Joseph Wharton Lippincott

“ So Striped Coat grew amazingly just as did all the other young woods folk. At first he grew long and lanky, with short patchy fur and spindly tail, in much the same way as a young hawk before it acquires its full plumage; later he filled out, his fur becoming thick and glossy. By the end of August he was as large as his mother and still growing. He was wise enough not to be lured into the Farmer’s traps and, like his mother he now had the right of way over the other woods animals, being indeed treated with all the dignity of a full grown skunk. ”

“ Bitterly he fought until the black one had more than enough and cowered like a scared rat in the farthest corner of the shed. Then Red Ben let loose his muscles in the wildest leaps and the most frantic rushes of his life. Madly he ran around and around the enclosure, or up the quivering wire.
Blackie could not be made to understand what was the matter. She was a ranch bred fox; this was her home. But to Red Ben, reared in the wild tangles of the Ridge and Swamp, freedom meant everything. He would have it! ”

“ Under the cabin, Striped Coat was in his big bed curled up asleep but twitching occasionally as he dreamed of battles with old warrior rats. In the woodchuck’s burrow under the uprooted pine, Striped Coat’s mate was giving all the little “striped coats” their morning bath, using her wet tongue as the wash rag. And in the old den under the holly tree Striped Coat’s mother was doing much the same with four little ones which made up her new family; pretty youngsters, but all showing signs of having as much white as black in their markings, when they grew up. ”

“ As fast as man thinks out new methods of destruction, the fox finds fresh tricks through which to escape. And may he ever escape! For when the edges of our old fields no longer bear the imprint of his tireless feet, when the woodlands that delighted his wild little heart have been usurped by the tame dog and the tame cat, then indeed will have departed half their charm, half the thrill of winter walks. ”

“ However the mouse, thinking only of saving herself had left in the nest her whole family of five young ones. Their eyes were still tight shut and their bodies hairless. If left undisturbed, however, they would soon have grown up and been running about like the mother making tunnels in the grass far and wide, to the disgust of Farmer Slown. So the wood pussy did the Farmer a good turn, though to her it was only a matter of easing her empty, aching stomach with a meal and providing food for her young ones. ”

“ Red Ben was exceedingly interested in this, so interested that he did not note how carefully the boy walked around Blackie’s pen, looking at the tracks in the snow, nor how long a time he spent fixing something in the pen. Red Ben, indeed, had not yet learned that snow holds footprints and tells the story of the night travels of every creature that touches it. How, therefore, could he guess that everything about his visit was plain to this wide awake boy, who, thrilled by the idea of a big, wild fox being near, was plotting to catch him? ”

“ The farmer had moved away, disgusted with the place and with his neighbors. His poison baits and traps, set for Red Ben, his big brute of a hound, all had gotten him into trouble with the villagers. The foxes had won, Ben Slown had to move.
The man who bought the farm had no use for a gun. He let the fence rows grow up with weeds and berries for the birds, so that his corn and fruit would not be disturbed by them. He let the woodchucks and the children of Bun feed at will in his meadows, and grow so plentiful that no fox would ever need a chicken for a meal. ”

“ Striped Coat cowered back against what seemed a solid wall of stems, and the owl noting his fear, started into the bushes after him; but suddenly things changed; with a stamp of his foot the little fellow sidled forward, every hair on end, his tail straight over his back. The owl hesitated; he was facing more of a proposition than he had bargained for. The little skunk looked young and defenseless, but it acted very grown up. The owl knew what an old wood pussy could do. ”

“ She did not know that, though her own graceful body fitted into the woods like an illusive shadow, the white hen stood out like a beacon light. She did not know that on the Ridge it caught the eye of a friend of Ben Slown and held it while she circled the den and then called out the puppies to the feast. Her mother love had indeed overcome natural caution.
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The den was nothing more than the enlarged burrow of an old woodchuck, who, years before, had been driven from the fields below. To the four puppies, however, it was all that a home ought to be. ”

“ Birds were singing, bees were buzzing around numberless flowers, far and wide there was the hum of the insect army now come again to feed on the plant life. How this army would spread and grow and ravage the land, if birds by day were not constantly after it on the ground, in the trees and in the air, and if at night its ranks were not attacked by the active little shrews, the swift flying bat, and the wood pussies, not to mention other woodsfolk like the fox, the mole, old Possum and even Screech Owl, who all helped! In the water the fish did their part. Yes, everything must eat to live. ”

“ The fox’s keen nose picked out the odor of perspiring horses, of sheep and of pigs. It caught, too, the peculiar smell of man and the smell of smoke and cooked food and slops, which always is found where man lives. There was also a dull, nameless scent made up of a hundred different things, like the grease on wagon axles, old harness, rusting iron, clothes out to dry and other things about which Red Ben knew nothing. ”

“ When hunter grimly hunts hunter in the woods, it is indeed a time of starvation. Not for years had there been such a snow in the Pine Barrens. Red Ben longed for the country he had learned to know so well, the Ridge, Cranberry Swamp and the edge of Ben Slown’s farm lands. There he would know just where to dig for mice under the snow, or to hunt for frozen apples. ”

