Hazel Squirrel

Squirrel and Other Stories, by
Howard B. Famous

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Title: Hazel Squirrel and Other Stories
Author: Howard B. Famous
Release Date: July 16, 2007 [EBook #22087]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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SQUIRREL AND OTHER STORIES ***

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[Illustration]

FAMOUS ANIMAL STORIES
Hazel Squirrel AND OTHER STORIES
By Howard B. Famous
FULLY ILLUSTRATED
WHITMAN PUBLISHING CO. RACINE, WISCONSIN
COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY WHITMAN PUBLISHING CO. RACINE,
WIS. Printed in United States of America

CONTENTS
Page
IN SQUIRREL TOWN 7
HAZEL AND BUSHY-TAIL VISIT SOME STRANGE LANDS 15
MRS. SCREECH OWL 26
THE RACCOON AND THE BEES 41
PINKIE WHISKERS 67

ILLUSTRATIONS
LITTLE HAZEL WAS PLAYING FAR OUT ON A LEAFY
BRANCH (Frontispiece)
Page
"I'LL BE DOWN IN A JIFFY" 9

HE HELD OUT SOME NUTS TO THEM 13
SHE ROCKED THEM IN HER DOLL'S CRADLE 21
MR. BAT SAW THEM HUDDLED TOGETHER 23
MOTHER SQUIRREL ENTERTAINS HER VISITORS 27
THE SQUIRRELS GO ON A PICNIC 32
FEASTING ON HAZEL NUTS 36
THE RACCOON WATCHES THE BOYS 40
"YUM, YUM, BUT IT IS FINE" 48
"OH, COONIE, TELL ME WHERE IT IS" 51
CHUCK ARRIVED AT THE BIG OAK TREE 55
HE GRABBED UP A BIG STICK 59

HAZEL SQUIRREL
IN SQUIRREL TOWN
"Come, little sleepy-eyes, it's time to get up," said Mrs. Squirrel, one
morning. But little Bushy-Tail was having such a nice dream about a
wonderful tree where all kinds of nuts grew side by side on the same
branch that he did not answer. Only his eyelids quivered ever so little,
so his mother knew he was pretending.
"Come, come!" she repeated. "Little Hazel Squirrel is up and playing
outside."
In a twinkling he had jumped out of bed and pressed his furry little
nose against the window pane. Little Hazel was playing far out on a
leafy branch with one eye on Bushy-Tail's house, nestled in a forked

limb close to the trunk. She waved her lovely gray tail when she saw
him and began chattering very fast.
"Wait a minute," Bushy-Tail called back, "I'll be down in a jiffy."
And he was in such a hurry that he tied his tie on sideways and brushed
his furry tail the wrong way, which made him look very funny. He even
forgot to take a bite of the nice breakfast his mother had left on the
table for him. Right through the window he bounded, instead of
walking through the door as he had been taught to do, and landed close
beside Hazel, far out on the leafy bough.
"Oh, Hazel," he cried, "I've had the loveliest dream!"
"You old sleepy-head," she answered, "you lay abed dreaming when
you might be out playing in the fresh air."
[Illustration: "I'LL BE DOWN IN A JIFFY"]
"Hazel," Bushy-Tail began, teetering up and down on the branch in his
excitement, "I'm sick of peanuts, aren't you?"
"No," she answered, "I love them. Mother says they make my coat
thick and sleek."
They were city squirrels, you know, who lived in a park and had their
daily supply of peanuts left at their door by the park-keeper.
"No, I am not sick of peanuts," she continued. "But what has that to do
with your dream?"
"Everything," he went on. "Oh, Hazel, I dreamed of a most wonderful
tree where all kinds of nuts--hickory, walnuts, chestnuts and
hazel-nuts--grew side by side on the same branch. We must hurry and
get there before they are all gone," and he jumped up so quickly that
Hazel went spinning round and round the branch she was holding on to
with her sharp little claws.
Now, Hazel was a good little squirrel who always talked things over

with her mother, so as they were hurrying away across the park she
suddenly stopped. "I forgot to tell mother where I was going," she said.
Her play-fellow grabbed her by the tail. "It's to be a surprise," he
whispered. "We will make little baskets of dry twigs and carry home
enough for everybody." This sounded fine.
The pink in the sky was by now beginning to fade. Presently Mr. Sun
poked his head over the hilltops far away. He saw the runaway children
and he thought to give them a scare that would send them home. So he
bounded out from behind a cloud and sent a long, dark shadow