Bannertail 



fight" is the Redsquirrel's first impulse, 

 but when Bannertail rose up to full height 

 and spread his wondrous tail the Red one 

 was appalled. He knew his foe again ; his 

 keen, discriminating nose got proofs of 

 that. The memory of defeat was with 

 him yet. He retreated, snick-sputtering, 

 and finally went wholly out of sight. 



When all was still, Bannertail made his 

 way to the broken mushroom; rosy red 

 and beautiful its cap, snowy white its 

 stem and its crisp, juicy flesh. 



But of this he took no count. The 

 smelling of it was his great chemic test. 

 It had the quaint, earthy odor of the lit- 

 tle ones he had seen before, and yet a 

 pungent, food-like smell, like butternuts, 

 indeed, with the sharp pepper tang of the 

 jj^ rind a little strong, and a whiff, too, of 



the many-legged crawling things that he 

 had learned to shun. Still, it was allur- 

 ing as food. And now was a crucial time, 



[168] 



L^ 



