POAETQUISSINGS IN WINTER. 39 



distinct, is-also to be found in the fields, I have recently 

 been led to believe. It is one of more active habits, an 

 excellent climber, and nests in the corn-shocks, instead 

 of on the ground. It is probably the Southern harvest 

 mouse, but may be different ; perhaps a " geographical 

 variety." 



A curious tree is the crooked maple near the first 

 bend in the creek. It is the first object to strike one's 

 attention, as we pass the splendid elms on the "fourteen 

 acre" piece, of which more hereafter. As a boy I 

 knew it best as the N tree, and I still call it by that 

 name. The thrifty sapling has evidently met with an 

 accident in early life, and the main stem has been bent, 

 if not broken, until it fell forward and downward tow- 

 ards the water. Bent or broken, it was not beyond 

 partial recovery, and the wound has healed after a 

 fashion, and growth continued. The top, now growing 

 waterwards, at last has met the surface of the stream, 

 and, checked in this direction, has turned again and 

 made a vigorous skyward growth. The result is a 

 trunk that has acquired the shape of a letter IST — hence 

 tlie local and expressive name. As in the case of the 

 twisted pin-oak, the unusual shape has proved the salva- 

 tion of the tree, and the shivering fuel-cntters of past 

 generations have spared it. Growing over the creek, 

 too, added to its chances ; for so crooked a tree would 

 have been troublesome to fish out of the deep waters 

 that flow beneath it. It is, I am sure, a relic of the pre- 

 ceding century ; and now is not only old, but past its 

 maturity, and partly decayed. Near the upper or first 

 acute angle in its trunk there is a hollow of small 



