IS IT A LIFE OF FEAR? 



71 



certainly have ended fatally. The boys were coming 

 through the wood-lot where the man was chopping, 

 when down the hillside toward them rushed a little 

 chipmunk, his teeth a-chatter with terror ; for close 

 behind him, with the easy, wavy motion 

 of a shadow, glided a dark-brown ani- 

 mal, which the man took on the instant 

 for a mink, but which must have been 

 a large weasel or a pine marten. When 

 almost at the feet of the boys, and 

 about to be seized by the marten, the 

 squeaking chipmunk ran up a tree. 

 Up glided the marten, up for twenty 

 feet, when the chipmunk jumped. It 

 was a fearfully close call. 



The marten did not dare to jump, 

 but turned and started down, when the 

 man intercepted him 

 with a stick. 

 Around and 

 around the 

 tree he 



dodged, growling and snarling and avoid- 



ing the stick, not a bit abashed, fpF stubbornly 

 holding his own, until forced to seek refuge among 

 the branches. Meanwhile, the terrified chipmunk 

 had recovered his nerve and sat quietly watching 

 the sudden turn of affairs from a near-by stump. 

 I frequently climb into the cupola of the barn 



