A Kitten at School 



r 



door of their rocky den in the Green River sand- 

 hills of Wyoming, exactly as you may see a 

 parcel of small dogs scrambling over one an- 

 other and pretending to bite. Most adult beasts 

 have some sense of humor, and many a large 

 degree of playfulness. Who that has ever 

 watched the monkeys in Central, or Schenley, or 

 Lincoln parks, or in any other menagerie, can 

 doubt that ? Squirrels spend much of their time 

 in pure play, as do all agile animals. But the 

 instances are rare, as I have said, where the 

 old ones seek to amuse the young, or join in 

 with them in real sport. 



I remember once lying upon the brink of a 

 very lofty cliff, in northern Wyoming, watch- 

 ing for an hour or two the extraordinary agility 

 and jollity of a lot of bighorn kids. They 

 were racing up and down steep snowbanks, 

 leaping over and dodging each other among the 

 rocks like children playing tag, while the old 

 rams and ewes lay curled up in dry spots, or 

 fed quietly upon the fresh herbage of the alpine 

 meadow, without paying the least attention to 

 the games. 



