Tito '/*4 



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Sometimes she brought them a Prairie-dog, at 



other times she would come home with a whole 



bunch of Gophers and Mice in her jaws ; and 



once or twice, by the clever trick of relay- ,.{ K A J_> 



chasing, she succeeded in getting one of the 



big Northern Jack-rabbits for the little folks at 



home. { jt 



After they had feasted they would lie around ''^i'O-J,^' n ' * 



in the sun for a time. Tito would mount guard V ^ -^ 



on a bank and scan the earth and air with her ,\_/A 



keen, brassy eye, lest any dangerous foe should ' ' 



find their happy valley ; and the merry pups 

 played little games of tag, or chased the Butter- 

 flies, or had apparently desperate encounters 

 with each other, or tore and worried the bones 

 and feathers that now lay about the threshold 

 of the home. One, the least, for there is usu- 

 ally a runt, stayed near the mother and climbed 

 on her back or pulled at her tail. They made 

 a lovely picture as they played, and the wrest- 

 ling group in the middle seemed the focus of it 

 all at first ; but a keener, later look would 

 have rested on the mother, quiet, watchful, not 

 without anxiety, but, above all, with a face full 

 of motherly tenderness. Oh, she was so proud 



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