THE MUSK RAT.
The musk rat iz bigger than a squirrell, and smaller than a woodchuk, and iz az unlike them az a Rokaway klam and a lobster are different from each other.
He iz amphibikuss, and kan liv on the land a good deal longer than he kan liv under the water.
He feeds upon roots, herbs, and soft klams, and smells like the wake of a fashionable woman out on parade.
He bilds houses in the winter, about az big az flour barrels, all over the marshes, and enters them from the cellar.
Hiz phur iz worth just about 25 cents, and aint lively in market at that.
Yu kan ketch them in allmoste enny kind ov a trap that haz got a way tew git into it. They are not kunning, and aint diffikult tew suit.
When i waz a boy i trapped every winter for musk rats, 323 and bought the fust pare ov skates i ever owned with their skins.
I hav seen them in winter setting up on end on the ice, cluss beside their holes, az stiff az an ezklamashun point, and when they see me they change ends and point down, like a semicolon, and that waz the last ov them.
The musk rat haz a flat tale, with no more phur on it than a file haz.