TWO 'POSSUMS 171 



Now when Dennis O'Connor saw the two 

 strange beasts his surprise was very great, and 

 after uttering a few remarks that are best left out 

 of print — for, after all, they have nothing to do 

 with the story — he turned, brave man though he 

 was, and made straight for the house. He remem- 

 bered having noticed a gun standing against the 

 wall near the chimney-corner. With such a weapon 

 he feared no animal under the size of a dog, and 

 he hurried out to do battle against the small silver- 

 haired animals. These same animals had been 

 making the most of their time. No sooner was 

 Dennis out of sight than they scurried along as 

 fast as their short legs would carry them to the 

 apple orchard. Once there, each one proceeded to 

 climb an apple tree. 'Possum One in his hurry 

 selected a tree so small that it afforded him no 

 hiding-place, so he must perforce come down again, 

 and that he did in the quickest possible time, chng- 

 ing to the tree with his naked prehensile tail as he 

 partly slid and partly climbed down. Once on the 

 ground, he made directly for the nearest tree, which 

 chanced to be the same tree that 'Possum Two had 

 chosen. Here was still another to add to the grow- 

 ing list of mistakes, and like the proverbial drop 

 that overflowed the equally proverbial bucket, it 

 proved the undoing of their otherwise successful 

 retreat. 



One 'Possum might hide in an apple tree and 

 remain undiscovered because of his colour, which 

 matches the rough silver-grey bark of the tree very 

 closely, but two 'possums could scarcely hope to 

 find places of concealment in the same tree. So 



