THE MOUSE. 



"What next? Pray, Sir, have you not tliis time made a 

 BligM mistake and substituted a pest for a jpet ,- or are we to 

 have in due course instructions how to make the black -beetle 

 happy, how the domestic spider may be fattened and fondled, 

 and the cockroach rendered comfortable P" 



My mind's ear is conscious of these and many other sarcastic 

 queries from indignant lady-housekeepers, accompanied by a 

 chorus of ten thousand little screams from ten thousand other 

 ladies, old and young, who, though unafflicted by larder cares, 

 are thrown into as complete a state of panic at the mere 

 whisper of mouse ! as men display at the dread mention of 

 " mad dog." Nevertheless are we no way daunted, for reply- 

 ing to the taunts, and the sarcasm, and the httle screams, 

 there comes a burst of admiration for the bright-eyed, nimble 

 little mouse, in all its varieties of brown, and mottled, and 

 tawny, and white, — a very Babel of pleadings for it as an 

 amusing and instructive creature, and imploring that it may 

 not be banished from the circle of Home Pets. True the 

 voices raised in favour of the mouse are, as a rule, little 

 voices, whose owners, having no care as to the purchase of 

 the next cbeese or box of candles, care nothing as to how the 



