&—-————-—————w—————-———WVH , ,
Morning View Kentucky
2 February 1956
Thank you, Mr. McCarthy,
for your kindness to my letter of everal weeks ago about Chinooks.
I was a little taken aback, no aving thought it particularly
worthy of compliment. I am t a writer, my knowledge of the
findamentals of composit n being no more than would be
automatically acquir n a casual passage through high school
English.
As this is Ground Hog Day, I have Just spent a thoroughly idiotic
and completely satisfactory hour sitting on a wet rock in the
midst of a dripping patch of scraggly elderberries and wild
raspberries on the drenched slope of the far side of the pond—field.
My position Was down wind, about thirty feet from, and at right
angles to the ppening of my Woodchuck burrow. I haven't the
slightest faith in the Ground Hog predictions; but it seems
silly to have sucha nice big one and not use him.
The rain poured steadily. The hillside Was mantled with buSy
, trickles and little sheets of Water which twisted around my .

boots and occasionally threatened to overrun my rock perch.
Adequate clothing kept me dry, the only inconvenience being the
necessity of hunching forward to make a roof of myself Whenever
I wished to Smoke.
It was not a lonely Watch. There is a surprising amount of
activity among wild creatures when that secret sense of theirs
tells them the rain is going to continue and that it Will be
followed by cold.
My first visitors as I stared at the unreSponsive Woodchuck home,
were Tree Sparrows in a loose flock, talking their Way along
through the weeds and grasses until they found the small grain

. I had scattered. They must be Tree Sparrows in the summer when
they are somewhere else. Here, in the Winter, they work along
the fields, never seeming to get more than a yard off the ground.
I never saw one in a tree.
The wet little fellows were still dining, with their gentle,
pleasant talk, when a soggy rabbit appeared, his fur darkened by
the rain, and so plastrred down that it was parted neatly along
his spine. He found the grain, carefully Washed his wet face with
equally soaked feet, then ate, with one eye and one ear aimed at
me. I have noticed that wild rabbits seldom settle down to eat
without first energetically washing their faces.
The rabbit suddenly stopped chewing, his ears went Sharply erect,
his nose searched insistently, and presently he moved his front
feet uneasily up and doWn. I knew what that meant —- cat. Several