GETTING OFF MATCHES. 179 



" sidelong glances wise 

 ^herewith the jay hints tragedies," 



attempting to look unconcerned, as if he had 

 not been doing anything. But if he sees that 

 he is observed, or the match is too plainly in 

 sight, he removes it and begins again, running 

 and hopping around on the floor with the most 

 solemn, business-like air, as though he had the 

 affairs of nations on his shoulders, the match 

 thrust nearly its whole length into his mouth. 

 The place usually decided upon is an opening 

 between the breadths of matting. It is amus- 

 ing when he chances to get hold of a box of 

 matches, accidentally left open, for he feels 

 the necessity and importance of disposing of 

 each one, and is busy and industrious in pro- 

 portion to the task before him. It is not so 

 pleasing, however, when, in his hammering, he 

 sets one off, as he often does; for they are 

 " parlor matches," and light with a small explo- 

 sion, which frightens him half out of his wits, 

 and me as well, lest he set the house afire. 

 The business of safely and securely secreting 

 one match will frequently occupy him half an 

 hour. He finds the oddest hiding-places, as in 

 a caster between the wheel and its frame ; up 

 inside the seat of a stuffed chair, to reach 

 which he flies up on to the webbing and goes 

 in among the springs ; in the side of my slipper 



