Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel

Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel

Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel

Slicko, the Jumping Squirrel

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Overview

A family of gray squirrels lives in a tree in the woods — Mr. and Mrs. Squirrel, Slicko, Chatter, Fluffy, and Nutto. Mama teaches the children to jump from limb to limb so that they can travel without touching the ground, and little Slicko practices hard to become the best jumping squirrel in the forest. When the hunter-man and his dog discover the family nest, the squirrels have to split up and Slicko uses her jumping skills to find safety on her own.
The brave little squirrel's adventures begin when she ventures off and meets new friends, including Squinty, the comical pig, and circus performers Mappo, the merry monkey, and Tum Tum, the jolly elephant. But when Slicko falls into a trap she must summon up all her pluck to make the best of a challenging situation.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780486787817
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publication date: 09/08/2014
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 128
File size: 1 MB
Age Range: 4 - 10 Years

Read an Excerpt

Slicko

The Jumping Squirrel


By Richard Barnum, Harriet H. Tooker

Dover Publications, Inc.

Copyright © 2014 Dover Publications, Inc.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-486-78781-7



CHAPTER 1

SLICKO LEARNS TO JUMP


Half way up the side of a tall tree there was a round hole in the trunk. The hole was lined with soft, dried leaves, and bits of white, fluffy cotton, from the milkweed plant. And, if you looked very carefully at the hole, you might see, peering from it, a little head, like that of a very small kitten, and a pair of very bright eyes.

But it was not a kitten that looked from the little hole in the trunk of the tree. Kitties can climb trees, but they do not like to live in them. They would rather have a warm place behind the stove, with a nice saucer of milk.

Now if I tell you that the little creatures who lived in this hole-nest had big, fluffy tails, and that they could sit up on their hind legs, and eat nuts, I am sure you can guess what they were.

Squirrels! That's it! In the nest, half way up the big tree in the woods, lived a family of gray squirrels, and I am going to tell you about them, or, rather, more particularly, about one of the little girl squirrels whose name was Slicko.

One morning Mrs. Squirrel, who had gotten up out of the nest early, to go out and get some breakfast for her little ones, came back very quickly, jumping from one tree branch to another, and fairly scrambling down into the nest where the little boy and girl squirrels of her family were still asleep.

"Why, what's the matter, Mother?" asked Mr. Squirrel, in the queer, chattering language he and his wife used. "Why are you in such a hurry this morning? See, you have dropped a lot of nuts!"

He looked out over the edge of the nest, down to the ground, where he saw some of the nuts Mrs. Squirrel had dropped. She had been bringing them home for breakfast.

"What made you run so?" asked Mr. Squirrel, who had stayed home with the little ones, while his wife went after nuts.

"Well, I guess you'd have hurried too," said the mamma squirrel, "if you saw what I saw!"

"What was it?" asked Mr. Squirrel, and he pulled his head in from the nest-hole, so that if any bad animals were down below on the ground they could not see him.

"It was a man, with a dog and a gun," said Mrs. Squirrel. "He was out hunting, and I'm almost sure he saw me!"

"My, that would be too bad!" exclaimed Mr. Squirrel. "Do you think he followed you to shoot you?"

"I hope not," said Mrs. Squirrel. "I ran as fast as I could when I saw him, and I did not hear his gun go off, but I did hear the dog bark."

"Hum!" said Mr. Squirrel, in his own language, and he seemed as worried as your papa might be if he heard there was a bad animal, or a runaway horse, coming after you. "So the hunter did not shoot his gun, eh?"

"Not that I heard," answered Mrs. Squirrel. "But he may be trying to find this nest."

"I'll look out and see if he is coming," said Mr. Squirrel.

"Be careful he doesn't see you," said Mrs. Squirrel.

"I will," replied her husband. And then he carefully, carefully peeked out of the hole of the nest in the hollow trunk of the tree. Squirrels are smarter than we think. Though they do not know how to shoot a gun, they know that a gun can hurt them, and when one is shot off in the woods, all the squirrels, and the birds and wild creatures, are very much frightened, and run to hide.

So Mr. Squirrel looked out to see if he could see a man with a gun and a dog. But he saw nothing, and he was glad of it.

"I guess he didn't see which way you went, Mamma," he said to his wife. "Now we will give the children their breakfast, and then we must begin teaching them their lessons. For if hunters, with dogs and guns, are to come to our woods, it is time our little ones knew how to look after themselves, and how to hide, and jump to safe places."

