Young Hunters 



haste to get him out of the nut-box and shut 

 him up in a spare bedroom, in which father 

 had hung a lot of selected ears of Indian corn 

 for seed. They were hung up by the husks on 

 cords stretched across from side to side of the 

 room. The squirrel managed to jump from the 

 top of one of the bed-posts to the cord, cut off 

 an ear, and let it drop to the floor. He then 

 jumped down, got a good grip of the heavy ear, 

 carried it to the top of one of the slippery, 

 polished bed-posts, seated himself comfortably, 

 and, holding it well balanced, deliberately 

 pried out one kernel at a time with his long 

 chisel teeth, ate the soft, sweet germ, and 

 dropped the hard part of the kernel. In this 

 masterly way, working at high speed, he demol- 

 ished several ears a day, and with a good warm 

 bed in a box made himself at home and grew fat. 

 Then naturally, I suppose, free romping in the 

 snow and tree-tops with companions came to 

 mind. Anyhow he began to look for a way of 

 escape. Of course he first tried the window, but 

 found that his teeth made no impression on the 

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