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Jay Bird Who Went Tame-John Breck · Black Beauty

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Chapter one of The Jaybird Who Went Tam. This is
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: a Librey box recording. A livery box recordings are in
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: visit livery box dot org. The Jaybird Who Went Tam
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: by Jan Breck, Check and Tad make themselves at home.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Probably you're all wondering what happened to Check, Jy and
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Tad Kuhn when the big rain began to fall. Check
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: had heard his wing. He'd have had a bad time
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: with it if he'd tried to stay in the pickery
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: thorn bush in the quail's thicket down by doctor Muskrat's pond.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Tad Kuhn knew a thing or two when he advised
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the bird to let Louis Thompson cutch him well. When
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Louis burst into his mother's kitchen with Jake holding on
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: tight to his fat, warm finger, he was most bursting
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: with pride. You know just how you'd feel if you
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: were Louie. Jake felt just a little flattery, but he
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: knew he was safe so long as the little boy
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: held him. He waved his well winged and put up
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: his crest, but he never let go his hold on
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: the funniest perch he'd ever sat on. Of course, louis
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: mother forgot all about the supper she was cooking. Oh
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: wherever did you catch him? She asked? Isn't he a
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: pretty thing? I never knew they had purple on the necks,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: just like grapes hunging in the sun. How do you
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: suppose he keeps all that white in his wings so clean?
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: He takes a bath every morning, said Louis. I've seen him.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: Tad was out in the woodshed by the pussy cat's dish,
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: snubbing his shiny black nose against the screen. He was
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: sniffing the hat Johnnie cake. He could smell baking in
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: the oven, you know, Louis promised him some with syrup
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: on it too. Pretty soon Jake had his beak pointed
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: at the stove. He knew what Johnny cake was because
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: he'd had a taste of the peace Louis brought to
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: the pond. He was most as interested as Tad coun
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: Then louis Mother smelted heavens. She exclaimed, I clean forgot
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: my oven. She opened the door and took the Johnny
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: Cake out, hot and steaming. Louie took a nice crusty
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: corner right away quick. Of course, Jake thought that this
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was the signal for him, so he picked up a
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: crumb and his eyes fairly popped because he wasn't used
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: to eating hot things. Then didn't she laugh? The smart thing,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: said she, he's just like folks. But your pal'll be
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: here in a minute, and he won't think these kitchens
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: any place for birds if I know him. Quick, Louie
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: put him down cellar in the cage so the cats
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: can't get at him. Here's enough for him and the coon.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Down cellar they went, but Louie was careful to leave
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: the door open so Tad could run down and see him.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: And Jake didn't mind the cage so very much. In fact,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: he was as comfortable as though he'd been at home.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: More comfortable maybe because it was pretty scary sleeping in
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: the woods with Killer the Whistle sniffing about to find
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: his hiding holes. Anyway, he was too full and too
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: sleepy to think about it. But Tad coun wasn't sleepy
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: a bit. He licked the last crumb of Johnny cake
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: and the last drop of syrup Lewis had put on
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: it out of his whiskers and was just cleaning the
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: stickness off his little handy paws when he heard something
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: that pricked his ears straight up. Huh, that's a funny
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: noise in the henhouse, he said to himself. It isn't Lewis,
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: and it isn't his father. I believe I'll take a look.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: So off he marched, stepping most carefully in the hard
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: middle of the path where the man walked, so he
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: wouldn't make his tracks plain for anyone to follow. He
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: thought about it. Because the evening was so dark he
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: couldn't see very far ahead of him, but he could
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: smell plain as plain. It was so fresh and cool.
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: All his own fur wanted to paugh out, but he
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: wouldn't let it. He didn't want anybody to get a
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: smell of him. Sniff, sniff, sniff. What's in that wood
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: pile over? He jumped so softly he didn't make even
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the screech of a claw. Then, Hey, if this happened
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: and to our quailed folk out by the pond, there
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: would be a fine goings on, for it was the
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: remains of a chicken. He cranked his neck to see
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: who had put it there, but he couldn't notice anything.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But the feather smell. That bird wasn't killed tonight, thought he.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: That was last night's work. It wasn't any owl, It
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: wasn't a cat. They're horrid, speedy creatures, but they don't steal. Hissed,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I'll know who it was in about two wisks of
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: a mouse tail. He's doing it again, pitt. He tiptoed
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: over to the henhouse. All the birds were shrieking and
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: cockler help murder thieves. The ones on the far up
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: back perchase were squawking, spur him, pack him, but the
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: ones who were down in front were only fluttering hard
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: to keep high off the floor on their clumsy wings.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: Tad squinted through a crack He could just make out
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: a limp white heap of feathers being dragged. He couldn't
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: see who was doing the dragon, but sniff. He went
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: galloping around and around the house winning. Where did he
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: get in? Oh? Wherever did he get in? For that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: thief was the biggest, oldest, greyest rat he'd ever seen,
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: and the wisest show. He'd hunted right under the noses
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: of Lewis cats for so long. He had a whole
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: lot more tricks than Tad had hairs in his whiskers,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: but Tad played a brand new one on him. Suddenly
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: he stepped right still. What a cab I am, he
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: sneakered to himself, old sharp tooth. We'll take that bird
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: right back to the wood pile where he ate the
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: other one. That's the place for me to wait for him.
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: In about three jumps, he was on tap of it
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: with his ears cocked, listening for the right to come.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: He was listening so hard he didn't pay any attention
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: when the kitchen door slammed. Louis father was going to
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: take a last look at his barns to make sure
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the big rain that was coming wouldn't do any harm
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to them, and Louis was with him to carry the lantern.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: He swung it as he walked, and the light set
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: all the shadows dancing. Tad Kuhn didn't pay any attention
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: to Tad either. He learned all about it down by
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: doctor Muskrat's pond. But the rat did pit, pat, pit
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: pat swish. Tad could hear him coming, dragging his chicken
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: in one lantern swing. His eyes lit up like the
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: headlights of a little automobile, and he saw Tad's ears
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: pointed right toward him. He dropped his bird and jumped
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: at the very same breath as Tad Kuhn. In the
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: next swing. Louis Thompson's father saw the white feathers lying
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: on the ground, and he saw the fluffy tail and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: frilly four petulance of Tad Kuhn diving down a big
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: crown crack for a drain. He was just going to
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: dig here, he roared, that's who's been. He was going
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: to finish killing our chickens, and he was going to
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: lay it to Tad coun But he didn't have time.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: The cracks were laid out across the yard ready to
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: put in. The first three were so close together even
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: right couldn't squeeze out between them. Louis' father cocked up
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: a shovel and slapped it over the open end of
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: the third one week week snarl, snap, scaffle, scratch, weee
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: WoT a thumping and bumping was inside that crack. Then
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: it was quiet. He moved his shovel to peek in.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: He looked into the smiley face of Tad Kuhn, but
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Tad's smile had right hunging down from either side where well,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I swan, exclaimed Louis Thompson's father. He said some more
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: things like that. The words didn't make much sense because
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: he didn't know exactly what he did mean. But you
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: ought to have heard Louis Thompson. Hooray, he squealed, hooray
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: for my coon. That's the rat with saw stealing an
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: egg out from under the hand who said in the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: grain room last spring. It's the very same one. You said.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: He was too smart for the cats and they'd never
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: cut him. But my coon got him. He sure did.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: That's some coon, said his father at last, sa coon.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: But how do you know he doesn't kill chickens too,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: because he's friends with all the birds down by the pond.
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Louis insisted, I've seen him it a single one, not
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: even my jay with the hurt wing. I'm pretty sure
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: he could have caught him just as easy as I did.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: You're jay, said his father. Where do you keep him?
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: He thought he knew everything there was on the farm
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: down Cellar, said Lewis. He was just a little scared
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: that maybe his father would be angry if take made
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: the noise, because he had got so angry when tad
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: coon did he'll be quiet, I know he will, but
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: I couldn't bear to leave him out in the rain.
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: The minute it steps, I'll let him go again, truly
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: I will hum first think I know I'll have a
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: menagerie instead of a farm, was all the man answered
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: to Dad. Give me the lantern. I'll turn to locking
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: up the barns so the doors won't blow off their hinges.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: You take a couple of blacks from that wood pile
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: and fix the cellar door so your cound isn't locked out.
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: I guess it won't rain in, and put some corn
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: down there. The mice are very bad again. He is
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: a mighty good beast to have around, that is, if
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: I don't cut him after my chickens. But Louis was
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: gone to fix a fine place for Tad to hide
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: from the storm. End of chapter one, chapter two of
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: The Jaybird Who Went Tame by John Bregg. This Libri
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: box recording is in the public domain. An evening party
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: at the Thompson's house. Bang smash, crash, splash. The thunder roared,
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: and the lightning went scuttling and dodging across the sky,
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: as though it wanted a place of its own to
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: hide and couldn't find one. Check. Jay woke up in
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: the black dark and looked around for a minute. He
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: couldn't think where he was. He could hear the wind howling,
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: but the stick he perched on didn't move in it,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: and his feathers didn't ruffle. He could hear the rain pounding,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: and not a single drop fell on him. He was
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: perfectly comfortable. Only he felt just a little scared and lonely,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: though he was still too sleep to think why. Pretty
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: soon he heard a whistle. Then he knew just where
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: he was. That was Louie whistling to let Tad Coon
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: know he had left some corn by the cellar door
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: for him. I tell you, Jake was glad to know
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Louie was right there, almost beside him. He began to
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: call and flutter his wings. There there, j Bird, said
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: the little boy in his very nicest voice. I won't
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: forget you. Are you ready to eat again? He rattled
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: some seeds on the floor of Jake's cake, but Jake
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: went on flattering. It wasn't food he wanted, it was
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: company if he couldn't have Tad Coon. Tad was still
• 15:57
  Speaker 1: eating the rat. Then Louis nice, warm, finger was the
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: next best thing. Louie didn't particularly like staying down there
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: in the dark. It was nicer in the bright, warm kitchen. Besides,
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: now he's told his father about Chake. J he thought
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: maybe he'd like to see the handsome bird. Maybe he'd
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: make friends like he did with Tad Kuhn. In about
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: one minute, Jake was blinking in the light of the
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: kitchen lamp. It was really very much like the lantern
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Louie had for his fist down by Doctor Muskrat's pond,
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: only there weren't nearly so many beetles flying around it.
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: That was because the screen kept them out. But Jake
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: didn't know about screens. He had too Louis's finger to
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: catch that first beetle. I guess you couldn't see to
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: eat down there in the dark, apologized the thoughtful boy.
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: So he sprinkled some food on the table land or love.
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: What's that bird doing now? Jake looked up, but it
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: was just Louise's mother talking, and he didn't mind her
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: a bit. He went right on doing it. He wasn't
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: swallowing his corn hule. He was neatly turning back its
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: shiny jacket and picking the little sweetheart out of each kernel.
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: I tell you, he was making a fine mess of
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: that table. But who cared, Not Louis or his mother.
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: They thought he was too smart for anything. Pick peck pick.
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: Every once in a while he would give a shake
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: off his head and scatter his little pile of grain
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: so he could see the ones he hadn't peecked over yet.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: Louis and his mother were just giggling over his antics,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: but he didn't care. Puff. The kitchen door opened and
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: let in a great gust of wind. It cocked Jake
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: from behind. It spread out his tail like a turkey
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: feather fan and sent him scathing and sliding because the
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: table was covered with slippery oil clothes and his clothes
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: wouldn't catch. But the door closed right away and the
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: wind was shut out again. Louis's father had just come in.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: Chake wasn't scared. He was cross. He thought they'd played
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: a joke on him. He balanced himself on his feet,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and then he gave a big shake to settle his feathers.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: He looked around very severely. As much as you say,
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: don't you dare do that again? I won't stand it.
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: Then he marched into a little shady corner on the
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: window sill behind the curtain, and salked. He salked, that's
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: exactly what he was doing, But nobody paid any attention
• 19:33
  Speaker 1: to him at all, which is the right way to
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: treat anyone who does such a foolish thing. Louis father
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: sat down and opened up the evening paper. It made
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: a fine crackling. Louis mother steired up some east it
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: smelt like mushrooms, into the bread she was going to
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: bake next morning. Then she began flowering the raisins she
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: was going to put in it. Jake began to get
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: so interested in what was going on he forgot he
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: was sulkying. First he picked out from behind the curtain.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Then he clawed his way sidewise across the plate where
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: the raisins were. Pretty soon he made a dive with
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: his sharp beak. He did it so quickly she didn't
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: see what he was up to. Fine. Jake liked that raisin,
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: but he didn't like it quite so dusty. He picked
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: up another one, but he didn't gulp it in such
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: a hurry he bounced it on the table to shake
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the flower of it again. Louis started to laugh, whispered
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: his mother. Let's see what he's going to do next,
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: And what do you think that was? He began stirring
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: them away in his dark corner so he'd have some
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: left for breakfast in the morning. He tugged a whole
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: row of them into the crack of the window so
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: neatly you could hardly see them. He began to find
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: out that living with house folks is really great fun.
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: All the time Jake was hiding the raisins, Louis and
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: his mother were most bursting with buttons, laughing at him.
