a colony
of
muskrats
in the
river
meadows;
under the
grove of
elms and
buttonwoods
in the
other
horizon
was a
village of
busy men,
as curious
to me as
if they
had been
prairie-dogs,
each
sitting at
the mouth
of its
burrow, or
running
over to a
neighbor’s
to gossip.
I went
there
frequently
to observe
their
habits.
The
village
appeared
to me a
great news
room; and
on one
side, to
support
it, as
once at
Redding &
Company’s
on State
