came from right underneath the +hole in the wall. Then Farmer Green came running up the path which led +to the corn-house. He had a gun in his hand, too. + +Frisky didn't wait to see anything more. He whisked out of the hole, +and climbed the roof, and jumped into another tree on the other side +of the corn-house. And soon he too was running like mad along the +road--only he was going in exactly the opposite direction to that in +which Uncle Sammy had vanished. + +He never stopped running until he had reached the woods. And since he +could not bring any corn home with him, he thought that there was +really no sense in telling his mother anything about his adventure. + +The next day, as Frisky was playing in a tree-top, he came across +Uncle Sammy Coon sunning himself. + +"Where's my corn?" asked Frisky Squirrel. + +"Corn!" Uncle Sammy exclaimed, as if he had forgotten all about such a +thing. "Oh! you mean that corn that we got last night. Now, I'm sorry +to say that the bag was so heavy I had to drop it, because old dog +Spot was after me, you know. And when I went back to get it, later, it +wasn't there.... We'll have to try again, some other time," he added. + +Frisky Squirrel began to see that the old fellow had tricked him. +Uncle Sammy's sides looked very plump, as if he had had an unusually +good meal. And he smiled so pleasantly that Frisky Squirrel became +very angry. + +"You'll get your own corn next time," he snapped. And as he skipped +away he heard Uncle Sammy Coon laugh heartily--just as though something +had amused him. + + + + +X + +Tails and Ears + + +Among all his friends, Frisky Squirrel liked to play with Jimmy Rabbit +best. You see, Jimmy never wanted to eat him. He was so fond of tender +young sprouts, and of Farmer Green's vegetables, that he wouldn't have +taken even the smallest bite out of Frisky. He would have laughed at +the very idea. + +There was something else, too, about Jimmy Rabbit, that Frisky +Squirrel liked; he was always thinking of new things to do--new places +to visit, new games, new tricks to play on other forest-people. + +To be sure, Jimmy and Frisky did not always agree--but that is not +surprising, because their tastes were so different. For instance, +there was nothing that Frisky Squirrel liked better than a hickory +nut, while Jimmy Rabbit never would so much as touch one. But if +anybody said "cabbage" to Jimmy Rabbit he would have to stop playing +and hurry to Farmer Green's garden. You see how fond of cabbage Jimmy +was. + +There were other things, too, on which Frisky and Jimmy held different +views. They were forever disputing about ears and tails. Frisky +Squirrel, as you know, had a beautiful, long, bushy tail, and short +little ears; while Jimmy Rabbit had ears half as long as he was, and +almost no tail at all! + +"Really, Frisky, you ought to have that tail of yours cut off," Jimmy +said one day. "It's terribly out of fashion to wear a tail so long as +yours. As a special favor, I'll be willing to cut it off for you, with +a big pair of shears that my mother has." + +Frisky Squirrel was just a bit angry at this remark about his tail. + +"What about your ears?" he asked. "Not one of the forest-people--except +rabbits--wears his ears so long as you do. I must say that they look +very queer. How'd you like to have me trim them for you?" + +"Tell you what we'll do," Jimmy Rabbit said. "I'll cut off your tail +and you'll cut off my ears. What do you say?" + +Somehow or other, Frisky did not quite like the idea of losing his +tail. He was so used to having it that he was afraid he might miss it +dreadfully. And he even thought that he would rather keep it--even if +it _was_ out of fashion. + +But Jimmy Rabbit ran home to get his mother's shears. And when he came +back with them Frisky couldn't think of any good excuse for not +letting Jimmy cut off his tail for him. As Jimmy came hopping up with +the shears, Frisky Squirrel put out his paw. + +"What do you want?" asked Jimmy. + +"The shears!" Frisky said. "I'm going to trim your ears, you know." + +"Oh--yes!" Jimmy answered. "But I thought of this _first_, you +remember. So I'll cut your tail off first. Then you'll have your +turn--see?" He kept a firm hold on the shears. And almost before Frisky +knew what was happening Jimmy had stepped behind him and had placed +Frisky's tail between the big shears. + +"Will it hurt?" Frisky asked, as he looked behind him. + +"It'll all be over in a jiffy," said Jimmy Rabbit. + + + + +XI + +Jimmy Rabbit is too Late + + +It was just as Jimmy Rabbit had said. You remember that as he stood +behind Frisky Squirrel's back with his mother's big shears, all ready +to cut off Frisky's tail, he had told Frisky that "it would all be +over in a jiffy"? + +Well, it _was_. But things didn't happen just as Jimmy Rabbit had +expected. He had taken a good, firm grip on the shears, and he was +just about to shut them upon Frisky's tail with a snap, when somebody +called Frisky's name. Frisky knew who it was right away. It was his +mother! And like most of us, when our mothers catch us doing something +we ought not to do, Frisky was so surprised and so startled that he +gave a great jump. + +That jump was all that saved Frisky's tail. For just as Mrs. Squirrel +called, Jimmy Rabbit shut the shears together as hard as he could. But +Jimmy was too late. When Frisky jumped, his tail followed him, of +course. It whisked out from between the shears; and they closed upon +nothing at all. + +"Now, that's too bad!" Jimmy exclaimed. He had been so interested in +what he was doing that he had never heard Mrs. Squirrel at all. "Come +back here and we'll try again." + +The words were scarcely out of Jimmy Rabbit's mouth when he received a +terrific box on the ear. Now, it's bad enough for anybody to have his +ears boxed. But Jimmy's ears were so big that I dare