200 EVERYDAY ADVENTURES 



of Eastern chipmunks, the Northern and the South- 

 ern, besides the Oregon, the painted, and the magnifi- 

 cent golden chipmunk of the West. All of them have 

 the same dear, gentle ways. 



When I was a boy, a chipmunk was a favorite pet. 

 Flying squirrels were too sleepy, red squirrels too 

 restless, and gray squirrels too bitey for petting 

 purposes. Chippy is easily tamed, and moreover 

 does not have to be kept in a cage, which is no place 

 for any wild animal. I knew one once who used to 

 go to school in a boy's pocket every day; and he 

 behaved quite as well as the boy, which is not saying 

 much. Sometimes he would come out and sit on the 

 desk beside the boy's book, so as to help him over 

 the particularly hard places. 



The chipmunk, like most of the Sleepers, has a 

 varied diet. He eats all kinds of nuts and weed-seeds, 

 and also has a pretty taste in mushrooms. It was 

 a chipmunk who once taught me the difference 

 between a good and a bad mushroom. I saw him 

 sitting on a stump, nibbling what seemed to be a red 

 russula, which tastes like red pepper and acts like 

 an emetic if one is foolish enough to swallow much 

 of it. When I came near, he ran away, leaving his 

 lunch behind. On tasting the mushroom I found that, 

 although it was a red russula, it was not the emetica, 

 and I learned to recognize the delicious alutacea. 



Sometimes, sad to say, Chippy eats forbidden 

 food. A friend of mine found him once on a low 

 limb, nibbling a tiny, green grass-snake. The chip- 

 munk had eaten about half of the snake, when he 



