192 
NATURE) STUDY. 
make a brush of almost microscopic fineness. But how 
can these flowers get pollen when they are above? Na¬ 
ture is wise. They do not want this pollen but some from 
another bush, and they get it. The wind brings it. 
The alder blossoms come and go. Comparatively few 
stop to admire their simple beauty. They are worthy of 
all the admiration they get, however, and more, for are 
they not among the pioneers of spring ? 
V 
A Pet Squirrel. 
Editor of Nature Study: 
Perhaps you would like to hear about a little squirrel 
that we made a pet of last summer and fall. He is a red 
squirrel, with three children. His summer home is in a 
large chestnut tree, and his winter home is under our ver¬ 
andah. His summer home has two doors, a back door and 
a front door, and it is lined with feathers that he got from 
our attic, where he tore open a feather spread. Although 
he never would come near us, we had great fun watching 
him. About eight feet from the ground, on his tree, there 
is a short branch on which he often sat. One day I took 
a little wire basket, fastened a string to it, and a stone to 
the other end of the string. Then I filled the basket with 
nuts, threw the stone over the branch, and up the basket 
went. Then I went into the house to watch him. Pretty 
soon, along he came, very cautiously at first, but he soon 
grew bolder. When he reached the basket, he took out, 
one by one, the nuts we had put in and carried them to his 
home. But the second and third time he upset the bas¬ 
ket purposely, taking it in his teeth and turning it over so 
as to dump the nuts out, and then ran back chattering and 
scolding to his home. We soon found out that he never 
put the nuts, figs or grapes we gave him, into his summer 
home, instead he took them all under the verandah, where 
