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black-backed flat-looking little turtle, about 6 inches long.
Its back was ornamented with a few small yellow
marks.  We felt so sure of getting him out, it
was such a little pond, that we paid too little 
attention to his squirmings, so before we could raise
him out of the water, he had managed to slide from the 
stick and had gotten into a deep hole.  All our coaxing
failed to bring him up and only hid him the better, for
we had succeeded in making the water very turbid.  We
thought at first of bailing out the water, but concluded
not to do <s>you</s>so and to come again later in the day 
to the pond.

We now left the pond, walked along the old mill race
finally reached the road and hurried down to the bridge.
Here we heard the frogs piping, but failed to see one.
Entering a path on our right we proceeded in the direction
of the old furnace.  In this marshy area we found
a lot of Skunk Cabbage.  Many of the plants had still
their conical bud protector, although the flower bud was fully out of the
ground.  Removing it, we found that it concealed both
        