THE SQUIRREL : POLITICIAN, 
177 
dence. IN’umerous enemies pursue him, he is surprised and put to 
death. What evil had he ever done in his life to arouse sucli un- 
sparing hatred ? He did no harm to any one ; he lived on the 
bark and the sprouts of osiers and willows. Why then kill him ? 
That I might boast of having killed a beaver ! Noble fame, 
truly ! 
The Rhone for twenty years has ravaged its shores much. The 
Rhone for twenty years has caused many tears to flow. Has the 
vengeance of the beaver gone for nothing in these lamentations ? 
Yes ! in each of these embankments, broken by the mining waters, 
I seemed to see the justice of God armed with the hand and teeth 
of the beaver ! 
THE SQUIRREL, 
Political rope-dancer of the liberal school, turning perpetually 
in a vicious circle — (cylindrical cage) — pretty, lively, frisking, sup- 
ple, adroit, quick at turns, of legislative hocus pocuSy unquiet, am- 
bitious, active, capable of the most energetic efforts to raise him- 
self to the highest perches of the state — careful of his personal 
interests and of those of his family — a good son, good husband, 
good father. 
The squirrel possesses and inhabits on the highest trees of the 
forest, a number of residences, well stuffed, warm, and turned 
each toward a different point of the horizon, so as to offer to the 
proprietor an assured shelter from the political tempest from what- 
ever side the wind blows. 
The squirrel particularly loves the beech-nut, hickory, and 
other fruits which give oil — the emblem of light and of riches, and 
the wood of whose trees represents useful industry, whose mate- 
rials it furnishes ; which signifies that the ambitious of this cate- 
gory owe their elevation to their talents and to their industry, and 
that they are children of their works. It is not rare to see them 
in the decline of age suddenly abandon affairs and retire to some 
delicious villa, to enjoy there the fortune which they have man- 
aged to amass, and to meditate at their leisure over Horace and 
Tacitus. In allusion to thi| habit, the squirrel renounces his gym- 
