branner] TROUBLE WITH TWO TATUS 193 



unusual noises in the room, however, and their occasional efforts 

 to climb into my hammock, kept me wide awake, for though 

 they could not break or tear down or turn over much, they could 

 and did chase and race and scratch and claw without stopping for 

 a moment, while my camarada snored in peace in the adjoining 

 room. 



Hoping to distribute my troubles somewhat I finally arose and 

 as quietly as possible put both tatus in the room where the cama- 

 rada was asleep, closed the door, and went back to bed. In less 

 than ten seconds there was a terrible crash, and I heard the 

 camarada appealing to the mother of all the saints, and consigning 

 the tatus to all the devils in the infernal regions. I bounded out 

 of bed and rushed to the rescue. The tatus had succeeded in 

 climbing on the table and had crowded off on the floor a stack of 

 plates and tin ware that made a racket fit to wake the dead. 



Almost immediately they found the pile of sacks of corn piled 

 in one corner of the room and began to burrow among them, and 

 as they would make holes in the sacks and let the corn run out, 

 the bags had to be taken down so as to get the animals out. The 

 sacks were soon scattered in heaps about the room, and the tatus 

 were finding new hiding places in the new piles, and the bags had 

 to be moved again, and again the tatus found holes among them. 

 It was soon evident that this sort of thing would never end, so we 

 captured the two imps and turned a corrugated iron wash-tub 

 over them on the floor, and pulled it up against the outer wall of 

 the room. It seemed strange that we hadn't thought of that 

 simple expedient before. We sighed with relief, wiped our per- 

 spiring faces, put a little stick under the edge of the tub so they 

 would not suffocate, and a bag of corn on top of the tub so they 

 couldn't turn it over, and went back to bed again. 



Next morning the tub was so quiet that I was at first afraid my 

 pets had died in the night. No such luck. They had burrowed 

 out, escaped out of doors, and had again gone into that unspeakable 

 sewer. 



It occurred to me that I had had my money's worth of fun with 

 them. They had certainly ceased to be a joke. It was evident 

 that I must either part company with my two interesting pets 

 or I should have to give up the rest of my life to getting them and 

 myself out of an endless series of scrapes, and to repairing the 

 damages done by them. And if two half grown young ones 



