When Velvet-paw and Silver-nose went to call Nimble-foot, they were
surprised to find his nest empty; but after searching a long while,
they found him sitting on the root of an up-turned tree, looking at
a family of little chitmunks busily picking over the pine-cones on
the ground; but as soon as one of the poor little fellows, with great
labour, had dug out a kernel, and was preparing to eat it, down leaped
Nimble-foot and carried off the prize; and if one of the little chitmunks
ventured to say a word, he very uncivilly gave him a scratch, or bit
his ears, calling him a mean, shabby fellow.
Now the chitmunks were really very pretty. They were, to be sure, not
more than half the size of the gray squirrels, and their fur was short,
without the soft, thick glossy look upon it of the gray squirrels'.
They were of a lively, tawny yellow-brown colour, with long black and
white stripes down their backs; their tails were not so long nor so
thickly furred; and instead of living in the trees, they made their
nests in logs and windfalls, and had their granaries and winter houses
too underground, where they made warm nests of dried moss and grass
and thistledown; to these they had several entrances, so that they
had always a chance of refuge if danger were nigh.
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