Ed's Good Ears

Trail Wood #71 Earl Plato
I look at my map of Trail Wood. I see North Woods where Ed Teale crossed over Fern Brook on a cold and wet April 10th. He wrote: “I cross Fern Brook. I have taken only a few steps beyond when two sounds reach my ears. The first is the soft warbling of bluebirds flying overhead - bluebirds in the rain. The second is a great hullabaloo that breaks out in the meadow I have just quitted. Our neighbour’s beagle- this time with a smaller dog as it companion- has caught the scent of a cottontail; I turn Back to the pasture edge to watch the chase. Across the field I glimpse the two dogs rushing through the wet grass, dashing this way and that in a frenzy of .excitement. Far ahead of them, lifting in great bounds that give a clear view of its pursuers, the cottontail is adding distance with every leap. The chase, accompanied by deep baying and high-pitched yipping, traces a great circle over the meadow. It ends in a large pile of wood heaped near the sheds. Here the cottontail find sanctuary. Here the trail disappears. … The sound of the frustrated dogs carries to my ears for a long time as I range on through the soaked and dripping woods.”