FIELD AND STUDY 



to it a new curve or kink every moment, or chipping 

 up my apples and pears for the seed, and snickering 

 and cachinnating as if in derision when I appear 

 upon the scene — how much there is in the Hves of 

 all these creatures that we should find keenly inter- 

 esting if we laiew how to get at it ! 



This rainy morning I saw two red squirrels make 

 a wild dash through my garden, one in hot pursuit 

 of the other. A woven \vire fence was in the way; 

 the fleeing one cleared one of the meshes neatly, but 

 his pursuer, intent on his enemy, blundered and 

 doubled up against the obstruction and was delayed 

 a moment — how much I wanted to know what the 

 mad racing meant, and how it resulted! The red 

 squirrel is a perky, feather-edged creature, the hot- 

 test and most peppery rodent we have in our woods 

 and orchards, every hair of him like a live wire, 

 and many of his movements are to me quite unac- 

 countable. 



The search for the elements of the interesting in 

 nature and in life, in persons and in things — well, 

 is an interesting search. 



II. THE BARN SWALLOW 



How winsome is the swallow! How tender and 

 pleasing all her notes ! Is it boyhood that she brings 

 back to us old men who were farm boys in our 

 youth? We saw the swallows play out and in the 

 wide-open barn-doors in haying-time, their steel- 



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