The resilient spirits of youth, however, presently revived, and
discovering a spider upon one knee and a beetle simultaneously upon the
other, Penrod forgot Mrs. Roderick Magsworth Bitts in the course of
some experiments infringing upon the domain of Doctor Carrel. Penrod's
efforts--with the aid of a pin--to effect a transference of living
organism were unsuccessful; but he convinced himself forever that a
spider cannot walk with a beetle's legs. Della then enhanced zoological
interest by depositing upon the back porch a large rat-trap from the
cellar, the prison of four live rats awaiting execution.

Penrod at once took possession, retiring to the empty stable, where
he installed the rats in a small wooden box with a sheet of broken
window-glass--held down by a brickbat--over the top. Thus the symptoms
of their agitation, when the box was shaken or hammered upon, could be
studied at leisure. Altogether this Saturday was starting splendidly.

After a time, the student's attention was withdrawn from his specimens
by a peculiar smell, which, being followed up by a system of selective
sniffing, proved to be an emanation leaking into the stable from the
alley. He opened the back door.

Across the alley was a cottage which a thrifty neighbour had built on
the rear line of his lot and rented to negroes; and the fact that a
negro family was now in process of "moving in" was manifested by the
presence of a thin mule and a ramshackle wagon, the latter laden
with the semblance of a stove and a few other unpretentious household
articles.

A very small darky boy stood near the mule. In his hand was a rusty
chain, and at the end of the chain the delighted Penrod perceived the