a shrewd eye on the main chance. If the parson dropped a nut on the
floor, down went Whiskey after it, and into his provision-bag it
went, and then he would look up as if he expected another; for he had
a wallet on each side of his jaws, and he always wanted both sides
handsomely filled before he made for his hole. So busy and active
and always intent on this one object was he, that before long the
little lady found he had made way with six pounds of hazel-nuts. His
general rule was to carry off four nuts at a time--three being
stuffed into the side-pockets of his jaws, and the fourth held in his
teeth. When he had furnished himself in this way, he would dart like
lightning for his hole, and disappear in a moment; but in a short
time up he would come, brisk and wide-awake, and ready for the next
supply.

Once a person who had the curiosity to dig open a chipping squirrel's
hole found in it two quarts of buckwheat, a quantity of grass-seed,
nearly a peck of acorns, some Indian corn, and a quart of walnuts; a
pretty handsome supply for a squirrel's winter store-room--don't you
think so?

Whiskey learned in time to work for his living in many artful ways
that his young mistress devised. Sometimes she would tie his nuts up
in a paper package, which he would attack with great energy, gnawing
the strings, and rustling the nuts out of the paper in wonderfully
quick time. Sometimes she would tie a nut to the end of a bit of
twine and swing it backward and forward over his head; and after a
succession of spry jumps, he would pounce upon it, and hang swinging
on the twine, till he had gnawed the nut away.

Another squirrel, doubtless hearing of Whiskey's good luck, began to