Four-footed Americans and their kin . rom Mrs. Blake to Toi-nette, — that covered the armful of hemlock branchesthat served as a mattress. The men came back, went to bed and to sleep, andsoon the wind outside was the only sound, while occa-sional flashes from the smouldering log fire kept thecabin cheerfully light. For some strange reason Nat could not sleep; hedozed a dozen times ; then the wind whistled betweenthe logs of the cabin and he started up again. Once hesaw a couple of mice chasing each other about thehearth, then a shadow moved along the roof it the Coon ? No, for both
Four-footed Americans and their kin . rom Mrs. Blake to Toi-nette, — that covered the armful of hemlock branchesthat served as a mattress. The men came back, went to bed and to sleep, andsoon the wind outside was the only sound, while occa-sional flashes from the smouldering log fire kept thecabin cheerfully light. For some strange reason Nat could not sleep; hedozed a dozen times ; then the wind whistled betweenthe logs of the cabin and he started up again. Once hesaw a couple of mice chasing each other about thehearth, then a shadow moved along the roof it the Coon ? No, for both Coon and Fox hadbeen taken to their sleeping-quarters in the shed. Nat looked again ; the shadow grew deeper, took asolid form, and dropped to the floor. An extra brightflash from the fire showed him what looked like abundle of some white-tipped fur. The mysteriousthing was nothing more nor less than an animal — aPorcupine ! He could see its eyes glitter as it movedawkwardly across the floor to the very corner wherehe was XIV FOXES AND SNOW-SHOES ,EERING out and very much frightened, at first Nat was going to call, then he |S|| thought that perhaps he might startle III1L- the Porcupine and make him angry, I W so he staid quite still waiting to see mw what would happen. Everything was painfully quiet; why did not one of the others wake up? Even a snore would have sounded companionable. The Porcupine ambled toward the bunk, butstopped by one of the posts that supported it and beganto gnaw with his strong, sharp-cutting teeth. Next hesampled all four legs of the table, then went to thewater pail ; he seemed to scent the tracks of the Coonand Fox and crouched in a heap with his quills bristlingon his back and his tail ready to strike. Finding thathe was not disturbed, he began walking about again,finally climbing up to a log that ran across the face ofthe chimney, quite near the roof. In spite of feeling a trifle afraid, Nat could not helpnoticing how easily the Porcup
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjecta, booksubjectmammals
