Instead of going into
the thick forest, they agreed to take the path by the margin of the
lake, for there they had a better chance of getting nuts and fruit;
but though it was the merry month of June, and there were plenty of
pretty flowers in bloom, the berries were hardly ripe, and our little
vagrants fared but badly. Besides being hungry, they were sadly afraid
of the eagles and fish-hawks that kept hovering over the water; and
when they went further into the forest to avoid them, they saw a great
white wood-owl, noiselessly flying out from among the close cedar swamps,
that seemed just ready to pounce down upon them. The gray squirrels
did not like the look of the owl's great round shining eyes, as they
peered at them, under the tufts of silky white feathers, which almost
hid his hooked bill, and their hearts sunk within them when they heard
his hollow cry, _"Ho, ho, ho, ho!" "Waugh, ho!"_ dismally sounding
in their ears.
It was well that Velvet-paw was as swift afoot as she was soft, for one of
these great owls had very nearly caught her, while she was eating a
filbert that she had found in a cleft branch, where a nuthatch had fixed
it, while she pecked a hole in the shell. Some bird of prey had scared
away the poor nuthatch, and Velvet-paw no doubt thought she was in luck
when she found the prize; but it would have been a dear nut to her, if
Nimble, who was a sharp-sighted fellow, had not seen the owl, and cried,
_"Chit, chit, chit, chit!"_ to warn her of her danger.
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