Myrtle Reed

“ I slept the sleep of utter exhaustion that night—with Jim’s feet on my cheek. As the weeks went by, I got used to it, though it was never pleasant. We can get used to almost anything, if we have to.
I tried to find consolation in Jim’s cunning tricks, of which he had a great many. A Crow is about the most intelligent wild beast I have ever come across, and, after study, becomes fascinating. It added a pleasantly human element to my solitude in the wilderness, for Jim was as unexpected, as unreasonable, and as incomprehensible as a woman. ”

“ Having been shipped out of town until September first, to save my life, I did not intend to sacrifice it by returning on August thirty-first. “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,”—a trite copy-book maxim, that, but none the less a true one.
The English language, vast as it is, can convey no adequate idea of my longing for civilisation. The rush and roar of city life, the loud-voiced clangour of commerce, and the fine, inspiring click of my telegraph instrument would have been music to me. ”

“ It grieves me to the heart to write of the end of Jim, that brave, gay, mischievous Bird, who shared my bed and board for a Summer, and then met the universal fate of the wild. The end of a wild animal is always a tragedy and the only way to avoid writing tragedy is either to stop long before you get through, or not to begin. I cannot stop before I get through, on account of a habit I contracted when I was writing for the magazines at a cent a word, and, moreover, I need the royalty on this book. A big book can be sold for more than a little one, every time. ”

“ Whether it was to spite me or not, I shall never know, but I record the painful fact that Jim never learned any English except my last name. Whenever I did anything that displeased him, he would shriek out “SITDOWN!” in a loud, compelling tone that I invariably and instinctively obeyed. Then, with a merry laugh, he would flutter off over the trees to tell his friends about it.
When a Crow sings, it reminds you of a cornet half full of molasses. They only sing when they are courting, which is extremely fortunate. If I were a lady Crow, wooed with song, I should take vows of eternal celibacy. ”

“ It fell to my lot this Summer to hear a Squirrel singing a duet with itself. It sounds as though the voice were split, the high part coming through the nose, and the low tones through the throat. It is always a lively tune, perfectly rhythmical, interspersed with gales and gusts and cyclones of very human laughter. It is not generally known that Squirrels sing, but Little Brothers of the Woods can find out a great deal if they only give their minds to it and buy plenty of books.
At length, I missed Kitchi-Kitchi, and my heart grew sick with foreboding. ”

“ Could a human being, without the power of speech, have done more?
Among themselves, the talk of the Rabbits was astonishingly easy and informal. After I learned their language, by watching Jenny, Chee-Wee, and the friends who used to call upon them, I heard, or rather saw, many amusing things. All unconscious of my familiarity with their speech, they used to discuss me in my own presence.
Once, after a long and prolonged wig-wagging on the part of an old, grey-whiskered Rabbit, I made out this: “Say, Jenny, what earthly good is that blamed hermit to you? ”

“ Sniffing hungrily, she came out, and I heard the frenzied clankings of Jocko’s chain. “Come, Hoop-La,” I said, though my voice trembled. She called her children, and in a moment they were all eating greedily.
As I had planned, poor, imprisoned Jocko came out to the end of his chain. It did not permit him to go farther than a foot from the entrance, but that was sufficient for my purpose. Quick as a flash, I unfastened the chain from his collar, took the thoroughly frightened animal in my arms, and ran for dear life to the Horse. ”

“ I was never more forcibly convinced of the truth of the saying that “What is one man’s meat is another man’s poison,” than I was that afternoon. Personally, I never felt better in my life. A warm glow of brotherly love pervaded my entire system, and there was enough spaghetti left for my luncheon the following day, if I could summon up sufficient self-denial to keep it that long.
But in less than an hour, Jenny and Chee-Wee were both very sick. Chee-Wee lay on the ground at the foot of a pine tree, and his mother, pitiable though her condition was, hobbled off to the marsh for some medicine. ”

“ Never have I seen the sweet influence of woman more beautifully exemplified. When she was with them, Bismarck and Meeko treated one another like long-lost brothers. The 99three took many a promenade together, arm in arm, Kitchi-Kitchi folding her tail over the hollow of her elbow as though it were a train. When she went away for her afternoon nap, or to gather some choice morsels for her evening meal, they invariably fought. ”

“ One Rabbit, who seemed to be the clown of the party, would dash around the clearing like the ponies at the circus, now and then taking a high jump, or two or three ungraceful hops in imitation of a Bear trying to dance. It was very amusing.
Round and round they went, their mobile noses whizzing like an automobile as they passed. It was like nothing so much as fireworks of brown and white fur. ”

“ Sometimes on moonlight nights, when the earth is exquisitely still, I fancy I see the Rabbits dancing in the clearing, and when a faint, far-off melody comes to my listening ears, so delicate that it might be fairies touching cobweb strings, I think perhaps it may be Chee-Wee or Jenny Ragtail, playing on my lost concertina. ”

