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<h3>E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br/> and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br/> (http://www.pgdp.net/)</h3>
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<span style='font-size: 100%;'><br/><i><span class='ul'>SLEEPY-TIME TALES</span></i></span><br/><br/>
<span style='font-size: 220%;'>THE TALE OF</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 220%;'>FRISKY</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 220%;'>SQUIRREL</span><br/><br/><br/>
<span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>By</i></span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 140%;'><span class='smcap'>Arthur Scott Bailey</span></span><br/><br/>
<span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>Author of</i></span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'>THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'>SLEEPY-TIME TALES</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'>ETC.</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'><span class='ul'> </span></span><br/><br/>
<span style='font-size: 80%;'><i>Illustrated by</i></span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'>ELEANORE FAGAN</span><br/><br/><br/>
<span style='font-size: 100%;'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</span><br/>
<span style='font-size: 80%;'>PUBLISHERS — NEW YORK</span><br/><br/>
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<p style='text-align:center'>Copyright, 1915, by
A. S. BAILEY</p>
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<span class='caption'>“Tails and Ears”</span></div>
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<h2><SPAN name='Contents' id='Contents'></SPAN>Contents</h2>
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<table border='0' width='500' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents'>
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<tr><td align='right'>I</td><td align='left'> Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#I'>9</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>II</td><td align='left'> Frisky Squirrel has a Fall</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#II'>13</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>III</td><td align='left'> The Stone that Walked</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#III'>17</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IV</td><td align='left'> The Picnic</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#IV'>22</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>V</td><td align='left'> Some Lively Dodging</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#V'>27</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VI</td><td align='left'> Mr. Hawk Returns</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#VI'>31</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VII</td><td align='left'> A Brave Little Bird</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#VII'>35</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>VIII</td><td align='left'> Uncle Sammy Coon</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#VIII'>40</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>IX</td><td align='left'> A Bag of Corn</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#IX'>44</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>X</td><td align='left'> Tails and Ears</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#X'>49</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XI</td><td align='left'> Jimmy Rabbit is too Late</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XI'>53</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XII</td><td align='left'> Frisky Visits the Gristmill</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XII'>57</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XIII</td><td align='left'> Fun on the Milldam</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XIII'>62</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XIV</td><td align='left'> Mrs. Squirrel Has a Visitor</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XIV'>67</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XV</td><td align='left'> Helpful Mr. Crow</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XV'>72</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XVI</td><td align='left'> Caught in the Attic</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XVI'>77</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XVII</td><td align='left'> Farmer Green’s Cat</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XVII'>82</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XVIII</td><td align='left'> The Threshing-machine</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XVIII'>86</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XIX</td><td align='left'> Frisky’s Prison</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XIX'>91</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XX</td><td align='left'> Johnnie Green Forgets Something</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XX'>95</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XXI</td><td align='left'> That Disagreeable Freddie Weasel</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XXI'>101</SPAN></td></tr>
<tr><td align='right'>XXII</td><td align='left'> Catching Freddie Weasel Asleep</td><td align='right'><SPAN href='#XXII'>106</SPAN></td></tr>
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<h1>THE TALE OF FRISKY SQUIRREL</h1>
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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_9' id='Page_9'>[Pg 9]</SPAN></span>
<h2>I</h2><h3>Frisky Squirrel Finds Much To Do</h3></div>
<p>Frisky Squirrel was a lively little chap. And he was very bold, too. You
see, he was so nimble that he felt he could always jump right out of
danger—no matter whether it was a hawk chasing him, or a fox springing
at him, or a boy throwing stones at him. He would chatter and scold at
his enemies from some tree-top. And it was seldom that he was so
<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_10' id='Page_10'>[Pg 10]</SPAN></span>frightened that he ran home and hid inside his mother’s house.</p>
<p>Mrs. Squirrel’s house was in a hollow limb of a hickory tree. It was a
very convenient place to live; for although the tree was old, it still
bore nuts. And it is very pleasant to be able to step out of your house
and find your dinner all ready for you—simply waiting to be picked.</p>
<p>Of course, Frisky Squirrel and his mother couldn’t find their dinner on
the tree the whole year ’round—because it was only in the fall that
there were nuts on it. But luckily there were other things to eat—such
as seeds, of which there were many kinds in the woods. And then there
was Farmer Green’s wheat—and his corn, too, which Frisky liked most of
all.</p>
<p>The woods where Mrs. Squirrel and her son lived were full of the finest
trees to climb that anybody could wish for. And Frisky loved to go
leaping from branch to branch, and from tree to tree. He was<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_11' id='Page_11'>[Pg 11]</SPAN></span> so
fearless that he would scamper far out on the ends of the smallest
limbs. But no matter how much they bent and swayed beneath his weight,
he was never afraid; in fact, that was part of the fun.</p>
<p>As she watched Frisky whisking about among the trees, now swinging on
this branch, now leaping far out to that one, Mrs. Squirrel sometimes
wondered how he could keep dashing about so madly. Though the old lady
was pretty spry, herself, she was content to sit still <i>some</i> of the
time. But Frisky Squirrel was almost never still except when he was
asleep. There was so much to do! Frisky wished that the days were
longer, for though he tried his hardest, he couldn’t climb <i>all</i> the
trees in the forest. Each night he had to give up his task, only to
begin all over again the next morning. If there had been nothing to do
but <i>climb</i> the trees<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_12' id='Page_12'>[Pg 12]</SPAN></span> Frisky would have been able to climb more of
them. But there were other things that took time.</p>
<p>There were the birds, for instance. Frisky simply had to tease them.
Perhaps it was just because he was so full of fun—or mischief, as it is
sometimes called. Anyhow, he delighted in visiting their nests; and
chasing them; and scolding at them. And it was not always the littlest
birds, either, that Frisky teased. There was that loud-mouthed fellow,
Jasper Jay, the biggest blue jay in the whole neighborhood. Frisky liked
nothing better than bothering Jasper Jay—for Jasper always lost his
temper and flew straight at Frisky. And then would follow the finest
sport of all.</p>
<p>But a time came at last when Frisky teased Jasper Jay almost once too
often, though that is another story.</p>
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<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name='Page_13' id='Page_13'>[Pg 13]</SPAN></span>
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