pleasant is a peaceful meal"
_Sketches by E. T. Seton_]

MY PET SKUNKS

It would not be doing justice to the Skunk if I did not add a word about
certain of the kind that I have at home.

For many years I have kept at least one pet Skunk. Just now I have about
sixty. I keep them close to the house and would let them run loose
indoors but for the possibility of some fool dog or cat coming around,
and provoking the exemplary little brutes into a perfectly justifiable
endeavour to defend themselves as nature taught them. But for this I
should have no fear. Not only do I handle them myself, but I have
induced many of my wild-eyed visitors to do so as a necessary part of
their education. For few indeed there are in the land to-day that
realize the gentleness and forbearance of this righteous little brother
of ours, who, though armed with a weapon that will put the biggest and
boldest to flight or disastrous defeat, yet refrains from using it until
in absolute peril of his life, and then only after several warnings.

By way of rounding out this statement, I present a picture of my little
daughter playing among the Skunks, and need add only that they are
full-grown specimens in full possession of all their faculties. Plate
XXIV.

[Illustration: XXIV. My tame Skunks: (a) Mother Skunk and her brood; (b)
Ann Seton feeding her pets
_Photos by E. T. Seton_]

* * * * *

VII

Old Silver-grizzle--The Badger

* * * * *

[Illustration]

VII

Old Silver-grizzle--The Badger

A brilliant newspaper man once gave vast publicity to the story that at
last a use had been found for the Badger, with his mania for digging
holes in the ground. By kindness and care and the help of an attached
little steam-gauge speedometer plumb compass, that gave accurate aim,
improved perpendicularity, and increased efficiency to the efforts of
the strenuous excavator, he had been able to produce a dirigible Badger
that was certain to displace all other machinery for digging postholes.

Unfortunately I was in a position to disprove this pretty conceit. But I
think of it every time I put my foot in a Badger hole. Such lovely
holes, so plentiful, so worse than useless where the Badger has
thoughtlessly located them. If only we could harness and direct such
excavatory energies.

[Illustration]

This, indeed, is the only quarrel civilized man can pick with the honest