NUMBER XXXII 

 STORING FOR HARD TIMES 



HE RE are many different ways in which 

 animals meet the winter. Many go into 

 winter quarters, and, reducing their expenditure to 

 a minimum, lie low till the spring calls them again 

 to action. Others, like the wolves, continue to live 

 dangerously, simply sharpening their wits and 

 increasing the keenness of their hunting. Some, 

 like the ermine and the ptarmigan, don a white 

 dress, which is both safe and comfortable. Others 

 solve the problem by a change of habitat notably 

 the migratory birds. There are several other 

 solutions of the problem, and one of these is to 

 lay up stores, to hoard, to save. Many animals do 

 this inside their bodies, but let us keep to external 

 savings. 



A beginning of storing may be looked for, perhaps, 

 in activities like those of earthworms, which collect 

 leaves and drag them down into their burrows, at 

 once making these more comfortable and providing 

 a supply of food for the rainy day. It is surely the 

 acquisitive habit that they have, these earthworms, 

 for we got more than fourscore leaflets from one 



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