BETSY AND HER ER I ENDS 
5i 
Betsy and Her Friends. 
BY WILLIAM H. HUSK, MANCHESTER, NEW 
HAMPSHIRE. 
Betsy was a wood turtle and I hope 
still is. Brought to school by a boy 
one day, she was given the freedom of 
the classroom and for a year or more 
made herself at home among the pupils’ 
feet, showing no fear and attracting 
little attention from the children after 
the first few days. We found her to be 
almost omnivorous with a preference 
for vegetable food, and soon she learned 
to take food from a human hand with- 
out hesitation. The only thing she 
tasted but once was a chocolate cream 
of the sticky kind. Her confidence in 
me induced her to take one bite but she 
had so much difficulty in swallowing it 
visitors before or after the sessions. 
The children learned the names of the 
common species and I doubt if many 
of the boys afterwards took pleasure in 
killing the wild specimens that they 
found. 
It was while we had all the specimens 
together that I learned that they were 
affected in some way by music. The 
teacher reported that they appeared to 
be listening when the music lesson was 
in progress. The next music period 
found me in the room watching them. 
Before the lesson began the turtles were 
moving slowly about but the moment 
the singing commenced every head was 
up in a listening attitude, and 1 failed to 
see a movement of head or foot till the 
music lesson was ended. What their 
“BETSY.” 
that she would never touch another. 
She took food from me but would sel- 
dom take it from strangers. 
The sand on the floor, brought in by 
the children, wore the skin on the soles 
of her feet almost to the quick, and the 
teacher of the room was seriously 
thinking of making chamois skin socks 
for her when I transferred her to the 
pen with our other turtles in another 
room. Here were representatives of all 
the species found in the state — not a 
large number. They were the common 
painted, spotted and wood turtles, the 
less common snapping, musk and 
Blanding’s box turtles, and the com- 
mon box turtle which is very uncom- 
mon in New Hampshire, being found 
only in the extreme southern portion 
of the state. Two southern species com- 
pleted the collection, and the turtle pen 
was a never ending source of interest 
to the pupils that passed through the 
room. Seldom was the “zoo” without 
sensations were of course I could not 
tell. It is reasonable, however, to be- 
lieve that they were pleasant, for had 
they been otherwise the turtles would 
have appeared restless. There are some 
people who cannot sing a note and yet 
are fond of music. Are they all re- 
lated ? 
I finally decided to give up my 
menagerie and turned the turtles loose. 
The next summer I found the empty 
shell of a Baur’s turtle that came from 
Florida but found no remains of the 
northern species. I sincerely hope that 
they lived “happy ever after.” 
“If you are thinking of giving your 
boy the present of an air rifle,” warns 
the Bulletin of the Audubon Society, 
“don’t do it.” Among other excellent 
reasons, if the boy is under fifteen, the 
Massachusetts law makes you liable to 
fifty dollars fine ! 
