This young one was not like the others. To begin with he was stouter. Then, too, instead of having a black and white back like his brothers and sisters he was pure black all over except where two narrow white stripes came from the top of his head down either side of his neck. This little fellow was also peculiar in his habits. Nearly all night, while the others nervously crawled about, he lay happily on his back or flat on his stomach resting. But no sooner would the mother return to feed them than he would hear or smell her and spring up so quickly that he would be eating with furious energy before the others knew quite what was happening. And so he got much food and rest and grew very fast. All over his body the fur was beginning to show. It was short, thick and soft.
Now the mother, in her anxious state had started on an impossible task. The woodchuck’s burrow was much too far away to be reached in a night by a mother skunk with four youngsters that had to be carried one at a time. She had gone scarcely fifty yards with this one when her jaws and neck became very tired from lugging the fat, furry little fellow. He was slippery as well as heavy. Laying him down in the path, she rested, and at that moment caught a glimpse of Mink galloping through the woods towards the brush pile.
The wood pussy looked after this ruthless enemy and started to follow, forgetting the baby at her feet until by luck she tripped over him. Instantly picking him up by the neck she hurried back towards the nest. She was not as swift as Mink, but fear for the other young ones spurred her on until it seemed as if the youngster in her mouth would nearly be torn to pieces by the bushes they sped through, or choked by her tight hold.
Suddenly the brush pile was directly in front of them, and the mother slowed up as if afraid to face the sight she might find. In the next instant, however, she had rushed underneath, every hair on end, every nerve keyed for battle. But Mink was not there, she had returned in time!
A noise at the entrance caught her ear. She whirled around only to find that the young one she had dropped there in coming in, had gotten back some of his breath and was crawling shakily to the nest. Quickly picking him up she placed him among the others and then sprawled herself over them, panting, almost exhausted but ready for Mink.
And Mink came, smelled about outside, found to her surprise that the mother was again on guard and hastily bounded away to other hunting grounds. But for an hour or more the wood pussy stayed there resting and assuring herself through the feel of all those moving little bodies underneath her, that all were really safe. She had wisely given up the idea of moving them to the woodchuck burrow. When, later on hunger drove her forth, she chose another direction, and did not go further than the edge of the field where big, buzzing bugs were laying eggs in the grass, and where lizards often hid for the night.
CHAPTER IV
EVERY ANIMAL MUST EAT
Farmer Slown was plowing the corner of the field nearest Goose Creek. It was not far from the wood-pussies’ den, so the clank of the plow chains and the loud commands of “gid up,” “whoa there,” kept the skunk family from their usual morning sleep. Then, too, the black and white hound amused himself by sniffing about until he discovered the hiding place of Bun, the woods rabbit, whom he chased for a long time with much crashing of brush and excited baying. Bun led the stupid hound to all the most prickly briar patches and then hid in a hollow log. The hound was too big to follow him there and so, after growling and gnawing at the entrance until his mouth was sore, gave up the chase and slunk away to rest and lick his scratches.
Then lunch time arrived and the Farmer unhooked the two horses from the plow and tied them to the fence, where they could munch corn he spread for them on some sacking. He then walked across the field to the farm yard to milk the goat and prepare his own meal.
No sooner had he gone from sight than Jim Crow came flying from the woods for a look around. His sharp eyes at once saw the corn, but he said nothing and turned back to the woods to wait until the horses had moved away. At the same time however Red Squirrel, running about in the pines along the edge of the field, had also made a discovery of the corn. He looked all around to make sure he was the only one who had seen this food treasure, then sneaked to a nearby limb impatiently to watch for a chance to get a part of it.