OUR NEAREST NEIGHBORS 



took that dangerous plunge into the jar for food. Once done there 

 was no further hesitation on that morning; he came and went 

 with his accustomed regularity between the bench and his home 

 until every bit was stowed away. 



This patient process had to be repeated manv times. Xo 

 sudden movements were ever permitted on my part, and at last he 

 learned to sit on my hand and eat, to wash his clean little face 

 with his dexterous paws, and to scold sharply from my lap at any 

 intruding mate. I carried a jar to the window-box of my own room 

 on the second floor, and he in some way divined it and climbed up 

 the chimney with zest for the food. Sometimes in the early morn- 

 ing, if the jar was empty, I could even hear a delicate scratching 

 on the screen to attract my attention. They tell a tale, that once 

 when I was absent, Jerry was found on the desk in my room look- 

 ing disconsolately about, although how he got there no one could 

 discover. Tom, from the east porch, soon found the new and cu- 

 rious food on the terrace, and immediately followed the example of 

 his brother chipmunk. 



It is astonishing how much they can carry in those expansible 

 pouches of theirs. We once put eighteen kernels of corn a foot 

 apart with a peanut at the end of the row, and one saucy fellow 

 tucked every kernel into his pouches bit by bit, the peanut was 

 caught by the end somehow, and away he ran with the whole loot. 

 One of them, " Iris, " because his home was close to the iris glade, 



has a wonderful underground system of galleries and chambers, 



197 



