THE NUTCRACKERS OF NUTCRACKER LODGE. 25 



would have caught him, after all, if Tip Chipmunk s hole 

 had not stood hospitably open to receive him. Tip took 

 him in, like a good-natured fellow as he was, and took the 

 best of care of him ; but the glory of Featherhead s tail had 

 departed forever. He had sprained his left paw, and got 

 a chronic rheumatism, and the fright and fatigue which he 

 had gone through had broken up his constitution, so that 

 he never again could be what he had been ; but Tip gave 

 him a situation as under-clerk in his establishment, and from 

 that time he was a sadder and a wiser squirrel than he ever 

 had been before. 



