Every winter I feed several gray squirrels with nuts.
Every day about noon a big father squirrel comes and scratches on my kitchen window.
There he sits on the sill, watching with bright eyes until I open the window and throw out some nuts.
The more timid squirrels are seated on the ground looking up at the window. They catch the nuts and scamper away with them up to the tops of the trees. But not Furry. He takes nuts from my hands, and holding them in his little finger-claws, gnaws away the shell faster[81] than I can count ten. He acts quite like a little pig sometimes, for he asks for more than he needs.
What do you think he does with them?
He jumps down with one in his mouth and starts to dig. As soon as the hole is deep enough to suit him he buries the nut, packing the earth carefully over it to make it look as though the ground had not been disturbed.
Then back he comes for another nut.
If all the nuts he plants were acorns and he should forget to come and find half of them when he is hungry—how big my oak forest would be!
squirrel family
QUESTIONS
I.
Have you ever fed a squirrel?
Where have you seen the largest number together?
Join or Log In!
You need to log in to continue reading
(Left Keyword <-) Previous:
IF ALL THE BIRDS SHOULD DIE
Back
Next:
THE GROCER’S HORSE
(Right Keyword:->)