to my very door! It was
tonic and exhilarating to see her whirl away toward the vineyard. I also
owe a moment's pleasure to the gray squirrel that, finding my
summer-house in the line of his travels one summer day, ran through it
and almost over my feet as I sat idling with a book.

I am sure my power of digestion was improved that cold winter morning
when, just as we were sitting down to breakfast about sunrise, a red fox
loped along in front of the window, looking neither to the right nor to
the left, and disappeared amid the currant-bushes. What of the wild and
the cunning did he not bring! His graceful form and motion were in my
mind's eye all day. When you have seen a fox loping along in that way,
you have seen the poetry there is in the canine tribe. It is to the eye
what a flowing measure is to the mind, so easy, so buoyant; the furry
creature drifting along like a large red thistledown, or like a plume
borne by the wind. It is something to remember with pleasure, that a
muskrat sought my door one December night when a cold wave was swooping
down upon us. Was he seeking shelter, or had he lost his reckoning? The
dogs cornered him in the very doorway, and set up a great hubbub. In the
darkness, thinking it was a cat, I put my hand down to feel it. The
creature skipped to the other corner of the doorway, hitting my hand
with its cold, rope-like tail. Lighting a match, I had a glimpse of him
sitting up on his haunches like a woodchuck, confronting his enemies. I
rushed in for the lantern, with the hope of capturing him alive, but
before I returned, the dogs, growing bold, had finished him.

I have had but one call from a coon, that I am aware of, and I fear we
did not treat him with due hospitality. He took up his quarters for the
day in a Norway spruce, the branches of which nearly brushed the house.
I had noticed that the dog was very curious about that tree all the
afternoon. After dinner his curiosity culminated in repeated loud and
confident barking. Then I began an investigation, expecting to find a
strange cat, or at most a red squirrel. But a moment's scrutiny revealed
his coonship. Then how to capture him became the problem. A long pole
was procured, and I sought to dislodge him from his hold. The skill with
which he maintained himself amid the branches excited our admiration.
But after a time he dropped lightly to the ground, not in the least
disconcerted, and at once on his guard against both man and bea