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Loui's father had picked up the paper while Jake was sulking,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and he dusted off in his chair with the paper
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: in front of him. All the time Jake was stealing.
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: When his wife thought Jake had enough for two birds,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: she whisked the plate away. He couldn't think where it
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: had gone to, because she did it when his tail
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: feathers were turned, so he had to look for something else.
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: He began trying experiments with the newspaper, pick peck picking
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: to see if he couldn't get a taste of those
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: little black specks. He didn't know it was printing. Of course,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: he thought those nice even lines were cracks, and the
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: little black specks were very neatly tucked in, so neatly
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: it would be great fun to pick them out again.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: Pretty soon he got excited and used his claws. The
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: paper began tearing. That woke up mister Thompson. Slam went
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: the paper on the table that sent Jake flattering. But
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: in a minute he was back at it again, busier
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: than ever. And when the big man saw him, he
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: burst out laughing, and he didn't laugh very often. He
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: laughed so hard. Chake scuttled back into his corner with
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: his crest tucked down. But as soon as mister Thompson
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: picked up his paper again, Chake began to cock his head. Uh,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: he thought he is hiding too, his hiding from me,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: wasn't he just conceited out? He sneaked pick peck pick.
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: He tore off the whole corner that time. Then he
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: got his claws in it and danced around like a
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: cat on a sheet of fly paper. That man reached
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: out his finger carefully as he could, and held it
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: down so Cheke could untangle his feet. Cheke misunderstood, you
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: needn't be afraid, said he in his politest bird talk.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: I won't peck you, mister Jampson misunderstood too, he said,
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: the nerve of that bird, he isn't a bit afraid
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of me. So, of course, from that very minute they
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: began to be friends, the first friend Louis father ever
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: had among the wood folk. I don't suppose you could
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: guess who had the most fun that evening. It wasn't Check,
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: but he'd have insisted it was if any one had
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: asked him. Didn't he just have a lovely time? He
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: found all sorts of interesting things. He rather wanted to
• 24:54
  Speaker 1: hide some of them away so he could play with
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: them again, But there weren't so many good places to
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: hide them. Take that little shiny cap, for instance, It
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: reminded him very much of an acorn with the tap gun.
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: You know what that was? It was a thimble. Too bad,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: it's empty, he sighed. Now, I wonder where housefolk keep
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: their acorns. They must have a hole for them. No
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: Jay could go housekeeping without one, But of course he
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: couldn't find it. He thought of burying his treasure in
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: the earth, beneath one of the geraniums, in a row
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: of pads on the window sill, just then he discovered
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: the caffee pat. Louis mother was measuring the caffe into
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: it for the morning, so its lead was open. Jake
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: was so pleased he wrapped his shiny acorn right in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: snap shut the tap. It wouldn't come out again, didn't
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: he just make an awful fuss. He hopped all around it.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: He sat on the handle, and he tried to sit
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: on the little round button on the lid, but his
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: feet kept slipping off. He tried to pick down the
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: spout or to reach his beak in. Finally, he got
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: so cross he gave the stubborn old thing a peck.
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: It made such a teeny sound. He jumped away and
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: perked up his crest at it. He just about decided
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: that was a lost acorn when somebody got it out
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: for him. Whoever do you think it was? It wasn't Lewis,
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't his mother. It was mister Thompson. And
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: it wasn't just because he and Jake had made friends.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: It was because everything that foolish bird tried to do,
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: said the big man, laughing, And then Jake would step
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: and look very hard at him, as though he thought
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Louis father were trying to talk to him, so of
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: course he had to pay attention. That's manners in a
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: boy or a bird. He let Chake peck a lead
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: pencil into splinters to see what he could find, because
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: that ignorant bird thought the lead was a warmhole. He
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: let him peck the button out of a chair cushion
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: just because it was fun to pull out. And when
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: Jake came tumbling off the table to pull at the
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: shiny tag on the end of his shoelace, have thought
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: he really believed he was being helped by that impudent bird.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: He grumbled a lot more than Louis when louis mother
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: wound up the clock and made them all go to bed.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: End of chapter two, Chapter three of The Jaybird Who
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: Went In by John Breck. This livery box recording is
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Jake makes discoveries about the holes
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: men live in. I just tell you Chake and Tad
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: didn't mind that rain. Tad Kuhn had a big dry
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: cellar to hunt in and a fine supply of mice
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: who came to nibble his corn. Chake j slept in
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: his corner on the window sill in the kitchen behind
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: the curtain, it wasn't quite so convenient as perching, for
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: his long claws got in his way, but he found
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: the varnished back of a chair too slippery. Besides, he
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: wanted to keep an eye on his raisins. Those thieving
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: mice once tried to steal them. He gave one of
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: them a good peck. It ran off, squealing with one
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: leg up, and after that they knew better than to
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: bother him. When Louis father came patting again and began
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: putting on his shoes that he had left under the
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: stove to dry the night before, he danced and flapped
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: good morning, And wasn't the man just fluttered to death
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: to have a wild bird out of the woods as
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: friendly as that. When Jake flapped, he got more excited
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: than ever. My wing is well again, he squawked. Yea,
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: my wink is well again. Then didn't we have some fun?
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: He could fly over the stove and perch on the
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: handle of the tea kettle while mister Thompson laid the
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: fire for breakfast. But all the man said was you
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: think you own this house, don't you? Well? I don't know,
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: but you're about right. You sassy think Jake just answered, Hey,
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: that's all he said when mister Jampson opened the door
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: to go out, and Chake's well winged brushed against his
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: ear as he slipped out beside him. Now look what
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: I've done, said the man who didn't like woods Folk.
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: I suppose that's the last we'll see of you. And
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: he felt so lonesome as he watched Jake go flitting
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: off through the rain that he remembered about bringing back
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: something from the barn for Chad Coon's breakfast. He wanted
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: Chad to stay, but he needn't have worried about never
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: seeing Chake Jay again. Jake knew when he was well off.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: He just wanted to take a good flippity flap with
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: his well wing to be sure it worked right, and
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: he was most afraid to try it in the house
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: for fear he'd hit something with it mine. But it
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: was fun to fly up high and come sliding down
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: the air again. It was fun even if it was
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: still raining. But he didn't stay out in the rain
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: long enough to get very wet. He went over to
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: the barn and poked around. He was a little scary
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: at first about going in the dark doorway, but After
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: he'd been in there a little while, he just had
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: to hand up Tad Kuhn. Tad was so full of
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: mice he was dozzing off to sleep in the cellar.
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: He came out when he heard Jake calling, Oh, Tad,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: Jake exclaimed, bubbing his head and trotting his tail because
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: he was too excited to keep still even while he
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: was talking. This is a wonderful place. That big barn
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: where the cows leave is perfectly safe for birds. Those
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: swallows have left their nests all over it, and their
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: sat scary fellows. They wouldn't stay a minute if anything
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: happened to one of them. I found the robin's nest too,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: a mad one, but it's round, not flat on one
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: side like swallow's, and it's too big for a phoebe bird.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: I sat in need to see Tad. Coon grinned at that. Besides,
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: it hasn't any cocoons or muss in it. I thought
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: you'd like the barn. Tad nodded. But were were you
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: last night? I couldn't find you anywhere, and your supper
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: is still in your cage? Did you get anything to eat?
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: Did I get anything to it? Why these house folks
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: have more things stored away to eat than all the
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: jays in the deep woods put together. That trap where
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: they keep the corn doesn't catch me. I can't walk
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: in and out any time I want you, he meant
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: the corned crib. The slats wouldn't hold him any more
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: than they would a mouse. And I've found a nut
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: hole into the biggest pile of wheat you ever dreamed about.
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: That was the great room, of course. And there's dusty stuff.
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: The cows are eating meal and bran and some little,
• 34:30
  Speaker 1: wrinkly sweet wild grapes. I hid in a special place.
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: I'll give you a taste, he meant, his raisins in
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: the kitchen window. I guess you had plenty to eat,
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: all right, enough, remarked Tad. But you never told me
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: where you slept, Hey chuckled Chake with his most mischievous air.
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't dare, you wouldn't believe. I'll just have to
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: show you. Come along, And he flapped right up to
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: the kitchen window. Then, wasn't he the puzzled bird. He
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: could see Louis's mother moving around inside getting the breakfast.
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: He could see the raisins poked into the crack, but
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: he couldn't get in there to get them. He walked
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: all the way up the screen, fluttering and scratching. Pretty
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: soon he perched on the sill and began to think
• 35:35
  Speaker 1: it over. That's the second time this has happened, he said.
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: I hid a little shiny hallow acorn last night, and
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: then I couldn't get it again. I knew right where
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: it was too. Now I can see those little wrinkly
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: grapes right where I put them, but I can't get
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: them either. It's very queer. You mean you were in
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the house, gasped Tad, right up inside it with the
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: trap shut. He meant, with the doors closed. He hadn't
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: learned all the proper house names for things yet, but
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: that wasn't safe. What if that big man wanted to
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: hit you like he did me and Louie. Tad didn't
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: quite trust him yet. He didn't, said Jake. He's not
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: a bit package, even if he does make more noise
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: than watch the dog when he barks. That was what
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: Jake thought of mister Thampson's laughing. Yeah, hey, he called
• 36:52
  Speaker 1: suddenly because he saw Louie. Louie looked up. He was
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: feeling quite scared because as he didn't see anything of
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: his bird, not even a little pile of feathers to
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: show that the cats had caught him. Why, however, did
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: you get there, he asked, and he ran to open
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the window and shove up the screen in hap chake.
• 37:22
  Speaker 1: All his nice raisins had dropped out of the crack
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: when Louis opened the window for him, but he didn't care.
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: He just ate a few himself and shoved a taste
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: of them down to Tad. That happened too, he said thoughtfully,
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: as he gulped a raisin. The minute I stopped worrying
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: about my acorn, one of the house folks gave it
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: to me. A house isn't fixed for birds, but it's
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: very interesting and full of smells. He turned his beak
• 38:01
  Speaker 1: toward the stove where louis mother was frying bacon. Mmmm,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: lovely ones, sniffed Tad, twitching his nose around until he
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: made sat funny faces. Louis began to giggle at him.
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: He could smell the bacon right through the window. Louis
• 38:25
  Speaker 1: father came back from the barn carrying the milk pails,
• 38:29
  Speaker 1: all full and frothing. He had more milk than usual
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: that morning. He remembered about that long time afterward. He
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: didn't know it yet, but his luck began to turn
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: on that form the very day he made friends with
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: the woods folk. You'll see. Why didn't you wake me up?
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: Asked Louis in a very surprised voice. The little boy
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: could sleep right through all the racket of the alarm clock,
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: even if Jake Jay couldn't. His father almost always called
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: him to help with the milking. Oh, I just guessed
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: you might as well sleep, said his father. You can
• 39:19
  Speaker 1: feed the calf if you've a mind too. He knew
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Louis liked to do that. It isn't nearly as hard
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: work either. I kind of wish I had, though. The
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: big man went on. I let your bird out. He
• 39:37
  Speaker 1: was over in the barn this morning. Maybe we could
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: catch him again, but I don't know. He was flying
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: pretty strong, hey, asked Jake, before Louis could even answer.
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: He had guessed they would be talking about him, conceited thing.
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: That was all right, said the little boy. I let
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: him in again. He came back just like my coon.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: Louis father stared at the check, sitting on the window
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: sill with the window open behind him so he could
• 40:16
  Speaker 1: go out and in. Then he peecked out and saw
• 40:21
  Speaker 1: Tad Coon down below, with his nose all wiggling because
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: he smelt the bacon Louis mother was cooking. Humm, looks
• 40:32
  Speaker 1: like we had company to breakfast, was all he said.
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't all he did. He gave Chake some
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: nice crisp bacon crumbs. He insisted, it was just to
• 40:47
  Speaker 1: see if the bird really would eat them, and Louis
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: mother caught him right in the act of sleeping a
• 40:54
  Speaker 1: good slice out to Tad Coon here, she laughed, there's
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: no need for you to feed that fellow, and frying
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: up some crack legs for him and the cats. She
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: made a delicious mixture of ads and ants of bacon
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: and bread and such things. But when Lewis went to
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: carry it out, the poor cats climbed up on the
• 41:22
  Speaker 1: shelf in the shed and spat and wined because they
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: haven't made any compact with any coon, so they said,
• 41:32
  Speaker 1: really it was because they were afraid of him. Tad
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: didn't care. He wasn't hungry anyway, only he liked the
• 41:41
  Speaker 1: taste of new things. He ate his share on the
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: cellar steps, and the mice who had run away to
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: hide because he was hunting them all crept to the
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: mouth of the holes and sat there sniffing until their
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: whiskers trembled. I say, thought Louis Thompson to himself, as
• 42:06
  Speaker 1: he stared off to school. I just must talk with
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: Tommy Peel. He knows about the wild things. Only Louis
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't thinking about a wild thing, but about his father,
• 42:22
  Speaker 1: who used to be crosser than Tad Kuhn in a
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: cage end of chapter three, chapter four of The Jay
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: Bird Who Went Tame by John Breck. This livery Bug's
• 42:44
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Doctor Muskrat's Adventures in
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: the Barn. You needn't think, just because you've been hearing
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: about Jake Jay's foolishness, that he and Tad Kern had
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: all the fun. There was not a bit of it.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: Things were happening around Tommy Peele's barn at the very
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: same time. Of course, Tommy Peel knew about most of them,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: and maybe you think he wasn't puzzled. The very first morning,
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: while it was still raining, he came slashing down to
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: the barn with his tall rubber boots on because it
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: was so wet he needed them and splashed went somebody
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: into the trough wore the cattle drink. Of course, it
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: was Doctor Muskrat. He was just examining it because it
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: was the queerest kind of a pond he'd ever seen,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: and he was a little bit scary because he didn't
• 43:55
  Speaker 1: feel at home yet. He swam all the way down
• 43:59
  Speaker 1: it in about two passed trocks, hunting for a lily
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: leaf to hide under while he picked out to see
• 44:10
  Speaker 1: who was coming. Of course, there wasn't any lily leaf.