say it hurt him +three times as much as it would have hurt anyone else. And it +surprised him, too. For he hadn't heard Mrs. Squirrel as she stole up +behind him. Anyhow, he ran off howling, taking his mother's shears +with him. + +"That awful Rabbit boy!" Mrs. Squirrel said. "A moment more and he +would have cut off your beautiful tail--your best feature, too!" + +"What's a feature, Mother?" Frisky asked. + +"Why--your nose, and your eyes, and your ears--anything of that sort," +Mrs. Squirrel said. "It makes me feel faint just to think what almost +happened." + +"But Jimmy Rabbit says long tails are out of fashion," said Frisky. + +"Out of fashion indeed!" Mrs. Squirrel sniffed. "He's jealous--that's +what's the trouble with him. He wishes he had a fine, long, bushy tail +himself. Goodness me! I'm all of a flutter--I'm so upset." And poor +Mrs. Squirrel sat right down and fanned herself with her sun-bonnet. +"Now, don't you ever let anybody try to cut off your tail again," she +said to Frisky. "You have your father's tail. And everybody always +said that he had the most beautiful tail that was ever seen in these +woods." + +Frisky didn't quite understand what his mother meant. If he had his +father's tail, then where was his? And if it was his, then where was +his father's? All the way home he kept asking himself questions like +those. But whatever the answers might be, Frisky was glad that he +still bore that beautiful brush. He began to see that he would have +looked very queer, with just a short stub like Jimmy Rabbit's. + + + + +XII + +Frisky Visits the Gristmill + + +Frisky Squirrel was very fond of wheat-kernels. Somehow or other he +heard that there was a place on Swift River called the gristmill, +where there was almost all the wheat in the world--at least that is +what Frisky heard. So he started out, one day, to find the gristmill. +He thought he could have a very pleasant time there. + +Frisky had no trouble at all in finding the gristmill. It was just +below the mill-dam. And everybody knew where that was. + +The gristmill was an old stone building with a red roof. And once +inside it Frisky saw great heaps of wheat-kernels everywhere. And +there were sacks and sacks too--some of them stuffed with kernels, +which Frisky was so fond of, and some of them filled with a fine white +powder, which Frisky didn't like so well, because it got in his eyes, +and up his nose, and made him sneeze. It was the same sort of powder +into which he had fallen one time at Farmer Green's house. It was +flour, of course--you must have guessed that. + +The gristmill was a quiet sort of building. There seemed to be nobody +there at all. And Frisky helped himself freely to wheat-kernels, for +it was very early in the morning and he had not had his breakfast. He +was just telling himself what a delightful place the gristmill was, +and how glad he was that he had heard about it, when suddenly there +was a terrible noise--a grinding, and whirring, and buzzing, and +pounding. The very floor trembled and shook, and Frisky expected that +in another instant the roof would come crashing down on him. + +He leaped away from the bag of wheat-kernels on which he had been +breakfasting and he bounded through the great doorway and ran along +the rail-fence, far up the road, thinking that each moment would be +his last. For Frisky believed that the end of the world had come. And +he never stopped running until he was safe inside his mother's house. + +Mrs. Squirrel was not at home. And it was so long before she came in +and found Frisky that he had begun to think he would never see her +again. + +"Whatever is the matter?" Mrs. Squirrel asked. Frisky was making a +dreadful noise, for he was crying as if he would never stop. + +"It's the end of the world!" Frisky sobbed. "I didn't think you were +coming back." + +Bit by bit Mrs. Squirrel managed to learn where Frisky had been and +what had happened to him. And she smiled when she found out what had +frightened him. Since it was quite dark inside their home in the +hollow limb of the big hickory tree, Frisky could not see his mother +smiling. But her voice sounded very cheerful when she said-- + +"Now stop crying, my son. There's nothing to cry about. The end of the +world hasn't come. And _that's_ something you and I don't need to +worry about, anyhow." + +"What you heard was only the mill-wheels turning. You must have +reached the gristmill before the miller had come to begin his day's +work. That was why everything was so still. I don't wonder you were +frightened when all that noise began. But gristmills are always like +that. They make a terrible noise when they grind the wheat." + +Frisky Squirrel stopped sobbing then. He was glad that his mother knew +exactly what had happened. But he made up his mind that whenever he +wanted any wheat-kernels to eat he would not go to the gristmill for +them. Luckily the gristmill had not _quite_ all the wheat in the +world. + + + + +XIII + +Fun on the Milldam + + +There was something about the dam across Swift River that Frisky +Squirrel simply couldn't keep away from--after he had forgotten, +somewhat, his fright at the gristmill. Only a few days passed after +Frisky had run home from the mill in a panic, before he was back +again. He liked to run across the top of the dam and look down at his +reflection in the water on one side. Here and there a narrow stream +spilled over the top of the dam. Frisky felt very brave as he leaped +over those little rivulets. And he loved to watch them as they fell in +thin, silvery cascades upon the rocks far below. It was great sport. + +One day when Frisky reached the dam he heard a dog bark not far away. +It was the miller's dog. He had seen Frisky as he crossed the road. +And he at once hurried toward him. + +Frisky Squirrel was annoyed. He had just been thinking what