6 Hopkins's Pond. 



nailed as a provision against accident 

 and unwise expenditure. Hay seed that 

 had sifted down from August loads 

 sprouted in the dust on the girders, and it 

 rattled down into the water when we 

 turned up a plank in order to slyly poke 

 a copper wire noose in front of the un- 

 suspicious white-nosed suckers as they 

 patiently worked from rock to rock along 

 the bottom under the fancied protection 

 of the bridge. 



When winter came over the pond the 

 hemlocks sighed very often, for they loved 

 rivalry with other trees in foliage, and the 

 blue jays went to them to offer sympathy. 

 Green and blue added a bright bit of color 

 to the white landscape and pursuaded the 

 distant winter sky to come nearer. Soft- 

 footed rabbits carelessly left whole rows 

 of rabbit tracks in the snow where black- 

 berry briers offered tempting nipping, and 

 the thick rushes were as full of quail 

 tracks as an egg is full of meat. In the 

 cold, still winter midnight, when the be- 

 lated traveller blew his frosted finger-tips 

 and trudged noiselessly along through the 



