Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-01-23
This and That
BY Charles z. TraeetCeH.

The score is now TO o against Jack
Spratt In the game Of mice catching.
In other words. Jack muffed his
mouse. while we have caught exactly
Ave rodents.
II IA true that we had to resort to
traps TO do it. but everything is fair
in this game.
Anything goes as the saying Is.
The puzzled look in Jacks goose
berry green eyes shows that the little
fellow is not able 10 understand Just
how we manage to catch them when
he fails
Jacks one big chance to catch one
came in the front yard. as detailed
here several months ago. He cornered
one At the base Of small pine shrub.
chased il around the trunk. and all
but had IL. when
The mouse slipped east. when Jack
was looking west crawling across the
walk to safety while the tiger cat
was making great plunges in the
wrong direction
Jack says that IL the FIVE mice we
caught had only given him a chance,
he would have caught them first, but
the critters always stayed inside the
walls. At night they would race
around the Iaths and between the
hoors. making as much noise az rats. ,
Jack spent many hours waiting for
them to come out, but they never did.
so human intelligence. such as IL IL,
had to be brought into play.
Two small spring traps were placed
in the attic. SO called, since il is
merely an arr space over the second
floor.
One night a mighty scrabblink was
heard. az the first mouse scented the
cheese. 1t was comical to listen to the
speed which the creature displayed
as II scrambled up the Turing. or
whatever 1t is they hang onto.
Straight across the ceiling the
mouse hot-footed il, straight for the
cheese-and death. The cruel spring
swung over. as the fellow poked his
nose onto the lever
The next day we removed the trap.
with the mouse hanging at one end.
His eyes were bright, and he had one
little paw placed just upon the
cheese, in which attitude death came
TO him.
We are not in the Ia bit of getting
sentimental over mice. hut we could
not help feeling sorry for IL, and
wishing that 1t might have been given
better chance, say the chance a
mouse has with a cat, which is not
much, at that
Wen, sir. old Jack Spratt could
scarcely believe his eyes when he saw
that long mouse tail swinging
As matter of fact. he could not
oelleve his sensitive nose. either. for
neither the sight of the mouse on the
trap nor the mouse smell managed ,
to make him much excited ?
1t was not until another day,
when we dangled two mice before
Jack. that he came to believe in the
reality OF our prowess.
This time Jack stood on his hind
legs, and walked clear across the
room that way. meowing pleadingly
to be allowed to play with a mouse
Just one of them, Mister
His pleadings fell on deaf ears,
however.
The fourth trapped mouse-there
seemed an endless supply-found
Spratt very much excited. His eyes
were round with amazement and the
nope that this time, surely. he would
be given the catch.
The f1fth. and. we hope, the last
mouse was a nne specimen, very fat,
with marvelously long tail.
This time we almost weakened, as
Jack put up his best plea. walking
around on his hind legs, his forelegs
held with perfect 'begginR" tech
niques with now and then a white
gloved paw stuck out to touch the
mouse's tail.
III cat was ever seen to express
wonder. Jack Spratt did it. Just as
plain az day. he said. Mister, how
In thunder do you do it?''