They all laughed at this, and at Winkie’s dream, and after they had washed themselves they were ready for breakfast. I don’t mean to say that the woodchucks went to a bathroom and washed their faces and paws or took a bath as you do when you get up in the morning. At least, as you wash your faces and hands or take a bath.
But I am sure you have all seen a cat wash its face; and though the woodchucks did not cleanse themselves in just this way, they made their ruffled fur smooth and sleek before they ate their breakfast.
After a few nibbles at the bark of some trees, which they liked very much, the woodchucks went over to the edge of the woods near the clover field. There they ate some green leaves and red blossoms.
All at once they saw a flash of fire and a puff of smoke, and they heard that rumbling sound which had so frightened them before.
“Look out!” cried Mr. Woodchuck.
But there was no danger to the woodchucks now, even though Farmer Tottle was again blasting stumps and rocks in his field. The woodchucks, however, were afraid, and back toward the woods they ran. And as they did not keep together, but scattered, it happened that, after the first frightened rush, Winkie found herself running along alone.
It was the first time Winkie had ever been in the woods, and the first time she had ever been anywhere alone. Always, except perhaps when very near the burrow, she had been with her brother or sister, or father or mother. Now, as she ran along, she looked on either side, she peered amid the trees and under the bushes and saw—no one! No Blinkie, no Blunk, no father, no mother!
“Oh, where are you?” cried Winkie, in woodchuck language, of course. “Where are you all?”
But so frightened were the other woodchucks that they had scurried here and there, one running this way and the other that way until they were widely separated. Neither Blinkie nor Blunk, neither father nor mother was within sound of Winkie’s voice.
“Oh, what is going to happen to me?” cried poor Winkie. “What is going to happen?”