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Show MY AUNT'S SQUIRRELS. Perhaps it was because she hated cats. My aunt's house is a large one-very like those you often see when traveling in the country-square with windows all shut, silent doors and empty porches. The beauty of my aunt's house was its back yard and back door, with a great fat stone step. A gate at the back of the yard opened on a lane where trees grew on each side, and thickets, which, in summer are full of birds, butterflies and blossoms. The deep ruts are overgrown with grass, only the breezes pass to and fro which flutter the leaves into little rustling songs. The back door led into a great kitchen, ?? ever so many years ago, the rafters were coffee-colored, for my aunt would never have them whitewashed. Lots of things were stowed away among those rafters-pumpkin seeds, ?? corn, bunches of herbs, an old saddle, and, in the winter, hams and links of sausage swung from the beams. Piles of paper bulged over their edges, and the rubbish of years was there, precious to my aunt, but useless to everybody else. One day in autumn, Josh, my aunt's man of all work, while hoisting a bag of dried beans into the rafters, discovered a pair of gray striped squirrels. He rattled the beans and "shooed," but they only skipped beyond his reach, chattering, and stood on their hind paws, making motions with their fore paws as if "shooing" Josh in return. "I do believe, mum," he called to my aunt, "that these little thieves have come to eat up all my garden seeds, but I can't make out why ground squirrels should roost up here." "Let them be, Josh," said my aunt; "I'd rather have squirrels overhead than cats under foot, the creatures won't trouble me." Nor did they, but, when people talked in the kitchen, the squirrels chattered louder and faster than ever. Although they dropped seeds and straws on my aunt's muslin cap and although Josh muttered about holes in bags, and muss, and noise, she would not listen. She declared they were company for her, and she was certain they would not forget her friendliness toward them; they kept their distance, and were always the same bright, cheerful, happy little beings! For all this Josh pondered a plan, and carried it out. "Ground-squirrels," he argued, "had no business up in the air." So he prepared a bag, tackled the old horse to the wagon, caught the squatters when my aunt went out, put them in the bag, and rode away up the lane and into the woods. When he got to a thick spot, dark with trees, he shook out the squirrels turned about, and jogged home, with the satisfaction of having finished a good job, just a little ?? with dread of my aunt's wording which, any way was not so bad as their chatter. Josh opened the kitchen door and went in. The silence pleased him, and he began to rub his hands, as his way was when pleased. He cast his eyes upward and was ??, greeted with a merry chatter. The squirrels had got home before him, and were all the more lively for their voyage in the bag, the ride in the wagon, and the picnic in the woods! "Mercy on me!" he cried, his hands falling apart. Just then the squirrels let drop a hickory nut on the bald spot of Josh's head. "I missed their noise," said my aunt, "they have been cunning enough to go out nutting." "Yes," said poor Josh. "They are very cunning, mum, I know so much about them." Either the indignity of the rail upon them, or the find of the hickory-nuts, was too much for the squirrels; shortly after, they disappeared. My aunt was reminded more than once of their ingratitude, but all she said was-"Wait." A cat was proposed for a pet once more. "No cats!" my aunt said, looking severely at Josh, who went out to the barn immediately. When the spring came, and the lilac-bushes bloomed, I went to my aunt's-the old kitchen was my delight. We sat on the door-step in the afternoon when the sun rays left the lane, and we could cast our eyes on the deep, cool group of tree and shrub. My aunt watched the way of the wind, where the birds flew, and the coming blossoms, and I watched her. Once, when I happened to be inside, I heard a suppressed, wondering cry from her, which made me hurry back; I saw her attention was fixed on the path below the ??, and looked also, to see the most cunning procession that ever was. My aunt's gray squirrel was trotting toward us with tail curled up, and accompanied by four little ones exactly like her, with their ?? of tails curled up also; two were on her back and two trotted beside her. She came up to my aunt fearlessly and the little ones ran about us. Her motherly joy and pride were plain to be seen. Then we heard a small bark from the lilac-bush-it came from her companion, the father of the bunch, who watched the reception. My aunt sent me ?? pumpkinseed, and to see them ?? the shells and feeding on the meat was a fine treat. The babies were about a finger's length, but their tails had as stiff a curl as their momma's, and never got out of place. Many a day afterward the mother paraded the young ones on the door-step, and carried home her pouch full of pumpkin seed, but the father never put his dignity off to come any nearer than the lilac-bush. "Now, you unbelieving Josh," called my aunt, once, "what do you say?" "Say, mum looking up at the rafters. "I say a cat might have druv them away."-Elizabeth "Stottart, in St. Nicholas. |
