70 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST, 
[February, 
than when tho change of weather is sudden and the cold 
Is severe—they will then be quito short and “stubbed.” 
Some children are very fond of eating these cold hard 
sticks, but they are not good. 
One ©F tlie ’Ologles. 
Boys and girls are not to be blamed for thinking that 
this world is full of pretty long words, and not only long, 
but hard ones to spell, pronounce, and understand. Not 
long ago, some little one, not so yonng but she knew a 
great deal about some things, thought that most of the 
“ study books ” were on some 'ology or other. She is 
more or less right. We have Physiology and Lithology, 
Geology and Zoology, Philology and Entomology, The¬ 
ology and Meteorology, Mineralogy and Anthropology, 
Ethnology and Psychology, but we need not give any 
more. These words end in ology, and this word, like 
many others in onr language, comes from the Greek. 
The meaning of this termination, or ending, as you may 
please to call it, is discourse or treatise, a thorough ex¬ 
planation—a complete description “a telling about the 
thing.” Let ns look into this matter of the 'ologies by 
taking one; as, for example, Pomology. Children are 
more Pomotogists— there is another big word 1—than per¬ 
haps Anthropologists or Geologists, though I have known 
some very good yonng Geologists. What does Pom 
mean ? we know a little about the rest of the word—it 
comes from the Latin language which the old Romans 
talked, and means fruit. If we put the meaning of the 
two parts of our word together, we get fruit discourse, or, 
in other words, a complete treatment of the subject of 
fruits. As soon as we see the meaning of the word it is 
not so hard—words look blank and hard when we do not 
understand them. Snppose some person has made a 
great stndy of frnits, as pears, apples, etc.; he ate them 
when a boy, perhaps loved the subject so much that he 
©ven went into his neighbor’s orchard to get specimens 
for investigation, and after a number of years of studying 
the various kinds, seeing how they differ from each other, 
time of ripening, time of keeping, and many other 
things, he should put all his knowledge of fruits into a 
book, what should we call the book ? We might say this 
is So-and-So’s book which treats on the different kinds of 
fruits, their size, color, taste, and keeping quality, etc., 
or we might simply say this is “ Mr. So-and-So’s Pomolo¬ 
gy." —Now if any boy or girl is trying to learn the names 
of the various kinds of apples and other fruits, by asking 
the father or mother, or by going to a fair where such 
fruits are exhibited, and remembering how this aud that 
kind looks, its size, shape, color, etc., that boy or girl is 
studying Pomology, and if the study is continued until 
thoroughly understood, will become a pomologist. 
The Merry Mice. 
Tho bright little creatnres, three of which are presented 
in the engraving, have had from early times a reputation 
for stillness, shyness, hatred of cats, and love of cheese. 
There is but little friendship between boys, “take them as 
they run,” and the ordinary mouse—and to be fair we mnst 
“ take him as he runs” too. You will have to take him 
thus in most cases if he is taken at all. But before we 
kill the little mouse—and we do not argue that he onght 
not to be destroyed—let us see if there are not some 
things about him that are interesting. Let ns snppose 
each reader is so situated that a real, live mouse is iu 
sight, and yet Mr. Mouse does not notice that he is being 
watched. This thought takes me back to that old, red 
school-house on the hill, so old and shabby that a tramp 
would prefer to put up in the fence corner thnn enter; a 
building where the walls were full of big holes and a 
host of friendly mice made many daily visits to get their 
supply of bread and cheese. Have I not watched him 
with his head at the hole and his sharp eyes, just like 
bends looking out from under his thin, upright, watchful 
ears, and then “ holding in ” with all my might—It was 
so hard to keep still—see him soon creep, andjumpalong 
the floor a few inches at a time until he found that for 
which he lives—a tender morsel, which had fallen from 
some child's dinner-basket, or been dropped on purpose 
for the fun that it would bring. A mouse in school, if 
allowed to have his own way, watched by happy chil¬ 
dren’s eyes, but not knowing that he is observed, is per¬ 
haps the most fertile source of bad lessons that there can 
be ; but it has the good side in that it keeps the pupils 
still. Yes I “as still as mice a stillness that a teacher 
feels, and will usually remove. Aside from the timid aud 
quiet way in which he gets his spoils, which is cunning 
in an object so small as a mouse, there is the beauty of 
his very self. A mouse that 
has been fortunate enough to 
enjoy a good living, is plump 
and pretty; his coat is shiny, 
his ears are clean, and hia 
Moustache (which by the way, 
means mouse like or mouse-col¬ 
ored) is long and well kept. 
A nice mouse of itself—if one 
could lose eight of how he has 
made himself look so by petty 
theft and midnight plunder—as 
an object of beauty, is worthy 
of our highest regal’d. He 
combines all the smartness of 
the fox, and the delicacy of the 
deer; the shyness of the ante¬ 
lope, and the wisdom of the 
beaver—and all in a little lump 
so small that he builds his nest 
in our deserted boot, and rears 
a family before he is observed. 
It is an old story that these 
little creatnres so troubled an 
old bachelor that, driven to 
despair, he went a long way to 
a very large city to procure a 
housekeeper that might be able 
to drive away the mice. Of the 
success of the undertaking we 
are not told—at least, I only 
remember that through some 
bad arrangements, on the way 
home there was a great smash 
and a tumble down time gen¬ 
erally. But this story as it is 
told only goes to prove that 
mice at heart are dreadfully 
bad. I would gladly call them 
good, if they were so; but 
“ They climb upon the pantry 
shelf, 
.And taste of all they please; 
They drink the milk that’s set 
for cream, 
And nibble bread and cheese." 
Their whole natnre must be 
changed before they can ex¬ 
pect to gain the lasting friend¬ 
ship of man. Mice and men 
may have some things in com¬ 
mon, but the mouse’s best in¬ 
terests are not man’s, and 
that which promotes the high¬ 
est enjoyment of man is op¬ 
posed to the well being of Mr. 
Mouse. There is an eternal 
warfare between them, and 
through that living instrument 
—the dread of every throb¬ 
bing, civilized mouse’s heart, 
the sworn enemy of the whole 
mouse tribe—the cat—man may hope to keep this little 
wolf from the door. No one, it seems to me, can help 
admiring the mouse as to the form and texturo of his be¬ 
ing—his eye is bright, his fur soft, and his ontline pleas¬ 
ing; but his disposition is bad. He comes when we do 
not want him, and goes only when he can injure ns no 
more, or his own personal safety demands it. He looks 
better eating cheese in a picture than when in flesh and 
blood upon the pantry shelf. He is never to be trusted, 
and is not safe until he is dead, and even then it is our 
wish that he had died away from home. That he is 
closely related to the rat is almost enough to condemn 
him; but his own deeds are the ones by which ho is 
judged. It is a sad fact that the mouse was filled with 
the spirit of adventure during the early Pilgrim days, and 
came to this country in those old ships to establish a 
colony in tho new world, that is now as wide spread as 
the Continent. He has been very successful in the work 
of colonization ; it has not been without its struggles and 
conflicts, and if the whole history of the subject was 
known it would doubtless be a story of trickery and cun¬ 
ning without intent to kill, on the mouse’s side, and 
self-protection mingled with no little malicious blood 
shed on the other—if honestly written by himself it would 
be “ a plain unvarnished (mouse's) tale." Uncus Hal. 
THREE MICE THAT ARE NOT BLIND. 
