NOTES BY THE WAY. 149 



then, but design. Whose design? The squirrels'. 

 The fruit was the finest I had ever seen in the woods, 

 and some wise squirrel had marked it for his own. 

 The burs were ripe, and had just begun to divide, 

 not " threefold," but fourfold, " to show the fruit 

 within." The squirrel that had taken all this pains 

 had evidently reasoned with himself thus : " Now, 

 these are extremely fine chestnuts, and I want them ; 

 if I wait till the burs open on the tree the crows and 

 jays will be sure to carry off a great many of the 

 nuts before they fall ; then, after the wind has rat- 

 tled out what remain, there are the mice, the chip- 

 munks, the red squirrels, the raccoons, the grouse, to 

 say nothing of the boys and the pigs, to come in for 

 their share ; so I will forestall events a little ; I will 

 cut off the burs when they have matured, and a few 

 days of this dry October weather will cause every 

 one of them to open on the ground ; I shall be on 

 hand in the nick of time to gather up my nuts." 

 The squirrel, of course, had to take the chances of a 

 prowler like myself coming along, but he had fairly 

 stolen a march on his neighbors. As I proceeded to 

 collect and open the burs, I was half prepared to 

 hear an audible protest from the trees about, for I 

 Constantly fancied myself watched by shy but jealous 

 oyes. It is an interesting inquiry how the squirrel 

 knew the burs would open if left to lie on the ground 

 a few days. Perhaps he did not know, but thought 

 the experiment worth trying. 

 The gray squirrel is peculiarly an American prod- 



