BILLY AND HANS 



He was evidently growing weak, and 

 occasionally showed impatience as if 

 in pain ; but for the most of the time 

 he rested quietly in my pocket, and 

 was most happy when I gave him my 

 hand for a pillow, and at night he 

 would seek out the hand, and lay his 

 head on it with a curious persistence 

 which showed a distinct pleasure in 

 the contact, sometimes, though rarely, 

 licking the fingers, for he was even 

 then far more reserved in all his ex- 

 pressions of feeling than Billy. At 

 times he would sit on the window- 

 bench, and scan the landscape with 

 something of the old eagerness that 

 used to give me so much pain, snuffing 

 the mountain air eagerly for a half- 

 might possibly be his mistress ; and as, like 

 all squirrels I have known, he was not dis- 

 posed to be friendly with strangers, it was 

 evident that he thought her his mistress. 



4*^ 



