MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



window, and off among the branches, and back 

 she came to my hand again. But on this occasion 

 she found the fingers nearly closed and the nuts 

 almost inaccessible. Nothing daunted, however, 

 she proceeded to gnaw away the barriers. I felt 

 a preparatory nibble or two, then a decided bite, 

 and I had just about made up my mind that the 

 limit of the experiment had been reached when 

 Madame Jolie-Queue paused. In the taste of 

 human flesh she had detected something alarming- 

 ly foreign. For a moment she was silent, eying 

 me all the time with the greatest suspicion and 

 the keenest disapproval, and at the close of the 

 survey she stood up on her little hind legs, clasped 

 her forepaws to her breast, and while fairly danc- 

 ing with indignation and alarm she squeaked and 

 chattered and rattled forth a volley of vitupera- 

 tive remarks. They were easy to interpret : 



" You cheat you ; you cheat! You mean, 

 mean, mean, mean cheat! You're alive, you 

 know you are. Alive, I say, alive! Do you 

 hear me? You cheat, you great big ugly human! 

 You mean, mean cheat!" 



This was the theme upon which endless em- 

 phatic, explosive variations were played to the ac- 

 companiment of the most amusing little prancings 



[80] 



