de,
while the muskrat could see a long, thin line trailing behind him. Then
the fish leaped several times into the air, the sunlight flashing upon
the bright carmine spots on his olive-green sides. Next he tried sulking
on the bottom of the pool, jiggling from side to side, only to rise
gradually to the surface. A net dipped for a moment into the water and
the trout vanished as if spirited away. The muskrat watched with bulging
eyes but the trout did not again return to the pool.

After a time the muskrat bestirred himself and crossed the pool to a
spot near his own front door. But instead of entering it, he rose toward
the surface, having decided to take a brief journey in one of his many
runways. A surprise was in store for the big rat, however, a surprise
which drove all thoughts of a journey from his mind.

As he approached the surface, he looked up and found himself staring
directly into a pair of pale, savage eyes set in a round face,
surmounted by a pair of tasseled ears. The lynx lay upon a half
submerged log, its face close to the surface of the water, in order that
the reflections might not interfere with its vision of the clear depths.
As the muskrat came near the surface, a great paw armed with long, keen
claws was thrust into the water, but the lynx was a moment too late.
With a suddenness which caused him to turn a backward somersault, the
big muskrat arrested his upward motion and dived for his subterranean
doorway. He did not pause in his swift flight until the long passage was
traversed and he crouched, shaken and panting, in the darkest corner of
his house. Nor did he venture forth again that day.

One day he had a narrow escape from a huge snapping turtle which entered
the pool on a foraging expedition. At the time, the muskrat was dozing
in his favorite retreat, all unconscious of the invader until he felt
his right hind foot taken in a vise-like grip which made him squeak with
pain. He twisted about until he could look at his ugly captor, at sight
of whom his heart sank. Pull as he would, he could not loosen his foot
from the cruel jaws. All would have been over with him had not the
Hermit at that moment chanced upon the pool and, seeing his plight, come
to the rescue. The muskrat entered his den with a bleeding foot but a
thankful heart.

It must not be supposed, however, that the muskrat's life was one
continual round of sudden dangers and narrow escapes. For weeks at a
time no enemy visited t