156 A WORD OF PRAISE. 



and he often utters a kind of grumbling noise through 

 his closed teeth. 



"The hardest and smoothest-barked tree offers no 

 impediment to the ascent of the squirrel, which flies up 

 the trunk almost as fast as the eye can follow. At the 

 approach of winter the squirrel sheds his summer coat, 

 and the new hair is of a deeper colour than that which 

 has been got rid of. Taking them altogether, there are 

 few animals which make a more interesting group than 

 the squirrels. They are associated in our minds with 

 the picturesque scenery of our woods, to which they 

 add interest and life ; and few among us but can recall 

 many a woodland ramble, enjoyed perhaps when we 

 were young and when life was still a golden dream of 

 the future, when our attention had been arrested by the 

 active movements of the agile little beast as it gleaned 

 its harvest of seeds and nuts, or watched us slyly from 

 behind the shelter of the branches as we paused beneath 

 its tree." 



Here Pierre stopped to recover his breath. 



"I guess," said Jake, "this coon never thought so 

 much cud be said about sich a little crittur as a squirl. 

 But the longer one lives the more one larns." 



" Really, Pierre," said Gaultier, " your natural history 

 is invaluable. How dull we should be without it ! I 

 can't imagine, now, how we got on so long without 

 some such aid to pass the time at our camps. But you 

 have not yet told us anything of the porcupines, nor of 

 the beavers, both of which we met to-day." 



