ontal--she halted; then, taking the young ones, one by one, in her
mouth, she caused each of them to make a turn or two of its tail around
the branch, and hang head downwards. Five or six of the `kittens' were
still upon the ground. For these she returned, and taking them up as
before, again climbed the tree. She disposed of the second load,
precisely as she had done the others--until the thirteen little 'possums
hung head downwards along the branch, like a string of candles!

"It was such a comical sight to see these monkey-looking little
creatures dangling by their tails, that my companion and I could not
restrain our laughter as we gazed upon it. We took care, however, not
to laugh aloud--as we were anxious to observe the further movements of
the old 'possum, and we knew that if she should hear us it would spoil
the sport at once.

"As soon as she saw the young ones all fairly suspended, she left them,
and commenced climbing higher up the tree. We noticed that she caught
the branches in her claws, exactly as a human being would have done with
his hands, hoisting herself from limb to limb. At length she reached
that branch upon which hung the nest, far out at its top. For a moment
she stopped and surveyed it. She was evidently in doubt whether it
would carry her weight without breaking, and so were we. Should it
break, she would have a smart fall to the ground--for the tree was one
of the highest, for a pawpaw, we had ever seen; and there were no other
branches below to which she could clutch in case of falling.

"The nest, however, full of eggs no doubt, tempted her on; and, after a
moment's pause, she started along the branch. When about half-way up
it--holding on both with tail and feet--the slender sapling began to
creak and bend, and show symptoms of breaking. This, with the screaming
of the birds--that now flapped against her very nose--seemed all at once
to cow her; and she crept down again, going backwards along the limb.
On reaching the fork, she paused, and looked about with an air that
showed she was both vexed and puzzled. All at once her eyes rested upon
the branch of an oak-tree, that stretched out over the pawpaw, and
directly above the orioles' nest. She looked at this for a moment--as
if calculating its height from the nest; then seeming to make up her
mind, she ran nimbly down the pawpaw, over the ground that intervened,
and up the trunk of the oak. We lost sight of her for an instant