out a dozen
of the longest hairs she could find. Then, jumping down, she arranged
them, ends together, hooked them over a nail at their center, and
plaited them. And when she had tied a piece of stout, dark string to the
end of the braid, she slipped it through the hair loop. The next moment,
with a stick in one hand and the snare in the other, she started happily
for the meadow.

When she reached it, saucy _chur-r-rs_ from all over the timothy
announced her. And as she paused on its edge to decide which burrow she
would attack first, a dozen gophers sat up on their haunches to look at
her, or frisked gaily from mound to mound.

She caught sight of a gray back at a near-by hole, and, running forward,
chased the animal out of sight, stooped and carefully arranged the noose
around the opening, and, after covering it with dirt, straightened the
string to its full length. Then she crept back noiselessly to the hole
to take a last peep before she threw herself down flat upon her stomach,
grasped the end of the string, and lay very still.

For a moment there was no movement at the burrow. But soon the tip end
of a gopher's nose appeared, the whiskers moving inquiringly, and
disappeared. When it came again, the little girl whistled a note softly,
and the nose came out so far that two sharp black eyes showed. The eyes
saw her, too, and the gopher, growing bolder and more inquisitive,
raised himself higher on his fore paws to take a better look. Presently
all of his white throat was visible, and the little girl knew that it
was time to act. With one quick, vigorous jerk of her extended right
arm, she tightened the loop around him. And, amid a whirl of dirt, gray
tail, and tawny back, the gopher was pulled out into the timothy.

The little girl sat upon her knees and looked at him. Her heart was
beating wildly, and she was almost as scared as the panting creature at
the end of her string. He held the snare taut as he crouched in a bunch
of grass and watched her. Finally, she pulled at it a little. It brought
him toward her, reluctantly sliding along on his feet, which he braced
stiffly. Then, as she pulled again, he began to tug madly, and clattered
in alarm.

"_Seek--seek!_" he cried, twisting and turning his lithe body;
"_seek--seek--seek!_" The next instant he took the string into his mouth
and bit it ferociously.

The little girl paled at the sight, and arose trembling to her feet.
This shortened the snare, and the gop