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diff --git a/1901.txt b/1901.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..900500b --- /dev/null +++ b/1901.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4382 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Secret of the Woods + +Author: William J. Long + +Posting Date: November 7, 2008 [EBook #1901] +Release Date: September, 1999 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SECRET OF THE WOODS *** + + + + +Produced by Dianne Bean + + + + + +SECRETS OF THE WOODS + +Wood Folk Series Book Three + +By William J. Long + + +1901 + + + TO CH'GEEGEE-LOKH-SIS, "Little + Friend Ch'geegee," whose + coming makes the winter glad. + + + + +PREFACE + +This little book is but another chapter in the shy 'wild life of the +fields and woods' of which "Ways of Wood Folk" and "Wilderness Ways" +were the beginning. It is given gladly in answer to the call for more +from those who have read the previous volumes, and whose letters are +full of the spirit of kindness and appreciation. + +Many questions have come of late with these same letters; chief of which +is this: How shall one discover such things for himself? how shall +we, too, read the secrets of the Wood Folk? There is no space here +to answer, to describe the long training, even if one could explain +perfectly what is more or less unconscious. I would only suggest that +perhaps the real reason why we see so little in the woods is the way we +go through them--talking, laughing, rustling, smashing twigs, disturbing +the peace of the solitudes by what must seem strange and uncouth +noises to the little wild creatures. They, on the other hand, slip with +noiseless feet through their native coverts, shy, silent, listening, +more concerned to hear than to be heard, loving the silence, hating +noise and fearing it, as they fear and hate their natural enemies. + +We would not feel comfortable if a big barbarian came into our quiet +home, broke the door down, whacked his war-club on the furniture, +and whooped his battle yell. We could hardly be natural under the +circumstances. Our true dispositions would hide themselves. We might +even vacate the house bodily. Just so Wood Folk. Only as you copy their +ways can you expect to share their life and their secrets. And it is +astonishing how little the shyest of them fears you, if you but keep +silence and avoid all excitement, even of feeling; for they understand +your feeling quite as much as your action. + +A dog knows when you are afraid of him; when you are hostile; when +friendly. So does a bear. Lose your nerve, and the horse you are riding +goes to pieces instantly. Bubble over with suppressed excitement, and +the deer yonder, stepping daintily down the bank to your canoe in the +water grasses, will stamp and snort and bound away without ever knowing +what startled him. But be quiet, friendly, peace-possessed in the same +place, and the deer, even after discovering you, will draw near and show +his curiosity in twenty pretty ways ere he trots away, looking back over +his shoulder for your last message. Then be generous--show him the flash +of a looking-glass, the flutter of a bright handkerchief, a tin whistle, +or any other little kickshaw that the remembrance of a boy's pocket +may suggest--and the chances are that he will come back again, finding +curiosity so richly rewarded. + +That is another point to remember: all the Wood Folk are more curious +about you than you are about them. Sit down quietly in the woods +anywhere, and your coming will occasion the same stir that a stranger +makes in a New England hill town. Control your curiosity, and soon their +curiosity gets beyond control; they must come to find out who you are +and what you are doing. Then you have the advantage; for, while their +curiosity is being satisfied, they forget fear and show you many curious +bits of their life that you will never discover otherwise. + +As to the source of these sketches, it is the same as that of the +others years of quiet observation in the woods and fields, and some old +notebooks which hold the records of summer and winter camps in the great +wilderness. + +My kind publishers announced, some time ago, a table of contents, which +included chapters on jay and fish-hawk, panther, and musquash, and a +certain savage old bull moose that once took up his abode too near my +camp for comfort. My only excuse for their non-appearance is that my +little book was full before their turn came. They will find their place, +I trust, in another volume presently. + +STAMFORD, CONN., June, 1901. Wm. J. LONG. + + + +CONTENTS + + TOOKHEES THE 'FRAID ONE + A WILDERNESS BYWAY + KEEONEKH THE FISHERMAN + KOSKOMENOS THE OUTCAST + MEEKO THE MISCHIEF-MAKER + THE OL' BEECH PA'TRIDGE + FOLLOWING THE DEER + SUMMER WOODS + STILL HUNTING + WINTER TRAILS + SNOW BOUND + GLOSSARY OF INDIAN NAMES + + + + +SECRETS OF THE WOODS + + + + +TOOKHEES THE 'FRAID ONE + +Little Tookhees the wood mouse, the 'Fraid One, as Simmo calls him, +always makes two appearances when you squeak to bring him out. First, +after much peeking, he runs out of his tunnel; sits up once on his hind +legs; rubs his eyes with his paws; looks up for the owl, and behind him +for the fox, and straight ahead at the tent where the man lives; then +he dives back headlong into his tunnel with a rustle of leaves and a +frightened whistle, as if Kupkawis the little owl had seen him. That is +to reassure himself. In a moment he comes back softly to see what kind +of crumbs you have given him. + +No wonder Tookhees is so timid, for there is no place in earth or air or +water, outside his own little doorway under the mossy stone, where he is +safe. Above him the owls watch by night and the hawks by day; around him +not a prowler of the wilderness, from Mooween the bear down through a +score of gradations, to Kagax the bloodthirsty little weasel, but will +sniff under every old log in the hope of finding a wood mouse; and if he +takes a swim, as he is fond of doing, not a big trout in the river but +leaves his eddy to rush at the tiny ripple holding bravely across the +current. So, with all these enemies waiting to catch him the moment he +ventures out, Tookhees must needs make one or two false starts in order +to find out where the coast is clear. + +That is why he always dodges back after his first appearance; why he +gives you two or three swift glimpses of himself, now here, now there, +before coming out into the light. He knows his enemies are so hungry, so +afraid he will get away or that somebody else will catch him, that they +jump for him the moment he shows a whisker. So eager are they for his +flesh, and so sure, after missing him, that the swoop of wings or the +snap of red jaws has scared him into permanent hiding, that they pass on +to other trails. And when a prowler, watching from behind a stump, sees +Tookhees flash out of sight and hears his startled squeak, he thinks +naturally that the keen little eyes have seen the tail, which he forgot +to curl close enough, and so sneaks away as if ashamed of himself. Not +even the fox, whose patience is without end, has learned the wisdom of +waiting for Tookhees' second appearance. And that is the salvation of +the little 'Fraid One. + +From all these enemies Tookhees has one refuge, the little arched nest +beyond the pretty doorway under the mossy stone. Most of his enemies +can dig, to be sure, but his tunnel winds about in such a way that they +never can tell from the looks of his doorway where it leads to; +and there are no snakes in the wilderness to follow and find out. +Occasionally I have seen where Mooween the bear has turned the stone +over and clawed the earth beneath; but there is generally a tough root +in the way, and Mooween concludes that he is taking too much trouble +for so small a mouthful, and shuffles off to the log where the red ants +live. + +On his journeys through the woods Tookhees never forgets the dangerous +possibilities. His progress is a series of jerks, and whisks, and jumps, +and hidings. He leaves his doorway, after much watching, and shoots +like a minnow across the moss to an upturned root. There he sits up and +listens, rubbing his whiskers nervously. Then he glides along the root +for a couple of feet, drops to the ground and disappears. He is hiding +there under a dead leaf. A moment of stillness and he jumps like a +jack-in-abox. Now he is sitting on the leaf that covered him, rubbing +his whiskers again, looking back over his trail as if he heard footsteps +behind him. Then another nervous dash, a squeak which proclaims at once +his escape, and his arrival, and he vanishes under the old moss-grown +log where his fellows live, a whole colony of them. + +All these things, and many more, I discovered the first season that I +began to study the wild things that lived within sight of my tent. I +had been making long excursions after bear and beaver, following on +wild-goose chases after Old Whitehead the eagle and Kakagos the wild +woods raven that always escaped me, only to find that within the warm +circle of my camp-fire little wild folk were hiding whose lives were +more unknown and quite as interesting as the greater creatures I had +been following. + +One day, as I returned quietly to camp, I saw Simmo quite lost in +watching something near my tent. He stood beside a great birch tree, one +hand resting against the bark that he would claim next winter for his +new canoe; the other hand still grasped his axe, which he had picked up +a moment before to quicken the tempo of the bean kettle's song. His dark +face peered behind the tree with a kind of childlike intensity written +all over it. + +I stole nearer without his hearing me; but I could see nothing. The +woods were all still. Killooleet was dozing by his nest; the chickadees +had vanished, knowing that it was not meal time; and Meeko the red +squirrel had been made to jump from the fir top to the ground so often +that now he kept sullenly to his own hemlock across the island, nursing +his sore feet and scolding like a fury whenever I approached. Still +Simmo watched, as if a bear were approaching his bait, till I whispered, +"Quiee, Simmo, what is it?" + +"Nodwar k'chee Toquis, I see little 'Fraid One'" he said, unconsciously +dropping into his own dialect, which is the softest speech in the world, +so soft that wild things are not disturbed when they hear it, thinking +it only a louder sough of the pines or a softer tunking of ripples on +the rocks.--"O bah cosh, see! He wash-um face in yo lil cup." And when +I tiptoed to his side, there was Tookhees sitting on the rim of my +drinking cup, in which I had left a new leader to soak for the evening's +fishing, scrubbing his face diligently, like a boy who is watched from +behind to see that he slights not his ears or his neck. + +Remembering my own boyhood on cold mornings, I looked behind him to see +if he also were under compulsion, but there was no other mouse in sight. +He would scoop up a double handful of water in his paws, rub it rapidly +up over nose and eyes, and then behind his ears, on the spots that wake +you up quickest when you are sleepy. Then another scoop of water, and +another vigorous rub, ending behind his ears as before. + +Simmo was full of wonder, for an Indian notices few things in the woods +beside those that pertain to his trapping and hunting; and to see a +mouse wash his face was as incomprehensible to him as to see me read a +book. But all wood mice are very cleanly; they have none of the strong +odors of our house mice. Afterwards, while getting acquainted, I saw him +wash many times in the plate of water that I kept filled near his den; +but he never washed more than his face and the sensitive spot behind his +ears. Sometimes, however, when I have seen him swimming in the lake +or river, I have wondered whether he were going on a journey, or just +bathing for the love of it, as he washed his face in my cup. + +I left the cup where it was and spread a feast for the little guest, +cracker crumbs and a bit of candle end. In the morning they were gone, +the signs of several mice telling plainly who had been called in from +the wilderness byways. That was the introduction of man to beast. Soon +they came regularly. I had only to scatter crumbs and squeak a few times +like a mouse, when little streaks and flashes would appear on the moss +or among the faded gold tapestries of old birch leaves, and the little +wild things would come to my table, their eyes shining like jet, their +tiny paws lifted to rub their whiskers or to shield themselves from the +fear under which they lived continually. + +They were not all alike--quite the contrary. One, the same who had +washed in my cup, was gray and old, and wise from much dodging of +enemies. His left ear was split from a fight, or an owl's claw, +probably, that just missed him as he dodged under a root. He was at +once the shyest and boldest of the lot. For a day or two he came with +marvelous stealth, making use of every dead leaf and root tangle to hide +his approach, and shooting across the open spaces so quickly that one +knew not what had happened--just a dun streak which ended in nothing. +And the brown leaf gave no sign of what it sheltered. But once assured +of his ground, he came boldly. This great man-creature, with his face +close to the table, perfectly still but for his eyes, with a hand that +moved gently if it moved at all, was not to be feared--that Tookhees +felt instinctively. And this strange fire with hungry odors, and the +white tent, and the comings and goings of men who were masters of the +woods kept fox and lynx and owl far away--that he learned after a day or +two. Only the mink, who crept in at night to steal the man's fish, was +to be feared. So Tookhees presently gave up his nocturnal habits and +came out boldly into the sunlight. Ordinarily the little creatures come +out in the dusk, when their quick movements are hidden among the shadows +that creep and quiver. But with fear gone, they are only too glad to run +about in the daylight, especially when good things to eat are calling +them. + +Besides the veteran there was a little mother-mouse, whose tiny gray +jacket was still big enough to cover a wonderful mother love, as I +afterwards found out. She never ate at my table, but carried her fare +away into hiding, not to feed her little ones-they were, too small as +yet--but thinking in some dumb way, behind the bright little eyes, that +they needed her and that her life must be spared with greater precaution +for their sakes. She would steal timidly to my table, always appearing +from under a gray shred of bark on a fallen birch log, following the +same path, first to a mossy stone, then to a dark hole under a root, +then to a low brake, and along the underside of a billet of wood to +the mouse table. There she would stuff both cheeks hurriedly, till +they bulged as if she had toothache, and steal away by the same path, +disappearing at last under the shred of gray bark. + +For a long time it puzzled me to find her nest, which I knew could not +be far away. It was not in the birch log where she disappeared--that was +hollow the whole length--nor was it anywhere beneath it. Some distance +away was a large stone, half covered by the green moss which reached up +from every side. The most careful search here had failed to discover any +trace of Tookhees' doorway; so one day when the wind blew half a gale +and I was going out on the lake alone, I picked up this stone to put in +the bow of my canoe. That was to steady the little craft by bringing her +nose down to grip the water. Then the secret was out, and there it was +in a little dome of dried grass among some spruce roots under the stone. + +The mother was away foraging, but a faint sibilant squeaking within the +dome told me that the little ones were there, and hungry as usual. As I +watched there was a swift movement in a tunnel among the roots, and +the mother-mouse came rushing back. She paused a moment, lifting her +forepaws against a root to sniff what danger threatened. Then she saw +my face bending over the opening--Et tu Brute! and she darted into the +nest. In a moment she was out again and disappeared into her tunnel, +running swiftly with her little ones hanging to her sides by a grip that +could not be shaken,--all but one, a delicate pink creature that one +could hide in a thimble, and that snuggled down in the darkest corner of +my hand confidently. + +It was ten minutes before the little mother came back, looking anxiously +for the lost baby. When she found him safe in his own nest, with the +man's face still watching, she was half reassured; but when she threw +herself down and the little one began to drink, she grew fearful again +and ran away into the tunnel, the little one clinging to her side, this +time securely. + +I put the stone back and gathered the moss carefully about it. In a few +days Mother Mouse was again at my table. I stole away to the stone, put +my ear close to it, and heard with immense satisfaction tiny squeaks, +which told me that the house was again occupied. Then I watched to find +the path by which Mother Mouse came to her own. When her cheeks were +full, she disappeared under the shred of bark by her usual route. That +led into the hollow center of the birch log, which she followed to the +end, where she paused a moment, eyes, ears, and nostrils busy; then she +jumped to a tangle of roots and dead leaves, beneath which was a tunnel +that led, deep down under the moss, straight to her nest beneath the +stone. + +Besides these older mice, there were five or six smaller ones, all shy +save one, who from the first showed not the slightest fear but came +straight to my hand, ate his crumbs, and went up my sleeve, and +proceeded to make himself a warm nest there by nibbling wool from my +flannel shirt. + +In strong contrast to this little fellow was another who knew too well +what fear meant. He belonged to another tribe that had not yet grown +accustomed to man's ways. I learned too late how careful one must be in +handling the little creatures that live continually in the land where +fear reigns. + +A little way behind my tent was a great fallen log, mouldy and +moss-grown, with twin-flowers shaking their bells along its length, +under which lived a whole colony of wood mice. They ate the crumbs that +I placed by the log; but they could never be tolled to my table, whether +because they had no split-eared old veteran to spy out the man's ways, +or because my own colony drove them away, I could never find out. One +day I saw Tookhees dive under the big log as I approached, and having +nothing more important to do, I placed one big crumb near his entrance, +stretched out in the moss, hid my hand in a dead brake near the tempting +morsel, and squeaked the call. In a moment Tookhees' nose and eyes +appeared in his doorway, his whiskers twitching nervously as he smelled +the candle grease. But he was suspicious of the big object, or perhaps +he smelled the man too and was afraid, for after much dodging in and out +he disappeared altogether. + +I was wondering how long his hunger would battle with his caution, when +I saw the moss near my bait stir from beneath. A little waving of the +moss blossoms, and Tookhees' nose and eyes appeared out of the ground +for an instant, sniffing in all directions. His little scheme was +evident enough now; he was tunneling for the morsel that he dared not +take openly. I watched with breathless interest as a faint quiver nearer +my bait showed where he was pushing his works. Then the moss stirred +cautiously close beside his objective; a hole opened; the morsel tumbled +in, and Tookhees was gone with his prize. + +I placed more crumbs from my pocket in the same place, and presently +three or four mice were nibbling them. One sat up close by the dead +brake, holding a bit of bread in his forepaws like a squirrel. The brake +stirred suddenly; before he could jump my hand closed over him, and +slipping the other hand beneath him I held him up to my face to watch +him between my fingers. He made no movement to escape, but only trembled +violently. His legs seemed too weak to support his weight now; he lay +down; his eyes closed. One convulsive twitch and he was dead--dead of +fright in a hand which had not harmed him. + +It was at this colony, whose members were all strangers to me, that I +learned in a peculiar way of the visiting habits of wood mice, and at +the same time another lesson that I shall not soon forget. For several +days I had been trying every legitimate way in vain to catch a big +trout, a monster of his kind, that lived in an eddy behind a rock up at +the inlet. Trout were scarce in that lake, and in summer the big fish +are always lazy and hard to catch. I was trout hungry most of the time, +for the fish that I caught were small, and few and far between. Several +times, however, when casting from the shore at the inlet for small fish, +I had seen swirls in a great eddy near the farther shore, which told me +plainly of big fish beneath; and one day, when a huge trout rolled half +his length out of water behind my fly, small fry lost all their interest +and I promised myself the joy of feeling my rod bend and tingle beneath +the rush of that big trout if it took all summer. + +Flies were no use. I offered him a bookful, every variety of shape and +color, at dawn and dusk, without tempting him. I tried grubs, which bass +like, and a frog's leg, which no pickerel can resist, and little frogs, +such as big trout hunt among the lily pads in the twilight,--all without +pleasing him. And then waterbeetles, and a red squirrel's tail-tip, +which makes the best hackle in the world, and kicking grasshoppers, and +a silver spoon with a wicked "gang" of hooks, which I detest and which, +I am thankful to remember, the trout detested also. They lay there in +their big cool eddy, lazily taking what food the stream brought down to +them, giving no heed to frauds of any kind. + +Then I caught a red-fin in the stream above, hooked it securely, laid it +on a big chip, coiled my line upon it, and set it floating down stream, +the line uncoiling gently behind it as it went. When it reached the +eddy I raised my rod tip; the line straightened; the red-fin plunged +overboard, and a two-pound trout, thinking, no doubt, that the little +fellow had been hiding under the chip, rose for him and took him in. +That was the only one I caught. His struggle disturbed the pool, and the +other trout gave no heed to more red-fins. + +Then, one morning at daybreak, as I sat on a big rock pondering new +baits and devices, a stir on an alder bush across the stream caught my +eye. Tookhees the wood mouse was there, running over the bush, evidently +for the black catkins which still clung to the tips. As I watched him +he fell, or jumped from his branch into the quiet water below and, after +circling about for a moment, headed bravely across the current. I could +just see his nose as he swam, a rippling wedge against the black water +with a widening letter V trailing out behind him. The current swept +him downward; he touched the edge of the big eddy; there was a swirl, +a mighty plunge beneath, and Tookhees was gone, leaving no trace but a +swift circle of ripples that were swallowed up in the rings and dimples +behind the rock.--I had found what bait the big trout wanted. + +Hurrying back to camp, I loaded a cartridge lightly with a pinch of dust +shot, spread some crumbs near the big log behind my tent, squeaked the +call a few times, and sat down to wait. "These mice are strangers to +me," I told Conscience, who was protesting a little, "and the woods are +full of them, and I want that trout." + +In a moment there was a rustle in the mossy doorway and Tookhees +appeared. He darted across the open, seized a crumb in his mouth, sat +up on his hind legs, took the crumb in his paws, and began to eat. I had +raised the gun, thinking he would dodge back a few times before giving +me a shot; his boldness surprised me, but I did not recognize him. Still +my eye followed along the barrels and over the sight to where Tookhees +sat eating his crumb. My finger was pressing the trigger--"O you big +butcher," said Conscience, "think how little he is, and what a big roar +your gun will make! Aren't you ashamed?" + +"But I want the trout," I protested. + +"Catch him then, without killing this little harmless thing," said +Conscience sternly. + +"But he is a stranger to me; I never--" + +"He is eating your bread and salt," said Conscience. That settled it; +but even as I looked at him over the gun sight, Tookhees finished his +crumb, came to my foot, ran along my leg into my lap, and looked into my +face expectantly. The grizzled coat and the split ear showed the welcome +guest at my table for a week past. He was visiting the stranger colony, +as wood mice are fond of doing, and persuading them by his example that +they might trust me, as he did. More ashamed than if I had been caught +potting quail, I threw away the hateful shell that had almost slain my +friend and went back to camp. + +There I made a mouse of a bit of muskrat fur, with a piece of my leather +shoestring sewed on for a tail. It served the purpose perfectly, for +within the hour I was gloating over the size and beauty of the big trout +as he stretched his length on the rock beside me. But I lost the fraud +at the next cast, leaving it, with a foot of my leader, in the mouth +of a second trout that rolled up at it the instant it touched his eddy +behind the rock. + +After that the wood mice were safe so far as I was concerned. Not a +trout, though he were big as a salmon, would ever taste them, unless +they chose to go swimming of their own accord; and I kept their table +better supplied than before. I saw much of their visiting back and +forth, and have understood better what those tunnels mean that one finds +in the spring when the last snows are melting. In a corner of the woods, +where the drifts lay, you will often find a score of tunnels coming +in from all directions to a central chamber. They speak of Tookhees' +sociable nature, of his long visits with his fellows, undisturbed by +swoop or snap, when the packed snow above has swept the summer fear away +and made him safe from hawk and owl and fox and wildcat, and when no +open water tempts him to go swimming where Skooktum the big trout lies +waiting, mouse hungry, under his eddy. + + +The weeks passed all too quickly, as wilderness weeks do, and the sad +task of breaking camp lay just before us. But one thing troubled me--the +little Tookhees, who knew no fear, but tried to make a nest in the +sleeve of my flannel shirt. His simple confidence touched me more than +the curious ways of all the other mice. Every day he came and took his +crumbs, not from the common table, but from my, hand, evidently enjoying +its warmth while he ate, and always getting the choicest morsels. But I +knew that he would be the first one caught by the owl after I left; +for it is fear only that saves the wild things. Occasionally one finds +animals of various kinds in which the instinct of fear is lacking--a +frog, a young partridge, a moose calf--and wonders what golden age that +knew no fear, or what glorious vision of Isaiah in which lion and lamb +lie down together, is here set forth. I have even seen a young black +duck, whose natural disposition is wild as the wilderness itself, that +had profited nothing by his mother's alarms and her constant lessons in +hiding, but came bobbing up to my canoe among the sedges of a wilderness +lake, while his brethren crouched invisible in their coverts of bending +rushes, and his mother flapped wildly off, splashing and quacking and +trailing a wing to draw me away from the little ones. + +Such an one is generally abandoned by its mother, or else is the +first to fall in the battle with the strong before she gives him up as +hopeless. Little Tookhees evidently belonged to this class, so before +leaving I undertook the task of teaching him fear, which had evidently +been too much for Nature and his own mother. I pinched him a few times, +hooting like an owl as I did so,--a startling process, which sent the +other mice diving like brown streaks to cover. Then I waved a branch +over him, like a hawk's wing, at the same time flipping him end over +end, shaking him up terribly. Then again, when he appeared with a new +light dawning in his eyes, the light of fear, I would set a stick to +wiggling like a creeping fox among the ferns and switch him sharply with +a hemlock tip. It was a hard lesson, but he learned it after a few days. +And before I finished the teaching, not a mouse would come to my table, +no matter how persuasively I squeaked. They would dart about in the +twilight as of yore, but the first whish of my stick sent them all back +to cover on the instant. + +That was their stern yet, practical preparation for the robber horde +that would soon be prowling over my camping ground. Then a stealthy +movement among the ferns or the sweep of a shadow among the twilight +shadows would mean a very different thing from wriggling stick and +waving hemlock tip. Snap and swoop, and teeth and claws,--jump for your +life and find out