Mousehole

“ And upon a time there came a traveller into the village, carrying a cat in his arms, and he entered the hostel. The host asked him, "What sort of a beast is that?" Said he, "It is a mouser." Now the mice at Schilda were so quiet and so tame that they never fled before the people, but ran about all day long, without the slightest fear. So the traveller let the cat run, who, in the sight of the host, soon caught numbers of mice. Now when the people were told this by the host, they asked the man whether the mouser was to be sold, for they would pay him well for it. ”

“ He peeped under the bank of the brook. He even stared into the water. And then—if he saw nobody that was fiercer than Paddy Muskrat—only then would he venture to skip to the water's edge and plunge in.
To tell the truth, Master Meadow Mouse always felt safer when one of the [103] Muskrat family happened to be taking a swim at the same time. For the Muskrats all had a warning signal that told everybody when there was danger. When one of them caught sight of Peter Mink he never failed—if he was in the water—to give a loud slap upon the surface with his tail. ”

“ So he thanked the Mouse, and went down to the village, and bought him a beautiful piece of meat. After this the Mouse every day brought the Farmer a golden sovereign, and every day the Farmer gave him a big chunk of meat. Thus in a few weeks Mousie grew quite fat.
But the Farmer had a big black cat that used to prowl about watching for mice. It used never to notice the Farmer’s own favourite Mouse while the Mouse was thin; but when he grew sleek and fat and shiny, Grimalkin (which was the Cat’s name) lay in wait for him one day and pounced upon him. Poor little Mousie was terrified. ”

“ Master Meadow Mouse explained. “And how awful, if—when you were alone—you got to laughing and couldn’t stop!”
This remark so amused Mistah Mule that he couldn’t help laughing again. [72] And Master Meadow Mouse promptly tumbled right over backward. He was sadly frightened. But he soon pulled himself together.
“Do you suppose,” he asked, “I could learn to make that sound? It would be pleasant, when anybody chases you, to turn around quickly and hee-haw right in his face. It’s a fine way to frighten a person.”
“Keep a-tryin’ whenever you gits a chance,” Mistah Mule suggested. ”

“ Speug suggested that as this plague of mice had burst upon the French class-room the scholars should meet the calamity like men, and asked Moossy's permission to go out upon the chase. For once Moossy and his pupils had one mind, and the school gave itself to its heart's content, and without a thought of consequences, to a mouse hunt. Nothing is more difficult than to catch a mouse, and the difficulty is doubled when no one wishes to catch it ”

“ The head is short and narrow, with small ears, like those of a rat; the eyes are black, piercing, and very bright. Their chief food is rats, mice, young chickens, little birds, and eggs. They frequent mole-hills, and are often caught in the traps set for the moles; they are destroyed by ferrets and dogs. These mousehunts live, for the most part, in holes beneath the roots of trees, or in old buildings."
The above description of the Mousehunt is given in The History of a Field-mouse by Miss Black. ”

“ The Mousehunt.—I should feel much obliged to any reader of "N. & Q." who would refer me to any mention of in print, or give me any information from his own personal experience, respecting a small animal of the weasel tribe called the mousehunt, an animal apparently but little known; it is scarcely half the size of the common weasel, and of a pale mouse-colour. It is said to be well known in Suffolk, whence, however, after some trouble, I have been unsuccessful in obtaining a specimen; young stoats or weasels having been sent me instead of it. I could not find a specimen in the British Museum. ”

“ Now, it was a pity that in Pleasant Valley, where Farmer Green's meadow lay, there were many of the fat-loving kind. Not only Peter Mink and Tommy Fox, but Grumpy Weasel, Solomon Owl, Ferdinand Frog, Henry Hawk and even Miss Kitty Cat were usually on the watch for Master Meadow Mouse. Naturally, he soon learned to be on the lookout for them. And if he hadn't seen them first he would never have grown up to be Mister Meadow Mouse. [3]
In spite of all those enemies, Master Meadow Mouse managed to enjoy life in Farmer Green's meadow. Usually he found plenty of seeds to eat. ”

“ It was thought that the evil one occasionally took the form of a mouse. Years ago, when Craig Wen Farm, Llawr-y-glyn, near Llanidloes, Montgomeryshire was haunted—the rumour of which event I well remember—the servant girl told her mistress, the tenant of the farm, that one day she was going through the corn field, and that a mouse ran before her, and she ran after it to catch it, but that when she was opposite the barn, the mouse stopped and laughed at her, and ran into a hole. The mouse, therefore, was the evil spirit, and the cause of all the mischief that followed. ”

