The Commonplace 13 



The good nature writing, as I conceive of it, 

 is that which portrays the commonplace so 

 truthfully and so clearly that the reader forth- 

 with goes out to see for himself. Some day 

 we shall care less for the marvelous beasts of 

 some far-off country than for the mice and 

 squirrels and birds and woodchucks of our own 

 fields and for the cattle on our hills. 



If I were a naturalist, I should go forthwith to 

 study the mice and then write of them for all 

 children ; for, of all untamed animals, what 

 ones are known to a greater number of chil- 

 dren ? and yet what do the children know 

 except that they have been early taught by 

 their elders to dislike or even to fear these 

 entertaining animals ? The embodiment of all 

 agility, of all quick dispatch, of all neat habits 

 and of comeliness, of unseen and devious ways, 

 is the mouse. What other object was ever so 

 swift and silent and graceful as it slides along 

 the corners of your room as intangible as a 

 shadow ! What explorer was ever so success- 

 ful as it peers into drawers and sniffs in cup- 

 boards ! 