afterwards. That is the rule for a wise wood mouse. +So I said good-by, and left them to take care of themselves in the +wilderness. + + + + +A WILDERNESS BYWAY + +One day in the wilderness, as my canoe was sweeping down a beautiful +stretch of river, I noticed a little path leading through the water +grass, at right angles to the stream's course. Swinging my canoe up to +it, I found what seemed to be a landing place for the wood folk on their +river journeyings. The sedges, which stood thickly all about, were here +bent inward, making a shiny green channel from the river. + +On the muddy shore were many tracks of mink and muskrat and otter. Here +a big moose had stood drinking; and there a beaver had cut the grass and +made a little mud pie, in the middle of which was a bit of musk scenting +the whole neighborhood. It was done last night, for the marks of his +fore paws still showed plainly where he had patted his pie smooth ere he +went away. + +But the spot was more than a landing place; a path went up the bank into +the woods, as faint as the green waterway among the sedges. Tall ferns +bent over to hide it; rank grasses that had been softly brushed aside +tried their best to look natural; the alders waved their branches +thickly, saying: There is no way here. But there it was, a path for +the wood folk. And when I followed it into the shade and silence of the +woods, the first mossy log that lay across it was worn smooth by the +passage of many little feet. + +As I came back, Simmo's canoe glided into sight and I waved him to +shore. The light birch swung up beside mine, a deep water-dimple just +under the curl of its bow, and a musical ripple like the gurgle of water +by a mossy stone--that was the only sound. + +"What means this path, Simmo?" + +His keen eyes took in everything at a glance, the wavy waterway, the +tracks, the faint path to the alders. There was a look of surprise in +his face that I had blundered onto a discovery which he had looked for +many times in vain, his traps on his back. + +"Das a portash," he said simply. + +"A portage! But who made a portage here?" + +"Well, Musquash he prob'ly make-um first. Den beaver, den h'otter, +den everybody in hurry he make-um. You see, river make big bend here. +Portash go 'cross; save time, jus' same Indian portash." + +That was the first of a dozen such paths that I have since found cutting +across the bends of wilderness rivers,--the wood folk's way of saving +time on a journey. I left Simmo to go on down the river, while I +followed the little byway curiously. There is nothing more fascinating +in the woods than to go on the track of the wild things and see what +they have been doing. + +But alas! mine were not the first human feet that had taken the journey. +Halfway across, at a point where the path ran over a little brook, +I found a deadfall set squarely in the way of unwary feet. It was +different from any I had ever seen, and was made like this: {drawing +omitted} + +That tiny stick (trigger, the trappers call it) with its end resting +in air three inches above the bed log, just the right height so that a +beaver or an otter would naturally put his foot on it in crossing, looks +innocent enough. But if you look sharply you will see that if it were +pressed down ever so little it would instantly release the bent stick +that holds the fall-log, and bring the deadly thing down with crushing +force across the back of any animal beneath. + +Such are the pitfalls that lie athwart the way of Keeonekh the otter, +when he goes a-courting and uses Musquash's portage to shorten his +journey. + +At the other end of the portage I waited for Simmo to come round the +bend, and took him back to see the work, denouncing the heartless +carelessness of the trapper who had gone away in the spring and left an +unsprung deadfall as a menace to the wild things. At the first glance +he pronounced it an otter trap. Then the fear and wonder swept into his +face, and the questions into mine. + +"Das Noel Waby's trap. Nobody else make-um tukpeel stick like dat," he +said at last. + +Then I understood. Noel Waby had gone up river trapping in the spring, +and had never come back; nor any word to tell how death met him. + +I stooped down to examine the trap with greater interest. On the +underside of the fall-log I found some long hairs still clinging in the +crevices of the rough bark. They belonged to the outer waterproof coat +with which Keeonekh keeps his fur dry. One otter at least had been +caught here, and the trap reset. But some sense of danger, some old +scent of blood or subtle warning clung to the spot, and no other +creature had crossed the bed log, though hundreds must have passed that +way since the old Indian reset his trap, and strode away with the dead +otter across his shoulders. + +What was it in the air? What sense of fear brooded here and whispered in +the alder leaves and tinkled in the brook? Simmo grew uneasy and hurried +away. He was like the wood folk. But I sat down on a great log that the +spring floods had driven in through the alders to feel the meaning +of the place, if possible, and to have the vast sweet solitude all to +myself for a little while. + +A faint stir on my left, and another! Then up the path, twisting and +gliding, came Keeonekh, the first otter that I had ever seen in the +wilderness. Where the sun flickered in through the alder leaves it +glinted brightly on the shiny puter hairs of his rough coat. As he went +his nose worked constantly, going far ahead of his bright little eyes to +tell him what was in the path. + +I was sitting very still, some distance to one side, and he did not see +me. Near old Noel's deadfall he paused an instant with raised head, in +the curious snake-like attitude that all the weasels take when watching. +Then he glided round the end of the trap, and disappeared down the +portage. + +When he was gone I stole out to examine his tracks. Then I noticed +for the first time that the old path near the deadfall was getting +moss-grown; a faint new path began to show among the alders. Some +warning was there in the trap, and with cunning instinct all the +wood dwellers turned aside, giving a wide berth to what they felt was +dangerous but could not understand. The new path joined the old again, +beyond the brook, and followed it straight to the river. + +Again I examined the deadfall carefully, but of course I found nothing. +That is a matter of instinct, not of eyes and ears, and it is past +finding out. Then I went away for good, after driving a ring of stout +stakes all about the trap to keep heedless little feet out of it. But +I left it unsprung, just as it was, a rude tribute of remembrance to +Keeonekh and the lost Indian. + + + + +KEEONEKH THE FISHERMAN + +Wherever you find Keeonekh the otter you find three other things: +wildness, beauty, and running water that no winter can freeze. There is +also good fishing, but that will profit you little; for after Keeonekh +has harried a pool it is useless to cast your fly or minnow there. The +largest fish has disappeared--you will find his bones and a fin or two +on the ice or the nearest bank--and the little fish are still in hiding +after their fright. + +Conversely, wherever you find the three elements mentioned you will also +find Keeonekh, if your eyes know how to read the signs aright. Even in +places near the towns, where no otter has been seen for generations, +they are still to be found leading their shy wild life, so familiar with +every sight and sound of danger that no eye of the many that pass by +ever sees them. No animal has been more persistently trapped and hunted +for the valuable fur that he bears; but Keeonekh is hard to catch and +quick to learn. When a family have all been caught or driven away from +a favorite stream, another otter speedily finds the spot in some of his +winter wanderings after better fishing, and, knowing well from the signs +that others of his race have paid the sad penalty for heedlessness, he +settles down there with greater watchfulness, and enjoys his fisherman's +luck. + +In the spring he brings a mate to share his rich living. Soon a family +of young otters go a-fishing in the best pools and explore the stream +for miles up and down. But so shy and wild and quick to hide are they +that the trout fishermen who follow the river, and the ice fishermen +who set their tilt-ups in the pond below, and the children who gather +cowslips in the spring have no suspicion that the original proprietors +of the stream are still on the spot, jealously watching and resenting +every intrusion. + +Occasionally the wood choppers cross an unknown trail in the snow, a +heavy trail, with long, sliding, down-hill plunges which look as if a +log had been dragged along. But they too go their way, wondering a bit +at the queer things that live in the woods, but not understanding the +plain records that the queer things leave behind them. Did they but +follow far enough they would find the end of the trail in open water, +and on the ice beyond the signs of Keeonekh's fishing. + +I remember one otter family whose den I found, when a boy, on a stream +between two ponds within three miles of the town house. Yet the oldest +hunter could barely remember the time when the last otter had been +caught or seen in the county. + +I was sitting very still in the bushes on the bank, one day in spring, +watching for a wood duck. Wood duck lived there, but the cover was so +thick that I could never surprise them. They always heard me coming and +were off, giving me only vanishing glimpses among the trees, or else +quietly hiding until I went by. So the only way to see them--a beautiful +sight they were--was to sit still in hiding, for hours if need be, until +they came gliding by, all unconscious of the watcher. + +As I waited a large animal came swiftly up stream, just his head +visible, with a long tail trailing behind. He was swimming powerfully, +steadily, straight as a string; but, as I noted with wonder, he made no +ripple whatever, sliding through the water as if greased from nose to +tail. Just above me he dived, and I did not see him again, though I +watched up and down stream breathlessly for him to reappear. + +I had never seen such an animal before, but I knew somehow that it was +an otter, and I drew back into better hiding with the hope of seeing the +rare creature again. Presently another otter appeared, coming up stream +and disappearing in exactly the same way as the first. But though I +stayed all the afternoon I saw nothing more. + +After that I haunted the spot every time I could get away, creeping +down to the river bank and lying in hiding hours long at a stretch; for +I knew now that the otters lived there, and they gave me many glimpses +of a life I had never seen before. + +Soon I found their den. It was in a bank opposite my hiding place, and +the entrance was among the roots of a great tree, under water, where no +one could have possibly found it if the otters had not themselves shown +the way. In their approach they always dived while yet well out in the +stream, and so entered their door unseen. When they came out they were +quite as careful, always swimming some distance under water before +coming to the surface. It was several days before my eye could trace +surely the faint undulation of the water above them, and so follow their +course to their doorway. Had not the water been shallow I should never +have found it; for they are the most wonderful of swimmers, making no +ripple on the surface, and not half the disturbance below it that a fish +of the same weight makes. + +Those were among the happiest watching hours that I have ever spent in +the woods. The game was so large, so utterly unexpected; and I had the +wonderful discovery all to myself. Not one of the half dozen boys and +men who occasionally, when the fever seized them, trapped muskrat in +the big meadow, a mile below, or the rare mink that hunted frogs in the +brook, had any suspicion that such splendid fur was to be had for the +hunting. + +Sometimes a whole afternoon would go slowly by, filled with the sounds +and sweet smells of the woods, and not a ripple would break the dimples +of the stream before me. But when, one late afternoon, just as the pines +across the stream began to darken against the western light, a string +of silver bubbles shot across the stream and a big otter rose to the +surface with a pickerel in his mouth, all the watching that had not well +repaid itself was swept out of the reckoning. He came swiftly towards +me, put his fore paws against the bank, gave a wriggling jump,--and +there he was, not twenty feet away, holding the pickerel down with his +fore paws, his back arched like a frightened cat, and a tiny stream of +water trickling down from the tip of his heavy pointed tail, as he ate +his fish with immense relish. + +Years afterward, hundreds of miles away on the Dungarvon, in the heart +of the wilderness, every detail of the scene came back to me again. +I was standing on snowshoes, looking out over the frozen river, when +Keeonekh appeared in an open pool with a trout in his mouth. He broke +his way, with a clattering tinkle of winter bells, through the thin edge +of ice, put his paws against the heavy snow ice, threw himself out with +the same wriggling jump, and ate with his back arched--just as I had +seen him years before. + +This curious way of eating is, I think, characteristic of all otters; +certainly of those that I have been fortunate enough to see. Why they +do it is more than I know; but it must be uncomfortable for every +mouthful--full of fish bones, too--to slide uphill to one's stomach. +Perhaps it is mere habit, which shows in the arched backs of all the +weasel family. Perhaps it is to frighten any enemy that may approach +unawares while Keeonekh is eating, just as an owl, when feeding on the +ground, bristles up all his feathers so as to look as big as possible. + +But my first otter was too keen-scented to remain long so near a +concealed enemy. Suddenly he stopped eating and turned his head in my +direction. I could see his nostrils twitching as the wind gave him its +message. Then he left his fish, glided into the stream as noiselessly as +the brook entered it below him, and disappeared without leaving a single +wavelet to show where he had gone down. + +When the young otters appeared, there was one of the most interesting +lessons to be seen in the woods. Though Keeonekh loves the water and +lives in it more than half the time, his little ones are afraid of it as +so many kittens. If left to themselves they would undoubtedly go off +for a hunting life, following the old family instinct; for fishing is an +acquired habit of the otters, and so the fishing instinct cannot yet +be transmitted to the little ones. That will take many generations. +Meanwhile the little Keeonekhs must be taught to swim. + +One day the mother-otter appeared on the bank among the roots of the +great tree under which was their secret doorway. That was surprising, +for up to this time both otters had always approached it from the river, +and were never seen on the bank near their den. She appeared to be +digging, but was immensely cautious about it, looking, listening, +sniffing continually. I had never gone near the place for fear of +frightening them away; and it was months afterward, when the den was +deserted, before I examined it to understand just what she was doing. +Then I found that she had made another doorway from her den leading out +to the bank. She had selected the spot with wonderful cunning,--a +hollow under a great root that would never be noticed,--and she dug +from inside, carrying the earth down to the river bottom, so that there +should be nothing about the tree to indicate the haunt of an animal. + +Long afterwards, when I had grown better acquainted with Keeonekh's ways +from much watching, I understood the meaning of all this. She was simply +making a safe way out and in for the little ones, who were afraid of the +water. Had she taken or driven them out of her own entrance under the +river, they might easily have drowned ere they reached the surface. + +When the entrance was all ready she disappeared, but I have no doubt +she was just inside, watching to be sure the coast was clear. Slowly her +head and neck appeared till they showed clear of the black roots. She +turned her nose up stream--nothing in the wind. Eyes and ears searched +below--nothing harmful there. Then she came out, and after her toddled +two little otters, full of wonder at the big bright world, full of fear +at the river. + +There was no play at first, only wonder and investigation. Caution was +born in them; they put their little feet down as if treading on eggs, +and they sniffed every bush before going behind it. And the old mother +noted their cunning with satisfaction while her own nose and ears +watched far away. + +The outing was all too short; some uneasiness was in the air down +stream. Suddenly she rose from where she was lying, and the little ones, +as if commanded, tumbled back into the den. In a moment she had glided +after them, and the bank was deserted. It was fully ten minutes before +my untrained cars caught faint sounds, which were not of the woods, +coming up stream; and longer than that before two men with fish poles +appeared, making their slow way to the pond above. They passed almost +over the den and disappeared, all unconscious of beast or man that +wished them elsewhere, resenting their noisy passage through the +solitudes. But the otters did not come out again, though I watched till +nearly dark. + +It was a week before I saw them again, and some good teaching had +evidently been done in the meantime; for all fear of the river was gone. +They toddled out as before, at the same hour in the afternoon, and went +straight to the bank. There the mother lay down, and the little ones, +as if enjoying the frolic, clambered up to her back. Whereupon she slid +into the stream and swam slowly about with the little Keeonekhs clinging +to her desperately, as if humpty-dumpty had been played on them before, +and might be repeated any moment. + +I understood their air of anxious expectation a moment later, when +Mother Otter dived like a flash from under them, leaving them to make +their own way in the water. They began to swim naturally enough, but the +fear of the new element was still upon them. The moment old Mother Otter +appeared they made for her whimpering, but she dived again and again, or +moved slowly away, and so kept them swimming. After a little they seemed +to tire and lose courage. Her eyes saw it quicker than mine, and she +glided between them. Both little ones turned in at the same instant and +found a resting place on her back. So she brought them carefully to +land again, and in a few moments they were all rolling about in the dry +leaves like so many puppies. + +I must confess here that, besides the boy's wonder in watching the +wild things, another interest brought me to the river bank and kept me +studying Keeonekh's ways. Father Otter was a big fellow,--enormous he +seemed to me, thinking of my mink skins,--and occasionally, when his +rich coat glinted in the sunshine, I was thinking what a famous cap it +would make for the winter woods, or for coasting on moonshiny nights. +More often I was thinking what famous things a boy could buy for the +fourteen dollars, at least, which his pelt would bring in the open +market. + +The first Saturday after I saw him I prepared a board, ten times bigger +than a mink-stretcher, and tapered one end to a round point, and split +it, and made a wedge, and smoothed it all down, and hid it away--to +stretch the big otter's skin upon when I should catch him. + +When November came, and fur was prime, I carried down a half-bushel +basket of heads and stuff from the fish market, and piled them up +temptingly on the bank, above a little water path, in a lonely spot by +the river. At the lower end of the path, where it came out of the +water, I set a trap, my biggest one, with a famous grip for skunks and +woodchucks. But the fish rotted away, as did also another basketful in +another place. Whatever was eaten went to the crows and mink. Keeonekh +disdained it. + +Then I set the trap in some water (to kill the smell of it) on a game +path among some swamp alders, at a bend of the river where nobody ever +came and where I had found Keeonekh's tracks. The next night he walked +into it. But the trap that was sure grip for woodchucks was a plaything +for Keeonekh's strength. He wrenched his foot out of it, leaving me only +a few glistening hairs--which was all I ever caught of him. + +Years afterward, when I found old Noel's trap on Keeonekh's portage, I +asked Simmo why no bait had been used. + +"No good use-um bait," he said, "Keeonekh like-um fresh fish, an' +catch-um self all he want." And that is true. Except in starvation +times, when even the pools are frozen, or the fish die from one of their +mysterious epidemics, Keeonekh turns up his nose at any bait. If a bit +of castor is put in a split stick, he will turn aside, like all the +fur-bearers, to see what this strange smell is. But if you would toll +him with a bait, you must fasten a fish in the water in such a way that +it seems alive as the current wiggles it, else Keeonekh will never think +it worthy of his catching. + +The den in the river bank was never disturbed, and the following year +another litter was raised there. With characteristic cunning--a cunning +which grows keener and keener in the neighborhood of civilization--the +mother-otter filled up the land entrance among the roots with earth and +driftweed, using only the doorway under water until it was time for the +cubs to come out into the world again. + +Of all the creatures of the wilderness Keeonekh is the most richly +gifted, and his ways, could we but search them out, would furnish a most +interesting chapter. Every journey he takes, whether by land or water, +is full of unknown traits and tricks; but unfortunately no one ever sees +him doing things, and most of his ways are yet to be found out. You see +a head holding swiftly across a wilderness lake, or coming to meet your +canoe on the streams; then, as you follow eagerly, a swirl and he is +gone. When he comes up again he will watch you so much more keenly than +you can possibly watch him that you learn little about him, except how +shy he is. Even the trappers who make a business of catching him, and +with whom I have often talked, know almost nothing of Keeonekh, except +where to set their traps for him living and how to care for his skin +when he is dead. Once I saw him fishing in a curious way. It was winter, +on a wilderness stream flowing into the Dugarvon. There had been a fall +of dry snow that still lay deep and powdery over all the woods, too +light to settle or crust. At every step one had to lift a shovelful of +the stuff on the point of his snowshoe; and I was tired out, following +some caribou that wandered like plover in the rain. + +Just below me was a deep open pool surrounded by double fringes of ice. +Early in the winter, while the stream was higher, the white ice had +formed thickly on the river wherever the current was not too swift for +freezing. Then the stream fell, and a shelf of new black ice formed at +the water's level, eighteen inches or more below the first ice, some of +which still clung to the banks, reaching out in places two or three feet +and forming dark caverns with the ice below. Both shelves dipped towards +the water, forming a gentle incline all about the edges of the open +places. + +A string of silver bubbles shooting across the black pool at my feet +roused me out of a drowsy weariness. There it was again, a rippling wave +across the pool, which rose to the surface a moment later in a hundred +bubbles, tinkling like tiny bells as they broke in the keen air. Two or +three times I saw it with growing wonder. Then something stirred under +the shelf of ice across the pool. An otter slid into the water; the +rippling wave shot across again; the bubbles broke at the surface; and +I knew that he was sitting under the white ice below me, not twenty feet +away. + +A whole family of otters, three or four of them, were fishing there at +my feet in utter unconsciousness. The discovery took my breath away. +Every little while the bubbles would shoot across from my side, and +watching sharply I would see Keeonekh slide out upon the lower shelf of +ice on the other side and crouch there in the gloom, with back humped +against the ice above him, eating his catch. The fish they caught were +all small evidently, for after a few minutes he would throw himself flat +on the ice, slide down the incline into the water, making no splash or +disturbance as he entered, and the string of bubbles would shoot across +to my side again. + +For a full hour I watched them breathlessly, marveling at their skill. A +small fish is nimble game to follow and catch in his own element. But at +every slide Keeonekh did it. Sometimes the rippling wave would shoot all +over the pool, and the bubbles break in a wild tangle as the fish darted +and doubled below, with the otter after him. But it always ended the +same way. Keeonekh would slide out upon the ice shelf, and hump his +back, and begin to eat almost before the last bubble had tinkled behind +him. + +Curiously enough, the rule of the salmon fishermen prevailed here in +the wilderness: no two rods shall whip the same pool at the same time. +I would see an otter lying ready on the ice, evidently waiting for the +chase to end. Then, as another otter slid out beside him with his fish, +in he would go like a flash and take his turn. For a while the pool was +a lively place; the bubbles had no rest. Then the plunges grew fewer and +fewer, and the otters all disappeared into the ice caverns. + +What became of them I could not make out; and I was too chilled to watch +longer. Above and below the pool the stream was frozen for a distance; +then there was more open water and more fishing. Whether they followed +along the bank under cover of the ice to other pools, or simply slept +where they were till hungry again, I never found out. Certainly they had +taken up their abode in an ideal spot, and would not leave it willingly. +The open pools gave excellent fishing, and the upper ice shelf protected +them perfectly from all enemies. + +Once, a week later, I left the caribou and came back to the spot to +watch awhile; but the place was deserted. The black water gurgled and +dimpled across the pool, and slipped away silently under the lower edge +of ice undisturbed by strings of silver bubbles. The ice caverns were +all dark and silent. The mink had stolen the fish heads, and there was +no trace anywhere to show that it was Keeonekh's banquet hall. + +The swimming power of an otter, which was so evident there in the winter +pool, is one of the most remarkable things in nature. All other animals +and birds, and even the best modeled of modern boats, leave more or less +wake behind them when moving through the water. But Keeonekh leaves no +more trail than a fish. This is partly because he keeps his body well +submerged when swimming, partly because of the strong, deep, even stroke +that drives him forward. Sometimes I have wondered if the outer hairs of +his coat--the waterproof covering that keeps his fur dry, no matter how +long he swims--are not better oiled than in other animals, which might +account for the lack of ripple. I have seen him go down suddenly and +leave absolutely no break in the surface to show where he was. When +sliding also, plunging down a twenty-foot clay bank, he enters the water +with an astonishing lack of noise or disturbance of any kind. + +In swimming at the surface he seems to use all four feet, like other +animals. But below the surface, when chasing fish, he uses only the +fore-paws. The hind legs then stretch straight out behind and are used, +with the heavy tail, for a great rudder. By this means he turns and +doubles like a flash, following surely the swift dartings of frightened +trout, and beating them by sheer speed and nimbleness. + +When fishing a pool he always hunts outward from the center, driving the +fish towards the bank, keeping himself within their circlings, and so +having the immense advantage of the shorter line in heading off +his game. The fish are seized as they crouch against the bank for +protection, or try to dart out past him. Large fish are frequently +caught from behind as they lie resting in their spring-holes. So swift +and noiseless is his approach that they are seized before they become +aware of danger. + +This swimming power of Keeonekh is all the more astonishing when one +remembers that he is distinctively a land animal, with none of the +special endowments of the seal, who is his only rival as a fisherman. +Nature undoubtedly intended him to get his living, as the other members +of his large family do, by hunting in the woods, and endowed him +accordingly. He is a strong runner, a good climber, a patient tireless +hunter, and his nose is keen as a brier. With a little practice he could +again get his living by hunting, as his ancestors did. If squirrels and +rats and rabbits were too nimble at first, there are