82 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. 

 It 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, arid 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 jnst 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- 



