Camping With Old Ben 257 



beautiful wood nymph's shoulder, and she 

 covered his eyes with one hand, while with the 

 other she stroked his tail. 



" * How long will it take you? ' asked the 

 squirrel. 



" * See/ replied the wood nymph, and she 

 uncovered his eyes and Mr. Red Squirrel saw 

 that he had the most wonderful bushy tail in 

 the woods, that is, for his size. 



" Then how he frisked about and chattered, 

 and all the time he kept his tail twitching and 

 waving so all the wood folks might see how 

 gay he had become. He was so delighted 

 with his new tail that he did not even stop to 

 thank the wood nymph, but ran away to show 

 it to Wood Thrush, and to Blue Jay. 



" When the poor chipmunk saw what the 

 wood nymph had done for Red Squirrel, he 

 was much dissatisfied with his own smooth 

 tail, so he, too, went to the wood nymph. 



" * Dear wood nymph,* cried Chippy, ' my 

 tail is very homely, won't you please fix it like 

 Red Squirrel's?' 



" So the kind wood nymph covered Chippy's 



