! Nature's Model T 



by Pete Barrett . . . paintings by Charles Culver 



ANYONE who has seen what my Southern friend Emmett Gowen 

 calls a "passel of possums" has witnessed the unique in 

 animal transportation. An old lady possum will come trudging 

 along on flat feet while her family rides up top, rubbernecking 

 like typical country kids. Sometimes there will be six or seven 

 beady-eyed youngsters hanging on to fistfuls of fur in opposing 

 rows along their mother's back. 



It is a slightly swayful ride, but the passengers never seem to 

 mind. Perhaps they know that no other creature in the country 

 travels in such plushy elegance, cradled between the axles, so to 

 speak. 



