UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 
to his liking that my bushy walls afforded. He did 
not try to pack the leaves in his cheek pouches, but 
crammed four or five into his mouth and then made 
off to his den. He was furnishing his house. Many 
mouthfuls of dry leaves and fine grass doubtless 
went to the furnishing, though I chanced to witness 
only this one. His bedroom is his granary; his 
winter stores are packed all around and under his 
nest. Some of his neighbors have been carrying in 
their supplies since July, just what I could not find 
out; probably wild seeds of some kind. As there are 
no beech-nuts this season, and no buckwheat or oat- 
fields near by, I am wondering what my little neigh- 
bor is counting on to carry him over the winter. He 
may have some source of supply that I know not of. 
I gave him cherry-pits and plum-pits from time to 
time before his den was finished, and he seemed to 
have some place to store them. I hope he is not 
counting too confidently upon the continuance of 
this bounty. 
In my walks I have many times come across chip- 
munk-holes with a pile of earth before them, and a 
general look of carelessness and disorder all about, 
and I have said, “That squirrel is a bungler; he is 
not equal to his task.”” The present season I have 
seen three such holes while walking less than a mile 
along the highway. They appeared to have been 
abandoned. Now I know they were only begin- 
nings, and that had the owners finished their man- 
36 
