A CLEVER BEASTIE 



chestnuts, corn, cherry-pits, and peach-pits, and I 

 saw him carry every nut and kernel of grain into 

 his den. 



How hurriedly and exultantly he worked, as if 

 he had feared that this great windfall might be all 

 a dream, or that his neighbors might want to share 

 it! 



Well, I am compelled to believe that his neighbors 

 did share it, but just how and when I do not know. 

 I saw the nuts go into the den, a plump peck of 

 them, and I marveled at that den's capacity. I had 

 dug out two chipmunks in their winter retreats, 

 and neither den was large enough to hold much 

 more than four quarts and leave breathing-room for 

 the occupant and space for his nest. 



It is true that in excavating his retreat the chip- 

 munk had brought to the surface a bushel of earth. 

 I had measured it; but probably more than half of 

 this amount had come from the three tunnels five 

 or six feet long that led out from the central cham- 

 ber. The chipmunk in the Catskills goes down just 

 below the frost line, — in the open fields a little more 

 than three feet, — but his tunnels are very crooked. 

 If any fresh earth had appeared at the surface I 

 should have thought that my little fellow worked 

 nights enlarging his quarters to meet the sudden 

 and extraordinary supply of food; but no soil ap- 

 peared. 



It is certain that one chipmunk for once in his life 

 149 



