14848	----	[Illustration] [Illustration] THE STORY OF MISS MOPPET BY BEATRIX POTTER _Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," etc_ [Illustration] FREDERICK WARNE First published 1906 1906 by Frederick Warne & Co. Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London [Illustration] This is a Pussy called Miss Moppet, she thinks she has heard a mouse! This is the Mouse peeping out behind the cupboard, and making fun of Miss Moppet. He is not afraid of a kitten. [Illustration] [Illustration] This is Miss Moppet jumping just too late; she misses the Mouse and hits her own head. She thinks it is a very hard cupboard! [Illustration] [Illustration] The Mouse watches Miss Moppet from the top of the cupboard. Miss Moppet ties up her head in a duster, and sits before the fire. [Illustration] The Mouse thinks she is looking very ill. He comes sliding down the bell-pull. [Illustration] [Illustration] Miss Moppet looks worse and worse. The Mouse comes a little nearer. [Illustration] Miss Moppet holds her poor head in her paws, and looks at him through a hole in the duster. The Mouse comes _very_ close. And then all of a sudden--Miss Moppet jumps upon the Mouse! [Illustration] [Illustration] And because the Mouse has teased Miss Moppet--Miss Moppet thinks she will tease the Mouse; which is not at all nice of Miss Moppet. She ties him up in the duster, and tosses it about like a ball. [Illustration] But she forgot about that hole in the duster; and when she untied it--there was no Mouse! [Illustration] [Illustration] He has wriggled out and run away; and he is dancing a jig on the top of the cupboard! 
14868	----	[Illustration] THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER BY BEATRIX POTTER _Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," etc_ "I'LL BE AT CHARGES FOR A LOOKING-GLASS, AND ENTERTAIN A SCORE OR TWO OF TAILORS" _Richard III_ NEW YORK FREDERICK WARNE & CO, INC COPYRIGHT, 1903 BY FREDERICK WARNE & Co. COPYRIGHT RENEWED, 1931 [_All rights reserved_] PRINTED IN THE U.S.A. BY PRINCETON POLYCHROME PRESS ISBN O 7232 0594 9 (cloth) ISBN O-7232-6227-6 (paper) 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20(C) F/ _MY DEAR FREDA,_ _Because you are fond of fairy-tales, and have been ill, I have made you a story all for yourself--a new one that nobody has read before._ _And the queerest thing about it is--that I heard it in Gloucestershire, and that it is true--at least about the tailor, the waistcoat, and the_ _"No more twist!"_ _Christmas, 1901_ [Illustration] THE TAILOR OF GLOUCESTER In the time of swords and periwigs and full-skirted coats with flowered lappets--when gentlemen wore ruffles, and gold-laced waistcoats of paduasoy and taffeta--there lived a tailor in Gloucester. He sat in the window of a little shop in Westgate Street, cross-legged on a table, from morning till dark. All day long while the light lasted he sewed and snippeted, piecing out his satin and pompadour, and lutestring; stuffs had strange names, and were very expensive in the days of the Tailor of Gloucester. But although he sewed fine silk for his neighbours, he himself was very, very poor--a little old man in spectacles, with a pinched face, old crooked fingers, and a suit of thread-bare clothes. He cut his coats without waste, according to his embroidered cloth; they were very small ends and snippets that lay about upon the table--"Too narrow breadths for nought--except waistcoats for mice," said the tailor. [Illustration] One bitter cold day near Christmastime the tailor began to make a coat--a coat of cherry-coloured corded silk embroidered with pansies and roses, and a cream coloured satin waistcoat--trimmed with gauze and green worsted chenille--for the Mayor of Gloucester. [Illustration] The tailor worked and worked, and he talked to himself. He measured the silk, and turned it round and round, and trimmed it into shape with his shears; the table was all littered with cherry-coloured snippets. "No breadth at all, and cut on the cross; it is no breadth at all; tippets for mice and ribbons for mobs! for mice!" said the Tailor of Gloucester. When the snow-flakes came down against the small leaded window-panes and shut out the light, the tailor had done his day's work; all the silk and satin lay cut out upon the table. [Illustration] There were twelve pieces for the coat and four pieces for the waistcoat; and there were pocket flaps and cuffs, and buttons all in order. For the lining of the coat there was fine yellow taffeta; and for the button-holes of the waistcoat, there was cherry-coloured twist. And everything was ready to sew together in the morning, all measured and sufficient--except that there was wanting just one single skein of cherry-coloured twisted silk. The tailor came out of his shop at dark, for he did not sleep there at nights; he fastened the window and locked the door, and took away the key. No one lived there at night but little brown mice, and they run in and out without any keys! [Illustration] For behind the wooden wainscots of all the old houses in Gloucester, there are little mouse staircases and secret trap-doors; and the mice run from house to house through those long narrow passages; they can run all over the town without going into the streets. But the tailor came out of his shop, and shuffled home through the snow. He lived quite near by in College Court, next the doorway to College Green; and although it was not a big house, the tailor was so poor he only rented the kitchen. He lived alone with his cat; it was called Simpkin. [Illustration] Now all day long while the tailor was out at work, Simpkin kept house by himself; and he also was fond of the mice, though he gave them no satin for coats! "Miaw?" said the cat when the tailor opened the door. "Miaw?" The tailor replied--"Simpkin, we shall make our fortune, but I am worn to a ravelling. Take this groat (which is our last fourpence) and Simpkin, take a china pipkin; buy a penn'orth of bread, a penn'orth of milk and a penn'orth of sausages. And oh, Simpkin, with the last penny of our fourpence buy me one penn'orth of cherry-coloured silk. But do not lose the last penny of the fourpence, Simpkin, or I am undone and worn to a thread-paper, for I have NO MORE TWIST." [Illustration] Then Simpkin again said, "Miaw?" and took the groat and the pipkin, and went out into the dark. The tailor was very tired and beginning to be ill. He sat down by the hearth and talked to himself about that wonderful coat. "I shall make my fortune--to be cut bias--the Mayor of Gloucester is to be married on Christmas Day in the morning, and he hath ordered a coat and an embroidered waistcoat--to be lined with yellow taffeta--and the taffeta sufficeth; there is no more left over in snippets than will serve to make tippets for mice----" Then the tailor started; for suddenly, interrupting him, from the dresser at the other side of the kitchen came a number of little noises-- _Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap tip!_ "Now what can that be?" said the Tailor of Gloucester, jumping up from his chair. The dresser was covered with crockery and pipkins, willow pattern plates, and tea-cups and mugs. The tailor crossed the kitchen, and stood quite still beside the dresser, listening, and peering through his spectacles. Again from under a tea-cup, came those funny little noises-- _Tip tap, tip tap, Tip tap tip!_ "This is very peculiar," said the Tailor of Gloucester; and he lifted up the tea-cup which was upside down. [Illustration] Out stepped a little live lady mouse, and made a curtsey to the tailor! Then she hopped away down off the dresser, and under the wainscot. The tailor sat down again by the fire, warming his poor cold hands, and mumbling to himself---- "The waistcoat is cut out from peach-coloured satin--tambour stitch and rose-buds in beautiful floss silk. Was I wise to entrust my last fourpence to Simpkin? One-and-twenty button-holes of cherry-coloured twist!" But all at once, from the dresser, there came other little noises: _Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap tip!_ "This is passing extraordinary!" said the Tailor of Gloucester, and turned over another tea-cup, which was upside down. [Illustration] Out stepped a little gentleman mouse, and made a bow to the tailor! And then from all over the dresser came a chorus of little tappings, all sounding together, and answering one another, like watch-beetles in an old worm-eaten window-shutter-- _Tip tap, tip tap, tip tap tip_! And out from under tea-cups and from under bowls and basins, stepped other and more little mice who hopped away down off the dresser and under the wainscot. [Illustration] The tailor sat down, close over the fire, lamenting--"One-and-twenty button-holes of cherry-coloured silk! To be finished by noon of Saturday: and this is Tuesday evening. Was it right to let loose those mice, undoubtedly the property of Simpkin? Alack, I am undone, for I have no more twist!" The little mice came out again, and listened to the tailor; they took notice of the pattern of that wonderful coat. They whispered to one another about the taffeta lining, and about little mouse tippets. And then all at once they all ran away together down the passage behind the wainscot, squeaking and calling to one another, as they ran from house to house; and not one mouse was left in the tailor's kitchen when Simpkin came back with the pipkin of milk! [Illustration] Simpkin opened the door and bounced in, with an angry "G-r-r-miaw!" like a cat that is vexed: for he hated the snow, and there was snow in his ears, and snow in his collar at the back of his neck. He put down the loaf and the sausages upon the dresser, and sniffed. "Simpkin," said the tailor, "where is my twist?" But Simpkin set down the pipkin of milk upon the dresser, and looked suspiciously at the tea-cups. He wanted his supper of little fat mouse! "Simpkin," said the tailor, "where is my TWIST?" [Illustration] But Simpkin hid a little parcel privately in the tea-pot, and spit and growled at the tailor; and if Simpkin had been able to talk, he would have asked: "Where is my MOUSE?" "Alack, I am undone!" said the Tailor of Gloucester, and went sadly to bed. All that night long Simpkin hunted and searched through the kitchen, peeping into cupboards and under the wainscot, and into the tea-pot where he had hidden that twist; but still he found never a mouse! Whenever the tailor muttered and talked in his sleep, Simpkin said "Miaw-ger-r-w-s-s-ch!" and made strange horrid noises, as cats do at night. [Illustration] For the poor old tailor was very ill with a fever, tossing and turning in his four-post bed; and still in his dreams he mumbled--"No more twist! no more twist!" All that day he was ill, and the next day, and the next; and what should become of the cherry-coloured coat? In the tailor's shop in Westgate Street the embroidered silk and satin lay cut out upon the table--one-and-twenty button-holes--and who should come to sew them, when the window was barred, and the door was fast locked? But that does not hinder the little brown mice; they run in and out without any keys through all the old houses in Gloucester! [Illustration] Out of doors the market folks went trudging through the snow to buy their geese and turkeys, and to bake their Christmas pies; but there would be no Christmas dinner for Simpkin and the poor old Tailor of Gloucester. The tailor lay ill for three days and nights; and then it was Christmas Eve, and very late at night. The moon climbed up over the roofs and chimneys, and looked down over the gateway into College Court. There were no lights in the windows, nor any sound in the houses; all the city of Gloucester was fast asleep under the snow. And still Simpkin wanted his mice, and he mewed as he stood beside the four-post bed. [Illustration] But it is in the old story that all the beasts can talk, in the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in the morning (though there are very few folk that can hear them, or know what it is that they say). When the Cathedral clock struck twelve there was an answer--like an echo of the chimes--and Simpkin heard it, and came out of the tailor's door, and wandered about in the snow. From all the roofs and gables and old wooden houses in Gloucester came a thousand merry voices singing the old Christmas rhymes--all the old songs that ever I heard of, and some that I don't know, like Whittington's bells. [Illustration] First and loudest the cocks cried out: "Dame, get up, and bake your pies!" "Oh, dilly, dilly, dilly!" sighed Simpkin. And now in a garret there were lights and sounds of dancing, and cats came from over the way. "Hey, diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle! All the cats in Gloucester--except me," said Simpkin. Under the wooden eaves the starlings and sparrows sang of Christmas pies; the jack-daws woke up in the Cathedral tower; and although it was the middle of the night the throstles and robins sang; the air was quite full of little twittering tunes. [Illustration] But it was all rather provoking to poor hungry Simpkin! Particularly he was vexed with some little shrill voices from behind a wooden lattice. I think that they were bats, because they always have very small voices--especially in a black frost, when they talk in their sleep, like the Tailor of Gloucester. They said something mysterious that sounded like-- "Buz, quoth the blue fly, hum, quoth the bee, Buz and hum they cry, and so do we!" and Simpkin went away shaking his ears as if he had a bee in his bonnet. [Illustration] From the tailor's shop in Westgate came a glow of light; and when Simpkin crept up to peep in at the window it was full of candles. There was a snippeting of scissors, and snappeting of thread; and little mouse voices sang loudly and gaily-- "Four-and-twenty tailors Went to catch a snail, The best man amongst them Durst not touch her tail, She put out her horns Like a little kyloe cow, Run, tailors, run! or she'll have you all e'en now!" Then without a pause the little mouse voices went on again-- "Sieve my lady's oatmeal, Grind my lady's flour, Put it in a chestnut, Let it stand an hour----" [Illustration] "Mew! Mew!" interrupted Simpkin, and he scratched at the door. But the key was under the tailor's pillow, he could not get in. The little mice only laughed, and tried another tune-- "Three little mice sat down to spin, Pussy passed by and she peeped in. What are you at, my fine little men? Making coats for gentlemen. Shall I come in and cut off your threads? Oh, no, Miss Pussy, you'd bite off our heads!" "Mew! Mew!" cried Simpkin. "Hey diddle dinketty?" answered the little mice-- "Hey diddle dinketty, poppetty pet! The merchants of London they wear scarlet; Silk in the collar, and gold in the hem, So merrily march the merchantmen!" [Illustration] They clicked their thimbles to mark the time, but none of the songs pleased Simpkin; he sniffed and mewed at the door of the shop. "And then I bought A pipkin and a popkin, A slipkin and a slopkin, All for one farthing---- and upon the kitchen dresser!" added the rude little mice. "Mew! scratch! scratch!" scuffled Simpkin on the window-sill; while the little mice inside sprang to their feet, and all began to shout at once in little twittering voices: "No more twist! No more twist!" And they barred up the window shutters and shut out Simpkin. But still through the nicks in the shutters he could hear the click of thimbles, and little mouse voices singing-- [Illustration] "No more twist! No more twist!" Simpkin came away from the shop and went home, considering in his mind. He found the poor old tailor without fever, sleeping peacefully. Then Simpkin went on tip-toe and took a little parcel of silk out of the tea-pot, and looked at it in the moonlight; and he felt quite ashamed of his badness compared with those good little mice! When the tailor awoke in the morning, the first thing which he saw upon the patchwork quilt, was a skein of cherry-coloured twisted silk, and beside his bed stood the repentant Simpkin! [Illustration] "Alack, I am worn to a ravelling," said the Tailor of Gloucester, "but I have my twist!" The sun was shining on the snow when the tailor got up and dressed, and came out into the street with Simpkin running before him. The starlings whistled on the chimney stacks, and the throstles and robins sang--but they sang their own little noises, not the words they had sung in the night. "Alack," said the tailor, "I have my twist; but no more strength--nor time--than will serve to make me one single button-hole; for this is Christmas Day in the Morning! The Mayor of Gloucester shall be married by noon--and where is his cherry-coloured coat?" He unlocked the door of the little shop in Westgate Street, and Simpkin ran in, like a cat that expects something. But there was no one there! Not even one little brown mouse! The boards were swept clean; the little ends of thread and the little silk snippets were all tidied away, and gone from off the floor. But upon the table--oh joy! the tailor gave a shout--there, where he had left plain cuttings of silk--there lay the most beautifullest coat and embroidered satin waistcoat that ever were worn by a Mayor of Gloucester. [Illustration] There were roses and pansies upon the facings of the coat; and the waistcoat was worked with poppies and corn-flowers. [Illustration] Everything was finished except just one single cherry-coloured button-hole, and where that button-hole was wanting there was pinned a scrap of paper with these words--in little teeny weeny writing-- NO MORE TWIST And from then began the luck of the Tailor of Gloucester; he grew quite stout, and he grew quite rich. He made the most wonderful waistcoats for all the rich merchants of Gloucester, and for all the fine gentlemen of the country round. [Illustration] Never were seen such ruffles, or such embroidered cuffs and lappets! But his button-holes were the greatest triumph of it all. The stitches of those button-holes were so neat--_so_ neat--I wonder how they could be stitched by an old man in spectacles, with crooked old fingers, and a tailor's thimble. The stitches of those button-holes were so small--_so_ small--they looked as if they had been made by little mice! THE END 
15284	----	Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original lovely illustrations. See 15284-h.htm or 15284-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h/15284-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.net/dirs/1/5/2/8/15284/15284-h.zip) THE TALE OF JOHNNY TOWN-MOUSE By BEATRIX POTTER Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit," &c. Frederick Warne & Co., Inc. New York 1918 TO AESOP IN THE SHADOWS Johnny Town-mouse was born in a cupboard. Timmy Willie was born in a garden. Timmy Willie was a little country mouse who went to town by mistake in a hamper. The gardener sent vegetables to town once a week by carrier; he packed them in a big hamper. The gardener left the hamper by the garden gate, so that the carrier could pick it up when he passed. Timmy Willie crept in through a hole in the wicker-work, and after eating some peas--Timmy Willie fell fast asleep. He awoke in a fright, while the hamper was being lifted into the carrier's cart. Then there was a jolting, and a clattering of horse's feet; other packages were thrown in; for miles and miles--jolt--jolt--jolt! and Timmy Willie trembled amongst the jumbled up vegetables. At last the cart stopped at a house, where the hamper was taken out, carried in, and set down. The cook gave the carrier sixpence; the back door banged, and the cart rumbled away. But there was no quiet; there seemed to be hundreds of carts passing. Dogs barked; boys whistled in the street; the cook laughed, the parlour maid ran up and down-stairs; and a canary sang like a steam engine. Timmy Willie, who had lived all his life in a garden, was almost frightened to death. Presently the cook opened the hamper and began to unpack the vegetables. Out sprang the terrified Timmy Willie. Up jumped the cook on a chair, exclaiming "A mouse! a mouse! Call the cat! Fetch me the poker, Sarah!" Timmy Willie did not wait for Sarah with the poker; he rushed along the skirting board till he came to a little hole, and in he popped. He dropped half a foot, and crashed into the middle of a mouse dinner party, breaking three glasses.--"Who in the world is this?" inquired Johnny Town-mouse. But after the first exclamation of surprise he instantly recovered his manners. With the utmost politeness he introduced Timmy Willie to nine other mice, all with long tails and white neckties. Timmy Willie's own tail was insignificant. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends noticed it; but they were too well bred to make personal remarks; only one of them asked Timmy Willie if he had ever been in a trap? The dinner was of eight courses; not much of anything, but truly elegant. All the dishes were unknown to Timmy Willie, who would have been a little afraid of tasting them; only he was very hungry, and very anxious to behave with company manners. The continual noise upstairs made him so nervous, that he dropped a plate. "Never mind, they don't belong to us," said Johnny. "Why don't those youngsters come back with the dessert?" It should be explained that two young mice, who were waiting on the others, went skirmishing upstairs to the kitchen between courses. Several times they had come tumbling in, squeaking and laughing; Timmy Willie learnt with horror that they were being chased by the cat. His appetite failed, he felt faint. "Try some jelly?" said Johnny Town-mouse. "No? Would you rather go to bed? I will show you a most comfortable sofa pillow." The sofa pillow had a hole in it. Johnny Town-mouse quite honestly recommended it as the best bed, kept exclusively for visitors. But the sofa smelt of cat. Timmy Willie preferred to spend a miserable night under the fender. It was just the same next day. An excellent breakfast was provided--for mice accustomed to eat bacon; but Timmy Willie had been reared on roots and salad. Johnny Town-mouse and his friends racketted about under the floors, and came boldly out all over the house in the evening. One particularly loud crash had been caused by Sarah tumbling downstairs with the tea-tray; there were crumbs and sugar and smears of jam to be collected, in spite of the cat. Timmy Willie longed to be at home in his peaceful nest in a sunny bank. The food disagreed with him; the noise prevented him from sleeping. In a few days he grew so thin that Johnny Town-mouse noticed it, and questioned him. He listened to Timmy Willie's story and inquired about the garden. "It sounds rather a dull place? What do you do when it rains?" "When it rains, I sit in my little sandy burrow and shell corn and seeds from my Autumn store. I peep out at the throstles and blackbirds on the lawn, and my friend Cock Robin. And when the sun comes out again, you should see my garden and the flowers--roses and pinks and pansies--no noise except the birds and bees, and the lambs in the meadows." "There goes that cat again!" exclaimed Johnny Town-mouse. When they had taken refuge in the coal-cellar he resumed the conversation; "I confess I am a little disappointed; we have endeavoured to entertain you, Timothy William." "Oh yes, yes, you have been most kind; but I do feel so ill," said Timmy Willie. "It may be that your teeth and digestion are unaccustomed to our food; perhaps it might be wiser for you to return in the hamper." "Oh? Oh!" cried Timmy Willie. "Why of course for the matter of that we could have sent you back last week," said Johnny rather huffily--"did you not know that the hamper goes back empty on Saturdays?" So Timmy Willie said good-bye to his new friends, and hid in the hamper with a crumb of cake and a withered cabbage leaf; and after much jolting, he was set down safely in his own garden. Sometimes on Saturdays he went to look at the hamper lying by the gate, but he knew better than to get in again. And nobody got out, though Johnny Town-mouse had half promised a visit. The winter passed; the sun came out again; Timmy Willie sat by his burrow warming his little fur coat and sniffing the smell of violets and spring grass. He had nearly forgotten his visit to town. When up the sandy path all spick and span with a brown leather bag came Johnny Town-mouse! Timmy Willie received him with open arms. "You have come at the best of all the year, we will have herb pudding and sit in the sun." "H'm'm! it is a little damp," said Johnny Town-mouse, who was carrying his tail under his arm, out of the mud. "What is that fearful noise?" he started violently. "That?" said Timmy Willie, "that is only a cow; I will beg a little milk, they are quite harmless, unless they happen to lie down upon you. How are all our friends?" Johnny's account was rather middling. He explained why he was paying his visit so early in the season; the family had gone to the sea-side for Easter; the cook was doing spring cleaning, on board wages, with particular instructions to clear out the mice. There were four kittens, and the cat had killed the canary. "They say we did it; but I know better," said Johnny Town-mouse. "Whatever is that fearful racket?" "That is only the lawn-mower; I will fetch some of the grass clippings presently to make your bed. I am sure you had better settle in the country, Johnny." "H'm'm--we shall see by Tuesday week; the hamper is stopped while they are at the sea-side." "I am sure you will never want to live in town again," said Timmy Willie. But he did. He went back in the very next hamper of vegetables; he said it was too quiet!! One place suits one person, another place suits another person. For my part I prefer to live in the country, like Timmy Willie. 
17089	----	[Illustration: Mrs. Tittlemouse & Bees] THE TALE OF MRS. TITTLEMOUSE By BEATRIX POTTER Author of "The Tale of Peter Rabbit" etc. [Illustration: Mrs. Tittlemouse & Butterfly] FREDERICK WARNE FREDERICK WARNE Penguin Books Ltd, Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England Viking Penguin Inc., 40 West 23rd Street, New York, New York 10010, U.S.A. Penguin Books Australia Ltd, Ringwood, Victoria, Australia Penguin Books Canada Ltd, 2801 John Street, Markham, Ontario, Canada L3R 1B4 Penguin Books (N.Z.) Ltd, 182-190 Wairau Road, Auckland 10, New Zealand First published 1910 This impression 1985 Universal Copyright Notice: Copyright © 1910 by Frederick Warne & Co. Copyright in all countries signatory to the Berne Convention All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. Printed and bound in Great Britain by William Clowes Limited, Beccles and London NELLIE'S LITTLE BOOK [Illustration: Mrs. Tittlemouse at the Door] Once upon a time there was a wood-mouse, and her name was Mrs. Tittlemouse. She lived in a bank under a hedge. Such a funny house! There were yards and yards of sandy passages, leading to storerooms and nut-cellars and seed-cellars, all amongst the roots of the hedge. [Illustration: In the pantry] [Illustration: In bed] There was a kitchen, a parlour, a pantry, and a larder. Also, there was Mrs. Tittlemouse's bedroom, where she slept in a little box bed! Mrs. Tittlemouse was a most terribly tidy particular little mouse, always sweeping and dusting the soft sandy floors. Sometimes a beetle lost its way in the passages. "Shuh! shuh! little dirty feet!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse, clattering her dust-pan. [Illustration: Shooing a beetle] [Illustration: A ladybird] And one day a little old woman ran up and down in a red spotty cloak. "Your house is on fire, Mother Ladybird! Fly away home to your children!" Another day, a big fat spider came in to shelter from the rain. "Beg pardon, is this not Miss Muffet's?" "Go away, you bold bad spider! Leaving ends of cobweb all over my nice clean house!" [Illustration: Spider] [Illustration: Out the window] She bundled the spider out at a window. He let himself down the hedge with a long thin bit of string. Mrs. Tittlemouse went on her way to a distant storeroom, to fetch cherry-stones and thistle-down seed for dinner. All along the passage she sniffed, and looked at the floor. "I smell a smell of honey; is it the cowslips outside, in the hedge? I am sure I can see the marks of little dirty feet." [Illustration: Marks of little feet] [Illustration: Babbitty Bumble] Suddenly round a corner, she met Babbitty Bumble--"Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz!" said the bumble bee. Mrs. Tittlemouse looked at her severely. She wished that she had a broom. "Good-day, Babbitty Bumble; I should be glad to buy some beeswax. But what are you doing down here? Why do you always come in at a window, and say Zizz, Bizz, Bizzz?" Mrs. Tittlemouse began to get cross. "Zizz, Wizz, Wizzz!" replied Babbitty Bumble in a peevish squeak. She sidled down a passage, and disappeared into a storeroom which had been used for acorns. Mrs. Tittlemouse had eaten the acorns before Christmas; the storeroom ought to have been empty. But it was full of untidy dry moss. [Illustration: Full of moss] [Illustration: Bees nest] Mrs. Tittlemouse began to pull out the moss. Three or four other bees put their heads out, and buzzed fiercely. "I am not in the habit of letting lodgings; this is an intrusion!" said Mrs. Tittlemouse. "I will have them turned out--" "Buzz! Buzz! Buzzz!"--"I wonder who would help me?" "Bizz, Wizz, Wizzz!" --"I will not have Mr. Jackson; he never wipes his feet." Mrs. Tittlemouse decided to leave the bees till after dinner. When she got back to the parlour, she heard some one coughing in a fat voice; and there sat Mr. Jackson himself! He was sitting all over a small rocking-chair, twiddling his thumbs and smiling, with his feet on the fender. He lived in a drain below the hedge, in a very dirty wet ditch. [Illustration: Mr. Jackson] [Illustration: Sitting and dripping] "How do you do, Mr. Jackson? Deary me, you have got very wet!" "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! I'll sit awhile and dry myself," said Mr. Jackson. He sat and smiled, and the water dripped off his coat tails. Mrs. Tittlemouse went round with a mop. He sat such a while that he had to be asked if he would take some dinner? First she offered him cherry-stones. "Thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! No teeth, no teeth, no teeth!" said Mr. Jackson. He opened his mouth most unnecessarily wide; he certainly had not a tooth in his head. [Illustration: Feeding Mr. Jackson] [Illustration: Thistledown] Then she offered him thistle-down seed--"Tiddly, widdly, widdly! Pouff, pouff, puff!" said Mr. Jackson. He blew the thistle-down all over the room. "Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mrs. Tittlemouse! Now what I really--_really_ should like--would be a little dish of honey!" "I am afraid I have not got any, Mr. Jackson," said Mrs. Tittlemouse. "Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse!" said the smiling Mr. Jackson, "I can _smell_ it; that is why I came to call." Mr. Jackson rose ponderously from the table, and began to look into the cupboards. Mrs. Tittlemouse followed him with a dish-cloth, to wipe his large wet footmarks off the parlour floor. [Illustration: Wiping up footmarks] [Illustration: Walking down the passage] When he had convinced himself that there was no honey in the cupboards, he began to walk down the passage. "Indeed, indeed, you will stick fast, Mr. Jackson!" "Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse!" First he squeezed into the pantry. "Tiddly, widdly, widdly? no honey? no honey, Mrs. Tittlemouse?" There were three creepy-crawly people hiding in the plate-rack. Two of them got away; but the littlest one he caught. [Illustration: Creepy-crawly people] [Illustration: Butterfly tasting the sugar] Then he squeezed into the larder. Miss Butterfly was tasting the sugar; but she flew away out of the window. "Tiddly, widdly, widdly, Mrs. Tittlemouse; you seem to have plenty of visitors!" "And without any invitation!" said Mrs. Thomasina Tittlemouse. They went along the sandy passage--"Tiddly widdly--" "Buzz! Wizz! Wizz!" He met Babbitty round a corner, and snapped her up, and put her down again. "I do not like bumble bees. They are all over bristles," said Mr. Jackson, wiping his mouth with his coat-sleeve. "Get out, you nasty old toad!" shrieked Babbitty Bumble. "I shall go distracted!" scolded Mrs. Tittlemouse. [Illustration: Confronting the Bee] [Illustration: Shut into the nut-cellar] She shut herself up in the nut-cellar while Mr. Jackson pulled out the bees-nest. He seemed to have no objection to stings. When Mrs. Tittlemouse ventured to come out--everybody had gone away. But the untidiness was something dreadful--"Never did I see such a mess--smears of honey; and moss, and thistledown--and marks of big and little dirty feet--all over my nice clean house!" She gathered up the moss and the remains of the beeswax. Then she went out and fetched some twigs, to partly close up the front door. "I will make it too small for Mr. Jackson!" [Illustration: Closing up the front door] [Illustration: Too tired] She fetched soft soap, and flannel, and a new scrubbing brush from the storeroom. But she was too tired to do any more. First she fell asleep in her chair, and then she went to bed. "Will it ever be tidy again?" said poor Mrs. Tittlemouse. Next morning she got up very early and began a spring cleaning which lasted a fortnight. She swept, and scrubbed, and dusted; and she rubbed up the furniture with beeswax, and polished her little tin spoons. [Illustration: Polishing] When it was all beautifully neat and clean, she gave a party to five other little mice, without Mr. Jackson. He smelt the party and came up the bank, but he could not squeeze in at the door. [Illustration: The party] [Illustration: Honey-dew through the window] So they handed him out acorn-cupfuls of honey-dew through the window, and he was not at all offended. He sat outside in the sun, and said--"Tiddly, widdly, widdly! Your very good health, Mrs. Tittlemouse!" THE END * * * * * Transcriber's Note: Punctuation normalized and captions added to illustrations. 
18953	----	[Illustration: The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration: "Why do you want buds?"] ----------------------------------------------------------------------- THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE BY ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY AUTHOR OF THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS SLEEPY-TIME TALES, ETC. Illustrations by Diane Petersen GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP PRINTED IN U.S.A. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I A Little Gentleman 9 II Hunting a Home 14 III A Startled Sleeper 19 IV The Blackbird's Nest 25 V Dickie's Summer Home 30 VI A Warning 34 VII Noisy Visitors 39 VIII In the Cornfield 44 IX Fatty Coon Needs Help 49 X A Bit of Advice 53 XI A Search in Vain 58 XII A Little Surprise 65 XIII The Feathers Fly 70 XIV Making Ready for Winter 75 XV A Plunge In The Dark 80 XVI A Lucky Find 85 XVII A Slight Mistake 89 XVIII Too Many Cousins 95 XIX The Wrong Turn 100 XX Bedfellows 107 XXI One Way To Keep Warm 112 XXII Queer Mr. Pine Finch 117 XXIII A Feast At Last 122 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- [Illustration] THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE I A LITTLE GENTLEMAN All the four-footed folk in the neighborhood agreed that Dickie Deer Mouse was well worth knowing. Throughout Pleasant Valley there was no one else so gentle as he. To be sure, Jasper Jay wore beautiful--perhaps even gaudy--clothes; but his manners were so shocking that nobody would ever call him a gentleman. As for Dickie Deer Mouse, he was always tastefully dressed in fawn color and white. And except sometimes in the spring, when he needed a new coat, he was a real joy to see. For he both looked and acted like a well-bred little person. It is too bad that there were certain reasons--which will appear later--why some of his feathered neighbors did not like him. But even they had to admit that Dickie was a spick-and-span young chap. Wherever he was white he was white as snow. And many of the wild people wondered how he could scamper so fast through the woods and always keep his white feet spotless. Possibly it was because his mother had taught him the way when he was young; for his feet--and the under side of him--were white even when he was just a tiny fellow, so young that the top side of him was gray instead of fawn colored. How his small white feet would twinkle as he frisked about in the shadows of the woods and ran like a squirrel through the trees! And how his sharp little cries would break the wood-silence as he called to his friends in a brisk chatter, which sounded like that of the squirrels, only ever so far away! In many other ways Dickie Deer Mouse was like Frisky Squirrel himself. Dickie's idea of what a good home ought to be was much the same as Frisky's: they both thought that the deserted nest of one of the big Crow family made as fine a house as any one could want. And they couldn't imagine that any food could possibly be better than nuts, berries and grain. To be sure, Dickie Deer Mouse liked his nuts to have thin shells. But that was because he was smaller than Frisky; so of course his jaws and teeth were not so strong. Then, too, Dickie Deer Mouse had a trick of gathering good things to eat, which he hid away in some safe place, so that he would not have to go hungry during the winter, when the snow lay deep upon the ground. And even Frisky Squirrel was no spryer at carrying beechnuts--or any other goody--to his secret cupboard than little white-footed Dickie Deer Mouse. It was no wonder that Dickie could be cheerful right in the dead of winter, when he had a fine store of the very best that the fields and forest yielded, to keep him sleek and fat and happy. So even on the coldest nights, when the icy wind whipped the tree-tops, and the cold, pale stars peeped down among the branches, Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends and had the gayest of times. No one would have thought that he had a care in the world. [Illustration] [Illustration] II HUNTING A HOME Warm weather was at hand. And Dickie Deer Mouse gave up frolicking with his friends for a time, because he needed to find a pleasant place in which to spend the summer. He had his eye on a nest high in the top of a tall elm, where a certain black rascal known as old Mr. Crow had lived for a long while. Now, Dickie had heard a bit of gossip, to the effect that the old gentleman had moved to another tree nearer to Farmer Green's cornfield. So Dickie wanted to lose no time. He was afraid that if he waited, some brisk member of the Squirrel family would settle himself in Mr. Crow's old home. Without telling anybody what was in his head, Dickie Deer Mouse set forth one pleasant, warm night in the direction of the great elm, where he hoped to pass a number of delightful months. It was some distance to the tall tree. But the night was fine, and Dickie enjoyed his journey, though once he stopped and shivered when he heard the wailing whistle of a screech owl. "That's Simon Screecher!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed under his breath. "I know his voice. And I hope he won't come this way!" Dickie halted for a few minutes, near an old oak with spreading roots, under which he intended to hide in case Simon Screecher should suddenly appear. But he soon decided that Simon was headed for another part of the woods, for his quavering cry grew fainter and fainter. So Dickie promptly forgot his fright and scampered on again faster than before, to make up the time he had lost. Though he travelled through the flickering shadows like a brown and white streak, he did not pant the least bit when he reached old Mr. Crow's elm. He did not need to pause at the foot of the tree to get his breath, but scurried up it as if climbing was one of the easiest things he did. Mr. Crow's big nest was so far from the ground that many people would not have cared to visit it except with the help of an elevator. But Dickie Deer Mouse never stopped to think of such a thing. Of course it would have done him no good, anyway, to wish for an elevator, for there was none in all Pleasant Valley. In fact, even Johnnie Green himself had only heard of--and never seen--one. It took Dickie Deer Mouse only a few moments to reach the top of the tall elm, where Mr. Crow's bulky nest, built of sticks and lined with grass and moss, rested in a crotch formed by three branches. Dickie had never before been so close to Mr. Crow's old home. And now he stood still and looked at it with great interest. It was ever so much bigger than he had supposed, and exactly the sort of dwelling--cool and airy--that he had hoped to find for his summer home. "I don't see what sort of house the old gentleman can want that would be better than this," Dickie Deer Mouse remarked to himself. "But it is a long way from the cornfield, to be sure." And then he climbed quickly up the side of the nest and whisked down inside it. The next moment a great commotion frightened him nearly out of his wits. A deafening squawking smote Dickie Deer Mouse's big ears. And something struck him a number of blows that knocked his breath quite out of him. [Illustration] [Illustration] III A STARTLED SLEEPER Of course Dickie Deer Mouse ought not to have been so ready to believe that stray bit of gossip about Mr. Crow. It is true that the old black scamp had _talked_ about moving to a new place nearer Farmer Green's cornfield. But his plan had gone no further than that. He was sound asleep in his bed when Dickie Deer Mouse jumped down beside him. And when Mr. Crow suddenly waked up it would be very hard to say which of the two was the more startled. For a few moments Mr. Crow screamed loudly for help. And he flapped and floundered about as if he didn't know which way to turn, nor what to do. During the uproar Dickie Deer Mouse managed to slip out of Mr. Crow's house without being seen. But he was too polite to run away. Instead of hurrying off to escape a scolding from Mr. Crow he clung to a near-by branch and called as loudly as he could: "Don't be alarmed, sir! There's no one here but me. And I ask your pardon for disturbing you." Dickie Deer Mouse had to repeat that speech several times before Mr. Crow noticed him. But at last the old gentleman caught sight of his visitor. And when he heard what Dickie said he looked far from pleasant. "_Asking_ my pardon is one thing," Mr. Crow spluttered. "And _receiving_ it is another." "I'm very sorry," Dickie Deer Mouse replied. "I didn't mean to frighten you." Mr. Crow gave a sudden hoarse _haw-haw_. "Pooh!" he cried. "You don't think I was scared, do you?" "You called for help," Dickie reminded him. "Certainly I did," Mr. Crow agreed. "I wanted somebody to help you out of my house, before I trampled on you and broke one of your legs--or maybe two or three of 'em." That explanation gave Dickie Deer Mouse another surprise; for he had supposed all the time that Mr. Crow didn't know who--or what--had awakened him. "Oh!" he cried. "I thought that you thought I was somebody else." Mr. Crow glared at him. "I thought that you thought that I thought----" he squalled. He was so angry that his tongue became sadly twisted; and he all but choked. Meanwhile Dickie Deer Mouse waited respectfully until Mr. Crow had recovered his speech. "What are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Crow demanded at last. "I thought----" Dickie began. "There you go again!" the old gentleman interrupted him testily. "I didn't ask you what you _thought_. I asked you what you were _doing_." "I'm not doing anything just now," Dickie Deer Mouse faltered. "Yes, you are!" Mr. Crow corrected him. "You're sitting on a limb of my tree.... Get off it at once!" So Dickie Deer Mouse moved to a more distant perch. "Now you're sitting on another!" Mr. Crow exploded. "Get out of my tree this instant!" It always made him ill-tempered to be awakened from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Once more Dickie Deer Mouse asked his pardon. "I was told," he explained, "that you had moved lately. And I did not expect to find you here." "Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I know now why you came sneaking into my house. You'd like to live here yourself." "Pardon me!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed with the lowest of bows. "You are mistaken, Mr. Crow. Though your house is a fine, large one, it's much too small to hold us both." And whisking about, while Mr. Crow stared at him, he ran down the tall elm as fast as he could go. It was clear that if Mr. Crow wasn't going to move he would have to look elsewhere for a summer home. [Illustration] [Illustration] IV THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST For a few days after his visit to Mr. Crow's elm, Dickie Deer Mouse kept watch carefully of Mr. Crow's comings and goings. And he decided at last that the old gentleman liked his home too well to leave it. But Dickie was not discouraged. He had no doubt that he could find some other pleasant quarters in which to spend the summer--quarters that would prove almost as airy, and perhaps more convenient--because they were not so high. For there was no denying that Mr. Crow's nest was a long, long way from the ground. So Dickie began to search for birds' nests. And for a time he had to suffer a great deal of scolding by his feathered neighbors. It must be confessed that they were none too fond of Dickie Deer Mouse. There was a story of something he was said to have done one time--a tale about his having driven a Robin family away from their nest, in order to live in it himself. That seems a strange deed on the part of anyone so gentle as Dickie Deer Mouse. But old Mr. Crow always declared that it was true. And Solomon Owl often remarked that he wished Dickie Deer Mouse would try to drive _him_ away from his home in the hollow hemlock. [Illustration: Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends] But during his hunt for birds' nests Dickie Deer Mouse was careful to keep away from Solomon Owl, and his cousin Simon Screecher, and all the rest of the Owl family. He contented himself with hasty peeps into nests built by such smaller folk as Blackbirds and Robins. And if it happened that anybody was living in one of those nests, Dickie soon found it out. For the angry owners were sure to fly at him with screams of rage, and peck at his head as they darted past him. It was really not worth while getting into a fight over a bird's nest, when there was plenty of old ones in which nobody dwelt. To be sure, many of them were almost ready to fall apart. But Dickie Deer Mouse finally found one to his liking--a last year's bird's nest where two Blackbirds had reared a promising family. They had not come back to Pleasant Valley. And there was their house, almost as good as new, just waiting for some one to move in and make himself at home. Nobody objected when Dickie took the old nest for his home, though many a bird in the neighborhood remarked in his hearing that _he_ would hate to be too lazy to build a house for himself. Dickie Deer Mouse was too mild and gentle-mannered to make any reply to such rude speeches. Besides, he expected to make a good many changes in the old nest before the place was exactly what he wanted. "I don't understand," he said aloud to nobody in particular, "why most birds don't know how a house should be built. Of all the birds in Pleasant Valley the only good nest-builder I know is Long Bill Wren. He must be a very sensible fellow, because he puts a roof on his house." Now, Dickie Deer Mouse may--or may not--have known that some of his bird neighbors were near at hand, watching him. Certainly they must have heard what he said, for they began to scold at the top of their voices. And one rude listener named Jasper Jay screamed with fine scorn: "What do you know about building a nest?" And then he laughed harshly. But Dickie Deer Mouse only looked very wise and said nothing. [Illustration] [Illustration] V DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME Dickie Deer Mouse was busier than ever. When he wasn't looking for food--and eating it when he had found it--he gathered cat-tail down in Cedar Swamp. If there was one thing that he liked in a house it was a soft bed. And he knew that if the weather happened to be chilly now and then, he could snuggle into the cat-tail down and sleep as comfortably as he pleased. The swamp was none too near his new home; and he might have found moss or shreds of bark near-by that would have served his purpose. But he would rather have cat-tail down, even though he had to make a good many trips back and forth before he finally lined the old bird's nest to his liking. Then, having finished his bed, he had to make a roof over it. So he covered the top of his house with moss, leaving a hole right under the eaves, for a doorway. When Dickie's home was done he was so pleased with it that he asked all his neighbors if they didn't like his "improvements," as he called the additions he had made. And all his Deer Mouse relations told him that he certainly had a fine place. But none of the birds cared for it at all, except Long Bill Wren; and even he remarked that the house would be better "if it was rounder." As for Jasper Jay, he told Dickie Deer Mouse that, in his opinion, the house was ruined. "It's nothing but a trap," he declared. "And I'd hate to go to sleep inside it." His views, however, did not trouble Dickie Deer Mouse in the least. The place suited him. And he was so happy in it that sometimes when the weather was bad and he wasn't whisking about in the trees, or scurrying around on the ground, he would stay inside his cozy home, with only his head sticking out through the doorway, while his big, bright, bulging, black eyes took in everything that happened in his dooryard. Dickie Deer Mouse knew that one needed sharp eyes to spy him when he was peeping from his house in that fashion. And often when somebody of whom he was really afraid came wandering through the woods, Dickie would keep quite still, while he watched the newcomer without being seen. But with some of the wood folk he took no chances. Whenever he heard Solomon Owl's rolling call, or his cousin Simon Screecher's quavering whistle, Dickie Deer Mouse always pulled his head inside his house in a hurry. For they were usually on the lookout for him. And he knew it. Of course, if they had been aware that Dickie Deer Mouse was hidden inside his rebuilt, last year's bird's nest, either of them, with his sharp claws, could easily have torn the moss roof off Dickie's home. But luckily for Dickie, there were some things that they didn't know. [Illustration] [Illustration] VI A WARNING If old Mr. Crow had minded his own affairs everything would have gone well with Dickie Deer Mouse, after he moved into his new home. But Mr. Crow could not forget the time when Dickie had awakened him out of a sound sleep and frightened him almost out of his mind. So whenever he caught sight of Dickie the old gentleman was sure to drop down upon the ground and ask him in a loud voice whose house he had prowled into lately. "Nobody's!" Dickie Deer Mouse always told him. And then he would assure Mr. Crow that he was very sorry to have disturbed his rest. It was quite like Mr. Crow, on such occasions, to act grumpy. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since you broke into my house," he declared to Dickie one day. "Perhaps you're over-eating," Dickie suggested politely. Old Mr. Crow did not appear to like that remark. "Nothing of the sort!" he bawled. "I don't eat enough to keep a mosquito alive." "I often see you in the cornfield," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. "Ha!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "What are you doing in the cornfield, I should like to know?" "Sometimes I go there to get a few kernels of corn," Dickie explained. "Ha!" Mr. Crow cried once more. "That's where the corn's going! Farmer Green thinks I'm taking it. And so you're getting me into a peck of trouble, young man." Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help being worried when Mr. Crow said that. And he looked puzzled, too. "I don't see," he said, "how I could have got you into a _peck_ of trouble, Mr. Crow, for I haven't eaten a peck of Farmer Green's corn. I've had only a few kernels of it--not more than half a pint." "Then you've got me into a half-pint of trouble, anyway," old Mr. Crow insisted. "And that's too much, for a person of my age. You'll have to keep away from my--ahem!--from Farmer Green's cornfield. And what's more, Fatty Coon says the same thing." At the mention of Fatty Coon's name Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile. "Fatty Coon!" he echoed. "How he does like corn!" "Yes! But he doesn't like you," Mr. Crow snapped. "You'd better look out for him," he warned Dickie. "He'll come to call on you some night, the first thing you know. "By the way, where are you living now?" Mr. Crow inquired. But Dickie Deer Mouse made no answer. Right before Mr. Crow's sharp eyes he vanished among the roots of a tree. And it made the old gentleman quite peevish because he couldn't discover where Dickie Deer Mouse had hidden himself. For a little while Mr. Crow stood like a black statue and peered at the tangle where Dickie Deer Mouse had disappeared. But Mr. Crow couldn't see him anywhere. And at last his patience came to an end. "He never answered my question," Mr. Crow grumbled. "He wouldn't tell me where he lived. But I'll find out. I'll ask my cousin, Jasper Jay; for there isn't much that _he_ doesn't know." [Illustration] [Illustration] VII NOISY VISITORS Of course Jasper Jay knew where Dickie Deer Mouse lived. And he took great pleasure in pointing out the exact spot to his curious cousin, old Mr. Crow. It was broad daylight when they visited the tree where Dickie's house hung. The two rogues did not know that he was drowsing inside his snug home, because he had been out late the night before. No one that knew the two cousins would need to be told that they could never talk together quietly. Perched close to Dickie's house, Mr. Crow croaked in a hoarse voice, while Jasper Jay squalled harshly. "This is it!" Jasper had announced, as soon as they arrived. "This is his house. And isn't it a sight?" "I should say so!" old Mr. Crow agreed. "It's got a roof on it--ha! ha!" And the two visitors laughed loudly, as if they thought there was a huge joke somewhere. They made such a noise, from the very first, that Dickie Deer Mouse awoke and heard almost everything they said. But he didn't mind their remarks in the least--until he caught Fatty Coon's name. It was old Mr. Crow who mentioned it first. "I'll have to tell Fatty Coon about this queer house," he chuckled. "It's too good a joke to keep. He'll be over here as soon as he knows where to come, for he'll be glad to see it; and he wants to talk to Dickie Deer Mouse about taking our corn." Dickie had still felt somewhat sleepy during the first part of this talk outside his house. But when Mr. Crow began to speak about Fatty Coon, Dickie became instantly wide awake. He sprang quickly to his feet; and thrusting his head through his doorway, he called in his loudest tone: "When do you think Fatty Coon will call on me?" The two cousins looked at each other. And then they looked all around. "What was that strange squeaking?" Mr. Crow asked Jasper Jay. "To me it sounded a good deal like a rusty hinge on Farmer Green's barn door," Jasper Jay answered. But Mr. Crow shook his head. "It couldn't have been that," he said. "Maybe Mrs. Green is rocking on a loose board on the porch," Jasper suggested. Still Mr. Crow couldn't agree with him. "Don't be silly!" he snapped. "We're half a mile from the farmhouse." "Well, what do _you_ think the noise was?" Jasper Jay inquired. Old Mr. Crow cocked an eye upward into the tree-top above him. "I'd think it was a Squirrel if it was louder," he replied. Jasper Jay laughed in a most disagreeable fashion. "I'd think it was thunder if it was loud enough," he sneered. And at that the two cousins began to quarrel violently. To tell the truth, they never could be together long without having a dispute. For a short time Dickie Deer Mouse listened to their rude remarks, hoping that they would stop wrangling long enough to hear his question about Fatty Coon. But they talked louder and louder. And since Dickie Deer Mouse never quarreled with anybody, and hated to hear such language as the two cousins used, he slipped out of his house without their seeing him and went over to the cornfield. For he was hungry. [Illustration] [Illustration] VIII IN THE CORNFIELD In one way, especially, Fatty Coon and Dickie Deer Mouse were alike: They were night-prowlers. When they slept it was usually broad daylight outside, and the birds--except for a few odd fellows like Willie Whip-poor-will and Mr. Night Hawk--were abroad, and singing, and twittering. And when most of the birds went to sleep Dickie and Fatty Coon began to feel quite wide awake. It was not strange, therefore, that Dickie Deer Mouse was surprised when he found himself face to face with Fatty Coon in the cornfield at midday. Dickie tried to slip out of sight under a pumpkin vine that grew between the rows; but Fatty Coon saw him before he could hide. And Fatty began to make the queerest noise, as if he were almost choking. Dickie Deer Mouse stopped. And he trembled the least bit; for Fatty looked terribly fierce. Perhaps (Dickie thought) he was choking with rage. "Can I help you?" Dickie asked him. "Would you like me to thump you on the back?" Fatty Coon shook his head. There was nothing the matter with him, except that he had stuffed his mouth so full that he couldn't speak. After swallowing several times he wiped his mouth on the back of his paw--a habit of which his mother had never been able to break him. It was no wonder that dainty Dickie Deer Mouse shuddered again, when Fatty did that. "May I go and get you a napkin?" Dickie asked, as he edged away. "No!" Fatty Coon growled. "I've been wanting to have a talk with you. And now that I've found you, you needn't run off." Then, to Dickie's horror, Fatty stopped talking and licked both his paws. "May I get you a finger bowl?" Dickie inquired. Fatty Coon actually didn't know what he meant. "Is that something to eat?" he asked. And he looked much interested, and seemed quite downcast when Dickie said "No!" "Then you needn't trouble yourself," Fatty Coon told him with a sigh. "Can't you find corn enough for a good meal?" Dickie asked him wonderingly. "I could," said Fatty Coon, "if other people didn't take so much of it.... Now, there's Mr. Crow," he complained. "I had to get out of bed and come over here to-day, in the sunlight, because I was afraid he wouldn't leave any corn for me. "There's no use saying anything to him," Fatty continued, "because he thinks this is _his_ cornfield.... But little chaps like you will have to keep away from this place.... Now I've warned you," he added. "And if I hear of your eating any more corn I'll come straight to your house--when I find out where it is--and I'll----" He did not finish his threat. But he looked so darkly at Dickie that what he _didn't_ say made Dickie Deer Mouse shiver all over, though the warm midday sun fell upon the cornfield. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse hadn't eaten a single kernel of corn all that day. But he suddenly lost his appetite for it; and murmuring a faint good-bye he turned and ran for the woods as fast as he could go. "Stop! Stop!" Fatty Coon called after him. "There's something more I want to say to you." But whatever it may have been, Dickie Deer Mouse did not wait to hear it. [Illustration] [Illustration] IX FATTY COON NEEDS HELP The moment he plunged into the woods beyond the cornfield Dickie Deer Mouse began to feel better. He knew that Fatty Coon would not leave that place of plenty until he had filled himself almost to bursting with tender young corn. After Dickie had eaten a few seeds that he found under the trees, as well as a plump bug that was hiding beneath a log, he actually told himself that he was glad he had met Fatty Coon in the cornfield. "Now that he has talked with me," Dickie reasoned, "he won't trouble himself to come to my house when old Mr. Crow tells him where I live." That thought was a great comfort to him. Ever since he had waked up and heard Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay talking outside his house he had felt most uneasy. If Mr. Crow was going to guide Fatty Coon to his new home, Dickie hardly thought it safe to stay there any longer. But now he was sure that that danger was past. Fatty had given him his warning. And Dickie had no doubt that so long as he kept away from the corn his greedy neighbor would never bother to disturb him. So instead of quitting his snug home--as he had feared he must--he went back to it to finish his nap. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had lost so much sleep--through being disturbed by Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay--that when night came he kept right on sleeping. Yes! Instead of joining his friends in a mad scamper through the woods in the moonlight, Dickie Deer Mouse slept on and on and on, until--something shook the small tree where he lived and made it sway as if an earthquake had come. Dickie Deer Mouse roused himself with a start. His sharp ears caught a scratching sound. And sticking his head through his doorway, he looked out. One quick glance told him what was happening. That pudgy rascal, Fatty Coon, was climbing the tree! And every moment brought him nearer and nearer to Dickie's house. Dickie's big, black eyes bulged more than ever as he whisked out of his house and scampered to the top of the tree, where the branches were so small that Fatty Coon could never follow him. "Stop!" Fatty Coon cried. "Mr. Crow told me where I could find you. And I want to have a word with you." "What sort of word?" Dickie Deer Mouse inquired. "It's about the cornfield," Fatty Coon explained. "I haven't been near that place since you last saw me there," Dickie declared. "I know you haven't," Fatty told him. "That's just why I want to have a word with you. I'm in a peck of trouble. And I want you to help me." Dickie Deer Mouse could scarcely believe it. But being a very polite young gentleman, he told Fatty that he would be glad to do anything in his power to assist him--or at least, anything except to come down out of the top of the tree. [Illustration] [Illustration] X A BIT OF ADVICE "It's like this," Fatty Coon said, puffing a bit--on account of his climb--as he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse. "Old Mr. Crow says that Farmer Green is going to sick old dog Spot on me if I don't keep out of the cornfield." "Well, I should say it was very kind of Mr. Crow to tell you," Dickie remarked. Fatty Coon was not so sure of that. "He'd like to have the cornfield to himself," he told Dickie. "He'd like nothing better than to keep me out of it. And if old dog Spot is coming there after me, I certainly don't want to go near the place again." "Then I'd stay away, if I were you," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. "Ah! That's just the trouble!" Fatty Coon cried. "I can't! I'm too fond of corn. And that's why I've come here to have a word with you," he went on. "I've noticed that you haven't set foot in the cornfield since I spoke to you over there in the middle of the day. And I want you to tell me how you manage to stay away." "Something seems to pull me right away from it," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. Fatty Coon groaned. "Something seems to pull me _towards_ the corn!" he wailed. Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help feeling sorry for him. "If there was only something else that you liked better than green corn," he said, "perhaps it would help you to keep away from this new danger." "But there isn't!" Fatty Coon exclaimed. "Have you ever tried _horns_?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked him. Fatty Coon looked puzzled. "What kind?" he asked his small friend. "Deer's!" Dickie explained. "You know they drop them in the woods sometimes. I've had many a meal off deer's horns. And I can say truthfully that there's nothing quite like them when you're hungry." Fatty Coon actually began to look hopeful. "I'm always hungry," he announced. "And perhaps if I could get a taste of deer's horns they would keep my mind off the cornfield. Where did you say I could find some?" "I didn't say," Dickie Deer Mouse reminded him; "but I don't object to telling you where to look. They're generally to be found in the woods, near the foot of a tree." Fatty Coon's face brightened at once. "Then it ought to be easy for me to get a taste of some," he cried. And he began to crawl down the tree even as he spoke. He did not thank Dickie Deer Mouse for his help. But that was like Fatty. Always having his mind on eatables, he was more than likely to forget to be polite. Little Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he watched the actions of his late caller. The instant Fatty Coon reached the ground he began to look under the trees--first one and then another. "Don't miss a single tree!" Dickie called to him. "Don't worry!" Fatty Coon replied. "I'm going to keep looking until I find some deer's horns. And I hope I'll like 'em when I find 'em, for I'm terribly hungry right now." [Illustration] [Illustration] XI A SEARCH IN VAIN It was true that Dickie Deer Mouse and all his relations feasted on the horns shed by the deer. But of course they didn't find horns in the woods every day. Only at a certain season of the year did the deer drop them. And since that time was now past, and the Deer Mouse family had scoured the woods until they found--and devoured--them all, it is clear that Fatty Coon had started out on a fruitless hunt. But he didn't know that, even if Dickie Deer Mouse did. And that was the reason why Dickie smiled as he watched Fatty Coon dodging about among the trees, looking for deer's horns where there couldn't possibly be any. "It's the finest thing that could happen to Fatty," Dickie Deer Mouse thought. "While he's hunting for horns he can't go to the cornfield. And so long as he stays away from the cornfield, old dog Spot can't catch him there." And then Dickie set forth to find his friends and enjoy a romp in the moonlight. Dawn found him creeping into his house once more. And after what had happened during the night it was not strange that he should dream about Fatty Coon. It was not a pleasant dream. For some reason or other Fatty Coon seemed to be angry with him, and was shouting in a terrible, deep voice, "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse? Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?" And then Dickie awoke, all a-shiver. But of course he felt better at once, for he knew that it was only a dream. And he stretched himself, and buried his head in his bed of cat-tail down, because the daylight was trickling in through his doorway. "_Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?_" Again that question startled him, though he was wide awake, and couldn't be dreaming. The next instant Dickie's tree began to quiver. Fatty Coon was climbing up it! And Dickie Deer Mouse jumped out of bed in a hurry and slipped out of his door. Looking down, he could see that Fatty Coon was in something quite like a rage. "What's the matter?" Dickie called to him. Fatty could do nothing but glare and growl at him. "Have you had your breakfast?" Dickie asked him. Fatty shook his head. "No!" he roared. "I haven't had a morsel to eat since I last saw you. I've been hunting for horns all this time. And I've come back to tell you that I don't like your advice. If I followed it much longer there's no doubt that I'd starve to death." "It has kept you out of the cornfield, hasn't it?" Dickie inquired. "Yes!" Fatty admitted. "But it won't much longer. I'm on my way to the cornfield now." He looked at Dickie and frowned, as if to say, "Just try to stop me!" "Aren't you afraid to go there?" Dickie asked him. Fatty Coon sniffed. "That story about old dog Spot was nothing but a trick," he declared. "It was just a trick of old Mr. Crow's. He wants all the corn himself." "Don't you think, then, that you and I ought to eat all the corn we can?" Dickie inquired. "I certainly do!" Fatty Coon replied. "Let's hurry over now and get some!" Dickie Deer Mouse was only too glad to accept the invitation. And he waited politely until Fatty had reached the ground, before going down himself. Old Mr. Crow saw them the moment they entered the cornfield. And he hurried up to them with a most important air and advised them both that they "had come to a dangerous place." [Illustration: "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"] Fatty Coon paid no attention to the old gentleman. But Dickie Deer Mouse thanked Mr. Crow and told him that after he had had all the corn he wanted he was going back to the woods. Noticing that the old gentleman seemed peevish about something, Dickie said to him: "There ought to be enough for all." But still Mr. Crow looked glum. "There's enough for them that don't care for much else," he muttered. "But we can't feed the whole world on this corn, you know.... How would you like it if I took to eating deer's horns--when they're in season, of course?" "You can have all the deer's horns you want," Fatty Coon remarked thickly--for already his mouth was full. And being very polite, Dickie Deer Mouse said the same thing; though of course he waited until he could speak distinctly. [Illustration] [Illustration] XII A LITTLE SURPRISE Simon Screecher lived in the apple orchard, in a hollow tree, where he could sleep during the day safe from attack by mobs of small birds, who had the best of reasons for disliking him. By night Simon wandered about the fields and the woods, hunting for mice and insects. And since night was the time when Dickie Deer Mouse was awake, and up and doing, it would have been a wonder if the two had never met. One thing is certain: Dickie Deer Mouse was not eager to make Simon Screecher's acquaintance. Whenever he heard Simon's call he stopped and listened. If it sounded nearer the next time it reached his ears, Dickie Deer Mouse promptly hid himself in any good place that was handy. So matters went along for some time. And Dickie actually began to think that perhaps he didn't need to be so careful, and that maybe Simon Screecher was not so bad as people said. However, he jumped almost out of his skin one night, when he heard a wailing whistle in a tree right over his head. And when he came down upon all-fours again he couldn't see a single place to hide. So he stood stock still, hardly daring to breathe. To Dickie's dismay, a mocking laugh rang out. And somebody said: "I see you!" It was Simon Screecher himself that spoke. Dickie Deer Mouse looked up and spied him, sitting on a low limb. He was not so big as Dickie had supposed. But it was certainly Simon. Dickie knew him, beyond a doubt, by his ear-tufts, which stuck up from his head like horns. "What made you jump when I whistled?" Simon Screecher asked him. "I don't know," Dickie answered, "unless it was you." Simon Screecher chuckled. "You're a bright young chap," he observed. "But that's not surprising, for I notice that you belong to the Deer Mouse family, and everybody's aware that they are one of the brightest families in Pleasant Valley--_what are left of them_." These last words made Dickie Deer Mouse more uneasy than ever. But he made up his mind not to let Simon Screecher know that he was worried. "I have a great many relations," he declared stoutly. "Ours is a big family." "Yes--but not nearly so big as it was when I first came to this neighborhood to live," Simon told him with a sly smile. He had hardly finished that remark when a loud _wha-wha, whoo-ah_ came from a hemlock not far away. And the next moment Simon's cousin Solomon Owl sailed through the moonlight and alighted near him. Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help thinking that it was a great night for the Owl family. And he was surprised to notice that Simon Screecher did not act overjoyed at seeing his cousin. "It's a pleasant night," said Solomon Owl in his deep, hollow voice. Simon Screecher replied somewhat sourly that he supposed it was. And he changed his seat, so that he might keep his eyes on both his cousin and Dickie Deer Mouse at the same time. But Solomon Owl made matters very hard for Simon. Simon had no sooner seated himself comfortably when Solomon Owl moved to a perch behind him. Simon Screecher looked almost crosseyed, as he tried to watch everything that happened. And he looked so fretful that for a moment Dickie Deer Mouse actually forgot his fear and laughed aloud. [Illustration] [Illustration] XIII THE FEATHERS FLY "I'm glad to see you," Solomon Owl told his cousin Simon Screecher, while Dickie Deer Mouse stood stock still on the ground beneath the tree where the two cousins were sitting. "I'm glad to see you. And I hope you're enjoying good health." "I'm well enough," Simon Screecher grunted. "Do you find plenty to eat nowadays?" Solomon asked him. Simon Screecher admitted that he was not starving. "Ah!" Solomon exclaimed. "Then you can have no objection to sharing a specially nice tidbit with your own cousin." Dickie Deer Mouse shivered. But he did not dare move, with one of Simon Screecher's great, glassy eyes staring straight at him. And there was something else that did not help to put him at his ease: Solomon Owl seemed to be watching him likewise! "Haven't you dined to-night?" Simon Screecher inquired in a testy tone. "Yes!" Solomon admitted. "But I haven't had my dessert yet.... What are you looking at so closely, Cousin Simon, down there on the ground?" An angry light came into Simon Screecher's eyes. "Can't I look where I please?" he snapped. And he changed his seat again, so that he might get a better view of Dickie and Solomon at the same time. Solomon Owl promptly moved to another limb behind Simon, and slightly higher. And Dickie Deer Mouse took heart when Simon Screecher began to make a queer sound by opening his beak and shutting it with a snap, as if he would like to nip somebody. Dickie knew that Simon Screecher was in a terrible rage. And unless his threatening actions scared Solomon Owl away, Dickie thought there was likely to be a cousinly fight. He was pleased to notice that Solomon Owl showed no sign of dismay. There was really no reason why he should. He was much bigger than his peppery cousin. And he looked at Simon in a calm and unruffled fashion that seemed to make that quarrelsome fellow angrier than ever. "What's the matter?" Solomon Owl asked Simon Screecher. "If you had any teeth I'd think they were chattering.... Are you having a chill?" Simon made no answer. "Maybe you're afraid of something," Solomon Owl suggested. "Can it be that young Deer Mouse down there on the ground?" And he laughed loudly at what _he_ thought was a joke. "That's _my_ Deer Mouse!" Simon Screecher squalled, suddenly finding his voice. "I saw him first. And he's my prize." "He looks to me like the one I lost a few nights ago," Solomon Owl announced solemnly. "In that case, of course I saw him first. So you'd better fly home to your old apple tree in the orchard." "I'll do nothing of the sort!" Simon Screecher declared; and his voice rose to a shrill quaver. Turning swiftly, he flew straight at his cousin. And then how the feathers did fly! Dickie Deer Mouse wanted to stay right there, for he hated to miss any of the fun. But he remembered that he was a "tidbit"; so he scampered away through the woods. And though he never knew how the fight ended, he was sure of one thing: There was no prize for the winner. [Illustration] [Illustration] XIV MAKING READY FOR WINTER After his escape from Solomon Owl and Simon Screecher, Dickie Deer Mouse never felt quite so care-free as he always had before, when wandering through the woods at night. And he never stayed inside his house after dark without wondering whether Solomon or Simon could by any chance discover his snug home in the last year's bird's nest. It was not a pleasant thought. And the oftener it popped into Dickie's head the less he liked it. Sometimes, when summer had ended and fall brought a night that was rainy and cold, he liked to go home after he had finished his supper, and burrow deep into his soft bed of cat-tail down. But even after he had dried his wet coat and warmed himself well, at such times Dickie Deer Mouse started whenever he heard the slightest noise. Somehow, he couldn't get the Owl family out of his mind. As the days grew shorter--and the nights longer--he began to find that his summer home was not so cozy as it might have been. The cold wind searched him out, even under his soft covering; and the driving rains trickled annoyingly through his roof of moss. So at last Dickie Deer Mouse made up his mind that he would move once more. And since he was not the sort to put off the doing of anything that had to be done, he set out at once to see what kind of place he could find. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse liked the woods in which he had always lived. So one might think it strange that when he set forth on his search he headed straight for Farmer Green's pasture. But there is no doubt that he knew what he was about. For some time he crept cautiously about the pasture, peeping under big rocks, and moving among the roots of the trees which dotted the hillside here and there. And since his eyes were of the sharpest, what he was looking for he found in surprising numbers. Most people, strolling through the pasture, would have noticed little except grass and bushes, trees and rocks and knolls. But those were not the things that Dickie Deer Mouse discovered, and sniffed at. What he was hunting for was _holes_. For Dickie had decided that when winter came, with its ice and snow, its cruel gales and its piercing cold, he would be far more comfortable underground than he could ever hope to be in a last year's bird's nest that was fastened to a tree. He had found it no easy matter to pick out a summer home. And now there were reasons why his search for a winter one was even harder. It is true that at the beginning of summer, when Dickie Deer Mouse climbed the tall elm where Mr. Crow lived, he found the old gentleman asleep in the nest that he had hoped to take for his own. But on the whole it was easy to discover whether a nest was deserted. One look into it usually told the story. Eggs in a bird's nest meant that somebody must live there. And of course if Dickie saw a bird sitting on a nest he knew right away that he couldn't live there without having a fight first. But a _hole_ is different. One can't see what's at the bottom of it without going inside it. And that is not always a pleasant thing to do. [Illustration] [Illustration] XV A PLUNGE IN THE DARK There was one hole, especially, among those he found in Farmer Green's pasture, from which Dickie Deer Mouse ran as fast as he could scamper. This was a hole with a big front door, and plenty of fresh dirt scattered around it, as if somebody had been digging there not long before. When Dickie first noticed the burrow he stopped short and stood quite still, while he peeped at it out of a tangle of blackberry bushes. Something told him that he had stumbled upon the home of a dangerous person. And if the wind hadn't been blowing in his face, as he looked towards the wide opening, he would not have dared stay there as long as he did. As he looked he suddenly saw a pair of eyes gleaming from the dark cavern. And soon he beheld a long, pointed snout, which its owner thrust outside in a gingerly manner. That was enough for Dickie Deer Mouse. He wheeled about and whisked up the nearest tree he could find. And there he stayed for a long, long time, until he felt sure that it was quite safe for him to venture down upon the ground again. He had come upon Tommy Fox's burrow! And if there was one hole in the ground into which he had no wish to go, that was it. For Tommy Fox was no friend of his. Since he didn't care for Tommy's company, Dickie went to the corner of the pasture that was furthest from Tommy's home, to search once more for such a hole as he hoped to find. Almost nobody else ever would have discovered the one that Dickie picked out at last as the best place of all in which to spend the winter. But the bright eyes of Dickie Deer Mouse found a tiny opening, which he carefully made just big enough to admit him. It was the entrance to an old burrow where an aunt and an uncle of Billy Woodchuck had once lived and raised a numerous family. When the children had all grown up and gone away their parents had left that home for a new one in the clover field. And somehow all the smaller field people had overlooked it. Little by little the frost had heaved the earth about the doorway, and the wash of the rains had helped to fill it, and Farmer Green's cows had trampled over it, and the grass had all but covered the small opening that remained. There were signs in plenty about the spot that told Dickie Deer Mouse the burrow was deserted. Or perhaps it would be better to say that there was no sign at all of any occupant. Dickie found not a trace of a path nor even a foot-print near the hole nor did his nose discover the faintest scent either of friend or enemy. Slipping inside the hole, Dickie found himself in the mouth of a big, airy tunnel, which went sharply downwards for a few feet. And without the slightest fear he plunged down the dark hole, to see what he could see. [Illustration] [Illustration] XVI A LUCKY FIND Though Dickie Deer Mouse was shy, he couldn't have been a coward. For when he had reached the end of that first pitch that led into the old burrow of Billy Woodchuck's uncle and aunt he never once thought of turning back. Before him stretched a dark, dry, level tunnel. And through it Dickie quickly made his way. It was surprisingly long--that underground passage. But he came to the end of it at last. And creeping upwards, because the tunnel rose suddenly, Dickie Deer Mouse found himself in a roomy chamber, comfortably furnished with a big bed of soft, dried grasses, where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck had passed a good many hard winters asleep, while the snow lay deep upon the ground above them. It took Dickie Deer Mouse no longer than a jiffy to decide that he had found the very place for which he had been looking. He knew that in that secret chamber he had nothing to fear from Solomon Owl nor Simon Screecher, nor Fatty Coon, either. And when midwinter came, and the nights turned bitterly cold, he could cuddle down in that soft bed and dream about summer, and warm, moonlit nights in the woods of the world above. It was no wonder that Dickie Deer Mouse was pleased. And for a time he forgot everything but his good luck--until he remembered that he had had nothing to eat since the night before. So he made his way back through the long tunnel, and up into Farmer Green's pasture. Then, looking around under the twinkling stars, he took pains to see exactly where his new home was. It certainly would have been a great mishap if he had gone away in such a hurry that he could never have found his doorway again. But it was an easy matter to fix the spot in his mind. When he came back he needed only to follow along the rail fence until he came to the corner. Not far from the fence corner, in the woods, stood Farmer Green's sugar house. And about the same distance on the other side of the fence a lone straggler of a maple tree stood on a knoll in the pasture. The departed Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck had been wise enough to dig the opening to their burrow between the roots of the tree. They knew that if Tommy Fox tried to dig them out of their underground home, he would find the passage between the roots too small to squeeze through. Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he saw what the builders of his house had done. They had made everything exactly to suit him. He knew that he could have done no better himself; in fact he knew that he couldn't have done nearly so well. For he was no digger. But he told himself that there was no reason why he should feel sad about that, so long as others were kind enough to dig a fine home and leave it for him to live in. Then he slipped into the woods, feeling so happy that he had to stop and relate his good fortune to the first person he met. And that was where Dickie Deer Mouse made a slight mistake. [Illustration] [Illustration] XVII A SLIGHT MISTAKE Scarcely had Dickie Deer Mouse plunged into the woods when he met Fatty Coon coming in the opposite direction. "Hullo!" Fatty said, looking up at Dickie, who had scrambled into a tree as soon as he caught sight of Fatty's plump form. "What have you been doing in Farmer Green's pasture! I thought you always stayed in the woods--unless you happened to go to the cornfield." "I've been looking for a winter home," Dickie explained. "And I've just found the finest one you ever saw." "Where is it!" Fatty asked him. "I might want to pay you a call some night--when I had nothing else to do." Dickie Deer Mouse was in such a cheerful mood that almost anything Fatty Coon might have said would have pleased him. "My new house is just beyond the fence," Dickie explained. "But I'm afraid you can't very well visit me there," he added with a smile. "Why not?" Fatty Coon inquired. "I'm as good a climber as anybody. I can climb the tallest tree you ever saw, without feeling dizzy. But of course I'm a bit heavier than you are. And if you've gone and picked out a nest that's a long way above the ground, among the smallest branches, it might not be safe for me to go all the way up to it." Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile once more. [Illustration: Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox] "My new home isn't as high as I am right now," he told Fatty Coon. Fatty grunted. "Then I'll certainly come to see you," he said, "when time hangs heavily on my hands." "My new house isn't as high as you are right now," Dickie remarked. And at that Fatty Coon looked puzzled. His mouth fell open; and for a few moments he stared at his small friend without saying a word. "You must be mistaken," he replied at last. "I'm standing on the ground. And I never saw a last year's bird's nest that was lower than that." "I shall have to explain," said Dickie, "that my new home is much finer than my old one. Now, you may not believe it, but it has a front hall that's a hundred times as long as your tail." Fatty Coon looked around at his ringed tail, with its black tip; and then he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse again. "You must be mistaken!" he cried. "I'll have to take my tail to your house and measure your front hall myself before I'll believe that." "You can't measure my hall!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed. "Who's going to stop me?" Fatty Coon growled. He was used to having his own way. And it always made him angry when anybody tried to upset his plans. "I'm going to your house in the pasture now; and I'll soon show you that you're mistaken about your front hall.... You come with me and lead the way, young fellow!" But Dickie Deer Mouse said he was so hungry that he couldn't go back just then. "I'm headed for the big beech tree to see if I can find a few nuts," he announced. At the mention of food Fatty Coon's face took on a different look. "I'm hungry myself," he said, as if he had just remembered something. "I was on my way to Farmer Green's corn house when I met you. And I really ought to get there before the moon comes up. So if you'll tell me where your house is I'll stop there when I come back." "My new home----" Dickie Deer Mouse informed him with an air of great pride----"my new home is in the burrow where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck used to live. The front door is under the tree that stands on the knoll just beyond the fence. But you can never get inside it, because you're altogether too fat." The stout person on the ground knew that he spoke the truth. And without saying another word he turned about and disappeared in the direction of the farm buildings. "Don't forget to take your tail with you!" Dickie Deer Mouse called to him, just before he was out of sight. "You might want to measure the corn house." But Fatty Coon did not trouble himself to answer. [Illustration] [Illustration] XVIII TOO MANY COUSINS In high spirits Dickie Deer Mouse hurried on through the woods until he came to the big beech tree. And though many others had been there before him, since the nuts had ripened, Dickie had such a sharp eye for a beech nut that even though it was then night, he soon found enough for a hearty meal. Then he had to have a romp with a few gay fellows whom he met under the beech tree. And so quickly did the time pass that before he knew it the night had turned gray. Day was breaking. And shouting good-bye to his friends Dickie Deer Mouse ran off towards Farmer Green's pasture. He wanted a nap. And having nothing in his summer home that was worth moving, he knew of no reason why he shouldn't begin at once to live in his new quarters. He never felt happier than he did as he scampered in and out among the trees, slipped under the rail fence, and streaked across the short grass of the pasture. But when he reached his doorway he stopped in dismay. Where he had expected to see nobody at all, his eyes bulged with surprise at the crowd that had gathered in his dooryard. As soon as he had taken several good looks at the company, Dickie Deer Mouse discovered that they were distant relations of his, of all ages and sizes. And at last he succeeded in sorting them into families. There were three big families. And no one in the whole crowd paid any heed to Dickie Deer Mouse. They seemed to be talking about something most important, and too busy to notice the newcomer. If the truth were known, the sight of his second and third and fourth cousins did not particularly please Dickie Deer Mouse. But he was an agreeable young gentleman. So he stepped forward and called several of his cousins by name. And since he couldn't say honestly that he was delighted to see them, he told them how well they looked and said that he hoped they had passed a happy summer. "Here he is at last!" everybody cried. "We've been waiting for you for a long time, because we weren't sure whether we'd found the right place." "What place?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked them as he looked from one to another in dismay. "Why, the great house that you've found!" somebody cried. "We've heard that it has a front hall a hundred times as long as Fatty Coon's tail. So of course there must be lots of rooms in it; and we've come to keep you company and spend the winter." When he heard that news Dickie Deer Mouse became almost faint. He did not want to hurt his cousins' feelings. But his plan of spending the winter quietly hardly made him welcome the idea of having a dozen half-grown children in his home. "Who told you about my house?" he demanded with just a trace of disappointment. "It was Fatty Coon," several of his cousins explained at once. And then Dickie Deer Mouse knew that he had made a mistake when he told Fatty of his good fortune. "I'm sorry to say that he has misled you," Dickie informed his relations. "It's true that my front hall is very long. But the trouble is, there's only one chamber." [Illustration] [Illustration] XIX THE WRONG TURN For a few moments Dickie Deer Mouse's cousins looked terribly disappointed. He had told them that his new house had only one chamber. And each of the three big families had expected to have at least one bedroom. The elder cousins gathered in a group and talked in low tones. Dickie could not hear what they said. He hoped that they were going to bid him farewell and go back where they came from. But he soon saw that they had no such idea. The eldest of all, whom Dickie knew as Cousin Dan'l, said to him presently: "Cheer up! We know you'd be sorry not to have us with you during the winter. So we'll take a look at your chamber. Perhaps it's big enough for all of us." Dickie tried to tell Cousin Dan'l Deer Mouse that he was afraid the chamber would be too crowded with so many in it. But when he opened his mouth the words, somehow, would not come. And at last he nodded his head and crept through his doorway, while his cousins followed him one by one. The younger cousins pushed and crowded and quarreled, making such a commotion that Dickie Deer Mouse could hear them plainly, though he was some distance ahead of them. "Those youngsters will have to keep still," he said over his shoulder to the cousin that was nearest him. Everybody passed the message down the line. And when the youngsters heard it they began to laugh. "Tell Cousin Dickie to stop us if he can," they shouted. Their rude answer reached Dickie Deer Mouse just as he came to a place in his front hall to which he had paid little heed before. Right at the spot where he stood the tunnel divided itself into two passages. Before, he had taken the one on the right. But now something told him to go the other way. So he turned to the left, still followed closely by the cousin that was behind him. The whole procession came trailing after them. And the first thing Dickie--or anybody else--knew, they all found themselves standing in the grassy pasture once more, in the gray light of the morning. They had passed out through the back door of the house, without entering the chamber at all! As soon as Dickie's relations saw where they were they looked at one another in a puzzled fashion. "What's the matter?" Cousin Dan'l demanded of Dickie. "I followed the crowd. But I saw no chamber anywhere." Dickie Deer Mouse didn't know exactly what to say. So he merely shook his head, hoping that the company would go away. "Can it be possible that you've lost your bedroom?" Cousin Dan'l Deer Mouse asked him. "Is it so small that you could have overlooked it?" "The bedroom's none too big," Dickie replied. "Then maybe we passed through it without noticing it," his elderly cousin observed. "We can't stand around here in the pasture all day, Dan'l," the cousin's wife complained. "If Mr. Hawk happened to come this way he'd be sure to see us." "What do you suggest?" Cousin Dan'l asked Dickie Deer Mouse. "You see the women are nervous." And he cocked an eye up at the sky, as if he did not feel any too safe himself when he thought of Mr. Hawk. "It seems to me," Dickie told him, "that we'd all of us better go back to our summer homes." And then, after saying that he hoped everybody would get home without an accident, and wouldn't meet Mr. Hawk, Dickie Deer Mouse turned towards the woods and hurried away. His parting words did not make his numerous cousins feel any happier. And since they wanted to get out of sight as soon as they could, they quickly followed Dickie's example and scurried off as fast as they could go, to spend another day in the summer houses in which they had been living. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had paused as soon as he had reached the rail fence at the edge of the woods. And unseen by his cousins he peeped back to find out what they might do. When the three families scattered in three different directions Dickie Deer Mouse believed that he was well rid of them. But by that time it had grown so light that he did not want to show himself in the pasture, not even long enough to scamper the short distance from the fence back to the front door of his new house. So he passed another day in the last year's bird's nest. [Illustration] [Illustration] XX BEDFELLOWS During his rambles on the following night Dickie Deer Mouse took great care to keep out of sight of the three families of cousins that had tried to quarter themselves in his new house in the pasture. Moreover he said nothing to anybody about his future home. Fatty Coon had taught him in one lesson that it is sometimes wise to keep a secret. The night was not ended when Dickie sought the burrow in the pasture once more. He hardly dared hope, as he neared the dooryard, that he would not find a crowd waiting there again. But when he reached his doorway he saw not a soul anywhere around. He felt happy beyond words. And he popped through his doorway, hurried through the hall--which was a hundred times as long as Fatty Coon's tail--and burst into the cozy chamber. Dickie had hardly entered the room when he stumbled over something soft. And a voice that sounded exactly like Cousin Dan'l's called out in rather a peevish tone that he'd better look out where he stepped. "Who's here?" Dickie asked in a faint whisper. "We are!" the voice replied. "There are eighteen of us in all. And you'd better be careful not to trample on anybody." Dickie's heart sank. He understood, in a flash, what had happened. The three families of cousins were all there, sleeping in his soft bed of dried grasses! They had come back to the house in the pasture ahead of him, and had found the chamber without his help. At first he almost turned around and left that place forever, without saying another word. But the night had turned cold and a drizzling rain was falling. And he knew that the roof of his summer home must be leaking badly. That underground chamber was delightfully dry and warm. And if the twelve children didn't wake up and begin to cry he saw no reason why he shouldn't spend one night there, anyway. So he felt his way carefully about the room. There was no denying that it was dreadfully crowded. But at last Dickie Deer Mouse found a vacant spot that was big enough to lie upon. And burrowing down into the bed of grasses he soon fell asleep. When Dickie Deer Mouse awoke, after his first sleep in the underground chamber, he thought that summer had come. He hadn't felt so comfortable for weeks. And for a little time he lay quite still, half dozing, enjoying the delightful warmth. And then all at once he came to his senses. He remembered that he was in the burrow where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck had lived, in Farmer Green's pasture. And he recalled unpleasantly the misfortune that had happened: he had been forced to share his snug bedroom with eighteen of his distant cousins. They were still sleeping soundly all around him. And Dickie Deer Mouse made a strange wish. "They're here," he said to himself. "And I don't know of any way to get rid of them. I only wish they wouldn't wake up till spring." [Illustration] [Illustration] XXI ONE WAY TO KEEP WARM After making his strange wish about his eighteen cousins--that they would sleep straight through the winter--Dickie Deer Mouse crawled out of bed. The sleepers filled the chamber so full that Dickie had to step into the hall before he could stretch himself. For some reason he seemed to feel unusually _stretchy_. Generally when he waked up he sprang up at once and dashed out of his house, to find something to eat. But now he had half a mind to go back to bed again. He did not do that, however, because he wanted to get away from his unwelcome guests for a time. So he crept through his long hall and crawled out through his front door, into the world above. To Dickie's great surprise a startling change had come over the pasture. The weather had cleared while he slept and the stars twinkled in the heavens above him. And the hillside pasture was white with a thick blanket of snow. It was cold, too--much colder than it had been when Dickie went to sleep. Luckily a crust had formed upon the snow--a crust that was just strong enough to support Dickie's weight. And he made swiftly for the spruce woods, to hunt for his supper, for he knew he could find nothing on the ground, covered as it was by the snow. Dickie felt even hungrier than he usually did when starting out of an evening to look for something to eat. But that was not strange, for without knowing it, he had slept several days and nights in the snug chamber with his cousins. Dickie did not stay out all night long. Yet he took time, before he went home, to hide a small store of spruce seeds in a hollow rail of the pasture fence. He knew that before the long winter came to an end he would find that food in the woods would grow alarmingly scarce. Long before daybreak Dickie Deer Mouse was glad to return to the underground chamber. And as he crept into the crowded room he thought it the coziest home he had ever had. He knew, at last, what made the place so warm. The soft, round bodies of his eighteen cousins heated it almost as well as if he had had a real stove. It was lucky for him, after all, that Fatty Coon had told them about Dickie's new house. And now Dickie only hoped that none of them would leave before spring. That snowstorm proved to be only the first warning of winter. In a few days the weather grew quite warm again. And to Dickie's dismay the three families of cousins waked up and went out of doors to get the air, and gather seeds and such thin-shelled nuts as they could find. They did not eat all that they picked up. Like Dickie Deer Mouse, they stored some of the food in secret nooks and crannies, against a time of need. That first early snowstorm had been a good thing for the dwellers in the underground chamber. It had warned them that winter was coming. And during the weeks that passed before the whole countryside became snow-bound they managed to gather enough nuts and seeds to last them through any ordinary winter--if they didn't eat too heartily. When the real winter finally descended upon Pleasant Valley it found the Deer Mouse cousins quite ready for it. And even if Dickie's relations did wake up now and then, when the weather wasn't too cold, they slept soundly enough at other times, so that they did not disturb him greatly. Even the children, who had pushed and crowded when they first entered the front hall of the house--even they were surprisingly quiet, when they were asleep. [Illustration] [Illustration] XXII QUEER MR. PINE FINCH Perhaps the winter was longer than usual; or perhaps Dickie Deer Mouse ate too freely of his hidden store of good things. At any rate, Dickie's hoard slowly grew smaller and smaller. And long before the day came when he bolted the last seed that remained in the hollow fence-rail he had begun to wonder where he should find more food. While he had been sleeping the birds that stayed in Pleasant Valley during the winter had been feasting greedily upon the very kind of fare that Dickie Deer Mouse needed. Jasper Jay and his noisy cronies had taken good care that there shouldn't be a beechnut left. And when they had eaten the last sweet nut they turned to such dried berries as still clung to the withered stocks on which they had grown. No longer could Dickie Deer Mouse spend so much time asleep in his cozy chamber. Instead, he had to wander far through the woods at night, thankful to pick up a bit here and there as best he might. On those crisp, cold nights he had to scamper fast in order to keep warm. And often, when dawn came, he crept home still hungry. At last Dickie's night runs lapped well over into the day. For his search for food became more and more disappointing. And afterward he often wondered what would have happened to him if he hadn't met Mr. Pine Finch early one morning. Mr. Pine Finch was an odd fellow. He had a peculiar way of talking as if he spoke through his nose. Though Dickie Deer Mouse had seen him before, he had paid scant attention to Mr. Pine Finch. But when he caught sight of him on a certain chilly morning there were so few birds stirring that Dickie stopped short and watched Mr. Pine Finch, who was so busy in a tree-top that he didn't know anybody else was near him. He was talking to himself. And as nearly as Dickie Deer Mouse could tell, he was remarking--through his nose--that he was having a good breakfast. That news made Dickie Deer Mouse prick up his big ears. A good breakfast was something that he had not enjoyed for a long, long time. At first Dickie couldn't quite see what Mr. Pine Finch was about. It was he, beyond a doubt. There could be no more mistaking his odd voice than his plump, black-streaked back, with its splashes of yellow at the base of his tail, and his yellow-edged wings. Dickie had a good view of Mr. Pine-Finch's back, because its owner hung upside down from the tips of the branches of the tree where Dickie spied him. To Dickie Deer Mouse the sight, at first, was somewhat of a puzzle. He stood quite still, gazing upward in wonder. And then all at once he discovered what Mr. Pine Finch was doing. Something struck Dickie Deer Mouse lightly on his back--something that made him jump. He looked all around to see what had hit him. And there, on the snow beside him, lay a bud off the tree above him. Then Dickie Deer Mouse understood what Mr. Pine Finch was about. He was eating the buds that clung to the tips of the branches. Dickie Deer Mouse quickly ate that bud; and then he waited, watching eagerly every move that Mr. Pine Finch made. [Illustration] [Illustration] XXIII A FEAST AT LAST To Dickie Deer Mouse, waiting impatiently for Mr. Pine Finch to drop another bud out of the tree-top, it began to seem as if his good luck were short lived. Could it be possible that Mr. Pine Finch was so careful that he lost a bud only once in a long time--perhaps only once a year? But as Dickie Deer Mouse wondered, a small shower of buds came rattling down upon the snow-crust. And Dickie Deer Mouse snatched them up, every one, and ate them hungrily. In a little while he felt so much better that he called out to Mr. Pine Finch: "Shake a lot of 'em down--there's a good fellow!" Mr. Pine Finch fluttered to a perch on a limb and looked down in great surprise. "Did you speak?" he inquired. "Yes!" Dickie Deer Mouse piped up. "You know, I can climb a tree; but I can't crawl out to the tips of the branches, because I'm too heavy. So you'll oblige me if you'll drop a few dozen more of those buds." The request surprised Mr. Pine Finch. His face told that much. "_Buds!_" he exclaimed. "Why do you want _buds_?" "I eat them--when I can get them," Dickie Deer Mouse informed him. The streaked gentleman in the tree looked quite blank. "What a strange thing to do!" he cried through his nose--or so it seemed. "Strange!" Dickie Deer Mouse echoed. "Why, you've just been eating some yourself!" And he couldn't help thinking that Mr. Pine Finch was even odder than he sounded. "That's so," Mr. Pine Finch admitted. "In fact, I may say that I'm very, very fond of tree-buds. But I'm a bird. And of course everybody knows that you're a rodent." "I'm hungry, anyway," Dickie Deer Mouse retorted. He didn't mind Mr. Finch's calling him names, if only he would drop some more buds. "You're hungry, eh?" the odd gentleman in the tree replied. "That reminds me that I'm still hungry myself. So I can't stop to talk with you any longer just now." Then he turned himself upside down, as he picked out a promising cluster of buds. And before he had finished his breakfast he had dropped so many buds that Dickie Deer Mouse called to him and thanked him for his kindness. "What! Are you still there?" Mr. Pine Finch exclaimed, gazing down at Dickie as if he were greatly surprised to see him lingering beneath the tree. "I must go away now," Mr. Pine Finch added. "But I'll make this remark before I leave: If you have anything more to say to me, you can find me here almost any morning soon after daybreak." And then he flew off. Dickie Deer Mouse told himself that he was in luck. By coming to that spot early every day he could pick up buds enough--dropped carelessly by Mr. Pine Finch--to feed himself until spring came and the snow melted and uncovered the ground, where he knew he could find food. So he went home and slept as he had not slept for weeks. And the next morning, when he went back to the tree where he had found Mr. Pine Finch, his eighteen cousins followed him. For Dickie Deer Mouse told them of his good fortune and asked them to share it with him. As for Mr. Pine Finch, he looked queerer than ever when he saw that Dickie had brought eighteen of his relations with him. However, he bade them all good morning. And he seemed to be even clumsier than he had been the day before. He dropped an enormous number of buds; so many, in fact, that Dickie Deer Mouse wondered how Mr. Pine Finch managed to get enough breakfast for himself. Perhaps that odd gentleman knew what he was about. To tell the truth, he had noticed the day before that Dickie Deer Mouse looked thin and hungry. His coat, too, struck Mr. Pine Finch as being somewhat shabby. But he said nothing to show Dickie Deer Mouse that he knew there was anything wrong. And if he dropped tree-buds on purpose, he never let anyone know it. Anyhow, Mr. Pine Finch did not fail to appear at that tree a single morning during the rest of the winter. Before spring came the Deer Mouse family had long since decided that he was the best friend they had in all Pleasant Valley. And they all agreed that his voice, although he did talk through his nose, was the pleasantest they had ever heard. At last the breakfast parties beneath Mr. Pine Finch's favorite tree came to an end. The snow vanished. Warm weather made the underground chamber in Farmer Green's pasture seem crowded and stuffy. And Dickie Deer Mouse said farewell to his eighteen cousins, because he wanted to look for a pleasant place in which to spend the summer. THE END [Illustration] 
19531	----	PUNKY DUNK AND THE MOUSE THIS LITTLE STORY IS TOLD AND THE LITTLE PICTURES WERE DRAWN FOR A GOOD LITTLE CHILD NAMED ----------------- Published in the Shop of P. F. VOLLAND & CO. CHICAGO COPYRIGHT, 1912, P. F. VOLLAND & CO., CHICAGO, U. S. A. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED [Illustration] Punky Dunk, very sly, with a wink of his eye Strolled lazily all through the house; To the cellar he went and the morning he spent On a hunt for a fat little mouse. [Illustration] "Over there by the coal," he said, "Mouse has his hole, So I'll sit there beside it and wait. There's a trap with some cheese just as nice as you please, And Mouse soon will come out for that bait." [Illustration] Punky sat by the trap, and seemed taking a nap, But you know that bold Punky was wise. Though he looked half asleep he was taking a peep For the gleam of two bright little eyes. [Illustration] Soon the mouse crept right out and went running about; Punky smiled to himself and he said: "I will just let him play in his own foolish way Till I think that I need to be fed." [Illustration] But the Mouse, too, was smart, and he got a good, start, Then he leaped, and he saved his wee hide, For he dashed in a hole that was not near the coal But was hidden away at one side. [Illustration] "Ha, Ha!" Punky said as he shook his white head. "Well, Mouse, you may run if you please, But I'll eat just the same--'twas for that that I came." So he reached in the trap for the cheese. [Illustration] Snip-snap! went the trap-- Wasn't that a mishap! Punky's black little paw was inside. He leaped and he jumped and he ran and he bumped-- And the Mouse sat and laughed till he cried. [Illustration] Punky ran up the stairs and he knocked over chairs And he sprang to the table and dropped, He "Meowed!" in his fright, for the trap held him tight, And it was a long time till he stopped. [Illustration] Baby's mama then came and she said: "What a shame!" And she took off the trap from his paw, And she wrapped it in silk and she fed him with milk And she gave him some fish bones to gnaw. 
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18742	----	Willie Mouse by Alta Tabor [Illustration] The Saalfield Publishing Company Chicago Akron, Ohio New York PRINTED IN U. S. A. * * * * * [Illustration] * * * * * Willie Mouse Goes on a Journey to Find the Moon * * * * * [Illustration] Willie Mouse Willie Mouse had often heard his Ma and Pa say that the moon was made of green cheese, and one evening he thought he would see if he could find it. He packed up a piece of cheese and a crust of bread, and, taking his lantern, set out on his travels. [Illustration] [Illustration] He had not gone far when he met his friend, Mr. Woodmouse, who asked him where he was going. "Oh!" said Willie, "I'm going to find the moon; it's made of green cheese, you know." "I don't believe it's made of green cheese at all," said Mr. Woodmouse, but Willie wouldn't listen to him and went on his way. [Illustration] Coming round by Clover Green whom should he meet but Miss Jenny Wren, looking very gay in her yellow bonnet. "Where are you off to?" she asked. "I'm on my way to find the moon." "The moon!" cried Miss Wren, "you'll never reach it." [Illustration] "I flew ever so high one evening and I didn't seem to get any nearer." "Well," said Willie, "why should it be made of green cheese if you can't reach it?" And on he went. [Illustration] Presently he came up to a wood, and looking up he saw Mr. Squirrel jumping from branch to branch. "Good afternoon," he said. "You do seem high up. Surely you can tell me the way to the moon. It's made of green cheese, you know." [Illustration] "I don't think it's made of green cheese; why shouldn't it be made of nuts?" "How ignorant everybody is," said Willie Mouse to himself. [Illustration] So on he went once more until he came to a little hole in the ground, and being very curious he peeped inside. There sat Mrs. Mole, who came out when she saw him. "Do you live down there?" asked Willie politely. [Illustration] "Yes," replied Mrs. Mole. "Then I'm afraid you can't tell me how to get to the moon. It's made of green cheese, you know; Ma says so." "Nonsense, my child. Don't waste your time looking for the moon; keep your eyes open for worms." [Illustration] Willie said "Good-bye" to Mrs. Mole. Then he sat down and opened his parcel because it was getting late and he thought he had better have some dinner. "I may not reach the moon yet awhile," he thought, "so I had better save a little piece of cheese for supper." [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] After dinner he fell asleep, and on waking he found that it was quite dark. He looked up and there was the moon right high up in the sky. "Oh, Mr. Moon!" he cried, "You do seem a long way away. I think it would be much easier for you to come down here than for me to get up there." But Mr. Moon stayed where he was. [Illustration] [Illustration] [Illustration] Looking up Willie Mouse saw two big eyes gleaming in the dark. They belonged to Mrs. Owl, and as Willie was only a little mouse he didn't know that Mrs. Owl had a special liking for little mice. [Illustration] "Please, Mrs. Owl," said he, "how can I get to the moon?" Down flew Mrs. Owl. "This is the way to the moon," she said, and she caught him up in her beak and carried him back to the owl house where she lived. [Illustration] When Willie Mouse saw all the owlets with their beaks gaping open he began to be frightened, for he feared that Mrs. Owl was going to eat him all up. But he didn't know that a good green elf, who lived in the trunk of the tree, was near at hand, and just as Mrs. Owl opened her beak the leaves rustled and there stood Mr. Elf, who jumped to the ground with Willie on his back. [Illustration] When the good green elf had shown him the way home he thought he would ask him if the moon were really made of green cheese, but all of a sudden Mr. Elf disappeared, and Willie Mouse still thinks that one day he will find the moon and have enough cheese to last him all his life. [Illustration] * * * * * But he will wait until he is a little older and bigger before he tries to jump to the moon. And perhaps by that time he may be wiser, too. [Illustration: Willie Mouse] * * * * * Uniform With This Volume: The Little Red Hen Little Black Sambo Wee Peter Pug * * * * * The Saalfield Publishing Company Chicago AKRON, OHIO New York 
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27239	----	http://www.pgdpcanada.net [Transcriber's Note: Missing quotation marks have been left unchanged for flavor. Obvious typographical errors have been corrected; errors and inconsistencies are listed at the end of the e-text.] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Little Downy; or, THE HISTORY of A FIELD MOUSE. Embellished With _TWELVE COLORED ENGRAVINGS._ LONDON: Printed for A. K. NEWMAN and Co. Leadenhall-Street. _Price 1s. 6d._ [Illustration: _Mrs. Clifford relating to her son Alfred, the history of the Field-Mouse._] Little Downy; or, THE HISTORY of A FIELD-MOUSE. A MORAL TALE. Embellished WITH TWELVE COLORED ENGRAVINGS. [Illustration] LONDON: _Printed for_ A. K. NEWMAN and Co. LEADENHALL-STREET. 1822. THE LIFE AND INTERESTING ADVENTURES of a FIELD MOUSE. "What is my little Alfred crying for?" asked his mother, Mrs. Clifford, as she entered the room where Alfred stood weeping by the table. Come here, and tell me what is the matter with you." Alfred slowly advanced towards his mother, and wiped away his tears with her apron. Alfred was but a little boy, or he would not have cried for such a simple thing as he did. "Well, Alfred, and what is it?" asked his kind mamma. "Why, mamma, you know that nice plum cake you gave me for saying my lesson well; I had put it in the cupboard, as I did not want to eat it then, and I came just now to take a little nibble at it; and when I opened the closet-door to look for it, there was an ugly brown mouse in the closet, and hardly a scrap of my cake left; that greedy thing had eaten it all but a few crumbs." And here Alfred's tears flowed afresh. "I am very sorry, my dear child, that the mouse has eaten your cake; but still, I do not think it was worth shedding so many tears about: you must learn to bear such trifling disappointments with more patience. I dare say, the mouse has eaten my sugar and cake, but I shall not cry if it has." "I am sure it is enough to make any one cry, (said Alfred). I only wish, (added he, his eyes sparkling with anger), that I could have killed the little beast for stealing my cake." "Now, Alfred, I am ashamed of you," said his mother gravely. Alfred could, however, think of nothing but the loss of his cake, and begged his mother to let the mouse-trap be set to catch the mischievous intruder. Mrs. Clifford was very sorry to hear her little son talk so, and she represented to him his cruelty in wanting to take away the life of a poor mouse only for having satisfied its hunger. "But, mamma, mice do a deal of mischief, (said Alfred), and ought to be killed; for that mouse will soon eat up all your sugar." "But, Alfred; I know a certain two-legged mouse, who, if I left the key in my store-closet, would eat more sugar in one minute than this poor little animal could in an hour." Alfred hung his head at this reproof, for it was but a day or two since he was detected at the sugar dish; and he soon after left the room. Mrs. Clifford was much grieved that her little Alfred shewed so much inclination to be cruel and revengeful, two qualities so dangerous in a child, or in any one; and she knew that, unless it was timely checked, it would grow into a habit. Harsh means, she did not like to adopt; and so she at last thought of a method which seemed likely to succeed. She was well aware of the inconvenience of having mice in her cupboard, as they not only commit great depredations, but soil every thing they touch; so, as she was forced to kill the mouse, she hoped to turn its death to a good use. Therefore, the next time Alfred entered the room, she asked him if he was still resolved to have the mouse killed. "Yes, mamma, (replied Alfred), it had no right to eat my cake." "Very well; I will have the mouse-trap set; but observe, Alfred, whether before the day is past, you do not tell me you are sorry for its death." "Oh! no; that I am sure I sha'n't," replied Alfred, and Mrs. Clifford ordered the trap to be set. Early the next morning, when Mrs. Clifford came down stairs and went to the closet, she beheld her poor little prisoner dead in his wire cage. "See, Alfred, (said she), here is the poor mouse dead!" Alfred at first was glad; but when he saw what a pretty one it was, he was sorry, but contented himself by saying to the dead mouse, "If you had not been in the cupboard doing so much mischief, you would not have been killed!" When he had said his lesson, his mother said to him, "Now, Alfred, shall I tell you a story?" Alfred was very fond of hearing a story, if it was not too long, and he asked his mother, if this would be a long one. "I don't wish to tire you, (said his mother), so I will only tell you part of it this morning. Alfred fetched his little stool, and having placed it at her side, fixed his eyes on her face while she related THE HISTORY OF A FIELD MOUSE. "In a wheat-stack, in Farmer Ball's yard, lived an old mouse with her family, consisting of five little ones, the most worthy of which was a pretty brown mouse, called Downy, because her fur was longer and softer than either of her brothers and sisters, and besides being the prettiest, she was likewise the wisest and best among them. "Her mother was by birth a field-mouse; she had been carried among the sheaves of wheat into the stack, with a great many more field-mice; and had lived there, at the expence of farmer Ball, ever since. "It was one fine clear morning, in the middle of March, that, as Downy was peeping her little nose out of the straw at the edge of the stack, to breathe a little fresh air, she saw the farmer with his men enter the yard, and heard him tell the people that he would have the stack taken into the barn and thrashed, and desired them to bid Fen, the ratcatcher, come, and bring all his dogs with him. [Illustration] "Poor Downy was in a terrible fright at hearing this; she ran to acquaint her mother with it; and asked her what they had best do; but her mother, who was but a foolish mouse, bade her not be under the least alarm, for she was persuaded the farmer did not mean to take it in just then; and added, it was time enough to think of it when the men began; she told Downy to go to bed with the rest of her brothers and sisters, and not to be afraid. "But poor Downy was in great trouble about what she should do, and could not sleep for thinking of the sad fate which threatened them; she awakened her companions to consult with them; but her sisters only laughed at her fear, and said, they would never leave a place where they were so well off; and where they could get plenty of good corn, only for the trouble of eating it. Her brothers were of the same opinion, and added, they could run so swiftly, they were sure they could soon get away into the field; but they expected they should live very quietly yet for some time. "Poor foolish little things! they did not think the danger was so near; but they were awakened the next morning by the farmer's men unroofing the stack, and they now wished they had hearkened to the prudent advice of their sister Downy. "Poor little Downy's heart almost died within her, when she heard the barking of the dogs, and the hallooing of the men; how much rather would she have been in the field, than in the warm stack! for she heard the men drawing near to the place where they lay; and they were all terribly afraid; and their mother, the old mouse, would go to see how far the danger was from them. Imprudent creature! she ventured too near; for a great black dog on the top of the stack, the moment the men raised the sheaf where she was, snapped her up in an instant. "Nothing was now to be heard but shrieks and cries from every side of the stack; and the men drew nearer and nearer: Downy heard the last cries of her brethren; the sheaf where she had taken refuge, was already on the point of being raised, when she sprang through an opening in the side, and was just going to run down, when she beheld a great dog directly under her! "Poor Downy gave herself up as lost, and awaited in trembling anxiety her fate: for some moments she clung to the outside of the stack, not daring to descend, yet fearing still more to stay; when, luckily for our poor little mouse, some one called the dog, who instantly ran off; and Downy, darting from the stack, had just time to gain a place of security beneath a clod of earth, where she lay shaking with fear, not daring to look up for some minutes. "She shuddered with horror when she heard the dying groans of her friends in the stack, and the shouts of the men encouraging the dogs; many a poor mouse did she see running away in hopes of making its escape, but pursued and devoured by the dogs. "Several times poor Downy had like to have been discovered by the dogs, or crushed beneath the horses' feet, but she crouched very close to the ground, and lay so still, she hardly breathed, so great was her fear; at length she watched an opportunity, when no one was near, to quit her retreat, and ran with all the speed she could, not once daring to pause or look behind, till she gained the farmer's orchard; where she laid among the long grass, panting, and half dead with terror and fatigue; she hid herself toward night under the roots of an old apple-tree; for she was very much afraid of a great white owl which she had seen flying near. [Illustration] "It was in vain for her to lament the sad fate of her mother and brethren; she could not recal them to life; and Downy was thankful that she had escaped so well; but the cold weather was not gone yet, and poor little Downy knew she had nothing to eat and no warm house to live in; but must make herself one; and she was afraid she should be starved to death with hunger, or die with cold. These thoughts occupied her mind, till she fell asleep, nor did she awake next morning till quite late, and found herself very hungry. She first peeped out of her hole, and seeing nothing near to hurt her, she ventured forth in search of some food; she rummaged among the dead leaves for some time, without success, till chance led her to a row of nut-trees; here, after a diligent search, she had the good fortune to discover three nuts, one of which she eat, being very hungry, and the rest she carried home to her tree; but Downy knew they would not last long, and so thought it best to try and get more, she therefore deposited them safely away, and sat off to look for more provisions; she spent nearly the whole day among the nut-trees, but returned home only with one nut; and a shower of snow falling, she was forced to return to her dwelling, and did not go out any more that day, but laid still, and thought how she should make herself a warm nest; for she was very cold here, having been used to the close warm stack, where scarce any air entered. She eat very sparingly of her nuts, saving as much as possible for the morrow, fearing lest the snow should hinder her looking for more; but there had not fallen much, and in the morning, the sun coming out quite bright, melted it all; and Downy left her tree to look for something to line her nest with, and for more food. That being the first object, she began to search for some first, and was more fortunate than before, as she discovered several ears of corn, which had been blown by the wind off the stack; she could hardly credit her good fortune, when she beheld her store and saw it all safely lodged in her granary. Her next care was to line her nest; for this purpose, (though it was very cold and frosty) she collected all the bits of dried moss and grass she could find, and carried them in her mouth to her new habitation; she nibbled off the fibres which hung to the roots of the tree, and dried weeds, and soon made her house quite warm and comfortable. "She spent the remainder of the month of March, and the beginning of April, in laying up stores of provision, and in enlarging the inside of her house. "The Spring began with some beautiful warm days, and everything looked cheerful and gay; the crocusses were all in flower, and the primroses, and snow-drops, with some early violets. Downy was rejoiced when she saw the daisies in the orchard begin to shew their white heads above the grass, and she took many a frisk out to enjoy the sunshine, and was quite happy and content. "One fine evening as she was returning to her house, she saw a creature much like a weasel, only somewhat smaller, which she knew to be a mousehunt, by what she had heard of them: he was prowling along close by her tree, in hopes of catching her; he smelt about some time, and at last went in. Poor little Downy was in a sad fright; she knew not what to do, for she saw his head peeping out of her hole, and his cunning black eye looking round in every direction. [Illustration] "When little Downy saw the mousehunt take possession of her house, she knew she must not venture there again, and was in great distress, as to where she should pass the night securely; at last she found a hole in the bank, and into this she crept, though very much alarmed for fear of her enemy's discovering her; she dared not go to sleep at all that night; nor did she stir out next day, till forced by hunger to seek for food; she did not see any thing of the mousehunt, but she resolved to leave the orchard and seek a safer spot for her new habitation. "Accordingly, next day, she sat off to look for a proper situation; she passed through the orchard hedge into a beautiful green meadow, all covered with daisies, red clover, cowslips, and golden buttercups. Here Downy resolved to find a place to live in: and she whisked about under the tall heads of the cowslips and buttercups; at last she fixed on a little green mound, such an one as you, Alfred, call a fairy's throne, and here she began to scratch with her fore feet, till she had made a little opening in the turf, and she used such diligence, that before night she had made a hole large enough to sleep in, and though it was not lined or so warm as her house under the old apple-tree, yet she slept so sound that she never awoke till the sun had risen quite high in the heavens. "Downy jumped up in a hurry when she saw how late it was: the birds had been up hours before her, and were all busily employed building their nests; every bush resounded with the songs of these little creatures while at work, and Downy knew she must not be idle, for she had much to do; being very hungry she first went to an oak which grew at some little distance, and here she found plenty of acorns among the leaves--of these she made a hearty meal, and carried some to where she was at work. With a great deal of care and labour she dug her house and made it quite round and smooth, as she went on, carrying it in a slanting direction along the hollow side of the hill. It cost poor Downy many a long day's hard work before her house was completed, and many a weary nibble before she had finished lining the inside of it. Her next care was to make a secure room for stowing away her winter stores; for this purpose, she made an opening on one side of her first room, and carried a passage along some little distance, and then formed her store chamber, which she was a long time making, but it was at length completed perfectly to her own satisfaction, having rendered it a most convenient granery. She had now nothing to do but find feed for herself, and play, but Downy never came home without bringing something useful for her house, either a bit of straw or hay, a little tuft of moss, or the dried stalk of a flower; these she cut with her teeth into little bits, and laid in her nest to make it soft and warm. "Downy was now quite happy, her mound was all covered with flowers, fine cowslips, and butter-cups, and tuft of daisies grew close to the entrance of her house, and served to hide it from the eyes of owls, mousehunts, or any of the enemies to poor mice; and Downy thought herself quite secure from all dangers: of a beautiful moonlight night she used just to peep out from under the daisies, and look at the dew drops all shining like diamonds in the moon-beams, and once she whisked on to the top of her green mount, and began to play among the flowers, but she was alarmed by the sight of a small dog running through the high grass, and she quickly retreated into her house; nor was she so imprudent again as venture out after it grew dusk. And now the grass grew long and high, the flowers began to lose their beauty, and turn brown; every thing proclaimed the approach of summer. "The month of June began, and the mowers came to cut down the grass; Downy was fearful that they would molest her, and spoil her house, when they came near the little mount; but she trusted to the chance that they might not discover it, and she laid quite close all day. "But poor little Downy was very sorry to see all the nice high grass and pretty flowers cut down to the ground, those flowers which had sheltered her from the sun and rain for so long. [Illustration] "'And now, (thought she), I shall certainly be caught by the great white owl; for he will be able to see me now; and I can't hide myself under the long grass and dandelions, as I used to do, for they are all cut down and spoiled.'