plenty of musquash +to be caught, and he need not stop at a fawn or a sheep, for he is +enormously strong, and the grip of his jaws is not to be loosened. + +In severe winters, when fish are scarce or his pools frozen over, he +takes to the woods boldly and shows himself a master at hunting craft. +But he likes fish, and likes the water, and for many generations now +has been simply a fisherman, with many of the quiet lovable traits that +belong to fishermen in general. + +That is one thing to give you instant sympathy for Keeonekh--he is +so different, so far above all other members of his tribe. He is very +gentle by nature, with no trace of the fisher's ferocity or the weasel's +bloodthirstiness. He tames easily, and makes the most docile and +affectionate pet of all the wood folk. He never kills for the sake of +killing, but lives peaceably, so far as he can, with all creatures. And +he stops fishing when he has caught his dinner. He is also most cleanly +in his habits, with no suggestion whatever of the evil odors that cling +to the mink and defile the whole neighborhood of a skunk. One cannot +help wondering whether just going fishing has not wrought all this +wonder in Keeonekh's disposition. If so, 't is a pity that all his tribe +do not turn fishermen. + +His one enemy among the wood folk, so far as I have observed, is the +beaver. As the latter is also a peaceable animal, it is difficult to +account for the hostility. I have heard or read somewhere that Keeonekh +is fond of young beaver and hunts them occasionally to vary his diet +of fish; but I have never found any evidence in the wilderness to show +this. Instead, I think it is simply a matter of the beaver's dam and +pond that causes the trouble. + +When the dam is built the beavers often dig a channel around either end +to carry off the surplus water, and so prevent their handiwork being +washed away in a freshet. Then the beavers guard their preserve +jealously, driving away the wood folk that dare to cross their dam or +enter their ponds, especially the musquash, who is apt to burrow and +cause them no end of trouble. But Keeonekh, secure in his strength, +holds straight through the pond, minding his own business and even +taking a fish or two in the deep places near the dam. He delights also +in running water, especially in winter when lakes and streams are mostly +frozen, and in his journeyings he makes use of the open channels that +guard the beavers' work. But the moment the beavers hear a splashing +there, or note a disturbance in the pond where Keeonekh is chasing fish, +down they come full of wrath. And there is generally a desperate fight +before the affair is settled. + +Once, on a little pond, I saw a fierce battle going on out in the +middle, and paddled hastily to find out about it. Two beavers and a +big otter were locked in a death struggle, diving, plunging, throwing +themselves out of water, and snapping at each other's throats. + +As my canoe halted the otter gripped one of his antagonists and went +under with him. There was a terrible commotion below the surface for a +few moments. When it ended the beaver rolled up dead, and Keeonekh shot +up under the second beaver to repeat the attack. They gripped on the +instant, but the second beaver, an enormous fellow, refused to go under +where he would be at a disadvantage. In my eagerness I let the canoe +drift almost upon them, driving them wildly apart before the common +danger. The otter held on his way up the lake; the beaver turned towards +the shore, where I noticed for the first time a couple of beaver houses. + +In this case there was no chance for intrusion on Keeonekh's part. +He had probably been attacked when going peaceably about his business +through the lake. + +It is barely possible, however, that there was an old grievance on the +beavers' part, which they sought to square when they caught Keeonekh on +the lake. When beavers build their houses on the lake shore, without the +necessity for making a dam, they generally build a tunnel slanting up +from the lake's bed to their den or house on the bank. Now Keeonekh +fishes under the ice in winter more than is generally supposed. As he +must breathe after every chase he must needs know all the air-holes and +dens in the whole lake. No matter how much he turns and doubles in +the chase after a trout, he never loses his sense of direction, never +forgets where the breathing places are. When his fish is seized he makes +a bee line under the ice for the nearest place where he can breathe and +eat. Sometimes this lands him, out of breath, in the beaver's tunnel; +and the beaver must sit upstairs in his own house, nursing his wrath, +while Keeonekh eats fish in his hallway; for there is not room for both +at once in the tunnel, and a fight there or under the ice is out of +the question. As the beaver eats only bark--the white inner layer of +"popple" bark is his chief dainty--he cannot understand and cannot +tolerate this barbarian, who eats raw fish and leaves the bones and fins +and the smell of slime in his doorway. The beaver is exemplary in his +neatness, detesting all smells and filth; and this may possibly account +for some of his enmity and his savage attacks upon Keeonekh when he +catches him in a good place. + +Not the least interesting of Keeonekh's queer ways is his habit of +sliding down hill, which makes a bond of sympathy and brings him close +to the boyhood memories of those who know him. + +I remember one pair of otters that I watched for the better part of a +sunny afternoon sliding down a clay bank with endless delight. The slide +had been made, with much care evidently, on the steep side of a little +promontory that jutted into the river. It was very steep, about twenty +feet high, and had been made perfectly smooth by much sliding and +wetting-down. An otter would appear at the top of the bank, throw +himself forward on his belly and shoot downward like a flash, diving +deep under water and reappearing some distance out from the foot of the +slide. And all this with marvelous stillness, as if the very woods had +ears and were listening to betray the shy creatures at their fun. For it +was fun, pure and simple, and fun with no end of tingle and excitement +in it, especially when one tried to catch the other and shot into the +water at his very heels. + +This slide was in perfect condition, and the otters were careful not to +roughen it. They never scrambled up over it, but went round the point +and climbed from the other side, or else went up parallel to the slide, +some distance away, where the ascent was easier and where there was no +danger of rolling stones or sticks upon the coasting ground to spoil its +smoothness. + +In winter the snow makes better coasting than the clay. Moreover it soon +grows hard and icy from the freezing of the water left by the otter's +body, and after a few days the slide is as smooth as glass. Then +coasting is perfect, and every otter, old and young, has his favorite +slide and spends part of every pleasant day enjoying the fun. + +When traveling through the woods in deep snow, Keeonekh makes use of his +sliding habit to help him along, especially on down grades. He runs a +little way and throws himself forward on his belly, sliding through the +snow for several feet before he runs again. So his progress is a series +of slides, much as one hurries along in slippery weather. + +I have spoken of the silver bubbles that first drew my attention to +the fishing otters one day in the wilderness. From the few rare +opportunities that I have had to watch them, I think that the bubbles +are seen only after Keeonekh slides swiftly into the stream. The air +clings to the hairs of his rough outer coat and is brushed from them as +he passes through the water. One who watches him thus, shooting down +the long slide belly-bump into the black winter pool, with a string +of silver bubbles breaking and tinkling above him, is apt to know the +hunter's change of heart from the touch of Nature which makes us all +kin. Thereafter he eschews trapping--at least you will not find his +number-three trap at the foot of Keeonekh's slide any more, to turn the +shy creature's happiness into tragedy--and he sends a hearty good-luck +after his fellow-fisherman, whether he meet him on the wilderness lakes +or in the quiet places on the home streams where nobody ever comes. + + + + +KOSKOMENOS THE OUTCAST + +Koskomenos the kingfisher is a kind of outcast among the birds. I think +they regard him as a half reptile, who has not yet climbed high enough +in the bird scale to deserve recognition; so they let him severely +alone. Even the goshawk hesitates before taking a swoop at him, not +knowing quite whether the gaudy creature is dangerous or only uncanny. +I saw a great hawk once drop like a bolt upon a kingfisher that hung on +quivering wings, rattling softly, before his hole in the bank. But the +robber lost his nerve at the instant when he should have dropped his +claws to strike. He swerved aside and shot upward in a great slant to a +dead spruce top, where he stood watching intently till the dark beak of +a brooding kingfisher reached out of the hole to receive the fish +that her mate had brought her. Whereupon Koskomenos swept away to his +watchtower above the minnow pool, and the hawk set his wings toward +the outlet, where a brood of young sheldrakes were taking their first +lessons in the open water. + +No wonder the birds look askance at Kingfisher. His head is ridiculously +large; his feet ridiculously small. He is a poem of grace in the air; +but he creeps like a lizard, or waddles so that a duck would be ashamed +of him, in the rare moments when he is afoot. His mouth is big enough +to take in a minnow whole; his tongue so small that he has no voice, but +only a harsh klr-rr-r-ik-ik-ik, like a watchman's rattle. He builds no +nest, but rather a den in the bank, in which he lives most filthily +half the day; yet the other half he is a clean, beautiful creature, with +never a suggestion of earth, but only of the blue heavens above and the +color-steeped water below, in his bright garments. Water will not wet +him, though he plunge a dozen times out of sight beneath the surface. +His clatter is harsh, noisy, diabolical; yet his plunge into the stream, +with its flash of color, its silver spray, and its tinkle of smitten +water, is the most musical thing in the wilderness. + +As a fisherman he has no equal. His fishy, expressionless eye is yet the +keenest that sweeps the water, and his swoop puts even the fish-hawk to +shame for its certainty and its lightning quickness. + +Besides all these contradictions, he is solitary, unknown, +inapproachable. He has no youth, no play, no joy except to eat; he +associates with nobody, not even with his own kind; and when he catches +a fish, and beats its head against a limb till it is dead, and sits with +head back-tilted, swallowing his prey, with a clattering chuckle +deep down in his throat, he affects you as a parrot does that swears +diabolically under his breath as he scratches his head, and that you +would gladly shy a stone at, if the owner's back were turned for a +sufficient moment. + +It is this unknown, this uncanny mixture of bird and reptile that has +made the kingfisher an object of superstition among all savage peoples. +The legends about him are legion; his crested head is prized by savages +above all others as a charm or fetish; and even among civilized peoples +his dried body may still sometimes be seen hanging to a pole, in the +hope that his bill will point out the quarter from which the next wind +will blow. + +But Koskomenos has another side, though the world as yet has found +out little about it. One day in the wilderness I cheered him quite +involuntarily. It was late afternoon; the fishing was over, and I sat +in my canoe watching by a grassy point to see what would happen next. +Across the stream was a clay bank, near the top of which a hole as +wide as a tea-cup showed where a pair of kingfishers had dug their long +tunnel. "There is nothing for them to stand on there; how did they begin +that hole?" I wondered lazily; "and how can they ever raise a brood, +with an open door like that for mink and weasel to enter?" Here were two +new problems to add to the many unsolved ones which meet you at every +turn on the woodland byways. + +A movement under the shore stopped my wondering, and the long lithe form +of a hunting mink shot swiftly up stream. Under the hole he stopped, +raised himself with his fore paws against the bank, twisting his head +from side to side and sniffing nervously. "Something good up there," he +thought, and began to climb. But the bank was sheer and soft; he slipped +back half a dozen times without rising two feet. Then he went down +stream to a point where some roots gave him a foothold, and ran lightly +up till under the dark eaves that threw their shadowy roots over the +clay bank. There he crept cautiously along till his nose found the nest, +and slipped down till his fore paws rested on the threshold. A long +hungry sniff of the rank fishy odor that pours out of a kingfisher's +den, a keen look all around to be sure the old birds were not returning, +and he vanished like a shadow. + +"There is one brood of kingfishers the less," I thought, with my glasses +focused on the hole. But scarcely was the thought formed, when a fierce +rumbling clatter sounded in the bank. The mink shot out, a streak of +red showing plainly across his brown face. After him came a kingfisher +clattering out a storm of invective and aiding his progress by vicious +jabs at his rear. He had made a miscalculation that time; the old mother +bird was at home waiting for him, and drove her powerful beak at his +evil eye the moment it appeared at the inner end of the tunnel. That +took the longing for young kingfisher all out of Cheokhes. He plunged +headlong down the bank, the bird swooping after him with a rattling +alarm that brought another kingfisher in a twinkling. The mink dived, +but it was useless to attempt escape in that way; the keen eyes above +followed his flight perfectly. When he came to the surface, twenty feet +away, both birds were over him and dropped like plummets on his head. So +they drove him down stream and out of sight. + +Years afterward I solved the second problem suggested by the +kingfisher's den, when I had the good fortune, one day, to watch a pair +beginning their tunneling. All who have ever watched the bird have, no +doubt, noticed his wonderful ability to stop short in swift flight and +hold himself poised in midair for an indefinite time, while watching +the movements of a minnow beneath. They make use of this ability in +beginning their nest on a bank so steep as to afford no foothold. + +As I watched the pair referred to, first one then the other would hover +before the point selected, as a hummingbird balances for a moment at the +door of a trumpet flower to be sure that no one is watching ere he goes +in, then drive his beak with rapid plunges into the bank, sending down a +continuous shower of clay to the river below. When tired he rested on a +watch-stub, while his mate made a battering-ram of herself and kept up +the work. In a remarkably short time they had a foothold and proceeded +to dig themselves in out of sight. + +Kingfisher's tunnel is so narrow that he cannot turn around in it. His +straight, strong bill loosens the earth; his tiny feet throw it +out behind. I would see a shower of dirt, and perchance the tail of +Koskomenos for a brief instant, then a period of waiting, and another +shower. This kept up till the tunnel was bored perhaps two feet, when +they undoubtedly made a sharp turn, as is their custom. After that they +brought most of the earth out in their beaks. While one worked, the +other watched or fished at the minnow pool, so that there was steady +progress as long as I observed them. + +For years I had regarded Koskomenos, as the birds and the rest of the +world regard him, as a noisy, half-diabolical creature, between bird and +lizard, whom one must pass by with suspicion. But that affair with the +mink changed my feelings a bit. Koskomenos' mate might lay her eggs like +a reptile, but she could defend them like any bird hero. So I took to +watching more carefully; which is the only way to get acquainted. + +The first thing I noticed about the birds--an observation confirmed +later on many waters--was that each pair of kingfishers have their own +particular pools, over which they exercise unquestioned lordship. There +may be a dozen pairs of birds on a single stream; but, so far as I have +been able to observe, each family has a certain stretch of water on +which no other kingfishers are allowed to fish. They may pass up and +down freely, but they never stop at the minnow pools; they are caught +watching near them, they are promptly driven out by the rightful owners. + +The same thing is true on the lake shores. Whether there is some secret +understanding and partition among them, or whether (which is more +likely) their right consists in discovery or first arrival, there is no +means of knowing. + +A curious thing, in this connection, is that while a kingfisher will +allow none of his kind to poach on his preserves, he lives at peace with +the brood of sheldrakes that occupy the same stretch of river. And the +sheldrake eats a dozen fish to his one. The same thing is noticeable +among the sheldrakes also, namely, that each pair, or rather each mother +and her brood, have their own piece of lake or river on which no others +are allowed to fish. The male sheldrakes meanwhile are far away, fishing +on their own waters. + +I had not half settled this matter of the division of trout streams when +another observation came, which was utterly unexpected. Koskomenos, half +reptile though he seem, not only recognizes riparian rights, but he is +also capable of friendship--and that, too, for a moody prowler of the +wilderness whom no one else cares anything about. Here is the proof. + +I was out in my canoe alone looking for a loon's nest, one midsummer +day, when the fresh trail of a bull caribou drew me to shore. The trail +led straight from the water to a broad alder belt, beyond which, on the +hillside, I might find the big brute loafing his time away till evening +should come, and watch him to see what he would do with himself. + +As I turned shoreward a kingfisher sounded his rattle and came darting +across the mouth of the bay where Hukweem the loon had hidden her two +eggs. I watched him, admiring the rippling sweep of his flight, like the +run of a cat's-paw breeze across a sleeping lake, and the clear blue +of his crest against the deeper blue of summer sky. Under him his +reflection rippled along, like the rush of a gorgeous fish through the +glassy water. Opposite my canoe he checked himself, poised an instant in +mid-air, watching the minnows that my paddle had disturbed, and dropped +bill first--plash! with a silvery tinkle in the sound, as if hidden +bells down among the green water weeds had been set to ringing by this +sprite of the air. A shower of spray caught the rainbow for a brief +instant; the ripples gathered and began to dance over the spot where +Koskomenos had gone down, when they were scattered rudely again as he +burst out among them with his fish. He swept back to the stub whence he +had come, chuckling on the way. There he whacked his fish soundly on +the wood, threw his head back, and through the glass I saw the tail of a +minnow wriggling slowly down the road that has for him no turning. Then +I took up the caribou trail. + +I had gone nearly through the alders, following the course of a little +brook and stealing along without a sound, when behind me I heard the +kingfisher coming above the alders, rattling as if possessed, klrrr, +klrrr, klrrr-ik-ik-ik! On the instant there was a heavy plunge and +splash just ahead, and the swift rush of some large animal up the +hillside. Over me poised the kingfisher, looking down first at me, then +ahead at the unknown beast, till the crashing ceased in a faint rustle +far away, when he swept back to his fishing-stub, clacking and chuckling +immoderately. + +I pushed cautiously ahead and came presently to a beautiful pool below +a rock, where the hillside shelved gently towards the alders. From the +numerous tracks and the look of the place, I knew instantly that I had +stumbled upon a bear's bathing pool. The water was still troubled and +muddy; huge tracks, all soppy and broken, led up the hillside in big +jumps; the moss was torn, the underbrush spattered with shining water +drops. "No room for doubt here," I thought; "Mooween was asleep in +this pool, and the kingfisher woke him up--but why? and did he do it on +purpose?" + +I remembered suddenly a record in an old notebook, which reads: +"Sugarloaf Lake, 26 July.--Tried to stalk a bear this noon. No luck. +He was nosing alongshore and I had a perfect chance; but a kingfisher +scared him." I began to wonder how the rattle of a kingfisher, which is +one of the commonest sounds on wilderness waters, could scare a bear, +who knows all the sounds of the wilderness perfectly. Perhaps Koskomenos +has an alarm note and uses it for a friend in time of need, as gulls +go out of their way to alarm a flock of sleeping ducks when danger is +approaching. + +Here was a new trait, a touch of the human in this unknown, clattering +suspect of the fishing streams. I resolved to watch him with keener +interest. + +Somewhere above me, deep in the tangle of the summer wilderness, Mooween +stood watching his back track, eyes, ears, and nose alert to discover +what the creature was who dared frighten him out of his noonday bath. +It would be senseless to attempt to surprise him now; besides, I had +no weapon of any kind.--"To-morrow, about this time, I shall be coming +back; then look out, Mooween," I thought as I marked the place and stole +away to my canoe. + +But the next day when I came to the place, creeping along the upper edge +of the alders so as to make no noise, the pool was clear and quiet, as +if nothing but the little trout that hid under the foam bubbles had ever +disturbed its peace. Koskomenos was clattering about the bay below as +usual. Spite of my precaution he had seen me enter the alders; but he +gave me no attention whatever. He went on with his fishing as if he knew +perfectly that the bear had deserted his bathing pool. + +It was nearly a month before I again camped on the beautiful lake. +Summer was gone. All her warmth and more than her fragrant beauty still +lingered on forest and river; but the drowsiness had gone from the +atmosphere, and the haze had crept into it. Here and there birches and +maples flung out their gorgeous banners of autumn over the silent water. +A tingle came into the evening air; the lake's breath lay heavy and +white in the twilight stillness; birds and beasts became suddenly +changed as they entered the brief period of sport and of full feeding. + +I was drifting about a reedy bay (the same bay in which the almost +forgotten kingfisher had cheated me out of my bear, after eating a +minnow that my paddle had routed out for him) shooting frogs for my +table with a pocket rifle. How different it was here, I reflected, from +the woods about home. There the game was already harried; the report of +a gun set every living creature skulking. Here the crack of my little +rifle was no more heeded than the plunge of a fish-hawk, or the groaning +of a burdened elm bough. A score of fat woodcock lay unheeding in that +bit of alder tangle yonder, the ground bored like a colander after their +night's feeding. Up on the burned hillside the partridges said, quit, +quit! when I appeared, and jumped to a tree and craned their necks +to see what I was. The black ducks skulked in the reeds. They were +full-grown now and strong of wing, but the early hiding habit was not +yet broken up by shooting. They would glide through the sedges, and +double the bogs, and crouch in a tangle till the canoe was almost upon +them, when with a rush and a frightened hark-ark! they shot into the air +and away to the river. The mink, changing from brown to black, gave up +his nest-robbing for honest hunting, undismayed by trap or deadfall; +and up in the inlet I could see grassy domes rising above the bronze and +gold of the marsh, where Musquash was building thick and high for winter +cold and spring floods. Truly it was good to be here, and to enter for a +brief hour into the shy, wild but unharried life of the wood folk. + +A big bullfrog showed his head among the lily pads, and the little +rifle, unmindful of the joys of an unharried existence, rose slowly to +its place. My eye was glancing along the sights when a sudden movement +in the alders on the shore, above and beyond the unconscious head of +Chigwooltz the frog, spared him for a little season to his lily pads and +his minnow hunting. At the same moment a kingfisher went rattling by +to his old perch over the minnow pool. The alders swayed again as +if struck; a huge bear lumbered out of them to the shore, with a +disgruntled woof! at some twig that had switched his ear too sharply. + +I slid lower in the canoe till only my head and shoulders were visible. +Mooween went nosing along-shore till something--a dead fish or a mussel +bed--touched his appetite, when he stopped and began feeding, scarcely +two hundred yards away. I reached first for my heavy rifle, then for +the paddle, and cautiously "fanned" the canoe towards shore till an +old stump on the point covered my approach. Then the little bark jumped +forward as if alive. But I had scarcely started when--klrrrr! klrrr! +ik-ik--ik! Over my head swept Koskomenos with a rush of wings and an +alarm cry that spoke only of haste and danger. I had a glimpse of +the bear as he shot into the alders, as if thrown by a catapult; the +kingfisher wheeled in a great rattling circle about the canoe before +he pitched upon the old stump, jerking his tail and clattering in great +excitement. + +I swung noiselessly out into the lake, where I could watch the alders. +They were all still for a space of ten minutes; but Mooween was there, I +knew, sniffing and listening. Then a great snake seemed to be wriggling +through the bushes, making no sound, but showing a wavy line of +quivering tops as he went. + +Down the shore a little way was a higher point, with a fallen tree that +commanded a view of half the lake. I had stood there a few days before, +while watching to determine the air paths and lines of flight that +sheldrakes use in passing up and down the lake,--for birds have runways, +or rather flyways, just as foxes do. Mooween evidently knew the spot; +the alders showed that he was heading straight for it, to look out on +the lake and see what the alarm was about. As yet he had no idea what +peril had threatened him; though, like all wild creatures, he had obeyed +the first clang of a danger note on the instant. Not a creature in the +woods, from Mooween down to Tookhees the wood mouse, but has learned +from experience that, in matters of this kind, it is well to jump to +cover first and investigate afterwards. + +I paddled swiftly to the point, landed and crept to a rock from which I +could just see the fallen tree. Mooween was coming. "My bear this time," +I thought, as a twig snapped faintly. Then Koskomenos swept into the +woods, hovering over the brush near the butt of the old tree, looking +down and rattling--klrrrik, clear out! klrrr-ik, clear out! There was a +heavy rush, such as a bear always makes when alarmed; Koskomenos swept +back to his perch; and I sought the shore, half inclined to make my next +hunting more even-chanced by disposing of one meddlesome factor. "You +wretched, noisy, clattering meddler!" I muttered, the front sight of my +rifle resting fair on the blue back of Koskomenos, "that is the third +time you have spoiled my shot, and you won't have another chance.--But +wait; who is the meddler here?" + +Slowly the bent finger relaxed on the trigger. A loon went floating by +the point, all unconscious of danger, with a rippling wake that sent +silver reflections glinting across the lake's deep blue. Far overhead +soared an eagle, breeze-borne in wide circles, looking down on his +own wide domain, unheeding the man's intrusion. Nearer, a red squirrel +barked down his resentment from a giant spruce trunk. Down on my left +a heavy splash and a wild, free tumult of quacking told where the black +ducks were coming in, as they had done, undisturbed, for generations. +Behind me a long roll echoed through the woods--some young cock +partridge, whom the warm sun had beguiled into drumming his spring +love-call. From the mountain side a cow moose rolled back a startling +answer. Close at hand, yet seeming miles away, a chipmunk was chunking +sleepily in the sunshine, while a nest of young wood mice were calling +their mother in the grass at my feet. And every wild sound did but +deepen the vast, wondrous silence of the wilderness. + +"After all, what place has the roar of a rifle or the smell of +sulphurous powder in the midst of all this blessed peace?" I asked half +sadly. As if in answer, the kingfisher dropped with his musical plash, +and swept back with exultant rattle to his watchtower.