BILLY AND HANS 



and nestled down again. When I 

 gave Hans a nut, Billy would wait for 

 him to crack it, and deliberately take 

 it out of his jaws and eat it, an ag- 

 gression to which Hans submitted 

 without a fight, or a snarl even, though 

 at first he held to the nut a little ; but 

 the good humour and caressing ways 

 of Billy were as irresistible with Hans 

 as with us, and I never knew him to 

 retaliate in any way. 



No two animals of the most domes- 

 ticated species could have differed in 

 disposition more than these. During 

 the first phase of Hans's life he never 

 lost his repugnance to being handled, 

 while Billy delighted in being fondled. 

 The European squirrel is by nature 

 one of the most timid of animals, even 

 more so than the hare, being equalled 

 in this respect only by the exquisite 

 flying-squirrel of America ; and when 