--Poor little Downy was in a great fright all the time that the hay-makers were at work, and when she found them coming near her house, with their great pitchforks in their hands, she remembered the fate of her mother, and all her brothers and sisters in the stack, and she thought that she should be safer in the bank of the garden hedge; which was not far off. She watched an opportunity when no one was looking, and hastened away to the hedge as fast as she could, and creeping in laid quite snug; she remained in the bank the whole day, and enjoyed herself more than could be expected, for the weather was extremely pleasant, and there was a fine bed of ripe wild strawberries close by, which smelt quite refreshing. Though Downy dared not venture back into the field for fear of being killed (for mice are but timid little things) yet she was very happy all that day; and when she saw the men leave the field with the pitchforks which had caused her so much terror, she returned to her nest, and slept that night on some new hay which she had nibbled, and brought into her house to lay on. As soon as it was day, away ran careful Downy to the bank; she peeped through the hedge, and saw every thing in the garden looking very pleasant. So Miss Downy thought she should like to spend this day in the beautiful shady garden; in she went, and soon found it as charming as it looked; for the garden abounded in plenty of good things; there were peas, and beans, and potatoes, and young carrots, and beds of ripe red strawberries. Downy did nothing but eat and enjoy herself the whole day, and did not think of returning home that day, nor for many days afterwards, for she said to herself--'What occasion is there for me to go back to the meadow, where I have so much trouble to get food, for here is more than I could ever eat, and I have no trouble in getting it at all--and I am sure no mischief will happen to me here!' So she gave no thought of her nice house in the field, but amused herself by eating all the day long; till she grew quite fat, and Downy thought she was happier than ever she had been in the field, and she grew very indolent, for she now began to think that there was no occasion for her to work, but she said to herself, she would play all day; and here she shewed herself to be a very simple little mouse, (as it proved in what befel her). She had been living in the garden for nearly a month, when one fine sunshiny day, she had ventured nearer to the house than usual, and was lying reposing herself in the sun by a clod of dirt, near a rain-water butt, when she was disturbed by a noise near her, and to her horror she beheld the black cat with a fine kitten by her side, proceeding down the walk where she lay; to escape was almost impossible, even the attempt was vain, and hapless Downy gave herself up for lost. A month back, and she might have trusted to her own speed for escaping--but, alas! Downy had so long been used to do nothing but eat and enjoy herself, that she was no longer able to run as swiftly as she used to do; she dared not even move a step, and sat in an agony of hopeless despair. "Downy now lamented her folly in having left her safe retreat in the meadow: what would she now have given to have been in her own little house under the mole hill? and she bitterly regretted ever having been tempted to quit it, for there no cats ever came, and there she had lived in innocence and happiness, whilst now she was doomed to fall a victim to the merciless claws of a hungry cat, who would devour her alive: she lay breathless! not a limb did she move, scarce did she even draw her breath, for the cat approached within a yard of the spot where she laid, and----" "Oh! poor Downy! (cried Alfred,) how sorry I am!--but, mamma, did that wicked cat kill her? do, dear mamma, make haste and tell me."--"Why, Alfred," said his mother, "you would not wait for me to tell you whether she was killed or not: I am sure you could not feel sorry for the death of a _nasty brown mouse_; you hate mice, they are such little thieves."--Little Alfred blushed at what his mother said, for he remembered they were his own words, and said to his mother, "Dear mamma, I think I will never wish for the death of any thing again, and I am very sorry I had that mouse killed; I will never kill another mouse, if it was to eat all the cakes you mean to give me when I am a good boy." Mrs. Clifford not help smiling at her little boy, but went on.-- [Illustration] "The cat, as I said before, was close to the clod of earth on which luckless Downy stood, and when she believed her death certain, she had the inexpressible joy of finding that her motionless posture had been the means of saving her from the vigilant eyes of the cat, who passed on quite unconcerned without taking any notice of her prey. For an instant Downy could scarce credit her own eyes when she saw her enemy pass on; but fearing that if puss should return, she should not again escape so miraculously, she darted away as she hoped unseen, but, silly little thing! she had better have laid where she was, for the kitten beheld her as she ran, and sprung upon her. Poor Downy felt her claws, but exerting all her speed, she flew to the hedge--this friendly hedge which had so often been her refuge, and darting among the tangled roots of the hawthorn and ivy, left her pursuers far behind, and, exhausted with terror and fatigue, remained trembling and panting till she was half dead. Still she heard the mews of the disappointed kitten, and the angry purrs of the old cat--who sat watching about the bank for more than an hour, waiting to seize her if she ventured forth,[*] but that poor Downy was not in a condition to do, for her poor back still ached with the bruise the kitten had given her, and she felt in such a panic, she could not have stirred a step if she had seen a dozen cats. For two whole days poor little Downy thought she should have died, and when she was a little better and began to feel hungry, there was nothing for her to eat but hay seeds and ivy leaves, or the roots of the trees, and Downy, who had of late been used to such good fare, could not bear to eat such dry unpalatable food as this was. [Footnote *: The above-mentioned circumstance, improbable as it may appear, I myself was witness to in the garden not many paces from the door of the house; when the poor little mouse actually escaped the eyes of a cat and her kitten, who passed within a yard of the spot where it stood, by standing in that motionless manner on the top of a clod of earth, nor was it discovered till it left its station, and though caught by the kitten, yet it finally escaped unhurt to the garden hedge.] "When she used to spend her time in labour and industry, she eat the hardest fare with an excellent appetite, and was thankful and contented with the least bit of any thing she got, but now she turned away disgusted at the coarse food, and it was not until pinched by hunger, that she would eat any of it. And now Downy began to consider within herself, whether it would not have been much better and wiser for her to have returned back to her own house in the meadow, instead of living so long in idleness and luxury; and Downy found that idleness brings its own punishment sooner or later, for had she been at home she would not have been so frightened by the cat, or nearly killed by the kitten; or even if a cat had come near her nice nest, she would have run away much faster than she did now, for being then smaller and thinner, she was much nimbler; nor was her daintiness the least evil that attended her long indulgence, and this she felt more severely now she was ill and could not go out to find good food; she had suffered so much with pain and terror, that she resolved never to go into the garden again, excepting to get provisions when in want. With a sad and penitent heart Downy once more returned to her old habitation, but, alas! what was her grief on beholding it a complete ruin; her nice warm nest all destroyed, and the pretty green mound quite spoiled! Downy was sadly vexed, for the cruel hay-makers had with their pitchforks torn open the turf and scattered her soft bed all round on the grass. She stood gazing with anguish on the desolate scene before her; here was all her spring work entirely ruined, and now she was ill and had no where to lay her head. 'Ah!' thought she, 'if I had not spent so much time in doing nothing but eating and playing, I should have escaped the danger of being caught by the cat, and should not have been hurt by the kitten, besides which I think by this time I might have made up my nest, and have been quite comfortable again. She was hardly able to work, and what was far worse, she felt very great reluctance to begin her laborious task, so much harm had her living so long in indolence done her, as it does to every one who indulges in it. Remember, my little Alfred, that idleness is the root of all evil, as you may see in the case of Downy:--now which do you think was the happiest and best,--careful and industrious Downy making her house, and busily procuring food for herself against the winter,--or careless idle Downy doing nothing but playing and enjoying herself in the garden, eating the fruit, and sleeping among the flowers? now tell me, which do you like best of the two?" Alfred considered for a minute or two, and then said, "Why, dear mamma, though I should have liked to have eaten the nice things in the garden, and lived among the flowers, yet I see that it would have been better for Downy if she had always remained in the field and worked hard; but I am afraid I should have been as silly as Downy, and not liked work." "That is what I was afraid of, therefore, my dear child, I thought it best to shew you how wrong she was in indulging herself in that manner; and be assured that, whoever does so, will fall into misfortune. "Necessity obliged Downy at last to overcome her extreme reluctance to work, and she once more began to look out for a proper place for her new habitation; she visited all the green mounds in the meadow, but alas! they were occupied by the ant, and poor Downy was quite out of patience--and at last she was, though with reluctance, forced to take up her lodgings in the side of the garden bank, quite at the farther end, where no cats ever came, and at last, finding it was to her own interest to work, she resolved not to be idle any more, and laboured as hard as ever she had done, and soon completed her new dwelling, having made it a most commodious habitation, in which she lived very happily all the summer. When the harvest time arrived, then was Downy very busy; she went into a neighbouring wheat field, and there she made a good harvest for herself, and laid in a handsome store of grain for her winter supply. In her journeys to the corn-fields she met many mice, who, like her, were gathering in their winter stock of provisions; but Downy would not stay in the corn-fields, because she remembered the fate of her nest while she was gone in the garden, so she came home very regularly every night. [Illustration] "Nothing of any consequence happened to Miss Downy till the latter end of the Autumn; for some days she had missed her provisions, but could not account for it in any way, and was at a loss to know who it could be that devoured the fruits of her daily labour, but one morning when she returned from gleaning in the stubble-fields, she was greatly surprised, on entering her house, to behold a young stranger busily employed in breakfasting in her granery; she stopped at the entrance of her house to examine her visitor, and was struck by the beauty of his form; he was of a reddish colour, his hair very long and thick, his breast and fore-feet of a pale buff, and his belly white; he had a nice round face, and small oval ears, with quick lively brown eyes and long handsome black whiskers; in short, he was the prettiest mouse Downy had ever seen, though he was a sad little thief, and had eaten a great deal of her store. He appeared at first much disconcerted at being disturbed and discovered in his depredation, and looked round on every side for an opening to escape at, but none appearing, he stood still, and scratched his ear with one of his hind feet, assuming as unconcerned an air as he could possibly put on; Downy was not sorry she had discovered who was the thief, but she soon forgave him, though she could not help thinking he was a very dishonest mouse to come every day and rob her as he had done, but he was so pretty, and made so humble an apology for his intruding into her house, that she could not find it in her heart to be angry with him long, and they soon became very good friends, and at last he proposed her taking him as a partner, which the simple Downy agreed to without hesitation, and shared her house and provisions with the handsome young stranger, who behaved with great decorum for some time, and was very careful to mind what Downy said to him, but at last he began to throw off his restraint, and was often getting into mischief in spite of the sage advice of Downy, who took great pains to warn him from such evil practices; but Silket would frisk in the garden, robbing the newly-planted bean and pea crops with the greatest audacity, not minding what careful Downy said, who represented to him the danger he run of being killed by cats, or mousehunts, or caught in traps; but Silket, like a naughty mouse as he was, only laughed and made light of her fears; and when at last she appeared vexed at his disobedience, he promised never to go into the garden again; but, like many more, he broke his promise directly he was out of her sight; and beside this, he was sadly idle, and was I am sorry to say, much fonder of play than work, and Downy was obliged to remonstrate with him on such bad behaviour, and said, 'Silket, how can you expect me to work for both you and myself? you are a sad partner. Silket was very humble, and promised to be more industrious for the future, and that very afternoon he ransacked a new crop of peas, which the gardener had sown that day, and came home laden with the spoils; next day he brought home hoard of nuts from the garden, and Downy thought if he would but continue so good, she should be very happy, for her Silket was a very pretty creature, and she was very fond of him. But pretty creatures are not always the best, as she soon found to her cost, for when the weather set in cold, then Mr. Silket refused to work, or even to stir out of the house, but lay rolled round like a ball in the soft hay, and slept, only just getting up to eat; and Downy was much grieved, for she feared their stock of food would never last out the winter, if he did not help her make some addition to it, but Silket begged her not to be under any concern, for there was plenty for them both; and on her again expressing her fears on the subject, he gave her two or three severe bites on her ear, and squeaked most vehemently, shewing his anger at being found fault with, and then laid down again with a sulky air of displeasure; while poor Downy almost broken-hearted, slowly and full of sorrow, left her house, and strolled along the side of the bank quite disconsolate, and she resolved never to go back again to her ungrateful husband, who had treated her so unkindly, but leave him in quiet possession of her dwelling. "Simple little Downy! she might have known beforehand how he would have treated her, as she was so well acquainted with his propensity to stealing, and she was a very foolish mouse to take for a partner one who shewed, from the first, that he liked better to play about and steal, than to labour and get an honest living. Downy ought to have considered all this, but she thought him so pretty, that she forgot all his misdeeds, and very imprudently shared her food and house with him. It is true, that he promised very fair, and said he would work for her, and that she should have nothing to do but just to eat, and sleep, and play; and Downy (who did not think that such a pretty soft creature could tell so many stories) believed all he said, and this was the consequence of her imprudence. "So you see, Alfred, that we must not always judge by appearances, because I know rather a pretty creature, with bright blue eyes, who, like Silket, can steal, and tell fibs, and who likes to play better than learn a lesson and read." Alfred coloured up, for he knew all along that his mother meant he was like Silket; so he felt a little ashamed, and did not make any answer; and his mother continued her story. "Poor little Downy laid bewailing her sad misfortune in the cold damp grass, determining never to go home to her little tyrant again, so angry was she at his cruel conduct.--'Ah! foolish mouse that I was, (said she), why did not I continue to live by myself when I was so happy! I might have known how he would have behaved to me, but I will never return to him, he may enjoy by himself that food which he loves so much more than he does me, ungrateful that he is!' In this manner she was uttering her complaints, when she heard a soft padding step behind her, and a mournful noise made her turn round, and she beheld her penitent Silket, (for it was him) who advancing with a sorrowful air, humbly besought her forgiveness, and rubbed his velvet cheek in an imploring manner against her's; his lively brown eyes were now troubled, and very sorrowful. Downy could not resist his beseeching looks, but forgave him for all his past offences, and took him once more into favour, on his promising to be good in future and never to bite her ears or tail again. Silket was very sorry for his late bad behaviour, and he resolved to be very good and do so no more, for he did love Downy very much, though he loved himself better. He accompanied her home with great affection, and they were happier for some weeks than they had ever been before; he was so attentive and kind, and seemed to study only to please her; he spent day after day in searching among the dry leaves in the garden for filberts; and when he could not procure any thing else, he brought her crocus roots, and carrots out of the garden. One evening he had been out later than usual, he did not see Downy's bright eyes looking out from among the dry leaves and moss for his return, and he was fearful some ill had befallen her. As he approached the house, he thought he heard several little squeaking sounds, and on entering his nest, found that Downy in his absence had become the mother of four ittle helpless blind mice, which she was suckling. Silket was overjoyed, he licked the little ones with much affection, and behaved with the greatest tenderness to Downy; he presented her the filbert he had brought home, and praised the beauty of his little family, though none but himself could see that they possessed any, for little mice are very ugly till they can open their eyes, and have got fur on them; for like puppies, and kittens, and rabbits, they are all born blind, and do not open their eyes for many days after. No mouse could behave better than Silket now did; he would not suffer Downy to stir out in the cold, on any account, for, though it was the latter end of March, the weather was unusually severe, and the frost very hard; Silket was out almost the whole day searching for nice food for Downy, and getting soft moss to keep his young ones warm,--but one day he grieved Downy much and did a deal of mischief,--he wanted something to cover his little ones with, and what did he do, but went into the garden to the hedge where Mrs. Ball had hung out her linen to dry, and the wicked Silket gnawed and bit one of the old lady's white aprons almost to pieces, carrying home as many of the rags as his mouth would hold, to his house. Downy was sadly vexed when she heard what he had been doing, and she was forced to read him a very long lecture on being so mischievous, while Mr. Mischief amused himself by laying the rags out to the greatest advantage, admiring the white quilt he had brought home for his little ones' bed, and secretly resolving to go and fetch the remaining fragments, and though he saw how grave Downy looked, he did not think he had done so much harm in biting the old lady's apron; so he cast a cunning eye at Downy, to see if she was observing him, for he wanted sadly to get the rest of the apron, only he did not like to disoblige her commands, and get another scolding; but she saw what he was after, and she begged him not to go, for she said, she knew that such mischievous ways would come to no good end, and that he would get caught in a trap, or killed by some cat, or fall into some great danger, 'And, (added she,) what should I do, Silket, left with these four helpless little mice to provide for?' Silket immediately saw the impropriety of his conduct, and he never spoiled any more of good Mrs. Ball's linen, though he often came in the way of it. The poor old lady was greatly disturbed at the misfortune which had befallen her best muslin apron, and threatened to have the ratcatcher's dogs and ferrets to hunt the garden and the hedge, if any thing more was destroyed; so that it was a good thing that Silket took Downy's advice in that respect, or he would certainly have been killed for his pains. "At the end of three weeks the little mice began to be quite lively, and to grow very pretty little creatures; they much resembled their father in his mischeivous inclinations, and it needed all Downy's prudent management to keep them in order, for they would frisk out of their nest, and scud about in the meadow, going so for out of sight, and staying so late, that Downy was in a great fright lest any mishap should befall them, as to Silket, he seemed to take great delight in their pranks. They would lay on the bank, enjoying themselves and basking in the sun, almost all day long. When it was fine weather, sometimes, one bolder than the rest would run up a little tree not more than a yard high, and clinging to the top, look down with triumph on his companions; then, if he heard the dead leaves shake, the timid little thing whisked down, and away they all four scudded, hiding themselves in the holes of the hedge, till they thought the danger past. Downy now began to feel the cares of a family, and she was often much grieved at the disobedient behaviour of the little mice. Velvet was the only good-behaved one, and she was bad enough in all reason. They were incorrigible little thieves, which quality they inherited from their father, for no sooner were their parents out of the way, than they found their way to the granary, and though Downy and Silket were all day busied in getting food for them, and fed them with the best of every thing, the wicked little things stole the corn, and eat even more than they wanted; they grew so fat and sleek and wanton, that all the field-mice in the meadow declared they were quite spoiled, and Downy ought to keep them under more restraint, and punish them when they behaved ill. As they grew older they grew worse and worse; Downy had warned them of all the dangers which they ran in roaming so far from home, and told them of the cat that haunted the garden, and of the mousehunt, and the great white owl, but these bad mice paid no attention to what their kind good mother said to them. "Among other things, she begged them not to go near the brick traps which the gardener had set among the beans and peas, to entice simple mice to eat the bait, and then they were sure to be killed, by the trap falling on them; but they did not regard those prudent counsels in the least, and a day or two after, they all sallied out into the garden, (with Whitefoot, their leader) in search of something nice. After they had rummaged the ground under the nut-tree for some time without finding a single nut, they came to a row of late-sown peas; these they made a terrible havoc amongst, regardless of their mother's advice. They were going home, well pleased with their regale, when, unluckily, Whitefoot espied a parcel of nice wheat, laid out very carefully under a sort of brick house; now Whitefoot run all round it and thought it stood too firm to be knocked down, and as he was rather greedy, he determined to venture under, and eat up the wheat; he was in such a hurry, for fear that either of his companions should come and want to share his prize, that, in his haste, he pushed down a bit of a stick which held the brick up--down it fell, and hapless Whitefoot was crushed to death in an instant. [Illustration] "This was the effects of his disobedience to his mother. "The noise of the fallen brick alarmed the timid little mice; away they ran as fast as they could, nor did they once stop to look behind to see what had become of their brother Whitefoot, who was found next morning by the gardener, under the brick, and was given to the black cat to eat. Now had he minded what his mother had told him the day before, he would have been alive and frisking about with the rest. See, Alfred, what comes of disobedience and greediness." said his mother. "Yes, mamma, (said Alfred) I will remember how poor Whitefoot was served, and not disobey you, though you know, I could not be killed by a brick trap as he was." "No, Alfred, but you might get hurt in a hundred different ways by going where I bid you not--recollect when I had so often told you not to play with the fire, how you burnt your hand, by lighting bits of paper; and if I had not come in, you would have been burnt to death." "Yes, mamma, and it hurt me so much, I have never done it since." "No more would Whitefoot have gone near a trap again, if he had only broken one of his limbs, instead of being killed, but he should have minded what was said at first. But you shall hear how the others behaved after his death. "Downy was much shocked at the death of her poor Whitefoot, and she told the other little mice to take warning by their brother's sad fate, and not go near any more brick traps, but be contented with the food which she and their father provided for them. This they promised to do, and they were very sorry for the loss of Whitefoot, who was the most nimble of them all, and at the head of all their pranks, for he was usually the ring-leader and the most daring of the party. "For a few days they were more orderly, but their bad habits returned again, and they forgot all their promises, and were as naughty as ever they had been--even Silket was shocked at them, and was forced to chastise the two most unruly, by biting their ears. Wilful run away, and came to a most untimely death.--He invaded, one night, a bee-hive, and made great havoc in the stores of honey, eating the honey-combs, and destroying the work of the poor bees--but at last he was punished severely, for the bees, enraged at his lawless conduct, came in a body, and stung their enemy in a thousand different places, so that, unable to escape, he died in great agony." "And did bees ever sting a mouse to death in that manner, mamma?" asked Alfred. "Yes, Alfred, and if you are a good boy, I will read you a long account of bees, and how they build their cells, and make their wax and honey." "But, mamma, there is nothing about their killing a mouse in it, is there?" "Yes, my dear child, I will tell you all about it one day, but let me finish my story first." [Illustration] "There were now only two young mice left, Velvet and Sprightly. Velvet was so shocked at the bad end which her two brothers had come to, that she resolved not to be naughty again, but try by her good conduct, to make amends for her thoughtless behaviour--but when she told Sprightly of her intentions, the wicked Sprightly ridiculed her, and said she should go and seek her fortune in the meadow and garden, where no one could scold her, and where she might do as she pleased; and with this resolution she set off, and they never saw her again; for having no house to go to, the white owl saw her as he was flying out one evening, and soon made an end of Miss Sprightly, who had better have staid at home with Velvet, and her father and mother. Velvet was the comfort and pride of her parents; she helped them in all their labours, and assisted them in enlarging their house, and providing food against the winter. As she encreased in goodness, she grew prettier, and every one admired her, she was so clean, and her skin was as soft as satin, and looked quite bright and glossy. Velvet was generally up and abroad before sunrise, and enjoyed being out in the dew; she always returned home loaded with grain; and they were all quite happy and comfortable; for Silket was very good, and Downy had nothing to make her uncomfortable, being blessed with a good husband and a good daughter. "But a sad accident happened which deprived poor Downy of all means of providing for her wants, and gave Silket and Velvet the greatest pain and uneasiness on her account. One day, Downy had been by herself in the garden, and in passing under a gooseberry bush, she did not see a trap which had been set to catch little birds, and it caught one of her poor little feet, and she lay struggling in the greatest pain, and shrieking lamentably--at last by a violent effort, she got loose, but with the loss of one of her fore-feet. Sadly wounded, and crying piteously, she at last gained her home, and Silket and Velvet found her exhausted with pain, and almost dying; they were greatly grieved at the misfortune, and lamented bitterly the sad fate of poor Downy, and they feared greatly lest they should lose her, but good nursing and great care at last restored her, in some measure, after which Velvet and Silket would never permit her to go out to get food, but always brought the best for her, and she lived quite at her ease, only she never was so strong as before. [Illustration] "Velvet strove by all the means in her power, to make her mother happy; that she might not feel her misfortune so severely; and she succeeded so well that Downy became quite cheerful and contented, and never complained or repined at her lameness. "The Summer passed happily away, but the sudden death of poor Silket, once more filled them with grief. The innocent little creature was sleeping under the nut-trees in the garden, one warm morning in September; he had been collecting nuts to carry home, but being tired, he laid down to repose himself in the sun, and unfortunately fell asleep, nor did he wake till he found himself in the grasp of the merciless black cat, who springing upon her defenceless prey, strangled him in an instant. There was no fond Downy near, nor affectionate Velvet, to receive his last sighs, nor give him aid. The evening came, but no Silket returned to the disconsolate Downy; another day passed, but they saw nothing of Silket, and they were at last certain that he must have been killed. This heavy blow almost overcame Downy, and it was with the greatest difficulty, Velvet could persuade her to eat and be comforted; but every thing around them served to recall the image, and remind them of the loss, of their beloved Silket, and this gave them both great pain. At last, Velvet, without saying any thing to her mother, stole away while she was asleep, and having found a pretty spot, some way from farmer Ball's land, she made a new house, much more convenient than the one they then lived in; it was a long time before it was completed, but when it was quite finished, and well stocked with grain, she brought Downy to see it: it was situated in a pretty garden, on a beautiful sloping green bank, under the shade of a fir tree, not many yards from a nice white brick house, the front of which was covered with vines and wall-fruit; there were pots of balsams and geraniums, placed on the beds opposite the windows and glass door." [Illustration] "Why, mamma, (exclaimed Alfred, suddenly looking up in his mother's face,) that was just like our garden, and our house." and he ran to the window, and looked out into the garden, saying with great vivacity, "Yes, mamma, it is the same; it is our garden with the fir-tree and the bank, and all the flowers, exactly the same!" And he turned an inquiring eye unto his mother. Mrs. Clifford smiled, but made no reply to his exclamations of surprise, and went on as if she had not heard him. "In this quiet pretty spot they settled themselves, and Downy hoped to spend the rest of her days in quiet; she wanted for nothing, for Velvet provided for all her wants. Downy thought, if she should ever be deprived of her, it would break her heart, and she must soon be starved to death, as she could not work now, as she had done formerly. These thoughts made her often very sorrowful, and Velvet thought she seemed to droop, and lose her spirits and appetite, so Velvet thought to get something nice to please her; she stole into the house one day, when nobody saw her, and after some little time, she found her way into the cupboard, where she smelt something very nice, and beheld a new plum-cake. 'Ah!' said she, 'how my sick mother will like a bit of this cake!' so having made a hearty meal herself off it, she carried away the rest for her mother, not thinking she had done any harm." "Ah, mamma, (cried Alfred with tears in his eyes,) how I wish I had not set the trap to catch that good Velvet; she might have had my cake, and welcome, if I had but known what she took it for, how sorry I am! I wish Velvet was alive again, with all my heart." "Did not I tell you, Alfred, you would be sorry for killing the _nasty brown mouse_, before the day was over." "Oh! yes, dear mamma, and so I am indeed; I wish you had told me the story before, and then I should not have set the trap.--And so I suppose poor Downy will die, because she has no one to feed her." "Well, Alfred, shall I finish my story? "Yes, if you please, mamma, but you don't know any more of it, do you?" "Only this, when Downy found Velvet did not return, she died of grief. Thus ended the LIFE AND ADVENTURES OF THE FIELD-MOUSE." "Ah, mamma," cried Alfred, bursting into tears, "what a cruel boy I have been! I have killed both Downy and Velvet--I will never be so cruel again." Mrs. Clifford, charmed with the sensibility of her little boy, kissed him most tenderly, saying, "Dry your tears, my sweet Alfred, and resolve not to be so desirous of the death of a little animal again. Though it is very necessary to kill them sometimes, or they would soon destroy all our food and clothes; still when we are forced from necessity to kill any thing, we should do it with as much humanity as we can, and never inflict on them unnecessary pain. I should myself have been forced to set the trap for Velvet, only I did not like to see my little Alfred, merely from revenge, wishing so eagerly for the death of a poor mouse, who did not know it was doing any harm in eating the cake." Alfred kissed his mother, and thanked her for her kindness in telling him the story; and wiping his tears away, went into the garden to play till tea was ready. THE END. Dean and Munday, Printers, Threadneedle-street. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Errors and Inconsistencies (noted by transcriber) Spellings such as "recal" and "befel", and "eat" as a past-tense form, are unchanged. The author almost always uses "lay" (present) for "lie", and "laid" for "lay" (past); no attempt was made to correct these forms. and sat off to look for more provisions she sat off to look for a proper situation [_both unchanged; "set off" occurs only once_] her mound was all covered with flowers [monnd] her nice warm nest all destroyed [destoyed] will fall into misfortune [misfortue] his intruding into her house [kouse] he brought home hoard of nuts [_text unchanged: missing "a"?_] and Downy (who did not think ... so many stories) [(and Downy who did not ...)] four ittle helpless blind mice [_error uncorrected because it was irresistible_] which she was suckling. [suckling,] to get the rest of the apron, [_comma invisible_] his mischeivous inclinations [_spelling unchanged_] This was the effects of his disobedience [_text unchanged_] ... looked quite bright and glossy. [glossy,] ... up and abroad before sunrise, [sunrise.] [_these matching errors come at consecutive line-ends_] exactly the same!" [same?"] 
27346	----	GRANDMOTHER PUSS, Or The Grateful Mouse. McLoughlin Brothers. New-York. * * * * * * * * * GRANDMOTHER PUSS, or, THE GRATEFUL MOUSE. I wish that all the little boys and girls who read this story could _see_ Grandmother Puss; but as they cannot, I will tell you something about her. She is a very large, and handsome old cat of grave aspect, and solemn manners. Her face is black, with white marks around the eyes, and across the nose, which make her look as if she wore spectacles; and she has a grandson called Peter, who lives with her. When Peter was but six weeks old, he was left an orphan; for some very, very wicked dog had killed his mother! Grandmother Puss at once took the lonely kitten to her heart, with many tears, sharing her milk with him; and as he grew larger, giving him the fattest and most tender mice, she could catch. I think she spoiled him, as other Grandmothers do. He never watched for mice, and did nothing to earn his own living, but passed his time chiefly in chasing his own tail, and other vain and foolish amusements. Now, there was an old gray rat who lived in a hole, in the cellar. He was always up to some kind of mischief--had spoiled a great deal of milk, and carried off all the cheese he could get his paws on--once he was even seen trying to get away with an egg, which he was rolling gently toward his hole! He did so much harm, and was so very knowing and sly, that at last Grandmother Puss declared, with tears in her eyes, that she would neither taste, touch, nor handle a single mouse, until she had caught the old gray robber. And she kept her word. She sometimes sat a whole night, watching for the old rogue, but although she often saw him, she could never catch him. There was also a cunning little mouse, who lived near by. He was called Cooky, because he was once seen lugging off a whole cooky, to give to his lame sister. Now, the wicked old rat tried nearly as hard to catch poor Cooky as Grandmother Puss did to get the old rat; and Cooky was more afraid of the grim old rat, than he was of the cat herself. One night Cooky saw the rat at one end of the cellar, very busy, eating a piece of cheese that he had stolen. So Cooky betook himself to the other end, where he had seen some fine apples, and he was very fond of apples, indeed. So he crept softly up to the heap, and was just about to taste a fine, juicy one, when the cat saw him. "I said, I would not touch, or taste a mouse," she said, "but I did _not_ say I would not scare one, and I cannot see these nice apples spoiled--so here goes." With these words, she made a rush for the mouse, making all the noise she could; which is not usual with cats, you know, which go very softly, in order not to scare the mice before they can catch them. Cooky, of course, darted away to his hole in a hury, and there peeped out carefully. "Now," said he to himself, "that cat has a kind look; I've a good mind to try, and make a bargain with her, so that I can get something to eat once in a while. Perhaps I can make her promise not to eat me, but it will do no harm to try, and everybody knows that Grandmother Puss is a cat of her word." So just as Puss was about to start for the other end of the cellar, for a tussle with the old rat, she heard a small squeaking voice, which said, "Please, Grandmother Puss, I want to make a bargain with you." "A bargain with _me!_" said Puss, looking about in surprise for the small voice. "What do you mean?" "Why, I want to come into the cellar whenever I like, and eat whatever scraps I can find, besides taking away a little for my poor, lame sister. Now, if you will let me do so, and promise not to hurt me, I will do anything in the world that you ask me to do--that is _right_--and that I am able to do." [Illustration: The Old Rat Stealing Cheese.] This was a big speech for a little mouse, but Grandmother Puss only thought how Cooky could help her in the matter of catching the old gray rat. She turned it over in her mind for some time, keeping one eye on Cooky, who, in his eagerness, had come outside his hole, and at last said: "Do you know Mr. Gray Rat, Cooky?" "Yes, Madame," said Cooky, with great politeness. "Do you know where he is now?" pursued Pussy. "Yes, Madame, I think I do," replied Cooky, growing bolder every minute. "Well," said Grandmother Puss, solemnly, "that rat has caused my good mistress a great deal of trouble, and if you can in any way tempt him within my reach, so that I can catch him, I promise never to harm you, or to allow my grandson, Peter, to do so." "It's a bargain," said Cooky, "you hide here behind this box, and when you see me run by, with the rat after me, you can give one spring, and catch the rogue; but please be quick about it, or he may catch _me_." [Illustration: Death of the Old Rat.] So Puss hid behind the box; Cooky went as near old Gray Rat's hole as he dared, then, giving a frightened squeak, as though he had just caught sight of his enemy, turned and ran with all his speed toward the place where Puss lay concealed. The old rat heard Cooky's squeak, and was after him in a moment squealing out, "I'll have you now, master Cooky, and you'll make me a nice supper." But long before he could reach Cooky, Grandmother Puss pounced upon the gray old rascal, and tore him to pieces in a trice, though I fear she found her prize too tough for dinner! Then Puss told Cooky to come and drink milk from her dish, which he did, and then ran off, well pleased, to his hole, taking some bread with him to feed his poor, lame sister. Although Grandmother Puss thought her grandson. Peter, much too lazy to try and catch Cooky, still she thought it safer to forbid him to go near him, or to disturb him in any way. Now Peter didn't want to catch Cooky, or any other mouse, so long as he was free to do so. But as soon as Grandmother Puss told him to let little Cooky alone, and never to go near her, or frighten her; Peter was at once seized with a violent wish to do that very thing. I am sorry to say, that many little children who should know how to behave much better than Peter; very often feel the same desire to do what they know is wrong. So Peter now thought that Cooky must be the sweetest and tenderest mouse alive. The more he thought of him, the more his mouth watered for him. He did not believe his Grandma would punish him much, even if she found him out. He even tried to persuade himself that his Grandma was merely fattening Cooky up for her own use; and intended to eat him herself as soon as he was in good condition! This went on for some time, until at last Peter's desire to taste Cooky grew too strong for him. So one day, he went softly down the stairs and hid himself, to wait for Cooky's daily visit to the box. He thought he was alone in the cellar, but he was mistaken--Grandma Puss was not far off, watching for any stray rat who might come that way. She saw Peter, and wondered what he was about. She soon found out. In a short time poor Cooky came out to get his dinner, with no thought of danger in his mind. Quick as a flash, the wicked Peter grabbed him! Luckily for Cooky, Peter thought he would worry his victim a little before eating him, as cats often do; and so while he was letting poor Cooky run a little way, and then catching him again; Grandma Puss, who had seen the whole thing, crept slyly up, and in a moment, the astonished Peter was rolling upon the floor, from the effects of a box on the ear from his enraged Grandmother. [Illustration: Grandma Puss, punishes Peter.] Cooky, of course, got back to his hole with great speed. He was not much hurt, and as soon as he felt himself safe, he looked out, and saw Puss giving Peter a cuffing and shaking that did his little heart good; and which Peter remembered as long as he lived. Grandma then told him, that in future he must catch his own mice, and as that gave him plenty to do, and kept wicked thoughts out of his mind, he grew up to be an ornament to his race. He is a smart cat now, catches mice for his Grandma as well as himself; and is much thought of in the very highest circles of society. THE END. * * * * * * * * * Errata darted away to his hole in a hury, [spelling unchanged] he grew up to be an ornament to his race ["an / an" at line break] Grandma Puss, punishes Peter [comma as shown] 
27456	----	[The original book had illustrations on almost all pages. Their location has not been individually marked. The inconsistent hyphenization of "cuttle-fish" is in the original.] JAPANESE FAIRY TALE SERIES NO. 6 THE MOUSE'S WEDDING. Griffith Farran & Co., London & Sydney, N.S.W. Kobunsha : Tokyo THE MOUSE'S WEDDING. A long time ago there was a white mouse called Kanemochi, servant of Daikoku, the God of Wealth. His wife's name was Onaga. Both Kanemochi and his wife were very discreet. Never in the day time nor even at night did they venture into the parlor or kitchen, and so they lived in tranquility free from danger of meeting the cat. Their only son Fukutaro also was of a gentle disposition. When he was old enough to take a wife, his parents concluded to get him one, transfer their property to him, and seek retirement. Fortunately, one of their relatives named Chudayu had a lovely daughter called Hatsuka. Accordingly a go-between was employed to enter into negotiations with Chudayu respecting the marriage. When the young folks were allowed to see each other, neither party objected, and so presents were exchanged. The bridegroom sent the bride the usual articles: an obi or belt, silk cotton, dried bonito, dried cuttle fish, white flax, sea-weed, and _sake_ or rice wine. The bride sent the bridegroom in like manner: a linen _kami-shimo_, dried bonito, dried cuttle-fish, white flax, sea-weed, fish, and _sake_; thus confirming the marriage promise. A lucky day was then chosen, and every thing prepared for the bride's removal to her new home, her clothes were cut out and made, and needed articles purchased. So Chudayu was kept busy preparing for the wedding. The parents made their daughter Hatsuka blacken her teeth as a sign that she would not marry a second husband; they also carefully taught her that she must obey her husband, be dutiful to her father-in-law, and love her mother-in-law. Kanemochi on his part cleaned up his house inside and out, made preparation for the marriage ceremony and feast, assembled his relatives and friends, and sent out many of his servants to meet the bride on her way, and to give notice of her approach, that all might be prepared for her reception. Soon the bride came in her palanquin with her boxes carried before her, and a long train of attendants following her. Kanemochi went out as far as the gate to meet her, and ushered her into the parlor. At a signal from the go-between the bride and bridegroom, to confirm the marriage bond, exchanged between themselves three cups of _sake_, drinking three times from each cup in turns. When this ceremony, the "three times three" was ended, the guests exchanged cups with the bride in token of good will, and thus the union was consummated. Shortly afterwards the bride, her husband, and his parents visited her home. In the evening the bride returned home with her husband and his parents with whom she lived in harmony, contented, prosperous and happy, and much to be congratulated. Printed by the Kobunsha in Tokyo, Japan The Kobunsha's Japanese Fairy Tale Series. 1. Momotaro or Little Peachling. 2. The Tongue Cut Sparrow. 3. The Battle of the Monkey and the Crab. 4. The Old Man who made the Dead Trees Blossom. 5. Kachi-Kachi Mountain. 6. The Mouse's Wedding. 7. The Old Man and the Devils. 8. Urashima, the Fisher-Boy. 9. The Eight-Headed Serpent. 10. The Matsuyama Mirror. 11. The Hare of Inaba. 12. The Cub's Triumph. 13. The Silly Jelly-Fish. 14. The Princes, Fire-flash and Fire-fade. 15. My Lord Bag-O'-Rice. 16. The Wooden Bowl. _Copyright reserved_ 
29447	----	images generously made available by Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 29447-h.htm or 29447-h.zip: (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29447/29447-h/29447-h.htm) or (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/29447/29447-h.zip) Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See http://www.archive.org/details/perezmouse00colo2 PEREZ THE MOUSE by PADRE LOUIS COLOMA and LADY MORETON PEREZ THE MOUSE [Illustration: Perez the Mouse took off his hat and made a very low bow] PEREZ THE MOUSE Adapted from the Spanish of PADRE LUIS COLOMA by LADY MORETON [Silhouette] With Illustrations by George Howard Vyse London: John Lane The Bodley Head New York: Dodd, Mead & Company First published in 1914 Reprinted - 1918 Reprinted - 1927 Reprinted - 1929 Reprinted - 1935 Printed in Great Britain by Western Printing Services Ltd., Bristol LIST OF COLOURED PLATES Perez the Mouse took off his hat and made a very low bow _Frontispiece_ King Bubi the First _face p._ vi The Oldest of Court Doctors 9 Miss Stilton, the Governess 11 A tiny little mouse in a straw hat and slippers and big gold spectacles 15 Adolphus studying for Diplomacy 16 Adelaide made tea 17 The King sneezed very hard and turned into the most darling little mouse you ever saw 18 Perez the Mouse stopped at some crossway 22 Mrs. Mouse was embroidering a beautiful smoking cap for her husband 24 Adolphus playing cards at the Jockey Club 25 The Guards silently formed up ready to fire 28 Ferocious mice .. armed to the teeth 29 The Order of the Golden Fleece 32 The King and Perez knelt down too 33 The dreadful Don Pedro 36 Elvira recited 40 [Illustration: King Bubi the First] PEREZ THE MOUSE Once upon a time there lived a king called Bubi the First, who was very kind to poor children and mice. For the children he built a factory for making dolls and cardboard horses, for the benefit of the mice he made wise laws to stop cats catching them, and absolutely forbade the use of mouse-traps. Bubi began to reign when he was only six years old, under the care of his mother, who was very good and clever, and who watched over him and guided his steps, as good children are guided by their Guardian Angel. [Illustration: The oldest of the Court Doctors] Bubi was a darling little boy, and when on great days they put on his gold crown and his embroidered robes, the gold of his crown was not brighter than his hair nor the ermine of his robes softer than his cheeks and hands. He was just like a little Dresden china figure which had been put to sit on a throne instead of standing on the chimney piece. One day while the King was eating his bread and milk, one of his teeth began to wobble. There was a great fuss and the Court doctors arrived in a hurry. * They were all agreed that His Majesty had begun to change his teeth, and at length they settled to pull out the loose one. They wanted the King to have laughing gas, as he did when his hair was cut, as he always fidgeted so, but Bubi was a brave little boy and made up his mind to have it out with nothing. The oldest of the Court doctors tied a bit of red silk round the tooth, and then gave a tweak, and he pulled so cleverly that, while the King was making a face, out came the tooth as round and white as a little pearl. Then there was another fuss as to what was to be done with it, but Bubi's mother, who, as we have said was a very wise Queen and very loyal to old customs, settled that the King should write a very polite letter and put it with the tooth in an envelope under his pillow that night, which has always been the proper thing to do ever since the world began, and no one has ever known Perez the Mouse forget to come and fetch the tooth and leave a lovely present in its place. [Illustration: Miss Stilton, the Governess] King Bubi found writing that letter a dreadful task, but he managed really quite well in the end, and only inked all his fingers, the tip of his nose, his left ear, his right shoe and his bib. He went to bed very early that evening, and ordered that all the lights should be left in his room. He put the envelope under his pillow and sat up in bed, determined to keep awake to see Perez the Mouse, even if he had to wait all night. [Silhouette] Perez the Mouse was a long time coming, so the little King began to make up a little speech to say to him when he did arrive. After a bit Bubi began to open his eyes very wide, fighting against the miller who was trying to make him shut them; but they did shut at last, and the little boy slipped down into the warm bed-clothes, his head on the pillow, with one arm over it, as a little bird tucks its head under its wing when it goes to sleep. Suddenly he felt something very soft just tickling his forehead, and, sitting up quickly, he saw in front of him, standing on the pillow, a tiny little mouse in a straw hat and slippers and big gold spectacles; a red satchel was slung across his back. [Illustration: A tiny little mouse in a straw hat and slippers and big gold spectacles] King Bubi stared at him in astonishment, and Perez the Mouse, seeing that His Majesty was awake, took off his hat and made a very low bow, waiting to be spoken to. But the King said nothing, because he had quite forgotten all he had made up to say, and after thinking and thinking he faltered out at last 'Good night.' * Perez answered with a low bow, 'God give your Majesty a very good one.' * These civil speeches quite broke the ice, and the King and the mouse became the greatest friends. * It was easy to see that Perez was a mouse who was accustomed to polite society, and to run about on soft carpets, as he had such very good manners. * It was wonderful what a lot of things he could talk about which made him a very pleasant companion. * He had travelled through all the pipes and drains of the capital, and in the Royal Library alone he had eaten up three books in less than a week. * He talked too about his family. He had two quite grown-up daughters, Adelaide and Elvira, and a son, nearly grown up, called Adolphus, who was studying for diplomacy in the drawer where the Minister of State kept his most secret notes. He did not say much about Mrs. Mouse, and the little King somehow fancied that she was rather vulgar. [Illustration: Adolphus studying for Diplomacy] His Majesty listened to all this with his mouth open, from time to time he put out his hand to try and catch Perez by the tail. * But each time the mouse gave a sort of whisk and placed his tail out of reach, without being in the least rude. [Illustration: Adelaide made Tea] It was getting late, and the King forgot to dismiss him; so Mr. Mouse cleverly hinted that he had to go that same night to a street not far off to fetch the tooth of a very poor little boy called Giles. It was rather a difficult, dangerous journey, because near there lived a very wicked cat called Don Pedro. The King at once wanted to go too, and begged Perez to take him. The mouse stood thinking it over and twisting his whiskers; the responsibility was very great, and moreover he was obliged to go back to his own house to fetch the present for little Giles. The King said he would like to go and see the mouse's home, which so much flattered Perez that he at once offered him a cup of tea and agreed to take him to see little Giles. Perez the Mouse lived underneath a grocer's shop, near a big pile of Gruyere cheeses which supplied the whole family with breakfast, dinner and tea. Overjoyed, King Bubi jumped out of bed and began to dress himself, when all at once Perez the Mouse sprang on his shoulder and put the tip of his tail into His Majesty's nose. * Then a wonderful thing happened, the King sneezed very hard and turned into the most darling little mouse you ever saw. He was all soft and shiny, and had wee green eyes like emeralds. * Perez the Mouse took him by the paw and disappeared with him down a tiny hole under the bed, which had been hidden by the carpet. [Illustration: The King sneezed very hard and turned into the most darling little mouse you ever saw] The way was dark and sticky, but they scampered along. Sometimes Perez the Mouse stopped at some crossway and looked about before going on, which rather frightened the King and made him feel little shivers right down to the tip of his tail, and he knew that he was afraid, but he remembered that: 'Fear is natural to the prudent, To conquer it is to be courageous,' so he would not let himself be frightened, which is being really brave. Once when he heard a tremendous noise, like dozens of motor omnibuses passing over his head, he whispered to ask Perez if that was where Don Pedro lived, but Mr. Mouse said no with his tail, and on they went. After going down a gentle slope they came to a big cellar which felt nice and warm and smelt very much of cheese; behind a pile of Gruyere cheese they found themselves face to face with the Huntley and Palmer biscuit tin which was the home of the Perez family. Here they lived as happily as the rat of fable did in the Dutch cheese. Perez the Mouse introduced the King as a foreign tourist who was on a visit to the capital, and the family welcomed him very cordially. The two Miss Mouses were at work with their Governess, Miss Stilton, who was a very learned English mouse, and Mrs. Mouse was embroidering a beautiful smoking cap for her husband, sitting by a bright fire made of raisin stalks. This happy family party delighted King Bubi. * Adelaide and Elvira made tea and poured out some into lovely wee cups made out of the skins of white beans. * Then they had a little music. Adelaide sang Desdemona's song, 'O Willow Willow,' in a way which much pleased the King, and Elvira recited about a little mouse who was ill of fever, and a naughty kitten who wanted to pounce on it. After this Adolphus came in from the Jockey Club where, to the sorrow of his father and mother, he wasted all his time playing cards with the mice from the foreign embassies. [Illustration: Perez the Mouse stopped at some crossway] King Bubi would willingly have stayed longer, but Perez, who had slipped away, came back with his satchel on his back and said it was time to start. * So the King said goodbye very politely, and Mrs. Mouse gave him a kiss on each cheek in her homely way. * Adelaide put out a paw in a lackadaisical fashion, and Elvira shook hands like a pump handle, while Miss Stilton made him a beautiful cheese of a curtsey, and then stared at him through her eyeglass until he was out of sight. * Adolphus, too, was very gushing, and conducted him as far as the lid of the tin, and offered to introduce him at the Polo Club, for which the King thanked him very much, thinking all the time that, though he might be a very smart young mouse, he was rather a bore. Then Bubi and Perez the Mouse again began their scamper with such a quantity of precautions that the King was astonished. [Illustration: Mrs. Mouse was embroidering a beautiful smoking cap for her husband] In front of them went a regiment of ferocious mice, soldiers whose bayonets made of fine needles gleamed in the darkness. Behind them came a second regiment, also armed to the teeth. Perez the Mouse then confessed that he would not have undertaken this expedition without these soldiers to protect the person of the young monarch. All of a sudden King Bubi saw the guard in front had disappeared down a little hole, through which came a faint light. [Illustration: Adolphus playing cards at the Jockey Club] This was the moment of danger. Perez the Mouse, slowly waggling his tail from side to side, put his head very cautiously through the hole and looked around; he then went back two steps, and finally, suddenly seizing the King's paw, dashed through the hole like an arrow, crossed a big kitchen, and disappeared through another hole on the opposite side near the range. As one sees telegraph posts out of the train so Bubi saw that kitchen. By the hearth, in the glow of the fire, lay an enormous cat, the dreadful Don Pedro, its great whiskers heaving up and down as it breathed. The guards silently formed up, from hole to hole, ready to fire, to protect the King's route from the sleeping cat. It was all very grand and imposing. An ugly old woman sat in a chair, also asleep, with her knitting on her knee. Once through the hole the danger was over, and they had only to get upstairs, as this was where little Giles lived. Everything was open in his poor room, which was all cracks and draughts. King Bubi scrambled on to the arm of a seatless chair, the only one in the room, and from there could see a picture of poverty such as he had never dreamt of. The sloping roof joined the floor, so that on one side a man could not have stood upright, and through the holes the cold air of dawn was coming, while icicles hung from the roof. The only furniture besides the chair was an empty bread basket hanging up, and in a corner a bed of straw and rags, on which little Giles and his mother were lying fast asleep. Perez the Mouse drew nearer, taking the King by the paw, and they could see how little Giles was huddled up in the rags, and how he was cuddled up against his mother for warmth, and it made the King so unhappy that he began to cry. [Illustration: The Guards silently formed up ready to fire] Why had he never known that people were so poor? How was it that he had never been told that children were hungry and had to sleep on horrid beds? He did not want any blankets on his cot till every child in his kingdom had plenty of bed-clothes to keep them warm. [Illustration: Ferocious mice . . . . armed to the teeth] Perez the Mouse brushed away a tear with his paw and then tried to comfort the King by showing him the bright gold coin he was going to put under little Giles' pillow in exchange for his first tooth. Just then Giles' mother woke and sat up in bed and looked at her little boy, who was still asleep. It was becoming light, and she had to earn some money by washing clothes in the river. * She caught the sleeping Giles in her arms and made him kneel down under a picture of the Infant Christ which was pinned to the wall near the bed. The King and Perez the Mouse knelt down too, and so did the soldier mice who were waiting in the empty bread basket. The child began to pray, 'Our Father which art in Heaven.' Bubi started and looked at Perez the Mouse, who understood his astonishment, and fixed his piercing eyes on him, but never said a single word. [Silhouette] On the return journey they were silent and preoccupied, and half an hour later the King was home in his nursery with Perez the Mouse, who again put the tip of his tail into Bubi's nose and made him sneeze. All at once he found himself safely back again in his own warm little cot, with the Queen's arms round him, who woke him, as she always did, with a kiss. [Illustration: The Order of the Golden Fleece] At first he thought it had all been a dream; but when he looked for the letter he had put under his pillow, he found it was gone, and in its place was a case with the Order of the Golden Fleece in diamonds, a magnificent present from the generous Perez the Mouse in exchange for his first tooth. (Perhaps I had better explain to English children that in King Bubi's country the Order of the Golden Fleece is like our Order of the Garter, the greatest honour the King can give.) [Illustration: The King and Perez the Mouse knelt down too] The little King, however, paid no attention to his beautiful present, and let it lie unnoticed on the bed, while, leaning on his elbow, he lay very busy thinking. * Then, suddenly, he asked the Queen in a very solemn voice, 'Mama! Why do poor children say the same prayer as I do, "Our Father which art in Heaven"?' The Queen answered, 'Because He is as much their Father as He is yours.' Then said the King thoughtfully, 'We must be brothers.' 'Yes, my darling, they are your brothers,' answered the Queen. * Bubi's eyes were filled with astonishment, and, in a choky voice, he asked, 'Then why am I a King and have everything I want, while they are poor and have nothing?' The Queen gave him a squeeze, and, kissing him again on his forehead, said, 'Because you are the eldest brother, which is what being King really means. * You understand, darling? God has given you everything in order that your younger brothers should want for nothing.' 'I never knew this before,' said Bubi, shaking his head, and, without thinking any more about his present, he began to say his prayers, as he did every morning; and, as he prayed, it seemed to him that all the poor little boys in the kingdom came round him with their hands clasped, and that he, the eldest brother, spoke for them all when he prayed 'Our Father which art in Heaven.' King Bubi grew up to be a great ruler. * He always asked God's help in all he did, and returned thanks for his happiness, ever saying, speaking for all his subjects, poor and rich, good and bad, 'Our Father which art in Heaven'; and when he died, a very old man, and his good soul arrived at the gates of Heaven, he knelt down and prayed as usual, 'Our Father.' And, as he prayed, the gates were opened wide by thousands of poor little children to whom he had been King, that is to say, eldest brother here on earth. [Illustration: The dreadful Don Pedro] [Silhouette] P.S. The Spanish story which was written, once upon a time, to amuse a real little boy King, ends here; but I cannot help adding that it does seem a pity not to try and get Perez the Mouse to come to England. * The only way to manage this will be to take great pains over your copies and spelling, so that when your first tooth comes out you will be able to write a nice, tidy, polite letter to him. If you put it under your pillow at night I am nearly sure you will find it gone and a present in its place in the morning. Perhaps you may even feel the same little soft tickle on your forehead that King Bubi did; but I do not promise for certain that you will see kind Mr. Mouse, because he is rather shy. A.M.M. [Silhouette] [Illustration: Elvira recited] * * * * * Errata (noted by transcriber) [Illustration: King Bubi the First] [Rubi] [List of Plates:] The Oldest of the Court Doctors [_"the" supplied to agree with figure caption_] The punctuation of "Ferocious mice..." is unchanged. King "Bubi" was Alfonso XIII of Spain (1886-1941). The story was written at his mother's request in 1894. 
