Smyrna times., 1870-03-30
ChipnonkS.

yours wrought at the task
1t is an old, old wall Twenty years parties
have been at work at it, yes, forty years or
more. In those days, and on the farm that |
am thinking Of wall was built as much to
get rid of the stone as to form u partition.
Great flat slabs at the bottom were quite burl-
ed under the soil, which had gradually sitted
in upon them. Then came the great round
bOulderS and stones OF every mould, worn
smooth by the weather, or rather, stones which |
would have been smooth II nature had not |
chosen them to practice her pencil on. For |
see, what color there is in that dark gray heap |
OF stones. when you look closely-black, brown |
of many shades, yellow, green, greenlSh white,
red, aud grayS of every tint-these show what !
an eye for color Nature has. The coors are
not laid on. but grown ON. They are the
smiles and bushes of lichens. What luxurious
! lives these stone MOSES must have, eating and
drinking the air and putting their arms around
stones as mother would around her blbes,
going to sleep on them all winter, and laughing
all summer The wind cannot shake them,
| for they have no branches; worms cannot
blight them, as they have neither lGayes nor
blossoms mOles and grubs cannot cut off their
roots, as they have none. Their very names
are dissued and people call them weather
stains.
But away goes part of the wall to the pry-
ing OF the crow-bar. Stand from under Here
long, and behold! You have uncovered
city! Lazy, unsunned spiders drag their big
round bellies off in bewilderment for a hiding
place. Centipedes wriggle right and left in
downright haste. Bright black mailed bugs
fash in the light for second aud are gone.
Ants, one, tive, three kinds, rush aud race with
fiery Indignation. Here are grubs, worms,
cocoOnS webs, trails, that indicate a kind of
highway here are nests of leaves and sticks,
| and from q un-StaIrS OnOhOa rd like
roll out the shucks and shells Of former stores,
and nuts of several kinds fall down like old
creeds in modern hands, retaining their perfect
form but with all the meat eaten out of them
long ago. And SO it is along the whole line of
wall, up the slope, over the hil far along the
border of the farm, it is one vast stone city for
the smaller folk. Here is your Petr3a, city
hewn out of stone
What Joy is this wall to Trip and to Trips
young master! Trip has chased a wOodchuck
into the wall aud every day he lives in hope
of catching him. The woodchuck has spent
the summer there. He goes out every morn
ing for his clover, his salad, and his melons.
, At suitable time Trip takes after him with an
alacrity of throat and leg thai leaves nothing
to be desired; and every time he reaches the
wall just in time to bite at the shadow of tail
, Alas the world is full of shadows to man and
: dog. Our opportunities vanish just as we are
. prepared to sieze them. Trip got up earlier
: but the clover-eater yet earlier. Trip was in
earnest, but woodchuck more so. Trip ran fol-
. another's life, but marmOt ran for his own.
> can read in Trips eyes what he is thinking
!. This is just my luck, always a minute toe
= late Ill catch him next time, see if | don't
" He's coward, anyhow" And he trots bach
! to the house with his tongue out, to brag to tht
: other dogs what he almost did. After all
Trip is not so unlike human beings as one woult
= think. Boys are not smart enough to catch OLE
rats, experienced squirrels, woOdchucks, ant
diplomatic crows
J, u Speaking OF squirrels and boys, am remind
n ed Of letter:
~ - NORTH BRANFoRD, Ct, Feb. II, 1870.
- - "DEAR SIR: Knowing you take an interes
- :. in all things animate and inanimate, from tn
- - pebble to the pyramid, from the mouse to tn
:" mastadOn, | write you what | do not belieV
20 ;" you have ever learned Thought am free t
y admit you know a good many thlngs), viz
u something about the habits of the chipmonk
- or cheeping squirrel.
= "Of course you know it burrows in tn
:" ground, but do you know anything of the sub
terranean, labyrnthian windings of its chan
1g bers, cells, &c. OF the quantities of walnut,
~ chestnuts, pepperage stOnes berries Of variOu
" kinds, seeds of skunk cabbage, rye, corn, dos
Gu wood plums, &c, sometimes found in the,
ID cellsH DO you know that these subterranea
III passages are from three to four feet below th
no surface so as to get below the frost and are
eu eu rod or more in length, with divergng passage
rS to their granaries or sJOre-rOoms dormitorie
u- sky-parlors, &c.
IN "Do you know that by digging to the.
ld- stOre-rOoms you will find perhaps a peck
re- walnut3, chestnuts, corn, &c, as the case ma
cr- be? Do you know that the beds in their Slee
Vi ing apartments are ht tor king to lie upO
IN being made up of moss, leaves and fine gras
'ur es? And lastly, do you know that chipmOr
eir can carry three wanuts in his mouth at
OSt time? Now it you knew before all | have to
tie you, have written in vain. Yours truly,
IN "R. CLARK"
am Let me ask some questions of our BranfO
uai friend, who will accept our thanks tor lett
OF which shows that he has eyes and a habit
T. useing them. DO you know that the grOuI
nat squirrels name is 1dnuds shidtus? Here "
have been all your life calling it chipmonk,
chipmuck, or chip, or chipping squirrel,
striped squirrel to be told IN the book it
en- written TaD,tGs Shidtus. How sweet is know
The edge
lrs, Did you know that the Hackee, for that
ept another name, can carry seven hickOrynuts
ing stead of three? did. They eat three al
the then carry four in the pouch and mouth-tha
Ind seven. Did you know that they always bi
ap off the nib, or sharp ends of the walnut befo
lar four instead of three only, in pouches a
Gu mouth
, it Did you know that after retiring to their su
red terranean apartments, when cold sets in, tn
ing do not come out again, not once, until spr
led returns. and vet they do not, like the ms
bly, mot, go to sleep, but maintain life like
we Kane, in his ship, in the long Arctic nigh
hat Do you know that the weasel is the most Dire
the cd and Obstructive of chpmonk's enemies, fl
lowing him through the winding of his ho
into his chambers, smashing his head with
us teeth, and then leaving his murdered corp
MS uneaten, though not unburied?
Tor Especially, did you know that the first tin
y a that ever fired a gun, it was at "chippy
and that did not hit him2 My father it W
that let me trot behind him, a seven or eig
the year old, while he hunted through the ieiC
eds How my nerves screwed up when he took ali
and what crash in my over-sensitive ear "