NEZ long's menagerie 175 



" All, oui ! it is, niou enfant, for potage, — ze stew 

 you call him,'' said Toinette, putting a fresh supply of 

 legs into the pan. 



''Delicious !" said the Doctor. ''I have eaten Squir- 

 rel before, but it never tasted like this." 



" S[)iled in the cookin'," said Nez ; " easiest beast 

 there is to spile, but," giving a glance full of pride at 

 Toinette, " the woman knows jest how long to slew 'em 

 first, jest how long to fry, and jest how to season, and 

 that's the whole sense of cookin', 1 reck'n. Why, along 

 four years ago up in Canada we was pushed for meat 

 onct, and Toinette she cooked up a fat young Porkipine 

 so you couldn't ha' told it from young lamb, — yes, 

 siree I " 



'' Didn't you have an awful time picking the quills 

 out ? They must be as thick as feathers on a chicken," 

 said Nat. 



''They only grow (|uills on their backs," replied Nez, 

 "and you can take the whole skin off to onct without 

 prick in' a linger, if you slit it and begin underneath." 



" Wasn't it a great deal of trouble to take off all the 

 skins of the little fur beasts that are out in your shed? 

 Dodo and I skinned two moles a while ago to make a 

 muff for her doll, but the skins tore even after we had 

 rubbed alum on them and waited two weeks for them 

 to dry. Mole skins don't smell very good either, but 

 not so bad as Skunks." 



" It's easy enough to skin fur beasts if you don't 

 wait too long, but some things hereabouts, Squirrels for 

 instance, that have nice-lookin' fur, are of no account, 

 because their skins are weak like your mole's. I'll In'ing 

 in a few of to-day's batch so you can look at 'em." 



