84 OUR COUNTRY NEIGHBORS. 



gentleman we never had had the pleasure of seeing ; but 

 we soon learned his existence from his ravages in our gar 

 den. He had a taste, it appears, for the very kind of 

 things we wanted to eat ourselves, and helped himself 

 without asking. We had a row of fine, crisp heads of let 

 tuce, which were the pride of our gardening, and out of 

 which he would from day to day select for his table just 

 the plants we had marked for ours. He also nibbled our 

 young beans ; and so at last we were reluctantly obliged 

 to let John Gardiner set a trap for him. Poor old simple- 

 minded hermit, he was too artless for this world ! He was 

 caught at the very first snap, and found dead in the trap, 

 the agitation and distress having broken his poor wood 

 land heart, and killed him. We were grieved to the very 

 soul when the poor fat old fellow was dragged out, with 

 his useless paws standing up stiff and imploring. As it 

 was, he was given to Denis, our pig, which, without a 

 single scruple of delicacy, ate him up as thoroughly as 

 he ate up the lettuce. 



This business of eating, it appears, must go on all through 

 creation. We eat ducks, turkeys, and chickens, though we 

 don t swallow them whole, feathers and all. Our four-footed 

 friends, less civilized, take things with more directness and 

 simplicity, and chew each other up without ceremony, or 

 swallow each other alive. Of these unceremonious habits 

 we had other instances. 



