CELEBRATING GROUND-HOG DAY 41 



Winter ended early; it was not a long or a 

 severe winter after all. The bear was correct, 

 and so, too, was the ground-hog; that is, if they 

 had anything to do with weather predicting 

 and arranging. But the birds, squirrels, and 

 beavers who had made such extensive winter 

 preparations had made a mistake. But did 

 human weather prophets understand the plans 

 and preparations of any of these wild people ? 



Down the mountains I walked fifteen miles 

 for a visit with another boy. We talked over 

 weather signs, planned to meet next Ground- 

 hog Day, and above all to be alert and learn 

 all we could about the ground-hog and other 

 animal ways. 



Squirrels commenced gathering pine cones for 

 winter as early as the cones were ready the last 

 week in July. These cones were piled by stumps, 

 logs, and tree roots and in hollow logs in small 

 nests. The nests or little holes were about the 

 size of a robin's nest dug into the leaf and trash 

 coverings of the forest floor. Each nest had 

 from five to ten or sometimes twenty cones, and 

 these cones were never more than two deep. 

 All the cone piles of each squirrel were within 

 a space ten feet square and within thirty feet 

 of the tree in which the squirrel had his winter 

 home. 



One squirrel had stored one hundred and fifty- 



