SEPTEMBER 



15 



The jays scream and the red squirrels scold 

 while you are clubbing and shaking the chestnut- 

 trees, for they are there on the same errand, and 

 two of a trade never agree. I frequently see a red 

 or gray squirrel cast down a green chestnut-burr, 

 as I am going through the woods, and I used to 

 think, sometimes, that they were cast at me. In 

 fact, they are so busy about it, in the midst of the 

 chestnut season, that you cannot stand long in the 

 woods without hearing one fall. 



THOEEAU: The Succession of Forest Trees. 



16 



The chipping or striped squirrel sat upon the 

 end of some Virginia fence or rider reaching over 

 the stream, twirling a green nut with one paw, as 

 in a lathe, while the other held it fast against its 

 incisors as chisels. Like an independent russet 

 leaf, with a will of its own, rustling whither it 

 could ; now under the fence, now over it, now 

 peeping at the voyageurs through a crack with 

 only its tail visible, now at its lunch deep in the 

 toothsome kernel, and now a rod off playing at 

 hide-and-seek, with the nut stowed away in its 

 chops, where were half a dozen more besides, 

 extending its cheeks to a ludicrous breadth. 



THOREAU: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack 

 Rivers. 



