'THIS COMES HOPPING' 



7 



curiosity, is why you all persist in saying ' As still 

 as a mouse.' I have often heard you tell somebody 

 that you will be as still as a mouse if they will only 

 let you come with them. Why on earth don't you 

 say ' as still as a rat ' ? No wonder that they keep 

 on shaking their heads in that horrid way of theirs, 

 and saying ' No, dear, not this time.' They know 

 as well as I do what ' as still as a mouse ' means. 

 A mouse has no more idea of how to keep still 

 than you have — always fidgeting about and 

 nibbling at something, and then scampering about 

 because it is frightened at the noise which it made 

 itself. They never seem to learn, any more than 

 you do, that it is only the silly little noises that 

 count, and make people want to buy cats, and throw 

 boots about, and set traps. 



A real big noise, like a great trampling thunder- 

 storm, makes people frightened, and then they 

 cannot be angry. I know all about that, and when 

 I come into a house to stay for a few days I just 

 keep really quiet for most of the time, and then, 

 when I feel that I must have a scrimmage or else 

 I shall burst in half, I make such a proper noise 

 that people say that it is ghosts, or burglars, or 

 tigers, and hide under the bedclothes until I have 

 had enough exercise. You try next time whether 



