mischief that led them to gnaw through rather than go down the top? Or
did something get stuffed into the top of the boot after the nuts were
dropped in? And did the squirrels _remember_ that the nuts were in there,
or did they _smell_ them through the rubber?

One woodshed is big enough only for two squirrels. The family moved
everything out but the wood, and the squirrels took possession for the
winter. Their first nest had been built behind the hot-water tank. They
knew _how_ to build without any teaching. But knowing how is not all there
is to know about building; knowing _where_ is very important, and this
they had to learn.

Immediately on coming to the woodshed the squirrels began their winter
nest, a big, bulky, newspaper affair, which they placed up in the
northwest corner of the shed directly under the shingles. Here they slept
till late in the fall. This was the shaded side and the most exposed
corner of the whole house; but all went well until one night when the
weather suddenly turned very cold. A strong wind blew from the northwest
hard upon the squirrels' nest.

The next day there was great activity in the woodshed--a scampering of
lively feet, that began early in the morning and continued far toward
noon. The squirrels were moving. They gathered up their newspaper nest
and carried it--diagonally--across the shed from the shaded northwest to
the sunny southeast corner, where they rebuilt and slept snug throughout
the winter.

Calico did not teach them this; neither would their own squirrel mother
have taught them. They knew how, to begin with. They knew _where_ after
one night of experience, which in this case had to be a night of shivers.

THE SPARROW ROOST

[Illustration]

THE SPARROW ROOST

An early December twilight was settling over Boston, a thick foggy murk
that soaked down full of smoke and smell and chill. The streets were oozy
with a wet snow which had fallen through the afternoon and had been
trodden into mud; and draughty with an east wind, that would have passed
unnoticed across the open fields, but which drew up these narrow flues and
sent a shiver down one's back in spite of coats. It was half-past five.
The stores were closing, their clerks everywhere eddying into the noisy
streams of wheels and hoofs still pouring up and down. The traffic tide
had turned, but had not yet ebbed away.

And this was evening! the coming night! I moved along with the crowd,
home