MONGOLA AND HIS TWO 

 BROTHERS 



SHORTLY after six o'clock on a pleasant 

 evening in the latter part of June, I was 

 returning home on horseback from a 

 neighborhood visit. As my pony loped around 

 the hill I heard an excited voice shout several 

 times, in French, " Les enfants du diable," 

 which means "the child of the devil," or in 

 other words, the devil's own beast. At the same 

 time my nostrils were greeted with a stifling 

 odor that grew stronger and more offensive as 

 I approached the source whence it came. 



A short distance up the hill stood an old 

 French trapper and his half-breed son. Before 

 them on the ground lay two skunks limp and 

 lifeless. It was these beautiful little animals 

 that had brought the excited exclamation from 

 the old Frenchman as they discharged their 



