HOW NATURE STUDY SHOULD BE TAUGHT 83 



wild species. If you should look at a kangaroo through the 

 wrong end of a telescope you would have a very fair idea of 

 our little friend's form, with hind legs and feet very long and 

 slender, and forelegs very short ; so that when he sits up 

 they seem like little paws held before him in a coquettish 

 way. His tail is often twice the length of his body, and is 

 tipped with a brush of long hairs. He has a knowing look 

 in his face, with its upright furry ears and bright eyes. 



Then the teacher took down her new copy 

 of Witmer & Stone's " American Animals," and 

 let the children enjoy those two plates of photo- 

 graphs of the skins of various mice and shrews. 



I watched Sam. And Sam looked at me occa- 

 sionally in an eager way. He reminded me of 

 my old dog Daisy, when I held her trembling in 

 eagerness, with the woodchuck only two feet from 

 her nose, and plainly visible under the boulder at 

 the bottom of the dilapidated wall. 



The teacher read on, about the meadow mice 

 that " are the homeliest of their tribe," and about 

 the deer mice and the white-footed. And again 

 the photographs of the skins were passed around. 



Sam, I thought, I know that you would like to 

 get right into this, right up here with the mouse 

 that you caught in the meadow day before yester- 

 day, and bring in that wood mouse, and a few of 

 those " fancy " pet mice, the waltzing ones in 

 particular, and tell us more than the books and we 



