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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d7b82bc --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +*.txt text eol=lf +*.htm text eol=lf +*.html text eol=lf +*.md text eol=lf diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e965f79 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #63191 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/63191) diff --git a/old/63191-0.txt b/old/63191-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index ecf42e2..0000000 --- a/old/63191-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,3241 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg EBook of Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck, by Richard Barnum - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most -other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of -the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck - Her Many Adventures - -Author: Richard Barnum - -Illustrator: Walter S. Rogers - -Release Date: September 13, 2020 [EBook #63191] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK *** - - - - -Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - - -[Illustration: “Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck.] - - - - - _Kneetime Animal Stories_ - - - WINKIE, THE WILY - WOODCHUCK - - HER MANY ADVENTURES - - - BY - RICHARD BARNUM - - Author of “Squinty, the Comical Pig,” “Tum Tum, the - Jolly Elephant,” “Tamba, the Tame Tiger,” - “Toto, the Bustling Beaver,” “Shaggo, - the Mighty Buffalo,” etc. - - - _ILLUSTRATED BY_ - WALTER S. ROGERS - - - PUBLISHERS - BARSE & HOPKINS - NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J. - - - - -KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES - -By Richard Barnum - -_Large 12mo. Illustrated._ - - - SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG - SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL - MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY - TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT - DON, A RUNAWAY DOG - DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR - BLACKIE, A LOST CAT - FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT - TINKLE, THE TRICK PONY - LIGHT FOOT, THE LEAPING GOAT - CHUNKY, THE HAPPY HIPPO - SHARP EYES, THE SILVER FOX - NERO, THE CIRCUS LION - TAMBA, THE TAME TIGER - TOTO, THE BUSTLING BEAVER - SHAGGO, THE MIGHTY BUFFALO - WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK - - BARSE & HOPKINS - New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J. - - - Copyright, 1922 - by - Barse & Hopkins - - - _Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck_ - - - PRINTED IN THE U. S. A. - - - - -CONTENTS - - - CHAPTER PAGE - I WINKIE PLAYS TAG 7 - II WINKIE HEARS A NOISE 16 - III WINKIE FINDS A WAY OUT 27 - IV WINKIE IN THE WOODS 37 - V WINKIE MEETS DON 46 - VI WINKIE IN A STORM 55 - VII WINKIE IN A TRAP 68 - VIII WINKIE’S NEW HOME 75 - IX WINKIE LEARNS TRICKS 86 - X WINKIE IS IN DANGER 96 - XI WINKIE GETS OUT 104 - XII WINKIE FINDS HER FOLKS 110 - - - - -ILLUSTRATIONS - - - “Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck _Frontispiece_ - - PAGE - - And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did 19 - - By pulling and hauling they managed to get Mrs. Woodchuck - up and out 43 - - Caused Winkie to bump into a tree full tilt 57 - - Out toppled Winkie 83 - - She came out of her pen and did her tricks 99 - - Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle 115 - - - - -WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK - - - - -CHAPTER I - -WINKIE PLAYS TAG - - -“What shall we do next?” asked Winkie, the wily woodchuck. - -“Isn’t it too hot to do anything?” was what Blinkie, her sister, wanted -to know. “Let’s just sit here by the front door, where we can easily -pop down into our underground house if anything happens.” - -“Do you think anything is going to happen?” asked Winkie, who was -called wily because she was so smart and careful, always on the lookout -for traps and danger. “If you think anything is going to happen,” went -on Winkie, speaking to her sister, “I’m going in now and tell mother. -I’d tell pa, only he isn’t home yet from the woods, where he went to -get something special to eat.” - -“Oh, I don’t know that there is any special danger,” said Blinkie, as -she pawed out a bit of thistle that had become stuck to her fur. “But -it’s too hot to do anything, Winkie.” - -“Except to eat clover,” half grunted Blunk, who was the woodchuck -brother of Winkie and Blinkie. “Let’s go over in the farmer’s big field -and eat a lot more clover,” suggested Blunk. You know clover is what -woodchucks like best of all. - -“Clover!” laughed Winkie, tapping her brother playfully on his black -nose. “If you eat any more clover, Blunk, it will run out of your ears, -as grandma says.” - -“Pooh! I never eat too much clover!” boasted Blunk. “And I’m going over -to the field now and get some more. Do you girls want to come?” he -asked. “I know where there’s some clover with red blossoms.” - -“Oh, it’s too hot to move, especially with this thick fur we have to -wear,” said Blinkie. “In the winter it isn’t bad; but now, with summer -coming on, I wish I didn’t have so much fur.” - -“Some of it will fall out, so mother said,” explained Winkie. “She -told me that the fur of all woodchucks and other animals like us gets -thinner in summer.” - -“Well, I’m glad of it,” sighed Blinkie, stretching out her two front -paws lazily. “I’m so warm now I don’t know what to do!” - -“Let’s slide down the back-door hole inside our burrow,” suggested -Winkie. “We can have fun that way, and it’s nice and cool away down -deep underground. Let’s slide down the back-door hole!” - -Woodchucks, you know, have two holes, or doors, leading into their -houses, which are dug in the earth below the surface. The reason for -this is that if a fox, or other pursuing animal, chases them down one -hole they can run out the other. - -“Oh, I don’t want to slide down any holes!” complained Blinkie. - -“Nor I,” added Blunk. “I’m going over after clover.” - -“Don’t let the farmer catch you eating his clover, or he may set a trap -for you or fire his gun at you,” warned Blinkie, as her brother waddled -off, his little short legs slowly carrying his rather fat body. - -“I’ll be careful,” promised Blunk. - -Winkie stood for a moment near the edge of the sloping hole that led -down into the dark underground house. This hole was the front door of -the little woodchuck’s home. The back door was around behind a big -rock. The hole had been used so often by the woodchuck family when -crawling in and out that the bottom of it was worn smooth. When it -rained, and the earth became wet, the front entrance to the burrow was -very slippery. - -But the back door had been dug down through some earth that had in -it many shale-rocks――that is rocks which were little flat pieces of -smooth stone. On these it was almost as easy for a woodchuck to slide -as it is for a boy or girl to slide or coast on the ice or snow. Winkie -knew she did not need to wait until it rained to have a slide on the -shale-covered back-door hole, and this she was now eager to do. Only, -she didn’t want to play alone! - -“Please come on and slide with me,” begged Winkie of Blinkie. - -“No, indeed!” answered the other woodchuck girl. “It’s too warm. I’m -going to sleep.” - -“Well, I’ll have to go by myself then,” said Winkie, a bit sadly. “Will -you play after you wake up, Blinkie?” - -“Maybe――maybe,” answered Blinkie, sleepily. - -“Oh, I never saw such creatures!” murmured Winkie, as she ran along, -giving a look toward her sister and a glance over into the next field -where Blunk was nibbling clover. “All they think about is eating -and sleeping! I’m going to do something! I wish I could have some -adventures! That’s what I wish――adventures! - -“Flop Ear, the rabbit who used to live here before he went away, had -lots of adventures. He told me so when he came here on a visit. Oh -dear! I wonder if I’ll ever have any adventures?” - -Had she only known it, Winkie was, even then, about to start some very -wonderful adventures, which I will tell you about. - -But just at present all there seemed for the little girl woodchuck to -do was to slide down the back-door hole of her underground home. And -this she did until she was tired. - -She would gather her paws under her, sit down on the smooth shale-rocks -at the top of the hole, give herself a little push, and down she would -go, landing in the big underground earth-room, where all the woodchucks -of this one family lived. - -“My goodness, Winkie! what are you doing?” cried her mother, who was -having a nap all by herself. - -“Just sliding down the hole,” answered Winkie. “Blinkie and Blunk won’t -play with me, so I have to slide all alone.” - -Mrs. Woodchuck did not answer, for she had fallen asleep once more. But -she awakened when Winkie came sliding down again, and the mother of the -little animal girl said: - -“I wish, Winkie, you’d go somewhere else to play. I want to sleep, and -you wake me up every time you land.” - -“All right, Mother, I’ll see if I can get Blunk and Blinkie to play -tag,” said Winkie, for she was a good little thing. - -Taking just one more slide, while her mother was still awake, Winkie -crawled up the back-door hole again, and went softly to Blinkie’s side. -Blinkie was still slumbering. - -“Tag! You’re it!” suddenly cried Winkie in her sister’s ear. - -“What’s that? You’re going to put me in a bag? Oh, please, Mr. Farmer, -don’t put me in a bag!” begged Blinkie. “I didn’t take any of your -clover!” - -“Ha! Ha!” laughed Winkie, as Blinkie sat up, rubbing her eyes. “You -must have been dreaming that you were over in the field with Blunk, -taking clover! I’m not a farmer, and I haven’t any bag. I just cried, -‘Tag! You’re it!’ Come on and play!” - -“Oh, it’s you,” said Blinkie, not frightened now that she saw only her -sister. “Yes, I was dreaming. And when you awakened me so suddenly I -thought you were a farmer trying to catch me in a bag.” - -“Well, come on and have a little tag game and you’ll feel better,” -advised Winkie. “I can’t slide any more because mother wants to sleep. -Let’s play tag!” - -“You go and tag Blunk,” suggested Blinkie. “I’ll be wider awake after -that, and then I’ll play. Go and tag Blunk.” - -“All right,” agreed Winkie, who was very obliging. “I hope he hasn’t -fallen asleep from eating too much clover,” she added. - -But Blunk was wide awake. He was sitting up on his haunches, as a dog -sits up to beg, and he was slowly nipping off the sweet clover tops and -the tender leaves, chewing them very contentedly. - -“Hello, Winkie! So you came over, after all, to get something to eat, -did you?” asked Blunk. - -“No, I came to see you,” replied Winkie. “Tag! You’re it!” she suddenly -cried, tapping her brother with an extended paw, and then springing -away before he could touch her. “Come on! Chase me!” - -Blunk was fonder of games than was his sister Blinkie, who, to tell the -truth, was a bit lazy. So when Blunk found he was “it,” he made up his -mind not to stay that way any longer than need be. - -“Oh, I’ll tag you all right!” he cried, racing after his sister Winkie. -“I’ll tag you!” - -“If you do, then I’ll tag Blinkie and we can have a regular game!” -merrily laughed Winkie, as she sprang over a clump of clover. “This is -more fun than sliding down the back-hole door all alone, or even going -to sleep. Come on, Blunk! Let’s see you tag me!” she cried. - -Nearly always when the woodchuck children played a game of tag, or any -other running game, Blunk would easily catch Winkie or Blinkie. For, -being a boy woodchuck and strong, he could go faster than the girls. -And this time Blunk thought he would have no trouble in tapping Winkie -with his paw, tagging her and making her “it.” - -But Blunk forgot about all the clover he had eaten. He had, I am sorry -to say, rather stuffed himself. He had eaten too much, but not enough -to make himself ill, for animals know better than that. But Blunk had -swallowed so much clover that his little stomach was sticking out like -a toy balloon, and this made him so heavy that he could not run fast. - -Because of this, Winkie could easily keep ahead of him. On and on -ran the wily little girl woodchuck, laughing and teasing her brother -because he could not catch her to tag her. - -“Come on! Come on!” cried Winkie. “Why don’t you tag me, Blunk?” - -“I will――in a――minute!” panted Blunk. “I――I haven’t started――running――yet!” - -He was getting out of breath, and he was beginning to wish he had -done what Winkie had asked him to do at first――come and play with -her――instead of eating so much clover. - -“But I’ll catch her after a while. I always do,” thought Blunk to -himself, as he raced on and on, while Winkie, the wily woodchuck, -dashed this way and that, making quick turns, which was the best way of -avoiding her brother. - -“I never knew her to keep away from me so long as this――before. I――I -guess I ate too much clover!” panted Blunk. - -“I know you did!” called Winkie, laughing, for her brother had said -this last thought aloud. “Ha! Ha! You can’t tag me!” - -“Yes, I can! There! Now you’re it!” cried Blunk. - -He gave a sudden jump, and so did Winkie, for she wanted to keep from -being tagged as long as possible. Just as she and Blunk leaped, a harsh -voice cried: - -“Ha! There’s them pesky woodchucks in my clover again! I’ll fix ’em!” - -There was a loud bang, like a clap of thunder, and as Blunk looked back -he saw his sister falling in a crumpled heap. - - - - -CHAPTER II - -WINKIE HEARS A NOISE - - -Blunk, the boy woodchuck, was so frightened by what he heard and -especially by what he saw――his sister falling in a heap amid the -clover――that for a little while he could do nothing. He stopped short, -and hid down under a big bunch of the red blossoms and green leaves. - -“Oh! Oh! What has happened?” thought poor Blunk. - -It was not the noise that he minded, for he had often heard thunder -when rain storms made the ground wet. Though now there was not a cloud -in the sky, which was bright blue, and the sun was gaily shining. So it -could not have been thunder. - -“There!” cried the man. “I guess I shot one of them pesky woodchucks -that time! I’ll teach ’em to take my clover!” - -There was a queer smell in the air――a powder smell, though Blunk did -not know what it was then. And there was a little cloud of blue smoke -near Farmer Tottle, for it was he who had fired the gun at Blunk and -Winkie. - -“Yes, sir!” went on the farmer, lowering his gun, from the end of which -more blue smoke floated. “I got one of the woodchucks!” - -“Ha!” suddenly cried Winkie, jumping up from the grass and clover where -she was hidden near Blunk. “He didn’t get me!” - -“Oh!” cried Blunk, who was less quick-witted than his wily sister and -who was very much surprised when Winkie leaped up so suddenly. “Oh, I’m -so glad! I thought something had happened to you, Winkie!” - -“Something really did happen,” said the girl woodchuck. “Keep still, -Blunk! Don’t move! Don’t look up!” - -“Why not?” - -“Because that man might shoot you! He’s got a gun! I saw him pointing -it, and, just in time, I stumbled and fell.” - -“On purpose?” asked Blunk. - -“Yes! Of course! Suppose I wanted to get shot? Keep still now!” - -The two little woodchucks kept close together and hid themselves down -under the clover tops. They could hear the heavy, tramping feet of -Farmer Tottle, though of course they did not know his name. - -“Keep still now――he’s coming!” whispered Winkie to Blunk. The little -girl woodchuck really did not need to tell her brother this. Blunk, -though slower witted than the wily Winkie, was not foolish, and did not -need be warned of his danger. - -Of course they talked in woodchuck language, just as dogs talk in their -language and cats in theirs. Winkie and Blunk could not understand what -the man said, though they understood some of the things he did. Nor -could Farmer Tottle hear, much less understand, what the woodchucks -said. Animals seem able to talk to one another, even if they are from -different countries and are quite different one from the other. - -Nearer and nearer came the heavy, tramping feet of the farmer. Winkie -and Blunk wanted to dart away and hide in their underground house, but -they did not dare come out from beneath the sheltering clover. - -“That’s funny!” muttered the farmer to himself. “I’m sure I shot one of -them pesky woodchucks, but I can’t find it! There were two, but they’ve -got away somewhere. If I only had Buster, my dog, he’d nose ’em out. -Guess that’s what I’ll do――I’ll go get Buster!” - -Winkie and Blunk kept so quiet under the clover that though the farmer -was very close to them he did not see them. And when he turned to go -back to the barn, to get his dog Buster, Winkie and Blunk thought this -would be a good time for them to run home. - -[Illustration: And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did.] - -Of course they did not know the farmer had gone after his dog, but the -woodchuck children knew they had been in danger; and where there is -danger once for an animal, there may be danger a second time. - -“Come on, Winkie!” said Blunk in a low voice, as the footsteps of the -farmer died away in the distance. “Let’s run!” - -“Do you want to play tag any more?” asked Winkie, astonished. - -“Tag? No, indeed!” exclaimed her brother. “All I want to do is to get -home. And you’d better come with me. It’s a good thing Blinkie didn’t -come, for if there were three of us that man might more easily have -seen one of us. Come on now――let’s run!” - -And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did. They ran as fast as when -they had been playing tag. But this was no joyful race; it was a race -full of danger. For there was no telling when the farmer might shoot -his gun again, or when he might return with his dog. - -Though Winkie and Blunk felt pretty safe as they ran through the deep -clover, they also felt their little hearts beating very fast as they -neared their burrow, or underground house. - -“My goodness!” exclaimed Blinkie, in woodchuck talk, as her brother and -sister came leaping up to the front door. “What’s your hurry on such a -hot day?” - -“Hurry?” gasped Blunk. “I guess you’d be in a hurry if you’d seen and -heard what happened to us! Wouldn’t she, Winkie?” - -“Indeed she would!” said Winkie. “Oh, such a terrible time!” - -“What’s the matter?” asked Mother Woodchuck, coming up into the air -after her sleep. “What’s all the excitement about?” - -“We were playing tag,” began Winkie, “when all at once there was a -noise like thunder――” - -“But it wasn’t thunder. It was a man with a gun shooting at us,” -interrupted Blunk. - -“Oh, my dears! A man with a gun, shooting!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. “Oh, -my poor children! What shall we do? I wish your father was home! Oh, -this is dreadful!” - -“Don’t worry, Mother!” said Blunk kindly. “We ran away from the man -with the gun, and I don’t believe he can find us. And neither of us got -shot. Winkie threw herself down in the clover and hid just in time.” -Blunk was proud of his clever, wily sister. - -“Oh, but suppose he comes here!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. - -“I don’t believe he can find our burrow,” said Blinkie, a bit proudly. -“Daddy and you made our underground house in a place that isn’t easy -to find.” - -“Besides, it has two doors,” said Winkie. “And you told us that made it -much safer, Mother.” - -“I suppose it is as safe as any house can be,” said the woodchuck lady. -“Still, even with two doors, something may happen. I wish your father -would come home.” - -And a little later Mr. Woodchuck came home. In his paws he carried some -yellow carrots and a white turnip. - -“See what I have brought for you!” he cried, as he scrambled down the -front door of the underground house. - -“Oh, how lovely!” cried Blinkie. - -“Why, what is the matter?” asked Mr. Woodchuck, dropping the carrots -and the turnip in a heap on the floor. “Has anything happened?” he -asked, for he could tell by looking at his wife and children that -something was wrong. - -“Winkie and Blunk were in great danger to-day,” said Mrs. Woodchuck. -“And I am afraid we shall have to move out of our lovely home. Tell -your father about the man with the gun, children!” - -Winkie and Blunk related what had happened in the clover field when -they were playing tag. At the end of the story Mr. Woodchuck looked as -worried as did his wife. - -“What are we going to do?” asked the woodchuck mother, looking -anxiously at her husband. “Shall we have to move?” - -“Let me think a minute,” said the father woodchuck. “Tell me,” he went -on, speaking to Winkie and Blunk. “Did the man follow you all the way -to our burrow?” - -“No. He turned around and went back after he shot at us and didn’t hit -either of us,” said Blunk. - -“Well, then,” went on the father woodchuck, “I think we shall be safe -here for another day or so. Men are stupid creatures. It is only by -accident that he could find this burrow.” - -“Maybe his dog could,” suggested Winkie. - -“Yes, a dog is smarter than a man when it comes to that,” said Mr. -Woodchuck. “But don’t worry any more right away. Eat the good things I -brought home, and I will think what is best to do.” - -The three woodchuck children, Winkie, Blinkie, and Blunk, soon forgot -their troubles in eating the sweet carrots and turnip. Even though -Blunk had eaten so much clover he could hardly run, he was now ready -for the good things his father had brought home. - -“Where did you get them?” asked Blinkie, nibbling the end of a carrot. - -“I found them in a field,” answered Mr. Woodchuck. “There were so many -I don’t believe the farmer will mind my taking a few.” - -“Maybe they were planted by the same man who fired a gun at Winkie and -me,” suggested Blunk. - -“Maybe,” said his father. “Why don’t you eat some?” he asked his wife, -for she had not even nibbled the outside skin of the turnip. - -“I am too worried to eat!” she answered. “I hate to think of having to -move.” - -“Perhaps we may not be driven to that,” said Mr. Woodchuck, who was -more cheerful than his wife. “And if we do, we can easily dig a new -burrow, or find a place to stay. This is summer, and the ground is soft. - -“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he went on. “We’ll be ready to run away -at the slightest sign of danger. If that farmer comes to our front door -we’ll run out the back door; and if he comes to the back door we’ll -skip out the front, and all will be well.” - -“It sounds all right,” said Mother Woodchuck. “I only hope it happens -that way.” - -But it did not. Things in the woodchuck world, just as in your world -and mine, very often do not turn out the way they are expected to. -For several days, however, after the game of tag and the shooting of -the gun, nothing happened in the woodchuck home. For a time Winkie, -Blinkie, and Blunk hardly poked their noses outside the back or front -door. But as the days passed and no farmer with his gun and dog came, -the children became bolder. - -They played tag and other games and ate the clover and the other good -things their father and mother brought home. Then, one morning, just as -Mr. Woodchuck was starting out to go to a distant field, and when the -children were about to go out and play, Winkie held up her paw and said: - -“Listen! I hear a noise!” - - - - -CHAPTER III - -WINKIE FINDS A WAY OUT - - -Just as soon as Winkie told the other woodchucks to be quiet and -listen, they all remained as still as though frozen in their places. -Not one made a move. This is what wild animals always do when they -hear or see anything strange. They stay quiet for just a moment or two -before making up their minds what is best to do to save themselves from -danger. And that danger was at hand Winkie, the wily woodchuck, felt -sure. - -As I have told you, she was the smartest of all the woodchuck children, -and that is why her mother nicknamed her “Wily,” which means smart and -cunning. - -“I don’t hear anything!” whispered Blunk. - -“Hark!” cautioned Winkie once more. - -This time they all heard it. Silently they listened in their -underground house to the strange noise. It was up above them――a -thudding, rasping, scraping sound. - -“What can it be?” asked Mrs. Woodchuck. She spoke in a whisper, as, -indeed, they all did, for they knew their little whispering voices -could not be heard outside their burrow. - -“I don’t know what it is,” answered Mr. Woodchuck. “But whatever it is -I’m glad Winkie heard it before I started out; otherwise I might have -run right into danger!” - -“Do you suppose it’s that farmer looking for us?” asked Blinkie. - -“Or his dog?” added Blunk. - -“If it’s a dog maybe I could fool him in some way!” said Winkie. - -“How can you fool a dog?” Winkie’s mother asked. - -“I can poke my nose out of the back door, and when he sees me I’ll duck -down in here again,” explained Winkie. - -“What good will that do?” asked Daddy Woodchuck. “You would only be -running your nose into danger!” - -“Well, but listen!” exclaimed Winkie, and she was so eager that she -forgot to speak in a whisper until her mother said: - -“Hush! Keep quiet!” - -“All right,” hissed Winkie. “But this is what I could do. I could poke -my nose out of our back door. The dog would see me, and run to get me. -I’d duck down in here, and the dog would begin digging at the back door -to make it big enough for him to come down.” - -“Yes, that’s just what the dog would do,” sighed Mrs. Woodchuck. “I -know dogs, to my sorrow! Once one bit me on the leg!” - -“Yes, but wait!” went on Winkie eagerly. “While the dog was digging at -our back door we could run out the front.” - -“That’s a good idea!” exclaimed Blunk. “But I think I’m the one to do -it, and not Winkie.” - -“No! No!” exclaimed Mr. Woodchuck. “I see your trick, Winkie, and it is -very good of you to think of it and good of Blunk to offer to do it. -But it is too dangerous! The dog might dig his way in here through the -back door before we had a chance to run out the front. And who knows -but what the farmer with his gun may be waiting up above for us! No, we -will stay right here safe in our burrow. I don’t believe they will find -us here.” - -“But what is that strange noise?” asked Blinkie. “There it sounds -again!” - -Indeed there came once more that strange noise which Winkie had first -heard. The rumbling kept up, and now and then came a pounding as if -heavy feet were tramping on the ground overhead. - -“Oh, that must be the farmer trying to break his way in here with his -heavy boots!” cried Blinkie. - -“Hush! Do you want him to hear you?” whispered Winkie, and her sister -grew quiet. - -As the woodchuck family listened, the noise grew louder, and then, very -plainly, they all heard a man’s voice shouting: - -“Whoa!” - -Instantly the noise stopped. - -“That was the farmer!” exclaimed Blunk. “I know his voice!” - -“What was he saying?” asked Blinkie. - -No one could tell her, of course, for the woodchucks did not understand -man talk, any more than the farmer understood animal language. But -Blinkie made a guess. - -“Perhaps that farmer was talking to his dog,” she said. - -“Maybe,” agreed her mother. “I hope neither of them finds his way down -here!” - -But the farmer was not talking to his dog. One doesn’t say “whoa!” to -dogs, one says it to horses. And that is to whom the farmer called the -word which means stop. - -“Whoa there now!” cried Farmer Tottle again. “Stand still, can’t you? -Want to drag this plow over all them rocks? I’ve got to blast ’em out. -That’s what I’ve got to do. These rocks and stumps are in the way, and -I’m going to get some powder and blow ’em to bits. What with big stones -on my farm, and the pesky woodchucks eating the clover, I won’t have -enough left to buy me a new shirt at the end of the year. Stand still, -can’t you? Not that I blame you much for not wanting to plow in this -field of rocks,” he went on. “Guess I’ll go and get some powder and -blow ’em up now. I’ll finish plowing to-morrow.” - -It was this noise of the plow rasping and cutting its way through the -earth over their heads, and the heavy thud of the hoofs of the horses, -that Winkie and the other woodchucks had heard down in their burrow. - -There was silence while Farmer Tottle was thinking of the best way to -blast the rocks from his field, not far from the clover patch where -Blunk and Winkie had played tag that day. Then, having made up his mind -what he would do, Mr. Tottle turned his team around and drove them back -to the barn. - -“The noise isn’t so loud now,” whispered Winkie, after a bit. - -“No. Maybe nothing is going to happen after all,” said Blinkie. - -But the danger was over only for a little while. The noise stopped as -Farmer Tottle drove away, and, for a time, the ground-hogs thought -everything was going to be all right. Ground-hog is another name for -the woodchuck. - -“I guess I can go out now,” said Mr. Woodchuck, when an hour or more -had passed and there were no more thumping sounds and no further cries -of “Whoa!” - -Mr. Woodchuck went softly to the back-door of the burrow. He crept up -the little incline, or hill, that led to out-of-doors, and he was just -poking his nose out when, all at once, there sounded a loud: - -_Bang!_ - -And that was not the worst! As the loud noise sounded, louder than any -thunder the ground-hogs had ever heard, Mr. Woodchuck came slipping, -sliding, and half falling back into the burrow. - -“Oh, Nib! what has happened?” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. “Nib” was a pet -name for her husband. “Are you shot?” she asked. “I’m sure I heard a -gun!” - -“It was the biggest gun I ever heard shot off, if that’s what it was!” -said Mr. Woodchuck. “It fairly stunned me! Why, I fell right over -backward, and a lot of little stones and dirt flew in my face!” - -“Did the farmer see you and shoot at you?” asked Winkie. - -“No. He couldn’t see me, for I hadn’t yet poked my nose outside,” -answered the father. “I don’t understand what happened!” - -Blunk, just like a boy, had run to the back-door to be near the scene -of excitement. Now he came running back, all out of breath. - -“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “Our back-door hole is closed up! -It’s full of dirt and stones, and nobody can get out that way!” - -“You don’t tell me!” cried his father, who was, by this time, getting -over the shock. “I must take a look!” - -Timidly, all the woodchucks followed him to the back-door. Just as -Blunk had said, a lot of earth and stones had caved in, completely -filling up the passage way and the door. - -“No getting out there,” said Winkie, for she had been quicker than any -of the others to see what had happened. - -“Hurry!” cried her father. “We must try the front-door hole! I think I -know what happened. The farmer shot off his gun down our back-door hole -and blew it shut!” - -But alas for this woodchuck family! As Mr. Woodchuck was patting and -tapping Winkie, Blinkie, and Blunk with his paws to make them run -faster, and just as they were close to the front-door hole, there came -another loud sound, and the earth trembled under the paws of the little -animals. - -“Oh! Oh, dear!” whined Blinkie. - -“Dear me! I hope no one is hurt,” said Mrs. Woodchuck. “This is -dreadful!” - -No one was hurt; but they were all covered with moist earth that had -rattled down on them. But as woodchucks are always burrowing and -digging in the earth, this did not matter. - -Daddy Woodchuck scrambled on ahead of the others until he reached the -front door. - -“Just as I feared!” he sadly said. “This door is closed too! We are -prisoners here in our burrow!” - -“You don’t mean to tell me the front-door hole is closed up, like the -back door!” cried his wife. - -“Yes, that is what happened,” answered her husband. “The farmer has -shot both our doors shut! We can’t get out!” - -This last part was true enough, but not the first. Farmer Tottle had -not exactly shot shut the two door holes of the Woodchucks’ underground -house. He had blasted some rocks in his field, using powder to blow up -the big stones. It was the shock of the blastings that had closed the -doors of the burrow. Dirt and rocks had been shaken into the passages -until they were almost completely filled, and none of the children, to -say nothing of big Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck, could squeeze their way past. - -“What are we going to do?” