NOTES FROM THE PRAIRIE 95 



her, and began carrying off the nuts to hide as fast 

 as she could. For months afterward she would slip 

 slyly up and bite the girl. She particularly despises 

 my brother, he teases her so, and gives her no chance 

 to bite; so she gets even with him by tearing up 

 everything of his she can find, his books, his 

 gloves, etc. ; and if she can get into the closet where 

 I keep the soiled clothing, she will select such arti- 

 cles as belong to him, and tear them up! And she 

 has a wonderful memory; never forgets where she 

 puts things; people whom she has not seen for sev- 

 eral years she remembers. 



" She had the misfortune to have about two inches 

 of her tail cut off, by being caught in the door, 

 which made it too short to be used for wiping her 

 face; it would slip out of her hands, making her 

 stamp her feet and chatter her teeth with anger. By 

 experimenting, she found by backing up in a corner 

 it was prevented from slipping out of her reach. 

 Have had her five years; wonder how long their 

 lives usually are ? One of my neighbors got a young 

 squirrel, so young that it required milk; so they 

 got a small nursing- bottle for it. Until that squir- 

 rel was over a year old, whenever he got hungry he 

 would get his bottle and sit and hold it up as if he 

 thought that quite the proper way for a squirrel to 

 obtain his nourishment. It was utterly comical to see 

 him. We have no black squirrels; a few red ones, 

 and a great many gray ones of different kinds, " 



I was much interested in her pet squirrel, and 

 made frequent inquiries about it. A year later she 



