342 FOUlt-FOOJEU AMERICANS 



inside one of these strange homes. Once in my Colorado 

 camping da3^s a pair of these Rats turned our ' dug- 

 out' camp topsy-turvy during a two days' absence. 

 They filled the tea kettle from a heap of shavings and 

 splint wood that had been cut for kindling, mixed a 

 quantity of fish hooks in a sack of flour that was up on 

 the roof logs, emptied a case of shot on the hearth, and 

 made away with every tin spoon our outfit could boast, 

 In return, the}^ filled the frying pan with a lot of sticky 

 cones that they must have brought from half a mile 

 awa3^ When we returned they seemed to think they 

 had improved the camp and made it more homelike, 

 and peeped at us proudly from between the boughs. 



"Rats, however, who cannot keep their hands off the 

 property of others, may be interesting, but even if the}^ 

 are bric-a-brac collectoi's, the}' never sliould be allowed a 

 foothold inside one's home. Meddlesome House People, 

 hear, and take warning I" 



" Be careful. Dodo," said Olive ; " if you keep moving 

 that trap, the first thing you know the door will come 

 unhooked and all those mice will get out, and Quick 

 will tear everj^thing to bits trying to get them." 



" Our second group, the Gopher family, contains 

 upwards of thirty members, two of which are fairly 

 common. 



" The Gophers are stout burrowing animals, seven or 

 eight inches long, with outside cheek pouches for carry- 

 ing home their provisions ; strong, long, gnawing teeth, 

 and powerful fore limbs armed with desperate claws for 

 digging out their homes. Happily they do not live very 

 near us, but they are a scourge in the prairie regions of 