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. - -“Shall we have to stay here forever?” asked Blinkie. - -“We can’t stay here forever!” exclaimed Blunk. “There isn’t anything to -eat down here, and we’ll starve!” - -“Oh! Don’t talk that way!” faintly screamed Blinkie. - -“Maybe we can find a way out,” suggested Winkie, who always looked on -the bright side. - -“That’s so!” exclaimed her father. “This is no time for sitting down -and biting one’s paws. We must look for a way out! Come, Blunk, you -and I will try the back-door again. And, Mother, you take Winkie and -Blinkie and try the front-door. Maybe there is a little hole which we -can dig larger, and so get out through it. Look sharp!” - -This was better than sitting still sighing; at least so Winkie felt. -But while her mother and sister went to the front-door hole, and -her father and brother to the back door, the wily little woodchuck -nosed off by herself. She remembered that once, when she was playing -hide-and-seek with Blunk and Blinkie she had hidden herself in a side -passage of the burrow. The passage was larger and longer than she had -at first thought, and she had made up her mind, after the game, to see -where it went. But, somehow or other, she had never done this. - -“But I’m going into that hole now and see if it leads anywhere,” -thought Winkie. “Maybe it’s a tunnel that will let us out.” - -Winkie could see quite well in the dark. She soon found her old -hiding-place, and, going to the far end, where she had never before -been, she looked upward. To her delight she saw a little bit of -daylight gleaming. Scrambling her way forward, Winkie began to dig. She -had soon made a larger hole. She put her nose close to this, and could -smell fresh air. - -Much excited, Winkie climbed down and ran to the middle of the burrow, -just as her father and Blunk came from the back door. - -“There is no way out there,” said Mr. Woodchuck sadly. - -“Nor at the front!” added Mrs. Woodchuck, coming back with Blinkie. -“But where have you been, Winkie?” - -“I think I have found a way out!” cried the wily woodchuck. “Yes, I am -sure I have. Come! I’ll show you!” - - - - -CHAPTER IV - -WINKIE IN THE WOODS - - -The family of woodchucks huddled close together in the middle of the -underground house of earth in which they had lived so happily for many -months. It was dark down there, but they did not mind that. It was home -to them, the same as your house is home to you. And though there were -no tables nor chairs, no pictures on the wall and no piano, still there -were things there that the woodchucks cared for as much as you care for -the things in your house. - -Winkie, Blinkie, and Blunk had brought in bits of wood and stones with -which they played. Their parents had carried in things to eat, and bits -of these were stored in different places that Mrs. Woodchuck might call -her cupboards. - -But the woodchucks were to be driven from their home. In fact, they -were very glad to get out, for, no matter how fine a house is, one -never wants to be shut up there forever. - -If some one closed all the doors and windows of your house tight, so -that no air or sunshine could get in, I think you would be as glad to -find a way out as Winkie was. - -“Do you think you really have found a way to get out, Winkie?” asked -her father anxiously. - -“I’m quite sure I have,” she answered. “I found a hole, near a side -burrow where I played one day. I could stick my nose out and breathe -fresh air. And we can easily make the hole larger.” - -All at once there was another of those loud, rumbling sounds. It shook -the earth, and the woodchucks, cowering in their burrow, trembled in -fear. - -Bang! down came a big clod of dirt from the roof of their burrow, -scattering to pieces in the middle of the floor. - -“Oh my! what’s that?” shrieked Blinkie. - -Again there came a rumble, as another blast was set off. If the -woodchucks had been above ground they would have seen a great rock fly -to pieces as the powder broke it up. But down in their burrow there was -trouble enough. For a second clod of earth fell, almost hitting Winkie. -If it had hit her there would have been no story to tell, for that -would have been the end of poor Winkie. - -“Come! We must get out of here!” cried her father, as the second large -chunk of dirt and stones fell from the roof. “Show us the way out you -think you have found, Winkie. For neither your mother nor I saw any -way.” - -“Come with me!” called the wily little woodchuck girl, and she led -them toward the side burrow where she had seen the daylight peeping -through. - -It was so narrow that there was room for only two of the animals to -walk side by side. Winkie went with her father to show him what she had -found. - -“See! There is daylight!” cried Winkie at last. “And you can smell the -fresh air!” - -“Yes, so you can!” cried Mr. Woodchuck, taking a long breath. “We are -saved, I think!” - -Still there was much digging to be done before the hole could be made -large enough for the woodchucks to get out. They were all rather plump, -for they lived on rich clover. And Mrs. Woodchuck was really quite fat, -though I shouldn’t like to have her know that I called her that, for -perhaps she wouldn’t like it. - -“We must make the hole large enough for your mother,” said Mr. -Woodchuck to Winkie. “It will take some little time.” - -“I’ll help!” offered Blunk, and, as he was a strong woodchuck boy, his -father told Blunk to come up in place of Winkie and use his paws. Of -course girl woodchucks can dig burrows fully as well as the woodchuck -boys can, but there was no need as yet for Blinkie, Winkie, and Mrs. -Woodchuck to work at the digging when there was room for only two to -work and there were two “men” in the burrow. And Blunk was beginning to -think of himself as almost a man woodchuck. - -Now and again, as Blunk and his father dug to make larger the hole -Winkie had discovered, there came that rumbling sound, like far-off -thunder. Farmer Tottle was still blasting. - -But the woodchucks were some distance from it now, and no more lumps of -earth fell on them. With their paws Mr. Woodchuck and Blunk dug away, -throwing the dirt behind them. By this time Mrs. Woodchuck and the two -girl Woodchucks had set to work thrusting the dirt to one side so they -would have room to get out when the time came. - -At last the hole was made large enough, and Mr. Woodchuck could thrust -his head out. He looked all around, sniffed to see if he could smell -danger, listened with both his ears, and then called down to the others: - -“Come on! It’s all right! Thanks to Winkie, we are now getting out of -our stopped-up burrow, though I thought we never should.” - -“Let the children go up first,” said Mrs. Woodchuck. And Winkie, -having found the way, was the first to follow her father outside the -underground house, through the extra hole that had been dug. - -“Why, it’s black night!” cried Winkie, as she scrambled out beside Mr. -Woodchuck. - -“Yes, it’s dark, so much the better for us,” said Mr. Woodchuck. “That -farmer and his dog won’t see us.” - -Night had come while the woodchucks dug to free themselves from the -caved-in burrow. - -Up came Blinkie, and then Blunk. - -“Now, Mother, it’s your turn!” called Mr. Woodchuck down the hole. - -Up scrambled Mrs. Woodchuck. Large as Blunk and his father had made the -opening, it was hardly large enough for fat Mrs. Woodchuck, and she -grunted as she pushed her way through it. Then she came to a sudden -stop, half-way. - -“Come on!” cried her husband. “Come, mother! We must get away from here -and find a new home.” - -“I――I can’t!” panted Mrs. Woodchuck. “I can’t come any farther, Nib!” - -“Why not?” he asked. - -“Because I’m stuck! I――I didn’t know I was so――so stout!” - -“Here, children!” cried Mr. Woodchuck. “Catch hold of your mother by -her front paws and give her a pull. We’ll have to help her out of the -hole.” - -By pulling and hauling, they managed to get Mrs. Woodchuck up and out. -Then the little animal family stood together outside the new hole that -had been dug. Down below them was their burrow, no longer of any use, -for the two door holes had been closed by the fall of rocks and earth, -caused by Mr. Tottle’s blasting. - -“Well, we haven’t any home now,” said Mrs. Woodchuck, giving herself a -little shake to get rid of the dirt that clung to her fur. - -“What shall we do?” Blunk asked sadly. - -“Make a new home, of course!” answered his father cheerfully. - -“But where can we stay to-night?” Blinkie wanted to know. - -“Oh, we shall do very well!” replied Mrs. Woodchuck. “This is the warm -summer time, and we really don’t need an underground house now. We can -stay in a hollow log in the woods.” - -“What is the woods?” asked Winkie. Though the woodland trees grew not -far from the burrow house, Winkie had never been in the forest. - -“Come with your mother and me and we’ll show you,” her father answered. -“Follow me!” - -[Illustration: By pulling and hauling they managed to get Mrs. -Woodchuck up and out.] - -Though it was dark, the other woodchucks could see well enough to -follow Mr. Woodchuck. He led them across the field where Mr. Tottle -had been blasting that day. But now the farmer was asleep in bed, and -his dog was asleep also. There was no one to see the escape of the -woodchucks. - -Through the clover field they went, stopping long enough to eat as much -as they wanted, for they were hungry. Then Mr. Woodchuck ducked under a -fence, the others followed, and soon they found themselves in a darker, -silent place, where the moon did not shine and where the stars did not -glitter. - -“What place is this?” asked Winkie, in a whisper. She was just a bit -afraid. - -“This is the woods,” her father answered. “We shall be safe in the -dark, silent woods. Now we’ll curl up in the warm, dry leaves and go to -sleep. In the morning we’ll find a hollow log, and you can see what the -woods are like, Winkie.” - -Though she did not know it then, Winkie was to have many adventures in -these woods and the country roundabout. - - - - -CHAPTER V - -WINKIE MEETS DON - - -Tired by their hard work in making their way out of their burrow, and -weary with the journey to the woods, Winkie, Blinkie, and Blunk slept -rather late the next morning. Father and Mother Woodchuck were up and -astir early, however, rustling around among the dried leaves. - -“How do you like it here, Mrs. Woodchuck?” asked her husband in a -whisper, for he did not want to awaken the children. - -“Of course,” answered his wife, “it isn’t as nice as the burrow we had -to leave. But it will do very well for the summer. I think it will be -very pleasant, if you think it will be safe.” - -“It will be safe enough,” declared Mr. Woodchuck. “We can hide in the -leaves and hollow logs if danger comes. And we are not far from the -clover field. Besides, there is plenty of bark here to gnaw.” - -“Yes, there is plenty of bark,” agreed Mrs. Woodchuck, looking around -at the trees, through which the morning sun was just beginning to -shine. Woodchucks sometimes eat bark, you know, as well as clover. -“Yes, there is plenty of bark,” said Winkie’s mother again. “And I had -rather eat the _bark_ of a tree than listen to the _bark_ of a dog,” -she added, smiling as she made this little joke. - -Mr. Woodchuck smiled, too――that is, as much as woodchucks ever -smile――and he felt happy. When his wife made little jokes this way he -knew that she, too, was happy. Really, you could hardly have blamed -the woodchucks for being unhappy, when they had to get out of their -underground house in the way they did. - -“Yes, I think we shall like it here in the woods,” proceeded the -woodchuck lady. “But of course it would never do for winter.” - -“Oh, my, no!” agreed her husband. “When winter comes we will dig -ourselves a new burrow.” - -Just then Winkie awakened and cried out in some fear: - -“Oh, where am I?” - -“Hush, Winkie! You’re all right!” her mother called. “We are in our new -home――in the woods. You’ll like it very much!” - -“Oh!” murmured the wily woodchuck girl. “I was dreaming, Mother, that I -was playing tag with Blunk, and he tickled me.” - -“Well, these leaves are tickling me!” cried Brother Blunk, who just -then awakened. - -They all laughed at this, and at Winkie’s dream, and after they had -washed themselves they were ready for breakfast. I don’t mean to say -that the woodchucks went to a bathroom and washed their faces and paws -or took a bath as you do when you get up in the morning. At least, as -you wash your faces and _hands_ or take a bath. - -But I am sure you have all seen a cat wash its face; and though the -woodchucks did not cleanse themselves in just this way, they made their -ruffled fur smooth and sleek before they ate their breakfast. - -After a few nibbles at the bark of some trees, which they liked very -much, the woodchucks went over to the edge of the woods near the clover -field. There they ate some green leaves and red blossoms. - -All at once they saw a flash of fire and a puff of smoke, and they -heard that rumbling sound which had so frightened them before. - -“Look out!” cried Mr. Woodchuck. - -But there was no danger to the woodchucks now, even though Farmer -Tottle was again blasting stumps and rocks in his field. The -woodchucks, however, were afraid, and back toward the woods they ran. -And as they did not keep together, but scattered, it happened that, -after the first frightened rush, Winkie found herself running along -alone. - -It was the first time Winkie had ever been in the woods, and the first -time she had ever been anywhere alone. Always, except perhaps when very -near the burrow, she had been with her brother or sister, or father or -mother. Now, as she ran along, she looked on either side, she peered -amid the trees and under the bushes and saw――no one! No Blinkie, no -Blunk, no father, no mother! - -“Oh, where are you?” cried Winkie, in woodchuck language, of course. -“Where are you all?” - -But so frightened were the other woodchucks that they had scurried here -and there, one running this way and the other that way until they were -widely separated. Neither Blinkie nor Blunk, neither father nor mother -was within sound of Winkie’s voice. - -“Oh, what is going to happen to me?” cried poor Winkie. “What is going -to happen?” - -If she had been a real little girl, instead of an animal one, Winkie -might have cried, for she was lost for the first time in her life, and -away from father, mother, brother and sister. I believe almost any of -you little girls, and probably a good many of the boys, would have -cried. - -But Winkie was a brave little woodchuck girl, and she was also wily, -which, as I have told you, means smart and cunning. - -“No, I’m not going to cry!” said Winkie to herself. “If I cry, and make -a blubbery noise, some of the farmer’s dogs may hear me and chase me. -Or maybe a fox will hear me. I’m going to keep still and see if I can’t -find Blinkie and the others.” - -So saying, Winkie came to a stop in the midst of her mad, frightened -rush amid the dried leaves. She became very quiet, listened and looked -about her. At first she could hear nothing but the beating of her own -little, frightened heart and the whispering of the wind among the -trees. This last sound came to Winkie’s ears as rather friendly. She -was beginning to like it in the big woods. - -“Perhaps nothing will harm me here,” she said to herself. “And I may -have adventures, such as my father and mother have told me about having -had when they were younger.” - -Thinking thus made Winkie feel better. She was not so frightened. -Though she no longer ran on as fast as when she had heard the distant -blast set off by Farmer Tottle, she still kept running. - -“For,” she said to herself, “I want to find my father and mother if I -can.” - -So Winkie’s wanderings were all done toward the end of finding her -family again, and the adventures came in between, so to speak. - -After her run Winkie began to feel a bit thirsty, as most wild animals -do when they journey fast through the woods or fields. The wily little -woodchuck looked about for some water to drink. Winkie could smell -water as you smell cookies baking in your mother’s oven, and it did -not take the ground-hog girl long to reach a little stream. She was -thirstily drinking when, all of a sudden, she heard a noise. - -She stopped drinking, and looked across the little brook. There she -saw, sitting on the opposite bank, a brown animal, not very much -different from herself, except as to the tail. This animal had a broad, -flat tail, marked in scales like those of a fish, while the tail of -Winkie was round and covered with fur. And, as she looked, somehow or -other Winkie did not feel that this strange animal would harm her. - -“Who are you?” asked Winkie. - -“I am Toto,” was the answer. - -“You aren’t a woodchuck, I know,” said Winkie. “Are you a muskrat?” - -“No. But I can swim under water,” answered Toto. “I am the bustling -beaver, if you please. And who are you?” - -“Oh, I am Winkie, the wily woodchuck, and I’m lost!” came the answer. -“Why do they call you a bustling beaver? Have you seen any of my -family?” - -“My! You are very fond of asking questions!” laughed Toto. “But I will -do my best to answer you. I am a beaver, because I was born a beaver, -that’s all I can tell you about that. - -“But the reason I am called ‘bustling’ is because I am such a fast -worker. I bustle about, digging canals, making dams, cutting down -trees, and all such work as that. And I’ll soon have to run along and -help build a new dam we beavers are putting across the brook.” - -“What’s a dam?” asked Winkie. - -“There you go again! Asking more questions!” laughed Toto. “Well, a dam -is a lot of sticks, stones, and grass piled across a stream to make it -stop running away. Then the water makes a big pond back of the dam, and -in that pond of deep water we beavers build our homes. With our teeth -we gnaw down big trees so they will fall across the brook to help in -making the dam.” - -“My! I should say you were bustling!” exclaimed Winkie. “But in all -your bustling about have you seen Blinkie, Blunk, or my father or -mother?” - -“More questions!” laughed Toto, the beaver. “No,” he answered, after -taking another drink of water from the brook, “I haven’t seen them, I -am sorry to say. Are they lost?” - -Then Winkie told of the blasting, how the Woodchuck family had been -shut up in the burrow, how she had found a way out and how they had all -separated, much frightened, when the big noise came again that morning. - -“You certainly have had a lot of trouble,” agreed Toto. “I wish I could -help you, but I must now bustle back to my work――we beavers are very -busy animals. However, if I see any of your family I’ll tell them where -to find you.” - -“Please do,” begged Winkie, as Toto hastened along. The beaver waddled -off a little way, moving in a queer fashion, for beavers are rather -awkward on land, though very swift in swimming. - -Then Toto came to a stop. He turned and looked at Winkie. - -“I say,” asked Toto, “were you ever in a book, Winkie?” - -“Book? No, I never was in a book,” answered Winkie. “What is a book?” - -“I’ve been in one,” went on Toto. “I haven’t time to tell you about it -now. Maybe I will some other day. Good-bye, Winkie. I’m glad I met you!” - -“Good-bye,” echoed the wily woodchuck. She felt a bit lonesome when -Toto was gone. “I wonder what a book is,” murmured Winkie, as she -walked along after she had lapped up all the water she wanted. “Toto -said book. I wish I knew what a book is!” And she spoke aloud this time. - -“A book! Ha! I can tell you what a book is!” suddenly exclaimed another -voice. “Come over here and I’ll tell you all about a book. I have been -put in one!” - -Winkie looked through the trees, and what she saw made her heart beat -faster than it ever had before. - -“Oh, it’s a _dog_!” she gasped. “One of the farmer’s big dogs! Oh, this -is the end of me! Oh, I must run!” - -Away leaped Winkie. The dog ran after her barking and shouting: - -“Don’t run! Don’t be afraid! I’m only Don! I’m Don, the runaway dog, -but I don’t run away any more, and I won’t hurt you. Wait! I want to -tell you what a book is!” - - - - -CHAPTER VI - -WINKIE IN A STORM - - -Winkie, the wily woodchuck, was so frightened at the sight of the -dog――even more frightened than she had been at the distant blasting -explosion――that she ran on and on through the woods, scarcely looking -where she was going. Racing in this way, not keeping watch, caused -Winkie to bump into a tree full tilt! - -Bang! she slammed against it, so hard that she was thrown down and lay, -for a moment, stunned amid the leaves. - -It was a good thing that Don was a kind dog, and not a savage one -belonging to Farmer Tottle. And it is also a good thing Don was not a -wolf or a fox. For had he been either of these he could easily have -caught Winkie in his teeth when she fell back, stunned by her crash -into the tree. - -But Don did not do this thing. Instead, he went gently up to Winkie as -she lay amid the leaves, smelled her fur, and barked in a low tone. - -“Oh, please don’t bite me! Please don’t!” begged Winkie. - -“Bite you? Nonsense! I never thought of such a thing!” cried Don. “Why -did you run away?” - -“Because you chased me,” answered Winkie, her heart not beating so fast -now, when she found that nothing had yet happened to her. She was so -plump and so covered with fur that running into the tree had not done -her any more harm than to knock her breath from her for a moment or two. - -“How foolish! I didn’t chase you!” declared Don. “I was just running -after you to tell you what a book is.” - -“What is a book?” asked Winkie, and Don told her as well as he could -for a dog who couldn’t himself read. - -“A book,” he barked, “is a sort of long story of adventures.” - -“I know what adventures are,” said Winkie. “They’re things that happen -to you.” - -“Yes,” agreed Don. “And you have had an adventure this morning.” - -“You mean all our family getting lost?” asked Winkie. - -“I didn’t hear about that,” said Don. “But that’s an adventure too. -No, I meant running away from me and bumping into a tree. That was an -adventure.” - -[Illustration: Caused Winkie to bump into a tree full tilt!] - -“Not a very pleasant one,” remarked Winkie, smiling. - -“Oh, well, there are all sorts of adventures,” said Don. “I have had -very many, and they have been put into a book about me, just as have -those of Toto, the bustling beaver, about whom I heard you speaking.” - -“Have you had adventures?” asked Winkie. - -“I should say I have!” barked Don. “Say,” he went on, “did you ever -meet Squinty, the comical pig?” - -“No, I never did,” answered Winkie. “Who is he?” - -“Oh, a jolly chap. Did you ever meet Slicko, the jumping squirrel?” - -“No, not that I know of. Where is Slicko?” - -“Somewhere in these woods, I think. You’ll probably meet Slicko sooner -or later. And then there is Mappo, and there’s Tum Tum.” - -“Who are they?” - -“Animals who have had adventures and been put in books,” answered Don. -“Mappo is a merry monkey, and Tum Tum is a jolly elephant. I hope you -meet them some day.” - -“I hope so, too,” said Winkie. “But just now I should like to meet my -father and mother and Blinkie and Blunk. Have you seen them?” - -“No, I am sorry to say I have not,” answered Don. “But don’t worry, -you may find them, also. And I’m sure you will have lots of adventures. -You are sort of running away, you know.” - -“Yes, I ran away from that big noise,” admitted Winkie. “But what has -that to do with it?” - -“Running away always brings adventures,” answered Don. “At least it did -to me. I was once a runaway dog. But I was glad to get back again, and -I am very happy now.” - -“Are you one of the farmer’s dogs that barked at my father and mother?” -asked Winkie. - -“No,” replied Don. “I never bark at woodchucks. I like them, and -so does my master, who is very kind. But some men don’t like you -ground-hogs, and they are always sending their dogs after you. They -also set traps――those men do.” - -“What are traps?” asked Winkie. - -“Ha! There you go again――more questions!” chuckled the dog. “Well, I -can tell you one thing――traps are very good things to keep out of. Once -I caught my paw in a trap, and I was lame for a month after it. Keep -away from traps, Winkie!” - -“I’ll try!” promised the wily woodchuck. But she did not know what was -soon going to happen to her. - -So much talk seemed to make Winkie hungry, and, seeing some grass -growing under a tree, she began to nibble the green blades. - -“Why don’t you eat something,” she asked Don. “This grass is very sweet -and good.” - -“Thank you; but we dogs don’t eat grass,” Don answered. “That is unless -we take it as medicine when we aren’t feeling well. But I feel fine -now――I don’t need grass, but I would like a juicy bone. And speaking of -bones makes me hungry. I think I’ll trot to my kennel and get a bone.” - -“What’s a kennel?” asked Winkie. - -“My! I never knew any one to ask as many questions as you, unless it -might be Mappo, the merry monkey,” barked Don. “A kennel is a house in -which I live.” - -“We call our house a burrow,” said Winkie. “Only we haven’t any now.” - -“It wouldn’t do for all of us to live in the same kind of houses,” Don -said. “I’d feel rather silly in a nest, and yet a nest is a home for -a bird. Well, I’m going to trot along, Winkie. I hope I shall see you -soon again.” - -“I hope so too,” murmured Winkie, who knew that she was going to be -lonely when Don went away. - -Don started off, wagging his tail in a friendly farewell to Winkie. She -was watching him and did not notice where she was walking until, all -of a sudden, she felt herself falling into a hole with a lot of leaves -and sticks. - -“Oh! Oh!” cried Winkie. “Help me, Don! I’m in a trap!” - -With a bark Don bounded back, and, with his paws, he helped Winkie up -out of the hole. - -“That wasn’t a trap,” he said. “You can’t get out of traps as easily as -that. You just fell into a hole where once there was a stump or stone. -The hole was covered with dried leaves and you didn’t see it, I guess. - -“Some traps are like that, and others are like a box that shut you up -tight. Other traps have strong, sharp teeth that snap shut on your leg. -That’s the kind of trap I was once in.” - -“I hope nothing like that happens to me!” sighed Winkie, and Don hoped -the same. - -“Now I must go,” said the dog, when he found the little woodchuck girl -was all right. “See you later! Good-bye!” And soon he was lost to sight -among the trees. - -Poor Winkie felt very lonely now, for, having talked to Toto, the -beaver, and to Don, the dog, she began to have a very friendly feeling -for these animals. - -But she was a brave little thing, as well as wily and smart, and she -began to feel that she must look after herself now, since it might be -many days before she would find her family in the big woods. - -Sitting down and crying about things never makes them any better, and -Winkie was not going to do this. Instead she felt that she must find -some place to stay during the night, which she knew would come when the -sun went down. - -“But first I am going to see if I can’t find my family,” thought -Winkie. “There’s no sense in giving up so soon. I’ll make believe we -have been playing hide-and-seek and I’ve got to find them so I won’t be -it.” - -She had often played this game, and it was not hard to imagine she -was doing it again. On through the woods she wandered, now and then -stopping to listen or to call. She cried the names of Blinkie and Blunk -as loudly as she could, and also shouted for her father and mother. - -But the only answers she heard were the sighing of the wind in the -trees, the murmur of the brooks as they flowed over the green, mossy -stones, and the songs of the birds. To the birds Winkie spoke, for she -could talk their language, and she asked them if they had seen anything -of her father, mother, Blinkie or Blunk. - -“You birds fly high above the trees,” said Winkie, “and you can look -down and see many things I can not see. Please help me look for my -people.” - -“We will!” sang the birds. So they flew here and there, peering down -through the tree branches. But they did not get a glimpse of any of the -woodchucks. For, truth to tell, the other four ground-hogs had run away -at the time Winkie had, and now they were all scattered. Blinkie, Blunk -and Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck were separated one far from the other, and -as much lost as was Winkie herself. - -Later on the four woodchucks found each other and made a new home for -themselves, but Winkie did not know this for a long time, and not until -after she had had many adventures about which I must tell you. - -For several days Winkie wandered through the woods, all alone except -that once or twice she met Toto, and again, she spied Don. But the dog -was walking with his master and he did not come near Winkie. For this -the woodchuck girl was glad, for she was afraid of men, even of one as -kind as Don’s master seemed to be. - -Look as the fluttering birds did, they found no trace of Winkie’s -relatives, and they told the woodchuck girl this. - -One day, as Winkie was wandering about, she suddenly heard a noise in -the bushes. She was going to run and hide, thinking it might be a wolf -or a fox, when a jolly voice grunted: - -“Don’t be afraid, little ground-hog girl, I won’t hurt you!” - -“Who are you?” asked Winkie. - -“Squinty, the comical pig,” was the answer. - -“Oh, I have heard Don speak of you,” said Winkie, as the pig came -rooting his way through the underbrush. - -“Yes, Don and I are friends,” Squinty replied. “But you had better find -a good place to stay to-night, Winkie.” - -“Why?” asked the wily woodchuck. - -“Because there is going to be a big storm,” was the pig’s answer. “I -am going back to my pen. I really oughtn’t to have come out, but I get -tired of staying shut up so much, and, once in a while, I root my way -out with my rubbery nose. But I’m going back now before I am caught in -the storm, and you, also, had better find a place of shelter.” - -“Thank you; I’ll look for one,” said Winkie. - -She went on a little farther, after bidding good-bye to Squinty. All at -once, she heard a sound in a tree over her head. - -“Oh,” cried Winkie, “is that one of the birds come to tell me he has -found my family?” - -“No, I’m not a bird,” was the answer; “though I stay in the trees a -great deal of the time. I am Slicko, the jumping squirrel. I know -you, Winkie. Don told me about you. Have you a good place to stay this -night?” - -“No, I have no home,” sadly answered Winkie. - -“Then you had better stay in this hollow tree,” said Slicko kindly, -pointing to one near by. “There is going to be a big storm, and you -will be frightened if you are out in it. I can always tell when a storm -is coming, hours before it gets here.” - -“That’s what Squinty said,” remarked Winkie. - -“Oh, do you know that comical pig?” asked the jumping squirrel. “Isn’t -he funny?” - -“I don’t know him very well. I just met him,” answered the wily -woodchuck. “But he seemed very kind. And thank you for telling me about -the hollow tree.” - -“Don’t mention it!” chattered the squirrel. “We animals must be kind to -one another. I hope you’ll rest well. I have my nest higher up in this -same tree.” - -“Then we shall be company for each other in the night,” said Winkie. - -She found the hollow tree to which Slicko had pointed. Inside were some -dried leaves, which would make a soft bed for the woodchuck girl. When -night came Winkie crawled in and went to bed, and up higher in the