Kentucky Tails. Betsy Byrne

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ ear. ‘One thing I know that you must be wondering is how our

      Yearlings have such different, yet beautiful coats.’ ‘I’ve heard that they are called ‘Piebald.’ To us, they’re just plain ole babies that get in to as much trouble as the brown one’s!’ ‘Did I introduce you to my sister, Penny?’ This is Faith, and we are usually together.

      She helps me to keep my babies safe. As light as they are, they stick out like sore hooves, whether it is summer with the lush green or winter white. Penny laughed, and took the hollowed out acorn that Netta gave her, that was filled with cider. ‘This is delicious, thank-you Netta.’ Netta smiled, but was very busy, handing out the cider. Avery, the little chipmunk that lives in ‘Chipmunk Alley’, and Chet, ran off towards the back of the house on the hill.

      It was always so fun to see what the man was up to, since he was always building contraptions to either, keep the critters out, or making something really useful for them. He always scattered corn kernels for the deer, and fed the birds seed.

      There were little carousels that he rigged up on the trees for the squirrels to be able to play with, and always had treats waiting for them. If the boys got there soon enough, they could beat the others, and get all the goodies that they could carry! O.K., so NOW what is he doing? He had rope stretched across the back area, and a little course for the squirrels and chipmunks to have to go through, before getting their treats.You could see by the man’s expression, that he was very proud of himself. It used to be so easy to get the food. ‘Hey, Chet, ya think we could chew through the rope at the end of the course, and the corn and seed would fall on the ground?’ ‘Naw, let’s try the course first, it really might be fun, and we can get inside and see more of what we can do better.’

      ‘You go first Chet, since it’s your idea to do this.’ Chet licked his lips, and tried to wipe the nervous sweat off his paws onto his legs. He looked so concentrated, ‘Here goes.’ Avery always knew that Chet seemed to enjoy adventures which was a good thing, since Avery wasn’t a ‘me first’ kind of chipmunk! Chet made an entire circle around the contraption, to see every part of it. ‘I’m off’ and as he held his breath, he did a tightrope walk, up the first section.

      He made it to the top where there was a small platform of wood to rest on. To the right of the course was a tube like thing. It was clear, and it opened to a canvas like flat tent. The sun all of a sudden felt like it was beating so hard on his back. All he could do was to jump down the little plastic tube not even knowing what he would be tumbling in to.

      He jumped down the tube; the air was a bit warmer inside, and through the blur. He could see Avery, giving the ‘thumbs up.’ He couldn’t help himself from giggling, it was too fun. At the end of the slide, there was a small opening that tumbled him into a tent like contraption, that hadn’t been opened yet. Avery could see Chet’s body, a lump in the canvas that kept moving forward in a very fast way.

      When Chet reached the end of the canvas, there was another tightrope that he had to cross but he could see the food at the end. He came this far he told himself, he’s not going to stop now. It was time to start showing off, (something that Chet never could resist). He used his nimble tree squirrel talents and swung his body in circles around the rope till he reached the end. At the platform, he turned to where Avery had been watching, and gave a gentlemen’s bow.

      Chet very gingerly reached over and picked up a large piece of corn that was still on the cob and ate it, directly looking again, at Avery. Something in the corner of his eye moved and caught his attention. It was the man and woman standing in the window, watching him. They were laughing and taking photos of his pride in reaching the end of the course. Chet spun around, and ran behind the tent.

      He ran back to where Avery was but didn’t tell him about seeing the people inside the house. He thought it would be funny to have Avery finish the course and turn to see them snapping photos at him too. Avery was such a little scaredy cat, he probably wouldn’t even try it anyway. The first thing when Chet ran over, Avery reached for a kernel of the corn. ‘No, if you want some, you have to go earn it like I had to.’

      The corn was still moist from the man rinsing it off. It looked delectable but just As Chet suspected; Avery wouldn’t go try the ‘fun run.’ ‘I know, let’s go get my little sister, Amee, and get her to do it.’

      ‘I bet she’d go right off, and I’ll go too, I just think it would be funny to send her down first.’ ‘Yea, right, Avery, make your little sister go first, so you have that double safety net. What a guy.’

      Avery and Chet were such good buddies, that whenever Chet teased him like that, Avery never took it badly. Avery turned his nose up to the sky, and sauntered off the other way to get his sister. ‘Ameeeeeeeee, Amee where are you?’ Right as Avery got to the alley and called for Amee, his other sister Prissy pounced over and tapped Avery on the shoulder. ‘O.K., you’re it’ and she was so fast in getting out of his sight that he ended up playing that silly game of ‘You’re it.’ Not a sound was heard when Avery shouted, ‘I don’t want to play, I want my sister Amee.’

      He was stuck in having to play with two bumbly little chippies. He thought he saw a movement behind the large tree near the pond, ‘Aha, who do we have here’, as he grabbed someone from behind a large stump in the soft mossy mound. Struggling hard to break loose of his grip was Amee. ‘That’s not fair, Avery, I didn’t have time to hide well.’ Avery spoke very fast and urgent, ‘You gotta see this, our man on the hill made a real fun contraption.

      Chet and I have already gone through it so many times, because at the end of it, he has some delectable food. Get Prissy, you gotta try it.’ Amee’s eyes grew large, and a gasp let out of her muzzle. ‘Prissy, Prissy, come on, Avery says that there’s fun behind the house on the hill!’ Prissy stumbled out of a bush nearby. Her brother Raney jumped out from behind a large rock. “Can I go too, I wanna see.’ Uh, oh, Avery didn’t plan on Prissy and her brother coming. Raney was always looking for a reason to fight, and he was so protective of his sister. He just acted like he didn’t hear Raney, and scampered off towards the hill once again. As he made his way back to Chet, he saw that Chet must have went through the fun house again, because he had a new piece of food that he was munching on.

      ‘This is the best bark. I haven’t had walnuts in such a long time. I wonder what other tasty morsels are at the end of that fun tunnel.’ ‘My sister’s gonna find out right now. Where did she go?’ said Avery as he squinted in the sun to try to spot Amee scurrying up the hill. ‘Here I am,’ said Amee as she dangled out of a tree right next to Avery’s side. Even Chet got a chuckle out of the reaction of Avery jumping and being caught off guard by his sister.

      They were all very excited about the fun that was about to be had. Raney and Prissy climbed down a different tree, giggling all the way. Raney had scabs on his nose from a previous encounter with another chipmunk. He also had bald patches on his back. ‘You’d think he’d learn’, thought Chet, but he supposed that if a chipmunk has to have a mouth like Raney, he deserves whatever comes to him!

      ‘I hope Mama doesn’t catch us Raney’ said little Miss Prissy. ‘We won’t get our dinner for a month; you heard her say that last time we just took off & didn’t tell her where we were going.’ ‘Aww, shut up, you’re such a baby, go home if you want to. I’m staying where all the fun is. Besides, she had so much going on; she probably wouldn’t miss us anyway.’ They followed Chet and Avery up the rest of the hill in to the back part of the house where the land had the food contraption.

      ‘Shhh, everyone’ as Avery pointed to where it was. ‘Who’s going first?’ asked Amee with her eyes squinting, and nose crinkled, as she was facing the hot sun. ‘I want to, can I, can I?’

      Just СКАЧАТЬ