OUR COUNTRY NEIGHBORS. 83 



them the same purpose that spring shopping does with us ; 

 and where they went afterwards we do not know. People 

 speak of snakes' holes, and we have seen them disappear- 

 ing into such subterranean chambers ; but we never opened 

 one to see what sort of underground housekeeping went 

 on there. After the first few days of spring, a snake was 

 a rare visitor, though now and then one appeared. 



One was discovered taking his noontide repast one day 

 in a manner which excited much prejudice. He was, in 

 fact, regaling himself by sucking down into his maw a 

 small frog, which he had begun to swallow at the toes, 

 and had drawn about half down. The frog, it must be 

 confessed, seemed to view this arrangement with great indif- 

 ference, making no struggle, and sitting solemnly, with his 

 great unwinking eyes, to be sucked in at the leisure of his 

 captor. There was immense sympathy, however, excited 

 for him in the family circle ; and it was voted that a snake 

 which indulged in such very disagreeable modes of eating 

 his dinner was not to be tolerated in our vicinity. So 

 I have reason to believe that that was his last meal. 



Another of our wild woodland neighbors made us some 

 trouble. It was no other than a veritable woodchuck, 

 whose hole we had often wondered at when we were 

 scrambling through the underbrush after spring flowers. 

 The hole was about the size of a peck-measure, and had 

 two openings about six feet apart. The occupant was a 