--"Go on with your +clatter and your fishing. The wilderness and the solitary place shall +still be glad, for you and Mooween, and the trout pools would be lonely +without you. But I wish you knew that your life lay a moment ago in the +bend of my finger, and that some one, besides the bear, appreciates your +brave warning." + +Then I went back to the point to measure the tracks, and to estimate how +big the bear was, and to console myself with the thought of how I would +certainly have had him, if something had not interfered--which is the +philosophy of all hunters since Esau. + +It was a few days later that the chance came of repaying Koskomenos with +coals of fire. The lake surface was still warm; no storms nor frosts had +cooled it. The big trout had risen from the deep places, but were not +yet quickened enough to take my flies; so, trout hungry, I had gone +trolling for them with a minnow. I had taken two good fish, and was +moving slowly by the mouth of the bay, Simmo at the paddle, when a +suspicious movement on the shore attracted my attention. I passed the +line to Simmo, the better to use my glasses, and was scanning the alders +sharply, when a cry of wonder came from the Indian. "O bah cosh, see! +das second time I catchum, Koskomenos." And there, twenty feet above +the lake, a young kingfisher--one of Koskomenos' frowzy-headed, +wild-eyed-youngsters--was whirling wildly at the end of my line. He had +seen the minnow trailing a hundred feet astern and, with more hunger +than discretion, had swooped for it promptly. Simmo, feeling the tug but +seeing nothing behind him, had struck promptly, and the hook went home. + +I seized the line and began to pull in gently. The young kingfisher came +most unwillingly, with a continuous clatter of protest that speedily +brought Koskomenos and his mate, and two or three of the captive's +brethren, in a wild, clamoring about the canoe. They showed no lack of +courage, but swooped again and again at the line, and even at the +man who held it. In a moment I had the youngster in my hand, and had +disengaged the hook. He was not hurt at all, but terribly frightened; so +I held him a little while, enjoying the excitement of the others, whom +the captive's alarm rattle kept circling wildly about the canoe. It was +noteworthy that not another bird heeded the cry or came near. Even in +distress they refused to recognize the outcast. Then, as Koskomenos +hovered on quivering wings just over my head, I tossed the captive close +up beside him. "There, Koskomenos, take your young chuckle-head, and +teach him better wisdom. Next time you see me stalking a bear, please go +on with your fishing." + +But there was no note of gratitude in the noisy babel that swept up the +bay after the kingfishers. When I saw them again, they were sitting on +a dead branch, five of them in a row, chuckling and clattering all at +once, unmindful of the minnows that played beneath them. I have no doubt +that, in their own way, they were telling each other all about it. + + + + +MEEKO THE MISCHIEF-MAKER + +There is a curious Indian legend about Meeko the red squirrel--the +Mischief-Maker, as the Milicetes call him--which is also an excellent +commentary upon his character. Simmo told it to me, one day, when we had +caught Meeko coming out of a woodpecker's hole with the last of a brood +of fledgelings in his mouth, chuckling to himself over his hunting. + +Long ago, in the days when Clote Scarpe ruled the animals, Meeko was +much larger than he is now, large as Mooween the bear. But his temper +was so fierce, and his disposition so altogether bad that all the wood +folk were threatened with destruction. Meeko killed right and left with +the temper of a weasel, who kills from pure lust of blood. So Clote +Scarpe, to save the little woods-people, made Meeko smaller--small as +he is now. Unfortunately, Clote Scarpe forgot Meeko's disposition; that +remained as big and as bad as before. So now Meeko goes about the woods +with a small body and a big temper, barking, scolding, quarreling and, +since he cannot destroy in his rage as before, setting other animals by +the ears to destroy each other. + +When you have listened to Meeko's scolding for a season, and have seen +him going from nest to nest after innocent fledgelings; or creeping +into the den of his big cousin, the beautiful gray squirrel, to kill +the young; or driving away his little cousin, the chipmunk, to steal his +hoarded nuts; or watching every fight that goes on in the woods, jeering +and chuckling above it,--then you begin to understand the Indian legend. + +Spite of his evil ways, however, he is interesting and always +unexpected. When you have watched the red squirrel that lives near your +camp all summer, and think you know all about him, he does the queerest +thing, good or bad, to upset all your theories and even the Indian +legends about him. + +I remember one that greeted me, the first living thing in the great +woods, as I ran my canoe ashore on a wilderness river. Meeko heard me +coming. His bark sounded loudly, in a big spruce, above the dip of the +paddles. As we turned shoreward, he ran down the tree in which he was, +and out on a fallen log to meet us. I grasped a branch of the old log +to steady the canoe and watched him curiously. He had never seen a +man before; he barked, jeered, scolded, jerked his tail, whistled, did +everything within his power to make me show my teeth and my disposition. + +Suddenly he grew excited--and when Meeko grows excited the woods are not +big enough to hold him. He came nearer and nearer to my canoe till +he leaped upon the gunwale and sat there chattering, as if he were +Adjidaumo come back again and I were Hiawatha. All the while he had +poured out a torrent of squirrel talk, but now his note changed; jeering +and scolding and curiosity went out of it; something else crept in. +I began to feel, somehow, that he was trying to make me understand +something, and found me very stupid about it. + +I began to talk quietly, calling him a rattle-head and a disturber +of the peace. At the first sound of my voice he listened with intense +curiosity, then leaped to the log, ran the length of it, jumped down and +began to dig furiously among the moss and dead leaves. Every moment or +two he would stop, and jump to the log to see if I were watching him. + +Presently he ran to my canoe, sprang upon the gunwale, jumped back +again, and ran along the log as before to where he had been digging. He +did it again, looking back at me and saying plainly: "Come here; come +and look." I stepped out of the canoe to the old log, whereupon Meeko +went off into a fit of terrible excitement.--I was bigger than he +expected; I had only two legs; kut-e-k'chuck, kut-e-k'chuck! whit, whit, +whit, kut-e-k'chuck! + +I stood where I was until he got over his excitement. Then he came +towards me, and led me along the log, with much chuckling and jabbering, +to the hole in the leaves where he had been digging. When I bent over +it he sprang to a spruce trunk, on a level with my head, fairly bursting +with excitement, but watching me with intensest interest. In the hole +I found a small lizard, one of the rare kind that lives under logs and +loves the dusk. He had been bitten through the back and disabled. He +could still use legs, tail and head feebly, but could not run away. +When I picked him up and held him in my hand, Meeko came closer with +loud-voiced curiosity, longing to leap to my hand and claim his own, but +held back by fear.--"What is it? He's mine; I found him. What is it?" he +barked, jumping about as if bewitched. Two curiosities, the lizard +and the man, were almost too much for him. I never saw a squirrel more +excited. He had evidently found the lizard by accident, bit him to keep +him still, and then, astonished by the rare find, hid him away where he +could dig him out and watch him at leisure. + +I put the lizard back into the hole and covered him with leaves; then +went to unloading my canoe. Meeko watched me closely. And the moment I +was gone he dug away the leaves, took his treasure out, watched it with +wide bright eyes, bit it once more to keep it still, and covered it up +again carefully. Then he came chuckling along to where I was putting up +my tent. + +In a week he owned the camp, coming and going at his own will, stealing +my provisions when I forgot to feed him, and scolding me roundly at +every irregular occurrence. He was an early riser and insisted on my +conforming to the custom. Every morning he would leap at daylight from +a fir tip to my ridgepole, run it along to the front and sit there, +barking and whistling, until I put my head out of my door, or until +Simmo came along with his axe. Of Simmo and his axe Meeko had a mortal +dread, which I could not understand till one day when I paddled silently +back to camp and, instead of coming up the path, sat idly in my canoe +watching the Indian, who had broken his one pipe and now sat making +another out of a chunk of black alder and a length of nanny bush. Simmo +was as interesting to watch, in his way, as any of the wood folk. + +Presently Meeko came down, chattering his curiosity at seeing the Indian +so still and so occupied. A red squirrel is always unhappy unless he +knows all about everything. He watched from the nearest tree for a +while, but could not make up his mind what was doing. Then he came down +on the ground and advanced a foot at a time, jumping up continually but +coming down in the same spot, barking to make Simmo turn his head and +show his hand. Simmo watched out of the corner of his eye until Meeko +was near a solitary tree which stood in the middle of the camp ground, +when he jumped up suddenly and rushed at the squirrel, who sprang to the +tree and ran to a branch out of reach, snickering and jeering. + +Simmo took his axe deliberately and swung it mightily at the foot of +the tree, as if to chop it down; only he hit the trunk with the head, +not the blade of his weapon. At the first blow, which made his toes +tingle, Meeko stopped jeering and ran higher. Simmo swung again and +Meeko went up another notch. So it went on, Simmo looking up intently +to see the effect and Meeko running higher after each blow, until the +tiptop was reached. Then Simmo gave a mighty whack; the squirrel leaped +far out and came to the ground, sixty feet below; picked himself up, +none the worse for his leap, and rushed scolding away to his nest. Then +Simmo said umpfh! like a bear, and went back to his pipemaking. He had +not smiled nor relaxed the intent expression of his face during the +whole little comedy. + +I found out afterwards that making Meeko jump from a tree top is one of +the few diversions of Indian children. I tried it myself many times +with many squirrels, and found to my astonishment that a jump from any +height, however great, is no concern to a squirrel, red or gray. They +have a way of flattening the body and bushy tail against the air, which +breaks their fall. Their bodies, and especially their bushy tails, have +a curious tremulous motion, like the quiver of wings, as they come down. +The flying squirrel's sailing down from a tree top to another tree, +fifty feet away, is but an exaggeration, due to the membrane connecting +the fore and hind legs, of what all squirrels practice continually. I +have seen a red squirrel land lightly after jumping from an enormous +height, and run away as if nothing unusual had happened. But though I +have watched them often, I have never seen a squirrel do this except +when compelled to do so. When chased by a weasel or a marten, or when +the axe beats against the trunk below--either because the vibration +hurts their feet, or else they fear the tree is being cut down--they +use the strange gift to save their lives. But I fancy it is a breathless +experience, and they never try it for fun, though I have seen them do +all sorts of risky stumps in leaping from branch to branch. + +It is a curious fact that, though a squirrel leaps from a great height +without hesitation, it is practically impossible to make him take a jump +of a few feet to the ground. Probably the upward rush of air, caused by +falling a long distance, is necessary to flatten the body enough to make +him land lightly. + + +It would be interesting to know whether the raccoon also, a large, +heavy animal, has the same way of breaking his fall when he jumps from a +height. One bright moonlight night, when I ran ahead of the dogs, I saw +a big coon leap from a tree to the ground, a distance of some thirty +or forty feet. The dogs had treed him in an evergreen, and he left them +howling below while he stole silently from branch to branch until a good +distance away, when to save time he leaped to the ground. He struck with +a heavy thump, but ran on uninjured as swiftly as before, and gave the +dogs a long run before they treed him again. + +The sole of a coon's foot is padded thick with fat and gristle, so that +it must feel like landing on springs when he jumps; but I suspect that +he also knows the squirrel trick of flattening his body and tail against +the air so as to fall lightly. + +The chipmunk seems to be the only one of the squirrel family in whom +this gift is wanting. Possibly he has it also, if the need ever comes. +I fancy, however, that he would fare badly if compelled to jump from a +spruce top, for his body is heavy and his tail small from long living +on the ground; all of which seems to indicate that the tree-squirrel's +bushy tail is given him, not for ornament, but to aid his passage +from branch to branch, and to break his fall when he comes down from a +height. + +By way of contrast with Meeko, you may try a curious trick on the +chipmunk. It is not easy to get him into a tree; he prefers a log or an +old wall when frightened; and he is seldom more than two or three jumps +from his den. But watch him as he goes from his garner to the grove +where the acorns are, or to the field where his winter corn is ripening. +Put yourself near his path (he always follows the same one to and fro) +where there is no refuge close at hand. Then, as he comes along, rush at +him suddenly and he will take to the nearest tree in his alarm. When +he recovers from his fright--which is soon over; for he is the most +trustful of squirrels and looks down at you with interest, never +questioning your motives--take a stick and begin to tap the tree softly. +The more slow and rhythmical your tattoo the sooner he is charmed. +Presently he comes down closer and closer, his eyes filled with strange +wonder. More than once I have had a chipmunk come to my hand and rest +upon it, looking everywhere for the queer sound that brought him +down, forgetting fright and cornfield and coming winter in his bright +curiosity. + +Meeko is a bird of another color. He never trusts you nor anybody else +fully, and his curiosity is generally of the vulgar, selfish kind. When +the autumn woods are busy places, and wings flutter and little feet go +pattering everywhere after winter supplies, he also begins garnering, +remembering the hungry days of last winter. But he is always more +curious to see what others are doing than to fill his own bins. He +seldom trusts to one storehouse--he is too suspicious for that--but +hides his things in twenty different places; some shagbarks in the old +wall, a handful of acorns in a hollow tree, an ear of corn under the +eaves of the old barn, a pint of chestnuts scattered about in the trees, +some in crevices in the bark, some in a pine crotch covered carefully +with needles, and one or two stuck firmly into the splinters of every +broken branch that is not too conspicuous. But he never gathers much +at a time. The moment he sees anybody else gathering he forgets his own +work and goes spying to see where others are hiding their store. The +little chipmunk, who knows his thieving and his devices, always makes +one turn, at least, in the tunnel to his den too small for Meeko to +follow. + +He sees a blue jay flitting through the woods, and knows by his unusual +silence that he is hiding things. Meeko follows after him, stopping all +his jabber and stealing from tree to tree, watching patiently, for hours +it need be, until he knows that Deedeeaskh is gathering corn from a +certain field. Then he watches the line of flight, like a bee hunter, +and sees Deedeeaskh disappear twice by an oak on the wood's edge, a +hundred yards away. Meeko rushes away at a headlong pace and hides +himself in the oak. There he traces the jay's line of flight a little +farther into the woods; sees the unconscious thief disappear by an old +pine. Meeko hides in the pine, and so traces the jay straight to one of +his storehouses. + +Sometimes Meeko is so elated over the discovery that, with all the +fields laden with food, he cannot wait for winter. When the jay goes +away Meeko falls to eating or to carrying away his store. More often he +marks the spot and goes away silently. When he is hungry he will carry +off Deedeeaskh's corn before touching his own. + +Once I saw the tables turned in a most interesting fashion. Deedeeaskh +is as big a thief in his way as is Meeko, and also as vile a +nest-robber. The red squirrel had found a hoard of chestnuts--small +fruit, but sweet and good--and was hiding it away. Part of it he stored +in a hollow under the stub of a broken branch, twenty feet from the +ground, so near the source of supply that no one would ever think of +looking for it there. I was hidden away in a thicket when I discovered +him at his work quite by accident. He seldom came twice to the same +spot, but went off to his other storehouses in succession. After an +unusually long absence, when I was expecting him every moment, a blue +jay came stealing into the tree, spying and sneaking about, as if a +nest of fresh thrush's eggs were somewhere near. He smelled a mouse +evidently, for after a moment's spying he hid himself away in the tree +top, close up against the trunk. Presently Meeko came back, with his +face bulging as if he had toothache, uncovered his store, emptied in +the half dozen chestnuts from his cheek pockets and covered them all up +again. + +The moment he was gone the blue jay went straight to the spot, seized a +mouthful of nuts and flew swiftly away. He made three trips before +the squirrel came back. Meeko in his hurry never noticed the loss, but +emptied his pockets and was off to the chestnut tree again. When he +returned, the jay in his eagerness had disturbed the leaves which +covered the hidden store. Meeko noticed it and was all suspicion in an +instant. He whipped off the covering and stood staring down intently +into the garner, evidently trying to compute the number he had brought +and the number that were there. Then a terrible scolding began, a +scolding that was broken short off when a distant screaming of jays came +floating through the woods. Meeko covered his store hurriedly, ran along +a limb and leaped to the next tree, where he hid in a knot hole, just +his eyes visible, watching his garner keenly out of the darkness. + +Meeko, has no patience. Three or four times he showed himself nervously. +Fortunately for me, the jay had found some excitement to keep his +rattle-brain busy for a moment. A flash of blue, and he came stealing +back, just as Meeko had settled himself for more watching. After much +pecking and listening the jay flew down to the storehouse, and Meeko, +unable to contain himself a moment longer at sight of the thief, jumped +out of his hiding and came rushing along the limb, hurling threats and +vituperation ahead of him. The jay fluttered off, screaming derision. +Meeko followed, hurling more abuse, but soon gave up the chase and +came back to his chestnuts. It was curious to watch him there, sitting +motionless and intent, his nose close down to his treasure, trying to +compute his loss. Then he stuffed his cheeks full and began carrying his +hoard off to another hiding place. + +The autumn woods are full of such little comedies. Jays, crows, and +squirrels are all hiding away winter's supplies, and no matter how great +the abundance, not one of them can resist the temptation to steal or to +break into another's garner. + +Meeko is a poor provider; he would much rather live on buds and bark +and apple seeds and fir cones, and what he can steal from others in the +winter, than bother himself with laying up supplies of his own. When the +spring comes he goes a-hunting, and is for a season the most villainous +of nest-robbers. Every bird in the woods then hates him, takes a jab at +him, and cries thief, thief! wherever he goes. + +On a trout brook once I had a curious sense of comradeship with Meeko. +It was in the early spring, when all the wild things make holiday, and +man goes a-fishing. Near the brook a red squirrel had tapped a maple +tree with his teeth and was tasting the sweet sap as it came up +scantily. Seeing him and remembering my own boyhood, I cut a little +hollow into the bark of a black birch tree and, when it brimmed full, +drank the sap with immense satisfaction. Meeko stopped his own drinking +to watch, then to scold and denounce me roundly. + +While my cup was filling again I went down to the brook and took a wary +old trout from his den under the end of a log, where the foam bubbles +were dancing merrily. When I went back, thirsting for another sweet +draught from the same spring, Meeko had emptied it to the last drop and +had his nose down in the bottom of my cup, catching the sap as it welled +up with an abundance that must have surprised him. When I went away +quietly he followed me through the wood to the pool at the edge of the +meadow, to see what I would do next. + +Wherever you go in the wilderness you find Meeko ahead of you, and all +the best camping grounds preempted by him. Even on the islands he seems +to own the prettiest spots, and disputes mightily your right to stay +there; though he is generally glad enough of your company to share his +loneliness, and shows it plainly. + +Once I found one living all by himself on an island in the middle of a +wilderness lake, with no company whatever except a family of mink, who +are his enemies. He had probably crossed on the ice in the late spring, +and while he was busy here and there with his explorations the ice broke +up, cutting off his retreat to the mainland, which was too far away for +his swimming. So he was a prisoner for the long summer, and welcomed me +gladly to share his exile. He was the only red squirrel I ever met that +never scolded me roundly at least once a day. His loneliness had made +him quite tame. Most of the time he lived within sight of my tent door. +Not even Simmo's axe, though it made him jump twice from the top of a +spruce, could keep him long away. He had twenty ways of getting up an +excitement, and whenever he barked out in the woods I knew that it was +simply to call me to see his discovery,--a new nest, a loon that swam up +close, a thieving muskrat, a hawk that rested on a dead stub, the mink +family eating my fish heads,--and when I stole out to see what it was, +he would run ahead, barking and chuckling at having some one to share +his interests with him. + +In such places squirrels use the ice for occasional journeys to the +mainland. Sometimes also, when the waters are calm, they swim over. +Hunters have told me that when the breeze is fair they make use of a +floating bit of wood, sitting tip straight with tail curled over +their backs, making a sail of their bodies--just as an Indian, with no +knowledge of sailing whatever, puts a spruce bush in a bow of his canoe +and lets the wind do his work for him. + +That would be the sight of a lifetime, to see Meeko sailing his boat; +but I have no doubt whatever that it is true. The only red squirrel +that I ever saw in the water fell in by accident. He swam rapidly to +a floating board, shook himself, sat up with his tail raised along his +back, and began to dry himself. After a little he saw that the +slight breeze was setting him farther from shore. He began to chatter +excitedly, and changed his position two or three times, evidently trying +to catch the wind right. Finding that it was of no use, he plunged in +again and swam easily to land. + +That he lives and thrives in the wilderness, spite of enemies and hunger +and winter cold, is a tribute to his wits. He never hibernates, except +in severe storms, when for a few days he lies close in his den. Hawks +and owls and weasels and martens hunt him continually; yet he more than +holds his own in the big woods, which would lose some of their charm if +their vast silences were not sometimes broken by his petty scoldings. + +As with most wild creatures, the squirrels that live in touch with +civilization are much keener witted than their wilderness brethren. +The most interesting one I ever knew lived in the trees just outside my +dormitory window, in a New England college town. He was the patriarch of +a large family, and the greatest thief and rascal among them. I speak +of the family, but, so far as I could see, there was very little family +life. Each one shifted for himself the moment he was big enough, and +stole from all the others indiscriminately. + +It was while watching these squirrels that I discovered first that they +have regular paths among the trees, as well defined as our own highways. +Not only has each squirrel his own private paths and ways, but all the +squirrels follow certain courses along the branches in going from one +tree to another. Even the strange squirrels, which ventured at times +into the grove, followed these highways as if they had been used to them +all their lives. + +On a recent visit to the old dormitory I watched the squirrels for a +while, and found that they used exactly the same paths,--up the trunk of +a big oak to a certain boss, along a branch to a certain crook, a jump +to a linden twig and so on, making use of one of the highways that I +had watched them following ten years before. Yet this course was not +the shortest between two points, and there were a hundred other branches +that they might have used. + +I had the good fortune one morning to see Meeko, the patriarch, make a +new path for himself that none of the others ever followed so long as +I was in the dormitory. He had a home den over a hallway, and a hiding +place for acorns in a hollow linden. Between the two was a driveway; but +though the branches arched over it from either side, the jump was too +great for him to take. A hundred times I saw him run out on the farthest +oak twig and look across longingly at the maple that swayed on the other +side. It was perhaps three feet away, with no branches beneath to seize +and break his fall in case he missed his spring, altogether too much for +a red squirrel to attempt. He would rush out as if determined to try it, +time after time, but always his courage failed him; he had to go down +the oak trunk and cross the driveway on the ground, where numberless +straying dogs were always ready to chase him. + +One morning I saw him run twice in succession at the jump, only to turn +back. But the air was keen and bracing, and he felt its inspiration. He +drew farther back, then came rushing along the oak branch and, before he +had time to be afraid, hurled himself across the chasm. He landed fairly +on the maple twig, with several inches to spare, and hung there with +claws and teeth, swaying up and down gloriously. Then, chattering his +delight at himself, he ran down the maple, back across the driveway, and +tried the jump three times in succession to be sure he could do it. + +After that he sprang across frequently. But I noticed that whenever the +branches were wet with rain or sleet he never attempted it; and he never +tried the return jump, which was uphill, and which he seemed to know by +instinct was too much to attempt. + +When I began feeding him, in the cold winter days, he showed me many +curious bits of his life. First I put some nuts near the top of an old +well, among the stones of which he used to hide things in the autumn. +Long after he had eaten all his store he used to come and search the +crannies among the stones to see if perchance he had overlooked any +trifles. When he found a handful of shagbarks, one morning, in a hole +only a foot below the surface, his astonishment knew no bounds. His +first thought was that he had forgotten them all these hungry days, and +he promptly ate the biggest of the store within sight, a thing I never +saw a squirrel do before. His second thought--I could see it in his +changed attitude, his sudden creepings and hidings--was that some +other squirrel had hidden them there since his last visit. Whereupon he +carried them all off and hid them in a broken linden branch. + +Then I tossed him peanuts, throwing them first far away, then nearer and +nearer till he would come to my window-sill. And when I woke one morning +he was sitting there looking in at the window, waiting for me to get up +and bring his breakfast. + +In a week he had showed me all his hiding places. The most interesting +of these was over a roofed piazza in a building near by. He had gnawed a +hole under the eaves, where it would not be noticed, and lived there in +solitary grandeur during stormy days in a