New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1910-07-10

the channel between the waving fr1nges
of the grass and the line of usual high
tide ran margin OF pale yeilowlS11 1ka<$
brown mud flats, baked and scanned sNRE
with sun cracks, scurfed with Wavy aS33T+|
deposits of salt and spotted with meager 3Hl&1
tufts of sea green samphlre, goose III III &. :
tongue and sea rosemary. Just at the tN YNHs&a&s.
edge of the grass fringe an Old posi- 4taX s8S3Ekl
weather beaten and time eaten, stood
M a solitary sentinel over the waste >
reminder of a time when this point OF 41X&
the river had been little haven tor 20
fishing boats-a haven long since nied Id XZf1X1f
M bv the caprice of the memorable silt uA,T Mba
Some forty or fifty PAGES straight Q1168312<1j
hack from the moldering post a low
spur of upland, darkly wooded win (4y
spruce and fir, utted out into the vel
low green of grass. OF to the lett 49,
some hundred yards or so away ran NSVtyVfk
line of round topped dixie with lew AEkIA
stiff mullen stalks fringlng Its crest Be 834f|
vond the dixie and long ago reclaimed
]
bv it from the sea, lay basking in the ia,
sun the vast expanses OF sweet-grass viMp2lV9GS
meadow, blue-green with timothy k1EA
clover, and vetch, and humned over
bv innumerabe golden beted humble 1i4A
bees Through this sweet meadow YNE 3
wound the slow of placid and N3t
brimmng fresh water stream, joining psH 42*IBt
itself at last the parent river through ssE ,3:T
a sluiCeway in the dixie, whose sunken s ~ rs s.
valves protected it completely from the - 2.
fluctuations of the tides.
The dividing line between the tall.
waving yellow salt grass and the naked
mud fiat sharp as If cut by a =,
dkers spade and it was fnged by close brown tan tt
ole of grass which seemed to feel outward over u
the baked mud and then curl back upon themselves IN M
Close to the foot of the moderng post where this OF
fringe half encircled it, appeared suddenly pointed o.
broWnish head, with tiny and pair OF little; 81
BRIGHT beadlke eyes close together Inc head al
was thrust cautiously forth from the mouth OF narrow b
tunnel under the grass roots. The sharp overhung ,
nuzzle, with nostrs datlng and qulVer1ng !nterIo- u
gated the perlous the bead searched the n
Sky the grass fringe, the baking open OF the hat q
There was danger sight, but Just IN 'front.' some ca
FIVE or six feet distant gaudy caterpillar on some III
bold venture bent was making his slow way across the
scurfed mud, from goOsetOngue TUT to another
The pointed head shot swiftly forth from the tunnel
followed by a ruddy brown body. Straight out across HI
the bright naked space, and back again. like darng So
shuttle into the holeand the too rashy adventung
caterpillar had disappeared. it
little back from the edge of the flats notified al
brown marsh hawk flying hther and tinther HIS nj
wings we're shorter and broader than those OF most sc
members of his swift maraudlng and he flew flap al
ping almost like crow instead of gliding, sk1mmlng re
and soaring after the of his arStOcrat1c 81
kindred He flew close above the swaylng grass tops,
his head thrust downward and his hard unwinking eyes
peerng fercev down between the ranked coarse stems
of the broad leaf grass. He quartered the meadow re
section by section, closely and mehodlcay as well 1T
handled setter. Once he dropped straight downward II
into the grass, abruptly he had been shot; and tt
when an instant later he again with great but
fetng of grass tops, he cutchng tiny gray
object in his taons. Had been enough to m
it would have proved probably to be young shrew al
off to his high perch the dead pine tree beyond the tt
ridge of the upands He flew with it to the open crest
of the dixie close by where he tore 1t and swallowed OF
in savage gulps Then, having wiped his beak the HI
sod he dropped off the dixie and resumed his assiduous
quartering of the salt grass "
A BOUT this time the little brown pointed head with ia
the bead eyes eappeared in the mouth OF the tun tr
mel by the foot of the post Everything seemed safe st
The samphire and the goOseongle tufts paely glln 81
of ha9t