st. The
dog was a coward, and dared not face him. When the coon's attention was
diverted, the dog would rush in; then one of us would attempt to seize
the coon's tail, but he faced about so quickly, his black eyes gleaming,
that the hand was timid about seizing him. But finally in his
skirmishing with the dog I caught him by the tail, and bore him safely
to an open flour-barrel, and he was our prisoner.

Much amusement my little boy and I anticipated with him. He partook of
food that same day, and on the second day would eat the chestnuts in our
presence. Never did he show the slightest fear of us or of anything, but
he was unwearied in his efforts to regain his freedom. After a few days
we put a strap upon his neck and kept him tethered by a chain. But in
the night, by dint of some hocus-pocus, he got the chain unsnapped and
made off, and he is now, I trust, a patriarch of his tribe, wearing a
leather necktie.

The skunk visits every farm sooner or later. One night I came near
shaking hands with one on my very door-stone. I thought it was the cat,
and put down my hand to stroke it, when the creature, probably
appreciating my mistake, moved off up the bank, revealing to me the
white stripe on its body and the kind of cat I had saluted. The skunk is
not easily ruffled, and seems to employ excellent judgment in the use of
its terrible weapon.

Several times I have had calls from woodchucks. One looked in at the
open door of my study one day, and, after sniffing a while, and not
liking the smell of such clover as I was compelled to nibble there,
moved on to better pastures. Another one invaded the kitchen door while
we were at dinner. The dogs promptly challenged him, and there was a
lively scrimmage upon the door-stone. I thought the dogs were fighting,
and rushed to part them. The incident broke in upon the drowsy summer
noon, as did the appearance of the muskrat upon the frigid December
night.

The woodchuck episode that afforded us the most amusement occurred one
midsummer. We were at work in a newly-planted vineyard, when the man
with the cultivator saw, a few yards in front of him, some large gray
object that at first puzzled him. He approached it, and found it to be
an old woodchuck with a young one in her mouth. She was carrying her
kitten as does a cat, by the nape of the neck. Evidently she was moving
her family to pastures new. As the man was in the line of her march, she
stopped and considered what was to