“ Have we got one?"
"Godfather Drosselmeier can make them best," said Fred, "for he invented them."
All laughed; and, when the mother said that there was no mouse-trap in the house, the Counsellor assured her that he had a number in his possession, and immediately sent for one. In a short time it was brought, and a very excellent mouse-trap it seemed to be. The story of the Hard Nut now came vividly to the minds of the children. As the cook toasted the fat, Maria shook and trembled. ”

“ The newcomer looked the least bit like Master Meadow Mouse himself, except that his tail was ever so much longer. [38]
"I'm Moses Mouse and I live in the farmhouse," said the gray gentleman.
"I'm Master Meadow Mouse and I'm going to live in this woodpile," said the reddish-brown chap in reply.
"That's good news," Moses Mouse remarked. "But you must look out for Miss Snooper," he added.
"Who is she?" Master Meadow Mouse asked his new friend.
"Miss Snooper—" Moses Mouse explained—"Miss Snooper is our name for Miss Kitty Cat. She lives in the farmhouse. ”

“ Mouser said thoughtfully, as she brushed her whiskers with her paw. "After you once get into it, of course, they come easy enough. How would it do if I should explain why it is that cats catch mice?"
"Was there ever a time when they didn't catch mice?" your Aunt Amy asked, surprised for the third time.
"Oh, yes indeed," Mrs. Mouser said in a matter-of-fact tone. "All cats used to be good friends with the mice, once upon a time, and it happened that because an old Mrs. Pussy, who lived in the city, didn't have anything in the house to eat, the cats took up catching mice. ”

“ Well, if he in the night kills the smallest mouse that ever squeaked, what a clatter he does kick up! He keeps my wife and me awake for hours; and sometimes—now this is so like Whig—to catch a [Pg 3] mouse not worth a fardin’, he’ll bring down a row of plates or a teapot or a punch-bowl worth half-a-guinea. And in the morning when he shows us the measly little mouse, doesn’t he put up his back and purr as loud as a bagpipe, and walk in and out my legs, for all the world as if the mouse was a dead rhinoceros. ”

“ Master Meadow Mouse always had one ear that was listening for that slap. And when it sounded he never waited an instant, but darted into his tunnel without even stopping to shake the water off his coat. He said that he could dry his coat after he reached home; while if he stopped to dry it at the edge of the brook perhaps he'd never get home at all.
You might think that now and then he would have said to himself, "Oh, I won't bother to look for Peter Mink to-day. He must be miles away. ”

“ Mamma said mousie should be drowned; but Ida begged so hard to keep him, that mamma got a glass jar, put mousie into it, with a bit of bread and cheese to keep him company, [89] tied a piece of tin, all pricked with little holes, over the mouth of the jar, and set it on the shelf.
Ida spent half the day in watching the mouse.
When papa came home at night, he brought a funny little tin house for mousie's cage. Mousie was put into it; and he soon began to make the wire-wheel go round. He turned the wheel so fast and so long, that he soon made his nose sore. Ida thought he was very tame ”

“ The mouse has never been found very far from the haunts of men, either in this country or elsewhere. It is abundant in all settled parts, and is also common on the Auckland, Antipodes, and Campbell Islands. Though it follows man so closely, it frequently stays in localities where men have been and have left, and there it is apt to have a bad time. Mr. Philpott, writing to me on the 2nd January, 1918, said, “There is a plague of mice in the district west of the Waiau. ”

“ It ran right toward me, and I naturally jumped, as anybody would, but I am not afraid of mice, and when the horrid thing ran up inside the leg of my pantaloons, I yelled to Maria because I was afraid it would gnaw a hole in my garment. There is something real disagreeable about having a mouse inside the leg of one's pantaloons, especially if there is nothing between you and the mouse. ”

“ And he cocked his head on one side, as if he were listening for something.
At that moment his cousin began to whistle again.
"Be quiet!" Solomon Owl thundered. "If I'm not mistaken I heard a squeak. But no Meadow Mouse will ever venture out of doors if you're going to whistle."
"I forgot," said Simon Screecher once more. "I'm so used to whistling that I don't know when I'm doing it."
Solomon Owl and Simon Screecher wait for Master Meadow Mouse
"That's the reason why you can't catch more Mice," Solomon Owl snapped; for he was angry. "There are dozens of Meadow Mice under the snow. ”

