Raising a Family 169 
here were performed some remarkable acrobatic 
feats, all of which served to make my little ones 
strong and steady. Of course I was very busy 
training them in various ways, and first of all I took 
great care to teach them clean and orderly habits. 
In this respect mistress was always very helpful, for 
she left each day a little box of fresh earth beside 
my basket, and whenever she saw one hunt around 
and get into a corner, she would go after him and 
set him into the box, and very soon they understood 
what it was there for. 
As soon as they were old enough I tried to teach 
them to lap milk with me from the saucer, and this 
proved to be the hardest task of all. They seemed 
to get the milk all up into their noses, instead of on 
their tongues, and it was a veritable sneezing bee. 
Then again some seemed to think that the saucer 
was a bath tub. Topsy, one of the black ones, 
walked deliberately into the dish, and when in the 
middle of it, sat down and took a sitz bath. Guy 
said he guessed she wanted to change her com- 
plexion. But in a few moments she landed safely 
on the other side. Meow Junior, one of the tigers, 
was satisfied to merely face about and dip his tail 
into the milk, much to the disgust of the rest. But in 