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: There was no mud for one to grow in because
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: Tommy kept the trough too clean, and there weren't any
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: snails or water bills or anything but just water as
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: fresh as the water out in the cool, deep meal
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: of his own pond. It was a great deal warmer,
• 44:38
  Speaker 1: and it had a queer worthy taste that came from
• 44:42
  Speaker 1: the rain water dripping in from the shingles of the barn.
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: No wonder, the wise old fellow was puzzled. The doctor
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: climbed up on the edge of the trough and settled
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: his fur for a comfortable visit with his little boyfriend.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: But he didn't stay there, for Tommy had already unlocked
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: the gate, and the cows came rushing in, shouldering each
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: other to get the first drink. The wise old Muskrat
• 45:19
  Speaker 1: slipped between the trough and the barn to wait until
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: they were gone again. That was really sensible, because he'd
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: done something to make the cows angry with him, though
• 45:32
  Speaker 1: he didn't mean to. They began snorting and puffing. What
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: an awful smell, mould one of them. Somebody's been buffling
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: in her drink. I'd like to get my horn on
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: whoever it was. I'd teach him not to do a
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: trick like Dad. Again, sniffed the red caw. She was
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: a big, happy looking one by now, not a bit
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: like the wild scary thing her ran away from Tommy
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: in the spring. I like that smell. It reminded me
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: of the kindest beast I ever knew, excepting dear little
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: nibble rabbit. It reminds me of wise old Doctor Muskrat,
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: who owns the pond at the end of the woods
• 46:29
  Speaker 1: and fields. And she took a sentimental sip of it.
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: Doctor Muskrat was fearfully ruffled because the cows made all
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: that fast over his dip into their drinking trough. He
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: thought they were just putting on airs. He put up
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: his head between the trough and the barn, where he
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: knew they couldn't hurt him. Who toot said he severely?
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: What's all this about a dive that didn't wit my fur?
• 47:04
  Speaker 1: Many's the time you've stepped into my pand with ever
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: snap a word at you. Yes, indeed, put in the
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: red cow step in. I've seen you stumping flies in
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: it till you had it so muddy you couldn't see
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: your own hoofs I'll teach you to sniff at my friends.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: She laid her horn into the cow who did the first,
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: complaining with a chef that sent her staggering. There might
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: have been some lively argument if the wise white cow
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: haven't stopped them here here, she interrupted, We didn't know
• 47:51
  Speaker 1: who were sniffing at a sensible beast like doctor maskrat.
• 47:57
  Speaker 1: We'll understand there was no offer. She lowered her head
• 48:03
  Speaker 1: respectfully and spoke in her fluteest voice. You'll pardon me
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: for explaining, sir, that this isn't a pond. The wire
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: doesn't run through it, the wind doesn't blow over it. It
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: goes stale as fast as a mud puddle, you don't say,
• 48:23
  Speaker 1: exclaimed the doctor. Forgive my mistake, Madden. If I'd seen
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: the least trace of green scam, which is the usual
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: sign of steel water, I wouldn't have put my pine
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: in it. I do assure you, nor we are noses mould.
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: The cow steal very politely to be sure, to be sure,
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: nodded Doctor Maskuert sagely. A sour drink makes sorry fur.
• 48:54
  Speaker 1: But what's to be done? And what will Tommy Peel
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: think of me? He was more embarrassed than ever when
• 49:04
  Speaker 1: the little boy came squeezing in between the cows, as
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: though he wanted a drink too. But Tommy had just
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: noticed the cows weren't drinking. It didn't take him long
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: to guess why. But he never thought of blaming his
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: wild friend. Why Doctor Muskrat, he exclaimed, as glad as
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: Bobby Robin when he sees warm Whatever are you doing here?
• 49:36
  Speaker 1: And he knocked out the plug in the bottom of
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: the trough and let the spoiled water go whirling and
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: gurgling out through a hole. Doctor Muskrat's eyes popped at that,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: I can tell you. But when Tommy turned on the
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: tap and let fresh water comes splashing in the old
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: fellow couldn't understand it at all. He climbed up to
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: examine it. He tried the pipe with his cheessel teeth,
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: and he licked the drops that splashed on his whiskers. Well,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: he gasped, I've seen maple's sap drip from a twig
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: in the spring. But this is no twig, and it's
• 50:24
  Speaker 1: no sap that's dripping from it. What is it? But
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: if doctor Muskrat was excited about seeing the water run,
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: you ought to have seen him. When Tommy turned it
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: off again, he beat it and he licked it, and
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: he squeezed it, and he squinted up the hole, first
• 50:46
  Speaker 1: with one eye and then with the other. At last
• 50:50
  Speaker 1: he sat down to watch it, like tad Kun watches
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: a mouse hole. He watched it till he got a
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: creek in his neck. But still he wouldn't take his
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: eye off it. He was going to know about it
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the next time it began. He had an idea the
• 51:11
  Speaker 1: rain was doing it somehow or other. He couldn't imagine
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: a paddle that wasn't made by the rain. The stale
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: water Tommy had let one out on the ground made
• 51:24
  Speaker 1: a fine big paddle for the rain wraps to patter in.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: But by and by the pottering grew into a splashing,
• 51:33
  Speaker 1: and then splashing into a quacking. He just had to
• 51:37
  Speaker 1: look away to see what that noise was. Three big
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: white ducks were playing in it. Quack. One shouted, I
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: got a drowned earthworm. Quack called back another, I've got
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: a grain of corn and a daddy long legs. The
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: third was silent for a moment over his beak fall.
• 52:00
  Speaker 1: Then he spittied out and said, quite cheerfully, I have
• 52:05
  Speaker 1: a nice round pebble, but yes, it's too big to swallow.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: Flapper wings this time, hooray, shouted Flapper, standing up on
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: his toes and beating the air with his wings as
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: though he were going to fly, But he didn't. He
• 52:24
  Speaker 1: just settled down on his feet again, gave a shake
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: of his tail, and would have wabbled right off if
• 52:33
  Speaker 1: he hadn't cocked sight of Doctor Muskrat's shiny black eyes
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: staring at him. Who's that? He asked in dark talk,
• 52:44
  Speaker 1: and they all stared at the brown furry beast. It's
• 52:49
  Speaker 1: doctor Muskrat? Who are you? And whatever we are you doing?
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: Didn't those decks just blink their yellow eyes when that
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: brown furry beast answered them back in their own language.
• 53:04
  Speaker 1: He learnt it from the mallards who visited his pond
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: where the jolly old wabble ducks quaked, the one they
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: called flapper. We're playing a game of fish the paddle.
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: Since you can talk duk talk so well, you might
• 53:22
  Speaker 1: as well come along and learn it. It's lots of fun.
• 53:26
  Speaker 1: Come on, come along, teast another. We'll show you all
• 53:31
  Speaker 1: the pants, lots of them are deep enough to swim in. Now,
• 53:36
  Speaker 1: will show you where the apples have dropped in the orchard,
• 53:40
  Speaker 1: and where the garden snails have hidden, and the leak
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: in the corn crib where the grains fall through. Quack.
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: There isn't much about this place. We don't get a
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: big inched We even peek over the peak's pail before
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: they ever see it. Just now we get a drink
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: on the warm milk they feed the calf. How but
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: this is a place to leave, laughed the third, his
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: fat body shaking and the little curly feathers sticking up
• 54:15
  Speaker 1: so cheerfully in his tail. Do you leave here? Always
• 54:20
  Speaker 1: asked doctor Muskrat in surprise. Don't you ever fly away.
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: All the ducks he knew flew south for a winter.
• 54:30
  Speaker 1: We're not wild ducks, Flapper explained verten. We hear great
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: tales from the wild ones. Some of them step in
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: and have a fit with us most every season. Great tails.
• 54:46
  Speaker 1: That must be a gay life. But we're so fat
• 54:51
  Speaker 1: we can't keep up with them, he sighed. But he
• 54:55
  Speaker 1: blinked so mischievously. Doctor Muskrat could see he wasn't breaking
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: his heart about it. You're just as well off, said
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: Doctor Muskrat. White birds are so easy to see. Somebody
• 55:11
  Speaker 1: always catches them. Are you wild yourself, they asked curiously,
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: Tell us what it's like. So doctor Muskrat strolled along
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: with them. And fine friends they were, I can tell you,
• 55:27
  Speaker 1: always happy and good natured. They made the old doctor
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: feel almost as much at home as he did in
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: his own pond. And of chapter four Chapter five of
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: The Jay Bird Who Went by John Breck. This libribox
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Further Doings of the
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: woods Folk at the Barn. If Tommy Peel wondered what
• 56:04
  Speaker 1: doctor Muskaret was doing up at the watering trough just
• 56:09
  Speaker 1: outside his barn door, he did a lot more wondering
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: when he stepped inside. For there on top of the feet, Bean,
• 56:20
  Speaker 1: with her fur all puffed out and her tail as
• 56:24
  Speaker 1: prickly as a caterpillar, perched the house cat and beneath her,
• 56:30
  Speaker 1: thumping very severely with a fine wad of pussy cat
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: fur in each of his hind toe nails, said nibble rabbit.
• 56:42
  Speaker 1: The cat was whining, Oh, please let me go. I
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: didn't mean to, honest, I thought it was a right.
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: Nibbel gave his ears a big flap, now, ma'am, he
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: was stating decidedly, you can't fool me. A bunny doesn't
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: smell the least bit in the world like any right.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: You were trying to hunt my children, but you won't
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: mean to next time. I know that I only rolled
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: you over this time, just to show you that a
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: rabbit can't fight. Next time, next time, squawked Chirp Sparrow,
• 57:26
  Speaker 1: who had his first nest rubbed by that very same
• 57:30
  Speaker 1: tubby tiptoes. Next time he'll set you spinning three ways
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: at once until your brains are as adult as a
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: frosted egg. Mewhire begged the poor pussy please tammy, peel
• 57:49
  Speaker 1: let me out and I'll run back to the house,
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: truly I will. I hope these wild things will teach
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: you some manners, said Tommy. Peel. Whatever Nibble did to
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: you is nothing to what you'll get if you try
• 58:07
  Speaker 1: your tricks on doctor Muskrat. He carried away down past
• 58:13
  Speaker 1: the gate so she wouldn't meet him. Good clover Leaves,
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: whispered Nivel in surprise when he saw how gently Tommy
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: treated his enemy. Do you suppose he'll be cross with
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: me for what I've done? Don't flatter yourself, chirp assured him.
• 58:35
  Speaker 1: Tommy never takes sides between his friends. Though. Why he's
• 58:40
  Speaker 1: friends with that cat when he knows the things she
• 58:45
  Speaker 1: does is more than I can tell you. You'll have to
• 58:49
  Speaker 1: ask what's the dog about it? Sure Enough, when Tammy
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: came back to the barn, he put out a handful
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: of feed for his rabbit, just as though there hadn't
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: been the least bit of trouble, and his eyes didn't
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: open so very wide when silk ears and dull her
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: bannies began to pop out from under the mangers and
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: inside the hay and beneath the backs he used for
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: milking stool, and he didn't have to look at the
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: dust on their whiskers to know they'd been dipping into
• 59:29
  Speaker 1: the cow's breakfast. Some of the cows were telling him so,
• 59:35
  Speaker 1: but it doesn't take much to start some folk sniffing
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: and moaning. A nice clean, bonny paw never spoiled the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: red cow's appetite, And the white cow gave Tommy a
• 59:50
  Speaker 1: nudge while he was milking her that said, plain as words,
• 59:56
  Speaker 1: isn't it fun to have knibble with us again? Now?
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: Doctor muskerd an evil rabbit weren't having any livelier time. Then.
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: Striped Skunk and his kittens were in the button of
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: the haystack hunting the rats they found there. A rat
• 1:00:18
  Speaker 1: is pretty dangerous for a skank kitten to hunt, as
• 1:00:23
  Speaker 1: dangerous as though a small boy went hunting bobcats. But
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: it's the skank kitten's business to take chances, and it
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: tasn't the small boys. There aren't very many rats in
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: the woods. Sometimes one goes sneaking down the high grass
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: beside a fence, or snoops into a twiggy bush after
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: baby birds in nesting thyme. Sometimes one picks up tadpoles
• 1:00:55
  Speaker 1: when the muddy pints they hatched in begin to dry up,
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: but mostly rats leave very close to men. Why they
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: do it's a special secret. I'll tell you some winter night.
