"I make my home under
ground," he ventured finally. "I dig a nice little bedroom with
several entrances from my tunnels, and in it I make a fine nest of
soft grass. Close by I dig one or more rooms in which to store my
food, and these usually are bigger than my bedroom. When I get one
filled with food I close it up by filling the entrance with earth."
"What do you put in your storerooms?" asked Peter Rabbit.
"Short pieces of grass and pieces of roots of different kinds,"
replied Piney. "I am very fond of tender roots and the bark of
trees and bushes.
"And he dearly loves to get in a garden where he can tunnel along
a row of potatoes or other root crops," added Old Mother Nature.
"Because of these habits he does a great deal of damage and is much
disliked by man. Striped Chipmunk mentioned his reddish-brown coat.
There is another cousin with a coat so red that he is called the
Red-backed Mouse. He is about the size of Danny Meadow Mouse but
has larger ears and a longer tail.
"This little fellow is a lover of the Green Forest, and he is quite
as active by day as by night. He is pretty, especially when he sits
up to eat, holding his food in his paws as does Happy Jack Squirrel.
He makes his home in a burrow, the entrance to which is under an old
stump, a rock or the root of a tree. His nest is of soft grass or
moss.
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