OF MANY THINGS 199 



to frisk over soil wherein rare and curious seeds are 

 germinating. Glass hath an affinity or attraction for 

 him, and when he breaketh the same, he lifteth up his 

 voice shrilly in merriment ; but maketh still louder 

 sounds to indicate anguish, when captured and 

 chastened. At the season of Spring he haunteth 

 shrubberies, and leapeth out upon the innocent 

 traveller with horrid, inarticulate sounds. The ear 

 may mark his unseen progress through plantations 

 by the snapping of green boughs and by the outcry 

 of parent birds. Occasionally, in his efforts to secure 

 the nurseries of fowl upon lofty trees or precipices, 

 he falleth and breaketh his neck ; but this seldom 

 happeneth, because he hath a feline plenitude of 

 lives, and, in the art of self-preservation, is ever very 

 nimble, discreet, and unscrupulous. During the 

 autumnal months he affecteth the place of fruit, and 

 by strategy may there be taken at any time in the day 

 with full pockets and full cheeks. He hath no special 

 taste in fruits, but devoureth with the impartial pro- 

 fusion of the caterpillar and canker worm. The birds 

 of the air surpass him by their wise patience, for 

 they know to an hour when the perfection of plum or 

 pear has come ; but not so he. 



The human girl in lesser sort partaketh with the 

 boy, but, separated from him, doth venture upon a 

 humbler flight, and confines her trespass within 

 more reasoned limits. She weareth short petticoats, 

 and hath long legs cased in black stockings. During 

 the grub stage she is exceedingly fleet of foot so 

 much so, that the custodian of mature years may by 



