162 SIR GIPSY 



I always keep a large dish full of nuts on 

 hand in the dining-room, on purpose for the 

 squirrels, and this time I invited Sir Gipsy 

 into my office, which opens out of the dining- 

 room. Very cautiously he crept in, a few 

 steps at a time, looking ahout to see if there 

 would be any peril in accepting my invitation. 

 But he soon felt at home, and from that mo- 

 ment Sir Gipsy and I were the best of friends. 

 He would come to see us every day. 



He soon learned where the nut dish stood, 

 and if we would leave the porch door open 

 he would race back and forth between the table 

 and the front lawn, tucking the nuts into the 

 pouches of his cheeks and then hiding them in 

 the little holes which lie would dig out-of- 

 doors. Some days he would take a notion to 

 kick up a corner of a rug and hide a nut there, 

 and several times I found the little hoarder 

 briskly at work in the parlor storing his treas- 

 ures away under all the different rug>. 



When cold weather and snow came and the 

 doors did not so frequently stand open, Sir 

 Gipsy would jump upon the roof of the cot- 

 tage early in the morning and come in at the 

 upstairs bedroom windows. We would hear 



