Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-24
Maid and Mouse Tran

MdlQ dQQ d MUuSG lldp
ut certainly seems as if some power
over the destinies of young girls,
guarded them-when they're good.'
the old bachelor said. He ought to
know. I thought, having himself been a
sort of honorary uncle and guide to as
many as a dozen young girls in his time,
all of whom We're happily married. He
was a philanthropic sort of a middle
aged man, with a very large experience of
the world and it's ways.
why, I've known cases where things
came right just when the girl herself
thought they We're going hoplessly
wrong he continued, seeing that we
were all listening to him and ready for
more. Nov there was that case in Flor
with my dear young friend Ethel Ber-
~. 1t looked like a very sad case at one
time. but it proved to be all for the best.
mo, ] don't mind telling you about it.
You, none of you, know who Ethel Berry
is. And, in any case, the thing never was
a secret.
well, of course you know that all
women are afraid of mice. I would al
ways be inclined to suspect a woman that
was not afraid of mice, for my own part
Il SHOULD regard her as something un-
canny-'ft for treasons. strategems and
spoils'-something not properly womanly.
But Ethel's feeling about mice was re-
ally quite beyond the ordinary. On every
other subject she was as sound as a bell.
You couldn't brighten her with a gun. She
could shoot pretty we'll and had actually
killed several deer out in the woods.
About snakes she felt pretty much the
same horror that most people feel who
have not been used to them from child
hood. She was not by any means a ner-
Vous or a ~fainting woman. But, some-
how, she could not stand mice; 1 have
even seen her jump away from a little
wooden penwiper because there vas a
figure Of a mouse on it, with beads for
eyes-and she knew perfectly we'll that
it was not a real mouse, too.
when Ethels mother took her to
Florida she made the acquaintance of a
young Englishlnan there who was sup
posed to be engaged in the orange-grow-
ing business. and also supposed to be do
ing very we'll at it. Personally, he was
liked by everybody, not because his elder
brother was said to be a lord, but just
for his own sake. He was a gay, free
and-easy sort of %younester, sociable, a
good banjo player, always ready for a bit
of fun. and nobody had a word to say
against his character. Ethel n her
1lutlcF mao DteH III + itIlld iltdIly dIl LHG
winter and they had seen much of this
young man all the time, and the conse-
quence was that the young man had told
Mrs. Berry he intended to marry her
daughter. Mrs. Berry said that must be
as her daughter chose to decide. Finally,
so far as anyone could judge, Ethel her.
self was inclined to favor the young man.
"That was where the mice came in.
The cottage which the Berrys had rent
n1 fn,. tho \VilfpF, Vrl a rn.sv fajr1U h1Ii1f
sort of affair. not at all old, and not
troubled with such things as mice. They
had lived there from November to the
end of February without having ever
been obliged to think of mice. But in
February Ethel heard strange sounds by
night in her bedroom.
"'Mother,' she said. I heard mice in
my room last night, and you know as
we'll as l do that So long as there is any
chance of a mouse being anywhere about
that room l can't sleep in it.
Mrs. Berry knew perfectly we'll that
this was no eXaggeration. The girl had
not slept more than one hour all the
previous night, and hat would not do.
They rugged a grass hammock for her in
her mothers room-she could sleep all
right in d hammock-and a search was
made for a mouse trap.
Nov the town where the Berrys were
staying was a nice enough little place in
lis way, but IL was not a great CONNER
cial center. You could buy most things
that winter visitors to Florida are like
ly to want, but that did not include mouse
traps. The storekeeper said he had new
er before thought that there was any de-
mand for mouse traps among his Gus
toners. He would send for a c%onsign-
ment Of the newest make. however.
But this plan meant waiting for, per-
haps, a week.. and letting the mice have
their fling in the meantime. Ethel said
she could still hear them in the next room
at night. and they kept her awake, al
though she felt more secure in the ham,
mock in her mothers room. She was ur-
gent to rave those mice eXterminated.
and she was d young woman accustomed
to have her will obeyed.
This was a chance fer the young man
to prove his devotion. He had no mouse
trap to offer the lady, but he had a horse,
and he could ride that horse far and fast.
He mounted at dawn and rode to a port
% miles away, where there We're many
ironmongery stores. and at night return.
ed in triumph, though a little way-worn,
bearing the mouse trap.
1T was a humble sort of mou trap
one of the wire-cage kind. but the young
Englishman thought it would do. So did
Ethel. She rewarded him with smiles and
thanks. he was happy, and the trap, bait.
ed with Goldfish, was set.
"Tha night Ethel again thought she
heard STRINGS, but in the morning. when
her gallant am early to see how his
trap had worked-she herself could not
face the chances of seeing a mouse even
in captivity-it was found that the trap
was empty.
Ito tell the truth said the young man,
4 never had much confidence in this kind
Of trap. Sorry l didn't look for one Of