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: So you see, striped skanks kittens hadn't much chance to
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: deal with such big game. They were awfully proud and
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: excited about it. It didn't take the rats in the
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: haystack very long to find it was a very poor
• 1:01:29
  Speaker 1: place to be. They can eat hay if they have to,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: but they can't live on it like a field mouse can.
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: They get hungry. But every time one ventured its whiskers
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: out of a hole, striped skanks kittens would pounds on it.
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: It didn't matter how creepy, crawly quiet they were, a
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: kitten was sure to hear them. At last, the voicest
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: of them thought of a plan. Grave whisker said, he
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: you take one hole, broken to the next, scarfed the next,
• 1:02:13
  Speaker 1: and egg eater the last. Each of you will scrabble
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: about inside his burrow as though he meant to run.
• 1:02:23
  Speaker 1: The minute he is quiet, the one to the windy
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: side of him must take his turn. That will keep
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 1: those stripped beasts running round and round the stack, every
• 1:02:37
  Speaker 1: third torn one to the center, and all squak as
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 1: though you were fighting. That will keep them interested. They
• 1:02:47
  Speaker 1: won't hear me. Make a brand new hole, and then
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: we'll plan how we can sneak out while they aren't looking. Now,
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: do you know what that wrote his name was Snatched
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 1: meant to do? He meant to keep them all busy
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: while he dug that new hole for himself, and then
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: sneak out without telling them. That's right for you. They
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: cheat each other just as much as they do anybody else.
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: But the others couldn't think of any better plan, so
• 1:03:23
  Speaker 1: they trusted him. Only they made one mistake. The skanks
• 1:03:29
  Speaker 1: were running round and round that haystack. They were sitting
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: perfectly still, each one with his nose at a hole,
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: but one after another pricked up his ears as the
• 1:03:43
  Speaker 1: rat pretended to come out and drop them. When he
• 1:03:47
  Speaker 1: scuttled back again, Wise old Papa Stripes was tiptoeing around,
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: finding all their trails, so if one did get by
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: a kitten, he'd know where it was likely to go. Hmm,
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: he sniffed. They're playing a game, aren't they. We'll just
• 1:04:08
  Speaker 1: see whose it. Scrabble scratch Squeak went broken to Scarfoot
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: and egg Eater, each in turn. Each time the kitten
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: stationed outside his hole pricked up its ears, and its
• 1:04:25
  Speaker 1: wavy tail would tremble to the tip, and its claws
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: would catch for a lip, dig and naw, naw and dig.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: When the selfish snatched the cleverest right of them all,
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: making himself a new hole to sneak out through, they
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: were helping him, but he wasn't going to help them,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: not he Papa Stripes laid his head on one side
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: and considered the case. Then a sly smile raised his whiskers. Pat,
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: pitt Pat. He marched round the stack, whispering to each
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: of his kittens in turn. You see the slit in
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: the old elm tree, he asked one. The kitten nodded.
• 1:05:15
  Speaker 1: Did you notice the right path under the kitchen coop?
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: He asked? The next looks to me like a rat
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: hole under that corn creep, Uh, he asked the third.
• 1:05:30
  Speaker 1: He didn't give any orders, like you do this or
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: you do that, because he wanted the kittens to think
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: for themselves, but he did show them what to think about.
• 1:05:45
  Speaker 1: Nip slip came snatched, creeping out of the new hole
• 1:05:50
  Speaker 1: he just made for himself. Pounds Stripes closed it up
• 1:05:55
  Speaker 1: behind him. Now right, he chuckled, Let's see you run,
• 1:06:00
  Speaker 1: and let's see who catches you. Wick. Snatch made for
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: your sleep in the elm. A kitten was there before him.
• 1:06:10
  Speaker 1: The chicken coop then now the corn crib was Tommy's barnyard,
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: all full of hunting skanks. A hole a hole, he'd
• 1:06:22
  Speaker 1: find one in the barn under the great bin he
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: raised for the door, the kittens after him, gaining every
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: bound with their fathers most scared to death. He wouldn't
• 1:06:36
  Speaker 1: be on time to lend a tooth if they needed it.
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: That's how Snatch came to dive right between Tommy's tall
• 1:06:46
  Speaker 1: rubber boots as he stepped out the barn door with
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the milk pail in his hand. That's how the skunk
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: kittens came to flash past before the milk he slapped
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: over could fall on them. My land, he exclaimed, what
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: are you doing here? As though he couldn't see for himself.
• 1:07:10
  Speaker 1: They were all three scrimmaging with Snatch the right at
• 1:07:14
  Speaker 1: the very mouth of the rat hole. They never knew
• 1:07:19
  Speaker 1: which of them killed him. Heah squealed, Stripes prancing in
• 1:07:25
  Speaker 1: his pride. Isn't that some hunting then back they all
• 1:07:31
  Speaker 1: ramped to catch those poor hungry fellows in the haystack
• 1:07:36
  Speaker 1: who thought snatch was taking a mighty long time to
• 1:07:40
  Speaker 1: make their new hole for them. End of chapter five,
• 1:07:52
  Speaker 1: Chapter six of The Day Bird Who Went Tame by
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: John Bregg. This Librivoux were recording is in the public domain.
• 1:08:03
  Speaker 1: A hungry villain feels himself, but only with fright. The
• 1:08:10
  Speaker 1: most puzzled little boy you ever saw tramping off to
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: school on a rainy morning was certainly Tommy Peel, unless
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: it was Louis Thompson. Hey Tommy, he called when he
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: heard Tommy's tall rubber boots splashing along behind him. I
• 1:08:33
  Speaker 1: want to ask you something, Hey yourself. Tommy called back.
• 1:08:40
  Speaker 1: I want to ask you something to you. What have
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: you done to make my musk crag run away from
• 1:08:47
  Speaker 1: his pond and all my skanks and the rabbits? Huh
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: cross My heart didn't accepting to feed them like you
• 1:08:58
  Speaker 1: showed me. The coop and the j bird are living
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: up at mine, they are, exclaimed Tommy. Then I guess
• 1:09:09
  Speaker 1: you didn't do anything to them. Do you suppose they
• 1:09:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to see what it was like to be tail,
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: just like I tried being wild, Louis wondered, No drawled
• 1:09:25
  Speaker 1: Tommy thoughtfully. My rabbits tried it before, but he always
• 1:09:31
  Speaker 1: goes wild again. I guess he likes it best now
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: that Fox is back by Doctor Muskrat's ponds. I'll bet
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: you anything. The two boys wouldn't have been so puzzled
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: if they had known how the bad little olds had
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 1: invited Killer the Whistle to Tommy's woods and fields. It
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: was to avoid him. The all the woodsfolk had come
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 1: to stay with the boys for a while. Indeed, they
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 1: had even warned the obstinate mice to live so that
• 1:10:12
  Speaker 1: Killer and the bad little owls would have to go hungry.
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: Killer and the bad little owls were hungry. Killer especially,
• 1:10:23
  Speaker 1: he wasn't enjoying his visit to the woods and fields
• 1:10:28
  Speaker 1: one bit, for it rained, and it rained, and it rained,
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: and it kept on raining. And nobody withfer can hunt
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: in the rain because the water washes away all the trails.
• 1:10:44
  Speaker 1: You can't see where they come from or where they're
• 1:10:48
  Speaker 1: going to. You can't even smell them. It was way
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: along in the afternoon before he poked out his wicked
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: nose and found out the sun was out too, and
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: the leaves were dancing, but he didn't want to dance.
• 1:11:08
  Speaker 1: His poor skin was doing it for him, and he
• 1:11:12
  Speaker 1: didn't like it a bit. He was shivering because he
• 1:11:17
  Speaker 1: was empty as a drum and the wind was thumping him.
• 1:11:22
  Speaker 1: He crept down and tiptoed over to doctor Muskrat's pond.
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: He walked all around it, but he didn't see a
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: single footprint. He didn't even see a frog. By this time,
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: he was hungry enough to eat one, but they were
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: all buried down in the warm mud. The only fellow
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: he found was the hap toad. The hap toad was
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: very happy. Most every leaf that blew down in the
• 1:11:56
  Speaker 1: wind had under it a fine fat worm who had
• 1:12:02
  Speaker 1: come up to nivel, a pleasant change for the grass
• 1:12:06
  Speaker 1: blades they eat all summer. Besides, they were simply loaded
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: with bag cradles of every sort. As a result, the
• 1:12:18
  Speaker 1: hap toad was so full he could hardly squeeze his
• 1:12:23
  Speaker 1: fat yellow vest into his own front door, beneath his
• 1:12:28
  Speaker 1: own big stone. So he just sat and blinked his
• 1:12:33
  Speaker 1: rubby eyes at killer and grinned. Who else in all
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 1: the woods and fields would have dared to do that.
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: Hail sharpture began the hap Toad in his deep, scary
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: croak that rumbled like thunder in the back of his
• 1:12:52
  Speaker 1: stony cave. Have you come to hear your fortune? You
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 1: have come in time. There were signs and omens brewing
• 1:13:02
  Speaker 1: in the battle between the frost and the rain this morning. Now,
• 1:13:08
  Speaker 1: the Whistle didn't know what an omen was. It's a
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: sort of bad news, like the dark clouds that foretold
• 1:13:18
  Speaker 1: the big rain and the terrible storm. He doesn't sit
• 1:13:24
  Speaker 1: by the weak like the haptoad does, just thinking and
• 1:13:29
  Speaker 1: remembering things. He hasn't any more education than a polywag
• 1:13:36
  Speaker 1: in spite of all his experiences. All the same, the
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: Whistle knew more than to own up that he wanted
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: to eat the haptoad, So he thought, I'll pretend that's
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: just what I came for to hear my fortune, and
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: he'll never guess. No one can follow of what trail
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: on a cloudy night, So truly, as the hap toad
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: Killer said, the haptoad never follows a trail at all.
• 1:14:11
  Speaker 1: That was only the silly Whistle's way of pretending he
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 1: thought the haptoad was smarter than he. Of course, the
• 1:14:21
  Speaker 1: haptot new killer was just making it up. Two can
• 1:14:25
  Speaker 1: play at that game. He blinked to himself. I'll scare
• 1:14:30
  Speaker 1: him away and then my good friends will come back again.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: Then he said out loud, oh me, that sounds just
• 1:14:40
  Speaker 1: like my white friend's silver Chip. The fox he used
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: to say. The bones of yesterday lie were even the
• 1:14:49
  Speaker 1: blind ants confind them. But the bones of tomorrow only
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: the hap toad knows whose skins they run in. He
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: knew I could foretell what was coming, but he listened
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: to the owls instead of listening me. See what happened
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: to him? What did happen? Demanded Killer, You remember the
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: old's wife lied to him. She said, silver Chip was
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: hunting in the big marsh, the other side of the
• 1:15:26
  Speaker 1: deep woods. He went there, no aunt, ever, not his bones,
• 1:15:33
  Speaker 1: answered the wise hap toad. That's why no tooth hands
• 1:15:39
  Speaker 1: by doctor Muskrat's punt. When the hap toad croaked these words.
• 1:15:46
  Speaker 1: In the dark cave under the big stone, every little
• 1:15:50
  Speaker 1: crack seemed to have a scary little echo hidden in it.
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: To whisper themn after him, Killer the whistle shook to
• 1:16:01
  Speaker 1: the cheap ends of his fur. Is he dead? Asked
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: the wicked thing in a husky voice. Who knows said
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: the hap toad. He knew himself, but he didn't want
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: to say so. If he is neither fur scale or
• 1:16:22
  Speaker 1: feather did the killing, that's true. You know it was
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: grandpoop snapping turtle. And he isn't a beast or a
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: fish or a bird. The Whistle thought a minute. Then
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: he remembered that Louis Thompson had been living by the pond,
• 1:16:41
  Speaker 1: and those same lying little owls who told him silver
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: Chip was still alive, said he couldn't hurt anyone. Ho,
• 1:16:53
  Speaker 1: he said, I know it was a man, certainly not
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: snapped the hap toad as though he were crossed over.
• 1:17:03
  Speaker 1: Such a foolish question. How could those toothless, clawless man
• 1:17:10
  Speaker 1: tadpoles hurt anyone? Oh? Ho, Ho, exclaimed Killer in a
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: long shivery breath. I know what you mean. He's a
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: ghost owl. Ah. But the hap toad never answered a word.
• 1:17:28
  Speaker 1: The beautiful duck had told Nibel Rabbit the day before
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: the terrible storm that everything was afread of something. Killer.