"I think so, too," said Mrs. Squirrel. "Wake up, children!" she cried. "Come, Slicko! Hurry up, Chatter! Come, Fluffy and Nutto! Breakfast is ready!"

Four little squirrels—two boys and two girls—awoke in the tree-nest and sat up on their hind legs in the soft leaves and cotton. They saw the nuts their mother had brought, and at once began eating them. That was all they had to do to get ready for breakfast.

The squirrel children did not have to dress, for they wore their fur suits all the year 'round, never taking them off. In winter their fur grew much thicker than in summer, to keep them warmer.

The squirrel children did not have to wash themselves in a basin. All any of them did was to wet one paw with his little red tongue, and wipe it over his face. Then he was washed. But you wouldn't like to do that, I'm sure.

"Come, children, eat your breakfasts," said Mrs. Squirrel, "and then you are going to have a new lesson."

"A new lesson!" chattered Slicko, one of the girl squirrels, to her mamma, speaking in a language that you or I could not have understood. "What kind of a lesson is it going to be?"

You see the squirrel children had been taught how to gnaw open hard nuts, and to take out the sweet, juicy kernels inside. They had been taught how to climb trees, and wash their faces. But there were many other things for them to learn. Slicko was the largest of the squirrel children, and she asked the most questions.

"What is your lesson going to be, Mother?" Slicko wanted to know.

"I hope it's going to be a sleeping lesson," said Fluffy, one of the boy squirrels. "I'm sleepy yet," and he yawned and stretched himself, just like a little monkey.

"Oh, fie on you!" said his papa. "Squirrels should be lively, and hop about when they awake in the morning. Come now, if you have finished your nuts, your mamma and I will teach you a new lesson, and one that you must learn well, or there may be danger for you."

"Pooh, I'm not afraid! What sort of danger?" asked Nutto, the other boy squirrel. He was called Nutto because he was so fond of eating chestnuts.

"Oh, I'm afraid," said Chatter, the littlest girl squirrel. "Don't say such scary things, Nutto," and Chatter looked over the edge of the nest as though she might see a big hawk-bird swooping down, for her papa and mamma had told her to always hide when a big hawk flew over the woods. But no hawk was in sight, now.

"You are going to have some jumping lessons," went on Mr. Squirrel. "After you learn to jump, I will tell you why."

You see the papa squirrel did not want just then to tell the little ones about their mamma having seen a hunter-man, with a dog and gun, for fear, if he did, they might be too frightened to come out of the nest and learn to jump. But Mr. Squirrel knew there was no danger near, just then, at any rate, and he wanted his children to be as brave as they could be.

Soon, after the breakfast nuts were eaten, the four little squirrels went out on a straight branch, that stuck out from the tree trunk near the nest. Papa and Mamma Squirrel stood there with them.

"Now this is the idea," said Mr. Squirrel, in his chattering language, that you or I could not have understood, but which was as plain to the little squirrels, as a papa dog's language is to a puppy, or a mamma cat's mewing to her little kittens. "You are all going to learn to jump," said Mr. Squirrel.

"What's a jump?" asked Slicko, who, as I have said, was always asking questions. She asked more questions than her two brothers and her sister together. But Slicko wanted to know about things.

"See!" exclaimed Mr. Squirrel. "This is a jump. Now I am on this limb beside you. Now watch!"

He gave a little spring, or jump, through the air, and landed on the branch of another tree, some distance off.

"That is a jump," said Mr. Squirrel. "It is getting from one branch to another without running or walking. It is a quick way of walking, I suppose you could call it, and when you are in a hurry, as when some one is chasing you, and you have no time to run or walk, you must jump. Now let me see you jump down here, just as I did. Come on, all of you!"

"Yes, go on!" said Mamma Squirrel, who was still on the tree limb by the nest. "You little squirrels must learn to jump. That is the one, big lesson left for you to learn."

Slicko looked at Chatter. Fluffy looked at Nutto. Then they all looked down at their papa on the lower limb.

"Come on! Don't be afraid!" called Mr. Squirrel. "Jump! You won't be hurt!"

"But—but I'm afraid," said Nutto, who, you remember, had said he was not at all frightened.

"Oh, you mustn't be afraid," said Mr. Squirrel. "There is nothing to hurt you. I'm sure you can jump if you try. Give a good, hard spring, and you'll land down here on the limb beside me. Besides, if you do fall, the ground is covered with soft leaves, and you won't be hurt. Come on. Jump!"

