the famous
breakfast I have made, I suppose;--very sleepy--indeed,--upon--my--word."

The last words sounded exactly as your voice would, if your head was
covered up under the bed-clothes. The truth is, that, while Brush was
talking to himself, he had gradually changed his position from sitting
upright to lying down on his side. Then he slowly rolled himself up
into a round ball, with his head and back closely covered by his
beautiful tail. This served him famously for a blanket, and so we may
say, that his last words were really spoken _with his head under the
bed-clothes_.

By way of filling up the time till the fine weather returns, and our
sleeping friend uncurls himself again, I will give you a very short
description of another sort of squirrel, which lives in the woods of
America, and is even a much better leaper than ours. It is called the
flying squirrel, though that is not a very proper name, for it cannot
really fly; I mean that it cannot raise itself from the ground, like a
bird can. But it can leap to a surprising distance, for besides a large
bushy tail, it has a very curious membrane, or skin, on each side of
its body, reaching from the fore to the hind leg. So when the flying
squirrel leaps, it stretches out this skin as wide as possible, and as
the air bears it up, it appears almost to _fly_ from one tree to
another. Travellers who have seen them, tell us that when a number of
them leap at the same time, they appear, at a distance, like leaves
blown off by the wind.

CHAPTER II.

After several days of cold wintry weather, the sun burst through the
clouds again, calling into life plants, and insects, _and squirrels_.
Brush and his wife, and their three children, who were born the
preceding summer, and had lived with their parents through the winter,
were all awake and enjoying themselves again. How they frolicked and
chased each other about from tree to tree, and played at hide-and-seek
among the branches! You would have thought that they had laid wagers
with each other, who should venture upon the most difficult and
dangerous leaps.

Then what feasting there was upon buds and young bark! and though this
fresh green food was very nice as a change, still they all seemed to
agree with our friend Brush, that nuts and acorns were not to be
despised neither.

Once or twice the gamekeeper gave the young squirrels a terrible fright
by shouting to them, when they were making free with the tender