" The squirrel, of
course, had to take the chances of a prowler like myself coming along,
but he had fairly stolen a march on his neighbors. As I proceeded to
collect and open the burs, I was half prepared to hear an audible
protest from the trees about, for I constantly fancied myself watched
by shy but jealous eyes. It is an interesting inquiry how the squirrel
knew the burs would open if left to know, but thought the experiment
worth trying.
The gray squirrel is peculiarly an American product, and might serve
very well as a national emblem. The Old World can beat us on rats and
mice, but we are far ahead on squirrels, having five or six species
to Europe's one.
III. FOX AND HOUND.
I STOOD on a high hill or ridge one autumn day and saw a hound run a
fox through the fields far beneath me. What odors that fox must have
shaken out of himself, I thought, to be traced thus easily, and how
great their specific gravity not to have been blown away like smoke by
the breeze! The fox ran a long distance down the hill, keeping within
a few feet of a stone wall; then turned a right angle and led off for
the mountain, across a plowed field and a succession of pasture lands.
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