The Kangaroo Rat 



here, as now I do not dare to, that the sweet 

 night singer of the plains and the plush-clad fairy 

 that nightly danced about my door are the same. 



But one night there was a fresh upheaval of 

 Nature, and my Immeasurable Force tried a 

 new experiment in terrestrial convulsions. He 

 started his mountain, not in the middle of his 

 kingdom, as aforetime, but afar to the south- 

 west, in one corner of the box, and a notable 

 mountain he made. He simply ruined the 

 Grand Canon to use the material of its walls. 



Higher and higher those tiny pink pawlets 

 piled the beetling crags, and the dizzy peak 

 arose above the sinking plain as it never had 

 before. 



It went up fast, too, for it was in the angle 

 of the box, and it was rapidly nearing the 

 heaven of heavens represented by the lid, 

 when an accident turned the current of the 

 Perodipus's ambitions. He was now at an al- 

 titude that he had never before reached since 

 his imprisonment, so high that he could touch 

 the narrow strip of the wooden walls that was 

 unprotected by the tin. The new substance 

 tempted his teeth. Oh, new-found joy! it was 



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