44 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



" Indeed I can, and many's tlie day that your Uncle 

 Roy and I have not only had to cook for ourselves, but 

 catch or shoot our own provisions, and as for stoves — 

 v\^e often hadn't even a bough wind-break over us, and 

 slept on tlie ground in our blankets." 



'' On the ground ? And wasn't it wet, and didn't 

 tilings bite you ? Ah, wliat is that ? Come, look out 

 here, I/ncle Roy. Wolf and Quick have caught some 

 kind of a wild beast. It's too small for a Fox. What 

 is it ? " 



'' One of the big Woodchucks who would not go 

 in the trap we set in the rocky pasture, and who is 

 rather late in holing up. They generally go to sleep 

 for the winter before hard frost." 



" Why don't they freeze ? " said Dodo. " You told 

 us once that it was very extra dangerous to go to sleep 

 out doors in cold weather, — that we would freeze in a 

 twinkling." 



'' Is that beast one of the four-footed Americans you 

 are going to tell us about ? " asked Nat. " What queer 

 long teeth he has : two upper and two under ones, with 

 straight edges, and no little pointed ones like our eye- 

 teeth. Do the four-footed Americans belong to guilds 

 the same as the birds do, Uncle Roy ? " 



" Yes, my boy ; and those four powerful teeth show 

 to what guild the Woodchuck belongs, — the greatest 

 guild among the Mammals, — the Gnawers. 



" jMother is coming," said Dodo, going to the stairs 

 to meet her, as iNIammy Bun came in the opposite door 

 with the coffee-pot. " Now everything is started, 

 'cause nothing really begins right end up until mother 



