THE SUMMIT OF THE YEARS 



full it took to fill a cup, and so reached the number 

 in the two quarts, and found that it amounted to 

 the surprising figure of 250,000. 



Think of the amount of patient labor required 

 to clean 250,000 of the small seeds of the wild buck- 

 wheat ! The grains are hardly one third the size of 

 those of the cultivated kind and are jet black when 

 the husk is removed. Probably every seed was 

 husked with those deft little hands and teeth as it 

 was gathered, before it went into his cheek pockets, 

 but what a task it must have been ! 



Poor little hermit, it seemed pathetic to find him 

 facing the coming winter there with such inferior 

 stuff in his granary. Not a nut, not a kernel of corn 

 or wheat. Why he had not availed himself of the 

 oats that grew just over the fence I should like to 

 know. Of course, the wild buckwheat must have 

 been more to his liking. How many hazardous trips 

 along fences and into the bushes his stores repre- 

 sented ! The wild creatures all live in as savage a 

 country as did our earliest ancestors, and the enemy 

 of each is lying in wait for it at nearly every turn. 



Digging the little fellow out, of course, brought 

 ruin upon his house, and I think the Muse of Natural 

 History contemplated the scene with many com- 

 punctions of conscience, if she has any conscience, 

 which I am inclined to doubt. But our human 

 hearts prompted us to do all we could to give the 

 provident little creature a fresh start; we put his 



