MY WOODLAND INTIMATES 



ing of certain pleasures peculiar to this region, 

 amply compensate her for all fatigues of travel 

 and the loss of many home comforts. She never 

 strays far from my side, and you may see her 

 now, over in the open beyond the old stump at 

 your right. What her perpetual quest among 

 the grasses may mean I cannot determine. Now 

 and then she finds a wild strawberry ; sometimes 

 she goes on a butterfly chase happily in the lat- 

 ter case the objects of the hunt are always just 

 beyond her reach but on all these occasions her 

 purpose is evident. I find the puzzle in the care- 

 ful sniffing of the ground ; the slow, cautious fol- 

 lowing along some intangible line; the sudden 

 pausing, and equally sudden drawing back as if 

 to avoid attack; then the settling down and gaz- 

 ing intently, perhaps for minutes, at an apparently 

 untenanted bit of soil. WTiat does it all mean? 

 Is it a feint ? A mere harmless pretence at hunt- 

 ing ? Or is she following the course of some un- 

 derground creature, some invisible dweller in the 

 soil? 



I have no doubt that her passing startles many 

 a little denizen of the fields, but I have never 

 known her to harm anything. 



But now of the walk of which I have spoken. 



[232] 