tree -she could see Slicko crawling into a hole where the squirrel’s nest -was made. - -Winkie slept very well the first part of the night, even though the -wind sighed and moaned among the trees. Then, all of a sudden, she was -awakened by a great flash of light and a loud crashing sound. - -“Oh! Oh!” cried Winkie. “The farmer and his dogs are after us again! -He’s going to shut us up in the burrow again!” - -“No, this is no farmer!” chattered Slicko. “This is a big storm, with -thunder, lightning and rain! I’m afraid this tree will blow down! Look -out, Winkie!” - -Before Winkie could crawl out of her bed of leaves in the lower hollow -place there was another blinding flash of light and a great thundering -sound, following by a cracking noise. - -“Oh, the tree is struck! The tree is falling!” cried Slicko. “Save -yourself, Winkie!” - -A moment later the wily woodchuck found herself tossed out into the -storm. - - - - -CHAPTER VII - -WINKIE IN A TRAP - - -Slicko, the jumping squirrel, had told the truth about the storm. The -tree, in the upper part of which the squirrel had a nest and in a lower -hollow part of which Winkie had been sleeping, was struck by lightning, -and broken down. - -But neither of the animals, nor some birds nesting under the leaves of -the tree, was hurt by the lightning, though all were stunned by it for -a moment. The birds fluttered into other trees, glad to hide themselves -under the leaves as much out of the rain as they could get. Slicko, -feeling the tree falling, had leaped safely into another. - -And what happened to poor Winkie? - -At first the wily woodchuck hardly knew what was taking place. She had -been awakened so suddenly by the storm, with its lightning, thunder, -wind, and rain, that she was dazed. - -But she heard what Slicko said, and she knew enough to jump when she -felt the tree going over, so she was not caught under it and pinned -down, as sometimes happens to beavers in the woods. - -“Where are you? Where can I get in out of the rain?” called Winkie to -Slicko. But either she could not make her voice heard above the storm, -or else Slicko was too far away to hear. I think it was a little of -both. - -At any rate Winkie stood for a moment beside the fallen, split tree -that had been a sort of “hotel” for her during the first part of the -night. But the warm leaf-lined nest where she had so cozily cuddled was -no more. And as she felt the rain falling on her and heard the noise of -the storm, Winkie knew she must get under some kind of shelter. - -Winkie, like most wild animals, could see pretty well in the dark, so -she walked along. - -Every now and then a flash of lightning came, and this showed her still -better which way to go. She did not need to keep on any path. She could -wander where she wished. And, really, the rain did her little harm, for -this was summer. If it had been winter, with a rain that froze as fast -as it fell, that would have been very sad indeed. Winkie wore a coat of -fur, and though this was wet through, she knew it would soon dry in the -sun. - -She looked about her for a hollow tree, but could find none. Then she -spied a hole under some rocks, and in another moment she had crawled -into this little den, away from the wind and the rain. In the hole were -dried leaves, and cuddling up in these Winkie soon began to feel warm -again. - -Outside the rain splashed down, the wind lashed the branches of the -trees, breaking some off and tossing them to the ground, the thunder -roared, and the lightning flashed. But, safe in the little cave she had -found, Winkie, the wily woodchuck, soon went to sleep again. - -So, after all, Winkie came through the storm with nothing worse than -a fright and a wetting. Of course she missed Slicko, for when morning -came and the warm sun shone once more, there was no sign of the jumping -squirrel. - -“Slicko! Slicko! Where are you?” called Winkie, as she came out of the -little cave. - -“Slicko has gone away!” chirped a bird. “I saw Slicko scampering off -through the tree tops long before the sun was up.” - -“Well, then I shall have to get a new friend,” said Winkie. “Have you -seen any of my family?” she asked the bird. - -“No, I am sorry to say I have not,” was the answer. “I have only been -in these woods a short time. I came just before the storm, and I met -Slicko only by chance. I can’t tell you anything about your family.” - -“Then I shall have to travel on and try to find them,” said Winkie. -“But first I must get something to eat.” - -This was easy for the woodchuck girl. She did not have to go to the -store, nor yet wait for a meal to be cooked or a table set. Eating was -very easy for her. - -All she had to do was to look about for some grass or something green -growing, and for some bark to gnaw. Winkie did not really care as much -about bark as did Toto the beaver, for ground-hogs live mainly on -clover, grass, and other soft plants. But when a woodchuck is hungry, -as Winkie was, it will eat almost anything in the vegetable line. - -“I’d like to find some turnips, carrots, or cabbage,” she thought to -herself, for woodchucks are very fond of these, and that is one reason -why farmers do not like woodchucks. “But I don’t see any around here,” -went on Winkie. - -Indeed there was no garden near the woods, and after eating what she -could find in the forest and on the edge of it, Winkie started off to -look for more adventures. - -Of course, she really didn’t especially look for them, nor did she know -she was going to have them, but adventures happened to her, and some of -them were not very pleasant. - -The woods were washed clean by the storm, and now the day was warm and -sunny. The birds sang, many animals scurried here and there between the -trees and under the bushes, and Winkie was one of them. - -Now and then she would hear some large animal moving in the bushes, and -at such times Winkie would crouch down and hide, for she feared a wolf, -a fox or a dog might be coming after her. - -“I shouldn’t mind meeting Don, or even Tum Tum, the jolly elephant, -he told about,” thought Winkie. “But I don’t want to meet any strange -dogs.” - -Don, however, was far away, as was Tum Tum. So Winkie had to wander -along by herself. All day she roamed through the woods, now and then -stopping to give a sort of whistle, which is one way woodchucks have of -talking. Again she would also chatter her teeth with a rattling sound, -as owls clatter their beaks. This is another way woodchucks have of -speaking to one another. - -But to all Winkie’s calls there came no answer from any of her family. -She did not see Blinkie nor Blunk, and her father and mother might have -been a hundred miles away for all she knew. - -Once, indeed, she met another woodchuck, a fat, lazy old man of a -ground-hog, and at first Winkie thought he might be her grandfather. -But he was not, and this woodchuck knew nothing of Winkie’s family. - -“But I can tell you where to get a good meal of clover,” said the lazy -old ground-hog. - -“Where?” eagerly asked Winkie. - -“Go straight along the way you are headed, and on the edge of the woods -you will see a field,” was the answer. “Crawl under the fence and -you’ll find some clover.” - -Winkie thanked him, and waddled on. She found the clover just where she -had been told it would be and ate her fill. She ate so much she felt -sleepy, and about sunset she curled up in a hollow log and slept all -night. - -When morning came Winkie started on her travels again. By this time she -was getting rather used to wandering around alone. Not that she liked -it, but it was the best she could do. She would have been very glad -to have had a game of tag with Blinkie or Blunk, but this was not to -happen for a long time. - -That noon Winkie found a field where a farmer was raising some carrots, -and, as she saw no man in sight, and no dogs, and did not hear any -dogs barking, Winkie went into the field, dug up some carrots, and ate -them. It was because of this that, a few days later, something dreadful -happened to Winkie. - -For she liked the carrots so much that she looked for more everywhere -she went. One day Winkie, who was very hungry at the time, saw another -carrot――a large yellow one――in a fence corner. - -“Some one must have left this carrot here specially for me!” thought -Winkie. “How kind of him!” - -Winkie was not quite as wily and smart then as she ought to have been, -for if she had only known it, this carrot was placed where it was as -a bait. But Winkie did not know this. Up she went quite boldly, and -reached out to take the carrot. - -A moment later she heard a clicking sound, and something closed with a -snap on her left hind leg. She felt a great pain in it, and tried to -run away. - -But Winkie could not run! She was caught fast in a trap! The carrot had -been placed there just for that――to trap some animal――and Winkie was -caught! - - - - -CHAPTER VIII - -WINKIE’S NEW HOME - - -Just as soon as Winkie felt the pain in her leg, a hard pinching and -pulling, she knew what had happened just as well as if her mother had -told her. - -“I’m in a trap!” cried the girl woodchuck, who was not as wily now as -she ought to have been. “I’m in a trap! Oh, dear! What shall I do?” - -She had often heard her father and mother talk of animals being caught -in traps. Some traps were of one kind and some of another. Winkie -was glad this was not a box trap, shutting her away from the air and -sunlight. She was glad it was not a bear trap with sharp teeth, like -those of a saw, for they would have cut her leg and caused it to bleed. - -This trap was just a common, spring one, with smooth jaws, and though -it pinched Winkie very much, and held her so fast that she could not -pull her leg loose, she was not cut. - -“I must run away!” thought poor Winkie. “I must run away and take this -trap with me. Then, maybe, when I am in a safe place, I can pull my leg -out! Oh, how it pinches! I wish I had never tried to get the carrot!” - -The little woodchuck no longer thought of the yellow carrot which was -placed near the trap. She seemed to have got over her hunger because of -the pain in her leg. - -“Yes, I must run away and take this trap with me!” thought Winkie. - -But that was easier said than done. As Winkie tried to walk away, with -the spring trap still fast to her leg, she was suddenly stopped with a -jerk that gave her another pain. She almost fell down, and she had to -cry “Ouch!” Of course, in the way woodchucks say it. - -Then she looked and found there was a chain attached to the trap, and -the other end of the chain was fast to a big log. If Winkie should walk -away with the trap, she would also have to drag the log with her. And -this was more than the little woodchuck girl could do. - -“Oh dear! Oh dear!” thought poor Winkie, lying down on the soft grass -near the trap. “This is dreadful!” - -And indeed it was! It was worse than the blasting in the field which -had closed the door holes of the burrow house. It was worse than Farmer -Tottle and his dog. It was worse than the big storm when the tree in -which Winkie was sleeping had been struck by lightning. - -“Oh, what shall I do?” sighed poor Winkie. - -Well, there was little she could do. She again tried to pull her leg -out of the trap, but it would not move, and the pain each time she -tried made her chatter her teeth and whistle. Then she tried to pull -the trap loose from the log to which it was chained. But she could not -do that, either. - -“Oh, I shall have to stay here forever!” thought poor Winkie. “I never -can get loose! I shall never see Blinkie nor Blunk again, nor my father -and mother! Oh dear!” - -Winkie looked at the carrot which was the cause of all her troubles. -Even yet she did not feel hungry enough to nibble it, though just -before she had stepped into the trap she had been very anxious for some -vegetable. - -“I must do something!” thought Winkie. “I can’t stay here forever.” - -She was just going to tug again at the trap and chain when, all of a -sudden, she heard a noise. It was a whistling sound, almost like that -which woodchucks make. For one happy moment Winkie thought it might be -her father or mother coming to set her free. But a moment later, as the -whistling became louder, Winkie saw coming toward her a boy. It was the -boy who was whistling. - -On he came, trilling a merry air. Well might he whistle! He was caught -in no trap that pinched his leg! - -Suddenly the boy caught sight of Winkie, the wily woodchuck. - -“Oh, ho!” he cried. “I’ve caught a ground-hog! I’ve caught a woodchuck -in my trap! My, but I’m lucky!” - -Of course Winkie could not understand what the boy said, but if she -thought anything at all she must have thought that she was very unlucky. - -“It’s a nice fat woodchuck, too!” exclaimed Larry Dawson, which was the -boy’s name. “It isn’t hurt, either. I’m glad it’s a smooth trap and not -one with teeth! I set it to catch a skunk, but it caught a woodchuck -instead. I guess she isn’t hurt much. A woodchuck’s fur isn’t any good, -like a skunk’s. But I’ll take this ground-hog home, and maybe I can -tame her and teach her tricks.” - -If Winkie could have understood all the boy said she would not have -been so afraid of him, for Larry was a kind boy and gave no needless -pain to animals. But the woodchuck did not understand, and when Larry -came closer, intending to loose her from the trap, she crouched down, -showed her sharp, biting teeth, and squealed and chattered. - -“Oh, ho! You’re going to be ugly, are you?” exclaimed the boy. “Well, -I can’t blame you. It isn’t any fun to be caught in a trap. I wouldn’t -like it myself, and I’ll take you out if you don’t bite me.” For Larry -knew that woodchucks can bite very severely when they are caught and -when they fear they are in danger. - -“I’ll go and get a bag to carry you in,” said Larry, still speaking -aloud, as though Winkie could understand him. “I’ll get a bag, and then -take you home. My sister Alice will like you. We’ll teach you tricks -after we tame you. Wait here while I go for a bag!” - -There really wasn’t any need of telling Winkie to “wait there.” She -couldn’t get loose. And of course she remained until Larry came back. -He had gone to his father’s barn and gotten a strong bag in which feed -came for the horses. - -Dropping this bag over Winkie, who was now more frightened than ever, -Larry reached in from the outside, the strong bag keeping Winkie from -biting, though she tried to do this, and soon the boy had loosened the -spring and taken the trap off the woodchuck’s leg. - -“Oh, how good it feels not to be pinched any more!” thought Winkie. -“Oh, how good it feels!” - -And she curled up in the bottom of the bag, as Larry slung it over his -shoulder, and closed her eyes, for she felt so much better than she -had in the trap. - -“I wonder what is going to happen to me?” thought Winkie. - -She was going to have more adventures, though she did not know it just -then. - -Across the fields went Larry, carrying the wily woodchuck in the bag -over his shoulder. Winkie did not mind the bouncing, for the pain in -her leg, where the trap had pinched her, was growing less now. - -“Oh, Larry, what have you got?” cried his sister Alice, as he reached -the house. - -“A woodchuck,” the boy answered. “She was in my skunk trap.” - -“Is she dead?” asked Alice. - -“No, she’s very much alive,” replied Larry. “Don’t go near the bag or -she may bite you. We’ll tame her, and she’ll do tricks for us. Get me -a piece of cord, Alice, and I’ll tie this bag up. Then the woodchuck -can’t get out until I build a pen for her.” - -“Oh, are you going to do that?” asked Alice. - -“Yes, I’ll make a strong pen, so she can’t get out. You’ll help me, -won’t you? After she’s been in the pen a while, and we feed her every -day, she’ll get used to us and grow tame. Then we can teach her some -tricks.” - -“Oh, that will be fun!” cried Alice. - -The cord which Alice brought was tied around the neck of the bag, so -that the woodchuck could not get out, though she tried to do this as -soon as Larry set the bag down on the ground. - -“Oh, we have you safe!” exclaimed the boy, as he saw the form of the -ground-hog scurrying about inside the bag. “But we’ll soon give you -a better place than that to live in. Come on, Alice, we’ll make a -woodchuck pen!” - -The brother and sister hammered away, nailing boards together, and -soon the pen was finished. Larry took the bag, loosed the string, and -held the open end of the bag over the pen. Out toppled Winkie, her -eyes blinking on account of being so suddenly thrust into the bright -sunlight from the darkness of the bag. - -The first thing Winkie did, after tumbling from the bag, was to stand -very still, crouching on the ground. Then she looked about for a way of -escape. In one corner of the pen she saw a square black hole. - -“Maybe that’s a burrow door,” thought Winkie. “If I can run down that -I’ll be safe.” - -She waddled over to the square black hole, and went through it. But she -only found herself inside a small box, with no way out. - -“Oh, she went into her bedroom!” laughed Alice, clapping her hands. “I -guess she’s sleepy!” - -“I guess she thought she could get out that way,” said Larry. “But she -can’t. That inside box is for her to sleep in, but she can’t get out -that way.” - -And, to Winkie’s sorrow, she could not. She was fast in a pen which was -to be her new home. The woodchuck remained inside the inner box for a -little while, seeking some hole through which she might crawl. But when -she saw none she came out into the open pen again. - -The pen Larry and Alice had made, which was to be Winkie’s new home, -was really a large box set on the ground. It had a bottom to it, and -four sides, but no top. In place of the box cover Larry had put on -some strong chicken wire. Winkie could not push her way up through -this wire, nor could she bite it, though she had very strong teeth for -gnawing bark and nipping clover. - -In one corner of the larger box Larry and Alice had set a smaller box, -with wooden sides and a wooden top. There was a square hole for a door -in this smaller box, and this was Winkie’s bedroom. - -[Illustration: Out toppled Winkie.] - -“You’re safe here now, little woodchuck!” said Larry. “I’m going to -feed you and then teach you tricks when you get tame.” - -“Maybe she wants a drink of water,” suggested Alice. - -“Yes, I guess she does,” said Larry. “I’ll get some for her.” - -When a basin of water was set down inside the pen the woodchuck was so -thirsty that she began to drink at once. The boy and girl laughed to -see her drink. - -“She’s getting tame already,” said Alice. - -“Well, sort of beginning,” agreed Larry. “Now I’ll get her something -to eat. But I guess I’d better bait that trap with something besides -carrot if I want to catch a skunk. I guess skunks don’t like carrots, -for none has come near the trap since I set it.” - -Larry was right. Skunks are not carrot-eating animals, though they may -take a nibble now and then if they are very hungry. - -The children had started to get something for Winkie to eat when, -all at once, there came a noise which was a dreadful sound to the -ground-hog. - -It was the barking of a dog! - - - - -CHAPTER IX - -WINKIE LEARNS TRICKS - - -Though Winkie had never been very close to any dog except Don, the wily -woodchuck knew the bark of this dog meant danger. It is this way with -many wild animals, and even with your cat, perhaps, which is not so -wild as a woodchuck. - -Little kittens, if they are brought up with dogs from their earliest -days, may not be afraid of Rover or Towser, whom they know. But they -may be afraid of a strange dog. However, almost any cat will arch up -its back, hiss and, if it gets a chance, will run away from almost any -dog. It was the same with Winkie, though she did not arch her back nor -fluff out her tail――woodchucks don’t do that. But Winkie tried to run -away as soon as she heard the bark of the dog. - -Only she could not get out of the pen. But she did run and hide in her -sleeping box, which was partly filled with hay. - -“Oh, here comes Buster!” exclaimed Alice. “Don’t let Buster get the -woodchuck!” - -“No, indeed!” cried Larry. “Uncle Elias’s dog shan’t get my woodchuck!” - -“I thought you said she was part _my_ woodchuck,” observed Alice. - -“Yes, that’s so. You may have half,” agreed Larry. “Go on back, Buster! -Go away!” shouted Larry, as a big dog came bounding into the yard, -barking and wagging his tail, for he was glad to see the children, and -often played with them, being a friendly dog except toward wild things. - -All at once Buster stopped barking and stopped wagging his tail. He -stood still, his nose pointed toward the pen, and he began to sniff. He -had caught the wild smell of the woodchuck, even though he could not -see Winkie, who was hiding in her sleeping chamber. - -Then Buster growled, away down in his throat, and came nearer the pen. -Alice ran to get in front of the dog, and again Larry cried: - -“Go on away, Buster!” - -Just then Uncle Elias Tottle, who was a brother of Larry and Alice’s -mother――being, in fact the children’s uncle――came along. He saw the boy -and girl standing near the pen, and he heard his dog growling. - -“What’s the matter with Buster? What have you youngsters got there?” -asked Uncle Elias, in rather a harsh voice. He had no children of -his own, and owned the farm next to that of Mr. Dawson, who was the -father of Larry and Alice. “What have you in that box that makes Buster -growl?” demanded Uncle Elias Tottle. - -“I have a woodchuck,” answered Larry. “I caught her in my skunk trap. -But she isn’t hurt. I’m going to tame her.” - -“We’re going to teach her tricks,” added Alice. - -“Huh! Woodchuck!” cried Uncle Elias. “The pesky creatures! If I had my -way they’d all be shot or trapped. They eat my clover. I saw some of -’em eating it the other day.” - -If he had only known it, Winkie was one of those very woodchucks! But -Uncle Elias didn’t know. - -“Woodchuck!” he exclaimed. “Eating up everything a poor farmer can -raise! I’ll kill that woodchuck of yours if I catch her out!” - -“Well, you won’t catch her, for we aren’t going to let her out,” said -Alice, and she and her brother felt bad because of the harsh words of -Uncle Elias. - -It is true, in some places, that woodchucks do harm when they are very -numerous, and farmers don’t like them. But Larry and Alice did not see -what harm poor little Winkie could do, especially if they kept her shut -up in a pen. - -“Look here!” said Uncle Elias at last. “Will you sell me that woodchuck -for a dollar, Larry?” - -“A dollar?” repeated the boy. - -“Yes, I’ll give you a dollar for her,” went on Uncle Elias, putting his -hand in his pocket. - -Larry shook his head. - -“I want my woodchuck,” said the boy. - -“And she’s half mine,” broke in Alice. “Even if Larry would sell his -half, I wouldn’t sell my half! So there, Uncle Elias!” - -“Huh!” grunted the farmer, who was a hard and sometimes a cruel man. - -“What do you want of a woodchuck, Uncle Elias?” asked Larry. “Do you -want one to teach tricks to? If you do I’ll try to catch one for you in -my trap.” - -“Nonsense! As if I’d try to teach a woodchuck tricks!” snorted the old -man, while his dog sniffed and snuffed at the wild smell and Winkie -cowered down in her dark box. “If I had that ground-hog of yours――which -I’m willing to pay a dollar for”――went on Mr. Tottle, “I’d turn her -loose and set Buster on her! Woodchucks are no good!” - -“Well, you aren’t going to get this one!” said Larry. - -“I guess not!” exclaimed Alice. “I love my woodchuck!” - -“Huh!” snorted Uncle Elias. “Come on, Buster!” he called to his dog. -“This isn’t any place for us! We don’t like woodchucks!” - -Then, to the relief of Larry and Alice, their cruel-hearted uncle went -away, followed by Buster. The dog, however, did not want to go. He -growled and whined as he sniffed toward the woodchuck’s pen. Had poor -Winkie been outside and if Buster had chased her there would not have -been much left of her. - -“The idea!” exclaimed Alice, when Mr. Tottle was gone. “To want to kill -our woodchuck!” - -“I wouldn’t sell her for two dollars――no, not for _five_!” cried Larry. -“When we teach her tricks maybe we can put her in a circus!” - -“Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful!” cried Alice, clapping her hands. -“Let’s start teaching her tricks right away. But what shall we name our -woodchuck?” - -“Yes, we must think of a name,” agreed Larry. - -Just then Winkie, no longer hearing the barking of the dog, poked her -head out of the square hole in the smaller box, into which she had gone -to hide. Coming out of the dark, as she did, made Winkie’s eyes open -and shut until they became used to the glare of the sun. Larry and his -sister, watching their new pet, saw her eyes winking this way. - -“Oh, I know what to call her!” cried Alice. - -“What?” asked her brother. - -“Winkie!” replied the little girl. “See her wink!” - -“Yes, Winkie will be a good name,” agreed Larry. - -And so Winkie was given by the children the same name the father and -mother of the little ground-hog had given her when she lived in the -burrow. - -“Come here, Winkie! Come here!” called Alice. - -Winkie remained with her head out of the bedroom, but she did not come -to the side of the larger, outside pen, near which Alice stood. - -“I guess Winkie is a little afraid,” said Larry. “I’ll get her -something to eat. That will make her tame quicker than anything else.” - -Out to the barn ran Larry, and soon he came back with some yellow -carrots. He cut off little pieces of them and tossed them into the pen -through the open meshes of the chicken wire on top. - -At first Winkie was a bit timid about taking these chunks of carrot. -But they smelled so good, and she was so hungry, that she at last -ventured to nibble one. Then, finding no harm came to her, she grew -bold and took more. She limped a little on the leg that had been -caught in the trap, but it was quickly getting over its soreness. - -“Oh, isn’t Winkie cute!” cried Alice, as she watched the woodchuck eat. - -“Yes,” agreed Larry. “And I want to teach her soon to eat out of my -hand.” - -“We want to be careful that she doesn’t bite us,” said his sister. “See -what sharp teeth she has.” - -Indeed Winkie had very sharp teeth and Larry knew this. - -“I’ll be careful!” he said. - -For two or three days Winkie would not take any food from Larry’s hand -or that of Alice. But she grew bolder when she saw that the boy and his -sister meant to be kind, and one day, about a week after being caught -and put in the pen, Winkie took a piece of carrot right from Larry’s -fingers. - -“Oh, she’s getting tame! She’s getting tame!” cried the boy. “Now I can -teach her some tricks!” - -“Let me feed her!” begged Alice. And the little girl was delighted when -Winkie took some pieces of carrot from her fingers. - -It was several days longer before either Larry or his sister dared -reach in to stroke Winkie’s fur. The first time this was tried Winkie -scurried back into her sleeping box as though Buster were after her. -But the next time she was not so timid, and soon the little woodchuck -came to know that the children intended no harm. - -“Though why they want to fuss over me and rub me is more than I can -tell,” thought Winkie to herself. “I wish I had some one to talk animal -talk to――Squinty, the pig, or Slicko, the squirrel. Or even Tum Tum, -the elephant. I wish he were here!” - -Winkie had never seen an elephant like Tum Tum, and of course she did -not know how large elephants are. - -Tum Tum could hardly have gotten more than one of his big feet in -Winkie’s pen! - -One day Larry came running into the house much excited. - -“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “You ought to see Winkie!” - -“Has she gotten out?” asked Alice. - -“No, but I’ve taught her a trick. She’ll sit up on her hind legs and -beg like a dog! Come and see!” - -Alice followed her brother out to the yard where Winkie’s pen had been -built. Larry took off some of the top wire. - -“She’ll get away!” cried Alice. - -“No, she won’t,” said Larry. “Winkie is tame now, and won’t run away. -I’ve taught her a trick! She’ll sit up and beg! Look!” - -Taking the woodchuck out of her cage――and Winkie did not try to bite -Larry now――the boy stood her on the ground. Then, holding a piece of -turnip in front of the ground-hog, the boy exclaimed: - -“Sit up, Winkie! Sit up!” - -Slowly, because she was now very fat, Winkie sat up on her hind -quarters. This is easy for woodchucks to do, since they often sit that -way outside their burrows to watch for danger. - -“Look! She’s begging!” laughed Larry. “And here’s your piece of -turnip!” he added. “Isn’t that a good trick, Alice?” - -“A lovely one! I wish I could teach Winkie some tricks!” - -“Maybe you can,” said Larry. “Here, see if she’ll beg for you.” And -Winkie, who was standing with all four feet on the ground, again stood -up as Alice held out a bit of carrot and told her to “beg!” - -“I don’t know why they want me to do that,” thought Winkie. “But they -give me something to eat each time after it, so I may as well do what -they want.” - -Once again Winkie rose up on her haunches, and she looked very cute -when she did that. Larry and Alice laughed to see her. - -“But one trick isn’t enough,” Larry said. “We must teach her another.” - -“What one?” asked Alice. - -“We’ll teach her to lie down and roll over,” said the boy. - -It took nearly a week to get Winkie to understand this trick, which, -though no harder than the other, was quite different. But at last -Winkie got to the point where she would lie on her back and roll over -like a dog whenever Larry or Alice told her to. And of course each time -the trick was done Winkie was given something good to eat. - -One day, when Larry and Alice came home from school, they ran out -toward the woodchuck pen, for Larry had said he was going to teach -Winkie a new trick. As brother and sister neared the pen they -heard the loud barking of a dog, and the frightened whistling and -teeth-clattering of the little ground-hog. - -“Oh, Buster is trying to get Winkie!” cried Larry, dropping his books -and rushing toward the pen. - - - - -CHAPTER X - -WINKIE IS IN DANGER - - -Alice followed her brother, also dropping her books on the path that -led around the house. What did a few school books matter when Winkie, -the wily woodchuck, was in danger? - -And that’s just what Winkie was――in great danger. Buster, the big dog -belonging to Uncle Elias Tottle, had come over, all by himself, and -was trying to tear some boards off the pen so that he might get in at -Winkie. - -“Here! Get away from there, Buster!” cried Larry. - -“Go away! Go away, you bad dog!” shrieked Alice. - -Buster had not expected to see the children, and when they came running -around the corner of the house the dog was evidently surprised. He -stopped barking at once and his tail dropped between his legs, as -always happens with dogs when they are caught doing something they -ought not to do. - -And this is what had happened to Buster. Finding nothing special to do -at the farm of Mr. Tottle, Buster had wandered over the fields to the -home of Larry and Alice. Buster had not been over to see the children -for some time, and he may have forgotten all about the woodchuck in a -pen in the back yard. - -But Buster had no sooner come close to the yard than the wind blew to -him the wild smell of Winkie, for, like most animals, Winkie had a wild -smell about her, and a dog’s nose is very keen for smelling. - -“Oh, ho!” thought Buster to himself, in a way dogs have of thinking. -“That woodchuck! I forgot all about her! Guess I’ll go and tease her, -as I haven’t anything else to do!” - -With a loud bark Buster made his way into the yard. As it happened, -Mrs. Dawson was not home just then, or she would have driven Buster -away. But the children’s mother had gone to call on a neighbor, and -Buster had everything his own way. - -“Now I’ll get you!” cried the dog in animal language, as he made a dash -against Winkie’s pen. - -“Stop! Stop! Go