Page:The New-Year's Bargain (1884).djvu/176

 tell nice ones to Carl and me," he answered. "One more! one more!"

So October began:—

"It's about squirrels. People generally don't appreciate squirrels. They overlook them entirely, or else they make pies of them, which is unjust and disagreeable.

"I know them well, so they talk freely before me, and let out their secrets, which people never do until they are intimate. All the best circles of squirreldom are open to me; and the Nutcrackers, who are perhaps the most aristocratic family in the set, are my particular friends, and have been for generations.

"It is about Nippy Nutcracker that I am going to tell. It is a true story; and I hope it may be a warning to you, Thekla, and to other young females of your age.

"Nippy, in her earliest squirrelhood, was one of the prettiest creatures I ever saw. In those days she spelt the name 'Nippie,' and had it thus engraved in monogram on the birch-bark