CHAPTER VII
WINKIE IN A TRAP
Slicko, the jumping squirrel, had told the truth about the storm. The tree, in the upper part of which the squirrel had a nest and in a lower hollow part of which Winkie had been sleeping, was struck by lightning, and broken down.
But neither of the animals, nor some birds nesting under the leaves of the tree, was hurt by the lightning, though all were stunned by it for a moment. The birds fluttered into other trees, glad to hide themselves under the leaves as much out of the rain as they could get. Slicko, feeling the tree falling, had leaped safely into another.
And what happened to poor Winkie?
At first the wily woodchuck hardly knew what was taking place. She had been awakened so suddenly by the storm, with its lightning, thunder, wind, and rain, that she was dazed.
But she heard what Slicko said, and she knew enough to jump when she felt the tree going over, so she was not caught under it and pinned down, as sometimes happens to beavers in the woods.
“Where are you? Where can I get in out of the rain?” called Winkie to Slicko. But either she could not make her voice heard above the storm, or else Slicko was too far away to hear. I think it was a little of both.
At any rate Winkie stood for a moment beside the fallen, split tree that had been a sort of “hotel” for her during the first part of the night. But the warm leaf-lined nest where she had so cozily cuddled was no more. And as she felt the rain falling on her and heard the noise of the storm, Winkie knew she must get under some kind of shelter.