130 WINTER SUNSHINE 



they. If these resources fail to yield anything, 

 I have learned to look between the bases of the 

 suckers which spring thickly from some horizontal 

 limb, for now and then one lodges there, or in the 

 very midst of an alder-clump, where they are covered 

 by leaves, safe from cows which may have smelled 

 them out. If I am sharp-set, — for I do not refuse 

 the blue-pearmain, — I fill my pockets on each side; 

 and as I retrace my steps in the frosty eve, being 

 perhaps four or five miles from home, I eat one first 

 from this side, and then from that, to keep my 

 balance." 



