THE WOODS. 



125 



and moles among its wild inhabitants, while horses, 

 cows, sheep, and hogs have browsed and fed beneath 

 its cooling shade. Formerly wolves used to howl at 

 its edge, foxes crept stealthily through it, and wild cats 

 crouched on the limbs ; and no doubt deer have nipped 

 the leaves in pioneer times, while wild turkeys fed on 

 the nuts. Among the reptiles, black snakes, blue racers, 

 and the harmless garter snakes glide and wriggle about 

 or writhe and fold among the stumps; small lizards 

 and the larger ones, more fish-like in their scaly coats, 

 may be seen occasionally slipping about in the leaves 

 and over the logs; and the slow, solemn, checkered 

 turtles are to be found in the wet places of the brooks, 

 or rarely may be met with taking a deliberate course 

 across the woods. Snails of various sizes slowly make 

 their slimy way about the leaves or up along the trunks, 

 and the ground is covered in places with their shells. 



The old woods is thus the home and the sustaining 

 nourishment of many fellow mortals, of whose inter- 

 esting lives we might know more could we but disarm 

 their fears by disarming ourselves and cultivating a 

 friendly familiarity with them. 



I think, too, that few areas of its size will be found 

 to have quite so many varieties of trees, not only in 

 species but also in genera, as this little remaining strip 

 of perhaps some twenty acres of woodland. Here they 

 are according to families, in the order of their abun- 

 dance : 



Aceracece — Sugar (abundant) and black maple (a tree 

 or so). Many of these are "curly" maples, it seems, as it 

 turns out in the felling. 



