on't work. Will you cut some wood for your dinner?" "Of course I
will," said the tramp, gladly, and he went to the wood pile. While he
was at work the two spoilers of the Egyptians departed through the back
door, and went about a hundred yards to the corner of a wood, where they
laughed till they cried. The result of their manoeuvre was sure to be
too good to be lost, so one of them climbed up a tree and watched. In
about a quarter of an hour he saw a string of men and women coming
towards the house, and still the working tramp made the chips fly. On
entering the yard one of the men went up to interview him, and by the
tramp's gestures it was evident that he was explaining that he had been
set to work. Meanwhile, the women went in, but came out again in a
moment, shrieking with indignation. The next sight was the farmer armed
with a stick belabouring the astonished worker, who fled across the
fence incontinently. He was followed to the very verge of the wood, and
then the exhausted "mossback" left him to return to the house. "It was
just the funniest thing I ever saw," declared my unabashed friend; "and
to see that poor fellow get whipped for our sins nearly killed me. But I
tell you we rewarded him for his labour after all. We found him sitting
on a stump rubbing himself all over, and invited him to dinner with us.
So, you see, he got the grub we promised him, and he didn't work for
nothing, for that would just kill a tramp."

TEXAS ANIMALS

The fauna of Texas is very varied, and a naturalist may find plenty
there for his note-book, and much to reflect on, if he be a
contemplative man. A hunter may satisfy himself, too, if he goes into
the extreme west and north-west, but he must be quick about it, for I
received a letter years ago from a friend of mine in the south part of
the Panhandle of Texas, in which he told me that all the land was
getting fenced in, even in those parts that I knew in 1884 as wide and
open prairie, and when fences come the beasts go, deer and antelope
retreat, and "panther" or cougar are hunted and shot by those who own
sheep, cattle and horses. I am no naturalist, and no great hunter. At
the risk of causing a smile of contempt I must confess that I can hold a
shot-gun, a "double-pronged scatter-gun," or a rifle in my hands without
shooting at anything I see. I have let antelope and deer pass me without
even letting the gun off, and have spared squirrels and birds
innumerable that most