NOVEMBER 14: Mother Brown Bat
“Ah, children,” said Mother Brown Bat, “it will soon be time to go to bed. And we shall sleep well, for bats are good sleepers. We shall sleep especially well if it is to be a cold winter. Ah, my children, what marketing trips we have made. I have not had to call in a neighbor to take care of my babies when I went out. No, my babies hung onto my neck and came along, too.
“What times we used to have catching bugs and other delicious delicacies we found about at night. What meals we used to have.
“We used to have beetle pudding quite often and gnat salad. Do you remember, my Bat babies?”
“We remember, Mother Brown Bat. But,” they said, “we are no longer babies.”
“That is true,” said Mother Brown Bat, “and you are able to look after yourselves; but I still call you babies, for it is hard for a mother to realize her children are grown-up and you do grow up so quickly.
“Sometimes we went about in the very, very early mornings and often we started out before it was really night. But we took great care, for we kept away from people. People have such a curious habit of not liking bats.”
“That is hard to believe,” said the Bat children.
“I think so,” said Mother Brown Bat. “I should think they would like bats, and especially the members of our family, for we are so small and dainty and so clever in the way we hang on to the trees when wesleep, rather than fussing about housekeeping and bed-making all the time.
“Housekeeping takes up too much time for a Mother Brown Bat and the Mr. Brown Bat and the little Brown Bats wouldn’t half appreciate it either.
“So she doesn’t bother to do a lot of work for no reason at all, for none of us miss a home life. We’re perfectly happy as we are and with our own ways and habits.”
“Perfectly happy,” agreed the Bat children. “We’re perfectly happy, Mother Brown Bat.”