10 DAYS OUT OF DOORS. 



quite extensive. Certainly the environment is favorable 

 for the non-social wasps, and, judged by their effective 

 work, their stings are developed out of all proportion to 

 their bodies, and triply envenomed. 



But that January day. It neither rained nor snowed, 

 but both. There was no steady wind from some one point, 

 but stinging blasts that came from every quarter. It was 

 neither warm nor cold, but chilling to a degree that made 

 all wraps unavailable. I stayed at home. 



It had been whispered about that strange noises were 

 sometimes heard in the attic, and I proposed now to in- 

 vestigate the matter. Somewhere between the roof and 

 the ceiling, in a long and narrow, densely darkened space, 

 the flying squirrels that have made my house their home 

 for many years were now cozily quartered. Of this I was 

 sure. They could not, it seemed to me, have suspended a 

 nest from the rafters ; so their only alternative of resting 

 upon the plastering made it easy for me to locate them. 

 With a little hammer, I tapped upon every square inch of 

 that ceiling, and then listened for some response. If I 

 thought I heard such, I tapped still harder, and so con- 

 tinued, going over the same ground many times, until at 

 last I found the spot. Here every blow of the hammer 

 elicited a growl-like squeak, and I knew that the squirrels 

 were not only there, but awake. 



Having advanced thus far in my explorations, I rested 

 from my labors. No, I merely endeavored to do so. It 

 happened that my incessant but, as I thought, gentle ham- 

 mering excited considerable curiosity, if not fear, in the 

 mind of an interested party on the lower floor, and, as I 

 was about to descend thereto to announce my unqualified 

 success, I heard approaching footsteps, which, without 

 knowing why, I desired to avoid, but was hemmed in, and 

 could but wait and wonder. The expression of my un- 

 welcome visitor, as she gazed at what I too now saw was a 



