218 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



Frequently in the wilds I sat still for hours. 

 I often had many surprises in the way of visiting 

 birds and animals who came near. Several 

 times a single skunk came near, and three or four 

 times a mother skunk and children. I knew 

 that each of the family had a surprise concealed 

 on its person, and I was surprised that nothing 

 was thrown at me. 



Then another day I was many times sur- 

 prised. Bees were buzzing about, and while I 

 was edging off from them, I butted into a willow 

 that was bending beneath a business gathering 

 of a few hundred bees. They raised several 

 points of order on me, and in getting away, I took 

 a header over thick brush and crashed down 

 almost upon the spraying end of a skunk. This 

 was a surprise. But the range was high and the 

 bees who met it turned tail. As I ran on I began 

 to understand how skunks, as I had heard, had 

 put hornets to rout, and had eaten a hornet's 

 house and contents. 



Most wild life are not tramps and gypsies 

 but are likely to spend their days and finally 

 die not far from where they were born. John 

 Burke wrote me that for three years he kept 

 track of a rabbit with a slit ear; and that for four 

 summers the same robin returned to nest near 

 the window of his room. 



A chipmunk had a den in a V-shaped strip 



