WINKIE 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 sunshine could 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 way out 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 was no 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 the
underground 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 paws and 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!”
[Illustration: 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.