PEPACTON 



threats nor caresses. Knowing he must be hungry, 

 I offered him my lunch, but he would not touch it. 

 I put it in his mouth, but he threw it contemptu- 

 ously from him. We coaxed and petted and reas- 

 sured him, but he was under a spell; he was bereft 

 of all thought or desire but the one passion to pur- 

 sue that trail. 



THE TREE-TOAD 



We can boast a greater assortment of toads and 

 frogs in this country than can any other land. What 

 a chorus goes up from our ponds and marshes in 

 spring! The like of it cannot be heard anywhere 

 else under the sun. In Europe it would certainly 

 have made an impression upon the literature. An 

 attentive ear will detect first one variety, then 

 another, each occupying the stage from three or 

 four days to a week. The latter part of April, 

 when the little peeping frogs are in full chorus, one 

 comes upon places, in his drives or walks late in 

 the day, where the air fairly palpitates with sound ; 

 from every little marshy hollow and spring run 

 there rises an impenetrable maze or cloud of shrill 

 musical voices. After the peepers, the next frog to 

 appear is the clucking frog, a rather small, dark- 

 brown frog, with a harsh, clucking note, which 

 later in the season becomes the well-known brown 

 wood-frog. Their chorus is heard for a few days 

 only, while their spawn is being deposited. In 

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