“Listen, brothers,” Washer said, “I cannot run as fast as you, nor fight as fiercely for my food, but there is one thing I can do that will surprise you. I can go where none of you can follow.”
They laughed at this challenge, and told him to show them the trick. “We’ll follow you,” they said. “You can’t lose us.”
“All right! Follow me!”
Washer had found out that his sharp little claws were perfectly adapted to tree climbing, and that his Wolf brothers could not get up a tree higher than the lowest branches which they might reach by jumping. He had tried climbing trees and found that it came as easy to him as running.
There was a big cedar tree near the brook, and after looking up it he started to climb the trunk. It was so easy for him that he went up it almost as quickly as Bobby Gray Squirrel could. His Wolf brothers sat down on their haunches in a circle around the tree and watched him in amazement.
Washer reached the first branches, and ran out on one big one. “Look out, Little Brother, or you’ll fall!” they shouted. “Be careful!”
Washer smiled and showed his teeth. “Oh, this is nothing! I’ll climb to the top!”
He ran back to the trunk, and began climbing higher. Up and up he went until his little body was lost among the foliage.
“He’s lost!” exclaimed the Wolf cubs below. “Something’s happened to him! I can’t see him!”
But Washer, having reached the top-most branch of the tree, bit off a twig and threw it down at them. “Here I am!” he cried. “Now follow me up here!”