THE BAD LITTLE OWLS
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Told at Twilight Stories
By JOHN BRECK
MOSTLY ABOUT NIBBLE THE BUNNY
NIBBLE RABBIT MAKES MORE FRIENDS
THE SINS OF SILVERTIP THE FOX
THE COON’S TRICKS
THE WAVY TAILED WARRIOR
TAD COON’S GREAT ADVENTURE
THE BAD LITTLE OWLS
THE JAY BIRD WHO WENT TAME
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[Illustration: The Bad Little Owls]
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Told at Twilight Stories
THE BAD LITTLE OWLS
by John Breck
Book VII
Illustrated by William T. Andrews
Garden City--New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1923
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COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED, INCLUDING THAT OF TRANSLATION INTO FOREIGN
LANGUAGES INCLUDING THE SCANDINAVIAN
COPYRIGHT, 1920, BY THE ASSOCIATED NEWSPAPERS
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES AT THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS,
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.
First Edition
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CONTENTS
I. The Woodsfolk Learn the Rules about Fire
II. Chaik Jay Carries Bad News
III. Mrs. Owl Invites Killer the Weasel to the Woods and Fields
IV. Fur and Feathers Plan a Campaign
V. Killer the Weasel Makes a Plan Likewise
VI. A Plan to Foil the Enemy
VII. The Cleverness of Chaik Jay
VIII. Killer Finds the Pond Mighty Lonesome
IX. Trouble Comes Home to the Bad Little Owls
X. The Big Rain Puts an End to Evil Doings for a Time
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
The Bad Little Owls
She lit above Killer’s head while he was busy eating the robin
“When a fellow can smell he can see with his nose just who has
been there”
The Doctor said Chaik Jay had had too much party
“Run for your lives, everybody. Killer has come to the pond!”
Chaik frightens the mice away, to save them from Killer the Weasel
Chaik dropped from the tree and told Tad all about everything
The Owl helps Killer find the stump where the mice live
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THE BAD LITTLE OWLS
CHAPTER I
THE WOODSFOLK LEARN THE RULES ABOUT FIRE
“Take to the water, quick!” shouted Doctor Muskrat. “Climb a tree!”
advised Chatter Squirrel, balancing on the tip end of a limb. And they
had the Woodsfolk so excited they didn’t know what to do. Most of them
couldn’t climb if they wanted to, and mighty few of them like to swim.
So those who were there tried to run away, and those who weren’t came
to see what was going on. Tommy Peele’s woods were just alive with
scuttling and fluttering. All because Louie Thomson had brought a
lantern to light his party with. He had brought all sorts of things to
eat, too, and he planned to sleep all night in the Woods and Fields,
in a tent made of one of his mother’s blankets.
Of course Louie couldn’t think what was the matter with the Woodsfolk.
But Tommy Peele’s big furry dog, Watch, who was with him, knew well
enough. He sat there with his tongue out, laughing at them.
When Tad Coon saw Watch laughing he got over being frightened, and
then he was curious. He waded out of the pond and came over to look at
the little sputtery flame dancing inside the lantern. Of course he
thought it was a bug. Most everything that hasn’t leaves or fur or
feathers is a bug to Tad Coon. Bugs do themselves up in very funny
packages sometimes before they’re all through hatching. He put out his
handy-paw to catch it.
“Look out!” barked Watch. “Let it alone!” But he didn’t say it before
Tad had touched the glass with his little wet claw. Before he could
jerk it back the water began sizzling and he got a bit of a burn. “Ow,
ow!” howled poor Tad, dancing around with his paw in his mouth. “It’s
a buzzer with a hot tail.” (He meant a paper wasp.) “Ow, ow!” he
sobbed. “It bit me!” So that scared all the Woodsfolk all over again.
Doctor Muskrat knew all about the fires that sometimes burn up the
marshes, but Tad didn’t, because he’s always gone to sleep for the
winter before they begin. Nibble Rabbit knew something about them,
because Watch tried to explain when he told what was happening to
Grandpop Snapping Turtle. (Tommy Peele’s mother was cooking him.) But
nobody ever dreamed Stripes Skunk would understand.
Stripes did know. He knew the rule of tents because his people were
friendly with the Indians just like cats are friendly with us
housefolk. They hunted around the campfires to catch creepy-crawley
things. He didn’t know the difference between Louie’s blanket and a
real tent, nor between Louie’s lantern and a real campfire because
he’d never seen them. So he was just as pleased as though this was a
real camp and Louie a real Indian. “Come along,” he called to his
kittens. “This is the rule of fires: When the men aren’t walking
around them you can lie down three tail lengths from the light and get
your whiskers warm.” So down they lay. And weren’t they just conceited
because all the other Woodsfolk had their eyes popped out, staring at
them.
All this time, Tad was sitting right squash on his bushy tail in the
edge of the pond, using all his other three paws to hold the poor
burned one in his mouth--because it hurt him so dreadfully--at least
he thought it did. Tad Coon’s always thinking he’s killed when he’s
hardly more than mussed his fur. (He made an awful fuss the time
Grandpop Snapping Turtle nipped his tail, and after all, Grandpop only
pulled a couple of hairs out.) “Oo-h-ow-h-ow!” whimpered Tad, licking
himself between each sniffle.
“Let’s see, let’s see!” said Doctor Muskrat. He began peering at it in
the darkness way off away from the lantern.
“Come up here by the fire,” giggled Watch. “It’s not hurting Stripes.
If you don’t get too close to its cage you’re all right. It can’t jump
out and bite you.” Now wasn’t that a sensible way to explain about a
lantern to the Woodsfolk? It surely is just a little flame of fire all
shut up safe inside of its glass, like a goldfish in a bowl.
