NEW GLEANINGS IN OLD FIELDS 



to it a new curve or kink every moment, or chipping 

 up my apples and pears for the seed, and snickering 

 and cachinnating as if in derision when I appear 

 upon the scene how much there is in the lives of 

 all these creatures that we should find keenly inter- 

 esting if we knew how to get at it ! 



This rainy morning I saw two red squirrels make 

 a wild dash through my garden, one in hot pursuit 

 of the other. A woven wire fence was in the way; 

 the fleeing one cleared one of the meshes neatly, but 

 his pursuer, intent on his enemy, blundered and 

 doubled up against the obstruction and was delayed 

 a moment how much I wanted to know what the 

 mad racing meant, and how it resulted! The red 

 squirrel is a perky, feather-edged creature, the hot- 

 test and most peppery rodent we have in our woods 

 and orchards, every hair of him like a live wire, 

 and many of his movements are to me quite unac- 

 countable. 



The search for the elements of the interesting in 

 nature and in life, in persons and in things well, 

 is an interesting search. 



II. THE BARN SWALLOW 



How winsome is the swallow! How tender and 

 pleasing all her notes ! Is it boyhood that she brings 

 back to us old men who were farm boys in our 

 youth? We saw the swallows play out and in the 

 wide-open barn-doors in haying-time, their steel- 



