A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



with an acorn in his mouth. The red saw 

 the gray, but remained silent. The gray 

 squirrel selected a spot and proceeded to bury 

 the nut. When he had finished and was pat- 

 ting the dirt down, the red set up a great 

 laugh. The gray cast one look aloft, and 

 instantly his little paws were making the dirt 

 fly. In less time than it takes me to write it, 

 he had dug up the nut and had disappeared. 

 I don't think the red squirrel thought to ap- 

 propriate the nut. I think he enjoyed the 

 joke which was on the gray. I know that I 

 did. 



A thaw in the winter made trouble for me 

 outside of the sloppy walking. It brought 

 out the skunk family, and each individual 

 skunk thought he owned the old highway, and 

 he did, when I met him. Many and many 

 times I have had to climb through snow, or 

 over ledges, to give the right of way to some 

 sleepy old fraud, that did not know enough 

 about man to be afraid of him. 



One evening I went to the well for water, 

 and left the cabin door open. When I re- 

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