She Muskrats are Building 
the very gates of death. That he will return with 
Bobolink, that he will come up alive with the spring 
out of this dark way, is very strange. 
For he went in most meagrely prepared. He took 
nothing with him, apparently. The muskrat built 
him a house, and under the spreading ice turned all 
the meadow into a well-stocked cellar. The beaver 
built a dam, cut and anchored under water a plenty 
of green sticks near his lodge, so that he too would 
be under cover when the ice formed, and have an 
abundance of tender bark at hand. Chipmunk spent 
half of his summer laying up food near his under- 
ground nest. But Woodchuck simply digged him a 
hole, a grave, then ate until no particle more of fat 
could be got into his baggy hide, and then crawled 
into his tomb, gave up the ghost, and waited the 
resurrection of the spring. 
This is his shift! This is the length to which he 
goes, because he has no wings, and because he can- 
not cut, cure, and mow away in the depths of the 
stony hillside, enough clover hay to last him over 
the winter. The beaver cans his fresh food in cold 
water; the chipmunk selects long-keeping things 
and buries them; the woodchuck makes of himself a 
13 
