344 



FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



farming more good than harm. The Gophers are tedi- 

 ous though easy animals to ti-ap, for they only live in 

 families during a very short time in the year, each indi- 

 vidual preferring a nest to himself. Poison is danger- 



(tRAY Pot'KKT (ioPHEH. 



ous to domestic animals, when scattered about freely as 

 it would have to be in such cases, so that much honor is 

 waiting for some one who shall invent a cure for the 

 Gopher plague, but it must be a cure that is not worse 

 than the disea-se." 



'' Perhaps you will find it out, Rap," said Dodo, 

 smiling confidently at him. 



" The well-known Red, Pouched or 3Iole Gopher, the 

 chief species of the middle West, has a clumsy reddish- 

 brown body as long as a Chipmunk's, a large head, and 

 very wide, hair-lined, cheek pouches reaching to the 