31149	----	A New Piñon Mouse (Peromyscus truei) from Durango, Mexico BY ROBERT B. FINLEY, JR. University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 5, No. 20, pp. 263-267 May 23, 1952 University of Kansas LAWRENCE 1952 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Edward H. Taylor, Robert W. Wilson Volume 5, No. 20, pp. 263-267 May 23, 1952 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1952 24-2794 A New Piñon Mouse (Peromyscus truei) from Durango, Mexico BY ROBERT B. FINLEY, JR. The extensive collection of Mexican mammals made by Mr. J. R. Alcorn for the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History contains fourteen piñon mice from lava rocks eight miles northeast of the city of Durango, Mexico. These mice are all much darker than the piñon mice, _Peromyscus truei gentilis_, of adjoining areas in Durango and Zacatecas and show a superficial resemblance to the widespread _P. t. gratus_ which occurs 450 miles to the southeast. Morphological differences from _P. t. gratus_, as well as geographic considerations (see remarks), make desirable the recognition of the lava-dwelling piñon mice from Durango as a distinct subspecies. All specimens examined of subspecies compared with the series of piñon mice from northeast of Durango are in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History. Capitalized color names and designators are of Maerz and Paul, A Dictionary of Color, McGraw Hill Book Co., New York, 1930. I wish to acknowledge generous financial aid from the Kansas University Endowment Association which made possible the field work by Mr. Alcorn in Mexico. This heretofore unknown subspecies is characterized below and may be known as: =Peromyscus truei erasmus= subsp. nov. _Type._--Mus. Nat. Hist., Univ. Kansas, no. 34417, young adult female, skin and skull; from eight miles northeast of Durango, 6200 feet, Durango, Mexico; collected 16 August 1949 by J. R. Alcorn, original number 10255. _Range._--Known only from the type locality. _Diagnosis._--Upper parts dark brownish gray (Smoke Brown, 16 A 2, to Biskra, 16 A 12), darkest between ears; lower sides suffused with dull orange buff (13 H 9 to 12 H 9); dark eye ring and black spot at base of vibrissae conspicuous; ears 95 to 100 per cent as long as hind foot; bullae round, greatly inflated; interparietal large, anterior margin curved or slightly sinuous, not bulging strongly forward laterally; rostrum short; nasals broad; braincase high and full; incisive foramina slightly pointed anteriorly; molars small, as in _P. t. gentilis_. _Measurements._--Measurements of 3 males and mean and extreme measurements of 11 females, all from the type locality, are, respectively, as follows: total length, 192, 188 (incomplete), 196 (incomplete), 193 (188-209); length of tail, 102, 97 (broken), 97 (broken), 101 (94-114); length of hind foot, 22, 23, 23, 22.5 (22-23); length of ear, from notch, in flesh, 21, 22, 23, 21.5 (20-23); greatest length of skull, 27.4, 27.7, 27.9, 27.3 (26.5-28.3); basilar length, 20.2, 21.0, -- (broken), 20.4 (19.6-21.2); greatest breadth of braincase, 12.8, 12.8, 13.3, 12.85 (12.4-13.4); least interorbital breadth, 4.4, 4.6, 4.6, 4.41 (4.2-4.6); length of nasals, 10.1, 10.3, 10.9, 10.3 (9.8-11.1); diastema, 6.6, 7.0, 7.1, 6.78 (6.3-7.2); length of incisive foramina, 5.6, 5.9, 6.0, 5.77 (5.5-6.0); length of palatal bridge, 3.8, 3.9, --, 3.96 (3.8-4.3); postpalatal length, 9.9, --, --, 9.7 (9.2-10.4); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 4.1, 4.1, 4.4, 4.2 (4.1-4.4). All measurements are in millimeters. _Measurements of the type._--Total length, 189; length of tail, 95; length of hind foot, 22; length of ear, from notch (in flesh), 21; greatest length of skull, 26.9; basilar length, 20.3; greatest breadth of braincase, 13.0; least interorbital breadth, 4.4; length of nasals, 10.1; diastema, 6.6; length of incisive foramina, 5.5; length of palatal bridge, 3.9; postpalatal length, 9.8; alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 4.2. _Comparisons._--From _Peromyscus truei gentilis_ (specimens from 5 mi. N Durango, Durango; 4 mi. W Durango, Durango; and 8 mi. N & 1 mi. W Sombrerete, Zacatecas), the subspecies of the surrounding region, _P. t. erasmus_ differs in markedly darker coloration, sides and face less brightly washed with orange buff, dark eye ring and spot at base of vibrissae more conspicuous, higher incidence and greater extent of buffy pectoral spot. External measurements do not differ significantly. No consistent cranial differences were found. From _Peromyscus truei gratus_ (specimens from Pedregal de los Reyes, Distrito Federal, México) to the southeast, _P. t. erasmus_ differs in slightly darker dorsal color, more inflated bullae, and less sinuous (not bulging so much forward laterally) anterior margin of interparietal. From _Peromyscus truei gratus_ (specimens from various localities in eastern Jalisco and western Michoacán) to the south, _P. t. erasmus_ differs in slightly darker dorsal color, longer ears, and more inflated bullae. From _Peromyscus truei truei_ (specimens from 4 mi. N El Rito, Rio Arriba Co., New Mexico) to the northwest, _P. t. erasmus_ differs in much darker color, shorter tail, shorter hairs on tail, smaller ears, shorter rostrum, wider nasals, and more pointed anterior ends of incisive foramina. _Remarks._--The tail of _P. t. erasmus_ varies greatly in color, being either bicolor or unicolor, dark gray above and varying from white to dark gray below. The type has the tail dark gray above grading gradually on the sides to medium gray below. A buffy pectoral spot or band is present in about half of the adults examined, being most prominent in the type, which is also one of the darkest specimens in the series. The shape of the posterior edge of the bony palate is also variable, being convex, square, or concave; and the dorsal branches of the premaxillaries may terminate slightly anterior or slightly posterior to the posterior ends of the nasals. In the type the posterior palatal margin is concave and the dorsal branches of the premaxillaries almost reach the ends of the nasals. _Peromyscus truei gratus_ from Distrito Federal also shows high variability in all these characters. _Peromyscus truei erasmus_ is a dark race of the piñon mouse known from the west side of a rough area of dark lavas a few miles northeast of the city of Durango and closely surrounded by the light colored race, _P. t. gentilis_, known from outside the area of lava rocks. Specimens of _erasmus_ from eight miles northeast of Durango are all conspicuously darker than 11 specimens of _gentilis_ from five miles north of Durango and four miles west of Durango which are typical in color for _gentilis_. Although _erasmus_ more nearly resembles in color _gratus_, in cranial characters and external measurements it shows closer relationship to _gentilis_. Alcorn reported (verbal communication) that the type series of _erasmus_ was collected on the west side of the Río de la Saucida in hills covered with broken lava rocks, cactus, and spiny shrubs. Some cottonwoods grow along the river, which is almost dry most of the time. East of the river is a flat plain or valley of adobelike soil a few miles wide beyond which extends a rough area of dark lavas. The approximate extent of the lava plain is indicated on World Aeronautical Chart, Lake Santiaguillo (521). The specimens of _gentilis_ from five miles north of Durango and four miles west of Durango were collected on slopes of adobe soil covered with grasses, scattered junipers and low shrubs, this habitat being the lower eastern edge of the juniper-wooded slopes that rise westward to the Sierra Madre Occidental. The available facts suggest that _P. t. erasmus_ has evolved from _P. t. gentilis_ by natural selection for concealing coloration on the dark lavas northeast of Durango, México. _P. t. erasmus_ probably reaches its western limit close to the type locality. _Specimens examined._--Total 14, from the type locality. _Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence._ _Transmitted January 21, 1952._ 24-2794 
31235	----	[Transcriber's Note: The following error is noted, but left as printed: Page 105, "the must abundant rodent" should be "the most abundant rodent"] UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 14, No. 6, pp. 99-110, 1 fig. December 29, 1961 Natural History of the Brush Mouse (Peromyscus boylii) in Kansas With Description of a New Subspecies BY CHARLES A. LONG UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1961 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr. Volume 14, No. 6, pp. 99-110, 1 fig. Published December 29, 1961 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY JEAN M. NEIBARGER, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1961 [Illustration] 28-8518 Natural History of the Brush Mouse (Peromyscus boylii) in Kansas With Description of a New Subspecies BY CHARLES A. LONG In order to determine the geographic distribution of the brush mouse in the state, 15 localities, chosen on the basis of suitable habitat, were investigated by means of snap-trapping in the winter and spring of 1959, spring of 1960, and winter and spring of 1961. Variation in specimens obtained by me and in other specimens in the Museum of Natural History, The University of Kansas, was analyzed. Captive mice from Cherokee County, Kansas, were observed almost daily from March 27, 1960, to June 1, 1961. Captive mice from Chautauqua and Cowley counties were studied briefly. Contents of 38 stomachs of brush mice were analyzed, and diet-preferences of the captive mice were studied. Data from live-trapping and from snap-trapping are combined and provide some knowledge of size and fluctuation of populations in the species. Examination of the accumulated specimens and the captive mice reveals the occurrence in southern Kansas of an unnamed subspecies, which may be named and described as follows: #Peromyscus boylii cansensis# new subspecies _Type._--Male, adult, skin and skull; No. 81830, K. U.; from 4 mi. E Sedan, Chautauqua County, Kansas; obtained on December 30, 1959, by C. A. Long, original No. 456. _Range._--Known from 3 mi. W Cedar Vale, _in_ Cowley County, Kansas, and from the type locality. _Diagnosis._--Size medium (see Table 1 beyond); underparts white; upper parts Ochraceous-Tawny laterally, becoming intermixed with black and approaching Mummy Brown dorsally (capitalized color terms after Ridgway, 1912); eye nonprotuberant; tail short but well-haired distally and usually less than half total length; nasals long; cranium large. _Comparisons._--From _P. b. attwateri_, the subspecies geographically nearest _cansensis_, the latter can be easily distinguished by the less protuberant eyes and relatively shorter tail (91 per cent of length of head and body; in topotypes of _P. b. attwateri_ from Kerr County, Texas, 104 per cent; in specimens of _P. b. attwateri_ from Cherokee County, Kansas, 103 per cent). _P. b. cansensis_ is darker than _P. b. attwateri_ and darker than _P. b. rowleyi_, the palest subspecies of brush mouse, which occurs to the westward. The skull and nasals (see Table 1) in adults of _P. b. attwateri_ from Cherokee County average shorter than in _cansensis_. _Specimens examined._--Total, 26. _Cowley Co._: 3 mi. W Cedar Vale, 16. _Chautauqua Co._: type locality, 10. TABLE 1. AVERAGE AND EXTREME MEASUREMENTS OF SPECIMENS OF P. B. CANSENSIS, OF P. B. ATTWATERI FROM CHEROKEE COUNTY, KANSAS, AND OF TOPOTYPES OF P. B. ATTWATERI LISTED BY OSGOOD, 1909. ====================================================================== | _P. b. cansensis_ | _P. b. attwateri_ +-----------+---------+----------+---------+----------- |Three miles| Type | Both |Two miles| Type | west of |locality |localities|south of |locality[A] |Cedar Vale | | | Galena | ---------------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+----------- No. specimens | 11 | 7 | 18 | 20 | 10 | | | | | Total length | 180.5 | 176.7 | 179.1 | 186.2 | 196.0 | 170-199 | 166-188 | ..... | 170-210 | ..... | | | | | Tail-vertebrae | 85.5 | 85.0 | 85.3 | 94.5 | 100.0 | 72-101 | 75-93 | ..... | 83-104 | ..... | | | | | Hind foot | 23.1 | 23.6 | 23.3 | 23.8 | 21.0 | 22-24 | 22-25 | ..... | 22-25 | ..... | | | | | Ear from notch | 18.2 | 19.1 | 18.5 | 18.4 | ..... | 17-19 | 18-21 | ..... | 14-21 | ..... | | | | | Greatest length| 27.9 | 28.3 | 28.1 | 27.8 | ..... of skull | 26.8-29.0 |27.9-28.9| ..... |26.6-29.1| ..... | | | | | Length of | 10.4 | 10.2 | 10.3 | 9.9 | ..... nasals | 9.9-10.8 | 9.5-10.7| ..... | 9.1-10.4| ..... | | | | | Zygomatic | 14.3 | 13.5 | 13.9 | 13.8 | ..... breadth | 13.9-15.0 |13.0-13.9| ..... |13.3-14.4| ..... ---------------+-----------+---------+----------+---------+----------- [Footnote A: From Turtle Creek, Kerr County, Texas, after Osgood (1909:148).] _Distribution of Peromyscus boylii in Kansas_ The subspecies _Peromyscus boylii attwateri_ is known in the state only from Cherokee County, the southeasternmost county in the state. Probably the only locality where the brush mouse occurs in that county is on the systems of cliffs along Shoal Creek, southward from Galena, to the eastward of Baxter Springs. This is the extent of the known range, and in my opinion the probable range, of _P. b. attwateri_ in the state (see Fig. 1). Cockrum (1952:fig. 49) by mistake mapped the species from west of Baxter Springs in Cherokee County. Osgood (1909:149) recorded the subspecies _P. b. attwateri_ from Cedar Vale, Chautauqua County, Kansas, but the specimen from there must now be assigned to _cansensis_ on geographic grounds. Probably the specimen was not obtained from Cedar Vale itself for the habitat is not suitable there. Numerous specimens are known from 3 mi. W Cedar Vale, _in_ Cowley County, Kansas, all of which are assigned to _cansensis_. Osgood's recorded locality is situated between this locality and the type locality of _cansensis_, which is 4 mi. E Sedan, Chautauqua County, Kansas. The distribution of _cansensis_ also is shown in Fig. 1. [Illustration: FIG. 1. Distribution of the brush mouse in Kansas. The southernmost row of counties includes from left to right Cowley, Chautauqua, Montgomery, Labette, and Cherokee. Black dots represent trapping localities from which brush mice were not obtained. Triangles represent localities from which brush mice were obtained. The stippled area contains suitable habitat for the brush mouse, but was not investigated. The easternmost triangle represents a place 2 mi. S Galena, Cherokee Co., Kansas, from which _P. b. attwateri_ is known. The westernmost triangle represents a place 3 mi. W Cedar Vale, _in_ Cowley Co., Kansas, from which _P. b. cansensis_ is known. The triangle of intermediate position represents the type locality of _P. b. cansensis_, a place 4 mi. E Sedan, Chautauqua Co., Kansas. Many of the trapping localities have been investigated more than once.] The probable geographic range of _P. boylii_ is based on trapping data (see Fig. 1). The brush mouse is confined to systems of wooded cliffs in Kansas. The two subspecies seem to be separated by more than 80 miles of grasslands. Blair (1959) has postulated that in the northeastern part of its range _P. b. attwateri_ is represented by disjunct, relict populations formed by diminishing montane or cool, moist environmental conditions. He has implied that the critical climatic change occurred during post-Wisconsin times, and that the isolation of these populations occurred so recently that no morphological differentiation has resulted in them. Inasmuch as the species is widely distributed in México, the southwestern United States, and in California, and has been recorded from the Pleistocene of California (Hay, 1927:323), it is reasonable to suppose that the species immigrated into Kansas from the southwest and that the immigration was in a generally northward or eastward direction. If long tail and large eyes are specializations for a scansorial mode of life (discussed below), then _P. b. cansensis_ must be considered more primitive than _P. b. attwateri_ for the eyes are less protuberant and the tail is shorter in _P. b. cansensis_ than in the latter. I suggest that _P. b. cansensis_ occurred in what is now known as Kansas before _P. b. attwateri_ entered this area by way of the Ozark Mountains. The occurrence of a mouse of "the _truei_ or _boylei_ group" (Hibbard, 1955:213) in southwestern Kansas in the Jinglebob interglacial fauna of the Pleistocene adds little to support the thesis outlined above, but is not inconsistent with the thesis. Incidentally, the geographic distribution of _P. boylii_ may differ somewhat from that shown by Blair (1959:fig. 5); whereas he has mapped the distribution of _P. boylii_ to show disjunctivity in _P. b. attwateri_ and homogeneity in the distribution of other subspecies of the brush mouse to the westward and southward, disjunctivity actually occurs frequently also in the western and southern subspecies. _Ecology_ In Kansas the brush mouse is confined to systems of cliffs, the faces of which range in height to at least 40 feet. The highest cliffs--some approximately 100 feet--on which brush mice are known to occur in Kansas are along Shoal Creek, Cherokee County. The brush mouse is found on low bluffs that are parts of higher systems, but in Cherokee County the mouse was not obtained from low bluffs separated by even a few miles from the cliff-system along Shoal Creek. As implied above the brush mouse is adapted for a scansorial mode of life; but other mice and rats inhabit the rocky crevices of low bluffs. Whereas the brush mouse is well adapted for living on high cliffs it seems that the other rodents are better adapted for life on low cliffs. _Sigmodon hispidus_ was obtained from the low, limestone cliffs mentioned previously. From most low bluffs in southeastern Kansas (and on some high bluffs outside the geographic range of _cansensis_) _Peromyscus leucopus_ was obtained. In Cowley County the brush mouse was abundant when _P. leucopus_ was not and _vice versa_ during this study. _Sigmodon hispidus_ did not associate with the brush mouse in any area, although _S. hispidus_ was often trapped in grassy areas adjacent to cliffs and on the grassy crests of the hills. Except at the locality in Cherokee County, the pack rat, _Neotoma floridana_, was found in association with the brush mouse. _Microtus ochrogaster_ was the must abundant rodent in adjacent southwestern Missouri (Jackson, 1907) before _Sigmodon_ thoroughly infiltrated this area and southeastern Kansas. Activities of other rodents may have confined the brush mouse ecologically to cliffs. Although the grasslands are a barrier to further intrusion by the brush mouse into Kansas, one cannot assume that they alone confined the brush mouse to cliffs. Such an assumption would not explain its absence on systems of cliffs similar to and near other systems of cliffs on which it is found in the non-grassy Ozarkian habitats of Arkansas, as was noticed by Black (1937). Such an assumption would not indicate why the size of the cliff-systems is correlated with the absence or presence of the brush mouse on the northeastern margin of its geographic range. Parasites found on _P. b. attwateri_ include three individuals of the laelapid mite, _Haemolaelaps glasgowi_. Two of these mites were removed from a live mouse. Two larval Ixodid ticks, _Ixodes_ possibly _cookei_, were removed from the pinnae of the ears of a specimen of _cansensis_ from the type locality, 4 mi. E Sedan, Chautauqua County. Four larval Ixodid ticks, _Dermacentor_ possibly _variabilis_, were removed from the pinnae of the ears of a live specimen of _cansensis_ from 3 mi. W Cedar Vale, in Cowley County. TABLE 2. STOMACH CONTENTS OF 38 BRUSH MICE FROM SOUTHEASTERN KANSAS IN WINTER AND SPRING. ====================================================== Localities and | | |Acorn| number of stomachs | Month |Empty| pulp|Seeds -------------------+----------------+-----+-----+----- 2 mi. S Galena | | | | 10 | May, 1959 | 2 | 6 | 2 11 | December, 1959 | 1 | 10 | 0 3 | March, 1960 | 1 | 2 | 0 | | | | 4 mi. E Sedan | | | | 3 | December, 1959 | 3 | 0 | 0 2 | April, 1961 | 1 | 1 | 0 | | | | 3 mi. W Cedar Vale | | | | 6 | December, 1959 | 1 | 3 | 2 3 | December, 1960 | 0 | 3[B]| 0 -------------------+----------------+-----+-----+----- [Footnote B: Judged to be acorn pulp or hickory nut pulp.] Black (1937:195) and Cockrum (1952:180-181) reported stomach contents of _P. b. attwateri_ from Cherokee County containing acorn pulp, seeds, and insects. Analysis of 38 stomachs of the brush mouse (Table 2) show acorns to be the most commonly used food in winter and spring. Seed coats were only rarely found, and insects were absent. Two captive females preferred acorns. Live beetles and grasshoppers of numerous kinds were decapitated and their inner parts eaten. Seeds (wheat, corn, and oats) were also eaten. Inasmuch as acorns appear to be the chief food, it is not surprising that the brush mouse is usually found on cliffs that support stands of blackjack oak (_Quercus marilandica_). Other oaks are present, but I have no evidence that the brush mouse eats their acorns. A. Metcalf told me that he observed in December, 1960, a released brush mouse interrupt its movement toward a hole in a cliff-face along Cedar Creek, Cowley County, in order to pick up an acorn (judged to be from the blackjack oak) in daylight. The mouse carried the acorn into the hole in the cliff. I have observed that captive brush mice eat acorns of the blackjack oak but not some other kinds of acorns. _Behavior_ The chief differences observed between the brush mouse and other species of the genus _Peromyscus_ in Kansas can be summarized as follows: the brush mouse is a superior and more cautious climber; seldom jumps from high places when under stress; is capable of finding its way better in partial darkness; has a stronger preference for acorns; and sometimes buries or hides seeds or acorns. These are all behavioral adaptations that seem in harmony with its mode of life. Buck, Tolman, and Tolman (1925) showed the balancing function of the tail in _Mus musculus_. Climbers (for example, squirrels) often possess long, well-haired tails. It is reasonable to suggest (as did Hall, 1955:134) that the long, tufted tail is an adaptation for a scansorial existence. Little observation is necessary to observe how such a tail is used in balancing. Furthermore, it is used as a prop when the mouse is climbing a vertical surface. Dalquest (1955:144) mentioned tree-climbing in _P. boylii_ from San Luis Potosí, México. It may occur in _P. b. attwateri_ or in _P. b. cansensis_ also, but there is no evidence as yet to prove it. The brush mouse can seldom be induced to jump from heights of two feet or more. Rather it tends to scamper downward or to remain in place. It often swings itself over an edge, holding to it by its hind feet, and sometimes to it lightly with its tail, and reduces a short jump by almost the length of its body. Such caution seems to be an adaptation in a mouse that lives as a climber. Many animals of cavernous habitats have small eyes (see Dobzhansky, 1951:284). Some nocturnal animals (for example, owls) have large eyes. The brush mouse has large, protuberant eyes; it lives in the deep crevices and fissures of the cliffs on which it is found, but it is not strictly a cave-dwelling animal. Perhaps large eyes aid the brush mouse in performing activities in the partial darkness of a deep crevice or hole in a cliff. Brush mice experimentally placed in what appeared to be total darkness fed, built houses of cotton, and ran and climbed in the usual manner. On several occasions the captive brush mice hid surplus seeds and on other occasions hid acorns by burying them and sometimes by placing them in a small jar. The mice never carried the surplus food into their house. Black (1937:195) has claimed that the brush mouse builds a nest similar to that of the nest of the pack rat, _Neotoma floridana_. Hall (1955:134) doubts this to be the case. Dalquest (1953:144) described a nest of _P. boylii_ from San Luis Potosí as seven inches in diameter, made of leaves, and found in a hollow tree. Drake (1958:110) noted that _P. b. rowleyi_ lives in holes and crevices in rocky bluffs in Durango, México. I have found this to be the case for _P. b. attwateri_, as did A. Metcalf (unpublished) for _P. b. cansensis_. Nests of sticks and leaves were taken apart by Metcalf, and all sign indicated only the presence of the pack rat. I have observed that there are no such houses on the cliffs along Shoal Creek, Cherokee County, and that no pack rats have been obtained from there (pack rats have not been reported from Cherokee County). Blair (1938) found two brush mice (_P. b. attwateri_) in the house of a pack rat in Oklahoma. Nests of the brush mice that occur in Kansas have not been found. A lactating, pregnant female (KU 81833) of _P. b. attwateri_, containing three embryos, was obtained on December 24, 1959, and shows that this subspecies breeds in winter. Accumulated records for the subspecies indicates year-round breeding (see Cockrum, 1952:181). Another female obtained on March 27, 1960, was probably lactating. Pregnant females of _P. b. cansensis_ (KU 84892, 84895, and 84890) were obtained from the type locality on April 1-2, 1961, containing 3, 4, and 5 embryos respectively. This indicates, perhaps, increased breeding in spring; five was the highest number of embryos found in brush mice in Kansas. _Population Studies_ In the period of my study the populations of brush mice became smaller, perhaps owing to the severe winter of 1959-1960. In Cowley County, _P. leucopus_ is now abundant and _P. boylii_ rare where in December of 1959, the opposite was true. It is also possible, of course, that trapping has depleted the populations. Conclusions 1. A new subspecies of brush mouse is named and described from southern Kansas. 2. The new subspecies has smaller eyes and a shorter tail and may be more primitive than _P. b. attwateri_. 3. No significant sexual dimorphism was noted in _P. boylii_. 4. In Kansas, _P. b. attwateri_ is known only from a single locality; _P. b. cansensis_ is known from only two localities, both in Kansas. 5. The cliff-dwelling habit of _P. boylii_ probably isolates populations from one another. 6. The grasslands constitute a barrier for the brush mouse. 7. In Kansas, _P. b. cansensis_ probably is an older population than _P. b. attwateri_. 8. In Kansas the brush mouse is confined to systems of cliffs that are wooded and that are at least 40 feet in height. 9. The brush mouse may be confined to cliffs in part by activities of other rodents. 10. The brush mouse commonly associates with the pack rat. 11. Laelapid mites have been found on specimens of _P. b. attwateri_. 12. Larval ixodid ticks were found on specimens of _P. b. cansensis_. 13. Acorns seem to be the chief food of the brush mouse; insects and seeds are also commonly eaten. 14. The brush mouse is adapted for climbing and probably for a partly subterranean life. 15. _P. b. attwateri_ breeds in winter, as well as in other parts of the year. 16. _P. b. cansensis_ is known to breed in early April. 17. The highest number of embryos obtained from a brush mouse in Kansas is five. Acknowledgments I am indebted to Prof. E. Raymond Hall and to Mr. J. Knox Jones, Jr., for suggestions and editorial assistance. Prof. R. H. Camin identified the ticks and mites recorded herein. Mr. A. Metcalf, Mrs. C. F. Long, and Mr. D. L. Long helped with the field studies and in other ways. Literature Cited BLACK, J. D. 1937. Mammals of Kansas. 30th Biennial Report, Kansas State Board of Agri., 35:116-217. BLAIR, W. F. 1938. Ecological relationships of the mammals of the Bird Creek Region, Northeastern Oklahoma. Amer. Midl. Nat., 20:473-526. 1959. Distributional patterns of vertebrates in the southern U. S. in relationship to past and present environment. Zoogeography, pp. 463-464 and Fig. 5, January 16. BUCK, C. W., TOLMAN, N., and TOLMAN, W. 1925. The tail as a balancing organ in mice. J. Mamm., 6:267-271. COCKRUM, E. L. 1952. Mammals of Kansas. Univ. Kansas Publ., Museum of Nat. Hist., 7:6, 180-181. DALQUEST, W. W. 1953. Mammals of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. Louisiana State Univ. Studies, Biol. series No. 1, 232 pp. DOBZHANSKY, T. 1951. Genetics and the origin of species, 3d ed. New York, Columbia Univ. Press, x + 364 pp. DRAKE, J. D. 1958. The brush mouse, Peromyscus boylii, in southern Durango. Museum Publ., Michigan State Univ., 1:97-132. HALL, E. R. 1955. Handbook of mammals of Kansas. Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist. Publ. No. 7, 303 pp. HAY, O. P. 1927. The Pleistocene of the western region of N. America ... Carnegie Inst. Washington, 346 pp., 12 pls. HIBBARD, C. W. 1955. The Jinglebob interglacial (Sangamon?) fauna from Kansas ... Museum of Paleo., Univ. Michigan, pp. 179-228, 2 pls. JACKSON, H. H. T. 1907. Notes on some mammals of southwestern Missouri. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 20:71-74. OSGOOD, W. H. 1909. Revision of the mice of the American genus Peromyscus. N. Amer. Fauna, 28:1-285, April 17. RIDGWAY, R. 1912. Color standards and color nomenclature. Washington, D. C., 43 pp., 53 pls. _Transmitted June 30, 1961._ 28-8518 
31674	----	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 9, No. 8, pp. 337-346, 1 fig. in text, 1 table August 15, 1956 Comments on the Taxonomic Status of Apodemus peninsulae, with Description of a New Subspecies from North China BY J. KNOX JONES, JR. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1956 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 9, No. 8, pp. 337-346, 1 fig. in text, 1 table Published August 15, 1956 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1956 26-3854 Comments on the Taxonomic Status of Apodemus peninsulae, with Description of a New Subspecies from North China BY J. KNOX JONES, JR. In the past several years the United States National Museum has received a large number of mammals from central and southern Korea through the auspices of the Commission on Hemorrhagic Fever of the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board. Among these Korean collections are more than a hundred specimens of a murine rodent originally described as "_Micromys speciosus peninsulae_" by Oldfield Thomas but currently placed in the genus _Apodemus_. In attempting to ascertain the specific relationships of this mouse I have examined, through the generosity of Dr. David H. Johnson, Acting Curator of Mammals, most of the other Oriental specimens of the subgenus _Sylvaemus_ in the U. S. National Museum and it is on this combined material that the following comments and description are based. Three general groups of the genus _Apodemus_ are presently known to occur on the mainland of northeast Asia. One is the distinctive _Apodemus agrarius_, lone representative of the subgenus _Apodemus_. The others, both in the subgenus _Sylvaemus_ and closely resembling each other, are represented by a small animal that is currently regarded as conspecific with _Apodemus sylvaticus_ and a larger animal of which the Korean mouse, _peninsulae_, is representative. The oldest trivial name applied to the large _Sylvaemus_ is _major_ of Radde, 1862, in the combination [_Mus sylvaticus_] vrt. _major_. This is, however, twice preoccupied (see Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:566). The next available name is _peninsulae_ of Thomas, 1907, which was applied to mice from central and southern Korea (type from Mun'gyong, 110 mi. SE Seoul, Korea), and was originally proposed as a subspecies of the insular Japanese species, _Apodemus speciosus_. G. M. Allen (1940:949), who recognized _peninsulae_ as a monotypic species, was the first investigator to make the important distinction that it was not conspecific with the Japanese _speciosus_, although Hollister (1913:1-2) and Miller (1914:89) had previously used the combination _Apodemus peninsulae_, evidently with the same thought in mind. [Illustration: FIG. 1. Ventral views of skulls and left maxillary tooth-rows of two species of the genus _Apodemus_. _a._ _Apodemus flavicollis flavicollis_ (Melchior), Lolland, Denmark, adult [Male], No. 141691 USNM, ×2. _b._ _Apodemus flavicollis flavicollis_ (Melchior), Mauseklippe, Germany, young [Male], No. 112895 USNM, ×10. _c._ _Apodemus peninsulae peninsulae_ (Thomas), Central Nat'l Forest, near Pup'yong-ni, 200 m., Korea, subadult [Female], No. 300650 USNM, ×10. _d._ _Apodemus peninsulae peninsulae_ (Thomas), 6 mi. S Yongdongp'o, Korea, adult [Male], No. 299554 USNM, ×2. In comparing the ventral views of skulls note especially the size and location of incisive foramina and posterior palatine foramina as well as the breadth of mesopterygoid fossae. In comparing the left maxillary tooth-rows note especially the size of M3 and the reduced posterointernal cusp on Ml in _A. peninsulae_.] More recently, Ellerman (1949:32) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:566) have arranged _peninsulae_ as a subspecies of _Apodemus flavicollis_ under the assumption that all the members of the subgenus _Sylvaemus_ on the eastern Asiatic mainland are subspecies of one or another of the species of western Europe, _A. flavicollis_ or _A. sylvaticus_. Ellerman (in Ellerman and Morrison-Scott, 1951:564) states: "The majority of the forms I distribute in a somewhat arbitrary manner between _sylvaticus_, average smaller skull, and _flavicollis_, average larger skull; occurring together nearly throughout the Palaearctic. I feel fairly sure that there are some errors of judgment in my arrangement, and equally sure that there is no other way to define species in this very large and difficult group." I have compared the specimens of _peninsulae_ available to me from central and southern Korea with specimens of _A. f. flavicollis_ from Denmark, Germany and Sweden and find, although the two are similar in many ways, that _peninsulae_ differs from _flavicollis_ in several important characters: Mammae 1-2=6 in _flavicollis_, and 2-2=8 in _peninsulae_; incisive foramina reaching level of alveoli of M1, or nearly so, in _flavicollis_, but ending conspicuously short of that level in _peninsulae_; posterior palatine foramina large in _flavicollis_ and opposite a point where M1 and M2 meet, but small in _peninsulae_ and situated farther back on the palate, opposite M2. Moreover, _peninsulae_ lacks the characteristic buffy throat patch of _flavicollis_, has a much reduced posterointernal cusp on the M1, a relatively (frequently actually) larger M3 and, on the average, a broader mesopterygoid fossa. In view of these differences, all of which appear to be constant, I consider _peninsulae_ specifically distinct from _flavicollis_. Throughout its known geographic range (see below) _peninsulae_ is evidently confined to wooded terrain, either scrub or brush types or forested areas, and the vernacular name wood mouse, therefore, seems appropriate for this species. The type specimens of _Apodemus praetor_ Miller (type from Sungari River, 60 mi. SW Kirin, Manchuria) and _Apodemus nigritalus_ Hollister (type from Tapucha, Altai Mountains, Siberia) agree with _peninsulae_ as concerns the above characters and differ from it only in minor external and cranial features. They are, therefore, here considered as subspecies of the latter. Ellerman (1949:32) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:567) regarded _nigritalus_, like _peninsulae_, as a subspecies of _flavicollis_. The subspecies _praetor_, on the other hand, has generally been regarded as a synonym of _peninsulae_ by recent authors. Howell (1929:58) noted that the holotype was, "... a phenomenally large specimen such as is encountered occasionally in almost all groups of rodents." He ascribed the color differences noted by Miller to "seasonal" variation. The holotype of _praetor_ is undeniably larger than the other adult specimens listed in the original description. These paratypes and other specimens of _praetor_ available to me are approximately the same size externally and average only slightly larger cranially than specimens of _peninsulae_ from central and southern Korea. However, the dorsal coloration of _praetor_ is somewhat darker and duller than that of _peninsulae_, especially in summer pelage when _praetor_ lacks the conspicuous bright ochraceous tinge of the Korean specimens. In addition, _praetor_ has broader zygomatic plates with correspondingly deeper zygomatic notches and the color on the face of the upper incisors averages much more orange than in _peninsulae_. In the north then, wood mice range from Korea and Manchuria westward at least as far as the Altai Mountains. For mice from the intervening Siberian areas Russian workers have used the name _major_ which, as noted above, is unavailable. The exact relationships of the mice of these areas to previously named subspecies is unknown to me and I have not seen specimens of "_Mus (Alsomys) major rufulus_" of Dukelsky, 1928, the type locality of which is 75 versts (approximately 50 miles) SE Vladivostok, Siberia. It appears to be of the same species as _peninsulae_ and judging from the original description it closely resembles _praetor_. Neither have I seen specimens of the Sakhalin Island mouse, _giliacus_, which Ellerman (1949:32) regards as a subspecies of _Apodemus sylvaticus_. I feel reasonably sure, however, that it will prove to be a subspecies of _peninsulae_. In the original description _giliacus_ was referred to as, "Most closely allied to the Korean subspecies..." (Thomas, 1907:411). In China the extent of the distribution of _Apodemus peninsulae_ is also uncertain. Allen (1940:949-50) reported its occurrence from Jehol and Hopeh in the northeast, southwestward through Shansi, Shensi and eastern Kansu to Szechuan and northwestern Yunnan. Throughout most of this region it occurs with another mouse, currently regarded as conspecific with _Apodemus sylvaticus_, and the two kinds have been confused by some previous authors. Howell (1929:58), for instance, reported twelve specimens of _peninsulae_ from 65-75 mi. NE Peking but my examination of these mice indicates that only four are _peninsulae_ while the others are referrable to what is currently regarded as _Apodemus sylvaticus draco_. Another subspecies of _sylvaticus_, _A. s. orestes_, occurs in Szechuan and Yunnan and it is certain that some records of distribution ascribed to _peninsulae_ from those provinces actually represent _orestes_ (see Allen, 1940:949-50). _A. sylvaticus_ is distinguishable from _peninsulae_ by darker ears, blackish preauricular patches, dark eye rings, a noticeably smaller skull, incisive foramina that reach the level of Ml (or nearly so), much larger auditory bullae, and a more fully developed posterointernal cusp on M1. Too, _sylvaticus_ typically has 1-2=6 mammae although Allen reports finding a 2-2=8 formula in some specimens. _Apodemus latronum_, regarded as a full species by Osgood (1932:318) and G. M. Allen (1940:950) but as a subspecies of _flavicollis_ by Ellerman (1949:32) and Ellerman and Morrison-Scott (1951:567), also occurs in Szechuan and Yunnan. Its relatively dark color, large feet and large ears, _flavicollis_-like skull and large molar teeth immediately separate it from _peninsulae_ although the two possibly have been confused in the earlier literature. Until a complete revisionary study of the Asiatic members of the subgenus _Sylvaemus_ can be undertaken the presence of _peninsulae_ in southwestern China must remain in question. The western limits of the geographic range of _Apodemus peninsulae_ are unknown. _Apodemus gurkha_ Thomas, 1924, from Nepal is said to have 2-2=8 mammae but the description is not otherwise suggestive of close relationship to _peninsulae_. Farther to the west, _Apodemus flavicollis rusiges_ Miller, 1913, from Kashmir seems to have been properly assigned as a subspecies of _flavicollis_ (cotypes and large series in USNM). Wood mice almost certainly do not occur in the Gobi Desert. They are known as far west as the Altai Mountains to the north of the Gobi and at least as far west as Kansu (see below) to the south of it. Whether the geographic range of the species skirts the western edge of the arid regions of northern China is at present unknown; perhaps it does not. At any rate, mice available to me from the North Chinese provinces of Jehol, Shansi, Shensi and Kansu are notably different in certain external and cranial features from other known races of _Apodemus peninsulae_ and are here given subspecific recognition. All measurements are in millimeters. Capitalized color terms are from Ridgway (1912). Apodemus peninsulae sowerbyi, new subspecies _Type._--Adult female molting from winter to summer pelage, skin and skull, U. S. National Museum no. 175523, from 30 miles west of Kuei-hua-cheng, 7000 ft., northern Shansi, China; obtained on 23 May 1912 by Arthur de Carle Sowerby, original no. 456. _Distribution._--Known presently from eastern Kansu eastward through Shensi, Shansi and Hopeh to southern Jehol, probably also in northeastern Szechuan, exact limits of range unknown. _Diagnosis._--Size small for species (see measurements). Color: Upper parts (fresh summer pelage) averaging near (15'_a_) Ochraceous-Buff, suffused with blackish (especially mid-dorsally); winter pelage much paler; underparts grayish-white, individual hairs plumbeous at base, tipped with white; ears pale brownish; feet whitish above, darker below; tail bicolor, pale brownish above, whitish below. Skull: Small (see measurements); rostrum somewhat shortened and conspicuously down-curved; zygomatic notches relatively shallow; zygomatic plates narrow; braincase proportionally more inflated than in other subspecies of the species; auditory bullae moderately inflated; upper incisors slender, their faces averaging bright yellowish-orange. _Measurements._--External measurements of the holotype, followed by those of an adult male and female from the type locality, are, respectively: Length of head and body, 101, 102, 100; length of tail, 93, ----, 102; length of hind foot (_su_), 21, 21.5, 23; length of ear from notch, 14, 16, 15.5. Corresponding measurements for an adult female from 20 mi. E Taiyuan, Shansi, are: 91, 99, 23, 16. For cranial measurements see Table 1. Table Key: A: Occipitonasal length B: Zygomatic breadth C: Mastoid breadth D: Interorbital length E: Frontonasal length F: Nasal length G: Depth of skull H: Alveolar length of maxiary tooth-row TABLE 1.--CRANIAL MEASUREMENTS OF ADULTS OF SEVERAL SUBSPECIES OF APODEMUS PENINSULAE ============================================================================ Sex | | | | | | | | | and catalogue | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | number or number of | | | | | | | | | individuals averaged | | | | | | | | | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- _Apodemus peninsulae peninsulae_, various localities in central Korea Average 10 (4M, 6F) | 29.2 | 14.2 | 11.8 | 4.7 | 20.1 | 11.4 | 10.2 | 4.3 | Minimum | 28.3 | 13.8 | 11.5 | 4.6 | 19.2 | 10.8 | 9.9 | 4.1 | Maximum | 29.8 | 14.6 | 12.2 | 5.1 | 20.7 | 12.0 | 10.5 | 4.4 | _Apodemus peninsulae nigritalus_, Tapucha, Altai Mts., Siberia USNM 175164, M (type) | 28.8 | 14.8 | 12.4 | 4.5 | 20.8 | 11.7 | 11.0 | 4.4 | USNM 175171, F | 28.2 | 13.7 | 11.8 | 4.5 | 19.8 | 11.2 | 10.3 | 4.5 | _Apodemus peninsulae praetor_, Sungari River, 60 mi. SW Kirin, Manchuria USNM 197792, M (type) | 30.5 | .... | 12.5 | 4.7 | 21.5 | 12.5 | 10.3 | 4.6 | USNM 197798, F | 30.2 | 14.4 | 11.8 | 4.6 | 21.6 | 12.7 | 10.6 | 4.6 | Mukden, Manchuria USNM 197782, M | 29.5 | 14.8 | 12.4 | 4.8 | 20.6 | 12.2 | 10.5 | 4.2 | _Apodemus peninsulae sowerbyi_, Kuei-hau-cheng, Shansi USNM 175523, F (type) | 27.9 | 13.3 | 11.7 | 4.5 | 19.6 | 11.4 | 9.9 | 4.0 | USNM 175521, M | 27.6 | .... | 11.5 | 4.6 | 18.9 | 11.4 | 9.7 | 4.1 | USNM 175522, F | 27.9 | .... | 11.8 | 4.6 | 19.4 | 11.3 | 9.8 | 4.2 | 20 mi. E Taiyuan, Shansi USNM 172558, F | 27.4 | 13.8 | 11.5 | 4.6 | 19.4 | 11.6 | 10.1 | 4.4 | 12 mi. S Yenan, Shensi USNM 155072, M | 27.8 | 14.1 | .... | 4.4 | 19.5 | 11.0 | .... | 4.3 | USNM 155073, F | 27.7 | 13.3 | 11.5 | 4.5 | 19.4 | 11.0 | 10.0 | 4.2 | USNM 155075, M | 27.9 | 13.5 | 11.4 | 4.5 | 19.2 | 11.0 | 10.0 | 4.3 | Hsin-lung-shan, 65 mi. NE Peking, Jehol USNM 219229, M | 27.7 | 13.8 | 11.4 | 4.5 | 19.0 | 10.9 | 10.4 | 4.4 | 15 mi. S Lanchow, Kansu USNM 155171, M | 27.7 | 13.6 | 11.7 | 4.6 | 19.0 | 11.3 | 9.9 | 4.5 | _Comparisons._--From _Apodemus peninsulae peninsulae_ (specimens from various localities in central Korea), _A. p. sowerbyi_ differs in: External size smaller throughout, especially hind foot; upper parts, especially in summer pelage, and dorsal aspect of tail paler; skull smaller and less massive; braincase proportionally more inflated; rostrum shorter and noticeably down-curved. From _Apodemus peninsulae praetor_ of Manchuria (holotype and paratypes), _A. p. sowerbyi_ differs in most of the same ways in which it does from _peninsulae_ as well as in having more shallow zygomatic notches, narrower zygomatic plates and smaller, more slender, upper incisors. From _Apodemus peninsulae nigritalus_ of the Altai Mountains of Siberia (holotype and paratypes), _A. p. sowerbyi_ differs in: Smaller size, both external and cranial; paler dorsal coloration; less convex cranial outline in lateral view; smaller auditory bullae. _Remarks._--_Apodemus peninsulae sowerbyi_ is named in honor of the late Arthur de Carle Sowerby whose collections of mammals from North China and Manchuria have added so much to our meager knowledge of that part of the world. Four specimens from Hsin-lung-shan, 65 mi. NE Peking, here assigned to _sowerbyi_, are darker dorsally than mice from farther to the west and in this respect may show approach to _A. p. praetor_. In all other features, however, they closely resemble the new subspecies. All of the specimens of _sowerbyi_ available to me are from altitudes of 3000 feet or higher. At lower elevations in North China, destruction of wooded habitats owing to intense land-use practices has probably restricted the distribution of _sowerbyi_ primarily to hilly and mountainous areas where brushy, scrub and forest habitats still prevail. _Specimens examined._--Thirty-three, all from North China, as follows: JEHOL: Hsin-lung-shan, 65 mi. NE Peking, 3000 ft., 4. KANSU: 15 mi. S Lanchow, 7400 ft., 1. SHANSI: Chiao-cheng-shan, 90 mi. W Taiyuan, 7000-8000 ft., 4; 30 mi. W Kuei-hau-cheng, 7000 ft., 5; Lung-wang-shan, 20 mi. E Taiyuan, 4000 ft., 10; 18 mi. W Taiyuan, 5000 ft., 1; 50 mi. NW Taiyuan, 5500 ft., 4. SHENSI: 12 mi. S Yenan, 4000 ft., 4. _Apodemus peninsulae_, then, is known or suspected to occur over much of southeastern Siberia, Manchuria, Korea and North China. The western limits of its geographic range are unknown. Over this vast area only four subspecies, one newly named, can be ascribed with certainty to _peninsulae_ whereas only two other kinds, _giliacus_ of Thomas from Sakhalin and _rufulus_ of Dukelsky from extreme southeastern Siberia are probably conspecific with it, the latter possibly a synonym of _praetor_. These considerations underscore the preliminary nature of the present paper. The mammalian fauna of northeastern Asia is scarcely better known today than was that of North America in 1885 when Dr. C. Hart Merriam organized what was later to become the U. S. Biological Survey. It seems to me that the correct names of four kinds of wood mice discussed above are as follows: _Apodemus peninsulae peninsulae_ (Thomas, 1907) _Apodemus peninsulae nigritalus_ Hollister, 1913 _Apodemus peninsulae praetor_ Miller, 1914 _Apodemus peninsulae sowerbyi_ Jones, 1956 LITERATURE CITED ALLEN, G. M. 1940. The mammals of China and Mongolia. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., New York, 2:XXVI + 621-1350, September 3. ELLERMAN, J. R. 1949. The families and genera of living rodents. British Mus., London, 3:V + 1-210, March. ELLERMAN, J. R., and T. C. S. MORRISON-SCOTT. 1951. Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals, 1758 to 1946. British Mus., London, 810 p., November 19. HOLLISTER, N. 1913. Two new mammals from the Siberian Altai. Smith. Misc. Coll., 60:1-3, March 13. HOWELL, A. B. 1929. Mammals from China in the collections of the United States National Museum. Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 75:1-82, June 7. MILLER, G. S., JR. 1914. Two new murine rodents from eastern Asia. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 27:89-92, May 11. OSGOOD, W. H. 1932. Mammals of the Kelley-Roosevelts and Delacour Asiatic expeditions. Field Columb. Mus. Nat. Hist., Zool. Series, 18:193-339, August 19. RIDGWAY, R. 1912. Color standards and color nomenclature. Washington, D. C., published by the author. THOMAS, O. 1907. The Duke of Bedford's zoological explorations in eastern Asia.--IV. A list of small mammals from the islands of Saghalien and Hokkaido. Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1907:404-414, August 1. _Transmitted May 12, 1956._ 26-3854 
32112	----	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 9, No. 19, pp. 519-529 January 14, 1960 Records of Harvest Mice, Reithrodontomys, from Central America, with Description of a New Subspecies from Nicaragua BY SYDNEY ANDERSON AND J. KNOX JONES, JR. UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1960 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Robert W. Wilson Volume 9, No. 19, pp. 519-529 Published January 14, 1960 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED IN THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS 1960 28-1279 Records of Harvest Mice, Reithrodontomys, from Central America, with Description of a New Subspecies from Nicaragua BY SYDNEY ANDERSON AND J. KNOX JONES, JR. Since 1952 when Hooper's review of Latin American harvest mice was published, collectors from the Museum of Natural History of the University of Kansas have visited several countries in Central America, and have obtained many additional specimens. Among these we find a new subspecies of _Reithrodontomys fulvescens_ from Nicaragua, significant extensions of known geographic range for several other species, and additional information on variation in some little known kinds. Specimens in the Museum of Natural History of _Reithrodontomys mexicanus cherriei_, _Reithrodontomys tenuirostris_, and _Reithrodontomys creper_ that are from within the geographic and altitudinal ranges listed by Hooper (1952) are not included in this report. All place names are on the map of Hispanic America published by the American Geographical Society and can be located by consulting the "Index to map of Hispanic America" (Vol. 1, Geographical names in Central America, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1943.) All measurements cited are in millimeters. Support for field work was provided by the Kansas University Endowment Association. Support for the laboratory phases of the work came in part from a grant from the National Science Foundation. Most of the specimens herein reported were collected by James W. Bee in late 1954 and early 1955, and by J. R. Alcorn and A. A. Alcorn in 1955 and 1956. A few that were collected earlier by other persons are mentioned. We are indebted to the following individuals for the loan of specimens in their care: R. G. Van Gelder, American Museum of Natural History; Philip Hershkovitz, Chicago Natural History Museum; W. H. Burt and E. T. Hooper, Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan; and D. H. Johnson and C. O. Handley, Jr., U. S. National Museum. ~_Reithrodontomys sumichrasti australis_~ J. A. Allen.--Seven specimens from the vicinity of Volcan Irazú, Cartago, Costa Rica, are from within the geographic and altitudinal range recorded for the subspecies by Hooper (1952:82). One female, KU 26967, trapped on March 2, 1947, on the SW slope of Volcan Irazú, 8500 ft., contained five embryos that were 17 mm. in crown-rump length. ~_Reithrodontomys sumichrasti dorsalis_~ Merriam.--A total of 93 females are among 195 specimens from 24 localities in Guatemala that lie within the geographic and altitudinal range recorded by Hooper (1952:78) for _dorsalis_. Two females were pregnant; KU 71363, taken on January 28, 1956, 7 mi. E, 2 mi. S La Unión, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala, contained three embryos that were 7 mm. in crown-rump length, and KU 65245, taken on December 15, 1954, 1 mi. NE Nebaj, 6000 ft., El Quiche, Guatemala, contained four embryos that were 15 mm. in crown-rump length. These two females were the only pregnant ones among 36 taken in December, 23 in January, 1 in February, 19 in March, 5 in April, and 9 in August. ~_Reithrodontomys fulvescens chiapensis_~ Howell.--GUATEMALA.--Baja Verapaz: 1/2 mi. N, 1 mi. E Salamá, 3200 ft., 1 (KU 65378--January 28, 1955); 1 mi. S Rabinal, 3450 ft., 4 (KU 65379-82--January 29, 1955); 5 mi. N, 1 mi. W [Santa Cruz] El Chol, 6000 ft., 1 (KU 65375--January 30, 1955). Guatemala: 5 mi. S Guatemala City, 4950 ft., 2 (KU 65371-72--March 13, 1955); 7 mi. S, 6 mi. E Guatemala City, 5800 ft., 1 (KU 65370--March 14, 1955). Santa Rosa: 2 mi. N, 2 mi. W Cuilapa [= Cuajiniquilapa], 2980 ft, 2 (KU 65376-77--March 5, 1955). The specimens from the departments of Guatemala and Santa Rosa are from localities that lie on the Pacific slope and are southwest of the previously known range of the species (see Hooper, 1952:93). The specimens from 1/2 mi. N and 1 mi. E Salamá and from 1 mi. S Rabinal are paler dorsally than other Guatemalan specimens available to us, including the specimen from the nearby locality, 5 mi. N and 1 mi. W El Chol. Specimens from Nicaragua that are recognizable by the E-shaped pattern of the worn occlusal surface of the third upper molars and by the S-shaped occlusal pattern of the third lower molars as of the species _Reithrodontomys fulvescens_, extend the known range of the species approximately 200 kilometers southeast from the vicinity of Tegucigalpa, Honduras (Hooper, 1952:93). The Nicaraguan specimens are described below as a new subspecies. ~Reithrodontomys fulvescens meridionalis~, new subspecies _Type specimen._--Skin and skull of adult male, no. 71388 Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, from 9 mi. NNW Estelí, Estelí, Nicaragua; obtained by J. R. Alcorn on July 15, 1956; original number 21,464. _Diagnostic characters._--A short-tailed _Reithrodontomys fulvescens_ having a distinctly streaked or "peppered," and short pelage composed of relatively dark hairs as well as relatively brightly colored hairs on dorsum and white-tipped hairs on venter; and having shallow skull, elongate and posteriorly attenuate incisive foramina, small postpalatal foramina, broad interorbital region, and mid-dorsal depression at junction of nasal and frontal bones. _Comparisons._--Each of three adults of _meridionalis_ (trapped in February and March) can be distinguished from seven adults of the geographically adjacent _R. f. chiapensis_ from Guatemala (trapped in late January and in March) by shorter tail, more streaked or "peppered" dorsal pelage, yellower hue of non-blackish parts of hairs on dorsum, less distinct mid-dorsal darkening, and more whitish (less buffy) venter. Four specimens of _meridionalis_ trapped in July at the type locality, only one mile from the locality of capture of the February-taken specimens, are distinctly darker dorsally and slightly darker ventrally than the three _meridionalis_ trapped in February and March, but resemble the latter three in shortness of tail and in having short, "peppered" dorsal pelage. We lack specimens of _chiapensis_ in summer pelage. According to Hooper (1952:122) the summer pelages of _R. f. chiapensis_ and _R. f. helvolus_ are indistinguishable. Our _meridionalis_ differ from five summer-taken specimens of _helvolus_ in shorter, more "peppered," and distinctly darker dorsal pelage. Six skulls of _meridionalis_ were matched with six skulls of _chiapensis_ having approximately the same amount of wear on the teeth, and the series were compared, pair by pair, in various cranial characters. In five of the six pairs _meridionalis_ had a less inflated braincase, and smaller postpalatal foramina, and in each of the six pairs _meridionalis_ had a greater depression in the frontonasal region and posteriorly more acute incisive foramina. Four external measurements and nine cranial measurements were compared using the series of _meridionalis_, the series of _chiapensis_ from Guatemala, and Hooper's (1952:213) measurements of seven _chiapensis_ from central Chiapas. The lesser average and maximum total length of skull in _meridionalis_ than in either series of _chiapensis_ suggests that _meridionalis_ has a smaller skull. Externally, the lesser total length of _meridionalis_ is largely owing to its shorter tail; there is little difference in length of head and body between _meridionalis_ and _chiapensis_. The longest tail among our _meridionalis_ is shorter than the shortest tail among the _chiapensis_ (disregarding two Guatemalan specimens of _chiapensis_ that probably had injured tails). The interorbital breadth of _meridionalis_ is on the average greater and the depth of cranium is less than in _chiapensis_. There is some overlap in the range of each of these two cranial measurements, but in all _meridionalis_ the interorbital breadth exceeds 42 per cent of the depth of cranium, and in all _chiapensis_ is less than 42 per cent. The length of the incisive foramina in _meridionalis_, expressed as a percentage of the total length of the skull, is usually greater than in _chiapensis_. One of our specimens (KU 71389) contained four embryos that measured 5 mm. in crown-rump length. _Measurements._--Selected measurements of the holotype, followed by the average and extreme measurements of six specimens of _meridionalis_ (including the holotype) from the vicinity of the type locality are: total length, 154, 152.0 (148-154); length of tail, 82, 82.0 (81-83); length of hind foot, 17, 18.0 (17-19); length of ear from notch, 13, 13.3 (12-14); total length of skull, 21.4, 21.13 (20.3-21.7); zygomatic breadth, 10.0, 10.38 (10.0-10.6); breadth of braincase, 10.1, 10.17 (9.9-10.4); depth of skull, 8.2, 8.00 (7.8-8.3); interorbital constriction, 3.7, 3.53 (3.4-3.7); breadth of rostrum, 3.8, 3.75 (3.6-3.9); length of rostrum, 7.4, 7.33 (7.1-7.7); length of incisive foramen, 4.6, 4.47 (4.2-4.6); length of upper molar tooth-row, 3.2, 3.32 (3.2-3.5). Corresponding measurements of a specimen from 11 mi. SE Darío are: 153, 82, 18, 13, 20.7, 10.3, 10.1, 7.8, 3.4, 3.6, 7.2, 4.3, and 3.2. _Specimens examined, 8, as follows_: NICARAGUA.--Estelí: 9 mi. NNW Estelí, 4 (KU 71386-89--July 15, 1956); 8 mi. NNW Estelí, 3 (KU 71393-95--February 5, 1956). Matagalpa: 11 mi. SE Darío, 1 (KU 71392--March 21, 1956). Specimens of _Reithrodontomys fulvescens helvolus_ used in comparisons: OAXACA: 3 mi. ESE Oaxaca, 1 (KU 68891--June 24, 1955); 3 mi. W Mitla, 4 (KU 68892-95--August 5 to 9, 1955). ~_Reithrodontomys gracilis anthonyi_~ Goodwin.--EL SALVADOR.--Santa Ana: 2 mi. SE San Cristóbal, 2950 ft., 2 (KU 65401-02--March 6, 1955). GUATEMALA.--Jutiapa: 2-1/2 mi. W, 2-1/4 mi. N San Cristóbal [El Salvador], 2900 ft., 5 (KU 65396-400--March 6, 1955). The subspecies _anthonyi_ has been known previously by seven specimens, none of which is fully adult, judging from Hooper's (1952:134) comment that the adult pelage of _anthonyi_ is unknown. Six of our seven specimens are clearly adults as is shown by well-worn teeth and degree of development of temporal ridges. The seventh is a young animal in process of postjuvenal molt. Individuals from our series in general resemble specimens of _Reithrodontomys mexicanus orinus_ from the vicinity of Guatemala City but differ from the latter as follows: dorsal pelage brighter (with less suffusion of black), "peppered" in appearance, shorter and sparser; ears distinctly paler, owing both to the paler color of the skin and the paleness of the hairs inside the pinna; dark tarsal stripe not extending onto hind foot; ears and hind feet uniformly smaller; averaging smaller in cranial dimensions (but there is considerable overlap), braincase less convex dorsally. Measurements of the adult _anthonyi_ now available show that the subspecies reaches a greater size than was apparent in the sample available to Hooper. Consequently the three largest adults would be identified as _R. mexicanus_ according to Hooper's key (1952:31), rather than _R. gracilis_, and the three smallest adults could not be unequivocably identified as either one species or the other. The ranges of _R. gracilis_ and _R. mexicanus_ are allopatric except in southern Guatemala where the ranges overlap. However, the two species have not been taken there at the same place. In comparison with May-taken adults of _R. g. harrisi_ from 3 mi. SW Managua, Nicaragua, the adult _anthonyi_ average brighter (more orange) in color (but two of the _anthonyi_ cannot be distinguished by color when placed with the _harrisi_), and are larger in total length, length of tail, and size of skull. One female (KU 65400) contained two embryos that measured 18 mm. in crown-rump length. Average and extreme external and cranial measurements of the six adults are: total length, 183.6 (170-198); length of tail, 106.0 (95-113); length of hind foot, 18.0 (18); length of ear from notch, 14.0 (14); total length of skull, 22.21 (21.4-22.8); zygomatic breadth, 11.20 (10.9-11.7); breadth of braincase, 10.90 (10.3-11.4); depth of skull, 8.36 (8.0-9.0); length of rostrum, 7.60 (7.3-7.8); breadth of rostrum, 4.24 (4.0-4.6); interorbital constriction, 3.78 (3.6-4.0); length of incisive foramen, 4.05 (3.8-4.3); length of upper molar tooth-row, 3.28 (3.1-3.4). Weight in grams of the adults averaged 14.3 (12-17). ~_Reithrodontomys gracilis gracilis_~ Allen and Chapman.--GUATEMALA.--El Petén: Uaxactún, 1500 ft., 2 (KU 65384-85--April 3, 1955). These specimens are the first of the subspecies to be recorded from Guatemala. Uaxactún is near, but not within, the range of _R. g. gracilis_ as mapped by Hooper (1952:131). The male, KU 65384, and female, KU 65385, are adults with comparatively unworn molar teeth. Respective external measurements are: total length, 178, 175; length of tail, 106, 102; length of hind foot, 18.5, 19; length of ear from notch, 14, 14. ~_Reithrodontomys gracilis harrisi_~ Goodwin.--NICARAGUA.--Estelí: 9 mi. NNW Estelí, 1 (KU 71342--July 15, 1956). Managua: 3 mi. SW Managua, 15 (KU 71345-59--February, May, June, 1956); 4 mi. W Managua, 2 (KU 71360-61--June 26, 28, 1956). Comments on the series from 3 mi. SW Managua have appeared elsewhere (Englert, 1959:153). The specimen from 9 mi. NNW Estelí contained four embryos that measured 5 mm. in crown-rump length. ~_Reithrodontomys gracilis pacificus_~ Goodwin.--EL SALVADOR.--San Salvador: 1 mi. NW San Salvador, 1 (KU 71396--July 29, 1956). In coloration (being but slightly paler), and in small size, this specimen resembles the description of _R. g. pacificus_ given by Hooper (1952:135) and ten specimens of _pacificus_ (nine from Guatemala and one from Chiapas) examined by us. Because of this resemblance and the marked contrast with specimens of _R. g. anthonyi_ discussed above we assign this specimen to _pacificus_. In comparison with two topotypes (AMNH 79062, 79090) of _R. g. anthonyi_ from Sacapulas, Guatemala, taken on February 9 and March 2 that are essentially the same age as KU 71396, the latter specimen is darker dorsally, the tail is darker both dorsally and ventrally, and the skull is smaller. In paleness of upper surface of hind feet, length of palate relative to length of incisive foramina, and size of bullae, KU 71396 resembles _anthonyi_. We interpret these resemblances to _anthonyi_ as evidence of intergradation between _pacificus_ and _anthonyi_. Felten (1958:9) referred two specimens from El Salvador (one from San Salvador and one from Amate de Campo, Departmento de La Paz) to _anthonyi_, without comparison with _pacificus_ and with no mention of examination of other specimens of _Reithrodontomys gracilis_. When the distribution and variation of _R. gracilis_ in this region are more adequately known these two specimens may well be reassigned to _pacificus_. Hooper (1952:134) observed that two specimens from Monte Cristo Mine in eastern El Salvador were the smallest and darkest of the _R. g. anthonyi_ examined by him and approached _R. g. pacificus_ in these particulars. Possibly these specimens from Monte Cristo Mine also should be assigned to _pacificus_ rather than _anthonyi_. External measurements of KU 71396 are: total length, 167; length of tail, 99; length of hind foot, 19; length of ear from notch, 13. The specimen contained four embryos that measured 10 mm. in crown-rump length. ~_Reithrodontomys microdon microdon_~ Merriam.--GUATEMALA.--Huehuetenango: 2 mi. S San Juan Ixcoy, 9340 ft., 10 (KU 65404-13--December 24 and 25, 1954); 3-1/2 mi. SW San Juan Ixcoy, 10,120 ft., 4 (KU 65210, 65414-15, 65417--December 27 and 28, 1954). San Marcos: 3-1/4 mi. N, 3/4 mi. E San Marcos, 9500 ft, 1 (KU 65420--March 22, 1955). Totonicapán: 5 mi. ESE Totonicapán, 4 (KU 68897-900--July 17, 1955). All the localities from which we have examined specimens fall within the geographic range of the subspecies as mapped by Hooper (1952:168). He examined six specimens of _R. m. microdon_ and listed external and cranial measurements for only two specimens. Average and extreme external measurements of 13 adults (7 males, 6 females) from the vicinity of San Juan Ixcoy are: total length, 176.5 (168-187); length of tail, 105.8 (100-110); length of hind foot, 19.5 (19-20); length of ear from notch, 16.8 (15-18). The average weight in grams of these same specimens is 9.1 (8-11). Average and extreme cranial measurements of 12 specimens from the same series (7 males, 5 females) are: total length of skull, 22.55 (21.6-23.0); zygomatic breadth, 10.82 (10.2-11.2); breadth of braincase, 11.02 (10.6-11.4); depth of skull, 8.67 (8.4-8.9); interorbital constriction, 3.78 (3.6-3.9); breadth of rostrum, 3.86 (3.6-4.0); length of rostrum, 8.33 (8.1-8.6); length of incisive foramen, 4.27 (4.0-4.5); length of palate, 3.48 (3.2-3.8); length of upper molar tooth-row, 3.25 (3.0-3.4). ~_Reithrodontomys mexicanus howelli_~ Goodwin.--GUATEMALA.--Baja Verapaz: 5 mi. N, 1 mi. W [Santa Cruz] El Chol, 6000 ft., 3 (KU 65315, 65386-87--January 30, 1955). El Quiche: 1 mi. NE Nebaj, 6000 ft., 2 (KU 65275, 65277--December 19, 1954). Huehuetenango: 5 mi. E, 1 mi. N Huehuetenango, 7000 ft., 2 (KU 65418-19--December 22, 1954). Santa Rosa: 1 mi. WSW El Molino [= approximately 1 mi. S, 6 mi. E Cuajiniquilapa], 1 (KU 71315--August 3, 1956). The specimen from 1 mi. WSW El Molino is from within the range of the subspecies _R. m. orinus_ as mapped by Hooper (1952:141), coming from a locality to the southeast of the two westernmost localities shown by him for _orinus_. This mouse is distinctly darker than any of the specimens of _orinus_ discussed beyond, and is as dark as the darkest _howelli_ seen by us. In addition to the specimens of _howelli_ listed above, we have examined 12 from Prusia, Chiapas (UMMZ 88351-58, 96810-13), and three from 3 mi. NW San Cristóbal, Chiapas (KU 66680-82). _R. m. howelli_ may occur at moderate elevations along the coast of southern Guatemala, or possibly this specimen represents a population of dark-colored mice that is isolated from similarly colored populations to the north and west. According to the field notes of Albert A. Alcorn, the collector, this specimen was taken in a "tree set." Perhaps pale-colored and dark-colored populations of _R. mexicanus_ are sympatric but ecologically segregated in this region. ~_Reithrodontomys mexicanus lucifrons_~ Howell.--NICARAGUA.--Jinotega: 1 mi. NW Jinotega, 1 (KU 71344--April 12, 1956); 5 mi. S, 2 mi. E Jinotega, 1 (KU 71343--April 12, 1956). Comments on these specimens have appeared earlier (Englert, 1959:153). ~_Reithrodontomys mexicanus orinus_~ Hooper.--GUATEMALA.--Guatemala: 5 mi. S Guatemala City, 4950 ft., 2 (KU 65388-89--March 11, 1955); 6 mi. S Guatemala City, 4680 ft., 3 (KU 65390-92--March 10, 1955); 7 mi. S, 6 mi. E Guatemala City, 5800 ft., 2 (KU 65393-94--March 14, 1955). Our seven specimens are from near the northwestern edge of the geographic range of _orinus_ (where it meets that of _howelli_) as mapped by Hooper (1952:141). Nevertheless, they are distinctly brighter dorsally, paler ventrally, and average larger than the specimens listed in the account of _R. m. howelli_ above. Also, they match well in size and coloration the specimens from nearby Lago de Amatitlan (USNM 275406-09) and Finca San Rafael (CNHM 41770) that were referred by Hooper to _R. m. orinus_. He (_op. cit._:149) noted that these last-mentioned specimens were slightly darker than topotypes of _orinus_ and differed from them in several minor cranial features, which he interpreted as evidence of intergradation with _howelli_. ~_Reithrodontomys brevirostris_~ Goodwin.--COSTA RICA.--Alajuela: 5 mi. SW San Ramón, 1 (KU 71362--July 11, 1956). NICARAGUA.--Carazo: 3 mi. NNW Diriamba, 2 (KU 71390-91--June 16, 21, 1956). External measurements of these three specimens are respectively: total length, 179, 167, 173; length of tail, 107, 96, 101; length of hind foot, 19, 18, 18; length of ear from notch, 15, 13, 13. The teeth show about the same moderate wear in each of the three specimens. Our _brevirostris_ differ noticeably from specimens of _Reithrodontomys mexicanus cherriei_ and _R. m. lucifrons_ that we have seen in duller, darker, and less reddish color. One specimen, KU 71390, still has a patch of gray juvenal pelage on the nape; the newer pelage elsewhere is shorter and sparser than that of the other two specimens. In addition, No. 71390, a female, contained no embryos, but has two pairs of mammae, one pair pectoral and one inguinal, that are conspicuous on the dried skin; perhaps this female was lactating when captured. The mammae of KU 71362, also a non-pregnant female, are inconspicuous on the dried skin. The Nicaraguan specimens extend the known geographic range approximately 270 kilometers northwestward from near Villa Quesada, Alajuela, Costa Rica, and are the first records of the species from Nicaragua. LITERATURE CITED ENGLERT, D. C. 1959. First records of two species of harvest mice in Nicaragua. Southwestern Nat., 4:153, October 24. FELTON, H. 1958. Nagetiere (Mammalia, Rodentia) aus El Salvador, Teil 2. Senckenbergiana Biologica, 39 (1/2):1-10, 1 fig., March 31. HOOPER, E. T. 1952. A systematic review of the harvest mice (genus _Reithrodontomys_) of Latin America. Miscl. Publ. Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, 77:1-225, 9 pls., 24 figs., 12 maps, January 16. _Transmitted October 1, 1959._ * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Bold text is shown within ~tildes~. Italicized text is shown within _underscores_. Bold italicized text is shown within ~_tildes and underscores_~. 
