14 FOUM-FOOTED AMERICANS 



" When the pale-faced settlers came to America they 

 brought the useful animals from their old homes with 

 them : pigs, sheep, horses, goats, cows, dogs, cats, 

 etc., — so though these have lived here as the people 

 have, long enough to be citizens, they are not native 

 or indigenous Americans an}^ more than we ourselves. 

 That distinction belongs to the Indian, Peccary, Buffalo, 

 Musk (.)x, Mountain Goat, Bighorn, Wolf, and Wild- 

 cat, Avho are the wild cousins of House People and 

 their farm fourfoots. The horse alone has no living 

 wild cousin here, though there were horses in America 

 ages ago." 



" Then those horses that the Indians rode at the 

 show, who hopped around so, weren't really wild at 

 all," said Nat, with a look of great disappointment. 

 " They seemed really, truly wild, and how the Indians 

 stuck on and dodged and fired their guns ! " 



" They are wild in the sense that they were born on 

 the open prairie and lived in vast herds, but they are 

 the great-grandchildren of tame horses. In the south- 

 west, as well as in South America, vast herds of these 

 horses, descended from those brought in by the Span- 

 isli, roamed at large. From time to time the Indians 

 dashed into the troops and lassoed those that they de- 

 sired and rode them as we saw the Indians do this 

 afternoon, but they are not true four-footed Americans 

 like that little Chipmunk over there, who is stealing a 

 few peanuts that Corney overlooked, or like the sly, 

 fat Woodchucks that we are trying to trap in the 

 orchard." 



"Please, Uncle Roy, can Dodo and I put halters on 

 Tom and Jerry and see if we can ride them round the 



