The Arizona sentinel., 1888-08-11
A QUEER LITTLE HOUSE.
A Description of Its Peculiarities-Who Built It, and Who Was Its Owner?

II Built It, and Who Was It's Owner? | The house was in a pond. People
 passed along the road in full sight of it,
 but never saw it. Boys came and caught frogs and chased turtles and captured blood-suckers, but did not notice it. In plain sight it was, not twenty feet from the shore. The roof was covered with a thatch of rushes, to keep out the rain. Within, there was one room, cozy bedroom, with bed | of dry grass, as soft as down. The walls were of mud. There were no pictures hanging on them; nor was there either stove, chair, table or dish in the mansion. There were no win | dows. There were no chimney. And | the door was under water. This house [ had wet cellar-in fact, it was full of water.
 The ducks often swam close to the house, plunging their broad bills into the mud, and sometimes diving out of sight; but they never tried to enter. The frogs sat on the large lily leaves near by, and croaked long and loud; | but not one went in. The turtles some times climbed to the roof to sun them selves, but they never went inside. The meadow mice had little houses of their own, and laid no claim to this. None of these pond people claimed it. Who, then was the owner? Who built the house?
 One day, one of the boys discovered the house. At first, he thought it was an old bushel basket upside down; but, as he looked more carefully he saw that somebody or something must have built it right where it was. He wondered when it was done and who did it. He lived close to the pond, and could see the whole of it from his chamber win ing before. Almost every day, after school, he played in the field near the pond; but he had never noticed the builder. He made up his mind to examine it carefully, and, if pos: sible, solve the mystery that surround ed it.
 The mud and water were so deep. that he dared not wade out, and he had no boat. How should he reach the little mud island on the edge of which it stood? After thinking some time he went to the lumber pile, and! took several boards and brought them to the shore. These he laid across the tussocks of pond-grass till he had a bridge leading right up to the curious building. It was a very narrow and exceedingly shaky bridge. It bent and, tipped, as the boy stepped upon it. In his hand he held long stick, which he thrust into the mud to steady himself In this way he sidled along, carefully. balancing, step by step, till he was al- most there. Once he stuck the stick so far down that he had to give quite & hard pull in drawing it out; and, when it did come he almost fell over back ward.
 Step by step he moved slowly on, and at last reached the house. Once there, he examined it with great deal on wonder. It was so sOundly made, SO nicely matched, SO perfectly rounded. With his stick he rapped gently on the roof. There was rustic, a plunge, and something darted through the water and was gone. So quick and unexpected were the motions that the boy could not decide whether it was a fish or an ani- mal As he examined the dwelling, he saw leading from the underwater door a pathway in the soft mud on the bot tom of the pond. Following it with his eyes. he noticed that it led far out into the deep water. He resolved to watch the path. hoping to have longer look at the stranger.
 For several days he watched, but saw nothing unusual. At last, one evening, just at twilight, he saw, swimming slowly up the pathway, it's nose barely showing above the water, a brown ani+ nal. Hardly daring to move for fear of frightening it, he stole forward tu get a good long look. Nearer and nearer swan the animal to the water cottage, till, diving through the dOor~ way, it disappeared.
 This, then, was the owner, the builder of this queer little house, with its roo of rushes and it's cellar full of water So it was not the ducks, the mice, tn turtles nor the frogs that built the house, but the big brown muskrat.- Pactfc.