An episode appeared twice a month
in The Michigan Farmer magazine.
Whitepaw Follows His Nose
"It's a long way to the top of the tower," Jerry shouted
down to me as we were climbing towards the top the next day.
I grinned at him and we continued to climb up the ladder hand over
hand. The little house at the top began to grow larger and larger and
the trees below became smaller.
"That was quite a climb," Jerry puffed at Uncle Joe, as he
climbed over the rail and opened the door.
"Come right in," Uncle Joe welcomed us. "That isn't
much of a climb. Why, we rangers have to do it every day. In fact it
wasn't nearly as much of a climb as Whitepaw had getting up the river
bank after he had fallen into the river."
"You promised to tell us about Whitepaw following his nose,"
Jerry reminded.
Uncle Joe nodded. "So I did. One look around and we'll start the
story."
"I thought the little fellow was done for," Uncle Joe began
when he had looked in all directions for signs of fires and then had
seen that we were comfortable, "but he landed near shore where
the water wasn't deep, and soon he climbed up on the bank dripping with
water."
"Did he go right back home?" Jerry asked.
Uncle Joe shook his head. "He should have, but he didn't. He had
never been down by the river before and he was finding all kinds of
things new to him. He must have been pretty badly scared at first, but
when he found that he wasn't hurt and that he could hear Blackpaw near
the cave just over the hill, he decided to do a a bit of exploring.
"Whitepaw seemed to know that he should go back home. Mother bear
would soon be back from her hunting. But even if he must go back soon,
he decided to take the longest way around. He started up the hill. It
was steep and he managed to get four or five feet up before he slipped
and rolled down to the bottom again. He looked around quickly and saw
that he had almost fallen into the river again.
"Up the hill he started once more. This time he went over to one
side of the hill where there were trees. By taking hold of the first
tree and then the next, he found he could pull himself up.
"When Whitepaw was about halfway up the hill he stopped as suddenly
as if someone had spoken to him. His nose had told him there was something
very interesting just above him. He looked up but all he could see were
branches of trees. Then he saw something that looked to him like a lot
of flies buzzing around a hole in one of the trees. It was a swarm of
wild bees which had made its home in a hollow basswood tree.
"Whitepaw wrinkled his nose. He smelled honey although he didn't
know what it was. Then he decided to investigate. Up he went, branch
over branch. Then he looked around and there was the hole right in front
of his face. The smell was strong by now, so strong in fact that he
decided that whatever he was smelling must be in that hole.
"Whitepaw reached out a paw toward the hole and he almost fell.
He decided to sit on a limb and try again. This time he got his paw
in the hole and brought it out dripping with honey. He wasn't afraid
of the flies. He had brushed them off his nose many times before while
trying to sleep.
"Whitepaw tasted the honey. It was good. He paid no attention
to the buzzing of the bees. He wanted more honey. But his paw never
reached the hole a second time. Instead he drew it back to cover his
face, for a thousand angry buzzings around his face seemed to say, 'Get
out of here, get out of here'.
"Sharp needles picked his nose, his eyes, the inside of his ears.
He tried to get to the other side of the tree. The buzzings were there.
He tried to climb down but they blinded him. There was just one thing
to do.
"Whitepaw let go of the tree and dropped; dropped with a swarm
of bees right after him, and once more he was rolling towards Friendly
River."
Uncle Joe paused for a minute and then reached for his binoculars.
"And that was both good and bad for Whitepaw."
"How?" Jerry asked eagerly.
"I'm afraid that we'll have to wait until tomorrow," said
Uncle Joe.
Jerry's look of disappointment quickly passed. "We'll be here
tomorrow for sure," he said eagerly, as we started the climb down
the tower.
Click HERE to read "Whitepaw
Gets Another Unexpected Bath"
If you have questions or comments
about this Web page or site, e-mail: mary@vanmeer.com
© 2004 Leo VanMeer
|