on away! Let me alone!” begged Winkie, whistling and -chattering her teeth, because she was so frightened. - -“Oh, I’m not going to hurt you! I’m just going to chase you out of that -pen and make you run!” said Buster. “I like to chase rabbits and other -wild animals. I won’t bite you. I just want to chase you! Come on out!” - -“No! No! I’m not coming out!” declared Winkie. “You aren’t nice like -Don!” - -“Pooh! I wouldn’t be a dog like Don――afraid to chase a rabbit or a -squirrel!” sneered Buster. “I’m going to chase you, and if you don’t -come out I’ll make you!” - -“No, I’m not coming out!” chattered Winkie, and she ran into her -sleeping box to hide in the hay. - -“I’ll break open your pen and chase you out!” barked Buster. And the -dog was trying to do this when Larry and Alice came home from school. - -“Make Buster go away, Larry!” half sobbed Alice. “He won’t go for me! -Oh, Buster, go away!” - -“I’ll make him!” cried Larry, and he stooped over as if to pick up a -stone or a stick. I don’t believe that Larry would really have stoned -Buster, or have struck him with a stick, any more than I believe Buster -would have bitten Winkie. But the boy knew he had to do something to -make Buster run away, and pretending to pick up a stone was one of the -best ways. - -[Illustration: She came out of her pen and did her tricks.] - -Away ran Buster, with his tail between his legs, giving a little howl -as he ran, as much as to say: - -“Don’t throw anything at me! I was only in fun!” - -But this was the kind of fun Larry didn’t want Buster to have with the -woodchuck, and it was time the dog learned this. - -“Is Winkie all right?” asked Alice, as Larry looked into the pen. - -“Yes, I guess Buster didn’t do any more than scare her,” the boy -answered. And indeed poor Winkie’s heart was beating very fast, for she -was dreadfully frightened. - -But when she saw Larry and Alice, and heard the kind voices of the -children, and smelled the sweet carrot pieces they brought her, Winkie -was no longer frightened. She came out of her pen when Larry opened the -door, and did her tricks for the boy and his sister. - -“It’s a good thing Buster didn’t open the pen door,” said Alice, as she -stroked Winkie’s head. “What are we going to do, Larry? If we leave -Winkie in her pen, Buster may come over to-morrow when we’re at school -and bite her.” - -“I’m going to get daddy to speak to Uncle Elias about his dog,” said -the boy. “I like Buster, and he’s a good dog; but we can’t have him -chasing over here and scaring our woodchuck. I’m going to make him -stop.” - -That night Mr. Dawson spoke to his brother-in-law about Buster, telling -the farmer how the dog had nearly caught the woodchuck. - -“I wish Buster really had caught that ground-hog!” exclaimed the uncle. -“Woodchucks are a nuisance. They spoil my clover crop. A lot of ’em had -burrows in my meadow. But I plowed the place up, and I blasted out a -lot of rocks and stumps and now the pesky creatures have cleared out.” - -“I should think they would,” said Mr. Dawson. “I hope none of them were -killed.” - -“I wish they were all killed!” snarled Mr. Tottle. “And if your -children will sell their woodchuck for two dollars I’ll buy her and let -Buster chase her.” - -“I don’t believe Larry and Alice will sell Winkie,” said Mr. Dawson. - -Mr. Tottle came to them the next day and offered two dollars for Winkie. - -“Let me take her,” said Uncle Elias with a grin, “and you’ll never have -to bother to feed her again.” - -“Oh, but we like to feed her,” said Alice. - -One day Uncle Elias came over to the Dawson home very much excited. - -“There! What did I tell you!” he cried. “A lot of my clover’s been -spoiled by your woodchuck!” - -“It couldn’t be by Winkie,” said Larry, who was just then making his -pet do some of her tricks. “She hasn’t been out of her pen for a week, -except just in our yard. She couldn’t have taken any of your clover!” - -“Well, some pesky ground-hog did!” stormed the farmer. “And I’m going -to pay ’em back!” - -“Oh, what are you going to do?” asked Alice. - -“Never you mind!” snapped her uncle. “But I’ll fix these woodchucks!” - -He hurried away, muttering to himself. That night Winkie was in danger -again. After ten o’clock, when it was quite dark, Elias Tottle left his -home and with a big club in his hand walked across the field toward the -home of his sister, where Winkie slept in her pen. - -“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered Mr. Tottle to himself. “I’ll fix -her!” - - - - -CHAPTER XI - -WINKIE GETS OUT - - -That night, for some reason or other, Alice could not sleep. She had -played in the evening with her brother, after they had put Winkie -through some of her tricks. Then the wily woodchuck had curled up in -her nest of hay in the smaller box, and Alice and Larry had studied -their lessons and gone to bed. - -But Alice could not sleep. She tossed restlessly from one side of the -bed to the other, and, all the while, she could not help thinking of -Winkie. - -“I hope Buster doesn’t come over in the night and break into her pen,” -thought Alice. “And I hope Uncle Elias does nothing to her! Poor -Winkie! I would rather turn her back into the woods than have anything -happen to her!” - -Alice tried to keep Winkie out of her mind, but, try as she did, the -little girl kept thinking of the pet ground-hog. - -“If anything should happen to Winkie,” said Alice over and over again -to herself, “I――I’d cry――that’s what I’d do!” - -And, almost before she knew it, some tears came out of the blue eyes of -Alice and wet the pillow on which her head rested. - -“Oh dear! Oh dear!” thought Winkie’s little mistress. “What am I going -to do? I feel so bad about Winkie! I――I’d almost rather have her get -out than to have Uncle Elias buy her, even for ten dollars, and sic -Buster after her. - -“And maybe Buster will come in the night,” thought Alice again, her -ideas chasing one another around in her poor little tired head as -if playing tag. “Or maybe Uncle Elias might come over and――and do -something to Winkie!” - -This was too much for Alice to bear. She sat up in bed, and a new idea -came to her. Carefully she listened. There was not a sound in the -house, for all the family had gone to bed rather early. And then, as -she listened, Alice thought she heard, faint and far off, the barking -of Buster. - -It may have been some dog barking on a distant farm, or it may have -been Buster. Alice was sure it was. And then, in her fancy, she heard -Winkie’s whistle. - -“And she’s chattering her teeth, too!” said Alice half aloud. - -She really thought she heard this, and perhaps she did. - -“I know what I’m going to do!” said Alice at last. “I’m going down the -back stairs, out into the yard, and I’m going to let Winkie run out! -I shan’t have Buster chase her or Uncle Elias do anything to her. I’m -going to let Winkie go back to the woods.” - -Alice swung her bare feet over the edge of her bed. She listened again, -but there was not a sound in the house. Even the distant barking of the -dog had stopped. - -“But maybe he stopped because he’s running over here to get Winkie!” -thought Alice. “I must hurry down!” - -The early part of the evening had been dark, but now the moon had -risen, and, shining in the windows, gave light enough for the little -girl to see her way. Softly in her bare feet, clad only in her night -dress, she pattered down the back stairs. - -It was an easy matter to open the back door and go down the rear steps. -Her bare feet made scarcely any sound, and the boards of the walk were -warm and dry from the day’s sun. - -“Ouch!” Alice could not help exclaiming, as she stepped off the boards -into the grass. It was cool and damp to her bare feet, but she minded -it but for a moment. Then, stopping a second or two to get used to the -tickling feeling of the grass, she went on. - -Winkie’s pen was plainly seen in the moonlight. Alice walked over -toward it, and if any one had been looking then they might have thought -the little girl, in her night dress, was some good fairy floating on a -moonbeam to help Winkie. - -And that, really, is what Alice was. She stooped down and began to -fumble with the catch of the door in the side of the pen. The children -had cut a little door hole and had hung a board on for a door, swinging -it on leather hinges. They had done this so Winkie could easily come -out to do her tricks. - -As soon as Alice touched the pen Winkie was awake, and, with a little -low whistle of greeting, the wily woodchuck came out of her small -sleeping box to see what was going on. - -“Oh, Winkie!” half sobbed Alice, putting in her hand and patting her -pet, “I’m so afraid something will happen to you that I’m going to open -your door and let you go. I hope you will be happy. I’d never be happy -if Buster caught you or if Uncle Elias did anything to you. So I’m -going to let you go, Winkie.” - -Of course Winkie did not understand this talk, but the woodchuck knew -when any one was kind to her, and Alice was certainly kind. Alice gave -Winkie a final pat, stroked her fur, and then, leaving the door open, -Alice ran back into the house, softly pattering in her bare feet over -the grass and boards. - -“Good-bye, Winkie, good-bye!” whispered the little girl, as she closed -the back door, went upstairs, and jumped into bed, nobody having heard -her. - -Then, almost as soon as her head touched the pillow, Alice fell asleep. -Her mind was now at rest about Winkie. - -But now let us see what happened to the wily woodchuck. It did not take -Winkie long to notice the open door. She knew in what part of her pen -it was, for she often went in and out when doing her tricks. And now, -in the moonlight, the open door plainly showed. - -“I guess they want me to go out,” thought Winkie. “Some more of that -funny business, I suppose, rolling over and sitting up. Well, I don’t -mind, for they give me good things to eat.” - -But when Winkie reached the outside of her pen neither Larry nor Alice -was in sight, for Alice had gone back to bed and Larry had not gotten -up. - -“Why――why, it looks as if I could run away!” was the sudden thought -that came into the woodchuck’s mind. “Yes, I can run away. I can go -back to the woods and maybe find my family! Oh, how lovely that will -be!” - -So away ran Winkie in the moonlight. She was only partly tame, and even -animals that have been in captivity a long time, and have come to love -their masters very much, will run away and turn wild again if they get -the chance. - -Winkie’s chance had come. - -Perhaps for an instant she felt sad at leaving the pen that had come to -be her home, and she may have felt sorry at going away from Larry and -Alice, who had fed her and been good to her. But this thought lasted -only a moment, and then Winkie scudded away. - -What new adventures would she have? - - - - -CHAPTER XII - -WINKIE FINDS HER FOLKS - - -Out of the yard, over the brook, and across the meadow hurried Winkie, -as fast as her fat little body could waddle. Woodchucks, especially -when they are fat from much eating, are not very fast travelers, and -Winkie could not go very rapidly. Besides, she was in no great hurry. -She did not think any danger would come to her in this beautiful, -moonlight night. - -But danger was near! - -As Winkie waddled along she suddenly heard a tramping noise. It was -the noise of heavy boots on the ground. Winkie knew footsteps when she -heard them, for she had listened to those of Larry and Alice running -home from school every day to feed her. But these footfalls were big -and heavy. - -“Maybe this is a farmer coming with a dog!” thought Winkie. “I guess -I’d better hide!” - -And hide she did, under a bush. It was well she did so, for, a little -later, along came Uncle Elias with a big club in his hand. Uncle Elias -walked as softly as he could as he neared the house of his sister, in -the yard of which he knew was Winkie’s pen. - -“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered the man. “It’s all right for -children to have pets, but let ’em get a dog or a cat that doesn’t eat -clover and gnaw vegetables. Woodchucks are pesky creatures! I’ll soon -put an end to this one.” - -Mr. Tottle came to the fence, paused to look up at the house, and, -seeing it was all in darkness, he climbed over and walked softly toward -Winkie’s pen. It was a good thing Alice had been down and gone back -again, or she might have been frightened by the big figure of a man -stalking through the moonlight, with a club in his hand. - -And perhaps if Uncle Elias had seen the white-robed figure floating -over the grass in the moonlight he might have thought it was a fairy. -But then, he didn’t believe in fairies. - -“Now you pesky woodchuck, this is the end of you!” fiercely exclaimed -Uncle Elias, as he reached the pen and raised his club. - -But what a surprise for him! The door of the pen was open and there was -no woodchuck to be seen! - -“Gone!” gasped Mr. Tottle. “That pesky creature’s gone! I guess she -broke out and has gone over to my clover field. I’ll fix her!” - -Away he strode, muttering to himself. Back over the fence he climbed, -and, had he but known it, he passed close to Winkie’s hiding place. But -the wily woodchuck crouched down in the grass and neither moved nor -made a sound. - -Uncle Elias tramped on his way, muttering about “pesky creatures” over -to his own clover patch. He thought he might find Winkie, or some other -woodchucks, eating his crops. But he saw none, and that seemed to make -him more angry, for he had tramped around in the night for nothing. - -“But I’ll get that ground-hog when she comes back to her cage,” he -muttered. “I will, or I’ll sic Buster on her!” - -Uncle Elias angrily tossed his club on the wood pile and went to bed. -Meanwhile Winkie, waiting until his tramping feet had gone away, came -out of her hiding place. - -“Now for something good to eat!” thought the little woodchuck. - -She was always ready to eat, and, somehow or other, the grass she now -nibbled tasted sweeter than any she had ever chewed in her pen. It was -almost as good as carrots. Perhaps it was because Winkie was free. - -On through the night wandered the little ground-hog girl. She did not -know which way she was going――she did not care as long as no dogs, -wolves or foxes chased her. She ate some more, and then, finding a -hollow log, she curled up in it and went to sleep. - -Winkie awakened before daylight, and crawled out. She felt that she -must be on her way again. - -“I want to find my folks,” she said wistfully. She was getting tired of -going about by herself, and even when she had been with Larry and Alice -she had longed for a game of tag with Blinkie and Blunk. - -Wandering on, Winkie came to a farmhouse. Though she did not know it, -this was the place where Uncle Elias lived. But the cross man was -asleep now, and so was Buster, curled up in the straw of his kennel. - -“I smell something very good!” suddenly whispered Winkie to herself. -“It smells like carrots and turnips and other good things!” - -She sat up on her haunches, as Larry had taught her to do, a trick she -would have learned by herself, anyhow, and again she sniffed. The good -smell came from a side porch of the farmhouse, and, going softly up the -steps, Winkie saw and smelled some baskets of vegetables. - -“Oh!” thought the little woodchuck. “Some one must have known I was -coming and they left these here for me! Oh, how good they are!” - -She stood up and gnawed the potatoes, cabbages, turnips and carrots in -the basket, eating her fill. And even a small woodchuck has a large -appetite. Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle, and then she went -off into the wood a little distance, lay down in another hollow log, -and went to sleep. - -Daylight came. Uncle Elias came downstairs early, for he was going to -take a load of vegetables to the city. He had packed them in baskets -the night before and set them on the side porch. As he went to load -them into his wagon he gave an angry cry. - -“Look here! Look here!” he shouted. “Some pesky woodchuck has been here -and sampled all my vegetables! Look here!” - -“Oh, a woodchuck would hardly come right up to the house,” said his -wife. - -“But this one did!” cried Mr. Tottle. “I know the mark of a ground-hog’s -teeth. And look, here are paw marks in the dirt! Yes, a woodchuck has -been here. And I know which one it was!” - -“Which one?” asked Mrs. Tottle. - -“The pesky creature Larry and Alice keep for a pet! I was over last -night――I mean I’m going over now,” and Uncle Elias corrected himself -quickly. “I’m going over now and make ’em get rid of it!” - -[Illustration: Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle.] - -Over to his sister’s house he hurried. - -“Look here!” he stormed. “You’ve got to get rid of your woodchuck! She -chewed up a lot of my best vegetables. Where is she? I’m going to get -rid of her!” - -He went out to the pen, followed by Alice and Larry. Alice said -nothing, but Larry was crying and saying that if Uncle Elias did -anything to Winkie, Larry would tell his father. - -But Winkie was not in her pen! The door was open as Alice had left it. - -“She――she’s gone!” gasped Larry. “Our Winkie is gone!” - -“I knew she got out, because she was over at my place!” said Uncle -Elias. “I was here――I mean I’m here now to see that she doesn’t get out -again. She came over in the night and ate my best vegetables. I thought -she’d be back here by now.” - -“No, Winkie isn’t here,” said Alice. “And I――I’m glad of it, Uncle -Elias!” she said bravely. - -“Oh, you are, are you!” snorted the unkind man. “Well, when she comes -back I’ll fix her.” - -“Maybe she’ll never come back,” said Larry sadly. “I wonder how she got -out? I fastened the door last night.” - -Alice knew, and later on she told Larry. She didn’t want Buster or -Uncle Elias to catch the woodchuck. And the angry farmer or the big dog -never did. - -After her fine feast of the vegetables belonging to Uncle Elias, -Winkie slept until nearly noon. Then she awakened in the hollow tree, -stretched herself and walked out. - -There were woods not far away, and Winkie, feeling thirsty, thought she -might find a brook there. - -“But I must be careful to keep out of traps,” she thought to herself. -“The next one I get caught in may not be as easy on me as the one Larry -set.” - -Carefully Winkie made her way through the woods. As she was drinking -she heard a noise on the other side of the brook. Looking up she saw -Toto, the beaver. - -“Hello, Winkie!” called the bustling chap, who was floating a little -log of wood into a canal he had dug. “Say, where have you been, -Winkie?” Toto asked. - -“Oh, lots of places,” answered the woodchuck. “The last place I was in -was a pen, but a little girl let me out. Why do you ask?” - -“Because some new woodchucks, who have just come to these woods to live, -have been asking for you.” - -“Asking for me?” cried Winkie. - -“Yes, there was a girl woodchuck named Blinkie and――――” - -“That’s my sister!” cried Winkie. - -“And a boy woodchuck named Blunk!” - -“He’s my brother!” cried Winkie. “Oh, where are they? And are my father -and mother with Blinkie and Blunk?” - -“Well, there are four woodchucks living not far from our beaver dam,” -said Toto. “They just moved there last week. They said they had been -driven out of their burrow by a big noise, and then, when they were -all walking along together to find a new home, they heard another big -noise, and they separated. The four of them came together some time -later, but the fifth one was lost.” - -“I am that fifth one!” cried Winkie. - -“I’m beginning to think so!” chuckled Toto. “Come, and I’ll take you to -the other woodchucks!” - -He led the way. Winkie saw a big pile of grass, sticks, stones, and mud -across a pond of water. This was the beaver dam. A little distance off -was a smaller pile of dirt near a hole in the side of a hill. - -“That’s where the new woodchuck family lives,” said Toto, pointing with -his flat tail. - -Winkie hurried over. She saw a woodchuck come to the edge of the burrow -and look out. - -“Oh, Blinkie! Here I am!” shouted Winkie. “Don’t you know me? I’ve come -back. Here I am!” - -The woodchuck at the edge of the burrow gave a whistle and a chatter. -Three other ground-hogs came rushing out. - -“Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck. - -“Oh, Mother!” sobbed Winkie. “How glad I am to be home again! Oh, such -adventures as I’ve had! But now I’m home!” - -Winkie had found her folks again! And she lived happily with them -until, as a grown-up woodchuck, she went away to make her own home in -her own burrow. - - -THE END - - - - - Transcriber’s Notes: - - ――Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_). - - ――Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently - corrected. - - ――Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved. - - ――Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved. - - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck, by Richard Barnum - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK *** - -***** This file should be named 63191-0.txt or 63191-0.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/1/9/63191/ - -Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have -to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. - -Title: Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck - Her Many Adventures - -Author: Richard Barnum - -Illustrator: Walter S. Rogers - -Release Date: September 13, 2020 [EBook #63191] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK *** - - - - -Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - - - - - - -</pre> - - - -<div class="figcenter" id="cover"> - <img src="images/cover.jpg" alt="cover" title="cover" /> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="figcenter" id="i_frontis"> - <img src="images/i_frontis.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_120">“Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck.</a></div> -</div> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<p class="noi subtitle"><i>Kneetime Animal Stories</i></p> - -<h1>WINKIE, THE WILY<br /> -WOODCHUCK</h1> - -<p class="noi subtitle">HER MANY ADVENTURES</p> - -<p class="p2 noic">BY</p> - -<p class="noi author">RICHARD BARNUM</p> - -<p class="noi works">Author of “Squinty, the Comical Pig,” “Tum Tum, the<br /> -Jolly Elephant,” “Tamba, the Tame Tiger,”<br /> -“Toto, the Bustling Beaver,” “Shaggo,<br /> -the Mighty Buffalo,” etc.</p> - -<p class="p4 noic"><i>ILLUSTRATED BY</i></p> - -<p class="noi author">WALTER S. ROGERS</p> - -<p class="p4 noic">PUBLISHERS<br /> -<span class="noi adauthor">BARSE & HOPKINS</span><br /> -NEW YORK, N. Y. NEWARK, N. J.</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="adbox"> -<p class="noi author">KNEETIME ANIMAL STORIES</p> - -<p class="noic">By Richard Barnum</p> - -<p class="noic"><i>Large 12mo. Illustrated.</i></p> - - -<ul> -<li class="hang">SQUINTY, THE COMICAL PIG</li> -<li class="hang">SLICKO, THE JUMPING SQUIRREL</li> -<li class="hang">MAPPO, THE MERRY MONKEY</li> -<li class="hang">TUM TUM, THE JOLLY ELEPHANT</li> -<li class="hang">DON, A RUNAWAY DOG</li> -<li class="hang">DIDO, THE DANCING BEAR</li> -<li class="hang">BLACKIE, A LOST CAT</li> -<li class="hang">FLOP EAR, THE FUNNY RABBIT</li> -<li class="hang">TINKLE, THE TRICK PONY</li> -<li class="hang">LIGHT FOOT, THE LEAPING GOAT</li> -<li class="hang">CHUNKY, THE HAPPY HIPPO</li> -<li class="hang">SHARP EYES, THE SILVER FOX</li> -<li class="hang">NERO, THE CIRCUS LION</li> -<li class="hang">TAMBA, THE TAME TIGER</li> -<li class="hang">TOTO, THE BUSTLING BEAVER</li> -<li class="hang">SHAGGO, THE MIGHTY BUFFALO</li> -<li class="hang">WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK</li> -</ul> - -<p class="noic">BARSE & HOPKINS<br /> -New York, N. Y. Newark, N. J.</p> -</div> - -<p class="p2 noic">Copyright, 1922<br /> -by<br /> -Barse & Hopkins</p> - -<hr class="r20" /> - -<p class="noic"><i>Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck</i></p> - -<p class="p4 noic">PRINTED IN THE U. S. A.</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h2>CONTENTS</h2> - - -<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> -<col style="width: 20%;" /> -<col style="width: 70%;" /> -<col style="width: 10%;" /> -<tr> - <th class="smfontr">CHAPTER</th> - <th class="tdl"></th> - <th class="smfontr">PAGE</th> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">I</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">Winkie Plays Tag</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">7</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">II</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">Winkie Hears a Noise</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">16</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">III</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">Winkie Finds a Way Out</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">27</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">IV</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">Winkie in the Woods</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">37</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">V</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">Winkie Meets Don</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">46</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">VI</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">Winkie in a Storm</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">55</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">VII</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">Winkie in a Trap</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">68</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">VIII</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">Winkie’s New Home</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">75</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">IX</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">Winkie Learns Tricks</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">86</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">X</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">Winkie Is in Danger</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">96</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">XI</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">Winkie Gets Out</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">104</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdrt">XII</td> - <td class="tdl smcap"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">Winkie Finds Her Folks</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">110</td> -</tr> -</table> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> - - -<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" summary="Illustrations"> -<col style="width: 80%;" /> -<col style="width: 20%;" /> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_frontis">“Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. Woodchuck</a></td> - <td class="tdrb"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> -</tr> -<tr> - <th class="tdl hang"> </th> - <th class="smfontr">PAGE</th> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p019">And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">19</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p043">By pulling and hauling they managed to get Mrs. -Woodchuck up and out</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">43</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p057">Caused Winkie to bump into a tree full tilt</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">57</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p083">Out toppled Winkie</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">83</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p099">She came out of her pen and did her tricks</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">99</td> -</tr> -<tr> - <td class="tdl hang"><a href="#i_p115">Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle</a></td> - <td class="tdrb">115</td> -</tr> -</table> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_7"></a>[7]</span></p> - - - - -<p class="noi title">WINKIE, THE WILY<br /> -WOODCHUCK</p> - - - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I<br /> -<small>WINKIE PLAYS TAG</small></h2> -</div> - -<p class="cap">“What shall we do next?” asked Winkie, -the wily woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“Isn’t it too hot to do anything?” was -what Blinkie, her sister, wanted to know. “Let’s -just sit here by the front door, where we can -easily pop down into our underground house if -anything happens.”</p> - -<p>“Do you think anything is going to happen?” -asked Winkie, who was called wily because she -was so smart and careful, always on the lookout -for traps and danger. “If you think anything -is going to happen,” went on Winkie, speaking -to her sister, “I’m going in now and tell mother. -I’d tell pa, only he isn’t home yet from the woods, -where he went to get something special to eat.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t know that there is any special -danger,” said Blinkie, as she pawed out a bit of -thistle that had become stuck to her fur. “But -it’s too hot to do anything, Winkie.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_8"></a>[8]</span></p> - -<p>“Except to eat clover,” half grunted Blunk, -who was the woodchuck brother of Winkie and -Blinkie. “Let’s go over in the farmer’s big field -and eat a lot more clover,” suggested Blunk. -You know clover is what woodchucks like best -of all.</p> - -<p>“Clover!” laughed Winkie, tapping her -brother playfully on his black nose. “If you eat -any more clover, Blunk, it will run out of your -ears, as grandma says.”</p> - -<p>“Pooh! I never eat too much clover!” boasted -Blunk. “And I’m going over to the field now -and get some more. Do you girls want to -come?” he asked. “I know where there’s some -clover with red blossoms.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s too hot to move, especially with this -thick fur we have to wear,” said Blinkie. “In -the winter it isn’t bad; but now, with summer -coming on, I wish I didn’t have so much fur.”</p> - -<p>“Some of it will fall out, so mother said,” -explained Winkie. “She told me that the fur -of all woodchucks and other animals like us -gets thinner in summer.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’m glad of it,” sighed Blinkie, stretching -out her two front paws lazily. “I’m so warm -now I don’t know what to do!”</p> - -<p>“Let’s slide down the back-door hole inside -our burrow,” suggested Winkie. “We can have -fun that way, and it’s nice and cool away down<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_9"></a>[9]</span> -deep underground. Let’s slide down the back-door -hole!”</p> - -<p>Woodchucks, you know, have two holes, or -doors, leading into their houses, which are dug -in the earth below the surface. The reason for -this is that if a fox, or other pursuing animal, -chases them down one hole they can run out the -other.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I don’t want to slide down any holes!” -complained Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“Nor I,” added Blunk. “I’m going over after -clover.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t let the farmer catch you eating his -clover, or he may set a trap for you or fire his -gun at you,” warned Blinkie, as her brother -waddled off, his little short legs slowly carrying -his rather fat body.</p> - -<p>“I’ll be careful,” promised Blunk.</p> - -<p>Winkie stood for a moment near the edge of -the sloping hole that led down into the dark -underground house. This hole was the front -door of the little woodchuck’s home. The back -door was around behind a big rock. The hole -had been used so often by the woodchuck family -when crawling in and out that the bottom of it -was worn smooth. When it rained, and the earth -became wet, the front entrance to the burrow -was very slippery.