18 SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS 



five minutes I would see him coming back, always 

 keeping rigidly to the course he took going out, 

 pausing at the same spots, darting over or under 

 the same objects, clearing at a bound the same 

 pile of leaves. There was no variation in his 

 manner of proceeding all the time I observed 

 him. 



He was alert, cautious, and exceedingly me- 

 thodical. He had found safety in a certain 

 course, and he did not at any time deviate a 

 hair's breadth from it. Something seemed to 

 say to him all the time, " Beware, beware ! " 

 The nervous, impetuous ways of these creatures 

 are no doubt the result of the life of fear which 

 they lead. 



My chipmunk had no companion. He lived all 

 by himself in true hermit fashion, as is usually 

 the case with this squirrel. Provident creature 

 that he is, one would think that he would long ago 

 have discovered that heat, and therefore food, is 

 economized by two or three nesting together. 



One day in early spring, a chipmunk that lived 

 near me met with a terrible adventure, the 

 memory of which will probably be handed down 

 through many generations of its family. I was 

 sitting in the summer-house with Nig the cat 

 upon my knee, when the chipmunk came out of 

 its den a few feet away, and ran quickly to a 



