ut as good. On a pinch twigs and grass are not to be despised. Moss
is apt to be moist but there is no possible objection to clean dry sand.

Be sure not to let your fire get away from you and spread. Besides the
damage to trees and fences that it may do it is impossible to tell what
suffering it may cause to animal life. So, be very careful.

* * * * *

To prevent forest fires Congress passed the law approved May 5, 1900,
which--

~Forbids setting fire to the woods, and~
~Forbids leaving any fires unextinguished.~

When you leave your camp clean up. Fragments of food--not pickles--can
be put up somewhere for the birds. At some of our camps we have regular
places to feed the birds and they get to know what time to come there.
Here in the woods my wrens have established for themselves the hour of
sunrise, and it is partly to escape their scolding for neglect that I
get up with the sun. Mrs. Jenny scolds furiously but for actual singing
she can beat any bird in the woods.

Perhaps you notice that we have said nothing about snakes. Now it is
really a very rare thing to see a snake in the woods. You have to look
very carefully to find them, for they seem to be about the most timid of
all creatures. So far as danger from poisonous snakes is concerned you
are in much more danger from the driver of a dray than from a snake.
Take our word for it, snakes are much more afraid of you than you are
of them. Give them the least little bit of a chance and they will be out
of the way before you can see them. A gorged snake--that is one that has
just taken a full meal--may be sluggish but in a majority of cases he
will crawl away and hide in some secure place till the process of
digestion is over. Do not go near a tub if you are afraid of water for
you can get drowned in it about as easy as you can get bitten by a snake
in the woods and to wind up the subject, not one-tenth of the people who
get snake bitten, die from it. A very few do die but most of them die
from the bad treatment they receive afterwards. The "deadly auto" will
not get out of your way but all snakes will.

Once in a while you may find clinging in a low bush a pretty little
green snake. It will readily submit to being handled and is perfectly
harmless. We have found these snakes useful in the house to kill flies.
The harmless snakes are the brown snake, the common banded moccasin, the
black mountain snake, the green snake.