170 WILD LIFE AND THE CAMERA 



therefore safe, and soon he saw 'Possum Two, who 

 had crept along the fence, standing on the top of 

 the hen-house. Then the two would-be thieves 

 entered, one by the window and the other by the 

 door, but the hen-house was empty of hens, so out 

 came the two prowlers, disappointment showing in 

 their dejected appearance. The shutting of a door 

 in the farmhouse near by disturbed their peace of 

 mind. 'Possum One, on coming out of the door, 

 scrambled quickly on to the roof of the hen-house, 

 while 'Possum Two remained in the window. 

 Danger signals sounded loudly on the ground as a 

 man came walking down the pathway. At this 

 moment the 'possums made another mistake, for 

 the man would probably have passed them unnoticed 

 had they not both snarled, and thereby attracted 

 his attention. 



Now it happened that the man was not an 

 American, and in that accidental fact lay the 

 'possums' one chance of escape. An American 

 farmer would have picked up a fence rail and 

 with it promptly ended the lives of the " darned 

 little varmints," who, even though they were 

 thieves, stole only that they might live. But the 

 man was an Irishman, fresh from St. Patrick's Isle. 

 He had never seen a 'possum, nor did he know 

 anything of their peculiar ways. Only the |week 

 before, he had been engaged as a farm hand, and 

 had been left on the place while the farmer and his 

 sons had gone to the polls to vote, for the day was 

 election day, hence the quietness of the farm 

 which had inveigled our two marsupials from their 

 retreats. 



