ioo THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



"Hard luck," he said. "It's a big skunk. 

 Here, you take these traps, and you '11 catch him ; 

 anybody can catch a skunk." 



And I did catch him. I killed him, too, in spite 

 of the great scarcity of the creatures. Yet I was 

 sorry, and, perhaps, too hasty; for catching him 

 near the coop was no proof. He might have wan- 

 dered this way by chance. I should have put him 

 in a bag and carried him down to Valley Swamp 

 and liberated him. 



That day, while my neighbor was gone with 

 his milk wagon, I slipped through the back pas- 

 ture and hung the two traps up on their nail in 

 the can-house. 



I went anxiously to the chicken-yard the next 

 morning. All forty came out to be counted. It 

 must have been the skunk, I was thinking, as I 

 went on into the brooding-house, where six hens 

 were still sitting. 



One of the hens was off her nest and acting 

 queerly. Her nest was empty ! Not a chick, not 

 a bit of shell ! I lifted up the second hen in the 

 row, and of her thirteen eggs, only three were 

 left. The hen next to her had five eggs; the 

 fourth hen had four. Forty chickens gone (count- 



