by Mayne Reid
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
THE OLD "'POSSUM" AND HER KITTENS.
"The next adventure which befell us was near having a more serioustermination. This time Frank was my companion, while Harry remained athome with his mother. Our errand was to procure some of the longSpanish moss that grew upon the live-oaks in the lower end of thevalley. This moss, when smoked and cleansed of the leaves and pieces ofbark that adhere to it, makes most excellent stuffing forbed-mattresses--in fact, almost equal to curled hair--and for thispurpose we wanted it. We did not take the cart, as Cudjo had Pompo inthe plough, preparing a large tract for our second crop of corn. Weonly carried with us a couple of raw-hide ropes, intending to bring homegood burdens of the moss upon our rock.
"We travelled on down the valley, looking for a tree with moss upon it,that we could climb. At length, almost close to the foot of the cliff,we chanced upon a very large live-oak, with low branches, from which thelong, silvery moss was hanging down in streamers, like the tails ofhorses. We soon stripped off what was on the lower branches; and then,climbing up on these, proceeded to rob the others, that were higher, oftheir long stringy parasites.
"While thus engaged, our attention was attracted to the chirping andchattering of some birds in a thicket of pawpaws close to our tree. Welooked in that direction, and we could see down into the thicket veryplainly from where we stood among the branches. We saw that the birdsmaking the noise were a pair of orioles, or `Baltimore birds,' as theyare often called, from the fact that, in the early settlements, theircolour--a mixture of black and orange--was observed to be the same asthat in the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. Frank and I conjecturedthat they must have a nest among the pawpaws, for they had scolded us aswe were passing through but a moment before. But what were theyscolding at now? asked we of one another--for the birds were flutteringamong the broad green leaves, uttering their shrill screams, andevidently under great excitement. We left off gathering our moss, andstood for a moment to see what it was all about.
"Presently we noticed a strange-looking object in motion along theground, and close in to the edge of the thicket. At first sight we knewnot what to make of it. Was it an animal? No--it could not be that.It had not the shape of any animal we had ever seen: and yet we couldsee legs and tails, and ears and eyes, and heads--heads, indeed!--thereseemed to be a head sticking out of every part of its body, for wecounted half a score of them as it moved along. It moved very slowly,and when nearly opposite to us it stopped, so that we had a good view ofit. All at once the numerous heads seemed to separate from the mainbody, becoming little bodies of themselves with long tails upon them,and looking just like a squad of white rats! The large body to whichthey had all been attached we now saw was an old female opossum, andevidently the mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of acat, and covered with woolly hair of a light grey colour. She had asnout somewhat resembling that of a pig, though much sharper at thepoint, and with whiskers like a cat. Her ears were short and standing--her mouth very wide, and, as we could see, full of sharp teeth. Thelegs were short and stout, and the feet with their keen claws seemed tospread out upon the ground more like hands than feet. The tail was verypeculiar; it was nearly as long as the body, tapering like that of arat, and quite naked. But the greatest curiosity in the structure ofthis creature was a pouch like opening which appeared under her belly,and which showed that she belonged to the family of the _marsupialia_,or pouched animals. This, of course, we had known before. The little`'possums' were exact pictures of their mother--all having the samesharp snouts and long naked tails. We counted no less than thirteen ofthem, playing and tumbling about among the leaves.
"As soon as the old one had shaken them all off, she stepped more nimblyover the ground--going backwards and forwards, and looking up into oneof the pawpaws that grew above the spot where she had halted. In thistree the orioles were now fluttering about, chirruping wildly, and atintervals making a dash downward, until their wings almost swept thenose of the opossum. The latter, however, appeared to take all thisvery coolly; and evidently did not care for the imbecile efforts of thebirds to frighten her off, but continued her survey without paying anyattention to their manoeuvres. On looking upward, we discovered theobject of her search--the nest of the orioles--which was hanging like alarge purse, or rather like a distended stocking, from the topmost twigsof the tree.
"After a few moments the old 'possum seemed to have made up her mind;and, approaching the spot where the young ones were scrambling about,she uttered a short sharp note that brought them all around her.Several of them ran into the pouch which she had caused to open forthem. Two of them took a turn of their little tails around the root ofhers, and climbed up on her rump, almost burying themselves in the longwool; while two or three others fastened themselves about her neck andshoulders. It was a most singular sight to see the little creaturesholding on with `tails, teeth, and toe-nails,' while some peepedcomically out of the great breast-pocket.
