Such are the anecdotes which the reader will find thickly scattered
throughout this volume; but perhaps the most interesting are a series
of conflicts witnessed by the father and one of the sons, and in the
course of which they are themselves exposed to some danger. They had
gone out to gather from the live oaks a kind of moss, which they
found to be quite equal to curled hair for stuffing mattresses; and
while perched upon one of the trees, the drama opened by the violent
scolding of a pair of orioles, or Baltimore birds--so called from
their colour, a mixture of black and orange, being the same as that in
the coat-of-arms of Lord Baltimore. The cause of the disturbance
appeared to be a nondescript animal close to the edge of the thicket,
with a variety of little legs, tails, heads, ears, and eyes stuck over
its body. 'All at once the numerous heads seemed to separate from the
main body, becoming little bodies of themselves, with long tails upon
them, and looking just like a squad of white rats! The large body to
which they had all been attached we now saw was an old female opossum,
and evidently the mother of the whole troop. She was about the size of
a cat, and covered with woolly hair of a light gray colour.... The
little 'possums were exact pictures of their mother--all having the
same sharp snouts and long naked tails. We counted no less than
thirteen of them, playing and tumbling about among the leaves.' The
old 'possum looked wistfully up at the nest of the orioles, hanging
like a distended stocking from the topmost twigs of the tree. After a
little consideration she uttered a sharp note, which brought the
little ones about her in a twinkling. 'Several of them ran into the
pouch which she had caused to open for them; two of them took a turn
of their little tails around the root of hers, and climbed up on her
rump, almost burying themselves in her long wool; while two or three
others fastened themselves about her neck and shoulders. It was a most