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 grey squirrels, and their fur was short,
without the soft thick glossy look upon it of the grey 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 wind-falls, and had their granaries and winter houses too under
ground, 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. Like the dormice, flying
squirrels, and ground hogs, they slept soundly during the cold weather,
only awakening when the warm spring sun had melted the snow. [Footnote: It
is not quite certain that the chitmunk is a true squirrel, and he is
sometimes called a striped rat. This pretty animal seems, indeed, to form
a link between the rat and squirrel.]

The vain little grey squirrels thought themselves much better than these
little chitmunks, whom they treated with very little politeness, laughing
at them for living in holes in the ground, instead of upon lofty trees, as
they did; they even called them low-bred fellows, and wondered why they
did not imitate their high breeding and behaviour.

The chitmunks took very little notice of their rudeness, but merely said
that, if being high-bred made people rude, they would rather remain humble
as they were.

"As we are the head of all the squirrel families," said Silver-nose, "we