MEPHITIS BABIES AT PLAY. 157 



straight up like a kitten's, while the other four 

 went on with their frolic in the grass. At this 

 moment I heard a rustle in the dead leaves, and 

 having no desire to meet their grown-up rela- 

 tives, I left in so great haste that I took the 

 wrong path, and finally lost myself for a time in 

 a tangle of wild raspberry bushes, whose long 

 arms reached out on every side to scratch the 

 face and hands or catch the dress of the unwary 

 passer-by. 



The other of the two ways spoken of was a 

 road, soft-carpeted with dead leaves. To reach 

 the tanager's nest we took that, and came, a 

 little further on, to a big log half covered 

 with growing fungi and laid squarely across the 

 passage. This was the fungus log, another 

 landmark for the wanderer unfamiliar with 

 these winding ways. On this, if I were alone, 

 I always rested awhile to get completely into 

 the woods spirit, for this is the heart of the 

 woods, with nothing to be seen on any side but 

 trees. Cheerful, pleasant woods they are, of 

 sunny beech, birch, maple, and butternut, with 

 branches high above our heads, and a far outlook 

 under the trees in every direction. There is no 

 gloom such as evergreens make; no barricade 

 of dark impenetrable foliage, behind which 

 might lurk anything one chose to imagine, from 

 a grizzly bear to an equally unwelcome tramp. 



