98 THE ROMANCE OF EVERIFARM 



the corn field. Who made you move?" asked 

 Stripes. 



"Oh! I have had several homes since then. You 

 see as soon as Farmer Johnson cut his corn and put 

 it in the shock, I appropriated one of the big ones 

 for my use. Talk about your winter homes! The 

 finest place you ever saw. All the feed stored up 

 for your use, and all the work done. Snows did not 

 bother at all. Wind could not get to me and as I had 

 all my faixdly and relatives with me, we surely did 

 have a great winter, but we didn't leave much com 

 in that shock for Farmer Johnson to feed his cattle. 

 My! How we did eat and how fat we were. Well, 

 one day the men tore the shock down to feed it to 

 the livestock, and then we had to hunt new quarters; 

 but, as it happened on a nice warm day, I ran over 

 to the orchard, and found a good home in a heavy 

 tussock of grass by the fence, quite close to some 

 young apple trees. When the snow came I tun- 

 neled under the snow to the apple trees and had the 

 finest kind of food. Apple tree bark in the winter 

 is fine and I surely did go for those trees. Then as 

 spring came I decided to return to the field where 

 I could get spring wheat, so finding this hollow post, 

 I created the finest nest here you ever saw, and here 

 I am," concluded Chubby. 



