34^ 



RECREATION. 



STARTING FOR A RAMBLE. 



me curiously. As long as I kept perfectly 

 still he advanced, but my slightest move- 

 ment sent him scurrying back with a 

 frightened whistle. After a time he became 

 tame enough to take slices of apple I held 

 toward him on a stick, but could not be in- 

 duced to take them from my hand. As the 

 season grew later he came out less often for 

 the apples I used to leave on his doorstep. 

 The second week in October he disappeared 

 finally and I knew he must be rolled up for 

 his winter's sleep. 



The following story, told me by a friend 

 from Greene county, New York, may show 

 that the woodchuck is not always so stupid 

 as some folks think. In his own words, 

 "Last summer, as I was crossin' the 

 meadow back of the house, with my rifle 

 across my arm, I spied an old woodchudc 

 on his haunches not ioo paces from where 



1 stood. I raised the gun to fire when sud- 

 denly he disappeared. It surprised me a bit, 

 but I didn't stop then to hunt him up. On 



2 consecutive days the same thing hap- 

 pened. The woodchuck would sit there till 

 I raised the gun and then disappear off the 

 face of the earth. The third day I made- 

 up my mind to find out how the old boy did 



the trick; so 'stead o' raisin' the gun when 

 I saw him I started walkin' up to him, 

 sorter steady and keerful. There he sat 

 like a stump till I was 'bout 2 rod away. 

 Then I raised the gun slow like, squinted 

 along the barrel and was just goin' to pull 

 the trijger when he popped clean out o' 

 sight, hind feet first. Well, sir, when I 

 got to that spot wot d'ye s'pose I seen? 

 There was a hole goin' straight into the 

 earth about 5 feet down. Now. when he 

 saw me a-comin' he run to the hole and 

 stood up with his hind legs astraddle of it 

 and waited till I raised the gun ; then he 

 just pulled his hind feet together and 

 dropped into that hole as neat as any circus 

 feller ever went through a trap door." 



The pictures with this article are from 

 photographs I took last summer. To ob- 

 tain these took me a week of almost con- 

 stant watching, and out of 18 exposures 



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LUNCH TIME. 



but 5 were successful. So timid was the 

 little fellow that I was obliged to stand 30 

 feet behind my camera and operate the 

 shutter with a long string. He did not seem 

 to fear the camera until he heard the click 

 of the shutter. That sent him back into 

 his hole, but the picture was already taken. 



While Bishop Potter, of the Episcopal 

 Church, was traveling through Louisiana 

 some years ago he addressed inquiries to 

 his fellow passengers with a view of ob- 

 taining knowledge regarding the orchards 

 and fruit interests of the State. "Do you 

 raise pears in Louisiana?" inquired the 

 bishop. "We do," responded the Louisi- 

 anian, "if we have 3 or better." — Ex. 



