University of Virginia Library

14. XIV
JOHNNIE AND BILLIE ARE SHIPWRECKED

“NOW where are you going, boys?” asked Grandpa Lightfoot, as Billie and Johnnie Bushytail started from the nest one morning.

“We are going to the pond to play at being sailors, the way the sea-gull taught us,” answered Johnnie. “May we go, grandpa?”

“Hum, well, ahem! Let me see,” replied the old gentleman squirrel, and he looked over the tops of his glasses, right straight at those boy squirrels, until they began to be afraid they couldn't go. “Will you be very careful?” asked grandpa.

“Yes, sir,” they both exclaimed at once, just as quick as quick could be.

“Hum, ha — Ahem. Well, since you have learned to jump and dodge behind trees, and climb quickly and crack hard nuts with your teeth, perhaps sailing will be a useful thing to know. Yes, you may go.”

“I wish they'd take Jennie Chipmunk with them,” remarked Grandma Lightfoot, who was greasing the pans to make a hickory nut cake. “That child has worked so hard she deserves a holiday.”

“Aw, we don't want — ” began Billie, but his grandpa looked over the tops of his glasses at him so quickly that Billie changed what he was going to say and Johnnie finished it for him. You see Billie was afraid to object, for fear he couldn't go.''

“Yes, Jennie can come,” finished Johnnie “We will teach her how to sail.”

“That will be nice,” said Jennie, and she laughed so that she showed all her pretty, white teeth.

So the two little squirrel boys and the orphan chipmunk girl, who washed the dishes and swept out the nest, went on through the woods until they came to the pond. Then Johnnie and Billie showed Jennie how to sit on her boat, with the tail in the air for a sail. They all got on strips of bark, Johnnie on a big piece, Billie on a piece that wasn't quite so large, and Jennie Chipmunk on a real, small, tiny, little piece of bark; just like the three bears, you know. Then, as they started off Billie began to sing, and he sang:

“That isn't right!” called his brother.

“Why isn't it?” asked Billie.

“Because it isn't. That's not the way the seagull sang it. Besides, you can't hear woodlands bound, nor see wind blowing.”

“Well, maybe I got it wrong,” admitted Billie. “When that bird comes back I'm going to learn it. Come on, let's have a race. My ship will beat yours, Jennie.”

Then they all stuck their tails up in the air as far as they would go, and the wind blew, and they sailed, and they sailed, and they sailed. Right across the little pond they went, and toward a little island that was in the middle.

Then, all at once, just as quick as you can put coal on the fire, something happened. There came a strong puff of wind, and Jennie Chipmunk's ship blew over, and she fell right in the water.

“Oh, save me! Save me!” she cried, and she was so frightened that she forgot to

smile. Besides, if she had smiled her mouth would have gotten full of water, so it was a good thing she didn't smile, I think, don't you?''

“Get on my boat, quick!” called Johnnie. “It's large enough to hold you. Hurry!” and he steered his piece of bark over to her. Jennie scrambled up, and then — well, I'm almost afraid to tell you for fear you'll worry about it, but I can't help it, anyhow. What should happen next but that Billie's boat tipped over, and there he was in the water.

“Save me! Save me!” he cried, just like Jennie.

“Come on, get in my boat!” shouted Johnnie as quick as you can blow out a match on a dark night. So Johnnie helped pull Billie up on his boat, and there they all three were on the one piece of bark, and I

guess you're glad it was large enough; now, aren't you? Well, they all three held up their tails, and the wind blew them along, and then, would you believe me, what happened but the breeze got so strong that it tipped that piece of bark over and there they all were floundering about in the water and no other boat near at hand to save them. Oh, how awfully wet and frightened they were, and, you know, it's quite serious to be wet and frightened at the same time.

“Swim for the island! Swim for the island!” cried Johnnie, and, sure enough, they all did, for it was not very far off. They crawled out on the land, just as wet as when Kittie falls in the bathtub, and Billie said, with his teeth chattering: “Now, I s'pose we're shipwrecked, aren't we?” His brother said they were and so did Jennie Chipmunk, and the funny part of it is that they really

were shipwrecked on a desert island. But I'm not going to leave them there like that; no, indeed, I'm not. You see, I have to stop this story right here, but if my typewriter is working, why, to-morrow night we'll see what happened.