IN FIELD AND WOOD 



had the little delver dropped near it, and not the 

 slightest vestige of a path had he made from the 

 tunnel to the dump. 



And this feature was noticeable in every case; the 

 hole had been dug several yards under ground and 

 several pecks of fresh earth removed to a distance of 

 some feet without the least speck of soil or the least 

 trace of the workman's footsteps showing near the 

 entrance; such clean, deft workmanship was remark- 

 able. All this half -bushel or more of earth the squir- 

 rel must have carried out in his cheek pockets, and 

 he must have made hundreds of trips to and fro from 

 his dump to his hole, and yet if he had flown like a 

 bird the turf could not have been freer from the 

 marks of his going and coming; and he had cut down 

 through the turf as one might have done with an au- 

 ger, without bruising or disturbing in any way the 

 grass about the edges. It was a clean, neat job in 

 every case, so much so that it was hard to believe 

 that the delver did not come up from below and 

 have a back door from whence he carried his soil 

 some yards away. 



Indeed, I have heard this theory stated. " Look 

 under the pile of earth," said a friend who was with 

 me and who had observed the work of the pocket 

 gopher in the West, " and you will find the back door 

 there." But it was not so. I carefully removed four 

 piles of earth and dug away the turf beneath them, 

 and no hole was to be found. 

 239 