But the little squirrels did not want to.

"You go first," said Nutto to Fluffy.

"No, I'd rather watch you go first," spoke Fluffy.

"Maybe Chatter will go," suggested Nutto. "The girls are not as heavy as we are, and they won't be hurt if they fall."

"One of you boys ought to go first," said Slicko. "You are always saying you're not afraid. You jump first, Nutto, and Chatter and I will come after you."

"Oh, I don't want to," said Nutto.

And there the four little squirrels stood on the limb near the nest, each one afraid to jump. Their papa stood waiting for them, and he kept thinking that if the hunter and his dog should come along then, the little squirrels would be in danger of being shot, if they did not know how to jump out of the way, and hide.

"Come on. You must learn to jump!" called Mrs. Squirrel.

Slicko took a long breath. After all, though she did ask a number of questions, Slicko was rather brave.

"I'm going to jump," she said.

"That's the girl!" cried her father. "Come on; jump down here beside me!"

Slicko moved over close to the edge of the tree branch. Then, with another long breath, such as a boy takes before he dives, when he is in swimming, Slicko jumped from the tree branch.

She found herself sailing through the air. At first she was greatly frightened. She spread out her tail, and then she found that she was floating through the air almost as gently as a bird's feather. Her tail helped her to fall gently, for it was just like a big, open umbrella, and held her up, as the parachute holds up the man who jumps from a balloon.

"There goes Slicko!" cried her mamma. "Slicko is learning to jump!"

Down, down, down through the air went Slicko, the jumping squirrel. Would she land on the tree branch beside her father? Slicko certainly hoped so, but still it was her first jump.

CHAPTER 2

SLICKO MEETS SQUINTY


"That's the way to do it!" cried Mrs. I Squirrel, as she saw Slicko sailing down through the air toward the limb on which was perched Mr. Squirrel.

"Don't be afraid. You'll get down all right!" called Mr. Squirrel.

Slicko fluffed out her tail as wide as she could. She felt that it was her tail which would save her from landing too hard and hurting her paws. Nearer and nearer she came to the limb on which was her papa.

"Here you are!" cried Mr. Squirrel, a moment later, and with a little shaking up, Slicko found herself safely beside her dear papa.

"Wasn't that nice?" asked Mr. Squirrel, moving over close beside his little girl.

"Oh, indeed it was," said Slicko, breathing a little faster than usual, for this was her first jump, you see.

"Now, Chatter, Fluffy and Nutto! It's your turns!" said Mrs. Squirrel. "See, Slicko made a good jump, and you can each do the same. Come on."

"Yes, do!" said Mr. Squirrel. "You really must learn to jump, and then I'll tell you why."

"Oh, is it a secret?" asked Chatter, the other little girl squirrel. She was a sister to Slicko.

"Yes, it's a secret," answered Mrs. Squirrel.

Now I am not quite sure about it, but I suppose girl squirrels want to hear a secret just as much as real girls do, and I have always found that if you wanted to get a real little girl to do anything for you, that she would do it ever so much more quickly, if she thought there was a secret about it.

Perhaps that is why Chatter made up her mind to jump as Slicko had done. Mind, I am not saying for sure, for I don't know. But maybe it was so.

Anyhow, Chatter moved over close to the edge of the tree limb. She looked down

to where her papa and Slicko sat up on their hind legs, watching her.

"Here I come! Catch me!" spoke Chatter.

"All right—don't be afraid," answered her papa. "You won't fall."

Chatter gave a jump, and down she went Almost before she knew it, she had landed on a smooth place on the limb, close beside her sister and papa.

"There! I did it!" cried Chatter, in delight.

"Of course you did!" said Slicko. "Wasn't it fine?"

"It certainly was," agreed Chatter.

"Come now! The girls have jumped, and you boys mustn't let them get ahead of you!" called Mr. Squirrel, to Nutto and Fluffy. "Come on, jump down here."

Well, of course the boy squirrels weren't going to let the girl squirrels beat them, so first Nutto jumped, and then Fluffy.

"There, now you have all learned to jump," said Mrs. Squirrel. "Of course this is only the beginning. You must practice every day, just as you did when you were learning to climb trees, by sticking your sharp toe-nails in the soft bark. Every day you do a little jumping."

"But why, Mamma?" asked Slicko. "Is that the secret?"

