WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



when he lived all alone in the woods by Walden 

 Pond, near Concord, Massachusetts : 



"The mice which haunted my house were not 

 the common ones, which are said to have been 

 introduced into the country, but a wild, native kind 

 not found in the village. I sent one to a distin- 

 guished naturalist, and it interested him much. 

 When I was building, one of these had its nest 

 underneath the house, and, before I had laid the 

 second floor and swept out the shavings, would 

 come out regularly at lunch-time and pick up the 

 crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen 

 a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, 

 and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. 

 It could readily ascend the sides of the room by 

 short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled 

 in its motions. At length, as I leaned my elbow 

 on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes and along 

 my sleeve, and around and around the table which 

 held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and 

 dodged and played at bo-peep with it; and when 

 at last I held still a piece of cheese between my 

 thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting 

 in my hand, and afterwards cleaned its face and 

 paws like a fly and walked away." 



Mice are full of such curiosity. They poke 

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