4s THE STOKE-KEEPER'S MANSION. 



contents are pressed out by a kneading kind of 

 movement. 



Where a more striking evidence of Divine 

 wisdom and forethought ! But for these leather 

 bags, it would be utterly impossible for this little 

 animal to carry in a store of provisions sufficient 

 for his winter supply. He does not sleep, like the 

 ' Rock Whistler,' and live on his own fat, but 

 only partially hybernates; and hence needs a 

 stock of food, with which he provides himself 

 during the sunny summer days. 



His mansion is usually under a fallen tree, or 

 amidst the tangled roots of the giant pines. A 

 small burrow neatly dug, and round as an augur- 

 hole, leads in a slanting direction to an open ca- 

 vity, neatly lined with dry leaves, blades of grass, 

 and moss a bed soft as eider-down, wherein 

 the 'store-keeper' sleeps. In an adjoining open- 

 ing, on a kind of earthen shelf, is his store, neatly 

 piled away, to be carefully hoarded, until the biting 

 blasts of winter, sweeping through the forests, 

 stripping land and tree alike of their verdure, warn 

 the provident workman to retire into his snug 

 quarters, not to shiver, cold and hungry, until the 

 spring-time comes, and bids the flowers ope their 

 blossoms, and the buds burst into leaf. Not a bit 

 of it : his industry has provided not only a snug 

 residence, but food in abundance, to supply his 



