28 DENIZENS OF THE DESERT 



this strange and curious-looking rat that ran 

 from the stack of sticks was the culprit and the 

 maker of all this mischief? 



There was yet another mystery that now 

 seemed on the way to being solved. The men 

 had noticed time after time that there were 

 small piles of rubbish, bits of manure, and 

 small sticks here and there in the house, and 

 they had wondered how this useless stuff came 

 there. They would clean it out, but always 

 after a few days there was more of it. They had 

 heard strange noises at night of animals of some 

 kind running around on the sills and on the 

 floor, but they had repeatedly smelled skunks, 

 and they accounted for the noise by the pres- 

 ence of these animals. But now they made the 

 sweeping generalization that if this rat could be 

 the one to accuse of stealing all their trinkets, 

 he might also be the one who was piling up all 

 this rubbish in the corners, on shelves and in 

 the woodbox. 



And in this inference they were not wrong, 

 for pack rats are given to this very habit. Any 

 object that is small enough to carry off and 

 which strikes their fancy they pick up and pack 



