"The Country Life Reader" has a good story of a woodchuck named "Tommy." Among other things it tells about the variety of residences a woodchuck has; and why animals that work at night, as all woodchucks do, have an unusually keen sense of smell. Can you guess why? The reason is simple enough. Here's a clever bit of verse about the woodchuck by his other name, that I came across in some newspaper: "The festive ground-hog wakes to-day, And with reluctant roll, He waddles up his sinuous way And pops forth from his hole. He rubs his little blinking eyes, So heavy from long sleep, That he may read the tell-tale skies-- Which is it--wake or sleep?" Ingersoll's "Nature's Calendar" tells why Brer Bear stays up all winter when there is plenty of food, but goes to bed if food is scarce; how he uses roots of a fallen tree to help when he is digging his winter house; how he makes his bed and what he uses for the purpose; how the winds help him put on his roof, and how he locks himself in so tight that he can't get out until spring, even if he wants to. [Illustration: "IT MUST BE BRER BEAR!"] CHAPTER XII (DECEMBER) While man exclaims "See all things for my use!" "See man for mine!" replies the pampered goose. --_Pope: "Essay on Man."_ THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE DUST But whether they store it in their little barns, like the chipmunk, or on their bones, like Brer Bear, these farmers deserve more friendly understanding than they usually get from that two-legged farmer, Mr. Man. Just think of the ages upon ages that they have been at work, these humble brothers of ours, and their ancestors--making the soil that gives us food--and yet after all this Mr. Man comes along and says: "Get out of my fields!" I. THE LORD OF CREATION "Oh, but--please Mr. Man--we were here _first_!" Was that the dormouse speaking? Anyhow, whoever it was, I think he was more than half right, don't you? Mr. Man, when he complains of these people, is apt not only to forget what he owes to them but in claiming that what they eat is wasted, to forget what a waster he is himself--wasting the soil and wasting the trees and everything. BRER BEAR GIVES MR. MAN A PIECE OF HIS MIND "Now just don't you overdo this Lord-of-Creation business, Mr. Man," says a deep, growly voice. (It must be Brer Bear!) "Other people have rights as well as you! And if you'd tend to your work half as well as they've attended to theirs, for ages before you were born, this would be a better world to live in; a good deal better, and there'd be a lot more of the good things of life to go around.