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WILD AMERICANS 
fight lasted but a few seconds, however, and both 
furry creatures darted away. 
Meantime still a third one had seen the nut fall, 
and he promptly scampered over the ground near it. 
Then he became cautious. He ran behind the tree 
trunk for a moment and peeped around at the pic' 
nickers. They remained motionless, just looking, so 
the squirrel came to the nut. There he paused once 
more to look at the people, sitting on his haunches to 
do so, his fluffy tail curved in a beautiful arch. 
His waiting cost him the nut, because as he stood 
up a fourth squirrel, more daring, ran across the 
ground, snatched the nut and was back up the tree 
in a flash. 
“Goodness!” exclaimed Mother, as the people all 
laughed. “They move like lightning, don’t they?” 
While Father built a campfire to roast some sau¬ 
sages on sticks, Uncle Ely told the children about 
squirrels. 
“You see they are good picnic pals,” he began. 
“Squirrels are naturally friendly to men, if men do 
not harm them. If we stayed here long, they would 
learn to come right up to our hands and take food. 
I have had them climb onto my shoulders, and prowl 
in my coat pockets. Of course, this was when I had 
