News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-11-06

who -lcaIs from Everybody but Away.
Leaves Something in the Place of the
Thing stolen.
81 don't know whether people out in
Colorado are bothered yet with what we
used to call wood rats, said a former
resident of that State, "but few years
ago. when I first went out there, they
kept us in perpetual stew. The wood
rat is a natural born, irreclalmable thief.
What he steals for no one had ever
found out while I was there, for he
don't crib things to eat, and he distrib-
utes his booty about the country without
any regard to his personal benefit.
When he steals something from one
spot he will put in its place some article
he has flched from another. remem-
Der once l was building a. shanty out In
Pueblo, and had key of nails sent In
from Denver. Work had been at stand
still day or so for want of them. l
knocked the head out, and left them in
the shanty over night. Next morning
there wasn't a nail in the key, but in
their place was miscellaneous collec-
ton of articles, consisting of table knives,
spoons, a tin saucer, several stones, a
number of chips, buckskin glove, and
worst of all, set of false teeth:
eve knew at once that the mischiev--
GUS rats had been at work, and 1 set
out to see if / could gather up at
least a portion of my nails about the
neighborhood. 1 found a man who had
lost q spoon and had found q pile of
nails in his kit. The owner of the buck
skin glove had not been remunerated for
bis loss with nails, but some ones wooden
sock lay in its place. By and by the
whole community was out hunting up
missing things and dumping nails at my
shanty. l got back about half of them,
and the articles which had been left in
their place were all restored to their
owners except the false teeth. No one
in the whole neighborhood had lost any
teeth. The finding of the teeth had be-
come to be the talk of the country, and
in few weeks a Judge over in town
twenty miles away sent man over to
look at them, as he thought they might
be a set of teeth of his that had myster-
iously disappeared, stating that they had
been taken from tumbler of water, in
which they had been placed over night,
and that a dead bird had been left in
their stead. The teeth proved to be the
Judges. These rats must have had
high old time with the Judges teeth
before they reached my place and
them in the nail key.
sit used to be a favorite pastime with
the wood rats to carry all sorts of refuse
and garbage into houses and scatter it
about. / have walked up more than
once to find some moist and sweet-smel-
Ing morsel from the swill tub lying
across my face, or a number of them
piled on the bed covers. This peculiar
ty of the wood rat often led to constant
and misunderstanding and
newcomers into the region, unacquainted
With the ways of the animal, were fire.
Iuently mystifed, and sometimes fright
,ned by occurrences. An Irish family
)nce came to the neighborhood, where
hey had purchased a little property.
They had not been there week when
he wood rats paid them a visit. Denny
Ryan, the head of the family, placed his
pipe on the table as usual on going to
bed one night. When he arose in the
his pipe was gone, and lying
where he had left it was tallow candle.
ie had no such thing as tallow candle
n the house, and no one in the house
lad touched the pipe. This aroused his
iuperstitious nature. He related the
with much awe to some
who, seeing some prob
lble fun in store for them, did not in
orm him of the cause of the mystery.
One morning, few days later, Denny
ound his lost pipe in his boot, and the
Jock he had left there when he went to
bed was gone. Denny declared that
here were ghosts in the house. He was
frightened, and wanted tosell
MS property.
A number of Eastern men had got
possession of some land next to Denny's,
and his holding, they believed, would in
line be highly valuable to them. Un-
known to any of Denny's acquaintance,
they made him an offer for his property.
1t was less than he had paid, and in
spite of his superstitious fear about his
house, he declined to take it. A day or
TWO after that Denny found his stove
half full of potatoes, not one of which
lad been in the house before, and the
wood he had placed in the
stove the night before was piled on a
able in the sltting-room. Without wait
ng to entirely dress himself, he hurried
o the parties who wanted to bay his
and closed and clinchcd the
transaction at once. When his friends,
Who had been keeping Denny in igno-
ance of the ways of the wood rat, for the
oke of the thing, heard of what he had
'een induced to do by the sharpers, they
ttempted to force them to cancel the
ale; but as everything they had done
fas regular, they refused to do it.
)enny's friends, however, Clipped in
nd made up quite sum of money for
i'm. If the wood rats had rot troubled
Denny, he would be a rich man in a
ear or so, for his property became
iorth thousands of dollars.
''The wood rat is about the size of our
ommon house rat, with a tail nine
lcEes long. 1t is gray on the back and
'hite on the belly. There's deviltry
nough in EN- to FIJI woodchuck. You
nldom see one of them, plenty as they
re, for they lay low in the day time,
nd won't come fooling around at night |
there is any one stirring about the
Ousa