Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1872-03-27

Gopher let his spouse and children
precede him, the three going DIP almost
together; moment more, and fitting
of the stick, followed by a series of
splashes, assured me that my scheme
had thus far proved successful. Rush
ing to the tub began to extricate my
friends, taking good care to seize them
SO as to keep my fingers out of the way
of their sharp little teeth. Fishing
them out singly, [ deposited them in
the glass case which I had destined to
be their future home. Meanwhile
poor old Mr.. Gopher. utterly demon
allied by this sudden and unexpected
calamity, had departed in a hurried
and somewhat frenzied manner by the
open door, leaving his family to their
fate
Soon the half drowned and dreadful
ly frightened inmates of the box began
to recover themselves, and were soon
standing upright, making frantic efforts
to escape, trying first one side then the
another in the fruitless attempt Hav-
ing seen them we'll supplied with food
and water, [ left them to grow recon
clled to their new home, but had barely
commenced my writing when patter
and scratching of little feet announced
the return of old Gopher, who looked
timidly round, and then, catching sight
of his imprisoned family, made rush
for their glass house, where he seemed
not little astonished to find that the
cold, transparent surface against which
he rubbed his anxious nose formed an
effectual barrier TO all nearer communi-
cation with his household Meanwhile
those within were getting up and most
lovingly endeavoring to embrace him,
clawing away at the separating pane.
From this time old Gopher became
regular, though apparently sorrow
stricken visitor, spending most
of MS spare time in mournful con-
temptation of his imprisoned house
hold They finally seemed to give up
all attempts to escape, and consoled
themselves by getting their noses as
nearly as they could opposite the exact
spot upon the glass against which he
rubbed his own. [ made every effort
to capture him, but in vain; he seemed
to keep one eye upon his family and
the other upon myself, and was equally
prepared for covert or open attack. AS
for the water-tub, he seemed to regard
it with adherence, as the cause OF all
his troubles, and would not even go
near the place where it stood On one
or two occasions saw old Gopher enter
with companion, who may have been
relative come to comfort the unfortu-
mates I'D prison. On these occasions
there was q more than usual hattening
of noses against the glass case, but
nothing came CT the conferences till
dow , ,,4
heightened absence to my quarters, |
found the cage upset and my gopher
pets departed. A brief examination
convinced me that their friends had
gnawed away the earth from beneath
one side of the box until 1t was suffi
GENTLY tilted to enable it's occupants
to escape over the top. A very credita-
BILE piece of engineering for so diminu-
tive creature, but I lost my little play
elbows by their ingenuity. Henceforth
my house seemed to have gotten bad
name with all their tribe, not one of
whom could be tempted to approach
the door.
Ny solitude was, however, speedily
enlvened by the comranionship of
one of those active, brilliant little liz
ards, so comon in Texas and Mexico,
to which / straightway gave the
name of Spotty Longtail. Into the
good graces of this shy creature | work
ed my way by very slow approaches,
till, having made up his mind that |
was most probably harmless, he took
up his daily station upon my writing
table, lying at his ease on the cover of
a book. Here he would fatten himself
out, peering cautiously over its edge
flom time to time, winking his bright
little eyes, and occasionally whetting
his tongue till some uulucky fly came
within the range Of his deadly spring,
and then there would come jump and
a snap, and poor bluebottle would be
gobbled up ere he could move a wing.
I.never knew HIM to fail. so my friend
ship with Spotty Longtail, which [ took
care not to disturb by any indiscrete
advances, continued to grow and pros
per till my final departure from the
pct. Poor fellow, [ wonder if he
found the next corner as much inter-
ested in his fy-ishing as myself.
Squirmy-for so [ called my largest
room mate-could hardly be deemed
friend, for we met with mlsgiving on
both sides and parted with mutual IN
pleasantness in fact L may say that
our mountaineering was literally the
death of him. [ had heard something
whisking about my room at night, and
once or twice some dark object which
looked wonderfully snaky vanished in
haste as [ entered the door but one
gets used to SO many queer things In
Southwestern Texas, that | hardly gave
it a second thought, and only christen-
ed him /" Squirmy in my own mind
from his eel-like way of wiggling among
the logs. But one sultry summer
afternoon things came to a crisis. [
had been taking my MONDAY nap upon
the bed which stood directly beneath
the huge beam of which [ have spoken.
/ was in the middle land between slum
Der and wakefulness, when, half open
ing my eyes, [ beheld a pair OF bead
like glittering optics shining from the
beam overhead.
I was wondering in stupid sort of
way how they came there, when
dreamy apparition of head, followed
by an undulatory motion along the
beam of something five or six feet in
length, suggested body and tail in
connection with the eyes,-when-
whack with sudden tumble, down
came great snake directly across my
face. A harmless visitor, most likely,
with no more evil intent than raid
upon the rats or a quiet housing expe-
dition but [ was too badly scared to
think of that, and, like most frightened
people, lost my temper. / shall never
know which of us got off that bed the
quickest ;-Squirmy made for a log
hole and I for my sabre. Unluckily for
the snake | grasped the weapon before
before he had got through. A quick
cut severed some eighteen inches of his
tail, which remained with me as a
trophy, while the rest of poor Squirmy
furnished pleasant banquet for Sc
! lect party of buzzards who volunteered
g an inquest and from the way they
futtered and shook their ugly heads
over his remains evidently knew no
| good of the unfortunate deceased