OPOSSUMS

Press, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22513, 22 September 1938, Page 5 (Supplement)

OPOSSUMS

(By Penelope Pocock)

We are always sorry to leave Castle Hill after our holidays, but this time I think we were sorrier still.

There are always two opossums up there, whom we have named Joey and Peter. Peter is the bigger of the two, and we think the father of Joey.

Usually they are very shy, , and you are seldom .able to see them at all, but this time—l suppose because of the hard winter—they came out very often. We could even stroke them, and we found that they were so very thin that their bones were hardly covered by their thick fur. 'Possums are rather like squirrels, only darker. As they are marsupials, the females have pouches, in which they carry their young; •they have long, bushy tails, very sharp long claws which enable them to climb trees where they usually live: and they have sharp ears, and little sharp pink noses which, I regret to say, are very often covered in food. Sometimes we saw Joey with some apple peelings in one paw and some cauliflower in the other, going from one to the other—which disproves a book I read, in which it was said that only apes, monkeys, and men have prehensile hands. Sometimes Joey would slip right into the rubbish. tin, and would sit in the midst of potato, carrot, and onion peelings, and gravy. When we turned the torch on liim his eyes gleamed red in the dark. This time the opossums actually came out in the daytime, when their eyes looked a beady browny-grey. At night their sharp eyes • are like cats’ eyes, for they are able to see very well in the dark.

Joey lived mainly under the house, where we could sometimes just see the end of his little pink nose wiggling like a rabbit’s in the hole. He would sometimes even feed out of our hands on the veranda.

He would eat almost anything, from mutton-bones to soap. But the latter was not his choice .if he could get better. (We often wondered what happened to the caustic powder in the soap.) We always used to think that Joey was a vegetarian, until one day we saw him scuttle away .dragging a mutton-bone.

His back view is very comic; hil front legs being shprter than hi* back ones it gives .him the appearance of a kangaroo, though ’possums hardly hop. , . They are usually silent, but when fighting they make an uncanny, almost frightening noise, somethin* between a whistle and a his£ punctuated occasionally by a staoThey are endearing little creatures, and I think it is a frea* shame to kill them.

Buckee Bene

Buckee; Buckee, biddy Bene, Is the way now fair and clean?. Is the goose ygone to nest. And the fox ygone to rest? Shall I come away?

The Fallow Deer at the Lonely House

One without looks in to-night Through the curtain chink From the sheet of glistening white! One without looks in to-night As • we sit and think By the tender brink. We do not discern those eye* Watching in the snow: Lit by lamps of rosy dyes We do not discern those eyes Wondering, a glow, Fourfootea, tip-toe. —THOMAS HARDY. THE RIVER (By Alison Lush, 13 years) For ever on the drops before tn* river follows, follows, u It rustles over rapids, slides througa deep and shady hollows. It winds in pebbly reaches that ara shallow, sunny, wide. And the bushes of the sun ara growing by the river side, For the broom beneath the magi® of the sun is all in flower, And fresh buds are bursting opea on the bushes every hour. The trout are lying in the shade, the minnows in the sun. The dragonflies dance on the top# the gnats are having fun, The lizards and the grass-snaKM bask upon the stones and grass. And the river rings with the merry shouts as the bands of children pass. The sun is ’own and the broom i* gone. And the lizards were dead long ago. And the children are old and dear and grey. But the river still flows on. The river has changed very lime. The rapids are rapids still. ~ And the calls of some other cnu ■ dren. Come echoing over the hill. NOTICES Mr R. J G. Collins will be glad to answer readers’ questions ao° u * stamps. Those who wish to nav* personal replies must send stamper addressed envelopes. Readers wn® wish to have stamps valued shout® send those stamps by reglsterea letter with an addressed envelop" and stamps for return registration. Mr Collins cannot undertake to value stamps from description. All questions should be sent to h*® care of “The Press Junior. in Press” office. Christchurch. Contributors are reminded of rules; Writing must be on one Sid* of the paper only, all manuscript* must be clearly marked trim name and address of sender; “ ■tamps, are not enclosed we cannon undertake to return any article w ■tory.