vicious pass at him; and there would follow
a moment of lively skurrying around the trunk of the old oak;
then all would be quiet again.

Finally the squirrel seemed to get tired of the sport, and ran
swiftly to the top and off through the branches into the
neighboring trees. As this was probably all the woodpecker was
fighting for, he did not give chase.

V

A BARN-DOOR OUTLOOK

I have a barn-door outlook because I have a hay-barn study, and I
chose a hay-barn study because I wanted a barn-door outlook--a
wide, near view into fields and woods and orchards where I could
be on intimate terms with the wild life about me, and with free,
open-air nature.

Usually there is nothing small or stingy about a barn door, and a
farmer's hay-barn puts only a very thin partition between you and
the outside world. Therefore, what could be a more fit place to
thresh out dry philosophical subjects than a barn floor? I have a
few such subjects to thresh out, and I thresh them here, turning
them over as many times as we used to turn over the oat and rye
sheaves in the old days when I wielded the hickory flail with my
brothers on this same barn floor.

What a pleasure it is to look back to those autumn days,
generally in September or early October, when we used to thresh
out a few bushels of the new crop of rye to be taken to the
grist-mill for a fresh supply of flour! How often we paused in
our work to munch apples that had been mellowing in the haymow by
our side, and look out through the big doorway upon the sunlit
meadows and hill-slopes! The sound of the flail is heard in the
old barn no more, but in its stead the scratching of a pen and
the uneasy stirring of a man seated there behind a big box,
threshing out a harvest for a loaf of much less general value.

As I sit here day after day, bending over my work, I get many
glimpses of the little rills of wild life that circulate about
me. The feature of it that impresses me most is the life of fear
that most of the wild creatures lead. They are as alert and
cautious as are the picket-lines of opposing armies. Just over
the line of stone wall in the orchard a woodchuck comes
hesitatingly out of his hole and goes nibbling in the grass not
fifty feet away. How alert and watchful he is! Every few moments
he sits upright and takes an observation, then resumes his
feeding. When I make a slight noise he rushes to the cover of the
stone wall. Then, as no danger appears, he cl