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: The Whistle was afread of two things, silver Chip, the fox,
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: and the ghost owl. Now the ghost owl is a
• 1:17:49
  Speaker 1: real bird. It is a big white owl who comes
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: down from far away north where the storms grow. At night,
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: it hunts kill and the minx and the butt skunks
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: and all the wicked folk who prowl around trying to
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: catch Mother Nature's own children while their sleep. In the daytime,
• 1:18:14
  Speaker 1: it goes off to some river and catches fish. Nobody
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: knows when or where it slips. Whenever a whistle disappears,
• 1:18:26
  Speaker 1: you can be pretty sure the fox or the owl
• 1:18:30
  Speaker 1: has cocked him. So the whistle folk got the choose
• 1:18:34
  Speaker 1: so mixed up in their minds. At last they decided
• 1:18:39
  Speaker 1: they were the same. They thought the ghost owl was
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: a fox who turned into an owl, because it was
• 1:18:49
  Speaker 1: better honey. If a fox died and they saw his bones,
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: they knew that was the end of him. If he
• 1:18:59
  Speaker 1: just disappear, well, they couldn't be sure he did turn
• 1:19:04
  Speaker 1: into an owl, but they couldn't be sure he didn't.
• 1:19:09
  Speaker 1: So Killer the Whistle thought, if Silverchip just disappeared and
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: the ants didn't gnaw his bones, as the hap toad said,
• 1:19:21
  Speaker 1: Tommy Peel's woods and fields were no place for him. Haptoad,
• 1:19:28
  Speaker 1: he whined, I know what you mean. You mean that
• 1:19:32
  Speaker 1: silver Chip isn't that at all? He is hunting these
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: woods and fields in a ghost owl skin? What an idea,
• 1:19:42
  Speaker 1: Croaked the hidden haptoad? Whoever told you that? Uh huh,
• 1:19:48
  Speaker 1: you needn't pretend to me, sniffed Killer. We whistles know
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: a lot of things. We know that no real owl
• 1:19:57
  Speaker 1: can stand the sunlight. The most owl can. Many a
• 1:20:02
  Speaker 1: mink has seen it diving for fish like a kingfisher
• 1:20:07
  Speaker 1: in the daytime. Many a whistle had felt its claws
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: in his ribs in the dead of night. Yet whose
• 1:20:16
  Speaker 1: tooth has ever found its magic throat? Can you name
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: me one who has ever picked its bones? Now? Nor
• 1:20:26
  Speaker 1: will ever be such a one. For the ghost owl
• 1:20:30
  Speaker 1: has no mate. It builds no nest, It hatches no young.
• 1:20:36
  Speaker 1: It is borne in a fox skin until the magic shutting,
• 1:20:41
  Speaker 1: when feathers instead of fur prick through its hide. It
• 1:20:46
  Speaker 1: never dies. It leaves on us, who are strongest, swiftest,
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: cleverest of hunters, we folk from under the earth, whom
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Mother Nature herself cannot govern. You just ought to have
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: seen Croker have told side shake at the idea. He
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: didn't know a thing about the ghost owl, except that
• 1:21:12
  Speaker 1: there was one. But he knew more than to believe
• 1:21:16
  Speaker 1: what Killer was telling him. It's what we call a
• 1:21:20
  Speaker 1: tall story and the woodsfolk a tale ruffler. Only an
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: ignorant creature like the Whistle could pretend it was true.
• 1:21:30
  Speaker 1: He having told Killer what really did kill Silver Chip,
• 1:21:35
  Speaker 1: because he knew Killer would be a lot more frightened
• 1:21:39
  Speaker 1: at what he didn't know than at what really did happen.
• 1:21:45
  Speaker 1: But he hadn't dreamed of scaring him as hard as
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: all this it was great fun. He wanted Killer to
• 1:21:54
  Speaker 1: go on talking about it, so he said, it's very
• 1:21:59
  Speaker 1: good of you to explain all these things to me.
• 1:22:03
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't see them for myself, living as I do
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: under my stone. But if the ghost ow will never die,
• 1:22:12
  Speaker 1: what becomes of it? Ah, said Killer. Nobody knows but
• 1:22:18
  Speaker 1: the crazy lun But sometimes when there's a fearful storm,
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: you hear it squawking, and its feathers come fluttering down.
• 1:22:29
  Speaker 1: They aren't real feathers, you know, They're only frozen. That's
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: why it only comes in ice time, So we think
• 1:22:40
  Speaker 1: s who's coming? End of chapter six Chapter seven of
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: The Day Bird Who Went Tame by John Bregg. This
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: bus recorded is in the public domain. Killer the Whistle
• 1:23:06
  Speaker 1: in a weary round of troubles, But Killer never finished
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: he'd scared himself most to death telling about the ghost owl,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: so when he did hear a sound, he made a
• 1:23:22
  Speaker 1: frantic scratching to squeeze into the crack in the hap
• 1:23:26
  Speaker 1: toad's stone where he'd been talking, and then he bounced
• 1:23:32
  Speaker 1: off at full speed for his own safe crack between
• 1:23:36
  Speaker 1: the two stones on the bank of Doctor Muskrat's pond. Ah,
• 1:23:42
  Speaker 1: He breathed, save at last. Even the ghost owl's call
• 1:23:48
  Speaker 1: cannot find me here. Tooth cannot bite, and paw cannot
• 1:23:53
  Speaker 1: dig to disturb me. If only I weren't so desperate,
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: starvation hungry. I do wish i'd cocked the hap toad.
• 1:24:04
  Speaker 1: I do wish I'd eaten those owls. But I'll do
• 1:24:08
  Speaker 1: it next summer, when it's safe to hunt here to night.
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: I'll go back to the deep woods and stay if
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: I have to leave on acorns. As soon as the
• 1:24:22
  Speaker 1: hap toad was perfectly sure Killer had gone, he happed
• 1:24:27
  Speaker 1: to the narrow crack that was the door of his
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: cave and squeezed out again. He cocked his deaf ears
• 1:24:36
  Speaker 1: and felt with his little gloved paws on the ground.
• 1:24:41
  Speaker 1: Then he began to laugh himself right out of his skin.
• 1:24:47
  Speaker 1: Ho ho, it's only those harmless man tadpoles. That's what
• 1:24:53
  Speaker 1: Croker Toad called. Tommy Peel and Lewis Thompson Croaker could
• 1:24:59
  Speaker 1: fill them Tramping along the lane, Killer had heard them whistling.
• 1:25:05
  Speaker 1: They were calling Watch to help them find out who
• 1:25:09
  Speaker 1: it was that had tasted nibble Rabbit and tad Kuhn
• 1:25:14
  Speaker 1: and stripes Kunk and doctor Muskrat and all the rest
• 1:25:19
  Speaker 1: of them out of Tommy's woods and fields. Watch was
• 1:25:25
  Speaker 1: busy about something else, way far off when he heard them.
• 1:25:32
  Speaker 1: Mighty busy too, But they didn't need them. Killer had
• 1:25:37
  Speaker 1: gone pumping up and down the banks of doctor Muskrat's
• 1:25:42
  Speaker 1: pond looking for tracks of someone he could eat, and
• 1:25:46
  Speaker 1: he'd left his own. He'd left a clear trail from
• 1:25:51
  Speaker 1: the hap Toad's home to his own. Lessie, who's here,
• 1:25:56
  Speaker 1: said Tommy Peel. He tried to leave one of Killer's
• 1:26:01
  Speaker 1: big stones. Try this, said Louis Thompson. He picked up
• 1:26:07
  Speaker 1: a big stick and puked it into the crack between them.
• 1:26:11
  Speaker 1: Then both boys began to shove on the stick. Slowly
• 1:26:17
  Speaker 1: it pried the crack apart. One of the big stones
• 1:26:21
  Speaker 1: reared up on end and fell over backward, and there
• 1:26:26
  Speaker 1: sat snaky, slim, briskly whiskered, snarly toothed Killer, with his
• 1:26:32
  Speaker 1: wicked eyes raged red and his wicked claws said to
• 1:26:38
  Speaker 1: spring at them. Why didn't he do it? Well? It
• 1:26:43
  Speaker 1: was the same reason Striped Skunk explained to Nibble Rabbit,
• 1:26:49
  Speaker 1: and Nibble tried on the cat. They weren't afraid of him. Indeed,
• 1:26:55
  Speaker 1: they weren't even angry, for they didn't know all the
• 1:26:59
  Speaker 1: home he'd been doing, and there wasn't anybody in all
• 1:27:04
  Speaker 1: the woods and fields who could tell them. Tommy said,
• 1:27:09
  Speaker 1: what's that? And Louis answered, first time I ever saw him?
• 1:27:15
  Speaker 1: And they just stood still and stared at him. Killer
• 1:27:21
  Speaker 1: certainly was afraid of them. His weeds were as mumbled
• 1:27:25
  Speaker 1: as a pollywax paddle when a duck goes fishing in
• 1:27:30
  Speaker 1: it first place? What had happened to his night safe home?
• 1:27:36
  Speaker 1: Two nor townail couldn't dig into it? Then? Why did
• 1:27:42
  Speaker 1: that great big stone flap right over on its back
• 1:27:47
  Speaker 1: and leave him without a place to hide in? He
• 1:27:51
  Speaker 1: didn't know? It was because the little boys used a
• 1:27:55
  Speaker 1: stick to pry it with, just like the first man
• 1:28:00
  Speaker 1: used a stick to pry the stone That shut up
• 1:28:04
  Speaker 1: the past to his little island against the wolves. In
• 1:28:09
  Speaker 1: the first off beginning of things, Killer was as bad
• 1:28:14
  Speaker 1: as any wolf, But the little boys didn't know that.
• 1:28:19
  Speaker 1: They didn't know enough to be afread of the wicked
• 1:28:23
  Speaker 1: little beast who scrouched down at their very feet, snarling
• 1:28:28
  Speaker 1: and swearing at them. All they thought of was the
• 1:28:32
  Speaker 1: funny faces he was making. They were snarlier and funnier
• 1:28:38
  Speaker 1: than any striped skung could ever make, or even tat
• 1:28:42
  Speaker 1: kun Tee, he giggled, lewis My, but he thinks he's big.
• 1:28:50
  Speaker 1: Ho Ho, laughed Tommy, thinking of the fight between nibble
• 1:28:55
  Speaker 1: Rabbit and the cat that morning. I'd like to see
• 1:28:59
  Speaker 1: what are all, old Tubby would say to him. That
• 1:29:03
  Speaker 1: was too much for Killer. He did jump, but he
• 1:29:07
  Speaker 1: didn't jump at them. He went leaping off into the woods,
• 1:29:12
  Speaker 1: spitting like a firecracker and looking for a new place
• 1:29:17
  Speaker 1: to hide from them. And he found the big oak
• 1:29:21
  Speaker 1: that was blown down in the terrible storm where the
• 1:29:26
  Speaker 1: bad little owls were hidden. Wow, but wasn't Killer mad
• 1:29:33
  Speaker 1: When he bounced into the hole of the big oak.
• 1:29:37
  Speaker 1: He hadn't more than poked his whiskers inside the hollow tree.
• 1:29:43
  Speaker 1: Then he smelt owl. He smelt other things too, but
• 1:29:48
  Speaker 1: he was too much to think about them. Yeah, he snarled,
• 1:29:53
  Speaker 1: sniffing viciously. So that's where you are, you lying, little
• 1:29:59
  Speaker 1: flap wings. Yes, you wait until I get my breath,
• 1:30:04
  Speaker 1: and I'll teach you a few things. You told me
• 1:30:08
  Speaker 1: it was good hunting here, you did well. There isn't
• 1:30:12
  Speaker 1: so much as a mouse tailed swishing, or a feather
• 1:30:17
  Speaker 1: fly or even a frog happening by your fine pond.
• 1:30:22
  Speaker 1: Not a trail has been made since the big rain
• 1:30:26
  Speaker 1: that almost washed me out of my snack stones. And
• 1:30:32
  Speaker 1: next did you think I wouldn't hear what happened to
• 1:30:37
  Speaker 1: silver chip the fax. He isn't dead. He's turned into
• 1:30:42
  Speaker 1: the wortched enemy we whistles have. He is a ghost owl,
• 1:30:47
  Speaker 1: and he's hunting these very woods and fields. That's why
• 1:30:51
  Speaker 1: all the other creatures have gone. He isn't truly, he
• 1:30:57
  Speaker 1: isn't wailed creatures. Grandpop snapping turtle ate him. Hmmm, So
• 1:31:07
  Speaker 1: that's the story you're telling now, is it? Snapped Killer?
• 1:31:12
  Speaker 1: I thought you said he was hunting deck in the
• 1:31:15
  Speaker 1: big marsh over on the other side of the deep woods,
• 1:31:20
  Speaker 1: didn't you. Yes, sniffed the owl. She did, you know.
• 1:31:27
  Speaker 1: But now, if Killer had let her say another word,
• 1:31:33
  Speaker 1: she would have told him why she lied, and she'd
• 1:31:37
  Speaker 1: have explained that Grandpop Snapping Turtle was gone, and things
• 1:31:43
  Speaker 1: might have been very different whether he believed her or not.
• 1:31:49
  Speaker 1: But he didn't. He began crouching, creeping toward the very
• 1:31:54
  Speaker 1: darkest end of the long leg, where he could hear
• 1:31:58
  Speaker 1: the scared little birds squirming in terror. His eyes gleamed
• 1:32:04
  Speaker 1: red in the blackness with green flashes as he peered
• 1:32:08
  Speaker 1: for them. But you surely haven't forgotten that this was
• 1:32:13
  Speaker 1: the very tree where Stripes Skunk found the honey that
• 1:32:18
  Speaker 1: helped him make friends with Ted Kuhn and Tommy Peel.