den four by eight feet, and +rain-proof. In one corner was a bushel of corncobs, some of them two +or three years old, which he had stolen from a cornfield near by in the +early autumn mornings. With characteristic improvidence he had fallen +to eating the corn while yet there was plenty more to be gathered. In +consequence he was hungry before February was half over, and living by +his wits, like his brother of the wilderness. + +The other squirrels soon noticed his journeys to my window, and +presently they too came for their share. Spite of his fury in driving +them away, they managed in twenty ways to circumvent him. It was most +interesting, while he sat on my window-sill eating peanuts, to see the +nose and eyes of another squirrel peering over the crotch of the nearest +tree, watching the proceedings from his hiding place. Then I would give +Meeko five or six peanuts at once. Instantly the old hiding instinct +would come back; he would start away, taking as much of his store as +he could carry with him. The moment he was gone, out would come a +squirrel--sometimes two or three from their concealment--and carry off +all the peanuts that remained. + +Meeko's wrath when he returned was most comical. The Indian legend +is true as gospel to squirrel nature. If he returned unexpectedly and +caught one of the intruders, there was always a furious chase and a +deal of scolding and squirrel jabber before peace was restored and the +peanuts eaten. + +Once, when he had hidden a dozen or more nuts in the broken linden +branch, a very small squirrel came prowling along and discovered +the store. In an instant he was all alertness, peeking, listening, +exploring, till quite sure that the coast was clear, when he rushed away +headlong with a mouthful. + +He did not return that day; but the next morning early I saw him do the +same thing. An hour later Meeko appeared and, finding nothing on the +window-sill, went to the linden. Half his store of yesterday was gone. +Curiously enough, he did not suspect at first that they were stolen. +Meeko is always quite sure that nobody knows his secrets. He searched +the tree over, went to his other hiding places, came back, counted his +peanuts, then searched the ground beneath, thinking, no doubt, the wind +must have blown them out--all this before he had tasted a peanut of +those that remained. + +Slowly it dawned upon him that he had been robbed and there was an +outburst of wrath. But instead of carrying what were left to another +place, he left them where they were, still without eating, and hid +himself near by to watch. I neglected a lecture in philosophy to see the +proceedings, but nothing happened. Meeko's patience soon gave out, or +else he grew hungry, for he ate two or three of his scanty supply of +peanuts, scolding and threatening to himself. But he left the rest +carefully where they were. + +Two or three times that day I saw him sneaking about, keeping a sharp +eye on the linden; but the little thief was watching too, and kept out +of the way. + +Early next morning a great hubbub rose outside my window, and I jumped +up to see what was going on. Little Thief had come back, and Big Thief +caught him in the act of robbery. Away they went pell-mell, jabbering +like a flock of blackbirds, along a linden branch, through two maples, +across a driveway, and up a big elm where Little Thief whisked out of +sight into a knot hole. + +After him came Big Thief, swearing vengeance. But the knot hole was too +small; he couldn't get in. Twist and turn and push and threaten as he +would, he could not get in; and Little Thief sat just inside jeering +maliciously. + +Meeko gave it up after a while and went off, nursing his wrath. But ten +feet from the tree a thought struck him. He rushed away out of sight, +making a great noise, then came back quietly and hid under an eave where +he could watch the knot hole. + +Presently Little Thief came out, rubbed his eyes, and looked all about. +Through my glass I could see Meeko blinking and twitching under the dark +eave, trying to control his anger. Little Thief ventured to a branch a +few feet away from his refuge, and Big Thief, unable to hold himself a +moment longer, rushed out, firing a volley of direful threats ahead of +him. In a flash Little Thief was back in his knot hole and the comedy +began all over again. + +I never saw how it ended; but for a day or two there was an unusual +amount of chasing and scolding going on outside my windows. + +It was this same big squirrel that first showed me a curious trick +of biding. Whenever he found a handful of nuts on my windowsill and +suspected that other squirrels were watching to share the bounty, he had +a way of hiding them all very rapidly. He would never carry them direct +to his various garners; first, because these were too far away, and the +other squirrels would steal while he was gone; second, because, with +hungry eyes watching somewhere, they might follow and find out where he +habitually kept things. So he used to bide them all on the ground, under +the leaves in autumn, under snow in winter, and all within sight of the +window-sill, where he could watch the store as he hurried to and fro. +Then, at his leisure, he would dig them up and carry them off to his +den, two cheekfuls at a time. + +Each nut was hidden by itself; never so much as two in one spot. For +a long time it puzzled me to know how he remembered so many places. I +noticed first that he would always start from a certain point, a tree or +a stone, with his burden. When it was hidden he would come back by the +shortest route to the windowsill; but with his new mouthful he would +always go first to the tree or stone he had selected, and from there +search out a new hiding place. + +It was many days before I noticed that, starting from one fixed point, +he generally worked toward another tree or stone in the distance. Then +his secret was out; he hid things in a line. Next day he would come +back, start from his fixed point and move slowly towards the distant one +till his nose told him he was over a peanut, which he dug up and ate or +carried away to his den. But he always seemed to distrust himself; for +on hungry days he would go over two or three of his old lines in the +hope of finding a mouthful that he had overlooked. + +This method was used only when he had a large supply to dispose of +hurriedly, and not always then. Meeko is a careless fellow and +soon forgets. When I gave him only a few to dispose of, he hid them +helter-skelter among the leaves, forgetting some of them afterwards +and enjoying the rare delight of stumbling upon them when he was +hungriest--much like a child whom I saw once giving himself a sensation. +He would throw his penny on the ground, go round the house, and saunter +back with his hands in his pockets till he saw the penny, which he +pounced upon with almost the joy of treasure-trove in the highway. + +Meeko made a sad end--a fate which he deserved well enough, but which I +had to pity, spite of myself. When the spring came on, he went back to +evil ways. Sap was sweet and buds were luscious with the first swelling +of tender leaves; spring rains had washed out plenty of acorns in the +crannies under the big oak, and there were fresh-roasted peanuts still +at the corner window-sill within easy jump of a linden twig; but he took +to watching the robins to see where they nested, and when the young were +hatched he came no more to my window. Twice I saw him with fledgelings +in his mouth; and I drove him day after day from a late clutch of +robin's eggs that I could watch from my study. + +He had warnings enough. Once some students, who had been friendly all +winter, stoned him out of a tree where he was nestrobbing; once the +sparrows caught him in their nest under the high eaves, and knocked +him off promptly. A twig upon which he caught in falling saved his life +undoubtedly, for the sparrows were after him and he barely escaped into +a knot hole, leaving the angry horde clamoring outside. But nothing +could reform him. + +One morning at daylight a great crying of robins brought me to the +window. Meeko was running along a limb, the first of the fledgelings in +his mouth. After him were five or six robins whom the parents' danger +cry had brought to the rescue. They were all excited and tremendously in +earnest. They cried thief! thief! and swooped at him like hawks. Their +cries speedily brought a score of other birds, some to watch, others to +join in the punishment. + +Meeko dropped the young bird and ran for his den; but a robin dashed +recklessly in his face and knocked him fair from the tree. That and the +fall of the fledgeling excited the birds more than ever. This thieving +bird-eater was not invulnerable. A dozen rushed at him on the ground +and left the marks of their beaks on his coat before he could reach the +nearest tree. + +Again he rushed for his den, but wherever he turned now angry wings +fluttered over him and beaks jabbed in his face. Raging but frightened, +he sat up to snarl wickedly. Like a flash a robin hurled himself down, +caught the squirrel just under his ear and knocked him again to the +ground. + +Things began to look dark for Meeko. The birds grew bolder and angrier +every minute. When he started to climb a tree he was hurled off twice +ere he reached a crotch and drew himself down into it. He was safe there +with his back against a big limb; they could not get at him from behind. +But the angry clamor in front frightened him, and again he started for +his place of refuge. His footing was unsteady now and his head dizzy +from the blows he had received. Before he had gone half a limb's length +he was again on the ground, with a dozen birds pecking at him as they +swooped over. + +With his last strength he snapped viciously at his foes and rushed to +the linden. My window was open, and he came creeping, hurrying towards +it on the branch over which he had often capered so lightly in the +winter days. Over him clamored the birds, forgetting all fear of me in +their hatred of the nestrobber. + +A dozen times he was struck on the way, but at every blow he clung to +the branch with claws and teeth, then staggered on doggedly, making no +defense. His whole thought now was to reach the window-sill. + +At the place where he always jumped he stopped and began to sway, +gripping the bark with his claws, trying to summon strength for the +effort. He knew it was too much, but it was his last hope. At the +instant of his spring a robin swooped in his face; another caught him +a side blow in mid-air, and he fell heavily to the stones below.--Sic +semper tyrannis! yelled the robins, scattering wildly as I ran down the +steps to save him, if it were not too late. + +He died in my hands a moment later, with curious maliciousness nipping +my finger sharply at the last gasp. He was the only squirrel of the lot +who knew how to hide in a line; and never a one since his day has taken +the jump from oak to maple over the driveway. + + + + +THE OL' BEECH PA'TRIDGE + +Of all the wild birds that still haunt our remaining solitudes, the +ruffed grouse--the pa'tridge of our younger days--is perhaps the +wildest, the most alert, the most suggestive of the primeval wilderness +that we have lost. You enter the woods from the hillside pasture, +lounging a moment on the old gray fence to note the play of light and +shadow on the birch bolls. Your eye lingers restfully on the wonderful +mixture of soft colors that no brush has ever yet imitated, the rich old +gold of autumn tapestries, the glimmering gray-green of the mouldering +stump that the fungi have painted. What a giant that tree must have +been, generations ago, in its days of strength; how puny the birches +that now grow out of its roots! You remember the great canoe birches by +the wilderness river, whiter than the little tent that nestled beneath +them, their wide bark banners waving in the wind, soft as the flutter of +owls' wings that swept among them, shadow-like, in the twilight. A vague +regret steals over you that our own wilderness is gone, and with it most +of the shy folk that loved its solitudes. + +Suddenly there is a rustle in the leaves. Something stirs by the old +stump. A moment ago you thought it was only a brown root; now it runs, +hides, draws itself erect--Kwit, kwit, kwit! and with a whirring rush of +wings and a whirling eddy of dead leaves a grouse bursts up, and +darts away like a blunt arrow, flint-tipped, gray-feathered, among the +startled birch stems. As you follow softly to rout him out again, and to +thrill and be startled by his unexpected rush, something of the +Indian has come unbidden into your cautious tread. All regret for the +wilderness is vanished; you are simply glad that so much wildness still +remains to speak eloquently of the good old days. + +It is this element of unconquerable wildness in the grouse, coupled with +a host of early, half-fearful impressions, that always sets my heart to +beating, as to an old tune, whenever a partridge bursts away at my feet. +I remember well a little child that used to steal away into the still +woods, which drew him by an irresistible attraction while as yet their +dim arches and quiet paths were full of mysteries and haunting terrors. +Step by step the child would advance into the shadows, cautious as a +wood mouse, timid as a rabbit. Suddenly a swift rustle and a thunderous +rush of something from the ground that first set the child's heart to +beating wildly, and then reached his heels in a fearful impulse which +sent him rushing out of the woods, tumbling headlong over the old gray +wall, and scampering halfway across the pasture before he dared halt +from the terror behind. And then, at last, another impulse which always +sent the child stealing back into the woods again, shy, alert, tense as +a watching fox, to find out what the fearful thing was that could make +such a commotion in the quiet woods. + +And when he found out at last--ah, that was a discovery beside which +the panther's kittens are as nothing as I think of them. One day in the +woods, near the spot where the awful thunder used to burst away, the +child heard a cluck and a kwitkwit, and saw a beautiful bird dodging, +gliding, halting, hiding in the underbrush, watching the child's every +motion. And when he ran forward to put his cap over the bird, it burst +away, and then--whirr! whirr! whirr! a whole covey of grouse roared up +all about him. The terror of it weakened his legs so that he fell down +in the eddying leaves and covered his ears. But this time he knew what +it was at last, and in a moment he was up and running, not away, but +fast as his little legs could carry him after the last bird that he saw +hurtling away among the trees, with a birch branch that he had touched +with his wings nodding good-by behind him. + +There is another association with this same bird that always gives an +added thrill to the rush of his wings through the startled woods. It was +in the old school by the cross-roads, one sleepy September afternoon. A +class in spelling, big boys and little girls, toed a crack in front of +the waster's desk. The rest of the school droned away on appointed tasks +in the drowsy interlude. The fat boy slept openly on his arms; even the +mischief-maker was quiet, thinking dreamily of summer days that were +gone. Suddenly there was a terrific crash, a clattering tinkle of broken +glass, a howl from a boy near the window. Twenty knees banged the desks +beneath as twenty boys jumped. Then, before any of us had found his +wits, Jimmy Jenkins, a red-headed boy whom no calamity could throw off +his balance and from whom no opportunity ever got away free, had jumped +over two forms and was down on the floor in the girls' aisle, gripping +something between his knees-- + +"I've got him," he announced, with the air of a general. + +"Got what?" thundered the master. + +"Got a pa'tridge; he's an old buster," said Jimmy. And he straightened +up, holding by the legs a fine cock partridge whose stiffening wings +still beat his sides spasmodically. He had been scared-up in the +neighboring woods, frightened by some hunter out of his native coverts. +When he reached the unknown open places he was more frightened still +and, as a frightened grouse always flies straight, he had driven like a +bolt through the schoolhouse window, killing himself by the impact. + +Rule-of-three and cube root and the unmapped wilderness of partial +payments have left but scant impression on one of those pupils, at +least; but a bird that could wake up a drowsy schoolroom and bring out +a living lesson, full of life and interest and the subtile call of the +woods, from a drowsy teacher who studied law by night, but never his +boys by day,--that was a bird to be respected. I have studied him with +keener interest ever since. + +Yet however much you study the grouse, you learn little except how wild +he is. Occasionally, when you are still in the woods and a grouse walks +up to your hiding place, you get a fair glimpse and an idea or two; but +he soon discovers you, and draws himself up straight as a string and +watches you for five minutes without stirring or even winking. Then, +outdone at his own game, he glides away. A rustle of little feet on +leaves, a faint kwit-kwit with a question in it, and he is gone. Nor +will he come back, like the fox, to watch from the other side and find +out what you are. + +Civilization, in its first advances, is good to the grouse, providing +him with an abundance of food and driving away his enemies. Grouse are +always more numerous about settlements than in the wilderness. Unlike +other birds, however, he grows wilder and wilder by nearness to men's +dwellings. I suppose that is because the presence of man is so often +accompanied by the rush of a dog and the report of a gun, and perhaps by +the rip and sting of shot in his feathers as he darts away. Once, in the +wilderness, when very hungry, I caught two partridges by slipping over +their heads a string noose at the end of a pole. Here one might as well +try to catch a bat in the twilight as to hope to snare one of our upland +partridges by any such invention, or even to get near enough to meditate +the attempt. + +But there was one grouse--and he the very wildest of all that I have +ever met in the woods--who showed me unwittingly many bits of his life, +and with whom I grew to be very well acquainted after a few seasons' +watching. All the hunters of the village knew him well; and a half-dozen +boys, who owned guns and were eager to join the hunters' ranks, had a +shooting acquaintance with him. He was known far and wide as "the ol' +beech pa'tridge." That he was old no one could deny who knew his ways +and his devices; and he was frequently scared-up in a beech wood by a +brook, a couple of miles out of the village. + +Spite of much learned discussion as to different varieties of grouse, +due to marked variations in coloring, I think personally that we have +but one variety, and that differences in color are due largely to the +different surroundings in which they live. Of all birds the grouse is +most invisible when quiet, his coloring blends so perfectly with the +roots and leaves and tree stems among which he hides. This wonderful +invisibility is increased by the fact that he changes color easily. He +is darker in summer, lighter in winter, like the rabbit. When he lives +in dark woods he becomes a glossy red-brown; and when his haunt is among +the birches he is often a decided gray. + +This was certainly true of the old beech partridge. When he spread +his tail wide and darted away among the beeches, his color blended so +perfectly with the gray tree trunks that only a keen eye could separate +him. And he knew every art of the dodger perfectly. When he rose there +was scarcely a second of time before he had put a big tree between you +and him, so as to cover his line of flight. I don't know how many times +he had been shot at on the wing. Every hunter I knew had tried it many +times; and every boy who roamed the woods in autumn had sought to pot +him on the ground. But he never lost a feather; and he would never +stand to a dog long enough for the most cunning of our craft to take his +position. + +When a brood of young partridges hear a dog running in the woods, they +generally flit to the lower branches of a tree and kwit-kwit at him +curiously. They have not yet learned the difference between him and the +fox, who is the ancient enemy of their kind, and whom their ancestors of +the wilderness escaped and tantalized in the same way. But when it is an +old bird that your setter is trailing, his actions are a curious mixture +of cunning and fascination. As old Don draws to a point, the grouse +pulls himself up rigidly by a stump and watches the dog. So both stand +like statues; the dog held by the strange instinct which makes him +point, lost to sight, sound and all things else save the smell in his +nose, the grouse tense as a fiddlestring, every sense alert, watching +the enemy whom he thinks to be fooled by his good hiding. For a few +moments they are motionless; then the grouse skulks and glides to a +better cover. As the strong scent fades from Don's nose, he breaks +his point and follows. The grouse hears him and again hides by drawing +himself up against a stump, where he is invisible; again Don stiffens +into his point, one foot lifted, nose and tail in a straight line, as if +he were frozen and could not move. + +So it goes on, now gliding through the coverts, now still as a stone, +till the grouse discovers that so long as he is still the dog seems +paralyzed, unable to move or feel. Then he draws himself up, braced +against a root or a tree boll; and there they stand, within twenty feet +of each other, never stirring, never winking, till the dog falls from +exhaustion at the strain, or breaks it by leaping forward, or till the +hunter's step on the leaves fills the grouse with a new terror that +sends him rushing away through the October woods to deeper solitudes. + +Once, at noon, I saw Old Ben, a famous dog, draw to a perfect point. +Just ahead, in a tangle of brown brakes, I could see the head and neck +of a grouse watching the dog keenly. Old Ben's master, to test the +splendid training of his dog, proposed lunch on the spot. We withdrew a +little space and ate deliberately, watching the bird and the dog with an +interest that grew keener and keener as the meal progressed, while Old +Ben stood like a rock, and the grouse's eye shone steadily out of the +tangle of brakes. Nor did either move so much as an eyelid while we ate, +and Ben's master smoked his pipe with quiet confidence. At last, after +a full hour, he whacked his pipe on his boot heel and rose to reach for +his gun. That meant death for the grouse; but I owed him too much of +keen enjoyment to see him cut down in swift flight. In the moment that +the master's back was turned I hurled a knot at the tangle of brakes. +The grouse burst away, and Old Ben, shaken out of his trance by the +whirr of wings, dropped obediently to the charge and turned his head to +say reproachfully with his eyes: "What in the world is the matter with +you back there--didn't I hold him long enough?" + +The noble old fellow was trembling like a leaf after the long strain +when I went up to him to pat his head and praise his steadiness, and +share with him the better half of my lunch. But to this day Ben's master +does not know what started the grouse so suddenly; and as he tells you +about the incident will still say regretfully: "I ought to a-started +jest a minute sooner, 'fore he got tired. Then I'd a had 'im." + +The old beech partridge, however, was a bird of a different mind. No dog +ever stood him for more than a second; he had learned too well what the +thing meant. The moment he heard the patter of a dog's feet on leaves +he would run rapidly, and skulk and hide and run again, keeping dog and +hunter on the move till he found the cover he wanted,--thick trees, or +a tangle of wild grapevines,--when he would burst out on, the farther +side. And no eye, however keen, could catch more than a glimpse of a +gray tail before he was gone. Other grouse make short straight flights, +and can be followed and found again; but he always drove away on strong +wings for an incredible distance, and swerved far to right or left; so +that it was a waste of time to follow him up. Before you found him he +had rested his wings and was ready for another flight; and when you did +find him he would shoot away like an arrow out of the top of a pine tree +and give you never a glimpse of himself. + +He lived most of the time on a ridge behind the 'Fales place,' an +abandoned farm on the east of the old post road. This was his middle +range, a place of dense coverts, bullbrier thickets and sunny open spots +among the ledges, where you might, with good-luck, find him on special +days at any season. But he had all the migratory instincts of a +Newfoundland caribou. In winter he moved south, with twenty other +grouse, to the foot of the ridge, which dropped away into a succession +of knolls and ravines and sunny, well-protected little valleys, where +food was plenty. Here, fifty years ago, was the farm pasture; but now it +had grown up everywhere with thickets and berry patches, and wild apple +trees of the birds' planting. All the birds loved it in their season; +quail nested on its edges; and you could kick a brown rabbit out of +almost any of its decaying brush piles or hollow moss-grown logs. + +In the spring he crossed the ridge northward again, moving into the +still dark woods, where he had two or three wives with as many broods of +young partridges; all of whom, by the way, he regarded with astonishing +indifference. + +Across the whole range--stealing silently out of the big woods, brawling +along the foot of the ridge and singing through the old pasture--ran +a brook that the old beech partridge seemed to love. A hundred times +I started him from its banks. You had only to follow it any November +morning before eight o'clock, and you would be sure to find him. But why +he haunted it at this particular time and season I never found out. + +I used to wonder sometimes why I never saw him drink. Other birds had +their regular drinking places and bathing pools there, and I frequently +watched them from my hiding; but though I saw him many times, after I +learned his haunts, he never touched the water. + +One early summer morning a possible explanation suggested itself. I was +sitting quietly by the brook, on the edge of the big woods, waiting for +a pool to grow quiet, out of which I had just taken a trout and in which +I suspected there was a larger one hiding. As I waited a mother-grouse +and her brood--one of the old beech partridge's numerous families for +whom he provided nothing--came gliding along the edge of the woods. They +had come to drink, evidently, but not from the brook. A sweeter draught +than that was waiting for their coming. The dew was still clinging to +the grass blades; here and there a drop hung from a leaf point, flashing +like a diamond in the early light. And the little partridges, cheeping, +gliding, whistling among the drooping stems, would raise their little +bills for each shining dewdrop that attracted them, and drink it down +and run with glad little pipings and gurglings to the next drop that +flashed an invitation from its bending grass blade. The old mother +walked sedately in the midst of them, now fussing over a laggard, now +clucking them all together in an eager, chirping, jumping little crowd, +each one struggling to be first in at the death of a fat slug she had +discovered on the underside of a leaf; and anon reaching herself for a +dewdrop that hung too high for their drinking. So they passed by within +a few yards, a shy, wild, happy little family, and disappeared into the +shadow of the big woods. + +Perhaps that is why I never saw the old beech partridge drink from the +brook. Nature has a fresher draught, of her own distilling, that is more +to his tasting. + +Earlier in the season I found another of his families near the same +spot. I was stealing along a wood road when I ran plump upon them, +scratching away at an ant hill in a sunny open spot. There was a wild +flurry, as if a whirlwind had struck the ant hill; but it was only the +wind of the mother bird's wings, whirling up the dust to blind my eyes +and to hide the scampering retreat of her downy brood. Again her wings +beat the ground, sending up a flurry of dead leaves, in the midst of +which the little partridges jumped and scurried away, so much like the +leaves that no eye could separate them. Then the leaves settled slowly +and the brood was gone, as if the ground had swallowed them up; while +Mother Grouse went fluttering along just out of my reach, trailing a +wing as if broken, falling prone on the ground, clucking and kwitting +and whirling the leaves to draw my attention and bring me away from +where the little ones were hiding. + +I knelt down just within the edge of woods, whither I had seen the last +laggard of the brood vanish like a brown streak, and began to look for +them carefully. After a time I found one. He was crouched flat on a +dead oak leaf, just under my nose, his