8 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



But, in spite of the changes wrought by the deforest- 

 ing of the country and the increased population, even 

 in these later days unfrequented corners can be found, 

 and one niay have a bit of adventure if one chooses. 



The average farmer is eminently practical, and quite 

 properly so, but if an acre cannot be reclaimed for cul- 

 tivation, or if its wood be not worth cutting for fuel, it 

 is pretty sure to be abandoned to the few who love to 

 see nature free from all artificiality. I know of an isl- 

 and in a creek, planted with swamp-sumac, where I can 

 roam at will, because this tree does not poison me, and 

 all my neighbors have to give it a wide berth, or suffer 

 the consequences ; and here I can sit as much alone as 

 though in the deepest cafion of the Colorado River of 

 the "West. But, while I have outgrown the feeling of dis- 

 appointment that I live in so tame a country, and now 

 prefer a mouse to a muskrat for a playfellow, very often 

 finding my interest in animal life to be inversely to the 

 bulk of its body, still an occasional exciting episode is 

 not distasteful, as a recent occurrence proved. 



Bitter cold though it happened to be. Miles Overfield 

 moved with deliberation across the snow-clad fields, and 

 even stopped at times to look backward and meadow- 

 ward, as though he feared something he had left behind 

 him might disappear in his absence. 



I saw him before he reached the yard, for I had been 

 out for a ramble on homemade snow-shoes — my first 

 and last experience of the kind — and we met at the 

 garden gate. 



" St !" he hissed, in a half -whisper, and raised his fore- 

 finger as he spoke, to suggest that I should stand still and 



