260 THE CLERK OF THE WOODS 



out seeing hide or hair of their interesting 

 cousin. Flying squirrels stir abroad after 

 dark ; not because their deeds are evil (though 

 they are said to like small birds and birds' 

 eggs), but because well, as the wise old 

 nursery saw very conclusively puts it, because 

 " it is their nature to." 



Several times during the past winter I 

 made attempts to see them (the story of one 

 of these attempts has been told in a previous 

 chapter), but always without success, though 

 twice I was taken to a nest that was known 

 to be in use. The other day I went to the 

 same place again, the friend who conducted 

 me having found a squirrel there that very 

 forenoon. He shook the tree, a small gray 

 birch, with a nest of leaves and twigs perched 

 in its top, and out peeped the squirrel. 

 "See him?" said my friend. "Yes." Then 

 he gave the tree a harder shake, and in a 

 moment the creature spread his "wings" 

 and sailed gracefully away, landing on the 

 trunk of an oak not far off, at about the 

 height of my head. There he clung, his large 

 handsome eye, full of a startled emotion, 

 fastened upon me. I wondered if he would 



