THE WOODCHUCK 



On the mound of newly digged earth 

 before it, is that erect, motionless, gray 

 and russet form a half decayed stump 

 uprising where no tree has grown within 

 your memory ? You move a little nearer 

 to inspect the strange anomaly, and lo ! 

 it vanishes, and you know it was your 

 old acquaintance, the woodchuck, stand- 

 ing guard at his door and overlooking 

 his green and blossoming domain. 



Are you not sorry, to-day at least, to 

 hear the boys and the dog besieging 

 him in his burrow or in the old stone 

 wall wherein he has taken sanctuary ? 

 Surely, the first beautiful days of his 

 open-air life should not be made so mis- 

 erable that he would wish himself asleep 

 again in the safety and darkness of win- 

 ter. But you remember that you were 

 once a boy, and your sympathies are di- 

 vided between the young savages and 

 their intended prey, which after all is 

 likelier than not to escape. 



He will tangle the meadow-grass and 

 make free with the bean patch if he 

 chances upon it, yet you are glad to see 

 the woodchuck, rejoicing like yourself in 

 the advent of spring. 

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