TOWN AND COUNTRY MICE! 343 



to be the only one of its kind here. But we know 

 that our kindness would be repaid with a family of 

 half a dozen and by four more families of half a dozen 

 each before we were three months older. So the cat 

 and the traps are kept very busy, and still the unwel- 

 come breed flourishes in the wall-spaces and floor- 

 spaces of the house. 



The house-mouse is the town-mouse, whether he 

 live in a country mansion or in the midst of slums. 

 Our little flitterling of the hearth is a combination of 

 fine gentleman and street arab. He takes a pride in 

 his personal appearance, and his vanity evidently ex- 

 tends to delight in the observation of a human being 

 he has adopted as his patron. But it must be observa- 

 tion at a distance. His eyes, set a little wide apart on 

 a rather hatchety face and very prominent, see ask- 

 ance almost as well as in front. His ears are wide 

 and thin to catch every sound and locate it in the 

 world of strange echoes that a house must represent. 

 His nose is alert for every message in that direction, 

 and the fine vibrissae on his muzzle stand for a sixth 

 sense of which we have no conception. He is the 

 figure of watchfulness against danger, and also the 

 figure of curiosity and daring up to the very gate of 

 danger. 



On the other hand, take the vole, a rodent, but not 

 technically a mouse, though sufficiently well named by 

 us country people " short-tailed field-mouse." He has 

 a broad, flat, farmer's face, with the eyes set close to- 

 gether, and his ears are almost lost in a bushy growth 

 that resembles the bucolic beard. Not living in a 

 world of continuous noise, he can keep out of the way 

 very well by taking note of the tremors of the earth 



