20 STenants of tl^e STtees 



brush fences. Then nature is beginning 

 to unfold her secrets, and to tell the 

 world that old, old story, that is yet new 

 with each recurring spring. It is the 

 stint of the boy to go with the hired 

 man and cut small saplings for fence 

 stakes, but he occasionally neglects his 

 portion of the fence-mending to creep 

 away into the woods after something 

 more interesting. 



Perhaps he has heard a cock partridge 

 drumming in the distance, and he wishes 

 to creep up, and catch a glimpse of this 

 wary bird upon his drumming log, with 

 head erect and pompous as a drum major, 

 sounding forth his thunderous roll-call 

 of the woods. Or it may be that the chat- 

 ter of a red squirrel in a distant thicket 

 has whetted the boy's curiosity ; or the 

 calling of the crows may have suggested 

 the possibility of locating a crow's nest. 