• 1:32:24
  Speaker 1: The bees were fast asleep. They woke up all right
• 1:32:28
  Speaker 1: enough when those scared little owls began scratching scared little
• 1:32:34
  Speaker 1: claws into their nice kneed home. They began to call,
• 1:32:41
  Speaker 1: what's happening? Call out the guard, shake a win there,
• 1:32:46
  Speaker 1: see who's attacking us? Did the little screature owls pay
• 1:32:51
  Speaker 1: any attention? They did not. Killer the Whistle was gnashing
• 1:32:57
  Speaker 1: his teeth at them and glaring his eyes eyes in
• 1:33:00
  Speaker 1: the black dark. We moaned the owl's wife as She
• 1:33:06
  Speaker 1: climbed up the soft comb until she bumped her head
• 1:33:10
  Speaker 1: against the tap of the log right by the little hole.
• 1:33:15
  Speaker 1: Woo shivered, her mate scrambling after her, or she squawked
• 1:33:21
  Speaker 1: as the first of the bee guards got his sting
• 1:33:25
  Speaker 1: between her feathers. She gave a flounce and the honeycomb
• 1:33:30
  Speaker 1: broke away. She could see the sky through the hole. Scuttle,
• 1:33:36
  Speaker 1: scramble and scratch and flutter my, but it was a
• 1:33:41
  Speaker 1: tight fight all the same. She did just managed to
• 1:33:45
  Speaker 1: squeeze through, and her mate grabbed hold of her tight
• 1:33:49
  Speaker 1: new tail feathers and dragged through behind her. But Killer
• 1:33:54
  Speaker 1: didn't Killer couldn't even see to try. He was a
• 1:34:00
  Speaker 1: regular bowl of angry bees, and he hadn't be proved
• 1:34:04
  Speaker 1: fur like striped skull, even if he did claim to
• 1:34:09
  Speaker 1: be Stripe's cousin. He went bouncing down that long hollow trunck,
• 1:34:15
  Speaker 1: bumping into every jagget splinter on the hole inside of it.
• 1:34:20
  Speaker 1: He went racing for doctor Muskrat's pond, just like any
• 1:34:25
  Speaker 1: other wild thing, and plunged in, because he knew no
• 1:34:31
  Speaker 1: bee would dare plunge in after him. Only the very
• 1:34:36
  Speaker 1: few whose stings were tangled in his fur wet their wings,
• 1:34:41
  Speaker 1: but he hadn't more than got his head underwater. Then
• 1:34:46
  Speaker 1: he was in just as much of a hurry to
• 1:34:49
  Speaker 1: get out again. What if the owl had told the
• 1:34:53
  Speaker 1: truth for once? What if silver Chip the fox was
• 1:34:58
  Speaker 1: eaten by grandpop snow upping turtle. When he came out,
• 1:35:03
  Speaker 1: his nose was beginning to swell, but it wasn't so
• 1:35:07
  Speaker 1: swelled that he couldn't smell Tommy and Loie hunting for him.
• 1:35:13
  Speaker 1: His eyes were beginning to close, but they weren't shut
• 1:35:18
  Speaker 1: so tight he couldn't see them. He turned his head
• 1:35:22
  Speaker 1: to look and ran right spank into Tadkoon's tree. Up it,
• 1:35:28
  Speaker 1: he climbed and out across the limb where chatter Squirrel
• 1:35:33
  Speaker 1: comes over from his hickory when he wants a drink
• 1:35:37
  Speaker 1: from the pant up that he climbed high up. He
• 1:35:42
  Speaker 1: wanted to squint across the bare limbs to see where
• 1:35:46
  Speaker 1: the squirrel roads ran so he could follow them through
• 1:35:50
  Speaker 1: the tree taps. But high up in that hickory east
• 1:35:54
  Speaker 1: word chatter Squirrel made his winter nest of leaves all
• 1:36:00
  Speaker 1: woven together and neatly tugged in around the edges. It's
• 1:36:04
  Speaker 1: the best place in the world to hide, because it
• 1:36:08
  Speaker 1: looks like an old crow's nest that the leaves have
• 1:36:12
  Speaker 1: blown into. Chatter wasn't asleep. The bad little owls had
• 1:36:18
  Speaker 1: wakened him, and Killers flashing in the pant had kept
• 1:36:23
  Speaker 1: him awake. Here, thought Chatter, who's the most curious somebody
• 1:36:29
  Speaker 1: on towpads? Something's going on. I guess I'll stretched my legs.
• 1:36:35
  Speaker 1: It isn't so very cold. I'd kind of like to
• 1:36:39
  Speaker 1: know how long I've been asleep. It must be more
• 1:36:44
  Speaker 1: and a weak so out popped his head. Screechy Screechy
• 1:36:50
  Speaker 1: came close up his very own tree. Chatter pricked his ears.
• 1:36:56
  Speaker 1: Then he squirmbed far enough out of his front door
• 1:37:01
  Speaker 1: so he could look down on the big bulging whiskers
• 1:37:05
  Speaker 1: of Killer. The whissel Hmm, you ought to have heard, Chatter, Squirrel.
• 1:37:11
  Speaker 1: The little owls weren't in it at all when he
• 1:37:15
  Speaker 1: began screeching. End of chapter seven Chapter eight of The
• 1:37:27
  Speaker 1: Jaybird Who Went In by Gian Breck. This liver box
• 1:37:32
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain. Killer finally reaches mouth Heaven.
• 1:37:41
  Speaker 1: Chatter Squirrel scrambled up to the very cheapest twig of
• 1:37:45
  Speaker 1: his tree and there he hung while he told Killer
• 1:37:50
  Speaker 1: all about himself. Slid throat and furd snake and matt
• 1:37:57
  Speaker 1: belly were about the only things I dare to repeat.
• 1:38:03
  Speaker 1: And all the time he kept rocking that springy tree
• 1:38:07
  Speaker 1: tap until Killer was fairly sea sick. Did Tommy Peel
• 1:38:12
  Speaker 1: and Louis Thompson hear him? You know? He did? The
• 1:38:17
  Speaker 1: hap Toad didn't try to tell them about Killer because
• 1:38:21
  Speaker 1: they didn't talk his language. Chatter didn't try either. He
• 1:38:27
  Speaker 1: was just speaking out his mind, and he didn't care
• 1:38:31
  Speaker 1: who happened to be listening. All the same, those two
• 1:38:36
  Speaker 1: little boys didn't have to know squirrel talk to understand.
• 1:38:41
  Speaker 1: But it wasn't a safe thing for Chatter to do.
• 1:38:45
  Speaker 1: He made Killer so terribly angry that he forgot to
• 1:38:49
  Speaker 1: be scared, and he forgot to be hungry, and he
• 1:38:54
  Speaker 1: forgot to be sea sick. All he wanted was to
• 1:38:58
  Speaker 1: hush up that square Up he came, foot over paw
• 1:39:04
  Speaker 1: up he came, and Chatter hadn't any higher place to climb.
• 1:39:09
  Speaker 1: He'd lost his temper too, but as soon as he
• 1:39:13
  Speaker 1: saw what a pickle he was in, he found it again,
• 1:39:18
  Speaker 1: and his wits with it. He racked until his perch
• 1:39:22
  Speaker 1: had a good long swing, and then he let himself
• 1:39:26
  Speaker 1: go out. He leaped, all paws spread, sailing like a bird.
• 1:39:32
  Speaker 1: Then down, down, down went chatter squirrel. He kept right
• 1:39:38
  Speaker 1: side up, for he had his tail to help him.
• 1:39:43
  Speaker 1: There was a big branch right beyond him. One good
• 1:39:47
  Speaker 1: flick of his rudder like a swimming fish, and his
• 1:39:52
  Speaker 1: toes caught it. He swung right around it like a
• 1:39:56
  Speaker 1: trapeze man in a circus, scratched his nose on a twig,
• 1:40:01
  Speaker 1: and then climbed his poor kicking hind feet against the bark.
• 1:40:07
  Speaker 1: There he stucked, with his poor little sides panting. Down
• 1:40:12
  Speaker 1: went killer the whistle. His measly little scrump of a
• 1:40:16
  Speaker 1: tail was mightly little used to him. He went toes
• 1:40:22
  Speaker 1: over ears. He never so much as got a claw
• 1:40:26
  Speaker 1: on any twig because he couldn't see to catch them,
• 1:40:30
  Speaker 1: but he knew where every one of them was. They
• 1:40:35
  Speaker 1: whipped him and switched him from behind, and before us
• 1:40:39
  Speaker 1: he whirled through them. He got a terrible spink when
• 1:40:44
  Speaker 1: he found his branch, for he found it wrong side first,
• 1:40:49
  Speaker 1: and went bouncing off again, being into nibble rabbits, pickery things. Yep,
• 1:40:56
  Speaker 1: there rip tear blim he hid the earth at last.
• 1:41:02
  Speaker 1: There he lay for a minute. He thought he was
• 1:41:05
  Speaker 1: dead right then then he began to breathe. Before he
• 1:41:11
  Speaker 1: really knew what to do. Next, he found his legs
• 1:41:14
  Speaker 1: were running, running just like nibble rabbit runs when Killer
• 1:41:20
  Speaker 1: is after him, and he let them go. Past the
• 1:41:24
  Speaker 1: brush pile. He ran across the clover patch through the corn. Suddenly,
• 1:41:30
  Speaker 1: right before him he saw the stone pile down a crack.
• 1:41:35
  Speaker 1: He dove and pulled his tail in after him. He
• 1:41:40
  Speaker 1: found a little bed of dry grass. No wind had
• 1:41:44
  Speaker 1: ever blown in there, but he didn't step to think
• 1:41:48
  Speaker 1: about it. Then he was so weak and tired and
• 1:41:53
  Speaker 1: bumped about he couldn't keep his eyes open. He hardly
• 1:41:58
  Speaker 1: hit the bottom before he was sound asleep. Now some
• 1:42:04
  Speaker 1: of the field mice who ran away from Doctor Muskrat's
• 1:42:08
  Speaker 1: pond before the big rain had chosen the stone pile
• 1:42:13
  Speaker 1: to live in. Those who didn't go all the way
• 1:42:17
  Speaker 1: up to the barn. If Killer hadn't been more hurt
• 1:42:21
  Speaker 1: than he was hungry, and more tired than he was hurt,
• 1:42:26
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't have had to smell very far to find
• 1:42:30
  Speaker 1: out it was a mouse's own bed. He'd fallen asleep
• 1:42:35
  Speaker 1: on the mice knew soon enough. And then of all
• 1:42:39
  Speaker 1: the wailing and weeping and sniffing and squeaky you ever
• 1:42:44
  Speaker 1: heard tell off? Well, of course they called a metic.
• 1:42:50
  Speaker 1: They held it outside in the cold wind that was
• 1:42:53
  Speaker 1: whistling through the stones. But not all of the mice
• 1:42:58
  Speaker 1: would come. One mud old mother mouse decided to stay
• 1:43:04
  Speaker 1: and rund the risk of being eaten rather than go
• 1:43:07
  Speaker 1: to the new dangers. And one greedy, weepy mouse refused
• 1:43:13
  Speaker 1: to leave his second set of winter stores. Poor old
• 1:43:18
  Speaker 1: great grandfather field mouse, who so old his ears are
• 1:43:24
  Speaker 1: all crinkled, sat all haunched up, with his whispers drooping,
• 1:43:29
  Speaker 1: and his tail as straight as the sick pigs. But
• 1:43:33
  Speaker 1: he was very wise for a field mouse. Mice said,
• 1:43:38
  Speaker 1: he lifting a shaky paw. We must not think. We
• 1:43:43
  Speaker 1: must run and down wind to flee from danger, up
• 1:43:49
  Speaker 1: wind to meet a stranger. So here is our road.
• 1:43:54
  Speaker 1: He turned his old back to the breeze and began
• 1:43:57
  Speaker 1: to hump himself along, though even a mouse wouldn't have
• 1:44:02
  Speaker 1: called it running. He was lucky, too, for the wind
• 1:44:07
  Speaker 1: blew him right into the straw stack where all the
• 1:44:11
  Speaker 1: rest of the mice had settled. The night they ran
• 1:44:15
  Speaker 1: away from Doctor Muskrat's pond. They thought they had found
• 1:44:21
  Speaker 1: mouse heaven because the stack wasn't thrust yet. But the
• 1:44:26
  Speaker 1: mice who tried to do something different right out of
• 1:44:30
  Speaker 1: their foolish heads. You can guess what happened to them.