32160	----	Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Galaxy Science Fiction May 1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed. CHAIN OF COMMAND [Illustration] By STEPHEN ARR By going through channels, George worked up from the woodwork to the top brass! Illustrated by ASHMAN * * * * * "George," Clara said with restrained fury, "the least you could do is ask him. Are you a mouse or a worm?" "Well, I have gone out there and moved it every night," George protested, trying to reason with her without success. "Yes, and every morning he puts it back. George, so long as that trap is outside of our front door, I can never have a moment's peace, worrying about the children. I won't go on like this! You must go out and talk some sense into him about removing it at once." "I don't know," George said weakly. "They might not be happy to find out about us." "Well, our being here is their own fault, remember that," Clara snorted. "They deliverately exposed your great-great grandfather Michael to hard radiations. George," she continued fervidly, "all you have to do is to go out and ask him. I'm sure he'll agree, and then we'll have this menace removed from our lives. I simply can _not_ go on like this another minute!" That, George knew, was a misstatement. She could go on like this for hours. He stared at her unhappily. "Yes, dear," he mumbled finally. "Well, maybe tomorrow." "No, George," she said firmly. "Now! This morning. The very moment he comes in." He looked at her silently, feeling harried and unsure of himself. After living here so long, they'd observed and learned human customs and speech--they'd even adopted human names. "George," she pleaded, "just ask him. Reason with him. Point out to him that he's just wasting his time." She paused, added, "You're intelligent--you can think of the right things to say." "Oh, all right," he said wearily. But once he had said it, he felt better. At least, he would get it over with, one way or another. * * * * * As soon as he heard the swish-swish of the broom outside his home, he got up and walked out of the front door. He saw that the trap was still off to one side, where he had pushed it the night before. "Hello," he shouted. Swish-swish-swish went the broom, busily moving dust from one part of the room to another, swish-swish-swish. The man looked tremendous from so close a view, yet George knew that he was just a little, bent, old man, a small specimen of the species. George took a deep breath. "_Hello!_" he bellowed with all his strength. The janitor stopped swish-swishing and looked around the room suspiciously. "_Hello!_" George shrieked. His throat felt raw. The janitor looked down and saw the mouse. "Hello yourself," he said. He was an ignorant old man and, when he saw the mouse shouting hello at him, he assumed right away that it was a mouse shouting hello to him. "_The trap!_" the mouse bellowed. "Stop _shouting_!" the janitor cried, annoyed. He liked to think as he worked, and he hated loud noises. "What about the trap?" "My wife doesn't want you to put it by the front door any more," George said, still speaking loudly, so that the janitor could hear, but at least not bellowing so that it tore his throat. "She's afraid it might hurt the children." "_Will_ it hurt the children?" the janitor demanded. "No," George replied. "They know all about traps--but my wife still wants it removed." "Sorry," the janitor said, "but my orders are to put a trap by every mousehole. This is an atomic plant, and they don't want mice." "They do, too!" George said defiantly. "They brought my great-great-grandfather Michael here themselves and exposed him to hard radiations. Otherwise _I_ wouldn't be here." "I can't help it," the janitor snapped. "I have to obey orders." "What will I tell my wife?" George shouted. That stopped the janitor. He had a wife of his own. "I guess I can take it up with the supervisor," he finally said. "All right," George shouted. "_Thanks!_" * * * * * The janitor picked up the trap and moved it over to the front door. He watched, interested, as George promptly pushed it several inches along the wall. Then he turned and busily swish-swished more dust around the room. "Well, what did he say?" Clara asked George as soon as he came back into the house. "Said he'd take it up with the supervisor," George said, settling down in an armchair. "George," she ordered, "you get up this instant and make sure that he really does!" "Look," George pleaded, "he said he would." "He may have been lying," Clara said promptly. "You go right up to the supervisor's room and see." So, George reluctantly heaved himself out of the chair and ran through the mouseways in the wall until he came to the mousehole in the supervisor's room. At that moment, the janitor came in and the supervisor looked up, annoyed. He was a fat man, with stubble on his cheek, and he walked with a waddle. "There's a mouse in room 112 who doesn't want a trap by his front door," the janitor said simply. "You're crazy," the supervisor said. The janitor shrugged. "What should I tell him?" he asked. "Tell him to come up here and speak to me himself," the supervisor said, feeling very clever. "I'm right here," George cried, stepping out of the mousehole and neatly side-stepping the mousetrap beside it. "There he is now," the janitor said, pointing. "My God!" whispered the supervisor, who'd had some education. "A hallucination." "No, a mouse," the old janitor corrected. "My wife wants the trap removed," George patiently explained. "She's worried the children might blunder into it." "Do _you_ see him, too?" the supervisor asked the janitor incredulously, still whispering. "Sure," the janitor replied. "He's the one I was telling you about, from room 112." The supervisor stood up unsteadily. "I don't feel very well," he said in a weak voice. "I think that I'd better talk this over with the Administrative Officer. It's a policy matter." "You come along, too," he said hastily to the janitor, who had turned to leave. "I'll need all the support I can get." He waddled out, followed by the janitor. "_What should I tell my wife?_" George shouted, but they didn't answer, so he went down and told his wife that they were discussing it with the Administrative Officer. And, as anyone could have guessed, a short time later he pushed his head out of the mousehole in the Administrative Office. * * * * * He was a bit late, just in time to see the door close on the supervisor and the janitor. So he shouted, "_Hello!_" as loud as he could. The Administrative Officer looked down and saw him right away. He was a thin pale man with tired eyes. "Go away," he said spiritlessly, "I've just told two people that you don't exist." "But my wife wants that trap removed--it's dangerous for the children," George complained. The Administrative Officer almost shouted to hell with George's children, but basically he was a decent man, even if an overworked one, and he caught himself in time. "I'm sorry," he said sincerely, picking up some letters that he had already read, "but we've got to leave the traps." "Then what will I tell my wife?" George demanded. That stopped the Administrative Officer, too. He buried his head in his hands and thought for a long moment. "Are you sure you _really_ exist?" he asked, finally raising his head from his hands. "Sure," George said. "Do you want me to bite you to prove it?" "No, you needn't bother," the Administrative Officer said. And then he buried his head in his hands again. "Technically," he said, speaking through his fingers, "it's a security problem." With an air of relief, he picked up the phone and called the Security Officer. There was a bit of spirited conversation and then he hung up. "He'll be right down," the Administrative Officer told George. Shortly thereafter, the door violently swung open, and a tall man with piercing eyes entered. "Hello Bill," he said quickly. "How are you feeling?" "Hello, Mike," the Administrative Officer replied. "I feel like hell. This is George. I just called you about him." "Hello!" George shouted. "Hello!" the Security Officer shouted back. "I couldn't find any record of you in the files. Have you been cleared?" he added with a note of urgency in his voice. "Fingerprints, A.E.C., C.C.C., C.A.I., F.B.I.?" "No!" George shouted back. "My wife wants the trap by our front door removed. She thinks it's dangerous for the children." "Has _she_ been cleared?" the Security Office countered in a loud voice. "Why is everybody shouting?" the Administrative Officer asked peevishly. "I've got a headache." "No," George answered. * * * * * The Security Officer's mouth tightened into a thin, grim line. "A major lapse of security," he snapped. "I'll check into this very thoroughly." "Will you remove the trap?" George asked. "I can't, until you're cleared," the Security Officer said, shaking his head. "I certainly won't authorize any action that could be later construed as aiding the entrance of spies or subversives into the plant." "How old are you?" the Administrative Officer asked George. "Fifty-six days," George replied without hesitation. "Under twelve years," the Administrative Officer pointed out to the Security Officer. "No clearance required." "I don't know," the Security Officer said, shaking his head. "There's no precedent for a case like this. I'll be damned if I'll stick my neck out and have that trap removed. I know, I'll send a request for an advisory opinion." He turned and walked toward the door. "What should I tell my wife?" George called after him. "Tell her that I'm asking the A.E.C. for an opinion, with carbon copies to the Defense Dept. and the F.B.I." "Don't forget Immigration & Naturalization," the Administrative Officer said. "There might be a question of citizenship." "The hell there is," George said. "_Lex locis_--I was born here." "Well," the Security Officer said as he walked out, "one can't be too careful." So, George went and told his wife and, the next morning, he was on the train for Washington. Being telepathic, as all this generation of mice were, he already had contacted some mice who had an 'in' in the government buildings. All the way down on the train, he worried about chasing all those carbons in the bureaucratic maze of Washington, but he needn't have. As soon as the Security Officer's report was received, the A.E.C. sent a battery of psychiatrists to the plant. After the psychiatrists reported, they, in turn, were sent to another battery of psychiatrists. After that, the A.E.C. called a top-level conference of the Defense Dept., F.B.I. (Dept. Just.), Fish & Wildlife (Dept. Int.), Public Health (Dept. Welf.), Immigration & Naturalization and Alaskan Affairs. The latter turned out to be a mistake. * * * * * This had taken two weeks, and George had lingered in the walls, impatiently waiting for his chance to testify. Of course, he was in telepathic communication with Clara. He knew that his family were all well, that Clara had made friends with the janitor, also that the trap was still there. The janitor no longer put cheese in it, and he didn't set the spring any more, but he still followed his orders and so, every morning, moved it back by the door of the little mousehouse. A fat Washington mouse guided George to the mousehole in the conference room. George looked inside and sniffed the smoky air distastefully. There were seven men seated at a long table, with a glass of water in front of each. This was a liquid that even George knew was hardly designed to lubricate the way to a quick agreement. "_Bomb_ them, I say," the General cried, smashing his fist down on the table. "Hit them hard with atomic weapons. Hit them _now_, before _they_ have a chance to strike first." "But that's one of our best plants," a civilian from the A.E.C. protested. "We don't want to blow it up, not for a few paltry mice." "Couldn't we send them to Alaska?" the man from Alaskan Affairs asked timidly, wondering what he was doing there. "How about traps?" the man from Fish and Wildlife said. "We have some honeys." "But _that's just it_!" George said in a loud voice, and they all turned to look at him. "My wife would like that trap by our front door removed. She's afraid that it might hurt the children." "_Who_ are _you_?" the man from Immigration & Naturalization demanded sharply. "I'm George," George said. "It's my house that has the trap in front of it." "What are you doing _here_?" the man from the F.B.I. demanded. "Spying on a closed meeting!" "I'm _not_ spying!" George exclaimed. "I just came to ask you to please remove the trap." * * * * * The man from the F.B.I. looked at him with something close to pity. "It's not that simple any more," he said. "Don't you realize what a threat you comprise?" "No," George said, scampering up the leg of the table and walking to its center. "We're not a threat to anybody. We're just mice. It's not our nature to be a threat to anybody." Then, as he looked around the table at the seven huge faces that surrounded him, he immediately saw that they were all scared half to death because he was a mouse, and he had a sudden premonition that he would not come out of the meeting alive. So he opened his mind to let his family and all the other telepathic mice hear everything that was happening. "Don't tell me you don't fully realize," the Fish and Wildlife man demanded sarcastically, trying to hide his terror beneath a blustering tone, "that from one mouse, your great-great-grandfather Michael, there must be now at least twelve billion descendants--or six times the human population of Earth!" "No, I didn't know," George said, interested despite himself. "Don't tell me it never occurred to you," the man from the F.B.I. said, shaking a finger at him, while George could see that he kept the other hand on the revolver in his pocket, "that you mice have access to and could destroy every secret file we have!" "No, it didn't," George said, shrinking from that huge, shaking finger. "We mice would never destroy anything uselessly." "Or that you could cut the wires on any plane, tank, vehicle, train or ship, rendering it completely inoperable!" the General broke in, slamming a meaty palm down on the table so hard that George was thrown over on his back. "Of course it never occurred to me!" George said, climbing rockily back on his feet. "We mice wouldn't think of such a thing. Don't be afraid," he pleaded, but it was no use. He could feel the panic in their breasts. "Didn't you ever consider that you could cut every cable, telephone line, power line, and telegraph line from the States to Alaska?" the man from Alaskan Affairs said, just for the sake of saying something. Then, to show his bravery and defiance, he took his glass of water and emptied it on George. It was ice water, and poor George, dripping wet, began to tremble uncontrollably. "I suppose you never considered that you could sabotage and blow up every atomic plant we have," the man from the A.E.C. said, before George even had a chance to answer Alaskan Affairs. And, working himself into a rage to overcome his fear, he emptied _his_ glass of ice water on the trembling mouse. * * * * * George began to weep. "It _never_ occurred to me," he sobbed. "We mice aren't like that." "Nonsense!" the General said. "It's the unchanging law of nature. We must kill you or you will kill us. And we'll start by killing you!" The General roared louder than all the rest because he was the most frightened. His hand, huge and terrible, swept swiftly down on poor, wet, weeping George. But the General really didn't know mouse tactics very well, because George was down the leg of the table and halfway to the mousehole before the huge hand struck the table with a noisy bang. And poor George, frightened half out of his wits, scooted into the mousehole and ran and ran without stopping, through the mouseways as fast as he could, until he reached the train. But, of course, the train was no longer moving. All the telepathic mice had cut every cable, telephone line, power line and telegraph line, had also cut the wires on every plane, tank, vehicle, train and ship. They also had destroyed every file in the world. So George had no alternative but to walk back to the plant, which had been preserved as a memorial to great-great-grandfather Michael. * * * * * It took him three weary weeks to make it, and the first thing he noticed when he got there was the trap in front of the door. Naturally, there was no bait in it and the spring wasn't set, but the trap was still there. "George," Clara said to him the moment after she kissed him, "you must speak to the janitor about the trap." So George went outside right away, since he could hear the janitor swish-swashing the dust around. "_Hello!_" he shouted. "Hello yourself," the janitor said. "So you're home again." "My wife wants the trap moved," George said. "She's afraid the children might get hurt." "Sorry," the janitor replied. "My orders were to put a mousetrap by each mousehole." "How come you didn't go away with all the other people?" George shouted up at him. "Stop shouting," the janitor said. Then, "I'm too old to change," he added. "Besides, I have a farm down the road." "But haven't they stopped paying you?" George demanded. "What's the difference," the janitor countered, "money can't buy anything any more." "Well, what will I tell my wife about the trap?" George asked. The janitor scratched his head. "You might tell her that I'll take it up with the supervisor, if he ever comes back." So George went inside and told Clara. "George," she said, stamping her foot, "I can't go on with that trap out there! You know that supervisor won't come back, so you've got to go out and find him." George, who knew that there weren't many people around anywhere any more, walked over to his favorite easy chair and sat down. "Clara," he said, as he picked up a book, "you can leave or stay as you wish, but there is nothing more that I can do. I've wasted a full month over that trap without accomplishing a single thing, and I'm not going to start that business all over again." --STEPHEN ARR * * * * * 
32679	----	Geographic Variation in Red-backed Mice (Genus Clethrionomys) of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region BY E. LENDELL COCKRUM and KENNETH L. FITCH University of Kansas Publications Museum of Natural History Volume 5, No. 22, pp. 281-292, 1 figure in text November 15, 1952 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1952 ~University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History~ Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Edward H. Taylor, Robert W. Wilson Volume 5, No. 22, pp. 281-292, 1 figure in text November 15, 1952 ~University of Kansas~ Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FERD VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1952 [Illustration: Union Label] 24-4369 Geographic Variation in Red-backed Mice (Genus Clethrionomys) of the Southern Rocky Mountain Region BY E. LENDELL COCKRUM and KENNETH L. FITCH In the course of the preparation of a synopsis of the North American terrestrial microtines by one of us (Cockrum), and the completion of a Master's thesis on the geographical variation of the red-backed mice of Wyoming by the other (Fitch) we had occasion to study the red-backed mice of the southern Rocky Mountain region (see figure 1). Results of these studies are the recognition of two heretofore unnamed subspecies of the red-backed mouse in the southern Rocky Mountain region, and a clarification of the taxonomic status of two additional kinds. +Clethrionomys gapperi galei+ (Merriam) 1890. _Evotomys galei_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 4:23, October 8. 1931. _Clethrionomys gapperi galei_, Hall, Univ. California Publ. Zool., 37:6, April 10. 1897. _Evotomys gapperi galei_, Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 11:126, May 13. _Type locality._--Ward, 9500 feet, Boulder County, Colorado. _Range._--The Rocky Mountains of extreme southern Alberta, Montana, northwestern and southern Wyoming, and north and central Colorado. _Remarks._--_C. g. galei_, with the largest geographic range of any of the Rocky Mountain subspecies, is also the most variable. Three principal areas of geographic variation were found. These areas are: The mountains of north-central Colorado and southern Wyoming (this area includes the type locality); the Big Horn area probably northwest into Montana (no adult specimens from Montana or Alberta examined); and the Teton area which includes the mountains east and southeast of Yellowstone National Park. Specimens from these areas have noticeable differences in pelage, but no constant cranial differentiation could be detected. Specimens from the Medicine Bow Mountains of southern Wyoming have a more reddish dorsal stripe, and more buff and less gray on the sides than either of the northern geographic variants. The dorsal stripe continues farther anteriorly and is better defined through its entire length. There are fewer differences between the two northern geographic variants than between either one of them and the southern variant. Specimens from the Teton Mountains, however, have grayer sides, and the outer margin of the ear is tipped with chestnut (little or no chestnut shows on the ears of the specimens from the Big Horn Mountains); the dorsal stripe is less distinct (with slightly more gray throughout) than in either of the other geographic variants of the one subspecies. Three specimens (two adults) are available from the Little Medicine Range in Converse County (22 miles south and 24.5 miles west of Douglas, 7600 feet), Wyoming. Although red-backed mice probably are found in the mountains of Natrona and Albany counties, the population, in the Little Medicine Range is somewhat isolated. In coloration these mice are lighter than any of the three geographic variants described above; the dorsal stripe is narrower; the sides are more buffy; the dorsal stripe does not project anteriorly beyond the ears as it does in the specimens from the Medicine Bow Mountains; and the face is grayer. These specimens resemble the population in the Big Horn Mountains to the north more than the population in the Medicine Bow Mountains. The specimens from the Little Medicine Range, the Big Horn Range, and the Tetons are possibly subspecifically distinct from the southern specimens. Examination of specimens now allocated to _galei_ from Montana and Alberta should aid in revealing whether the northern animals are an unnamed subspecies. _Specimens examined._--Total, 167, distributed as follows and unless otherwise stated, in the collection of the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History: +Wyoming+: _Park County_: 28 mi. N and 3 mi. W Cody, 7200 ft., 1. _Big Horn County_: Medicine Wheel Ranch, 28 mi. E Lovell, 9000 ft., 22; 17-1/2 mi. E and 4-1/2 mi. S Shell, 1. _Teton County_: Moran, 6244 ft., 4; Moran, 3 (James Findley Collection); 2-3/4 mi. E Moran, 6300 ft., 1; 3-3/4 mi. E and 1 mi. S Moran, 6200 ft., 10. _Washakie County_: 9 mi. E and 9 mi. N Tensleep, 8200 ft., 3; 9 mi. E and 4 mi. N Tensleep, 7000 ft., 1. _Johnson County_: 4 mi. W and 1 mi. S Klondike, 6500 ft., 1; 6-1/2 mi. W and 2 mi. S Buffalo, 5620 ft., 1. _Lincoln County_: 3 mi. N and 11 mi. E Alpine, 5650 ft., 1. _Sublette County_: 31 mi. N Pinedale, 8025 ft., 1. _Fremont County_: Togwotee Pass, 5 (James Findley Collection); 20-1/2 mi. W and 2 mi. S Lander, 1; Mocassin [=Moccasin] Lake, 19 mi. W and 4 mi. N Lander, 10,100 ft., 3; 18 mi. W and 3 mi. N Lander, 1; Mosquito Park Ranger Station, 17-1/2 mi. W and 2-1/2 mi. N Lander, 9500 ft., 10; 6-1/2 mi. W and 17 mi. S Lander, 8450 ft., 4; 5-1/2 mi. W and 22 mi. S Lander, 8800 ft., 3. _Converse County_: 22 mi. S and 24-1/2 mi. W Douglas, 7600 ft., 3. _Carbon County_: 18 mi. SW Rawlins, 7500 ft., 2; 19 mi. E and 8 mi. N Encampment, 9150 ft., 4; 19-1/2 mi. E and 6 mi. N Savery, 8800 ft., 1; 11 mi. E and 6 mi. N Savery, 8400 ft., 1; 14 mi. E and 6 mi. N Savery, 1. _Albany County_: 3 mi. ESE Browns Peak, 10,000 ft., 59. +Colorado+: _Rio Blanco County_: 9-1/2 mi. SW Pagoda Peak, 7700 ft., 2. _Boulder County_: 2-1/2 mi. S Estes Park, 8400 ft., 2; 3 mi. S Ward, 8. _Clear Creek County_: 2 mi. S Idaho Springs, 8000 ft., 1. _Gunnison County_: Gothic, 8 mi. N Crested Butte, 6 (James Findley Collection). _Additional records._--+Colorado+: _Rio Blanco Co._: 25 mi. NE Meeker (Cary, N. Amer. Fauna, 33:120, 1911). _El Paso Co._: Lake Moraine, 10,250 ft. (Warren, Mammals of Colorado, p. 224, 1942). [Illustration: Map Geographic Range Clethrionomys gapperi] ~Fig. 1.~--Geographic ranges of the subspecies of _Clethrionomys gapperi_ in the southern Rocky Mountains. [Map Numbers For shaded areas.] 1. _C. g. galei_ 3. _C. g. uintaensis_ 5. _C. g. limitis_ 2. _C. g. brevicaudus_ 4. _C. g. gauti_ 6. _C. g. arizonensis_ +Clethrionomys gapperi brevicaudus+ (Merriam) 1891. _Evotomys gapperi brevicaudus_ Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, 5:119, July 30. 1897. _Evotomys brevicaudus_, Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 11:129, May 13. 1942. _Clethrionomys gapperi brevicaudus_, Bole and Moulthrop, Sci. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:153, September 11. _Type locality._--Three miles N Custer, 6000 ft., South Dakota. _Range._--The Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. _Remarks._--Merriam (N. Amer. Fauna, 5:119, July 30, 1891) named this subspecies on the basis of two specimens collected in the Black Hills of South Dakota in July, 1888, and assigned it to the species _Evotomys_ [= _Clethrionomys_] _gapperi_. He reported the diagnostic characteristics as: "Similar to _E. gapperi_, but with larger ears and shorter tail. The hazel of the dorsal area is not so bright as in _gapperi_; the sides are the same golden brown." Of the cranial and dental characteristics he wrote: "Much as in _E. gapperi_." Bailey (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 11:129, May 13, 1897), in his "Revision of the American voles of the genus _Evotomys_," with one additional specimen available, raised the Black Hills population to specific status, re-emphasizing the shortness of the tail, and pointing out a few slight cranial differences ("zygomatic arches low and flaring out, so that the inner instead of the outer side shows in top view; auditory bullae as large as in _gapperi_, but less rounded"). Bailey (_loc. cit._) remarked that: "though based on so scanty material, the characters distinguishing the species are fairly pronounced. Its range is isolated and widely separated from that of any other members of the genus by open prairie country and a wide belt of the Transition zone. There seems to be no valid reason for considering it a subspecies." Additional specimens have been taken in recent years from the Black Hills of South Dakota and northeastern Wyoming. This material has shed light on the relationships and morphological characteristics of the red-backed mice of this region. Bole and Moulthrop (Sci. Publ. Cleveland Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:153, September 11, 1942) listed, as comparative material, eight specimens from Bull Springs, Custer County, South Dakota, under the name _Clethrionomys gapperi brevicaudus_ (Merriam). They gave no reason for arranging _brevicaudus_ as a subspecies of _C. gapperi_. Twenty adults (11 skins and skulls, 9 skulls only) from Pennington County, South Dakota (specimens in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology), have the following measurements (averages of external measurements based on 11 specimens only): Total length, 142 (123-155); tail, 35 (30-39); hind foot, 19.5 (18.6-21.0); basal length, 23.3 (21.7-24.5); condylobasilar length, 23.3 (21.9-24.5); zygomatic breadth, 13.7 (12.9-14.7); lambdoidal breadth, 11.7 (11.3-12.9); alveolar length upper cheek-teeth, 5.5 (5.2-5.8); interorbital breadth, 3.9 (3.6-4.1); length of nasals, 7.7 (7.1-8.5); breadth of rostrum, 3.2 (2.9-3.6); and length of incisive foramina, 5.0 (4.6-5.3). Measurements of the type and one "more fully adult topotype" (as given by Bailey, _op. cit._) are: Total length, 125, 130; tail length, 31, 32; hind foot, 19, 19; basal length, 21.2, 21.8; length of nasals, 6.6, 7.0; zygomatic breadth, 12.5, 12.8; mastoid breadth, 11.3, 11.0; alveolar length of upper molar series, 5.4, 5.3. In every measurement the figures for Bailey's specimens are smaller than the average of the same measurement in the 20 adults from Pennington County, and, in most measurements, are even lower than the minimum of the latter series. Therefore, we conclude that the material available to Merriam (_op. cit._) and Bailey (_op. cit._) consisted of only subadults. In comparison with a series of 23 adult _Clethrionomys gapperi galei_ from 28 mi. E Lovell, Big Horn County, Wyoming, _C. g. brevicaudus_ has a slightly shorter tail, longer hind foot, greater basal and condylobasilar lengths, greater zygomatic and lambdoidal breadths and conspicuously longer nasals. In comparison with three adult _C. g. loringi_ from Elk River, Sherburne County, Minnesota, _C. g. brevicaudus_ has a greater total length, longer hind foot, greater basal length, conspicuously greater zygomatic and lambdoidal breadths, much longer nasals, and a narrower rostrum. _Clethrionomys gapperi brevicaudus_, although isolated geographically and although morphologically more distinct than many of the currently recognized subspecies of _C. gapperi_, is probably best arranged as a subspecies of _C. gapperi_ rather than as a full species. In certain characters, such as interorbital breadth and breadth of rostrum, it is intermediate between _C. g. galei_ and _C. g. loringi_, but it resembles _C. g. galei_ more than it does any other named kind. _Specimens examined._--Total, 66. Unless otherwise indicated, specimens from Wyoming are in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History and specimens from South Dakota are in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology. Specimens are distributed as follows: +Wyoming+: _Crook County_: 3 mi. NW Sundance, 5900 ft., 3. _Weston County_: 1-1/2 mi. E Buckhorn, 6150 ft., 21; 12 mi. SE Newcastle, 1 (Univ. Michigan). +South Dakota+: _Pennington County_: 1/2 mi. E Rochford, 1; 17 mi. NW Custer, 1; 16 mi. NW Custer, 20; 16 mi. SW Rapid City, 1; 3 mi. SE Hill City, 2; 4 mi. SE Hill City, 13; 5 mi. SE Hill City, Harney Peak, 7240 ft., 1. _Custer County_: 1-1/2 mi. E Sylvan Lake, 1. +Clethrionomys gapperi uintaensis+ Doutt 1897. _Evotomys gapperi galei_, Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 11:127 (part from Uinta Mts. of Wyoming), May 13. 1941. _Clethrionomys gapperi uintaensis_ Doutt, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 54:161, Dec. 8. _Type locality._--Paradise Park, 10,050 feet, 45 miles by road northwest Vernal, Uintah County, Utah. _Range._--The Uinta Mountains of northern Utah and southwestern Wyoming. _Remarks._--From the description given by Doutt (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 54:161, 1941) in his original description of this subspecies, it appears that he had available for comparisons, only subadult specimens of _C. g. galei_. As judged from the material of _C. g. uintaensis_ available to us (1 topotype, KU 38081, and 7 specimens from Uinta County, Wyoming, listed below) and from Doutt's (_op. cit._) description and measurements, the subspecies _C. g. uintaensis_ is but weakly differentiated from _C. g. galei_. No marked cranial differences are evident between the two subspecies; the differences in pelage noted by Doutt (_op. cit._:161), however ("Similar to _Clethrionomys gapperi galei_ from Ward, Colorado, but head and cheeks grayer; sides and back paler; belly whiter."), do seem to be valid. On the basis of these differences in pelage and the geographic isolation of the range, we judge that _uintaensis_ should be retained as a subspecies of _C. gapperi_. It is clear, however, that _C. g. uintaensis_ is less distinct from _C. g. galei_ than are the other adjacent subspecies. _Specimens examined._--Total, 8, all in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, distributed as follows: +Wyoming+: _Uinta County_: 9 mi. S Robertson, 8000-8400 ft., 3; 9 mi. S and 2 mi. E Robertson, 8000 ft., 2; 11-1/2 mi. S and 2 mi. E Robertson, 9200 ft., 1; 14 mi. S and 2 mi. E Robertson, 9000 ft., 1. +Utah+: _Uintah County_: Paradise Park, 21 mi. W, 15 mi. N Vernal, 10,050 ft., 1. _Additional, marginal records_ (Durrant, Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:356, August 19, 1952).--+Utah+: _Rich Co._: Monte Cristo, 18 mi. W Woodruff, 8000 ft. _Salt Lake Co._: Emigration Canyon, 8 mi. above forks, 6,000 ft.; Silver Lake Post Office (Brighton), 9,500 ft. _Wasatch Co._: Wolf Creek Summit, 9,800 ft. _Daggett Co._: Beaver Dams, 10,500 ft. +Clethrionomys gapperi gauti+, new subspecies _Type._--Male, adult, skin and skull; No. 133515, Biological Surveys Collections, United States National Museum, from Twining, 10,700 ft., Taos County, New Mexico; obtained on August 7, 1904, by James H. Gaut, original number 3086. _Range._--The Rocky Mountains of north-central New Mexico and south-central Colorado. _Diagnosis._--A brightly colored _Clethrionomys gapperi_; dorsal stripe near Chestnut (capitalized color terms after Ridgway, Color Standards and Color Nomenclature, Washington, D. C., 1912) with an underwash of near Light Ochraceous-Buff and a mixture of black-tipped guard hairs giving an over-all effect of between Tawny and Russet; braincase relatively large; zygomatic width and lambdoidal width large; nasals long. _Comparisons._--As compared with topotypes of _C. g. galei_, the color is lighter, the dorsal reddish stripe slightly narrower, sides brighter, with a wash of Light Ochraceous-Buff, grading ventrally into a slight wash of Pale Ochraceous-Buff, instead of a silvery-white venter characteristic of _C. g. galei_; zygomatic and lambdoidal breadths are greater, nasals slightly shorter, auditory bullae slightly more inflated, teeth larger, and braincase larger. As compared with topotypes of _C. g. limitis_, _C. g. gauti_ is darker, has a greater zygomatic breadth, longer upper tooth-row, longer nasals, and narrower rostrum. _Measurements._--External and cranial measurements of the type, and the average and extreme measurements of four adult males and one adult female from the type locality (including the type) and five miles south of the type locality are: Total length, 144, 147 (140-152); tail, 40, 42 (39-45); hind foot, 20, 19.3 (19-20); condylobasilar length, 22.3, 22.9 (22.2-24.0); zygomatic breadth, 13.6, 13.7 (13.5-14.0); lambdoidal breadth, 11.9, 11.7 (11.4-12.0); alveolar length of upper cheek-teeth, 5.1, 5.2 (5.1-5.4); interorbital breadth, 4.0, 3.9 (3.8-4.0); length of nasals, 7.0, 7.2 (7.0-7.6); breadth of rostrum, 2.9, 3.1 (2.9-3.4); length of incisive foramina, 4.8, 5.1 (4.8-5.3). _Remarks._--Two specimens from a locality 21 mi. W and 3 mi. N Saguache, Saguache County, Colorado, although referred to this subspecies on the basis of paler pelage, inflation of auditory bullae, and heavier teeth, show characters of _C. g. galei_ in the narrowness across the zygomata and lambdoidal crest. Four specimens from Silverton (1 adult and 3 young adults) are referable to this subspecies on the basis of color of pelage and cranial proportions but are smaller than either _C. g. gauti_ or _C. g. galei_. The specimen from Pecos Baldy, Pecos Mountain, San Miguel County, New Mexico, referred by Bailey (N. Amer. Fauna, 52:192) to _Clethrionomys gapperi galei_, is here referred to _C. g. gauti_ on geographical grounds. The name _gauti_ is proposed in honor of the collector of the type specimen, James H. Gaut. _Specimens examined._--Total, 14, distributed as follows and, unless otherwise stated, in the Biological Surveys Collection: +Colorado+: _Saguache County_: 21 mi. W and 3 mi. N Saguache, N 38°, 106° 31´, 9100 ft., 2 (Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist.). _San Juan Co._: Silverton, 4. +New Mexico+: _Taos County_: Twining, 10,700 ft., 3; 5 mi. S Twining, 11,400 ft., 3. _Sandoval County_: Goat Peak, Jemez Mountains, 1. _Colfax County_: 15 mi. SW Cimarron, 9000 ft., 1 (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.). _Additional records._--+New Mexico+: _San Miguel Co._: Pecos Baldy, Pecos Mountain, 1 (Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 52:192, 1932). +Clethrionomys gapperi limitis+ (Bailey) 1913. _Evotomys limitis_ Bailey, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 26:133, May 21. _Type locality._--Willow Creek, a branch of the Gilita, 8500 ft., Mogollon Mountains, Catron County, New Mexico. _Range._--Known from the Mogollon, San Mateo, and Magdalena mountains of western New Mexico. _Remarks._--Bailey (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 26:133, May 21, 1913) described this animal as a species and gave as general characteristics: "Size slightly larger than _E._ [= _Clethrionomys gapperi_] _galei_; colors duller, grayer and less buffy; skull and dentition heavier." He further characterized the skull as: "Larger, heavier and conspicuously more ridged than in _galei_; bullae large and especially deep; dentition heavy throughout." The type of _C. limitis_, as judged from the measurements given by Bailey (_loc. cit._), is an exceptionally old male. Our comparison of six adult topotypes with a series of _C. g. galei_ from Wyoming (18 adults from 3 mi. SSE Browns Peak, 10,000 ft., Albany County, in Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist.) and with three near-topotypes of _C. g. galei_ (3 mi. S Ward, 9000 ft., Boulder County, Colorado, in Univ. Kansas Mus. Nat. Hist.) revealed that most of the differences noted by Bailey (_loc. cit._) are not evident when individuals of comparable ages are examined. Some specimens of _C. g. galei_ exceed _C. limitis_ in ridging of the skull and size of the teeth although conspicuous ridges and large teeth are supposedly distinctive of _C. limitis_. The bullae, although averaging larger in _C. limitis_, can be matched in size by those of specimens of _C. g. galei_ from Wyoming. The differences evident between _C. limitis_ and _C. g. galei_ are of the kind and degree that serve to separate subspecies in the species _Clethrionomys gapperi_ and, although actual evidence of intergradation is lacking, we think that the relationships of _limitis_ are better expressed by arranging it as a subspecies of _C. gapperi_ than by retaining it as a full species. _Specimens examined._--Total, 7, all in the Biological Surveys Collection, distributed as follows: +New Mexico+: _Catron County_: Willow Creek, 8500 ft., Mogollon Mountains, 4. _Socorro County_: San Mateo Peak, 10,000 ft., San Mateo Mountains, 2; Copper Canyon, 9000 ft., Magdalena Mountains, 1. +Clethrionomys gapperi arizonensis+, new subspecies _Type._--Female, adult, skin and skull; No. 158401, Biological Surveys Collection, United States National Museum; from Little Colorado River, 8300 ft., White Mountains, Apache County, Arizona; obtained September 12, 1908, by C. Birdseye, original number 152. _Range._--Known only from the White Mountains of eastern Arizona. _Diagnosis._--Dorsal stripe near Chestnut, with an underwash of between Tawny and Russet, and a mixture of black-tipped hairs, resulting in an overall effect of near Chestnut. Skull wide across zygomatic arches and narrow across mastoids; rostrum narrow and posterior border of palate straight. _Comparisons._--This subspecies needs close comparison only with the adjacent subspecies _C. g. limitis_. As compared with topotypes of _limitis_, _C. g. arizonensis_ has darker pelage, narrower rostrum, greater width across zygomatic arches, lesser lambdoidal breadth, longer nasals, wider palate, and more inflated auditory bullae. The posterior border of the hard palate is straight in five skulls of the series that are complete (two skulls have the palatal regions broken); all _C. g. limitis_ examined have a median posterior projection on the posterior border of the hard palate. _Measurements._--External and cranial measurements of the type, and the average and extreme measurements of three adult males and two adult females from the type locality (including the type) are: Total length, 160, 145.6 (137-160); tail, 44, 40.8 (37-46); hind foot, 18.5, 19.3 (18-20); condylobasilar length, 23.3, 22.8 (22.1-23.5); zygomatic breadth, 13.8, 13.4 (12.6-13.8); lambdoidal breadth, 11.5, 11.4 (11.0-11.6); alveolar length upper cheek-teeth, 5.5, 5.4 (5.2-5.5); interorbital breadth, 3.8, 3.9 (3.8-4.0); length of nasals, 7.6, 7.1 (6.9-7.6); breadth of rostrum, 3.1, 3.1 (3.0-3.2); length of incisive foramina, 5.5, 5.2 (5.0-5.5). _Remarks._--Hall and Davis (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 47:55, February 9, 1934) reported 12 specimens of red-backed mice from Hannagan Meadow, 9500 to 9600 ft., and ten from Hannagan Creek, 8600 ft., all in Greenlee County, Arizona. Although they pointed out most of the cranial differences here described as diagnostic of _C. g. arizonensis_, they did not name the animals as new since they had no seasonally comparable materials; thus they were unable to evaluate the differences noted in pelage. We have not examined the material referred to by Hall and Davis (_loc. cit._), but, on the basis of their description, here refer it to _C. g. arizonensis_. _Specimens examined._--Total, 7, all from the type locality and all in the Biological Surveys Collection in the United States National Museum. Grateful acknowledgment is made of the opportunity to study the specimens from New Mexico and Arizona in the Biological Surveys Collection of the United States National Museum and the material from South Dakota in the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology, as well as for the financial support afforded one of us (Cockrum) by the University of Kansas from its Research appropriation. Cockrum's work was part of a larger investigation of the geographic distribution of all North American native mammals, aided by a contract between the Office of Naval Research, Department of the Navy, and the University of Kansas (NR. 161-791). Also, assistance with some of field work was given by the Kansas University Endowment Association. _Transmitted June 21, 1952._ [Illustration: printers mark] 24-4369 Transcriber's Notes. This file was derived from scanned images. The original text is presented. Emphasis Notation: _text_ - italicized +text+ - bold ~text~ - small caps 
33204	----	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 9, No. 4, pp. 85-104, 2 figs. in text May 10, 1956 Subspeciation in the Meadow Mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus, in Wyoming, Colorado, and Adjacent Areas BY SYDNEY ANDERSON UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1956 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson Volume 9, No. 4, pp. 85-104, 2 figures in text Published May 10, 1956 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY FRED VOILAND, JR., STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1956 Subspeciation in the Meadow Mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus, in Wyoming, Colorado, and Adjacent Areas BY SYDNEY ANDERSON INTRODUCTION In the region including Wyoming and Colorado, _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ has been divided into two subspecies: the pale _M. p. insperatus_ (J. A. Allen) inhabits the Black Hills of the northeasternmost part of Wyoming; the dark _M. p. modestus_ (Baird) inhabits extensive areas in both Wyoming and Colorado. Initial examination of _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ revealed that specimens from the Big Horn Mountains of north-central Wyoming (within the range of _modestus_ as mapped by Hall and Cockrum 1952:407), in color at least, resemble the subspecies _insperatus_ more than they do _modestus_, and that specimens from southwestern Wyoming are notably dark. Durrant (1952:363) noted that specimens from Utah are dark, and Davis (1939:315) did the same for specimens from near Pocatello, Idaho. It seemed, therefore, that dark color might characterize populations of a wide geographic region and distinguish them from _modestus_ named from southern Colorado. Also, there seemed to be a hiatus of at least 180 miles between the ranges of _modestus_ in northern Colorado and _modestus_ in eastern Wyoming, and an even greater distance separating populations of _modestus_ in northern Colorado from those in western Wyoming. _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ has not been taken in central or southeastern Wyoming despite extensive collecting there, which yielded numerous records of other kinds of _Microtus_ (_M. longicaudus_, _M. montanus_, and _M. ochrogaster_). Subsequent study revealed a pattern of geographic variation within the range now ascribed to _modestus_ which, in my opinion, can be described best by the recognition of three new subspecies. MATERIALS, METHODS, AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS To study geographic variation in color a method was devised as follows: A single skin (KU 42407, from 1-1/2 miles east of Buckhorn in Weston County, Wyoming) was selected as a representative of the paler mice and arbitrarily given the number 2. A single skin (KU 17491, from 3 miles east of Moran in Teton County, Wyoming) was selected as a representative of the darker mice from the western part of Wyoming and arbitrarily given the number 4. These mice were selected so that they were respectively paler and darker than the estimated average of the total variation within the populations to be studied, but the two mice were not at the extremes of paleness and darkness. Comparisons were based on visual inspection of the dorsal pelage as a whole. Skins were compared with these two mice and given whole numbers from one to five. If paler than the standard for 2, the skin was numbered one; if not distinguishably paler or darker, it was given the number two; if intermediate in color to the standards for 2 and 4 and not definitely more nearly referable to one than the other, it was given the number three; if it resembled the standard for 4, it was numbered four; and if darker, it was given the number five. In this manner skins from a given locality could be evaluated one by one and the results plotted, averaged, and treated statistically. On Figure 1 the average values for color of 32 series are mapped to show the geographic variation of color. The following series of adults are the basis for Figure 1 (abbreviations for collections other than at the University of Kansas are included in parentheses): Each locality is followed by the month (or months) of capture, the number of specimens, and the average value for color. _Montana_: Glacier County, August, 6, 1.8; Hill and Chouteau counties combined (Mich), July, 24, 1.5; Malta, Philips County, August, 14, 1.5; Sheridan County, August, 6, 1.5; Fergus County (USBS), August, 5, 2.4; Ravalli County (KU and USBS), August, 12, 2.8; Silver Bow County, August, 7, 3.0; Sweet Grass County (Mich), June and July, 7, 2.7; Park County, August, 10, 2.6. _Idaho_: Pocatello and vicinity, November and December, 5, 3.4. _Wyoming_: Park County, August, 6, 2.8; Sheridan County, September, 9, 1.2; Johnson County, August, 12, 1.5; Campbell and Crook counties, July, 11, 1.4; Weston County, July, 7, 1.6; Teton County, September, 8, 3.4; Teton County (Mich), June, 17, 3.1; Afton and vicinity, Lincoln County, July, 10, 4.2; Sage, Lincoln County, July, 5, 5.0. _South Dakota_: Pennington County (Chi), June, 14, 2.1; Pennington County (Mich), December and January, 8, 1.1; Walworth County, July, 4, 3.7; Buffalo County, July, 6, 3.2. _Colorado_: Loveland and vicinity, Larimer County (KU and USBS), July, 13, 2.8; Boulder County (Chi), September, 34, 2.6; Park County (Denv), March, 8, 1.9; Colorado Springs (ERW), March, April, and May, 5, 2.8; Saguache County (USBS), August, 46, 3.0; Conejos County, June, 4, 3.0; Wray, Yuma County (USBS), 3, 4.7. _Nebraska_: Dundy County, August and November, 14, 4.6. _New Mexico_: Colfax County, June, 8, 3.2. Variation in color is discussed in the accounts of the subspecies concerned. [Illustration: FIGURE 1. Geographic variation in color in _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ in the Rocky Mountains. Paler colors are represented by smaller numbers. Numbers are derived from the series of specimens listed in the text by the method described there. The subspecies that occur in the region studied are as follows: _a. M. p. pullatus_ _b. M. p. insperatus_ _c. M. p. uligocola_ _d. M. p. finitus_ _e. M. p. modestus_ _f. M. p. aztecus_ _g. M. p. drummondi_ _h. M. p. pennsylvanicus_] For each of the series listed in Table 1 all adult mice having skulls that measured more than 24.0 mm. in condylobasilar length were studied. Total length, length of tail, and length of hind foot were taken from the collector's field labels. The measurements of the skulls listed below were taken by means of dial calipers reading to one-tenth of a millimeter, and in the same fashion as described previously (Anderson, 1954:492). Measurements of specimens in each series were averaged (the arithmetic means were computed). If the averages differed noticeably the significance of the difference was tested statistically. Averages referred to in the text as significantly different differ by as much as, or more than, the sum of two times the standard error of each of the two averages. Linear measurements are in millimeters; color values are in the arbitrary units described in a preceding paragraph. Measurements taken of the skulls are: condylobasilar length, zygomatic breadth, interorbital breadth, lambdoidal breadth, prelambdoidal breadth, depth of braincase, and alveolar length of upper molar tooth-row. Secondary sexual variation was not detected in the material studied. Variation with age is important to the taxonomist even among specimens designated as "adults", because growth and changes in various proportions continue throughout the life of the mice. The possibility that differences detected in the statistical treatment or observed directly could be the result of differences in average age within the samples of "adults" was considered in each case. In order to study certain variations, the following "method of pairs" was used. Skulls of two series to be compared were matched in pairs so that they corresponded in size and ontogenetic stage of development. Then the two skulls of each pair were examined for differences in each of the following features: size of circle inscribed by the upper incisor teeth, width of nasal bones relative to their length, curvature of the zygomatic arch, elongation of the braincase relative to its width when viewed from the dorsal aspect, degree of indentation in the anterior edge of the zygomatic arch near the rostrum, degree of depression of the nasal bones when viewed from the side, width in the vertical plane of the zygomatic arch at the suture between the maxillary and jugal bones, length relative to width of the prominent fenestra in the posterodorsal part of the squamosal bone, size of the meatus of the auditory canal, distance between the internal margin of an occipital condyle at its posteriormost point and the tip of the paraoccipital process of the same side of the skull, size of the foramen magnum, vertical height of the supraoccipital bone from the dorsalmost point on the margin of the foramen magnum to the midpoint of the lambdoidal crest, constriction posteriorly or narrowness of the incisive foramen relative to its length, distance across the premaxillary bone from the anteriormost point of the incisive foramen to the posteriormost point of the margin of the alveolus of the upper incisor, area of the maxillary septum (Howell 1926:112, or "zygomatic plate" of Ellerman 1941:1), acuminateness of the anterior border of the palatine opening (internal nares), size of auditory bullae, size of foramen ovale, acuteness of the angle between the basioccipital and basisphenoidal bones at the suture between them (degree to which the area of the suture is raised between the bullae when viewed from the ventral aspect), width of first upper molar tooth, least distance between alveoli of first upper molars. Any differential feature present in more than 75 per cent of the pairs of animals is reported in the discussion of the subspecies concerned. The significance of each difference reported was calculated by the Chi-square test and the confidence limit is given in each case. The probability used in the Chi-square formula is one-half of the percentage of all pairs compared in which the skulls were different in regard to the character being considered. For example, in 68 per cent of the total number of pairs of skulls compared in this study a difference in the size of the auditory bullae was noted. Therefore the probability that a specified skull of a pair will have larger bullae than the other skull was taken as 34 per cent. A different probability for each feature compared was derived in like manner. This study is concerned primarily with mice from Wyoming and Colorado; I realize, however, that the physiographic and ecological conditions important to the distribution and subspeciation of _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ do not correspond to political boundaries. Geographic variation within these two states can be seen in proper perspective only when related to the neighboring areas and to previous studies. I have attempted to do this in the accounts of the subspecies. Approximately five months in the field in Wyoming and Colorado in the summers of 1950, 1951, 1952, and 1953 gave me a familiarity with the region that has helped to clarify the pattern of distribution. My study was based, in addition, on 762 specimens that are listed under "specimens examined" in the accounts of subspecies, and on comparative material from other states. Most of these specimens are skins with skulls but some are skins only and others are skulls only. Some localities are represented by too few adult individuals to permit significant comparisons. Owing to damaged skulls, certain measurements of some specimens were omitted from the calculations. If it seemed that the damaged skull was exceptionally large or small or a deviant in any other regard it was not used, in order not to bias the computed averages, which might be used in comparing proportions of the skulls. In the lists of specimens examined, localities that are omitted from Figure 2 because overlapping or undue crowding of the symbols would have resulted are _italicized_. [Illustration: FIGURE 2. Distribution of the subspecies of _Microtus pennsylvanicus_ in Wyoming and Colorado. Solid dots represent localities from which specimens have been examined, and triangles represent localities reported in the literature from which I have not examined specimens. The question mark in southern Colorado denotes a questionable record discussed in the text. A. _M. p. pullatus_ B. _M. p. insperatus_ C. _M. p. uligocola_ D. _M. p. finitus_ E. _M. p. modestus_ F. _M. p. aztecus_] I am grateful to Professor E. Raymond Hall for critical reading of the manuscript and helpful suggestions, to Dr. Rollin H. Baker and various of my fellow students at the Museum of Natural History for stimulating comments pertinent to the problems involved in this study, to my wife, Justine Anderson, for assistance in the preparation of the manuscript, to numerous members of field parties from the Museum of Natural History, who collected much of the material studied, and to the curators and other persons, at the museums listed below, who courteously made specimens available for study. The field work of the Museum of Natural History was assisted by the Kansas University Endowment Association. A National Science Foundation Fellowship made it possible for me to visit the museums listed below. An honorarium awarded by the American Society of Mammalogists enabled me to present this paper at the 34th Annual Meeting of the Society, in June of 1954. Unless otherwise indicated, specimens are in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History. Specimens in other museums are designated beyond as follows: American Museum of Natural History (AMNH); Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan (Mich); Chicago Natural History Museum (Chi); United States National Museum (USNM); Biological Surveys Collection (USBS); Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Berkeley, California (MVZ); Colorado Museum of Natural History, Denver (Denv); E. R. Warren collection, Colorado College, Colorado Springs (ERW); University of Colorado Museum, Boulder (UC). ACCOUNTS OF SUBSPECIES Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus (Baird) _Arvicola modesta_ Baird, Repts. Expl. and Surv...., pt. 1, Mammals, p. 535, July 14, 1858. _Microtus pennsylvanicus modestus_, Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 17:20, June 6, 1900. _Type._--Immature specimen (sex not specified), skin and skull, number of skin 594, number of skull 1717, deposited in the collections of the Smithsonian Institution, obtained by F. Kreutzfeldt, Sawatch Pass, Rocky Mountains [=Saguache Pass or Cochetopa Pass, Saguache County, Colorado], exact date unknown. I have not examined the type specimen. _Range._--Northern New Mexico, and southern Colorado (see list of specimens and Fig. 2). _Comparisons._--For comparison with the subspecies newly described below from northern Colorado see the account of that subspecies. The subspecies _M. p. aztecus_ has been compared with _M. p. modestus_ by Hall and Cockrum (1952:308) who reduced _aztecus_ to subspecific rank. Although _aztecus_ is separated by approximately 100 miles from _modestus_, and although no proof of intergradation is available, my studies of variation in this species lead me to agree with Hall and Cockrum that "the morphological differences between the two kinds of animals are of the degree and kind that separate subspecies, rather than species." A more adequate series of adults of _aztecus_ is needed to clarify even the subspecific differences between _aztecus_ and _modestus_. _Measurements._--Averages, extremes, and standard deviations of a number of series are included in Table 1 in order to facilitate comparisons between different subspecies. _Remarks._--The dividing line between _M. p. modestus_ and the subspecies to the north on Figure 2 is drawn somewhat arbitrarily because few specimens are available from this area. Actual intergradation, in the form of a geographically intermediate population also morphologically intermediate between these two subspecies, is lacking. However, in most populations of both subspecies some individuals are intermediate between the two subspecies or even more like the other subspecies than the one to which they are referred. Warren (1942:226) states that _modestus_ has been recorded from Lake County, although no reference to a specimen is given. Bailey (1900:21) cites Twin Lakes, in Lake County. That county is near the dividing line as I have drawn it, and therefore specimens from Lake County would be of special interest. An isolated colony of _modestus_ occurs at San Rafael in Valencia County, New Mexico (Bailey, 1932:201). A hiatus of approximately 150 miles separates that colony from the southernmost locality shown in Figure 2. A single specimen, the skin of an immature _Microtus_ without skull, from Trinchera, Colorado, taken by L. R. Hersey in 1912, is in the Colorado Museum of Natural History. No species of Microtine has been recorded from within 50 miles of this locality. The specimen is seemingly more like _M. pennsylvanicus_ than any other species of _Microtus_. This locality is represented in Figure 2 by a question mark. Ecologically _M. montanus fusus_ Hall and _M. longicaudus mordax_ (Merriam) in the same region occupied by _modestus_ seem to be more montane than _modestus_. It favors lush grass on the wet floors of alluvial valleys, and also irrigated areas such as that at Manassa. _Specimens examined._--Total 130. _Colorado_: CHAFFEE CO.: Salida, 3 (ERW). SAGUACHE CO.: Monshower Meadows, 27 mi. NW Saguache [=3 mi. E Cochetopa Pass], 8 (USBS); _Tevebaugh's Ranch, 20 mi. W Saguache_, 46 (USBS, there are additional specimens not examined in detail by me); _Cochetopa Pass, 33 mi. W Saguache_, 1; 3 mi. N, 16 mi. W Saguache, 8500 ft., 5; 5 mi. NW Hooper, 1 (AMNH); Medano Ranch, 15 mi. NE Mosca, 2 (1 ERW, 1 USBS). CUSTER CO.: Westcliffe, 7800 ft., 1 (ERW). ALAMOSA CO.: _Hooper_, 10 (2 AMNH, 8 Denv); _Mosca_, 3 (ERW). CONEJOS CO.: 1-1/2 mi. E Manassa, 11. COSTILLA CO.: Alamosa, 3 (Mich); 2 mi. S Blanca, 7800 ft., 6 (MVZ). _New Mexico_: TAOS CO.: Arroyo Hondo, 7600 ft., 6 (USBS); Taos, Pueblo, 1 (USNM). COLFAX CO.: 1 mi. S, 2 mi. E Eagle Nest, 8100 ft., 21; Taos Mountains, east slope, 8800 ft., 1 (USBS); _Coyote Creek_, 1 (USBS). Microtus pennsylvanicus uligocola new subspecies _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull, number 26898, University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, obtained by James O. Lounquist, original number 349, 6 miles west and 1/2 mile south of Loveland, 5200 ft., Larimer Co., Colorado, on July 26, 1948. _Range._--Northern Colorado. See Figure 2 and list of specimens examined. _Diagnosis._--Entire animal and skull large; color average for the species, neither extremely pale or dark in summer pelage; molar tooth-row long; nasals narrow; maxillary septum large; first upper molar wide; anterior margin of zygomatic arch above infraorbital foramen not deeply indented; fenestrae in posterodorsal parts of squamosal bones relatively long; braincase not elongate; auditory bullae and meatus large. _Comparisons._--From _M. p. modestus_, _M. p. uligocola_ differs as follows: averages paler; prelambdoidal breadth and alveolar length of molar tooth-row significantly greater. Six pairs of skulls were compared. Of the features listed above under the "method of