A TRUE SQUIRREL STORY 



"There once was a squirrel whose 

 name was Bun." — In a leaf-hned hollow 

 in a great beech tree this little squirrel's 

 life began. He had other squirrels for 

 company, for the woods in which he 

 lived were full of great trees that were 

 old and gnarled, and broken and boled. 

 The hollows in the trees were like 

 great pockets and were just such places 

 as squirrels liked to hide in. 



There was another reason why squir- 

 , rels liked this particular forest. That 

 was because its trees bore nuts and cones 

 in abundance, so that the squirrels' cup- 

 boards in the trees were never empty. 



"Chick-a-ree-ree! — chir-r-r-r !" said 

 the squirrels in one tree, and other 

 squirrels in other trees shouted back a 

 chorus of "chick-a-rees!'' This was the 

 language of Squirreltpwn. It seemed 

 all alike to the ears of the Galpin family 

 who had conie to live in the edge of the 

 forest, — in the edge of Squirreltown 

 itself. If those human ears had been 

 better trained in the lore of their little 

 neighbors, their owners might have been 

 as wise as Weather Bureaus, and have 

 learned where the best nuts grew, what 

 trees were hollow, and a great deal 

 more that was worth while. 



Now in this Galpin family there was 

 one daughter who loved the woods al- 

 most as well as did the squirrels them- 

 selves. She loved to wander among the 

 big trees and to listen to the songs that 

 the pines were always singing, and to 

 hear the secrets told by the whispering 

 leaves. The birds sang to her, and the 

 flowers dropped sweet odors upon her 

 garments as she passed among them. 

 Because she loved all, she was kind to 

 all. The birds knew it and were not 

 afraid of her. All the squirrels in Squir- 

 reltown were quick to find it out and 

 chick-a-recd to her, though in a shy 

 little fashion at first. 



Gradually they grew to believe that 

 she belonged to Squirreltown ; so, in- 



stead of running away w^hen they saw 

 her coming, they would hide their piles 

 of nuts in the leaves under her very eyes, 

 and play tag with each other among the 

 big trees without fear of her. 



It was not all at once, but gradually that 

 Ella Galpin won the confidence of the 

 tenants of the woods, until they all grew 

 to regard her very much as if she had 

 been a long-eared rabbit or a nice little 

 beech tree. 



When the little people in fur who 

 lived in Squirreltown discovered that 

 she carried popcorn and beechnuts in 

 her pockets they were more than willing 

 to continue her acquaintance. They 

 learned to come at her whistle, to eat 

 from her hand, and to sit fearlessly upon 

 her shoulder and crack their nuts. 



Just where the forest ended a meadow 

 began. Where the forest and the 

 meadow met a traveling Burdock had 

 settled a long time before. The Bur- 

 dock's family had increased and its 

 children and grand-children had settled 

 all around it, until the place that had 

 once been sweet with ferns and lilies and 

 violets was now a real Burdocktown. 



A great pine tree in the edge of the 

 wood had long had the habit of throwing 

 its cones down to the ground that its 

 friends from Squirreltown might come 

 and gather their seeds. But now, when 

 the great pine shook its heavy branches 

 and threw down its cones, they went 

 hurtling straight into the midst of Bur- 

 docktown. 



One market day, our squirrel whose 

 name was Bun went scampering ofif to 

 the pine tree for seeds that grew in its 

 gieat brown cones, and before he knew 

 it he was right in the center of Burdock- 

 town. His indignation was unbounded 

 when he found the broad leaves of the 

 Burdocks covering his market place and 

 he scolded and chick-a-recd a great deal. 

 But the coarse Burdock people only 

 bristled and spread themselves out the 



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