36:4 FOUR-FOOTED A2LERICANS 



nothing came out of the hole in the hickory. I thought 

 the jMiller's boy had mistaken the tree, when all of a 

 sudden he gave me a pinch. I looked over, and there 

 were the things coming out of the hole and running 

 and scrambling up the tree like Mice. I knew as soon 

 as I saw them they were some kind of Squirrels, but I 

 didn't know they could fly, until one got to the top of 

 the tree and put right off into the air to another tree 

 twenty feet away, all the others after him as if they 

 were playing, for there were a couple more holes fur- 

 ther up in the tree that we didn't see at first. 



" We couldn't make out about the way they flew that 

 night, so we kept going there all summer and up to 

 snow time we found out a good many things. The 

 Squirrels didn't mind us a bit after they saw we 

 wouldn't touch them. They had sort of playhouse 

 nests made of leaves and stuff up in the tree branches 

 that they used in summer, but in spring when the little 

 ones are born, and when it grows cold in the fall, they 

 stay in the holes." 



"Do they Jii-ber-nate ? " asked Dodo, who was taking 

 great pains to learn the word. 



" I don't know whether they sleep all the time in 

 winter like Woodchucks, Ijut they pack awaj' food, 

 because we saw them, and they stay in their holes any- 

 way. There's another real cute thing they do, — the 

 mothers take their little ones and Q.y away with them 

 if they are frightened. 



" Last June one of the oldest Squirrel trees was 

 partly blown over against another, and though it was 

 day time, a Squirrel ran out of ]ier home with a good- 

 sized young one sort of tucked up between her arms 



