here
she smelt something very nice, and beheld a new plum-cake. 'Ah!' said
she, 'how my sick mother will like a bit of this cake!' so having made
a hearty meal herself off it, she carried away the rest for her
mother, not thinking she had done any harm."

"Ah, mamma, (cried Alfred with tears in his eyes,) how I wish I had
not set the trap to catch that good Velvet; she might have had my
cake, and welcome, if I had but known what she took it for, how sorry
I am! I wish Velvet was alive again, with all my heart."

"Did not I tell you, Alfred, you would be sorry for killing the _nasty
brown mouse_, before the day was over."

"Oh! yes, dear mamma, and so I am indeed; I wish you had told me the
story before, and then I should not have set the trap.--And so I
suppose poor Downy will die, because she has no one to feed her."

"Well, Alfred, shall I finish my story?

"Yes, if you please, mamma, but you don't know any more of it, do
you?" "Only this, when Downy found Velvet did not return, she died of
grief. Thus ended the LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF THE FIELD-MOUSE."

"Ah, mamma," cried Alfred, bursting into tears, "what a cruel boy I
have been! I have killed both Downy and Velvet--I will never be so
cruel again."

Mrs. Clifford, charmed with the sensibility of her little boy, kissed
him most tenderly, saying, "Dry your tears, my sweet Alfred, and
resolve not to be so desirous of the death of a little animal again.
Though it is very necessary to kill them sometimes, or they would soon
destroy all our food and clothes; still when we are forced from
necessity to kill any thing, we should do it with as much humanity as
we can, and never inflict on them unnecessary pain. I should myself
have been forced to set the trap for Velvet, only I did not like to
see my little Alfred, merely from revenge, wishing so eagerly for the
death of a poor mouse, who did not know it was doing any harm in
eating the cake."

Alfred kissed his mother, and thanked her for her kindness in telling
him the story; and wiping his tears away, went into the garden to play
till tea was ready.

THE END.

Dean and Munday, Printers, Threadneedle-street.

* * * * *
* * * *
* * * * *

Errors and Inconsistencies (noted by transcriber)

Spellings such as "recal" and "befel", and "eat" as a past-tense form,
are unchanged. The author almost always uses "lay" (pre