56 Musings by Camp- Fire and Wayside 



which he runs down and captures in a fair foot-race, 

 so to speak, under water. The duck lets the loon's 

 fish alone, and eats first the lily seeds, then the wild 

 rice, and last the rush-corn. 



Now comes the deer from the land. He is some- 

 thing of a poacher on the duck's preserves, but 

 there is plenty for all. And yet his principal living 

 is the acorns and the browse. He only tops off 

 with rush-corn, rice, and a lily root. 



Now comes the fox, with the badger and some 

 more of them. He wants nothing that the other 

 members of the society want. He will take turtle 

 eggs — and alas, here is a discord in my symphony! — 

 duck eggs, and young ducklings, too. I must leave 

 him out! 



Now come the beaver and the porcupine. They 

 want nothing that any of the others like. All they 

 ask is plenty of birch leaves and popple bark. 



As for Brother Otter, he meddles with nobody's 

 kitchen, not even with the loon's, though his exclu- 

 sive diet is fish. But he eats no fish that is the 

 right size for the loon. He goes for from two to 

 ten pounders. 



Brother Bear likes venison, but he cannot have 

 any, excepting very rarely. He fattens up on ber- 

 ries and frog-legs and speckled trout, though the 

 latter are a luxury. He has to stand in the rocky run- 

 ways and toss them out when they run over his paws. 



Of course there are some abominably mean 

 people in this society, just to set the social virtues 



