THE BOY-HUNTER. 41 
over, they would throw aside their arms, and take Molian 
instruments they frame, and, with stealthy footing round the 
oriole’s hanging nest, make creeping music, steal into her 
happy dreams, until she twitters in her sleep, of the dim 
sweetness, fitfully ! 
All this I saw with that young squirrel !—aye, and much 
more, too! I have not told you yet about its friends that 
live in the cold shade of little mossy grottos down the deep 
glen, where it must go to drink! They are grotesque little 
fellows, with fin-like wings, and you might any time see 
squirrels play with them—whether you could see them or 
not—jumping from rock to rock, darting under dark old 
mossy roots, to hide in gurgling water underneath; diving in 
still pools, where it will fear to follow, or shooting a swift 
rapid to some island pebble in the midst, where master bushy- 
tail, with all his long bounds, cannot reach !—if I should go 
on to tell you of all these doings, and of ever so much more, 
you would know him just as well as I did; but I don’t tell 
every thing!—we had our secrets between us, and I am 
bound over about some of the daintiest of them! 
Whether you believe all this or not, its just the same to me, 
for I did, and that even before I was big enough to go into the 
woods alone to see for myself! When I did go, I found it 
was all the same, except that I couldn’t see the little friends 
very plain, though I could see squirrel plain enough ! 
Then, when I went out by myself into the deep wood, I sat 
down on the moss at the root of an old tree, to watch for 
him. When every thing was still again, I would see him 
after awhile poking his nose slily out of the hole, snuff! snuff! 
Then out his head would pop to rest his chin upon his fore- 
paws, and he would look all around, above and below, very 
cunning, to see if it was all right. Then out, like a thought, 
he would glide, and I could see his lovely brush quickly 
curled and spread all so grand above his head as he sat upon 
a limb, still, for the moment. Lo! there is another snuffing 
