"perhaps you may have heard me speak of my grandfather. ah, he was a ground hog worth seeing! he was large, and, although when i knew him the black fur on his back was streaked with gray, he was still handsome. he was clever, too. i have often heard my father say that he could dig the deepest and best burrow in the forest. and then he had such fine manners! there was not another ground hog in the country around who could eat as noisily as he, and it is said that when he was courting my grandmother she chose him because of the elegant way in which he sat up on his haunches. i have been told, children, that i am very much like him."