RASTUS EARNS HIS SLEEP 285 
the pond. So master and dog, at two in the 
morning, returned slowly and empty handed 
across the fields, hoar frosted and cold to the feet, 
under the chill October moon. 
That was their last encounter with Rastus. 
When winter came on, Rastus at first decided to 
den up in his rock cave, but a warm, melty day 
precipitated the same sort of trickle through a 
crack that had made an ice cake over his father’s 
tail, necessitating an heroic operation, so Rastus, 
being wiser, forsook the den, taking his mate 
with him, and two of the children also, who had 
stuck around with the old folks. They climbed 
out on the damp snow, foraged a bit for food, and 
came to the great chestnut which was hollow at 
its first fork, high above the ground. Up it they 
went, one by one, and into the hole above the 
spring of the huge limb, a hole invisible from the 
ground. Inside the hollow were five other ’coons, 
who stirred wakefully at the arrival of the new- 
comers, for the day was warm, but offered no 
resistance. Working into such nooks and corners 
of the interior as were not occupied by ’coons, 
Rastus and his family likewise settled down, curl- 