a good +time he was going to have. But when that dog started to bark Frisky +knew that his fun was spoiled. He wasn't frightened. Oh, no! But he +was sure that the dog would not go away until _he_ did. + +"Well, I'll just take one run across the dam," Frisky said to himself. +"I'll stay on the other side of the river until he grows tired of +waiting. And then I'll come back." + +He hurried on to the bank of the river; and in a few moments he was +skipping along the dam. The dog was still barking. And Frisky looked +around at him. To his great surprise, there was the dog following him, +right along the top of the dam. But even then Frisky was not +frightened. He simply hurried a little faster. He had not dreamed that +the miller's dog would chase him across Swift River. But there he was. +And he was running fast, too. + +Then something happened that really frightened Frisky Squirrel. At +first he could hardly believe it. But it was true. It really was +another dog that was barking--another dog that was waiting on the other +side of Swift River. And almost as soon as Frisky saw him, that other +dog started right across the dam, to meet Frisky! + +[Illustration: Fun on the mill dam] + +There was no time to lose. Frisky had to make up his mind very +quickly. He gave just one look at the deep mill pond. He could swim--if +he had to. But he just hated to get wet. And he knew that the dogs +were much faster swimmers than he was. So he looked away from the +water with a shudder. And he peeped over the steep side of the dam and +gazed at the rocks below, where the water splashed into countless +drops. + +Those rocks were a long way beneath him. But there was one thing about +Frisky Squirrel--he never was the least bit dizzy, or afraid, when he +looked down from high places. Perhaps there were too many other things +to be afraid of--such as coons and foxes--and dogs. + +The miller's dog was drawing nearer now, because Frisky had stopped. +And the dog from the other side of the river was only about six jumps +away! + +Frisky Squirrel didn't wait another instant. He jumped right down the +face of the dam. Where he had stood a moment before the two dogs came +together with a bump. Probably they would have started to fight, if +they had not been so interested in Frisky Squirrel. There they stood, +with their necks stretched out over the edge of the dam, watching +Frisky as he went rolling and tumbling down to the bed of the river. +And when they saw him pick himself up and go skipping from stone to +stone until he reached the shore and scampered away, they looked very +foolish indeed. + +In fact, they felt foolish, too. And without saying one word they +turned about and each crept back to his own side of Swift River. + + + + +XIV + +Mrs. Squirrel Has a Visitor + + +Fatty Coon was very hungry. And he stole along through the woods very +quietly, hoping to find something to eat. To his great joy, it was not +long before he discovered Mrs. Squirrel's home. He crept up to the +nest silently; for he hoped to catch Mrs. Squirrel and Frisky inside. +But Mrs. Squirrel and her son were both away. + +Fatty was disappointed. But he made up his mind to go into the house +anyhow, to see what he could find there. So he pushed through the +narrow doorway. It was a tight squeeze; but Fatty managed to get +inside. And there he found a fine lot of beechnuts, which Mrs. +Squirrel had brought home and stored, in order to have something to +eat during the winter. + +Fatty Coon just loved beechnuts. And he squatted down on the floor +and began to eat. He ate and ate until he was half-buried in +beechnut-shells. And he never stopped until he had finished the very +last beechnut. He wished there had been more, though you would think he +had had quite enough, for Fatty's sides bulged out so that he was +rounder than ever. He smiled as he thought of the surprise Mrs. Squirrel +would have when she came home and found her winter food all gone. And +then he stood up, shook the shells out of his coat, and started to climb +through the doorway. + +Fatty was still smiling as he stuck his head through the opening in +the tree. But all at once his smile faded away. You remember that he +had had hard work to squeeze through the narrow doorway when he +entered the house? Well, now his sides stuck out so far that he +couldn't get through it at all. He tried and tried; but though he +struggled hard, Fatty found that he simply could not squeeze through. +He had stuffed himself so full of beechnuts that he was too big to get +out of the hole. And there he was--caught fast by his own greediness! +Yes! Fatty Coon was a prisoner. + +Fatty had smiled because he thought Mrs. Squirrel would be surprised +when she came home. And he had not been mistaken about that. When Mrs. +Squirrel and her son Frisky scampered up the tree about sundown that +evening they had the surprise of their lives--though not just the sort +of surprise Fatty had expected. + +They looked in through their doorway and scolded. And they ordered +Fatty to get out of their house at once. + +He would have been glad enough to leave, you may be sure. But he +couldn't go just then. And at last Frisky Squirrel and his mother had +to go and spend the night in the house of a friend. + +When they came back to the old hickory tree the next morning Fatty +Coon had gone. He had tried the whole night long to get through the +doorway. And at last--just as the sun was rising--he managed to slip +out. + +Mrs. Squirrel knew that Fatty had had a hard time, because he had left +a good deal of his fur behind him. It clung to the sides of the +doorway. And Mrs. Squirrel spent half the day picking it off and +throwing the beechnut-shells out of her house. She was a very neat +housekeeper; and she was quite annoyed to find her house upset. + +As for Frisky, he began to bring home