CHAPTER IVWINKIE 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 sunshinecould 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 wayout 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 wasno 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 theunderground 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 pawsand 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!”
By pulling and hauling they managed to get Mrs. Woodchuck up and out.
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.