OUR COUNTRY H O M K 



gone. He is intelligent, too. and knows traps as far as he can see 

 them; for him and for Molly Cottontail the only resource is a gun. 



One other four-footed creature comes into our woodland with- 

 out invitation and gets no welcome. Two polecats this summer, 

 driven from a neighboring estate, took possession of a woodchuck's 

 hole with its two entrances, a roomy and comfortable mansion 

 ready to be furnished. Here in the solitude of the forest they lived 

 peacefully. Perhaps it would not be best to inquire about their 

 food. We keep no chickens. An enthusiastic but rather ignor- 

 ant young visitor came in from the woods one morning with thrill 

 ing tales of a "wild cat all black and white. ' which he had seen, 

 peering from a hole in the ground. A scouting expedition was 

 sent out and, later, an armed detachment, with a result that there 

 were five fewer skunks on earth; but the odor hung over the 

 forest for hours. 



I have learned to endure, even to admire, at a distance, that 

 natural enemy of woman, the snake. This admiration applies 

 specifically to the small and innocent garden snake which eats the 

 aphides on the roses and keeps the spiraeas healthy. In the woods 

 they frequently dart across the quiet pathways, and for years they 

 have made a nest in a bed of shrubbery near the lake. This sum- 

 mer one became so tame that he lived under the south terrace wall, 

 frequently sunning himself on the top, and apparently not at all 

 disturbed as I snipped and weeded near him. Being of an adven- 

 turous spirit he was soon at home on the terrace itself, and even 



206 



