Among the Night People | Page 8

Little Sister had not lost her hold upon
the oak-tree bark and fallen with her forepaws on a scarlet
jack-in-the-pulpit berry.
They had to learn to climb quickly and strongly up all sorts of trees.
Perhaps Mrs. Raccoon had chosen an oak for her nest because that was
rough and easily climbed. There were many good places for Raccoons
to grip with their twenty strong claws apiece. After they had learned
oaks they took maples, ironwoods, and beechesÑeach a harder lesson
than the one before.
"When you climb a tree," said their mother, "always look over the trunk
and the largest branches for hiding-places, whether you want to use one
then or not."
"Why?" asked three of the four children. Big Brother, who was rather
vain, was looking at the five beautiful black rings and the beautiful
black tip of his wonderful bushy tail. Between the black rings were
whitish ones, and he thought such things much more interesting than
holes in trees.
"Because," said the Mother Raccoon, "you may be far from home some
night and want a safe place to sleep in all day. Or if a man and his Dogs
are chasing you, you must climb into the first hiding-place you can. We
Raccoons are too fat and slow to run away from them, and the rings on
our tails and the black patches on our broad faces might show from the
ground. If the hole is a small one, make it cover your head and your tail
anyway, and as much of your brown body fur as you can."
Mother Raccoon looked sternly at Big Brother because he had not been
listening, and he gave a slight jump and asked, "W-what did you say?"
"What did I say?" she replied. "You should have paid better attention."
"Yes 'm," said Big Brother, who was now very meek.

"I shall not repeat it," said his mother, "but I will tell you not to grow
vain of your fur. It is very handsome, and so is that of your sisters and
your brother. So is mine, and so was your father's the last time I saw
him. Yet nearly all the trouble that Raccoons have is on account of their
fur. Never try to show it off."
The time came for the young Raccoons to stop drinking milk from their
mother's body, and when they tried to do so she only walked away from
them.
"I cannot work so hard to care for you," said she. "I am so tired and thin,
now, that my skin is loose, and you must find your own food. You are
getting forty fine teeth apiece, and I never saw a better lot of claws on
any Raccoon family, if I do say it."
They used to go hunting together, for it is the custom for Raccoons to
go in parties of from five to eight, hunt all night, and then hide
somewhere until the next night. They did not always come home at
sunrise, and it made a pleasant change to sleep in different trees. One
day they all cuddled down in the hollow of an old maple, just below
where the branches come out. Mother Raccoon had climbed the tree
first and was curled away in the very bottom of the hole. The four
children were not tired and hadn't wanted to go to bed at all. Little
Sister had made a dreadful face when her mother called her up the tree,
and if it had not already been growing light, Mrs. Raccoon would
probably have seen it and punished her.
Big Sister curled down beside her mother and Little Sister was rather
above them and beside mischievous Little Brother. Last of all came Big
Brother, who had stopped to scratch his ear with his hind foot. He was
very proud of his little round ears, and often scratched them in this way
to make sure that the fur lay straight on them. He was so slow in
reaching the hole that before he got into it a Robin had begun his morn-
ing song of "Cheerily, cheerily, cheer-up!" and a Chipmunk perched on
a stump to make his morning toilet.
He got all settled, and Little Brother was half asleep beside him, when
he remembered his tail and sat up to have one more look at it. Little

Brother growled sleepily and told him to "let his old tail alone and
come to bed, as long as they couldn't hunt any more." But Big Brother
thought he saw a sand-burr on his tail, and wanted to pull it out before
it hurt the fur. Then he began to look at the bare, tough pads on his feet,
and to notice how finely he could spread his toes. Those of his front
feet