Chronicle-1939

"37-. 0 F cELd" YB, The first pets were three small field-ndce, each about aa inch long. They had a soft grey fur. These were kept by D, Blake arui myself. Their food consisted of; bread soaked in milk, bird-seed, millet and occasionally lettuce and a slice of apple. The floor of the cage was covered with saw-dustwhich was changed three times a week, A few weeks later a baby mouse of the same specie was brought to us. I forgot to mention that at the right-hand top comer of the cage was a box with a small hole in it. From this hole a strip of plank ran to the bottom of the cage so that the mice could get up and down with ease. They used to stay in the box during the day but they occasion ally came out. An interesting fkct about these mice, when the fourth one was put in, is that the little one did not know about the upstairs box and so one of the bigger mice used to act like a mother to it. The foster mother used to catch the little one at any suitable part of its body and run with it into the box whenever it came out during the day, I took the mice home with me. One of the mice escaped not long afterwards so I let the other three go in a bamboo hedge. While the mice were being kept by Blake and myself, P, Lee and I, Coutts kept the snake-park. The first snake was a small night-adder which Lee caught one Friday, On the following Sunday Couttscaught another night-adder of the same size which was making its way across the lawn in front of the school to wards the class-room where the other snake was, Coutts put the second snake with the other in a box. When Monday morning oame and we went to see the snakes, to our horror there was only one of them in the box. We searched the class-room high and low but the second snake was not to be found. While we were looking for it Le Grove Smith, the bright spark of the foim, shouted out from outside, "Here it is When we looked out of the window, there was the night—adder curled mund a weed a— gainst the wall of the classroom. It was captured again and put back in the box. A few dayslater a bigger night-adder was given to the

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