152 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



they burrow into the earth, nor need they, if all are as 

 hardy as the little fellow I have kept so long. 



January 13, 1886, the tortoise, while covered with 

 water and sphagnum, was solidly frozen in. I carefully 

 chipped him loose and allowed the adherent bits of ice 

 to thaw very slowly. While this proceeded, the animal 

 was apparently dead ; but the disappearance of the last 

 particle of ice was synchronous with the reappearance 

 of vitality. This freezing was repeated, February 5th, 

 and with like results. 



Hereafter, I shall go to the swamps for young box- 

 tortoises; nor shall I be surprised if in winter I find 

 them incased in ice. 



The strange absence of katydids caused the woods and 

 meadows to be painfully silent as I hurried home ; yet 

 it was a silence that was distinctly audible, the air being 

 filled with the trumpetings of a million atomies, and no 

 one distinguishable voice. 



At such a time how widely awake we are ! The 

 mere snapping of a twig beneath our feet thrills the 

 body as with an electric shock. It is a feeling vastly 

 different from fear, as some might call it. Something 

 more tangible than the soul breaks out when we hear, 

 " in the dwawm-like silence o' a glen, the sudden soun' o' 

 a trumpet." Here in the home-woods, through which 

 glinted the sparkle of the evening lamp, I disturbed my 

 neighbor's peacock. 



