. Country life reader . scape, to preventlife from becoming too stale. Getting a living was a matter of little concern, for grasswas his staple and his food supplies lay right at his young saplings and undergrowth in the neighbor-hood of his burrowshowed the marks ofhis teeth, but as a rulehe did themlittle dam-age. Clover was thefood he liked best, andsometimes, too, in thewarm evenings of laterJune he risked an ex-pedition to the farmersgarden, and regaled onwhatever vegetables hecould find—^peas, beans,cabbage, corn, and evenpumpkin-vines. The most of the dayhe slept indoors, but h
. Country life reader . scape, to preventlife from becoming too stale. Getting a living was a matter of little concern, for grasswas his staple and his food supplies lay right at his young saplings and undergrowth in the neighbor-hood of his burrowshowed the marks ofhis teeth, but as a rulehe did themlittle dam-age. Clover was thefood he liked best, andsometimes, too, in thewarm evenings of laterJune he risked an ex-pedition to the farmersgarden, and regaled onwhatever vegetables hecould find—^peas, beans,cabbage, corn, and evenpumpkin-vines. The most of the dayhe slept indoors, but heliked an early morningbreakfast with the fresh dew upon it for drink, and at noon, if all was well, hetook a sun bath in the sand at his door. Late in theafternoon he came out again, and this was the most sub-stantial meal of the day. And with Tommy, as withall other woodchucks, it was a bite and a look. A fewmouthfuls of clover and then the whole horizon must bescanned, for behind some distant stump or upturned root. Tommy. 156 COUNTRY LIFE READER or dump of grass an enemy might lurk. Is it any wonderthat the eyes of the birds and animals are wild, and thatthey wear a hunted look? Their whole existence, sleep-ing, eating, watching, is a dream of fear. But if Tommy got his living without much trouble,this mode of life had its own decided drawbacks and dis-advantages, as we shall see. An animal such as the fox,for instance, that hunts its prey night and day, winterand summer—sooner or later develops a surprising keen-ness of scent that is its safeguard in time of danger. Butthe woodchuck has only to crop the clover at the doorof his burrow for food, and it is upon keenness of sightand hearing, rather than upon sharpness of scent, that hedepends in time of danger. The steel trap that you buryin the sand or cover with loose grass at the mouth of hisden does not appeal to his sense of smell, and he will walkboldly into a box trap with almost as Kttle hesitation asinto his burr
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