"The good folks of this house
I'm convinced, have not any
Ill-will to a mouse;
And those tales can't be true
You always are telling,
For they've been at such pains
To construct us a dwelling.

"The floor is of wood,
And the walls are of wires
Exactly the size that
One's comfort requires;
And I'm sure that we there
Shall have nothing to fear,
If ten cats, with kittens,
At once should appear.

"And then they have made
Such nice holes in the wall,
One could slip in and out,
With no trouble at all;
But forcing one through
Such rough crannies as these,
Always gives one's poor ribs
A most terrible squeeze.

"But the best of all is,
They've provided, as well,
A large piece of cheese,
Of most exquisite smell;
'Twas so nice, I had put
In my head to go through,
When I thought it my duty
To come and fetch you."

"Ah, child," said the mother,
"Believe, I entreat,
Both the cage and the cheese
Are a terrible cheat;
Do not think all that trouble
They took for our good,
They would catch us and kill us
All there if they could.

"Thus they've caught and killed scores,
And I never could learn,
That a mouse who once entered
Did ever return."
Let young people mind
What the old people say.
And, when danger is near them,
Keep out of the way.

[Page 183--Mousey Land]

[Illustration: Mice helping their comrade out of a trap.]

A Clever and Good Mother Mouse

One Summer day the sun shone bright,
Mid sweet flowers roved the bee,
And I wandered in a garden old
Beside the deep blue sea.

But close at hand, a shady path,
Beneath some beech trees wound,
And there. that sultry summer day,
A pleasant seat I found.

Suddenly, just beside my chair,
A little sound I heard;
A scratch upon the gravel path,
As of a mouse or bird.

I turned my head; there, on the path,
What strange sight did I see!
A little mouse, and in her mouth
Another still more wee.

Softly she crept across the path,
And then, her journey done,
In a hole beneath the green grass verge
She laid her little one.

And back and forth from side to side,
I watched her carry five
Sweet little mice, her own dear brood,
Long tailed, and all alive.

She never wearied in her work,
Yet oh! so small was she!
And thus, that brigh