The Squirrel's Thrift 



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and a heritage once essential has become an 

 affliction to each new generation. 



In northern countries, however, the majority 

 of mice, squirrels, gophers and the like, are 

 still face to face annually with famine, and 

 must starve to death or create a hoard of food 

 against that contingency. Nor can the matter 

 be left to individual precaution. Chipmunks 

 and pocket-mice are irresponsible folk, and 

 could hardly be trusted to look out for them- 

 selves in so momentous a matter. How, then, 

 has Nature impressed upon their giddy minds 

 the necessity for the " foresight " we admire, 

 and kept them faithful in execution of the idea? 

 It appears to me that the beneficial habit of 

 doing what they must do, if they are to survive 

 in our cold climate, has been inculcated in some 

 such way as this : 



It is the natural custom of most small ani- 

 mals, not mere grazers or flycatchers, to take 

 as much of their food as they well can to some 

 favorite eating place. This trait is noticeable 

 in a wide range of creatures ants, bees, crabs, 

 crocodiles, crows, fruit-bats, monkeys, certain 

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