OUTDOORS 



or bring savage dogs to rend him limb from 

 limb. 



One of the troubles the woodchuck gets 

 into is with the early boy the boy of four- 

 teen years or thereabout. This youth will 

 cheerfully study and plan for a month to 

 catch any particular woodchuck on the farm. 

 The " chuck " is his sworn prey, and when 

 such a boy has fully determined to get one, 

 the " chuck " might as well take his belong- 

 ings and depart for another locality. If the 

 burrow is near a lake or anywhere close to 

 water the boy will lug bucketful after bucket- 

 ful of water to the hole and drown the 

 prophet out. He will set traps for him 

 " dead-fall/' steel trap, or box-trap and if 

 all these arts avail not he will sit as patiently 

 as an Indian for hours near the hole. In his 

 hands he will have the family howitzer a 

 bored-out musket or a single-barrelled shot- 

 gun and when the woodchuck stealthily 

 creeps out he will be saluted with a deafening 

 roar of artillery, and a handful of good-sized 

 shot will come straight for his devoted car- 

 cass. 



Shooting woodchucks with a rifle is quite 

 166 



