CALICO AND THE KITTENS 147 



Immediately on coming to the woodshed the 

 squirrels began their winter nest, a big, bulky, 

 newspaper affair, which they placed up in the 

 northwest corner of the shed directly under the 

 shingles. Here they slept till late in the fall. 

 This was the shaded side, and the most exposed 

 corner, of the whole house ; but all went well until 

 one night when the weather suddenly turned very 

 cold. A strong wind blew from the northwest 

 hard upon the squirrels' nest. 



The next day there was great activity in the 

 woodshed a scampering of lively feet, that be- 

 gan early in the morning and continued far toward 

 noon. The squirrels were moving. They gath- 

 ered up their newspaper nest and carried it 

 diagonally across the shed from the shaded 

 northwest to the sunny southeast corner, where 

 they rebuilt and slept snug throughout the winter. 



Calico did not teach them this; neither would 

 their own squirrel mother have taught them. 

 They knew how, to begin with. They knew where 

 after one night of experience, which in this case 

 had to be a night of shivers. 



