The Tale of Frisky Squirrel Part 5

"_Where_ are they?" Frisky asked him eagerly.

"Oh--I thought I told you," Mr. Crow said. "Why--they're in Farmer Green's attic. His boy put them up there to dry. I saw them through the window, this very day."

Frisky Squirrel was disappointed.

"I mustn't go to Farmer Green's house," he said.

"Pooh! Why not?" asked Mr. Crow.

"It isn't safe. I went there once to get some cake, and I nearly lost my life in the kitchen."

"Ah! But this is different," Mr. Crow explained. "You don't have to go into the kitchen at all. All you have to do is to climb that big tree close by the house. And you can hop right through the attic window.

There's n.o.body upstairs in the daytime. In fact, I should call it one of the safest places to go that I know of."

When Mr. Crow said that, Frisky believed him. Mr. Crow was so old, and so wise, and so solemn, that Frisky thought that anything he said must be true.

"I'm going past Farmer Green's house right now," Mr. Crow told Frisky.

"I have a little matter to attend to over in the cornfield. And if you want to come along with me I don't mind stopping to show you where the b.u.t.ternuts are. But of course if you're afraid--" Mr. Crow stopped to cough. He b.u.t.toned his coat closer around his throat. And then he looked sideways at Frisky Squirrel.

"Afraid!" Frisky exclaimed. "I'm not afraid at all."

"Good!" said Mr. Crow. "Now, then, young fellow! You skip along over to Farmer Green's and I'll be waiting for you down the road a bit."

Old Mr. Crow flapped himself away then. And Frisky Squirrel hurried off in a straight line for the farmhouse.

XVI

Caught in the Attic

Long before Frisky Squirrel reached Farmer Green's place, he began to worry for fear Mr. Crow had grown tired of waiting for him. To be sure, he knew that the b.u.t.ternuts were up in the attic. But to tell the truth, Frisky felt uneasy about visiting the farmhouse. And he hoped that Mr. Crow would show him just how to get through the attic window, as he had promised.

Just as he came in sight of the farmhouse Frisky heard Mr. Crow calling to him from a tall tree close by the road. He was glad to hear the old gentleman's husky voice. And he couldn't help thinking how kind Mr. Crow was, and how mistaken his mother had been to believe that Mr. Crow liked to get folks into trouble.

"Come on!" said Mr. Crow, as Frisky paused beneath the tall tree. "I'm going to fly over to that tree right next the farmhouse. You run along the stone-wall and climb up beside me."

"Now, then!" said Mr. Crow a few minutes later, when Frisky had joined him. "There's the window--wide open. And there are the b.u.t.ternuts, lying on the floor."

Frisky could see great heaps of nuts. And without another word he crept out on a limb that brushed the window-sill and in another moment he was inside Farmer Green's attic. Frisky forgot to thank Mr. Crow.

He never once thought of that, he was in such a hurry to taste those nuts.

He just ate and ate and ate; and he was so busy cracking the nuts and picking out the meats that he never noticed that it was growing dark.

At last, to his astonishment, the attic door opened. Frisky leaped behind a pile of b.u.t.ternuts and hid, while someone walked across the floor. Then there was a bang. And Frisky s.h.i.+vered when he heard it.

But the person left the attic at once and went downstairs.

Frisky Squirrel breathed easily again. And he stole out from behind the pile of nuts. Somehow, he did not care to eat any more. He wanted to get out of the house. So he went to the window. And then Frisky Squirrel was really frightened. The window was shut!

You see, while Frisky was so busy eating b.u.t.ternuts, a storm was gathering. And it grew so dark, and the wind howled so shrilly, that Farmer Green's wife thought she had better shut the attic window, to keep the rain from beating in.

How Frisky Squirrel did wish he had minded his mother and kept away from old Mr. Crow! Poor Frisky looked out through the little square panes of gla.s.s. His friend Mr. Crow was nowhere to be seen. Frisky had hoped that the old gentleman would be waiting for him, and that since Mr. Crow had told him how to get inside the attic he would be able to tell him how to get out again.

