68 THE TREE ON FIRE. 



neglected state, all my English notions of private property 

 and the value of timber became more acclimatised to the 

 realms in which I then found myself, and to my attend 

 ant's delight and increased notions of my proficiency as 

 a " hunter " (in America the term for all sport with a 

 gun, whether after animal or bird, is " hunting")? I bade 

 him collect moss, dry sticks, and leaves, and set fire to 

 the tree. I soon found that he was an adept at this sort 

 of sylvan proceeding, and he speedily, with his pocket 

 implements for lighting his pipe, got up a flame, direct 

 ing it as much as lay in his power into the small hollow 

 of the tree. During this proceeding Brutus and Chance 

 sat by in considerable curiosity, Brutus having made up 

 his mind that, if not a rabbit, there must be something 

 in the hole that he had better be ready to catch ; so, with 

 my gun resting against a tree behind me, and an eye 

 occasionally to the boughs above of the tree on fire, in 

 case there should be a " bolt-hole," I tended the interests 

 of the incendiary, and waited the result. The fire having 

 continued some time, and no smoke making an exit from 

 any other portion of the tree, I informed my man that 

 the squirrel must be dead, and bade him clear away the 

 fire, and remove some of the charred bark. He had not 

 obeyed this order a second before he exclaimed, " Here 

 he is ! " when, on taking his place, I perceived a little 

 tail, which, on laying hold of, I found to have been 

 burned, and the skin came off in my hand ; removing a 

 little more of the bark I then possessed myself of the 

 body of the beautiful little animal, which had been suffo 

 cated, and admired the striped and brilliant hues of its 

 glossy skin. From the loss of the tail it was not a perfect 

 specimen, but that and the sparrow-hawk being the two 

 first things I had killed, on my return to the hotel I pre- 