another store of nuts that very +day. After what had happened neither he nor his mother had any fear +that Fatty Coon would ever trouble them again. + + + + +XV + +Helpful Mr. Crow + + +Frisky Squirrel's mother had often told him not to have anything to do +with Mr. Crow. "He's such a tricky old fellow!" she said. "He seems to +have nothing to do but get folks into trouble. Don't go near him, and +don't have anything to say to him." + +Now, I'm sure Frisky Squirrel wanted to mind his mother. But he +couldn't help feeling that she was mistaken about Mr. Crow. He was so +solemn, and he always looked so like a preacher--for he usually wore +shiny, black clothes--that Frisky Squirrel thought him a very nice old +gentleman. And he told such interesting stories, too! Frisky could +listen to him by the hour. + +So, in spite of his mother's warnings, whenever he met Mr. Crow Frisky +Squirrel would always stop and ask the old gentleman how his cold was. +You see, Mr. Crow's voice was never what you would call _clear_. You +might say that there was a decided croak in it. And very often, even +on hot summer days, he would have a muffler wound about his throat. + +It happened that one day when Frisky came across Mr. Crow in the +woods, something reminded Mr. Crow that he knew where there were +plenty of butternuts--just waiting to be eaten. + +"Is that so?" Frisky exclaimed. "Have you had some of them?" + +"No! I don't care for butternuts," Mr. Crow said, with a slight cough. +"I've always considered them bad for my throat. I've made it a rule +never to eat them. You don't happen to like them, do you?" + +Now, if there was one thing that Frisky Squirrel liked a little better +than anything else, it was butternuts. And when he answered Mr. Crow's +question he was so excited that his voice shook just the least bit. + +"I'm _very_ fond of them," he said. + +"Well, well!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "I'm glad I happened to mention the +matter. They're there--heaps of 'em--great brown piles of 'em--thousands +of 'em!" + +"_Where_ are they?" Frisky asked him eagerly. + +"Oh--I thought I told you," Mr. Crow said. "Why--they're in Farmer +Green's attic. His boy put them up there to dry. I saw them through +the window, this very day." + +Frisky Squirrel was disappointed. + +"I mustn't go to Farmer Green's house," he said. + +"Pooh! Why not?" asked Mr. Crow. + +"It isn't safe. I went there once to get some cake, and I nearly lost +my life in the kitchen." + +"Ah! But this is different," Mr. Crow explained. "You don't have to go +into the kitchen at all. All you have to do is to climb that big tree +close by the house. And you can hop right through the attic window. +There's nobody upstairs in the daytime. In fact, I should call it one +of the safest places to go that I know of." + +When Mr. Crow said that, Frisky believed him. Mr. Crow was so old, and +so wise, and so solemn, that Frisky thought that anything he said must +be true. + +"I'm going past Farmer Green's house right now," Mr. Crow told Frisky. +"I have a little matter to attend to over in the cornfield. And if you +want to come along with me I don't mind stopping to show you where the +butternuts are. But of course if you're afraid--" Mr. Crow stopped to +cough. He buttoned his coat closer around his throat. And then he +looked sideways at Frisky Squirrel. + +"Afraid!" Frisky exclaimed. "I'm not afraid at all." + +"Good!" said Mr. Crow. "Now, then, young fellow! You skip along over +to Farmer Green's and I'll be waiting for you down the road a bit." + +Old Mr. Crow flapped himself away then. And Frisky Squirrel hurried +off in a straight line for the farmhouse. + + + + +XVI + +Caught in the Attic + + +Long before Frisky Squirrel reached Farmer Green's place, he began to +worry for fear Mr. Crow had grown tired of waiting for him. To be +sure, he knew that the butternuts were up in the attic. But to tell +the truth, Frisky felt uneasy about visiting the farmhouse. And he +hoped that Mr. Crow would show him just how to get through the attic +window, as he had promised. + +Just as he came in sight of the farmhouse Frisky heard Mr. Crow +calling to him from a tall tree close by the road. He was glad to hear +the old gentleman's husky voice. And he couldn't help thinking how +kind Mr. Crow was, and how mistaken his mother had been to believe +that Mr. Crow liked to get folks into trouble. + +"Come on!" said Mr. Crow, as Frisky paused beneath the tall tree. "I'm +going to fly over to that tree right next the farmhouse. You run along +the stone-wall and climb up beside me." + +"Now, then!" said Mr. Crow a few minutes later, when Frisky had joined +him. "There's the window--wide open. And there are the butternuts, +lying on the floor." + +Frisky could see great heaps of nuts. And without another word he +crept out on a limb that brushed the window-sill and in another moment +he was inside Farmer Green's attic. Frisky forgot to thank Mr. Crow. +He never once thought of that, he was in such a hurry to taste those +nuts. + +He just ate and ate and ate; and he was so busy cracking the nuts and +picking out the meats that he never noticed that it was growing dark. + +At last, to his astonishment, the attic door opened. Frisky leaped +behind a pile of butternuts and hid, while someone walked across the +floor. Then there was a bang. And Frisky shivered when he heard it. +But the person left the attic at once and went downstairs. + +Frisky Squirrel breathed easily again. And he stole out from behind +the pile of nuts. Somehow, he did not care to eat any more. He wanted +to get out of the house. So he went to the window. And then Frisky +Squirrel was really frightened. The window was shut! + +You see, while Frisky was so busy eating butternuts, a storm was +gathering. And it grew so dark, and the wind howled so shrilly, that +Farmer Green's wife thought she had better shut the attic window, to +keep the rain from beating in. + +How Frisky Squirrel did wish he had minded his mother and kept away +from old Mr. Crow! Poor Frisky looked out through the little square +panes of glass. His friend Mr. Crow was nowhere to be seen. Frisky had +hoped that the old gentleman would be waiting for him, and that since +Mr. Crow had told him how to get inside the attic he would be able to +tell him how to get out again. + +The wind swept the branches of the tall tree back and forth across the +window. How easy it would have been--if the window had been open--to hop +out upon one of those swaying limbs! Frisky pressed his soft little +body close against the glass and pushed as hard as he could. But he +couldn't break out of his prison. It was a queer thing--that glass! He +could see through it just as if there was nothing there; and yet it +held him fast. Frisky could not understand it. + + + + +XVII + +Farmer Green's Cat + + +There were plenty of nuts in the attic of Farmer Green's house, where +Frisky Squirrel found himself a prisoner. And you might think that he +wouldn't have felt so unhappy to be there. But Frisky was unhappy. He +was so frightened that he crept into a corner and stayed there, +shivering, for a long time. And he couldn't have eaten a single one of +those nuts if he had tried. He wanted to be free. He wanted to be out +of doors. He wanted to go home. + +After a time the storm passed. The wind stopped blowing. And the sun +shone again. But nobody came to the attic to open the window. When it +grew quite light Frisky did not feel so frightened. And at last he +crept out of his corner and went nosing about the room, hoping to find +a hole big enough to squeeze through. + +Now, you must not think Frisky Squirrel was stupid, when I tell you +that the door was open all this time. It was open just the smallest +crack, for Farmer Green's wife hadn't quite closed it when she went +downstairs. Frisky had been too frightened to notice it. Besides, the +attic had been dark, you know. + +Well, when Frisky found that crack he was the happiest little fellow +you ever saw. It was only a narrow opening; but he slipped through it. +And there he was, right at the head of the stairs! So downstairs he +hurried. The door below was wide open. And in less time than it takes +to tell the story, Frisky was in Farmer Green's kitchen. He remembered +that room very well, for he had been there when he came to taste that +white-frosted cake. + +But this time Frisky did not stop to look for any cake. He just +scampered across the floor toward the wide doorway. And as he bounded +across the room something sprang out from behind the stove and started +after him. + +Frisky Squirrel saw that some animal had leaped at him. He didn't stop +to take a good look; but he supposed that it was a small dog that had +been drying himself by the fire. Frisky knew that dogs couldn't climb +trees. So he sprang through the door, never touching the big stone +doorstep at all, and hurried toward a tree in Farmer Green's yard. He +laughed as he scurried up the tree-trunk. And then he looked down at +his enemy. + +Then Frisky Squirrel's heart almost stood still. That small animal was +coming right up the tree after him! Of course, it wasn't a dog at all. +It was Farmer Green's cat. Frisky had never seen a cat before and he +began to wonder whether the small creature could fly, as well as climb +trees. He scampered to the top of the tree; and then he leaped upon a +branch of another tree close by. + +No! The small animal could not fly. She climbed as high as she dared. +And then she stopped. Her eyes glared fiercely; and her tail grew as +big as Frisky's own. But that didn't help her at all. She could only +sit there and watch Frisky Squirrel as he dropped from branch to +branch, until she lost sight of him among the leaves. + + + + +XVIII + +The Threshing-machine + + +One day, late in the summer, Frisky Squirrel saw something that caused +him great excitement. Right into the center of one of Farmer Green's +fields he saw Farmer Green's horses drag a queer sort of wagon. It was +bigger than any other wagon he had ever seen, and had wheels upon it +in all sorts of strange places, instead of just at the four corners, +like all the wagons he had ever noticed before. + +Frisky climbed a tree, in order to get a better view of what was +happening. As he watched, he saw still another odd wagon hauled upon +the field alongside the first one. This wagon carried a broad walk +which led from the back and went right up what you might call a hill, +to the front of the wagon. And there it stopped, with a wooden bar +blocking the way. Frisky Squirrel thought that that was the strangest +path he had ever seen, for it seemed to lead to nowhere, and why it +should have a bar at the top, to keep anyone from going nowhere at +all, was more than even his lively mind could puzzle out. + +In and out and about these strange wagons were as many as a dozen men, +and one boy--each of them as busy as he could be. And as for the boy, +Johnnie Green, he was busier than anybody else. He seemed to be +everywhere at once, and in everybody's way. And Frisky couldn't see +that he was doing anything at all. But he noticed that Johnnie +appeared to be having a fine time. + +As Frisky Squirrel looked down upon this unusual sight from his perch +in the tree he saw that Farmer Green's wagons--the kind Frisky had +often seen before--were bringing up sheaves of wheat. And pretty +soon--and this made Frisky's eyes almost pop out of his head--he saw a +man lead a pair of horses up that short, steep walk and tie them to +the bar at the top of it. + +Then the horses began to walk. Now, probably you wouldn't think there +was anything strange about that. But there was. The odd thing about +that was that although the horses walked, they didn't get anywhere at +all. So far as Frisky Squirrel could see, they just walked and walked, +and that was all there was to it. After they had walked for a long +time they still stayed right in the same place, tied fast to the +wooden bar in front of them. + +Now, when the horses were walking, the other wagon began to set up a +great noise. It reminded Frisky of the time the gristmill began to +grind, when he thought the world was coming to an end. Those queer +wheels on the wagon began to turn, too. But Frisky didn't pay much +attention to them. What caught his eye and kept him puzzling was those +two horses, always walking, but never going anywhere. + +Frisky Squirrel stayed in his tree as long as he could, until at last +he simply had to hurry home and beg his mother to come over to the +field with him. + +As it happened, Mrs. Squirrel was not very busy that day, so she +dropped her knitting, or whatever it was that she was doing, and +pretty soon she and Frisky were up in the tree that he had climbed +before. + +"Oh! they're threshing!" Mrs. Squirrel said, after she had taken +one good look at what was going on. "They're threshing out the +wheat-kernels, so the miller can grind them into flour." + +"But those horses--" said Frisky. "Why is it that they don't walk right +against that bar, and break it, and tumble off onto the ground?" + +"That's a horse-power," Mrs. Squirrel explained. "The path the horses +are treading on moves, and that's why they stay right in the same +place. The path moves 'round and 'round all the time, like a broad +chain. That's what makes the wheels turn on the threshing-machine." + +"It must be fun," said Frisky Squirrel. "I wish I could be a horse, +and make that horse-power turn like that." + +"Nonsense!" said his mother. "You'd soon grow tired of it." + +But Frisky Squirrel knew better. + +[Illustration: Caught in the attic] + + + + +XIX + +Frisky's Prison + + +Frisky Squirrel simply couldn't keep away from the field where the +wheat was being threshed. He was on hand before the men came in the +morning, and he was the last to leave the place at night. He ate all +his meals right on the spot, and went home only to sleep. + +Now, it was not long before Johnnie Green spied Frisky Squirrel +loitering about the field. And he made up his mind that that young +squirrel was altogether too bold. So Johnnie Green rigged up a trap, +which he made from an old box, a few sticks, and a bit of string. And +one noon, while the men were eating their lunch under some trees a +little way from the threshing-machine, Frisky Squirrel was just +reckless enough to steal up and try to get his luncheon too, by eating +some of the wheat-kernels. He noticed a tempting little heap of +kernels, right beside a little box. And he had just stopped to eat +them when all at once the box toppled over on him, and there he +was--caught! + +When Johnnie Green discovered that he had captured that young squirrel +he was just as glad as Frisky was sorry and frightened. That, you see, +is just the difference between _catching_ and _being caught_. It makes +a great difference whether you are outside the trap, or in it. And +Frisky Squirrel was in it. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't +get away. + +He made up his mind that if anybody tried to lift him out of the box +he would bite him. But Johnnie Green had caught squirrels before. He +pulled on a pair of heavy gloves, and all Frisky's biting did no +good--or harm--at all. + +When Johnnie reached home he put his prize into a neat little wire +cage. As soon as Frisky found himself inside it he looked all around, +to see if there wasn't some opening big enough to squeeze through. And +sure enough! there was a little door. And in a twinkling Frisky had +popped himself through it and had started to run. + +He ran and ran. But strange to say, all his running took him nowhere +at all. At first he couldn't discover what was the matter. But after a +while he saw that he was inside a broad wheel, made of wire. And when +he ran the wheel simply spun 'round and 'round. + +He stopped running then. For he thought of the horses that made the +horse-power go. He was in just the same fix that they were in. He +could run as fast as he pleased, but he would still stay right there +inside the wheel. + +Poor Frisky Squirrel crept back into his cage. He remembered what his +mother had said, when he wished he could be a horse, and make the +tread-mill go. "You'd soon grow tired of it," she had told him. + +At the time, Frisky hadn't believed her. But now he knew that his +mother was wiser than he was. And he wondered if he was ever going to +see her again. + + + + +XX + +Johnnie Green Forgets Something + + +Although Johnnie Green took good care of Frisky Squirrel, that once +lively young chap did not like his new home in the wire cage at all. +His young master gave him plenty to eat--nuts and grain--all the things +that Frisky had always liked before. But now nothing tasted the same. +Frisky never felt really hungry. He just sat in his cage and moped and +sulked. + +Once in a great while he would go out into his wheel, and run and run +until he was so tired that he was ready to drop. Whenever Johnnie +Green saw him running inside the wheel that young man would laugh +aloud--he was so pleased. + +But nothing ever pleased Frisky Squirrel any more. He grew peevish and +cross and sulky. Being cooped up in that little wire prison day after +day made an entirely different squirrel of him. He longed to be free +once more--free to scamper through the tree-tops, and along the +stone-walls and the rail-fences. And at night he dreamed of hunting for +beechnuts, and chestnuts, and hickorynuts, on which he would feast to +his heart's content--in his dreams. But in the daytime, when his young +master put some of those very same nuts into his cage, Frisky would +hardly touch them. He lost his plumpness. His smooth coat grew rough. +And his tail--that beautiful tail that Jimmy Rabbit had tried to cut +off--alas! it was no longer beautiful. It was thin and ragged-looking. + +At last Johnnie Green began to be worried about his pet squirrel. And +one day when Frisky refused to eat a single nut Johnnie Green thought +that he must be really ill. So he opened the door of the cage, which +he always kept carefully fastened, and forgetting all about his thick +gloves he put his hand inside the little wire house, picked Frisky up +by the back of his neck, just as if he were a kitten, and lifted him +out of his prison. + +Johnnie wanted to see if he could find out what was the trouble with +the little fellow. He thought that perhaps he had a bad tooth, which +prevented his eating. And Johnnie tried to look inside of Frisky's +mouth. + +At first Frisky kept perfectly still. He could hardly believe that he +was outside that horrid, cramped cage. But it was true! And when +Johnnie Green began to poke at his mouth with a bare finger Frisky +Squirrel thought that it was high time for him to do something. + +So he did it. He didn't wait another second. Quick as a flash he sank +his sharp teeth into Johnnie Green's finger. + +Poor Johnnie Green! He gave such a yell that you could have heard him +far away on the other side of Swift River. That was the first thing he +did. And the next thing that Johnnie did was to drop Frisky right on +the ground. + +That was exactly what Frisky wanted. He no sooner touched the ground +than he was away like a shot. It was not at all like running inside the +wheel. Every leap carried him further away from Farmer Green's house. +And he had crossed the road and disappeared behind the stone-wall before +Johnnie Green knew what had happened. + +For several days after that Johnnie Green had to keep his finger bound +up in a bandage. And he felt very sad at losing his pet squirrel. + +But Frisky Squirrel was not sad at all. And neither was his mother. At +first, when Frisky tumbled inside her house she hardly knew him. For a +long time she had almost stopped believing he would ever come home +again. And now that he had come he was so changed that she could +scarcely believe it was he. + +The first thing that Mrs. Squirrel did was to set before Frisky some +choice seeds which she had gathered that very day. And Frisky ate +every one of them. You see, he had found his appetite again. + +For several days after that Frisky Squirrel did very little except +eat. And it was surprising--the way he began to grow fat. His sides +soon stuck out more than they ever had before, and his coat began to +grow sleek and shiny. And as for his tail--though it took longer for +_that_ to look beautiful again, in the course of time it became just +as thick and handsome as ever. Mrs. Squirrel was very glad of that. +For Frisky reminded her of his father once more. + + + + +XXI + +That Disagreeable Freddie Weasel + + +Almost everybody liked Frisky Squirrel, he was such a happy little +fellow. But there were a few of the forest-people with whom Frisky +never was able to make friends. _They_ were the disagreeable, selfish +kind, who never liked anyone except themselves. + +Freddie Weasel was one of the few with whom Frisky Squirrel never +could have a good time. Frisky often tried to play with him. But their +games always ended in trouble; and I must say that it was not Frisky's +fault. + +Now, Frisky had often heard it said among his neighbors that no one +had ever caught Freddie Weasel asleep. Indeed, Jimmy Rabbit claimed +that Freddie Weasel never slept at all. + +That seemed very strange to Frisky. He could hardly believe it. And he +made up his mind that he would watch Freddie Weasel and see whether it +was really true. + +So one evening, just after sundown, when Frisky met Freddie Weasel in +the woods, he thought it would be a good time to spy upon him. Of +course it wasn't at all a polite thing to do. But Frisky was very +curious. And anyhow, he meant no harm. + +"Hello, Freddie!" he said, as he came face to face with the sly, slim +chap. + +"Hello, yourself!" said Freddie Weasel in a disagreeable tone. + +"Where you going?" Frisky inquired pleasantly enough. + +"Never you mind," Freddie Weasel answered. "And you'd better keep out +of my way, or I'll bite your head off." + +Frisky Squirrel didn't know what to say. Very few people--except Jasper +Jay and one or two other quarrelsome forest-folk--had ever spoken to +him like that. So he just stood still and stared. + +That seemed to make Freddie angrier than ever. He darted toward Frisky +and tried to bite his neck. But Frisky was quick, too. He ran up a tree +before Freddie Weasel could catch him, and smiled at the bad-tempered +fellow. + +"You'd better go home and take a nap," Frisky told him. "You're +crosser than ever to-day." + +Freddie looked up at Frisky as if he would just like to get hold of +him for about one second. + +"I never sleep," he said. "I'm always awake. And some night when +you're dreaming, I'm coming to your house and I'm going to eat you." +And then he hurried away. + +Frisky Squirrel ran down the tree and dashed after Freddie. He didn't +make any noise at all. And he was careful not to let Freddie see him. +He was going to find out for himself whether Freddie stayed awake all +night. + +Mrs. Squirrel was worried because Frisky didn't come home. Of course +he ought to have let her know what he was about. But he felt that he +mustn't lose sight of Freddie. And he saw no one at all by whom he +could send word to his mother as to where he was and what he was +doing. + +Frisky had the busiest sort of time following Freddie. It grew so dark +that it was very hard to see Freddie Weasel as he sneaked along +through