THE SQUIRRELS THAT LIVE IN A HOUSE. 59 



the price of real estate in the whole vicinity, so that every 

 decent-minded and respectable quadruped would be obliged 

 to move away ; for his part, he was ready to sell out for 

 anything he could get. The bluebirds and bobolinks, it is 

 true, took more cheerful views of matters ; but then, as old 

 Mrs. Ground-mole observed, they were a flighty set, half 

 their time careering and dissipating in the Southern States, 

 and could not be expected to have that patriotic attach 

 ment to their native soil that those had who had grubbed 

 in it from their earliest days. 



&quot;This race of man,&quot; said the old chestnut-tree, &quot;is never 

 ceasing in its restless warfare on Nature. In our forest 

 solitudes, hitherto, how peacefully, how quietly, how regu 

 larly has everything gone on ! Not a flower has missed 

 its appointed time of blossoming, or failed to perfect its 

 fruit. No matter how hard has been the winter, how loud 

 the winds have roared, and how high the snow-banks have 

 been piled, all has come right again in spring. Not the 

 least root has lost itself under the snows, so as not to be 

 ready with its fresh leaves and blossoms when the sun 

 returns to melt the frosty chains of winter. We have 

 storms sometimes that threaten to shake everything to 

 pieces, the thunder roars, the lightning flashes, and the 

 winds howl and beat ; but, when all is past, everything 

 comes out better and brighter than before, not a bird is 

 killed, not the frailest flower destroyed. But man comes, 