So Tad and Doctor Muskrat crept up close, jumping just a little
whenever the flame danced, and peeked at the poor burned paw. It had
just the teeniest, weeniest little pinhead of a blister. When Tad saw
how very little it was he felt quite cheerful again, and forgot all
about it.
Indeed, he was more curious than ever about the lantern. “Where did
Louie catch it?” he wanted to know. “What does it eat? Doesn’t it ever
run wild at all?”
“Sometimes,” said Watch with a little shiver. “Then it grows very,
very fast and eats up everything it can reach. I’ve seen a little bit
of a fire like that eat up a whole haystack in about the time it takes
the sun to set. But men are very, very careful never to let it get out
if they can possibly help it. They keep it in strong black cages (he
meant stoves, of course), and feed it cold black stones. (That was
coal, you know.) Or they keep it in a cave and feed it a bit of wood.
(Watch meant an open grate.) It spits and sputters and sometimes a
little piece jumps out, but someone always catches it. And they keep a
lot in little cages like this and feed it water with a funny smell.”
(That’s lamps burning kerosene.)
But you couldn’t expect the Woodsfolk to believe such things!
Now Louie brought that lantern to the pond just to light up his feast
because there wasn’t any moonlight. But he did much better than
that--or worse, according as you look at it. For by the time the
Woodsfolk had learned a few things about it the buzzwings came to
learn about it, too, ’specially some great big shelly-winged beetles,
with great big stabbing-beaks on their ugly faces. And wasn’t it nice;
most everybody there except Nibble Rabbit’s family and Doctor Muskrat
just love to eat them!
As soon as they saw the light, a whole flock of these fellows came
over from the pond to investigate it. Some of them lit on the glass
and burned their feet a whole lot worse than Tad Coon burned his
handy-paw, because they didn’t know enough to take them off again.
They stuck right there and ran out their jabbers until they blunted
the ends of them. And all the time they kept buzzing their war cry,
calling the rest of the beetles to come and help them fight it.
Foolish things, they didn’t know that if one beetle can’t hurt a thing
even a thousand of them can’t. “Brz-brz-brz!” they roared. “Brz-brz!”
roared all the others, coming to help them.
My, there were a lot of them! But the Woodsfolk didn’t mind them a
little bit. They just thought this was an extra feast Louie had so
cleverly provided. You ought to have seen Stripes Skunk’s children
dancing around on their little hind legs, slapping them with their
paddy-paws. Tad crunched and crunched until his jaws were tired. Even
Chatter Squirrel and Chaik the Jay could see to catch them. They’d
snap a bug, and then they’d eat some more of Louie’s corn; then they’d
go back to the buzzwings again. And the more they ate the more
desperate the buzzwings grew. But they blamed it all on the lantern.
It was a long, long time before they got so blind angry they began to
fight everything they saw. They couldn’t hurt the furry folk, and they
couldn’t catch Chaik, but they did get poor Louie Thomson, who was
sitting there laughing at their goings on. Wow! But didn’t he squall!
He squalled louder than Tad Coon. He hopped around sucking his poor
hand just as Tad sucked his handy-paw, with all the Woodsfolk staring
at him. It didn’t take them long to guess what had happened. And
weren’t they just sorry as anything!
Poor Louie! It hurt lots worse than that little bitty burn of Tad
Coon’s. But he didn’t make nearly so much fuss about it. He didn’t
like even the Woodsfolk to hear him. ’Specially when they were so
sorry. And Watch just whined his sympathy, plain as words, and licked
the sore spot for him.
Even that didn’t stop it from hurting. So Louie ran down to the pond
and stuck it in the water. Then he picked a bulrush and squeezed the
nice, soft, juicy end against it. Of course that interested Doctor
Muskrat. He flopped over to see what root Louie was using.
“Hey, Watch!” he said. “That poor boy has the right idea, but he’s got
hold of the wrong root. Tell him to try this marsh marigold. It’s
fine.”
“Or dock,” suggested Nibble Rabbit. Dock is a favourite remedy in a
rabbit hole.
“No, leeks,” suggested Tad Coon. He didn’t mean to rub them on, but to
eat them. They’re little wild onions, and they taste so good to Tad he
forgets about everything else when he’s eating them. But there weren’t
any by the pond.
“I can’t talk to him,” sniffed Watch. “Anyway, the best thing is that
blue mud you put on Tad’s nose. Where do you find it?”
“Right in the bank here,” said Doctor Muskrat, giving a scratch with
his paw to show him. And Louie didn’t need any more telling. He knew
about that mud himself--his mother had put some on a bee-sting. So he
scooped out a good handful and slapped it on his bite. Then he did
feel better. He felt well enough to remember that he was so sleepy he
couldn’t keep his eyes open.
Over by his tent there were just as many beetles as ever, buzzing over
his lantern. They were still fighting it, and the little skunks were
still catching them. They couldn’t eat another one, but they thought
it was fun to jump up and bat them. But Louie could see they’d never
in the world catch them all. The only thing for him to do was to turn
out his light and then the rest of the bad buzzwings would go back to
the marsh where they belonged. “Pouff!” My, how dark everything was!
“Oh-h!” sighed Tad Coon in a sorry voice; “he killed it! What did he
do that for? It bit me, all right, but I didn’t want it killed. And
the buzzwing was the one who bit him. I saw it.” You see he thought
the flame was alive.
“It’s only gone dark,” Watch comforted him. “It does that quite often,
like the fireflies over in the marsh do when they fold their wings.
But it always shines when he wants it to unless he forgets to feed
it.” You know a lantern won’t burn if it hasn’t any oil. Watch knew
that much, but he was really most as puzzled as Tad.
Inside his blanket tent Louie was already fast asleep.