88 BEYOND THE PASTURE BARS 



Take the case of "Pinky," a little 'possum we 

 once possessed, who had a notion that he wanted 

 to be domesticated wanted to be a tame 'possum. 



Most wild animals stoutly resist all of our well- 

 intentioned efforts to bring them up in dooryard 

 ways, and take to the woods again at the first 

 opportunity. I have tried one wild animal after 

 another, but every one of them sooner or later 

 escaped to the wilds every one but Pinky. Pinky 

 refused to stay in the woods when taken back 

 there, because, forsooth, into the little think-hole 

 in his head had got stuck the notion that he 

 wanted to be a tame 'possum, and that notion 

 could not be budged. He was going to be a tame 

 'possum whether anybody wanted him to be or 

 not. 



Pinky was one of a family of nine young 'pos- 

 sums that I caught several springs ago and car- 

 ried home. In the course of a few weeks eight 

 of them were adopted by my boy friends; but 

 Pinky, because he was the runt, and looked very 

 sorry and forlorn, was not chosen. He was left 

 with me. I kept him and fed him milk, his 

 mother had choked to death on a fish-bone, until 

 he caught up to the size of the biggest mother-fed 

 'possum of his age in the woods. Then I took him 



