314 TALKS WITH YOUNG OBSERVERS 



was not long before he became very restless 

 and evidently wanted to go about his business. 

 He would climb up to the edge of the boat and 

 peer down into the water. Finally he could 

 brook the delay no longer and plunged boldly 

 overboard, but he had either changed his mind 

 or lost his reckoning, for he started back in the 

 direction he had come, and the last I saw of 

 him he was a mere speck vanishing in the 

 shadows near the other shore. 



Later on I saw another mouse while we were 

 at work in the fields that interested me also. 

 This one was our native white-footed mouse. 

 We disturbed the mother with her young in 

 her nest and she rushed out with her little ones 

 clinging to her teats. A curious spectacle she 

 presented as she rushed along, as if slit and 

 torn into rags. Her pace was so precipitate 

 that two of the young could not keep their 

 hold and were left in the weeds. We remained 

 quiet and presently the mother came back look- 

 ing for them. When she had found one she 

 seized it as a cat seizes her kitten and made off 

 with it. In a moment or two she came back 

 and found the other one and carried it away. 

 I was curious to see if the young would take 

 hold of her teats again as at first and be dragged 

 away in that manner, but they did not. It 

 would be interesting to know if they seize hold 

 of their mother by instinct when danger threat- 

 ens, or if they simply retain the hold which 

 they already have. I believe the flight of the 

 family always takes place in this manner, with 

 this species of mouse. 



