The black squirrel proved rather a troublesome guest, for he stayed
several days, and ate so heartily, that the old gray squirrels were
obliged to hint that he had better go back to the clearings, where there
was so much food, for that their store was nearly done.
When Blackie found that all the nice nuts were eaten, and that even pine-
kernels and beech-nuts were becoming scarce, he went away, saying that he
should soon come again.
The old gray squirrels were glad when they saw the tip of Blackie's tail
disappear, as he whisked down the trunk of the old oak; but their young
ones were very sorry that he was gone, for they liked very much to listen
to all his wonderful stories, which they thought were true; and they told
their father and mother how they wished they would leave the dull island
and the old tree, and go down the lakes, and see the wonderful things that
their black cousin had described.
But the old ones shook their heads, and said they feared
there was more fiction than truth in the tales they had heard, and
that if they were wise they would stay where they were. "What do you
want more, my dear children," said their mother, "than you enjoy here?
Have you not this grand old oak for a palace to live in; its leaves
and branches spreading like a canopy over your heads, to shelter you
from the hot sun by day and the dews by night? Are there not moss,
dried grass, and roots beneath, to make a soft bed for you to lie upon?
and do not the boughs drop down a plentiful store of brown ripe acorns?
That silver lake, studded with islands of all shapes and sizes, produces
cool clear water for you to drink and bathe yourselves in.
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