chapter V 



IT is lawful in Tennessee to 

 shoot over your own land 

 any time in the year, yet 

 the Bakers, father and son, 

 were sportsmen enough to 

 observe religiously all the 

 close seasons. There was 

 none for either rabbits or 

 squirrels. Indeed it was part of the year's 

 work to shoot Mister Long-Tail — the negro 

 name for the gray squirrel. Squirrels are sad 

 thieves, withal very dainty feeders, and pos- 

 sessed of a decided sweet tooth. Needs must 

 they keep Lent somewhat rigorously, living on 

 buds and bark in early spring when their nut 

 hoards are exhausted, but after the Lenten 

 buds they plunder birds'-nests impartially, 

 suck the eggs as they are laid, and so get 

 through to the time of mulberries and wild 

 strawberries. 



They love mulberries much the better — 

 perhaps because they love to stay in trees so 



