WINKIE LEARNS TRICKS
Though Winkie had never been very close to any dog except Don, the wily
woodchuck knew the bark of this dog meant danger. It is this way with
many wild animals, and even with your cat, perhaps, which is not so
wild as a woodchuck.
Little kittens, if they are brought up with dogs from their earliest
days, may not be afraid of Rover or Towser, whom they know. But they
may be afraid of a strange dog. However, almost any cat will arch up
its back, hiss and, if it gets a chance, will run away from almost any
dog. It was the same with Winkie, though she did not arch her back nor
fluff out her tail――woodchucks don’t do that. But Winkie tried to run
away as soon as she heard the bark of the dog.
Only she could not get out of the pen. But she did run and hide in her
sleeping box, which was partly filled with hay.
“Oh, here comes Buster!” exclaimed Alice. “Don’t let Buster get the
woodchuck!”
“No, indeed!” cried Larry. “Uncle Elias’s dog shan’t get my woodchuck!”
“I thought you said she was part _my_ woodchuck,” observed Alice.
“Yes, that’s so. You may have half,” agreed Larry. “Go on back, Buster!
Go away!” shouted Larry, as a big dog came bounding into the yard,
barking and wagging his tail, for he was glad to see the children, and
often played with them, being a friendly dog except toward wild things.
All at once Buster stopped barking and stopped wagging his tail. He
stood still, his nose pointed toward the pen, and he began to sniff. He
had caught the wild smell of the woodchuck, even though he could not
see Winkie, who was hiding in her sleeping chamber.
Then Buster growled, away down in his throat, and came nearer the pen.
Alice ran to get in front of the dog, and again Larry cried:
“Go on away, Buster!”
Just then Uncle Elias Tottle, who was a brother of Larry and Alice’s
mother――being, in fact the children’s uncle――came along. He saw the boy
and girl standing near the pen, and he heard his dog growling.
“What’s the matter with Buster? What have you youngsters got there?”
asked Uncle Elias, in rather a harsh voice. He had no children of
his own, and owned the farm next to that of Mr. Dawson, who was the
father of Larry and Alice. “What have you in that box that makes Buster
growl?” demanded Uncle Elias Tottle.
“I have a woodchuck,” answered Larry. “I caught her in my skunk trap.
But she isn’t hurt. I’m going to tame her.”
“We’re going to teach her tricks,” added Alice.
“Huh! Woodchuck!” cried Uncle Elias. “The pesky creatures! If I had my
way they’d all be shot or trapped. They eat my clover. I saw some of
’em eating it the other day.”
If he had only known it, Winkie was one of those very woodchucks! But
Uncle Elias didn’t know.
“Woodchuck!” he exclaimed. “Eating up everything a poor farmer can
raise! I’ll kill that woodchuck of yours if I catch her out!”
“Well, you won’t catch her, for we aren’t going to let her out,” said
Alice, and she and her brother felt bad because of the harsh words of
Uncle Elias.
It is true, in some places, that woodchucks do harm when they are very
numerous, and farmers don’t like them. But Larry and Alice did not see
what harm poor little Winkie could do, especially if they kept her shut
up in a pen.
“Look here!” said Uncle Elias at last. “Will you sell me that woodchuck
for a dollar, Larry?”
“A dollar?” repeated the boy.
“Yes, I’ll give you a dollar for her,” went on Uncle Elias, putting his
hand in his pocket.
Larry shook his head.
“I want my woodchuck,” said the boy.
“And she’s half mine,” broke in Alice. “Even if Larry would sell his
half, I wouldn’t sell my half! So there, Uncle Elias!”
“Huh!” grunted the farmer, who was a hard and sometimes a cruel man.
“What do you want of a woodchuck, Uncle Elias?” asked Larry. “Do you
want one to teach tricks to? If you do I’ll try to catch one for you in
my trap.”
“Nonsense! As if I’d try to teach a woodchuck tricks!” snorted the old
man, while his dog sniffed and snuffed at the wild smell and Winkie
cowered down in her dark box. “If I had that ground-hog of yours――which
I’m willing to pay a dollar for”――went on Mr. Tottle, “I’d turn her
loose and set Buster on her! Woodchucks are no good!”
“Well, you aren’t going to get this one!” said Larry.
“I guess not!” exclaimed Alice. “I love my woodchuck!”
“Huh!” snorted Uncle Elias. “Come on, Buster!” he called to his dog.
“This isn’t any place for us! We don’t like woodchucks!”
Then, to the relief of Larry and Alice, their cruel-hearted uncle went
away, followed by Buster. The dog, however, did not want to go. He
growled and whined as he sniffed toward the woodchuck’s pen. Had poor
Winkie been outside and if Buster had chased her there would not have
been much left of her.
“The idea!” exclaimed Alice, when Mr. Tottle was gone. “To want to kill
our woodchuck!”
“I wouldn’t sell her for two dollars――no, not for _five_!” cried Larry.
“When we teach her tricks maybe we can put her in a circus!”
“Oh, wouldn’t that be wonderful!” cried Alice, clapping her hands.
“Let’s start teaching her tricks right away. But what shall we name our
woodchuck?”
“Yes, we must think of a name,” agreed Larry.
