night, and pretty soon that
trout could live in the shade whether the grass was wet or not. By that
time he had got pretty tame, too, and he used to follow the Indian
around a good deal, and when the Indian would go out to dig worms for
him, Tommy would go along and pick up the worms for himself. The Indian
thought everything of that fish, and when Tommy got so he didn't need
water at all, but could go anywhere--down the dusty road and stay all
day out in the hot sun--you never saw the Indian without his trout. Show
people wanted to buy Tommy, but the Indian said he wouldn't sell a fish
like that for any money. You'd see him coming to town with Tommy
following along in the road behind, just like a dog, only of course it
traveled a good deal like a snake, and most as fast.

"Well, it was pretty sad the way that Indian lost his trout, and it was
curious, too. He started for town one day with Tommy coming along
behind, as usual. There was a bridge in the road and when the Indian
came to it he saw there was a plank off, but he went on over it without
thinking. By and by he looked around for Tommy and Tommy wasn't there.
He went back a ways and called, but he couldn't see anything of his pet.
Then he came to the bridge and saw the hole, and he thought right away
that maybe his trout had got in there. So he went to the hole and looked
down, and sure enough, there was Tommy, floating on the water,
bottom-side up. He'd tumbled through that hole into the brook and
drowned."

I think these stories impressed Eddie a good deal. I know they did me.
Even if Charlie's story was not pure fact in certain minor details, its
moral was none the less evident. I saw clearer than ever that it is not
proper to take wild creatures from their native element and make pets of
them. Something always happens to them sooner or later. We were through
breakfast and Eddie went over to look at his porcupine. He had left it
in a basket, well covered with a number of things. He came back right
away--looking a little blank I thought.

"He's gone!" he said. "The basket's just as I left it, all covered up,
but he isn't in it."

We went over to look. Sure enough, our visitor had set out on new
adventures. How he had escaped was a mystery. It didn't matter--both he
and Eddie were better off.

But that was a day for animal friends. Where we camped for luncheon,
Eddie and I took a walk along the river bank and suddenly found
ourselves in a perfect menagerie