"We thought she was going to move away with her cargo; but, to ourastonishment, she walked up to the pawpaw, and commenced climbing it.When she had reached the lowermost branch--which grew nearlyhorizontal--she halted; then, taking the young ones, one by one, in hermouth, she caused each of them to make a turn or two of its tail aroundthe branch, and hang head downwards. Five or six of the `kittens' werestill upon the ground. For these she returned, and taking them up asbefore, again climbed the tree. She disposed of the second load,precisely as she had done the others--until the thirteen little 'possumshung head downwards along the branch, like a string of candles!
"It was such a comical sight to see these monkey-looking littlecreatures dangling by their tails, that my companion and I could notrestrain our laughter as we gazed upon it. We took care, however, notto laugh aloud--as we were anxious to observe the further movements ofthe old 'possum, and we knew that if she should hear us it would spoilthe sport at once.
"As soon as she saw the young ones all fairly suspended, she left them,and commenced climbing higher up the tree. We noticed that she caughtthe branches in her claws, exactly as a human being would have done withhis hands, hoisting herself from limb to limb. At length she reachedthat branch upon which hung the nest, far out at its top. For a momentshe stopped and surveyed it. She was evidently in doubt whether itwould carry her weight without breaking, and so were we. Should itbreak, she would have a smart fall to the ground--for the tree was oneof the highest, for a pawpaw, we had ever seen; and there were no otherbranches below to which she could clutch in case of falling.
"The nest, however, full of eggs no doubt, tempted her on; and, after amoment's pause, she started along the branch. When about half-way upit--holding on both with tail and feet--the slender sapling began tocreak and bend, and show symptoms of breaking. This, with the screamingof the birds--that now flapped against her very nose--seemed all at onceto cow her; and she crept down again, going backwards along the limb.On reaching the fork, she paused, and looked about with an air thatshowed she was both vexed and puzzled. All at once her eyes rested uponthe branch of an oak-tree, that stretched out over the pawpaw, anddirectly above the orioles' nest. She looked at this for a moment--asif calculating its height from the nest; then seeming to make up hermind, she ran nimbly down the pawpaw, over the ground that intervened,and up the trunk of the oak. We lost sight of her for an instant amongthe thick leaves; but the next we saw her crawling out upon the branchthat overhung the pawpaw.
"When she had reached a point directly above the nest, she flung herselffearlessly from the branch, and hung to her whole length--suspended bythe tail. In this position she oscillated back and forward, with gapingmouth and outstretched claws, endeavouring to seize hold of the nest;but, with all her efforts, and no doubt to her great mortification, shewas unable to reach it. She hung for several minutes, clutching, now atthe nest, now at the leaves of the pawpaw, and evidently tantalised bythe thought of the delicious eggs so near her very nose. We could seetha
t she had lowered herself to the last link of her tail--until only asingle turn of it sustained her upon the limb--and we expected everymoment to see her fall to the ground. Her stretching was all to nopurpose, however; and at length, uttering a bitter snarl, she swungherself back to the limb, and came running down from the oak.
"She seemed to have given up her purpose in a sort of angry despair; forclimbing up the pawpaw, she hurried her young from the branch, pitchingthem somewhat rudely to the ground. In a short while she had gatheredthem all upon her back and into her pouch; and commenced retreating fromthe spot--while the orioles changed their terrified screaming intochirrups of victory.
"Frank and I now deemed it proper to interfere, and cut off the retreatof the `old 'possum;' so, dropping from our perch, we soon overtook andcaptured the whole family. The old one, on first seeing us approach,rolled herself into a round clump--so that neither her head nor legscould be seen--and in this attitude feigned to be quite dead. Severalof the youngsters, who were _outside_, immediately detached themselves,and imitated the example of their mother--so that the family nowpresented the appearance of a large ball of whitish wool, with severalsmaller `clews' lying around it!
"On finding, however, that we were not to be cheated, and being prickedgently with the point of an arrow, the old one unwound herself; and,opening her long jaws, snapped and bit on every side of her, utteringall the while a sharp noise, like the snarling of a poodle.
"Her snarling did not avail her, for in a few minutes we had muzzled hersecurely, and made her fast to one of the saplings--intending to takethe whole family with us when we returned to the house."