28 NEW HAMPSHIRE 



steps toward the upper side of the road. " I must 

 be getting out of this," he seems to think. But 

 he reconsiders his purpose, comes back, sits on 

 end again and folds his hands ; and then, the re- 

 connoissance being satisfactory, falls to smelling 

 the ground as before. I can see the tips of his 

 nostrils twitching as in a kind of ecstasy. There 

 must be something savory under them. Mean- 

 time, still with my glass lifted, I come closer and 

 closer, till I am right upon him. If porcupines 

 can shoot, I must be in danger of a quill. An- 

 other step or two, and he waddles to the lower 

 side of the road. He is a vacillating body, how- 

 ever ; and once more he turns to sit up and fold 

 his hands. This time I hear him rattling his teeth, 

 but not very fiercely, — nothing to compare with 

 the gnashings of an angry woodchuck ; and at 

 last, when I cluck to him, he hastens his steps a 

 little, as much, perhaps, as a porcupine can, and 

 disappears in the brush, dragging his ridiculous, 

 sloping, straw-thatched hinder parts — a combi- 

 nation of lean-to and L — after him. He has 

 never cultivated speed or decision of character, 

 having a better defense. So far as appearances 

 go, he is certainly an odd one. 



There are no blossoms yet, nor visible promise 

 of any, but once in a while a bright Atalanta (red 

 admiral) butterfly flits before me. I wonder 



