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more closely. There, to my surprise, nestled into the gray-green sage, was a gnarl of black hair. It was also unmistakable. It was my daughter's hair, cleaned from a brush

and picked up out in the sun beneath the maple tree, or the pit cherry where the birds eat from the overladen, fertile branches until only the seeds remain on the

trees. I didn't know what kind of nest it was, or who had lived there. It didn't matter. I thought of the remnants of our lives carried up the hill that way and turned into

shelter. That night, resting inside the walls of our home, the world outside weighed so heavily against the thin wood of the house. The sloped roof was the only thing

between us and the universe. Everything outside of our wooden boundaries seemed so large. Filled with the night's citizens, it all came alive. The world opened

in the thickets of the dark. The wild grapes would soon ripen on the vines. The burrowing ones were emerging. Horned owls sat in treetops. Mice scurried here

and there. Skunks, fox, the slow and holy porcupine, all were passing by this way. The young of the solitary bees were feeding on the pollen in the dark. The whole world was a nest on its humble tilt, in the maze of the universe, holding us. For

Discussion and Writing 1. List the different kinds of homes described by Hogan. Are there any included that surprised you? If so, which ones? 2. Hogan's essay is not structured as a continuous story or by an argued thesis, yet the descriptions do add up to something in the end. To what do they add up, and how? 3. Compare Hogan's descriptions of animal activity to Virginia Woolfs in "Fhe Death of the

Moth" (p. 475). Using a few examples from each essay, describe the ways in which they connect detailed observations to larger ideas. 4. Part of the power of Hogan's

essay comes from the way we usually think of ourselves as very different from animals. List aspects of your life other than your dwelling that could be compared

to animal life.