But when Winkie reached the outside of her pen neither Larry nor Alice was in sight, for Alice had gone back to bed and Larry had not gotten up.
“Why――why, it looks as if I could run away!” was the sudden thought that came into the woodchuck’s mind. “Yes, I can run away. I can go back to the woods and maybe find my family! Oh, how lovely that will be!”
So away ran Winkie in the moonlight. She was only partly tame, and even animals that have been in captivity a long time, and have come to love their masters very much, will run away and turn wild again if they get the chance.
Perhaps for an instant she felt sad at leaving the pen that had come to be her home, and she may have felt sorry at going away from Larry and Alice, who had fed her and been good to her. But this thought lasted only a moment, and then Winkie scudded away.
Out of the yard, over the brook, and across the meadow hurried Winkie, as fast as her fat little body could waddle. Woodchucks, especially when they are fat from much eating, are not very fast travelers, and Winkie could not go very rapidly. Besides, she was in no great hurry. She did not think any danger would come to her in this beautiful, moonlight night.
As Winkie waddled along she suddenly heard a tramping noise. It was the noise of heavy boots on the ground. Winkie knew footsteps when she heard them, for she had listened to those of Larry and Alice running home from school every day to feed her. But these footfalls were big and heavy.
“Maybe this is a farmer coming with a dog!” thought Winkie. “I guess I’d better hide!”
And hide she did, under a bush. It was well she did so, for, a little later, along came Uncle Elias with a big club in his hand. Uncle Elias walked as softly as he could as he neared the house of his sister, in the yard of which he knew was Winkie’s pen.
“I’ll fix that woodchuck!” muttered the man. “It’s all right for children to have pets, but let ’em get a dog or a cat that doesn’t eat clover and gnaw vegetables. Woodchucks are pesky creatures! I’ll soon put an end to this one.”
Mr. Tottle came to the fence, paused to look up at the house, and, seeing it was all in darkness, he climbed over and walked softly toward Winkie’s pen. It was a good thing Alice had been down and gone back again, or she might have been frightened by the big figure of a man stalking through the moonlight, with a club in his hand.