Identifier: bannertailstoryo00seto (find matches)
Title: Bannertail; the story of a gray squirrel
Year: 1922 (1920s)
Authors: Seton, Ernest Thompson, 1860-1946
Subjects: Squirrels
Publisher: New York : C. Scribner's sons
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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l would have trussed him, forthere was no cover, only the big, out-standing trunk, with the Hen-hawksabove and below. A moment more and(225) Bannertail Bannertails mate, helpless in the distantnest, would have seen him borne away.But as they closed, he leaped — leapedwith all his strength, far from them intoopen air, and faster than they could flyin such a place, down, down, his silverplume in function just behind him, downa hundred feet to fall and land in athicket of laurel, wounded and bleeding,but safe. He scrambled into a thickermaze, and gazed with new and tenserfeelings at the baffled Hen-hawks, circling,screaming high above him. Soon the bandits gave up. Clearly theGraycoat had won, and they flew to levytheir robber-baron tribute on some othersthat they held to be their vassals. Yes, Bannertail had won, by a narrowlead. He had taken a mighty hazard andhad learned new wisdom — Never playthe game with death till you have to, forif you win one hundred times and lose(226) ■\
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A DANGEROUS GAME ^^^^v. -^h ,aJki The Story of a Gray squirrel ^ ^ / / once you have lost your whole stake. ^^ ^On his haunch he carried, carries yet, *^/the three long scars, where the fur is alittle paler — the brand of the robberbaroness, the slash of the claws thatnearly got him. Have you noted that in the high Alle-ghenies, where the Gray coats seldom seehunters of any kind, they scamper whilethe enemy is far away; but they peerfrom upper limbs and call out little chal-lenges ? In Jersey woods, where a wiserrace has come, they never challenge anear foe; they make no bravado rushes.They signal if they see an enemy near,then hide away in perfect stillness tillthat enemy, be it Hawk in air or Houndon earth, is far away, or in some sortceases to be a menace. And menfolk hunters, who tell of theirfeats around the glowing stove in the win-ter-time, say there is a new race of Gray-(227) Bannertail coats come. Any gunner could kill oneof the old sort, but it takes a greathunter such as

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