“ When the cold winds blow and the ground is frozen it is badly needed. Red Squirrel hid nuts in forks of limbs and in hollows and crevices, Grey Squirrel buried a supply in good safe places, Ground Hackie made a granary for himself underground, the foxes buried things like dead mice, pieces of rabbit, frogs, snakes, fish and even apples, but creatures like Bear, Woodchuck, Possum, Coon and Striped Coat just stored, in layers of rich fat around their body, enough nourishment to carry them through the hard months, until warm, pleasant days came. ”

“ It warmed the air and melted the top of the snow so that it would pack under the feet of the small woods creatures. The squirrels came out of their holes in the hollow oaks and rushed to the nearest places in which they remembered having hidden nuts. Crows cawed and walked along the edges of the streams where the water had melted the snow. Wherever tall weeds grew, there was great feasting. Flocks of little juncos and chickadees were picking the seeds out of the dry tops.
The sour old mink slipped out of the brush pile, gave Red Ben a last wicked look, then went bounding away. ”

“ Even the sun lost its brilliancy and could only glow dully like a red hot ball in the smoke.
The mother wood pussy walked about uneasily, looking out at the smoke from each peep hole in the brush pile. Some of the woods folk were running by in a stupid panicky way, looking this way and that, and often turning back when they should have gone only forward. Bun, the woods rabbit, actually came into the den and crouched there a moment before rushing on. Possum, his long mouth open and dripping saliva, shuffled in a moment later. ”

“ Just as the sun rose they crossed the log over Goose Creek, trotted up the old woods path and looked from the Ridge over Ben Slown’s broad fields, lying so peacefully under the morning mist. Jim Crow’s “caw—caw—caw,”—all’s well—echoed through the woods quite in the old way. White Stripe, too, was lumbering along the path just as he had when Red Ben first saw him and nearly got into trouble. Bun, the big farm rabbit, passed ahead of the old skunk, and far down the Ridge, Red Ben saw a possum cautiously shuffling along. ”

“ All of the skunk family still seem to be considered unpleasant and almost unmentionable creatures merely because of their ability to throw in self-defence a liquid, in the form of a spray, possessing anything but the fragrance of roses. Admitting that the odor is indescribably awful and that to get it on one’s clothing is anything but a reason for joy, it may still be claimed that the skunk himself is by no means a “smelly” animal and that his recourse to this means of defending his life is quite permissible as proved by our own methods of warfare. ”

“ He walked around the other, eyeing him sharply, but giving him every chance to attack if he wanted to. The gray was fooled. With a snarl he leaped at the apparently stupid red, only to be met by a blaze of teeth. The fight was over in a moment. The gray did not stop running until he had the big sand dunes between him and that red whirlwind.
Red Ben found crabs, fish, snails and clams washed up on the beach. He had never seen so much food. Some he ate, and some he carried to the dunes and buried for future use. He did not know that a new supply was washed in by every tide. ”

“ That night Striped Coat took a long trip. He wandered far below the Farmer’s field and then to the sandy hill in the pines and lastly along the bank of Goose Creek. He met Mink and Coon and old Possum, Gray Fox, Brown Weasel, Bun and the deer from Cranberry Swamp. All looked at him and then gave him the path. Yes, there were many animals, but after all this was his range and he was master of them all.
Standing once more in front of the stone pile he shook himself until his fur stood out all over him, that fur for which any dealer would give a big price. ”

“ Just as he had once watched Ben Slown from the mouth of the burrow, he now peeped between the limbs of the old tree to see the lanky black and white creature with the flapping ears come roaring up the trail.
Behind the hound came Farmer Slown’s woolly dog Shep and a white fox terrier. Their noses were not keen enough for trailing, so they encouraged the hound to do the work while they enjoyed the fun of it. Red Ben had seen them before; they usually accompanied the farmer in his walks. ”

“ Including this little creature in my wild animal series is somewhat contrary to the advice of my publishers who naturally believe in “best sellers” rather than in “best smellers,” but I have a fond hope that Striped Coat will win his way with readers to a place beside Bun, Red Ben, Gray Squirrel and those to follow. I might add that a young skunk readily becomes a very tame, unusually interesting and beautiful pet, a safe one however only if accidents are provided against by “disarming,” that is, by the removal of the two scent sacs. ”

“ Through the swamp flowed a little creek in whose deep eddies green waterweeds swung with the current, giving glimpses now and then of turtles and slender, watchful pike.
When Ben Slown first planned to come to the Pine Barrens, his friends gloomily shook their heads.
“The foxes and other varmints will drive you out,” they warned. “You won’t be able to raise a chicken. The coons and crows will eat your corn. The woodchucks will destroy your vegetables. There are critters enough in the Barrens to keep you from being lonely, but they won’t be the kind of neighbors you want.” ”

“ She liked the little fellow and rarely disappointed him. And it was he who a year later became known as “Striped Coat” from one end of Goose Creek to the other—yes, and even further, for fame travels fast in the woods.
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At five weeks of age he was like a little black ball of fur with a handle to it, which was his tail. His teeth were strong by that time and he often helped the others strip the feathers off some tough old blackbird or crow which the Farmer had shot in the field and left there, and which the mother had dragged under the brushpile for a feast. ”