About the 12th, the weather sets
in again steadily cold; when the little animals retire once more to sleep
in their winter cradles, which they rarely leave till the hard weather is
over."
"I suppose, nurse, when they awake, they are glad to eat some of the food
they have laid up in their granaries?"
"Yes, my dear, it is for this they gather their hoards in mild weather;
which also supports them in the spring months, and possibly even during
the summer, till grain and fruit are ripe. I was walking in the harvest
field one day, where my brothers were cradling wheat. As I passed along
the fence, I noticed a great many little heaps of wheat lying here and
there on the rails, also upon the tops of the stumps in the field. I
wondered at first who could have placed them there, but presently noticed
a number of red squirrels running very swiftly along the fence, and
perceived that they emptied their mouths of a quantity of the new wheat,
which they had been diligently employed in collecting from the ears that
lay scattered over the ground. These little gleaners did not seem to be at
all alarmed at my presence, but went to and fro as busy as bees. On taking
some of the grains into my hand, I noticed that the germ or eye of the
kernels was bitten clean out.
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