32 WILD SPORTS IN THE SOUTH. 



" Now tell me why it is that this animal should have 

 such a big tail, for so small a body, when any one knows 

 he can't wag it with any pleasure ?" 



"Couldn't say, Poke." 



" Can't you imagine, then ?" 



" Ornament," I blandly suggested. 



" Ornament, indeed ! Now, I have been studying 

 these mammalia to-day. Mike and I went down Black 

 Bayou after bear tracks, and I saw he was going further 

 than I fancied, so I sat down to watch the alligators 

 lying on the opposite bank. I then noticed that an alli- 

 gator, when he came to the bank and heard the others 

 grunting in the reeds, climbed up as far as he could go 

 with his short legs, and then bending his tail under him, 

 against the beach, by that means, with a single jerk, 

 threw himself up on the bank. Now, therefore, as these 

 animals live chiefly on streams with low perpendicular 

 banks, as they, by this example, do mount the bank with 

 the assistance of their tail, and as nothing was made for 

 naught, ergo, their tails were made to climb banks 

 with." 



" As these animals frequently scratch themselves with 

 their hind feet, and as nothing was made for naught, 

 ergo, their hind feet were made to scratch themselves 

 with." 



" That is sheer malevolence," retorted Poke. " You 

 try to take away my cane and don't offer another." 



" I did. I consider the tail an ornament, of as much 

 use as the tail of a mouse or a turkey gobbler." 



