So far from teaching tliem to climb and build 

 nests behind water-tanks, their foster-mother 

 never got over her astonishment at it. All they 

 needed from her, all they needed and would 

 have received from their own squirrel mother, 

 was nourishment and protection until their teeth 

 and legs grew strong. Wits were born with 

 them ; experience was sure to come to them ; 

 and with wits and experience there is nothing 

 known among squirrels of their kind that these 

 two would not learn for themselves. 



And there was not much known to squirrels 

 that these two did not know, apparently without 

 even learning. As they grew in size they in- 

 creased exceedingly in naughtiness, and were 

 banished shortly from the kitchen to an ell or 

 back woodshed. They celebrated this distinction 

 by dropping some hickory-nuts into a rubber 

 boot hanging on the wall, and then gnawing a 

 hole through the toe of the boot in order to 

 extract the hidden nuts. Was it mischief that 

 led them to gnaw through rather than go down 

 the top ■? Or did something get stuffed into the 

 top of the boot after the nuts were dropped in 1 

 And did the squirrels remember that the nuts 

 [87] 



