CHAPTER ISLICKO LEARNS TO JUMP
Half way up the side of a tall tree there was a round hole in the trunk. The hole was lined with soft, dried leaves, and bits of white, fluffy cotton, from the milkweed plant. And, if you looked very carefully at the hole, you might see, peering from it, a little head, like that of a very small kitten, and a pair of very bright eyes.
But it was not a kitten that looked from the little hole in the trunk of the tree. Kitties can climb trees, but they do not like to live in them. They would rather have a warm place behind the stove, with a nice saucer of milk.
Now if I tell you that the little creatures who lived in this hole-nest had big, fluffy tails, and that they could sit up on their hind legs, and eat nuts, I am sure you can guess what they were.
Squirrels! That’s it! In the nest, half wayup the big tree in the woods, lived a family of gray squirrels, and I am going to tell you about them, or, rather, more particularly, about one of the little girl squirrels whose name was Slicko.
One morning Mrs. Squirrel, who had gotten up out of the nest early, to go out and get some breakfast for her little ones, came back very quickly, jumping from one tree branch to another, and fairly scrambling down into the nest where the little boy and girl squirrels of her family were still asleep.
“Why, what’s the matter, Mother?” asked Mr. Squirrel, in the queer, chattering language he and his wife used. “Why are you in such a hurry this morning? See, you have dropped a lot of nuts!”
He looked out over the edge of the nest, down to the ground, where he saw some of the nuts Mrs. Squirrel had dropped. She had been bringing them home for breakfast.
“What made you run so?” asked Mr. Squirrel, who had stayed home with the little ones, while his wife went after nuts.
“Well, I guess you’d have hurried too,” said the mamma squirrel, “if you saw what I saw!”
“What was it?” asked Mr. Squirrel, and he pulled his head in from the nest-hole, so that if any bad animals were down below on the ground they could not see him.
“It was a man, with a dog and a gun,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “He was out hunting, and I’m almost sure he saw me!”
“My, that would be too bad!” exclaimed Mr. Squirrel. “Do you think he followed you to shoot you?”
“I hope not,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “I ran as fast as I could when I saw him, and I did not hear his gun go off, but I did hear the dog bark.”
“Hum!” said Mr. Squirrel, in his own language, and he seemed as worried as your papa might be if he heard there was a bad animal, or a runaway horse, coming after you. “So the hunter did not shoot his gun, eh?”
“Not that I heard,” answered Mrs. Squirrel. “But he may be trying to find this nest.”
“I’ll look out and see if he is coming,” said Mr. Squirrel.
“Be careful he doesn’t see you,” said Mrs. Squirrel.
“I will,” replied her husband. And then he carefully, carefully peeked out of the hole of the nest in the hollow trunk of the tree. Squirrels are smarter than we think. Though they do not know how to shoot a gun, they know that a gun can hurt them, and when one is shot off in the woods, all the squirrels, and the birds and wild creatures, are very much frightened, and run to hide.
So Mr. Squirrel looked out to see if he could see a man with a gun and a dog. But he saw nothing, and he was glad of it.
“I guess he didn’t see which way you went, Mamma,” he said to his wife. “Now we will give the children their breakfast, and then we must begin teaching them their lessons. For if hunters, with dogs and guns, are to come to our woods, it is time our little ones knew how to look after themselves, and how to hide, and jump to safe places.”
“I think so, too,” said Mrs. Squirrel. “Wake up, children!” she cried. “Come, Slicko! Hurry up, Chatter! Come, Fluffy and Nutto! Breakfast is ready!”
Four little squirrels—two boys and two girls—awoke in the tree-nest and sat up on their hind legs in the soft leaves and cotton. They saw the nuts their mother had brought, and at once began eating them. That was all they had to do to get ready for breakfast.
The squirrel children did not have to dress, for they wore their fur suits all the year ’round, never taking them off. In winter their fur grew much thicker than in summer, to keep them warmer.
The squirrel children did not have to wash themselves in a basin. All any of them did was to wet one paw with his little red tongue, andwipe it over his face. Then he was washed. But you wouldn’t like to do that, I’m sure.
“Come, children, eat your breakfasts,” said Mrs. Squirrel, “and then you are going to have a new lesson.”
“A new lesson!” chattered Slicko, one of the girl squirrels, to her mamma, speaking in a language that you or I could not have understood. “What kind of a lesson is it going to be?”
You see the squirrel children had been taught how to gnaw open hard nuts, and to take out the sweet, juicy kernels inside. They had been taught how to climb trees, and wash their faces. But there were many other things for them to learn. Slicko was the largest of the squirrel children, and she asked the most questions.
“What is your lesson going to be, Mother?” Slicko wanted to know.
