230 WAITING IN THE WILDERNESS 



feathers, scratches, and other signs that told me 

 of many of the happenings since I was last along 

 the trail. So many things did I enjoy on the 

 way to and from and around this lake, that if 

 to-day I were thrown on a wilderness island, or 

 should go to a new home, I think I would follow 

 my boyhood habit would go often to the same 

 spot, and there wait and watch for the numbers 

 of wild folk who were certain to appear each 

 day. 



I also played home animal much of the time, 

 and explored and revisited the places all around 

 my home, seldom going far from it. Other 

 places than the lake were frequently visited and 

 watched. One of these I have described in 

 "The Adventures of a Nature Guide/' This 

 often was as busy as a three-ring circus. This 

 wilderness waiting place was by a brook in a 

 grassy opening in a tall spruce wood. 



One day a lion ran by close to where I sat 

 watching. Not a footfall did I hear. He passed 

 as silently as a shadow. A dead limb broke and 

 fell from a tree. This sound alarmed a squirrel 

 and he peeped from behind a tree toward the 

 supposed danger, without showing himself. A 

 passing coyote stopped at this sound. He did 

 not move for half a minute; then he pointed his 

 nose toward something under the grass, lifted 

 one ear, turned his head, leaped, and picked up a 



