WINKIE IN A TRAP
Slicko, the jumping squirrel, had told the truth about the storm. The
tree, in the upper part of which the squirrel had a nest and in a lower
hollow part of which Winkie had been sleeping, was struck by lightning,
and broken down.
But neither of the animals, nor some birds nesting under the leaves of
the tree, was hurt by the lightning, though all were stunned by it for
a moment. The birds fluttered into other trees, glad to hide themselves
under the leaves as much out of the rain as they could get. Slicko,
feeling the tree falling, had leaped safely into another.
And what happened to poor Winkie?
At first the wily woodchuck hardly knew what was taking place. She had
been awakened so suddenly by the storm, with its lightning, thunder,
wind, and rain, that she was dazed.
But she heard what Slicko said, and she knew enough to jump when she
felt the tree going over, so she was not caught under it and pinned
down, as sometimes happens to beavers in the woods.
“Where are you? Where can I get in out of the rain?” called Winkie to
Slicko. But either she could not make her voice heard above the storm,
or else Slicko was too far away to hear. I think it was a little of
both.
At any rate Winkie stood for a moment beside the fallen, split tree
that had been a sort of “hotel” for her during the first part of the
night. But the warm leaf-lined nest where she had so cozily cuddled was
no more. And as she felt the rain falling on her and heard the noise of
the storm, Winkie knew she must get under some kind of shelter.
Winkie, like most wild animals, could see pretty well in the dark, so
she walked along.
Every now and then a flash of lightning came, and this showed her still
better which way to go. She did not need to keep on any path. She could
wander where she wished. And, really, the rain did her little harm, for
this was summer. If it had been winter, with a rain that froze as fast
as it fell, that would have been very sad indeed. Winkie wore a coat of
fur, and though this was wet through, she knew it would soon dry in the
sun.
She looked about her for a hollow tree, but could find none. Then she
spied a hole under some rocks, and in another moment she had crawled
into this little den, away from the wind and the rain. In the hole were
dried leaves, and cuddling up in these Winkie soon began to feel warm
again.
Outside the rain splashed down, the wind lashed the branches of the
trees, breaking some off and tossing them to the ground, the thunder
roared, and the lightning flashed. But, safe in the little cave she had
found, Winkie, the wily woodchuck, soon went to sleep again.
So, after all, Winkie came through the storm with nothing worse than
a fright and a wetting. Of course she missed Slicko, for when morning
came and the warm sun shone once more, there was no sign of the jumping
squirrel.
“Slicko! Slicko! Where are you?” called Winkie, as she came out of the
little cave.
“Slicko has gone away!” chirped a bird. “I saw Slicko scampering off
through the tree tops long before the sun was up.”
“Well, then I shall have to get a new friend,” said Winkie. “Have you
seen any of my family?” she asked the bird.
“No, I am sorry to say I have not,” was the answer. “I have only been
in these woods a short time. I came just before the storm, and I met
Slicko only by chance. I can’t tell you anything about your family.”
“Then I shall have to travel on and try to find them,” said Winkie.
“But first I must get something to eat.”
This was easy for the woodchuck girl. She did not have to go to the
store, nor yet wait for a meal to be cooked or a table set. Eating was
very easy for her.
All she had to do was to look about for some grass or something green
growing, and for some bark to gnaw. Winkie did not really care as much
about bark as did Toto the beaver, for ground-hogs live mainly on
clover, grass, and other soft plants. But when a woodchuck is hungry,
as Winkie was, it will eat almost anything in the vegetable line.
“I’d like to find some turnips, carrots, or cabbage,” she thought to
herself, for woodchucks are very fond of these, and that is one reason
why farmers do not like woodchucks. “But I don’t see any around here,”
went on Winkie.
Indeed there was no garden near the woods, and after eating what she
could find in the forest and on the edge of it, Winkie started off to
look for more adventures.
Of course, she really didn’t especially look for them, nor did she know
she was going to have them, but adventures happened to her, and some of
them were not very pleasant.
The woods were washed clean by the storm, and now the day was warm and
sunny. The birds sang, many animals scurried here and there between the
trees and under the bushes, and Winkie was one of them.
Now and then she would hear some large animal moving in the bushes, and
at such times Winkie would crouch down and hide, for she feared a wolf,
a fox or a dog might be coming after her.
“I shouldn’t mind meeting Don, or even Tum Tum, the jolly elephant,
he told about,” thought Winkie. “But I don’t want to meet any strange
dogs.”
Don, however, was far away, as was Tum Tum. So Winkie had to wander
along by herself. All day she roamed through the woods, now and then
stopping to give a sort of whistle, which is one way woodchucks have of
talking. Again she would also chatter her teeth with a rattling sound,
as owls clatter their beaks. This is another way woodchucks have of
speaking to one another.
But to all Winkie’s calls there came no answer from any of her family.
She did not see Blinkie nor Blunk, and her father and mother might have
been a hundred miles away for all she knew.
Once, indeed, she met another woodchuck, a fat, lazy old man of a
ground-hog, and at first Winkie thought he might be her grandfather.
But he was not, and this woodchuck knew nothing of Winkie’s family.
“But I can tell you where to get a good meal of clover,” said the lazy
old ground-hog.
“Where?” eagerly asked Winkie.
“Go straight along the way you are headed, and on the edge of the woods
you will see a field,” was the answer. “Crawl under the fence and
you’ll find some clover.”
Winkie thanked him, and waddled on. She found the clover just where she
had been told it would be and ate her fill. She ate so much she felt
sleepy, and about sunset she curled up in a hollow log and slept all
night.
When morning came Winkie started on her travels again. By this time she
was getting rather used to wandering around alone. Not that she liked
it, but it was the best she could do. She would have been very glad
to have had a game of tag with Blinkie or Blunk, but this was not to
happen for a long time.
That noon Winkie found a field where a farmer was raising some carrots,
and, as she saw no man in sight, and no dogs, and did not hear any
dogs barking, Winkie went into the field, dug up some carrots, and ate
them. It was because of this that, a few days later, something dreadful
happened to Winkie.
For she liked the carrots so much that she looked for more everywhere
she went. One day Winkie, who was very hungry at the time, saw another
carrot――a large yellow one――in a fence corner.
“Some one must have left this carrot here specially for me!” thought
Winkie. “How kind of him!”
Winkie was not quite as wily and smart then as she ought to have been,
for if she had only known it, this carrot was placed where it was as
a bait. But Winkie did not know this. Up she went quite boldly, and
reached out to take the carrot.
A moment later she heard a clicking sound, and something closed with a
snap on her left hind leg. She felt a great pain in it, and tried to
run away.
But Winkie could not run! She was caught fast in a trap! The carrot had
been placed there just for that――to trap some animal――and Winkie was
caught!