THE CHRONICLES OF A CHIPMUNK. 



425 



on as described, he bit me severely, a thing 

 he never did when in his right mind. It 

 seems that the awakening may not be 

 unlike that of a foot asleep, but possibly in- 

 tensified. In after years Rex was never 

 disturbed, and was allowed to sleep in a 

 room of his own choosing. 



It would not be possible to chronicle 

 all the events of the remaining 2 years of 

 his life. The most striking feature was 

 his intuitive knowledge of nature. Any- 

 thing brought from the woods he seemed 

 to know at sight. The cone of the arbor 

 vitse he handled as cleverly as if his 

 home had been for years in a stump at 

 its base. Sitting erect he would deftly bal- 

 ance a stalk of grass in his paws and 

 shuck out the seeds with amazing rapidity. 

 Whence comes the cleverness that launches 

 these little creatures full armed at the 

 beginning of life? It is said that instinct 

 is but another form of reason, the former 

 ending where the latter begins. While this 

 is true, as to the> separation of the 2 

 attributes, nevertheless reason is slowly 

 acquired by animals ; whereas instinct 

 comes into play in all its perfection, almost 

 with birth.. It is not to be inferred that 

 Rex did not gain knowledge. He learned 

 to know his friends right well, and he 

 acquired appetites which I am sure were 

 injurious; but all his acquired knowledge 

 was of small moment compared with his 

 wide fund of information which could be 

 traced to no other source than that of in- 

 stinct. It was most interesting to see him 

 displaying this knowledge and he never 

 appeared to such great advantage as when 

 acting without reason and under the direc- 

 tion of instinct. 



Rex never cared to wander from his own 

 fireside; he thoroughly loved and enjoyed 

 his home. Thoughts of his home seemed 

 ever present in his mind, and any altera- 

 tions that affected his domicile greatly dis- 

 turbed him. It became necessary on one 

 occasion to take Rex on a journey, owing 

 to the departure of the family from the 

 house. I think he never forgave me for 

 that indignity. The idea of being boxed 

 up, and bundled off on a train for the best 

 part of a day, was too much for his nature 

 to put up with. He positively refused to 

 have anything to do with me on the train, 

 and for a long time thereafter resented 

 the treatment by his shyness. He had a 

 peculiar fondness for licking the tips of 

 one's finger. I suppose its saltiness at- 

 tracted him, and he was always ready to 

 respond in that way to my proffered hand. 

 On that trip he curled up in his nest 



and refused to show his head. No amount 

 of coaxing would induce him to move, and 

 favorite dishes offered no temptation. Most 

 remarkable of all, when my finger was 

 thrust down through the coverings of his 

 bed, he positively refused to notice it. 

 Daring our short stay he did not appear 

 like himself and manifestly was not en- 

 joying the visit at all. 



One night I was disturbed by a great 

 gnawing, as from the depredations of mice. 

 This was repeated the following nieht, 

 together with the scampering of feet, as I 

 thought, in the walls of my room. For 

 several days I failed to locate the trouble, 

 but one night I decided that the sound 

 came from the dresser. Making a light 

 I opened the drawers and out popped Rex 

 and stood blinking on the floor. He had 

 climbed up the back of the dresser and 

 gnawed his way into the second drawer, 

 lie had transported practically all his 

 household furnishings from his nest below, 

 but they had been liberally augmented by 

 additions from various articles in the 

 drawer, some of which were a sight to 

 behold. Rex knew it would be useless to 

 argue or explain his proposed plan, so 

 he had performed the work in the dark. 

 Now that it was completed I could sec it 

 was a much better place for a chipmunk, 

 so taking out of the drawer such articles 

 as had escaped his attention I left him 

 to his enjoyment. That occurred early in 

 the spring of his second year, which I 

 think was the hapniest of Rex's life. His 

 new home suited him, and having our con- 

 sent, as well as the run of the house, he 

 worked on his home diligently, finding 

 something every day that needed his at- 

 tention. 



There Rex passed the winter, asleep, and 

 many a jolly journey we made the follow- 

 ing summer to the woods. To see the little 

 fellow sometimes look out of his cage at 

 the forms about him, all of which he knew 

 intuitively, would have caused me many 

 a time to open the door for him, had I not 

 realized that the degenerate customs of man 

 had unfitted him for the struggle of life. 



During the latter part of the summer, 

 symptoms appeared that I took to be gout. 

 He rapidly grew worse. By fall Rex could 

 only drag himself about with difficulty, 

 and we would place him on a mat in the 

 sunshine, where he would sleep for hours. 

 He did not seem to suffer, and enjoyed be- 

 ing petted. One bright morning in Octo- 

 ber we went to take him from his nest 

 only to find him rolled up in his final hiber- 

 nation. 



Blibson — So the will was read? 

 Glibson — Yes ; but the air was blue.— - 

 Four-Track News. 



