258 
ground and had been fastened down 
by sticks driven through them into 
the earth. Some twigs had been left 
on the sticks, and only after tugging 
and pulling with might and main for 
some time at each fish or head was I 
able to get it loose and carry it off. 
The stump which had frightened 
me the morning previous had disap- 
peared, but right in front of a big 
rock had appeared a squat stump of 
most peculiar shape and appearance. 
During all my trips there, which were 
many, and extended over a_ week’s 
time, this stump occasioned me con- 
siderable worry. It looked much like 
a man sitting there with his back to 
the rock, a man with big, round, 
glassy eyes, growing out of his head 
at the end of twin black tubes. How- 
ever, as it never seemed to move, much 
less to make any attempt at approach- 
ing me, I endeavored to profit by my 
finds and to provide you with a store 
of good things, knowing from long 
experience how persistent one’s ap- 
petite is and how futile it seems to be 
to satisfy it. 
The next morning I again made the 
camp a visit and was pleasantly sur- 
prised to find a variety of eatables 
laid out, but as on the day before, each 
piece was pegged down and was re- 
moved only after a tussle. The supply 
included a quarter of musquash, a 
frog, a piece of bird meat, some whole 
trout and some heads. The musquash 
meat I took away first, and then the 
whole trout; after these the frog, then 
the heads, and last the bird. Every 
morning since there has been a variety 
of kinds of food there, and if ever a 
mink struck a veritable bonanza it 
would appear that I have. 
The idea has come into my head 
RECREATION, 
that possibly the camper there has 
been trying to find out my favorite 
food, and, if he has, he probably thinks 
it is musquash, If, however, he should 
offer me trout when I had eaten none 
for a long time and had a satiety of 
musquash, he might change his mind. 
I hope he will refrain from falling 
into the common error of making the 
actions of one member of a race char- 
acteristic of the whole, and in the mat- 
ter of food I could tell him that at dif- 
ferent seasons different things most 
appeal to us. 
One morning some of the fish heads 
were in a little house near the water 
with one end open, After removing 
everything else I ventured in, taking 
the precaution to jump over what 
might be called the threshold. I re- 
called that one of my brothers had 
met an untimely end by investigating 
a similarly attractive nook and was 
careful to avoid the spot where there 
would be a trap if one had been set. 
Nevertheless in my struggles to release 
the heads from those exasperating 
pegs I entirely forgot my fears, and 
was only recalled to them by hearing 
a sharp click and feeling something 
give way beneath a hind foot. My 
heart went pit-a-pat, but no cruel jaws 
closed on my leg, and I concluded it 
was a false alarm. Could it have been 
that my friendly camper had set a trap 
with the springs tied to see if he could 
entice me into it? If he did I forgive 
him freely for the liberty, the more 
so because had my now worthless 
pelt been his object he would undoubt- 
edly have obtained it. 
Now, children, you are getting 
sleepy and I am too; so let us cuddle 
up together and save the rest of my 
adventures for another time. 
——_—__— 

’Tommy—Say, paw, why do men get bald 
sooner than women? 
Mr. Figg—Because they don’t wear their 
hair so long.—Exchange. 
