mption of unconcern kept himself in touch with the proceedings.
Only Susan was really indifferent, lying down outside the door--Susan,
and that big bunch of fluffy brown feathers on the barrel in the
corner of the cabin.

The air fairly thrilled with expectation as the boy took the
wriggling bag on his knee and started to open it. The moment there was
an opening, out came a sharp little black nose pushing and twisting
eagerly for freedom. The nose was followed in an instant by a pair of
dark, intelligent, mischievous eyes. Then a long-tailed young raccoon
squirmed forth, clambered up to the Boy's shoulder, and turned to eye
the assemblage with bright defiance. Never before in his young life
had he seen such a remarkable assemblage; which, after all, was not
strange, as there was surely not another like it in the world.

The new-comer's reception, on the whole, was not unfriendly. The two
white cats, to be sure, fluffed their tails a little, drew back from
the circle, and went off to curl up in the sun and sleep off their
aversion to a stranger. James Edward, too, his curiosity satisfied,
haughtily withdrew. But Stumpy, as acknowledged dean of the Family,
wagged his tail, hung out his pink tongue as far as it would go, and
panted a welcome so obvious that a much less intelligent animal than
the young raccoon could not have failed to understand it. Ebenezer was
less demonstrative, but his little eyes twinkled with unmistakable
good-will. Ananias-and-Sapphira was extraordinarily interested. In a
tremendous hurry she scrambled down MacPhairrson's arm, down his leg,
across the floor, and up the Boy's trousers. The Boy was a little
anxious.

"Will she bite him?" he asked, preparing to defend his pet.

"I reckon she won't," answered MacPhairrson, observing that the
capricious bird's plumage was not ruffled, but pressed down so hard
and smooth and close to her body that she looked much less than her
usual size. "Generally she ain't ugly when she looks that way. But
she's powerful interested, I tell you!"

The little raccoon was crouching on the Boy's right shoulder.
Ananias-and-Sapphira, using beak and claws, scrambled nimbly to the
other shoulder. Then, reaching far around past the Boy's face, she
fixed the stranger piercingly with her unwinking gaze, and emitted an
ear-splitting shriek of laughter. The little coon's nerves were not
prepared for such a strain. In his panic he fairly tumbled from his
perch to the floor, a