THE NUTCRACKERS OF NUTCRACKER LODGE: 



TV /T R. and Mrs. Nutcracker were as respectable a pair of 

 ** squirrels as ever wore gray brushes over their backs. 

 They were animals of a settled and serious turn of mind, 

 not disposed to run after vanities and novelties, but filling 

 their station in life with prudence and sobriety. Nut- 

 cracker Lodge was a hole in a sturdy old chestnut over- 

 hanging a shady dell, and was held to be as respectably 

 kept an establishment as there was in the whole forest. 

 Even Miss Jenny Wren, the greatest gossip of the neigh- 

 borhood, never found anything to criticise in its arrange- 



