THE NUTCRACKERS OF NUTCRACKER LODGE: 



TV /T R. and Mrs. Nutcracker were as respectable a pair of 

 ** squirrels as ever wore gray brushes over their backs. 

 They were animals of a settled and serious turn of mind, 

 not disposed to run after vanities and novelties, but filling 

 their station in life with prudence and sobriety. Nut 

 cracker Lodge was a hole in a sturdy old chestnut over 

 hanging a shady dell, and was held to be as respectably 

 kept an establishment as there was in the whole forest. 

 Even Miss Jenny Wren, the greatest gossip of the neigh 

 borhood, never found anything to criticise in its arrange- 