pairs" only two features differed in more than 75 per cent of the pairs; in 5 of 6 pairs _uligocola_ had a less distinctly indented anterior margin of the zygomatic arch (Confidence Limit .95) and a more elongate posterodorsal squamosal fenestra (C. L. .85). Seven pairs of skulls from Boulder, Colorado, representing _uligocola_ and from Colfax County, New Mexico, representing _modestus_ differed in more than 75 per cent of the pairs in three features. Only one of these differences, the elongation of the posterodorsal squamosal fenestra, was the same as a difference noted above between topotypes of _uligocola_ and _modestus_. A comparison of ten pairs of skulls of _uligocola_ from Boulder, Colorado, and topotypes of _uligocola_ revealed no significant differences. These observations are indicative of 1) the differences between samples and populations which may be assigned to a single subspecies, and 2) the fact that in general these local differences are less than the differences between subspecies. From _insperatus_, the subspecies to the north, _uligocola_ differs as follows: darker in both summer and winter pelage; averaging larger in most measurements of the skull; significantly longer molar tooth-row; hind foot averaging longer. For comparisons with the subspecies to the east and the northwest see the accounts of those below. _Remarks._--_M. p. uligocola_ is more closely restricted to wet situations than _M. ochrogaster haydeni_ (Baird) whose general range lies to the eastward. The numerous lakes, the continuous supply of water from the mountains, and the irrigation systems at lower altitudes along the eastern base of the mountains provide the conditions to which _uligocola_ is suited. It is named for its predilection for water. The variability in color is relatively greater in topotypes of both _uligocola_ and of _modestus_ than in many of the other series studied. Specimens from Denver and Colorado Springs taken in late autumn and winter (October to February) are paler, more reddish and less blackish, than specimens taken in June and July at Loveland. This reddishness results from longer, and more intensely reddish tips of the hair. The entire hairs also are longer. The average weight of 16 adults (12 males and 4 non-pregnant females) from near Loveland is 49.7 gms. The average length of the ear is 13.4. _Specimens examined._--Total 228. _Colorado_: LARIMER CO.: 6 mi. W, 1/2 mi. S Loveland, 5200 ft., 18; 3 _mi. N Loveland_, 3; _Loveland_, 4 (USBS). MORGAN CO.: 4 mi. W Orchard, 4 (Mich); _Orchard_, 1 (Mich). BOULDER CO.: Boulder, 91 (USNM 19, UC 12, Chi 60 examined, additional specimens in the collection); _Valmont_, 4 (UC). CLEAR CREEK CO.: Clear Creek, N side of Idaho Springs, 1. JEFFERSON CO.: Olivet, 10 (Denv). ADAMS CO.: Crook's Lake, 8 (Denv); Barr, 16 (Denv 15, ERW 1). ARAPAHOE CO.: Denver, 21 (USBS 3, AMNH 8, Denv 10). PARK CO.: William's Ranch, near Tarryall, 11 (Denv). TELLER CO.: Divide, 2 (ERW). EL PASO CO.: Colorado Springs, 31 (ERW 22, AMNH 7, MVZ 2); 12 mi. S Colorado Springs, 3 (MVZ). Microtus pennsylvanicus finitus new subspecies _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull, number 50204, University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, obtained by J. K. Jones, Jr., original number 906, 5 miles north and 2 miles west of Parks in Dundy County, Nebraska, on August 16, 1952. _Range._--The valley of the north fork of the Republican River in eastern Colorado and southwestern Nebraska. _Diagnosis._--Entire animal and skull large; color dark for the species; zygomatic breadth large; upper molars large and upper molar tooth-row relatively long; braincase elongate; auditory meatus relatively small; bullae large; incisors relatively procumbent. _Comparisons._--From _M. p. uligocola_, the subspecies to the west, _M. p. finitus_ differs in darker color. These subspecies resemble each other in large size and large molar teeth. A comparison of nine pairs of skulls by the "method of pairs" shows three features in which _finitus_ (from at, or near, the type locality) differs from _uligocola_ (from at, or near, the type locality); in 7 of 9 pairs _finitus_ had a relatively more elongate braincase (Confidence Limit .60); in 9 of 9 pairs _uligocola_ had larger auditory meatuses (C. L. .99); in 7 of 9 pairs _uligocola_ had relatively larger bullae (C. L. .80). From _M. p. pennsylvanicus_ (Ord) from eastern Nebraska and eastern South Dakota _finitus_ differs in larger size; darker color; larger molar teeth and longer upper molar tooth-row. Five pairs of skulls were compared; in all 5 pairs, _finitus_ had more procumbent incisor teeth (C. L. .97) and wider first upper molars (C. L. .97); and in 4 of 5 pairs _finitus_ had a relatively more elongate braincase (C. L. .60). From _M. p. insperatus_, the subspecies to the north, _finitus_ differs as follows: color darker, size larger, molar teeth relatively larger and alveolar length of the upper molar tooth-row greater. Five pairs of skulls were compared and in all 5 pairs _finitus_ had more procumbent upper incisors (C. L. .97) than _insperatus_; in 4 of 5 pairs _insperatus_ had a relatively more elongate braincase (C. L. .60), narrower first upper molariform tooth (C. L. .75), and shorter distance between the alveoli of the first upper molars (C. L. .88). _Remarks._--The species, _Microtus pennsylvanicus_, in Pleistocene time ranged onto the plains of Kansas as far southward as Meade County, Kansas (Hibbard, 1940:421). This occurrence indicates a cooler more humid climate then than now in southwestern Kansas. _M. p. finitus_ is more closely associated with water than _Microtus ochrogaster_, the only other species of _Microtus_ now occupying the same region, although both species have been captured at certain places in the same runways. In Nebraska, a marginal part of the range of the species, _M. pennsylvanicus_ has been taken at scattered localities. This scattered and localized distribution of suitable habitat undoubtedly limits gene-flow between these relict populations. Presumably as a result of this isolation _finitus_ has accumulated and maintained its distinctive characteristics. The subspecies is so named because of its limited range. The average weight of eight specimens (4 males and 4 non-pregnant females) from Dundy County is 57.2 grams. _Specimens examined._--Total 26. _Colorado_: YUMA CO.: Wray, 3 (USBS); _1 mi. W Laird_, 2. _Nebraska_: DUNDY CO.: 5 mi. N, 2 mi. W Parks (Rock Creek State Fish Hatchery), 19; Haigler, 2 (USBS). Microtus pennsylvanicus pullatus new subspecies _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull, number 37873, University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History, obtained by Rollin H. Baker, original number 1343, 12 miles north and 2 miles east of Sage, 6100 ft., in Lincoln County, Wyoming, on July 19, 1950. _Range._--North-central Utah, eastern Idaho, western Wyoming, and southwestern Montana. See Figures 1 and 2. _Diagnosis._--Size average; color dark, especially in southern part of range; tail relatively long; molar teeth small; nasals relatively broad; maxillary septum relatively small. _Comparisons._--From _M. p. uligocola_, the subspecies to the southeast, _M. p. pullatus_ differs as follows: relatively darker in southern part of its range (see Figure 1); smaller, tail relatively longer. In 6 of 7 pairs of skulls compared of _pullatus_ (from Lincoln Co., Wyoming) and _uligocola_ (from Larimer Co., Colorado), _pullatus_ had relatively broader nasals (Confidence Limit .85); _uligocola_ had larger maxillary septa (C. L. .97) and larger molar teeth (C. L. .90). From _insperatus_, the subspecies to the east, _pullatus_ differs as follows: both summer and winter pelage darker; tail longer both actually and relatively; upper molar tooth-row shorter. Ten pairs of skulls of specimens from near Afton, Wyoming, representing _pullatus_, and from northeastern Wyoming, representing _insperatus_, revealed no significant differences in the features observed by the "method of pairs". Although not compared in detail with the subspecies to the north, _M. p. drummondi_ (Audubon and Bachman), examination of specimens from western Montana and the accounts of other authors indicate that topotypes of _pullatus_ are darker, longer-tailed, slightly larger-skulled and perhaps longer over all. _Remarks._--In this subspecies there is a cline in color from dark in extreme southwestern Wyoming to pale in north-central Wyoming and Montana as the range of _M. p. insperatus_ is approached. There is thus a broad zone of intergradation in color and the line separating the subspecies must be drawn somewhat arbitrarily. In Wyoming the most distinct break in this cline is in the Big Horn Basin and if a detailed study of the species were made in Montana the break would probably be found where the mountains meet the plains, roughly as shown in Figure 1. There is a similar cline in western Montana in color. The mice are paler farther north as one approaches the Canadian border although they do not become so pale as _insperatus_. Darkness is a characteristic of several non-adjacent subspecies of _Microtus pennsylvanicus_, for example _M. p._ _kincaidi_ Dalquest in central Washington (Dalquest, 1948:347), _M. p. finitus_, and _M. p. nigrans_ Rhoads in eastern Virginia, but these subspecies presumably differ in other characters. Some morphological features of the same kind and degree that differentiate subspecies in one place may not vary geographically in another place. Furthermore the geographic variation in one feature may be only partly correlated with the variation in another feature. The variation in _M. p. pullatus_ is an example: Specimens from near Pocatello, Idaho, are darker than topotypes of _modestus_ but specimens from Fremont County, Idaho, are indistinguishable from topotypes of _modestus_ (Davis, 1939:315). I have examined a number of mice from the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana and the color value for 12 adults is 2.7. They are slightly but not significantly paler than topotypes of _modestus_. This is a result of the cline mentioned above and does not indicate relationship with _modestus_. Some average measurements of 10 skulls from this series are as follows: condylobasilar length, 24.9; zygomatic breadth, 14.4; interorbital breadth, 3.4; lambdoidal breadth, 11.5; prelambdoidal breadth, 9.1; alveolar length of upper molar teeth, 6.5; and depth of braincase, 7.6. Average external measurements of 9 specimens are as follows: total length, 157; length of tail, 36; length of hind feet, 19.4. Mice from the Bitterroot Valley were compared with topotypes of _modestus_ by the "method of pairs," and _modestus_ had a larger foramen magnum in 6 of 6 pairs (Confidence Limit .97) and larger first upper molar teeth in 5 of 6 pairs (C. L. .75). A comparison of topotypes of _pullatus_ with _modestus_ shows a similar difference in the teeth, _modestus_ being larger, but in the size of the foramen magnum there is no difference. A comparison of the measurements of _pullatus_ (Bitterroot Valley), _pullatus_ (near topotypes), and _modestus_ (topotypes) shows that the two series of topotypes differ significantly in condylobasilar length (of borderline significance), zygomatic breadth and lambdoidal breadth (both of which vary greatly with age), and length of molar series; the specimens from the Bitterroot Valley agree with _pullatus_ rather than _modestus_ in all of these characters. The specimens from the Bitterroot Valley are smaller than _pullatus_ (topotypes) in total length; they more closely resemble _modestus_ in length of tail, and the hind foot is shorter than in either _modestus_ or _pullatus_ (which do not differ significantly). Specimens from western Montana resemble _modestus_ in certain respects but in most respects resemble topotypes of _pullatus_ and are referred to _pullatus_. Specimens from Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and from Blackfoot, Montana (marginal records of _modestus_, Hall and Cockrum, 1953:410) may be referred to _drummondi_. Marginal records of _pullatus_ in Montana to my knowledge are: Florence, Ravalli Co.; Highwood Mtns., Chouteau Co.; 7 mi. NE Hilger, Fergus Co.; 10 mi. NW Park City, Stillwater Co. (all represented by specimens in the USBS). The line separating _pullatus_ and _drummondi_ is tentatively drawn as shown in Figure 1. _Specimens examined._--Total 256. _Wyoming_: YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK: Mammoth Hot Springs, 17 (USNM). PARK CO.: 3-1/5 mi. E, 3/5 mi. S Cody, 5020 ft., 15. TETON CO.: _Whetstone Creek_, 4 (Mich); 5 mi. N Moran, 13 (Mich); _Moran and environs_ (_4 localities within 4 miles of Moran_), 6200 ft., 54; Teton Park, Trappers Lake, 3 (Mich); _Teton Park, Jenny Lake_, 1 (Mich); _Teton Park, String Lake_, 1 (Mich); Sheep Creek, 1 (Mich); _Jackson and environs_, 115 (Mich 113, USBS 1). SUBLETTE CO.: 34 mi. N, 4 mi. W Pinedale, 7950 ft., 2; Kendall, 5 (Mich). LINCOLN CO.: 9-1/2 mi. N, 2 mi. W Afton, 6100 ft., 1; _9 mi. N, 2 mi. W Afton_, 3; _7 mi. N, 1 mi. W Afton_, 11; _15 mi. N, 3 mi. E Sage_, 6100 ft., 1; _12 mi. N, 2 mi. E Sage_, 4; 6 mi. N, 2 mi. E Sage, 2. Microtus pennsylvanicus insperatus (Allen) _Arvicola insperatus_ Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:347, December 7, 1894. _Microtus pennsylvanicus insperatus_, Anderson, Canadian Field-Nat., 57:92, October 17, 1943. _Microtus pennsylvanicus wahema_ Bailey, Jour. Mamm., 1:72, March 2, 1920. _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull, number 8105/6731 American Museum of Natural History, obtained by W. W. Granger, at Custer, Black Hills, South Dakota, August 9, 1894. _Range._--Western South Dakota, southwestern North Dakota, eastern Montana, southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, eastern Montana, and northeastern Wyoming. _Comparisons._--_Microtus pennsylvanicus insperatus_ is paler than any adjacent subspecies. It has been compared with _pullatus_ in the preceding account. Bailey's studies of _M. p. wahema_ [=_insperatus_] and his comparisons with _M. p. pennsylvanicus_ and _M. p. drummondi_ to the east and north, in North Dakota (1920, 1927), are the basis for the northern and eastern boundaries of the range of _insperatus_ in Figure 1. Comparison of _insperatus_ with _finitus_ to the south is made in the account of the latter. TABLE 1. AVERAGE MEASUREMENTS (IN MILLIMETERS) OF ADULT MICROTUS PENNSYLVANICUS ========================+======+========+=======+=======+=========+======= | | | | | | |No. of| | Length| Length| Condylo-| Zygo- Locality |adults| Total | of | of | basilar | matic (or area) | ave- | length | tail | hind | length, |breadth |raged | | | feet | skull | | | | | | | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. insperatus_, Wyoming | Crook and Campbell Cos. | 12 | 166.5 | 41.4 | 20.7 | 25.85 | 14.80 Sheridan County | 20 | 169.5 | 46.7 | 21.2 | 26.20 | 15.25 Johnson County | 20 | 167.8 | 47.9 | 20.7 | 25.67 | 15.29 Weston County, mean | 15 | 161.0 | 39.8 | 20.7 | 25.55 | 14.91 " Co., stand. dev. | ... | 11.3 | 3.0 | 0.6 | .82 | .43 " Co., minimum | ... | 150. | 35. | 20. | 24.2 | 14.2 " Co., maximum | ... | 168. | 45. | 22. | 26.8 | 15.6 ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. pullatus_, Wyoming | Park County | 10 | 164.8 | 44.5 | 20.3 | 25.96 | 15.92 Teton County | 20 | 161.9 | 43.6 | 19.8 | 25.59 | 14.68 Sage, Lincoln Co. | 6 | 165.0 | 47.2 | 21.2 | 25.87 | 14.93 Afton, " " , mean | 14 | 163.3 | 48.8 | 20.8 | 25.59 | 14.70 " , stand. dev. | ... | 7.4 | 10.4 | 1.4 | 1.00 | .61 " , minimum | ... | 142. | 39. | 19. | 24.5 | 13.8 " , maximum | ... | 181. | 57. | 23. | 27.5 | 15.9 ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. uligocola_, Colorado | Park Co. (Denv) | 7 | | | | 26.00 | 15.40 Boulder Co. (Chi) | 30 | 171.2 | 43.0 | 22.2 | 26.53 | 15.28 Denver | 8 | 156.9 | 40.0 | 21.3 | 26.77 | 15.31 Colorado Springs | 16 | 158.4 | 41.4 | 21.1 | 26.40 | 15.43 Loveland, mean | 16 | 166.0 | 46.6 | 21.5 | 26.54 | 15.60 " , stand. dev. | ... | 15.9 | 5.9 | 0.8 | 1.42 | 1.23 " , minimum | ... | 142. | 38. | 20. | 24.6 | 13.9 " , maximum | ... | 192. | 56. | 23. | 29.4 | 17.8 ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. finitus_ | Wray, Colorado | 3 | 169.0 | 39.3 | 22.3 | 27.30 | 16.20 Dundy Co., Nebr., mean | 12 | 165.8 | 42.6 | 21.8 | 27.65 | 16.10 " , stand. dev. | ... | 16.5 | 5.2 | 0.7 | 2.57 | .92 " , minimum | ... | 147. | 36. | 21. | 25.0 | 14.7 " , maximum | ... | 202. | 55. | 23. | 29.7 | 17.6 ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. modestus_, Colorado | Alamosa, Colorado | 3 | 160.7 | 46.3 | 22.0 | 25.57 | 15.00 Cochetopa Pass, Colo. | 25[1]| 172.7 | 44.7 | 21.2 | 26.42 | 15.43 " , stand. dev. | ... | 8.8 | 3.1 | 0.8 | .69 | .52 " , minimum | ... | 160. | 38. | 20. | 25.2 | 14.6 " , maximum | ... | 191. | 51. | 23. | 28.5 | 16.8 ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- [1] 29 specimens were used in taking measurements of the skull. ========================+======+========+=======+=======+=========+======= |No. | Lamb- |Pre- | Molar | Inter- |Depth | Locality |of | doidal |lamb- | length| orbital |of | (or area) |adults| breadth|doidal | (al- | breadth |brain-| |aver- | |breadth|veolar)| |case | |aged | | | | | | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. insperatus_, Wyoming | Crook and Campbell Cos. | 12 | 11.70 | 9.05 | 6.90 | 3.52 | 7.92 | Sheridan County | 20 | 12.20 | 9.33 | 6.90 | 3.55 | 7.95 | Johnson County | 20 | 12.04 | 9.02 | 7.14 | 3.52 | 7.84 | Weston Co., mean | 15 | 12.03 | 9.25 | 6.84 | 3.60 | 8.02 | " " stand. dev. | ... | .40 | .37 | .16 | .13 | .23 | " " minimum | ... | 11.4 | 8.7 | 6.6 | 3.4 | 7.7 | " " maximum | ... | 12.7 | 9.9 | 7.2 | 3.8 | 8.5 | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. pullatus_, Wyoming | Park County | 10 | 12.34 | 9.52 | 6.72 | 3.50 | 8.30 | Teton County | 20 | 11.58 | 8.98 | 6.77 | 3.54 | 7.66 | Sage, Lincoln Co. | 6 | 11.87 | 9.08 | 6.77 | 3.58 | 7.88 | Afton, " " mean | 14 | 11.74 | 9.06 | 6.53 | 3.55 | 7.90 | " , stand. dev. | ... | .50 | .15 | .23 | .12 | .43 | " , minimum | ... | 11.0 | 8.9 | 6.1 | 3.2 | 7.1 | " , maximum | ... | 12.5 | 9.4 | 7.0 | 3.6 | 8.2 | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. uligocola_, Colorado | Park Co. (Denv) | 7 | 12.20 | 9.40 | 7.07 | 3.60 | 7.91 | Boulder Co. (Chi) | 30 | 12.14 | 9.24 | 7.07 | 3.36 | 7.85 | Denver | 8 | 12.23 | 9.35 | 7.27 | 3.55 | 7.99 | Colorado Springs | 16 | 12.18 | 9.22 | 7.20 | 3.43 | 7.89 | Loveland, mean | 16 | 12.31 | 9.46 | 7.14 | 3.59 | 8.14 | " , stand. dev. | ... | .65 | .41 | .32 | .16 | .42 | " , minimum | ... | 11.4 | 9.0 | 6.8 | 3.3 | 7.5 | " , maximum | ... | 13.8 | 10.6 | 7.6 | 3.8 | 9.4 | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. finitus_ | Wray, Colorado | 3 | 12.30 | 9.43 | 7.40 | 3.53 | 8.23 | Dundy Co., Nebr., mean | 12 | 12.64 | 9.39 | 7.52 | 3.66 | 8.22 | " " , stand. dev. | ... | .61 | .40 | .31 | .26 | .43 | " " , minimum | ... | 11.6 | 8.5 | 7.0 | 3.2 | 7.6 | " " , maximum | ... | 13.5 | 9.8 | 7.9 | 3.9 | 8.7 | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- | | _M. p. modestus_, Colorado | Alamosa, Colorado | 3 | 11.97 | 9.27 | 6.83 | 3.60 | 8.01 | Cochetopa Pass, Colo. | 25[1]| 12.16 | 9.04 | 6.81 | 3.54 | 8.18 | " , stand. dev. | ... | .37 | .31 | .21 | .14 | .23 | " , minimum | ... | 11.4 | 8.6 | 6.5 | 3.3 | 7.7 | " , maximum | ... | 13.1 | 10.0 | 7.5 | 3.9 | 8.8 | ------------------------+------+--------+-------+-------+---------+------- [1] 29 specimens were used in taking measurements of the skull. _Remarks._--Bailey (1900:20) had only 7 specimens from northeastern Wyoming and western South Dakota, of _M. pennsylvanicus_ and thought that _Arvicola insperatus_ Allen (1894:347) was not subspecifically distinct from _modestus_. Subsequently Bailey (1920:72) had adequate numbers of specimens and described _Microtus pennsylvanicus wahema_ from eastern Montana and western North Dakota. Anderson (1943:92) concluded that _wahema_ was not distinct from _insperatus_ and therefore the name _M. p. insperatus_ (Allen) is applicable to this subspecies. On the basis of specimens that I have examined from Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming I concur with Anderson. Bailey's characterization of _wahema_ is applicable to _insperatus_ as I interpret it. In the Black Hills, _Microtus longicaudus longicaudus_ (Merriam) occurs together with _insperatus_. _Specimens examined._--Total 123. _Wyoming_: SHERIDAN CO.: 3 mi. WNW Monarch (=Kleeburn), 3800 ft., 4; 4 mi. NNE Banner, 4100 ft., 26; 5 mi. NE Clearmont, 3900 ft., 3. JOHNSON CO.: 5-1/2 mi. W, 1 mi. S Buffalo, 5520 ft., 1; _5-1/2 mi. W, 1-1/2 mi. S Buffalo_, 1; _1 mi. W, 4/5 mi. S Buffalo_, 4800 ft., 36; 1/4 mi. E Klondike, 5160 ft., 1. CAMPBELL CO.: Belle Fourche River, 45 mi. S, 13 mi. W Gillette, 5350 ft., 2. CROOK CO.: 3 mi. S, 2 mi. E Rocky Point, 3800 ft., 6; Bear Lodge Mts., 6-1/2 mi. SSE Alva, 1 (Mich); _15 mi. N Sundance_, 5500 ft., 3; 15 mi. ENE Sundance, 3825 ft., 6; _3 mi. NW Sundance_, 5900 ft., 1; _1-1/3 mi. NW Sundance_, 5000 ft., 4; Sundance, 1 (USBS). WESTON CO.: 1-1/2 mi. E Buckhorn, 6150 ft., 26; Newcastle, 1 (USBS). GENERAL REMARKS The region considered in this paper differs in several regards from the state of Pennsylvania, where variation in the skulls of this species has been studied in detail by Snyder (1954) who referred all populations there to a single subspecies. In some characteristics of the skulls, populations within Pennsylvania differed as much or more than the subspecies from Wyoming and Colorado. In other characteristics of the skulls and of the skins differences are greater between populations in Wyoming and Colorado. The region discussed here is approximately five times as large as the state of Pennsylvania. Populations of _M. pennsylvanicus_ are less continuously distributed than in Pennsylvania owing to major physiographic and climatic barriers and also owing to competition with one or more of the five other species of _Microtus_ occurring in this region. The distribution of three of these species has been discussed by Findley (1945:419). Large areas of relatively greater aridity, such as the region occupied by the subspecies _insperatus_, occur in Wyoming and Colorado. I have pointed out that the populations which I have designated as subspecies are not absolutely uniform. Also the different subspecies are not of exactly equal degrees of difference. However, there is considerable uniformity of populations occupying conveniently mapped geographic areas. In my opinion, the use of subspecific nomenclature is justified in this case, although not completely unambiguous. LITERATURE CITED ALLEN, J. A. 1894. Descriptions of five new North American mammals. Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:347-350, December 7. ANDERSON, R. M. 1943. A prior name for the bean mouse revived. Canadian Field-Nat., 57:92, October 17. ANDERSON, S. 1954. Subspeciation in the montane meadow mouse, Microtus montanus, in Wyoming and Colorado. Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 7(7):489-506, 2 figs. in text, July 23. BAILEY, V. 1900. Revision of American voles of the genus Microtus. N. Amer. Fauna, 17:1-88, 5 pls., 17 figs., June 6. 1920. Identity of the bean mouse of Lewis and Clark. Jour. Mamm. 1:70-72, March 1. 1927. A biological survey of North Dakota. N. Amer. Fauna, 49:vi+ 226, 21 pls., 8 figs. in text, January 8. 1932. Mammals of New Mexico. N. Amer. Fauna, 53:1-412, 22 pls., 57 figs. in text, March 1. BAIRD, S. F. 1858. Explorations and surveys for a railroad route from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean. War Department. Mammals, Part I, xxxii + 757, pls. 17-60, 35 figs. in text, July 14. DALQUEST, W. W. 1948. Mammals of Washington. Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 2:1-444, 140 figs. in text, April 9. DAVIS, W. B. 1939. The Recent mammals of Idaho. The Caxton Printers, Caldwell, Idaho, 400 pp., 2 full page half tones, 33 figs. in text, April 5. DURRANT, S. D. 1952. Mammals of Utah, taxonomy and distribution. Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:1-549, 91 figs. in text, 30 tables, August 10. ELLERMAN, J. R. 1941. The families and genera of living rodents. Volume II. Family Muridae. The British Museum. xii + 690 pp., 50 figs. in text, March 21. FINDLEY, J. S. 1954. Competition as a possible limiting factor in the distribution of _Microtus_. Ecology, 35:418-420, July. HALL, E. R., and E. L. COCKRUM 1952. Comments on the taxonomy and geographic distribution of North American microtines. Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:293-312, November 17. 1953. A synopsis of the North American microtine rodents. Univ. Kansas Publ., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:373-498, 149 figs. in text, January 15. HIBBARD, C. W. 1940. A new Pleistocene fauna from Meade County, Kansas. Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 43:417-425, December 23. HOWELL, A. B. 1926. Anatomy of the wood rat. Monogr. Amer. Soc. Mamm. No. 1, x + 225 pp., 35 figs., Williams and Wilkins Co., Baltimore. SNYDER, D. P. 1954. Skull variation in the meadow vole (_Microtus p. pennsylvanicus_) in Pennsylvania. Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 33:201-234, September 21. WARREN, E. R. 1942. The mammals of Colorado. Univ. Oklahoma Press, xviii + 330 pp., 50 pls. _Transmitted June 30, 1955._ 
33509	----	[Transcriber's Note: The following typographical errors are noted, but not corrected in the text: page 116: "typotypes" should be "topotypes" page 116: "Potosi" should be "Potosí" page 116: "Sán Miguel" should be "San Miguel" page 116: "Sán Isidro" should be "San Isidro" page 117: "pleateau" should be "plateau" page 120: "Nuevo Leon" should be "Nuevo León"] UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 14, No. 7, pp. 111-120, 1 fig. December 29, 1961 Taxonomic Status of Some Mice of The Peromyscus boylii Group in Eastern Mexico, With Description of a New Subspecies BY TICUL ALVAREZ UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1961 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Theodore H. Eaton, Jr. Volume 14, No. 7, pp. 111-120, 1 fig. Published December 29, 1961 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED BY JEAN M. NEIBARGER, STATE PRINTER TOPEKA, KANSAS 1961 [Illustration] 29-393 Taxonomic Status of Some Mice of The Peromyscus boylii Group in Eastern Mexico, With Description of a New Subspecies BY TICUL ALVAREZ Saussure (1860) described _Peromyscus aztecus_ from southern México. Osgood (1909) by comparison of one of Saussure's specimens with some from Mirador, Veracruz, concluded that _aztecus_ was a subspecies of _P. boylii_. Dalquest (1953) incorrectly reported specimens of _P. boylii_ from San Luis Potosí as _P. b. aztecus_. Merriam (1898) named _Peromyscus levipes_ from Mt. Malinche, Tlaxcala. Thomas (1903) described from Orizaba, Veracruz, _P. beatae_, which Osgood (1909) mistakenly thought was indistinguishable from _P. boylii levipes_. Therefore, Osgood in 1909 in his revision of the genus _Peromyscus_ reported only two subspecies of _P. boylii_ from eastern México: _P. b. levipes_, and _P. b. aztecus_. Study of Osgood's and Thomas' material, along with recently collected specimens from the states of eastern México, leads me to conclude that _P. aztecus_ and _P. boylii_ are different species; that _P. beatae_ is a valid subspecies different from _P. b. levipes_; and finally that specimens of _P. boylii_ from Nuevo León and northwestern Tamaulipas pertain to an hitherto unnamed subspecies. #Peromyscus aztecus# Saussure 1860. _H[esperomys]. aztecus_ Saussure, Revue et Mag. Zool., Paris, ser. 2, 12:105, type from southern México, probably from the vicinity of Mirador, Veracruz, according to Osgood (N. Amer. Fauna, 28:156-157, April 17, 1909). 1909. _Peromyscus boylei aztecus_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:156, April 17. _Geographic distribution._--Known only from Mirador and Jalapa in Veracruz, and Huachinango in Puebla. _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the genus (see measurements); tail about as long as head and body; dorsal coloration near Sayal Brown (capitalized color terms after Ridgway, 1912); sides reddish; underparts Light Buff; tail bicolored but not distinctly so; supraorbital border of skull angular, and bullae pointed anteriorly; anterior half of braincase nearly straight (not rounded) as viewed from above; upper molar series long (4.7-5.0); incisive foramina short in relation to length of skull. _Comparisons._--From _Peromyscus boylii_, _P. aztecus_ differs as follows: Larger in most parts measured; maxillary tooth-row 4.7-5.0 instead of 4.0-4.6; color brighter on sides (reddish instead of ochraceous); supraorbital border angular instead of rounded; anterior border of zygomatic plate convex in upper half and almost straight in lower half as opposed to nearly straight throughout in _boylii_; pterygoid fossa broader; bullae more pointed anteriorly and less inflated; mesostyles of upper molars larger; surface between orbital region and nasals convex in lateral view instead of flat. _Remarks._--When Saussure (1860:105) described _P. aztecus_ he did not designate a type or type locality. Osgood (1909:157) designated as lectotype the mounted specimen, in the Geneva Museum, which has the skull inside and of which Saussure figured the molar teeth. Osgood (_loc. cit._) examined one of the three specimens (No. 3926 USNM) that Saussure used in describing _P. aztecus_ and found that it agreed "in every respect with recently collected specimens from Mirador, Veracruz, which, in the lack of exact knowledge, may be assumed to be the type locality, as it is certain that some at least of Saussure's specimens were taken near there." [Illustration: FIG. 1. Two species of _Peromyscus_. 1. _P. boylii ambiguus_ 2. _P. boylii beatae_ 3. _P. boylii levipes_ 4. _P. aztecus_ (triangles)] Osgood regarded _P. aztecus_ as a subspecies of _P. boylii_ because of the resemblance between _aztecus_ and _P. b. evides_, but _evides_ is far removed geographically (occurring only in western México) from _aztecus_, and is smaller. _P. aztecus_ is larger than any known subspecies of _P. boylii_, and is not known to intergrade with _P. b. levipes_ or _P. b. beatae_ (with which _aztecus_ occurs sympatrically at Jalapa, Veracruz), the two subspecies of _boylii_ that are found nearest the geographic range of _P. aztecus_. Also, as mentioned previously, _aztecus_ possesses distinctive characters that distinguish it from all subspecies of _boylii_. For these reasons I regard _aztecus_ as a distinct species. According to Hall and Kelson (1959:634), _P. aztecus_ occurs in San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, and west-central Veracruz, but their map 364 is based on the records of Osgood (1909:158) and Dalquest (1953:143). I have examined all the specimens reported by the two authors last named and find that those from San Luis Potosí are _P. boylii levipes_. The diagnosis and comparisons here presented of _aztecus_ were based on specimens from Mirador in comparison with all the specimens of _P. boylii_ from eastern México listed beyond. The largest specimens of _P. boylii_ that I have examined are from Las Vigas, Veracruz, and localities within a radius of five kilometers thereof. Some measurements of these large specimens of _P. boylii_ overlap those of _P. aztecus_ but the two kinds of mice differ greatly in characters of the skull, in color, and in length of tail. The specimens (three adults and three juveniles) from Huachinango, Puebla, are slightly darker than specimens from Mirador but do not differ otherwise. Of two specimens reported from Jalapa, Veracruz, by Osgood (1909:158), one (108547 USNM) agrees with specimens from Mirador in color and cranial characteristics and is _P. aztecus_, whereas the other (108548 USNM) is _P. b. beatae_. _Specimens examined._--Total 16 (all USNM) as follows: PUEBLA: Huachinango, 6. VERACRUZ: Mirador, 9; Jalapa, 1. #Peromyscus boylii levipes# Merriam 1898. _Peromyscus levipes_ Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 12:123, April 30, type from Mt. Malinche, 8400 ft., Tlaxcala. 1909. _Peromyscus boylei levipes_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:153, April 17. _Geographic distribution._--Southeastern Tamaulipas and eastern San Luis Potosí, south through the central states of México to Guatemala. _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the species; tail shorter or longer than head and body (83-112.3%); color variable according to locality but in general ochraceous, having some dusky on upper parts; supraorbital border not angular, almost rounded; auditory bullae large. _Comparisons._--For comparisons see accounts of the subspecies discussed beyond and Osgood (1909:145). _Remarks._--A precise diagnosis for _P. b. levipes_ is difficult to prepare because some geographic variation in color and in the cranial characters is present within the range of the subspecies as here understood. For instance there is a gradual cline of decreasing size to the northward in nearly all measurements, but the ratio of length of tail to length of head and body does not present such a cline; mice from several localities in San Luis Potosí have a relatively shorter tail than do mice from farther north and from farther south. Also, specimens labeled in reference to Zacualpilla, Jacales, Jacala, Tulancingo, and San Miguel Regla average slightly darker dorsally than do typotypes. Some of these specimens are reddish on the cheek and lateral line. Specimens from San Luis Potosí resemble topotypes, but some specimens from northeastern localities in that state have cinnamon or brownish upper parts and are intermediate in coloration between populations of _levipes_ to the south and populations of the same subspecies to the north from the Sierra Madre Oriental and the Sierra de Tamaulipas. Specimens from these two sierras have a cinnamon-reddish color that is more intense in specimens from the Sierra de Tamaulipas. Osgood (1909:153) recorded _P. b. levipes_ as occurring from central Nuevo León south through San Luis Potosí, Hidalgo, and Veracruz to southern Oaxaca. Actually specimens from Nuevo León and from most parts of Veracruz differ subspecifically from _levipes_ and also from each other. In Veracruz, _P. b. levipes_ is known only from the northwestern part. _Specimens examined._--Total 179 as follows: TAMAULIPAS: Sierra Madre Oriental, 5 mi. S, 3 mi. W Victoria, 1900 ft., 2; _8 mi. S, 6 mi. W Victoria, 4000 ft._, 37; Sierra de Tamaulipas, 2000 ft., 8 mi. S, 11 mi. W Piedra, 13. SAN LUIS POTOSI: Villar, 11 (USNM); 10 km. E Platanito, 19 (LSU); _8 mi. E (by road) Santa Barbarita_, 12 (LSU); _Agua Zarca_, 3 (LSU); 6 km. NE Cd. Maíz, 13 (LSU); _Pendencia Region (Puerto Lobos)_, 1 (LSU); _Pendencia, 2-1/2 mi. N Puerto Lobos_, 5 (LSU); 3 km. SW Sán Isidro, 15 (LSU); Cerro Coneja Region, Llano Coneja, 6100 ft., 2 (LSU); Xilitla, 4 (LSU). HIDALGO: 10 mi. NE Jacala, 5050 ft., 7; Regla (Sán Miguel), 2250 m., 4; Arroyo de las Tinajas, 2370 m., 9.5 km. SSW Tulancingo, 1; 10 mi. NW Apam, 7750 ft., 1. VERACRUZ: 3 km. N Zacualpan, 6000 ft., 1; _3 km. W Zacualpan, 6000 ft._, 12; _2 km. N Los Jacales, 7500 ft._, 8; _6 km. WSW Zacualpilla, 6500 ft._, 5. TLAXCALA: Mt. Malinche, 3 (USNM). #Peromyscus boylii beatae# Thomas 1903. _Peromyscus beatae_ Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 11:485, May, type from Xometla Camp, Mt. Orizaba, Veracruz. _Geographic distribution._--East side of the Sierra Madre Oriental in Veracruz, from Jalancingo south to Xuchil. _Diagnosis._--Size large for the species; tail no shorter than head and body (100-114.8%); dorsum dark (near Prout's Brown or Mummy Brown middorsally, Clay Color on sides); supraorbital border rounded; anterior palatine foramina long. _Comparisons._--_P. b. beatae_ differs from other subspecies of _P. boylii_ by the combination of large size, long tail, and dark color. _Remarks._--Thomas (1903:485) described _P. beatae_ on the basis of five specimens from Xometla Camp (lat. 18° 59' N, long. 97° 10' W) and one juvenile from Santa Barbara Camp, both on the Volcán de Orizaba, Veracruz. Thomas thought that _beatae_ was related to _aztecus_, but the differences relied on by him to distinguish the two are the same as those that distinguish _aztecus_ from _boylii_. Osgood (1909:153) placed _beatae_ in synonymy under _P. b. levipes_ because Mount Orizaba (type locality of _beatae_) is "relatively very near" Mount Malinche (type locality of _levipes_), and Thomas had not compared _beatae_ with _levipes_. Xometla, on the east side of the Volcán de Orizaba, is approximately 56 miles east of the Tlaxcalan part of Mount Malinche and is situated where the Tropical Life-zone begins, whereas Mount Malinche is in the Austral Life-zone on the Mexican Plateau; the difference in habitat between the two places is great. Topotypes of _levipes_ differ from two topotypes of _beatae_ in the same fashion as do other specimens of _levipes_ (from San Luis Potosí) from other specimens of _beatae_ (from Veracruz). Unfortunately, the topotypes of _beatae_ lack external measurements and are subadults, but their coloration agrees with that of other specimens that are here referred to _beatae_. Hall and Kelson (1959:634, map 364) incorrectly mapped the distribution of _levipes_ in Veracruz. There are at least two places named Xuchil in the state of Veracruz and Hall and Kelson (_loc. cit._) unfortunately plotted the one at lat. 20° 42' N, long. 97° 42' W whereas the specimens actually were collected at the Xuchil on the pleateau south of the Volcán de Orizaba (18° 53' N, 97° 14' W) in the west-central part of Veracruz. The specimens from Xuchil are _P. b. beatae_. Intergradation in color between the two subspecies _levipes_ and _beatae_ is seen in specimens from Jalapa and Zacualpan (3 km. N, also others from 3 km. W), Veracruz. Intergradation between these two subspecies possibly will be found elsewhere along the Sierra Madre Oriental. _Specimens examined._--Total 60 as follows: VERACRUZ: 1 km. E Jalancingo, 6500 ft., 2; _2 km. S Jalancingo_, 2; 6 km. SSE Altotonga, 8000 ft., 8; _1 km. W Las Vigas, 8500 ft._, 2; Las Vigas, 8500 ft., 13; _2 km. E Las Vigas, 8000 ft._, 5; _3 km. E Las Vigas, 8000 ft._, 8; _5 km. E Las Vigas_, 7 (TAM); _5 km. N Jalapa, 4500 ft._, 2; _Jalapa_, 1 (USNM); 10 km. SE Perote, N slope Cofre de Perote, 10,500 ft., 1 (TAM); Xometla Camp, Mt. Orizaba, 8500 ft., 2 (BM); _Sta. Barbara, Mt. Orizaba, 12,000 ft._, 1 (BM); Xuchil, 6 (CM). #Peromyscus boylii ambiguus# new subspecies _Type._--Male, adult, skin and skull, No. 33092, United States National Museum, from Monterrey, Nuevo León; obtained on February 17, 1891, by Wm. Lloyd, original number 377. _Geographic distribution._--Eastern Coahuila, central Nuevo León, and the Sierra San Carlos, Tamaulipas. _Diagnosis._--Size small for the species; tail averaging longer than head and body (90-114%); dorsal coloration ochraceous, slightly darker middorsally; cheeks and lateral line Capucine Orange; skull small; supraorbital border rounded; anterior palatine foramina short. _Comparisons._--_P. b. ambiguus_ differs from _P. b. levipes_ in smaller size, longer tail relative to length of head and body, smaller incisive foramina, brighter and paler color, and relatively broader interorbital region. From _P. b. beatae_, _P. b. ambiguus_ differs in being smaller in all parts measured and paler. _Remarks._--Osgood (1909:155) reported as _P. b. levipes_ 37 specimens from Monterrey and 18 from Cerro de la Silla, Nuevo León, but noted that they were "aberrant." I have examined those same specimens and can hardly decide to which species, _P. boylii_ or _P. pectoralis_, they belong. Everything considered I, as did Osgood, opine that the specimens are _P. boylii_. However, I do not rule out the possibility that in this area there is an unnamed species, because I find an unusually wide range of variation in such cranial characters as size of the bullae, width and form of the pterygoid fossa, and shape of the braincase. Extremes of these characters are not constantly associated except in one specimen (33124 USNM), which is the smallest of all the adults examined. It has small bullae, a short rostrum, widely spreading zygomatic arches anteriorly, and a narrow pterygoid fossa, but does not differ externally from the other specimens. Additional material from this area is needed in order to make out the systematic position of these mice. Because of the wide range of variation in some of its characters, _P. b. ambiguus_ is difficult to diagnose. Nevertheless, its small external and cranial size, short anterior palatine foramina, and bright color seem to separate it from other subspecies of _P. boylii_ in the eastern part of the range of the species. These differences are most conspicuous when specimens from the northernmost part of the range of _levipes_ are compared with specimens of _ambiguus_. The specimens from the Sierra San Carlos, Tamaulipas, closely resemble _levipes_ in color, but are referred to _ambiguus_ on the basis of small size, as also are the two specimens from 12 km. E San Antonio de las Alazanas, Coahuila. TABLE 1. MEASUREMENTS (IN MILLIMETERS) OF PEROMYSCUS A: Number of specimens B: Total length C: Length of tail-vertebrae D: Length of hind foot E: Per cent length of tail to head and body F: Greatest length of skull G: Zygomatic breadth H: Interorbital constriction I: Length of nasals J: Palatine slits K: Maxillary tooth-row =======+======+======+=====+======+=====+=====+====+=====+====+==== A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- _P. aztecus_ Mirador, Veracruz -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 7 mean| 229 | 113 | 24.5| ... | 30.1| 15.3| 4.7| 12.5| 6.4| 4.8 max.| 238 | 121 | 26 | ... | 30.9| 15.8| 5.0| 13.5| 6.8| 5.0 min.| 215 | 107 | 24 | ... | 29.2| 14.9| 4.6| 11.2| 5.7| 4.7 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- _P. boylii beatae_ Las Vigas to 3 km. E thereof, Veracruz -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 14 mean| 219.3| 116.7| 23.8| 113.7| 28.9| 14.4| 4.5| 11.5| 6.3| 4.5 max.| 235 | 130 | 25 | 128.9| 29.8| 15.1| 4.7| 12.5| 6.8| 4.8 min.| 204 | 107 | 22 | 100.0| 27.9| 13.8| 4.2| 10.7| 5.9| 4.4 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 6 km. SSE Altotonga, Veracruz -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 5 mean| 224.4| 116.1| 24.1| 109.4| 29.1| 14.5| 4.5| 11.6| 6.4| 4.5 max.| 241 | 126 | 25 | 114.8| 30.1| 15.2| 4.6| 12.0| 6.7| 4.7 min.| 221 | 110 | 24 | 100.0| 28.6| 14.0| 4.4| 11.2| 6.0| 4.3 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- _P. boylii levipes_ 3 km. SW San Isidro, San Luis Potosí -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 11 mean| 205.6| 99.5| 22.4| 93.8| 28.5| 14.2| 4.4| 11.3| 5.9| 4.4 max.| 219 | 114 | 23 | 108.6| 30.5| 14.5| 4.6| 12.2| 6.4| 4.6 min.| 193 | 90 | 21 | 87.4| 27.2| 13.8| 4.2| 10.8| 5.6| 4.1 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 6 km. NE Cd. del Maíz, San Luis Potosí -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 9 mean| 198.7| 96 | 22 | 93.4| 28.1| 14.0| 4.4| 11.2| 6.0| 4.5 max.| 205 | 105 | 22 | 105.0| 28.7| 14.2| 4.6| 11.7| 6.4| 4.6 min.| 187 | 90 | 22 | 85.7| 27.3| 13.4| 4.3| 10.6| 5.7| 4.3 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 11 mi. W, 8 mi. S Piedra, Tamaulipas -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 5 mean| 201.8| 101.8| 22.6| 101.8| 28.5| 14.0| 4.4| 11.3| 6.1| 4.3 max.| 214 | 110 | 23 | 109.3| 29.0| 14.1| 4.6| 11.5| 6.2| 4.7 min.| 193 | 94 | 22 | 94.9| 28.2| 13.9| 4.2| 11.0| 6.0| 4.1 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- _P. boylii ambiguus_ La Vegonia, Tamaulipas -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 7 mean| 199.1| 101.6| 21.3| 104.3| 26.9| 13.4| 4.3| 10.5| 5.6| 4.3 max.| 213 | 109 | 22.4| 108.9| 28.6| 13.7| 4.5| 11.8| 5.9| 4.7 min.| 188 | 97 | 20 | 98.0| 26.4| 13.2| 4.2| 9.5| 5.3| 4.1 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- Monterrey, Nuevo León -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- 16 mean| 199.7| 103.2| 21.3| 106.9| 27.6| 13.9| 4.4| 10.7| 5.6| 4.2 max.| 216 | 114 | 22 | 125.6| 28.2| 14.9| 4.6| 11.5| 5.8| 4.5 min.| 176 | 92 | 19 | 88.0| 26.8| 13.2| 4.1| 10.2| 5.0| 4.0 -------+------+------+-----+------+-----+-----+----+-----+----+---- _Specimens examined._--Total 64 as follows: NUEVO LEON (USNM): Monterrey, 37; _Cerro de la Silla_, 18. COAHUILA: 12 km. E San Antonio de las Alazanas, 9000 ft., 2. TAMAULIPAS: La Vegonia, Sierra San Carlos, 7 (UMMZ). I am grateful to the following persons for the loan of specimens: G. B. Corbet, British Museum, Natural History (BM); David H. Johnson, United States National Museum (USNM); George H. Lowery, Jr., Louisiana State University (LSU); Philip Hershkovitz, Chicago Natural History Museum (CM); William B. Davis, Texas Agricultural and Mechanical College (TAM); W. H. Burt and Emmet T. Hooper, University of Michigan Museum of Zoology (UMMZ). Specimens lacking designation as to collection are housed in the Museum of Natural History of The University of Kansas. I am indebted to Professor E. Raymond Hall and Mr. J. Knox Jones, Jr. for the use of these specimens and for other assistance. It is appropriate to record also that the findings reported above are an outgrowth of related work done as a Research Assistant under Grant No. 56 G 103 from the National Science Foundation. LITERATURE CITED DALQUEST, W. W. 1953. Mammals of the Mexican state of San Luis Potosí. Louisiana State Univ. Biol. Sci. Ser., 1:1-233, December 28. HALL, E. R., and KELSON, K. R. 1959. The mammals of North America. The Ronald Press, New York, vol. 2:ix + 547-1083 + 79, illustrated, March 31. OSGOOD, W. H. 1909. Revision of the mice of the American genus Peromyscus. N. Amer. Fauna, 28:1-285, 8 pls., April 17. RIDGWAY, R. 1912. Color standards and color nomenclature. Washington, D. C., iv + 43 pp., 53 pls. SAUSSURE, M. H. de 1860. Note sur quelques mammifères du Mexique. Revue et Mag. Zool., Paris, ser. 2, 12:97-110, March. THOMAS, O. 1903. _On three new forms of _Peromyscus_ obtained by Dr. Hans Gadow, F. R. S., and Mrs. Gadow in Mexico._ Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7, 11:484-487, May. _Transmitted June 30, 1961._ 29-393 
35542	----	[Transcriber's Note: The following suspected errors have been changed in this text: Page 6: "highdays" changed to "highways" Page 11: "abbatoirs" changed to "abattoirs" Page 11: Added missing "." to "FIG. 5."] Page 14: Added missing "." to "FIG. 10."] HOUSE RATS AND MICE DAVID E. LANTZ Assistant Biologist [Illustration] FARMERS' BULLETIN 896 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE * * * * * Contribution from the Bureau of Biological Survey E. W. NELSON, Chief Washington, D. C. October, 1917 Show this bulletin to a neighbor. Additional copies may be obtained free from the Division of Publications, United States Department of Agriculture WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1917 The rat is the worst animal pest in the world. From its home among filth it visits dwellings and storerooms to pollute and destroy human food. It carries bubonic plague and many other diseases fatal to man and has been responsible for more untimely deaths among human beings than all the wars of history. In the United States rats and mice each year destroy crops and other property valued at over $200,000,000. This destruction is equivalent to the gross earnings of an army of over 200,000 men. On many a farm, if the grain eaten and wasted by rats and mice could be sold, the proceeds would more than pay all the farmer's taxes. The common brown rat breeds 6 to 10 times a year and produces an average of 10 young at a litter. Young females breed when only three or four months old. At this rate a pair of rats, breeding uninterruptedly and without deaths, would at the end of three years (18 generations) be increased to 359,709,482 individuals. For centuries the world has been fighting rats without organization and at the same time has been feeding them and building for them fortresses for concealment. If we are to fight them on equal terms we must deny them food and hiding places. We must organize and unite to rid communities of these pests. The time to begin is now. HOUSE RATS AND MICE. CONTENTS. Page. Destructive habits 3 Protection of food and other stores 5 Rat-proof building 5 Keeping food from rats and mice 9 Destroying rats and mice 11 Traps 11 Poisons 15 Domestic animals 18 Fumigation 18 Rat viruses 19 Natural enemies 20 Organized efforts to destroy rats 20 Community efforts 21 State and national aid 21 Important repressive measures 23 DESTRUCTIVE HABITS OF HOUSE RATS AND MICE. Losses from depredations of house rats amount to many millions of dollars yearly--to more, in fact, than those from all other injurious mammals combined. The common house mouse[1] and the brown rat[2] (fig. 1), too familiar to need description, are pests in nearly all parts of the country; while two other kinds of house rats, known as the black rat[3] and the roof rat,[4] are found within our borders. [Illustration: FIG. 1.--Brown rat.] Of these four introduced species--for none is native to America--the brown rat is the most destructive, and, except the mouse, the most numerous and most widely distributed. Brought to America just before the Revolution, it has supplanted and nearly exterminated its less robust relative the black rat; and in spite of the constant warfare of man has extended its range and steadily increased in numbers. Its dominance is due to its great fecundity and its ability to adapt itself to all sorts of surroundings. It breeds (in the middle part of the United States) six or more times a year and produces from 6 to 20 young (average 10) in a litter. Females breed when only 3 or 4 months old. Thus a pair, breeding uninterruptedly and without deaths, could in three years (18 generations) produce a posterity of 359,709,480 individuals. Mice and the black and roof rats produce smaller litters, but the period of gestation, about 21 days, and the number of litters are the same for all. Rats and mice are practically omnivorous, feeding upon all kinds of animal and vegetable matter. The brown rat makes its home in the open field, the hedge row, and the river bank, as well as in stone walls, piers, and all kinds of buildings. It destroys grains when newly planted, while growing, and in the shock, stack, mow, crib, granary, mill, elevator, or ship's hold, and also in the bin and feed trough. It invades store and warehouse and destroys furs, laces, silks, carpets, leather goods, and groceries. It attacks fruits, vegetables, and meats in the markets, and destroys by pollution ten times as much as it actually eats. It destroys eggs and young poultry, and eats the eggs and young of song and game birds. It carries disease germs from house to house and bubonic plague from city to city. It causes disastrous conflagrations; floods houses by gnawing lead water pipes; ruins artificial ponds and embankments by burrowing; and damages foundations, floors, doors, and furnishings of dwellings. Unlike the brown rat the black rat rarely migrates to the fields. It has disappeared from most parts of the Northern States, but is occasionally found in remote villages or farms. At our seaports it frequently arrives on ships from abroad, but seldom becomes very numerous. The roof rat is common in many parts of the South, where it is a persistent pest in cane and rice fields. It maintains itself against the brown rat partly because of its habit of living in trees. The common house mouse by no means confines its activities to the inside of buildings, but is often found in open fields, where its depredations in shock and stack are well known. Not only are mice and rats, especially the brown rat, a cause of destruction and damage to property, but they are also a constant menace to the health of man. It has been proved that they are the chief means of perpetuating and transmitting bubonic plague and that they play important rôles in conveying other diseases to human beings. They are parasites, without redeeming characteristics, and should everywhere be routed and destroyed. PROTECTION OF FOOD AND OTHER STORES FROM RATS AND MICE. Past attempts to exterminate rats and mice have failed, not so much because of lack of effective means as because of the neglect of necessary precautions and the absence of concerted endeavors. We have rendered our work abortive by continuing to provide subsistence and hiding places for the animals. If these advantages are denied, persistent and general use of the usual methods of destruction will prove far more successful. RAT-PROOF BUILDING. First in importance, as a measure of rat repression, is the exclusion of the animals from places where they find food and safe retreats for rearing their young. The best way to keep rats from buildings, whether in city or in country, is to use cement in construction. As the advantages of this material are coming to be generally understood, its use is rapidly extending to all kinds of buildings. The processes of mixing and laying this material require little skill or special knowledge, and workmen of ordinary intelligence can successfully follow the plain directions contained in handbooks of cement construction.[5] Many modern public buildings are so constructed that rats can find no lodgment in the walls or foundations, and yet in a few years, through negligence, such buildings often become infested with the pests. Sometimes drain pipes are left uncovered for hours at a time. Often outer doors, especially those opening on alleys, are left ajar. A common mistake is failure to screen basement windows which must be opened for ventilation. However the intruders are admitted, when once inside they intrench themselves behind furniture or stores, and are difficult to dislodge. The addition of inner doors to vestibules is an important precaution against rats. The lower edge of outer doors to public buildings, especially markets, should be reinforced with light metal plates to prevent the animals from gnawing through. Any opening left around water, steam, or gas pipes, where they go through walls, should be closed carefully with concrete to the full depth of the wall. =Dwellings.=--In constructing dwelling houses the additional cost of making the foundations rat-proof is slight compared with the advantages. The cellar walls should have concrete footings, and the walls themselves should be laid in cement mortar. The cellar floor should be of medium rather than lean concrete. Even old cellars may be made rat-proof at comparatively small expense. Rat holes may be permanently closed with a mixture of cement, sand, and broken glass, or sharp bits of crockery or stone. On a foundation like the one described above, the walls of a wooden dwelling also may be made rat-proof. The space between the sheathing and lath, to the height of about a foot, should be filled with concrete. Rats can not then gain access to the walls, and can enter the dwelling only through doors or windows. Screening all basement and cellar windows with wire netting is a most necessary precaution. =Old buildings in cities.=--Aside from old dwellings, the chief refuges for rats in cities are sewers, wharves, stables, and outbuildings. Modern sewers are used by the animals merely as highways and not as abodes, but old-fashioned brick sewers often afford nesting crannies. [Illustration: FIG. 2.--Rat-proofing a frame dwelling by concrete side wall (United States Public Health Service, New Orleans, La., 1914).] Wharves, stables, and outbuildings in cities should be so built as to exclude rats. Cement is the chief means to this end. Old tumble-down buildings and wharves should not be tolerated in any city. (See fig. 2.) In both city and country, wooden floors of sidewalks, areas, and porches are commonly laid upon timbers resting on the ground. Under such floors rats have a safe retreat from nearly all enemies. The conditions can be remedied in towns by municipal action requiring that these floors be replaced by others made of cement. Areas or walks made of brick are often undermined by rats and may become as objectionable as those of wood. Wooden floors of porches should always be well above the ground. =Farm buildings.=--Granaries, corncribs, and poultry houses may be made rat-proof by a liberal use of cement in the foundations and floors; or the floors may be of wood resting upon concrete. Objection has been urged against concrete floors for horses, cattle, and poultry, because the material is too good a conductor of heat, and the health of the animals suffers from contact with these floors. In poultry houses, dry soil or sand may be used as a covering for the cement floor, and in stables a wooden floor resting on concrete is just as satisfactory so far as the exclusion of rats is concerned. The common practice of setting corncribs on posts with inverted pans at the top often fails to exclude rats, because the posts are not high enough to place the lower cracks of the structure beyond reach of the animals. As rats are excellent jumpers, the posts should be tall enough to prevent the animals from obtaining a foothold at any place within 3 feet of the ground. A crib built in this way, however, is not very satisfactory. For a rat-proof crib a well-drained site should be chosen. The outer walls, laid in cement, should be sunk about 20 inches into the ground. The space within the walls should be grouted thoroughly with cement and broken stone and finished with rich concrete for a floor. Upon this the structure may be built. Even the walls of the crib may be of concrete. Corn will not mold in contact with them, provided there is good ventilation and the roof is water-tight. However, there are cheaper ways of excluding rats from either new or old corncribs. Rats, mice, and sparrows may be kept out effectually by the use of either an inner or an outer covering of galvanized-wire netting of half-inch mesh and heavy enough to resist the teeth of the rats. The netting in common use in screening cellar windows is suitable for covering or lining cribs. As rats can climb the netting, the entire structure must be screened, or, if sparrows are not to be excluded, the wire netting may be carried up about 3 feet from the ground, and above this a belt of sheet metal about a foot in width may be tacked to the outside of the building. Complete working drawings for the practical rat-proof corncrib shown in figures 3 and 4 may be obtained from the Office of Public Roads and Rural Engineering of the department. =Buildings for storing foodstuffs.=--Whenever possible, stores of food for man or beast should be placed only in buildings of rat-proof construction, guarded against rodents by having all windows near the ground and all other possible means of entrance screened with netting made of No. 18 or No. 20 wire and of 1/4-inch mesh. Entrance doors should fit closely, should have the lower edges protected by wide strips of metal, and should have springs attached, to insure that they shall not be left open. Before being used for housing stores, the building should be inspected as to the manner in which water, steam, or gas pipes go through the walls, and any openings found around such pipes should be closed with concrete. [Illustration: FIG. 3.--Perspective of rat-proof corncrib, showing concrete foundation by dotted lines; also belt of metal.] If rat-proof buildings are not available, it is possible, by the use of concrete in basements and the other precautions just mentioned, to make an ordinary building practically safe for food storage. When it is necessary to erect temporary wooden structures to hold forage, grain, or food supplies for army camps, the floors of such buildings should not be in contact with the ground, but elevated, the sills having a foot or more of clear space below them. Smooth posts rising 2 or 3 feet above the ground may be used for foundations, and the floor itself may be protected below by wire netting or sheet metal at all places where rats could gain a foothold. Care should be taken to have the floors as tight as possible, for it is chiefly scattered grain and fragments of food about a camp that attract rats. =Rat-proofing by elevation.=--The United States Public Health Service reports that in its campaigns against bubonic plague in San Francisco (1907) and New Orleans (1914) many plague rats were found under the floors of wooden houses resting on the ground. These buildings were made rat-proof by elevation, and no case of either human or rodent plague occurred in any house after the change. Placing them on smooth posts 18 inches above the ground, with the space beneath the floor entirely open, left no hiding place for rats. This plan is adapted to small dwellings throughout the South, and to small summer homes, temporary structures, and small farm buildings everywhere. Wherever rats might obtain a foothold on the top of the post they may be prevented from gnawing the adjacent wood by tacking metal plates or pieces of wire netting to floor or sill. KEEPING FOOD FROM RATS AND MICE. The effect of an abundance of food on the breeding of rodents should be kept in mind. Well-fed rats mature quickly, breed often, and have large litters. Poorly fed rats, on the contrary, reproduce less frequently and have smaller litters. In addition, scarcity of food makes measures for destroying the animals far more effective. =Merchandise in stores.=--In all parts of the country there is a serious economic drain in the destruction by rats and mice of merchandise held for sale by dealers. Not only foodstuffs and forage, but textiles, clothing, and leather goods are often ruined. This loss is due mainly to the faulty buildings in which the stores are kept. Often it would be a measure of economy to tear down the old structures and replace them by new ones. However, even the old buildings may often be repaired so as to make them practically rat-proof; and foodstuffs, as flour, seeds, and meats, may always be protected in wire cages at slight expense. The public should be protected from insanitary stores by a system of rigid inspection. [Illustration: FIG. 4.