“ Perhaps the other Squirrels have learned this from him; perhaps they learned it independently, but it is certain that a Squirrel can fall from almost any height without apparent inconvenience. They flatten their bodies and tails against the air and sail triumphantly downward, alighting easily and scampering off unhurt.
I did not know this before, but now I saw it done repeatedly. It was one of Kitchi-Kitchi’s favourite amusements to send Meeko and Bismarck to the topmost branch of a lofty oak near by, and at her signal make them jump. ”

“ In the remainder of this scientific treatise, though I may translate freely and frequently from Rabbit into English, I shall say nothing that the Rabbits did not say. Accuracy has always been a strong point with me—in fact, I am rabid upon it.
Jenny Ragtail was a large, well-shaped brown Rabbit. Her body tapered slightly in at the waist line, and this led me to surmise that in the privacy of her chamber she wore some sort of a corset. Her finale was a gloriously beautiful tuft of white Rabbit fur, which led Chee-Wee in and out of the mazes of the forest trails like a friendly beacon. ”

“ An Owl moves so silently that you can never see him come. Where other Birds have feathers he has hair, and this makes no noise when he moves. You can hear the rustle of a Duck’s wings, the flutter of a Sparrow or a Lark, and the wind fairly screams through the Eagle’s pinions when you spend a dollar, but the breeze makes no more noise blowing through an Owl’s wings than it does in passing over your own head. ”

“ The Chipmunk will hide much and all in one storehouse; the Squirrel hides very little and everything in a different place—an ear of corn in the crotch of a tree, a handful of acorns under the eaves of a barn, bits of bread between two twigs, relying on the spring of the wood to keep it in position, and nuts everywhere.
I saw a terrible quarrel once, between Bismarck and a Blue Jay who raided his bakery. When it was over, Bismarck had four pecks on his body and one peck of feathers for his nest. ”

“ Children are born so fast in Rabbit families that there is never an opportunity for any one set of children to learn more than the merest rudiments of education, and this school of Jenny’s was like a University Extension Centre in an Esquimaux village. My cabin became a general meeting place for the Rabbits of the neighbourhood, and at length they got to be rather of a nuisance. Uncle Antonio had taken my only pillow with him for Jocko to sleep on—dear Uncle was always so considerate of animals!—and I was forced to make a pair of overalls do duty instead. ”

“ In about an hour, they returned, Jenny with the trouser legs in her mouth and Chee-Wee bringing up the rear. I should never have known them for mine, had not the autograph of the laundry marker been travelling with the band. They were torn, and had as many small holes in them as a fly screen. I was angry and was about to wage a war of extermination on the entire Rabbit tribe, but Jenny pleaded with me so effectively that I refrained. A Rabbit is very cunning when he sits up on his hind legs, with his paws folded, and looks at you eagerly with his bright eyes. ”

“ The leg seemed as good as ever, though a little stiff, but I could never get Jim to jump over the string again. He seemed afraid of it and shared the same fear regarding anything white. Waving my handkerchief at him would frequently drive him away from me for hours together, and thus I gained time to write, and to put down in my observation ledger priceless records, made on the spot, of the great and glorious panorama of wild life which was passing under my gifted eyes. ”

“ When Ab appeared at dinner time, Jagg took no apparent notice of him. The kettle was singing cheerily and the delicious scent of the frying bacon was abroad in the landscape. “Ab,” I called, “get some more sticks and put them on the fire.”
He bent over the cheerful flame and replenished the blaze with an armful of chips which he had found in the woods. Jagg was not a part of the domestic scene and I did not know where he was, but I heard a loud imprecation, saw Ab careening madly in midair, and fancied that I saw a glimmer of white just over the shrubbery. ”

“ I have seen Meeko pounce on a wayfaring Bird hundreds of times, but curiosity has always been the motive. They will not eat Bird unless it is properly cooked. I know, for I have tried them with bits of a raw Crow, that had died from natural causes. The fact that Birds are not afraid of Squirrels triumphantly proves my theory, in spite of the fact that the eggs are occasionally taken out of the nest. Whenever a Squirrel has visited a Bird’s nest, after the young were hatched, curiosity and friendly interest in the welfare of the young have been the sole reasons in every case. ”

“ These garments are really a luxury, being made of canvasback Duck.
“Coquetting like lovers on a moonlight night.”
In the Winter, the Owls nearly starve, and get so thin that they cannot fly. Their big wings overbalance them, like a craft carrying too much sail, and the wind carries them in every direction. In the Winter, if the wind is right, you can stand on the beach any day and more Owls than you can ever hope to study will blow almost into your arms. ”

“ It was Hoot-Mon, the great Owl, who put an end to Jim. Between the Owls and the Crows there is lifelong enmity. An Owl will attack a Crow at night and a Crow will attack an Owl in the daytime. I knew Hoot-Mon, of course—every Little Brother of the Woods knows Hoot-Mon,—but an article on him had not as yet been ordered, and so I made no special study of him. ”

“ My Summer in the wilderness had so sharpened my naturally acute senses, that I instantly perceived my friend’s wish to be alone, and accordingly, with rare tact, I bowed myself out. How I pitied the man who could not be a hermit except between patients! Nevertheless, one must have patience before one can be a hermit. ”