THE FAERY YEAR 



A Mouse's Dessert 



The wood mouse is one of those lesser inhabit- 

 ants of a wood which live a secret life. However 

 close and patiently we watch and wait, we can rarely 

 see this little creature building its house or waiting 

 on its young. Its courtships, gambols, and rivalries 

 are hidden. The menu of the mouse is, perhaps, 

 daintier and more diverse than generally supposed. 

 It is no mean climber ; and, twice within a year or 

 so, I have surprised it running along the slender 

 branches of a bush ; once last year on quite fine 

 twigs of an elder bush, and the other day up the 

 wayfaring tree. When alarmed, it runs down 

 the stems to hide in the dead leaves and under- 

 growth. 



It is a pretty thing to see this mouse adventuring 

 along the brown stems of the wayfaring or mealy 

 guelder rose tree, descending nimbly and surely, but 

 not very quickly, to the ground in alarm. What 

 does the mouse get up into the wayfaring tree for ? 

 I am pretty sure it knows somehow that the scarlet 

 berries are turning plum colour ; and that the same 

 quest takes it up the elder bush. It is a fruit- 

 eater. 



At Fall 



There are two kinds of autumn day. One is 

 when the fallen leaves seem recharged with life by 

 the west wind, full of some wild purpose of 



220 



