THE SQUIRRELS THAT LIVE IN A HOUSE. 



ONCE upon a time a gentleman went out into a great 

 forest, and cut away the trees, and built there a very 

 nice little cottage. It was set very low on the ground, 

 and had very large bow-windows, and so much of it was 

 glass that one could look through it on every side and see 

 what was going on in the forest. You could see the shad- 

 ows of the fern-leaves, as they flickered and wavered over 

 the ground, and the scarlet partridge-berry and wintergreen 

 plums that matted round the roots of the trees, and the 

 bright spots of sunshine that fell through their branches 

 and went dancing about among the bushes and leaves at 

 their roots. You could see the little chipping sparrows and 

 thrushes and robins and bluebirds building their nests here 

 and there among the branches, and watch them from day 

 to day as they laid their eggs and hatched their young. 

 You could also see red squirrels, and gray squirrels, and 

 little striped chip-squirrels, darting and springing about, 

 here and there and everywhere, running races with each 

 other from bough to bough, and chattering at each other 

 in the gayest possible manner. 



You may be sure that such a strange thing as a great 

 mortal house for human beings to live in did not come 



