Four-footed Americans and their kin . , how they would run ifthey could, cried Nat, as theyrushed into the wonder rooma little before tea time, carryinga long cage rat-trap betweenthem. Look ! live of such queer little things. Theyare not house mice nor moles, nor like the pretty White-footed Mouse that comes from under the hearth incamp. See what blunt faces they have! What doyou think they are ? Meadow Mice, said the Doctor, and a fine, healthylot of them, too. Where were they caught? Rod set the trap in Olives pansy frame, because theplants were bitten and he had seen a rat or two aboutthat
Four-footed Americans and their kin . , how they would run ifthey could, cried Nat, as theyrushed into the wonder rooma little before tea time, carryinga long cage rat-trap betweenthem. Look ! live of such queer little things. Theyare not house mice nor moles, nor like the pretty White-footed Mouse that comes from under the hearth incamp. See what blunt faces they have! What doyou think they are ? Meadow Mice, said the Doctor, and a fine, healthylot of them, too. Where were they caught? Rod set the trap in Olives pansy frame, because theplants were bitten and he had seen a rat or two aboutthat side of the barn, and this morning when he lookedall these were in it. You can catch most anything inone of these traps. Big or little, if it steps on the plat-form it falls in, said Nat. Stop fussing, and keepstill, so we can see what color you are. A brownish-gray coat, a light vest, short tail, smallears, and only pin-head eyes, said Olive, looking overhis shoulder. Its a very stout Mouse, is it not, 331 332 FOUB-FOOTED AMERICANS. Meadow Mouse. father? More like a Prairie Dog or Woodchuck inshape than like one of its own family. It is a chunky Mouse, but in the great Order ofGnawers to which it belongs, we have many variationsof a general plan, and striking contrasts are to be seen,particularly in heads and tails. If }rou wish to be intro-duced to some of the four-footed nuisance animals nowis the time, for these Meadow Mice are as troublesomeabout the garden and orchard as the rats in the granary,or the House Mouse in the pantry; and rats and mice arelargely responsible for the bad name worn by the entireOrder. Rats! They fought the dogs and killed the cats, And bit the babies in the cradles; And ate the cheeses out of the vats, And licked the soup from the cooks own ladles! RATS AND MICE 333 Do you remember how anxious the Mayor of Hamelinwas to get rid of the rats, and what a mean trick heplayed on the Pied Piper? Also, how the blind micechased the farmers wife until, in
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