Oct. 21, 1911] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
613 
Cute 
By HERMIT 
Triime had not been through there in a number 
of years, but good woodsman that he is, he 
found the creek all right and about where he 
wanted to. While nothing has been mentioned, 
it must not be assumed that Trume was not at¬ 
tending to his official duties, which consisted of 
looking out for illegal cutting and peeling of 
State timber and the posting of fire notices. 
August is truly the month of berries, both 
edible and merely picturesque; and many feasts 
we had of luscious raspberries as we followed 
along the trail, and these berries always sqem 
better flavored in the woods. At Louis’ camp 
I had a mess of billberries, the first I had ever 
eaten; but while sweet, they are insipid, and the 
little white snowberry, of which there were 
quantities, was more satisfactory. We could 
take our choice of either the low or high bush 
huckleberry, while our eyes reveled in the great 
abundance of the red bunchberries and the true 
blueberries of the Clinto'nia. 
From Cobblestone Creek we followed a fine 
C UTE is a tame wild squirrel; in other 
words, a red squirrel that was never 
caged. 
During the summer months I do my writing 
in the open air, with the table jammed against 
the bole of a pine tree. Cute’s introduction was 
rather startling. He came down the pine tree 
one day to a low limb, where he worked him¬ 
self into a great passion. He jerked his tail 
spitefully and pounded on the limb with his hind 
feet, at the same time swearing at me in two 
languages. There were cracked nuts in a box 
on the table, and doubtless the squirrel was try¬ 
ing to drive me away by telling me what he 
would do to me if I did not get out. 
For over an hour he threatened, then finding 
squirrels. One would pick up a seed with his 
lips, sit up and pass the seed to his forepaws, 
which he used as hands. He would hold the 
seed between his thumbs and shell it with his 
teeth. It was surprising to see how rapidly a 
squirrel could pick up and shell seeds. My 
visitors often timed them; two seeds in three 
seconds was the usual count. Many writers of 
natural history claim that all the acts of animals 
are instinctive or inherited, but it is evident that 
the trick of rapidly shelling hemp seed is not an 
instinct nor an inheritance. It is acquired after 
long practice. The young squirrel wiil slobber 
over a seed for a minute or more to swallow 
it whole at last. 
It was soon apparent that the squirrels had 
‘FRENCH LOUIS” AT HOI 
trail to Jones’ Lake, one of the properties of 
the Adirondack League Club. Across the lake 
we found the club trail leading to Honnedaga 
Lake and which we reached in time for the 
launch for the head. At the head of the lake 
we were able to make connection with the club 
automobile, which, after a run of twenty miles, 
landed us out at Forest Park and civilization 
once more. 
We had been just four days on this tramp, 
and while some of the days’ work was hard, 
we enjoyed them to the limit, and arrived home 
stronger and, I hope, better men for our short 
sojourn with nature. Some day I will go up 
in that country again and linger longer by the 
shores of its beautiful lakes and stillwaters. 
Cow Moose in Bangor. 
A large part of the residential section of the 
city along the banks of Ivenduskeag stream was 
thrown into a state of excitement one morning 
by the appearance of a cow moose. Little Charlie 
Morrison was playing on his doorstep. The 
moose stopped and put her muzzle on the boy’s lap. 
‘‘Mother, this darned horse is trying to bite 
me,” he called out. 
Mrs. Morrison came to the door and shooed 
the moose away.—Sun. 
it useless he came down the tree in short hitches, 
and seizing a nut scampered back to the limb. 
Three times he came down to the table and the 
last time he seemed to have changed his mind 
about me. He sat up on the table, folded his 
paws and uttered a few squirrel words which 
I translated to mean : “Oh, you are not such a 
bad fellow as you look.” After a few days Cute 
adopted me and took it for granted that what¬ 
ever belonged to me was his also. If I tried to 
drive him away to give another squirrel a show, 
he was full of fight and gave me to understand 
that he could whip any two-legged animal on 
earth. The boys thought it great fun to point 
a finger at Cute, just to see him sit up and 
sputter. One boy’s experience ended the sport. 
The squirrel made a flying leap, caught the of¬ 
fending finger and put in his teeth to the bone. I 
dressed the wound with pure tar and it healed 
in a short time, but the story, much exaggerated, 
passed around, and Cute earned a rest. 
There were seven other red squirrels that fed 
from the box on the table. One was Cute’s mate. 
These squirrels for the most part were descend¬ 
ants of Tiny, the son of Bismarck. Old-time 
readers of Forest and Stream may recall the 
history of Bismarck, and his little son, to whom 
he gave up the cabin dooryard. 
Hemp seed was the favorite food with all the 
DEER IN MICA LAKE. 
rules to shape their conduct. The squirrel that 
got to the table first held the seed box. The 
others respected his claim, unless it happened 
that one was in a hurry or hungry; in either 
case there was lively scrapping and the squirrels 
in their whirlwind rushes often scampered over 
the heads of my visitors. 
Cute’s mate followed him to the dooryard one 
day to become very tame in a short time. She 
imitated him in all things. While Cute was eat¬ 
ing from the box she sat on a low limb patiently 
waiting like a good wife for her turn at the 
food, but if she reached the box first, she proved 
to be a squirrel suffragist and Cute could not 
talk or frighten her away. 
It was soon evident that Cute possessed more 
brains than his brother squirrels. I carried hemp 
seed to the table in a two-quart pail. The pail 
was made of block tin with a heavy cover that 
shut down on a rim. It required force to re¬ 
move the cover. When the seed box was empty, 
Cute climbed on to the cover and tried to- re¬ 
move it by pulling on the ring, taking his cue 
by what he saw me do. He seemed to under¬ 
stand at times that he was pulling against him¬ 
self, then he wou’d get down on the table, but 
as he was obliged to keep his forepaws on the 
cover, all his efforts were useless. 
I pulled the ring out one day, leaving a nar- 
