20 SQUIRRELS AND OTHER FUR-BEARERS 



Not till four or five days had passed did my 

 little neighbor emerge again from its den, and 

 then only for a moment. That terrible black 

 monster with the large green-yellow eyes, it 

 might be still lurking near. How the black 

 monster had captured the alert and restless squir- 

 rel so quickly, under the circumstances, was a 

 great mystery to me. Was not its eye as sharp 

 as the cat's, and its movements as quick ? Yet 

 cats do have the secret of catching squirrels, and 

 birds, and mice, but I have never yet had the 

 luck to see it done. 



It was not very long before the chipmunk was 

 going to and from her den as usual, though the 

 dread of the black monster seemed ever before 

 her, and gave speed and extra alertness to all 

 her movements. In early summer four young 

 chipmunks emerged from the den, and ran freely 

 about. There was nothing to disturb them, for, 

 alas ! Nig herself was now dead. 



One summer day I watched a cat for nearly a 

 half hour trying her arts upon a chipmunk that 

 sat upon a pile of stone. Evidently her game 

 was to stalk him. She had cleared half the dis- 

 tance, or about twelve feet, that separated the 

 chipmunk from a dense Norway spruce, when I 

 chanced to become a spectator of the little drama. 

 There sat the cat crouched low on the grass, her 



