^^e ^a^ of te}t &Cinb 



me, so interested that he forgot to look to his foot- 

 ing, and just opposite me slipped and bumped his 

 nose hard against a stone, — so hard that he sat up 

 immediately and vigorously rubbed it. Another time 

 he followed me across to the garden and on to 

 the barbed-wire fence along the meadow. Here he 

 climbed a post and continued after me by way of the 

 middle strand of the wire, wriggling, twisting, even 

 grabbing the barbs, in his efforts to maintain his 

 balance. He got midway between the posts, when 

 the sagging strand tripped him and he fell with a 

 splash into a shallow pool below. 



Did the family in the orchard wall stay together 

 as a family for the first summer, I should like to 

 know. As late as August they all seemed to be in 

 the wall, for in August I cut my oats, and during this 

 harvest they all worked together. 



I mowed the oats as soon as they began to yellow, 

 cocking them to cure for hay. It was necessary to let 

 them " make " for six or seven days, and all this time 

 the squirrels raced back and forth between the cocks 

 and the stone wall. They might have hidden their 

 gleanings in a dozen crannies nearer at hand ; but 

 evidently they had a particular storehouse, near the 



1 86 



