CHAPTER IIISLICKO GOES ON A VISIT
Mr. Squirrel came along, hurrying and jumping through the leafy branches of the trees as fast as he could come. When he was still some distance away from the nest, he took a long jump, and landed on the limb near the hole in the tree.
“Did you see him?” asked Mrs. Squirrel.
“Yes. He is in the woods,” chattered Mr. Squirrel. “But he may not be here for some minutes. We have time to run and hide. And we had better not keep together. We must all go different ways, and then he will not find us so easily.”
“Oh, what is it?” cried Slicko. “What has happened?”
“The hunter-man, and his dog, have found out where our nest is,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “At any minute he may come here to shoot us, or catch us.”
“Oh, how dreadful!” cried Chatter, and even Nutto, who was supposed to be very brave, for a squirrel, looked frightened.
“But don’t worry too much,” said Mr. Squirrel. “I have seen the hunter in time—him and his dog and gun—and we will get safely away from him. Come now, we will separate, each going a different way; then the hunter will not find us, I hope.”
“But where shall we go?” asked Slicko. “And what shall we do for something to eat, and a place to sleep nights, if we go away from our home-nest?”
“Well, you squirrels are old enough now, to hunt food for yourselves,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “I am glad of that, for I shall not worry so much about you. And you know how to run and jump.”
“I am glad we learned how to jump in time,” said Slicko.
“Yes, if you had waited, and kept on putting it off,” said Mr. Squirrel, “you would not now be ready to run and hide away from the hunter, and be able to take care of yourselves. As for a place to sleep, your mother and I are going to send you all on visits to our friends, or relations. You can stay with them for a while, until it will be safe for us all to come back to our nest again.”
“Oh, then we are going on a visit!” exclaimed Slicko.
“Something like that, yes,” answered herfather. “And we must hurry, too, for the hunter may be here any minute. I passed him in the woods, and he was coming this way.”
“Did he see you, Papa?” asked Nutto.
“No, for I kept well behind the leaves, and hurried on. My! how that dog did bark, though. He seemed very savage.”
“Squinty, the comical pig, told me of a dog he knew,” said Slicko, “but he said that dog was kind and gentle. His name is Don.”
“This dog’s name wasn’t Don, I’m sure of that,” spoke Mr. Squirrel. “But we must not stay talking here. Scatter, every one of you! Nutto and Fluffy, you go over to Grandpa Beechnut’s nest, and stay with him. I don’t believe the hunter knows where that is.
“Chatter, you can stay with Mr. and Mrs. Acorn, the squirrels who live in the hollow stump. Your mother and I will go off in the woods, and make a new nest, so if we can not come back to our old one, we will still have a home when winter comes.”
“But what am I to do?” asked Slicko. “Where am I to go?”
“I have not forgotten you,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “You can go over and stay with your Aunt Whitey until it is safe. Your aunt will be glad to have you, for she lives all alone, and she has room for only one small squirrel in her nest besideherself. You run over there, and tell her all that has happened—how the hunter has found our nest.”
“And go quickly!” suddenly cried Mr. Squirrel. “Here the hunter-man comes now—with his dog.”
Just then there sounded through the woods:
“Bow wow! Bow wow! Bow wow!”
“That’s the dog,” said Mr. Squirrel. “Hurry, children, and don’t forget the lessons we have taught you.”
“We won’t!” promised Slicko.
Then came another sound, a dreadful noise, like thunder.
“Bang!” sounded through the woods, making the leaves on the trees shake.
“That’s the hunter’s gun!” exclaimed Nutto. “Run, everybody!”
Off through the woods scampered Slicko, her father and mother and her brothers and sister. Slicko climbed up one tree, jumped into another, and still another.
“I don’t believe the hunter and his dog will get me,” thought Slicko, as she hurried on toward the nest where her Aunt Whitey lived.
Pretty soon the hunter-man and his dog came to the foot of the tree where Slicko used to live.
“Ha! There’s that squirrel nest I saw the other day,” said the man to himself. “I wonderif there are any in it? I’ll wait a while, and see if I can shoot any of them for my dinner.”
