238 
NATURE'S DREAMS 
rounding universe alive with human activities* Did 
the witches riding on their brooms alight for a 
moment in their wild orgy i 
All mysteries yield to investigation* Under the 
surface these round holes become intricate and 
winding burrows, where the Field Mice have been 
enjoying the bracing climate* Every part of the field 
has been crossed and recrossed by them* Their 
winding course is seen wherever the snow is kicked 
away* This explains the phenomenal activity of a 
Dog that has covered the hillside close to the woods 
with tracks, while no trace of his quarry appears on 
the snow* He has been running the scent of intricate 
winding trails underneath* 
Over by the edge of the stream, where the snow- 
covered ice reaches out on the black water, one of the 
little burro wers has made his way to the surface* It 
is probably a Shore Mouse, and his little tracks look 
helplessly diminutive on the great waste of snow* 
The wind toying with some broken Golden-rod stalks 
has described accurate circles in the snow before 
twisting them off and whisking them away* It has 
cleared the snow from a low Sassafras thicket, 
showing where the destructive little excavators have 
girdled the bark, leaving the young trees to die in the 
spring* 
Up the stream, where even the running water 
seems a part of the dead landscape, a Muskrat comes 
