or ascend a tree, they are "taken by her on the back, where they cling to the fur, and likewise hold on by entwining their little prehensile tails with that of the mother." "Wonderful medical virtues are attributed to the tail of the female opossum." When we add, to this luxury of auto-furnishing in his mate, that the 'possum can support himself by either end—hanging to a tree by his "prehensile tail," and swinging his head in tail-like idleness to the summer air—a professional author, at least, might sigh over the comparison of gifts and privileges!
The drops that have been to the sky to be purified are coming down in countless flakes—cold, separate and pure—to try another course of duty on this defiling earth, mingle again, and wait for another evaporation. Or, as Bell expressed the same bit of news just now, "it snows feather beds." Through this crowd of life-resuming spirits—through these feathers yet unconfined by ticking and pillow-cases—I must gallop to Newburgh with my letter for the mail. Time to be off.
- Yours, pen and horse,
