60 Wilderness Ways. 



cap, or even your head ; and then you feel the weight 

 and the edge of Kookooskoos' claws. But he never 

 learns wisdom by mistakes; for, spite of his grave 

 appearance, he is excitable as a Frenchman ; and so, 

 whenever anything stirs in the bushes and a bit of 

 fur appears, he cries out to himself, A rat, Kookoo ! 

 a rabbit! and swoops on the instant. 



Rats and rabbits are his favorite food, by the way, 

 and he never lets a chance go by of taking them into 

 camp. I think I never climbed to his nest without 

 finding plenty of the fur of both animals to tell of 

 his skill in hunting. 



One evening in the twilight, as I came home from 

 hunting in the big woods, I heard the sound of deer 

 feeding just ahead. I stole forward to the edge of a 

 thicket and stood there motionless, looking and listen- 

 ing intently. My cap was in my pocket, and only my 

 head appeared above the low firs that sheltered me. 

 Suddenly, without noise or warning of any kind, I 

 received a sharp blow on the head from behind, as if 

 some one had struck me with a thorny stick. I turned 

 quickly, surprised and a good bit startled; for I thought 

 myself utterly alone in the woods and I was. 

 There was nobody there. Not a sound, not a motion 

 broke the twilight stillness. Something trickled on 

 my neck ; I put up my hand, to find my hair already 



