“Young man,” was the rejoinder, “a feller as don’t know a ladybug when he sees it can’t get my vote for teacher in this deestrict.” The “trustee” was right; for what is the use of knowing that the little ladybug is _Coc-ci-nel’-la sep-tem-punc-ta’-ta_ when you do not know that she is a ladybug, and that you ought to say to her:-- “Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home; Your house is on fire, your children alone”? Let us say, now, that you are spending your vacation in the edge of the country within twenty miles of a great city such as Boston. That might bring you out at Hingham, where I am spending mine. In such an ordinary place (if any place _is_ ordinary,) what might you expect to see and watch during the summer? Sixty species of birds, to begin with! They will keep you busy all summer. The wild animals, beasts, that you will find depend so very much upon your locality--woods, waters, rocks, etc.--that it is hard to say how many they will be. Here in my woods you might come upon three or four species of mice, three species of squirrels, the mink, the muskrat, the weasel, the mole, the shrew, the fox, the skunk, the rabbit, and even a wild deer. Of reptiles and amphibians you would see several more species than of fur-bearing animals,--six snakes, four common turtles, two salamanders, frogs, toads, newts,--a wonderfully interesting group, with a real live rattler among them if you should go over to the Blue Hills, fifteen miles away. [Illustration: RED SALAMANDERS, OLD AND YOUNG] You will go many times into the fields before you can make of the reptiles your friends and neighbors. But by and by you will watch them and note their ways with as much interest as you watch the other wild folk about you. It is a pretty shallow lover of nature who jumps upon a little snake with both feet, or who shivers when a little salamander drops out of the leaf-mould at his feet. [Illustration: NEWTS] And what shall I say of the fishes? There are a dozen of them in the stream and ponds within the compass of my haunt. They are a fascinating family, and one very little watched by the ordinary tramper. But _you_ are not ordinary. Quiet and patience and much putting together of scraps of observations will be necessary if you are to get at the whole story of any fish’s life. The story will be worth it, however. No, I shall not even try to _number_ the insects--the butterflies, beetles, moths, wasps, bees, bugs, ticks, mites, and such small “deer” as you will find in the round of your summer’s tramp. Nor shall I try to name the flowers and trees, the ferns and mosses. It is with the common things that you ought now to become familiar, and one summer is all too short for the things you ought to see and hear and do in your vacation out of doors. CHAPTER II THE WILD ANIMALS AT PLAY The watcher of wild animals never gets used to the sight of their mirthless sport. In all other respects animal play is entirely human.