24 



FOUR-HANDED FOLK 



were made. Nothing escaped his busy fingers, 

 and scarcely anything could resist his sharp 

 nails. 



He was a social and warmth -loving creature, 

 and desired above all things to be in somebody's 

 lap. And he was so droll in his way of getting 

 about, and so deliberate in his movements, that 

 his mistress never tired of watching him. 



But when the family went to bed at ten 

 o'clock, his day, of course, was just beginning, 

 and as he was not caged, he found the field open 

 for him to indulge his taste for investigation. 



His first prank was to tear to pieces a whole 

 banana plant. The severest cyclone that ever 

 passed over a prairie in the West could not 

 more completely demolish a tender plant than 

 his four little hands did. 



Great was the outcry when the family came 

 out in the morning, and saw how he had amused 

 himself during his first night in the house. 



But when they looked for the culprit, and 

 found the little bundle of fur on the corner of 

 a window-sill, and roughly shook him out, pre- 

 pared to punish him severely, the calm, innocent 

 look in the sleepy eyes he turned upon them 

 disarmed them instantly, as the same look in my 

 own pet always did me. The fiercest wrath 

 vanished. " Poor little beastie ! " they said, 

 " how did he know it was mischief?" and he 



