Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 221, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1915 — Chip’s Trick [ARTICLE]

Chip’s Trick

i ii a ■ ■ 111111 ii 11111 • ii •• Tn * snug bit of a home, Under a gray bld stump that stood at tho foot of a thickly wooded hill, lived, with Ms father and mother, frisky little Chip. , t Chip and the other young squirrels In the neighborhood were fond of having a race over the stumps and rocks, up the trees, limb from limb and branch to branch, until they were tired and far from Squirreltown. Then they would stop to rest, eat nuts and chatter about their frolic. One afternoon, when Chip reached home after one of these flyaway trips, be found his mother in great distress because his father, who had gone out In the morning for a short time, had not returned. "Don’t worry," chirped Chip. "I’ll find him," and off he went. He meant what he said, too, for the the thought that his father was really gone made no impression in his funny little head. At dusk he came back subdued and alone, yet half expecting to find his father there. One glance at his mother showed Chip that he must provide for her; so the next d.iy be began.

Long before he had enough food gathered the nuts near by were gone; then he had to take longer journeys from home. He ran far beyond the top of the hill one day and discovered • great white house and across the road from it a smaller one filled with corn.

Chip sat up just where he was w hen he caught sight of the coveted treasure, and then with a chirp he skipped to the corncrib and was busily stowing the grain In his side pockets when he was pounced on by a great fury, lifted off his feet and carried to the big white house. There he was dropped at the feet of a smaller fury that seized him in a twlnkllnk and ran with him into a large yard. Taking a hasty glance at his surroundings, Chip discovered' that he could readily make his escape by way of a tree that stood near If he could manage to get out of that- creature’s mouth. He wriggled to Twist himself out of the kitten’s grasp, whereupon puss dropped him and cuffed his ears. Chip sprang for the tree, but the kitten sprang for him and caught him, too. The foolish puss did not see what he was trying to do, however, and so did not think it worth while to take him farther from the tree.

‘Only one more chance like that," thought the squirrel, twitching his whiskers, "and I’ll show you a trick." The kitten dropped him again; away went Chip up the tree, the surprised and unthinking puss following with her stretched out nose close at the end of Chip’s tail. Quickly he led her out on a small branch; out, out, beyond her weight; then, as tho cat fell down. Chip sprang up, landed In another tree, and reached the top soon enough to see the outmaneuvered cat on the ground just where she had struck, her tail switching and her eyes fixed In a comically bewildered stare on the swaying branch where their ways had, to her, so unexpectedly parted.