Waterbury evening Democrat., 1892-07-26
PETS OF A BRIGHT BOY.
ALetter from Young Marquis Man.
 fred de Lanza.
Tragic Fate of a Squirrel That Fooled with Firecrackers-A Hairless Dog Full of Fight-An Owl That
 Could Whip Anything.
eTCoPYRIGHr, 1s92.l

am only twelve years of age, and do not often write for publication, al though I have a scrapbook full of sto- ries have written from time to time ever since was a very little boy. Now that I have learned to use the typewriter and help mamma with her novels I find it easier to write, and gladly comply with your request to tell the story of my pets, and l am sure 1t will interest your readers, because l have had so many pets, and they are all diff ferent from other peoples.
 The first pet I ever owned was dog, beautiful Gordon setter. l called her Lal, after grandpapa's first novel We were great friends and used to romp in the park together until one day Lal chased squirrel over one of the flower beds and the policeman on guard told me never to bring a dog in the park again. But Lal caught the squirrel, and when we tried to take it from her she broke away and ran home, where l found her half an hour later licking the poor little animal, which was more dead than alive; but nursed it care fully and by the end of week he was quite we'll again and very friendly with 'Lal." It was flying squirrel and used to tease the poor dog to death, for when "Lal'' would chase him upstairs and almost have her paws upon him he would give spring over 'Lal's" head and sail downstairs, never landing un- til he reached the bottom, and by the time ''Lal'' had half tumbled down. stairs in her haste the squirrel was quietly perched out of reach on top of the hat rack.
 did not have my squirrel very long, however, for when the Fourth of July came Dino, my big brother, and I clubbed together and bought about twenty dollars worth of fireworks. We took them out into the yard and began fixing things ready for the evening. 'Lal' and the squirrel thought we had come out to play and began running about among the fireworks. We saw the squirrel nibbling at something in the pack and stepped forward to drive him away, but just then the cannon crackers and fireworks began to go off in every direction. For a moment ''Lal' stood ground and parked at a pack of crackers, but when the rockets began to whiz about the yard we sought shelter, and as soon as one of them struck ''Lal' she followed us with yelp. Poor squirrel, we saw him make desperate leap for safety, but just then magnif- cent f1owerpot went off and up he went in blaze of glory, and when all had subsided and we put out the grass that had caught fire we found our little pet huddled up in a corner, every hair singcd from his body and the flesh raw and blistered.
 We wrapped him up in soft linen rags, but he never recovered from his burns and few days later he died. Poor little fellow, he was the first to fill a grave in our little graveyard near the | back fence.
 I missed my pet very much, so mamma bought me Japanese rabbit, but did not have time to get very fond of him; he used to chew everything he could find and one day he chewed up the cooks new boots. Cook was very angry, but the next day she left her old gloves on the floor and the rabbit chewed them up. I think cook put something on the gloves, for few hours later our rabbit was dead, and when we dug his grave near that of our first pet "Lar' stood by and rubbed her nose against my cheek and whined and whined.
 We both felt the need of company, so when some one gave mamma beauti- full white Angora cat we were very happy at first, but the new member of our little household had very bad tenn