All the terrors of his day in the pen were wiped out by that sleep. Even beautiful Blackie, whom he had played with and loved, became fainter in his memory, like part of a wonderful dream.
CHAPTER XVI
THE ROAD TO THE SEA
Towards evening clouds began to gather; then a gentle wind from the South brought the first signs of thawing weather. Later a warm rain drenched the woods, washing away the snow and leaving the swamps cloaked in vapor.
This was the kind of winter weather the woodsfolk preferred to any other. Nearly all of them came out. Even the raccoons and the skunks, who sleep in cold weather no matter how long it lasts, crept forth to have a good hunt before the next cold spell began.
“Two coons, who were having a loud altercation”
They had never before seen Red Ben, so each eyed him very carefully and left plenty of room between. As usual, the coons followed the water, the possums wandered along the edges of the swamp, and the skunks roamed the open places. None of them seemed sociable. The only ones Red Ben saw together were two coons who were having a loud altercation in the top of a hollow hickory. Each wanted the hollow entirely for himself, but neither could throw the other out of the tree.
In the stream a mink suddenly appeared. He had a frog in his jaws which he carried ashore and left on a tussock of grass. Returning to the water he dove, searched the muddy bottom, found another frog that was hibernating there, and laid it on the tussock beside its fellow. When he had collected four fat ones he finished his meal, leaving what he did not need, for other less expert hunters, like the possum, to find, if they could.
A larger animal than the mink also came swimming down the stream; it had a flatter head and lighter color. Red Ben, who was sitting on a high part of the bank watching all that was going on, saw at once that this was a creature not to be found in Goose Creek and Cranberry Swamp. It was an otter, on its way to winter quarters farther down the stream. Like most of the other woodsfolk, it had to find a snug, safe hole to live in during the many cold days ahead.
Even the big owls always sought holes when the leaves fell from the trees and the North Wind began to moan in the woods. They hunted out hollows in trees; so did the animals that could climb; but the others, the mink, the skunk, the muskrat and the weasel, slept in holes in the ground. These they dug themselves, if they had to; but generally it was possible for them to find old holes that would do very well. They were very lazy about that kind of thing, far different from animals like the squirrels, which built such snug nests for themselves in summer as well as in winter.