PRELIMINARY WORDS 



nature furnished her. More than familiarity 

 grew out of our relationship. I learned to love 

 those curious, or queer, or cunning animals; and 

 with that love came a measure of sympathy 

 which still survives. They were often my sole 

 companions save my thoughts in long rides 

 over treeless, rolling plains. I gathered a cer- 

 tain sort of information as to their ways, their 

 lives, their enemies, their dangers. In the fol- 

 lowing sketches, in as simple a way as possible, 

 I have sought to record facts and impressions 

 albeit they have a certain human tinge to 

 them that grew on me as the years passed on 

 and I became a woman. They are offered you, 

 my reader, in the sincere hope that hours thus 

 made bright to me may still find a work that 

 makes for betterment in the lives of others. 



Acknowledgment is due to several friends 

 and is heartily rendered for valuable services 

 freely given. To Dr. R. Ellsworth Call, A.M., 

 M.Sc., Ph.D., Curator of the Children's Mu- 

 seum, and to Miss Mabel Williamson, whose 

 illustrations have sympathetically caught the 

 spirit of my stories, special thanks are tendered. 



R. A. C. 



Brooklyn., New Tork, June 10, 1903. 



[12] 



