The Mt. Sterling advocate., 1892-07-19
THE ADVOCATE.
The woodohuck.

April snowbank on the border of 9
hollow, you see it marked with the
footprints of an old acquaintance ot
of whom you have not tor month;
seen even so much as this. 1t is moi
because he made an autumnal pill
grimage, slowly following the swift
birds and the retreating sun, that you
had no knowledge of him, but for his
housekeeping, closer than hermit's
seclusion. These few cautious steps,
venturing but half way from his door
to the tawny naked grass that is daily
~edging near to his threshold, are the
first he has taken abroad since the
last bright lingering leaf futtered
down in the Indian summer haze.
He had seen all the best of the year,
the blooming of the first flowers, the
springing of the grass and its growth,
the gathering of the harvests and the
,ripening Of fruits, the gorgeousness of
autumn melting into sombre gray.
Eie had heard all the glad songs of all
the birds and their sad notes of fare
well to their summer home, the first
and last droning of the bumblebee
among the earliest and latest of his
own clover blossoms. All the best
the world had to give in the round of
her seasons, luxuriant growth to feed
upon, warm sunshine to bask in, he
had enjoyed; of her worst he would
have none.
So he bade farewell to the gather
ing desolation of the tawny fields and
crept in to her warm heart to sleep
through the long night of win
ter till the morning of spring. Then
tho wild-scurry of wind-tossed leaves
swept above him unheard and the
.piti!ess beat of autumal rain and the
raging of winter storms that heaped
the drifts deeper and deeper over his
forsaken door.
The bitterness of cold that made
the furred fox and the muffied owl
,shiver, never touched him, in his
warm nest. So he shirked the hard
ships of winter, without the toll of
journey in pursuit of summer, while
The starved fox prowled in the desc
late woods and barren fields, and the
squirrel delved in the snow for his
meagre fare.
By and by the ETHEREAL but potent
spirit of spring stole in where the
Sr9st-elves could not enter, and
awakening the earth, awakened him.
Not by a slow and often impeded in
Invasion of the senses, but as by the
the sudden opening of door, he sees
the naked earth again warming her.
self in the sun. and hears running
water and singing birds. No wonder
shat with such surprise the querulous
tremolo Of his whistle is sharply
mingled with these softer voices.
Day by day as he sees the sun loved
banks blushing greener, he ventures
further forth to visit neighbors or
watch his clover OF dig new nome in
a more favored bank or fortify him
self in some rocky stronghold, where
boys and dogs may not enter. Now,
the family may be seen moving with
no burden of furniture or provisions,
but only the mother with her gray
cubs, carried as cat carries her kit
tens, one by one to the new home
among the clover.
On the mound of newly digged
earth before it, is that erect, notion
less. gray and russet form, half-de-
caycd stump uprising where no tree
has grown within your memory
You move little nearer to inspect
the strange anomaly, and 10! it van
ishes. and you know it was your old
TREND, the Woodchuck, standing
guard at his door, and overlooking
his green and blossoming domain.
Are you not sorry, to-day, at least,
to hear the boys and the dogs besieg-
ing hm in his barrow, or in the old
stone wall where he has taken sane
tuary? Surely, the first beautiful
days of his open-air life should not be
made so miserable that he would
wish himself asleep again in the safe
ty and darkness Of winter. But you
remember that you were once boy
and your sympathies are divided be-
tween the young savages and their in
tended prey, which after all is likelier
than not to escape.
He will tangle the meadow grass
and make free with the bean-patch if 8
he chances upon it, yet you are glad t
to see the woodchuck, rejoicing like
in the advent of spring. ,
Il Forest and Stream. ;