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VIII
SAMMY JAY DROPS A HINT WHATEVER faults Chatterer the Red Squirrel may have, and they are many, laziness is not one of them. No, Sir, there is no laziness about Chatterer. When he has work to do, he does it, and he keeps at it until it is finished. Every morning he got up with the sun and raced along the old stone wall and the rail fences down to Farmer Brown's cornfield, where he first ate his breakfast, and then worked to fill the hollow rail of the fence which he had made into a store-house. It was hard work, because he had to do a great deal of hunting for the corn; and it was exciting work, because he had to keep his eyes and ears open every minute to keep from furnishing a dinner for some one else. Redtail
the Hawk,
who had not yet gone South, discovered him one morning, and Chatterer
dodged
behind a fence post just in time. After that, Redtail was on hand every
morning, watching from the top of a tree for Chatterer to grow careless
and get
too far from shelter. Then one
morning
Reddy Fox surprised him at the edge of a heap of cornstalks. Chatterer
had just
time to wriggle his way to the middle of the heap. Reddy had seen him,
and he
could smell him. Very softly Reddy tiptoed around the pile of
cornstalks to see
if Chatterer had come out on the other side. Then he came back to where
Chatterer had gone in and excitedly began to dig, making the dry stalks
fly
right and left. He made so
much noise
that Chatterer felt sure that he wouldn't hear him move, and he didn't.
By the
time Reddy had worked his way to the middle of the pile, Chatterer was
safe in
his store-house in the hollow rail. He had slipped from under the
cornstalks,
run across to another pile, worked his way through this, and so reached
the
fence. After
that, Reddy
Fox came every morning, hoping to surprise Chatterer. But Chatterer
felt quite
equal to fooling Reddy and Redtail. Of course they interfered with his
work and
were very bothersome, but he wasn't afraid of them. The one thing he
did fear
was that Shadow the Weasel would hear where he was. That thought
bothered him a
great deal. One
morning Sammy
Jay just happened along. He saw Reddy Fox creeping up behind some
bushes at the
edge of the cornfield, and at once Sammy began to scream as he always
does when
he thinks he can spoil Reddy's hunting. Reddy looked up at him and
showed all
his long teeth, but Sammy only grinned and screamed the louder. Then
Reddy
walked away with a great deal of dignity, for he knew that it wasn't
the least
use to try to hunt while Sammy Jay was about. When he had disappeared
in the
Green Forest, Sammy returned to the cornfield, and there he found
Chatterer
hard at work. "I'm much
obliged, Sammy, for driving that nuisance away; he bothers me a great
deal, and
I've got to do a lot of work yet to fill my store-house before it is
too
late," said Chatterer, as he hurried to the hollow rail with his mouth
full of corn. "Have you
moved down here?" demanded Sammy Jay. "I thought you were living up
in the Old Orchard." "I am. At
least, my house is up there, but there is no food there, and so I have
made a
store-house down here and am trying to get it full of corn before snow
comes," replied Chatterer. "It will
be a
long way to come for your food every day," said Sammy. "I know
it," replied Chatterer, "but I guess I'm lucky to have any food to
come for." "Pooh!"
said Sammy, "I wouldn't work as you do. I'd use my wits a little. If
corn
is what you want to eat, why don't you go up to Farmer Brown's? It's
nearer to
the Old Orchard than this, and the corn is all stored ready for you to
help
yourself. I get all I want there." |