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 
