180 The 'Book of the Goat. 



is very likely to get the rope or chain caught, and stran- 

 gulation may ensue. It is better never to use a cord in 

 keeping a kid within bounds, but to employ a light chain 

 well supplied with swivels, and to see that it works freely 

 with the pin. If a stake is used it should never be placed 

 above ground, but driven in so that the top comes level 

 with the soil. When this is neglected the little animal 

 is sure to wind the tether round the stick until it is 

 so close up that it is no longer able to move. A small 

 head -stall, carefully made to fit, is better by far than a 

 collar. 



Kids that can be allowed an enclosed yard in which to 

 exercise at will may with advantage be supplied with 

 some means for indulging their natural propensity for 

 climbing and jumping. This can be very simply managed 

 by driving posts into the ground a few feet apart, and 

 nailing to them cross pieces of wood such as round or 

 half-round poles preferably fir poles with the bark on. 

 A board must be placed obliquely at one or both ends to 

 enable the kids to climb up to this rough kind of 

 gymnasium, the height of which should be about 3ft. 

 from the ground. 



Few would believe the amusement that two or three 

 kids, when provided with such an arrangement as I have 

 described, will furnish an observer. Indeed, I may admit 

 that I have frequently spent an hour at a time in fits of 

 laughter witnessing the gambols of these amusing little 

 creatures. They soon learn to make use of their gym- 

 nasium, and after a few attempts will mount the structure 

 with a skip and a bound ; each starting from opposite ends 

 and meeting in the centre will fight for " king of the 

 castle" like two schoolboys, trying which can push the 

 other over, one of the two and sometimes both being butted 

 off. Even if the horizontal pieces be round poles peeled 

 of the bark and slippery like a scaffold pole, it will not 



