Transcriber’s Notes:
Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_).
Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end.
* * * * *
Tiny Redsquirrel
* * * * *
_The_ SQUIRREL’S PILGRIM’S PROGRESS
_A Book for Boys and Girls_
BY J. D. WILLIAMS
Setting Forth the Adventures of Tiny Red Squirrel and Chatty Chipmunk
And describing Miss Hare’s School; Red Squirrel, Chipmunk, Reynard
Fox, Pussy Cat, and Other Students, as well as Mr. Wise Owl, a
Director of the School, and Billy Beaver, the Janitor.
FIFTY ILLUSTRATIONS BY H. WOOD (FIVE COLORED PLATES)
[Illustration]
CHICAGO LAIRD & LEE, Inc., PUBLISHERS
* * * * *
[Illustration: COPYRIGHT, 1915, BY LAIRD & LEE, Inc.]
* * * * *
And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee.
Saying, “Here is a story-book
Thy father has written for thee.”
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Once on a time a little boy was taken from the noise and bustle of city
life to a sparsely settled land where a great forest stretched away in
every direction. To this land his parents came to make a home in the
heart of the deep wood. A large log house had been built in an open
space from which great oaks, beeches, maples and other trees had been
removed, and here, surrounded by nature’s forms and activities, they
lived many years.
What a delightful experience this was to this little boy! How wonderful
this new world seemed to him! Here were flowers of every hue, bees,
birds, butterflies, and many other interesting things to excite his
childish wonder. He soon learned the names of the shrubs, the trees,
the wild fruits and the flowers; and the habits of the honey gatherers,
the feathered folk, and the little animals of the wood.
This story has its foundation in these experiences and was written
in the hope that it will prove interesting and instructive to many
children. It teaches its young readers to see material things as they
really are, so that the early impressions shall always be the true
ones; it teaches them to apply the same habit of careful observation
to language forms and constructions, so they shall know how thoughts
must be expressed, and more than that, how they may be expressed
beautifully. It is believed that it will influence them to observe
nature’s works closely--the beauty in the dense foliage of spring,
in the myriad forms of life, in nest building and bird music, in the
vitality of growth, in the sweet beneficence of the universal mother,
so that they may come to know
“There are tongues in trees,
Books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones,
And good in everything.”
Acknowledgments are due to Wilber Hershel Williams for assistance
in the preparation of this volume; to Frances Squire Potter, James
S. Greenwood, and Z. C. Spencer for literary criticism and helpful
suggestions.
J. D. W.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. INTRODUCING TINY REDSQUIRREL 7
II. TINY GOES TO SEEK WINTER STORES 12
III. HIS FIRST ADVENTURE 17
IV. INTRODUCING MR. WISE OWL 23
V. A LESSON FROM THE ANTS 30
VI. MEETING MR. FROG 34
VII. HIS ADVENTURE WITH QUEEN BEE 37
VIII. THE PORCUPINE SCARES TINY 44
IX. MEETING WITH THE BLACK GIANT 49
X. TINY THE HERO OF SQUIRRELTOWN 58
XI. THE MAYOR CALLS ON TINY 65
XII. MR. OWL INTERRUPTS A SPEECH 69
XIII. HE TAKES TINY TO SCHOOL 77
XIV. TINY GETS ACQUAINTED 85
XV. SCHOOL DAYS EXPERIENCES 95
XVI. MR. OWL VISITS THE SCHOOL 101
XVII. TINY’S CORRESPONDENCE 108
XVIII. MISS HARE ON GRAMMAR 116
XIX. STUDYING NATURE 124
XX. TINY HELPS WITH TEACHER’S LETTERS 134
XXI. OPOSSUM AND CATERPILLAR 140
XXII. GRADUATION EXERCISES 147
XXIII. THE STUDENTS START FOR HOME 158
XXIV. TINY IS APPOINTED MAYOR 168
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Squirreltown _Frontispiece_
Go Away! 9
How Can You Sleep On a Day Like This? 12
Splash! Chatty Fell Into the Creek 16
Tiny and Chatty Meet the Raccoon 19
Tiny Meets Mr. Owl 23
Watching the Ants Build a House 31
Learns a Lesson from the Spider 34
Meeting with Mr. Toad 36
Rescues the Queen Bee 37
“Hist!” Cried the Ogre 45
Tiny Conquers the Porcupine 47
The Bear Falls from the Tree 51
The Bees Rescue Tiny from the Bear 54
Tiny Returns to Squirreltown 58
Brings Food to His Hungry Mother 60
Tiny Is Ill--The Mayor Calls 65
The Story of the Fable 68
Tiny Makes a Speech 69
Mr. Owl Lectures Tiny 71
He Takes Tiny to School 78
Mr. Beaver Shows Tiny to His Room 80
Tiny Meets Mr. Redfox 82
The Janitor Awakens the Pupils 85
Miss Hare’s School 87
Tiny Gives Miss Hare an Acorn 90
Tiny and Winkie Run a Race 95
Tiny Prepares for Graduation 101
The Owl Prophet Visits the School 103
He Hardly Knew Tiny 106
The Pigeon Mail Carrier 108
Reynard Is Sick 116
Chatty Chipmunk Appears 125
The Panther Gives Them a Scare 126
Mrs. Badger and the Bees 128
Tiny Assists the Teacher 134
Mr. Opossum 141
Shifty Woodchuck Wants Help 148
Sammy Rabbit’s Composition 151
Tiny’s Speech Wins the Prize 155
The Encounter with the Lynx 162
In Deertown 164
Running from a Wildcat 166
Celebration in Squirreltown 172
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[Illustration: SQUIRRELTOWN.]
