THE SUN SONG OF BANNERTAIL
THE sun was rising in a rosy mist, and glinting the dew-wet overlimbs,
as there rang across the bright bare stretch of woodland a loud "_Qua,
qua, qua, quaaaaaaa!_" Like a high priest of the sun on the topmost peak
of the temple stood Bannertail, carried away by a new-born inner urge. A
full-grown wildwood Graysquirrel he was now, the call of the woods had
claimed him, and he hailed the glory of the east with an ever longer
"_Qua, qua, quaaaaaaaaaa!_"
This was the season of the shortest days, though no snow had come as yet
to cover the brown-leaved earth. Few birds were left of the summer
merrymakers. The Crow, the Nuthatch, the Chickadee, and the Woodwale
alone were there, and the sharp tang of the frost-bit air was holding
back their sun-up calls. But Bannertail, a big Graysquirrel now, found
gladness in the light, intensified, it seemed, by the very lateness of
its coming.
"_Qua, qua, qua, quaaaaaa_," he sang, and done into speech of man the
song said: "_Hip, hip, hip, hurrahhh!_"
[Illustration]
He had risen from his bed in the hollow oak to meet and greet it. He was
full of lusty life now, and daily better loved his life. "_Qua, qua,
qua, quaaaa!_"--he poured it out again and again. The Chickadee quit his
bug hunt for a moment to throw back his head and shout: "_Me, too!_" The
Nuthatch, wrong end up, answered in a low, nasal tone: "_Hear, hear,
hear!_" Even the sulky Crow joined in at last with a "_'Rah, 'rah,
'rah!_" and the Woodwale beat a long tattoo.
"_Hip, hip, hip, hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!_" shouted Bannertail as the
all-blessed glory rose clear above the eastern trees and the world was
aflood with the Sun-God's golden smile.
A score of times had he thus sung and whip-lashed his tail, and sung
again, exulting, when far away, among the noises made by birds, was a
low "_Qua, quaaa!_"--the voice of another Graysquirrel!
His kind was all too scarce in Jersey-land, and yet another would not
necessarily be a friend; but in the delicate meaningful modulations of
sound so accurately sensed by the Squirrel's keen ear, this far-off
"_Qua, qua_," was a little softer than his own, a little higher-pitched,
a little more gently modulated, and Bannertail knew without a moment's
guessing. "Yes, it was a Graysquirrel, and it was not one that would
take the war-path against him."
[Illustration]
The distant voice replied no more, and Bannertail set about foraging for
his morning meal.
[Illustration]
The oak-tree in which he had slept was only one of the half-a-dozen beds
he now claimed. It was a red oak, therefore its acorns were of poor
quality; and it was on the edge of the woods. The best feeding-grounds
were some distance away, but the road to them well known. Although so
much at home in the trees, Bannertail travelled on the ground when going
to a distance. Down the great trunk, across an open space to a stump, a
pause on the stump to fluff his tail and look around, a few bounds to a
fence, then along the top of that in three-foot hops till he came to the
gap; six feet across this gap, and he took the flying leap with pride,
remembering how, not so long ago, he used perforce to drop to the
ground and amble to the other post. He was making for the white oak and
hickory groves; but his keen nose brought him the message of a big red
acorn under the leaves. He scratched it out and smelled it--yes, good.
He ripped off the shell and here, ensconced in the middle, was a fat
white grub, just as good as the nut itself, or better. So Bannertail had
grub on the half-shell and nuts on the side for his first course. Then
he set about nosing for hidden hickory-nuts; few and scarce were they.
He had not found one when a growing racket announced the curse-beast of
the woods, a self-hunting dog. Clatter, crash, among the dry leaves and
brush, it came, yelping with noisy, senseless stupidity when it found a
track that seemed faintly fresh. Bannertail went quietly up a near
elm-tree, keeping the trunk between himself and the beast. From the elm
he swung to a basswood, and finished his meal of basswood buds. Keeping
one eye on the beast, he scrambled to an open platform nest that he had
made a month ago, where he lazed in the sun, still keeping eyes and ears
alert for tidings from the disturber below.
The huge brute prowled around and found the fresh scent up the elm, and
barked at it, too, but of course he was barking up the wrong tree, and
presently went off. Bannertail watched him with some faint amusement,
then at last went rippling down the trunk and through the woods like a
cork going down a rushing stream.
[Illustration]
He was travelling homeward by the familiar route, on the ground, in
undulated bounds, with pauses at each high lookout, when again the alarm
of enemies reached him--a dog, sniffing and barking, and farther off a
hunter. Bannertail made for the nearest big tree, and up that he went,
keeping ever the trunk between. Then came the dog--a Squirrel Hound--and
found the track and yelped. Up near the top was a "dray," or platform
nest, one Bannertail had used and partly built, and in this he stretched
out contentedly, peering over the edge at the ugly brutes below. The dog
kept yelping up the trunk, saying plainly: "_Squirrel, squirrel,
squirrel, up, up, up!_" And the hunter came and craned his neck till it
was cricked, but nothing he saw to shoot at. Then he did what a hunter
often does. He sent a charge of shot through the nest that was in plain
view. There were some heavy twigs in its make-up, and it rested on a
massive fork, or the event might have gone hard with Bannertail. The
timber received most of the shock of the shot, but a something went
stinging through his ear tip that stuck beyond the rim. It hurt and
scared him, and he was divided between the impulse to rush forth and
seek other shelter, and the instinct to lie absolutely still.
Fortunately he lay still, and the hunter passed on, leaving the Squirrel
wiser in several ways, for now he knew the danger of the dray when
gunners came and the wisdom of "lay low" when in doubt.
_THE COLD SLEEP_