ALONG FOUR-FOOTED TRAILS 



accustom himself to the new surroundings and 

 the ways of the younger of his kind, remained 

 on his long occupied claim on the border of the 

 field. Many a time he had thrown up the dirt 

 while mining his winding halls and had covered 

 up the vegetation over a goodly part of his do- 

 main. Often in the fall, as the hot prairie fires 

 swept by, mercilessly licking up everything along 

 their way, the only vegetation left to enrich the 

 soil was that covered by the hermit miner. As 

 new vegetation sprung from that which was 

 buried the faithful little fellow mined it all over 

 again ; and thus he toiled year after year. In 

 this way and by his greedy nature of storing 

 away all he could not eat, much vegetation was 

 converted into fertilizing substances and the soil 

 was made into the productive condition in which 

 the frontiersman had found it. 



The following spring the farmer broke up 

 the strip of prairie upon which the old gopher 

 had made his home and in nature's way had 

 ploughed and reploughed the soil so many 

 times. Thus the feeble old gopher was turned 

 out of his life-long home by the cold share of 

 the farmer's plough in return for the faithful 



