BOBBY. 175 



loosened so that they were always threatening to fall 

 out ; and in a very short time our room, which was in 

 reality the newest part of the house, looked like an old 

 ruin, with crumbling wall and dilapidated window. 



He had a variety of resources at his command ; and 

 when not enojag^ed in the destruction of the house, he 

 would often be found busy on another work he had in 

 hand, that of trying to free himself from his bonds. No 

 human prisoner, filing through the iron bars of his 

 dungeon, ever worked more perseveringly for his 

 freedom than did Bobby, — biting through strand after 

 strand of his cord of steel wires, or slowly, but surely, 

 unfasteninor the twisted bano^le on his lecc ; until at last 

 some day he would be missing from his place — devas- 

 tation in the garden, empty eggshells in the hens' nests, 

 and sad gaps among the rising generation of fowls 

 showing the good use he had made of his opportunities. 

 No small amount of stratagem was required to re- 

 capture him when loose ; and much time and trouble 

 had to be expended, and tempting dainties displayed, to 

 entice him within reach — a fat mouse, if there happened 

 to be one in the trap, being the most effective bait. 



Bobby would have been invaluable to an exhibitor 

 of performing animals ; his intelligence in learning the 

 few tricks we had the leisure to teach him showed that 

 he would have been capable of distinguishing himself 

 if he had been educated as a member of a " happy 

 family." We often brought him in to show his tricks 

 before visitors ; and his solemn way of performing 

 them added much to the amusement he caused. He 