--Floor plan of rat-proof corncrib shown in figure 3.] =Household supplies.=--Similar care should be exercised in the home to protect household supplies from mice and rats. Little progress in ridding the premises of these animals can be made so long as they have access to supplies of food. Cellars, kitchens, and pantries often furnish subsistence not only to rats that inhabit the dwelling, but to many that come from outside. Food supplies may always be kept from rats and mice if placed in inexpensive rat-proof containers covered with wire netting. Sometimes all that is needed to prevent serious waste is the application of concrete to holes in the basement wall or the slight repair of a defective part of the building. =Produce in transit.=--Much loss of fruits, vegetables, and other produce occurs in transit by rail and on ships. Most of the damage is done at wharves and in railway stations, but there is also considerable in ships' holds, especially to perishable produce brought from warm latitudes. Much of this may be prevented by the use of rat-proof cages at the docks, by the careful fumigation of seagoing vessels at the end of each voyage, and by the frequent fumigation of vessels in coastwise trade; but still more by replacing old and decrepit wharves and station platforms with modern ones built of concrete. Where cargoes are being loaded or unloaded at wharves or depots, food liable to attack by rats may be temporarily safeguarded by being placed in rat-proof cages, or pounds, constructed of wire netting. Wooden boxes containing reserve food held in depots for a considerable time or intended for shipment by sea may be made rat-proof by light coverings of metal along the angles. This plan has long been in use to protect naval stores on ships and in warehouses. It is based on the fact that rats do not gnaw the plane surfaces of hard materials, but attack doors, furniture, and boxes at the angles only. =Packing houses.=--Packing houses and abattoirs are often sources from which rats secure subsistence, especially where meats are prepared for market in old buildings. In old-style cooling rooms with double walls of wood and sawdust insulation, always a source of annoyance because of rat infestation, the utmost vigilance is required to prevent serious loss of meat products. On the other hand, packing houses with modern construction and sanitary devices have no trouble from rats or mice. =Garbage and waste.=--Since much of the food of rats consists of garbage and other waste materials, it is not enough to bar the animals from markets, granaries, warehouses, and private food stores. Garbage and offal of all kinds must be so disposed of that rats can not obtain them. In cities and towns an efficient system of garbage collection and disposal should be established by ordinances. Waste from markets, hotels, cafés and households should be collected in covered metal receptacles and frequently emptied. Garbage should never be dumped in or near towns, but should be utilized or promptly destroyed by fire. Rats find abundant food in country slaughterhouses; reform in the management of these is badly needed. Such places are centers of rat propagation. It is a common practice to leave offal of slaughtered animals to be eaten by rats and swine, and this is the chief means of perpetuating trichinæ in pork. The law should require that offal be promptly cremated or otherwise disposed of. Country slaughterhouses should be as cleanly and as constantly inspected as abattoirs. Another important source of rat food is found in remnants of lunches left by employees in factories, stores, and public buildings. This food, which alone is sufficient to attract and sustain a small army of rats, is commonly left in waste baskets or other open receptacles. Strictly enforced rules requiring all remnants of food to be deposited in covered metal vessels would make trapping far more effective. [Illustration: FIG. 5.--Guillotine trap made entirely of metal.] Military training camps, unless subjected to rigid discipline in the matter of disposal of garbage and waste, soon become centers of rat infestation. Waste from camps, deposited in covered metal cans and collected daily, should be removed far from the camp itself and either burned or utilized in approved modern ways. DESTROYING RATS AND MICE. The Biological Survey has made numerous laboratory and field experiments with various agencies for destroying rats and mice. The results form the chief basis for the following recommendations: TRAPS. Owing to their cunning, it is not always easy to clear rats from premises by trapping; if food is abundant, it is impossible. A few adults refuse to enter the most innocent-looking trap. And yet trapping, if persistently followed, is one of the most effective ways of destroying the animals. =Guillotine trap.=--For general use the improved modern traps with a wire fall released by a baited trigger and driven by a coiled spring have marked advantages over the old forms, and many of them may be used at the same time. These traps, sometimes called "guillotine" traps, are of many designs, but the more simply constructed are preferable. Probably those made entirely of metal are the best, as they are more durable. Traps with tin or sheet-metal bases are not recommended. Guillotine traps of the type shown in figure 5 should be baited with small pieces of Vienna sausage (Wienerwurst) or fried bacon. A small section of an ear of corn is an excellent bait if other grain is not present. The trigger wire should be bent inward to bring the bait into proper position for the fall to strike the rat in the neck, as shown in figure 6. Other excellent baits for rats and mice are oatmeal, toasted cheese, toasted bread (buttered), fish, fish offal, fresh liver, raw meat, pine nuts, apples, carrots, and corn, and sunflower, squash, or pumpkin seeds. Broken fresh eggs are good bait at all seasons, and ripe tomatoes, green cucumbers, and other fresh vegetables are very tempting to the animals in winter. When seed, grain, or meal is used with a guillotine trap, it is put on the trigger plate, or the trigger wire may be bent outward and the bait placed directly under it. Oatmeal (rolled oats) is recommended as a bait for guillotine traps made with wooden base and trigger plate (fig. 7). These traps are especially convenient to use on ledges or other narrow rat runs or at the openings of rat burrows. They are often used without bait. [Illustration: FIG. 6.--Method of baiting guillotine trap.] A common mistake in trapping for rats and mice is to use only one or two traps when dozens are needed. For a large establishment hundreds of traps may be used to advantage, and a dozen is none too many for an ordinary barn or dwelling infested with rats. House mice are less suspicious than rats and are much more easily trapped. Small guillotine traps baited with oatmeal will soon rid an ordinary dwelling of the smaller pests. =Cage trap.=--When rats are abundant, the large French wire cage traps may be used to advantage. They should be made of stiff wire, well reinforced. Many of those sold in stores are useless, because a full-grown rat can bend the light wires apart and so escape. [Illustration: FIG. 7.--Guillotine trap with wooden base and trigger plate.] Cage traps may be baited and left open for several nights until the rats are accustomed to enter them to obtain food. They should then be closed and freshly baited, when a larger catch may be expected, especially of young rats (fig. 8). As many as 25, and even more, partly grown rats have been taken at a time in one of these traps. It is better to cover the trap than to leave it exposed. A short board should be laid on the trap and an old cloth or bag or a bunch of hay or straw thrown carelessly over the top. Often the trap may be placed with the entrance opposite a rat hole and fitting it so closely that rats can not pass through without entering the trap. If a single rat is caught it may be left in the trap as a decoy to others. Notwithstanding the fact that sometimes a large number of rats may be taken at a time in cage traps, a few good guillotine traps intelligently used will prove more effective in the long run. [Illustration: FIG. 8.--Cage trap with catch of rats.] =Figure-4 trigger trap.=--The old-fashioned box trap set with a figure-4 trigger is sometimes useful to secure a wise old rat that refuses to be enticed into a modern trap. Better still is a simple deadfall--a flat stone or a heavy plank--supported by a figure-4 trigger. An old rat will go under such a contrivance to feed without fear. =Steel trap.=--The ordinary steel trap (No. 0 or 1) may sometimes be satisfactorily employed to capture a rat. The animal is usually caught by the foot, and its squealing has a tendency to frighten other rats. The trap may be set in a shallow pan or box and covered with bran or oats, care being taken to have the space under the trigger pan free of grain. This may be done by placing a very little cotton under the trigger and setting as lightly as possible. In a narrow run or at the mouth of a burrow a steel trap unbaited and covered with very light cloth or tissue paper is often effective. [Illustration: FIG. 9.--Barrel trap: 1, With stiff paper cover; 2, with hinged barrel cover; _a_, stop; _b_, baits.] The best bait usually is food of a kind that the rats and mice do not get in the vicinity. In a meat market, vegetables or grain should be used; in a feed store, meat. As far as possible food other than the bait should be inaccessible while trapping is in progress. The bait should be kept fresh and attractive, and the kind changed when necessary. Baits and traps should be handled as little as possible. [Illustration: FIG. 10--Pit trap. _aa_, Rat run; _bb_, cover; _cc_, position of weights; _dd_, rods on which covers turn.] =Barrel trap.=--About 60 years ago a writer in the Cornhill Magazine gave details of a trap, by means of which it was claimed that 3,000 rats were caught in a warehouse in a single night. The plan involved tolling the rats to the place and feeding them for several nights on the tops of barrels covered with coarse brown paper. Afterwards a cross was cut in the paper, so that the rats fell into the barrel (fig. 9 (1)). Many variations of the plan, but few improvements upon it, have been suggested by agricultural writers since that time. Reports are frequently made of large catches of rats by means of a barrel fitted with a light cover of wood, hinged on a rod so as to turn with the weight of a rat (fig. 9 (2)). =Pit trap.=--A modification of the barrel trap is the pit trap (fig. 10). This consists of a stout narrow box sunk in the ground so that the top is level with the rat run. It is fixed with a cover of light wood or metal in two sections, the sections fitting nicely inside the box and working independently. They turn on rods, to which they are fastened. They are weighted near the ends of the box and so adjusted that they swing easily. An animal stepping upon the cover beyond the rods is precipitated into the box, while the cover immediately swings back to its place. Besides rats, the trap is well adapted to capture larger animals, as minks, raccoons, opossums, and cats. It is especially useful to protect poultry yards, game preserves, and the like. The trap should be placed along the fence outside the yard, and behind a shelter of boards or brush that leans against the fence. =Fence and battue.=--In the rice fields of the Far East the natives build numerous piles of brush and rice straw, and leave them for several days until many rats have taken shelter in them. A portable bamboo inclosure several feet in height is then set up around each pile in succession and the straw and brush are thrown out over the top, while dogs and men kill the trapped rodents. Large numbers are destroyed in this way, and the plan with modifications may be utilized in America with satisfactory results. A wire netting of fine mesh may be used for the inclosure. The scheme is applicable at the removal of grain, straw, or haystacks, as well as brush piles. In a large barn near Washington, a few years ago, piles of unhusked corn were left in the loft and were soon infested with rats. A wooden pen was set down surrounding the piles in turn and the corn thrown out until dogs were able to get at the rats. In this way several men and dogs killed 500 rats in a single day. POISONS. While the use of poison is the best and quickest way to get rid of rats and mice, the odor from the dead animals makes the method impracticable in occupied houses. Poisons may be effectively used in barns, stables, sheds, cribs, and other outbuildings. =Caution.=--In the United States there are few laws which prohibit the laying of poisons on lands owned or controlled by the poisoner. Hence it is all the more necessary to exercise extreme caution to prevent accidents. In several States notice of intention to lay poison must be given to persons living in the neighborhood. Poison for rats should never be placed in open or unsheltered places. This applies particularly to strychnin or arsenic on meat. _Packages containing poisons should always bear a warning label and should not be kept where children might reach them._ Among the principal poisons that have been recommended for killing rats and mice are barium carbonate, strychnin, arsenic, phosphorus, and squills. =Barium carbonate.=--One of the cheapest and most effective poisons for rats and mice is barium carbonate. This mineral has the advantage of being without taste or smell. It has a corrosive action on the mucous lining of the stomach and is dangerous to larger animals if taken in sufficient quantity. In the small doses fed to rats and mice it would be harmless to domestic animals. Its action upon rats is slow, and if exit is possible the animals usually leave the premises in search of water. For this reason the poison may frequently, though not always, be used in houses without disagreeable consequences. Barium carbonate may be fed in the form of dough composed of four parts of meal or flour and one part of the mineral. A more convenient bait is ordinary oatmeal with about one-eighth of its bulk of the mineral, mixed with water into a stiff dough. A third plan is to spread the barium carbonate upon fish, toasted bread (moistened), or ordinary bread and butter. The prepared bait should be placed in rat runs, about a teaspoonful at a place. If a single application of the poison fails to kill or drive away all rats from the premises, it should be repeated with a change of bait. =Strychnin.=--Strychnin is too rapid in action to make its use for rats desirable in houses, but elsewhere it may be employed effectively. Strychnia sulphate is the best form to use. The dry crystals may be inserted in small pieces of raw meat, Vienna sausage, or toasted cheese, and these placed in rat runs or burrows; or oatmeal may be moistened with a strychnin sirup and small quantities laid in the same way. Strychnin sirup is prepared as follows: Dissolve a half ounce of strychnia sulphate in a pint of boiling water; add a pint of thick sugar sirup and stir thoroughly. A smaller quantity may be prepared with a proportional quantity of water and sirup. In preparing the bait it is necessary to moisten all the oatmeal with the sirup. Wheat and corn are excellent alternative baits. The grain should be soaked overnight in the strychnin sirup. =Arsenic.=--Arsenic is probably the most popular of the rat poisons, owing to its cheapness, yet our experiments prove that, measured by the results obtained, arsenic is dearer than strychnin. Besides, arsenic is extremely variable in its effect upon rats, and if the animals survive a first dose it is very difficult to induce them to take another. Powdered white arsenic (arsenious acid) may be fed to rats in almost any of the baits mentioned under barium carbonate and strychnin. It has been used successfully when rubbed into fresh fish or spread on buttered toast. Another method is to mix twelve parts by weight of corn meal and one part of arsenic with whites of eggs into a stiff dough. An old formula for poisoning rats and mice with arsenic is the following, adapted from an English source: Take a pound of oatmeal, a pound of coarse brown sugar, and a spoonful of arsenic. Mix well together and put the composition into an earthen jar. Put a tablespoonful at a place in runs frequented by rats. =Phosphorus.=--For poisoning rats and mice, phosphorus is used almost as commonly as arsenic, and undoubtedly it is effective when given in an attractive bait. The phosphorus paste of the drug stores is usually dissolved yellow phosphorus, mixed with glucose or other substances. The proportion of phosphorus varies from one-fourth of 1 per cent to 4 per cent. The first amount is too small to be always effective and the last is dangerously inflammable. When homemade preparations of phosphorus are used there is much danger of burning the person or of setting fire to crops or buildings. In the Western States many fires have resulted from putting out homemade phosphorus poisons for ground squirrels, and entire fields of ripe grain have been destroyed in this way. Even with commercial pastes the action of sun and rain changes the phosphorus and leaches out the glucose until a highly inflammable residue is left. It is often claimed that phosphorus eaten by rats or mice dries up or mummifies the body so that no odor results. The statement has no foundation in fact. No known poison will prevent decomposition of the body of an animal that died from its effects. Equally misleading is the statement that rats poisoned with phosphorus do not die on the premises. Owing to its slower operation, no doubt a larger portion escape into the open before dying than when strychnin is used. The Biological Survey does not recommend the use of phosphorus as a poison for rodents. =Squills.=--The squill, or sea leek,[6] is a favorite rat poison in many parts of Europe and is well worthy of trial in America. It is rapid and very deadly in its action, and rats seem to eat it readily. The poison is used in several ways. Two ounces of dry squills, powdered, may be thoroughly mixed with eight ounces of toasted cheese or of butter and meal and put out in runs of rats or mice. Another formula recommends two parts of squills to three parts of finely chopped bacon, mixed with meal enough to make it cohere. This is baked in small cakes. =Poison in poultry houses.=--For poisoning rats in buildings and yards occupied by poultry the following method is recommended: Two wooden boxes should be used, one considerably larger than the other and each having one or more holes in the sides large enough to admit rats. The poisoned bait should be placed on the bottom and near the middle of the smaller box, and the larger box should then be inverted over it. Rats thus have free access to the bait, but fowls are excluded. DOMESTIC ANIMALS. Among domestic animals employed to kill rats are the dog, the cat, and the ferret. =Dogs.=--The value of dogs as ratters can not be appreciated by persons who have had no experience with a trained animal. The ordinary cur and the larger breeds of dogs seldom develop the necessary qualities for ratters. Small Irish, Scotch, and fox terriers, when properly trained, are superior to other breeds and under favorable circumstances may be relied upon to keep the farm premises reasonably free from rats. =Cats.=--However valuable cats may be as mousers, few learn to catch rats. The ordinary house cat is too well fed and consequently too lazy to undertake the capture of an animal as formidable as the brown rat. Birds and mice are much more to its liking. Cats that are fearless of rats, however, and have learned to hunt and destroy them are often very useful about stables and warehouses. They should be lightly fed, chiefly on milk. A little sulphur in the milk at intervals is a corrective against the bad effects of a constant rat or mouse diet. Cats often die from eating these rodents. =Ferrets.=--Tame ferrets, like weasels, are inveterate foes of rats, and can follow the rodents into their retreats. Under favorable circumstances they are useful aids to the rat catcher, but their value is greatly overestimated. For effective work they require experienced handling and the additional services of a dog or two. Dogs and ferrets must be thoroughly accustomed to each other, and the former must be quiet and steady instead of noisy and excitable. The ferret is used only to bolt the rats, which are killed by the dogs. If unmuzzled ferrets are sent into rat retreats, they are apt to make a kill and then lie up after sucking the blood of their victim. Sometimes they remain for hours in the burrows or escape by other exits and are lost. There is danger that these lost ferrets may adapt themselves to wild conditions and become a pest by preying upon poultry and birds. FUMIGATION. Rats may be destroyed in their burrows in the fields and along river banks, levees, and dikes by carbon bisulphid.[7] A wad of cotton or other absorbent material is saturated with the liquid and then pushed into the burrow, the opening being packed with earth to prevent the escape of the gas. All animals in the burrow are asphyxiated. Fumigation in buildings is not so satisfactory, because it is difficult to confine the gases. Moreover, when effective, the odor from the dead rats is highly objectionable in occupied buildings. Chlorin, carbon monoxid, sulphur dioxid, and hydrocyanic acid are the gases most used for destroying rats and mice in sheds, warehouses, and stores. Each is effective if the gas can be confined and made to reach the retreats of the animals. Owing to the great danger from fire incident to burning charcoal or sulphur in open pans, a special furnace provided with means for forcing the gas into the compartments of vessels or buildings is generally employed. Hydrocyanic-acid gas is effective in destroying all animal life in buildings. It has been successfully used to free elevators and warehouses of rats, mice, and insects. However, it is so dangerous to human life that the novice should not attempt fumigation with it, except under careful instructions. Directions for preparing and using the gas may be found in a publication entitled Hydrocyanic-acid Gas against Household Insects, by Dr. L. O. Howard and Charles H. Popenoe.[8] Carbon monoxid is rather dangerous, as its presence in the hold of a vessel or other compartment is not manifest to the senses, and fatal accidents have occurred during its employment to fumigate vessels. Chlorin gas has a strong bleaching action upon textile fabrics, and for this reason can not be used in many situations. Sulphur dioxid also has a bleaching effect upon textiles, but less marked than that of chlorin, and ordinarily it is not noticeable with the small percentage of the gas it is necessary to use. On the whole, this gas has many advantages as a fumigator and disinfectant. It is used also as a fire extinguisher on board vessels. Special furnaces for generating the gas and forcing it into the compartments of ships and buildings are on the market, and many steamships and docks are now fitted with the necessary apparatus. RAT VIRUSES. Several microorganisms, or bacteria, found originally in diseased rats or mice, have been exploited for destroying rats. A number of these so-called rat viruses are on the American market. The Biological Survey, the Bureau of Animal Industry, and the United States Public Health Service have made careful investigations and practical tests of these viruses, mostly with negative results. The cultures tested by the Biological Survey have not proved satisfactory. The chief defects to be overcome before the cultures can be recommended for general use are: 1. The virulence is not great enough to kill a sufficiently high percentage of rats that eat food containing the microorganisms. 2. The virulence decreases with the age of the cultures. They deteriorate in warm weather and in bright sunlight. 3. The diseases resulting from the microorganisms are not contagious and do not spread by contact of diseased with healthy animals. 4. The comparative cost of the cultures is too great for general use. Since they have no advantages over the common poisons, except that they are usually harmless to man and other animals, they should be equally cheap; but their actual cost is much greater. Moreover, considering the skill and care necessary in their preparation, it is doubtful if the cost can be greatly reduced. The Department of Agriculture, therefore, does not prepare, use, or recommend the use of rat viruses. NATURAL ENEMIES OF RATS AND MICE. Among the natural enemies of rats and mice are the larger hawks and owls, skunks, foxes, coyotes, weasels, minks, dogs, cats, and ferrets. Probably the greatest factor in the increase of rats, mice, and other destructive rodents in the United States has been the persistent killing off of the birds and mammals that prey upon them. Animals that on the whole are decidedly beneficial, since they subsist upon harmful insects and rodents, are habitually destroyed by some farmers and sportsmen because they occasionally kill a chicken or a game bird. The value of carnivorous mammals and the larger birds of prey in destroying rats and mice should be more fully recognized, especially by the farmer and the game preserver. Rats actually destroy more poultry and game, both eggs and young chicks, than all the birds and wild mammals combined; yet some of their enemies among our most useful birds of prey and carnivorous mammals are persecuted almost to the point of extinction. An enlightened public sentiment should cause the repeal of all bounties on these animals and afford protection to the majority of them. ORGANIZED EFFORTS TO DESTROY RATS. The necessity of cooperation and organization in the work of rat destruction is of the utmost importance. To destroy all the animals on the premises of a single farmer in a community has little permanent value, since they are soon replaced from near-by farms. If, however, the farmers of an entire township or county unite in efforts to get rid of rats, much more lasting results may be attained. If continued from year to year, such organized efforts are very effective. COMMUNITY EFFORTS. Cooperative efforts to destroy rats have taken various forms in different localities. In cities, municipal employees have occasionally been set at work hunting rats from their retreats, with at least temporary benefit to the community. Thus, in 1904, at Folkestone, England, a town of about 25,000 inhabitants, the corporation employees, helped by dogs, in three days killed 1,645 rats. Side hunts in which rats are the only animals that count in the contest have sometimes been organized and successfully carried out. At New Burlington, Ohio, a rat hunt took place some years ago in which each of the two sides killed over 8,000 rats, the beaten party serving a banquet to the winners. There is danger that organized rat hunts will be followed by long intervals of indifference and inaction. This may be prevented by offering prizes covering a definite period of effort. Such prizes accomplish more than municipal bounties, because they secure a friendly rivalry which stimulates the contestants to do their utmost to win. In England and some of its colonies contests for prizes have been organized to promote the destruction of the English, or house, sparrow, but many of the so-called sparrow clubs are really sparrow and rat clubs, for the destruction of both pests is the avowed object of the organizations. A sparrow club in Kent, England, accomplished the destruction of 28,000 sparrows and 16,000 rats in three seasons by the annual expenditure of but £6 ($29.20) in prize money. Had ordinary bounties been paid for this destruction, the tax on the community would have been about £250 (over $1,200). Many organizations already formed should be interested in destroying rats. Boards of trade, civic societies, and citizens' associations in towns and farmers' and women's clubs in rural communities will find the subject of great importance. Women's municipal leagues in several large cities already have taken up the matter. The league in Baltimore recently secured appropriations of funds for expenditure in fighting mosquitoes, flies, and rats. The league in Boston during the past year, supported by voluntary contributions for the purpose, made a highly creditable educational campaign against rats. Boys' corn clubs, the troops of Boy Scouts, and similar organizations could do excellent work in rat campaigns. STATE AND NATIONAL AID. To secure permanent results any general campaign for the elimination of rats must aim at _building the animals out of shelter and food_. Building reforms depend on municipal ordinances and legislative enactments. The recent plague eradication work of the United States Public Health Service in San Francisco, Seattle, New Orleans, and at various places in Hawaii and Porto Rico required such ordinances and laws as well as financial aid in prosecuting the work. The campaign of Danish and Swedish organizations for the destruction of rats had the help of governmental appropriations. The legislatures of California, Texas, Indiana, and Hawaii have in recent years passed laws or made appropriations to aid in rat riddance. It is probable that well-organized efforts of communities would soon win legislative support everywhere. Communities should not postpone efforts, however, while waiting for legislative cooperation, but should at once organize and begin repressive operations. Wherever health is threatened the Public Health Service of the United States can cooperate, and where crops and other products are endangered the Bureau of Biological Survey of the Department of Agriculture is ready to assist by advice and in demonstration of methods. IMPORTANT REPRESSIVE MEASURES. The measures needed for repressing and eliminating rats and mice include the following: 1. The requirement that all new buildings erected shall be made rat-proof under competent inspection. 2. That all existing rat-proof buildings shall be closed against rats and mice by having all openings accessible to the animals, from foundation to roof, closed or screened by door, window, grating, or meshed wire netting. 3. That all buildings not of rat-proof construction shall be made so by remodeling, by the use of materials that may not be pierced by rats, or by elevation. 4. The protection of our native hawks, owls, and smaller predatory mammals--the natural enemies of rats. 5. Greater cleanliness about markets, grocery stores, warehouses, courts, alleys, stables, and vacant lots in cities and villages, and like care on farms and suburban premises. This includes the storage of waste and garbage in tightly covered vessels and the prompt disposal of it each day. 6. Care in the construction of drains and sewers, so as not to provide entrance and retreat for rats. Old brick sewers in cities should be replaced by concrete or tile. 7. The early threshing and marketing of grains on farms, so that stacks and mows shall not furnish harborage and food for rats. 8. Removal of outlying straw stacks and piles of trash or lumber that harbor rats in fields and vacant lots. 9. The keeping of provisions, seed grain, and foodstuffs in rat-proof containers. 10. Keeping effective rat dogs, especially on farms and in city warehouses. 11. The systematic destruction of rats, whenever and wherever possible, by (_a_) trapping, (_b_) poisoning, and (_c_) organized hunts. 12. The organization of clubs and other societies for systematic warfare against rats. FOOTNOTES: [1] _Mus musculus._ [2] _Rattus norvegicus._ [3] _Rattus rattus rattus._ [4] _Rattus rattus alexandrinus._ [5] Farmers' Bulletin 461, Use of Concrete on the Farm, will prove useful to city and village dwellers as well as to the farmer. [6] _Scilla maritima._ [7] CAUTION.--Carbon disulphid is very inflammable and can be ignited by a match, lantern, cigar, or pipe. [8] Farmers' Bulletin 699. PUBLICATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE RELATING TO NOXIOUS MAMMALS. AVAILABLE FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION. How to Destroy Rats. (Farmers' Bulletin 369.) The Common Mole of Eastern United States. (Farmers' Bulletin 583.) Field Mice as Farm and Orchard Pests. (Farmers' Bulletin 670.) Cottontail Rabbits in Relation to Trees and Farm Crops. (Farmers' Bulletin 702.) Trapping Moles and Utilizing Their Skins. (Farmers' Bulletin 832.) Destroying Rodent Pests on the Farm. (Separate 708, Yearbook for 1916.) FOR SALE BY THE SUPERINTENDENT OF DOCUMENTS, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON, D. C. Harmful and Beneficial Mammals of the Arid Interior, with Special Reference to the Carson and Humboldt Valleys, Nevada. (Farmers' Bulletin 335.) Price 5 cents. The Nevada Mouse Plague of 1907-8. (Farmers' Bulletin 352.) Price 5 cents. Some Common Mammals of Western Montana in Relation to Agriculture and Spotted Fever. (Farmers' Bulletin 484.) Price 5 cents. Danger of Introducing Noxious Animals and Birds. (Separate 132, Yearbook 1898.) Price 5 cents. Meadow Mice in Relation to Agriculture and Horticulture. (Separate 388, Yearbook 1905.) Price 5 cents. Mouse Plagues, Their Control and Prevention. (Separate 482, Yearbook 1908.) Price--cents. Use of Poisons for Destroying Noxious Mammals. (Separate 491, Yearbook 1908.) Price 5 cents. Pocket Gophers as Enemies of Trees. (Separate 506, Yearbook 1909.) Price 5 cents. The Jack Rabbits of the United States. (Biological Survey Bulletin 8.) Price 10 cents. Economic Study of Field Mice, genus _Microtus_. (Biological Survey Bulletin 31.) Price 15 cents. The Brown Rat in the United States. (Biological Survey Bulletin 33.) Price 15 cents. Directions for the Destruction of Wolves and Coyotes. (Biological Survey Circular 55.) Price 5 cents. The California Ground Squirrel. (Biological Survey Circular 76.) Price 5 cents. Seed-eating Mammals in Relation to Reforestation. (Biological Survey Circular 78.) Price 5 cents. Mammals of Bitterroot Valley, Montana, in Their Relation to Spotted Fever. (Biological Survey Circular 82.) Price 5 cents. 
45264	----	THE TALE OF TWO BAD MICE FOR =W. M. L. W.= THE LITTLE GIRL WHO HAD THE DOLL'S HOUSE [Illustration] THE TALE OF TWO BAD MICE BY BEATRIX POTTER _Author of 'The Tale of Peter Rabbit,' &c._ [Illustration] LONDON FREDERICK WARNE AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1904 [_All rights reserved_] COPYRIGHT 1904 BY FREDERICK WARNE & CO. ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL. [Illustration] ONCE upon a time there was a very beautiful doll's-house; it was red brick with white windows, and it had real muslin curtains and a front door and a chimney. IT belonged to two Dolls called Lucinda and Jane; at least it belonged to Lucinda, but she never ordered meals. Jane was the Cook; but she never did any cooking, because the dinner had been bought ready-made, in a box full of shavings. [Illustration] [Illustration] THERE were two red lobsters and a ham, a fish, a pudding, and some pears and oranges. They would not come off the plates, but they were extremely beautiful. ONE morning Lucinda and Jane had gone out for a drive in the doll's perambulator. There was no one in the nursery, and it was very quiet. Presently there was a little scuffling, scratching noise in a corner near the fire-place, where there was a hole under the skirting-board. Tom Thumb put out his head for a moment, and then popped it in again. Tom Thumb was a mouse. [Illustration] [Illustration] A MINUTE afterwards, Hunca Munca, his wife, put her head out, too; and when she saw that there was no one in the nursery, she ventured out on the oilcloth under the coal-box. THE doll's-house stood at the other side of the fire-place. Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca went cautiously across the hearthrug. They pushed the front door--it was not fast. [Illustration] [Illustration] TOM THUMB and Hunca Munca went upstairs and peeped into the dining-room. Then they squeaked with joy! Such a lovely dinner was laid out upon the table! There were tin spoons, and lead knives and forks, and two dolly-chairs--all _so_ convenient! TOM THUMB set to work at once to carve the ham. It was a beautiful shiny yellow, streaked with red. The knife crumpled up and hurt him; he put his finger in his mouth. "It is not boiled enough; it is hard. You have a try, Hunca Munca." [Illustration] [Illustration] HUNCA MUNCA stood up in her chair, and chopped at the ham with another lead knife. "It's as hard as the hams at the cheesemonger's," said Hunca Munca. THE ham broke off the plate with a jerk, and rolled under the table. "Let it alone," said Tom Thumb; "give me some fish, Hunca Munca!" [Illustration] [Illustration] HUNCA MUNCA tried every tin spoon in turn; the fish was glued to the dish. Then Tom Thumb lost his temper. He put the ham in the middle of the floor, and hit it with the tongs and with the shovel--bang, bang, smash, smash! The ham flew all into pieces, for underneath the shiny paint it was made of nothing but plaster! THEN there was no end to the rage and disappointment of Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca. They broke up the pudding, the lobsters, the pears and the oranges. As the fish would not come off the plate, they put it into the red-hot crinkly paper fire in the kitchen; but it would not burn either. [Illustration] [Illustration] TOM THUMB went up the kitchen chimney and looked out at the top--there was no soot. WHILE Tom Thumb was up the chimney, Hunca Munca had another disappointment. She found some tiny canisters upon the dresser, labelled--Rice--Coffee--Sago--but when she turned them upside down, there was nothing inside except red and blue beads. [Illustration] [Illustration] THEN those mice set to work to do all the mischief they could--especially Tom Thumb! He took Jane's clothes out of the chest of drawers in her bedroom, and he threw them out of the top floor window. But Hunca Munca had a frugal mind. After pulling half the feathers out of Lucinda's bolster, she remembered that she herself was in want of a feather bed. WITH Tom Thumb's assistance she carried the bolster downstairs, and across the hearth-rug. It was difficult to squeeze the bolster into the mouse-hole; but they managed it somehow. [Illustration] [Illustration] THEN Hunca Munca went back and fetched a chair, a book-case, a bird-cage, and several small odds and ends. The book-case and the bird-cage refused to go into the mouse-hole. HUNCA MUNCA left them behind the coal-box, and went to fetch a cradle. [Illustration] [Illustration] HUNCA MUNCA was just returning with another chair, when suddenly there was a noise of talking outside upon the landing. The mice rushed back to their hole, and the dolls came into the nursery. WHAT a sight met the eyes of Jane and Lucinda! Lucinda sat upon the upset kitchen stove and stared; and Jane leant against the kitchen dresser and smiled--but neither of them made any remark. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE book-case and the bird-cage were rescued from under the coal-box--but Hunca Munca has got the cradle, and some of Lucinda's clothes. SHE also has some useful pots and pans, and several other things. [Illustration] [Illustration] THE little girl that the doll's-house belonged to, said,--"I will get a doll dressed like a policeman!" BUT the nurse said,--"I will set a mouse-trap!" [Illustration] SO that is the story of the two Bad Mice,--but they were not so very very naughty after all, because Tom Thumb paid for everything he broke. He found a crooked sixpence under the hearthrug; and upon Christmas Eve, he and Hunca Munca stuffed it into one of the stockings of Lucinda and Jane. [Illustration] [Illustration] AND very early every morning--before anybody is awake--Hunca Munca comes with her dust-pan and her broom to sweep the Dollies' house! THE END. PRINTED BY EDMUND EVANS, THE RACQUET COURT PRESS, LONDON, S.E. 
62109	----	The Star Mouse By FREDRIC BROWN Robinson Crusoe ... Gulliver ... Paul Bunyan; the story of their adventures is nothing compared to the Saga of Mitkey. [Transcriber's Note: This etext was produced from Planet Stories Spring 1942. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. copyright on this publication was renewed.] Mitkey, the mouse, wasn't Mitkey then. He was just another mouse, who lived behind the floorboards and plaster of the house of the great Herr Professor Oberburger, formerly of Vienna and Heidelberg; then a refugee from the excessive admiration of more powerful of his fellow-countrymen. The excessive admiration had concerned, not Herr Oberburger himself, but a certain gas which had been a by-product of an unsuccessful rocket fuel--which might have been a highly-successful something else. If, of course, the Professor had given them the correct formula. Which he--Well, anyway, the Professor had made good his escape and now lived in a house in Connecticut. And so did Mitkey. A small gray mouse, and a small gray man. Nothing unusual about either of them. Particularly there was nothing unusual about Mitkey; he had a family and he liked cheese and if there were Rotarians among mice, he would have been a Rotarian. The Herr Professor, of course, had his mild eccentricities. A confirmed bachelor, he had no one to talk to except himself, but he considered himself an excellent conversationalist and held constant verbal communion with himself while he worked. That fact, it turned out later, was important, because Mitkey had excellent ears and heard those night-long soliloquies. He didn't understand them, of course. If he thought about them at all, he merely thought of the Professor as a large and noisy super-mouse who squeaked over-much. "Und now," he would say to himself, "ve vill see vether this eggshaust tube vas broperly machined. It should fidt vithin vun vun-hundredth thousandth uf an indtch. Ahhh, it iss berfect. Und now--" Night after night, day after day, month after month. The gleaming thing grew, and the gleam in Herr Oberburger's eyes grew apace. It was about three and a half feet long, with weirdly shaped vanes, and it rested on a temporary framework on a table in the center of the room that served the Herr Professor for all purposes. The house in which he and Mitkey lived was a four room structure, but the Professor hadn't yet found it out, seemingly. Originally, he had planned to use the big room as a laboratory only, but he found it more convenient to sleep on a cot in one corner of it, when he slept at all, and to do the little cooking he did over the same gas burner over which he melted down golden grains of TNT into a dangerous soup which he salted and peppered with strange condiments, but did not eat. "Und now I shall bour it into tubes, und see vether vun tube adjacendt to another eggsplodes der secondt tube vhen der virst tube iss--" That was the night Mitkey almost decided to move himself and his family to a more stable abode, one that did not rock and sway and try to turn handsprings on its foundations. But Mitkey didn't move after all, because there were compensations. New mouse-holes all over, and--joy of joy!--a big crack in the back of the refrigerator where the Professor kept, among other things, food. Of course the tubes had been not larger than capillary size, or the house would not have remained around the mouse-holes. And of course Mitkey could not guess what was coming nor understand the Herr Professor's brand of English (nor any other brand of English, for that matter) or he would not have let even a crack in the refrigerator tempt him. The Professor was jubilant that morning. "Der fuel, idt vorks! Der secondt tube, idt did not eggsplode. Und der virst, in _seggtions_, as I had eggspectedt! Und it is more bowerful; there will be blenty of room for der combartment--" Ah, yes, the compartment. That was where Mitkey came in, although even the Professor didn't know it yet. In fact the Professor didn't even know that Mitkey existed. "Und now," he was saying to his favorite listener, "idt is budt a madter of combining der fuel tubes so they work in obbosite bairs. Und then--" That was the moment when the Herr Professor's eyes first fell on Mitkey. Rather, they fell upon a pair of gray whiskers and a black, shiny little nose protruding from a hole in the baseboards. "Vell!" he said, "vot haff ve here! Mitkey Mouse himself! Mitkey, how vould you like to go for a ride, negst veek? Ve shall see." * * * * * That is how it came about that the next time the Professor sent into town for supplies, his order included a mousetrap--not one of the vicious kind that kills, but one of the wire-cage kind. And it had not been set, with cheese, for more than ten minutes before Mitkey's sharp little nose had smelled out that cheese and he had followed his nose into captivity. Not, however, an unpleasant captivity. Mitkey was an honored guest. The cage reposed now on the table at which the Professor did most of his work, and cheese in indigestion-giving abundance was pushed through the bars, and the Professor didn't talk to himself any more. "You see, Mitkey, I vas going to sendt to der laboratory in Hardtford for a vhite mouse, budt vhy should I, mit you here? I am sure you are more soundt und healthy und able to vithstand a long chourney than those laboratory mices. No? Ah, you viggle your viskers und that means yes, no? Und being used to living in dargk holes, you should suffer less than they from glaustrophobia, no?" And Mitkey grew fat and happy and forgot all about trying to get out of the cage. I fear that he even forgot about the family he had abandoned, but he knew, if he knew anything, that he need not worry about them in the slightest. At least not until and unless the Professor discovered and repaired the hole in the refrigerator. And the Professor's mind was most emphatically not on refrigerators. "Und so, Mitkey, ve shall place this vane so--it iss only of assistance in der landing, in an atmosphere. It und these vill bring you down safely und slowly enough that der shock-absorbers in der movable combartment vill keep you from bumping your head too hard, I think." Of course, Mitkey missed the ominous note to that "I think" qualification because he missed all the rest of it. He did not, as has been explained, speak English. Not then. But Herr Oberburger talked to him just the same. He showed him pictures. "Did you effer see der Mouse you vas named after, Mitkey? Vhat? No? Loogk, this is der original Mitkey Mouse, by Valt Dissney. Budt I think you are cuter, Mitkey." Probably the Professor was a bit crazy to talk that way to a little gray mouse. In fact, he must have been crazy to make a rocket that worked. For the odd thing was that the Herr Professor was not really an inventor. There was, as he carefully explained to Mitkey, not one single thing about that rocket that was _new_. The Herr Professor was a technician; he could take other people's ideas and make them work. His only real invention--the rocket fuel that wasn't one--had been turned over to the United States Government and had proved to be something already known and discarded because it was too expensive for practical use. * * * * * As he explained very carefully to Mitkey, "It iss burely a matter of absolute accuracy and mathematical correctness, Mitkey. Idt iss all here--ve merely combine--and ve achieff vhat, Mitkey? "Eggscape velocity, Mitkey! Chust barely, it adds up to eggscape velocity. Maybe. There are yet unknown facgtors, Mitkey, in der ubper atmosphere, der troposphere, der stratosphere. Ve think ve know eggsactly how mudch air there iss to calculate resistance against, but are ve absolutely sure? No, Mitkey, ve are not. Ve haff not been there. Und der marchin iss so narrow that so mudch as an air current might affect idt." But Mitkey cared not a whit. In the shadow of the tapering aluminum-alloy cylinder he waxed fat and happy. "Der tag, Mitkey, der tag! Und I shall not lie to you, Mitkey. I shall not giff you valse assurances. You go on a dancherous chourney, mein little friendt. "A vifty-vifty chance ve giff you, Mitkey. Not der moon or bust, but der moon _und_ bust, or else maybe safely back to earth. You see, my boor little Mitkey, der moon iss not made of green cheese und if it were, you vould not live to eat it because there iss not enough atmosphere to bring you down safely und vith your viskers still on. [Illustration: "NOT DER MOON OR BUST, BUT DER MOON UND BUST!"] "Und vhy then, you may vell ask, do I send you? Because der rocket may not attain eggscape velocity. Und in that case, it iss still an eggsperiment, budt a different vun. Der rocket, if it goes not to der moon, falls back on der earth, no? Und in that case certain instruments shall giff us further information than ve haff yet about things up there in space. Und you shall giff us information, by vether or not you are yet alife, vether der shock absorbers und vanes are sufficient in an earth-equivalent atmosphere. You see? "Then ladter, vhen ve send rockets to Venus maybe vhere an atmosphere eggsists, ve shall haff data to calculate the needed size of vanes und shock-absorbers, no? Und in either case, und vether or not you return, Mitkey, you shall be vamous! You shall be der virst liffing greature to go oudt beyond der stratosphere of der earth, out into space. "Mitkey, you shall be der Star-Mouse! I enfy you, Mitkey, und I only vish I vere your size, so I could go, too." Der tag, and the door to the compartment. "Gootbye, little Mitkey Mouse." Darkness. Silence. Noise! "Der rocket--if it goes not to der moon--falls back on der earth, no?" That was what the Herr Professor thought. But the best-laid plans of mice and men gang aft agley. Even star-mice. All because of Prxl. * * * * * The Herr Professor found himself very lonely. After having had Mitkey to talk to, soliloquies were somehow empty and adequate. There may be some who say that the company of a small gray mouse is a poor substitute for a wife; but others may disagree. And, anyway, the Professor had never had a wife, and he _had_ a mouse to talk to, so he missed one and, if he missed the other, he didn't know it. During the long night after the launching of the rocket, he had been very busy with his telescope, a sweet little eight-inch reflector, checking its course as it gathered momentum. The exhaust explosions made a tiny fluctuating point of light that was possible to follow, if one knew where to look. But the following day there seemed to be nothing to do, and he was too excited to sleep, although he tried. So he compromised by doing a spot of housekeeping, cleaning the pots and pans. It was while he was so engaged that he heard a series of frantic little squeaks and discovered that another small gray mouse, with shorter whiskers and a shorter tail than Mitkey, had walked into the wire-cage mousetrap. "Vell, vell," said the Professor, "vot haff ve here? Minnie? Iss it Minnie come to look for her Mitkey?" The Professor was not a biologist, but he happened to be right. It _was_ Minnie. Rather, it was Mitkey's mate, so the name was appropriate. What strange vagary of mind had induced her to walk into an unbaited trap, the Professor neither knew nor cared, but he was delighted. He promptly remedied the lack of bait by pushing a sizable piece of cheese through the bars. Thus it was that Minnie came to fill the place of her far-traveling spouse as repository for the Professor's confidences. Whether she worried about her family or not there is no way of knowing, but she need not have done so. They were now large enough to fend for themselves, particularly in a house that offered abundant cover and easy access to the refrigerator. "Ah, und now it iss dargk enough, Minnie, that ve can loogk for that husband of yours. His viery trail across the sky. True, Minnie, it iss a very small viery trail und der astronomers vill not notice it, because they do not know vhere to loogk. But ve do. "He iss going to be a very vamous mouse, Minnie, this Mitkey of ours, vhen ve tell der vorld about him und about mein rocket. You see, Minnie ve haff not told them yet. Ve shall vait und giff der gomplete story all at vunce. By dawn of tomorrow ve'll-- "Ah, there he iss, Minnie! Vaint, but there. I'd hold you up to der scope und let you loogk, but it vould not be vocused right for your eyes, und I do not know how to-- "Almost vun hundred thousand miles, Minnie, und still agcelerating, but not for much longer. Our Mitkey iss on schedule; in fagt he iss going vaster than ve had vigured, no? It iss sure now that he vill eggscape the gravitation of der earth, und fall upon der moon!" Of course, it was purely coincidental that Minnie squeaked. "Ah, yess, Minnie, little Minnie. I know, I know. Ve shall neffer see our Mitkey again, und I almost vish our eggsperiment hadt vailed. Budt there are gompensations, Minnie. He shall be der most vamous of all mices. Der Star-Mouse! Virst liffing greature effer to go beyond der gravitational bull of earth!" The night was long. Occasionally high clouds obscured vision. "Minnie, I shall make you more gomfortable than in that so-small vire cage. You vould like to seem to be vree, vould you not, vithout bars, like der animals at modern zoos, vith moats insteadt?" * * * * * And so, to fill in an hour when a cloud obscured the sky, the Herr Professor made Minnie her new home. It was the end of a wooden crate, about half an inch thick and a foot square, laid flat on the table, and with no visible barrier around it. But he covered the top with metal foil at the edges, and he placed the board on another larger board which also had a strip of metal foil surrounding the island of Minnie's home. And wires from the two areas of metal foil to opposite terminals of a small transformer which he placed near by. "Und now, Minnie, I shall blace you on your island, vhich shall be liberally supplied mitt cheese und vater, und you shall vind it iss an eggcelent blace to liff. But you vill get a mild shock or two vhen you try to step off der edge of der island. It vill not hurt much, but you vill not like it, und after a few tries you vill learn not to try again, no? Und--" And night again. Minnie happy on her island, her lesson well learned. She would no longer so much as step on the inner strip of metal foil. It was a mouse-paradise of an island, though. There was a cliff of cheese bigger than Minnie herself. It kept her busy. Mouse and cheese; soon one would be a transmutation of the other. But Professor Oberburger wasn't thinking about that. The Professor was worried. When he had calculated and re-calculated and aimed his eight-inch reflector through the hole in the roof and turned out the lights-- Yes, there _are_ advantages to being a bachelor after all. If one wants a hole in the roof, one simply knocks a hole in the roof and there is nobody to tell one that one is crazy. If winter comes, or if it rains, one can always call a carpenter or use a tarpaulin. But the faint trail of light wasn't there. The Professor frowned and re-calculated and re-re-calculated and shifted his telescope three-tenths of a minute and still the rocket wasn't there. "Minnie, something iss wrong. Either der tubes haff stopped viring, or--" Or the rocket was no longer traversing a straight line relative to its point of departure. By straight, of course, is meant parabollically curved relative to everything other than velocity. So the Herr Professor did the only thing remaining for him to do, and began to search, with the telescope, in widening circles. It was two hours before he found it, five degrees off course already and veering more and more into a--Well, there was only one thing you could call it. A tailspin. The darned thing was going in circles, circles which appeared to constitute an orbit about something that couldn't possibly be there. Then narrowing into a concentric spiral. Then--out. Gone. Darkness. No rocket flares. The Professor's face was pale as he turned to Minnie. "It iss _imbossible_, Minnie. Mein own eyes, but it could not be. Even if vun side stopped viring, it could not haff gone into such sudden circles." His pencil verified a suspicion. "Und, Minnie, it decellerated vaster than bossible. Even mitt _no_ tubes viring, its momentum vould haff been more--" The rest of the night--telescope and calculus--yielded no clue. That is, no believable clue. Some force not inherent in the rocket itself, and not accountable by gravitation--even of a hypothetical body--had acted. "Mein poor Mitkey." [Illustration: "POOR MITKEY"] The gray, inscrutable dawn. "Mein Minnie, it vill haff to be a secret. Ve dare not bublish vhat ve saw, for it vould not be believed. I am not sure I believe it myself, Minnie. Berhaps because I vas offertired vrom not sleeping, I chust imachined that I saw--" Later. "But, Minnie, ve shall hope. Vun hundred vifty thousand miles out, it vas. It vill fall back upon der earth. But I gannot tell vhere! I thought that if it did, I vould be able to galculate its course, und--But after those goncentric cirgles--Minnie, not even _Einstein_ could galculate vhere it vill land. Not effen _me_. All ve can do iss hope that ve shall hear of vhere it falls." Cloudy day. Black night jealous of its mysteries. "Minnie, our poor Mitkey. There iss _nothing_ could have gauzed--" But something had. Prxl. Prxl is an asteroid. It isn't called that by earthly astronomers, because--for excellent reasons--they have not discovered it. So we will call it by the nearest possible transliteration of the name its inhabitants use. Yes, it's inhabited. Come to think of it, Professor Oberburger's attempt to send a rocket to the moon had some strange results. Or rather, Prxl did. You wouldn't think that an asteroid could reform a drunk, would you? But one Charles Winslow, a besotted citizen of Bridgeport, Connecticut, never took a drink when--right on Grove Street--a mouse asked him the road to Hartford. The mouse was wearing bright red pants and vivid yellow gloves-- But that was fifteen months after the Professor lost his rocket. We'd better start over again. * * * * * Prxl is an asteroid. One of those despised celestial bodies which terrestrial astronomers call vermin of the sky, because the darned things leave trails across the plates that clutter up the more important observations of novae and nebulae. Fifty thousand fleas on the dark dog of night. Tiny things, most of them. Astronomers have been discovering recently that some of them come close to Earth. Amazingly close. There was excitement in 1932 when Amor came within ten million miles; astronomically, a mere mashie shot. Then Apollo cut that almost in half, and in 1936 Adonis came within less than one and a half million miles. In 1937, Hermes, less than half a million but the astronomers got really excited when they calculated its orbit and found that the little mile-long asteroid _can_ come within a mere 220,000 miles, closer than Earth's own moon. Some day they may be still more excited, if and when they spot the 3/8-mile asteroid Prxl, that obstacle of space, making a transit across the moon and discover that it frequently comes within a mere hundred thousand miles of our rapidly whirling world. Only in event of a transit will they ever discover it, though, for Prxl does not reflect light. It hasn't, anyway, for several million years since its inhabitants coated it with a black, light-absorbing pigment derived from its interior. Monumental task, painting a world, for creatures half an inch tall. But worth it, at the time. When they'd shifted its orbit, they were safe from their enemies. There were giants in those days--eight-inch tall marauding pirates from Diemos. Got to Earth a couple of times too, before they faded out of the picture. Pleasant little giants who killed because they enjoyed it. Records in now-buried cities on Diemos might explain what happened to the dinosaurs. And why the promising Cro-Magnons disappeared at the height of their promise only a cosmic few minutes after the dinosaurs went west. But Prxl survived. Tiny world no longer reflecting the sun's rays, lost to the cosmic killers when its orbit was shifted. Prxl. Still civilized, with a civilization millions of years old. Its coat of blackness preserved and renewed regularly, more through tradition than fear of enemies in these later degenerate days. Mighty but stagnant civilization, standing still on a world that whizzes like a bullet. And Mitkey Mouse. * * * * * Klarloth, head scientist of a race of scientists, tapped his assistant Bemj on what would have been Bemj's shoulder if he had had one. "Look," he said, "what approaches Prxl. Obviously artificial propulsion." Bemj looked into the wall-plate and then directed a thought-wave at the mechanism that jumped the magnification of a thousand-fold through an alteration of the electronic field. The image leaped, blurred, then steadied. "Fabricated," said Bemj. "Extremely crude, I must say. Primitive explosive-powered rocket. Wait, I'll check where it came from." He took the readings from the dials about the viewplate, and hurled them as thoughts against the psychocoil of the computer, then waited while that most complicated of machines digested all the factors and prepared the answer. Then, eagerly, he slid his mind into rapport with its projector. Klarloth likewise listened in to the silent broadcast. Exact point on Earth and exact time of departure. Untranslatable expression of curve of trajectory, and point on that curve where deflected by gravitational pull of Prxl. The destination--or rather the original intended destination--of the rocket was obvious, Earth's