Pond Life 
while three of her young ones, evidently 
just out of the nest, chattered loudly to 
her, from the summit of a tall spruce 
fir, to bring them a mouse apiece, as 
quickly as she could. Then some young 
crows were trying their wings in the 
trees over my head, while every now 
and then I could hear the peculiar laugh 
of the woodpeckers, or the scratching 
made by a squirrel’s claws as one of 
these active little creatures scampered up 
the rough bark of a dead fir-tree. In 
this same wood one day I saw a squirrel 
fall from the very topmost branch of a 
big tree, which, being quite rotten, broke 
under its weight. They came down to- 
gether with a tremendous thump, nearly 
hitting me on the head, and | fully ex- 
pected the squirrel to be killed. But 
not a bit; it was up the next tree before 
114 
