THE PECULIAR 'POSSUM 



99 



small that is. For there are 7000 grains to a pound, 

 which means that it would take 1750 baby 'possums 

 to weigh as much as two cups of sugar ! 



"I should say he was peculiar !" I hear you ex- 

 claim ; and you will agree with an ancient History of 

 Carolina which I have, when it declares : " The 

 Opoffom is the wonder of all the land animals." 



I wish you had been with me one spring day as I was 

 stretching a "lay-out" line across Cubby Hollow. (A 

 lay-out line is a long fish-line, strung with baited 

 hooks, and reaching across the pond from shore to 

 shore.) I was out in the middle of the pond, lying flat 

 on a raft made of three cedar rails, when my dog 

 began to bark at something in a brier-patch on shore. 



Paddling in as fast as I could, I found the dog 

 standing before a large 'possum, which was backed up 

 against a tree. 

 I finally got 

 Mrs. 'Possum 

 by the tail and 

 dropped her 

 unhurt into 

 my eel-pot 

 a fish -trap 

 made out of an empty nail-keg which I had left 

 since fall among the bushes of the hillside. Then 

 paddling again to the middle of the pond, I untangled 

 and set my hooks on the lay-out line, and came back 

 to shore for my 'possum. 



