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diff --git a/old/sctwd10.txt b/old/sctwd10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b698985 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/sctwd10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4621 @@ +Project Gutenberg Etext Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + + +Secret of the Woods + +by William J. 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LONG + +Wood Folk Series Book Three + +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 be 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 bim, 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 tbat, 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 be 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 Project Gutenberg Etext Secret of the Woods, by William J. Long + |