9 o THE FACE OF THE FIELDS 



continental scope, to look after the preservation 

 and further introduction of the skunk as the 

 friend and ally of man, as the most useful of all 

 our insectivorous creatures, bird or beast. 



What, may I ask, was this one of mine doing 

 here on the edge of the February woods % He was 

 grubbing. He had been driven out of his winter 

 bed by hunger, and he had been driven out into 

 the open snowy sunshine by the cold, because the 

 nights (he is nocturnal) were still so chill that 

 the soil would freeze at night past his ploughing. 

 Thus it chanced, at high noon, that I came upon 

 him, grubbing among my soft, wet leaves, and 

 grubbing for nothing less than obnoxious in- 

 sects ! 



My heart warmed to him. He was ragged 

 and thin, he was even weak, I thought, by the 

 way he staggered as he made off. It had been a 

 hard winter for men and for skunks, particularly 

 hard for skunks on account of the unbroken suc- 

 cession of deep snows. This skunk had been 

 frozen into his den, to my certain knowledge, 

 since the last of November. 



Nature is a severe mother. The hunger of this 

 starved creature ! To be put to bed without even 



