€^^ (mu0fet:ate are (^viiCbiniCj 



a freshet once in the end of February that flooded 

 Lupton's Pond and drove the muskrats of the whole 

 pond village to their ridgepoles, to the bushes, and 

 to whatever wreckage the waters brought along. 



The best laid schemes o' fnnskrats too 

 Gang aft a-gley. 



But ganging a-gley is not the interesting thing, not 

 the point with my muskrats : it is rather that my 

 muskrats, and the mice that Burns ploughed up, the 

 birds and the bees, and even the very trees of the 

 forest, have foresight. They all look ahead and pro- 

 vide against the coming cold. That a mouse, or a 

 muskrat, or even a bee, should occasionally prove 

 foresight to be vain, only shows that the life of the 

 fields is very human. Such foresight, however, oftener 

 proves entirely adequate for the winter, dire as some 

 of the emergencies are sure to be. 



The north wind doth blow, 

 And we shall have snow, 

 And what will Robin do then, 

 Poor thing ? 



And what will Muskrat do } and Chipmunk ? and 

 Whitefoot } and little Chickadee } poor things ! Never 

 fear. Robin has heard the trumpets of the north wind 



5 



