The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1897-03-17
A PET SQUIRREL.
No Other Animal Is So Clean in Its
Personal Habits.

Personal Habits.
In my fayorlte summer resort at the
lower edge of the Black Forest, the
quaint old town of Laufenburg, a
farmers boy one day brought me a
young squirrel for sale. He was a
tiny creature, probably not yet weaned,
a variation on the ordinary type of the
European Sciurus (Sciurus vulgaris),
gray instead of the usual red, and with
black tail and ears, so that at first,
as he contented himself with drinking
his milk and sleeping, l was not sure
that he was not dormouse. But eX.
animation of the paws, with their deli
cate anatomy, so marvelously like the
human hand in their feXibility and
hardness, and the graceful curl of his
tail, settled the question of genus; and
mindful of my boyhood and early pets.
l bought him and named him Billy.
From the first moment that he became
my companion he gave me his entire
confidence, and accepted his domesti
cation without the least indication that
he considered it captivity. There is
generally short stage of mute rebel
lion in wild creatures before they come
to accept us entirely as their friends
a longing for freedom which makes
precautions against escape necessary.
This never appeared in Billy; he came
to me for his bread and milk, and slept
in my pocket, from the first, and en-.
joyed being caressed as completely as
if he had been born under my roof.
No other animal is SO clean in its
personal habits as the squirrel when in
health; and Billy soon left the basket
which Graded his infancy, and habitual
ly slept under fold of my bed-cover;
sometimes making his way to my pill
low and sleeping by my cheek; and
he never knew what cage was except
when travelling, and even then for the
most part he slept in my pocket. He
went with me to the table d'hote, and
when invited out sat on the edge OF
the table and ate his bit of bread with
a decorum that made him the admira
ton of all the children in the hotel
SO that he accompanied me in all my
journeys. He acquired passion fol-
tea sweet and warm, and to my indul.
gence of this taste | fear l owe his early
loss. He had full liberty to roam in
my room; but his favorite resort was
my workable when | was at work;
and when his diet became nuts he used
to hide them among my books, and then
come to hunt them out again, like
child with it's toys. l sometimes found
my typewriter stopped, and discovered
a haZelnut in the works. And when
tired If his hide-andseek he would come
to the edge and nod to me, to indicate
that he wished to go into my pocket
or be put down to run about the room;
and he soon made limited language
of movements of his head to tell me
his few wants-food, drink, to sleep,
or to take climb on the highest piece
of furniture in the room.
He was from the beginning devoted
to me, and naturally became like a
spoiled child. If 1 gave him an un-
cracked nut, he rammed it back into
my hand to be cracked for him with ir-
resistible persistence. | did as many
parents do, and INDUCED him, to his
harm and my own later grief. could
not resist that coaxing nodding, and
gave him what he wished-tea when
had mine, and cracked his nuts, to the
injury of his teeth. was told. In short,
I made him as happy as knew how
w. j. Stillman, in Century.
Vyv,a DIaIoAea