AN OCTOBER DIARY, S69 



in order that the traps might be visited as early in the day 

 as possible, and no time be taken from the ordinary 

 work-day. If not this, I am puzzled to know why oth- 

 erwise clear-headed men should be such fools. Such a 

 notion, so originating, might readily be handed down 

 and perpetuated as a superstition long after the circum- 

 stances which gave rise to it had passed away. The 

 practical Quakers who settled Central New Jersey cer- 

 tainly turned everything to advantage, and were ever 

 ready to profit, even by a little cunning of an innocent 

 kind. The concern was only on their minds if they 

 failed to reap every possible gain, and never that their 

 fellow-men miglit possibly question the means adopted, 

 and doubtless cunning Quakers started the story of the 

 powerful influence of sunlight upon traps. 



No night so long but morning follows; and at day- 

 break the fun offers of the round of the rabbit traps. The 

 first breath of the air this morning suggested a rabbit in 

 some one of the traps, too. There was a frosty snap in 

 the sleepy breeze that barely stirred the pines, but which 

 now and then whirled the dead leaves in the wood-path, 

 as though stirred by an unseen finger. The blue-jays 

 screamed with more than usual vigor, the chipmunks 

 chattered, the nuthatches querulously complained, and 

 every crow in the tall oaks cawed a warning to its fel- 

 lows far afield. 



First, to the quince-bush in the gaiden. The trap 

 was open. Never mind, there are three along the 

 hillside ; and down through the green briers, beyond the 

 lone cedar, where winds a narrow path, is the second 

 trap. It, too, is open. Then to the chimp of hyssop and 



16* 



