ells. It was always pleasant and
interesting to see them in the fall as soon as the nights began to be
frosty, hard at work cutting sedges on the edge of the meadow or
swimming out through the rushes, making long glittering ripples as
they sculled themselves along, diving where the water is perhaps six
or eight feet deep and reappearing in a minute or so with large
mouthfuls of the weedy tangled plants gathered from the bottom,
returning to their big wigwams, climbing up and depositing their loads
where most needed to make them yet larger and firmer and warmer,
foreseeing the freezing weather just like ourselves when we banked up
our house to keep out the frost.

They lie snug and invisible all winter but do not hibernate. Through a
channel carefully kept open they swim out under the ice for mussels,
and the roots and stems of water-lilies, etc., on which they feed just
as they do in summer. Sometimes the oldest and most enterprising of
them venture to orchards near the water in search of fallen apples;
very seldom, however, do they interfere with anything belonging to
their mortal enemy man. Notwithstanding they are so well hidden and
protected during the winter, many of them are killed by Indian
hunters, who creep up softly and spear them through the thick walls of
their cabins. Indians are fond of their flesh, and so are some of the
wildest of the white trappers. They are easily caught in steel traps,
and after vainly trying to drag their feet from the cruel crushing
jaws, they sometimes in their agony gnaw them off. Even after having
gnawed off a leg they are so guileless that they never seem to learn
to know and fear traps, for some are occasionally found that have been
caught twice and have gnawed off a second foot. Many other animals
suffering excruciating pain in these cruel traps gnaw off their legs.
Crabs and lobsters are so fortunate as to be able to shed their limbs
when caught or merely frightened, apparently without suffering any
pain, simply by giving themselves a little shivery shake.

The muskrat is one of the most notable and widely distributed of
American animals, and millions of the gentle, industrious,
beaver-like creatures are shot and trapped and speared every season
for their skins, worth a dime or so,--like shooting boys and girls for
their garments.

Surely a better time must be drawing nigh when godlike human beings
will become truly humane, and learn to put their animal fellow mortals
in