A successful venture

by Ellen Douglas Deland

“An owl, very likely. Sometimes they make queer noises like that. Let’s try to find it. Sik ’em, Sirius, sik ’em, sir!” And disengaging himself from Sophy’s detaining hand he and the dog dashed into a by-path and disappeared from sight.

Sophy tried to follow, but there were many intersecting paths or tracks in this part of the woods, and she was not in the least sure which one her brother had taken. She ran along one, only to find that it was rendered impassable by some brambles, so she turned and went back to her starting-point to try another. She hoped that she should not again hear that terrible cry. It might be an owl, as Peter had suggested, but then again it might not. Peter did not really know for a certainty what it was. And then, as suddenly as it had come before, rang out once more this unearthly shriek. Sophy covered her face with her hands for an instant. Then, indifferent as to what might become of her if only she could get as far as possible from this terrible creature, whatever it might be, she fled in the opposite direction to that from which the sound appeared to come.

Peter and Sirius pursued their way with unerring instinct to a large tree, upon the unleaved branch of which sat an immense owl. What had at first disturbed it Peter could not guess, but at his approach the owl gave another cry and then, spreading its wings, flew aimlessly away into the deeper woods, flapping blindly among the trees as it went.

It was unusual to see an owl so active in the daytime, and Peter, his naturalist’s nature all alive, followed closely, anxious to see what would happen next. He stopped long enough, however, to try to discover what had frightened the bird, but could find nothing. Then he concluded that the enemy, whatever it was, must have disappeared.

It was a great horned owl, he was almost sure, and he knew that one of that species was rarely seen so near civilization. He followed it as closely as possible, but during his short stop to look for the cause of its fright the owl had disappeared, and Peter did not see it again. After spending some time in a fruitless search for it, he returned to the edge of the wood, supposing that he should find Sophy where he had left her; but his thoughts were now distracted by something else.

The excited barking of Sirius proved that he had come upon prey of some sort, and sure enough, when Peter reached the dog he saw that he had discovered the entrance to a nest of field mice beneath an old log, and already he had killed one of the parents. Peter hoped to be in time to save the other, but he was not, and scarcely liked to scold Sirius for the double murder, for he knew the dog was only following the instincts of his kind. He determined to secure the young ones, however, if young ones there were.

He turned over the log, and there beneath it he found a neatly made nest of long grasses, built between the detached bark and the log itself, and containing a number of tiny baby-mice. They were orphans now, alas! the father and mother having both been killed by Sirius, but Peter determined that the little ones should not suffer for this misfortune. Carefully removing the nest from its resting-place, he laid it in his cap and started for home. He would have liked to examine the log further, for it seemed to be an interesting place. A colony of large black ants, which had fashioned for themselves a most elaborate dwelling, were running about now in a distracted manner, owing to the sudden upheaval of the log, which had probably been their undisturbed home for a long time; and Peter would have been glad to watch them.

But from the way in which Sirius was barking and sniffing at a hole in the log, Peter was led to suspect that another nest of mice might be there, and rather than have that family also broken up, and because he had no way of disposing of the little creatures in his cap, he hurried away from the fascinating scene, calling to the dog to follow.

He took a short cut across the woody pasture, which lay on the outskirts of the thicker woods, his mind so absorbed with the adventure, that there was no room for thought of Sophy. He had forgotten her as completely as though she did not exist.

Then, too, to his delight and surprise, he came across some fungi. They were growing in a grassy place at the border of the field, and just above the river. It seemed very early in the season for mushrooms, but still these might be of an edible variety, and if they were, would it not be an excellent plan to take them home for supper? The family refrained always from eating the cultivated mushrooms which Peter could sell, but if they were beginning already to grow wild, they surely might be indulged in.