could I do but let them go even into my own 

 meadow? This has happened several times. 



When the drought dries the meadow, the voles 

 come to the deep, walled spring at the upper end, 

 apparently to drink. The water usually trickles over 

 the curb, but in a long dry spell it shrinks a foot or 

 more below the edge, and the voles, once within for 

 their drink, cannot get out. Time and time again I 

 had fished them up, until I thought to leave a board 

 slanting down to the water, so that they could climb 

 back to the top. 



It is stupid and careless to drown thus. The voles 

 are blunderers. White-footed mice and house mice 

 are abundant in the stumps and grass of the vicinity, 

 but they never tumble into the spring. Still, I am 

 partly responsible for the voles, for I walled up the 

 spring and changed it into this trap. I owe them 

 the drink and the plank, for certainly there are rights 

 of mice, as well as of men, in this meadow of mine, 

 where I do little but mow. But even if they have no 

 rights, surely 



A daimen icker in a thrave 

 'S a sma' request 



for such of them as the foxes, cats, skunks, snakes, 



95 



