going on; but as I could
not, I occasionally disturbed them by laughing, when they huddled back
to the closet; and when I grew stronger, I sometimes dashed a pillow in
among them, which made the poor senators breathless with agitation, and
scuffle under the furniture, till they thought they might gain the
closet in safety. I little imagined the deeds committed in that
domicile, or I might not have been so indulgent to them; it was no less
than gnawing holes in some valuable antelope, monkey, and leopard skins,
which were to have been sent to my friends by the next departing vessel.

When I was allowed to eat, my appetite was kindly tempted by dainties
sent to me by friends, and which were placed under tin covers, on the
top of a chest of drawers. The endeavours of my rodent companions to get
at these were excessively droll; but as fast as they clambered an inch
or two up the sides, the slippery metal caused them to slide down again;
then they thought if they could but get to the top of the cover, they
should succeed; so they mounted upon each others' shoulders, and
accomplished the feat, but not their purpose; instead of getting
inside, down they came in a body again, but they became so used to my
laughter, that they did not mind it. Many of them combined together to
push the cover off the dish; but it was too firmly retained by the rim
to be moved. One day they thought they had triumphed, for the cover was
not quite put down in one place. A summons was evidently given, and
presently a number of little paws were inserted to raise it still
higher; but instead of doing this, the cover slipped on to their paws,
and it was very ludicrous to see their pain and mortification. After
this they so far abandoned the attempt that only one would be
occasionally seen walking round, as if by reconnoitering the fortress
again, his genius would suggest a successful termination to the
enterprise.

In an American scientific journal, there is a well-authenticated account
of a strange and overpowering sensibility to music, as evinced by a
mouse. It says, "that one evening, as a few officers on board a British
man-of-war, in the harbour of Portsmouth, were seated round the fire,
one of them began to play a plaintive air upon the violin. He had
scarcely performed ten minutes, when a mouse, apparently frantic, made
its appearance in the centre of the floor. The strange gestures of the
little animal strongly excited the attention of the offic