104 RIVERBY 



minks, with their slender satiny bodies, it seemed 

 a pity to catch them. Muskrats I had no sympathy 

 for, they looked so ratty, and had so unpleasant a 

 smell. The gophers were one of the greatest plagues 

 the farmers had. The ground would be dotted with 

 their mounds, so round and regular, the black dirt 

 pulverized so finely. I always wondered how they 

 could make them of such a perfect shape, and wished 

 I could see way down into their houses. They have 

 more than one entrance to them, because I 've tried 

 to drown them out, and soon I would see what I 

 took to be my gopher, that I thought I had covered 

 so nicely, skipping off. They took so much corn 

 out of the hills after it was planted that it was cus- 

 tomary to mix corn soaked with strychnine with the 

 seed corn. Do they have pocket gophers in the 

 East? [No.] They are the cutest little animals, 

 with their pockets on each side of their necks, lined 

 with fur; when they get them stuffed full they 

 look as broad as they are long, and so saucy. I 

 have met them, and had them show fight because I 

 would n't turn out of their path, — the little impu- 

 dent things! 



" One nuisance that goes along with civilization 

 we escaped until the railroad was built, and that was 

 rats. The railroads brought other nuisances, too, 

 the weeds ; they soon crowded out the native plants. 

 I don't want to be understood as calling all weeds 

 nuisances; the beautiful flowers some of them bear 

 save their reputations, — the dandelion, for instance ; 

 I approve of the dandelion, whatever others may 



