Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1893-04-19
TIE SINGING MOUSE.
Dear little boys and girls:
BY AUNT AMY.

Dear little boys and girls:
Friend Tello,
has invited me to Join the Sunny Hour
Circle, and L am very glad to accept
the invitation. | am going to tell you
all, about a singing mouse that [ once
had, and | hope if any of you have ever
seen one, he or she will let US know.
hope none of you are so foolish as to
be afraid of a mouse. 1t is the little
mouse who is frightened, L can assure
YOU, vet 1 have known grown women
10 scream and get upon a chair, If they
thought one was in the room.
One day / went TO see friend OF
mine and she said to me, go, you can't
guess what have in the other room,
and it Is present for you. Just come
and see."
SO we went into the sitting-room, and
she said, "Now Keep very quiet and
listen" so we both kept very still, and
| heard little soft, sweet trill, that
made me exclaim, "Oh, 1t Is a baby
bird. Where is it?"
Look and see " she said, as she
clapped her hands and laughed when |
looked all around and was very much
puzzled, when l couldn't find any
bird.
"You must have hidden her," l said,
and l pulled aside the curtains and
looked under the table, but no birdie
was to be seen. SO the little girl
pointed to a side table on which was q
mouse-t trap, made like a squirrel cage
with a wheel, aud in 1t was q mouse
running around in the wheel and sing
ing away as sweetly as possible,
"a mouse that sings" | said. "Does
he go by machineryY
"No, he is alive; just look at him, d
she said.
Well 1 took my mOusie home, and
put him In big cage, and gave him
tCod and water, and in a day or two
hewould take his food from my fugers.
Now you must not think that this little
creature would sing like the blue-bird,
Or like canary, but if you have ever
heard a young canary, who was Just
beginning to sing, and did not have
bis rich, full notes, but only soft
bsbybird music, you will know just
how the mOusie sang. / kept him in
The cage for about two weeks but II
always seemed to me cruel to keep q
wild creature in a cage. | do not like
to go through menagerie, for il
seems so cruel to shut those poor AMI
mails up In a small cage where they
can only pace back and forth, few
steps. What right have We to doom
them to Imprisonment? 1t would bt
much better to kill them and stuf
them, If they we're needed to teach NJ
natural history. But to return to the
mouse. One day, | was playing with
Kl.-.v,.I - 1
Iaid to mother, at seems cruel to kerr
the little thing prisoner. Tomorrow
[ shall take him out in the country ,anC
i've him his liberty"
Now, MIR. MOuse must have hearC
what I said, and decided that althoul
he wanted his liberty, he did not wan
TO leave the home, for the next mo
ment the cage was empty, and there
we're no signs of him. | thought ht
was gone surely, but that afternoon al
| was sitting by the window sewing
l beard a sweet little song, and looking
up saw him sitting on the threshold
and Watching me with a saucy look
that seemed to say, "thls is ever so mucl
nicer than being shut up in a cage. In
pretty well: how do you do?"
Then there was a noise in the entry
ana away the little mouse scamper &c
into the closet where he had found
nice little tenement that suited hin
much better than cage. Every da,
ne used to come out aud sing to m,
whenever I sat down in the room.
was very cunning to see him eat any
thing He would sit down on hi
launches, and hold his food in hi
tront paws, and nibble it with his sharl
white teeth, cooking his head first OIL
one side, then the other, while his httl
black eyes would twinkle with mis-
chief. His favorite place was th,
threshold of the door. and he wOult
Always go there to eat whatever yoI
gave him. I think it was because b.
could from there, see into both rooms
and at any sign of approaching danger
could escape to his hole. He lived 70
some weeks in this way. but finally go
caught in trap that the servant ha
set In the closet, forgetting that tn
little singing-mouse lived there. / fel
very sorry for l missed the funny littl
fellow not little.-FrOnl the Hunn
Hour.