WILD NEIGHBORS 
I 
OUR GRAY SQUIRRELS 
Down past my window, as I sit writing beside 
it, falls a twig from the black oak at the corner 
of the house. Half a minute later another sinks 
wavering downward, buoyed by its broad leaves, 
which are green and healthy. This happens in 
July, far in advance of their natural time to fall. 
What is the cause? A glance informs me. One 
of our gray squirrels is out on the end of an over- 
hanging limb, and I am just in time to see him 
bite off another leafy twig and carry it away. It 
is evident that he had dropped the other one acci- 
dentally. What is he doing? I vault out of the 
window, and keep him in view as he makes his 
way nearly to the summit of a tall white oak, 
where he leaves his branch as a contribution to a 
half bushel or so of sticks and leaves lodged in a 
convenient notch. Another squirrel is there, and 
together they scramble over the mass, packing and 
entangling it together, and occasionally disappear- 
B I 
