hen he fairly surrendered and
seemed to say, "Now you may do with me as you like." Then we laughed in
his face and went our way.

Before we had reached our camp I was suddenly seized with a strange,
acute pain in one of my feet. It seemed as if a large nerve was being
roughly sawed in two. I could not take another step. Sitting down and
removing my shoe and stocking, I searched for the cause of the
paralyzing pain. The foot was free from mark or injury, but what was
that little thorn or fang of thistle doing on the ankle? I pulled it out
and found it to be one of the lesser quills of the porcupine. By some
means, during our "circus," the quill had dropped inside my stocking,
the thing had "taken," and the porcupine had his revenge for all the
indignities we had put upon him. I was well punished. The nerve which
the quill struck had unpleasant memories of it for many months
afterward.

When you come suddenly upon the porcupine in his native haunts, he draws
his head back and down, puts up his shield, trails his broad tail, and
waddles slowly away. His shield is the sheaf of larger quills upon his
back, which he opens and spreads out in a circular form so that the
whole body is quite hidden beneath it. The porcupine's great chisel-like
teeth, which are quite as formidable as those of the woodchuck, he does
not appear to use at all in his defense, but relies entirely upon his
quills, and when those fail him he is done for.

I once passed a summer night alone upon the highest peak of the
Catskills, Slide Mountain. I soon found there were numerous porcupines
that desired to keep me company. The news of my arrival in the
afternoon seemed to have spread rapidly among them. They probably had
scented me. After resting awhile I set out to look up the spring, and
met a porcupine on his way toward my camp. He turned out in the grass,
and then, as I paused, came back into the path and passed directly over
my feet. He evidently felt that he had as good a right to the road as I
had; he had traveled it many times before me. When I charged upon him
with a stick in my hand, he slowly climbed a small balsam fir.

[Illustration: PORCUPINE]

I soon found the place of the spring, and, having dredged it and cleaned
it, I sat down upon a rock and waited for the water slowly to seep in.
Presently I heard something in the near bushes, and in a moment a large
porcupine came into view. I thought that he, too, was looking for water;
but no, h