Wherever it is placed the material and architecture is the same,--a
soft, silky lining of the finest shreds of the loose-hanging outer bark
of the red cedar, wound round and round with coarser fiber of the same
material, the whole making a round ball as big as a derby hat, or
bigger, the walls being several inches thick. Entrance to this is by a
round hole, just big enough for the slender animal to squeeze in from a
convenient limb. The elasticity of the cedar fiber practically closes
this hole after the squirrel has passed, and the family may cuddle
together there snug through the coldest snap.
On a bright frosty morning you may hear the shrill pæan of the red
squirrel ringing through the wood as soon as he can see. Then he is out
and alert. On mornings like this when the chill fog hangs dense I never
hear him, and I am quite sure he sticks close to his family, cuddled up
in comfort in the middle of that warm nest.
The morning light breaks through such a vast cold cloud with difficulty,
indeed we may not truthfully say that the morning breaks. Rather, it
oozes, coming so slowly that without a watch in the pocket you would
not know the lateness of the hour. By-and-by, if you watch the east
carefully, you will be surprised to see how high the pale image of a
morning sun is riding.
On such a morning few leaves fall. The chill dampness seems to revive
their waning energies and they apply them to clinging just where they
are. Perhaps the chill reminds them dimly that they still are protectors
of next year’s leaf buds that nestle close under most leafstalks and may
be injured if the leaf is torn away too soon. These are well wrapped in
tiny fur overcoats or resinous wrappers, to be sure, but I think, as the
leaves seem to, that if anything could penetrate these clever coverings
it would be one of these morning fogs which mark the passing of
October.
But, though to us who stand at the bottom of the fog that ghostly image
of a morning sun looks pale and impotent, its work is really vigorous
and aggressive. Looking down on it from a sufficiently high hill we may
see it shredding the upper surface into breakfast food and eating its
way so rapidly downward that the rolling billows of mist ebb before its
rays like a Bay of Fundy tide.
Long before mid-forenoon it has finished its repast. From below the fog
seems to gradually grow warmer and to be dissolved in its own moisture.
The frost that crisped underfoot before the mists began to shiver
together in the lowlands now glistens as dew under the yellow sun. The
day warms toward the noon and we note with satisfaction what a perfect
one it is. But not till the little winds of afternoon begin to bustle in
among the trees do the leaves again begin to fall. The moisture is
again dried out of their petioles and the xylophone solo tattoos once
more the elfin tune to which they march on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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