University of Virginia Library

16. XVI
THE BUSHYTAILS AT A PICNIC

PERHAPS you think it is rather early in the season to go on a picnic. Well, perhaps it would be for children, but you see, squirrels are different. They don't mind the cold a bit, for they have nice fur coats that they never have to take off. So, though winter had hardly gone, and though spring was a little late in arriving, Billie and Johnnie Bushytail and Jennie Chipmunk went to a picnic. Bully, the frog, had asked them.

“If you would like to go to a picnic,” Bully said, “I know where there is going to be one.”

“Where?” asked Johnnie.

“Down by my pond,” answered Bully. “The ducks are going to have it, but that doesn't matter; you can come just as well as not.”

“But we're afraid of water since we were shipwrecked,” remarked Jennie Chipmunk, who had just finished doing the dishes, and had hung the towels up to dry.

“Oh, well, you don't need to go in the water,” said the frog. “The ducks will do that. They are used to it.”

So Johnnie and Billie and Jennie asked Grandma and Grandpa Lightfoot if they might go to the picnic.

“Yes,” grandpa said, “if you are careful not to take cold. A cold at this time of the year is very bad, indeed. Oh, my, yes, and a mustard plaster besides!”

So they went to the picnic, Johnnie and

Billie and Jennie Chipmunk, and they took their lunch in a basket Mrs. Wren made for them out of grass and straw. They had several kinds of nut sandwiches, some wild cherry tea and some soft maple-tree buds that were just swelling up.

Through the woods they went, the two little boy-squirrels and the orphan chipmunk, laughing and shouting and having a fine time. Pretty soon they came to the pond where the picnic was to be held. And oh, what a lot of ducks were there! There were big ducks and little ducks, and white ducks and gray ducks, and ducks of all colors. And Mrs. Quack-Quack was there, also. She came right up to Johnnie and Billie and asked them:

“Well, are you all right since the shipwreck?”

“Oh, yes, thank you so much for saving

us,” spoke up Jennie, who was very polite indeed.

“Well,” said Mrs. Quack-Quack, “the picnic is about to begin, so I must leave you, but I will see you again. We are to start off with a grand swim.”

Then all the ducks formed in line on the pond, and they wobbled their tails, and wiggled their yellow legs, and opened their bills, and quacked until you would have thought something dreadful had happened. Around and around they swam until Johnnie and Billie were almost dizzy from watching them.

“Don't they swim fine!” cried Jennie Chipmunk.

“Pooh! That is nothing,” croaked Bully the frog. “Nothing at all. You should see me swim. I can swim under water.

Just then one of the ducks put her head

under water and stuck her tail up in the air, standing on her head, just like a man in the circus.

"There is a duck going to swim under water,” said Billie.

“Oh my, no! She is only reaching down for a few snails to eat,” said Bully. “Watch me swim,” and with that in he plumped, and swam out of sight for ever so long.

When he came up with his big eyes blinking, the grand swim was over, and all the ducks came out on land, walking as well as they could, which was not very fast. Then Mrs. Quack-Quack called out that it was time for dinner, and they all sat down and began to eat right off the ground; now, wasn't that rather odd? I thought so, myself. So Johnnie and Billie and Jennie took their nut sandwiches and maple-tree buds out of their basket, and they began to eat,

too, and right in the middle of their lunch who should come along but Mrs. Spider — the one who lived on the desert island.

“Where are the flies you promised me?” she asked.

“Oh, we forgot all about them,” said Billie. “But what are you doing here?”

“I am on my way to visit Miss Muffet,” answered the spider. “You know I have to go and sit down beside her, because I'm a spider while she's on her tuffet, little Miss Muffet, eating her curds and whey. It really is quite a trial to me, as much as it is to her, but I have to do it, you know, because it's in all the books.”

“Don't say that, please,” croaked the frog, rubbing his cold nose. “You make me shiver,” and would you believe it, he began to shiver then and there. Pretty soon the spider went away, and Billie and Johnnie

and Jennie finished their lunch. Then the ducks went in swimming again, and once more after that, because it was their picnic, and they could do as they pleased. Then came all sorts of games, in which the squirrels took part, but they could run so much faster than the ducks that they caught the ducks every time. Then the picnic was over and Johnnie and Billie and Jennie went home. To-morrow night you shall hear about playing soldier.