the bushes, hunting for small birds that build their nests on +the ground. + +Freddie Weasel caught several sleeping birds. And Frisky could not +help being sorry for them. He began to feel very guilty for having +teased them, and for having eaten their eggs. + +Finally it grew so dark that Frisky had just about decided that he +would have to give up spying on Freddie and hurry home, when he saw +Freddie slip into a hole in a bank and vanish. + +Was Freddie Weasel at last going to bed and to sleep? + + + + +XXII + +Catching Freddie Weasel Asleep + + +When Frisky Squirrel saw Freddie Weasel disappear in the hole in the +bank he became greatly excited. He forgot all about going home. And +though he had begun to feel somewhat sleepy, he was wide awake again +in no time. He sat right down, a little way from the hole, and he +never once took his eyes off it. + +Frisky hoped that perhaps he would hear Freddie snoring in there, if +he waited long enough. But no such thing happened. There seemed to be +but one way to discover whether Freddie was asleep, and _that_ was to +creep into the hole himself and find out. + +Now, Frisky Squirrel was no coward, as you know. But he did not like +the idea of crawling into that narrow, dark place. He knew that +Freddie Weasel's teeth were very sharp. And he knew that Freddie was +quick to use them, too. + +Frisky was trying hard to think of some good way to catch Freddie +asleep, when who should come strolling along but Henry Skunk! Frisky +always supposed that he was called "Henry" because he was so fond of +_hens_--for he visited Farmer Green's hen-house oftener than any other +of the forest-people--but whether _that_ was why he was so named I +should really not want to say. + +"Well, well! You're out pretty late," Henry Skunk called, as soon as +he saw Frisky. + +Frisky Squirrel held a paw to his mouth, so Henry Skunk would not talk +too loudly. + +"What's going on?" Henry Skunk asked, with growing interest. "You +haven't seen a hen around here, have you?" + +Frisky shook his head. + +"It's Freddie Weasel--" he explained, pointing at the hole. "He's in +there; and I'm trying to catch him asleep." + +Henry Skunk came nearer. + +"Why don't you go inside?" he asked. + +Frisky shook his head again. + +"I don't see very well in the dark," he said, "and I'd rather not." + +Henry nodded. + +"I can see first rate at night," he told Frisky. "I'll find out for +you if Freddie Weasel is asleep. And if he is, I'll come right back +and tell you, and then you can go in with me and see for yourself." + +"Good!" said Frisky. "That's very kind of you, I'm sure." + +So Henry Skunk walked up to the hole. It was entirely too small for +him to enter. + +"I'll have to make it bigger," he remarked. + +"Won't Freddie hear you?" Frisky Squirrel inquired. + +"I'll be very quiet about it," Henry Skunk replied. "So if he's asleep +I hardly think I'll disturb him." And at that Henry set to work. + +Now, in order to dig, he had to stick his head into the hole. But he +knew he could see Freddie Weasel if Freddie tried to bite his nose; so +Henry was not afraid. How he did make the dirt fly! Frisky wished that +he could dig like that. He thought it must be great fun. And he +watched Henry so closely that he never saw that slim, sneaking form +that crept up behind him. And when Frisky felt something jump right on +top of him, and when a terrible, sharp pain seized his shoulder, he +was scared half out of his wits. + +It was Freddie Weasel! He had left his home through another hole, +which Frisky knew nothing about. + +Frisky Squirrel called for help. He shouted Henry Skunk's name again +and again, as he rolled over and over on the ground, trying to shake +Freddie off his back. + +But how could Henry Skunk hear him, with his head buried inside the +hole? _He_ didn't know what was happening. And if Frisky and Freddie +hadn't rolled right upon him he probably would never have looked +around until it was too late. + +But when Henry felt that rolling, tumbling, fighting pair bump against +him he drew his head out of the hole in a hurry. And as soon as he saw +what was happening he sunk his own sharp teeth deep into Freddie +Weasel's back. + +Freddie let go of Frisky Squirrel at once. And he gave Henry Skunk's +nose such a savage nip that Henry just had to squeal--it hurt him so. +In order to squeal, of course he had to open his mouth. And when he +opened his mouth he had to let go of Freddie Weasel. + +That was exactly what Freddie Weasel wanted. He sprang up and dashed +into the bushes. He was not afraid of Frisky Squirrel. But Henry Skunk +was altogether too big. Freddie did not enjoy fighting _him_. + +Well! Frisky, with his aching shoulder, and Henry Skunk, with his sore +nose, went off together. They didn't say a word to each other, until +they reached the hickory tree where Frisky lived. And then all they +said was "Good-night!" + +Frisky never spied on anybody again. He had learned that it is better +not to meddle in other people's private affairs. So, after all, +perhaps it was a good thing that he tried, just once, to catch Freddie +Weasel asleep. + + +THE END + + + + * * * * * * + + + +Transcriber's Notes + + 1. Punctuation has been normalized to contemporary standards. + 2. Frontispiece illustration relocated to after copyright notice. + 3. Roman numerals in original Table of Contents retained and + applied at chapter headings. + 4. Typographic errors corrected in original: + p. 12 Friskly to Frisky ("Frisky simply had") + p. 49 like to liked ("Frisky Squirrel liked to play") + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL*** + + +******* This file should be named 18630.txt or 18630.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/8/6/3/18630 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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