color hiding him wonderfully. +Something glistened in a tangle of dark roots. It was an eye, and +presently I could make out a little head there. That was all I could +find of the family, though a dozen more were close beside me, under the +leaves mostly. As I backed away I put my hand on another before seeing +him, and barely saved myself from hurting the little sly-boots, who +never stirred a muscle, not even when I took away the leaf that covered +him and put it back again softly. + +Across the pathway was a thick scrub oak, under which I sat down to +watch. Ten long minutes passed, with nothing stirring, before Mother +Grouse came stealing back. She clucked once--"Careful!" it seemed to +say; and not a leaf stirred. She clucked again--did the ground open? +There they were, a dozen or more of them, springing up from nowhere and +scurrying with a thousand cheepings to tell her all about it. So she +gathered them all close about her, and they vanished into the friendly +shadows. + +It was curious how jealously the old beech partridge watched over the +solitudes where these interesting little families roamed. Though he +seemed to care nothing about them, and was never seen near one of his +families, he suffered no other cock partridge to come into his woods, +or even to drum within hearing. In the winter he shared the southern +pasture peaceably with twenty other grouse; and on certain days you +might, by much creeping, surprise a whole company of them on a sunny +southern slope, strutting and gliding, in and out and round about, with +spread tails and drooping wings, going through all the movements of a +grouse minuet. Once, in Indian summer, I crept up to twelve or fifteen +of the splendid birds, who were going through their curious performance +in a little opening among the berry bushes; and in the midst of +them-more vain, more resplendent, strutting more proudly and clucking +more arrogantly than any other--was the old beech partridge. + +But when the spring came, and the long rolling drum-calls began to throb +through the budding woods, he retired to his middle range on the ridge, +and marched from one end to the other, driving every other cock grouse +out of hearing, and drubbing him soundly if he dared resist. Then, after +a triumph, you would hear his loud drum-call rolling through the May +splendor, calling as many wives as possible to share his rich living. + +He had two drumming logs on this range, as I soon discovered; and once, +while he was drumming on one log, I hid near the other and imitated +his call fairly well by beating my hands on a blown bladder that I +had buttoned under my jacket. The roll of a grouse drum is a curiously +muffled sound; it is often hard to determine the spot or even the +direction whence it comes; and it always sounds much farther away than +it really is. This may have deceived the old beech partridge at first +into thinking that he heard some other bird far away, on a ridge across +the valley where he had no concern; for presently he drummed again on +his own log. I answered it promptly, rolling back a defiance, and also +telling any hen grouse on the range that here was another candidate +willing to strut and spread his tail and lift the resplendent ruff about +his neck to win his way into her good graces, if she would but come to +his drumming log and see him. + +Some suspicion that a rival had come to his range must have entered +the old beech partridge's head, for there was a long silence in which +I could fancy him standing up straight and stiff on his drumming log, +listening intently to locate the daring intruder, and holding down his +bubbling wrath with difficulty. + +Without waiting for him to drum again, I beat out a challenge. The roll +had barely ceased when he came darting up the ridge, glancing like a +bolt among the thick branches, and plunged down by his own log, where +he drew himself up with marvelous suddenness to listen and watch for the +intruder. + +He seemed relieved that the log was not occupied, but he was still +full of wrath and suspicion. He glided and dodged all about the place, +looking and listening; then he sprang to his log and, without waiting to +strut and spread his gorgeous feathers as usual, he rolled out the long +call, drawing himself up straight the instant it was done, turning +his head from side to side to catch the first beat of his rival's +answer--"Come out, if you dare; drum, if you dare. Oh, you coward!" +And he hopped, five or six high, excited hops, like a rooster before +a storm, to the other end of the log, and again his quick throbbing +drumcall rolled through the woods. + +Though I was near enough to see him clearly without, my field glasses, +I could not even then, nor at any other time when I have watched grouse +drumming, determine just how the call is given. After a little while +the excitement of a suspected rival's presence wore away, and he grew +exultant, thinking that he had driven the rascal out of his woods. He +strutted back and forth on the log, trailing his wings, spreading wide +his beautiful tail, lifting his crest and his resplendent ruff. Suddenly +he would draw himself up; there would be a flash of his wings up and +down that no eye could follow, and I would hear a single throb of his +drum. Another flash and another throb; then faster and faster, till +he seemed to have two or three pairs of wings, whirring and running +together like the spokes of a swift-moving wheel, and the drumbeats +rolled together into a long call and died away in the woods. + +Generally he stood up on his toes, as a rooster does when he flaps his +wings before crowing; rarely he crouched down close to the log; but I +doubt if he beat the wood with his wings, as is often claimed. Yet the +two logs were different; one was dry and hard, the other mouldy and +moss-grown; and the drumcalls were as different as the two logs. After a +time I could tell by the sound which log he was using at the first beat +of his wings; but that, I think, was a matter of resonance, a kind of +sounding-board effect, and not because the two sounded differently as +he beat them. The call is undoubtedly made either by striking the wings +together over his back or, as I am inclined to believe, by striking them +on the down beat against his own sides. + +Once I heard a wounded bird give three or four beats of his drum-call, +and when I went into the grapevine thicket, where he had fallen, I found +him lying flat on his back, beating his sides with his wings. + +Whenever he drums he first struts, because he knows not how many pairs +of bright eyes are watching him shyly out of the coverts. Once, when I +had watched him strut and drum a few times, the leaves rustled, and two +hen grouse emerged from opposite sides into the little opening where his +log was. Then he strutted with greater vanity than before, while the two +hen grouse went gliding about the place, searching for seeds apparently, +but in reality watching his every movement out of their eye corners, and +admiring him to his heart's content. + +In winter I used to follow his trail through the snow to find what he +had been doing, and what he had found to eat in nature's scarce time. +His worst enemies, the man and his dog, were no longer to be feared, +being restrained by law, and he roamed the woods with greater freedom +than ever. He seemed to know that he was safe at this time, and more +than once I trailed him up to his hiding and saw him whirr away through +the open woods, sending down a shower of snow behind him, as if in that +curious way to hide his line of flight from my eyes. + +There were other enemies, however, whom no law restrained, save the +universal wood-laws of fear and hunger. Often I found the trail of a fox +crossing his in the snow; and once I followed a double trail, fox over +grouse, for nearly half a mile. The fox had struck the trail late the +previous afternoon, and followed it to a bullbrier thicket, in the midst +of which was a great cedar in which the old beech partridge roosted. +The fox went twice around the tree, halting and looking up, then went +straight away to the swamp, as if he knew it was of no use to watch +longer. + +Rarely, when the snow was deep, I found the place where he, or some +other grouse, went to sleep on the ground. He would plunge down from +a tree into the soft snow, driving into it headfirst for three or four +feet, then turn around and settle down in his white warm chamber for the +night. I would find the small hole where he plunged in at evening, and +near it the great hole where he burst out when the light waked him. +Taking my direction from his wing prints in the snow, I would follow to +find where he lit, and then trace him on his morning wanderings. + +One would think that this might be a dangerous proceeding, sleeping +on the ground with no protection but the snow, and a score of hungry +enemies prowling about the woods; but the grouse knows well that when +the storms are out his enemies stay close at home, not being able to +see or smell, and therefore afraid each one of his own enemies. There is +always a truce in the woods during a snowstorm; and that is the reason +why a grouse goes to sleep in the snow only while the flakes are still +falling. When the storm is over and the snow has settled a bit, the fox +will be abroad again; and then the grouse sleeps in the evergreens. + +Once, however, the old beech partridge miscalculated. The storm ceased +early in the evening, and hunger drove the fox out on a night when, +ordinarily, he would have stayed under cover. Sometime about daybreak, +before yet the light had penetrated to where the old beech partridge was +sleeping, the fox found a hole in the snow, which told him that just in +front of his hungry nose a grouse was hidden, all unconscious of danger. +I found the spot, trailing the fox, a few hours later. How cautious he +was! The sly trail was eloquent with hunger and anticipation. A few feet +away from the promising hole he had stopped, looking keenly over the +snow to find some suspicious roundness on the smooth surface. Ah! there +it was, just by the edge of a juniper thicket. He crouched down, stole +forward, pushing a deep trail with his body, settled himself firmly and +sprang. And there, just beside the hole his paws had made in the snow, +was another hole where the grouse had burst out, scattering snow all +over his enemy, who had miscalculated by a foot, and thundered away to +the safety and shelter of the pines. + +There was another enemy, who ought to have known better, following the +old beech partridge all one early spring when snow was deep and food +scarce. One day, in crossing the partridge's southern range, I met +a small boy,--a keen little fellow, with the instincts of a fox for +hunting. He had always something interesting afoot,--minks, or muskrats, +or a skunk, or a big owl,--so I hailed him with joy. + +"Hello, Johnnie! what you after to-day--bears?" + +But he only shook his head--a bit sheepishly, I thought--and talked of +all things except the one that he was thinking about; and presently he +vanished down the old road. One of his jacket pockets bulged more than +the other, and I knew there was a trap in it. + +Late that afternoon I crossed his trail and, having nothing more +interesting to do, followed it. It led straight to the bullbrier thicket +where the old beech partridge roosted. I had searched for it many +times in vain before the fox led me to it; but Johnnie, in some of his +prowlings, had found tracks and a feather or two under a cedar branch, +and knew just what it meant. His trap was there, in the very spot where, +the night before, the old beech partridge had stood when he jumped for +the lowest limb. Corn was scattered liberally about, and a bluejay that +had followed Johnnie was already fast in the trap, caught at the base of +his bill just under the eyes. He had sprung the trap in pecking at some +corn that was fastened cunningly to the pan by fine wire. + +When I took the jay carefully from the trap he played possum, lying limp +in my hand till my grip relaxed, when he flew to a branch over my +head, squalling and upbraiding me for having anything to do with such +abominable inventions. + +I hung the trap to a low limb of the cedar, with a note in its +jaws telling Johnnie to come and see me next day. He came at dusk, +shamefaced, and I read him a lecture on fair play and the difference +between a thieving mink and an honest partridge. But he chuckled over +the bluejay, and I doubted the withholding power of a mere lecture; so, +to even matters, I hinted of an otter slide I had discovered, and of +a Saturday afternoon tramp together. Twenty times, he told me, he had +tried to snare the old beech partridge. When he saw the otter slide he +forswore traps and snares for birds; and I left the place, soon after, +with good hopes for the grouse, knowing that I had spiked the guns of +his most dangerous enemy. + +Years later I crossed the old pasture and went straight to the bullbrier +tangle. There were tracks of a grouse in the snow,--blunt tracks that +rested lightly on the soft whiteness, showing that Nature remembered his +necessity and had caused his new snowshoes to grow famously. I hurried +to the brook, a hundred memories thronging over me of happy days and +rare sights when the wood folk revealed their little secrets. In the +midst of them--kwit! kwit! and with a thunder of wings a grouse whirred +away, wild and gray as the rare bird that lived there years before. And +when I questioned a hunter, he said: "That ol' beech pa'tridge? Oh, yes, +he's there. He'll stay there, too, till he dies of old age; 'cause you +see, Mister, there ain't nobody in these parts spry enough to ketch +'im." + + + + +FOLLOWING THE DEER + +I was camping one summer on a little lake--Deer Pond, the natives called +it--a few miles back from a quiet summer resort on the Maine coast. +Summer hotels and mackerel fishing and noisy excursions had lost their +semblance to a charm; so I made a little tent, hired a canoe, and moved +back into the woods. + +It was better here. The days, were still and long, and the nights full +of peace. The air was good, for nothing but the wild creatures breathed +it, and the firs had touched it with their fragrance. The faraway surge +of the sea came up faintly till the spruces answered it, and both sounds +went gossiping over the hills together. On all sides were the woods, +which, on the north especially, stretched away over a broken country +beyond my farthest explorations. + +Over against my tenting place a colony of herons had their nests in some +dark hemlocks. They were interesting as a camp of gypsies, some going +off in straggling bands to the coast at daybreak, others frogging in +the streams, and a few solitary, patient, philosophical ones joining me +daily in following the gentle art of Izaak Walton. And then, when the +sunset came and the deep red glowed just behind the hemlocks, and the +gypsy bands came home, I would see their sentinels posted here and there +among the hemlock tips--still, dark, graceful silhouettes etched in +sepia against the gorgeous after-glow--and hear the mothers croaking +their ungainly babies to sleep in the tree tops. + +Down at one end of the pond a brood of young black ducks were learning +their daily lessons in hiding; at the other end a noisy kingfisher, an +honest blue heron, and a thieving mink shared the pools and watched each +other as rival fishermen. Hares by night, and squirrels by day, and +wood mice at all seasons played round my tent, or came shyly to taste +my bounty. A pair of big owls lived and hunted in a swamp hard by, who +hooted dismally before the storms came, and sometimes swept within the +circle of my fire at night. Every morning a raccoon stopped at a little +pool in the brook above my tent, to wash his food carefully ere taking +it home. So there was plenty to do and plenty to learn, and the days +passed all too swiftly. + +I had been told by the village hunters that there were no deer; that +they had vanished long since, hounded and crusted and chevied out of +season, till life was not worth the living. So it was with a start of +surprise and a thrill of new interest that I came upon the tracks of +a large buck and two smaller deer on the shore one morning. I was +following them eagerly when I ran plump upon Old Wally, the cunningest +hunter and trapper in the whole region. + +"Sho! Mister, what yer follerin?" + +"Why, these deer tracks," I said simply. + +Wally gave me a look, of great pity. + +"Guess you're green--one o' them city fellers, ain't ye, Mister? Them +ere's sheep tracks--my sheep. Wandered off int' th' woods a spell ago, +and I hain't seen the tarnal critters since. Came up here lookin' for um +this mornin'." + +I glanced at Wally's fish basket, and thought of the nibbled lily pads; +but I said nothing. Wally was a great hunter, albeit jealous; apt to +think of all the game in the woods as being sent by Providence to help +him get a lazy living; and I knew little about deer at that time. So I +took him to camp, fed him, and sent him away. + +"Kinder keep a lookout for my sheep, will ye, Mister, down 't this end +o' the pond?" he said, pointing away from the deer tracks. "If ye see +ary one, send out word, and I'll come and fetch 'im.--Needn't foller +the tracks though; they wander like all possessed this time o' year," he +added earnestly as he went away. + +That afternoon I went over to a little pond, a mile distant from my +camp, and deeper in the woods. The shore was well cut up with numerous +deer tracks, and among the lily pads everywhere were signs of recent +feeding. There was a man's track here too, which came cautiously out +from a thick point of woods, and spied about on the shore, and went +back again more cautiously than before. I took the measure of it back to +camp, and found that it corresponded perfectly with the boot tracks +of Old Wally. There were a few deer here, undoubtedly, which he was +watching jealously for his own benefit in the fall hunting. + +When the next still, misty night came, it found me afloat on the lonely +little pond with a dark lantern fastened to an upright stick just in +front of me in the canoe. In the shadow of the shores all was black as +Egypt; but out in the middle the outlines of the pond could be followed +vaguely by the heavy cloud of woods against the lighter sky. The +stillness was intense; every slightest sound,--the creak of a bough or +the ripple of a passing musquash, the plunk of a water drop into the +lake or the snap of a rotten twig, broken by the weight of clinging +mist,--came to the strained ear with startling suddenness. Then, as I +waited and sifted the night sounds, a dainty plop, plop, plop! sent the +canoe gliding like a shadow toward the shore whence the sounds had come. + +When the lantern opened noiselessly, sending a broad beam of gray, full +of shadows and misty lights, through the even blackness of the night, +the deer stood revealed--a beautiful creature, shrinking back into the +forest's shadow, yet ever drawn forward by the sudden wonder of the +light. + +She turned her head towards me, and her eyes blazed like great colored +lights in the lantern's reflection. They fascinated me; I could see +nothing but those great glowing spots, blazing and scintillating with +a kind of intense fear and wonder out of the darkness. She turned +away, unable to endure the glory any longer; then released from the +fascination of her eyes, I saw her hurrying along the shore, a graceful +living shadow among the shadows, rubbing her head among the bushes as if +to brush away from her eyes the charm that dazzled them. + +I followed a little way, watching every move, till she turned again, and +for a longer time stared steadfastly at the light. It was harder this +time to break away from its power. She came nearer two or three times, +halting between dainty steps to stare and wonder, while her eyes blazed +into mine. Then, as she faltered irresolutely, I reached forward and +closed the lantern, leaving lake and woods in deeper darkness than +before. At the sudden release I heard her plunge out of the water; but +a moment later she was moving nervously among the trees, trying to stamp +herself up to the courage point of coming back to investigate. And +when I flashed my lantern at the spot she threw aside caution and came +hurriedly down the bank again. + +Later that night I heard other footsteps in the pond, and opened my +lantern upon three deer, a doe, a fawn and a large buck, feeding at +short intervals among the lily pads. The buck was wild; after one look +he plunged into the woods, whistling danger to his companions. But the +fawn heeded nothing, knew nothing for the moment save the fascination +of the wonderful glare out there in the darkness. Had I not shut off +the light, I think he would have climbed into the canoe in his intense +wonder. + +I saw the little fellow again, in a curious way, a few nights later. +A wild storm was raging over the woods. Under its lash the great trees +writhed and groaned; and the "voices"--that strange phenomenon of the +forest and rapids--were calling wildly through the roar of the storm and +the rush of rain on innumerable leaves. I had gone out on the old wood +road, to lose myself for a little while in the intense darkness and +uproar, and to feel again the wild thrill of the elements. But the night +was too dark, the storm too fierce. Every few moments I would blunder +against a tree, which told me I was off the road; and to lose the road +meant to wander all night in the storm-swept woods. So I went back for +my lantern, with which I again started down the old cart path, a little +circle of wavering, jumping shadows about me, the one gray spot in the +midst of universal darkness. + +I had gone but a few hundred yards when there was a rush--it was not the +wind or the rain--in a thicket on my right. Something jumped into the +circle of light. Two bright spots burned out of the darkness, then two +more; and with strange bleats a deer came close to me with her fawn. I +stood stockstill, with a thrill in my spine that was not altogether +of the elements, while the deer moved uneasily back and forth. The doe +wavered between fear and fascination; but the fawn knew no fear, or +perhaps he knew only the great fear of the uproar around him; for he +came close beside me, rested his nose an instant against the light, then +thrust his head between my arm and body, so as to shield his eyes, and +pressed close against my side, shivering with cold and fear, pleading +dumbly for my protection against the pitiless storm. + +I refrained from touching the little thing, for no wild creature likes +to be handled, while his mother called in vain from the leafy darkness. +When I turned to go he followed me close, still trying to thrust his +face under my arm; and I had to close the light with a sharp click +before he bounded away down the road, where one who knew better than +I how to take care of a frightened innocent was, no doubt, waiting to +receive him. + +I gave up everything else but fishing after that, and took to watching +the deer; but there was little to be learned in the summer woods. Once +I came upon the big buck lying down in a thicket. I was following his +track, trying to learn the Indian trick of sign-trailing, when he shot +up in front of me like Jack-in-a-box, and was gone before I knew what it +meant. From the impressions in the moss, I concluded that he slept with +all four feet under him, ready to shoot up at an instant's notice, with +power enough in his spring to clear any obstacle near him. And then I +thought of the way a cow gets up, first one end, then the other, rising +from the fore knees at last with puff and grunt and clacking of joints; +and I took my first lesson in wholesome respect for the creature whom I +already considered mine by right of discovery, and whose splendid head +I saw, in anticipation, adorning the hall of my house--to the utter +discomfiture of Old Wally. + +At another time I crept up to an old road beyond the little deer pond, +where three deer, a mother with her fawn, and a young spike-buck, were +playing. They kept running up and down, leaping over the trees that lay +across the road with marvelous ease and grace--that is, the two larger +deer. The little fellow followed awkwardly; but he had the spring in +him, and was learning rapidly to gather himself for the rise, and lift +his hind feet at the top of his jump, and come down with all fours +together, instead of sprawling clumsily, as a horse does. + +I saw the perfection of it a few days later. I was sitting before my +tent door at twilight, watching the herons, when there was a shot and a +sudden crash over on their side. In a moment the big buck plunged out of +the woods and went leaping in swift bounds along the shore, head +high, antlers back, the mighty muscles driving him up and onward as if +invisible wings were bearing him. A dozen great trees were fallen across +his path, one of which, as I afterwards measured, lay a clear eight feet +above the sand. But he never hesitated nor broke his splendid stride. +He would rush at a tree; rise light and swift till above it, where he +turned as if on a pivot, with head thrown back to the wind, actually +resting an instant in air at the very top of his jump; then shoot +downward, not falling but driven still by the impulse of his great +muscles. When he struck, all four feet were close together; and almost +quicker than the eye could follow he was in the air again, sweeping +along the water's edge, or rising like a bird over the next obstacle. + +Just below me was a stream, with muddy shores on both sides. I looked to +see if he would stog himself there or turn aside; but he knew the place +better than I, and that just under the soft mud the sand lay firm and, +sure. He struck the muddy place only twice, once on either side +the fifteen-foot stream, sending out a light shower of mud in all +directions; then, because the banks on my side were steep, he leaped for +the cover of the woods and was gone. + +I thought I had seen the last of him, when I heard him coming, bump! +bump! bump! the swift blows of his hoofs sounding all together on the +forest floor. So he flashed by, between me and my tent door, barely +swerved aside for my fire, and gave me another beautiful run down the +old road, rising and falling light as thistle-down, with the old trees +arching over him and brushing his antlers as he rocketed along. + +The last branch had hardly swished behind him when, across the pond, +the underbrush parted cautiously and Old Wally appeared, trailing a long +gun. He had followed scarcely a dozen of the buck's jumps when he looked +back and saw me watching him from beside a great maple. + +"Just a-follerin one o' my tarnal sheep. Strayed off day 'fore +yesterday. Hain't seen 'im, hev ye?" he bawled across. + +"Just went along; ten or twelve points on his horns. And say, Wally--" + +The old sinner, who was glancing about furtively to see if the white +sand showed any blood stains,--looked up quickly at the changed tone. + +"You let those sheep of yours alone till the first of October; then I'll +help you round 'em up. Just now they're worth forty dollars apiece +to the state. I'll see that the warden collects it, too, if you shoot +another." + +"Sho! Mister, I ain't a-shootin' no deer. Hain't seen a deer round here +in ten year or more. I just took a crack at a pa'tridge 'at kwitted at +me, top o' a stump"-- + +But as he vanished among the hemlocks, trailing his old gun, I knew that +he understood the threat. To make the matter sure I drove the deer +out of the pond that night, giving them the first of a series of rude +lessons in caution, until the falling leaves should make them wild +enough to take care of themselves. + + + + +STILL HUNTING + +October, the superb month for one who loves the forest, found me again +in the same woods, this time not to watch and, learn, but to follow the +big buck to his death. Old Wally was ahead of me; but the falling leaves +had done their work well. The deer had left the pond at his approach. +Here and there on the ridges I found their tracks, and saw them at a +distance, shy, wild, alert, ready to take care of themselves in any +emergency. The big buck led them everywhere. Already his spirit, grown +keen in long battle against his enemies, dominated them all. Even the +fawns had learned fear, and followed it as their salvation. + +Then began the most fascinating experience that comes to one who haunts +the woods--the first, thrilling, glorious days of the still-hunter's +schooling, with the frost-colored October woods for a schoolroom, and +Nature herself for the all-wise teacher. Daylight found me far afield, +while the heavy mists hung low and the night smells still clung to the +first fallen leaves, moving swift and silent through the chill fragrant +mistiness of the lowlands, eye and ear alert for every sign, and face +set to the heights where the deer were waiting. Noon found me miles away +on the hills, munching my crust thankfully in a sunny opening of the +woods, with a brook's music tinkling among the mossy stones at my feet, +and the gorgeous crimson and green and gold of the hillside