€^t &Ci^ of tS}^ &(X\xi> 



authenticated instance of his doing so. The red 

 squirrel is the sinner in this respect, and probably 

 the gray squirrel also." 



It will be difficult to find a true bill against him. 

 Were the evidence all in, I believe that instead of a 

 culprit we should find chipmunk a useful citizen. I 

 reckon that the pile of June-bug bodies on the flat 

 stone leaves me still in debt to him even after the 

 strawberries have been credited. He may err occa- 

 sionally, and may, on occasion, make a nuisance of 

 himself, — but so do my four small boys, bless them ! 

 And, well — who doesn't.'* When a family of chip- 

 munks, which you have fed all summer on the ve- 

 randa, take up their winter quarters inside the closed 

 cabin, and chew up your quilts, hammocks, table- 

 cloths, and whatever else there is of chewable prop- 

 erties, then they are anathema. 



The litter and havoc that those squirrels made were 

 dreadful. But instead of exterminating them root 

 and branch, a big box was prepared the next summer 

 and lined with tin, in which the linen was success- 

 fully wintered. 



But how real was the loss, after all.^ Here is a 

 rough log cabin on the side of Thorn Mountain. 



182 