</p> - -<p>But the back door had been dug down through<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_10"></a>[10]</span> -some earth that had in it many shale-rocks—that -is rocks which were little flat pieces of smooth -stone. On these it was almost as easy for a woodchuck -to slide as it is for a boy or girl to slide -or coast on the ice or snow. Winkie knew she -did not need to wait until it rained to have a slide -on the shale-covered back-door hole, and this she -was now eager to do. Only, she didn’t want to -play alone!</p> - -<p>“Please come on and slide with me,” begged -Winkie of Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“No, indeed!” answered the other woodchuck -girl. “It’s too warm. I’m going to sleep.”</p> - -<p>“Well, I’ll have to go by myself then,” said -Winkie, a bit sadly. “Will you play after you -wake up, Blinkie?”</p> - -<p>“Maybe—maybe,” answered Blinkie, sleepily.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I never saw such creatures!” murmured -Winkie, as she ran along, giving a look toward -her sister and a glance over into the next field -where Blunk was nibbling clover. “All they -think about is eating and sleeping! I’m going to -do something! I wish I could have some adventures! -That’s what I wish—adventures!</p> - -<p>“Flop Ear, the rabbit who used to live here before -he went away, had lots of adventures. He -told me so when he came here on a visit. Oh -dear! I wonder if I’ll ever have any adventures?”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_11"></a>[11]</span></p> - -<p>Had she only known it, Winkie was, even then, -about to start some very wonderful adventures, -which I will tell you about.</p> - -<p>But just at present all there seemed for the -little girl woodchuck to do was to slide down -the back-door hole of her underground home. -And this she did until she was tired.</p> - -<p>She would gather her paws under her, sit -down on the smooth shale-rocks at the top of -the hole, give herself a little push, and down she -would go, landing in the big underground earth-room, -where all the woodchucks of this one family -lived.</p> - -<p>“My goodness, Winkie! what are you doing?” -cried her mother, who was having a nap all by -herself.</p> - -<p>“Just sliding down the hole,” answered -Winkie. “Blinkie and Blunk won’t play with -me, so I have to slide all alone.”</p> - -<p>Mrs. Woodchuck did not answer, for she had -fallen asleep once more. But she awakened -when Winkie came sliding down again, and the -mother of the little animal girl said:</p> - -<p>“I wish, Winkie, you’d go somewhere else to -play. I want to sleep, and you wake me up every -time you land.”</p> - -<p>“All right, Mother, I’ll see if I can get Blunk -and Blinkie to play tag,” said Winkie, for she -was a good little thing.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_12"></a>[12]</span></p> - -<p>Taking just one more slide, while her mother -was still awake, Winkie crawled up the back-door -hole again, and went softly to Blinkie’s -side. Blinkie was still slumbering.</p> - -<p>“Tag! You’re it!” suddenly cried Winkie in -her sister’s ear.</p> - -<p>“What’s that? You’re going to put me in a -bag? Oh, please, Mr. Farmer, don’t put me -in a bag!” begged Blinkie. “I didn’t take any -of your clover!”</p> - -<p>“Ha! Ha!” laughed Winkie, as Blinkie sat -up, rubbing her eyes. “You must have been -dreaming that you were over in the field with -Blunk, taking clover! I’m not a farmer, and -I haven’t any bag. I just cried, ‘Tag! You’re it!’ -Come on and play!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s you,” said Blinkie, not frightened -now that she saw only her sister. “Yes, I was -dreaming. And when you awakened me so suddenly -I thought you were a farmer trying to -catch me in a bag.”</p> - -<p>“Well, come on and have a little tag game and -you’ll feel better,” advised Winkie. “I can’t -slide any more because mother wants to sleep. -Let’s play tag!”</p> - -<p>“You go and tag Blunk,” suggested Blinkie. -“I’ll be wider awake after that, and then I’ll -play. Go and tag Blunk.”</p> - -<p>“All right,” agreed Winkie, who was very<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_13"></a>[13]</span> -obliging. “I hope he hasn’t fallen asleep from -eating too much clover,” she added.</p> - -<p>But Blunk was wide awake. He was sitting -up on his haunches, as a dog sits up to beg, and -he was slowly nipping off the sweet clover tops -and the tender leaves, chewing them very contentedly.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Winkie! So you came over, after all, -to get something to eat, did you?” asked Blunk.</p> - -<p>“No, I came to see you,” replied Winkie. -“Tag! You’re it!” she suddenly cried, tapping -her brother with an extended paw, and then -springing away before he could touch her. -“Come on! Chase me!”</p> - -<p>Blunk was fonder of games than was his sister -Blinkie, who, to tell the truth, was a bit lazy. So -when Blunk found he was “it,” he made up his -mind not to stay that way any longer than -need be.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’ll tag you all right!” he cried, racing -after his sister Winkie. “I’ll tag you!”</p> - -<p>“If you do, then I’ll tag Blinkie and we can -have a regular game!” merrily laughed Winkie, -as she sprang over a clump of clover. “This is -more fun than sliding down the back-hole door -all alone, or even going to sleep. Come on, -Blunk! Let’s see you tag me!” she cried.</p> - -<p>Nearly always when the woodchuck children -played a game of tag, or any other running game,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_14"></a>[14]</span> -Blunk would easily catch Winkie or Blinkie. -For, being a boy woodchuck and strong, he could -go faster than the girls. And this time Blunk -thought he would have no trouble in tapping -Winkie with his paw, tagging her and making -her “it.”</p> - -<p>But Blunk forgot about all the clover he had -eaten. He had, I am sorry to say, rather stuffed -himself. He had eaten too much, but not -enough to make himself ill, for animals know -better than that. But Blunk had swallowed so -much clover that his little stomach was sticking -out like a toy balloon, and this made him so -heavy that he could not run fast.</p> - -<p>Because of this, Winkie could easily keep -ahead of him. On and on ran the wily little -girl woodchuck, laughing and teasing her -brother because he could not catch her to tag -her.</p> - -<p>“Come on! Come on!” cried Winkie. “Why -don’t you tag me, Blunk?”</p> - -<p>“I will—in a—minute!” panted Blunk. “I—I -haven’t started—running—yet!”</p> - -<p>He was getting out of breath, and he was beginning -to wish he had done what Winkie had -asked him to do at first—come and play with -her—instead of eating so much clover.</p> - -<p>“But I’ll catch her after a while. I always -do,” thought Blunk to himself, as he raced on<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_15"></a>[15]</span> -and on, while Winkie, the wily woodchuck, -dashed this way and that, making quick turns, -which was the best way of avoiding her brother.</p> - -<p>“I never knew her to keep away from me so -long as this—before. I—I guess I ate too much -clover!” panted Blunk.</p> - -<p>“I know you did!” called Winkie, laughing, -for her brother had said this last thought aloud. -“Ha! Ha! You can’t tag me!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I can! There! Now you’re it!” cried -Blunk.</p> - -<p>He gave a sudden jump, and so did Winkie, -for she wanted to keep from being tagged as long -as possible. Just as she and Blunk leaped, a -harsh voice cried:</p> - -<p>“Ha! There’s them pesky woodchucks in my -clover again! I’ll fix ’em!”</p> - -<p>There was a loud bang, like a clap of thunder, -and as Blunk looked back he saw his sister falling -in a crumpled heap.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_16"></a>[16]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II<br /> -<small>WINKIE HEARS A NOISE</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Blunk, the boy woodchuck, was so -frightened by what he heard and especially -by what he saw—his sister falling -in a heap amid the clover—that for a little while -he could do nothing. He stopped short, and hid -down under a big bunch of the red blossoms and -green leaves.</p> - -<p>“Oh! Oh! What has happened?” thought -poor Blunk.</p> - -<p>It was not the noise that he minded, for he -had often heard thunder when rain storms made -the ground wet. Though now there was not a -cloud in the sky, which was bright blue, and the -sun was gaily shining. So it could not have -been thunder.</p> - -<p>“There!” cried the man. “I guess I shot one -of them pesky woodchucks that time! I’ll teach -’em to take my clover!”</p> - -<p>There was a queer smell in the air—a powder -smell, though Blunk did not know what it was -then. And there was a little cloud of blue smoke -near Farmer Tottle, for it was he who had fired -the gun at Blunk and Winkie.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_17"></a>[17]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, sir!” went on the farmer, lowering his -gun, from the end of which more blue smoke -floated. “I got one of the woodchucks!”</p> - -<p>“Ha!” suddenly cried Winkie, jumping up -from the grass and clover where she was hidden -near Blunk. “He didn’t get me!”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” cried Blunk, who was less quick-witted -than his wily sister and who was very much surprised -when Winkie leaped up so suddenly. -“Oh, I’m so glad! I thought something had happened -to you, Winkie!”</p> - -<p>“Something really did happen,” said the girl -woodchuck. “Keep still, Blunk! Don’t move! -Don’t look up!”</p> - -<p>“Why not?”</p> - -<p>“Because that man might shoot you! He’s -got a gun! I saw him pointing it, and, just in -time, I stumbled and fell.”</p> - -<p>“On purpose?” asked Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Yes! Of course! Suppose I wanted to get -shot? Keep still now!”</p> - -<p>The two little woodchucks kept close together -and hid themselves down under the clover tops. -They could hear the heavy, tramping feet of -Farmer Tottle, though of course they did not -know his name.</p> - -<p>“Keep still now—he’s coming!” whispered -Winkie to Blunk. The little girl woodchuck -really did not need to tell her brother this.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_18"></a>[18]</span> -Blunk, though slower witted than the wily Winkie, -was not foolish, and did not need be warned -of his danger.</p> - -<p>Of course they talked in woodchuck language, -just as dogs talk in their language and cats in -theirs. Winkie and Blunk could not understand -what the man said, though they understood some -of the things he did. Nor could Farmer Tottle -hear, much less understand, what the woodchucks -said. Animals seem able to talk to one -another, even if they are from different countries -and are quite different one from the other.</p> - -<p>Nearer and nearer came the heavy, tramping -feet of the farmer. Winkie and Blunk wanted -to dart away and hide in their underground -house, but they did not dare come out from beneath -the sheltering clover.</p> - -<p>“That’s funny!” muttered the farmer to himself. -“I’m sure I shot one of them pesky woodchucks, -but I can’t find it! There were two, -but they’ve got away somewhere. If I only had -Buster, my dog, he’d nose ’em out. Guess that’s -what I’ll do—I’ll go get Buster!”</p> - -<p>Winkie and Blunk kept so quiet under the -clover that though the farmer was very close -to them he did not see them. And when he -turned to go back to the barn, to get his dog -Buster, Winkie and Blunk thought this would -be a good time for them to run home.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_19"></a>[19]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p019"> - <img src="images/i_p019.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_20">And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did.</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_20"></a>[20-<br />21]</span></p> - -<p>Of course they did not know the farmer had -gone after his dog, but the woodchuck children -knew they had been in danger; and where there -is danger once for an animal, there may be danger -a second time.</p> - -<p>“Come on, Winkie!” said Blunk in a low -voice, as the footsteps of the farmer died away -in the distance. “Let’s run!”</p> - -<p>“Do you want to play tag any more?” asked -Winkie, astonished.</p> - -<p>“Tag? No, indeed!” exclaimed her brother. -“All I want to do is to get home. And you’d -better come with me. It’s a good thing Blinkie -didn’t come, for if there were three of us that -man might more easily have seen one of us. -Come on now—let’s run!”</p> - -<p><a href="#i_p019">And run home is what Winkie and Blunk did.</a> -They ran as fast as when they had been playing -tag. But this was no joyful race; it was a race -full of danger. For there was no telling when -the farmer might shoot his gun again, or when -he might return with his dog.</p> - -<p>Though Winkie and Blunk felt pretty safe as -they ran through the deep clover, they also felt -their little hearts beating very fast as they neared -their burrow, or underground house.</p> - -<p>“My goodness!” exclaimed Blinkie, in woodchuck -talk, as her brother and sister came leaping<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_22"></a>[22]</span> -up to the front door. “What’s your hurry on -such a hot day?”</p> - -<p>“Hurry?” gasped Blunk. “I guess you’d be -in a hurry if you’d seen and heard what happened -to us! Wouldn’t she, Winkie?”</p> - -<p>“Indeed she would!” said Winkie. “Oh, such -a terrible time!”</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter?” asked Mother Woodchuck, -coming up into the air after her sleep. -“What’s all the excitement about?”</p> - -<p>“We were playing tag,” began Winkie, “when -all at once there was a noise like thunder—”</p> - -<p>“But it wasn’t thunder. It was a man with a -gun shooting at us,” interrupted Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Oh, my dears! A man with a gun, shooting!” -cried Mrs. Woodchuck. “Oh, my poor -children! What shall we do? I wish your -father was home! Oh, this is dreadful!”</p> - -<p>“Don’t worry, Mother!” said Blunk kindly. -“We ran away from the man with the gun, and -I don’t believe he can find us. And neither of -us got shot. Winkie threw herself down in the -clover and hid just in time.” Blunk was proud -of his clever, wily sister.</p> - -<p>“Oh, but suppose he comes here!” cried Mrs. -Woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe he can find our burrow,” said -Blinkie, a bit proudly. “Daddy and you made<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_23"></a>[23]</span> -our underground house in a place that isn’t easy -to find.”</p> - -<p>“Besides, it has two doors,” said Winkie. -“And you told us that made it much safer, -Mother.”</p> - -<p>“I suppose it is as safe as any house can be,” -said the woodchuck lady. “Still, even with two -doors, something may happen. I wish your -father would come home.”</p> - -<p>And a little later Mr. Woodchuck came home. -In his paws he carried some yellow carrots and -a white turnip.</p> - -<p>“See what I have brought for you!” he cried, -as he scrambled down the front door of the underground -house.</p> - -<p>“Oh, how lovely!” cried Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“Why, what is the matter?” asked Mr. Woodchuck, -dropping the carrots and the turnip in a -heap on the floor. “Has anything happened?” -he asked, for he could tell by looking at his wife -and children that something was wrong.</p> - -<p>“Winkie and Blunk were in great danger to-day,” -said Mrs. Woodchuck. “And I am afraid -we shall have to move out of our lovely home. -Tell your father about the man with the gun, -children!”</p> - -<p>Winkie and Blunk related what had happened -in the clover field when they were playing tag.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_24"></a>[24]</span> -At the end of the story Mr. Woodchuck looked -as worried as did his wife.</p> - -<p>“What are we going to do?” asked the woodchuck -mother, looking anxiously at her husband. -“Shall we have to move?”</p> - -<p>“Let me think a minute,” said the father woodchuck. -“Tell me,” he went on, speaking to Winkie -and Blunk. “Did the man follow you all -the way to our burrow?”</p> - -<p>“No. He turned around and went back after -he shot at us and didn’t hit either of us,” said -Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Well, then,” went on the father woodchuck, -“I think we shall be safe here for another day or -so. Men are stupid creatures. It is only by accident -that he could find this burrow.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe his dog could,” suggested Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Yes, a dog is smarter than a man when it -comes to that,” said Mr. Woodchuck. “But -don’t worry any more right away. Eat the good -things I brought home, and I will think what -is best to do.”</p> - -<p>The three woodchuck children, Winkie, Blinkie, -and Blunk, soon forgot their troubles in eating -the sweet carrots and turnip. Even though -Blunk had eaten so much clover he could hardly -run, he was now ready for the good things his -father had brought home.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_25"></a>[25]</span></p> - -<p>“Where did you get them?” asked Blinkie, -nibbling the end of a carrot.</p> - -<p>“I found them in a field,” answered Mr. -Woodchuck. “There were so many I don’t believe -the farmer will mind my taking a few.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe they were planted by the same man -who fired a gun at Winkie and me,” suggested -Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Maybe,” said his father. “Why don’t you -eat some?” he asked his wife, for she had not -even nibbled the outside skin of the turnip.</p> - -<p>“I am too worried to eat!” she answered. “I -hate to think of having to move.”</p> - -<p>“Perhaps we may not be driven to that,” said -Mr. Woodchuck, who was more cheerful than -his wife. “And if we do, we can easily dig a -new burrow, or find a place to stay. This is -summer, and the ground is soft.</p> - -<p>“I’ll tell you what we’ll do,” he went on. -“We’ll be ready to run away at the slightest sign -of danger. If that farmer comes to our front -door we’ll run out the back door; and if he -comes to the back door we’ll skip out the front, -and all will be well.”</p> - -<p>“It sounds all right,” said Mother Woodchuck. -“I only hope it happens that way.”</p> - -<p>But it did not. Things in the woodchuck -world, just as in your world and mine, very often<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_26"></a>[26]</span> -do not turn out the way they are expected to. -For several days, however, after the game of tag -and the shooting of the gun, nothing happened -in the woodchuck home. For a time Winkie, -Blinkie, and Blunk hardly poked their noses -outside the back or front door. But as the days -passed and no farmer with his gun and dog -came, the children became bolder.</p> - -<p>They played tag and other games and ate the -clover and the other good things their father -and mother brought home. Then, one morning, -just as Mr. Woodchuck was starting out to go -to a distant field, and when the children were -about to go out and play, Winkie held up her -paw and said:</p> - -<p>“Listen! I hear a noise!”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_27"></a>[27]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III<br /> -<small>WINKIE FINDS A WAY OUT</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Just as soon as Winkie told the other woodchucks -to be quiet and listen, they all remained -as still as though frozen in their -places. Not one made a move. This is what -wild animals always do when they hear or see -anything strange. They stay quiet for just a -moment or two before making up their minds -what is best to do to save themselves from danger. -And that danger was at hand Winkie, the -wily woodchuck, felt sure.</p> - -<p>As I have told you, she was the smartest of -all the woodchuck children, and that is why her -mother nicknamed her “Wily,” which means -smart and cunning.</p> - -<p>“I don’t hear anything!” whispered Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Hark!” cautioned Winkie once more.</p> - -<p>This time they all heard it. Silently they listened -in their underground house to the strange -noise. It was up above them—a thudding, rasping, -scraping sound.</p> - -<p>“What can it be?” asked Mrs. Woodchuck. -She spoke in a whisper, as, indeed, they all did,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_28"></a>[28]</span> -for they knew their little whispering voices could -not be heard outside their burrow.</p> - -<p>“I don’t know what it is,” answered Mr. -Woodchuck. “But whatever it is I’m glad -Winkie heard it before I started out; otherwise -I might have run right into danger!”</p> - -<p>“Do you suppose it’s that farmer looking for -us?” asked Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“Or his dog?” added Blunk.</p> - -<p>“If it’s a dog maybe I could fool him in some -way!” said Winkie.</p> - -<p>“How can you fool a dog?” Winkie’s mother -asked.</p> - -<p>“I can poke my nose out of the back door, and -when he sees me I’ll duck down in here again,” -explained Winkie.</p> - -<p>“What good will that do?” asked Daddy -Woodchuck. “You would only be running your -nose into danger!”</p> - -<p>“Well, but listen!” exclaimed Winkie, and she -was so eager that she forgot to speak in a whisper -until her mother said:</p> - -<p>“Hush! Keep quiet!”</p> - -<p>“All right,” hissed Winkie. “But this is what -I could do. I could poke my nose out of our -back door. The dog would see me, and run to -get me. I’d duck down in here, and the dog -would begin digging at the back door to make -it big enough for him to come down.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_29"></a>[29]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s just what the dog would do,” -sighed Mrs. Woodchuck. “I know dogs, to my -sorrow! Once one bit me on the leg!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, but wait!” went on Winkie eagerly. -“While the dog was digging at our back door we -could run out the front.”</p> - -<p>“That’s a good idea!” exclaimed Blunk. “But -I think I’m the one to do it, and not Winkie.”</p> - -<p>“No! No!” exclaimed Mr. Woodchuck. “I -see your trick, Winkie, and it is very good of you -to think of it and good of Blunk to offer to do it. -But it is too dangerous! The dog might dig his -way in here through the back door before we had -a chance to run out the front. And who knows -but what the farmer with his gun may be waiting -up above for us! No, we will stay right here -safe in our burrow. I don’t believe they will -find us here.”</p> - -<p>“But what is that strange noise?” asked Blinkie. -“There it sounds again!”</p> - -<p>Indeed there came once more that strange -noise which Winkie had first heard. The rumbling -kept up, and now and then came a pounding -as if heavy feet were tramping on the ground -overhead.</p> - -<p>“Oh, that must be the farmer trying to break -his way in here with his heavy boots!” cried -Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“Hush! Do you want him to hear you?”<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_30"></a>[30]</span> -whispered Winkie, and her sister grew quiet.</p> - -<p>As the woodchuck family listened, the noise -grew louder, and then, very plainly, they all -heard a man’s voice shouting:</p> - -<p>“Whoa!”</p> - -<p>Instantly the noise stopped.</p> - -<p>“That was the farmer!” exclaimed Blunk. “I -know his voice!”</p> - -<p>“What was he saying?” asked Blinkie.</p> - -<p>No one could tell her, of course, for the woodchucks -did not understand man talk, any more -than the farmer understood animal language. -But Blinkie made a guess.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps that farmer was talking to his dog,” -she said.</p> - -<p>“Maybe,” agreed her mother. “I hope neither -of them finds his way down here!”</p> - -<p>But the farmer was not talking to his dog. -One doesn’t say “whoa!” to dogs, one says it to -horses. And that is to whom the farmer called -the word which means stop.</p> - -<p>“Whoa there now!” cried Farmer Tottle -again. “Stand still, can’t you? Want to drag -this plow over all them rocks? I’ve got to blast -’em out. That’s what I’ve got to do. These -rocks and stumps are in the way, and I’m going -to get some powder and blow ’em to bits. What -with big stones on my farm, and the pesky woodchucks<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_31"></a>[31]</span> -eating the clover, I won’t have enough -left to buy me a new shirt at the end of the year. -Stand still, can’t you? Not that I blame you -much for not wanting to plow in this field of -rocks,” he went on. “Guess I’ll go and get some -powder and blow ’em up now. I’ll finish plowing -to-morrow.”</p> - -<p>It was this noise of the plow rasping and cutting -its way through the earth over their heads, -and the heavy thud of the hoofs of the horses, -that Winkie and the other woodchucks had heard -down in their burrow.</p> - -<p>There was silence while Farmer Tottle was -thinking of the best way to blast the rocks from -his field, not far from the clover patch where -Blunk and Winkie had played tag that day. -Then, having made up his mind what he would -do, Mr. Tottle turned his team around and -drove them back to the barn.</p> - -<p>“The noise isn’t so loud now,” whispered -Winkie, after a bit.</p> - -<p>“No. Maybe nothing is going to happen after -all,” said Blinkie.</p> - -<p>But the danger was over only for a little while. -The noise stopped as Farmer Tottle drove away, -and, for a time, the ground-hogs thought everything -was going to be all right. Ground-hog -is another name for the woodchuck.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_32"></a>[32]</span></p> - -<p>“I guess I can go out now,” said Mr. Woodchuck, -when an hour or more had passed and -there were no more thumping sounds and no further -cries of “Whoa!”</p> - -<p>Mr. Woodchuck went softly to the back-door -of the burrow. He crept up the little incline, or -hill, that led to out-of-doors, and he was just -poking his nose out when, all at once, there -sounded a loud:</p> - -<p><em>Bang!</em></p> - -<p>And that was not the worst! As the loud noise -sounded, louder than any thunder the ground-hogs -had ever heard, Mr. Woodchuck came slipping, -sliding, and half falling back into the -burrow.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Nib! what has happened?” cried Mrs. -Woodchuck. “Nib” was a pet name for her -husband. “Are you shot?” she asked. “I’m sure -I heard a gun!”</p> - -<p>“It was the biggest gun I ever heard shot off, -if that’s what it was!” said Mr. Woodchuck. -“It fairly stunned me! Why, I fell right over -backward, and a lot of little stones and dirt flew -in my face!”</p> - -<p>“Did the farmer see you and shoot at you?” -asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“No. He couldn’t see me, for I hadn’t yet -poked my nose outside,” answered the father. -“I don’t understand what happened!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_33"></a>[33]</span></p> - -<p>Blunk, just like a boy, had run to the back-door -to be near the scene of excitement. Now -he came running back, all out of breath.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “Our -back-door hole is closed up! It’s full of -dirt and stones, and nobody can get out that -way!”</p> - -<p>“You don’t tell me!” cried his father, who was, -by this time, getting over the shock. “I must -take a look!”</p> - -<p>Timidly, all the woodchucks followed him to -the back-door. Just as Blunk had said, a lot of -earth and stones had caved in, completely filling -up the passage way and the door.</p> - -<p>“No getting out there,” said Winkie, for she -had been quicker than any of the others to see -what had happened.</p> - -<p>“Hurry!” cried her father. “We must try -the front-door hole! I think I know what happened. -The farmer shot off his gun down our -back-door hole and blew it shut!”</p> - -<p>But alas for this woodchuck family! As Mr. -Woodchuck was patting and tapping Winkie, -Blinkie, and Blunk with his paws to make them -run faster, and just as they were close to the -front-door hole, there came another loud sound, -and the earth trembled under the paws of the -little animals.</p> - -<p>“Oh! Oh, dear!” whined Blinkie.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_34"></a>[34]</span></p> - -<p>“Dear me! I hope no one is hurt,” said Mrs. -Woodchuck. “This is dreadful!”</p> - -<p>No one was hurt; but they were all covered -with moist earth that had rattled down on them. -But as woodchucks are always burrowing and -digging in the earth, this did not matter.</p> - -<p>Daddy Woodchuck scrambled on ahead of the -others until he reached the front door.</p> - -<p>“Just as I feared!” he sadly said. “This door -is closed too! We are prisoners here in our -burrow!”</p> - -<p>“You don’t mean to tell me the front-door hole -is closed up, like the back door!” cried his wife.</p> - -<p>“Yes, that is what happened,” answered her -husband. “The farmer has shot both our doors -shut! We can’t get out!”</p> - -<p>This last part was true enough, but not the -first. Farmer Tottle had not exactly shot shut -the two door holes of the Woodchucks’ underground -house. He had blasted some rocks in his -field, using powder to blow up the big stones. -It was the shock of the blastings that had closed -the doors of the burrow. Dirt and rocks had -been shaken into the passages until they were -almost completely filled, and none of the children, -to say nothing of big Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck, -could squeeze their way past.</p> - -<p>“What are we going to do?” cried Mrs. Woodchuck.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_35"></a>[35]</span></p> - -<p>“Shall we have to stay here forever?” asked -Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“We can’t stay here forever!” exclaimed -Blunk. “There isn’t anything to eat down here, -and we’ll starve!”</p> - -<p>“Oh! Don’t talk that way!” faintly screamed -Blinkie.</p> - -<p>“Maybe we can find a way out,” suggested -Winkie, who always looked on the bright side.</p> - -<p>“That’s so!” exclaimed her father. “This is -no time for sitting down and biting one’s paws. -We must look for a way out! Come, Blunk, -you and I will try the back-door again. And, -Mother, you take Winkie and Blinkie and try -the front-door. Maybe there is a little hole -which we can dig larger, and so get out through -it. Look sharp!”</p> - -<p>This was better than sitting still sighing; at -least so Winkie felt. But while her mother and -sister went to the front-door hole, and her father -and brother to the back door, the wily little -woodchuck nosed off by herself. She remembered -that once, when she was playing hide-and-seek -with Blunk and Blinkie she had hidden herself -in a side passage of the burrow. The passage -was larger and longer than she had at first -thought, and she had made up her mind, after -the game, to see where it went. But, somehow -or other, she had never done this.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_36"></a>[36]</span></p> - -<p>“But I’m going into that hole now and see if -it leads anywhere,” thought Winkie. “Maybe -it’s a tunnel that will let us out.”</p> - -<p>Winkie could see quite well in the dark. She -soon found her old hiding-place, and, going to -the far end, where she had never before been, she -looked upward. To her delight she saw a little -bit of daylight gleaming. Scrambling her way -forward, Winkie began to dig. She had soon -made a larger hole. She put her nose close to -this, and could smell fresh air.</p> - -<p>Much excited, Winkie climbed down and ran -to the middle of the burrow, just as her father -and Blunk came from the back door.</p> - -<p>“There is no way out there,” said Mr. Woodchuck -sadly.</p> - -<p>“Nor at the front!” added Mrs. Woodchuck, -coming back with Blinkie. “But where have -you been, Winkie?”