12 



Charley s Wonderful Journeys. 



the coniferous forests of the northern United 

 States and Canada, and in mountains of the 

 Southern States, notably in North Carohna, 

 Tennessee, and Kentucky. 



Mr. Bicknell describes a nest he found at 

 Riverdale, N. Y., in 1876. He says: "On 

 April 22 I noticed a pair building near the 

 top of a red cedar, about eighteen feet from 



the ground. The nest, April 30, contained 

 three eggs, and was composed of strips of 

 cedar bark, dried grass, and stems of the 

 Norway spruce, and was lined with horse- 

 hair, feathers, dried grass, and fibrous roots. 

 The eggs were * * g^ very light blue, 

 slightly sprinkled and blotched at the large 

 end with dark purple."* 



Florence A. Merriam. 



CHARLEY'S WONDERFUL JOURNEYS. 



JOURNEY VI. 



"/"^OME here, Charley," said the dog, 

 Vs_^ "there's a gray squirrel up in this 

 maple tree, and I want to see you bark 

 him." 



"But I wouldn't like to hurt the poor 

 little squirrel," said Charley. 



" Oh, I didn't mean you to hurt him," said 

 the dog; "I only meant for you to split the 

 branch he's standing on, with your arrow, 

 and catch him by the foot, and then we can 

 have some fun with him." 



Charley drew his bow and drove the ar- 

 row clean through the branch, and as the 

 rift closed, he saw that the squirrel was 

 caught. 



" Keep quiet," said he, " I'll come up and 

 set you free in a minute, and then we'll have 

 some fun." 



Then Charley began to climb the tree, 

 going up quite easily like a squirrel, and 

 when he came to the branches, he stood on 

 one and pulled himself up to the next, then 

 he stood on that and pulled himself up to 

 another, and kept on going up and up, such 

 a long time that he forgot all about the 

 squirrel, and at last when he was thinking 

 about nothing in particular, he heard a 

 voice just above him saying, impatiently, 

 "Make haste, Charley, and unlock the 

 bracelet; I hope you've brought the key 

 with you." 



Charley looked up and saw a little bear 



fastened to the branch overhead. He was 

 not at all surprised or frightened. Nothing 

 ever surprised Charley. On the contrary, 

 he seemed to recollect that he had been 

 traveling with a key in his pocket, on pur- 

 pose to set the bear free, and as soon as he 

 reached him he took out his key, and set the 

 delighted bear at liberty. 



"I knew you would come," said he, "and 

 I'm so glad; they didn't want me to go to 

 the ball, but they pretended they did, and 

 told me I must wear my bracelets, and when 

 I put them on, they locked me to the tree, 

 and away they went to the bear garden 

 without me. Now let's come along and 

 have a dance." 



So Charley and the little bear trotted off, 

 until at last they came to a beautiful garden, 

 with a fence of tall, straight trees growing 

 all round it. 



" But this isn't a bear garden," said Char- 

 ley ; "this is a flower garden." 



"Oh, yes," said the little bear, "it's a 

 flower garden before you begin, but after 

 you've finished it's a right out bear garden. 

 Here they all are !" 



From all sides the bears came trooping 

 into the bear garden, the younger couples 

 catching each other as they met, and whirl- 

 ing around in a waltz, or dancing singly. 



* American Naturalist, Vol. X., No. 4, p. 237, 

 April, 1876. 



