The president put the papers on his desk and wrote a letter to Professor
Gordon. Unfortunately the Professor was in South America collecting
zoological specimens, and the letter was forwarded to him by his wife. As
the Professor was in the highest Andes, where no white man had ever
penetrated, the letter was many months in reaching him. The president
forgot the guinea-pigs, Morgan forgot them, Mr. Morehouse forgot them, but
Flannery did not. One- half of his time he gave to the duties of his
agency; the other half was devoted to the guinea-pigs. Long before
Professor Gordon received the president's letter Morgan received one from
Flannery.

"About them dago pigs," it said, "what shall I do they are great in family
life, no race suicide for them, there are thirty-two now shall I sell them
do you take this express office for a menagerie, answer quick."

Morgan reached for a telegraph blank and wrote:

"Agent, Westcote. Don't sell pigs."

He then wrote Flannery a letter calling his attention to the fact that the
pigs were not the property of the company but were merely being held
during a settlement of a dispute regarding rates. He advised Flannery to
take the best possible care of them.

Flannery, letter in hand, looked at the pigs and sighed. The dry-goods box
cage had become too small. He boarded up twenty feet of the rear of the
express office to make a large and airy home for them, and went about his
business. He worked with feverish intensity when out on his rounds, for
the pigs required attention and took most of his time. Some months later,
in desperation, he seized a sheet of paper and wrote "160" across it and