I can never be sure about all too many mushrooms, and maybe, one of these days, I'll join a mycology club and finally learn how to authoritatively identify fungi. But, in the meanwhile, I'll have to make do with the books at hand and the web, the best go-to site being Michael Kuo's splendid MushroomExpert.com. I knew, when I spotted this pair in the leaf litter, that I was looking at one of the members of the puffball group, and I also knew that what I had in front of me was a species of "smoker." If I had kids with me, at least one of them would have known to squeeze the mushroom, which would delight the assembled by exhaling a torrent of dark, spore-dusty "smoke." But I was alone and more concerned with identification than play... OK, ID'ing fungi is a kind of play... and after spending way too much time at Kuo's site instead of working on an article that was due, I decided that I was probably looking at a common, stalked puffball called Lycoperdon perlatum. Just for old times' sake, I have to admit that I gave it a squeeze. Alas, it was smokeless, having long ago sent its spores flying.