g expeditions what cleverness do they exhibit!
When one or two have been caught in a trap, how careful are the rest of
the community not to be tempted by the treacherous bait.

A honey-pot had been left in a closet, from the wall of which some of
the loose plaster had fallen down. In the morning, the honey being
wanted, the pot was found with a considerable portion abstracted.
Outside of it was a heap of mortar reaching to the edge, forming an
inclined plane, while inside a similar structure had been raised with
the loose plaster. From the marks on the shelf, it was clearly the work
of a mouse; which had thus, by means of a well-designed structure,
obtained entrance and exit.

If a little mouse, to gain its object, which you deem a wrong one, can
employ so much intelligence, how much more should you exert your
superior faculties to attain a right object.

THE EWE WHICH RETURNED TO HER OLD HOME.

I have told you of dogs making their way from one end of the country to
the other in search of their masters, and of horses traversing wide
districts to the pastures where they were bred, but you would scarcely
expect to hear of a sheep performing a long journey to return to the
home of her youth.

A ewe, bred in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, was driven into
Perthshire, a distance of upwards of one hundred miles. She remained
some time at the place, and there became the mother of a lamb. She took
a dislike to her new home, and thoughts of her early days stealing upon
her, she came to the resolution of returning to the scenes of her youth.

Calling her lamb, she one night set off southward. Often she was
compelled to hurry on her young one with impatient bleatings. She took
the highroad, along which she had been driven. Reaching Stirling early
in the morning, she discovered that an annual fair was taking place, and
that the town was full of people. Unwilling to venture among them for
fear of being caught, or losing her lamb, she waited patiently outside
till the evening, lying close by the roadside. Many people saw her, but
believing her owner was near, did not molest her. During the early
hours of the morning she got safely through, observed by several people,
and evidently afraid lest the dogs prowling about the town might injure
her young one.

Arriving at length at the toll-bar of Saint Ninians, she was stopped by
the toll-keeper, who supposed her to be a stray sheep. She escaped him,
however, and several