stealthy movement among the ferns or the sweep of a shadow among
the twilight shadows would mean a very different thing from
wriggling stick and waving hemlock tip. Snap and swoop, and teeth
and claws,--jump for your life and find out afterwards. That is
the rule for a wise wood mouse. So I said good-by, and left them
to take care of themselves in the wilderness.



A WILDERNESS BYWAY

One day in the wilderness, as my canoe was sweeping down a
beautiful stretch of river, I noticed a little path leading
through the water grass, at right angles to the stream's course.
Swinging my canoe up to it, I found what seemed to be a landing
place for the wood folk on their river journeyings. The sedges,
which stood thickly all about, were here bent inward, making a
shiny green channel from the river.

On the muddy shore were many tracks of mink and muskrat and
otter. Here a big moose had stood drinking; and there a beaver
had cut the grass and made a little mud pie, in the middle of
which was a bit of musk scenting the whole neighborhood. It was
done last night, for the marks of his fore paws still showed
plainly where he had patted his pie smooth ere he went away.

But the spot was more than a landing place; a path went up the
bank into the woods, as faint as the green waterway among the
sedges. Tall ferns bent over to hide it; rank grasses that had
been softly brushed aside tried their best to look natural; the