14 In Touch with Nature. 



pushed the intruder back. Again and again the 

 swimming turtle tried, but without success. Brute 

 force failing, the persistent fellow sunk out of sight 

 and was gone perhaps a minute, when it suddenly- 

 reappeared in the rear of the one on the raft, and, 

 giving it a quick blow with its snout from below 

 upward, sent it sprawling into the water; then 

 the tricky fellow climbed quickly on board and 

 looked about, oh, so innocently. It was the 

 modern political game of the " ins" and the " outs." 

 It showed, too, that a ready wit counts for a great 

 deal, even among turtles. 



But now, although little past noontide, the 

 woods began to grow dark ; the pleasant murmur 

 ceased, and a forbidding muttering came from the 

 clustered giants of the wood. The lofty tulip- 

 trees were violently moved; the older oaks pro- 

 tested sullenly : a moment of absolute silence, and 

 then the pelting rain. It proved but a passing 

 cloud, and there is no merrier music than tinkling 

 rain-drops rolling from leaf to leaf, splashing and 

 sparkling in the fitful sunbeams. Every bird, too, 

 was ready to sing the song of the shower. Better, 

 I thought, living woods than dead Indians, as I 



