Bannertail 



would be their guides. They would find 

 most of the nuts again. But not all. 

 Some would escape the diggers, and what 

 would happen to these? They would 

 grow. Yes, that was Nature's plan. The 

 acorns falling and lying on the ground can 

 burst their thin coats, send down a root 

 and up a shoot at once, but the hickory 

 must be buried or it will dry up before it 

 grows. This is the hickory's age-old 

 compact with the Graysquirrel : You 

 bury my nuts for me, plant my children, 

 and you may have ninety-five per cent of 

 the proceeds for your trouble, so long only 

 as you save the other five per cent and 

 give them a chance to grow up into 

 hickory-trees. 



« This is the unwritten but binding bar- 

 gain that is observed each year. And 

 this is the reason why there are hickory- 

 trees wherever there are Gray squirrels. 

 Where the Graycoats have died out the 



[258] 



