SQUIRRELS, FOXES, AND OTHERS 181 



had better not set up a house or a monument, 

 but dig a hole in the ground. Humility 

 helps to permanence. The lower you get, 

 the less danger of falling. Nature is slower 

 to fill up than to pull down, though she will 

 do either with all thoroughness, give her 

 time enough. To her a man's life is but a 

 clock's tick, and all his constructions are 

 but child's play in the sand. A trite bit of 

 moralizing ? Well, perhaps it is ; but it 

 sounded anything but trite, as the old cel- 

 lar-hole spoke it to me. A word is like a 

 bullet : its force is in the power behind it. 



Not far beyond this point we found our- 

 selves in a gray-birch swamp. Here, if any- 

 where, should be the nests we were in search 

 of. And soon we began to see them, one 

 here, another there. We followed the same 

 course with them all ; my companion shook 

 or jarred the tree, while I stood off and 

 watched for the squirrels. And the result 

 was alike in all cases. Every nest was 

 empty. We tried at least a score, and had 

 our labor for our pains. " There are no 

 flying squirrels this year," my companion 

 kept saying. Perhaps they had migrated. 



