WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



their noses into all sorts of places where there is 

 a prospect of something to eat, and sometimes, 

 failing to find so good a friend as Mr. Thoreau, 

 meet the fate which ought to be the end of all pok- 

 ing of noses into other people's affairs. 



But the life of a field-mouse is not all frisking 

 about under the fragrant flowers, or digging chan- 

 nels through shining sand and crystal snow. He 

 has his labor and trials and trouble like the rest of 

 us. If a '' man must be either a man or a mouse/' 

 it would be hard choosing between them, so far as 

 an easy time is concerned. The gathering of his 

 food and the building of his house cost him " mony 

 a weary nibble/' and he must constantly be on 

 the alert, for dangers haunt him on every side. 

 One of his enemies is the snake, all the larger sorts 

 of which pounce upon him in the grass, lie in wait 

 for him in his highway, or steal into his burrow 

 and seize his helpless young, in spite of the frantic 

 fighting of the father and the stout attempts of 

 the mother to drag her little ones away into safety. 



Probably our snakes depend more upon catch- 

 ing mice than upon any other resource for their 

 daily food, and they hunt for them incessantly. 

 Most of the mice have the bad habit of being abroad 

 mainly at night ; so have the snakes ; and the mice 



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