Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1877-06-06
The Homes Of Mice.

The field-mice make snug beds in old
stumps, under logs, inside stacks of corn
and bundles of straw; dig out galleries
below the grass roots; occupy the
abandoned nests of birds and the holes
made by other animals; and even weave
nests of their own in weeds and bushes.
They live we'll in captivity, and you can
easily see them at work if you supply
materials.
In tearing down old buildings the car
penters often find between the walls a
lot of pieces Of paper, bits of cloth, sticks,
fur, and such stuff, forming great bale,
and know that it was once the home of a
house-mouse. You have heard anecdotes
of how shop-keeper missed some small
pieces of money from his till, aud sus-
pected his clerk of taking it; how the
clerk was poor boy who was support
ing a widowed mother, or sister at
school, and the kind-hearted shop-keeper
shut his eyes to his suspicious, and wait
ed for more and more proof before being
convinced that his young clerk was the
thief; but, as the money kept disappear
ing, how at last he accused the clerk of
taking it. Then the story tells how, in
spite of the boys vehement and fearful
denial, a policeman was called in to ar
rest him, and when everything had been
searched to no purpose, and he was about
being taken to the police-station, how,
away back in a corner was discovered a
mouse's nest made of stolen pieces of
ragged currency-ten, twenty-five, and
fifty-cent pieces. Then everybody was
happy, and the story ended with CAPT
tai moral!
More than one such stolen house the
mice have really built, and sometimes
their work has destroyed half hundred
dollars and caused 10 end of heartaches
Their little teeth are not to be despised,
| assure you. I believe one Of the most
disastrous of those great foods of past
years have swept over the fertile plains
of Holland was caused by mice digging
under the thick banks of earth, called
dykes, which had been piled up to keep
the sea back. In this case, of course,
the mice lost their lives by their mis-
deeds, as we'll as the people, sharing in
the general catastrophe. They hardly
intended this; but
'The best-lad schemes o mice and men
Gang aft agley!"
1t was by the gnawing Of a ridiculous
little mouse, you remember, that the
lion in the fable got free from the net in
which the king of beasts found himself
caught.
Sometimes the house-mouse goes out
of doors to live, and forgets his civiliza-
ton; while, on the other hand, the
woodland species occasionally come in
doors and grow tame. At the fur
trading posts about Hudson Bay, wild
mice live in traders houses.
AL mice are full of curiosity. They
poke their noses into all sorts of places
where there is prospect Of something to
eat, and often meet the fate which ought
to be the end of all poking of noses into
other peoples affairs they get caught.
[ remember one such case, which Mr..
Frank Auckland has related. When
oysters are left out Of water for any
length Of time, especially in hot weather,
they always open their shells a little
way, probably seeking drink Of water.
A mouse hunting about for food found
such an oyster in the larder, and put his
head in to nibble at the oysters beard
instantly the bivalve shut his shells, and
held them together so tightly by his
strong muscles, that the poor mouse
could not pull his head out, and SO died
of sufocation. Other similar cases have
been known.-Erasest hgersoH, st. Nicho-
las for June.