en to the poor Kittens, though partly prepared by their
brother's unsavoury coming back. There was the mother, whose return
had always been heralded by a delicious odour of fresh Mouse or bird,
interwoven with a loving and friendly odour of Cat, that was in itself
a promise of happiness. Scent is the main thing in Cat life, and now
the hole was darkened by a creature that was rank with every nasal
guarantee of deadly enmity. Little wonder that they all fled puffing
and spitting to the dark corners. It was a hard case; all the little
stomachs were upset for a long time. They could do nothing but make
the best of it and get used to it. The den never smelt any better
while they were there, and even after they grew up and lived elsewhere
many storms passed overhead before the last of the Skunk smell left
them.

X

THE ADVENTURES OF A SQUIRREL FAMILY

"I'll bet I kin make a Woodpecker come out of that hole," said
Sapwood, one day as the three Red-men proceeded, bow in hand, through
a far corner of Burns's Bush. He pointed to a hole in the top of a
tall dead stub, then going near he struck the stub a couple of heavy
blows with a pole. To the surprise of all there flew out, not a
Woodpecker, but a Flying Squirrel. It scrambled to the top of the
stub, looked this way and that, then spread its legs, wings and tail
and sailed downward, to rise slightly at the end of its flight against
a tree some twenty feet away. Yan bounded to catch it. His fingers
clutched on its furry back, but he got such a cut from its sharp teeth
that he was glad to let it go. It scrambled up the far side of the
trunk and soon was lost in the branches.

Guy was quite satisfied that he had carried out his promise of
bringing a Woodpecker out of the hole, "For ain't a Flying Squirrel a
kind of Woodpecker?" he argued. He was, in consequence, very "cocky"
the rest of the day, proposing to produce a Squirrel whenever they
came to a stub with a hole in it, and at length, after many failures,
had the satisfaction of driving a belated Woodpecker out of its nest.

The plan was evidently a good one for discovering living creatures.
Yan promptly adopted it, and picking up a big stick as they drew near
another stub with holes, he gave three or four heavy thumps. A Red
Squirrel scrambled out of a lower hole and hid in an upper one;
another sharp blow made it pop out and jump to the top of the stub,
but eventually back into the lower hole.

The boys beca