Young Hunters 



thirty yards from the top of a tree twenty or 

 thirty feet high to the foot of another, gliding 

 upward as they reach the trunk, or if the dis- 

 tance is too great they alight comfortably on 

 the ground and make haste to the nearest 

 tree, and climb just like the wingless squirrels. 

 Every boy and girl loves the little fairy, airy 

 striped chipmunk, half squirrel, half spermo- 

 phile. He is about the size of a field mouse, and 

 often made us think of linnets and song spar- 

 rows as he frisked about gathering nuts and 

 berries. He likes almost all kinds of grain, 

 berries, and nuts, hazel-nuts, hickory-nuts, 

 strawberries, huckleberries, wheat, oats, corn, 

 he is fond of them all and thrives on them. 

 Most of the hazel bushes on our farm grew 

 along the fences as if they had been planted for 

 the chipmunks alone, for the rail fences were 

 their favorite highways. We never wearied 

 watching them, especially when the hazel-nuts 

 were ripe and the little fellows were sitting on 

 the rails nibbling and handling them like tree- 

 squirrels. We used to notice too that, although 

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