THE MUSKRAT AND ITS HOME 



I can remember eating nothing I enjoyed 

 more. Now that the excitement had worn off 

 I grew very unhappy when I thought I had 

 aided in taking the lives of so many animals. 

 Had they not as much right to enjoy their lives 

 in their way as I had to enjoy mine? I would 

 have given all I ever hoped to possess even my 

 dear pony and dog could I have given back 

 the luckless muskrats their lives and have seen 

 them run here and there, down their many run- 

 ways, tumbling over one another in their mad 

 haste to reach their homes. Joe said I must 

 not feel so about the rats, as he wiped the tears 

 from my cheek with his red handkerchief. He 

 said if they were not killed during the winter 

 the muskrats would multiply very rapidly, hav- 

 ing three litters and from five to nine young 

 ones at a birth during a summer. In great 

 numbers they are capable of doing much dam- 

 age and he thought their fur was intended for 

 our use, for were not his mittens and my cap 

 of comfort and service to us ? With this com- 

 forting argument Joe bagged the game and placed 

 it on the hand-sled on which he had pulled me 

 partly down to the slough. As we trudged 



