WILDWOOD WAYS 



Here and there along by their tepees you 

 find open breathing holes. These, I am 

 quite sure, the little fellows keep open, 

 just to be able now and then to take a 

 glimpse at the upper world, though they 

 do not need them otherwise. But that is 

 not the provision which I mean. As far 

 along the bog front as the tepees go there 

 are everywhere big white air-bubbles. 

 From the tepees out into the pond they 

 show in many places for a distance of a 

 hundred feet or more, and then cease. 

 Nowhere else in the pond are these 

 bubbles and I believe the muskrats have 

 stored them here in their various excur- 

 sions as relays, providing against just such 

 folk as myself, who might come along, 

 force them from their homes, and drown 

 them beneath the thick ice covering. 

 Thus provided, the three that I had driven 

 out would have no trouble in reaching 

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