“ I prefer to keep him rather than to feed you both."
"Come, come!" exclaimed Micifuf with the utmost coolness. "I see you have not understood my plan. Listen! By acting so with the mouse, which is an unhappy creature in the fullest sense of the word, I shall succeed in getting him out of his haunts, and he will yield himself trustingly to my claws and teeth."
So that very night he approached the bookcase and said:
"Little mouse, my friend! Come out, for now nobody is about and we can chat at our ease." ”

“ Of death they were afraid; but they were more afraid yet of the vengeance of their flute-voiced lord.
On the wall the Red Mouse sat among the flowers of sleep; he could have told; he who for once had heard another prayer than the blasphemies of the Brocken.
But the Red Mouse never tells any secret to men; he has lived too long in the breast of the women whom men love.
The Sun came from the east, and passed through the pale stricken faces that watched from the casement, and came straight to where the Red Mouse sat amidst the poppies.
"Have you let a female soul escape you?" ”

“ This species slightly exceeds the harvest mouse (Mus messorius) in size, its ears are considerably larger in proportion, and the tail is shorter. Compared with the common mouse (Mus Musculus) it is smaller, the tail is more slender, and shorter, and the feet are likewise more slender and proportionately much smaller; the ears are more distinctly clothed with hairs. ”

“ One day, when all the others were hard at work, this youngster got hold of a pin and a string. The pin he bent into the shape of a fish-hook, baiting it with a morsel of cheese. He had seen a mouse come up through a hole in the corner of the hearth, not long before, and went to work 'bobbing for whales.' On being asked what he was at, he answered, 'Fishin' for a mousie.' This being rather out of the usual course of study, the teacher, by way of punishment, ordered him to stay where he was, and keep bobbing, till further orders. ”

“ It was a mouse—a soft, brown, bright-eyed little mouse, not as large as his thumb. It was not like the mice Jim had been accustomed to see in the North woods, the larger, sharp-nosed, rat-like creatures which sprung his traps now and then, and he gave a sort of gasp through his beard.
"I'm as crazy as a loon if it isn't a sure-enough down-home mouse, just like we used to catch in the kitchen down in Ohio," he told himself. ”

“ When the crust was done the mouseykin looks up at her with his little bright eyes, and "Thank you," he says, in a little squeaky voice. "Thank you," he says; "you are a kind little girl, and I am only a mouse, and I've eaten all your crust. But there is one thing I can do for you, and that is to tell you to take care. The old woman in the hut (and that was the cruel stepmother) is own sister to Baba Yaga, the bony-legged, the witch. ”

“ So next day, when the Farmer gave Mousie his dinner, Mousie carried it off to the black Cat, and the black Cat spat and swore and ate it up, and away ran Mousie [36] trembling. But by degrees Mousie grew thinner and thinner, because Grimalkin always had his dinner; and soon he was nothing but skin and bone. Then the Farmer noticed how thin his Mouse had become, so one day he asked the Mouse whether he was ill. ”

“ Almost as smoothly as a mink slips from a rock the boy slipt down from his too conspicuous perch and crouched behind the fence. Peering between the rails he saw a tall, dark shape, with gigantic head, vast antlers, and portentous bulk of shoulder, step noiselessly from the thicket and stand motionless. With a heart that throbbed in mingled exultation and terror, the boy realized that he had called a bull-moose.
Huge as seemed its stature to the boy's excited vision, the moose was in reality a young and rather small bull, who had been forced by stronger rivals to go unmated. ”

“ But I have no knowledge of its occurrence in this part of Norfolk in the present day.
Harvest Mouse (Mus minutus) . F.C.—Though not included in Pagets' list, has an undoubted claim to figure in our own. Nests are occasionally found at Haddiscoe; Mr. L. Farman reports finding them in "quantity in the bottom of barley-stacks." Specimens have been procured alive from that locality.
Long-tailed Field Mouse (M. sylvaticus) . F.C.—Have met with this species occasionally on the North Denes. Have seen a dead one dug out of the "run" of a hunted Stoat, and seen it actually pursued by the Weasel. ”