ushy-Tail inside so much he wanted
to cry, too. But he had to be brave and try and comfort little Hazel.
Besides, they had only one handkerchief now. You remember Hazel had tied
hers around his sore tail and he had lost it.

Presently they came to the edge of a woods. But Hazel would not venture
in. She was afraid some robin would think they were the "babes in the
woods" and cover them with leaves. "Such queer things are happening to
us now," she said.

Mr. Bat was passing by and he saw them huddled together between the
rails of a fence. Thinking they were the lost children of his neighbor,
Mrs. Squirrel, he hurried off to tell her.

[Illustration: MR. BAT SAW THEM HUDDLED TOGETHER]

Now, only the week before two of this poor lady's little ones had got
caught in a trap. She had scolded, coaxed and begged the farmer's boys
not to carry them off, but they had paid no attention to her. And when
Mr. Bat told her what he had seen she jumped right out of bed and ran
down the tree without stopping to take an umbrella or put on her rubbers
even.

Of course she was disappointed when she saw only Hazel and Bushy-Tail!

"They are city squirrels," she told Mr. Bat. "We have only red ones here
in the woods. I can't imagine how these little squirrels got so far from
home alone."

"How worried their mothers must be," she thought to herself and that
settled it. She took them by the shoulders and shook them very gently
and when they opened their eyes and saw the fire-fly and Mr. Bat and
Mrs. Red Squirrel, for just a moment they thought they were dreaming.

But when Mrs. Red Squirrel questioned them, all she could make out
between their sobs was that they were lost and wanted to go home.

"You poor, dear little things," she said, hugging them in her soft arms,
"come home with me to-night and we will help you find your mothers in
the morning."

I can tell you it seemed good to the little runaways to be among kind
friends again, and when Mrs. Squirrel saw four little squirrels all
curled up together in her house, she was most as happy as if they had
been four red ones, instead of two red and two gray.

MRS. SCREECH OWL

It was so much darker in the woods than in the park the little city
squirrels could hardly believe it was time to get up when Mother Red
Squirrel called them. But after they had washed the sleepiness out of
their eyes they could see little pink patches of sky through the leaves
and they knew the clock