Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1877-05-31
The Homes of Mice.

The feld-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 aban-
doned 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 mate
In tearing down old buildings the car
penters often find between the walls lot
OF pieces of paper, bits of cloth, sticks,
fur, and such ituff, forming a great bale,
and know that it was once the home of q
hOuse-mOuse.
You have heard anecdotes of how q
shop-keeper missed small pieces of money
from his till, and suspected his clerk
taking it; how the clerk was a poor boy
who was supporting widowed mother,
or sister at school, and the kind-hearted
shop-keeper shnt.his eyes to his suspicious,
and waited fotsaore and more proof be-
fore being convinced that his young clerk
was the thief; but, as the money kept dis
appearing, how at last he accused the
clerk of taking it. Then the story tells
how, in spite Of the boys vehement and
fearful denial, policeman was called in
to arrest him, and when everything had
been searched to no purpose, he was
about being taken to the policc-station,
how, away back in corner was discov-
cred a mouse's nest made of stolen pieces
of ragged currcney-ten, twenty-five, and
tifty-cent pieces Then everybody was
happy, and the story ended with capital
moral!
More than one such stolen house the
mice have really built, and sometimes
their work has destroyed half hundred
dollars, and caused no end of heart aches.
Their little teeth are not to be dispised, I
assure you. 1 believe one of the most dis
astrous of those great floods which in past
years have swept over the fertile plains Of
Holland was caused by mice digging
through 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 misdccds,
as we'll as the people, sharing in the gen
eral catastrophe. They hardly intended
this; but but 49,. ., ...
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. e
Sometimes the house mouse goes out
of-doors to live, and forgets his clviliza-
ton; while, on the other hand, the wood
land Species occasionally come indoors
and grow tame. At the fur-trading posts
about Hudson Bay, wild mice live in the
traders houses.
All mice are full of curiosity. They
poke their noses into alt 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. l re.
member one such case which Mr.. Frank
Buckland has related. When oysters are
left out of water for any length OF time,
especially in hot weather, they always
open their shells little way, probably
seeking drink of water. A mouse hunt
ing about for food found such an oyster
in the larder, and put his head in to nib.
BILE at the oysters beard; instantly the
bivalve shut his shells, and held them to.
gcther so tightly by his strong muscles
that the poor mouse could not pull his
head out, and so died of sufocation. 9th.
er similar cases have been known.