see more of them and their ways by just 

 keeping quiet and invisible. 



I sat down on the edge of a pine thicket, 

 and became as much as possible a part of 

 the old stump which was my seat. In front 

 of me an old rail fence wandered across the 

 deserted pasture, struggling against the black- 

 berry vines, which grew profusely about it 

 and seemed to tug at the lower rails to pull 

 them down to ruin. On either side it disap- 

 peared into thickets of birch and oak and 

 pitch pine, planted, as were the blackberry 

 vines, by birds that stopped to rest a moment 

 on the old fence or to satisfy their curiosity. 

 Stout young trees had crowded it aside and 

 broken it. Here and there a leaning post 

 was overgrown with woodbine. The 

 rails were gray and moss-grown. Nature "W 

 was trying hard to make it a bit of the 

 landscape; it could not much longer '"'^""^',* 

 retain its individuality. The wild things of 

 the woods had long accepted it as theirs, 

 though not quite as they accepted the vines 

 and trees. 



As I sat there, a robin hurled himself upon 



fgiee-/oAA-s/s 



