Part 1 (2/2)
”Are there pleasant neighbors here?” asked Mr. Red Squirrel.
”Very good, very good. My wife and I do not call on many of them, but still they are good enough people, I think.”
”Then why don't you call?”
”Why? Why? Because they are not in our set. It would never do.” And the Gray Squirrel sat up very straight indeed.
”Who is that gliding fellow on the ground below?” asked the newcomer.
”Is he one of your friends?”
”That? That is the Rattlesnake. We never speak to each other. There has always been trouble between our families.”
”Who lives in that hollow tree yonder?”
”Sh, s.h.!.+ That is where the Great Horned Owl has his home. He is asleep now and must not be awakened, for Squirrels and Owls cannot be friendly.”
”Why not?”
”Because. It has always been so.”
”And who is that bird just laying an egg in her nest above us?”
”Speak softly, please. That is the Cowbird, and it is not her nest. You will get into trouble if you talk such things aloud. She can't help it.
She has to lay her eggs in other birds' nests, but they don't like it.”
Mr. Red Squirrel tried very hard to find out the reason for this, but there are always some things for which no reason can be given; and there are many questions which can never be answered, even if one were to ask, ”Why? why? why?” all day long. So Mr. Red Squirrel, being a wise little fellow, stopped asking, and thought by using his eyes and ears he would in time learn all that he needed to know. He had good eyes and keen ears, and he learned very fast without making many mistakes. He had a very happy life among the forest people, and perhaps that was one reason. He learned not to say things which made his friends feel badly, and he did not ask needless questions. And after all, you know, it would have been very foolish to ask questions which n.o.body could answer, and worse than foolish to ask about matters which he could find out for himself.
It is in the forest as in the world outside. We can know that many things are, but we never know why they are.
[Ill.u.s.tration]
WHY MR GREAT HORNED OWL HATCHED THE EGGS
If the Rattlesnake is the king of the forest in the daytime, the Great Horned Owl is the king at night. Indeed, he is much the more powerful of the two, for he is king of air and earth alike and can go wherever he wishes, while the snake can only rule over those who live near the ground or who are so careless as to come to him there.
There was but one pair of Great Horned Owls in the forest, and they lived in the deepest shade, having their great clumsy nest in the hollow of a tall tree. You might have walked past it a hundred times and never have guessed that any Owls lived there, if you did not notice the round pellets of bone and hair on the gra.s.s. They are such hungry fellows that they swallow their food with the bones in it. Then their tough little stomachs go to work, rolling all the pieces of bone and hair into b.a.l.l.s and sending them back to be cast out of the Owls' mouths to the ground.
The Great Horned Owl was a very large bird. His whole body was covered with brown, dull yellow, and white feathers. Even his feet and legs were covered, and all that you could see besides were his black claws and his black hooked bill. Yes, at night you could see his eyes, too, and they were wonderful great eyes that could see in the dark, but they were shut in the daytime when he was resting. His wife, who was the queen of the forest at night, looked exactly like him, only she was larger than he. And that is the way among Owls,--the wife is always larger than her husband.
Every night when the sun had gone down, the Great Horned Owl and his wife would come out of their hollow tree and sit blinking on a branch near by, waiting until it got dark enough for them to see quite plainly.
As the light faded, the little black spots in their eyes would grow bigger and bigger, and then off they would go on their great soft, noiseless wings, hunting in the gra.s.s and among the branches for the supper which they called breakfast.
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