120 BEYOND THE PASTURE BARS 



of the same material laid on above. Such a nest 

 will not rock and sway when the winds are high, 

 as the gray squirrel's often will; for the crows 

 do not build out in the tips of the branches, but 

 close up to the trunks. It is a warm, safe nest 

 in the coldest of winter storms. 



Chickaree is a good climber, running the tree- 

 tops, scampering along their dizzy roads almost 

 as fast as one can run on the ground beneath. It 

 makes me hold my breath to see him skip along 

 a slender limb, jump to a second, race out to its 

 tip, and leap clearing fifteen feet to catch the 

 very ends of another limb swaying fifty feet above 

 in the air. 



But the thing he can do best of all is scold! 

 Let me go out on the hillside here, and one of the 

 little wretches will climb a tree and warn me to 

 go back to the house. He is instantly joined by 

 several others, and together overhead they follow 

 me, disputing every step with me, swaggering, 

 growling, and pouring forth a torrent of threat 

 and abuse until they are wheezy and out of breath. 



It is bluster, most of it; they love to make a 

 noise. If I drop down at the foot of a low-limbed 

 pine, they gather round, for a look at me, close to. 

 Once I remember that a chipmunk joined them. 



