THE MUSKRAT 



The trapper's skiff invades all his 

 pleasant waters ; on every hand he hears 

 the splash of its paddles, the clank of its 

 setting pole, and he can scarcely show 

 his head above water but a deadly shower 

 of lead bursts upon it. He hears the 

 simulated call of his beloved, and voy- 

 aging hot-hearted to the cheating tryst 

 meets only death. 



At last comes the summer truce and 

 happy days of peace in the tangled jun- 

 gle of the marsh, with the wild duck 

 and bittern nesting beside his watery 

 path, the marsh wren weaving her rushy 

 bower above it. 



So the days of his life go on, and the 

 days of his race continue in the land 

 of his unnumbered generations. Long 

 may he endure to enliven the drear 

 tameness of civilization with a memory 

 of the world's old wildness. 

 204 



