he thought were made equally in vain. He was tired
all out with their felon ravages. He judged at last that wolves and
foxes, and the blackbirds, and birds of prey, ought to be exterminated.
Nothing now could so benefit the town, as a war of extermination, He
could not raise a perfect crop of corn; he could not enjoy his ox-heart
cherries; he could not raise a full brood of chickens, nor keep what
were raised; he could not trust his geese from his door, nor turn his
sheep and lambs into his fresh woods pasture, without suffering
depredations; and something must be done to destroy the evil beasts and
birds.

"We told you the first winter you was here, Fabens, that you would have
to come to that," said Colwell. "It is high time a town meeting was
called, and a general plan hit on to kill off the critters. I have my
plan about it, and I have told it to a good many who fall in with me."

"What is your plan? The woods are alive with foxes, and there are a
great many wolves yet away back in the swamps and hills, while the air
is black with crows and blackbirds. How can we lessen their numbers
much?"

"Club together and buy at the apothecaries a hundred dollars worth of
pison; fix it in scraps of meat, and scatter it through and through the
woods; and if it don't make the animals scarce, I'll quit a guessin'.
Then git up a hunt for the birds--a univarsal hunt, and have judges and
give premiums to them that count the most game; continue the hunt a
week or fortnight for two or three years runnin', and the birds won't
pester us much after that."

"The plan is a good one, and I'll do my part to carry it into
execution. I am all out of patience with the creatures. If we do not
kill more of them, they will get to be worse than Egypt's plagues."

A town meeting was called, and Colwell's plan was adopted. A large sum
was contributed to procure poison; and bird hunts were arranged. The
poison was scattered abroad, and hundreds of foxes and wolves lay dead
all over the woods and swamps; while the money was returned with
interest to the people, by the sale of furs gathered from their bodies.
The bird hunts came off with equal success, and there followed a marked
cessation of annoyance.

Only now and then a robin molested a fruit tree; and the tap of the
woodpecker was seldom heard. Hawks and crows that were left, looked so
wistful and lonely they were not begrudged the little they ventured at
times to take. Blackbirds