830 UPLAND AND MEADOW. 



ing instances of this fact of which I have knowledge is 

 that of a pair of raccoons that took up their abode in a 

 hollow apple-tree not two hundred yards from a farm- 

 house. Here they lived all one winter and spring, and 

 only by mere chance were they discovered during the 

 summer. So systematic had these 'coons been in all this 

 time, that not even their young were seen ; and yet these 

 cunning creatures feasted on my neighbor's poultry 

 quite frequently, and in thus outwitting both dogs 

 and men they certainly offer convincing evidence of the 

 power of " close calculation " on their part. 



The evening proved quiet and eventless. As I w^alked 

 down the lane I saw a single apple on the top of a tall 

 tree, and after throwing nihety-and-nine sticks at it, it 

 came dow^n of its own accord. It was stale, flat, and 

 unprofitable. 



The tree that bore it was full of bloom in May, and 

 one worthless apple the result, in October! If I do 

 them no injustice this is like some people I have met. 

 Full of blushing promises in the spring, and autumn 

 passes with but one poor performance, or none. 



Turning to the woods, I heard what I took to be the 

 last katydid of the season. It gasped, or rather rasped, 

 "Katy" a dozen times, and finally accomplished one 

 melancholy " did." The poor thing had grown old, and 

 these last efforts may have been complaints that it was 

 forced to await the summons of another frost before it 

 joined its kindred. 



How seldom one thinks of the possibility, not the in- 

 evitability, of growing old ! Yet, taking a retrospective 