</p> - -<p>“I think I have found a way out!” cried the -wily woodchuck. “Yes, I am sure I have. -Come! I’ll show you!”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_37"></a>[37]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV<br /> -<small>WINKIE IN THE WOODS</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">The family of woodchucks huddled close -together in the middle of the underground -house of earth in which they had -lived so happily for many months. It was dark -down there, but they did not mind that. It was -home to them, the same as your house is home -to you. And though there were no tables nor -chairs, no pictures on the wall and no piano, -still there were things there that the woodchucks -cared for as much as you care for the things -in your house.</p> - -<p>Winkie, Blinkie, and Blunk had brought in -bits of wood and stones with which they played. -Their parents had carried in things to eat, and -bits of these were stored in different places that -Mrs. Woodchuck might call her cupboards.</p> - -<p>But the woodchucks were to be driven from -their home. In fact, they were very glad to get -out, for, no matter how fine a house is, one never -wants to be shut up there forever.</p> - -<p>If some one closed all the doors and windows -of your house tight, so that no air or sunshine<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_38"></a>[38]</span> -could get in, I think you would be as glad to -find a way out as Winkie was.</p> - -<p>“Do you think you really have found a way -to get out, Winkie?” asked her father anxiously.</p> - -<p>“I’m quite sure I have,” she answered. “I -found a hole, near a side burrow where I played -one day. I could stick my nose out and breathe -fresh air. And we can easily make the hole -larger.”</p> - -<p>All at once there was another of those loud, -rumbling sounds. It shook the earth, and the -woodchucks, cowering in their burrow, trembled -in fear.</p> - -<p>Bang! down came a big clod of dirt from the -roof of their burrow, scattering to pieces in the -middle of the floor.</p> - -<p>“Oh my! what’s that?” shrieked Blinkie.</p> - -<p>Again there came a rumble, as another blast -was set off. If the woodchucks had been above -ground they would have seen a great rock fly to -pieces as the powder broke it up. But down in -their burrow there was trouble enough. For -a second clod of earth fell, almost hitting -Winkie. If it had hit her there would have been -no story to tell, for that would have been the end -of poor Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Come! We must get out of here!” cried her -father, as the second large chunk of dirt and -stones fell from the roof. “Show us the way<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_39"></a>[39]</span> -out you think you have found, Winkie. For -neither your mother nor I saw any way.”</p> - -<p>“Come with me!” called the wily little woodchuck -girl, and she led them toward the side -burrow where she had seen the daylight peeping -through.</p> - -<p>It was so narrow that there was room for only -two of the animals to walk side by side. Winkie -went with her father to show him what she had -found.</p> - -<p>“See! There is daylight!” cried Winkie at -last. “And you can smell the fresh air!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, so you can!” cried Mr. Woodchuck, -taking a long breath. “We are saved, I think!”</p> - -<p>Still there was much digging to be done before -the hole could be made large enough for -the woodchucks to get out. They were all rather -plump, for they lived on rich clover. And Mrs. -Woodchuck was really quite fat, though I -shouldn’t like to have her know that I called -her that, for perhaps she wouldn’t like it.</p> - -<p>“We must make the hole large enough for -your mother,” said Mr. Woodchuck to Winkie. -“It will take some little time.”</p> - -<p>“I’ll help!” offered Blunk, and, as he was a -strong woodchuck boy, his father told Blunk to -come up in place of Winkie and use his paws. -Of course girl woodchucks can dig burrows fully -as well as the woodchuck boys can, but there was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_40"></a>[40]</span> -no need as yet for Blinkie, Winkie, and Mrs. -Woodchuck to work at the digging when there -was room for only two to work and there were -two “men” in the burrow. And Blunk was beginning -to think of himself as almost a man -woodchuck.</p> - -<p>Now and again, as Blunk and his father dug to -make larger the hole Winkie had discovered, -there came that rumbling sound, like far-off -thunder. Farmer Tottle was still blasting.</p> - -<p>But the woodchucks were some distance from -it now, and no more lumps of earth fell on them. -With their paws Mr. Woodchuck and Blunk -dug away, throwing the dirt behind them. By -this time Mrs. Woodchuck and the two girl -Woodchucks had set to work thrusting the dirt -to one side so they would have room to get out -when the time came.</p> - -<p>At last the hole was made large enough, and -Mr. Woodchuck could thrust his head out. He -looked all around, sniffed to see if he could smell -danger, listened with both his ears, and then -called down to the others:</p> - -<p>“Come on! It’s all right! Thanks to Winkie, -we are now getting out of our stopped-up -burrow, though I thought we never should.”</p> - -<p>“Let the children go up first,” said Mrs. -Woodchuck. And Winkie, having found the -way, was the first to follow her father outside the<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_41"></a>[41]</span> -underground house, through the extra hole that -had been dug.</p> - -<p>“Why, it’s black night!” cried Winkie, as she -scrambled out beside Mr. Woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“Yes, it’s dark, so much the better for us,” said -Mr. Woodchuck. “That farmer and his dog -won’t see us.”</p> - -<p>Night had come while the woodchucks dug to -free themselves from the caved-in burrow.</p> - -<p>Up came Blinkie, and then Blunk.</p> - -<p>“Now, Mother, it’s your turn!” called Mr. -Woodchuck down the hole.</p> - -<p>Up scrambled Mrs. Woodchuck. Large as -Blunk and his father had made the opening, it -was hardly large enough for fat Mrs. Woodchuck, -and she grunted as she pushed her way -through it. Then she came to a sudden stop, -half-way.</p> - -<p>“Come on!” cried her husband. “Come, -mother! We must get away from here and find -a new home.”</p> - -<p>“I—I can’t!” panted Mrs. Woodchuck. “I -can’t come any farther, Nib!”</p> - -<p>“Why not?” he asked.</p> - -<p>“Because I’m stuck! I—I didn’t know I was -so—so stout!”</p> - -<p>“Here, children!” cried Mr. Woodchuck. -“Catch hold of your mother by her front paws<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_42"></a>[42]</span> -and give her a pull. We’ll have to help her out -of the hole.”</p> - -<p><a href="#i_p043">By pulling and hauling, they managed to get -Mrs. Woodchuck up and out.</a> Then the little -animal family stood together outside the new -hole that had been dug. Down below them was -their burrow, no longer of any use, for the two -door holes had been closed by the fall of rocks -and earth, caused by Mr. Tottle’s blasting.</p> - -<p>“Well, we haven’t any home now,” said Mrs. -Woodchuck, giving herself a little shake to get -rid of the dirt that clung to her fur.</p> - -<p>“What shall we do?” Blunk asked sadly.</p> - -<p>“Make a new home, of course!” answered his -father cheerfully.</p> - -<p>“But where can we stay to-night?” Blinkie -wanted to know.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we shall do very well!” replied Mrs. -Woodchuck. “This is the warm summer time, -and we really don’t need an underground house -now. We can stay in a hollow log in the woods.”</p> - -<p>“What is the woods?” asked Winkie. Though -the woodland trees grew not far from the burrow -house, Winkie had never been in the forest.</p> - -<p>“Come with your mother and me and we’ll -show you,” her father answered. “Follow me!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_43"></a>[43]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p043"> - <img src="images/i_p043.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_42">By pulling and hauling they managed to get -Mrs. Woodchuck up and out.</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_44"></a>[44-<br />45]</span></p> - -<p>Though it was dark, the other woodchucks -could see well enough to follow Mr. Woodchuck. -He led them across the field where Mr. Tottle -had been blasting that day. But now the farmer -was asleep in bed, and his dog was asleep also. -There was no one to see the escape of the woodchucks.</p> - -<p>Through the clover field they went, stopping -long enough to eat as much as they wanted, for -they were hungry. Then Mr. Woodchuck -ducked under a fence, the others followed, and -soon they found themselves in a darker, silent -place, where the moon did not shine and where -the stars did not glitter.</p> - -<p>“What place is this?” asked Winkie, in a whisper. -She was just a bit afraid.</p> - -<p>“This is the woods,” her father answered. -“We shall be safe in the dark, silent woods. Now -we’ll curl up in the warm, dry leaves and go to -sleep. In the morning we’ll find a hollow log, -and you can see what the woods are like, -Winkie.”</p> - -<p>Though she did not know it then, Winkie was -to have many adventures in these woods and the -country roundabout.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_46"></a>[46]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V<br /> -<small>WINKIE MEETS DON</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Tired by their hard work in making their -way out of their burrow, and weary with -the journey to the woods, Winkie, -Blinkie, and Blunk slept rather late the next -morning. Father and Mother Woodchuck -were up and astir early, however, rustling around -among the dried leaves.</p> - -<p>“How do you like it here, Mrs. Woodchuck?” -asked her husband in a whisper, for he did not -want to awaken the children.</p> - -<p>“Of course,” answered his wife, “it isn’t as -nice as the burrow we had to leave. But it will -do very well for the summer. I think it will -be very pleasant, if you think it will be safe.”</p> - -<p>“It will be safe enough,” declared Mr. Woodchuck. -“We can hide in the leaves and hollow -logs if danger comes. And we are not far from -the clover field. Besides, there is plenty of bark -here to gnaw.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, there is plenty of bark,” agreed Mrs. -Woodchuck, looking around at the trees, -through which the morning sun was just beginning -to shine. Woodchucks sometimes eat bark,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_47"></a>[47]</span> -you know, as well as clover. “Yes, there is plenty -of bark,” said Winkie’s mother again. “And I -had rather eat the <em>bark</em> of a tree than listen to -the <em>bark</em> of a dog,” she added, smiling as she -made this little joke.</p> - -<p>Mr. Woodchuck smiled, too—that is, as much -as woodchucks ever smile—and he felt happy. -When his wife made little jokes this way he -knew that she, too, was happy. Really, you -could hardly have blamed the woodchucks for -being unhappy, when they had to get out of -their underground house in the way they did.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I think we shall like it here in the -woods,” proceeded the woodchuck lady. “But -of course it would never do for winter.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, my, no!” agreed her husband. “When -winter comes we will dig ourselves a new burrow.”</p> - -<p>Just then Winkie awakened and cried out in -some fear:</p> - -<p>“Oh, where am I?”</p> - -<p>“Hush, Winkie! You’re all right!” her -mother called. “We are in our new home—in -the woods. You’ll like it very much!”</p> - -<p>“Oh!” murmured the wily woodchuck girl. -“I was dreaming, Mother, that I was playing -tag with Blunk, and he tickled me.”</p> - -<p>“Well, these leaves are tickling me!” cried -Brother Blunk, who just then awakened.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_48"></a>[48]</span></p> - -<p>They all laughed at this, and at Winkie’s -dream, and after they had washed themselves -they were ready for breakfast. I don’t mean to -say that the woodchucks went to a bathroom and -washed their faces and paws or took a bath as -you do when you get up in the morning. At -least, as you wash your faces and <em>hands</em> or take -a bath.</p> - -<p>But I am sure you have all seen a cat wash its -face; and though the woodchucks did not cleanse -themselves in just this way, they made their ruffled -fur smooth and sleek before they ate their -breakfast.</p> - -<p>After a few nibbles at the bark of some trees, -which they liked very much, the woodchucks -went over to the edge of the woods near the -clover field. There they ate some green leaves -and red blossoms.</p> - -<p>All at once they saw a flash of fire and a puff -of smoke, and they heard that rumbling sound -which had so frightened them before.</p> - -<p>“Look out!” cried Mr. Woodchuck.</p> - -<p>But there was no danger to the woodchucks -now, even though Farmer Tottle was again blasting -stumps and rocks in his field. The woodchucks, -however, were afraid, and back toward -the woods they ran. And as they did not keep -together, but scattered, it happened that, after<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_49"></a>[49]</span> -the first frightened rush, Winkie found herself -running along alone.</p> - -<p>It was the first time Winkie had ever been -in the woods, and the first time she had ever -been anywhere alone. Always, except perhaps -when very near the burrow, she had been with -her brother or sister, or father or mother. Now, -as she ran along, she looked on either side, she -peered amid the trees and under the bushes and -saw—no one! No Blinkie, no Blunk, no father, -no mother!</p> - -<p>“Oh, where are you?” cried Winkie, in woodchuck -language, of course. “Where are you -all?”</p> - -<p>But so frightened were the other woodchucks -that they had scurried here and there, one running -this way and the other that way until they -were widely separated. Neither Blinkie nor -Blunk, neither father nor mother was within -sound of Winkie’s voice.</p> - -<p>“Oh, what is going to happen to me?” cried -poor Winkie. “What is going to happen?”</p> - -<p>If she had been a real little girl, instead of an -animal one, Winkie might have cried, for she -was lost for the first time in her life, and away -from father, mother, brother and sister. I believe -almost any of you little girls, and probably -a good many of the boys, would have cried.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_50"></a>[50]</span></p> - -<p>But Winkie was a brave little woodchuck -girl, and she was also wily, which, as I have -told you, means smart and cunning.</p> - -<p>“No, I’m not going to cry!” said Winkie to -herself. “If I cry, and make a blubbery noise, -some of the farmer’s dogs may hear me and -chase me. Or maybe a fox will hear me. I’m -going to keep still and see if I can’t find Blinkie -and the others.”</p> - -<p>So saying, Winkie came to a stop in the midst -of her mad, frightened rush amid the dried -leaves. She became very quiet, listened and -looked about her. At first she could hear nothing -but the beating of her own little, frightened -heart and the whispering of the wind among the -trees. This last sound came to Winkie’s ears as -rather friendly. She was beginning to like it in -the big woods.</p> - -<p>“Perhaps nothing will harm me here,” she -said to herself. “And I may have adventures, -such as my father and mother have told me -about having had when they were younger.”</p> - -<p>Thinking thus made Winkie feel better. She -was not so frightened. Though she no longer -ran on as fast as when she had heard the distant -blast set off by Farmer Tottle, she still kept running.</p> - -<p>“For,” she said to herself, “I want to find my -father and mother if I can.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_51"></a>[51]</span></p> - -<p>So Winkie’s wanderings were all done toward -the end of finding her family again, and the adventures -came in between, so to speak.</p> - -<p>After her run Winkie began to feel a bit -thirsty, as most wild animals do when they journey -fast through the woods or fields. The wily -little woodchuck looked about for some water to -drink. Winkie could smell water as you smell -cookies baking in your mother’s oven, and it did -not take the ground-hog girl long to reach a little -stream. She was thirstily drinking when, -all of a sudden, she heard a noise.</p> - -<p>She stopped drinking, and looked across the -little brook. There she saw, sitting on the opposite -bank, a brown animal, not very much different -from herself, except as to the tail. This animal -had a broad, flat tail, marked in scales like -those of a fish, while the tail of Winkie was -round and covered with fur. And, as she looked, -somehow or other Winkie did not feel that this -strange animal would harm her.</p> - -<p>“Who are you?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I am Toto,” was the answer.</p> - -<p>“You aren’t a woodchuck, I know,” said -Winkie. “Are you a muskrat?”</p> - -<p>“No. But I can swim under water,” answered -Toto. “I am the bustling beaver, if you please. -And who are you?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, I am Winkie, the wily woodchuck, and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_52"></a>[52]</span> -I’m lost!” came the answer. “Why do they call -you a bustling beaver? Have you seen any of -my family?”</p> - -<p>“My! You are very fond of asking questions!” -laughed Toto. “But I will do my best to answer -you. I am a beaver, because I was born a beaver, -that’s all I can tell you about that.</p> - -<p>“But the reason I am called ‘bustling’ is because -I am such a fast worker. I bustle about, -digging canals, making dams, cutting down -trees, and all such work as that. And I’ll soon -have to run along and help build a new dam we -beavers are putting across the brook.”</p> - -<p>“What’s a dam?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“There you go again! Asking more questions!” -laughed Toto. “Well, a dam is a lot of -sticks, stones, and grass piled across a stream to -make it stop running away. Then the water -makes a big pond back of the dam, and in that -pond of deep water we beavers build our homes. -With our teeth we gnaw down big trees so they -will fall across the brook to help in making the -dam.”</p> - -<p>“My! I should say you were bustling!” exclaimed -Winkie. “But in all your bustling about -have you seen Blinkie, Blunk, or my father or -mother?”</p> - -<p>“More questions!” laughed Toto, the beaver. -“No,” he answered, after taking another drink<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_53"></a>[53]</span> -of water from the brook, “I haven’t seen them, -I am sorry to say. Are they lost?”</p> - -<p>Then Winkie told of the blasting, how the -Woodchuck family had been shut up in the burrow, -how she had found a way out and how they -had all separated, much frightened, when the -big noise came again that morning.</p> - -<p>“You certainly have had a lot of trouble,” -agreed Toto. “I wish I could help you, but I -must now bustle back to my work—we beavers -are very busy animals. However, if I see any -of your family I’ll tell them where to find you.”</p> - -<p>“Please do,” begged Winkie, as Toto hastened -along. The beaver waddled off a little way, -moving in a queer fashion, for beavers are rather -awkward on land, though very swift in swimming.</p> - -<p>Then Toto came to a stop. He turned and -looked at Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I say,” asked Toto, “were you ever in a book, -Winkie?”</p> - -<p>“Book? No, I never was in a book,” answered -Winkie. “What is a book?”</p> - -<p>“I’ve been in one,” went on Toto. “I haven’t -time to tell you about it now. Maybe I will -some other day. Good-bye, Winkie. I’m glad -I met you!”</p> - -<p>“Good-bye,” echoed the wily woodchuck. -She felt a bit lonesome when Toto was gone.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_54"></a>[54]</span> -“I wonder what a book is,” murmured Winkie, -as she walked along after she had lapped up all -the water she wanted. “Toto said book. I wish -I knew what a book is!” And she spoke aloud -this time.</p> - -<p>“A book! Ha! I can tell you what a book -is!” suddenly exclaimed another voice. “Come -over here and I’ll tell you all about a book. I -have been put in one!”</p> - -<p>Winkie looked through the trees, and what -she saw made her heart beat faster than it ever -had before.</p> - -<p>“Oh, it’s a <em>dog</em>!” she gasped. “One of the -farmer’s big dogs! Oh, this is the end of me! -Oh, I must run!”</p> - -<p>Away leaped Winkie. The dog ran after her -barking and shouting:</p> - -<p>“Don’t run! Don’t be afraid! I’m only -Don! I’m Don, the runaway dog, but I don’t -run away any more, and I won’t hurt you. Wait! -I want to tell you what a book is!”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_55"></a>[55]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI<br /> -<small>WINKIE IN A STORM</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Winkie, the wily woodchuck, was so -frightened at the sight of the dog—even -more frightened than she had been at the -distant blasting explosion—that she ran on and -on through the woods, scarcely looking where -she was going. Racing in this way, not keeping -watch, <a href="#i_p057">caused Winkie to bump into a tree full -tilt!</a></p> - -<p>Bang! she slammed against it, so hard that she -was thrown down and lay, for a moment, stunned -amid the leaves.</p> - -<p>It was a good thing that Don was a kind dog, -and not a savage one belonging to Farmer Tottle. -And it is also a good thing Don was not a wolf -or a fox. For had he been either of these he -could easily have caught Winkie in his teeth -when she fell back, stunned by her crash into the -tree.</p> - -<p>But Don did not do this thing. Instead, he -went gently up to Winkie as she lay amid the -leaves, smelled her fur, and barked in a low tone.</p> - -<p>“Oh, please don’t bite me! Please don’t!” -begged Winkie.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_56"></a>[56]</span></p> - -<p>“Bite you? Nonsense! I never thought of -such a thing!” cried Don. “Why did you run -away?”</p> - -<p>“Because you chased me,” answered Winkie, -her heart not beating so fast now, when she -found that nothing had yet happened to her. She -was so plump and so covered with fur that running -into the tree had not done her any more -harm than to knock her breath from her for a -moment or two.</p> - -<p>“How foolish! I didn’t chase you!” declared -Don. “I was just running after you to tell you -what a book is.”</p> - -<p>“What is a book?” asked Winkie, and Don -told her as well as he could for a dog who -couldn’t himself read.</p> - -<p>“A book,” he barked, “is a sort of long story -of adventures.”</p> - -<p>“I know what adventures are,” said Winkie. -“They’re things that happen to you.”</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Don. “And you have had an -adventure this morning.”</p> - -<p>“You mean all our family getting lost?” asked -Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I didn’t hear about that,” said Don. “But -that’s an adventure too. No, I meant running -away from me and bumping into a tree. That -was an adventure.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_57"></a>[57]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p057"> - <img src="images/i_p057.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_55">Caused Winkie to bump into a tree full tilt!</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_58"></a>[58-<br />59]</span></p> - -<p>“Not a very pleasant one,” remarked Winkie, -smiling.</p> - -<p>“Oh, well, there are all sorts of adventures,” -said Don. “I have had very many, and they have -been put into a book about me, just as have those -of Toto, the bustling beaver, about whom I -heard you speaking.”</p> - -<p>“Have you had adventures?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I should say I have!” barked Don. “Say,” -he went on, “did you ever meet Squinty, the -comical pig?”</p> - -<p>“No, I never did,” answered Winkie. “Who -is he?”</p> - -<p>“Oh, a jolly chap. Did you ever meet Slicko, -the jumping squirrel?”</p> - -<p>“No, not that I know of. Where is Slicko?”</p> - -<p>“Somewhere in these woods, I think. You’ll -probably meet Slicko sooner or later. And then -there is Mappo, and there’s Tum Tum.”</p> - -<p>“Who are they?”</p> - -<p>“Animals who have had adventures and been -put in books,” answered Don. “Mappo is a -merry monkey, and Tum Tum is a jolly elephant. -I hope you meet them some day.”</p> - -<p>“I hope so, too,” said Winkie. “But just now -I should like to meet my father and mother and -Blinkie and Blunk. Have you seen them?”</p> - -<p>“No, I am sorry to say I have not,” answered<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_60"></a>[60]</span> -Don. “But don’t worry, you may find them, -also. And I’m sure you will have lots of adventures. -You are sort of running away, you -know.”</p> - -<p>“Yes, I ran away from that big noise,” admitted -Winkie. “But what has that to do with -it?”</p> - -<p>“Running away always brings adventures,” -answered Don. “At least it did to me. I was -once a runaway dog. But I was glad to get back -again, and I am very happy now.”</p> - -<p>“Are you one of the farmer’s dogs that barked -at my father and mother?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“No,” replied Don. “I never bark at woodchucks. -I like them, and so does my master, -who is very kind. But some men don’t like you -ground-hogs, and they are always sending their -dogs after you. They also set traps—those men -do.”</p> - -<p>“What are traps?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Ha! There you go again—more questions!” -chuckled the dog. “Well, I can tell you one -thing—traps are very good things to keep out -of. Once I caught my paw in a trap, and I was -lame for a month after it. Keep away from -traps, Winkie!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll try!” promised the wily woodchuck. But -she did not know what was soon going to happen -to her.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_61"></a>[61]</span></p> - -<p>So much talk seemed to make Winkie hungry, -and, seeing some grass growing under a tree, she -began to nibble the green blades.</p> - -<p>“Why don’t you eat something,” she asked -Don. “This grass is very sweet and good.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you; but we dogs don’t eat grass,” -Don answered. “That is unless we take it as -medicine when we aren’t feeling well. But I -feel fine now—I don’t need grass, but I would -like a juicy bone. And speaking of bones makes -me hungry. I think I’ll trot to my kennel and -get a bone.”</p> - -<p>“What’s a kennel?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“My! I never knew any one to ask as many -questions as you, unless it might be Mappo, the -merry monkey,” barked Don. “A kennel is a -house in which I live.”</p> - -<p>“We call our house a burrow,” said Winkie. -“Only we haven’t any now.”</p> - -<p>“It wouldn’t do for all of us to live in the same -kind of houses,” Don said. “I’d feel rather silly -in a nest, and yet a nest is a home for a bird. -Well, I’m going to trot along, Winkie. I hope -I shall see you soon again.”</p> - -<p>“I hope so too,” murmured Winkie, who knew -that she was going to be lonely when Don went -away.</p> - -<p>Don started off, wagging his tail in a friendly -farewell to Winkie. She was watching him and<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_62"></a>[62]</span> -did not notice where she was walking until, all of -a sudden, she felt herself falling into a hole with -a lot of leaves and sticks.</p> - -<p>“Oh! Oh!” cried Winkie. “Help me, Don! -I’m in a trap!”</p> - -<p>With a bark Don bounded back, and, with his -paws, he helped Winkie up out of the hole.</p> - -<p>“That wasn’t a trap,” he said. “You can’t -get out of traps as easily as that. You just fell -into a hole where once there was a stump or -stone. The hole was covered with dried leaves -and you didn’t see it, I guess.</p> - -<p>“Some traps are like that, and others are like -a box that shut you up tight. Other traps have -strong, sharp teeth that snap shut on your leg. -That’s the kind of trap I was once in.”</p> - -<p>“I hope nothing like that happens to me!” -sighed Winkie, and Don hoped the same.</p> - -<p>“Now I must go,” said the dog, when he found -the little woodchuck girl was all right. “See you -later! Good-bye!” And soon he was lost to -sight among the trees.</p> - -<p>Poor Winkie felt very lonely now, for, having -talked to Toto, the beaver, and to Don, the dog, -she began to have a very friendly feeling for -these animals.</p> - -<p>But she was a brave little thing, as well as -wily and smart, and she began to feel that she -must look after herself now, since it might be<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_63"></a>[63]</span> -many days before she would find her family in -the big woods.</p> - -<p>Sitting down and crying about things never -makes them any better, and Winkie was not going -to do this. Instead she felt that she must -find some place to stay during the night, -which she knew would come when the sun went -down.</p> - -<p>“But first I am going to see if I can’t find my -family,” thought Winkie. “There’s no sense in -giving up so soon. I’ll make believe we have -been playing hide-and-seek and I’ve got to find -them so I won’t be it.”</p> - -<p>She had often played this game, and it was not -hard to imagine she was doing it again. On -through the woods she wandered, now and then -stopping to listen or to call. She cried the -names of Blinkie and Blunk as loudly as she -could, and also shouted for her father and -mother.</p> - -<p>But the only answers she heard were the sighing -of the wind in the trees, the murmur of the -brooks as they flowed over the green, mossy -stones, and the songs of the birds. To the birds -Winkie spoke, for she could talk their language, -and she asked them if they had seen anything of -her father, mother, Blinkie or Blunk.</p> - -<p>“You birds fly high above the trees,” said -Winkie, “and you can look down and see many<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_64"></a>[64]</span> -things I can not see. Please help me look for -my people.”</p> - -<p>“We will!” sang the birds. So they flew here -and there, peering down through the tree -branches. But they did not get a glimpse of any -of the woodchucks. For, truth to tell, the other -four ground-hogs had run away at the time -Winkie had, and now they were all scattered. -Blinkie, Blunk and Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck -were separated one far from the other, and as -much lost as was Winkie herself.</p> - -<p>Later on the four woodchucks found each -other and made a new home for themselves, but -Winkie did not know this for a long time, and -not until after she had had many adventures -about which I must tell you.</p> - -<p>For several days Winkie wandered through -the woods, all alone except that once or twice -she met Toto, and again, she spied Don. But the -dog was walking with his master and he did not -come near Winkie. For this the woodchuck girl -was glad, for she was afraid of men, even of -one as kind as Don’s master seemed to be.</p> - -<p>Look as the fluttering birds did, they found -no trace of Winkie’s relatives, and they told the -woodchuck girl this.</p> - -<p>One day, as Winkie was wandering about, she -suddenly heard a noise in the bushes. She was<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_65"></a>[65]</span> -going to run and hide, thinking it might be a -wolf or a fox, when a jolly voice grunted:</p> - -<p>“Don’t be afraid, little ground-hog girl, I -won’t hurt you!”</p> - -<p>“Who are you?” asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Squinty, the comical pig,” was the answer.