After a time it began unrolling, and gradually out of the turmoil
appeared none other than Unk Wunk, the porcupine, who proceeded to
stretch his legs and yawn, quite as if nothing had happened.
“If that is his usual method of traveling,” thought Twinkly Eyes, “I’d
rather not meet him, that’s sure. Wonder who was after him that time.
I’ll bet he never intended to do all that rolling. Or is that just one
of his queer ways?”
[Illustration: [Bear]]
XLII
TWINKLY EYES PLOTS MISCHIEF
“A rolling stone gathers no moss.”
But Unk Wunk was just the opposite. In his roll down hill he had
gathered several pecks of moss and leaves on the points of his quills.
Porcupines always do go by contraries.
And Twinkly Eyes, the Bear, was no sooner convinced that that great
jagged mass of dry leaves was his foe of the swimming hole experience
than his little black eyes began twinkling more merrily than ever. For
here was opportunity knocking at his very door.
Now Twinkly Eyes was different to this extent from most of the folk that
lived in the deep woods. He had a sense of humor.
To Mammy Cottontail and her brood, life was one perpetual effort to
escape the jaws and claws and beaks and bills of the enemies on every
side. The mere matter of finding enough to eat had its dangers.
While young Frisky Fox occasionally smiled at his own cleverness, it
took the fat little bear to find amusement in everything that happened.
In the first place, he was thus far afraid of nothing under all the wide
blue sky. He was so much stronger and better-armed than almost any other
creature in the wilderness!
True, he wasn’t as well armed as Bobby Lynx, but then, Bobby had no
desire to dine off of any one that could fight like Twinkly Eyes. So,
being unafraid, Twinkly could enjoy life. And being happily able to eat
almost anything that came his way with relish, he had time to spare for
play.
Just now, as he approached that bristling ball of oak leaves that had
come so near to rolling square upon him, his little black eyes danced
with mischief. Twinkly had a plan whereby he meant to have some fun at
the prickly one’s expense!
He waited till Unk Wunk, indifferent to his presence, had stretched his
legs and begun lazily gnawing the tree trunk that was nearest to his
nose. “Unk Wunk, Unk Wunk!” he began to sing in his two monotonous
notes. “Here I am again, right side up with care, and I don’t care the
flip of my tail who sees me, nor what they try to do with me. Because
I’m dead sure they’ll get the worst of it every time.”
“Woo-huff!” snorted Twinkly Eyes, sitting up on his haunches. “Sure and
I’m going to find that out for myself! I’ll bet I know a trick that will
take you down a peg, you old grouch, you! I saw my mother do it once
last year, and I’ve never had so much fun since.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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