11 LITTLE FOLKS 
THE LITTLE RED STOREKEEPER. 
He doesn't keep a store to sell goods — he only keeps a store 
for his own use ; and he isn't much like other store-keepers, for he's 
the liveliest, happiest, friskiest fellow you ever saw — only four 
inches high, at that. 
If you want to know what he is, I'll tell you: he is a squirrel, 
and he lives all over our country. 
He has several titles. The men who make the books, and hunt 
up the most horrible names — though I must admit the names all 
mean something — call him Tamias, a Greek word, which means 
storekeeper. The common people where he lives call him the 
Striped Squirrel, and the Indians call him the Ogress Squirrel. 
He has a splendid tail, as long as his body, and he looks very 
saucy, chattering away, as he delights to do, sitting on the ground, 
with his tail curled over his back. His coat is dark red, with four 
nearly black stripes from neck to tail. 
Do you want to know why he is called storekeeper ? Well, 
in the summer and fall, when seeds and nuts are ripe, he goes out 
every day, and fills two leather bags he has with food. Then he 
runs home, and empties the bags on a sort of shelf he has prepared 
in his very retired house. 
Perhaps you wonder where he gets leather bags. They are 
given to him by the same Providence that gives him his beautiful 
long tail. He don't have to hang them over his shoulders as men 
do, because they are fastened just back of his mouth, and reach 
back to his shoulder. He don't have to tie up the tops of the bags, 
because they open into his mouth, just back of his teeth, and when 
he shuts his mouth he shuts both bags. 
It is very funny to see him load up his bags. He crowds the 
food in, seeds, nuts, pieces of root, or any thing eatable, using his 
fore paws to pack them tight. When he reaches home with his 
load, it is quite as funny to see him empty them. He puts his fore 
feet behind the bags on the outside, and just crowds the whole cargo 
out, while he holds his mouth open, and lets it all drop on the floor. 
Then he packs it nicely away, for winter use, in his store-room. But 
1 must tell you about his house. To get in you must go through a 