"That is the secret," answered Mr. Squirrel. "You must learn to jump because your mamma saw a hunter-man, with a gun and dog in our woods this morning, and we must be ready to run away, and hide, if he should find our nest.

"And, as you cannot always run or walk, and climb trees, you must need to know how to jump, so you can jump out of danger. That is why we gave you jumping lessons to-day. Now, when you are rested, you must jump some more. And you must learn to jump up as well as jump down, though jumping down is easier."

The squirrel children asked many questions about the hunter-man, with his dog and gun, and Papa and Mamma Squirrel told their little ones all they knew, warning them always to hide when they saw a man with a gun.

"Well, I'm going to learn to jump farther and higher," said Slicko. "No hunter is going to catch me, if I can help it."

So Slicko began practicing jumping, going from one tree branch to another, up and down, and sideways. The papa and mamma squirrel watched on all sides while their children were jumping, to make sure the hunter-man did not come.

Whether it was because Slicko was larger and stronger than her brothers and sister, or because she practiced harder, I do not know. But it is certain that, in a few days, Slicko was the best jumping squirrel in that part of the woods. She could jump farther than could Chatter, and even though Nutto and Fluffy were boy squirrels, Slicko could beat them.

"Yes, Slicko is certainly a fine jumper," said Mrs. Squirrel, to her husband one day. "She can jump almost as far as we can."

"Well, I hope she is careful," spoke Mr. Squirrel. "I was over near the swamp, to-day, looking to see if I could find any sweetflag root for supper, and I heard a noise like a gun. That hunter-man is still in the woods."

"Maybe it was thunder you heard," said Mrs. Squirrel.

"No, I'm sure it was the gun of the hunter-man," went on her husband. "Well, I am glad the little ones can jump. It will help them to keep out of his way."

"Indeed it will," said Mrs. Squirrel.

For a week or so after this, the little squirrels practiced jumping every day. As soon as they had had their breakfast of nuts, or oats or wheat, which their papa or mamma brought in from the farmer's fields, the little squirrels would begin jumping.

Sometimes they would run up and down the tree trunks, and again they would pretend to hide under the leaves, for their parents had told them that was a good way to keep out of sight when there was any danger in the forest.

The Squirrel family lived in the woods, a very nice woods indeed; with many green trees growing in it. The ground in some places was covered with brown leaves, that had fallen off the trees, and in other places there was soft green moss, like the velvet carpet in the parlor at your house.

And, not far from the tree where Slicko and the other squirrels lived, was a pretty brook that ran through the wood, making nice music as it trickled over the stones. The water was cool, and good to drink, and often Slicko, and her brothers and sister, would come to the edge of the brook to bathe, or get a drink.

One day, after she had practiced her jumping lesson for some time, Slicko said to her sister, Chatter:

"Come on, let's take a little walk in the woods. It is nearly time for chestnuts to be ripe, and we may find some."

"Oh, I don't want to go," Chatter said. "I am tired from having jumped so much. I am going to lie down on the green moss, and go to sleep."

"Oh, then will you come, Nutto?" asked Slicko, of her brother.

"No, for Fluffy and I are going to hunt hickory nuts," said the boy squirrel. "You had better come with us. Chestnuts are not ripe yet. You won't find any. But, if you come with us, you'll find some hickory nuts."

"Oh, I think I can find some chestnuts," spoke Slicko, and then, as neither her brothers nor her sister would come with her, the little girl jumping squirrel started off in the woods by herself.

She ran along on the ground a little way. Then she climbed up a tree, and running out on a branch of that, she leaped from the end of it to the end of another branch, in a tree a little farther on. Slicko was a good jumper.

In this way she hurried on until she was quite a way from her home-nest.

All of a sudden, Slicko heard a noise in the bushes, as if some big animal were breaking a way through them.


(Continues...)

Excerpted from Slicko by Richard Barnum, Harriet H. Tooker. Copyright © 2014 Dover Publications, Inc.. Excerpted by permission of Dover Publications, Inc..
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Table of Contents

Contents

I Slicko Learns to Jump,
II Slicko Meets Squinty,
III Slicko Goes on a Visit,
IV Slicko Sees a Circus,
V Slicko and Tum Tum,
VI Slicko Goes Nutting,
VII Slicko is Caught,
VIII Slicko's New Home,
IX Slicko Does Some Tricks,
X Slicko Runs Away,
XI Slicko's Big Adventure,
XII Slicko Finds Her Nest,

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