UNDER THE MAPLES 



coverlid of snow upon the ground. Was it because 

 they found it difficult to get up through the deep, 

 frozen snow to the surface to get seeds to eat? He 

 did not seem to know that meadow mice are not 

 seed-eaters, but that they live on grass and roots 

 and keep well hidden beneath the ground during the 

 day, when there is a deep fall of snow coming up out 

 of their dens and retreats and leading a free holiday 

 life beneath the snow, free from the danger of cats, 

 foxes, owls, and hawks. Life then becomes a sort 

 of picnic. They build new nests on the surface 

 of the ground and form new runways, and disport 

 themselves apparently in a festive mood. The 

 snow is their protection. They bark the trees and 

 take their time. When the snow is gone, their 

 winter picnic is at an end, and they retreat to their 

 dens in the ground and beneath flat stones, and lead 

 once more the life of fear. 



XII 



Sitting on my porch recently, wrapped in my 

 blanket, recovering from a slight indisposition, I 

 was in a mood to be interested in the everyday 

 aspects of nature before me — in the white and 

 purple lilacs, in the maple-leaves nearly full grown, 

 in the pendent fringe of the yellowish-white bloom 

 of the chestnut and oak, in the new shoots of the 

 grapevines, and so forth. All these things formed 

 only a setting or background for the wild life near by. 



28 



