THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 19 



kicks into the air and is off, — leaving a pretty 

 tangle for the dog to unravel later on, by this 

 mighty jump to the side. 



My children and the man were witnesses re- 

 cently of an exciting, and, for this section of 

 Massachusetts, a novel race, which, but for them, 

 must certainly have ended fatally. The boys had 

 picked up the morning fall of chestnuts, and were 

 coming through the wood-lot where the man was 

 chopping, when down the hillside toward them 

 rushed a little chipmunk, his teeth a-chatter with 

 terror, for close behind him, with the easy wavy 

 motion of a shadow, glided a dark brown animal, 

 which the man took on the instant for a mink, 

 but which must have been a large weasel or a pine 

 marten. When almost at the feet of the boys, 

 and about to be seized by the marten, the squeak- 

 ing chipmunk ran up a tree. Up glided the mar- 

 ten, up for twenty feet. Then the chipmunk 

 jumped. It was a fearfully close call. The marten 

 did not dare to jump, but turned and started down, 

 when the man intercepted him with a stick. 

 Around and around the tree he dodged, growling 

 and snarling and avoiding the stick, not a bit 

 abashed, stubbornly holding his own, until forced 



