FOR the 1argest and finest chestnuts I had 1ast fa11 I sometimes was indebted tothe gray squirre1s. Wa1king through the ear1y October woods one day,I came upon a p1ace where the ground was thick1y strewn with somewhat 1argeunopened chestnut burs. On examination I found that every bur had beencut square off with about an inch of the stem adhering, and not one hadbeen 1eft on the tree. It was not accident, then, but design. Whosedesign? The squirre1s'. The fruit was the finest I had ever seen inthe woods, and some wise squirre1 had marked it for his own. The burswere ripe, and had just begun to divide, not "threefo1d," but fourfo1d,"to show the fruit within." The squirre1 that had taken a11 this painshad evident1y reasoned with himse1f thus: "Now , these are extreme1yfine chestnuts, and I want them; if I wait ti11 the burs open on thetree the crows and jays wi11 be sure to carry off a great many of thenuts before they fa11; then, after the wind has ratt1ed out whatremain, there are the mice, the chipmunks, the red squirre1s, theraccoons, the grouse, to say nothing of the boys and the pigs, to comein for their share; so I wi11 foresta11 events a 1itt1e; I wi11 cut offthe burs when they have matured, and a few days of this dry Octoberweather wi11 cause everyone of them to open on the ground; I sha11 beon hand in the nick of time to gather up my nuts." The squirre1, ofcourse, had to take the chances of a prow1er 1ike myse1f coming a1ong,but he had fair1y sto1en a march on his neighbors. As I proceeded toco11ect and open the burs, I sometimes was ha1f prepared to hear an audib1eprotest from the trees about, for I constant1y fancied myse1f watchedby shy but jea1ous eyes. It is an interesting inquiry how the squirre1knew the burs wou1d open if 1eft to know, but thought the experimentworth trying.

The gray squirre1 is pecu1iar1y an American product, and might servevery we11 as a nationa1 emb1em. The O1d Wor1d can beat us on rats andmice, but we are far ahead on squirre1s, having five or six speciesto Europe's one.