hay seeds
and ivy leaves, or the roots of the trees, and Downy, who had of late
been used to such good fare, could not bear to eat such dry
unpalatable food as this was.

[Footnote *: The above-mentioned circumstance, improbable as it
may appear, I myself was witness to in the garden not many paces
from the door of the house; when the poor little mouse actually
escaped the eyes of a cat and her kitten, who passed within a yard
of the spot where it stood, by standing in that motionless manner
on the top of a clod of earth, nor was it discovered till it left
its station, and though caught by the kitten, yet it finally
escaped unhurt to the garden hedge.]

"When she used to spend her time in labour and industry, she eat the
hardest fare with an excellent appetite, and was thankful and
contented with the least bit of any thing she got, but now she turned
away disgusted at the coarse food, and it was not until pinched by
hunger, that she would eat any of it. And now Downy began to consider
within herself, whether it would not have been much better and wiser
for her to have returned back to her own house in the meadow, instead
of living so long in idleness and luxury; and Downy found that
idleness brings its own punishment sooner or later, for had she been
at home she would not have been so frightened by the cat, or nearly
killed by the kitten; or even if a cat had come near her nice nest,
she would have run away much faster than she did now, for being then
smaller and thinner, she was much nimbler; nor was her daintiness the
least evil that attended her long indulgence, and this she felt more
severely now she was ill and could not go out to find good food; she
had suffered so much with pain and terror, that she resolved never to
go into the garden again, excepting to get provisions when in want.
With a sad and penitent heart Downy once more returned to her old
habitation, but, alas! what was her grief on beholding it a complete
ruin; her nice warm nest all destroyed, and the pretty green mound
quite spoiled! Downy was sadly vexed, for the cruel hay-makers had
with their pitchforks torn open the turf and scattered her soft bed
all round on the grass. She stood gazing with anguish on the desolate
scene before her; here was all her spring work entirely ruined, and
now she was ill and had no where to lay her head. 'Ah!' thought she,
'if I had not spent so much time in doing nothing but eating a