Hopkins's Pond. 5 



In the autumn the muskrats built cosy 

 houses of calamus and cattail at the 

 head of the pond, and one could find a 

 raccoon track under the button bushes if 

 he knew just where to pull the branches 

 aside to look for it. Wood-ducks floated 

 among fallen leaves in the shallow cove 

 where sere and brown grasses hung their 

 loads of rich nutritious seeds within easy 

 reach, and sometimes a black duck spent 

 two or three days among the frost-killed 

 weeds on the low islands where splashy 

 waves and autumn rains had made good 

 woodcock ground under the alders. Katy- 

 dids and tree crickets katydided in the 

 venerable and respected maple tree, while 

 the disbanded chorus of hylas piped with 

 solitary voices in the woods which had 

 been littered by a departing season. The 

 old rickety bridge lay slanting upon its 

 abutments. Its beams had been obliged 

 to yield a little in the spring freshet when 

 the ice had jammed against them. The 

 chestnut planking of the bridge was 

 warped, and where horses' feet had punc- 

 tured the rotting boards pine slabs were 



