UNDER THE APPLE-TREES 



nose four or five inches. As he turned back along 

 his roadway he would rapidly paw the earth behind 

 him, and then, before entering his hole, would take 

 a quick look all around. He was never for a moment 

 off guard ; the sense of danger was ever present with 

 him. As he entered his hole, a succession of quick 

 jets of earth, forming little parabolas in the air, 

 would shoot up behind him. Then all would be still 

 for from three to four minutes, when he would again 

 emerge, shoving the soil before him and continuing 

 to butt it, quickly glancing right and left the while, 

 till he shot it upon his dump. 



This was his invariable procedure. Every motion 

 was repeated like clockwork, the forward shoving, 

 the retreating pawing, and the flying spray of earth 

 as he disappeared in his hole. 



I fancied him there underground loosening the 

 soil with his paws, for two or three minutes, then 

 either kicking it up toward the exit or else shoving 

 it in front of him. When at work he was intensely 

 preoccupied; only one other feeling seemed to pos- 

 sess him — that of impending danger. One day 

 while he was mining beneath the surface, I sprinkled 

 some corn and pumpkin-seeds along his highway 

 and in the mouth of his hole, but when he came to 

 the surface with his burden of soil he heeded them 

 not; he shoveled or pawed them along with his soil, 

 and buried them beneath it. The incident reminded 

 me of the hound I once intercepted, hot on the trail 



31 



