FEBRUARY. 
33 
wide apartj and now and then there is a little sweep from 
his brush of a tail. 
C. — Oh ! the rogue ! see^ he has come direct from the 
barn ; I warrant with some grains of wheat in his mouthy 
to be deposited in his hole beneath the gnarled root of some 
tree, 
F. — The squirrel is particularly assiduous in his atten- 
tions to the barn as long as the wheat remains in it ; nor 
does he altogether treat the oats with contempt. But if we 
want tracks^ let us seek the woods. We will go a little 
way into the swamp. What do you suppose are 
these ? 
C. — A fox's tracks. 
F. — Oh;, no ! they are much too large : a wolf has passed 
here since last evening. 
C. — Had we not better return ? I hardly like to be so 
near him. 
F. — You need not fear : he is before this time snugly 
concealed in some hollow log, far in the gloomiest and densest 
part of the swamp : he would not trust himself abroad by 
daylight. 
C. — Would he not attack a man, however^ if he met 
him abroad ? 
F, — I think not^ even under any circumstances^ except 
when so hemmed up as to render escape difficult, or made 
desperate by hunger. 
C. — I suppose they are dangerous when they do attack 
a man. 
F. — Yes : they are stronger than a dog of the same size, 
and their mode of biting is very different from that of a dog : 
instead of retaining his hold as a dog does, when he seizes 
his enemy, the wolf bites by repeated snaps, given, however, 
with great force. As illustrative of this habit, I may men- 
tion a farmer in New Hampshire, not very far from this 
