Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-09-01

ing and thawing and the top of the
ground was getting soft. A red squirrel |
had visited the hole in the orchard where
two of the largest stones were found in |
the pile of earth and had apparently |
tried to force his way into the chip |
munk's den. In doing so he had loosen
ed the earth in the groove, softened by |
the rains, and it had dropped out. The
groove was large enough for me to lay
my finger in and just adequate to admit
the stones into the hole.
"This then was the way the little
engineer solved the problem, and ex-
perienced a sense of relief that | had
solved mine. | visited the second hole
where the large stone was in the pile of
earth and found that the same thing had
happened there. A red squirrel, bent
on plumber, had been trying to break in
and had removed the soil in the grove.
ITO settle the point as to whether or
not the chipmunk has a back door,
which in no case had been able to find,
we dug out the one by the roadside
whose mound of earth we could not dis
cover. We followed his tortuous course
through the soil three or four feet from
the entrance and nearly three feet be-
meath the surface, where we found him
in his chamber, warm in his nest of
leaves, but not asleep. He had no back
door.
He came out lit was a male) as
hand was thrust into his chamber, and
the same fearless, strong hand seized
him but did not hurt him. His chamber
was spacious enough to hold about four
quarts of winter stores and leave him
considerable room to stir about in. His
supplies consisted of the seeds of the
wild buckwheat and choke-cherry pits
and formed very unpromising looking
mess. His buckwheat did not seem to
have been properly cured, for much of
it was mouldy, but it had been carefully
cleaned, every kernel of it.
"There was nearly four quarts of
seeds altogether, and over one-half of
it was wild buckwheat. | was curious
to know approximately the number of
these seeds he had gathered and shucked.
| first found the number it took to fill
. lady's thimble, and then the number of
thimblefuls it took to fill a cup, and so
reached the number in the two quarts,
and found that it amounted to the sur
prising figure of 25O 900.
"Think of the amount of patient,labor
required to clean $50 900 of the small
seeds of the wild buckwheat The
grains are hardly one-third the size of
those of the cultivated kind and are Jet
black when the husk is removed. Prob
ably every seed was husked with those
deft little hands and teeth as it was
gathered before it went into his cheek
pockets, but what task it must have
been.
Poor little hermit, it seemed pathetic
to find him facing the coming winter
there with such inferior stuff in his
granary. Not nut, not kernel of
corn or wheat. Why he had not awaited
himself of the oats that grew just over
the fence | should like to know. Of
course the wild buckwheat must have
been more to his liking. How many
hazardous trips along fences and into
the bushes his stores represented The
wild creatures all live in as savage a
country as did our earliest ancestors and
the enemy of each is lying in wait for it
at nearly every turn.
Digging the little fellow out of
course brought ruin upon his house and
our human hearts prompted US to do all
we could to give the provident little
creature fresh start. We put his sup
plies carefully down beside the stone
wall into which he had disappeared on
being liberated, and the next day he
had carried large part of them away.
He evidently began at once to hustle,
and trust he found or made a new re-
treat from the winter before it was too
late.
81 doubt if the chipmunk ever really
hibernates; the alternating animals do
not lay up winter stores, but he no
doubt INDUCES in many very long before
dinner and after dinner maps. 1t is
blacklist night there in his den three
feet under the ground and this lasts
about four months, or until the premon-
itions of coming spring reach him in
March and call him forth