The hunter walked over to the other trap and looked at the mink closely.

“I think it is still alive,” he said.

“Put my comforter round it,” said Amos.  “I am going to take it home.”

So the mink was carefully wrapped in the comforter and laid in the hunter’s bag.  Then they started homewards.  There was great rejoicing when the missing lad appeared, and the little mink was taken out of the bag by gentle hands and kindly cared for.  It became tame and affectionate, and when it was quite well again Amos took it to the mountains and let it go free.

As for the boy trapper, that was the last time that he ever set a trap for any of the creatures of the woods.  “Even a cage-trap must cause much suffering from fright,” Amos would say.  “I shall not soon forget how terrible it is to be a prisoner.”

Adapted from a story by Mrs. C. Fairchild Allen.

One lesson, shepherd, let us two divide,
Never to blend our pleasure or our pride
With sorrow of the meanest thing that feels. 

          
                                                  Wordsworth.

THE RABBIT.

Rabbits are such gentle, pretty, furry little creatures that boys and girls like to make pets of them.  A caged pet needs much more care and intelligent kindness than one that can run free, and the poor little rabbit is often made very miserable.

A boy or girl who is truly kind can take little pleasure in playing jailer to some unhappy prisoner who longs for the sunshine and green grass.  Sometimes, however, the care of such a pet is forced upon one, and it is well to know how to make imprisonment as easy as possible.

The rabbit lives on vegetable food, cropping leaves and grass, and gnawing the young shoots of trees.  Its teeth are beautifully adapted to the purpose.  In the front of both jaws are two long, flat teeth, with, sharp edges like a chisel.  As so much filing and scraping wear away the teeth very fast, these keep on growing from the root.  Each upper front tooth meets one in the lower jaw, so that the constant rubbing against each other keeps both the right length.  Sometimes one tooth is broken and the other goes on growing till it stands out like the tusk of an elephant.  Then the poor rabbit, unable to gnaw its food, dies of starvation.

A tame rabbit should have carrots and turnips to gnaw, and sometimes young tree-twigs and cabbage stalks.  If it has nothing hard to rub its teeth against, they will grow too fast, and the rabbit will be unable to bite anything.

[Illustration:  An interesting family.  By S. J. Carter.]

In feeding tame rabbits, try to give them their green food with the dew upon it.  A sprinkling of fresh water will answer the same purpose.  They need plenty of water, and both food and drink must be kept fresh and sweet.  Rabbits love the sunshine.  They were made to live in warm, sunny lands, and they are too often shut up in cold, damp places.