rrier-dog will seize him, and kill him too, in spite of
his prickly armour. Of course, his own lips and mouth must suffer
severely from the animal's sharp spines.

A week or two after the interview with the hedgehog, one very cold
dismal afternoon, all the squirrels were in the nest, except the father
of the family, and he was gone abroad for a short time, just to stretch
his legs a little. Suddenly he darted into the hole, as if he had been
pursued by another wild-cat, and when he was asked what was the matter,
he exclaimed, "_Snow!_ cold, dismal _snow_! Flakes of snow as large as
white butterflies, and falling so thickly that I could hardly see my
way back to the nest! Here I am, however, and here I mean to stay till
fine weather comes again. It will be a long while before that happens
though, I fancy."

Brush was a true prophet. The weather became colder and colder every
day, till at last, after a sharp frosty night, the squirrels quite
forgot to wake up in the morning, and then their first long nap of
several weeks began. If you could have looked in upon them in their
comfortable nest, you could hardly have believed that the little curled
up squirrels, with their blankets over their heads, were the same
active, playful creatures, whose summer gambols among the branches had
afforded you so much amusement.

Well, then, there _can_ be nothing more to say about these sleeping
squirrels, and now I must inform you what effect the cold weather had
upon the other animals, whose summer habits have been imperfectly
described in this history. The dormice, in their nests at the bottom of
the oak-tree, and the water-rats, in their holes in the bank of the
pond, were sound asleep also; but all these animals had taken the
precaution to provide a store of provisions for the early part of the
spring, and in case they should wake up for a few days in the winter.
Now, with respect to the curious little water-shrew-mouse, Velvet-coat,
I am not quite so certain about his winter habits. But no doubt he
slept comfortably in his hole till the spring; and as he was an
insect-feeder, we may conclude that he followed the example of
Touchmenot, in not laying up any food for the winter.

If we could have questioned old Leatherwing, I think he would have told
us that the harvest-mice, whose history he overheard related by
Minimus, abandoned their nest on the thistle, and made themselves a
warmer house, deep under the ground, where they passe