226 IN BERKSHIRE FIELDS 



but threw his body sharply against the sky. The 

 boy with a wise dog, as well as a gun, of course had 

 an advantage always. The dog could start up the 

 game in the grass, and sometimes head him off from 

 his burrow, though the chucks do not, as a rule, go 

 far afield after food. They make their holes close 

 to where the feeding is good. It was possible, too, 

 to kill a woodchuck without a gun or a trap. You 

 accomplished this by "playing statue " if you saw 

 the chuck out of his hole and also knew where the 

 hole was or could see it. You began by walking 

 stealthily toward the burrow, being careful each 

 time the animal looked at you or showed any alarm 

 to stop stock-still and remain so till he lowered his 

 head and resumed his feeding. Then you sneaked 

 forward again. If you finally succeeded in reaching 

 a point between him and his hole, you sprang at 

 him with a club, and then ensued an exciting five 

 minutes which combined all the athletic excellences 

 of field-hockey, golf, baseball, sprinting, carpet- 

 beating, and sometimes football. 



I cannot refrain here from telling again my grand- 

 father's story of his woodchuck, a foxy old fellow 

 who lived down back of the house near the bank 

 of the Ipswich River, and ate cabbages insatiably 

 while defying all guns and traps. My grandfather 

 and his brother Syl. decided finally to drown him 

 out, so they waited till they knew he was in his hole, 

 and then, while one boy stood guard with a stick, 

 the other boy began to haul buckets of water from 

 the river and dump them down the burrow. Watch- 

 ing and hauling by turns, they became weary at last, 

 and hid under a near-by bush to rest. Presently 



