CHAPTER XIIWINKIE 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 Eliaswalked 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 littleground-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. “Someone 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!”
Winkie ate so much she could hardly waddle.
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. Shedidn’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: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.
Transcriber’s Notes:
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.