This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ...taken. Not once in the whole course of his career did he offer to strike with his tail, his principal weapon of attack as well as of defense, and in this Uncle Ned declared him to be a remarkable and in fact unique exception from all his kind. His tameness from the very start was surprising; and it is a fact ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910 edition. Excerpt: ...taken. Not once in the whole course of his career did he offer to strike with his tail, his principal weapon of attack as well as of defense, and in this Uncle Ned declared him to be a remarkable and in fact unique exception from all his kind. His tameness from the very start was surprising; and it is a fact that within two hours after his capture he was sitting contentedly on Uncle Ned's lap, gnawing at a biscuit. Camp Buckshaw had entertained porcupines before, and there was a large wire-netted pen built round a small poplar beside the cabin all ready for occupancy. Here Pompey was kept nights, and whenever there was nobody left about the cabin to look after the wants of the pets; for it was Uncle Ned's custom to confine his pets when first taken, for so long a time as was sufficient for them to get accustomed to Camp Buckshaw and look upon it as their home. After that they were always allowed to run free. The North-American porcupine, especially in its younger years, is so covered with long, black hairs that its quills, of which, except on nose and belly, it has enough and to spare, are partly, and often wholly, concealed. In Pompey's case, all the very long quills, those most apt to show, seemed to have been pulled out when he was captured; for Parish's coat, in which he had wrapped his captive, was stuck through with scores of sharp spines, and it was a long time before he succeeded in extracting them all. As it was, good old Uncle John McLeod, in using the coat one day for a pillow as he took his afternoon snooze on the sofa, got a small quill so firmly imbedded in his nose that he was forced to post off to town and have it taken out by a physician. A queer, uncanny thing is a porcupine quill, and a very dangerous one. It is tipped with...
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