rp nights, on the hill above the house,
one barked anxiously at the moon. At least that is the poetic form,
though I really think he was barking for the same reason that I often
sing when others of the family are not present. The others claim they do
not care for it--I often wonder why. I suppose that fox's family was the
same way, so he went out there alone in a dark, safe place to enjoy his
music unrestrained. Yet no place seems entirely safe when one wants to
sing, and I fear something happened to that fox, for by and by we did
not hear him any more. Very likely one of his relatives crept up on him
with a brick. We were sorry, for we had learned to like his music--it
gave us a wild, primeval feeling.

I think there were no wolves or bears in our immediate neighborhood,
though there came reports of them, now and then--exaggerated, I dare
say--from adjoining ridges. The nearest thing we had to bears were some
very fat and friendly woodchucks, who at a little distance, sitting on
their haunches, looked very much like small grizzlies. They dug their
holes a few yards from the house and sometimes came quite to the back
door, probably intending to call, but when we approached them their
courage failed and they went "galumphing" back to their houses. There
they would sit up for a moment, staring at us, then, if we approached
suddenly, would dive to lower recesses. I explained to the Joy that they
most likely had cozy little houses down there, with chairs and tables
and a nice stove to cook their food things on. She was sure it was all
true, except about the stove, which seemed doubtful, because no smoke
ever came from their chimneys.

Most of the animals were friendly to us, and I think made our house a
sort of center. I remember one pleasant Sunday afternoon, when we were
sitting outside, we noticed simultaneously two woodchucks playing in the
field just across the road; a red squirrel pursuing a gray one along our
stone wall, almost within arm's-reach; a blue heron among the willows by
the brook, probably prospecting for trout; some bob-whites running along
by the roadside; while in the woods just beyond a partridge was drumming
up further recruits for the exhibition.

The deer did not call as soon as the others. They were reserved and
aristocratic and would seem to have looked us over a good while before
they accepted us. We frequently saw their tracks, and hoped for one of
the glimpses reported by our neighbors.

It