BARKER] THE NIGHT-FAIRIES' RENDEZVOUS 361 



When the window was open they did not stop here, but came 

 inside to explore the writer's desk and bookcase for the soiirce of 

 supplies. 



Turning on the evening light was usually a signal that the inn- 

 keeper and lord of the castle was at home, and soon their presence 

 in the trees outside was made known by a squeaking, chippering 

 sound. A few words of welcome supplemented by the sotmd of 

 cracking peanut shells usually brought one of them inside; eager 

 jaws would seize the nut and away would scamper the little fellow 

 bearing the prize in his mouth. In his haste, however, he always 

 paused long enough to turn the nut endways and ensure a secure 

 grasp before he plunged into the air and away. 



It doesn't take a squirrel long to eat a peanut and soon he would 

 mount to the top of a willow tree, volt down to the trunk of the 

 maple and then in less time than it takes to tell, would be up and 

 across to the windowsill shelf again, eager to seize another nut 

 from my fingers. 



Always gentle in manners and trusting, these beautiful little 

 creatures won my heart the first time they came to me. None was 

 ever very timid and in time two of them came to be quite venture- 

 some. Many a studious evening was made sociable by the little 

 fellows scampering in and out of the window, exploring the desk or 

 climbing up and down the window-curtains and even running up 

 and down my shoulder and onto the top of my head to secure the 

 desired nut. 



Altho innately more gentle than the rowdy reds, these squirrels 

 too, seemed to be tmsociably disposed, and to resent the presence of 

 others of their kind, so that, altho I was on friendly terms with four 

 or five of them, I could not entertain more than one of them at a 

 time. 



The movements of the flying sqturrels are extremely quick, and 

 their agility in the air is quite remarkable. Many times I have 

 seen one tumble off the windowledge, turn a somersault in midair, 

 and recovering himself, land on the lower tnmk of a maple ready 

 to scramble up again. The flat tail seems to serve as a rudder, and 

 they have the ability, apparently, to swen'e to right or to left in 

 their "flight." Their aerial powers are quite limited, nevertheless. 

 The length of their flights is always conditioned by the height from 

 which they can launch themselves into the air, because their angle 

 of descent is very steep. They can never fly upward or even hori- 

 zontally, but only downward. 



