8Y FRIENDS WORTH KNOWING. 
only to keep him in check, and thus preserve that nice bal- 
ance of nature in which consists the welfare of all. 
An important part of the history of these pretty wild 
mice would be untold if I were to say nothing about the 
mischief they do to the farmer’s fields and fruit- trees. 
From the story I have related of the little “thieves in the 
night” who stole my friend’s rye, and of their underground 
stores, you may guess how they make the grain-fields suffer. 
Jt is done so quietly and adroitly, too, that few are ever 
caught at it, and much of the blame is put on the moles, 
squirrels, and woodchucks that have enough sins of their 
own to answer for. The meadow-mouse of Europe, which 
is very, like our own, forty or fifty years ago came near 
causing a famine in parts of England, ruining the crops 
before they could get fairly started, and killing almost all 
the young trees in the orchards and woods. More than 
30,000 of the little rascals were trapped in one month in a 
single piece of forest, besides all those killed by animals. 
About 1875, again, a similar disaster was threatened in 
Scotland, where millions of mice appeared, and gnawed off 
the young grass at the root just when it should have been 
in prime condition for the sheep; and when that was all 
gone they attacked the garden vegetables. The people lost 
vast numbers of sheep and lambs from starvation, and thou- 
