no The Gamekeeper at Home. 



and held in the interlacing of the bush till observed 

 by the keen, if tiny, eyes below. 



Mice have a magical way of getting into strange 

 places. In some farmhouses they still use the ancient, 

 old-fashioned lanterns made of tin — huge machines 

 intended for a tallow candle, and with plates of thin 

 translucent horn instead of glass. They are not 

 wholly despicable ; since if set on the ground and 

 kicked over by a recalcitrant cow in the sheds, the 

 horn does not break as glass would. These lanterns, 

 having a handle at the top, are by it hung up to the 

 beam in the kitchen ; and sometimes to the astonish- 

 ment of the servants in the quiet of the evening, they 

 are found to be animated by some motive power, 

 swinging to and fro and partly turning round. A 

 mouse has got in — for the grease ; but how ? that is 

 the ' wonderment,' as the rustic philosophers express 

 it ; for, being hung from the beam, eight or nine feet 

 from the stone-flagged floor, there seems no way of 

 approach for the mouse except by ' walking ' on the 

 ceiling or along and partly underneath the beam it- 

 self. If so, it would seem to be mainly by the pro- 

 pulsive power exerted previous to starting on the trip 

 — just as a man can get a little way up the perpendi- 

 cular side of a rick by running at it. Occasionally, 

 no doubt, the mouse has entered when the lantern 



