THE GOPHER 
29 
ground. The babies are bom there. They drink their 
mother’s milk, as kittens do. Soon they are able to 
hunt roots for themselves, and have little pockets of 
their own in which to carry the bits of food that they 
gnaw. 
“I just thought of something else queer,” said Un¬ 
cle Ely. “Did you people know that this gopher, 
which is not much bigger than my hand, is related to 
those big fine deer we saw the other day?” 
Nobody answered at first. Then Bob Blair, Uncle 
Ely’s brother, spoke. “How do you explain that, 
Ely?” 
“Well, they’re both mammals. A mammal is any 
animal that feeds its young with mother’s milk, as a 
cow does. The big deer, weighing three hundred 
pounds or more, is a mammal; and so is this little 
furry underground creature, the gopher.” 
“Goodness!” exclaimed Ginger. There surely is 
a lot to learn about wild animals.” 
“Yes, Sis, but it’s fun to know,” said Buck. “Uncle 
Ely, when can we find something else wild?” 
