THE SEVEN SLEEPERS 201 



suddenly stopped and let the remainder drop, and 

 then sat and reflected for a full minute. At the end 

 of that time he became actively ill, and after losing 

 all of that fresh snake-lunch, scampered away, an 

 emptier, if not a wiser, chipmunk. 



In spite of his gentle ways Chippy lives in a world 

 of enemies. Hawks, snakes, cats, boys, and dogs, 

 all are his foes. More than all the rest put together, 

 however, he fears the devilish red weasel, which 

 runs him down relentlessly above and below the 

 ground alike. Only in the water has the chipmunk 

 a chance to escape. Although the weasel can hold 

 him for a few yards, yet in a long swim the chipmunk 

 will draw away so far from his pursuer that he will 

 generally escape. Underground, if given a few sec- 

 onds' time, he also escapes by a method known to a 

 number of the underground folk. Dashing through 

 a series of the main burrows, he runs into a side gal- 

 lery, and instantly walls himself in so neatly that his 

 pursuer rushes past without suspecting his presence. 



For many years one of the out-of-door problems to 

 which I was unable to find the answer was how a 

 chipmunk could dig a burrow and leave no trace of 

 any fresh earth. I examined scores of new chipmunk- 

 holes, but never found the least trace of fresh earth 

 near the entrance. His secret is to start at the other 

 end. This sounds like a joke, but it is exactly what 

 he does. He will run a shaft for many feet, coming 

 up in some convenient thicket or beneath the slope 

 of an overhanging bank. All the earth will be taken 

 out through the first hole, which is then plugged 



