Читать книгу Ringtail - Alice Crew Gall - Страница 5

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It was the first time that Ringtail had ever been outside the den alone, and he felt very proud as he lay there in the sunshine.

How many things there were to see and wonder about! The clump of willows over there at the bend in the river: what was beyond them? He felt that he could scarcely wait to find out; and he would find out, too, as soon as he was old enough to go down the tree.

He peered cautiously over the big branch. “It is a long way to the ground,” he thought, “but I won’t mind that when I learn how to climb.”

Just then two furry little creatures scampered out of the underbrush and ran straight toward the hollow tree.

Up they came, and out onto the branch where Ringtail lay. But when they saw him they stopped short, their bushy tails arched in the air, and stared at him.

Ringtail had never been so near to any other creature before and he did not know quite what to do. He stared back at them for a moment and then, since they looked like friendly little fellows, he spoke to them.

“Hello,” he said.

The two furry creatures did not answer. They only stood there, flicking their tails excitedly, as though ready to scamper back down the tree at a moment’s notice.

Presently one of them came a step or two nearer. “Your face is dirty, isn’t it?” he said, looking curiously at the little Raccoon.

“No,” Ringtail answered in surprise, “my face isn’t dirty!”

“Yes, it is,” the creature insisted. “It is as black as it can be.”

Ringtail was greatly puzzled. Was his face black? he wondered. He must ask his mother about this.

“And I never saw a tail like yours,” the creature went on. “It has black rings around it all the way to the very tip. Why is that?”

Ringtail looked at his tail. He had never really noticed it before, but it did have black rings around it. Pretty rings they were, too, he thought.

“Well,” the creature spoke a little impatiently, “if you don’t know why your tail is like that, I don’t suppose you know your name either, do you?”

“Of course I do,” Ringtail said quickly, glad to be able to answer a question. “My name is Ringtail and I am a Raccoon.”

The two little creatures stared at him harder than ever, but after a moment the first one said, “I know why they call you Ringtail. It’s because of your striped tail, isn’t it?”

This was a new thought to the little Raccoon and he liked it very much. “Why, of course,” he exclaimed, “that must be the reason!”

How many things he was learning today and how fine it was to be talking with someone from the Outside World!

“Where do you live, Ringtail?” the second little creature asked.

“Right here in this tree,” he answered. “Do you see that hole there? That’s the doorway to our den and I live in there with my mother and my father and my little sister.”

“We live in a tree, too,” the creature told him. “Our family nest is in the big oak tree in the forest, but we don’t stay there much any more. We would rather play around on the ground. Don’t you ever play around on the ground, Ringtail?”

“I never have,” Ringtail replied. “You see, I’m not big enough yet to climb down the tree.”

“Not big enough!” the creature repeated in surprise. “Why you’re twice as big as we are! More than twice as big!”

For a moment Ringtail could only stare at them, too confused to make any answer. It was true! He was more than twice as big as they were, and yet they had run up the hollow tree quite easily. He could not understand this at all.

“Well,” he said at last, “I am going to learn to climb after awhile. I know that, because my mother told me so. She already lets me stay out here alone,” he added proudly.

“I should think she would—a great big thing like you!” said the first creature. “I should think you could go anywhere you wanted to alone. Why don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” the little Raccoon said slowly. “I don’t know why I don’t.”

He wished these two creatures would go away now and leave him alone. He had been glad to see them when they first came, but they had made him uncomfortable and he did not want to talk to them any more until he had asked his mother about the things he did not understand.

Just then, to his great relief, his mother put her head out of the doorway. “Run along home, Gray Squirrels,” she said. “The sun is getting low and your mother will be wondering where you are. And you must come in now, Ringtail. Little Sister is awake and it is time for your supper.”

The Gray Squirrels scampered off down the tree, chattering as they went, and Ringtail climbed slowly back into the den. But he was no longer proud and happy.

He was bothered about the things the Squirrels had said to him, and not even his supper could make him forget them.

“Mother,” he said, when he had had all the milk he could hold, “the Gray Squirrels say I am big enough to climb down the tree. Am I?”

“Not quite yet,” she told him. “You must be patient.”

“They can climb trees even though they are so small,” he said anxiously. “I don’t understand about that.”

“I know,” she answered gently. “There are a great many things that are hard to understand. But you will climb when you are ready, Ringtail, so do not think about it now.”

“And I’ll go to the river and fish, won’t I?” he asked drowsily.

“Yes,” she said, smoothing his fur softly with her tongue, “you will do that and a great many other things that the Gray Squirrels cannot do.”

But the little Raccoon did not hear her, for he was already asleep.

Later that night the Raccoon father and mother slipped quietly away and started toward the river.

“They are growing very fast, aren’t they?” the Raccoon father said. “We will soon be taking them along with us when we go to hunt for food.”

“Yes,” the Raccoon mother answered, “they won’t be babies much longer.”

The moon was just rising and she stopped for a moment to look back at the hollow tree, standing like a white shadow at the edge of the forest.

Then she turned and went on down to the river to fish for crayfish under the stones.