HAZEL AND BUSHY-TAIL VISIT STRANGE LANDS

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OF all nice things to do one of the very nicest is to go traveling; to see what kind of things grow in faraway places and how other folks plan their cities. My, what fun Hazel Squirrel and Bushy-Tail had! All day long they explored new trees and ran along strange fences and peered into yards where children they had never seen before were playing.

Once they ran into a garden where some little girls were having a tea-party. The children called to the squirrels and held out sweet, sticky things for them to eat. They were scampering back along the wall when a thoughtless little boy, who had not been invited to the party, threw a tiny stone at Bushy-Tail. It hit right in the center of his tail.

Bushy-Tail gave a startled little cry and jumped down off the wall, Hazel following close behind. The little girls jumped up and ran, too. They wanted to do something to help if they could. But the squirrels ran up the opposite side of a maple and were soon out of sight. Bushy-Tail was not waving his tail so proudly now. It was hurting terribly. Hazel took her blue-bordered handkerchief out and wrapped it around the hurt place as best she could.

“Oh, Bushy-Tail,” she sobbed, “how I wish my mother were here. She would know just what to do for you,” and great tears began to roll down her cheeks.

It made Bushy-Tail feel so badly to see his little playmate unhappy that for the minute he forgot all about his sore tail. He put his arms around her soft neck and wiped the tears away with his little red-bordered handkerchief.

“Perhaps we had better go home,” he whispered in her ear. You see, he had forgotten about his dream-tree now. So they scrambled down the tree trunk again and then it suddenly dawned on them that they had no idea where they were or in which direction the park lay.

They asked a sparrow, but she did not deign to answer them. They asked a robin, but she was hurrying home with a worm in her mouth and could only mumble something which sounded like “yeast.” They asked a pussy-cat and she said if they would come home with her first she would look it up in a book she had there. But Hazel did not want to go. “For,” she whispered to Bushy-Tail, “she has eyes like a witch.”

So they ran on a little farther until they came to a hat lying upside down on the ground. It was warm and soft inside and Hazel thought it would be a good place for a little rest. She was beginning to feel very tired. Bushy-Tail had lost the handkerchief off his tail, too, and it was hurting again. So the two little squirrels rolled themselves up into two dear, little balls and Hazel spread her lovely tail over them to keep the wind off, and before you could say “Jack Robinson” they were both sound asleep.

When Mr. Smith came back after his hat you can imagine how surprised he was to find it had a new fur lining. “How I wish Alice could see them,” he thought. Then, very carefully, so as not to frighten them, he spread his coat over them and started for home with a queer shaped bundle in his arms.

“Guess what I have,” he cried as his little girl ran to the door to meet him.

“Ice cream,” she screamed.

“Guess again!”

“Kittens.”

“You’re warmer,” he said, “but not right yet.”

Then, as he carefully lifted up his coat, “baby squirrel,” she cried, and clapped her hands and jumped up and down for joy.

Of course the ride had awakened the squirrels. They were still more frightened to be in this strange house with strange people standing around looking at them. They huddled very close together inside the hat and would not eat the nuts Alice brought them. Have you ever been so scared you could not eat?

“Don’t you think they would be more comfortable in a regular bed?” Alice asked her father and he agreed heartily.

So she ran and got her doll’s cradle and tucked them in carefully between the white sheets and rocked them just a little, so they would think they were in the branches of a tree and feel more at home. Alice’s mother had to remind her several times it was her bed-time, too, she did so hate to leave her dear little play-fellows.

By and by Mother Moon looked in at the window. Quick as a flash both squirrels jumped out of the cradle and ran to ask her the shortest way home. They found the window just a little open. You can imagine they did not stop to say good-bye to Alice or think to thank her for the supper they had not eaten.

Outside everything looked very strange and unreal. They had never been out alone at night before. Do you know why everything looks so different at night, even though it is most as light as day? It is because the shadows the moon makes are blacker and each one seems to hide something alive.

SHE ROCKED THEM IN HER DOLL’S CRADLE
SHE ROCKED THEM IN HER DOLL’S CRADLE
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Hazel and Bushy-Tail ran as fast as their little legs could carry them. They were too scared to even ask Mrs. Moon the shortest way home. Presently it began to rain and Mrs. Moon went inside to get out of the wet. Two little streams of tears began to roll down Hazel’s cheeks. If you have never been home-sick, you have no way of knowing how unhappy these poor, little, lost squirrels were. It is a much worse pain than cutting one’s finger. Something hurt Bushy-Tail inside so much he wanted to cry, too. But he had to be brave and try and comfort little Hazel. Besides, they had only one handkerchief now. You remember Hazel had tied hers around his sore tail and he had lost it.

Presently they came to the edge of a woods. But Hazel would not venture in. She was afraid some robin would think they were the “babes in the woods” and cover them with leaves. “Such queer things are happening to us now,” she said.

Mr. Bat was passing by and he saw them huddled together between the rails of a fence. Thinking they were the lost children of his neighbor, Mrs. Squirrel, he hurried off to tell her.

MR. BAT SAW THEM HUDDLED TOGETHER
MR. BAT SAW THEM HUDDLED TOGETHER
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Now, only the week before two of this poor lady’s little ones had got caught in a trap. She had scolded, coaxed and begged the farmer’s boys not to carry them off, but they had paid no attention to her. And when Mr. Bat told her what he had seen she jumped right out of bed and ran down the tree without stopping to take an umbrella or put on her rubbers even.

Of course she was disappointed when she saw only Hazel and Bushy-Tail!

“They are city squirrels,” she told Mr. Bat. “We have only red ones here in the woods. I can’t imagine how these little squirrels got so far from home alone.”

“How worried their mothers must be,” she thought to herself and that settled it. She took them by the shoulders and shook them very gently and when they opened their eyes and saw the fire-fly and Mr. Bat and Mrs. Red Squirrel, for just a moment they thought they were dreaming.

But when Mrs. Red Squirrel questioned them, all she could make out between their sobs was that they were lost and wanted to go home.

“You poor, dear little things,” she said, hugging them in her soft arms, “come home with me to-night and we will help you find your mothers in the morning.”

I can tell you it seemed good to the little runaways to be among kind friends again, and when Mrs. Squirrel saw four little squirrels all curled up together in her house, she was most as happy as if they had been four red ones, instead of two red and two gray.

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