• 1:44:35
  Speaker 1: It was in the middle of the night when Killer
• 1:44:37
  Speaker 1: the Whistle woke up. The stone pile was a whole
• 1:44:42
  Speaker 1: lot quieter than it had been that evening when he
• 1:44:47
  Speaker 1: flopped into it, and for a minute he thought he
• 1:44:51
  Speaker 1: was back in his own snack home between two stones
• 1:44:55
  Speaker 1: of the bank of doctor Muskrat's pond. Just then one
• 1:44:59
  Speaker 1: of the little mice who belonged to the fat old
• 1:45:03
  Speaker 1: Mamma mouse, who was too stubborn to live, began to squall, Eh,
• 1:45:09
  Speaker 1: what's that? Killer pricked up his ears. Where am I? Anyhow,
• 1:45:15
  Speaker 1: he began to look himself over. He was bumps and
• 1:45:19
  Speaker 1: lamps from head to foot. His fur was torn, and
• 1:45:24
  Speaker 1: when he moved he snapped his nose on all sorts
• 1:45:28
  Speaker 1: of roly little stones. This isn't my home, said he.
• 1:45:35
  Speaker 1: But he did find that foolish mother mouse and fished
• 1:45:40
  Speaker 1: her children out of their nest with his slinky paw,
• 1:45:45
  Speaker 1: and he did find that greedy mouse who wouldn't leave
• 1:45:49
  Speaker 1: his stores. He was sticking in a crack too small
• 1:45:53
  Speaker 1: for his fat middle, with his feet kicking in the air.
• 1:45:58
  Speaker 1: Killer felt quite full and rested after he'd eaten them.
• 1:46:02
  Speaker 1: All mice are very nice, he said to himself, as
• 1:46:08
  Speaker 1: he picked the last of their bones. Very nice and
• 1:46:13
  Speaker 1: jeessy hunting the wood folk has got me into a
• 1:46:17
  Speaker 1: cloth full of trouble. I believe I live on mice
• 1:46:21
  Speaker 1: for a while. Out he climbed and went sniffing all
• 1:46:26
  Speaker 1: the trails until he found the big, clear, white one
• 1:46:31
  Speaker 1: where the mice run away from him. So how said he,
• 1:46:37
  Speaker 1: Now I wonder where these fellows venture sniff, sniff. He
• 1:46:43
  Speaker 1: went gliding off into the darkness down the wind, hiding
• 1:46:48
  Speaker 1: in every grass clump to be sure nobody was after him,
• 1:46:53
  Speaker 1: until he crawled into the very button of the straw
• 1:46:57
  Speaker 1: stack where the mice were. How rich and mousey it smelled.
• 1:47:04
  Speaker 1: If the fat grains seemed like heaven to the mice,
• 1:47:08
  Speaker 1: the fat mice all around him seemed like heaven to him.
• 1:47:13
  Speaker 1: End of chapter eight, chapter nine of The Jaybird Who
• 1:47:24
  Speaker 1: Went Tame by John Bregg. This Libribox recording is in
• 1:47:29
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Missus Tabitha Pusscat's secret. In the meantime,
• 1:47:37
  Speaker 1: while watched, the dog was busy in the barn, striped
• 1:47:42
  Speaker 1: skanks kittens came dashing up, calling, come quick, quick, com
• 1:47:49
  Speaker 1: and what do you suppose? They'd found an oil can
• 1:47:53
  Speaker 1: that fell off the mowing machine and got raked up
• 1:47:58
  Speaker 1: in the hay. It's was broken off, so it didn't
• 1:48:03
  Speaker 1: hold any more oil. But it wasn't empty great grass seeds. No,
• 1:48:10
  Speaker 1: it held a mouse, and she was squealing away inside,
• 1:48:14
  Speaker 1: making the funniest, teeniest sound like talking into a teapad.
• 1:48:21
  Speaker 1: I'm nibl Rabbit's friend. I've got something dreadful important to
• 1:48:25
  Speaker 1: tell you. Call Nibble rabbit. They did call Nibble. He
• 1:48:31
  Speaker 1: came a hopping He squeezed in as close as ever
• 1:48:35
  Speaker 1: he could get to that oil can. Well, he exclaimed.
• 1:48:40
  Speaker 1: If it isn't the lady mouse who saved my life
• 1:48:44
  Speaker 1: when Uf the RD was after me, you needn't worry, ma'am.
• 1:48:49
  Speaker 1: My hunting friends won't hurt you. They can't chuckle the mouse.
• 1:48:55
  Speaker 1: Even Oof's wicked grandsons, couldn't. They not my front door
• 1:49:01
  Speaker 1: till their teeth ached. But they couldn't make it any bigger,
• 1:49:06
  Speaker 1: and even their grabby paws wouldn't reach to the bottom
• 1:49:10
  Speaker 1: of it. But I've sat here listening and listening and
• 1:49:14
  Speaker 1: squirming in my skin because they were listening too, so
• 1:49:19
  Speaker 1: I couldn't get out to warn you. This is what
• 1:49:22
  Speaker 1: I heard. All the mice from the woods and fields
• 1:49:26
  Speaker 1: are living in the stack of grain. Tommy Peel's father
• 1:49:30
  Speaker 1: grew to feed the cows in the winter time. Not
• 1:49:34
  Speaker 1: just a few of us like other ears, but hundreds
• 1:49:38
  Speaker 1: and hundreds, all nibbling and destroying it. Before long there
• 1:49:43
  Speaker 1: won't be anything left then the ruts, they say. The
• 1:49:48
  Speaker 1: cows will go wild, and the men will starve, and
• 1:49:53
  Speaker 1: the mice will have all these houses and barns and
• 1:49:57
  Speaker 1: everything else that's in them, but the rats will rule
• 1:50:01
  Speaker 1: over them. You know what that means. I'd rather have men.
• 1:50:07
  Speaker 1: Nibl Rabbit's face was as long as his ears when
• 1:50:11
  Speaker 1: he backed out of the haystack, and he repeated every
• 1:50:15
  Speaker 1: word the lady mouse had just been telling him, Hm,
• 1:50:21
  Speaker 1: remarked stripes kongk, who had been listening with his head
• 1:50:25
  Speaker 1: on one side, looks to me as if it was
• 1:50:29
  Speaker 1: time for us woodsfolk to do something. Let's call a
• 1:50:34
  Speaker 1: meeting Doctor, Mascot, Chake, Jy, and Tatoon are still to
• 1:50:40
  Speaker 1: be heard from here sounds. He waved a paw go
• 1:50:45
  Speaker 1: bring them, and off scuttled his three kittens. Well to
• 1:50:51
  Speaker 1: make a long stories short a meeting they had, but
• 1:50:55
  Speaker 1: little good did it do them. The mice were in
• 1:50:59
  Speaker 1: the step. They didn't have to leave it for any reason,
• 1:51:04
  Speaker 1: and unless they did, none of the woodsfolk could catch
• 1:51:08
  Speaker 1: them or were growled. Watch uneasily, after the fiftieth time
• 1:51:15
  Speaker 1: they'd been over the question, or might do something if
• 1:51:19
  Speaker 1: we could make the cat talk with us. You ought
• 1:51:23
  Speaker 1: to have seen the woodsfolk prick up their ears when
• 1:51:27
  Speaker 1: watched the dog spoke of the cat. Nobody else knew
• 1:51:31
  Speaker 1: a single thing about her, but instead of listening to
• 1:51:36
  Speaker 1: what Watch had to say, they all began to talk
• 1:51:40
  Speaker 1: at once. Isn't that always the way? What good can
• 1:51:45
  Speaker 1: that cat do? She is a sneak and a liar,
• 1:51:49
  Speaker 1: said nibl Rabbit. A cat has no friends. She always
• 1:51:54
  Speaker 1: hands along put in stripes kunk. She's lazy, real ill mannered, brute,
• 1:52:02
  Speaker 1: said Tad. Dear me, grinned watch what an awful creature
• 1:52:08
  Speaker 1: she must be to hear you tell about her. Let's
• 1:52:12
  Speaker 1: have doctor muskrat's opinion. I don't know anything, answered the
• 1:52:18
  Speaker 1: wise old beast, but I suspect she'll like these white
• 1:52:23
  Speaker 1: ducks I've been hunting with the last few days. They'd
• 1:52:27
  Speaker 1: be dreadful fools to a wild duck's way of thinking,
• 1:52:32
  Speaker 1: But they've taught me a lot. Maybe that cat would
• 1:52:36
  Speaker 1: teach us a lot more. And watch what about her?
• 1:52:41
  Speaker 1: You're all of you right, sniffed watch, thoughtfully, cacking one ear.
• 1:52:48
  Speaker 1: For the first three months I spent on this farm,
• 1:52:52
  Speaker 1: I don't think I was ever without one of her
• 1:52:55
  Speaker 1: call marks on me. So I used to hate her.
• 1:53:00
  Speaker 1: And you're all of you wrong too, he cacked the
• 1:53:05
  Speaker 1: other ear. Once she taught me to change my own
• 1:53:09
  Speaker 1: rights and now my own bones. I learned there isn't
• 1:53:13
  Speaker 1: a creature in full honester or with better manners. She's
• 1:53:19
  Speaker 1: friends with nobody, yet I feel mighty friendly toward her
• 1:53:24
  Speaker 1: mind ways or beast ways. She knows more than all
• 1:53:28
  Speaker 1: of us put together. She could teach us a lot,
• 1:53:32
  Speaker 1: but she won't yet if she chose to advise us
• 1:53:37
  Speaker 1: without giving a single reason, I do exactly what she
• 1:53:42
  Speaker 1: said and trust her for the rest. She's clever, well
• 1:53:47
  Speaker 1: watched came a pouring voice from nowhere, In particular, it
• 1:53:51
  Speaker 1: was pretty dark by now. If that's the way you feel,
• 1:53:55
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you this be on foot here to morrow night,
• 1:53:59
  Speaker 1: and you'll see the last mouse blow to the woods
• 1:54:03
  Speaker 1: on the sunset wind. The voice stepped. It certainly was
• 1:54:08
  Speaker 1: Missus tabitha pusscat who had been talking but craning their
• 1:54:14
  Speaker 1: necks as they would. Nobody could see a sign of her.
• 1:54:19
  Speaker 1: Nibbel sat down and scratched his color with his hind foot.
• 1:54:24
  Speaker 1: He was dead puzzled about it, well, he gasped, What
• 1:54:30
  Speaker 1: do you suppose she meant? I don't know what answered,
• 1:54:36
  Speaker 1: but she must have a reason of her own. I did,
• 1:54:41
  Speaker 1: said the puss cat voice. And there Missus Tabitha stood
• 1:54:46
  Speaker 1: right beside him, purring, until we get these mice cleaned
• 1:54:51
  Speaker 1: off this farm. I want to make a compact with
• 1:54:55
  Speaker 1: your friends. If they won't hunt me, I won't hand them.
• 1:55:00
  Speaker 1: She looked specially at Tad Kuhn by the curl in
• 1:55:05
  Speaker 1: the bullfrog's tail. Tad exclaimed admiringly, you are a clever one,
• 1:55:12
  Speaker 1: oh mice. What a lot of colls you'll find a
• 1:55:15
  Speaker 1: waiting for you. Of course, the wood fog were willing
• 1:55:20
  Speaker 1: to be friends. But the cat, having told all her reason,
• 1:55:25
  Speaker 1: she knew Killer the Whistle had just crawled into that
• 1:55:29
  Speaker 1: mouse's straw stack. She didn't want to be the one
• 1:55:33
  Speaker 1: to fight him when he came out again, and she
• 1:55:37
  Speaker 1: knew just when and why he was coming. That was
• 1:55:42
  Speaker 1: a secret too. How did missus tabitha pusecat know the
• 1:55:48
  Speaker 1: mice were going to leave their straw stack at sundown
• 1:55:53
  Speaker 1: the very next evening because she knew there wouldn't be
• 1:55:58
  Speaker 1: any stack left for them to stay in, or any
• 1:56:02
  Speaker 1: grain left to eat up at the house. Tommy Peel's
• 1:56:06
  Speaker 1: father had just been saying, better go to bed early,
• 1:56:11
  Speaker 1: young fellow, if you're going to stay home from school
• 1:56:15
  Speaker 1: tomorrow to help me with the thrush egg. You know
• 1:56:19
  Speaker 1: what thrashing is. A great big engine comes perfect into
• 1:56:24
  Speaker 1: the barnyard with a great big machine that shakes all
• 1:56:29
  Speaker 1: the fat little grains out of their thin little chef overcoats.
• 1:56:35
  Speaker 1: Tommy Peeled father thrushed at the very last latest end
• 1:56:39
  Speaker 1: of the season because he knew those fat little grains
• 1:56:44
  Speaker 1: would keep on getting further even after their stems were
• 1:56:49
  Speaker 1: cut off, if he just piled them up into a
• 1:56:53
  Speaker 1: nice stack and let them go quietly off to sleep
• 1:56:57
  Speaker 1: for the winter. They hid a lot of good food
• 1:57:02
  Speaker 1: in their hallow stems. The foury folk aren't the only
• 1:57:06
  Speaker 1: ones who get ready for the hungry season. To toot
• 1:57:11
  Speaker 1: whistled the engine, psh it sent up a cloud of
• 1:57:16
  Speaker 1: steam cluk cluk, squeak, squeak, cough. When the thrashing machine
• 1:57:22
  Speaker 1: then war wore its tongue began to lick up the
• 1:57:26
  Speaker 1: bundles of straw with the grains all wrapped up on
• 1:57:30
  Speaker 1: the end of their stalks. It leaked so fast that
• 1:57:35
  Speaker 1: the men who were feeding it could hardly keep up
• 1:57:39
  Speaker 1: with its appetite. Wish came the straw tumbling out off
• 1:57:44
  Speaker 1: a long hollow arm with a crook on the end
• 1:57:48
  Speaker 1: of it. That spread the straw into a new pile.