* * * * *
Tiny Redsquirrel
CHAPTER I.
Have you ever heard of Squirreltown? It is a town of quaint homes in
the woods, in which little animals live together as contentedly as
though they were human beings. The whole town is roofed over by leafy
bowers, and carpeted with wild flowers. All day long butterflies flit
about in the shimmering sunlight, and by night thousands of fairies
come out to dance in the pale moonlight.
In this town there once dwelt a young red squirrel named Tiny. He lived
with his mother near the top of an oak tree. Mrs. Redsquirrel was a
poor but industrious widow. Although red squirrels are said to be the
most mischievous animals of the forest, she had taught Tiny to conduct
himself in a proper way. In fact, he was much better behaved than
Chatty Chipmunk, who lived in the ground at the foot of the tree.
One morning early in the autumn, while the weather was yet warm, Tiny’s
mother said to him, “You must bestir yourself, Tiny! Now is the time to
gather acorns, seeds, and other food for the winter.”
As he sat sipping water from a hollow acorn, he observed how anxiously
his mother gazed at him. “Why do you look so sad?” he asked.
“I am getting too old to work,” she answered, and she wiped the tears
from her black eyes. Then abruptly she turned to look through the
window. It was a small hole covered with a silken curtain that had been
woven by a spider.
“Please don’t cry, mother,” implored Tiny. He put down his acorn, went
over to his mother and drew her down upon a little couch made of moss.
“I am willing to work hard to support you. Perhaps some day I shall
become great. Who can tell?”
“But I want you to have a fine education,” said his mother, looking
with pride at her son, “and we have no good schools!”
“Perhaps a fairy may find me a good school. I can work to pay my way!”
cheerfully suggested Tiny. “I have heard that those who do this make
the best students.” He fanned his mother with a small peacock feather.
He thought that she might drop into a doze, for he knew that she had
not been sleeping much of late, but just then a persistent rapping at
the tree began.
“It must be Mr. Woodpecker,” said Mrs. Redsquirrel with a sigh. “Every
day he comes over to rap this tree. The noise makes my head ache.”
“Please sit still. I’ll go outside to see what he wants,” said Tiny,
hastening from the room.
“Hello!” he cried lustily.
Mr. Woodpecker did not answer. He was digging his long, straight,
pointed beak into the bark of the tree. His stiff tail was spread out
to prop his body, for woodpeckers would not be such good climbers if
they had no tails. He was black and white, and wore a jaunty scarlet
cap.
“Sir,” said Tiny, “You annoy my mother. Furthermore, Mr. Graysquirrel,
who owns this tree, will make you pay dearly for all the damage you are
doing to his property.”
“Ha, ha!” laughed Mr. Woodpecker, turning his head to one side and
looking down at the squirrel. “I am not destroying property. I am
digging into the bark to find insects. Mr. Graysquirrel, your landlord,
told me that I might have all I could find. He said it was they who
greatly annoy his tenants. Pardon me for disturbing your mother.”
[Illustration: “GO AWAY AND DO NOT COME BACK AGAIN,” COMMANDED TINY.]
“Go away! and do not come back again,” commanded Tiny, vexed at the
bird’s display of good humor. “Hush, Tiny!” called Mrs. Redsquirrel,
thrusting her dainty nose through the window. “I am glad that Mr.
Woodpecker is so kind as to destroy those horrid insects. I thought at
first that he was tapping the tree because he wished to trouble me. We
animals are always ready to imagine disagreeable things.”
Tiny came back into the house and to cover his chagrin began to get the
storeroom in order.
His mother gathered up the nut-shell cups and placed them in a
hollow gourd. As they worked she talked. “Mr. Woodpecker is a clever
creature,” she said. “I never before saw a bird that could use his bill
with such ease and swiftness.”
Tiny did not reply. He was thinking very hard, and the idea that he was
going to support his mother made him feel very important.
“Woodpeckers do a great deal of good by destroying grubs and insects,”
his mother went on. “I have heard that in a far-away land there lives
one kind that feeds chiefly on acorns, and stores them away for the
winter as squirrels do. They make small holes in the soft bark of dead
trees and place the acorns in these holes by pounding them with their
bills.”
“Now I am ready to start,” interrupted Tiny. “Perhaps I can get Chatty
Chipmunk to go with me.”
“If you do, don’t let him lead you into bad company!” warned Mrs.
Redsquirrel. “He is very mischievous. He causes his parents much
trouble.”
At that moment Peggy and Bushy Graysquirrel came running into the
room, without stopping to knock at the door.
“Good morning, Mrs. Redsquirrel,” said Peggy.
“We are going over to the Beech Hotel to spend the day with the
Blacksquirrel family,” said Bushy, too much excited to draw a long
breath. “Come along with us, Tiny. We will play ripple.”
“What is ripple?” asked Mrs. Redsquirrel.
“Oh, it is a fine game!” exclaimed Peggy. “All the squirrels get out on
the bough of a tree. Each one throws a nut or a pebble into the brook,
and the one that makes the biggest circle gets the prize.”
“Do you want to go, Tiny?” asked his mother.
“No, mother,” said Tiny bravely. “I like to play ripple, but I must
gather our winter store before the cold rains begin.”
“Please come with us,” coaxed pretty Bushy, flashing her dark eyes
straight into his own.
“I cannot go,” he declared stolidly, turning his back upon her.
“Is he really going to work?” asked Bushy, looking from one to the
other in a bewildered way.
“Yes, I am going,” replied Tiny, and he took down his hunting bag from
the wall.
Another moment a little red squirrel ran down the tree and was lost to
view.