1290 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



THE PINE WOODS FOLK 



SQUEAKY FINDS TWO MORE VANDALS 



OUEAKY liked to gossip about 

 as well as anyone and he did 

 a good deal of it when he had 

 a chance, but there was nothing 

 lazy about him. When there 

 was any work to do he settled 

 right down to business and fin- 

 ished the job. So when Mrs. Squeaky told 

 him that she had located a big supply of 

 acorns he was as anxious as she to transfer 

 them to their store room. 



"Where are they?" he asked as they bobbed 

 off through the woods together. 



"In the old hollow maple stub, right on the 

 ground." 



Squeaky stopped very suddenly and looked 

 at her with doubt in his eye. "But Johnny 

 Woodmouse lives there," he exclaimed. 



"No, he doesn't," Mrs. Squeaky replied, 

 proud of her news. "Porky told me this morn- 

 ing that Mrs. Woodmouse went out on the 

 snow one night last winter and the owl caught 

 her." 



"But he did not catch Johnny and the chil- 

 dren?" he asked, still hesitating. 



"No, but Johnny left as soon as the snow 

 melted, to look for another wife, and he took 

 the children with him. They have been gone 

 six weeks." 



Squeaky no longer hesitated. He raced 

 along with his smart little wife to the old 

 maple stump. She disappeared between two 

 of the big roots and he found a small hole 

 between them that led into the big hollow 

 stump. There must have been a bushel of 

 acorns on the floor of the hollow. 



"I did not even know that there was a 

 ground hole into this stump," Squeaky ex- 

 claimed admiringly. 



"I found a tiny little hole there in the rotten 

 wood," Mrs. Squeaky explained proudly, "and 

 dug it out. You see, the acorns came from 

 up there." 



Squeaky looked up and saw a small hole 

 leading into the hollow above where Johnny 

 Woodmouse had lived. All the acorns had 

 run down through this hole. They started to 

 work at once. With an acorn in each cheek and 

 another in his teeth. Squeaky started out, but 



he could not make it. He had to take an acorn 

 out of one cheek before he could get through 

 the hole. He made a great fuss about it, but 

 finally went on with the two acorns. While 

 he was gone Mrs. Squeaky, who was of a 

 more practical turn of mind, cut the hole a 

 little larger so that her packed cheeks would 

 go through. 



Squeaky was on his second trip when he 

 saw a junco hopping along apparently picking 

 something out of the air every little while. 

 Squeaky's curiosity was aroused at once. 

 What was the junco eating? He went over 

 that way and found that the junco was pick- 

 ing the seed caps off of the tiny little pine 

 seedlings and taking the top off of the seed- 

 lings with them. Squeaky was very much 

 excited, but he could not talk with his mouth 

 so full. As it was against his principles to 

 lay down a load, he hurried home with it as 

 fast as he could go and tore back to the junco. 



"Hey," he called as soon as he was within 

 earshot, "do you know that those are pine 

 seeds that you are eating?" 



The junco looked a little disgusted. "I 

 thought they tasted like them," he replied. 



"Well, that's what they are," Squeaky cried. 

 "They stick on top of the seedling when it 

 comes out of the ground. Every time you pull 

 off one of those you pull off the top of the 

 seedling with it and kill it. We shall never 

 have any pine trees if you go around every- 

 where doing that." 



The junco looked at him curiously. "You 

 eat the seed, don't you?" he asked. 



"Certainly," said Squeaky, "but — " 



"Well, then," said the junco as he flew away 

 to another patch of seedlings. 



Squeaky was almost stunned. He had al- 

 ready scolded Porky, Cottontail and the junco 

 for destroying pine trees and now he had sud- 

 denly discovered that he had probably kept 

 more pine trees from growing than any of 

 them. Probably had destroyed more than any- 

 body else, except Chatter Box. 



It made Squeaky very thoughtful, but it did 

 not stop him from hurrying on to help Mrs. 

 Squeaky, and by evening the whole bushel of 

 acorns was safe in their store house. 



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