• 1:57:52
  Speaker 1: And you ought to have seen the little overcoats go
• 1:57:56
  Speaker 1: sailing off in the wind. But the leapy little grains
• 1:58:01
  Speaker 1: didn't know anything about it. They came pouring out of
• 1:58:06
  Speaker 1: the side of that machine, all lies and warm and
• 1:58:11
  Speaker 1: snuggled together in a comfortable sack, ready to be stored
• 1:58:16
  Speaker 1: away where the mice couldn't get them. For Tommy's own
• 1:58:21
  Speaker 1: hungry season, wad wanted to shake himself by the scruff
• 1:58:26
  Speaker 1: of his own furry neck for not thinking about it.
• 1:58:31
  Speaker 1: Now he knew what that cat meant. The new straw
• 1:58:35
  Speaker 1: pile grew bigger and bigger. The old stack where the
• 1:58:40
  Speaker 1: mice were hidden grew smaller and smaller. Those foolish mice
• 1:58:46
  Speaker 1: soon wouldn't have any stack left to hide in. Pretty
• 1:58:50
  Speaker 1: soon they'd have to begin coming out. But he didn't
• 1:58:55
  Speaker 1: know who else was coming. The cat didn't tell him.
• 1:59:00
  Speaker 1: End of chapter nine, Chapter ten of The Jaybird Who
• 1:59:11
  Speaker 1: Went tam by John Breck. This Librivax recording is in
• 1:59:17
  Speaker 1: the public domain. Many things thrashed out. Tommy Peel was
• 1:59:24
  Speaker 1: mighty busy the day of the thrushing. He had to
• 1:59:29
  Speaker 1: run for oil and monkey wrenches and drinks for the men,
• 1:59:33
  Speaker 1: and I don't know what else all day long. So
• 1:59:37
  Speaker 1: were the men, So was that noisy, hungry old thrushing
• 1:59:42
  Speaker 1: machine that kept eat it, eating up the mouse's stack,
• 1:59:48
  Speaker 1: shaking out the grain for chummy's winter food, and the
• 1:59:52
  Speaker 1: pigs and cows and the chickens. But none of them
• 1:59:57
  Speaker 1: was any busier than watch the Plus, his stack grew
• 2:00:01
  Speaker 1: smaller and smaller every time a man lifted off any
• 2:00:05
  Speaker 1: straw the mice beneath it dived deep down into the
• 2:00:11
  Speaker 1: little low heap there was left until it really held
• 2:00:16
  Speaker 1: more mice than grain and something else. Four Killer was
• 2:00:21
  Speaker 1: hiding down in the very deepest bottom of it. He
• 2:00:26
  Speaker 1: couldn't think what was going on. The noise outside frightened him.
• 2:00:32
  Speaker 1: When he put out his nose to see what was happening,
• 2:00:37
  Speaker 1: there was a man standing right in front of him,
• 2:00:41
  Speaker 1: so he pulled back in a great hurry. The next
• 2:00:46
  Speaker 1: time he tried it, he found the big green eyes
• 2:00:50
  Speaker 1: of the cat staring right at him. They made shivers,
• 2:00:55
  Speaker 1: ran up his spine, and took away his appetite. How
• 2:01:00
  Speaker 1: he wished he'd never come way from home, But all
• 2:01:04
  Speaker 1: he could do now was to sit still and listen.
• 2:01:09
  Speaker 1: Awful things began to happen. Whole families of baby mice,
• 2:01:14
  Speaker 1: too little to run, went into the maw of that machine,
• 2:01:19
  Speaker 1: and nobody knew what became of them. Mice began bursting
• 2:01:25
  Speaker 1: out of the crowded stack. Some of them ran any
• 2:01:29
  Speaker 1: which way. Some of them saw the new straw pile
• 2:01:34
  Speaker 1: and scuttled over there. Then squeak weak That was the
• 2:01:40
  Speaker 1: end of them, for it hit tatcoon and striped Skunk
• 2:01:45
  Speaker 1: and his three kittens. That's what Watch had been doing.
• 2:01:50
  Speaker 1: He'd been sneaking them in there when nobody was looking.
• 2:01:54
  Speaker 1: And Doctor Muskrat was there too, with those three jelly
• 2:01:59
  Speaker 1: white ducks who'll gabble a mouse gladly if anyone will
• 2:02:05
  Speaker 1: kill it for them, and Nibble Rabbit and the whole
• 2:02:09
  Speaker 1: bunny family were on guard to make sure nobody get
• 2:02:14
  Speaker 1: past the fighters while they were busy. Missus Tabitha Pusscat
• 2:02:20
  Speaker 1: knew that's what would happen when the thrashing machine ate
• 2:02:25
  Speaker 1: up the straw from over the very heads of the mice,
• 2:02:30
  Speaker 1: but she was the only one who was clever enough
• 2:02:34
  Speaker 1: to think about it. Yet she wasn't proud. She was worried.
• 2:02:39
  Speaker 1: She'd seen Killer the Whistle run into that stack. Where
• 2:02:44
  Speaker 1: was he if he wasn't hiding in the little bit
• 2:02:48
  Speaker 1: of it that was left, and if he was well.
• 2:02:53
  Speaker 1: She didn't want the woods folk to spend their time
• 2:02:57
  Speaker 1: catching mice and leave her to fight. She wanted them
• 2:03:02
  Speaker 1: to do it. That's why she took the trouble to
• 2:03:05
  Speaker 1: make friends with them. So she kept walking about on
• 2:03:10
  Speaker 1: top of it, saying er, er, in a troubled voice,
• 2:03:17
  Speaker 1: what's up? Now asked what, bouncing over to hear what
• 2:03:22
  Speaker 1: the old cat was saying. But she felt so sneaky
• 2:03:26
  Speaker 1: about what she'd been hiding from them all that now
• 2:03:31
  Speaker 1: she didn't care to explain. She just danced about like
• 2:03:36
  Speaker 1: someone was biting her toes on the bottom and yowled.
• 2:03:42
  Speaker 1: So of course he began sniffing and digging. There's something
• 2:03:47
  Speaker 1: else here, said Tommy's father. Let's see. He took up
• 2:03:52
  Speaker 1: his fork and made the straw fly. The other man
• 2:03:57
  Speaker 1: came to help him. They kept the old cat jumping yere.
• 2:04:03
  Speaker 1: She squalled, her chail swelled up with fright, and her
• 2:04:07
  Speaker 1: eyes began to gleam. A dark streak had shut out
• 2:04:12
  Speaker 1: of the straw, the very thing she had been looking for,
• 2:04:17
  Speaker 1: Killer the whistle My. But he was going and nobody
• 2:04:22
  Speaker 1: seemed to have any wits about him. Nobody you'd expect
• 2:04:27
  Speaker 1: to have them. Nobody but little Tommy Peel and Striped
• 2:04:32
  Speaker 1: Skunk's children. They thought Killer was a right and they
• 2:04:37
  Speaker 1: just had to hunt him. They weren't afraid of man.
• 2:04:42
  Speaker 1: The only man they knew were Tommy Peele and Louis Thompson,
• 2:04:47
  Speaker 1: and they were good friends. Wow, But just then they
• 2:04:52
  Speaker 1: take after him the woods folk began bursting out of
• 2:04:57
  Speaker 1: that straw pile. Pause were surely flying under the stack.
• 2:05:03
  Speaker 1: They went over the engine, through the thrashing machine, in
• 2:05:07
  Speaker 1: and out, and up and down. But Hiller was smaller
• 2:05:12
  Speaker 1: and faster than anyone, and how he could climb better
• 2:05:17
  Speaker 1: than anyone but the cat, and she was afraid of him.
• 2:05:22
  Speaker 1: If he could have reached the elm tree or a
• 2:05:25
  Speaker 1: rat hole. But the skunks hadn't practiced on rats for nothing.
• 2:05:32
  Speaker 1: There was one more thing to climb, the long arm
• 2:05:36
  Speaker 1: of the thrashing machine, reaching almost to the roof of
• 2:05:40
  Speaker 1: the barn. Up he went. He was way out in
• 2:05:44
  Speaker 1: the far out end when tat coon bounced four footed
• 2:05:50
  Speaker 1: on the bottom of it. UPSI daisy. It flicked the
• 2:05:54
  Speaker 1: whissel off like chatter. Squirrel's hickory tree had done killer
• 2:06:00
  Speaker 1: when rolling and tumbling down the slippery side off the
• 2:06:04
  Speaker 1: new straw pile. For a moment, nobody moved hide, nor hair,
• 2:06:10
  Speaker 1: nor skin, nor overalls. Killer The whistle rolled and slid
• 2:06:16
  Speaker 1: and clawed and grabbed at the loose straw. Didn't he
• 2:06:20
  Speaker 1: send it fly? And wasn't he? Cursing and snarling, the
• 2:06:25
  Speaker 1: men held their breath. The wood folk gulped hard for
• 2:06:29
  Speaker 1: theirs because they'd lost it all chasing him. Suddenly, Tommy's
• 2:06:35
  Speaker 1: dog Watch began to bark. He'll dig in, he'll dig in.
• 2:06:41
  Speaker 1: There's nobody guard in the barroom of it. If he
• 2:06:44
  Speaker 1: digs in, we'll lose him. He forget about Old doctor Muskrat.
• 2:06:50
  Speaker 1: The wise old fellow doesn't like to fight. He can't
• 2:06:55
  Speaker 1: run fast enough. But if fighting comes his way. Well,
• 2:07:00
  Speaker 1: he'd been sitting all this time in the bathroom of
• 2:07:03
  Speaker 1: the straw, just nibbling his whiskers because he wasn't any
• 2:07:08
  Speaker 1: help to the rest of them. Killer came tumbling right
• 2:07:13
  Speaker 1: down on top of him, and Killer was surely fighting. Snap,
• 2:07:19
  Speaker 1: Doctor Muskrat can snap fast enough to catch minnows with
• 2:07:23
  Speaker 1: their flicky tails. I guess he could snap fast enough
• 2:07:28
  Speaker 1: to catch Killer, no matter how swiftly he was passing.
• 2:07:33
  Speaker 1: They rolled out into the barnyard, slashing and biting, and
• 2:07:38
  Speaker 1: the cat arched her back and squawled, kill him, kill
• 2:07:43
  Speaker 1: em A lot of help. She was. Neither of the
• 2:07:47
  Speaker 1: fires knew where he had a hold of the other fellow,
• 2:07:51
  Speaker 1: though they each knew mighty well where the other fellow
• 2:07:55
  Speaker 1: had a hold of him. Flap came tat Kuhn with
• 2:08:00
  Speaker 1: Steef already, but the three skunk kittens were before him.
• 2:08:05
  Speaker 1: Their bright little eyes were blazing, their jaws were snapping.
• 2:08:11
  Speaker 1: They wiped what was left of the wicked beast all
• 2:08:15
  Speaker 1: over the barnyard, snarling, you killed her, mummy, you need
• 2:08:20
  Speaker 1: you killed her. They hadn't forgotten, but killers killing days
• 2:08:26
  Speaker 1: were done. He hadn't even killed doctor Muskrat. He had
• 2:08:31
  Speaker 1: just slashed a horrid hole in the old fellow's skin.
• 2:08:36
  Speaker 1: But the old muskrat sat up as soon as he'd
• 2:08:40
  Speaker 1: caught his breath again, pulled the straw and dirt off
• 2:08:45
  Speaker 1: his ears, and flapped over to the cows drinking trough
• 2:08:49
  Speaker 1: for a deep in cold water to step the bleeding.
• 2:08:53
  Speaker 1: Then he was all right. And those men they clean
• 2:08:58
  Speaker 1: forgot all about going home. They stood and talked over
• 2:09:03
  Speaker 1: what a grand fight it had been. And you ought
• 2:09:07
  Speaker 1: to have heard Tommy Peel's father arguing with Lewis Jampson's
• 2:09:13
  Speaker 1: about which was the best rudder to have about the
• 2:09:17
  Speaker 1: barn A skunk or a coon. Missus Pushcat was so
• 2:09:23
  Speaker 1: jealous she me out right out loud, but nobody would
• 2:09:28
  Speaker 1: pay any attention to her at all. Nobody but watch,
• 2:09:34
  Speaker 1: and he hid his grin, but he shook to the
• 2:09:37
  Speaker 1: teap ends of his fur, laughing at her. So he
• 2:09:42
  Speaker 1: held her tongue and put her crafty wits to work,
• 2:09:46
  Speaker 1: planning just how she could get the wood folk all
• 2:09:50
  Speaker 1: back to their pond without quarreling. You'd better believe after
• 2:09:55
  Speaker 1: what she'd seen of their fighting, she didn't want any
• 2:10:00
  Speaker 1: She did it too, but just how. That's another story,
• 2:10:07
  Speaker 1: And of the jay Bird who Went Tame by John
• 2:10:11
  Speaker 1: Breck