42 
BY THE WAYSIDE 
door and open it to tind a squirrel sitting up 
ready for nuts. 
Many times 1 have been on th'e grass or 
the path and felt a touch on my foot, and 
there would be one of the Bunnies calling my 
attention to his presence. 1 have found them 
on mv desk when the window was open, on my 
v 
mother’s bureau investigating th'e pins in her 
cushion, and often on the railing of the piaz¬ 
za or the fence waiting for some one of us to 
appear. 
Some of the squirrels have been tame 
enough to go to walk with me, running along 
the fences or walls, and even along the side¬ 
walk when no dogs were near, and one old 
mother squirrel used to spring from the elm 
tree to my arm, and sit there as I walked up 
the street, thrusting her head into my coat 
pocket and up my sleeve in search of acorns 
or nuts. 
In the spring, when the early elm-seeds be¬ 
gan to fall, she brought her babies to see me 
as I sat on the piazza, and was as fond of them 
as any cat of her kittens. 
Unlike most wild creatures this squirrel 
rather liked having me stroke her head and 
back, and would rub along under my hand to 
show me that she wished to be petted. 
After a time the other people on the street 
fed and called the squirrels and they grew too 
tame for their safety where dogs abound, 
and several were killed. In one house a bas¬ 
ket of nuts was always kept in an upstairs 
room to which a vine made a ladder for the 
squirrels. One night one of th'e family was 
very tired and went to bed early, and very 
soon was heard calling for one of the others. 
“What on earth is in my bed and pillows?” 
was the question. 
Examination showed that nuts were be¬ 
tween the sheets, under the sh'eets, in the pil¬ 
low cases, under the pillows, between the edges 
of the mattresses, and in all the corners. The 
basket in the next room had been emptied 
by the squirrels, who had then hidden the 
nuts for future use, not knowing the habits 
of men and the uses of beds and pillows! 
The next day it was found that nuts had 
been hidden in the waste-basket, under the 
rugs, in th'e corners, behind some of the pic¬ 
tures, and under the lounge. 
The squirrels carry away and bury more 
nuts than they eat, though we have seen one 
mother eat thirty-two almonds at a sitting. 
Sound nuts they bury in the ground, after 
their hunger is satisfied, or hide in some cre¬ 
vice or crotch of a tree. Cracked nuts they 
are more likely to eat, and wormy ones they 
will not touch. 
I think that gray squirrels will never bite 
the hand that feeds them unless they are sud¬ 
denly frightened or hurt. All I have known 
have been very gentle with us, though they 
drove each other away from the sill in a man¬ 
ner to be excused only by the “struggle for 
existence” to which every wild creature is 
born. Let a red squirrel appear and the grays 
all flee far more hurriedly than from each 
other. 
Water is more of a treat to our squirrels 
than nuts—because they have stored away so 
many nuts—especially in cold weather. I 
have seen them eat snow to quench their 
thirst, as jays do, but both much prefer a 
dish of water. One winter five grays came for 
food and water, and our window sill was the 
scene of a stage procession, for no two would 
stay there at the same time. One would seize 
a nut and flee with it to escape the next comer 
who, in turn, would whisk down the vine at 
the far end of the window to make room for 
number three, and so they would pass up and 
down as long as the nuts lasted. 
The blue jays learned to hunt for the nuts 
which the squirrels tucked under the edge of 
the board walk, and often carried them off, 
cracked them with their powerful bills, and 
ate the kernels. 
In summer these squirrels have nests made 
of great bunches of leafy twigs in the fork of 
some high branch' of a tree, and often they 
live in these nests all winter, coming out in 
all sorts of days except the very cold ones 
when they become torpid and need no food. 
Sometimes they leave the leaf-nests in the 
autumn and go to a hole in a tree for th'e 
winter. 
Each spuirrel seems to have a favorite path 
over the branches, and almost never uses the 
way of another squirrel, unless he is chasing 
that one, or is himself ch'ased and must go 
where he can escape most easily. 
Gray squirrels have become very popular 
within the past few years, and are tame 
enough to feed from almost any hand in Cen¬ 
tral Park, New York; in the Common, Boston; 
in Springfield, Massachusetts; and in Madison 
Wisconsin, where they are—or were— protect¬ 
ed by law, and doubtless in many other places 
of which I have not heard. 
