If he doesn't get it all, he succeeds in snapping off a piece and then, either darting off, with a quick whisk of his tail, to enjoy it in his chosen seclusion, or, squatting down on his hind legs, he holds the delicious morsel between his fore-paws and chews away with a rapidity as astonishing as it is interesting and amusing.
Now a fat old fellow--he looks like a grandpa in age--comes up.

He is equally suspicious at first, takes his preliminary reconnaissance, darts forward and just about reaches you, when he darts away again.
Only for a moment however.

On he comes, seizes the nut, and eats it then and there, or darts off with inconceivable rapidity, up the tree trunk to a branch twenty, forty feet up, and then sits in most cunning and _cute_ posture, but in just as big a hurry and in equally excitable fashion to eat his lunch as if he were within reach.
Sometimes half a dozen or more of them, big and little, will surround you.

One leaps upon your knee, another comes into your lap, while another runs all over your back and shoulders.

Now and again two aim at the same time for the same nut, and then, look out.