She cried out to Nimble to help her; and
while he ran to look for a stick for her to raise herself up by, the
mill-wheel kept on turning, and the great stones went round faster
and faster, till poor Velvet-paw was crushed to death between them.
Nimble was now left all alone, and sad enough he was, you may suppose.
"Ah," said he, "idleness is the ruin of gray squirrels, as well as
men, so I will go away from this place, and try and earn an honest
living in the forest. I wish I had not believed all the fine tales
my cousin the black squirrel told me."
Then Nimble went away from the clearing, and once more resolved to
seek his fortune in the woods. He knew there were plenty of butter-nuts,
acorns, hickory-nuts, and beech-nuts, to be found, besides many sorts
of berries; and he very diligently set to work to lay up stores against
the coming winter.
As it was now getting cold at night, Nimble-foot thought it would be
wise to make himself a warm house; so he found out a tall hemlock-pine
that was very thick and bushy at the top; there was a forked branch
in the tree, with a hollow just fit for his nest. He carried twigs
of birch and beech, and over these he laid dry green moss, which he
collected on the north side of the cedar trees, and some long gray
moss that he found on the swamp maples, and then he stripped the silky
threads from the milk-weeds, and the bark of the cedar and birch-trees.
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