ALONG FOUR-FOOTED TRAILS 



tured and lovable with each other. They kept 

 up a constant chatter with each other and only 

 once in a while, for a minute or two, would 

 seem in a disagreeable frame of mind when more 

 than one wished the same choice morsel of food. 

 They learned to eat from my hand, would run 

 up my sleeve and dart back again at any sight 

 or sound. When fall came and had nearly 

 gone the cage with its contents was moved from 

 the granary to the house ; an injury to the net- 

 ting imposed the necessity for repairing it with 

 a piece of canvas. My mice were now warm 

 and comfortable in their new quarters. Their 

 cousins in the fields were quite as safe beneath 

 the friendly snow which shielded them both 

 from their enemies and from the cold wintry 

 blasts. Beneath the snow they now tunneled. 

 Many were the little snowy paths that crossed 

 and recrossed in all directions made by the 

 sociable little mice as they ran about making 

 calls upon their neighbors or returning visits 

 made them. But now they did damage as well. 

 Should a young orchard or a nursery chance to 

 be near these snowy runways the roots offered 

 choice meals to the mice. The roots of trees 