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I have heard Don speak of you,” said -Winkie, as the pig came rooting his way through -the underbrush.</p> - -<p>“Yes, Don and I are friends,” Squinty replied. -“But you had better find a good place to -stay to-night, Winkie.”</p> - -<p>“Why?” asked the wily woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“Because there is going to be a big storm,” -was the pig’s answer. “I am going back to my -pen. I really oughtn’t to have come out, but I -get tired of staying shut up so much, and, once -in a while, I root my way out with my rubbery -nose. But I’m going back now before I am -caught in the storm, and you, also, had better -find a place of shelter.”</p> - -<p>“Thank you; I’ll look for one,” said Winkie.</p> - -<p>She went on a little farther, after bidding -good-bye to Squinty. All at once, she heard a -sound in a tree over her head.</p> - -<p>“Oh,” cried Winkie, “is that one of the birds -come to tell me he has found my family?”</p> - -<p>“No, I’m not a bird,” was the answer; “though -I stay in the trees a great deal of the time. I am<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_66"></a>[66]</span> -Slicko, the jumping squirrel. I know you, -Winkie. Don told me about you. Have you a -good place to stay this night?”</p> - -<p>“No, I have no home,” sadly answered -Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Then you had better stay in this hollow tree,” -said Slicko kindly, pointing to one near by. -“There is going to be a big storm, and you will -be frightened if you are out in it. I can always -tell when a storm is coming, hours before it gets -here.”</p> - -<p>“That’s what Squinty said,” remarked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Oh, do you know that comical pig?” asked -the jumping squirrel. “Isn’t he funny?”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know him very well. I just met -him,” answered the wily woodchuck. “But he -seemed very kind. And thank you for telling -me about the hollow tree.”</p> - -<p>“Don’t mention it!” chattered the squirrel. -“We animals must be kind to one another. I -hope you’ll rest well. I have my nest higher up -in this same tree.”</p> - -<p>“Then we shall be company for each other in -the night,” said Winkie.</p> - -<p>She found the hollow tree to which Slicko had -pointed. Inside were some dried leaves, which -would make a soft bed for the woodchuck girl. -When night came Winkie crawled in and went -to bed, and up higher in the tree she could see<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_67"></a>[67]</span> -Slicko crawling into a hole where the squirrel’s -nest was made.</p> - -<p>Winkie slept very well the first part of the -night, even though the wind sighed and moaned -among the trees. Then, all of a sudden, she was -awakened by a great flash of light and a loud -crashing sound.</p> - -<p>“Oh! Oh!” cried Winkie. “The farmer and -his dogs are after us again! He’s going to shut -us up in the burrow again!”</p> - -<p>“No, this is no farmer!” chattered Slicko. -“This is a big storm, with thunder, lightning and -rain! I’m afraid this tree will blow down! -Look out, Winkie!”</p> - -<p>Before Winkie could crawl out of her bed of -leaves in the lower hollow place there was another -blinding flash of light and a great thundering -sound, following by a cracking noise.</p> - -<p>“Oh, the tree is struck! The tree is falling!” -cried Slicko. “Save yourself, Winkie!”</p> - -<p>A moment later the wily woodchuck found -herself tossed out into the storm.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_68"></a>[68]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII<br /> -<small>WINKIE IN A TRAP</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Slicko, the jumping squirrel, had told the -truth about the storm. The tree, in the upper -part of which the squirrel had a nest -and in a lower hollow part of which Winkie had -been sleeping, was struck by lightning, and -broken down.</p> - -<p>But neither of the animals, nor some birds -nesting under the leaves of the tree, was hurt -by the lightning, though all were stunned by -it for a moment. The birds fluttered into other -trees, glad to hide themselves under the leaves -as much out of the rain as they could get. Slicko, -feeling the tree falling, had leaped safely into -another.</p> - -<p>And what happened to poor Winkie?</p> - -<p>At first the wily woodchuck hardly knew -what was taking place. She had been awakened -so suddenly by the storm, with its lightning, -thunder, wind, and rain, that she was dazed.</p> - -<p>But she heard what Slicko said, and she knew -enough to jump when she felt the tree going -over, so she was not caught under it and pinned<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_69"></a>[69]</span> -down, as sometimes happens to beavers in the -woods.</p> - -<p>“Where are you? Where can I get in out of -the rain?” called Winkie to Slicko. But either -she could not make her voice heard above the -storm, or else Slicko was too far away to hear. -I think it was a little of both.</p> - -<p>At any rate Winkie stood for a moment beside -the fallen, split tree that had been a sort of -“hotel” for her during the first part of the night. -But the warm leaf-lined nest where she had so -cozily cuddled was no more. And as she felt -the rain falling on her and heard the noise of -the storm, Winkie knew she must get under some -kind of shelter.</p> - -<p>Winkie, like most wild animals, could see -pretty well in the dark, so she walked along.</p> - -<p>Every now and then a flash of lightning came, -and this showed her still better which way to go. -She did not need to keep on any path. She -could wander where she wished. And, really, -the rain did her little harm, for this was summer. -If it had been winter, with a rain that froze as -fast as it fell, that would have been very sad -indeed. Winkie wore a coat of fur, and though -this was wet through, she knew it would soon -dry in the sun.</p> - -<p>She looked about her for a hollow tree, but -could find none. Then she spied a hole under<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_70"></a>[70]</span> -some rocks, and in another moment she had -crawled into this little den, away from the wind -and the rain. In the hole were dried leaves, -and cuddling up in these Winkie soon began to -feel warm again.</p> - -<p>Outside the rain splashed down, the wind -lashed the branches of the trees, breaking some -off and tossing them to the ground, the thunder -roared, and the lightning flashed. But, safe in -the little cave she had found, Winkie, the wily -woodchuck, soon went to sleep again.</p> - -<p>So, after all, Winkie came through the storm -with nothing worse than a fright and a wetting. -Of course she missed Slicko, for when morning -came and the warm sun shone once more, there -was no sign of the jumping squirrel.</p> - -<p>“Slicko! Slicko! Where are you?” called -Winkie, as she came out of the little cave.</p> - -<p>“Slicko has gone away!” chirped a bird. “I -saw Slicko scampering off through the tree tops -long before the sun was up.”</p> - -<p>“Well, then I shall have to get a new friend,” -said Winkie. “Have you seen any of my -family?” she asked the bird.</p> - -<p>“No, I am sorry to say I have not,” was the -answer. “I have only been in these woods a -short time. I came just before the storm, and I -met Slicko only by chance. I can’t tell you anything -about your family.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_71"></a>[71]</span></p> - -<p>“Then I shall have to travel on and try to -find them,” said Winkie. “But first I must get -something to eat.”</p> - -<p>This was easy for the woodchuck girl. She -did not have to go to the store, nor yet wait for a -meal to be cooked or a table set. Eating was -very easy for her.</p> - -<p>All she had to do was to look about for some -grass or something green growing, and for -some bark to gnaw. Winkie did not really care -as much about bark as did Toto the beaver, for -ground-hogs live mainly on clover, grass, and -other soft plants. But when a woodchuck is hungry, -as Winkie was, it will eat almost anything in -the vegetable line.</p> - -<p>“I’d like to find some turnips, carrots, or cabbage,” -she thought to herself, for woodchucks -are very fond of these, and that is one reason why -farmers do not like woodchucks. “But I don’t -see any around here,” went on Winkie.</p> - -<p>Indeed there was no garden near the woods, -and after eating what she could find in the forest -and on the edge of it, Winkie started off to look -for more adventures.</p> - -<p>Of course, she really didn’t especially look -for them, nor did she know she was going to -have them, but adventures happened to her, and -some of them were not very pleasant.</p> - -<p>The woods were washed clean by the storm,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_72"></a>[72]</span> -and now the day was warm and sunny. The -birds sang, many animals scurried here and there -between the trees and under the bushes, and -Winkie was one of them.</p> - -<p>Now and then she would hear some large animal -moving in the bushes, and at such times -Winkie would crouch down and hide, for she -feared a wolf, a fox or a dog might be coming -after her.</p> - -<p>“I shouldn’t mind meeting Don, or even Tum -Tum, the jolly elephant, he told about,” thought -Winkie. “But I don’t want to meet any strange -dogs.”</p> - -<p>Don, however, was far away, as was Tum -Tum. So Winkie had to wander along by herself. -All day she roamed through the woods, -now and then stopping to give a sort of whistle, -which is one way woodchucks have of talking. -Again she would also chatter her teeth with a -rattling sound, as owls clatter their beaks. This -is another way woodchucks have of speaking to -one another.</p> - -<p>But to all Winkie’s calls there came no answer -from any of her family. She did not see Blinkie -nor Blunk, and her father and mother might -have been a hundred miles away for all she knew.</p> - -<p>Once, indeed, she met another woodchuck, a -fat, lazy old man of a ground-hog, and at first -Winkie thought he might be her grandfather.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_73"></a>[73]</span> -But he was not, and this woodchuck knew nothing -of Winkie’s family.</p> - -<p>“But I can tell you where to get a good meal -of clover,” said the lazy old ground-hog.</p> - -<p>“Where?” eagerly asked Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Go straight along the way you are headed, -and on the edge of the woods you will see a field,” -was the answer. “Crawl under the fence and -you’ll find some clover.”</p> - -<p>Winkie thanked him, and waddled on. She -found the clover just where she had been told it -would be and ate her fill. She ate so much she -felt sleepy, and about sunset she curled up in a -hollow log and slept all night.</p> - -<p>When morning came Winkie started on her -travels again. By this time she was getting -rather used to wandering around alone. Not -that she liked it, but it was the best she could do. -She would have been very glad to have had a -game of tag with Blinkie or Blunk, but this was -not to happen for a long time.</p> - -<p>That noon Winkie found a field where a farmer -was raising some carrots, and, as she saw no -man in sight, and no dogs, and did not hear any -dogs barking, Winkie went into the field, dug up -some carrots, and ate them. It was because of -this that, a few days later, something dreadful -happened to Winkie.</p> - -<p>For she liked the carrots so much that she<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_74"></a>[74]</span> -looked for more everywhere she went. One day -Winkie, who was very hungry at the time, saw -another carrot—a large yellow one—in a fence -corner.</p> - -<p>“Some one must have left this carrot here -specially for me!” thought Winkie. “How kind -of him!”</p> - -<p>Winkie was not quite as wily and smart then -as she ought to have been, for if she had only -known it, this carrot was placed where it was as -a bait. But Winkie did not know this. Up she -went quite boldly, and reached out to take the -carrot.</p> - -<p>A moment later she heard a clicking sound, -and something closed with a snap on her left -hind leg. She felt a great pain in it, and tried -to run away.</p> - -<p>But Winkie could not run! She was caught -fast in a trap! The carrot had been placed there -just for that—to trap some animal—and Winkie -was caught!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_75"></a>[75]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII<br /> -<small>WINKIE’S NEW HOME</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Just as soon as Winkie felt the pain in her -leg, a hard pinching and pulling, she knew -what had happened just as well as if her -mother had told her.</p> - -<p>“I’m in a trap!” cried the girl woodchuck, -who was not as wily now as she ought to have -been. “I’m in a trap! Oh, dear! What shall I -do?”</p> - -<p>She had often heard her father and mother -talk of animals being caught in traps. Some -traps were of one kind and some of another. -Winkie was glad this was not a box trap, shutting -her away from the air and sunlight. She was -glad it was not a bear trap with sharp teeth, like -those of a saw, for they would have cut her leg -and caused it to bleed.</p> - -<p>This trap was just a common, spring one, with -smooth jaws, and though it pinched Winkie very -much, and held her so fast that she could not -pull her leg loose, she was not cut.</p> - -<p>“I must run away!” thought poor Winkie. “I<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_76"></a>[76]</span> -must run away and take this trap with me. -Then, maybe, when I am in a safe place, I can -pull my leg out! Oh, how it pinches! I wish I -had never tried to get the carrot!”</p> - -<p>The little woodchuck no longer thought of the -yellow carrot which was placed near the trap. -She seemed to have got over her hunger because -of the pain in her leg.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I must run away and take this trap with -me!” thought Winkie.</p> - -<p>But that was easier said than done. As -Winkie tried to walk away, with the spring trap -still fast to her leg, she was suddenly stopped -with a jerk that gave her another pain. She almost -fell down, and she had to cry “Ouch!” Of -course, in the way woodchucks say it.</p> - -<p>Then she looked and found there was a chain -attached to the trap, and the other end of the -chain was fast to a big log. If Winkie should -walk away with the trap, she would also have to -drag the log with her. And this was more than -the little woodchuck girl could do.</p> - -<p>“Oh dear! Oh dear!” thought poor Winkie, -lying down on the soft grass near the trap. -“This is dreadful!”</p> - -<p>And indeed it was! It was worse than the -blasting in the field which had closed the door -holes of the burrow house. It was worse than -Farmer Tottle and his dog. It was worse than<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_77"></a>[77]</span> -the big storm when the tree in which Winkie was -sleeping had been struck by lightning.</p> - -<p>“Oh, what shall I do?” sighed poor Winkie.</p> - -<p>Well, there was little she could do. She again -tried to pull her leg out of the trap, but it would -not move, and the pain each time she tried made -her chatter her teeth and whistle. Then she tried -to pull the trap loose from the log to which it -was chained. But she could not do that, either.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I shall have to stay here forever!” -thought poor Winkie. “I never can get loose! -I shall never see Blinkie nor Blunk again, nor my -father and mother! Oh dear!”</p> - -<p>Winkie looked at the carrot which was the -cause of all her troubles. Even yet she did not -feel hungry enough to nibble it, though just before -she had stepped into the trap she had been -very anxious for some vegetable.</p> - -<p>“I must do something!” thought Winkie. “I -can’t stay here forever.”</p> - -<p>She was just going to tug again at the trap and -chain when, all of a sudden, she heard a noise. -It was a whistling sound, almost like that which -woodchucks make. For one happy moment -Winkie thought it might be her father or mother -coming to set her free. But a moment later, as -the whistling became louder, Winkie saw coming -toward her a boy. It was the boy who was -whistling.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_78"></a>[78]</span></p> - -<p>On he came, trilling a merry air. Well might -he whistle! He was caught in no trap that -pinched his leg!</p> - -<p>Suddenly the boy caught sight of Winkie, the -wily woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“Oh, ho!” he cried. “I’ve caught a ground-hog! -I’ve caught a woodchuck in my trap! My, -but I’m lucky!”</p> - -<p>Of course Winkie could not understand what -the boy said, but if she thought anything at all -she must have thought that she was very unlucky.</p> - -<p>“It’s a nice fat woodchuck, too!” exclaimed -Larry Dawson, which was the boy’s name. “It -isn’t hurt, either. I’m glad it’s a smooth trap and -not one with teeth! I set it to catch a skunk, but -it caught a woodchuck instead. I guess she isn’t -hurt much. A woodchuck’s fur isn’t any good, -like a skunk’s. But I’ll take this ground-hog -home, and maybe I can tame her and teach her -tricks.”</p> - -<p>If Winkie could have understood all the boy -said she would not have been so afraid of him, -for Larry was a kind boy and gave no needless -pain to animals. But the woodchuck did not -understand, and when Larry came closer, intending -to loose her from the trap, she crouched -down, showed her sharp, biting teeth, and -squealed and chattered.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_79"></a>[79]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, ho! You’re going to be ugly, are you?” -exclaimed the boy. “Well, I can’t blame you. -It isn’t any fun to be caught in a trap. I wouldn’t -like it myself, and I’ll take you out if you don’t -bite me.” For Larry knew that woodchucks can -bite very severely when they are caught and -when they fear they are in danger.</p> - -<p>“I’ll go and get a bag to carry you in,” said -Larry, still speaking aloud, as though Winkie -could understand him. “I’ll get a bag, and then -take you home. My sister Alice will like you. -We’ll teach you tricks after we tame you. Wait -here while I go for a bag!”</p> - -<p>There really wasn’t any need of telling Winkie -to “wait there.” She couldn’t get loose. And of -course she remained until Larry came back. He -had gone to his father’s barn and gotten a strong -bag in which feed came for the horses.</p> - -<p>Dropping this bag over Winkie, who was now -more frightened than ever, Larry reached in -from the outside, the strong bag keeping Winkie -from biting, though she tried to do this, and soon -the boy had loosened the spring and taken the -trap off the woodchuck’s leg.</p> - -<p>“Oh, how good it feels not to be pinched any -more!” thought Winkie. “Oh, how good it -feels!”</p> - -<p>And she curled up in the bottom of the bag, -as Larry slung it over his shoulder, and closed<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_80"></a>[80]</span> -her eyes, for she felt so much better than she -had in the trap.</p> - -<p>“I wonder what is going to happen to me?” -thought Winkie.</p> - -<p>She was going to have more adventures, -though she did not know it just then.</p> - -<p>Across the fields went Larry, carrying the -wily woodchuck in the bag over his shoulder. -Winkie did not mind the bouncing, for the pain -in her leg, where the trap had pinched her, was -growing less now.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Larry, what have you got?” cried his -sister Alice, as he reached the house.</p> - -<p>“A woodchuck,” the boy answered. “She was -in my skunk trap.”</p> - -<p>“Is she dead?” asked Alice.</p> - -<p>“No, she’s very much alive,” replied Larry. -“Don’t go near the bag or she may bite you. -We’ll tame her, and she’ll do tricks for us. Get -me a piece of cord, Alice, and I’ll tie this bag -up. Then the woodchuck can’t get out until I -build a pen for her.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, are you going to do that?” asked Alice.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll make a strong pen, so she can’t get -out. You’ll help me, won’t you? After she’s -been in the pen a while, and we feed her every -day, she’ll get used to us and grow tame. Then -we can teach her some tricks.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_81"></a>[81]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, that will be fun!” cried Alice.</p> - -<p>The cord which Alice brought was tied -around the neck of the bag, so that the woodchuck -could not get out, though she tried to do -this as soon as Larry set the bag down on the -ground.</p> - -<p>“Oh, we have you safe!” exclaimed the boy, -as he saw the form of the ground-hog scurrying -about inside the bag. “But we’ll soon give you a -better place than that to live in. Come on, Alice, -we’ll make a woodchuck pen!”</p> - -<p>The brother and sister hammered away, nailing -boards together, and soon the pen was finished. -Larry took the bag, loosed the string, and -held the open end of the bag over the pen. <a href="#i_p083">Out -toppled Winkie</a>, her eyes blinking on account of -being so suddenly thrust into the bright sunlight -from the darkness of the bag.</p> - -<p>The first thing Winkie did, after tumbling -from the bag, was to stand very still, crouching -on the ground. Then she looked about for a -way of escape. In one corner of the pen she -saw a square black hole.</p> - -<p>“Maybe that’s a burrow door,” thought -Winkie. “If I can run down that I’ll be safe.”</p> - -<p>She waddled over to the square black hole, -and went through it. But she only found herself -inside a small box, with no way out.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_82"></a>[82]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, she went into her bedroom!” laughed -Alice, clapping her hands. “I guess she’s -sleepy!”</p> - -<p>“I guess she thought she could get out that -way,” said Larry. “But she can’t. That inside -box is for her to sleep in, but she can’t get out -that way.”</p> - -<p>And, to Winkie’s sorrow, she could not. She -was fast in a pen which was to be her new home. -The woodchuck remained inside the inner box -for a little while, seeking some hole through -which she might crawl. But when she saw none -she came out into the open pen again.</p> - -<p>The pen Larry and Alice had made, which -was to be Winkie’s new home, was really a large -box set on the ground. It had a bottom to it, and -four sides, but no top. In place of the box cover -Larry had put on some strong chicken wire. -Winkie could not push her way up through this -wire, nor could she bite it, though she had very -strong teeth for gnawing bark and nipping -clover.</p> - -<p>In one corner of the larger box Larry and -Alice had set a smaller box, with wooden sides -and a wooden top. There was a square hole for -a door in this smaller box, and this was Winkie’s -bedroom.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_83"></a>[83]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p083"> - <img src="images/i_p083.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_81">Out toppled Winkie.</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_84"></a>[84-<br />85]</span></p> - -<p>“You’re safe here now, little woodchuck!” -said Larry. “I’m going to feed you and then -teach you tricks when you get tame.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe she wants a drink of water,” suggested -Alice.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I guess she does,” said Larry. “I’ll get -some for her.”</p> - -<p>When a basin of water was set down inside -the pen the woodchuck was so thirsty that she -began to drink at once. The boy and girl -laughed to see her drink.</p> - -<p>“She’s getting tame already,” said Alice.</p> - -<p>“Well, sort of beginning,” agreed Larry. -“Now I’ll get her something to eat. But I guess -I’d better bait that trap with something besides -carrot if I want to catch a skunk. I guess skunks -don’t like carrots, for none has come near the -trap since I set it.”</p> - -<p>Larry was right. Skunks are not carrot-eating -animals, though they may take a nibble now and -then if they are very hungry.</p> - -<p>The children had started to get something for -Winkie to eat when, all at once, there came a -noise which was a dreadful sound to the ground-hog.</p> - -<p>It was the barking of a dog!</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_86"></a>[86]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX<br /> -<small>WINKIE LEARNS TRICKS</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Though Winkie had never been very -close to any dog except Don, the wily -woodchuck knew the bark of this dog -meant danger. It is this way with many wild -animals, and even with your cat, perhaps, which -is not so wild as a woodchuck.</p> - -<p>Little kittens, if they are brought up with dogs -from their earliest days, may not be afraid of -Rover or Towser, whom they know. But they -may be afraid of a strange dog. However, almost -any cat will arch up its back, hiss and, if -it gets a chance, will run away from almost any -dog. It was the same with Winkie, though she -did not arch her back nor fluff out her tail—woodchucks -don’t do that. But Winkie tried to -run away as soon as she heard the bark of the -dog.</p> - -<p>Only she could not get out of the pen. But -she did run and hide in her sleeping box, which -was partly filled with hay.</p> - -<p>“Oh, here comes Buster!” exclaimed Alice. -“Don’t let Buster get the woodchuck!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_87"></a>[87]</span></p> - -<p>“No, indeed!” cried Larry. “Uncle Elias’s -dog shan’t get my woodchuck!”</p> - -<p>“I thought you said she was part <em>my</em> woodchuck,” -observed Alice.</p> - -<p>“Yes, that’s so. You may have half,” agreed -Larry. “Go on back, Buster! Go away!” -shouted Larry, as a big dog came bounding into -the yard, barking and wagging his tail, for he -was glad to see the children, and often played -with them, being a friendly dog except toward -wild things.</p> - -<p>All at once Buster stopped barking and -stopped wagging his tail. He stood still, his nose -pointed toward the pen, and he began to sniff. -He had caught the wild smell of the woodchuck, -even though he could not see Winkie, who was -hiding in her sleeping chamber.</p> - -<p>Then Buster growled, away down in his -throat, and came nearer the pen. Alice ran to -get in front of the dog, and again Larry cried:</p> - -<p>“Go on away, Buster!”</p> - -<p>Just then Uncle Elias Tottle, who was a -brother of Larry and Alice’s mother—being, in -fact the children’s uncle—came along. He saw -the boy and girl standing near the pen, and he -heard his dog growling.</p> - -<p>“What’s the matter with Buster? What have -you youngsters got there?” asked Uncle Elias, in -rather a harsh voice. He had no children of his<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_88"></a>[88]</span> -own, and owned the farm next to that of Mr. -Dawson, who was the father of Larry and Alice. -“What have you in that box that makes Buster -growl?” demanded Uncle Elias Tottle.</p> - -<p>“I have a woodchuck,” answered Larry. “I -caught her in my skunk trap. But she isn’t hurt. -I’m going to tame her.”</p> - -<p>“We’re going to teach her tricks,” added -Alice.</p> - -<p>“Huh! Woodchuck!” cried Uncle Elias. -“The pesky creatures! If I had my way they’d -all be shot or trapped. They eat my clover. I -saw some of ’em eating it the other day.”</p> - -<p>If he had only known it, Winkie was one of -those very woodchucks! But Uncle Elias didn’t -know.</p> - -<p>“Woodchuck!” he exclaimed. “Eating up -everything a poor farmer can raise! I’ll kill -that woodchuck of yours if I catch her out!”</p> - -<p>“Well, you won’t catch her, for we aren’t going -to let her out,” said Alice, and she and her -brother felt bad because of the harsh words of -Uncle Elias.</p> - -<p>It is true, in some places, that woodchucks do -harm when they are very numerous, and farmers -don’t like them. But Larry and Alice did not -see what harm poor little Winkie could do, -especially if they kept her shut up in a pen.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_89"></a>[89]</span></p> - -<p>“Look here!” said Uncle Elias at last. “Will -you sell me that woodchuck for a dollar, Larry?”</p> - -<p>“A dollar?” repeated the boy.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I’ll give you a dollar for her,” went on -Uncle Elias, putting his hand in his pocket.</p> - -<p>Larry shook his head.</p> - -<p>“I want my woodchuck,” said the boy.</p> - -<p>“And she’s half mine,” broke in Alice. “Even -if Larry would sell his half, I wouldn’t sell my -half! So there, Uncle Elias!”</p> - -<p>“Huh!” grunted the farmer, who was a hard -and sometimes a cruel man.</p> - -<p>“What do you want of a woodchuck, Uncle -Elias?” asked Larry. “Do you want one to teach -tricks to? If you do I’ll try to catch one for you -in my trap.”</p> - -<p>“Nonsense! As if I’d try to teach a woodchuck -tricks!” snorted the old man, while his dog -sniffed and snuffed at the wild smell and Winkie -cowered down in her dark box. “If I had that -ground-hog of yours—which I’m willing to pay -a dollar for”—went on Mr. Tottle, “I’d turn her -loose and set Buster on her! Woodchucks are no -good!”</p> - -<p>“Well, you aren’t going to get this one!” said -Larry.</p> - -<p>“I guess not!” exclaimed Alice. “I love my -woodchuck!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_90"></a>[90]</span></p> - -<p>“Huh!” snorted Uncle Elias. “Come on, Buster!” -he called to his dog. “This isn’t any place -for us! We don’t like woodchucks!”</p> - -<p>Then, to the relief of Larry and Alice, their -cruel-hearted uncle went away, followed by Buster. -The dog, however, did not want to go. He -growled and whined as he sniffed toward the -woodchuck’s pen. Had poor Winkie been outside -and if Buster had chased her there would -not have been much left of her.</p> - -<p>“The idea!” exclaimed Alice, when Mr. -Tottle was gone. “To want to kill our woodchuck!”</p> - -<p>“I wouldn’t sell her for two dollars—no, not -for <em>five</em>!” cried Larry. “When we teach her -tricks maybe we can put her in a circus!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful!” cried -Alice, clapping her hands. “Let’s start teaching -her tricks right away. But what shall we name -our woodchuck?”</p> - -<p>“Yes, we must think of a name,” agreed Larry.</p> - -<p>Just then Winkie, no longer hearing the barking -of the dog, poked her head out of the square -hole in the smaller box, into which she had gone -to hide. Coming out of the dark, as she did, -made Winkie’s eyes open and shut until they became -used to the glare of the sun. Larry and -his sister, watching their new pet, saw her eyes -winking this way.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_91"></a>[91]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, I know what to call her!” cried Alice.</p> - -<p>“What?” asked her brother.</p> - -<p>“Winkie!” replied the little girl. “See her -wink!”</p> - -<p>“Yes, Winkie will be a good name,” agreed -Larry.</p> - -<p>And so Winkie was given by the children the -same name the father and mother of the little -ground-hog had given her when she lived in the -burrow.</p> - -<p>“Come here, Winkie! Come here!” called -Alice.</p> - -<p>Winkie remained with her head out of the -bedroom, but she did not come to the side of the -larger, outside pen, near which Alice stood.</p> - -<p>“I guess Winkie is a little afraid,” said Larry. -“I’ll get her something to eat. That will make -her tame quicker than anything else.”</p> - -<p>Out to the barn ran Larry, and soon he came -back with some yellow carrots. He cut off little -pieces of them and tossed them into the pen -through the open meshes of the chicken wire on -top.