THE BUSY COUNTRY.
" It is extraordinary how many things happen in a place lilth this ! " said to me the other day the owner of a country estate. Most of the . events to which he referred are in the domain of natural history ; and your mind must have the rural bias in Order to feel that the hbuisi are-crowded. At the particular juncture we were unfortunate enough to come upon events that were in the tragic vein. In a small round pond we found the drowned body of a grey squirrel. The stone edge was scarcely more than a foot from the surface of the water and you would have thought quite within reach of an animal so superlatively active. The day before the same pond had drowned a fox. Both events were without prece- dent in that spot. It seems that the month's drought has put animals as well as plants into great straits for water. The ponds and ditches are empty, the ground dry and dusty, even green blades of grass are hard to come by. How mortal
must have been the thirst of the unhappy fox and squirrel !
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