The game preserve was his own especial care and pleasure. It
consisted of two hundred acres of dense forest and hills and
ridges
of rock. It was filled with mysterious caves, deep chasms, tiny
gurgling streams, nestling springs, and wild laurel. It was
barricaded with fallen tree-trunks and moss- covered rocks that
had
never felt the foot of man since that foot had worn a moccasin.
Around the preserve was a high fence stout enough to keep
poachers
on the outside and to persuade the wild animals that inhabited it
to linger on the inside. These wild animals were squirrels,
rabbits, and raccoons. Every day, in sunshine or in rain,
entering
through a private gate, Herrick would explore this holy of
holies.
For such vermin as would destroy the gentler animals he carried a
gun. But it was turned only on those that preyed upon his
favorites. For hours he would climb through this wilderness, or,
seated on a rock, watch a bluebird building her nest or a
squirrel
laying in rations against the coming of the snow. In time he grew
to think he knew and understood the inhabitants of this wild
place
of which he was the overlord. He looked upon them not as his
tenants but as his guests. And when they fled from him in terror
to
caves and hollow tree-trunks, he wished he might call them back
and