They couldn’t remember that they too, just a twelve-month ago, had been blind and helpless, and no end of nuisance.
It was along in May that Snookie took a notion to explore the cliff wall high above the foaming waters of the swollen river. Chinook preferred to stay down by the river spearing the salmon who came leaping over the falls and swimming upstream against the rapids to lay their eggs in the shallows, where the newly hatched fish would be safer than they would have been in the ocean.
Snookie, reaching the wind-swept edge of the canyon wall where nothing but twisted mountain pines and junipers could keep their foothold, found the dwarfed trees flattened out to leeward of the wind that blew steadily from off the broad Pacific. The little bear found that she could walk right on top of the low-flung branches, so closely were they matted from years of clinging together for mutual protection. Some of these sturdy dwarfed and ancient trees grew so low and so rooflike that Snookie could barely stand upright under the canopy they made. It was a wonderful place to play.
A mammoth bird’s nest had been tucked away in a cranny of the rocks, right on the canyon rim, and at first a great black bird sat on it. By and by Snookie saw that the great black bird was gone and that a black speck winged its way down to the river. This seemed like a good time to inspect that nest. She found five delicious tasting eggs, and she had just finished her meal and was trying to lick the egg from her chin, when the great bird came back. It was Mrs. Raven, and my, what threats and insults she did screech at Snookie! At her cries Mr. Raven, too, appeared and joined in the clamor. (And all this time their visitor was too surprised to think.) Then the mother bird was upon her, beating her with her wings. The little bear hid her eyes, but her ears were still exposed, and she gave a squeal of protest, for they would have driven her right over the canyon rim, and Snookie had no wings. Then the father raven pecked a beakful of fur right out of the middle of her back.
Suddenly the little bear remembered the tunnels of dwarf pine trees just above, and making a blind dash for them, with the birds still beating her, she crawled under this shelter, where the ravens could not follow.
My, but she was a sore little bear! But here she was, at any rate, safe, if not altogether sound, and she told herself she knew something about ravens that Chinook hadn’t learned. Besides, those eggs certainly were delicious, she comforted herself, as she curled up to sleep off her troubles.
CHAPTER XIII
CHINOOK PLAYS THE CLOWN
Chinook had fished till his sides were rounded with his catch, then he had curled up in a ball in a tree top and taken a nap, while Snookie was having her adventure.
When he awoke, he went for a swim in the sunny shallows, and then he was hungry again, for Chinook was growing fast. Just as the lowering sun began sending slant bars through the trees that fringed the canyon rim, he came to where the canyon floor widened into a meadow sweet with honey-lupin, shoulder high. Bees hummed among the blossoms, and it occurred to him that there might be a bee tree somewhere near by. Sure enough, a tantalizing odor came to him on the breeze. It was the work of but a few minutes to follow his nose till he found the tree where the bees were going in and out in a black swarm.
The owners objected hotly to his discovery of their hidden stores, but they couldn’t sting much through his thick fur. They really could do little harm except about his face, and with slaps of his fore paws he kept the insects away from his eyes and nose as he climbed the tree. Then a red hot fellow left a sting in his sensitive nose and several burned his ears and lips, but he had had experience of bee trees before, and he managed to keep his eyes protected. Then, oh, joy of joys, he had his head in the hollow where they kept their honey, and as he sampled it, he considered it more than worth the stings they had given him. Face and fore paws quickly became plastered with the sticky mass, and when he had made very sure he could reach no more, he backed down the tree leaving sticky paw marks all along the trunk.