THE VOLUBLE CHIPMUNK 213 



breast as if to still the beating of his heart, 

 he turned and fled, scampering over a fallen 

 branch as if it were a highway, and from that 

 giving a great leap to a stump, where, safely 

 beyond my reach, he sat up in virtuous indig- 

 nation, and uttered a voluble remonstrance 

 against my presence in his grounds. 



His shrieks and calls I knew were as in- 

 telligible to the woods-dwellers as to me, 

 and in order to see any of them I must first 

 silence him. I was obliged, therefore, to end 

 his attempts at intimidation, and break the 

 heavenly stillness of the woods, by a stick 

 sent crashing through the branches near 

 him. A hint of this sort is usually enough 

 for Chip. He recognizes the superiority of 

 the human race when it comes to a trial of 

 force, and when one thus indicates that he is 

 ready to take a hand in the fray he generally 

 retires to some safe retreat ; while, if the bird- 

 student is meek and uncomplaining, the small 

 autocrat will revile him for half an hour, ap- 

 parently without once pausing for breath. 



For a long time after I had intimated to 

 the chipmunk that his presence was not agree- 

 able to me, there was nothing to break what 



