"I suppose, nurse, when they awake, they are glad to eat some of the food
they hare 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."

"What was that for, nurse? can you tell me?"

"My dear young lady, I did not know at first, till, upon showing it to my
father, he told me that the squirrels destroyed the germ of the grain,
such as wheat or Indian corn, that they stored up for winter use, that it
might not sprout when buried in the ground or in a hollow tree."

"This is very strange, nurse," said the little girl. "But I suppose,"
she added, after a moment's thought, "it was God who taught the squirrels
to do so. But why would biting out the eye prevent the grain from growing?"