ll fed, they
took their departure early in the morning.

The hunter who told me this could remember one Sam Nutting, who used to
hunt bears on Fair-Haven Ledges, and exchange their skins for rum in
Concord village; who told him, even, that he had seen a moose there.
Nutting had a famous foxhound named Burgoyne,--he pronounced it
Bugine,--which my informant used to borrow. In the "Wast Book" of an old
trader of this town, who was also a captain, townclerk, and
representative, I find the following entry: Jan. 18th, 1742-3, "John
Melven Cr. by 1 Grey Fox 0--2--3;" they are not found here; and in his
ledger, Feb. 7th, 1743, Hezekiah Stratton has credit "by 1/2 a Catt skin
0--1--4-1/2;" of course a wild cat, for Stratton was a sergeant in the
old French war, and would not have got credit for hunting less noble
game. Credit is given for deerskins also, and they were daily sold. One
man still preserves the horns of the last deer that was killed in this
vicinity, and another has told me the particulars of the hunt in which
his uncle was engaged. The hunters were formerly a numerous and merry
crew here. I remember well one gaunt Nimrod who would catch up a leaf by
the road-side and play a strain on it wilder and more melodious, if my
memory serves me, than any hunting horn.

At midnight, when there was a moon, I sometimes met with hounds in my
path prowling about the woods, which would skulk out of my way as if
afraid, and stand silent amid the bushes till I had passed.

Squirrels and wild mice disputed for my store of nuts. There were scores
of pitch-pines around my house, from one to four inches in diameter,
which had been gnawed by mice the previous winter,--a Norwegian winter
for them, for the snow lay long and deep, and they were obliged to mix
a large proportion of pine bark with their other diet. These trees were
alive and apparently flourishing at midsummer, and many of them had
grown a foot, though completely girdled; but after another winter such
were without exception dead. It is remarkable that a single mouse should
thus be allowed a whole pine tree for its dinner, gnawing round instead
of up and down it; but perhaps it is necessary in order to thin these
trees, which are wont to grow up densely.

The hares (_Lepus Americanus_) were very familiar. One had her form
under my house all winter, separated from me only by the flooring, and
she startled me each morning by her hasty departure when I began to
stir--thump,