Just then Winkie, no longer hearing the barking of the dog, poked her
head out of the square hole in the smaller box, into which she had gone
to hide. Coming out of the dark, as she did, made Winkie’s eyes open
and shut until they became used to the glare of the sun. Larry and his
sister, watching their new pet, saw her eyes winking this way.
“Oh, I know what to call her!” cried Alice.
“What?” asked her brother.
“Winkie!” replied the little girl. “See her wink!”
“Yes, Winkie will be a good name,” agreed Larry.
And so Winkie was given by the children the same name the father and
mother of the little ground-hog had given her when she lived in the
burrow.
“Come here, Winkie! Come here!” called Alice.
Winkie remained with her head out of the bedroom, but she did not come
to the side of the larger, outside pen, near which Alice stood.
“I guess Winkie is a little afraid,” said Larry. “I’ll get her
something to eat. That will make her tame quicker than anything else.”
Out to the barn ran Larry, and soon he came back with some yellow
carrots. He cut off little pieces of them and tossed them into the pen
through the open meshes of the chicken wire on top.
At first Winkie was a bit timid about taking these chunks of carrot.
But they smelled so good, and she was so hungry, that she at last
ventured to nibble one. Then, finding no harm came to her, she grew
bold and took more. She limped a little on the leg that had been
caught in the trap, but it was quickly getting over its soreness.
“Oh, isn’t Winkie cute!” cried Alice, as she watched the woodchuck eat.
“Yes,” agreed Larry. “And I want to teach her soon to eat out of my
hand.”
“We want to be careful that she doesn’t bite us,” said his sister. “See
what sharp teeth she has.”
Indeed Winkie had very sharp teeth and Larry knew this.
“I’ll be careful!” he said.
For two or three days Winkie would not take any food from Larry’s hand
or that of Alice. But she grew bolder when she saw that the boy and his
sister meant to be kind, and one day, about a week after being caught
and put in the pen, Winkie took a piece of carrot right from Larry’s
fingers.
“Oh, she’s getting tame! She’s getting tame!” cried the boy. “Now I can
teach her some tricks!”
“Let me feed her!” begged Alice. And the little girl was delighted when
Winkie took some pieces of carrot from her fingers.
It was several days longer before either Larry or his sister dared
reach in to stroke Winkie’s fur. The first time this was tried Winkie
scurried back into her sleeping box as though Buster were after her.
But the next time she was not so timid, and soon the little woodchuck
came to know that the children intended no harm.
“Though why they want to fuss over me and rub me is more than I can
tell,” thought Winkie to herself. “I wish I had some one to talk animal
talk to――Squinty, the pig, or Slicko, the squirrel. Or even Tum Tum,
the elephant. I wish he were here!”
Winkie had never seen an elephant like Tum Tum, and of course she did
not know how large elephants are.
Tum Tum could hardly have gotten more than one of his big feet in
Winkie’s pen!
One day Larry came running into the house much excited.
“Oh, you ought to see!” he cried. “You ought to see Winkie!”
“Has she gotten out?” asked Alice.
“No, but I’ve taught her a trick. She’ll sit up on her hind legs and
beg like a dog! Come and see!”
Alice followed her brother out to the yard where Winkie’s pen had been
built. Larry took off some of the top wire.
“She’ll get away!” cried Alice.
“No, she won’t,” said Larry. “Winkie is tame now, and won’t run away.
I’ve taught her a trick! She’ll sit up and beg! Look!”
Taking the woodchuck out of her cage――and Winkie did not try to bite
Larry now――the boy stood her on the ground. Then, holding a piece of
turnip in front of the ground-hog, the boy exclaimed:
“Sit up, Winkie! Sit up!”
Slowly, because she was now very fat, Winkie sat up on her hind
quarters. This is easy for woodchucks to do, since they often sit that
way outside their burrows to watch for danger.
“Look! She’s begging!” laughed Larry. “And here’s your piece of
turnip!” he added. “Isn’t that a good trick, Alice?”
“A lovely one! I wish I could teach Winkie some tricks!”
“Maybe you can,” said Larry. “Here, see if she’ll beg for you.” And
Winkie, who was standing with all four feet on the ground, again stood
up as Alice held out a bit of carrot and told her to “beg!”
“I don’t know why they want me to do that,” thought Winkie. “But they
give me something to eat each time after it, so I may as well do what
they want.”
Once again Winkie rose up on her haunches, and she looked very cute
when she did that. Larry and Alice laughed to see her.
“But one trick isn’t enough,” Larry said. “We must teach her another.”
“What one?” asked Alice.
“We’ll teach her to lie down and roll over,” said the boy.
It took nearly a week to get Winkie to understand this trick, which,
though no harder than the other, was quite different. But at last
Winkie got to the point where she would lie on her back and roll over
like a dog whenever Larry or Alice told her to. And of course each time
the trick was done Winkie was given something good to eat.
One day, when Larry and Alice came home from school, they ran out
toward the woodchuck pen, for Larry had said he was going to teach
Winkie a new trick. As brother and sister neared the pen they
heard the loud barking of a dog, and the frightened whistling and
teeth-clattering of the little ground-hog.
“Oh, Buster is trying to get Winkie!” cried Larry, dropping his books
and rushing toward the pen.