“Bow wow! Bow wow!” barked the dog. Perhaps he, too, wanted some squirrels for his dinner.
All around the foot of the tree ran the dog, barking as loudly as he could. Maybe he was hoping he could scare the squirrels out of the nest so his master could shoot them with his gun.
The man waited and waited, looking up at the hole in the trunk of the tree, where he knew the squirrels had lived. But he did not know they had gone. That was the time the squirrels were smarter than the hunter.
Several hours passed, and still the man waited. Every now and then he would look up at the hole, with his gun all ready to shoot, and the dog, who had been running off in the woods, looking for more squirrels, would come back, barking louder than ever.
“Well, I guess those squirrels have gone away, Carlo,” the man finally said to his dog. “It is of no use for us to stay here. Come, we will go look for other squirrels to shoot.”
“Bow wow! Bow wow! That will be fun!” barked Carlo. Of course being a dog, he did not know any better.
And so the hunter-man went away from theempty nest, where Slicko and the other squirrels had lived.
All this while Slicko, the jumping squirrel, was hurrying along through the woods, toward the nest of her Aunt Whitey. Slicko’s aunt had that name because there was a white spot on the end of her tail. Mrs. Whitey and Mrs. Squirrel were sisters, and of course that made the squirrel, with the white on the end of her tail, Slicko’s aunt. And Slicko liked Aunt Whitey very much. There were always plenty of nuts in Aunt Whitey’s nest, and Slicko, as well as her brothers and sister, liked to come on a visit. But this time Slicko was all alone.
Pretty soon the little jumping girl squirrel came to the tall tree where Aunt Whitey lived.
“Now I must be very careful,” thought Slicko. “I must wait, before running in, to see if any hunter-men, or dogs, or other enemies are watching me. For if they are, they would see where I go in, and they could find the nest, and maybe catch Aunt Whitey and me.”
Squirrels, like birds and other woodland creatures, do not like human beings to know where their nests or homes are. So they take care to make the front doors in such a way they can not easily be seen, and when the forest creatures go in, they always look around first, to see that no enemy is watching. In that way they keep theirhomes, or nests, secret. They have to, for they have so many enemies.
Slicko looked all around, and, seeing no dogs, wild animals or hunter-men on the watch, to spy on her aunt’s nest, the little squirrel scrambled up the tree, sticking her sharp toe nails in the soft bark as she had been taught to do.
When Slicko was half way up, she saw a hole in the tree, just such a hole as at her nest at home. This was the front door to the home of her aunt.
Slicko gave two or three taps on the bark with her front paw.
The little girl squirrel always did this when she called on Mrs. Whitey, so the squirrel lady would know it was one of her little friends or relations, and not a bad owl, or hawk-bird, wanting to eat her up.
Slicko expected to hear her aunt chatter, as she always did:
“Come in and have some nuts!”
But there was no answer.
Slicko knocked again with her little paw, and then, thinking her aunt might be asleep, the little jumping squirrel gave a little hop down inside the nest. It was just like the nest at home, which she and the others had left because of the danger from the hunter-man.
At first, coming in the dark nest, after havingbeen out in the bright sunlight, Slicko could see nothing. Just as when you come into the house, after having walked along the snowy road from school, you have to wait until your eyes get used to the darker house. It was that way with Slicko.
Pretty soon, however, she could look about the nest, and then her heart grew sad. For she saw that Aunt Whitey did not live there any more. The nest was deserted, and empty. Most of the soft leaves, and the cotton from the milkweed plant had been tossed out. The nest was all upset. Most of the nuts were gone, and it looked as though some boy, or man, or animal had been inside, catching the squirrel lady, and taking the nuts she had stored away to eat.
“Oh, dear!” thought Slicko. “This is terrible! Aunt Whitey has either run away, or been caught. There is no one here to take me! What shall I do? Can I stay here all alone? Oh, dear! Isn’t it too bad!”
Slicko cowered down in the empty nest and wondered what she should do, now that she had no home to go back to.