86 NOTES BY THE WAY. 
the architects did not work at it with much heart; 
the material was very scarce, the ice hindered, and be- 
fore the basement-story was fairly finished, winter had 
the pond under his lock and key. 
In other localities I noticed that where the nests 
were placed on the banks of streams, they were made 
secure against the floods by being built amid a small 
clump of bushes. When the fall of 1879 came, the 
muskrats were very tardy about beginning their house, 
laying the corner-stone-—or the corner-sod — about 
December 1st, and continuing the work slowly and 
indifferently. On the 15th of the month the nest was 
not yet finished. This, I said, indicates a mild winter ; 
and, sure enough, the season was one of the mildest 
known for many years. The rats had little use for 
their house. 
Again, in the fall of 1880, while the weather-wise 
were wagging their heads, some forecasting a mild, 
some a severe winter, | watched with interest for a 
sign from my muskrats. About November Ist, a month 
earlier than the previous year, they began their nest, 
and worked at it with a will. They appeared to have 
just got tidings of what was coming. If I had taken 
the hint so palpably given, my celery would not have 
been frozen in the ground, and my apples caught 
in unprotected places. When the cold wave struck 
us, about November 20th, my four-legged “ I-told-you- 
so’s’ had nearly completed their dwelling ; it lacked 
only the ridge-board, so to speak; it needed a little 
“topping out,” to give it a finished look. But this 
it never got. The winter had come to stay, and it 
waxed more and more severe, till the unprecedented 
cold of the last days of December must have aston. 
ished even the wise muskrats in their snug retreat. 

