New Walks in Old Ways 



their bleeding victims, snatched from 

 shallow waters. And those horrible 

 vultures! And big, black turkey buz- 

 ards! 



How long had this gathering of all 

 the wild creatures of the earth and sky 

 to be endured ? How long was it to be 

 before they claimed their easy prey? 

 Only a matter of minutes surely. Why 

 had we ever tried to tempt the spirits 

 of the wilderness of which the whites 

 now had possession? Why had we 

 not been satisfied with just imagining, 

 or watching from the safe shelter of 

 our own dooryards or the pastures near 

 the old red barn, within easy running 

 distance of the house? Fools that we 

 were! We might have known better 

 than to walk deliberately into such a 

 trap. I knew now just how that wood- 

 chuck felt the other day when I went 

 to get him out of the snare I had set 

 for him. He stood just as much chance 

 of getting away alive as I did here in 

 the center of this awful aggregation, 

 [206! 



