Be sure not to let your fire get away from you and spread. Besides the damage to trees and fences that it may do it is impossible to tell what suffering it may cause to animal life. So, be very careful.
To prevent forest fires Congress passed the law approved May 5, 1900, which—
Forbids setting fire to the woods, and
Forbids leaving any fires unextinguished.
When you leave your camp clean up. Fragments of food—not pickles—can be put up somewhere for the birds. At some of our camps we have regular places to feed the birds and they get to know what time to come there. Here in the woods my wrens have established for themselves the hour of sunrise, and it is partly to escape their scolding for neglect that I get up with the sun. Mrs. Jenny scolds furiously but for actual singing she can beat any bird in the woods.
Perhaps you notice that we have said nothing about snakes. Now it is really a very rare thing to see a snake in the woods. You have to look very carefully to find them, for they seem to be about the most timid of all creatures. So far as danger from poisonous snakes is concerned you are in much more danger from the driver of a dray than from a snake. Take our word for it, snakes are much more afraid of you than you are of them. Give them the least little bit of a chance and they will be out of the way before you can see them. A gorged snake—that is one that has just taken a full meal—may be sluggish but in a majority of cases he will crawl away and hide in some secure place till the process of digestion is over. Do not go near a tub if you are afraid of water for you can get drowned in it about as easy as you can get bitten by a snake in the woods and to wind up the subject, not one-tenth of the people who get snake bitten, die from it. A very few do die but most of them die from the bad treatment they receive afterwards. The "deadly auto" will not get out of your way but all snakes will.
Once in a while you may find clinging in a low bush a pretty little green snake. It will readily submit to being handled and is perfectly harmless. We have found these snakes useful in the house to kill flies. The harmless snakes are the brown snake, the common banded moccasin, the black mountain snake, the green snake. The garter and ring-necked snakes wear Eve's wedding-ring as a collar. They cannot hurt and they eat up quantities of insects, but beware of the yellow and brown rattlesnakes, especially after rainy weather, for it is said that after wet weather they cannot make any noise with their rattles and therefore you are not warned of their presence. The most deadly snake, the moccasin, is brownish with a flat head.
The green lizards, too, will almost rid a house of flies if left to wander about at will. The fence lizard, a scaly alligator looking chap, is just as useful but never gets tame.
Try petting a toad some time. He will get to be quite at home in a garden and pay well, for he will eat all kinds of destructive insects. Some gardeners buy toads, paying as high as a quarter apiece, for they know how much good they can do. A toad digs his hole backwards. Watch him and see the fun. In the spring if there is water near he may be induced to sing to you. If you think he is slow and clumsy you have only to see how quick he can catch a fly.