THE WAYS OF THE WOODCHUCK 



THE piece was entitled, if I remember rightly, 

 "Webster's First Case," and it was in the 

 Fourth Reader — or maybe the Fifth. Any- 

 way, there was a picture showing the young Daniel 

 making an eloquent gesture in front of his father, 

 while brother Ezekiel stood by with a woodchuck in a 

 trap. " Zeke," it seems, had caught the chuck (which 

 was a highly commendable thing to do according to 

 New England standards) , and was about to put it to 

 death when Daniel took pity upon its dumb helpless- 

 ness and appealed for its life. Father Webster was 

 called in as judge, and he was so moved by the future 

 Senator's pleading that he finally exclaimed, "Zeke, 

 Zeke, you let that woodchuck go!" 



I don't know if this story is included in the 

 Readers any more; probably not. But in my boy- 

 hood it made a great impression. It was far easier, 

 in fact, to appreciate the eloquence which could per- 

 suade a Yankee farmer to spare a woodchuck 

 than to appreciate the eloquence of the Bunker Hill 

 oration as declaimed by Wesley Sanborn! There 

 wasn't a youngster of us but hunted woodchucks, 

 and those who lived on farms did it as a regular part 

 of the chores — the only really enjoyable part. We 

 all were familiar with the habits of this rodent; we 

 knew his powers for destruction; we had been 

 brought up to regard him as an enemy of agricult- 



