nothing to fear, nothing to give our imaginations 

 exercise. But the night remains, and if we 

 hunger for adventure, why, besides the night, 

 here is the skunk ; and the two offer a pretty 

 sure chance for excitement. Never to have 

 stood face to face in a narrow path at night 

 with a full-grown, leisurely skunk is to have 

 missed excitement and suspense second only to 

 the staring out of countenance of a green-eyed 

 wildcat. It is surely worth while, in these days 

 of parks and chipmunks, when all stir and ad- 

 venture has fled the woods, to sally out at night 

 for the mere sake of meeting a skunk, for the 

 shock of standing before a beast that will not 

 give you the path. As you back away from 

 him you feel as if you were really escaping. If 

 there is any genuine adventure left for us in 

 this age of suburbs, we must be helped to it by 

 the dark. 



Who ever had a good look at a muskrat in 

 the glare of day? I was drifting noiselessly 

 down the river, recently, when one started to 

 cross just ahead of my boat. He got near 

 midstream, recognized me, and went under like 

 a flash. Even a glimpse like this cannot be had 

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