walks through the forest, gradually re- 

 turned. A wood-pecker started up his 

 electric hammer and resumed the opera- 

 tion of drilling a deep hole into a pine 

 stub a few rods away. A blue-jay made 

 some sarcastic remarks about "Caleb" 

 and then began swinging on his gate 

 and creaking its rusty hinges. A red 

 squirrel overhead, made unintelligible, 

 but evidently derisive remarks about the 

 intrusion of strangers, and then pro- 

 ceeded to cut off spruce cones and tried 

 to drop them on my head. A king- 

 fisher flew up the brook and shook a 

 baby's tin rattle at me as he passed. An 

 old hen partridge down the log-road was 

 advising her children to "Quit! Quit! 

 Quit!" but her chicks, who were now 

 more than half grown, paid not the 

 slightest attention to her warning but 

 continued picking blue-berries just as 

 if there were no enemies within a hun- 

 dred miles. An owl on the limb of a tall 

 38 



