18 FOUR-FOOTED AMEfllGANS 



" Do House People and fourfoots belong on tlie same 

 great branchV" said Rap, looking puzzled. "What is 

 it called, please?" 



" It is the jMammal branch, the highest of all, and it 

 has so many little branchlets and twigs that it is large 

 enough to be a tree all by itself." 



" Exactly hoiv are the other JNIammals like us, and 

 what does Mammal mean? Do they all have warm red 

 blood like ours?" asked Dodo, who was celebrated for 

 cutting her fingers. 



" They all have warm red blood, but so have birds ; 

 there are other differences that you will learn later. 

 The one thing that makes them ilammals is that they 

 suckle their young with milk." 



" ^I — mammals; m — milk," sang Dodo. "Why, 

 that is as easy to remember as ' Billy Button bought a 

 buttered biscuit ' ! Please tell us the names of some 

 nearby Mammals, Uncle Roy." 



" All the farm and house fourfoots are Mammals ; 

 also the wild Deer, Wolves, Foxes, Rats, Alice, Squir- 

 rels, jMoles, Skunks, Weasels, and Woodchucks, beside 

 many others you do not know even by name." 



" So all those nuisance animals are Alammals too," 

 said Dodo, meditatively. 



" Nuisance animals ! Which are those ? " asked 

 Rap. 



" The naughty, bothersome ones that eat things and 

 bite holes in the house, and dig up the orchard, and 

 smell, oh, so Ijad ! Why, Rap, don't you remember 

 the evening we thought there was a black and white 

 rooster by the orchard wall, and Quick and I tried to 

 catch it, and it turned out to be a Skunk''' Then my 



