IX A NATURAL NEW ENGLANDER 257 



amid the timothy and the clover, and laughs, as he 

 listens from a hole in the wall or under a stump, 

 to hear the farmer using language which is good 

 Saxon but bad morals, and the dog barking him- 

 self into a fit. Next day he watches his chance, 

 invites his best friend to the feast, and makes his 

 way to a certain bed of lettuce, to a field of celery, 

 to rows of juicy beets and cabbages, or best of all, 

 to a patch of peas, — he will risk his whiskers for 

 green peas! — where the two rascals will stuff- 

 their cheeks and fill themselves until their bulging 

 stomachs fairly drag upon the ground. Then the 

 farmer swears harder than ever, and if the greedy 

 marauders try to repeat their performance, ten to 

 one they will get buckshot inside their ribs, or 

 find themselves prisoners in the torture of a trap. 

 Woodchucks seem never to " catch on " to a trap, 

 until it has caught on to them. 



One, having thus, or otherwise, fallen into the 

 hands of a naturalist many years ago, was labelled 

 Arctomys monax, — the monk bear-mouse; and the 

 tribe has never been able to get rid of it. 



Another unkindness, in woodchuck opinion, is 

 the way folks laugh at his gait and movements. 

 He feels no call to hurry, and he does not consider 

 it a just matter for ridicule that many other 

 animals are able to outrun him. His ambitions 

 are intellectual rather than athletic. If he is loose 

 in his clothes — well, so is man's favorite, the cat ; 

 and he thinks it is unfair, when some one sees him 



