WILDWOOD WAYS 



accents of the great world, but if I am 

 any judge of countenances he is saying: 

 " Why, damme, sir ! how dare you intrude 

 on my privacy ! " 



After all he has a right to be indig- 

 nant, for I have not only wrecked his 

 winter home, but turned him out, un- 

 clothed and unprotected, to die in the first 

 nip of the shrewish wind. Unmolested 

 he w r ould have leisurely enlarged his pith 

 hall by eating away its substance and in 

 the spring have bored himself a cunning 

 hole whence he might emerge, spread 

 tiny wings and enjoy the sunshine and 

 soft air of summer. His own transfor- 

 mations from egg to grub, from grub to 

 gall-fly, are curious enough ; yet stranger 

 yet and far more savoring of magic is 

 the growth of his winter home. By 

 what hocus-pocus trie mother that laid 

 him there made the slender stem of the 

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