University of Virginia Library

12. XII
GRANDPA LIGHTFOOT IN A HOLE

ONE day it happened that there was nothing more left to eat in the squirrels' nest, for all of the nuts which they had stored up for the winter were gone.

“My goodness me!” exclaimed Grandpa Lightfoot, when Grandma Lightfoot told him this. “I must go out at once and see if I can't find some stray acorns or other nuts for breakfast. This is very serious, indeed. Oh, my goodness me, yes; and an apple core besides.”

So Grandpa Lightfoot started off, before Johnnie or Billie or Jennie Chipmunk were up, and he looked under the leaves and in

hollow trees, but not a nut could he find. Pretty soon he came to a little pond of water, with some ducks paddling about on it.

“Excuse me,” said Grandpa Lightfoot, “but could you ducks tell me where I might find some nuts to eat? We haven't any at our nest.”

Then all the ducks looked up and said: “Quack! Quack! Quack!” all at once, just like that. Then they put their heads down under the water and stuck their tails up in the air, and wiggled their feet, and didn't say another word. Grandpa Lightfoot was much disappointed. But he walked on, and pretty soon he saw something else swimming in the water, and who should appear but Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, the muskrat nurse of the Littletail family. You see, it was her day out, and she was taking exercise for her health.

“Why, Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy! How do you do?” cried grandpa.

The muskrat nurse said she was pretty well, and then Grandpa Lightfoot asked about Sammie and Susie Littletail.

“Well, Sammie got his feet wet from going out in the wet without his rubbers,” said Miss Fuzzy-Wuzzy, “and he has a bad cold. But Susie is well.”

Then, after grandpa had told about his family, he asked the muskrat if she might happen to know where he could find some nuts. And what do you think? She did! She told Grandpa Lightfoot of an old house with a gatepost in front of it. The post was hollow, she said, and in it were some nuts. Some squirrels had put them there, but they had to move in a hurry, and could not take them along, so the nuts were there yet. Grandpa Lightfoot, after asking Jane

Fuzzy-Wuzzy to bring Sammie and Susie to see Billie and Johnnie some day, hurried off and found the hollow post filled with nuts, just as the muskrat had said.

Grandpa got on top of the gatepost and looked down in. He was just wishing he had brought along a bigger bag to carry the nuts home in, when, all of a sudden, he fell right down — yes, sir, right down that hollow gatepost. Wasn't that terrible? And when he tried to climb up he couldn't, for the wood was so soft and rotten that his claws wouldn't stick. Wasn't that worse? Oh, how frightened he was! He tried and he tried and he tried, but he couldn't get up, and began to think he'd have to stay there forever.

It was long past breakfast time, and was coming on for dinner time, and when Grandpa Lightfoot didn't come back,

[Description: Full page color illustration by Louis Wisa. Two squirrels approach something resembling a dilapidated gate, behind which a spotted snake is lurking.]

Grandma Lightfoot was worried. So she told Billie and Johnnie and Jennie Chipmunk that he had gone to look for nuts, and asked their advice.

“We will go and find him,” said Billie.

“Of course we will,” spoke Johnnie. “Come on, Jennie.” The little orphan chipmunk didn't smile or laugh, she was so worried.

So the three started off, leaving Grandma Lightfoot at home, because she couldn't travel very well, and whom should they meet but Jane Fuzzy-Wuzzy, just as Grandpa had. So the muskrat told about having sent Grandpa Lightfoot to the hollow gatepost, and, hurrying there, Johnnie and Billie and Jennie Chipmunk heard him calling for help right through the post, as if it were a telephone.

“You must try to get me out,” he said.

“How can we?” asked Johnnie, and, really, it did seem a hard thing to do. They tried several ways, but none would answer, and they were just going to give up, when they heard a hissing noise, and what should they see but a long snake. At first, the squirrels were going to run away, but the snake said he would not hurt them, as he was a good snake, and not a bad one.

“I will help get Grandpa Lightfoot out,” he said. So he crawled up the post and stuck his tail down inside. Then he wound it around grandpa and pulled him up as if he were a bucket in the well. My, but maybe grandpa wasn't glad, and Billie and Johnnie, too! And maybe they didn't thank the snake! But the snake only said: “Oh, a little thing like that isn't worth speaking about. Come, I will show you how to get the nuts out. I will lower Billie and

Johnnie into the post; they can grab up all the nuts they can hold, and I will pull them up.”

“No, thank you,” said grandpa. “I have a better plan than that. I will gnaw a hole in the bottom of the post, and all the nuts will roll out. I should have done that at first.” Then the squirrels gnawed a hole, out came the nuts, and they had as many as they wanted, and the snake helped carry the nuts home. Would you like me to tell you, to-morrow night, how Johnnie and Billie went sailing?