Z^t &a^ of te}t &(xni> 



don't haggle with Nature after that fashion. The 

 farm is not a marketplace where you get exactly 

 what you pay for. You must spend on the farm all 

 you have of time and strength and brains ; but you 

 must not expect merely your money's worth. Infi- 

 nitely more than that, and oftentimes less. Farm- 

 ing is like virtue, — its own reward. It pays the man 

 who loves it, no matter how short the oats and corn. 



So it is with chipmunk. Perhaps his books don't 

 balance, — a few June-bugs short on the credit side. 

 What then ? It is n't mere bugs and berries, as I have 

 just suggested, but stone piles. What is the differ- 

 ence in value to me between a stone pile with and 

 without a chipmunk in it? Just the difference, rela- 

 tively speaking, between the house with or without 

 my four boys in it. 



Chipmunk, with his sleek, round form, his rich 

 color and his stripes, is the daintiest, most beautiful 

 of all our squirrels. He is one of the friendliest of my 

 tenants, too, friendlier even than chickadee. The two 

 are very much alike in spirit, but however tame and 

 confiding chickadee may become, he is still a bird, 

 and, despite his wings, belongs to a different and a 

 lower order of beings. Chickadee is often curious 



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