The wind swept the branches of the tall tree back and forth across the window. How easy it would have been--if the window had been open--to hop out upon one of those swaying limbs! Frisky pressed his soft little body close against the gla.s.s and pushed as hard as he could. But he couldn't break out of his prison. It was a queer thing--that gla.s.s! He could see through it just as if there was nothing there; and yet it held him fast. Frisky could not understand it.

XVII

Farmer Green's Cat

There were plenty of nuts in the attic of Farmer Green's house, where Frisky Squirrel found himself a prisoner. And you might think that he wouldn't have felt so unhappy to be there. But Frisky was unhappy. He was so frightened that he crept into a corner and stayed there, s.h.i.+vering, for a long time. And he couldn't have eaten a single one of those nuts if he had tried. He wanted to be free. He wanted to be out of doors. He wanted to go home.

After a time the storm pa.s.sed. The wind stopped blowing. And the sun shone again. But n.o.body came to the attic to open the window. When it grew quite light Frisky did not feel so frightened. And at last he crept out of his corner and went nosing about the room, hoping to find a hole big enough to squeeze through.

Now, you must not think Frisky Squirrel was stupid, when I tell you that the door was open all this time. It was open just the smallest crack, for Farmer Green's wife hadn't quite closed it when she went downstairs. Frisky had been too frightened to notice it. Besides, the attic had been dark, you know.

Well, when Frisky found that crack he was the happiest little fellow you ever saw. It was only a narrow opening; but he slipped through it.

And there he was, right at the head of the stairs! So downstairs he hurried. The door below was wide open. And in less time than it takes to tell the story, Frisky was in Farmer Green's kitchen. He remembered that room very well, for he had been there when he came to taste that white-frosted cake.

But this time Frisky did not stop to look for any cake. He just scampered across the floor toward the wide doorway. And as he bounded across the room something sprang out from behind the stove and started after him.

Frisky Squirrel saw that some animal had leaped at him. He didn't stop to take a good look; but he supposed that it was a small dog that had been drying himself by the fire. Frisky knew that dogs couldn't climb trees. So he sprang through the door, never touching the big stone doorstep at all, and hurried toward a tree in Farmer Green's yard. He laughed as he scurried up the tree-trunk. And then he looked down at his enemy.

Then Frisky Squirrel's heart almost stood still. That small animal was coming right up the tree after him! Of course, it wasn't a dog at all.

It was Farmer Green's cat. Frisky had never seen a cat before and he began to wonder whether the small creature could fly, as well as climb trees. He scampered to the top of the tree; and then he leaped upon a branch of another tree close by.

No! The small animal could not fly. She climbed as high as she dared.

And then she stopped. Her eyes glared fiercely; and her tail grew as big as Frisky's own. But that didn't help her at all. She could only sit there and watch Frisky Squirrel as he dropped from branch to branch, until she lost sight of him among the leaves.

XVIII

The Thres.h.i.+ng-machine

One day, late in the summer, Frisky Squirrel saw something that caused him great excitement. Right into the center of one of Farmer Green's fields he saw Farmer Green's horses drag a queer sort of wagon. It was bigger than any other wagon he had ever seen, and had wheels upon it in all sorts of strange places, instead of just at the four corners, like all the wagons he had ever noticed before.

Frisky climbed a tree, in order to get a better view of what was happening. As he watched, he saw still another odd wagon hauled upon the field alongside the first one. This wagon carried a broad walk which led from the back and went right up what you might call a hill, to the front of the wagon. And there it stopped, with a wooden bar blocking the way. Frisky Squirrel thought that that was the strangest path he had ever seen, for it seemed to lead to nowhere, and why it should have a bar at the top, to keep anyone from going nowhere at all, was more than even his lively mind could puzzle out.

In and out and about these strange wagons were as many as a dozen men, and one boy--each of them as busy as he could be. And as for the boy, Johnnie Green, he was busier than anybody else. He seemed to be everywhere at once, and in everybody's way. And Frisky couldn't see that he was doing anything at all. But he noticed that Johnnie appeared to be having a fine time.

As Frisky Squirrel looked down upon this unusual sight from his perch in the tree he saw that Farmer Green's wagons--the kind Frisky had often seen before--were bringing up sheaves of wheat. And pretty soon--and this made Frisky's eyes almost pop out of his head--he saw a man lead a pair of horses up that short, steep walk and tie them to the bar at the top of it.