THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



tion, then down to the ground again, and out into 

 the grass, where he would carefully hide his nut, 

 and cover it with leaves. Then back to the house 

 again he would go by precisely the same route and 

 with precisely the same movements, and bring an- 

 other nut. Day after day I saw him thus engaged 

 till apparently all the nuts were removed. He prob- 

 ably did not know he was planting butternut-trees 

 for other red squirrels, but that was what he was 

 doing. The crows and jays carry away and plant 

 acorns and chestnuts in the same way, thus often 

 causing a pine forest to be succeeded by these trees. 



The red squirrel is only an irregular storer of nuts 

 in the autumn. In this respect he stands halfway 

 between the chipmunk and the gray squirrel, one of 

 which regularly lays up winter stores and the other 

 none at all. 1 



How diverse are the ways of nature in reaching 

 the same end! Both the chipmunk and the wood- 

 chuck lay up stores against the needs of winter, the 

 latter in the shape of fat upon his own ribs, and the 

 former in the shape of seeds and nuts in his den in 

 the ground; and I fancy that one of them is no more 

 conscious of what he is doing than the other. Ani- 

 mals do not take conscious thought of the future; 

 it is as if something in their organization took 

 thought for them. One November, seized with the 



1 The gray squirrel hides nuts under the leaves and grass but 

 he lays up no winter stores. 



46 



