A BARN-DOOR OUTLOOK 



were opening out in front of the captor's mouth and 

 its body was being eagerly devoured. This same 

 chipmunk, I think it is, has his den under the barn 

 near me. Often he comes from the stone wall with 

 distended cheek-pouches, and pauses fifteen feet 

 away, close by cover, and looks to see if any danger 

 is impending. To reach his hole he has to cross an 

 open space a rod or more wide, and the thought of 

 it evidently agitates him a little. I am sitting there 

 looking over my desk upon him, and he is skeptical 

 about my being as harmless as I look. " Dare I cross 

 that ten feet of open there in front of him? " he seems 

 to say. He sits up with fore paws pressed so pret- 

 tily to his white breast. He is so near I can see the 

 rapid throbbing of his chest as he sniffs the air. A 

 moment he sits and looks and sniffs, then in hurried 

 movements crosses the open, his cheek-pockets show- 

 ing full as he darts by me. He is like a baseball run- 

 ner trying to steal a base: danger lurks on all sides; 

 he must not leave the cover of one base till he sees 

 the way is clear, and then off with a rush ! Pray 

 don't work yourself up to such a pitch, my little 

 neighbor; you shall make a home-run without the 

 slightest show of opposition from me. 



One day a gray squirrel came along on the stone 

 wall beside the road. In front of the house he 

 crossed an open barway, and then paused to ob- 

 serve two men at work in full view near the house. 

 The men were a sculptor, pottering with clay, and his 

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