1 8 MY GARDEN ACQUAINTANCE. 



mind for weeks. I love to bring these aborigines back to the 

 mansuetude they showed to the early voyagers, and before 

 (forgive the involuntary pun) they had grown accustomed to 

 man and knew his savage ways. And they repay your 

 kindness with a sweet familiarity too delicate ever to breed 

 contempt. I have made a Penn-treaty with them, preferring 

 that to the Puritan way with the natives, which converted 

 them to a little Hebraism and a great deal of Medford rum. 

 If they will not come near enough to me (as most of them 

 will), I bring them close with an opera-glass a much better 

 weapon than a gun. I would not, if I could, convert them 

 from their pretty pagan ways. The only one I sometimes 

 have savage doubts about is the red squirrel. I think he 

 oologizes. I know he eats cherries (we counted five of them 

 at one time in a single tree, the stones pattering down like the 

 sparse hail that preludes a storm), and that he gnaws off 

 the small end of pears- to get at the seeds. He steals the 

 corn from under the noses of my poultry. But what would 

 you have ? He will come down upon the limb of the tree I 

 am lying under till he is within a yard of me. He and his 

 mate will scurry up and down the great black- walnut for my 

 diversion, chattering like monkeys. Can I sign his death- 

 warrant who has tolerated me about his grounds so long ? 

 Not I. Let them steal, and welcome. I am sure I should, 

 had I had the same bringing up and the same temptation. 

 As for the birds, I do not believe there is one of them but 

 does more good than harm ; and of how many featherless 

 bipeds can this be said ? 



A GOOD WORD FOR WINTER. 



&amp;lt;A /T EN scarcely know how beautiful fire is, says Shelley; 

 1V1 and I am apt to think there are a good many other 

 things concerning which their knowledge might be largely 

 increased without becoming burdensome. Nor are they al 

 together reluctant to be taught not so reluctant, perhaps, 

 as unable and education is sure to find one fulcrum ready 

 to her hand by which to get a purchase on them. For most 

 of us, I have noticed, are not without an amiable willingness 

 to assist at any spectacle or entertainment (loosely so called) 



