278 
CO^IMON MOUSE. 
DIMENSIONS. 
Length of head and body 
“ Tail 
Height of ear 
Inches. 
HABITS. 
We have attempted to shew a portion of a shelf in a pantry, on which 
stands a china jar, with its indigo-blue peaked mountains, its fantastic trees 
and its (take them altogether) rather remarkable landscapes, reminding 
us more of the sweetmeats it contains than of aught in the way of nature ; 
and we have also portrayed a plate, with a piece of hard old cheese in it, 
on which a Mouse is standing in the act of listening, while another in the 
plate, and two more on the shelf, likewise appear a little startled, and are 
expecting to be disturbed ere they can make their intended meal ; the 
little rascals have reason to fear, for the careful housekeeper has heard 
them of late, squealing in their squabbling s with each other, has found the 
marks of their teeth on the bread and butter, and is determined to get rid 
of them instanter, if possible; she is calling now to her faithful pussy cat, 
and inquiring for the trap. 
But although the thievish Mouse is often frightened, and may be said 
to eat his dinner with “a cat” over his head, although he is assailed 
with pokers, broomsticks, &c., whenever he unluckily runs across the 
floor, and in fact is killed as often as his death can be compassed by the 
ingenuity of man, or the cunning and quickness of his ally the cat. the 
Mouse will not retire from the house, and even where the supply of food 
for him is small, or in rooms that have long been shut up, he may be 
found ; and would he let our drawings and books alone, we should will- 
ingly allow him the crumbs from our table ; but he will sometimes gnaw 
into shreds valuable papers, to make a bed behind some bureau or old 
chest. He in his turn frightens man at times, and should the hard-hearted 
hoarding wretch who has made gold his God, while with aged, trembling 
hands, locked in his inmost chamber, he counts his money-bags, but hear 
a little Mouse ; what a feeling of terror shoots through his frame ; despair 
seems for an instant to be written on his face, and he clutches convid- 
sively the metal to which he is a slave ; another moment, and he recovers, 
but he is still agitated, and hastily secures with locks and bolts the trea- 
sure which is to him more precious than the endearments of a wife, the 
love of children^ the delights of friendship and society, the blessings and 