“I hope it’s going to be a sleeping lesson,” said Fluffy, one of the boy squirrels. “I’m sleepy yet,” and he yawned and stretched himself, just like a little monkey.
“Oh, fie on you!” said his papa. “Squirrels should be lively, and hop about when they awake in the morning. Come now, if you have finished your nuts, your mamma and I will teach you a new lesson, and one that you must learn well, or there may be danger for you.”
“Pooh, I’m not afraid! What sort of danger?”asked Nutto, the other boy squirrel. He was called Nutto because he was so fond of eating chestnuts.
“Oh, I’m afraid,” said Chatter, the littlest girl squirrel. “Don’t say such scary things, Nutto,” and Chatter looked over the edge of the nest as though she might see a big hawk-bird swooping down, for her papa and mamma had told her to always hide when a big hawk flew over the woods. But no hawk was in sight, now.
“You are going to have some jumping lessons,” went on Mr. Squirrel. “After you learn to jump, I will tell you why.”
You see the papa squirrel did not want just then to tell the little ones about their mamma having seen a hunter-man, with a dog and gun, for fear, if he did, they might be too frightened to come out of the nest and learn to jump. But Mr. Squirrel knew there was no danger near, just then, at any rate, and he wanted his children to be as brave as they could be.
Soon, after the breakfast nuts were eaten, the four little squirrels went out on a straight branch, that stuck out from the tree trunk near the nest. Papa and Mamma Squirrel stood there with them.
“Now this is the idea,” said Mr. Squirrel, in his chattering language, that you or I could nothave understood, but which was as plain to the little squirrels, as a papa dog’s language is to a puppy, or a mamma cat’s mewing to her little kittens. “You are all going to learn to jump,” said Mr. Squirrel.
“What’s a jump?” asked Slicko, who, as I have said, was always asking questions. She asked more questions than her two brothers and her sister together. But Slicko wanted to know about things.
“See!” exclaimed Mr. Squirrel. “This is a jump. Now I am on this limb beside you. Now watch!”
He gave a little spring, or jump, through the air, and landed on the branch of another tree, some distance off.
“That is a jump,” said Mr. Squirrel. “It is getting from one branch to another without running or walking. It is a quick way of walking, I suppose you could call it, and when you are in a hurry, as when some one is chasing you, and you have no time to run or walk, you must jump. Now let me see you jump down here, just as I did. Come on, all of you!”
“Yes, go on!” said Mamma Squirrel, who was still on the tree limb by the nest. “You little squirrels must learn to jump. That is the one, big lesson left for you to learn.”
Slicko looked at Chatter. Fluffy looked atNutto. Then they all looked down at their papa on the lower limb.
“Come on! Don’t be afraid!” called Mr. Squirrel. “Jump! You won’t be hurt!”
“But—but I’m afraid,” said Nutto, who, you remember, had said he was not at all frightened.
“Oh, you mustn’t be afraid,” said Mr. Squirrel. “There is nothing to hurt you. I’m sure you can jump if you try. Give a good, hard spring, and you’ll land down here on the limb beside me. Besides, if you do fall, the ground is covered with soft leaves, and you won’t be hurt. Come on. Jump!”
But the little squirrels did not want to.
“You go first,” said Nutto to Fluffy.
“No, I’d rather watch you go first,” spoke Fluffy.
“Maybe Chatter will go,” suggested Nutto. “The girls are not as heavy as we are, and they won’t be hurt if they fall.”
“One of you boys ought to go first,” said Slicko. “You are always saying you’re not afraid. You jump first, Nutto, and Chatter and I will come after you.”
“Oh, I don’t want to,” said Nutto.
And there the four little squirrels stood on the limb near the nest, each one afraid to jump. Their papa stood waiting for them, and he kept thinking that if the hunter and his dog shouldcome along then, the little squirrels would be in danger of being shot, if they did not know how to jump out of the way, and hide.
“Come on. You must learn to jump!” called Mrs. Squirrel.
Slicko took a long breath. After all, though she did ask a number of questions, Slicko was rather brave.
“I’m going to jump,” she said.
“That’s the girl!” cried her father. “Come on; jump down here beside me!”
Slicko moved over close to the edge of the tree branch. Then, with another long breath, such as a boy takes before he dives, when he is in swimming, Slicko jumped from the tree branch.
She found herself sailing through the air. At first she was greatly frightened. She spread out her tail, and then she found that she was floating through the air almost as gently as a bird’s feather. Her tail helped her to fall gently, for it was just like a big, open umbrella, and held her up, as the parachute holds up the man who jumps from a balloon.
“There goes Slicko!” cried her mamma. “Slicko is learning to jump!”
Down, down, down through the air went Slicko, the jumping squirrel. Would she land on the tree branch beside her father? Slicko certainly hoped so, but still it was her first jump.