192 THE JONATHAN PAPERS 



just out of sight, and not always that. The 

 blue jays scream in the tree-tops, officiously 

 proclaiming us to the woods; the chickadees, 

 who must see all that goes on, hop close beside 

 us in the bushes; the gray squirrel dodges 

 behind a tree trunk with just the corner of an 

 eye peering at us around it. The chipmunk 

 darts into the stone wall, and doubtless looks 

 at us from its safe depths; the rabbit gallops 

 off from the brier tangle or the brush heap, or 

 sits up, round-eyed, thinking, little silly, that 

 we don t see him. Once I saw a beautiful red 

 fox who leaped into the open for a moment, 

 stood poised, and leaped on into the brush; 

 and once, as I sat resting, a woodchuck, big 

 and uncombed, hustled busily past me, so 

 close I could have touched him. He did not 

 see me, and seemed so preoccupied with some 

 pressing business that I should hardly have 

 been surprised to see him pull a watch out of 

 his pocket, like Alice s rabbit, and mutter, &quot;I 

 shall be late.&quot; I had not known that the wood 

 creatures ever felt hurried except when pur 

 sued. Another time I was working up the 

 slope on the sunny edge of a run, and, as I 

 drew myself up over the edge of a big rock, I 