stretching +down and away, like a vast Oriental rug of a giant's weaving, to the +flash and blue gleam of the distant sea. And everywhere--Nature's last +subtle touches to her picture--the sense of a filmy veil let down ere +the end was reached, a soft haze on the glowing hilltops, a sheen as of +silver mist along the stream in the valley, a fleecy light-shot cloud on +the sea, to suggest more, and more beautiful, beyond the veil. + +Evening found me hurrying homeward through the short twilight, along +silent wood roads from which the birds had departed, breathing deep of +the pure air with its pungent tang of ripened leaves, sniffing the first +night smells, listening now for the yap of a fox, now for the distant +bay of a dog to guide me in a short cut over the hills to where my room +in the old farmhouse was waiting. + +It mattered little that, far behind me (though not so far from where +the trail ended), the big buck began his twilight wandering along +the ridges, sniffing alertly at the vanishing scent of the man on his +feeding ground. The best things that a hunter brings home are in his +heart, not in his game bag; and a free deer meant another long glorious +day following him through the October woods, making the tyro's mistakes, +to be sure, but feeling also the tyro's thrill and the tyro's wonder, +and the consciousness of growing power and skill to read in a new +language the secrets that the moss and leaves hide so innocently. + +There was so much to note and learn and remember in those days! A bit of +moss with that curiously measured angular cut in it, as if the wood folk +had taken to studying Euclid,--how wonderful it was at first! The deer +had been here; his foot drew that sharp triangle; and I must measure and +feel it carefully, and press aside the moss, and study the leaves, +to know whether it were my big buck or no, and how long since he had +passed, and whether he were feeding or running or just nosing about and +watching the valley below. And all that is much to learn from a tiny +triangle in the moss, with imaginary a, b, c's clinging to the dried +moss blossoms. + +How careful one had to be! Every shift of wind, every cloud shadow had +to be noted. The lesson of a dewdrop, splashed from a leaf in the early +morning; the testimony of a crushed flower, or a broken brake, or a +bending grass blade; the counsel of a bit of bark frayed from a birch +tree, with a shred of deer-velvet clinging to it,--all these were vastly +significant and interesting. Every copse and hiding place and cathedral +aisle of the big woods in front must be searched with quiet eyes far +ahead, as one glided silently from tree to tree. That depression in the +gray moss of a fir thicket, with two others near it--three deer lay down +there last night; no, this morning; no, scarcely an hour ago, and the +dim traces along the ridge show no sign of hurry or alarm. So I move on, +following surely the trail that, only a few days since, would have been +invisible as the trail of a fish in the lake to my unschooled eyes, +searching, searching everywhere for dim forms gliding among the trees, +till--a scream, a whistle, a rush away! And I know that the bluejay, +which has been gliding after me curiously the last ten minutes,--has +fathomed my intentions and flown ahead to alarm the deer, which are now +bounding away for denser cover. + +I brush ahead heedlessly, knowing that caution here only wastes time, +and study the fresh trail where the quarry jumped away in alarm. +Straight down the wind it goes. Cunning old buck! He has no idea what +Bluejay's alarm was about, but a warning, whether of crow or jay or +tainted wind or snapping twig, is never lost on the wood folk. Now as he +bounds along, cleaving the woods like a living bolt, yet stopping short +every hundred yards or so to whirl and listen and sort the messages that +the wood wires bring to him, he is perfectly sure of himself and his +little flock, knowing that if danger follow down wind, his own nose will +tell him all about it. I glance at the sun; only another hour of light, +and I am six miles from home. I glance at the jay, flitting about +restlessly in a mixture of mischief and curiosity, whistling his +too-loo-loo loudly as a sign to the fleeing game that I am right here +and that he sees me. Then I take up the back trail, planning another +day. + +So the days went by, one after another; the big buck, aided by his +friends the birds, held his own against my craft and patience. He grew +more wild and alert with every hunt, and kept so far ahead of me that +only once, before the snow blew, did I have even the chance of stalking +him, and then the cunning old fellow foiled me again masterfully. + +Old Wally was afield too; but, so far as I could read from the woods' +record, he fared no better than I on the trail of the buck. Once, when I +knew my game was miles ahead, I heard the longdrawn whang of Wally's old +gun across a little valley. Presently the brush began to crackle, and +a small doe came jumping among the trees straight towards me. Within +thirty feet she saw me, caught herself at the top of her jump, came +straight down, and stood an instant as if turned to stone, with a spruce +branch bending over to hide her from my eyes. Then, when I moved not, +having no desire to kill a doe but only to watch the beautiful creature, +she turned, glided a few steps, and went bounding away along the ridge. + +Old Wally came in a little while, not following the trail,--he had no +skill nor patience for that,--but with a woodsman's instinct following +up the general direction of his game. Not far from where the doe had +first appeared he stopped, looked all around keenly, then rested his +hands on the end of his long gun barrel, and put his chin on his hands. + +"Drat it all! Never tetched 'im again. That paowder o' mine hain't +wuth a cent. You wait till snow blows,"--addressing the silent woods +at large,--"then I'll get me some paowder as is paowder, and foller the +critter, and I'll show ye--" + +Old Wally said never a word, but all this was in his face and attitude +as he leaned moodily on his long gun. And I watched him, chuckling, from +my hiding among the rocks, till with curious instinct he vanished down +the ridge behind the very thicket where I had seen the doe flash out of +sight a moment before. + +When I saw him again he was deep in less creditable business. It was a +perfect autumn day,--the air full of light and color, the fragrant +woods resting under the soft haze like a great bouquet of Nature's own +culling, birds, bees and squirrels frolicking all day long amidst the +trees, yet doing an astonishing amount of work in gathering each one his +harvest for the cold dark days that were coming. + +At daylight, from the top of a hill, I looked down on a little clearing +and saw the first signs of the game I was seeking. There had been what +old people call a duck-frost. In the meadows and along the fringes of +the woods the white rime lay thick and powdery on grass and dead leaves; +every foot that touched it left a black mark, as if seared with a hot +iron, when the sun came up and shone upon it. Across the field three +black trails meandered away from the brook; but alas! under the fringe +of evergreen was another trail, that of a man, which crept and halted +and hid, yet drew nearer and nearer the point where the three deer +trails vanished into the wood. Then I found powder marks, and some brush +that was torn by buck shot, and three trails that bounded away, and a +tiny splash of deeper red on a crimson maple leaf. So I left the deer +to the early hunter and wandered away up the hill for a long, lazy, +satisfying day in the woods alone. + +Presently I came to a low brush fence running zigzag through the woods, +with snares set every few yards in the partridge and rabbit runs. At +the third opening a fine cock partridge swung limp and lifeless from a +twitch-up. The cruel wire had torn his neck under his beautiful ruff; +the broken wing quills showed how terrible had been his struggle. Hung +by the neck till dead!--an atrocious fate to mete out to a noble bird. +I followed the hedge of snares for a couple of hundred yards, finding +three more strangled grouse and a brown rabbit. Then I sat down in a +beautiful spot to watch the life about me, and to catch the snarer at +his abominable work. + +The sun climbed higher and blotted out the four trails in the field +below. Red squirrels came down close to my head to chatter and scold and +drive me out of the solitude. A beautiful gray squirrel went tearing by +among the branches, pursued by one of the savage little reds that nipped +and snarled at his heels. The two cannot live together, and the gray +must always go. Jays stopped spying on the squirrels--to see and +remember where their winter stores were hidden--and lingered near me, +whistling their curiosity at the silent man below. None but jays gave +any heed to the five grim corpses swinging by their necks over the +deadly hedge, and to them it was only a new sensation. + +Then a cruel thing happened,--one of the many tragedies that pass +unnoticed in the woods. There was a scurry in the underbrush, and +strange cries like those of an agonized child, only tiny and distant, +as if heard in a phonograph. Over the sounds a crow hovered and rose and +fell, in his intense absorption seeing nothing but the creature below. +Suddenly he swooped like a hawk into a thicket, and out of the cover +sprang a leveret (young hare), only to crouch shivering in the open +space under a hemlock's drooping branches. There the crow headed him, +struck once, twice, three times, straight hard blows with his powerful +beak; and when I ran to the spot the leveret lay quite dead with his +skull split, while the crow went flapping wildly to the tree tops, +giving the danger cry to the flock that was gossiping in the sunshine on +the ridge across the valley. + +The woods were all still after that; jays and squirrels seemed appalled +at the tragedy, and avoided me as if I were responsible for the still +little body under the hemlock tips. An hour passed; then, a quarter-mile +away, in the direction that the deer had taken in the early morning, +a single jay set up his cry, the cry of something new passing in the +woods. Two or three others joined him; the cry came nearer. A flock +of crossbills went whistling overhead, coming from the same direction. +Then, as I slipped away into an evergreen thicket, a partridge came +whirring up, and darted by me like a brown arrow driven by the bending +branches behind him, flicking the twigs sharply with his wings as he +drove along. And then, on the path of his last forerunner, Old Wally +appeared, his keen eyes searching his murderous gibbetline expectantly. + +Now Old Wally was held in great reputation by the Nimrods of the +village, because he hunted partridges, not with "scatter-gun" and +dog,--such amateurish bungling he disdained and swore against,--but in +the good old-fashioned way of stalking with a rifle. And when he brought +his bunch of birds to market, his admirers pointed with pride to the +marks of his wondrous skill. Here was a bird with the head hanging by a +thread of skin; there one with its neck broken; there a furrow along +the top of the head; and here--perfect work!--a partridge with both eyes +gone, showing the course of his unerring bullet. + +Not ten yards from my hiding place he took down a partridge from its +gallows, fumbled a pointed stick out of his pocket, ran it through the +bird's neck, and stowed the creature that had died miserably, without +a chance for its life, away in one of his big pockets, a self-satisfied +grin on his face as he glanced down the hedge and saw another bird +swinging. So he followed his hangman's hedge, treating each bird to his +pointed stick, carefully resetting the snares after him and clearing +away the fallen leaves from the fatal pathways. When he came to the +rabbit he harled him dexterously, slipped him over his long gun barrel, +took his bearings in a quick look, and struck over the ridge for another +southern hillside. + +Here, at last, was the secret of Wally's boasted skill in partridge +hunting with a rifle. Spite of my indignation at the snare line, the +cruel death which gaped day and night for the game as it ran about +heedlessly in the fancied security of its own coverts, a humorous, half +shame-faced feeling of admiration would creep in as I thought of the old +sinner's cunning, and remembered his look of disdain when he met me one +day, with a "scatter-gun" in my hands and old Don following obediently +at heel. Thinking that in his long life he must have learned many things +in the woods that I would be glad to know, I had invited him cordially +to join me. But he only withered me with the contempt in his hawk eyes, +and wiggled his toe as if holding back a kick from my honest dog with +difficulty. + +"Go hunting with ye? Not much, Mister. Scarin' a pa'tridge to death with +a dum dog, and then turnin' a handful o' shot loose on the critter, an' +call it huntin'! That's the way to kill a pa'tridge, the on'y decent +way"--and he pulled a bird out of his pocket, pointing to a clean hole +through the head where the eyes had been. + +When he had gone I kicked the hedge to pieces quickly, cut the +twitch-ups at the butts and threw them with their wire nooses far into +the thickets, and posted a warning in a cleft stick on the site of the +last gibbet. Then I followed Wally to a second and third line of snares, +which were treated in the same rough way, and watched him with curiously +mingled feelings of detestation and amusement as he sneaked down the +dense hillside with tread light as Leatherstocking, the old gun over his +shoulder, his pockets bulging enormously, and a string of hanged rabbits +swinging to and fro on his gun barrel, as if in death they had caught +the dizzy motion and could not quit it while the woods they had loved +and lived in threw their long sad shadows over them. So they came to the +meadow, into which they had so often come limping down to play or feed +among the twilight shadows, and crossed it for the last time on Wally's +gun barrel, swinging, swinging. + +The leaves were falling thickly now; they formed a dry, hard carpet over +which it was impossible to follow game accurately, and they rustled a +sharp warning underfoot if but a wood mouse ran over them. It was of +little use to still-hunt the wary old buck till the rains should soften +the carpet, or a snowfall make tracking like boys' play. But I tried +it once more; found the quarry on a ridge deep in the woods, and +followed--more by good-luck than by good management--till, late in the +afternoon, I saw the buck with two smaller deer standing far away on a +half-cleared hillside, quietly watching a wide stretch of country below. +Beyond them the ridge narrowed gradually to a long neck, ending in a +high open bluff above the river. + +There I tried my last hunter's dodge--manoeuvered craftily till near the +deer, which were hidden by dense thickets, and rushed straight at them, +thinking they would either break away down the open hillside, and so +give me a running shot, or else rush straightaway at the sudden alarm +and be caught on the bluff beyond. + +Was it simple instinct, I wonder, or did the buck that had grown old in +hunter's wiles feel what was passing in my mind, and like a flash take +the chance that would save, not only his own life, but the lives of +the two that followed him? At the first alarm they separated; the two +smaller deer broke away down the hillside, giving me as pretty a shot +as one could wish. But I scarcely noticed them; my eyes were following +eagerly a swift waving of brush tops, which told me that the big buck +was jumping away, straight into the natural trap ahead. + +I followed on the run till the ridge narrowed so that I could see across +it on either side, then slowly, carefully, steadying my nerves for +the shot. The river was all about him now, too wide to jump, too +steep-banked to climb down; the only way out was past me. I gripped the +rifle hard, holding it at a ready as I moved forward, watching either +side for a slinking form among the scattered coverts. At last, at last! +and how easy, how perfectly I had trapped him! My heart was singing as I +stole along. + +The tracks moved straight on; first an easy run, then a swift, hard rush +as they approached the river. But what was this? The whole end of the +bluff was under my eye, and no buck standing at bay or running wildly +along the bank to escape. The tracks moved straight on to the edge in +great leaps; my heart quickened its beat as if I were nerving myself for +a supreme effort. Would he do it? would he dare? + +A foot this side the brink the lichens were torn away where the sharp +hoofs had cut down to solid earth. Thirty feet away, well over the +farther bank and ten feet below the level where I stood, the fresh earth +showed clearly among the hoof-torn moss. Far below, the river fretted +and roared in a white rush of rapids. He had taken the jump, a jump that +made one's nostrils spread and his breath come hard as he measured +it with his eye. Somewhere, over in the spruces' shadow there, he was +hiding, watching me no doubt to see if I would dare follow. + +That was the last of the autumn woods for me. If I had only seen +him--just one splendid glimpse as he shot over and poised in mid-air, +turning for the down plunge! That was my only regret as I turned slowly +away, the river singing beside me and the shadows lengthening along the +home trail. + + + + +WINTER TRAILS + +The snow had come, and with it a Christmas holiday. For weeks I had +looked longingly out of college windows as the first tracking-snows came +sifting down, my thoughts turning from books and the problems of human +wisdom to the winter woods, with their wide white pages written all over +by the feet of wild things. Then the sun would shine again, and I +knew that the records were washed clean, and the hard-packed leaves as +innocent of footmarks as the beach where plover feed when a great wave +has chased them away. On the twentieth a change came. Outside the snow +fell heavily, two days and a night; inside, books were packed away, +professors said Merry Christmas, and students were scattering, like a +bevy of flushed quail, to all points of the compass for the holidays. +The afternoon of the twenty-first found me again in my room under the +eaves of the old farmhouse. + +Before dark I had taken a wide run over the hills and through the woods +to the place of my summer camp. How wonderful it all was! The great +woods were covered deep with their pure white mantle; not a fleck, not a +track soiled its even whiteness; for the last soft flakes were lingering +in the air, and fox and grouse and hare and lucivee were still keeping +the storm truce, hidden deep in their coverts. Every fir and spruce and +hemlock had gone to building fairy grottoes as the snow packed their +lower branches, under which all sorts of wonders and beauties might +be hidden, to say nothing of the wild things for whom Nature had been +building innumerable tents of white and green as they slept. The silence +was absolute, the forest's unconscious tribute to the Wonder Worker. +Even the trout brook, running black as night among its white-capped +boulders and delicate arches of frost and fern work, between massive +banks of feathery white and green, had stopped its idle chatter and +tinkled a low bell under the ice, as if only the Angelus could express +the wonder of the world. + +As I came back softly in the twilight a movement in an evergreen ahead +caught my eye, and I stopped for one of the rare sights of the woods,--a +partridge going to sleep in a warm room of his own making. He looked all +about among the trees most carefully, listened, kwit-kwitted in a +low voice to himself, then, with a sudden plunge, swooped downward +head-first into the snow. I stole to the spot where he had disappeared, +noted the direction of his tunnel, and fell forward with arms +outstretched, thinking perhaps to catch him under me and examine his +feet to see how his natural snowshoes (Nature's winter gift to every +grouse) were developing, before letting him go again. But the grouse +was an old bird, not to be caught napping, who had thought on the +possibilities of being followed ere he made his plunge. He had ploughed +under the snow for a couple of feet, then swerved sharply to the left +and made a little chamber for himself just under some snow-packed spruce +tips, with a foot of snow for a blanket over him. When I fell forward, +disturbing his rest most rudely ere he had time to wink the snow out of +his eyes, he burst out with a great whirr and sputter between my left +hand and my head, scattering snow all over me, and thundered off through +the startled woods, flicking a branch here and there with his wings, +and shaking down a great white shower as he rushed away for deeper +solitudes. There, no doubt, he went to sleep in the evergreens, +congratulating himself on his escape and preferring to take his chances +with the owl, rather than with some other ground-prowler that might +come nosing into his hole before the light snow had time to fill it up +effectually behind him. + +Next morning I was early afield, heading for a ridge where I thought the +deer of the neighborhood might congregate with the intention of yarding +for the winter. At the foot of a wild little natural meadow, made +centuries ago by the beavers, I found the trail of two deer which had +been helping themselves to some hay that had been cut and stacked there +the previous summer. My big buck was not with them; so I left the trail +in peace to push through a belt of woods and across a pond to an old +road that led for a mile or two towards the ridge I was seeking. + +Early as I was, the wood folk were ahead of me. Their tracks were +everywhere, eager, hungry tracks, that poked their noses into every +possible hiding place of food or game, showing how the two-days' fast +had whetted their appetites and set them to running keenly the moment +the last flakes were down and the storm truce ended. + +A suspicious-looking clump of evergreens, where something had brushed +the snow rudely from the feathery tips, stopped me as I hurried down the +old road. Under the evergreens was a hole in the snow, and at the bottom +of the hole hard inverted cups made by deer's feet. I followed on to +another hole in the snow (it could scarcely be called a trail) and then +to another, and another, some twelve or fifteen feet apart, leading in +swift bounds to some big timber. There the curious track separated into +three deer trails, one of which might well be that of a ten-point buck. +Here was luck,--luck to find my quarry so early on the first day out, +and better luck that, during my long absence, the cunning animal had +kept himself and his consort clear of Old Wally and his devices. + +When I ran to examine the back trail more carefully, I found that the +deer had passed the night in a dense thicket of evergreen, on a hilltop +overlooking the road. They had come down the hill, picking their way +among the stumps of a burned clearing, stepping carefully in each +other's tracks so as to make but a single trail. At the road they had +leaped clear across from one thicket to another, leaving never a trace +on the bare even whiteness. One might have passed along the road a score +of times without noticing that game had crossed. There was no doubt now +that these were deer that had been often hunted, and that had learned +their cunning from long experience. + +I followed them rapidly till they began feeding in a little valley, then +with much caution, stealing from tree to thicket, giving scant attention +to the trail, but searching the woods ahead; for the last "sign" showed +that I was now but a few minutes behind the deer. There they were at +last, two graceful forms gliding like gray shadows among the snow-laden +branches. But in vain I searched for a lordly head with wide rough +antlers sweeping proudly over the brow; my buck was not there. Scarcely +had I made the discovery when there was a whistle and a plunge up on +the hill on my left, and I had one swift glimpse of him, a splendid +creature, as he bounded away. + +By way of general precaution, or else led by some strange sixth sense of +danger, he had left his companions feeding and mounted the hill, where +he could look back on his own track. There he had been watching me for +half an hour, till I approached too near, when he sounded the alarm and +was off. I read it all from the trail a few moments later. + +It was of no use to follow him, for he ran straight down wind. The two +others had gone quartering off at right angles to his course, obeying +his signal promptly, but having as yet no idea of what danger followed +them. When alarmed in this way, deer never run far before halting to +sniff and listen. Then, if not disturbed, they run off again, circling +back and down wind so as to catch from a distance the scent of anything +that follows on their trail. + +I sat still where I was for a good hour, watching the chickadees and +red squirrels that found me speedily, and refusing to move for all the +peekings and whistlings of a jay that would fain satisfy his curiosity +as to whether I meant harm to the deer, or were just benumbed by the +cold and incapable of further mischief. When I went on I left some +scattered bits of meat from my lunch to keep him busy in case the deer +were near; but there was no need of the precaution. The two had learned +the leader's lesson of caution well, and ran for a mile, with many +haltings and circlings, before they began to feed again. Even then they +moved along at a good pace as they fed, till a mile farther on, when, +as I had forelayed, the buck came down from a hill to join them, and all +three moved off toward the big ridge, feeding as they went. + +Then began a long chase, a chase which for the deer meant a straightaway +game, and for me a series of wide circles--never following the trail +directly, but approaching it at intervals from leeward, hoping to circle +ahead of the deer and stalk them at last from an unexpected quarter. + +Once, when I looked down from a bare hilltop into a valley where the +trail ran, I had a most interesting glimpse of the big buck doing the +same thing from a hill farther on too far away for a shot, but near +enough to see plainly through my field glass. The deer were farther +ahead than I supposed. They had made a run for it, intending to rest +after first putting a good space between them and anything that might +follow. Now they were undoubtedly lying down in some far-away thicket, +their minds at rest, but their four feet doubled under them for a jump +at short notice. Trust your nose, but keep your feet under you--that is +deer wisdom on going to sleep. Meanwhile, to take no chances, the wary +old leader had circled back, to wind the trail and watch it awhile from +a distance before joining them in their rest. + +He stood stock-still in his hiding, so still that one might have +passed close by without noticing him. But his head was above the low +evergreens; eyes, ears, and nose were busy giving him perfect report of +everything that passed in the woods. + +I started to stalk him promptly, creeping up the hill behind him, +chuckling to myself at the rare sport of catching a wild thing at his +own game. But before I sighted him again he grew uneasy (the snow tells +everything), trotted down hill to the trail, and put his nose into it +here and there to be sure it was not polluted. Then--another of his +endless devices to make the noonday siesta full of contentment--he +followed the back track a little way, stepping carefully in his own +footprints; branched off on the other side of the trail, and so circled +swiftly back to join his little flock, leaving behind him a sad puzzle +of disputing tracks for any novice that might follow him. + +So the interesting chase went on all day, skill against keener cunning, +instinct against finer instinct, through the white wonder of the winter +woods, till, late in the afternoon, it swung back towards the starting +point. The deer had undoubtedly intended to begin their yard that day +on the ridge I had selected; for at noon I crossed the trail of the +two from the haystack, heading as if by mutual understanding in that +direction. But the big buck, feeling that he was followed, cunningly +led his charge away from the spot, so as to give no hint of the proposed +winter quarters to the enemy that was after him. Just as the long +shadows were stretching across all the valleys from hill to hill, and +the sun vanished into the last gray bank of clouds on the horizon, my +deer recrossed the old road, leaping it, as in the morning, so as to +leave no telltale track, and climbed the hill to the dense thicket where +they had passed the previous night. + +Here was my last chance, and I studied it deliberately. The deer were +there, safe within the evergreens, I had no doubt, using their eyes for +the open hillside in front and their noses for the woods behind. It was +useless to attempt stalking from any direction, for the cover was so +thick that a fox could hardly