Striped Coat, the Skunk

by Joseph Wharton Lippincott

But Gray Squirrel too had noticed the grain, and so also had a keen nosed deer mouse and a meadow mouse who lived in a round nest of grass hidden in a tangle of weeds beside the very posts to which the horses were tethered. So also had some black birds and a pair of starlings, and a blue jay and almost countless other creatures always on the watch for food.

Therefore when the afternoon plowing was over and the horses had been led back to the barn, birds began to arrive as if by magic to gather the scattered kernels. First appeared a mother quail with ten young ones not much larger than bumble bees following her as chicks follow a mother hen. She picked up a few of the smaller grains, then scurried away as big Jim Crow swooped down. He was followed by the starlings. Suddenly Red Squirrel sounded his rattle from the wood. Up flew Jim and the starlings in alarm only to see the little red fellow dash along the top of the fence, seize a big kernel and then rush back with it to a safe retreat. And so the feeding continued, with interruptions, until night came and only the mice and flying squirrels were left to hunt the very few kernels which remained. Although the horses had been careless with their feed, there had been no waste—the woods people had seen to that.

And soon from the brush pile, slipped the mother wood pussy. She had heard sounds of the feasting and now caught the scent left by some of the little creatures. She walked forward sniffing. Suddenly, up a fence post close by, ran Flying Squirrel. Out of reach of the hungry wood pussy, he squeaked shrilly and scolded. But the mother skunk was paying no attention, she had caught the fresh scent of the meadow mouse which lived in the grass nest beside the post.

The mouse had been eating a grain of corn when Flying Squirrel’s sudden alarm signal had sent her scurrying down her tunnel under the dead grass and leaves. Now, seeing no enemy, she was cautiously coming back to find the grain. Soon she was again gnawing away at it with a rasping noise which, slight as it was, caught the ear of the wood pussy and led her right to the spot.

The next thing the busy mouse saw was a pointed black and white head and two black paws directly above her. Without wasting breath for even a squeak of fear, she dashed headlong into her tunnel. The wood pussy could not open the tunnel quickly enough with her paws to catch up and so the mouse escaped that time.

The mouse had left in the nest her whole family of five young ones

But the skunk was a better mouser than any cat. With her strong claws she dug along the tunnels and runways, chasing the mouse from place to place until at last she came to the nest of grass. Her nose told her that the mouse was inside. Now was her chance! Poking her sharp head into the round entrance to keep the mouse from bolting out and past her, she dug into the mass of woven grasses with her front paws. Soon out came a mass of soft lining material made of shredded bark and tender dry grass blades, but no fat mouse. The little creature had wisely made a back door with a special safety tunnel leading into the underground burrow of a mole. Down this she had dodged. Even the wood pussy could not follow her there.

However the mouse, thinking only of saving herself had left in the nest her whole family of five young ones. Their eyes were still tight shut and their bodies hairless. If left undisturbed, however, they would soon have grown up and been running about like the mother making tunnels in the grass far and wide, to the disgust of Farmer Slown. So the wood pussy did the Farmer a good turn, though to her it was only a matter of easing her empty, aching stomach with a meal and providing food for her young ones.

Next day the mother mouse began to build another snug nest in a different place, in which in less than three weeks she was raising another family.