. Bannertail; the story of a gray squirrel . acrossthis gap, and he took the flying leap withpride, remembering how, not so long ago,[44] M \ ■ I The Story of a Gray squirrel he used perforce to drop to the groundand amble to the other post. He wasmaking for the white oak and hickorygroves; but his keen nose brought himthe message of a big red acorn under theleaves. He scratched it out and smelledit — yes, good. He ripped off the shelland here, ensconced in the middle, was afat white grub, just as good as the nutitself, or better. So Bannertail had grubon the half-shell and nuts on the side fo
. Bannertail; the story of a gray squirrel . acrossthis gap, and he took the flying leap withpride, remembering how, not so long ago,[44] M \ ■ I The Story of a Gray squirrel he used perforce to drop to the groundand amble to the other post. He wasmaking for the white oak and hickorygroves; but his keen nose brought himthe message of a big red acorn under theleaves. He scratched it out and smelledit — yes, good. He ripped off the shelland here, ensconced in the middle, was afat white grub, just as good as the nutitself, or better. So Bannertail had grubon the half-shell and nuts on the side forhis first course. Then he set about nos-ing for hidden hickory-nuts; few andscarce were they. He had not found onewhen a growing racket announced thecurse-beast of the woods, a self-huntingdog. Clatter, crash, among the dry leavesand brush, it came, yelping with noisy,senseless stupidity when it found a trackthat seemed faintly fresh. Bannertailwent quietly up a near elm-tree, keepingthe trunk between himself and the beast.[45] _--^\\\. Qrub on thehaklf iheU Bannertail From the elm he swung to a basswood,and finished his meal off basswood one eye on the beast, hescrambled to an open platform nest thathe had made a month ago, where he lazedin the sun, still keeping eyes and earsalert for tidings from the disturber below. The huge brute prowled around andfound the fresh scent up the elm, andbarked at it, too, but of course he wasbarking up the wrong tree, and presentlywent off. Bannertail watched him withsome faint amusement, then at last wentrippling down the trunk and through thewoods like a cork going down a rushingstream. He was travelling homeward by thefamiliar route, on the ground, in undu-lated bounds, with pauses at each highlookout, when again the alarm of ene-mies reached him — a dog, sniffing andbarking, and farther off a hunter. Ban-[46] The Story of a Gra^squirrel nertail made for the nearest big tree, andup that he went, keeping ever the trunkbe
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, bookpublishernewyo, bookyear1922
