my private concerns that I didn’t like, and
I was bound to find out who the interloper was, and
if possible, to make his acquaintance. There was
no snow on the ground, and I couldn’t get at
his track. So I made up my mind to watch for
him. Well, one day I spoke to Crop to stay by
the shanty and take care of the things, while I went
to find out who it was that was medlin’ with
our property, and started off on my line of traps.
I got up into the crotch of a great birch near one
of ’em, and sat there with my rifle, waitin’
for something to turn up. It was a little after
noon when I got located. The sun travelled slowly
along down towards the western hills, his bright light,
in that calm November day, makin’ the rocky
ranges and the bare heads of the tall peaks shine out
in a blaze of glory. The livin’ things
of the old woods were busy and jolly enough.
An old owl came flying lazily out of the thick branches
of a hemlock, and lightin’ within a dozen feet
of me, opened his great round eyes in astonishment,
and as the bright sunlight dazzled him, he squinted
and turned his cat-like face from side to side, as
if makin’ up his mind that he’d know me
the next time we met. By-and-by he opened his
hooked beak, and great red mouth, and roared out, ’Hoo!
hohoo! hoo!’ as much as to say, ‘who the
devil are you?’ I didn’t answer a word,
and after a little, he flew back to his shadowy perch
among the dense foliage of the hemlock. A black
squirrel came hopping along with his mouth full of
beech nuts, and running nimbly up the tree on which
I was perched, and out upon one of the great limbs,
deposited his store in a hollow he found there.
He caught sight of me as he came back, and seating
himself upon a branch, not six feet from my head,
began chatterin’ and barkin’ as if givin’
me a regular lecter for invadin’ his premises,
and takin’ possession of his tree. He didn’t
seem to understand the matter at all, and I didn’t
undertake to explain the reason of my being there.
After a little, he went off about his business, and
left me to attend to mine. A raccoon came nosing
along, stoppin’ every little way to turn over
the leaves, or pull away the dirt from a root with
his long hands, tastin’ of one thing and smellin’
of another in a mighty dainty way. When he came
to my tree, he seemed to think that there might be
something among its branches worth looking at.
So he came clambering up its rough bark towards where
I sat. He came up on the other side of the tree
from me, till he got about even with my huntin’-cap,
and then came round to my side, and there we were,
face to face, not two feet apart. I reckon that
coon was astonished when our eyes met, for with a sort
of scream he let right loose, and dropped twenty feet
to the ground like a clod, and the way he waddled
away into the brash, mutterin’ and talkin’
to himself, was a thing to laugh at.