"Oct. 15th: Nimrod caught a wood- 

 chuck to-day, a baby one, and we called 

 him Johnny. Johnny stayed with us 

 all day in his cage, while Nimrod made 

 a sketch of him and I took his picture. 

 Then, in the late afternoon, we took 

 him back to his home in the stone-clad 

 hill, and put him among his brothers 

 and sisters, who peeped cautiously at us 

 from various rocky niches, higher up 

 the hill. 



Little Johnny must have had a great 

 deal to say of the strange ways and food 

 of the big white animal. It must have 

 been hard, too, for him to have found 

 suitable woodchuck language to express 

 his sensations when he was carried, oh ! 

 such a long way, in a big sack that grew 

 on the side of his captor; and of the 

 taste of peppermint candy, which he ate 

 in his prettiest style, sitting on his 



