CRAY HUNTS FOR TROUBLE
[Illustration]
BOISTEROUS, strong, and merry was Brownhead, the very son of his father.
Eager to do and ready to go; yet quick to hear when the warning came,
"_Quare_," or the home call, "_Chik, chik_." Well-fleshed was he and
deeply fur-clad, although it was scarcely mid-May, and his tail already
was past the switch stage and was frilling out with the silver frill of
his best kin. Frolicsome, merry, and shy, very shy was Nyek-nyek. In
some speech she would have been styled a "mammy pet." Happy with mother,
playing with her brothers, but ever ready to go to mother. Slight of
body, but quick to move, quick to follow, and nervously quick to obey,
she grew and learned the learning of her folk.
Last was Cray, quickest of them all, not so heavy as Brownhead, yet
agile, inquisitive, full of energy, but a rebel all the time. He would
climb that long, smooth column above the nest. His mother's warning held
him not. And when the clawhold failed he slipped, but jumped and landed
safe on a near limb.
He would go forth to investigate the loud trampling in the woods, and
far below him watched with eager curiosity the big, two-legged thing
that soon discovered him. Then there was a loud crack like a heavy limb
broken by the wind, and the bark beside his head was splintered by a
blow that almost stunned him with its shock, although it did not touch
him. He barely escaped into the nest. Yes, he still escaped.
_THE LITTLE SQUIRRELS GO TO SCHOOL_