Among the Night People | Page 9

he could spread especially wide. He balanced himself on the edge
of the hole and held them spread out before him. It was still dark
enough for him to see well. "Come here, Little Brother," he cried.
"Wake up, and see how big my feet are getting."
Mother Raccoon growled at them to be good children and go to sleep,
but her voice sounded dreamy and far away because she had to talk
through part of her own fur and most of her daughters'.
KNOCKED HIS BROTHER DOWN.
Little Brother lost his patience, unrolled himself with a spring, jumped
to the opening, and knocked his brother down. It was dreadful. Of
course Big Brother was not much hurt, for he was very fat and his fur
was both long and thick, but he turned over and over on his way to the
ground before he alighted on his feet. He turned so fast and Little
Brother's eyes hurt him so that it looked as though Big Brother had
about three heads, three tails, and twelve feet. He called out as he fell,
and that awakened the sisters, who began to cry, and Mother Raccoon,
who was so scared that she began to scold.
Such a time! Mother Raccoon found out what had happened, and then
she said, to Little Brother, "Did you mean to push him down?"
"No, ma'am," answered Little Brother, hanging his head. "Anyhow I
didn't mean to after I saw him going. Perhaps I did mean to before
that." You see he was a truthful Raccoon even when he was most
naughty, and there is always hope for a Raccoon who will tell the truth,
no matter how hard it is to do so.
Big Brother climbed slowly up the trunk of the oak-tree, while more
and more of the daytime people came to look at him. He could not see
well now, and so was very awkward. When he reached the hole he was

hot and cross, and complained to his mother. "Make him quit teasing
me," he said, pointing one forepaw at Little Brother.
"I will," answered Mother Raccoon; "but you were just as much to
blame as he, for if you had cuddled down quietly when I told you to,
you would have been dreaming long ago. Now you must sleep where I
was, at the lower end of the hole. Little Brother must go next, and I do
not want to hear one word from either of you. Sisters next, and I will
sleep by the opening. You children must remember that it is no time for
talking to each other, or looking at claws, or getting sand-burrs out of
your tails after you have been sent to bed. Go to sleep, and don't
awaken until the sun has gone down and you are ready to be my good
little Raccoons again."
Her children were asleep long before she was, and she talked softly to
herself after they were dreaming. "They do not mean to be naughty,"
she said. "Yet it makes my fur stand on end to think what might have
happened.Ê.Ê.Ê. I ought not to have curled up for the day until they
had done so.Ê.Ê.Ê. Mothers should always be at the top of the heap."
Then she fixed herself for a long, restful day's sleep.
THE TIMID LITTLE GROUND HOG
IT was not often that the little Ground Hogs were left alone in the
daytime. Before they were born their mother had been heard to say that
she had her opinion of any Ground Hog who would be seen out after
sunrise. Mr. Ground Hog felt in the same way, and said if he ever got to
running around by daylight, like some of his relatives, people might
call him a Woodchuck. He thought that any one who ate twigs, beets,
turnips, young tree-bark, and other green things from sunset to sunrise
ought to be able to get along until the next sunset without a lunch. He
said that any Ground Hog who wanted more was a Pig.
After the baby Ground Hogs were born, matters were different. They
could not go out at night to feed for themselves, and their stomachs
were so tiny and held so little at a time that they had to be filled very
often. Mr. Ground Hog was never at home now, and the care all fell
upon his hard-working wife.

"You know, my dear," he had said, "that I should only be in the way if I
were to stay at home, for I am not clever and patient with children as
you are. No, I think I will go away and see to some matters which I
have rather neglected of late. When the children are grown up and you
have more time to