Washer the Raccoon

by George Ethelbert Walsh

When the wolf cubs had disappeared in the woods, leaving the raccoons in possession of the rock, a long silence followed. Every little ear was strained to catch the slightest sound of a foot-fall, for the raccoons were still suspicious, and were ready for a trap.

But the padded feet of the wolves grew fainter and fainter, and finally died away completely. Slowly then one after another of the raccoons raised his head and sniffed the air. They could tell whether there was any wolf smell near, and if one of the cubs was lying in the bushes near they could detect it.

“You needn’t be afraid,” Washer said finally. “The cubs never deceived me. They’ve gone away for good, and there’s no danger.”

“Why did they do that?” asked one of the raccoons.

“Because I was brought up in the den with them as their brother, and we always played together and loved each other until the wolf pack drove me away. I cannot go back to the den, for the price of death is on my head. I have no friends among them, except Mother Wolf who raised me, and the cubs, who are too young yet to want to kill me. But in time they will forget their Little Brother, and hunt me like all the others.”

“What were you doing in the wolf’s den in the first place?” asked one of the raccoons.

“I was lost, and Sneaky picked me up to feed the cubs. He carried me to his cave, but Mother Wolf took pity on me because I was only a baby. She saved me from Sneaky and raised me with her own children.”

“Why were you lost when only a baby?” queried another.

“Alas! I fell in the river one day when I was playing with my two brothers, and I was carried over the falls. I couldn’t swim, but I clung to a board, and that saved me. I thought I was killed a dozen times, but I wasn’t, and below the falls I found a landing on the shore. It was there that Sneaky found me and carried me away to kill for his young.”

Now one of the raccoons, who had been listening silently to Washer’s words, suddenly jumped to his feet, and ran up and peered into his face. He looked at him so long and intently that Washer was embarrassed.