IX. 

 LIFE IN THE WOODS 



THE first years of my hermit life were 

 passed rambling the woods of Ward Eight, 

 Rockport, Essex, and Manchester. I bought a 

 double-barrel shotgun, not on account of the 

 game to be found in the woods, but because 

 I was told of the wonderful duck shooting in 

 Ipswich Bay. 



For three years there was a great supply 

 of acorns, and gray squirrels swarmed in the 

 woods of the Cape. The next four years 

 were years of famine to all animal life that 

 depended on acorns. The gray squirrels died 

 off by hundreds, and the second year the 

 most of the survivors migrated. Two years 

 ago there was a great crop of sweet acorns, 

 and some of the gray squirrels returned. As 

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