to scold and denounce me roundly.

While my cup was filling again I went down to the brook and took a wary
old trout from his den under the end of a log, where the foam bubbles
were dancing merrily. When I went back, thirsting for another sweet
draught from the same spring, Meeko had emptied it to the last drop and
had his nose down in the bottom of my cup, catching the sap as it welled
up with an abundance that must have surprised him. When I went away
quietly he followed me through the wood to the pool at the edge of the
meadow, to see what I would do next.

Wherever you go in the wilderness you find Meeko ahead of you, and all
the best camping grounds preempted by him. Even on the islands he seems
to own the prettiest spots, and disputes mightily your right to stay
there; though he is generally glad enough of your company to share his
loneliness, and shows it plainly.

Once I found one living all by himself on an island in the middle of a
wilderness lake, with no company whatever except a family of mink, who
are his enemies. He had probably crossed on the ice in the late spring,
and while he was busy here and there with his explorations the ice broke
up, cutting off his retreat to the mainland, which was too far away for
his swimming. So he was a prisoner for the long summer, and welcomed me
gladly to share his exile. He was the only red squirrel I ever met that
never scolded me roundly at least once a day. His loneliness had made
him quite tame. Most of the time he lived within sight of my tent door.
Not even Simmo's axe, though it made him jump twice from the top of a
spruce, could keep him long away. He had twenty ways of getting up an
excitement, and whenever he barked out in the woods I knew that it was
simply to call me to see his discovery,--a new nest, a loon that swam up
close, a thieving muskrat, a hawk that rested on a dead stub, the mink
family eating my fish heads,--and when I stole out to see what it was,
he would run ahead, barking and chuckling at having some one to share
his interests with him.

In such places squirrels use the ice for occasional journeys to the
mainland. Sometimes also, when the waters are calm, they swim over.
Hunters have told me that when the breeze is fair they make use of a
floating bit of wood, sitting tip straight with tail curled over
their backs, making a sail of their bodies--just as an Indian, with no
knowledge of sailing whatever, puts a spruce bush in a bow of his ca