A FELLOW WITH POCKETS IN HIS CHEEKS. 47 



A FELLOW WITH POCKETS IN HIS CHEEKS. 



HOW HE FILLS THEM, AND WHAT HE FILLS THEM WITH. 



A gentleman of considerable scientific attainments 

 once told me that while walking through a cornfield 

 in eastern Missouri he was considerably surprised to 

 see a cornstalk move as of itself, tremble, and slowly 

 sink bodily into the earth. E^ot knowing what to 

 make of such a remarkable phenomena, he hastened to 

 the spot, and examining the earth where the plant had 

 vanished he saw a pile of loam or fresh earth that im- 

 mediately explained the cause of its disappearance : it 

 had been dragged underground by one of the pouched 

 gophers so numerous in the valleys of the Mississippi. 



" Yes," said the farmer, the owner of the corn- 

 stalk that had disappeared, and of the cornfield where 

 it grew, to whom my friend related the occurrence, 

 " yes, this is only an instance of the manner in which 

 pouched gophers rob the farmers. You can't catch 

 the rascals at work and scare them off as you can 

 birds and beasts that belong above ground. Even 

 if the fields could be watched day and night, and 

 every living creature that dared to appear were driven 

 away, the pouched gopher could ruin your crops just 

 the same. You can't see what is going on in the 

 earth under your feet. You may to some extent get 

 the best of birds and bugs, but you can't get the ad- 

 vantage of pouched gophers." 



