OUTDOORS 



ing loose. It is a regrettable occurrence, of 

 course, for one to crawl about a quarter of 

 a mile through dusty surroundings in order 

 to gain a point of vantage, and on peering 

 out to discover that his fat friend has taken 

 the alarm and is now in the safety-deposit 

 vaults some twenty feet underground. But 

 maybe you arched your back a trifle when 

 you were edging through the timothy, or per- 

 haps you moved the top rail of that fence 

 you wormed through. Sit down and think it 

 over. The woodchuck is gone and will not 

 show his nose until to-morrow, likely. 



A " chuck " is not good to eat, and his hide 

 is only good to make whip-lashes of, so far as 

 my experience goes. But they say that, along 

 with the rabbits, he gnaws the apple-trees, 

 and eats the turnips, and generally makes 

 himself obnoxious. And so, like the Indian, 

 he has to go. In some localities a price is on 

 his head, and wherever that is the case he is, 

 indeed, in a hard row of stumps. But much 

 persecution makes him all the warier, and 

 there are neighborhoods where the same 

 old woodchuck haunts a hill-side year after 

 year with a pertinacity and a cunning 

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