Page:St. Nicholas (serial) (IA stnicholasserial321dodg).pdf/440

308 They had evidently been working little by little on the new burrow before they left the old one, but now they made a regular business of it, and worked with a will. They made rapid progress, for the feet are armed with powerful claws and there is a web between the toes, a combination which makes an excellent pick and shovel. The fore feet are used principally for digging, and the hind ones for throwing backward the loosened earth and stones.



For some distance from the entrance their burrow inclined downward quite sharply, and then turned slightly upward and continued along beneath the surface for a distance of fifteen feet. There was a small side tunnel, four feet long, which ended in an exit; the main burrow ended in a chamber of considerable size, in which there was a quantity of fine grass for bedding,

When the woodchucks had completed their home they had nothing to do but to eat and doze about in the sun. With a few weeks of this sort of life there came a wonderful change in their appearance; their cheeks were distended, their fur was glossy, and their skins were stretched with fatness.

When September was well advanced they could cal no more, and had only to wait and doze away the time until about the first week in October, when Mother Nature would send them to sleep for the winter. The blood began to flow more slowly through their veins, a drowsiness which they could not resist gradually crept over them, and finally they curled themselves into balls of fur, side by side in their snug retreat, and fell asleep.



Warm autumn days followed with their mellow light; Indian summer came and went, but the slumber of the woodchucks was unbroken; and thus the cold, bleak winter passed in one long dream of summer.