WOODCHUCKS 



which certainly call for some degree of ad- 

 miration. 



In the pictures of out-doors he is one of 

 the quaintest of objects harmless, medita- 

 tive, and grave as Solomon himself. He is 

 of no particular use, it may be cheerfully ad- 

 mitted, but he is certainly picturesque from 

 any point of view. In the spring, the sum- 

 mer, and the fall he takes his stand by the 

 side of his burrow or on a stump, and, all 

 statuelike, devotes himself strictly to his pas- 

 sion of contemplative musing. 



When squatted on his burrow in the fall, 

 he hears the guns of the hunters on the points 

 where the " decoys " are floating, and sees 

 the lines of wild-fowl turn and scatter at the 

 sound. The cat-tails by the bridge have 

 turned sere and brown then, and the sun 

 shines with a more steady and persistent 

 glow on slope and pasture. The buzzard 

 swims in the blue like a black frigate on 

 far-away seas. Cattle graze at the edges of 

 meadows, and the fox-squirrel is preparing 

 his winter store. All day the winds are 

 . active and hickory-nuts come rattling to 

 the ground, and yet the woodchuck has no 

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