CHAPTEE XVI 



OTHEK LITTLE ANIMALS BESIDES WAHBOOS THE KAB- 

 BIT BEING AN ACCOUNT OF MUSQUASH THE MUSK- 

 KAT, SIKAK THE SKUNK, WENUSK THE BADGER, 

 AND OTHERS 



I 



Musquash the Musk-rat 



EVERY chapter in the trapper s life is not a 

 &quot; stunt.&quot; 



There are the uneventful days when the trapper 

 seems to do nothing but wander aimlessly through the 

 woods over the prairie along the margin of rush-grown 

 marshy ravines where the stagnant waters lap lazily 

 among the flags, though a feathering of ice begins to 

 rim the quiet pools early in autumn. Unless he is 

 duck-shooting down there in the hidden slough where 

 is a great &quot; quack-quack &quot; of young teals, the trapper 

 may not uncase his gun. For a whole morning he lies 

 idly in the sunlight beside some river where a round 

 ish black head occasionally bobs up only to dive under 

 when it sees the man. Or else he sits by the hour still 

 as a statue on the mossy log of a swamp where a long 

 wriggling wriggling trail marks the snaky motion of 

 some creature below the amber depths. 



To the city man whose days are regulated by clock 

 work and electric trams with the ceaseless iteration of 

 222 



