101 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



tiny little thing." So we called him Tiny, which by 

 abbreviation became Ti, and Ti he remained to the 

 end of the chapter. When Ti came to us, he must 

 have been either very ignorant, very sullen, or very 

 perverse, for either he did not know that he was 

 hungry, or would not confess it, or was determined 

 not to take any food ; anyway, he rolled himself up 

 into a ball, and took no heed of his surroundings ; 

 and when unrolled time after time, by being passed 

 from hand to hand for inspection and caresses, he 

 rolled himself up again, and composed himself to 

 sleep. Still the necessity for food was obvious, 

 though Ti did not recognise it ; and, moreover, the 

 young proprietor was very anxious to see his 

 "property" feed. We procured some milk, which 

 once was new, and warmed it and sugared it, to 

 make it a decent imitation of the food Ti would 

 probably have been fed on had he remained for some 

 time longer in the " High wood " ; but though we 

 held it to Ti's nose, and called Ti, Ti, Ti, any 

 number of times, and in every imaginable tone and 

 pitch, Ti refused to open an eye, much more his 

 mouth. Seeing that he had not arrived at years 

 of discretion, we attempted, by kind compulsion, to 

 force some food upon him ; but little could we get 

 into his mouth, much less could we get to pass out 

 again in the direction we desired. After a number 

 of experiments we hit upon an expedient which 

 answered admirably: we took the shank of a 

 tobacco-pipe, and having greased it well, we drew 

 it full of warm sugared milk with the mouth, and 

 then placing the small end between Ti's lips, we 

 gradually forced the nourishing fluid down his 

 throat. On the pipe Ti progressed favourably ; but 

 iu time the quantity of sugared milk necessary to 

 his sustentation involved a considerable expenditure 

 of time and patience. With the hope of expediting 

 matters, we again tried the spoon ; but Ti was obdu- 

 rate; nothing woidd induce him to take even 

 sugared milk out of such a hard, cold thing as a 

 spoon; he, however, consented to take a little out 

 of the hollow hand, and when at length he grew too 

 old for the pipe, he took the cup of Diogenes into 

 favour, and to the day of his death preferred it to 

 cither china or plate. When Ti arrived at maturity, 

 he became a local celebrity. Never was there a 

 squirrel so tame, so playful, and withal so good- 

 natured ; such was the common report, which, 

 although it probably originated very near home, 

 was certainly endorsed by every one who made Ti's 

 acquaintance. Time would fail me to tell of the 

 leaps and falls, the tricks and expedients, the hair- 

 breadth escapes and the sportive doings of Master 

 Ti. The history of his scudding and scuffing be- 

 hind the book-shelves, the clatter and commotion 

 he made when he had climbed to the shelf in the 

 kitchen, where the pots, pans, and kettles stood in 

 long and shining row, must still remain unwritten. 

 Ti had a sweet tooth— he liked sugar— aud many 



a time has he mounted the breakfast-table, and, 

 having helped, himself to a glistening lump, settled 

 down on his haunches, curled his brush up to his 

 ears, and set to work chiselling off piece after piece 

 in rapid succession ; but even this sweet morsel he 

 would lay aside for a little square lump of bread 

 saturated with sweet tea or coffee. Of course Ti 

 liked nuts and sweet acorns : milk he did not care 

 for, and meat in all forms and conditions was his 

 utter detestation : the nearest approach to animal 

 food he ever tolerated was a piece of bread dipped 

 in fresh dripping, but very little would he eat of 

 that. 



There were no traces of vice in Ti ; you might 

 catch him anywhere and anywhen, — that is, if you 

 could,— and, having caught him, you might roll him 

 up in a ball, wind his brush over his ears, and thrust 

 him into your pocket, where he would perhaps sleep 

 for hours; but if you held him in your hand without 

 caressing him or playing with him, he would try to 

 escape, and after many attempts would probably 

 give you a nip, and profiting by your surprise, escape ; 

 but irritate, tease, annoy, or bilk him as you would, 

 he never showed the least resentment ; aud though 

 he would bite to obtain his release, he never did it 

 with malice aforethought. Ti hated confinement 

 with an honest hearty hatred. Give him liberty and 

 an acorn and he was content ; but all the sugar in 

 the world would never sweeten confinement, no 

 matter how large the cage ; and we did make him 

 one larger than a mastiff's kennel; but it was a cage 

 all the same, and the moment he was put in, he set 

 to work to get out ; and if he could not succeed, he 

 would come to the front, and there pivoting himself 

 on his hinder feet, he would see-saw from side to 

 side, bringing down his fore feet alternately right 

 and left of an imaginary straight line running be- 

 tween his two hinder feet. In this way he would 

 keep up an incessant and monotonous pit-pat pit-pat 

 for a very long time; and it not unfrequently hap- 

 pened that he obtained his liberty again, because we 

 preferred his freaks and mischievous pranks to see- 

 ing him in such apparent agony. Poor Ti, that was 

 his ruin : one day he was thus let out, and after a 

 time forgotten, and when again remembered was 

 nowhere to be found. The house was searched, 

 every bed unmade— for the villain would get into bed 

 sometimes; every closet was ransacked, every means 

 of egress examined ; but no Ti could be found. At 

 length the tip of his brush was seen protruding from 

 under his cage, and that being removed, disclosed 

 his cold, stiff, and flattened body. The cage had 

 apparently been left so that he could crawl under 

 it, and in so doing he had brought it down upon 

 himself. Alas, poor Ti ! We buried him in the 

 garden amid the sorrow and regret of all, and more 

 than one eye was wet, for he had ceased to be "pro- 

 perty," aud had become one of the family. 



W. C. 



