THE DISCONTENTED SQUIRREL 71 
saved himself from being carried out to sea by 
climbing up the last pole. Now the current was 
the other way, and the river full from bank to 
bank: the poor squirrel on his pole-top was in the 
middle of the swirling current, and dared not 
venture into the water again, either to go forward 
or back to the wood. 
The fisherman went home to his tea; but, two 
hours later, just about sunset, he strolled back to 
the sea-front, and there still sat the squirrel 
hunched up on the top of his pole. Presently a 
fishing-boat came in from the sea, with only 
one person, a young man, in it. The old man 
hailed him, and called his attention to the 
squirrel on the pole. “All right; I see him!” 
shouted back the young fellow. “Ill try to get 
him off!” 
Then, as the swirling current carried the boat 
up to within about three yards of the pole, he leant 
forward and thrust out an oar until the blade 
touched the pole; and no sooner had it touched 
than down like lightning came the squirrel from 
his perch, leaped upon the oar, and from the oar 
to the boat, then quickly bounded up the mast and 
perched himself on the top. 
The squirrel had not understood the man’s 
friendly intentions, and his lightning-quick action 
appeared not to have been prompted either by 
reason or instinct, but rather by that intuitive 
faculty one is half-inclined to believe in, which 
causes an animal suddenly threatened with destruc- 
