AUTUMN 61 



surely was, and from all we saw of her she 

 might have been accounted a very useful 

 farm-hand; but perhaps, as farmers some- 

 times say of unprofitable cattle, she would 

 soon have " eaten her head off" in the poul- 

 try yard. She was not fearless, like a 

 woodchuck that once walked up to me and 

 smelled of my boot, as I stood still in the 

 road near the Crawford House, but simply 

 off her guard ; and our finding her in such 

 a mood was simply a bit of good luck. 

 Some day, possibly, we shall catch a weasel 

 asleep. 



In a vacation season, like our annual fort- 

 night in New Hampshire, there is no pre- 

 dicting which jaunt, if any, will turn out 

 superior to all the rest. It may be a longer 

 and comparatively newer one (although in 

 Franconia we find few new ones now, partly 

 because we no longer seek them the old is 

 better, we are apt to say when any innovation 

 is suggested) ; or, thanks to something in 

 the day or something in the mood, it may 

 be one of the shortest and most familiar. 

 And when it is over, there may be a sweet- 

 ness in the memory, but little to talk about ; 