</p> - -<p>At first Winkie was a bit timid about taking -these chunks of carrot. But they smelled so -good, and she was so hungry, that she at last ventured -to nibble one. Then, finding no harm -came to her, she grew bold and took more. She -limped a little on the leg that had been caught<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_92"></a>[92]</span> -in the trap, but it was quickly getting over its -soreness.</p> - -<p>“Oh, isn’t Winkie cute!” cried Alice, as she -watched the woodchuck eat.</p> - -<p>“Yes,” agreed Larry. “And I want to teach -her soon to eat out of my hand.”</p> - -<p>“We want to be careful that she doesn’t bite -us,” said his sister. “See what sharp teeth she -has.”</p> - -<p>Indeed Winkie had very sharp teeth and -Larry knew this.</p> - -<p>“I’ll be careful!” he said.</p> - -<p>For two or three days Winkie would not take -any food from Larry’s hand or that of Alice. -But she grew bolder when she saw that the boy -and his sister meant to be kind, and one day, -about a week after being caught and put in the -pen, Winkie took a piece of carrot right from -Larry’s fingers.</p> - -<p>“Oh, she’s getting tame! She’s getting tame!” -cried the boy. “Now I can teach her some -tricks!”</p> - -<p>“Let me feed her!” begged Alice. And the -little girl was delighted when Winkie took some -pieces of carrot from her fingers.</p> - -<p>It was several days longer before either Larry -or his sister dared reach in to stroke Winkie’s -fur. The first time this was tried Winkie scurried -back into her sleeping box as though Buster<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_93"></a>[93]</span> -were after her. But the next time she was not -so timid, and soon the little woodchuck came to -know that the children intended no harm.</p> - -<p>“Though why they want to fuss over me and -rub me is more than I can tell,” thought Winkie -to herself. “I wish I had some one to talk animal -talk to—Squinty, the pig, or Slicko, the -squirrel. Or even Tum Tum, the elephant. I -wish he were here!”</p> - -<p>Winkie had never seen an elephant like Tum -Tum, and of course she did not know how large -elephants are.</p> - -<p>Tum Tum could hardly have gotten more than -one of his big feet in Winkie’s pen!</p> - -<p>One day Larry came running into the house -much excited.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “You ought -to see Winkie!”</p> - -<p>“Has she gotten out?” asked Alice.</p> - -<p>“No, but I’ve taught her a trick. She’ll sit up -on her hind legs and beg like a dog! Come and -see!”</p> - -<p>Alice followed her brother out to the yard -where Winkie’s pen had been built. Larry took -off some of the top wire.</p> - -<p>“She’ll get away!” cried Alice.</p> - -<p>“No, she won’t,” said Larry. “Winkie is tame -now, and won’t run away. I’ve taught her a -trick! She’ll sit up and beg! Look!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_94"></a>[94]</span></p> - -<p>Taking the woodchuck out of her cage—and -Winkie did not try to bite Larry now—the boy -stood her on the ground. Then, holding a piece -of turnip in front of the ground-hog, the boy exclaimed:</p> - -<p>“Sit up, Winkie! Sit up!”</p> - -<p>Slowly, because she was now very fat, Winkie -sat up on her hind quarters. This is easy for -woodchucks to do, since they often sit that way -outside their burrows to watch for danger.</p> - -<p>“Look! She’s begging!” laughed Larry. -“And here’s your piece of turnip!” he added. -“Isn’t that a good trick, Alice?”</p> - -<p>“A lovely one! I wish I could teach Winkie -some tricks!”</p> - -<p>“Maybe you can,” said Larry. “Here, see if -she’ll beg for you.” And Winkie, who was -standing with all four feet on the ground, again -stood up as Alice held out a bit of carrot and told -her to “beg!”</p> - -<p>“I don’t know why they want me to do that,” -thought Winkie. “But they give me something -to eat each time after it, so I may as well do what -they want.”</p> - -<p>Once again Winkie rose up on her haunches, -and she looked very cute when she did that. -Larry and Alice laughed to see her.</p> - -<p>“But one trick isn’t enough,” Larry said. “We -must teach her another.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_95"></a>[95]</span></p> - -<p>“What one?” asked Alice.</p> - -<p>“We’ll teach her to lie down and roll over,” -said the boy.</p> - -<p>It took nearly a week to get Winkie to understand -this trick, which, though no harder than -the other, was quite different. But at last -Winkie got to the point where she would lie on -her back and roll over like a dog whenever Larry -or Alice told her to. And of course each time -the trick was done Winkie was given something -good to eat.</p> - -<p>One day, when Larry and Alice came home -from school, they ran out toward the woodchuck -pen, for Larry had said he was going to teach -Winkie a new trick. As brother and sister -neared the pen they heard the loud barking of a -dog, and the frightened whistling and teeth-clattering -of the little ground-hog.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Buster is trying to get Winkie!” cried -Larry, dropping his books and rushing toward -the pen.</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_96"></a>[96]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X<br /> -<small>WINKIE IS IN DANGER</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Alice followed her brother, also dropping -her books on the path that led around the -house. What did a few school books matter -when Winkie, the wily woodchuck, was in -danger?</p> - -<p>And that’s just what Winkie was—in great -danger. Buster, the big dog belonging to Uncle -Elias Tottle, had come over, all by himself, and -was trying to tear some boards off the pen so -that he might get in at Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Here! Get away from there, Buster!” cried -Larry.</p> - -<p>“Go away! Go away, you bad dog!” shrieked -Alice.</p> - -<p>Buster had not expected to see the children, -and when they came running around the corner -of the house the dog was evidently surprised. -He stopped barking at once and his tail dropped -between his legs, as always happens with dogs -when they are caught doing something they -ought not to do.</p> - -<p>And this is what had happened to Buster.<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_97"></a>[97]</span> -Finding nothing special to do at the farm of Mr. -Tottle, Buster had wandered over the fields to -the home of Larry and Alice. Buster had not -been over to see the children for some time, and -he may have forgotten all about the woodchuck -in a pen in the back yard.</p> - -<p>But Buster had no sooner come close to the -yard than the wind blew to him the wild smell -of Winkie, for, like most animals, Winkie had -a wild smell about her, and a dog’s nose is very -keen for smelling.</p> - -<p>“Oh, ho!” thought Buster to himself, in a way -dogs have of thinking. “That woodchuck! I -forgot all about her! Guess I’ll go and tease her, -as I haven’t anything else to do!”</p> - -<p>With a loud bark Buster made his way into -the yard. As it happened, Mrs. Dawson was not -home just then, or she would have driven Buster -away. But the children’s mother had gone to call -on a neighbor, and Buster had everything his -own way.</p> - -<p>“Now I’ll get you!” cried the dog in animal -language, as he made a dash against Winkie’s -pen.</p> - -<p>“Stop! Stop! Go on away! Let me alone!” -begged Winkie, whistling and chattering her -teeth, because she was so frightened.</p> - -<p>“Oh, I’m not going to hurt you! I’m just going -to chase you out of that pen and make you<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_98"></a>[98]</span> -run!” said Buster. “I like to chase rabbits and -other wild animals. I won’t bite you. I just -want to chase you! Come on out!”</p> - -<p>“No! No! I’m not coming out!” declared -Winkie. “You aren’t nice like Don!”</p> - -<p>“Pooh! I wouldn’t be a dog like Don—afraid -to chase a rabbit or a squirrel!” sneered Buster. -“I’m going to chase you, and if you don’t come -out I’ll make you!”</p> - -<p>“No, I’m not coming out!” chattered Winkie, -and she ran into her sleeping box to hide in the -hay.</p> - -<p>“I’ll break open your pen and chase you out!” -barked Buster. And the dog was trying to do -this when Larry and Alice came home from -school.</p> - -<p>“Make Buster go away, Larry!” half sobbed -Alice. “He won’t go for me! Oh, Buster, go -away!”</p> - -<p>“I’ll make him!” cried Larry, and he stooped -over as if to pick up a stone or a stick. I don’t -believe that Larry would really have stoned Buster, -or have struck him with a stick, any more -than I believe Buster would have bitten Winkie. -But the boy knew he had to do something to -make Buster run away, and pretending to pick -up a stone was one of the best ways.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_99"></a>[99]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p099"> - <img src="images/i_p099.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_100">She came out of her pen and did her tricks.</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_100"></a>[100-<br />101]</span></p> - -<p>Away ran Buster, with his tail between his -legs, giving a little howl as he ran, as much as to -say:</p> - -<p>“Don’t throw anything at me! I was only in -fun!”</p> - -<p>But this was the kind of fun Larry didn’t want -Buster to have with the woodchuck, and it was -time the dog learned this.</p> - -<p>“Is Winkie all right?” asked Alice, as Larry -looked into the pen.</p> - -<p>“Yes, I guess Buster didn’t do any more than -scare her,” the boy answered. And indeed poor -Winkie’s heart was beating very fast, for she was -dreadfully frightened.</p> - -<p>But when she saw Larry and Alice, and heard -the kind voices of the children, and smelled the -sweet carrot pieces they brought her, Winkie -was no longer frightened. <a href="#i_p099">She came out of her -pen</a> when Larry opened the door, <a href="#i_p099">and did her -tricks</a> for the boy and his sister.</p> - -<p>“It’s a good thing Buster didn’t open the pen -door,” said Alice, as she stroked Winkie’s head. -“What are we going to do, Larry? If we leave -Winkie in her pen, Buster may come over to-morrow -when we’re at school and bite her.”</p> - -<p>“I’m going to get daddy to speak to Uncle -Elias about his dog,” said the boy. “I like -Buster, and he’s a good dog; but we can’t have -him chasing over here and scaring our woodchuck. -I’m going to make him stop.”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_102"></a>[102]</span></p> - -<p>That night Mr. Dawson spoke to his brother-in-law -about Buster, telling the farmer how the -dog had nearly caught the woodchuck.</p> - -<p>“I wish Buster really had caught that ground-hog!” -exclaimed the uncle. “Woodchucks are -a nuisance. They spoil my clover crop. A lot -of ’em had burrows in my meadow. But I -plowed the place up, and I blasted out a lot of -rocks and stumps and now the pesky creatures -have cleared out.”</p> - -<p>“I should think they would,” said Mr. Dawson. -“I hope none of them were killed.”</p> - -<p>“I wish they were all killed!” snarled Mr. -Tottle. “And if your children will sell their -woodchuck for two dollars I’ll buy her and let -Buster chase her.”</p> - -<p>“I don’t believe Larry and Alice will sell -Winkie,” said Mr. Dawson.</p> - -<p>Mr. Tottle came to them the next day and -offered two dollars for Winkie.</p> - -<p>“Let me take her,” said Uncle Elias with a -grin, “and you’ll never have to bother to feed -her again.”</p> - -<p>“Oh, but we like to feed her,” said Alice.</p> - -<p>One day Uncle Elias came over to the Dawson -home very much excited.</p> - -<p>“There! What did I tell you!” he cried. “A -lot of my clover’s been spoiled by your woodchuck!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_103"></a>[103]</span></p> - -<p>“It couldn’t be by Winkie,” said Larry, who -was just then making his pet do some of her -tricks. “She hasn’t been out of her pen for a -week, except just in our yard. She couldn’t have -taken any of your clover!”</p> - -<p>“Well, some pesky ground-hog did!” stormed -the farmer. “And I’m going to pay ’em back!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, what are you going to do?” asked Alice.</p> - -<p>“Never you mind!” snapped her uncle. “But -I’ll fix these woodchucks!”</p> - -<p>He hurried away, muttering to himself. That -night Winkie was in danger again. After ten -o’clock, when it was quite dark, Elias Tottle -left his home and with a big club in his hand -walked across the field toward the home of his -sister, where Winkie slept in her pen.</p> - -<p>“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered Mr. -Tottle to himself. “I’ll fix her!”</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_104"></a>[104]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI<br /> -<small>WINKIE GETS OUT</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">That night, for some reason or other, -Alice could not sleep. She had played in -the evening with her brother, after they -had put Winkie through some of her tricks. -Then the wily woodchuck had curled up in her -nest of hay in the smaller box, and Alice and -Larry had studied their lessons and gone to bed.</p> - -<p>But Alice could not sleep. She tossed restlessly -from one side of the bed to the other, and, -all the while, she could not help thinking of -Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I hope Buster doesn’t come over in the night -and break into her pen,” thought Alice. “And I -hope Uncle Elias does nothing to her! Poor -Winkie! I would rather turn her back into the -woods than have anything happen to her!”</p> - -<p>Alice tried to keep Winkie out of her mind, -but, try as she did, the little girl kept thinking of -the pet ground-hog.</p> - -<p>“If anything should happen to Winkie,” said -Alice over and over again to herself, “I—I’d cry—that’s -what I’d do!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_105"></a>[105]</span></p> - -<p>And, almost before she knew it, some tears -came out of the blue eyes of Alice and wet the -pillow on which her head rested.</p> - -<p>“Oh dear! Oh dear!” thought Winkie’s little -mistress. “What am I going to do? I feel so -bad about Winkie! I—I’d almost rather have -her get out than to have Uncle Elias buy her, -even for ten dollars, and sic Buster after her.</p> - -<p>“And maybe Buster will come in the night,” -thought Alice again, her ideas chasing one another -around in her poor little tired head as if -playing tag. “Or maybe Uncle Elias might -come over and—and do something to Winkie!”</p> - -<p>This was too much for Alice to bear. She sat -up in bed, and a new idea came to her. Carefully -she listened. There was not a sound in the -house, for all the family had gone to bed rather -early. And then, as she listened, Alice thought -she heard, faint and far off, the barking of -Buster.</p> - -<p>It may have been some dog barking on a distant -farm, or it may have been Buster. Alice -was sure it was. And then, in her fancy, she -heard Winkie’s whistle.</p> - -<p>“And she’s chattering her teeth, too!” said -Alice half aloud.</p> - -<p>She really thought she heard this, and perhaps -she did.</p> - -<p>“I know what I’m going to do!” said Alice at<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_106"></a>[106]</span> -last. “I’m going down the back stairs, out into -the yard, and I’m going to let Winkie run out! -I shan’t have Buster chase her or Uncle Elias do -anything to her. I’m going to let Winkie go -back to the woods.”</p> - -<p>Alice swung her bare feet over the edge of her -bed. She listened again, but there was not a -sound in the house. Even the distant barking of -the dog had stopped.</p> - -<p>“But maybe he stopped because he’s running -over here to get Winkie!” thought Alice. “I -must hurry down!”</p> - -<p>The early part of the evening had been dark, -but now the moon had risen, and, shining in the -windows, gave light enough for the little girl to -see her way. Softly in her bare feet, clad only in -her night dress, she pattered down the back -stairs.</p> - -<p>It was an easy matter to open the back door -and go down the rear steps. Her bare feet made -scarcely any sound, and the boards of the walk -were warm and dry from the day’s sun.</p> - -<p>“Ouch!” Alice could not help exclaiming, as -she stepped off the boards into the grass. It was -cool and damp to her bare feet, but she minded it -but for a moment. Then, stopping a second or -two to get used to the tickling feeling of the -grass, she went on.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_107"></a>[107]</span></p> - -<p>Winkie’s pen was plainly seen in the moonlight. -Alice walked over toward it, and if any -one had been looking then they might have -thought the little girl, in her night dress, was -some good fairy floating on a moonbeam to help -Winkie.</p> - -<p>And that, really, is what Alice was. She -stooped down and began to fumble with the -catch of the door in the side of the pen. The -children had cut a little door hole and had hung -a board on for a door, swinging it on leather -hinges. They had done this so Winkie could -easily come out to do her tricks.</p> - -<p>As soon as Alice touched the pen Winkie was -awake, and, with a little low whistle of greeting, -the wily woodchuck came out of her small sleeping -box to see what was going on.</p> - -<p>“Oh, Winkie!” half sobbed Alice, putting in -her hand and patting her pet, “I’m so afraid -something will happen to you that I’m going to -open your door and let you go. I hope you will -be happy. I’d never be happy if Buster caught -you or if Uncle Elias did anything to you. So -I’m going to let you go, Winkie.”</p> - -<p>Of course Winkie did not understand this talk, -but the woodchuck knew when any one was kind -to her, and Alice was certainly kind. Alice gave -Winkie a final pat, stroked her fur, and then,<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_108"></a>[108]</span> -leaving the door open, Alice ran back into the -house, softly pattering in her bare feet over the -grass and boards.</p> - -<p>“Good-bye, Winkie, good-bye!” whispered -the little girl, as she closed the back door, went -upstairs, and jumped into bed, nobody having -heard her.</p> - -<p>Then, almost as soon as her head touched the -pillow, Alice fell asleep. Her mind was now at -rest about Winkie.</p> - -<p>But now let us see what happened to the wily -woodchuck. It did not take Winkie long to -notice the open door. She knew in what part of -her pen it was, for she often went in and out -when doing her tricks. And now, in the moonlight, -the open door plainly showed.</p> - -<p>“I guess they want me to go out,” thought -Winkie. “Some more of that funny business, I -suppose, rolling over and sitting up. Well, I -don’t mind, for they give me good things to eat.”</p> - -<p>But when Winkie reached the outside of her -pen neither Larry nor Alice was in sight, for -Alice had gone back to bed and Larry had not -gotten up.</p> - -<p>“Why—why, it looks as if I could run away!” -was the sudden thought that came into the woodchuck’s -mind. “Yes, I can run away. I can go -back to the woods and maybe find my family! -Oh, how lovely that will be!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_109"></a>[109]</span></p> - -<p>So away ran Winkie in the moonlight. She -was only partly tame, and even animals that have -been in captivity a long time, and have come to -love their masters very much, will run away and -turn wild again if they get the chance.</p> - -<p>Winkie’s chance had come.</p> - -<p>Perhaps for an instant she felt sad at leaving -the pen that had come to be her home, and she -may have felt sorry at going away from Larry -and Alice, who had fed her and been good to her. -But this thought lasted only a moment, and then -Winkie scudded away.</p> - -<p>What new adventures would she have?</p> - -<hr class="chap" /> - -<div class="chapter"> -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_110"></a>[110]</span></p> - -<h2 class="nobreak" id="CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII<br /> -<small>WINKIE FINDS HER FOLKS</small></h2> -</div> - - -<p class="cap">Out of the yard, over the brook, and across -the meadow hurried Winkie, as fast as -her fat little body could waddle. Woodchucks, -especially when they are fat from much -eating, are not very fast travelers, and Winkie -could not go very rapidly. Besides, she was in -no great hurry. She did not think any danger -would come to her in this beautiful, moonlight -night.</p> - -<p>But danger was near!</p> - -<p>As Winkie waddled along she suddenly heard -a tramping noise. It was the noise of heavy -boots on the ground. Winkie knew footsteps -when she heard them, for she had listened to -those of Larry and Alice running home from -school every day to feed her. But these footfalls -were big and heavy.</p> - -<p>“Maybe this is a farmer coming with a dog!” -thought Winkie. “I guess I’d better hide!”</p> - -<p>And hide she did, under a bush. It was well -she did so, for, a little later, along came Uncle -Elias with a big club in his hand. Uncle Elias<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_111"></a>[111]</span> -walked as softly as he could as he neared the -house of his sister, in the yard of which he knew -was Winkie’s pen.</p> - -<p>“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered the man. -“It’s all right for children to have pets, but let -’em get a dog or a cat that doesn’t eat clover and -gnaw vegetables. Woodchucks are pesky creatures! -I’ll soon put an end to this one.”</p> - -<p>Mr. Tottle came to the fence, paused to look -up at the house, and, seeing it was all in darkness, -he climbed over and walked softly toward -Winkie’s pen. It was a good thing Alice had -been down and gone back again, or she might -have been frightened by the big figure of a man -stalking through the moonlight, with a club in -his hand.</p> - -<p>And perhaps if Uncle Elias had seen the -white-robed figure floating over the grass in the -moonlight he might have thought it was a fairy. -But then, he didn’t believe in fairies.</p> - -<p>“Now you pesky woodchuck, this is the end of -you!” fiercely exclaimed Uncle Elias, as he -reached the pen and raised his club.</p> - -<p>But what a surprise for him! The door of the -pen was open and there was no woodchuck to be -seen!</p> - -<p>“Gone!” gasped Mr. Tottle. “That pesky -creature’s gone! I guess she broke out and has -gone over to my clover field. I’ll fix her!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_112"></a>[112]</span></p> - -<p>Away he strode, muttering to himself. Back -over the fence he climbed, and, had he but -known it, he passed close to Winkie’s hiding -place. But the wily woodchuck crouched down -in the grass and neither moved nor made a -sound.</p> - -<p>Uncle Elias tramped on his way, muttering -about “pesky creatures” over to his own clover -patch. He thought he might find Winkie, or -some other woodchucks, eating his crops. But -he saw none, and that seemed to make him more -angry, for he had tramped around in the night -for nothing.</p> - -<p>“But I’ll get that ground-hog when she comes -back to her cage,” he muttered. “I will, or I’ll -sic Buster on her!”</p> - -<p>Uncle Elias angrily tossed his club on the -wood pile and went to bed. Meanwhile Winkie, -waiting until his tramping feet had gone away, -came out of her hiding place.</p> - -<p>“Now for something good to eat!” thought the -little woodchuck.</p> - -<p>She was always ready to eat, and, somehow or -other, the grass she now nibbled tasted sweeter -than any she had ever chewed in her pen. It was -almost as good as carrots. Perhaps it was because -Winkie was free.</p> - -<p>On through the night wandered the little<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_113"></a>[113]</span> -ground-hog girl. She did not know which way -she was going—she did not care as long as no -dogs, wolves or foxes chased her. She ate some -more, and then, finding a hollow log, she curled -up in it and went to sleep.</p> - -<p>Winkie awakened before daylight, and -crawled out. She felt that she must be on her -way again.</p> - -<p>“I want to find my folks,” she said wistfully. -She was getting tired of going about by herself, -and even when she had been with Larry and -Alice she had longed for a game of tag with -Blinkie and Blunk.</p> - -<p>Wandering on, Winkie came to a farmhouse. -Though she did not know it, this was the place -where Uncle Elias lived. But the cross man was -asleep now, and so was Buster, curled up in the -straw of his kennel.</p> - -<p>“I smell something very good!” suddenly -whispered Winkie to herself. “It smells like -carrots and turnips and other good things!”</p> - -<p>She sat up on her haunches, as Larry had -taught her to do, a trick she would have learned -by herself, anyhow, and again she sniffed. The -good smell came from a side porch of the farmhouse, -and, going softly up the steps, Winkie saw -and smelled some baskets of vegetables.</p> - -<p>“Oh!” thought the little woodchuck. “Some<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_114"></a>[114]</span> -one must have known I was coming and they left -these here for me! Oh, how good they are!”</p> - -<p>She stood up and gnawed the potatoes, cabbages, -turnips and carrots in the basket, eating -her fill. And even a small woodchuck has a -large appetite. <a href="#i_p115">Winkie ate so much she could -hardly waddle</a>, and then she went off into the -wood a little distance, lay down in another hollow -log, and went to sleep.</p> - -<p>Daylight came. Uncle Elias came downstairs -early, for he was going to take a load of vegetables -to the city. He had packed them in baskets -the night before and set them on the side -porch. As he went to load them into his wagon -he gave an angry cry.</p> - -<p>“Look here! Look here!” he shouted. “Some -pesky woodchuck has been here and sampled all -my vegetables! Look here!”</p> - -<p>“Oh, a woodchuck would hardly come right -up to the house,” said his wife.</p> - -<p>“But this one did!” cried Mr. Tottle. “I -know the mark of a ground-hog’s teeth. And -look, here are paw marks in the dirt! Yes, a -woodchuck has been here. And I know which -one it was!”</p> - -<p>“Which one?” asked Mrs. Tottle.</p> - -<p>“The pesky creature Larry and Alice keep for -a pet! I was over last night—I mean I’m going -over now,” and Uncle Elias corrected himself -quickly. “I’m going over now and make ’em get -rid of it!”</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_115"></a>[115]</span></p> - -<div class="figcenter" id="i_p115"> - <img src="images/i_p115.jpg" alt="" title="" /> - <br /> - <div class="caption"><a href="#Page_113">Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle.</a></div> -</div> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_116"></a>[116-<br />117]</span></p> - -<p>Over to his sister’s house he hurried.</p> - -<p>“Look here!” he stormed. “You’ve got to get -rid of your woodchuck! She chewed up a lot of -my best vegetables. Where is she? I’m going -to get rid of her!”</p> - -<p>He went out to the pen, followed by Alice and -Larry. Alice said nothing, but Larry was crying -and saying that if Uncle Elias did anything to -Winkie, Larry would tell his father.</p> - -<p>But Winkie was not in her pen! The door -was open as Alice had left it.</p> - -<p>“She—she’s gone!” gasped Larry. “Our -Winkie is gone!”</p> - -<p>“I knew she got out, because she was over at -my place!” said Uncle Elias. “I was here—I -mean I’m here now to see that she doesn’t get out -again. She came over in the night and ate my -best vegetables. I thought she’d be back here by -now.”</p> - -<p>“No, Winkie isn’t here,” said Alice. “And I—I’m -glad of it, Uncle Elias!” she said bravely.</p> - -<p>“Oh, you are, are you!” snorted the unkind -man. “Well, when she comes back I’ll fix her.”</p> - -<p>“Maybe she’ll never come back,” said Larry -sadly. “I wonder how she got out? I fastened -the door last night.”</p> - -<p>Alice knew, and later on she told Larry. She<span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_118"></a>[118]</span> -didn’t want Buster or Uncle Elias to catch the -woodchuck. And the angry farmer or the big -dog never did.</p> - -<p>After her fine feast of the vegetables belonging -to Uncle Elias, Winkie slept until nearly noon. -Then she awakened in the hollow tree, stretched -herself and walked out.</p> - -<p>There were woods not far away, and Winkie, -feeling thirsty, thought she might find a brook -there.</p> - -<p>“But I must be careful to keep out of traps,” -she thought to herself. “The next one I get -caught in may not be as easy on me as the one -Larry set.”</p> - -<p>Carefully Winkie made her way through the -woods. As she was drinking she heard a noise -on the other side of the brook. Looking up she -saw Toto, the beaver.</p> - -<p>“Hello, Winkie!” called the bustling chap, -who was floating a little log of wood into a canal -he had dug. “Say, where have you been, -Winkie?” Toto asked.</p> - -<p>“Oh, lots of places,” answered the woodchuck. -“The last place I was in was a pen, but a little -girl let me out. Why do you ask?”</p> - -<p>“Because some new woodchucks, who have -just come to these woods to live, have been asking -for you.”</p> - -<p>“Asking for me?” cried Winkie.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_119"></a>[119]</span></p> - -<p>“Yes, there was a girl woodchuck named -Blinkie and——”</p> - -<p>“That’s my sister!” cried Winkie.</p> - -<p>“And a boy woodchuck named Blunk!”</p> - -<p>“He’s my brother!” cried Winkie. “Oh, -where are they? And are my father and mother -with Blinkie and Blunk?”</p> - -<p>“Well, there are four woodchucks living not -far from our beaver dam,” said Toto. “They -just moved there last week. They said they had -been driven out of their burrow by a big noise, -and then, when they were all walking along together -to find a new home, they heard another -big noise, and they separated. The four of -them came together some time later, but the fifth -one was lost.”</p> - -<p>“I am that fifth one!” cried Winkie.</p> - -<p>“I’m beginning to think so!” chuckled Toto. -“Come, and I’ll take you to the other woodchucks!”</p> - -<p>He led the way. Winkie saw a big pile of -grass, sticks, stones, and mud across a pond of -water. This was the beaver dam. A little distance -off was a smaller pile of dirt near a hole in -the side of a hill.</p> - -<p>“That’s where the new woodchuck family -lives,” said Toto, pointing with his flat tail.</p> - -<p>Winkie hurried over. She saw a woodchuck -come to the edge of the burrow and look out.</p> - -<p><span class="pagenum"><a id="Page_120"></a>[120]</span></p> - -<p>“Oh, Blinkie! Here I am!” shouted Winkie. -“Don’t you know me? I’ve come back. Here I -am!”</p> - -<p>The woodchuck at the edge of the burrow -gave a whistle and a chatter. Three other -ground-hogs came rushing out.</p> - -<p><a href="#i_frontis">“Winkie! It’s my Winkie!” cried Mrs. -Woodchuck.</a></p> - -<p>“Oh, Mother!” sobbed Winkie. “How glad -I am to be home again! Oh, such adventures as -I’ve had! But now I’m home!”</p> - -<p>Winkie had found her folks again! And she -lived happily with them until, as a grown-up -woodchuck, she went away to make her own -home in her own burrow.</p> - - -<p class="p4 noic">THE END</p> - - - - -<hr class="chap" /> -<div class="tnote"> -<p class="noi tntitle">Transcriber’s Notes:</p> - -<p class="smfont">Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently -corrected.</p> - -<p class="smfont">Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.</p> - -<p class="smfont">Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.</p> -</div> - - - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of Project Gutenberg's Winkie, the Wily Woodchuck, by Richard Barnum - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WINKIE, THE WILY WOODCHUCK *** - -***** This file should be named 63191-h.htm or 63191-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/6/3/1/9/63191/ - -Produced by Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed -Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law 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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