“Don’t they, though?” asked Stripes. “Well, we skunks know something about that. There used to be wolves and bears and all sorts of wild things here, even wild men. They weren’t like these men. They were the colour of Chatter Squirrel, and they lived in little shady trees made of skin or in log piles, like the beavers.” He meant the tents and the winter houses of the Indians. “We skunks used to be good friends with them. But these men weren’t. They hunted them, just like they hunted the bears and the wolves and the beavers, too. The wild men were smarter than any of the other wild things, but these men who live here now just kept building more and more traps to catch them in. Now every last one of them is gone!”
“That’s so,” said Doctor Muskrat. And it is half true, too. The Indians did disappear when the white men built their houses, but of course it wasn’t because the white men trapped them the same as they trapped the wild things.
CHAPTER VII
TAD COON GOES BACK TO PRISON
Everybody looked serious when Stripes Skunk explained that all the houses and barns and sheds on a farm were traps to catch the things who live in them. Even Doctor Muskrat didn’t know any better than to believe him, nor Chatter Squirrel, nor Chaik the Jay, nor Tad Coon.
But Nibble Rabbit pulled down his ear with his paw and licked the end of it very thoughtfully. “The cows aren’t trapped,” he said. “The White Cow said that cows lived in those barns because they made a compact with man. They give him milk, and he feeds them and keeps the wolves from killing them.”
“But there aren’t any more wolves!” argued Doctor Muskrat.
“The cows don’t know that,” said Nibble. “They thought Silvertip the Fox was a wolf. They were terribly excited about him.” My, but you ought to have seen Silk-ears. She began sitting up straight and putting her fur in order; she felt so vain because Nibble seemed to know all about everything.
And you ought to have seen Tad Coon’s eyes sparkle again. “Those big cages--barns, you call them, do you, Nibble?--can’t all be traps. The rats scuttle in and out of them.”
“But you’re bigger than the rats,” said Stripes. He still felt scary.
“But I’m not any bigger than Louie Thomson,” Tad argued. “I’m not nearly as big. I can use his hole.” Of course he meant the cellar door. “And I’ve just got to catch that mean old rat. He said he’d eat me, he did. Guess I’ll show him who’s going to do the eating.”