RECREATION. 



Volume I. 



DECEMBER, 1894. 



Number 3. 



APROPOS OF THE MINK. 



There floats a hooting owl, 

 'Twixt leafless trees careering ; 

 Up toward the dismal fowl 

 Two beady eyes are leering. 

 The mink is out to-night, 

 And gliding to and fro ; 

 A fall of flakes a curtain makes 

 The first of winter's snow. 



There flits the shadowy thing 

 Beside the creek's dark water; 

 Some petty death 'twill bring — 

 Wild life must have its slaughter- 

 The mink is out to-night, 

 And gliding to and fro; 

 Beside the brink now see it sink, 

 To seek the depths below. 



Sleek, sinuous and sly, 



Now reappears the creature; 



A shade, it passes by, 



An eerie forest creature. 



The mink is out to-night, 



And gliding to and fro; 



The mimic coast has mimic ghost 



In that which wanders so. 



His coat tails have lengthened a little 

 in this year of our Lord, eighteen hun- 

 dred ninety-four, and his tanned shoes 

 are pointed ; he is natty from head to 

 heel. He has that look upon his face 

 which appertains to the veteran of the 



city. He is a thoughtful, energetic 

 gentleman, one prominent in affairs, and 

 there is no suggestion of field, or wood, 

 or stream about him. He is rather 

 worth looking at as he swings along with 

 even, firm step among the sidewalk mob. 