creep through without alarming ears far +less sensitive than a deer's. Skill had failed; their cunning was too +much for me. I must now try an appeal to curiosity. + +I crept up the hill flat on my face, keeping stump or scrub spruce +always between me and the thicket on the hilltop. The wind was in my +favor; I had only their eyes to consider. Somewhere, just within the +shadow, at least one pair were sweeping the back track keenly; so I +kept well away from it, creeping slowly up till I rested behind a great +burned stump within forty yards of my game. There I fastened a red +bandanna handkerchief to a stick and waved it slowly above the stump. + +Almost instantly there was a snort and a rustle of bushes in the thicket +above me. Peeking out I saw the evergreens moving nervously; a doe's +head appeared, her ears set forward, her eyes glistening. I waved the +handkerchief more erratically. My rifle lay across the stump's roots, +pointing straight at her; but she was not the game I was hunting. +Some more waving and dancing of the bright color, some more nervous +twitchings and rustlings in the evergreens, then a whistle and a rush; +the doe disappeared; the movement ceased; the thicket was silent as the +winter woods behind me. + +"They are just inside," I thought, "pawing the snow to get their courage +up to come and see." So the handkerchief danced on--one, two, five +minutes passed in silence; then something made me turn round. There in +plain sight behind me, just this side the fringe of evergreen that +lined the old road, stood my three deer in a row--the big buck on the +right--like three beautiful statues, their ears all forward, their eyes +fixed with intensest curiosity on the man lying at full length in the +snow with the queer red flag above his head. + +My first motion broke up the pretty tableau. Before I could reach for my +rifle the deer whirled and vanished like three winks, leaving the heavy +evergreen tips nodding and blinking behind them in a shower of snow. + +Tired as I was, I took a last run to see from the trail how it all +happened. The deer had been standing just within the thicket as I +approached. All three had seen the handkerchief; the tracks showed +that they had pawed the snow and moved about nervously. When the leader +whistled they had bounded straightaway down the steep on the other side. +But the farms lay in that direction, so they had skirted the base of +the hill, keeping within the fringe of woods and heading back for their +morning trail, till the red flag caught their eye again, and strong +curiosity had halted them for another look. + +Thus the long hunt ended at twilight within sight of the spot where it +began in the gray morning stillness. With marvelous cunning the deer +circled into their old tracks and followed them till night turned them +aside into a thicket. This I discovered at daylight next morning. + +That day a change came; first a south wind, then in succession a thaw, +a mist, a rain turning to snow, a cold wind and a bitter frost. Next +day when I entered the woods a brittle crust made silent traveling +impossible, and over the rocks and bare places was a sheet of ice +covered thinly with snow. + +I was out all day, less in hope of finding deer than of watching the +wild things; but at noon, as I sat eating my lunch, I heard a rapid +running, crunch, crunch, crunch, on the ridge above me. I stole up, +quietly as I could, to find the fresh trails of my three deer. They +were running from fright evidently, and were very tired, as the short +irregular jumps showed. Once, where the two leaders cleared a fallen +log, the third deer had fallen heavily; and all three trails showed +blood stains where the crust had cut into their legs. + +I waited there on the trail to see what was following--to give right of +way to any hunter, but with a good stout stick handy, for dealing with +dogs, which sometimes ran wild in the woods and harried the deer. For +a long quarter-hour the woods were all still; then the jays, which had +come whistling up on the trail, flew back screaming and scolding, and +a huge yellow mongrel, showing hound's blood in his ears and nose, came +slipping, limping, whining over the crust. I waited behind a tree till +he was up with me, when I jumped out and caught him a resounding thump +on the ribs. As he ran yelping away I fired my rifle over his head, and +sent the good club with a vengeance to knock his heels from under him. A +fresh outburst of howls inspired me with hope. Perhaps he would remember +now to let deer alone for the winter. + +Above the noise of canine lamentation I caught the faint click of +snowshoes, and hid again to catch the cur's owner at his contemptible +work. But the sound stopped far back on the trail at the sudden uproar. + +Through the trees I caught glimpses of a fur cap and a long gun and the +hawk face of Old Wally, peeking, listening, creeping on the trail, and +stepping gingerly at last down the valley, ashamed or afraid of being +caught at his unlawful hunting. "An ill wind, but it blows me good," I +thought, as I took up the trail of the deer, half ashamed myself to take +advantage of them when tired by the dog's chasing. + +There was no need of commiseration, however; now that the dog was out +of the way they could take care of themselves very well. I found them +resting only a short distance ahead; but when I attempted to stalk them +from leeward the noise of my approach on the crust sent them off with a +rush before I caught even a glimpse of them in their thicket. + +I gave up caution then and there. I was fresh and the deer were +tired,--why not run them down and get a fair shot before the sun went +down and left the woods too dark to see a rifle sight? I had heard that +the Indians used sometimes to try running a deer down afoot in the old +days; here was the chance to try a new experience. It was fearfully hard +traveling without snowshoes, to be sure; but that seemed only to even-up +chances fairly with the deer. At the thought I ran on, giving no +heed when the quarry jumped again just ahead of me, but pushing them +steadily, mile after mile, till I realized with a thrill that I was +gaining rapidly, that their pauses grew more and more frequent, and I +had constant glimpses of deer ahead among the trees--never of the big +buck, but of the two does, who were struggling desperately to follow +their leader as he kept well ahead of them breaking the way. Then +realizing, I think, that he was followed by strength rather than by +skill or cunning, the noble old fellow tried a last trick, which came +near being the end of my hunting altogether. + +The trail turned suddenly to a high open ridge with scattered thickets +here and there. As they labored up the slope I had the does in plain +sight. On top the snow was light, and they bounded ahead with fresh +strength. The trail led straight along the edge of a cliff, beyond which +the deer had vanished. They had stopped running here; I noticed with +amazement that they had walked with quick short steps across the open. +Eager for a sight of the buck I saw only the thin powdering of snow; +I forgot the glare ice that covered the rock beneath. The deer's sharp +hoofs had clung to the very edge securely. My heedless feet had barely +struck the rock when they slipped and I shot over the cliff, thirty feet +to the rocks below. Even as I fell and the rifle flew from my grasp, I +heard the buck's loud whistle from the thicket where he was watching me, +and then the heavy plunge of the deer as they jumped away. + +A great drift at the foot of the cliff saved me. I picked myself up, +fearfully bruised but with nothing broken, found my rifle and limped +away four miles through the woods to the road, thinking as I went that +I was well served for having delivered the deer "from the power of the +dog," only to take advantage of their long run to secure a head that my +skill had failed to win. I wondered, with an extra twinge in my limp, +whether I had saved Old Wally by taking the chase out of his hands +unceremoniously. Above all, I wondered--and here I would gladly follow +another trail over the same ground--whether the noble beast, grown weary +with running, his splendid strength failing for the first time, and his +little, long-tended flock ready to give in and have the tragedy over, +knew just what he was doing in mincing along the cliff's edge with his +heedless enemy close behind. What did he think and feel, looking back +from his hiding, and what did his loud whistle mean? But that is always +the despair of studying the wild things. When your problem is almost +solved, night comes and the trail ends. + +When I could walk again easily vacation was over, the law was on, and +the deer were safe. + + + + +SNOW BOUND + +March is a weary month for the wood folk. One who follows them then has +it borne in upon him continually that life is a struggle,--a keen, hard, +hunger-driven struggle to find enough to keep a-going and sleep warm +till the tardy sun comes north again with his rich living. The fall +abundance of stored food has all been eaten, except in out-of-the-way +corners that one stumbles upon in a long day's wandering; the game also +is wary and hard to find from being constantly hunted by eager enemies. + +It is then that the sparrow falleth. You find him on the snow, a +wind-blown feather guiding your eye to the open where he fell in +mid-flight; or under the tree, which shows that he lost his grip in the +night. His empty crop tells the whole pitiful story, and why you find +him there cold and dead, his toes curled up and his body feather-light. +You would find more but for the fact that hunger-pointed eyes are +keener than yours and earlier abroad, and that crow and jay and mink +and wildcat have greater interest than you in finding where the sparrow +fell. + +It is then, also, that the owl, who hunts the sparrow o' nights, grows +so light from scant feeding that he cannot fly against the wind. If he +would go back to his starting point while the March winds are out, +he must needs come down close to the ground and yewyaw towards +his objective, making leeway like an old boat without ballast or +centerboard. + +The grouse have taken to bud-eating from necessity--birch buds mostly, +with occasional trips to the orchards for variety. They live much now +in the trees, which they dislike; but with a score of hungry enemies +prowling for them day and night, what can a poor grouse do? + +When a belated snow falls, you follow their particular enemy, the fox, +where he wanders, wanders, wander's on his night's hunting. Across the +meadow, to dine on the remembrance of field mice--alas! safe now under +the crust; along the brook, where he once caught frogs; through the +thicket, where the grouse were hatched; past the bullbrier tangle, where +the covey of quail once rested nightly; into the farmyard, where the +dog is loose and the chickens are safe under lock and key, instead of +roosting in trees; across the highway, and through the swamp, and into +the big bare empty woods; till in the sad gray morning light he digs +under the wild apple tree and sits down on the snow to eat a frozen +apple, lest his stomach cry too loudly while he sleeps the day away and +tries to forget that he is hungry. + +Everywhere it is the same story: hard times and poor hunting. Even the +chickadees are hard pressed to keep up appearances and have their sweet +love note ready at the first smell of spring in the air. + +This was the lesson that the great woods whispered sadly when a few idle +March days found me gliding on snowshoes over the old familiar ground. +Wild geese had honked an invitation from the South Shore; but one can +never study a wild goose; the only satisfaction is to see him swing in +on broad wings over the decoys--one glorious moment ere the gun speaks +and the dog jumps and everything is spoiled. So I left gun and rifle +behind, and went off to the woods of happy memories to see how my deer +were faring. + +The wonder of the snow was gone; there was left only its cold bitterness +and a vague sense that it ought no longer to cumber the ground, but +would better go away as soon as possible and spare the wood folk any +more suffering. The litter of a score of storms covered its soiled rough +surface; every shred of bark had left its dark stain where the decaying +sap had melted and spread in the midday sun. The hard crust, which made +such excellent running for my snowshoes, seemed bitterly cruel when I +thought of the starving wild things and of the abundance of food on the +brown earth, just four feet below their hungry bills and noses. + +The winter bad been unusually severe. Reports had come to me from the +North Woods of deep snows, and of deer dying of starvation and cold in +their yards. I confess that I was anxious as I hurried along. Now that +the hunt was over and the deer had won, they belonged to me more than +ever more even than if the stuffed head of the buck looked down on +my hall, instead of resting proudly over his own strong shoulders. My +snowshoes clicked a rapid march through the sad gray woods, while the +March wind thrummed an accompaniment high up among the bare branches, +and the ground-spruce nodded briskly, beating time with their green +tips, as if glad of any sound or music that would break the chill +silence until the birds came back. + +Here and there the snow told stories; gay stories, tragic stories, sad, +wandering, patient stories of the little woods-people, which the +frost had hardened into crust, as if Nature would keep their memorials +forever, like the records on the sunhardened bricks of Babylon. But +would the deer live? Would the big buck's cunning provide a yard large +enough for wide wandering, with plenty of browse along the paths to +carry his flock safely through the winter's hunger? That was a story, +waiting somewhere ahead, which made me hurry away from the foot-written +records that otherwise would have kept me busy for hours. + +Crossbills called welcome to me, high overhead. Nothing can starve them +out. A red squirrel rushed headlong out of his hollow tree at the first +click of my snowshoes. Nothing can check his curiosity or his scolding +except his wife, whom he likes, and the weasel, whom he is +mortally afraid of. Chickadees followed me shyly with their +blandishments--tsic-a-deeee? with that gentle up-slide of questioning. +"Is the spring really coming? Are--are you a harbinger?" + +But the snowshoes clicked on, away from the sweet blarney, Leaving +behind the little flatterers who were honestly glad to see me in the +woods again, and who would fain have delayed me. Other questions, +stern ones, were calling ahead. Would the cur dogs find the yard and +exterminate the innocents? Would Old Wally--but no; Wally had the +"rheumatiz," and was out of the running. Ill-wind blew the deer good +that time; else he would long ago have run them down on snowshoes and +cut their throats, as if they were indeed his "tarnal sheep" that had +run wild in the woods. + +At the southern end of a great hardwood ridge I found the first path +of their yard. It was half filled with snow, unused since the last two +storms. A glance on either side, where everything eatable within reach +of a deer's neck had long ago been cropped close, showed plainly why the +path was abandoned. I followed it a short distance before running +into another path, and another, then into a great tangle of deer ways +spreading out crisscross over the eastern and southern slopes of the +ridge. + +In some of the paths were fresh deer tracks and the signs of recent +feeding. My heart jumped at sight of one great hoof mark. I had measured +and studied it too often to fail to recognize its owner. There was +browse here still, to be had for the cropping. I began to be hopeful for +my little flock, and to feel a higher regard for their leader, who +could plan a yard, it seemed, as well as a flight, and who could not be +deceived by early abundance into outlining a small yard, forgetting the +late snows and the spring hunger. + +I was stooping to examine the more recent signs, when a sharp snort +made me raise my head quickly. In the path before me stood a doe, all +a-quiver, her feet still braced from the suddenness with which she had +stopped at sight of an unknown object blocking the path ahead. Behind +her two other deer checked themselves and stood like statues, unable to +see, but obeying their leader promptly. + +All three were frightened and excited, not simply curious, as they would +have been had they found me in their path unexpectedly. The widespread +nostrils and heaving sides showed that they had been running hard. Those +in the rear (I could see them over the top of the scrub spruce, behind +which I crouched in the path) said in every muscle: "Go on! No matter +what it is, the danger behind is worse. Go on, go on!" Insistence was +in the air. The doe felt it and bounded aside. The crust had softened +in the sun, and she plunged through it when she struck, cr-r-runch, +cr-r-runch, up to her sides at every jump. The others followed, just +swinging their heads for a look and a sniff at me, springing from hole +to hole in the snow, and making but a single track. A dozen jumps and +they struck another path and turned into it, running as before down the +ridge. In the swift glimpses they gave me I noticed with satisfaction +that, though thin and a bit ragged in appearance, they were by no means +starved. The veteran leader had provided well for his little family. + +I followed their back track up the ridge for perhaps half a mile, when +another track made me turn aside. Two days before, a single deer had +been driven out of the yard at a point where three paths met. She had +been running down the ridge when something in front met her and drove +her headlong out of her course. The soft edges of the path were cut and +torn by suspicious claw marks. + +I followed her flight anxiously, finding here and there, where the snow +had been softest, dog tracks big and little. The deer was tired from +long running, apparently; the deep holes in the snow, where she had +broken through the crust, were not half the regular distance apart. +A little way from the path I found her, cold and stiff, her throat +horribly torn by the pack which had run her to death. Her hind feet were +still doubled under her, just as she had landed from her last despairing +jump, when the tired muscles could do no more, and she sank down without +a struggle to let the dogs do their cruel work. + +I had barely read all this, and had not yet finished measuring the +largest tracks to see if it were her old enemy that, as dogs frequently +do, had gathered a pirate band about him and led them forth to the +slaughter of the innocents, when a far-away cry came stealing down +through the gray woods. Hark! the eager yelp of curs and the leading +hoot of a hound. I whipped out my knife to cut a club, and was off for +the sounds on a galloping run, which is the swiftest possible gait on +snowshoes. + +There were no deer paths here; for the hardwood browse, upon which deer +depend for food, grew mostly on the other sides of the ridge. That the +chase should turn this way, out of the yard's limits showed the dogs' +cunning, and that they were not new at their evil business. They had +divided their forces again, as they had undoubtedly done when hunting +the poor doe whose body I had just found. Part of the pack hunted down +the ridge in full cry, while the rest lay in wait to spring at the +flying game as it came on and drive it out of the paths into the deep +snow, where it would speedily be at their mercy. At the thought I +gripped the club hard, promising to stop that kind of hunting for good, +if only I could get half a chance. + +Presently, above the scrape of my snowshoes, I heard the deer coming, +cr-r-runch! cr-r-runch! the heavy plunges growing shorter and fainter, +while behind the sounds an eager, whining trail-cry grew into a fierce +howl of canine exultation. Something was telling me to hurry, hurry; +that the big buck I had so often hunted was in my power at last, and +that, if I would square accounts, I must beat the dogs, though they were +nearer to him now than I. The excitement of a new kind of hunt, a hunt +to save, not to kill, was tingling all over me when I circled a dense +thicket of firs with a rush, and there he lay, up to his shoulders in +the snow before me. + +He had taken his last jump. The splendid strength which had carried him +so far was spent now to the last ounce. He lay resting easily in the +snow, his head outstretched on the crust before him, awaiting the +tragedy that had followed him for years, by lake and clearing and winter +yard, and that burst out behind him now with a cry to make one's nerves +shudder. The glory of his antlers was gone; he had dropped them months +before; but the mighty shoulders and sinewy neck and perfect head showed +how well, how grandly he had deserved my hunting. + +He threw up his head as I burst out upon him from an utterly unexpected +quarter--the very thing that I had so often tried to do, in vain, in the +old glorious days. "Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? Well, here am I." +That is what his eyes, great, sad, accusing eyes, were saying as he laid +his head down on the snow again, quiet as an Indian at the torture, too +proud to struggle where nothing was to be gained but pity or derision. + +A strange, uncanny silence had settled over the woods. Wolves cease +their cry in the last swift burst of speed that will bring the game in +sight. Then the dogs broke out of the cover behind him with a fiercer +howl that was too much for even his nerves to stand. Nothing on earth +could have met such a death unmoved. No ears, however trained, could +hear that fierce cry for blood without turning to meet it face to face. +With a mighty effort the buck whirled in the snow and gathered himself +for the tragedy. + +Far ahead of the pack came a small, swift bulldog that, with no nose +of his own for hunting, had followed the pirate leader for mere love of +killing. As he jumped for the throat, the buck, with his last strength, +reared on his hind legs, so as to get his fore feet clear of the snow, +and plunged down again with a hard, swift sabre-cut of his right hoof. +It caught the dog on the neck as he rose on the spring, and ripped him +from ear to tail. Deer and dog came down together. Then the buck rose +swiftly for his last blow, and the knife-edged hoofs shot down like +lightning; one straight, hard drive with the crushing force of a ten-ton +hammer behind it--and his first enemy was out of the hunt forever. +Before he had time to gather himself again the big yellow brindle, with +the hound's blood showing in nose and ears,--Old Wally's dog,--leaped +into sight. His whining trail-cry changed to a fierce growl as he sprang +for the buck's nose. + +I had waited for just this moment in hiding, and jumped to meet it. The +club came down between the two heads; and there was no reserve this +time in the muscles that swung it. It caught the brute fair on the head, +where the nose begins to come up into the skull,--and he too had harried +his last deer. + +Two other curs had leaped aside with quick instinct the moment they saw +me, and vanished into the thickets, as if conscious of their evil doing +and anxious to avoid detection. But the third, a large collie,--a dog +that, when he does go wrong, becomes the most cunning and vicious +of brutes,--flew straight at my throat with a snarl like a gray wolf +cheated of his killing. I have faced bear and panther and bull moose +when the red danger-light blazed into their eyes; but never before or +since have I seen such awful fury in a brute's face. It swept over me +in an instant that it was his life or mine; there was no question or +alternative. A lucky cut of the club disabled him, and I finished the +job on the spot, for the good of the deer and the community. + +The big buck had not moved, nor tried to, after his last great effort. +Now he only turned his head and lifted it wearily, as if to get away +from the intolerable smell of his dog enemies that lay dying under his +very nose. His great, sorrowful, questioning eyes were turned on me +continually, with a look that only innocence could possibly meet. No +man on earth, I think, could have looked into them for a full moment and +then raised his hand to slay. + +I approached very quietly, and dragged the dogs away from him, one by +one. His eyes followed me always. His nostrils spread, his head came up +with a start when I flung the first cur aside to leeward. But he made no +motion; only his eyes had a wonderful light in them when I dragged his +last enemy, the one he had killed himself, from under his very head and +threw it after the others. Then I sat down quietly in the snow, and we +were face to face at last. + +He feared me--I could hardly expect otherwise, while a deer has +memory--but he lay perfectly still, his head extended on the snow, his +sides heaving. After a little while he made a few bounds forward, at +right angles to the course he had been running, with marvelous instinct +remembering the nearest point in the many paths out of which the pack +had driven him. But he stopped and lay quiet at the first sound of my +snowshoes behind him. "The chase law holds. You have caught me; I am +yours,"--this is what his sad eyes were saying. And sitting down quietly +near him again, I tried to reassure him. "You are safe. Take your own +time. No dog shall harm you now."--That is what I tried to make him feel +by the very power of my own feeling, never more strongly roused than now +for any wild creature. + +I whistled a little tune softly, which always rouses the wood folk's +curiosity; but as he lay quiet, listening, his ears shot back and forth +nervously at a score of sounds that I could not hear, as if above the +music he caught faint echoes of the last fearful chase. Then I brought +out my lunch and, nibbling a bit myself, pushed a slice of black bread +over the crust towards him with a long stick. + +It was curious and intensely interesting to watch the struggle. At first +he pulled away, as if I would poison him. Then a new rich odor began to +steal up into his hungry nostrils. For weeks he had not fed full; he had +been running hard since daylight, and was faint and exhausted. And in +all his life he had never smelled anything so good. He turned his head +to question me with his eyes. Slowly his nose came down, searching for +the bread. "If he would only eat!-that is a truce which I would +never break," I kept thinking over and over, and stopped eating in my +eagerness to have him share with me the hunter's crust. His nose touched +it; then through his hunger came the smell of the man--the danger smell +that had followed him day after day in the beautiful October woods, and +over white winter trails when he fled for his life, and still the man +followed. The remembrance was too much. He raised his head with an +effort and bounded away. + +I followed slowly, keeping well out to one side of his trail, and +sitting quietly within sight whenever he rested in the snow. Wild +animals soon lose their fear in the presence of man if one avoids all +excitement, even of interest, and is quiet in his motions. His fear was +gone now, but the old wild freedom and the intense desire for life--a +life which he had resigned when I appeared suddenly before him, and the +pack broke out behind--were coming back with renewed force. His bounds +grew longer, firmer, his stops less frequent, till he broke at last +into a deer path and shook himself, as if to throw off all memory of the +experience. + +From a thicket of fir a doe, that had been listening in hiding to the +sounds of his coming and to the faint unknown click, which was the voice +of my snowshoes, came out to meet him. Together they trotted down the +path, turning often to look and listen, and vanished at last, like gray +shadows, into the gray stillness of the March woods. + + + + +GLOSSARY OF INDIAN NAMES + + Cheokhes, the mink. + Ch'geegee-lokh, the chickadee. + Cheplahgan, the bald eagle. + Chigwooltz, the bullfrog. + Clote Scarpe, a legendary hero, like Hiawatha, of the Northern + Indians. Pronounced variously, Clote Scarpe, Groscap, Gluscap, + etc. + Deedeeaskh, the blue jay. + Hukweem, the great northern diver, or loon. + Ismaques, the fish-hawk. + Kagax, the weasel. + Kakagos, the raven. + Keeokuskh, the muskrat. + Keeonekh, the otter. + Killooleet, the white-throated sparrow. + Kookooskoos, the great horned owl. + Koskomenos, the kingfisher. + Kupkawis, the barred owl. + Kwaseekho, the sheldrake. + Lhoks, the panther. + Malsun, the wolf. + Meeko,the red squirrel. + Megaleep, the caribou. + Milicete, the name of an Indian tribe; written also Malicete. + Mitches, the birch partridge, or ruffed grouse. + Moktaques, the hare. + Mooween, the black bear. + Musquash, the muskrat. + Nemox, the fisher. + Pekquam, the fisher. + Seksagadagee, the Canada grouse, or spruce partridge. + Skooktum, the trout. + Tookhees, the wood grouse. + Upweekis, the Canada lynx. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Secret of the Woods, by William J. 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