!_} 



A HERMIT'S WILD FRIENDS 



find them useless. Last winter I bought a 

 wire rat-trap the kind with a trencher that 

 tips and slides the rat into the space below. 

 The trap was a failure. The mice were highly 

 delighted with the contrivance, and from the 

 first used the trencher as a door leading into 

 and out of the trap. 



How does it happen that these shy inhabi- 

 tants of the woods are more intelligent than 

 the cunning citrat? 



Some writers tell us that the lower animals 

 cannot reason. In such case it ought to be 

 an easy matter for man to outwit a lot of 

 foolish little mice. I tried the experiment by 

 fixing a wire to the trencher in such a way as 

 to give me full control. When the mice were 

 engaged on the food in the trap I pulled my 

 wire and made it fast. The next morning my 

 prisoners numbered twenty-eight. I was 

 about to drown the lot, when several pets clung 

 to the upper wires of the trap, and the mute 

 appeal in their great wild eyes softened my 

 foolish heart, and I thought it would be more 

 humane to lose them in the woods. I carried 

 120 



