36 



OLD PLYMOUTH TRAILS 



bolstered with rags laboriously dragged in to 

 senseless confusion. Tbe field mice bad tbe floor 

 above. Here and tbere on tbe plates, between 

 joists, and over every window and door, were 

 tbeir nests, carefully made of wool, cbewed from 

 old garments and made fine, soft, and cosy. 

 Tbeir larders were full of cberry-stones, literally 

 busbels on busbels of tbem, eacb witb a little 

 round bole gnawed in it and tbe kernel extracted. 

 As tbe toil of tbe buman inbabitants year after 

 year bad left its mark on tbe floors of tbe bouse, 

 worn tbin everywbere, in places worn tbrougb 

 witb tbe passing and repassing of busy feet, so 

 bad tbe generations of field mice left bebind tbem 

 mute witnesses of patient, enormous labor. 

 From tbe two cberry trees in tbe neigbboring 

 yard bow many miles bad tbese sby little people 

 traveled, unseen of men, witb one cberry at a 

 time, to lay in tbis enormous supply ! 



Witbin tbe cbimneys were tbe wooden nests of 

 cbimney swifts, glued firmly to tbe bricks ; under 

 tbe cornice was tbe paper bome of a community 

 of yellow bornets ; and under tbe floor wbere was 

 no cellar, rigbt next tbe base of tbe warm cbim- 

 ney, were apartments tbat bad been occupied by 

 generations of skunks. Eacb space between floor 



