THE WOODCHUCK 35 



I suspect that he revolved the subject in his 

 mind while revolving the great wheel of the 

 churning-machine, and that some turn or other 

 brought him a happy thought, for next time he 

 showed himself a strategist. Instead of giving 

 chase to the woodchuck, when first discovered, he 

 crouched down to the ground, and, resting his 

 head on his paws, watched him. The wood- 

 chuck kept working away from his hole, lured 

 by the tender clover, but, not unmindful of his 

 safety, lifted himself up on his haunches every 

 few moments and surveyed the approaches. Pre- 

 sently, after the woodchuck had let himself down 

 from one of these attitudes of observation and 

 resumed his feeding, Cuff started swiftly but 

 stealthily up the hill, precisely in the attitude of 

 a cat when she is stalking a bird. When the 

 woodchuck rose up again, Cuff was perfectly mo- 

 tionless and half hid by the grass. When he 

 again resumed his clover, Cuff sped up the hill 

 as before, this time crossing a fence, but in a 

 low place, and so nimbly that he was not discov- 

 ered. Again the woodchuck was on the outlook, 

 again Cuff was motionless and hugging the 

 ground. As the dog neared his victim he was 

 partially hidden by a swell in the earth, but still 

 the woodchuck from his outlook reported " All 

 right," when Cuff, having not twice as far to 



