“I’m a farmer and haven’t time to fool with wild animals the way you can, but I like to have people like you around to buy things I raise and I have a change of feeling about those skunks. I’m all for them since that rat business. Yes sir! And what’s more you needn’t worry about traps any longer.” Having said which Farmer Slown stood up to resume work as if the matter were now ended.

Mr. Henry, however, jumped the fence to give his hand a hearty shake.

“I hope we’ll be neighbors a long time!” he cried. As he strode back through the woods, the Farmer looked after him for a moment or two.

“It’s funny,” he said. “Who would have thought I would ever find that neighbors and skunks were any good!”

That night Striped Coat took a long trip. He wandered far below the Farmer’s field and then to the sandy hill in the pines and lastly along the bank of Goose Creek. He met Mink and Coon and old Possum, Gray Fox, Brown Weasel, Bun and the deer from Cranberry Swamp. All looked at him and then gave him the path. Yes, there were many animals, but after all this was his range and he was master of them all.

Standing once more in front of the stone pile he shook himself until his fur stood out all over him, that fur for which any dealer would give a big price. Some day his children, and perhaps later his children’s children, with black fur like his, would wander at night through the woods of Goose Creek chasing the elusive mice and beetles; but he was the first of the new order, he was Striped Coat, the Black Skunk!

As he stood there, a pale light spread over the sky, the protecting black shadows grew fainter. He knew that he, a creature of the night, must now bid farewell for a while to all the outside world. Reluctantly, he bowed his head and entered the low arch of the stone pile. Slowly his body moved out of sight, then the long tail until not even the tip remained in view.

THE END

Transcriber’s Notes