88 THE DAILY LIFE OF OUR FARM. 



Poor little Vic got into a trap yesterday. She was 

 wise enough thereupon to raise a loud lament, which 

 drew the children down to the spot at once. Since she 

 usually canters after them on three legs, it will not 

 much matter to her, except that she cannot change 

 the favoured foot as she is wont to do, being a thrifty 

 matron and given to saving shoe-leather. One cannot 

 explain satisfactorily to her that she ought not to inter- 

 fere with the gardener's traps, as her nose leads her 

 involuntarily along the rabbit's track. Luckily there 

 was a good deal of moss strewed upon the teeth, which 

 eased the pinch. She never said a word about it, I 

 noticed, when she was^ lifted into the box where her 

 puppies are. What a constant source of delight the 

 fat little fellows are to the children upon the lawn after 

 school ! They straddle along and bark so affectedly in 

 their feeble cracky way, while the fond mamma looks 

 on approvingly, wagging her tail in perfect confidence. 

 She is wary enough, however, in her generation. She 

 has doubtless discovered that it is worth her while 

 being civil, inasmuch as many are the tit-bits she gets 

 quietly dropped to her at the nursery breakfast. She 

 seems thoroughly devoted to them in consequence, and 

 follows them everywhere ; whereas to ourselves or any 

 grown person she gives plenty of sea room. As there 

 is a goodly pack of her descendants now, I hear some 

 talk of a hunt to be organized, the trail of a red hening 

 being led over some fences and a part of the common. 

 Who started the idea ? I don't know. I only know 

 that our young French student charged a deep, narrow, 

 muddy ditch the other day, on the old Shetland pony. 

 She being, however, too wise to shake her joints, the 

 youngster took an involuntary header over her into the 



