trail inside
the log, an' I was figgerin' to have him wear it right through at the
bottom so the log'd open, but all of a sudden I says, 'I know what to
do for you.' I took off my boot and stuffs the leg into one end of the
log. Then I rattles a stick at the other end and I heard him run into
the boot. Then I squeezes in the leg and ties a string around it an'
brings him home, me wearing one boot and the Chipmunk the other, and
there he is in it now," and Sam curled up his free bunch of toes in
graphic comment and added: "Humph! I s'pose you fellers thought I
didn't know what I was about when I drawed on my long boots this
morning."

"Well, I just want to see that Chipmunk an' maybe I'll believe you."

"In there hunting for a loose patch," and Sam held up the boot.

"Let's turn him out," suggested the Second Chief.

So the string was cut and the Chipmunk scrambled out and away to a
safer refuge.

"Now, sonny," said Sam, as it disappeared, "don't tell your folks what
happened you or they'll swat you for a liar."

"Oh, shucks! That's no adventure. Why, I--"

"Hold on, Hawkeye; Little Beaver next."

"Well, I don't care. I bet I--"

Sam grabbed his knife and interrupted: "Do you know what Callahan's
spring lamb did when it saw the old man gathering mint? Go ahead,
Little Beaver."

"I hadn't much of an adventure, but I went straight through the woods
where my straw pointed and ran into a big dead stub. It was too old
and rotten for Birds to use now, as well as too late in the season, so
I got a pole and pushed it over, and I found the whole history of a
tenement in that stub. First of all, a Flicker had come years ago
and dug put a fine big nesting-place, and used it maybe two or three
times. When he was through, or maybe between seasons, the Chickadees
made a winter den of it, for there were some Chickadee tail-feathers
in the bottom. Next a Purple Blackbird came and used the hole, piling
up a lot of roots with mud on them. Next year it seems it came again
and made another nest on top of the last; then that winter the
Chickadees again used it for a cubby-hole, for there were some more
Chickadee feathers. Next year a Blue Jay found it out and nested
there. I found some of her egg-shells among the soft stuff of the
nest. Then I suppose a year after a pair of Sparrow-hawks happened on
the place, found it suited them, and made their nest in it and hatched
a brood of little Sparrow-hawks. Well, one day this bold rob