114 UNDER THE OPEN SKY 



the regions not too near the large cities. 

 His bunchy body, not so slender as that of 

 his true squirrel cousins, with its yellowish 

 brown coat and its striped back, is dear to 

 every country boy who is not mean enough 

 or thoughtless enough to stone it on sight. 



PROVIDING FOR WINTER 



The little fellow is the most provident of 

 all his tribe. He makes a burrow some- 

 times of considerable length under the 

 ground. Along its course are often several 

 storehouses, and these he fills with his win- 

 ter provisions, and in them he stays from 

 December until March. Then he comes 

 with the first song of the robin and blue- 

 bird and the first cheerful cackle of the 

 blackbird. Soon he will begin to hide 

 cherry-stones. Often in climbing over a 

 worm fence an old hollow rail has broken 

 under my hand, and from the open end 

 have come pouring cherry-stones by the 

 hundreds. What numberless journeys this 

 must mean! One chipmunk of my ac- 

 quaintance became quite a household pet, 



