288 Life and Immortahty. 
shines with peculiar warmth, and is not seen again until the 
beginning of spring. The young, to the number of four or 
five, are produced in May, and there is generally a second 
brood some time in August. A rather pugnacious animal 
is the male Hackee, and during the combats which are 
frequently waged when several males meet, their tails have 
been known to snap asunder from the violence of their 
movements, for these members, it is undoubtedly true, are 
wonderfully brittle in their structure. 
Pretty as he is, and graceful as are his movements, it 
hardly pays to keep the animal in a domesticated state, for 
his temper is very uncertain, and he is generally sullen even 
towards his keeper. But could he be induced to take to the 
life of a captive kindly and pleasantly, he would, by his 
cunning little ways, prove a most agreeable companion. 
Some years ago an American writer of note had a pair of 
these animals which made their home in the foundation wall 
of her house. A row of wild cherry trees stood near the 
lawn in the rear of the building, which the little fellows were 
wont to visit many times daily, carrying off in their pouches 
quite a number at a time of the numerous cherry pits that lay 
scattered over the ground. 
The season being dry, one morning early the person to 
whom reference has been made repaired to the lawn and poured 
a pitcher of water over some plants that grew near her porch, 
when one of these squirrels was observed to pass among 
them on his way to the trees. He paused from his journey, 
sat up on his haunches, took one of the wet leaves in his 
hands, pressed the sides together for a trough for the moisture, 
and holding it to his mouth drank from it the water in the 
most comical fashion imaginable. He then went to another 
and another, drinking from five or six leaves in all, while 
she stood watching near by. A large saucer filled with 
water was placed near the plants, which the little fellows 
quickly discovered, and both thereafter drank and washed 
regularly at the dish. 
