200 HOME IJFE IN FLOEIDA. 



We were about retiring to bed one clear, moonlight 

 night, when our attention was attracted by a curious noise 

 from the direction of the hen-house, some little distance 

 away. It was a noise not to be explained in any ordinary 

 way, and, after being satisfied as to its direction, one per- 

 son with a pistol and another with a lantern sallied forth 

 to find out the cause of the rumpus. Outside the hen- 

 house we paused to listen ; no chickens were screaming, 

 only a low murmur of alarm could be heard among them ; 

 but clear and loud sounded the noise that had called us 

 forth from our would-be slumbers, a decided, emphatic 

 thumping and pounding against the inside wall of the hen- 

 house, and what that sound meant, why it was, and what 

 was causing that sharp hammer-like rapping, no one could 

 imagine. Stealthily the door was opened, and then the 

 light revealed what ? A ludicrous sight, and no mis- 

 take ! an opossum sitting erect on its hind legs in a nest, 

 so intent on endeavoring to crack a China nest-egg, held 

 in its forepaws, by pounding it on the wall, as not to heed 

 our entrance ! Fully a minute we stood watching its ill- 

 sjDent efforts, then the light was flashed in its eyes, and it 

 dropped the China egg, and rolled itself into a ball, lying 

 there motionless at our feet. You have heard the phrase, 

 ''playing 'possum," and no one who has seen these cun- 

 ning creatures "playing dead" will question the full jus- 

 tice of its application. The present 'j^ossum we knew 

 could only be dead through fear, and as our faith in its 

 susceptibility to shocks was small, a bullet roused its dor- 

 mant energies, and it started to run, when a second dose 

 of lead converted its live feint into a dead faint. 



"The Avay of the transgressor is hard," and it was sig- 

 nally true of this unfortunate robber ; he came to eat and 

 found too hard a nut to crack, and was eaten himself as 

 the sole result of his venture. 



