Mammals The Skunk 
When unbearably noisy and persistent in refusal 
to sit still and be petted, he was placed in his box and 
covered up. It took a pretty heavy weight to keep 
the lid on, too. This box was his city of refuge in 
troublous times. There he dragged bits of paper 
and cloth among which he burrowed and hid bones. 
He delighted in tearing up paper and simply revelled 
in the Sunday news. 
The rascal was playful enough but his nonsense 
consisted mostly of rushing about, gnawing, digging 
with his long foreclaws, (you would have thought 
he would scrape the bottom out of his box), and 
dragging things about, preferably shoes or the waste 
basket. If one cuffed him about he would cuff and 
grab back, or suddenly, in a funny rage, turn both 
head and tail toward the offender and up went that 
tail like a trigger. Then indeed his playmate might 
be glad that the skunk wasn’t loaded. 
A neighbor’s kitten stood in great awe of him and 
fled at his appearance, although another used to 
tussle him all about. When Billy had had enough, 
you would hear a squeal and the kitten would be 
nursing a good nip while Billy, with boxed ears fled 
into hiding. 
Once a week Billy, like other civilized people had 
awash day. Not that he wasn’t clean, for the long 
fur was always speckless though he never performed 
his toilet in public. He was just washed on general 
principles. A comical sight he was as he stood in a 
pan of warm water, covered with lather, his long tail 
all draggled. He never bit or tried to run but bore it 
all with a ‘‘meek-as-Moses”’ expression on his pointed 
little face. My, my, what a shaking there was 
when he was rinsed and placed on the floor! Nota 
sort of reversible buzz-saw skake like that of a dog 
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