IS IT A LIFE OF FEAR? 



71 





1 certainly have ended fatally. The boys 

 through the wood-lot where the man was chopping,N 

 when down the hillside toward them rushed a littler ^ 

 /chipmunk, his teeth a-chatter with terror ; for close 

 behind him, with the easy, wavy motion 

 of a shadow, glided a dark-brown ani- 

 mal, which the man took on the instant 

 for a mink, but which must have been 

 a large weasel or a pine marten. When % 

 almost at the feet of the boys, and 

 about to be seized by the marten, the 

 squeaking chipmunk ran up a tree. 

 Up glided the marten, up for twenty, 

 feet, when the chipmunk jumped. It', 

 was a fearfully close call. 



The marten did not dare to jump, 

 but turned and started down, when the 

 man intercepted him 

 with a stick. 

 A round and 

 around the 

 tree he 



dodged, growling and snarling fjjf and avoid- 

 ing the stick, not a bit abashed, ^r stubbornly 

 holding his own, until forced to seek refuge among 

 the branches. Meanwhile, the terrified chipmunk 

 had recovered his nerve and sat quietly watching 

 the sudden turn of affairs from a near-by stump. 

 I frequently climb into the cupola of the barn 







