EYE-BEAMS 127 



had seen the fox stalking stealthily through the 

 woods, and the sight had probably brought his heart 

 into his mouth. I think he climbed a tree, and 

 waited till the fox passed. His track disappeared 

 amid a clump of hemlocks, and then reappeared again 

 a little beyond them. It described a big loop around, 

 and then crossed the fox track only a few yards from 

 the point where its course was interrupted. Then 

 it followed a little watercourse, went under a rude 

 bridge in a wood-road, then mingled with squirrel 

 tracks in a denser part of the thicket. If the mink 

 met a muskrat or a rabbit in his travels, or came 

 upon a grouse, or quail, or a farmer's hen-roost, he 

 the supper he was in quest of. 



VI 

 A LEGLESS CLIMBER 



The eye always sees what it wants to see, and 

 the ear hears what it wants to hear. If I am in- 

 tent upon birds' -nests in my walk, I find birds' - 

 nests everywhere. Some people see four -leaved 

 clovers wherever they look in the grass. A friend 

 of mine picks up Indian relics all about the fields; 

 he has Indian relics in his eye. I have seen him 

 turn out of the path at right angles, as a dog will 

 when he scents something, and walk straight away 

 several rods, and pick up an Indian pounding-stone. 

 He saw it out of the corner of his eye. I find that 

 without conscious effort I see and hear birds with 

 like ease. Eye and ear are always on the alert. 



One day in early June I was walking with some 



