the tn age   oa how a econd should be split. If they do not, the neZt 
deer that passes finds a pair of empty shells to sniff at, but no feathers.

,, 
Nighor up the creooet I encounter an abandoned farti. I try to read, 
from the age of the youn  Jackpine. usrhing across an old field, how 
long ago the lucklee fars.r found out that *and plains were mpant to 
cw solitude, not corn. Jackpiaes tell tall Ules to the uary, for 
they pt on several whorls of branch" each 7;ar, istaw of ony on. 
I find a better chronometer in an elm seedling which now blocks the barn

door. Its rings date back to the drouth of 1930. Since that year no 
man has carried milk out of this bars. 
I wooder what this family tunght about when their mortage ttnally 
ontpw their crops, and thas Save the signal for their evictioa.   Most 
thoughts, like flying grouse, leave no trace of their passing, but so*m 
leave clues thstm outlast the decades. Ie who, n some unforgotten 
April, planted this i1lac, vast have thought pleasantly of bloo.s for 
all the Aprils to come. She who used this washboard, its corru   tios 
worn this with aiw ondays, m   have wished for a cessation of all 
Monday, and son. 
Musing on su&. questions, I become awar of the dog down by the 
spring, pointing patiently these man mmtes. I walk up, apologising 
for 7 inatteation. Up twitters a woodcock, batlike, his salmon breast 
soaked in October sun. Thus goes the hunt. 
ee 
It's har on such a da to kee    one's mind on grouse, for they are