OUR MOUNTAIN GARDEN 



watching the squirrel family in the tree 

 near the house. They were indescribably 

 funny, and nothing more valiant ever was 

 seen than a very small robber squirrel whom 

 we called Fitzsimmons, for obvious reasons. 

 He came every day to steal nuts and fought 

 them all successfully, single-handed. I have 

 seen that little champion fight five full- 

 grown squirrels at once from the nut shelf, 

 and never once was he vanquished ! He 

 would come and take nuts out of my hand, 

 not because he was at all tame, but simply 

 because he was sublimely " cheeky," and if 

 I did not hold the nut very carefully, he 

 had a diabolical trick of biting first, to 

 make sure of my dropping it ! Imagine 

 killing such a funny little scamp as that! 

 I once saw a woman's cloak which con- 

 tained the skins of a thousand gray squirrels. 

 It made me quite ill to look at it and think 

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