The Kangaroo Rat 



easy to cut. He set to work with his usual 

 energy, and in a very short time cut his way 

 through the half-inch pine, then escaped from 

 the tin-clad kingdom that had been forced upon 

 him, and its Geological Epoch was gone. My 

 professor had quit his chair. I had been willing 

 to find an impossible mystery, but I had found 

 a delightful story from Nature's wonderland. 



V 



^ 



And now he is once more skimming merrily 

 over the mud and sands of the upland plains ; 

 shooting across the open like a living, feathered 

 arrow ; tempting the rash Coyote to thrust his 

 unfortunate nose into those awful cactus brakes, 

 or teaching the Prairie Owls that if they do not 

 let him alone they will surely come to grief on 

 a Spanish bayonet ; coming out by night again 

 to scribble his lacework designs on the smooth 

 places, to write verses of measured rhythm, or 

 to sing and play hop-scotch in the moonlight 

 with his merry crew. 



Soft as a shadow, swift as an arrow, dainty as 

 thistle-down, bright-eyed and beautiful, with a 



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