The Shouts of Children 61 



more. I mourned, but couldn't complain. 

 I don't like sheep. They trouble dogs. I 

 bought a small flock for my lawn just to 

 train the pups. Becky and Bob's family 

 have grown up from the cradle with these 

 sheep and never molest them. 



Another pleasure of my boys is the work 

 of the trapper. The moles infest the lawn 

 and would plough up whole acres of grass but 

 for the boys and their mole traps. They 

 catch one nearly every day when they get 

 troublesome and soon thin them out. 



Rats kill young chickens and birds, just as 

 a puppy kills sheep, for the fun of it. A rat 

 killed and carried out of a brooder seventy 

 little chickens for me once within forty-five 

 minutes. A rat got into my neighbour's 

 brooder and killed over a hundred chickens 

 in one night and left them in great piles. A 

 steel trap set the next night caught him. 



But of all the traps a boy ever sets, none 

 gives him quite the keen delight of an old- 



