212 



UPON A DAY 







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we should see nothing then. Nature, beUeve me, is 

 not so easily seen. To all the blackbeetle Throgmor- 

 ton Street swarms she rolls herself up like a hedge- 

 hog. They repel her as " with a pitchfork." " Gently, 

 and one at a time," is her motto. So we cannot go 

 with the tent-dweller; but still, you shall not lose, for I 

 will be your Viable boiteux and show you what he 

 sees, and how he manages to see it. 



See his dress. How carefully its colour is chosen ! 

 It is hard, indeed, to say what its colour is. It is 

 neither drab, nor grey, nor green, but something 

 perhaps of each of these. It is indefinite, but it 

 harmonises so cleverly with any surroundings that it 

 needs a quick eye to detect the wearer at the distance 

 even of a hundred yards. The tent-dweller knows 

 that the first principles for the study of all wild 

 animals, from tigers to water-rats, are three in 

 number, and are these — 



Keep out of their sight. 



Keep out of their hearing. 



Keep out of their field of smell. * / ; > ^ 



Wild creatures have an instinctive dread of any- 

 thing white. You cannot stop out your rabbits more 

 effectually, if the days and nights are quiet, than by 

 the simple plan of placing pieces of white paper in the 



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