before him.

2. "Oh, it's a grand place! There are great black mice, and great
white ones, and great spotted ones, and great friendly mice with long
noses, and great uncivil mice with horns.

3. "Then there are queer mice with only two legs, and some terrible
mice that make a great noise." At this moment, Gaffer Graybeard came
in, and White-paw said, "Sir, I've learned what a mouse-trap is." "Ah!
then," said the sage, "you've not seen the world in vain."

_THREE BLIND MICE._

[Illustration]

Three blind mice! Three blind mice!
See how they run! See how they run!
They all ran after the farmer's wife;
She cut off their tails with a carving-knife.
Did you ever see such a thing in your life
As three blind mice?

LESSON XXX.

_THE DEATH OF POOR PUSS._

"Here lies poor Puss!"--
"Who saw her die?" asked Grandmother Mouse,
Just peeping forth from her hole of a house.
"I," said Tommy Titmouse, "I saw her die;
I think she was choked while eating a fly."

"Who'll dig her grave?" asked Granny again;
In her voice, strange to say, there was no tone of pain.
"The honest old dormouse, out in the wood,
He'd dig a good grave, if any one could."

"Who'll be the bearers?" The grandchildren all
Were ready at once, at sound of the call.
"We'll carry Puss, since she can't carry us,
And bury her deep, without any fuss."

One seized her fore paw, another her tail,
Another her ear, to make sure not to fail.
Then off they all ran, for Puss winked her eye,
And sprang to her feet, as the mice squeaked "Good-by."

[Illustration]

LESSON XXXI.

_FIELD-MICE._

1. Some kinds of mice live in the fields and woods, and never come
into the house. The tiny little harvest-mouse has its home in the
grain or thick grass, and feeds upon grain and insects.

2. It makes a nest of grass neatly woven together, and places it on
the stalks, about a foot from the ground, where it is out of the way
of the wet.

3. The nest is round, and about the size of a large orange. When the
mother mouse goes away, she closes up the door of her nest, so no one
can see her little ones.

4. The harvest-mouse runs up the corn and grass stalks easily. In
climbing, it holds on by its tail as well as by its claws. The way it
comes down from its nest is very curious. It twists its tail about the
stalk and slides down.

5. Another of the fiel