sort of mud when
they were mixed with the water.

'And now the mud is dry, and we call it chalk!'

THE MOUSE.

an'-i-mal
noise
mouse
cheese
har'-vest
stalk
should
four
tail
nib'-ble
young
beasts
squeak
hours
leaves
catch

1. Harry came running in one day to say that he had seen a little animal
in the field.

2. 'It ran so fast, I could hardly see it. I looked a long time for it,
and so did Dora, but we could not find it. Now, what do you think it
could be, mother?'

[Illustration]

3. Then in came Dora, 'It had a long tail, and was very little, and made
no noise at all.'

4. 'It may have been a mouse,' said their mother; 'very likely it was.'

'But mice live indoors, do they not, and eat cheese, and run about in
the walls, and make holes?'

5. 'How do you know all this?'

'I have heard them at grandmother's,' said Harry. 'Do they ever live out
of doors?'

6. 'A good many do. There is a pretty little thing called a
harvest-mouse. It makes a nest like a bird's, and hangs it up on a stalk
of wheat.'

[Illustration: The Harvest Mouse and Nest.]

7. 'I wish there had been one in our wheat!' said Dora. 'I should like
to see the little nest and the baby-mice peeping out. They must be very,
very small.'

8. 'Yes, the harvest-mouse is the very smallest four-footed animal we
have. Then there is a field-mouse with a long tail, and a field-mouse
with a short tail. Mr Short-tail likes to nibble at young trees.'

'Ah, that is not our mouse! He had a long tail.'

9. 'And then there is a wood-mouse.'

'Has he a short tail or long tail?' asked Harry.

'Long. I must tell you about a man who used to go out in the night in
wild places to see what birds and beasts were doing when most of us
were in bed.

10. 'One of the things he found out was that field-mice could sing!'

'Don't they squeak?'

'Yes; and he often heard them go on for hours making a kind of singing.

11. 'Sometimes they were close by him as he lay on the ground, and he
would put out his hand to catch one. But when he opened it again it was
full of grass or moss or leaves; and there was no mouse.'

'Did he never catch one?'

'Never.'

THE FIELD-MOUSE.

tum'-bles
ber'-ry
brown
mer'-ry
scarce'-ly
weath'-er
nib'-bling
fruits
farm'-er
stacks
treas'-ure
pleas'-ure
reared'
un-der-neath'