"It's the end of the world!" Frisky sobbed. "I didn't think you were
coming back."
Bit by bit Mrs. Squirrel managed to learn where Frisky had been and
what had happened to him. And she smiled when she found out what had
frightened him. Since it was quite dark inside their home in the
hollow limb of the big hickory tree, Frisky could not see his mother
smiling. But her voice sounded very cheerful when she said--
"Now stop crying, my son. There's nothing to cry about. The end of the
world hasn't come. And _that's_ something you and I don't need to
worry about, anyhow."
"What you heard was only the mill-wheels turning. You must have
reached the gristmill before the miller had come to begin his day's
work. That was why everything was so still. I don't wonder you were
frightened when all that noise began. But gristmills are always like
that. They make a terrible noise when they grind the wheat."
Frisky Squirrel stopped sobbing then. He was glad that his mother knew
exactly what had happened. But he made up his mind that whenever he
wanted any wheat-kernels to eat he would not go to the gristmill for
them. Luckily the gristmill had not _quite_ all the wheat in the
world.
XIII
Fun on the Milldam
There was something about the dam across Swift River that Frisky
Squirrel simply couldn't keep away from--after he had forgotten,
somewhat, his fright at the gristmill. Only a few days passed after
Frisky had run home from the mill in a panic, before he was back
again.
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