moon. Time and place of arrival on Prxl if present course of rocket was unchanged. "Earth," said Klarloth meditatively. "They were a long way from rocket travel the last time we checked them. Some sort of a crusade, or battle of beliefs, going on, wasn't there?" Bemj nodded. "Catapults. Bows and arrows. They've taken a long stride since, even if this is only an early experimental thing of a rocket. Shall we destroy it before it gets here?" Klarloth shook his head thoughtfully. "Let's look it over. May save us a trip to Earth; we can judge their present state of development pretty well from the rocket itself." "But then we'll have to--" "Of course. Call the Station. Tell them to train their attracto-repulsors on it and to swing it into a temporary orbit until they prepare a landing-cradle. And not forget to damp out the explosive before they bring it down." "Temporary force-field around point of landing--in case?" "Naturally." So despite the almost complete absence of atmosphere in which the vanes could have functioned, the rocket came down safely and so softly that Mitkey, in the dark compartment, knew only that the awful noise had stopped. Mitkey felt better. He ate some more of the cheese with which the compartment was liberally provided. Then he resumed trying to gnaw a hole in the inch-thick wood with which the compartment was lined. That wooden lining was a kind thought of the Herr Professor for Mitkey's mental well-being. He knew that trying to gnaw his way out would give Mitkey something to do en route which would keep him from getting the screaming meamies. The idea had worked; being busy, Mitkey hadn't suffered mentally from his dark confinement. And now that things were quiet, he chewed away more industriously and more happily than ever, sublimely unaware that when he got through the wood, he'd find only metal which he couldn't chew. But better people than Mitkey have found things they couldn't chew. Meanwhile, Klarloth and Bemj and several thousand other Prxlians stood gazing up at the huge rocket which, even lying on its side, towered high over their heads. Some of the younger ones, forgetting the invisible field of force, walked too close and came back, ruefully rubbing bumped heads. Klarloth himself was at the psychograph. "There _is_ life inside the rocket," he told Bemj. "But the impressions are confused. One creature, but I cannot follow its thought processes. At the moment it seems to be doing something with its teeth." "It could not be an Earthling, one of the dominant race. One of them is much larger than this huge rocket. Gigantic creatures. Perhaps, unable to construct a rocket large enough to hold one of themselves, they sent an experimental creature, such as our wooraths." "I believe you've guessed right, Bemj. Well, when we have explored its mind thoroughly, we may still learn enough to save us a check-up trip to Earth. I am going to open the door." "But air--creatures of Earth would need a heavy, almost a dense atmosphere. It could not live." "We retain the force-field, of course. It will keep the air in. Obviously there is a source of supply of air within the rocket or the creature would not have survived the trip." Klarloth operated controls, and the force-field itself put forth invisible pseudo-pods and turned the outer screw-door, then reached within and unlatched the inner door to the compartment itself. * * * * * All Prxl watched breathlessly as a monstrous gray head pushed out of the huge aperture yawning overhead. Thick whiskers, each as long as the body of a Prxlian-- Mitkey jumped down, and took a forward step that bumped his black nose hard--into something that wasn't there. He squeaked, and jumped backwards against the rocket. There was disgust in Bemj's face as he looked up at the monster. "Obviously much less intelligent than a woorath. Might just as well turn on the ray." "Not at all," interrupted Klarloth. "You forget certain very obvious facts. The creature is unintelligent, of course, but the subconscious of every animal holds in itself every memory, every impression, every sense-image, to which it has ever been subjected. If this creature has ever heard the speech of the Earthlings, or seen any of their works--besides this rocket--every word and every picture is indellibly graven. You see now what I mean?" "Naturally. How stupid of me, Klarloth. Well, one thing is obvious from the rocket itself: we have nothing to fear from the science of Earth for at least a few millenia. So there is no hurry, which is fortunate. For to send back the creature's memory to the time of its birth, and to follow each sensory impression in the psychograph will require--well, a time at least equivalent to the age of the creature, whatever that is, plus the time necessary for us to interpret and assimilate each." "But that will not be necessary, Bemj." "No? Oh, you mean the X-19 waves?" "Exactly. Focused upon this creature's brain-center, they can, without disturbing his memories, be so delicately adjusted as to increase his intelligence--now probably about .0001 in the scale--to the point where he is a reasoning creature. Almost automatically, during the process, he will assimilate his own memories, and understand them just as he would if he had been intelligent at the time he received those impressions. "See, Bemj? He will automatically sort out irrelevant data, and will be able to answer our questions." "But would you make him as intelligent as--?" "As we? No, the X-19 waves would not work so far. I would say to about .2 on the scale. That, judging from the rocket coupled with what we remember of Earthlings from our last trip there, is about their present place on the intelligence scale." "Ummm, yes. At that level, he would comprehend his experiences on Earth just sufficiently that he would not be dangerous to us, too. Equal to an intelligent Earthling. Just about right for our purpose. Then, shall we teach him our language?" "Wait," said Klarloth. He studied the psychograph closely for a while. "No, I do not think so. He will have a language of his own. I see in his subconscious, memories of many long conversations. Strangely, they all seem to be monologues by one person. But he will have a language--a simple one. It would take him a long time, even under treatment, to grasp the concepts of our own method of communication. But we can learn his, while he is under the X-19 machine, in a few minutes." "Does he understand, now, any of that language?" Klarloth studied the psychograph again. "No, I do not believe he--Wait, there is one word that seems to mean something to him. The word 'Mitkey.' It seems to be his name, and I believe that, from hearing it many times, he vaguely associates it with himself." "And quarters for him--with air-locks and such?" "Of course. Order them built." V To say it was a strange experience for Mitkey is understatement. Knowledge is a strange thing, even when it is acquired gradually. To have it thrust upon one-- And there were little things that had to be straightened out. Like the matter of vocal chords. His weren't adapted to the language he now found he knew. Bemj fixed that; you would hardly call it an operation because Mitkey--even with his new awareness--didn't know what was going on, and he was wide awake at the time. And they didn't explain to Mitkey about the J-dimension with which one can get at the inwardness of things without penetrating the outside. They figured things like that weren't in Mitkey's line, and anyway they were more interested in learning from him than teaching him. Bemj and Klarloth, and a dozen others deemed worthy of the privilege. If one of them wasn't talking to him, another was. Their questioning helped his own growing understanding. He would not, usually, know that he knew the answer to a question until it was asked. Then he'd piece together, without knowing just how he did it (any more than you or I know _how_ we know things) and give them the answer. Bemj: "Iss this language vhich you sbeak a universal vun?" And Mitkey, even though he'd never thought about it before, had the answer ready: "No, it iss nodt. It iss Englitch, but I remember der Herr Brofessor sbeaking of other tongues. I belieff he sboke another himself originally, budt in American he always sboke Englitch to become more vamiliar mitt it. It iss a beaudiful sbeech, is it nodt?" "Hmmmm," said Bemj. Klarloth: "Und your race, the mices. Are they treated vell?" "Nodt by most people," Mitkey told him. And explained. "I vould like to do something for them," he added. "Loogk, could I nodt take back mitt me this brocess vhich you used upon me? Abbly it to other mices, und greate a race of super-mices?" "Vhy not?" asked Bemj. He saw Klarloth looking at him strangely, and threw his mind into rapport with the chief scientist's, with Mitkey left out of the silent communion. "Yes, of course," Bemj told Klarloth, "it will lead to trouble on Earth, grave trouble. Two equal classes of beings so dissimilar as mice and men cannot live together in amity. But why should that concern us, other than favorably? The resultant mess will slow down progress on Earth--give us a few more millennia of peace before Earthlings discover we are here, and trouble starts. You know these Earthlings." "But you would give them the X-19 waves? They might--" "No, of course not. But we can explain to Mitkey here how to make a very crude and limited machine for them. A primitive one which would suffice for nothing more than the specific task of converting mouse mentality from .0001 to .2, Mitkey's own level and that of the bifurcated Earthlings." "It is possible," communicated Klarloth. "It is certain that for aeons to come they will be incapable of understanding its basic principle." "But could they not use even a crude machine to raise their own level of intelligence?" "You forget, Bemj, the basic limitation of the X-19 rays; that no one can possibly design a projector capable of raising any mentality to a point on the scale higher than his own. Not even we." All this, of course, over Mitkey's head, in silent Prxlian. More interviews, and more. Klarloth again: "Mitkey, ve varn you of vun thing. Avoid carelessness vith electricity. Der new molecular rearranchement of your brain center--it iss unstable, und--" Bemj: "Mitkey, are you sure your Herr Brofessor iss der most advanced of all who eggsperiment vith der rockets?" "In cheneral, yess, Bemj. There are others who on vun specific boint, such as eggsplosives, mathematics, astrovisics, may know more, but not much more. Und for combining these knowledges, he iss ahead." "It iss vell," said Bemj. * * * * * Small gray mouse towering like a dinosaur over tinier half-inch Prxlians. Meek, herbivorous creature though he was, Mitkey could have killed any one of them with a single bite. But, of course, it never occurred to him to do so, nor to them to fear that he might. They turned him inside out mentally. They did a pretty good job of study on him physically, too, but that was through the J-dimension, and Mitkey didn't even know about it. They found out what made him tick, and they found out everything he knew and some things he didn't even know he knew. And they grew quite fond of him. "Mitkey," said Klarloth one day, "all der civilized races on Earth year glothing, do they nodt? Veil, if you are to raise der level of mices to men, vould it not be vitting that you vear glothes, too?" "An eggcelent idea, Herr Klarloth. Und I know chust vhat kind I vould like. Der Herr Brofessor vunce showed me a bicture of a mouse bainted by der artist Dissney, und der mouse vore glothing. Der mouse vas not a real-life vun, budt an imachinary mouse in a barable, und der Brofessor named me after der Dissney mouse." "Vot kind of glothing vas it, Mitkey?" That was on the eve of Mitkey's departure. Originally, Bemj had suggested awaiting the moment when Prxl's eccentric orbit would again take it within a hundred and fifty thousand miles of Earth. But, as Klarloth pointed out, that would be fifty-five Earth-years ahead, and Mitkey wouldn't last that long. Not unless they--And Bemj agreed that they had better not risk sending a secret like that back to Earth. "Bright red bants mitt two big yellow buttons in frondt und two in back, und yellow shoes for der back feet und a pair of yellow gloves for der vront. A hole in der seat of der bants to aggomodate der tail." [Illustration: MOUSE --WARNING-- FINE OF 500 BUCKS 6 MO. IMPRISONMENT OR BOTH TO ANY PERSON CAUGHT TYING KNOTS IN OR PLUCKING HAIRS OUT OF CREATURE'S TAIL--_POLICE DEPT._ HOT FRANKS TOURS ALL POINTS OF INTEREST EVERY HOUR ] [Illustration: "A HOLE IN DER SEAT OF DER BANTS TO AGGOMODATE DER TAIL." ] "Ogay, Mitkey. Such shall be ready for you in fife minutes." So they compromised by refueling Mitkey's rocket with something that would cancel out the million and a quarter odd miles he would have to travel. That secret they didn't have to worry about, because the fuel would be gone by the time the rocket landed. Day of departure. "Ve haff done our best, Mitkey, to set und time der rocket so it vill land on or near der spot from vhich you left Earth. But you gannot eggspect agguracy in a voyach so long as this. But you vill land near. The rest iss up to you. Ve haff equvipped the rocket ship for effery contingency." "Thank you, Herr Klarloth, Herr Bemj. Gootbye." "Gootbye, Mitkey. Ve hate to loose you." "Gootbye, Mitkey." "Gootbye, gootbye...." VI For a million and a quarter miles, the aim was really excellent. The rocket landed in Long Island Sound, ten miles out from Bridgeport, about sixty miles from the house of Professor Oberburger near Hartford. They had prepared for a water landing, of course. The rocket went down to the bottom, but before it was more than a few dozen feet under the surface, Mitkey opened the door--especially re-equipped to open from the inside--and stepped out. Over his regular clothes he wore a neat little diving suit that would have protected him at any reasonable depth, and which, being lighter than water, brought him to the surface quickly where he was able to open his helmet. He had enough synthetic food to last him for a week, but it wasn't necessary, as things turned out. The night-boat from Boston carried him in to Bridgeport on its anchor chain, and once in sight of land he was able to divest himself of the diving suit and let it sink to the bottom after he'd punctured the tiny compartments that made it float, as he'd promised Klarloth he would do. Almost instinctively, Mitkey knew that he'd do well to avoid human beings until he'd reached Professor Oberburger and told his story. His worst danger proved to be the rats at the wharf where he swam ashore. They were ten times Mitkey's size and had teeth that could have taken him apart in two bites. But mind has always triumphed over matter. Mitkey pointed an imperious yellow glove and said, "Scram," and the rats scrammed. They'd never seen anything like Mitkey before, and they were impressed. [Illustration: "SCRAM!"] So for that matter, was the drunk of whom Mitkey inquired the way to Hartford. We mentioned that episode before. That was the only time Mitkey tried direct communication with strange human beings. He took, of course, every precaution. He addressed his remarks from a strategic position only inches away from a hole into which he could have popped. But it was the drunk who did the popping, without even waiting to answer Mitkey's question. [Illustration: "I BEG YOUR PARDON SIR, BUT, COULD YOU DIRECT ME TO HARTFORD?"] But he got there, finally. He made his way afoot to the north side of town and hid out behind a gas station until he heard a motorist who had pulled in for gasoline inquire the way to Hartford. And Mitkey was a stowaway when the car started up. The rest wasn't hard. The calculations of the Prxlians showed that the starting point of the rocket was five Earth miles north-west of what showed on their telescopomaps as a city, and which from the Professor's conversation Mitkey knew would be Hartford. He got there. VII "Hello, Brofessor." The Herr Professor Oberburger looked up, startled. There was no one in sight. "Vot?" he asked, of the air. "Who iss?" "It iss I, Brofessor. Mitkey, der mouse whom you sent to der moon. But I vas not there. Insteadt, I--" "Vot?? It iss imbossible. Somebody blays der choke. Budt--budt nobody _knows_ about that rocket. Vhen it vailed, I didn't told nobody. Nobody budt me knows--" "And me, Brofessor." The Herr Professor sighed heavily. "Offervork. I am going vhat they call battly in der bel--" "No, Brofessor. This is really me, Mitkey. I can talk now. Chust like you." "You say you can--I do not belief it. Vhy can I not see you, then. Vhere are you? Vhy don't you--" "I am hiding, Brofessor, in der valll chust behind der big hole. I vanted to be sure efferything vas ogay before I showed myself. Then you vould not get eggcited und throw something at me maybe." "Vot? Vhy, Mitkey, if it iss really you und I am nodt asleep or going--Vhy, Mitkey, you know better than to think I might do something like that!" "Ogay, Brofessor." Mitkey stepped out of the hole in the wall, and the Professor looked at him and rubbed his eyes and looked again and rubbed his eyes and-- "I _am_ grazy," he said finally. "Red bants he vears yet, und yellow--It gannot be. I _am_ grazy." "No, Brofessor. Listen, I'll tell you all aboudt." And Mitkey told him. Gray dawn, and a small gray mouse still talking earnestly. "But, Mitkey--" "Yess, Brofessor. I see your boint, that you think an intelligent race of mices und an intelligent race of men couldt nodt get along side by sides. But it vould not be side by sides; as I said, there are only a ferry few beople in the smallest continent of Australia. Und it vould cost little to bring them back und turn offer that continent to us mices. Ve vould call it Moustralia instead Australia, und ve vould instead of Sydney call der capital Dissney, in honor of--" "But, Mitkey--" "But, Brofessor, look vot ve offer for that continent. _All_ mices vould go there. Ve civilize a few und the few help us catch others und bring them in to put them under der ray machine, und the others help catch more under build more machines und it grows like a snowball rolling down hill. Und ve sign a non-aggression pact mitt humans und stay on Moustralia und raise our own food und--" "But, Mitkey--" "Und look vot ve offer you in eggschange, Herr Brofessor! Ve vill eggsterminate your vorst enemy--der _rats_. Ve do not like them either. Und vun battalion of vun thousand mices, armed mitt gas masks und small gas bombs could go right in effery hole after der rats und could eggsterminate effery rat in a city in vun day or two. In der whole vorld ve could eggsterminate effery last rat in a year, und at the same time catch und civilize effery mouse und ship him to Moustralia, und--" "But, Mitkey--" "Vot, Brofessor?" "It vould vork, but it voul dnot work. You could eggsterminate der rats, yess. But how long vould it be before conflicts of interests vould lead to der mices trying to eggsterminate der people or der people trying to eggsterminate der--" "They vould not dare, Brofessor! Ve could make veapons that vould--" "You see, Mitkey?" "But it vould not habben. If men vill honor our rights, ve vill honor--" The Herr Professor sighed. "I--I vill act as your intermediary, Mitkey, und offer your broposition, und--Vell, it iss true that getting rid of rats vould be a greadt boon to der human race. Budt--" "Thank you, Brofessor." "By der vay, Mitkey. I haff Minnie. Your vife, I guess it iss, unless there vas other mices around. She iss in der other room; I put her there chust before you arriffed, so she vould be in der dark und could sleep. You vant to see her?" "Vife?" said Mitkey. It had been so long that he had really forgotten the family he had perforce abandoned. The memory returned slowly. "Veil," he said "--ummm, yess. Ve vill get her und I shall construct quvick a small X-19 prochector und--Yess, it vill help you in your negotiations mitt der governments if there are sefferal of us already so they can see I am not chust a freak like they might otherwise suspegt." VIII It wasn't deliberate. It couldn't have been, because the Professor didn't know about Klarloth's warning to Mitkey about carelessness with electricity--"Der new molecular rearrangement of your brain center--it iss unstable, und--" And the Professor was still back in the lighted room when Mitkey ran into the room where Minnie was in her barless cage. She was asleep, and the sight of her--Memory of his earlier days came back like a flash and suddenly Mitkey knew how lonesome he had been. "Minnie!" he called, forgetting that she could not understand. And stepped up on the board where she lay. "Squeak!" The mild electrical current between the two strips of tinfoil got him. There was silence for a while. Then: "Mitkey," called the Herr Professor. "Come on back und ve vill discuss this--" He stepped through the doorway and saw them, there in the gray light of dawn, two small gray mice cuddled happily together. He couldn't tell which was which, because Mitkey's teeth had torn off the red and yellow garments which had suddenly been strange, confining and obnoxious things. "Vot on earth?" asked Professor Oberburger. Then he remembered the current, and guessed. "Mitkey! Can you no longer talk? Iss der--" Silence. Then the Professor smiled. "Mitkey," he said, "my little star-mouse. I think you are more happier now." [Illustration: "GOOTBYE, MITKEY"] He watched them a moment, fondly, then reached down and flipped the switch that broke the electrical barrier. Of course they didn't know they were free, but when the Professor picked them up and placed them carefully on the floor, one ran immediately for the hole in the wall. The other followed, but turned around and looked back--still a trace of puzzlement in the little black eyes, a puzzlement that faded. "Gootbye, Mitkey. You vill be happier this vay. Und there vill always be cheese." "Squeak," said the little gray mouse, and it popped into the hole. "Gootbye--" it might, or might not, have meant. * * * * * [Transcriber's Note: Section heads for Sections I to IV are missing] 
38290	----	UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Volume 9, No. 23, pp. 579-670, 4 pls., 12 figs. in text June 16, 1960 Speciation and Evolution of the Pygmy Mice, Genus Baiomys BY ROBERT L. PACKARD UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS LAWRENCE 1960 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS, MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Editors: E. Raymond Hall, Chairman, Henry S. Fitch, Robert W. Wilson Volume 9, No. 23, pp. 579-670, 4 pls., 12 figs. in text Published June 16, 1960 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS Lawrence, Kansas PRINTED IN THE STATE PRINTING PLANT TOPEKA, KANSAS 1960 [Illustration: Look for the Union Label] 28-3030 Speciation and Evolution of the Pygmy Mice, Genus Baiomys BY ROBERT L. PACKARD CONTENTS PAGE Introduction 583 Materials, Methods and Acknowledgments 584 Paleontology of the Genus 587 _Baiomys sawrockensis_ 588 _Baiomys rexroadi_ 589 _Baiomys kolbi_ 590 _Baiomys brachygnathus_ 590 _Baiomys minimus_ 591 Phyletic trends 592 Non-Geographic Variation 595 Variation with age 595 Secondary sexual variation 597 Individual variation 597 Pelage and molts 598 Taxonomic Characters and Relationships 600 External parts 600 Pelage 600 Skull 600 Teeth 601 Hyoid apparatus 601 Baculum 603 Auditory ossicles 605 Genus Baiomys 607 Systematic Accounts of Species and Subspecies 608 _Baiomys musculus_ 608 _Baiomys musculus brunneus_ 612 _Baiomys musculus grisescens_ 614 _Baiomys musculus handleyi_ 617 _Baiomys musculus infernatis_ 618 _Baiomys musculus musculus_ 620 _Baiomys musculus nigrescens_ 623 _Baiomys musculus pallidus_ 625 _Baiomys musculus pullus_ 628 _Baiomys taylori_ 630 _Baiomys taylori allex_ 633 _Baiomys taylori analogous_ 637 _Baiomys taylori ater_ 640 _Baiomys taylori canutus_ 643 _Baiomys taylori fuliginatus_ 645 _Baiomys taylori paulus_ 647 _Baiomys taylori subater_ 650 _Baiomys taylori taylori_ 651 Evolution and Speciation 655 Formation of the Recent Species 658 Areas of present differentiation 661 Zoogeographic position 661 Conclusions 664 Literature Cited 665 INTRODUCTION Pygmy mice (_Genus Baiomys_) are the smallest cricetine rodents in North America. They occur from Nicaragua in Central America into the southwestern United States. The principal part of the geographic range of the pygmy mice lies in the Republic of México. They are notably common in central México, but are only locally common to the north and to the south, and then only in certain seasons. Pygmy mice were first brought to the attention of biologists in 1887 when Oldfield Thomas described a diminutive species of cricetine rodent, _Hesperomys_ (_Vesperimus_) _taylori_. The description was based on a specimen obtained by William Taylor from San Diego, Duval County, Texas. C. Hart Merriam (1892:70) described _Sitomys musculus_ on the basis of specimens from Colima [City of], Colima, México. Merriam (_loc. cit._) mentioned that the two kinds of mice, _Hesperomys taylori_ and _Sitomys musculus_, "in general appearance look almost precisely like the common house mouse (_Mus musculus_) but are still smaller and have shorter tails." He placed the two species in the genus _Sitomys_. Frederick W. True in 1894 regarded them as composing a distinct subgenus of _Sitomys, Baiomys_. According to True (1894:758), _S. taylori_ and _S. musculus_ possessed a different combination of characters (ascending ramus of mandible short and erect, condyle terminal, coronoid process well-developed, uncinate, and near the condyle, size small, tail short, plantar tubercles six, soles hairy) than either _Vesperimus_, or _Onychomys_ (which had been considered as a subgenus of _Hesperomys_ until 1889). In 1907, E. A. Mearns accorded _Baiomys_ generic rank. Osgood (1909:252) treated _Baiomys_ us a subgenus of _Peromyscus_, whereas, Miller, in 1912, regarded _Baiomys_ as a distinct genus. Most recent students of North American mammals have followed Miller, but usually with reservations. Ellerman (1941:402) emphasized that the taxonomic position of the genus was uncertain, and wrote that _Baiomys_ "... seems to be considerably distinct from _Peromyscus_, and may perhaps be a northern representative of _Hesperomys_ or one of the small South American genera." Only two comprehensive analyses of geographic variation and interspecific taxonomic relationships have been made; the first was by Osgood (1909) who had fewer than a fourth of the specimens of _Baiomys_ available to me; the second was by Hooper (1952a:90-97) who contributed importantly to understanding the relationships of the two living species in central México. No attempts heretofore have been made to correlate and understand the relationships of the five fossil species to one another and to the living species assigned to the genus. Six objectives of the following report are to: (1) list characters taxonomically useful in recognizing species and subspecies; (2) record amount of variation within and between populations; (3) correlate observed variations with known biological principles; (4) show geographic ranges of the two living species; (5) indicate relationships between fossil and living species of the genus; and (6) clarify the systematic position of the genus. MATERIALS, METHODS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This report is based on the study of approximately 3,520 museum study skins, skulls, complete skeletons, and entire animals preserved in liquid. Most specimens examined were accompanied by an attached label bearing data on locality and date of capture, name of collector, external measurements, and sex. In addition, 49 fossil specimens referable to _Baiomys_ were studied. Nearly two-thirds of the specimens were assembled at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History; the remainder were examined in other institutions. Specimens studied were grouped by geographic origin, sex, age, and season of capture. Individual variation was then measured in several of the larger samples of each living species and in measurable fossil material. External measurements used were those recorded by the collectors on the labels attached to the skins. Twenty cranial measurements employed in the past in the study of _Baiomys_ and closely related cricetine rodents were statistically analyzed. The coefficient of variation was calculated for each of the 20 measurements in order to determine which varied least. In general, measurements having the least coefficient of variation were used in comparing samples from different geographic areas. Figure 1 shows the points between which measurements were taken. _Occipitonasal length._--From anteriormost projection of nasal bones to posteriormost projection of supraoccipital bone. _A_ to _A'_ _Zygomatic breadth._--Greatest distance across zygomatic arches of cranium at right angles to long axis of skull. _B_ to _B'_ _Postpalatal length._--From posterior margin of hard palate to anterior margin of foramen magnum. _C_ to _C'_ _Least interorbital breadth._--Least distance across top of skull between orbits. _D_ to _D'_ _Length of incisive foramina._--From anteriormost point to posteriormost point of incisive foramina. _E_ to _E'_ _Length of rostrum._--The distance in a straight line from the notch that lies lateral to the lacrimal to the tip of the nasal on the same side. _F_ to _F'_ _Breadth of braincase._--Greatest distance across braincase, taken at right angles to long axis of skull. _G_ to _G'_ _Depth of cranium._--The distance from the dorsalmost part of the braincase to a flat plane touching tips of incisors and ventral border of each auditory bulla. A glass slide one millimeter thick was placed on the ventral side of the skull. One jaw of the caliper was on the lower surface of the slide and the other jaw on the dorsalmost part of the braincase. The depth of the slide was subtracted from the total reading. _H_ to _H'_ _Alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row._--From anterior border of alveolus of M1 to posterior alveolus of M3. _I_ to _I'_ [Illustration: FIG. 1. Three views of the skull to show points between which measurements were taken. Based on _B. m. pullus_, adult, female, No. 71611 KU, 8 mi. S Condega, Estelí, Nicaragua. × 1-1/3.] Capitalized color-terms refer to Ridgway (1912). Color terms without initial letters capitalized do not refer to any one standard. The names of the cusps and ridges of the teeth (see Figure 2) are those suggested by Wood and Wilson (1936:389-390). Terminology of the enamel grooves and folds is that of Hershkovitz (1944:17) and Hooper (1952b:20-21). Because secondary sexual variation was not significant (see page 597), both males and females of like age and pelage were used in comparisons of samples designed to reveal geographic variation. The species are arranged from less to more progressive; the subspecies are arranged alphabetically. In the synonymy of each subspecies, the plan has been to cite: (1) the name first proposed; (2) the first usage of the name combination employed by me; (3) all other name combinations in chronological order that have been applied to the subspecies concerned. The localities of specimens examined are listed by country from north to south. Within a country, the listing is by state, beginning with the northwesternmost state and proceeding by tiers (west to east) to the southeasternmost state. Within a state of the United States, the listing is by counties in the same geographic order as described for states. Within any county in the United States, within any state in México, and within any country in Central America, the listing of localities is from north to south. When more than one locality is on the same line of latitude, the westernmost locality is listed first. Marginal localities for each subspecies are listed in a paragraph at the end of each account. Each marginal locality is mapped by means of a circle. The circles are listed in clockwise order, beginning with the northernmost. When more than one of these localities lies on the same line of latitude, the westernmost is cited first. Localities not represented on the distribution maps, so as to avoid undue crowding of symbols, are italicized in the lists of specimens examined. [Illustration: FIG. 2. Occlusal views of molars. × 13. A. _B. taylori analogous_, subadult, female, No. 28102 KU, 4 km. ENE Tlalmanalco, 2290 meters, Estado de México. Right, upper molars. B. _B. musculus musculus_, subadult, male, No. 45456 USNM, Colima, Colima, México. Left, upper molars. A'. _B. taylori analogous_, subadult, female, No. 28102 KU 4 km. ENE Tlalmanalco, 2290 meters, Estado de México. Left, lower molars. B'. _B. musculus musculus_, subadult, male, No. 45456 USNM, Colima, Colima, México. Right, lower molars.] The largest single collection of pygmy mice is in the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, and, unless otherwise indicated, specimens cited in the taxonomic accounts beyond are there. I am indebted to the following named institutions and persons for making specimens available for study: American Museum of Natural History, G. G. Goodwin and R. G. VanGelder. Carnegie Museum, J. K. Doutt. California Academy of Sciences, Robert T. Orr. Chicago Natural History Museum, Phillip H. Hershkovitz. Cleveland Museum of Natural History (Collection now a part of Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, W. H. Burt, E. T. Hooper). Louisiana State University, Museum of Natural History, George H. Lowery, Jr. Los Angeles County Museum, Charles A. McLaughlin. United States National Museum (Biological Survey Collections), David A. Johnson, and Viola S. Schantz. United States National Museum, Division of Vertebrate Paleontology, C. Lewis Gazin. University of Arizona, E. L. Cockrum, and G. VR. Bradshaw. University of California, Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, Seth B. Benson, and W. Z. Lidicker. University of Illinois, Museum of Natural History, Donald F. Hoffmeister. University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology, W. H. Burt, E. T. Hooper, and Claude W. Hibbard. University of New Mexico, James S. Findley. University of Texas, Frank W. Blair. Texas A & M, Cooperative Wildlife Research Collection, W. B. Davis. The Museum, Michigan State University, Rollin H. Baker. University of Florida Collections, James N. Layne. I am especially grateful to Professor E. Raymond Hall who guided me in my study and gave critical assistance with the manuscript. Additional appreciated suggestions were made by Professors A. Byron Leonard, Robert W. Wilson, Henry S. Fitch, Ronald L. McGregor, and fellow graduate students. For the illustrations, I am indebted to Mrs. Lorna Cordonnier, Miss Lucy Remple and Mrs. Connie Spitz. Mr. B. J. Wilks of the University of Texas, Department of Zoology, provided a number of living pygmy mice for study in captivity. Mr. J. Raymond Alcorn and his son, Albert, collected a large share of specimens of pygmy mice now in the University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History. My wife, Patricia, aided me in secretarial work and typing of the manuscript. For financial assistance, I am indebted to the National Science Foundation when I was a Research Assistant, to the Sigma Xi-RESA Research Fund for a Grant-in-Aid, and to the Kansas University Endowment Association through its A. Henley Aid Fund, and the Watkins Fund for out-of-state field work by the Museum of Natural History. PALEONTOLOGY OF THE GENUS Five fossil species, all extinct, have been assigned to the genus and range in time from early late Pliocene (Saw Rock Canyon fauna of Hibbard, 1953:408) to Mid-Pleistocene (see Hibbard, 1958:25, who assigns the Curtis Ranch fauna to late Kansan or early Yarmouth). I examined all known fossil material and compared it with Recent material. When the antiquity of the genus is considered, the degree of difference between the oldest fossil species and the two living species is much less than might be expected. =Baiomys sawrockensis= Hibbard _Baiomys sawrockensis_ Hibbard, Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts and Letters, 38:402, April 27, 1953. _Type._--No. 27506, Univ. Michigan; left mandibular ramus bearing m1-m3 and incisor; Saw Rock Canyon, early late Pliocene, XI member of the Rexroad formation, sec. 36, T. 34 S, R. 31 W, Seward County, Kansas (University of Kansas, Locality 6). _Referred material._--Univ. Michigan, Nos. 25781, 27503-27505, 28159-28165, 29708-29715, 31015. _Diagnosis._--Ramus of medium size to small for the genus; lower incisor broad, moderately recurved; diastemal region broad; anterior median fold between anterior labial conulid and anterior lingual conulid of m1 deep; primary first fold between anteroconulid and protoconid of m2 deep; cingular ridge (ectolophid) at entrance to posteroexternal reëntrant valley (major fold, see Figure 2) between protoconid and hypoconid of m1 and m2; average and extreme measurements of lower molar row of eight specimens are, 2.65 (2.5-2.7). _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. brachygnathus_, see account of that species. From _B. rexroadi_, _B. sawrockensis_ differs in: anterior median fold of m1 deeper; incisor narrower; diastemal region broader; coronoid process broader and better developed; cingular ridges (ectolophids and mesolophids) more pronounced in their development; incisors less proödont, more retrodont. From _B. kolbi_, _B. sawrockensis_ differs in: crowns of molars narrower; incisors less proödont; cingular ridges (ectolophids and mesolophids) of m1 and m2 more pronounced in their development. From _B. minimus_, _B. sawrockensis_ differs in: incisor less procumbent; masseteric ridge extending farther anteriorly; anterior cingulum of m2 slightly larger. From _B. musculus_, _B. sawrockensis_ differs in: over-all size of jaw and molar row less; diastema more acutely curved; incisors shorter; anterior median fold of m1 slightly deeper. From _B. taylori_, _B. sawrockensis_ differs in: m1 and m2 smaller; cingular ridges in m1 and m2 more pronounced; anterolingual conulid farther forward; incisors shorter, more proödont; molar teeth depressed, less hypsodont; diastemal region broader, more acutely curved; masseteric ridge not extending so far anteriorly. _Remarks._--_B. sawrockensis_ is the oldest known pygmy mouse. The extreme development of the anterior median fold between the anterolingual conulid and the anterolabial conulid is regarded as a primitive feature in the pygmy mice. In this character, the Recent species can be traced back in time through _B. minimus_ to _B. sawrockensis_. _B. sawrockensis_ resembles _Calomys laucha_ of South America in general conformation of jaw and tooth structure. The molars of _sawrockensis_ are smaller than those of _C. laucha_, and the anterolingual conulid of _sawrockensis_ is farther forward. =Baiomys rexroadi= Hibbard _Baiomys rexroadi_ Hibbard, Amer. Midland Nat., 26:351, September, 1941; Hibbard, Contrib. Mus. Paleo., Univ. Michigan, 8(2):145, June 29, 1950 (part); Hibbard, Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts and Letters, 38:403, April 27, 1953. _Type._--No. 4670, Univ. Kansas; left mandibular ramus bearing m1-m3, and incisor; Rexroad fauna, Locality no. 2, Upper Pliocene, Meade County, Kansas. _Referred material._--Univ. of Michigan Nos. 24840, 24851, 27493, 27496, 27501, 28862-28867. _Diagnosis._--Ramus medium in size for the genus; incisors small, proödont; anterior median fold of m1 slight; cingulum of all molars poorly developed; average and external measurements of lower molar row of seven specimens are, 2.7 (2.6-3.0). _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. sawrockensis_ and _B. minimus_, see accounts of those species. From _B. kolbi_, _B. rexroadi_ differs in: over-all size of mandibular ramus, incisors, and molars smaller; anterior median fold of m1 present, though poorly developed. From _B. brachygnathus_, _B. rexroadi_ differs in: over-all size of mandibular ramus smaller; m3 larger; posterior cusps (hypoconid and entoconid) elongated; diastema shorter, less acutely recurved; incisors less proödont; cingular ridges of m1 and m2 less well-developed. From _B. musculus_, _B. rexroadi_ differs in: over-all size of mandibular ramus less; cingular ridges of m1 and m2 less well-developed; incisors smaller, more proödont; molars less depressed. From _B. taylori_, _B. rexroadi_ differs in: m3 more triangular, posterior part narrower; mental foramen closer to anterior root of m1; masseteric ridge closer to alveolus of m1; incisor shorter, more proödont; molars more depressed. _Remarks._--Two maxillary tooth-rows and associated parts were studied. On one of these specimens, the M2 has a well-developed mesostyle; the anterior median fold of M1 is also well-developed. The other specimen possesses a low cingular ridge (enteroloph) between the protocone and the hypocone, a reduced cingular ridge (mesoloph) between the paracone and metacone of M1. On the second molar, M2, a mesostyle joins with the mesoloph somewhat in the fashion indicated by Hooper (1957:9, encircled number 2). =Baiomys kolbi= Hibbard _Baiomys kolbi_ Hibbard, Trans. Kansas Acad. Sci., 55:201, June 18, 1952; Hibbard, Papers Mich. Acad. Sci., Arts and Letters, 38:403, April 27, 1953. _Type._--No. 24846, Univ. Michigan; right mandibular ramus bearing m1-m3 and incisor; Fox Canyon, upper Pliocene, Rexroad formation, Rexroad fauna, Univ. Michigan Locality K1-47, sec. 35, T. 34 S, R. 30 W, XI Ranch, Meade County, Kansas. _Referred material._--Univ. Michigan Nos. 24845-24848, 27494, 27497, 27499, 28566, 28861, 28878, 28880-28882, 28884, 28886. _Diagnosis._--Ramus of medium size to large for the genus; lower incisor short, narrow transversely, proödont; anterior median fold of m1 reduced or absent; cingular ridges of m1 and m2 moderately well-developed; m3 large relative to m1 and m2; average and extreme measurements of lower molars of seven specimens are, 3.0 (3.0-3.1). _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. sawrockensis_ and _B. rexroadi_, see accounts of those species. From _B. brachygnathus_, _B. kolbi_ differs in: molar row longer; m3 and jaw larger; diastema longer; masseteric ridge not so far forward; molars more depressed. From _B. minimus_, _B. kolbi_ differs in: molar row longer; m3 larger; jaw larger; diastema not so acutely curved; incisor shorter, narrower transversely, more proödont. From _B. musculus_, _B. kolbi_ differs in: anterior median fold of m1 slightly developed or absent, instead of well-developed; m3 larger (not reduced), external reëntrant valley broad and extending farther across crown of tooth; incisor smaller, and more proödont; cingular ridges of m1 and m2 less well-developed. From _B. taylori_, _B. kolbi_ differs in: molars larger, more depressed; incisor shorter, more proödont; m3 smaller relative to m1 and m2; external reëntrant valley of m3 broad, extending farther across crown of tooth. _Remarks._--The slight development or absence of the anterior median fold in _kolbi_ suggests that it was specialized. The anterior median fold is well-developed in all species of _Baiomys_ save _B. brachygnathus_ and _B. taylori_, in which the fold is only slightly developed or absent. _B. kolbi_ may have paralleled _B. taylori_ in specialization for a diet of grasses and for a life in open country. =Baiomys brachygnathus= (Gidley) _Peromyscus brachygnathus_ Gidley, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Papers, 131:124, March 15, 1922. _Baiomys brachygnathus_, Hibbard, Amer. Midland Nat., 26:352, September, 1941. _P. [eromyscus] brachygnathus_, Wilson, Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ., 473:33, May 21, 1936. _Type._--No. 10501, U. S. Nat. Mus.; right mandibular ramus bearing m1-m3, and incisor; 2 mi. NE Curtis Ranch house, near a line between sec. 28 and 29, T. 18 S, R. 21 E, Mid-Pleistocene (Hibbard, 1958:25), Cochise County, Arizona. _Referred material._--None. _Diagnosis._--Ramus small for the genus; m3 reduced; jaw reduced anteroposteriorly; incisor short, slender, proödont; cingular ridges well-developed, posterior ectolophid continuous from protoconid to hypoconid in m1 and m2; diastema short; length of molar row 2.8 mm. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. rexroadi_ and _B. kolbi_, see accounts of those species. From _B. minimus_, _B. brachygnathus_ differs in: jaw not so slender anteriorly; masseteric ridge not so far anterior; cheek-teeth slightly broader, less depressed, therefore, more hypsodont; incisor shorter, more proödont. From _B. sawrockensis_, _B. brachygnathus_ differs in: molar row slightly longer; teeth slightly less depressed; masseteric ridge extends farther anteriorly; incisors more proödont. From _B. musculus_, _B. brachygnathus_ differs in: jaw smaller; molar row slightly shorter; molars less depressed; incisors slender, shorter, narrower, and more proödont. From _B. taylori_, _B. brachygnathus_ differs in: incisor more slender, shorter, more proödont; diastema shorter. _Remarks._--The molar teeth of _B. brachygnathus_, although worn, resemble those of _B. taylori_ more than those of any known fossil species. Gidley (1922:124) stated that the absence of the divided anterior lobe of the first molar (anterior median fold) in _brachygnathus_ was one of the chief characters separating _brachygnathus_ from _taylori_. In _taylori_, the anterior median fold characteristically is only slightly developed, and in some specimens is absent. _B. brachygnathus_ differs from _taylori_ chiefly in proödont incisors, which feature seems to preclude _brachygnathus_ being ancestral to _taylori_. _B. brachygnathus_ may have been a specialized divergence from _B. minimus_. =Baiomys minimus= (Gidley) _Peromyscus minimus_ Gidley, U. S. Geol. Surv. Prof. Papers, 131:124, March 15, 1922. _Baiomys minimus_, Hibbard, Amer. Midland Nat., 26:352, September, 1941; Gazin, Prof. U. S. Nat. Mus., 92(3155):488, 1942. _P. [eromyscus] minimus_, Wilson, Carnegie Inst. Washington Publ., 473:33, May 21, 1936. _Type._--No. 10500, U. S. Nat. Mus.; left mandibular ramus bearing m1-m3 and incisor; 2 mi. S Benson, sec. 22, T. 17 S, R. 20 E, Late Pliocene (Blancan, Gazin, 1942:482), Cochise County, Arizona. _Referred material._--None. _Diagnosis._--Ramus small for the genus; molar teeth depressed; cingular ridges (ectolophids) of m1 and m2 well-developed; anterior median fold present (appearing larger owing to chip of enamel missing); external reëntrant fold of m3 progresses half way across crown of tooth; diastema short; incisor moderately large, recurved; length of molar row, 2.6 mm. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. brachygnathus_, _B. kolbi_, and _B. sawrockensis_, see accounts of those species. From _B. rexroadi_, _B. minimus_ differs in: anterior median fold deeper; incisor longer, more recurved, less proödont; molars slightly more depressed (though worn). From _B. musculus_, _B. minimus_ differs in: over-all size of jaw and molars smaller; incisors shorter; masseteric ridge more depressed. From _B. taylori_, _B. minimus_ differs in: anterior median fold slightly deeper; molar teeth more depressed; cingular ridges on m1 and m2 better developed; masseteric ridge more depressed. _Remarks._--Gidley (1922:124) stated that _B. minimus_ differed considerably from _B. taylori_ in that the coronoid portion of the ascending ramus diverges at a wider angle from the alveolar part of the jaw. Study of large samples of lower jaws of _B. taylori_ reveals considerable individual variation in the angle formed between the coronoid part of the jaw and the alveolar part. _B. minimus_, except for its small size, is like _B. musculus_ and is considered to be ancestral to that species. PHYLETIC TRENDS It seems that the important trends in phyletic development in the pygmy mice have been from an ancestral stock (see Figure 3) that possessed relatively brachydont teeth having raised cingular ridges (ectolophids and mesolophids) and relatively short orthodont to proödont incisors, to species having teeth more hypsodont on which cingular ridges were reduced, stylids were isolated or completely absent, and incisors were longer and more recurved or retrodont. _Baiomys sawrockensis_, or an unknown stock resembling it, might have been ancestral to the other known species. Of the four remaining fossil species, _B. kolbi_ seems least likely to have been ancestral to the two living species, owing to its proödont incisors, reduction of cingular ridges, loss of an anterior median fold in m1, and long mandibular tooth-row. _B. kolbi_ may have been an early, specialized derivation from the ancestral stock. From his knowledge of the habitats of _B. musculus_, the larger species, and _B. taylori_, the smaller species, Hibbard (1952:203) suggests that _B. kolbi_, a large species, might have inhabited lowlands, and _B. rexroadi_, a small species, highlands. I have no evidence to dispute this suggestion except that _B. musculus_ has more prominent cingular ridges (or at least vestiges of this lophid condition) than either _B. kolbi_ or _B. rexroadi_. _B. musculus_ (see page 610) is less of an open grassland inhabitant than is _B. taylori_. Therefore, both _B. kolbi_ and _B. rexroadi_, because of their poorly developed cingular ridges, might be expected to have lived in a relatively open grassland habitat. The relationship of _B. rexroadi_ to fossil species other than _B. kolbi_ is not clear. Superficially, the former resembles _B. taylori_, but, owing to the specialized development of the molars of _rexroadi_, it could hardly have been ancestral to either of the living species. The resemblance of _B. rexroadi_ to _B. taylori_ may result from each having occupied the same ecological niche in different periods. The incisors of _B. rexroadi_, however, are much shorter than those of _B. taylori_ and suggest somewhat different food habits. _B. minimus_ seemingly is more closely related to _B. sawrockensis_ and _B. musculus_ than to the other described species. The development of the cingular ridges leads one to suspect that _B. minimus_ was the ancestor of _B. musculus_. _B. minimus_ may have been derived from a _sawrockensis_-like stock and probably gave rise to _B. musculus_. Hershkovitz (1955:643-644) suggests that "... primitive brachydont, buno-mesolophodont cricetines have survived ... in forested parts of the range," whereas "... the progressive branch of cricetines with mesoloph absent or vestigal, has become increasingly specialized for life in open country and a diet of grasses." Species of the genus _Baiomys_ can be divided into two morphological groups. One group, composed of _B. sawrockensis_, _B. minimus_, and _B. musculus_, includes those species, the teeth of which were relatively brachydont and had prominently developed cingular ridges (ectolophids or mesolophids) or, at least, showed some development of these ridges. _B. sawrockensis_ probably lived in semi-wooded to shrubby habitats. According to Hibbard (1953:409), "The Saw Rock Canyon fauna lived in that area at a time when conditions were comparable to the conditions at the time the Rexroad fauna lived." The conditions in which the Rexroad fauna lived are discussed by Hibbard (1941:95). Presumably, there were at least some well-wooded situations, and the climate was warm. _B. sawrockensis_ probably inhabited denser vegetation than did _B. minimus_ or than does _B. musculus_. The teeth of the second group (_B. kolbi_, _B. rexroadi_, _B. brachygnathus_, and _B. taylori_) lack cingular ridges or have them much reduced and have more hypsodont molars. The three fossil species probably inhabited relatively open grassland. This assumption is based largely on the known habitat of _B. taylori_ (see page 632). The suggested grouping, based on supposed similarities in niches inhabited by the extinct species, does not necessarily indicate degree of relationship. _B. taylori_ probably was not derived from an ancestor like _B. rexroadi_ or _B. kolbi_, although, in certain characters, the three species resemble one another. _B. kolbi_ and _B. rexroadi_ were already specialized in Blancan times, probably for living on grassland. _B. taylori_ shows only a slight advance in specialization of molar structures compared to either of the aforementioned species but is slightly smaller and does have longer and more recurved incisors. If only morphological criteria of lower jaws were considered, without recourse to other data derived from the study of many samples of populations of the living species, time alone might account for the differences among _B. taylori_, _B. rexroadi_, and _B. kolbi_. The available evidence (see page 658) suggests, however, that _B. taylori_ was derived from the _B. sawrockensis_-_B. minimus_-_B. musculus_ line. [Illustration: FIG. 3. Diagram indicating probable relationships of living and extinct species of pygmy mice.] _Baiomys_ seems to have undergone little basic evolutionary and morphological change since Late Pliocene time. According to Simpson (1945:207), hesperomine rodents as a group have undergone little basic evolution, and "The rapid evolution of new genera was more a matter of segregation of characters in a group with a great variation than of the origin of significantly new characters." Perhaps, the living southern pygmy mouse retains many basic characteristics of one of the early North American cricetine-like stocks that emigrated to South America near the end of the Pliocene epoch. There is much to suggest close relationship of the pygmy mice to certain species of South American hesperomine rodents of the genus _Calomys_. NON-GEOGRAPHIC VARIATION Non-geographic variation in pygmy mice (variation in a single population resulting from age, individual, seasonal, and secondary sexual differences) has been but little studied in the past. Mearns (1907:381) figured progressive stages of wear on the teeth of _B. taylori_; Osgood (1909:252) and Blair (1941:380) referred to changes in dentition, weights, and pelages. The largest samples available for this study were 47 _B. taylori_ from the vicinity of Altamira (6 mi. N, 6 mi. W; 5 mi. N, 5 mi. W; 1 mi. S), Tamaulipas, and 44 _B. musculus_ from El Salvador (1 mi. S Los Planes, and 1 mi. NW San Salvador--two localities 3 miles apart). VARIATION WITH AGE Specimens of both species were segregated into five categories: Juveniles, young, subadults, adults, and old adults. Juvenal and young pygmy mice are readily separable from the other three categories; subadults are less easily distinguished from adults. In order to obtain an accurate understanding of geographic variation in these mice, only adults should be used in making taxonomic comparisons. _Juveniles._--Nestling mice yet unweaned; sutures in cranium incompletely closed; bony parts of skull fragile; M3 and m3 not erupted or only partly erupted and not protruding above margins of alveoli. At birth, juveniles are pink, without pelage except for the mystacial vibrissae and a few hairs about the eye. Blair (_op. cit._:381) recorded changes with age in color of the skin of new-born and suckling pygmy mice. Data obtained by me from three litters born in captivity agree with his findings. Pygmy mice are weaned when 17 to 24 days old. At that time, the mice possess a fine, but not dense, dusky-gray fur. _Young._--Weaned mice; cranium fragile; sutures between frontals and parietals, interparietal and parietals, basioccipital and basisphenoid, basisphenoid and presphenoid, premaxillaries and maxillaries widely open; M3 and m3 erupted beyond margins of their alveoli (molars erupt from anterior to posterior; M3 and m3, therefore, are last to erupt); in some specimens, molars slightly worn; pelage still dusky and relatively fine and sparse. _Subadults._--Sutures between bones of skull less widely open than in young; epiphyses of long bones incompletely coalesced to shaft; relative to length of skull, braincase higher and rostrum shorter than in adults; all cusps worn, but dentine not occlusally confluent; primary first and second folds of third upper molars present; primary first fold and major fold of lower molars visible; pelage a subtle mixture of colors of young and adult, but resembling most that of adult; molts into postjuvenal pelage between 46 and 50 days. _Adults._--Sutures of skull, and those between epiphyses and shaft of long bones obliterated except that, in some mice, sutures of skull persist between frontoparietal, and interparietal; cusps of molars so worn that dentine occlusally confluent; small island of enamel in third upper and lower molars of some specimens; relative to length of skull, cranium lower, rostrum longer, and interorbital region narrower than in subadult; cranium appears to be more flattened dorsoventrally; between subadult and adult stages, principal growth occurs in basioccipital, basisphenoid, frontals, and parietals; nasals grow less. Although all bones of the skull grow in the subadult and early adult stages (see table 1), the above-named bones grow faster than others and thus cause the general flattening of the skull, typical of adults (similar to that reported by Hoffmeister, 1951:7). The body continues to lengthen, accounting for the increase in total length of the adult (see table 1). Hind foot, tail and ear, reach their maximum lengths by subadult stage. Adult pelage has been acquired, and the color is brighter than in either subadults or old adults. _Old Adults._--Characterized principally by well-worn molars; only thin peripheral band of enamel along with slight evidence of any primary or secondary folds on any teeth remain; all bones of skull coalesced; epiphyses and shafts of long bones ankylosed; small bony protuberances on many skulls; pelage usually ragged, tips of the hairs being worn away; white flecking and spotting not common, but occurs in some adults. TABLE 1.--Average and Extreme Measurements (in Millimeters) of Skulls of Five Age-groups of Baiomys taylori from vic. (see p. 595) Altamira, Tamaulipas, Mexico. =============+===========+===========+===========+===========+=========== Age groups | Juvenile | Young | Subadult | Adult | Old adult -------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- Number | | | | | examined | 3 | 3 | 14 | 19 | 8 | | | | | | | | | | Total length | 77.0 | 92.6 | 97.6 | 99.9 | 101.6 | (74-79) | (89-96) | (91-103)| (93-105) | (98-107) | | | | | | | | | | Length | 27.3 | 39.3 | 40.4 | 39.8 | 40.9 of tail | (24-29) | (37-41) | (36-43) | (35-45) | (38-45) | | | | | | | | | | Length | 49.6 | 53.3 | 57.0 | 60.0 | 60.7 of body | (49-50) | (52-55) | (51-61) | (56-67) | (57-67) | | | | | | | | | | Length of | 11.0 | 13.6 | 14.3 | 14.5 | 14.2 hind foot | (11) | (13-14) |(13.5-15.0)| (14-15) | (13-15) | | | | | | | | | | Occipitonasal| 14.2 | 16.3 | 17.1 | 17.7 | 17.8 length |(13.6-15.2)|(15.8-16.9)|(16.7-17.6)|(17.2-18.3)|(17.6-18.1) | | | | | | | | | | Zygomatic | 8.1 | 8.7 | 8.9 | 9.3 | 9.4 breadth | (7.8-8.6) | (8.6-8.8) | (8.6-9.3) | (9.0-9.6) | (9.1-9.6) | | | | | | | | | | Interorbital | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.4 | 3.6 | 3.5 breadth | (3.3-3.5) | (3.3-3.6) | (3.3-3.6) | (3.4-3.8) | (3.3-3.6) | | | | | | | | | | Incisive | | | | | foramina | 2.9 | 3.5 | 3.7 | 3.9 | 3.9 (length) | (2.8-2.9) | (3.4-3.6) | (3.6-3.9) | (3.6-4.1) | (3.5-4.0) | | | | | | | | | | Depth | 5.9 | 6.5 | 6.5 | 6.7 | 6.8 of cranium | (5.6-6.2) | (6.3-6.8) | (6.2-6.8) | (6.4-7.0) | (6.5-7.1) | | | | | | | | | | Alveolar | | | | | length, | 2.7 | 2.9 | 2.9 | 3.0 | 3.0 upper molars | (2.5-2.8) | (2.9-3.0) | (2.8-3.1) | (2.9-3.2) | (3.0-3.1) | | | | | | | | | | Postpalatal | 4.8 | 5.9 | 6.2 | 6.5 | 6.5 length | (4.5-5.3) | (5.8-6.0) | (5.8-6.6) | (6.2-7.2) | (6.3-6.7) | | | | | | | | | | Breadth | 8.1 | 8.5 | 8.4 | 8.6 | 8.6 of braincase | (7.8-8.7) | (8.5) | (8.0-8.7) | (8.3-8.9) |(8.4-8.8) -------------+-----------+-----------+-----------+-----------+----------- SECONDARY SEXUAL VARIATION The method employed by Dice and Leraas (1936:2) was used to measure the secondary sexual differences, if there were any, in each of several age classes. As pointed out by Hooper (1952b:11), individual variation in small samples can obscure secondary sexual differences. The samples of _B. taylori_ from the vicinity (see page 595) of Altamira, Tamaulipas, and the samples of _B. musculus_ from El Salvador (table 2) were large enough to prevent individual variation from obscuring sexual differences. Nevertheless, no significant secondary sexual differences were found in either _B. taylori_ or _B. musculus_ (see table 2). Therefore, the sexes have been considered together for purposes of geographic studies. TABLE 2.--Analysis of Secondary Sexual Variation in Adult B. taylori Vicinity of (see p. 595) Altamira, Tamaulipas, and Adult B. musculus from El Salvador (see p. 595). (One Standard Deviation on Either Side of the Mean is Given.) ==============+==========================+============================ | Baiomys taylori | Baiomys musculus Character +------------+-------------+-------------+-------------- | 21 Males | 18 Females | 17 Males | 13 Females --------------+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------- | | | | Total length |98.4 ± 2.95 |100.5 ± 4.72 |112.04 ± 5.49|113.12 ± 4.23 | | | | Length of tail|40.1 ± 2.31 | 40.3 ± 2.39 | 47.12 ± 2.95| 45.70 ± 2.92 | | | | Length of body|57.83 ± 1.65| 60.10 ± 4.13| 66.67 ± 3.97| 67.75 ± 2.38 | | | | Length of | | | | hind foot |14.21 ± .53 | 14.44 ± .51 | 15.60 ± .49 | 15.38 ± .64 | | | | Length of ear |10.00 ± .00 | 10.00 ± .00 | 11.80 ± .65 | 12.00 ± .41 | | | | Occipitonasal | | | | length |17.48 ± .40 | 17.47 ± .47 | 19.32 ± .35 | 19.04 ± .44 | | | | Zygomatic | | | | breadth | 9.17 ± .33 | 9.15 ± .30 | 9.84 ± .21 | 9.91 ± .28 | | | | Least | | | | interorbital | | | | breadth | 3.53 ± .11 | 3.48 ± .11 | 3.88 ± .08 | 3.88 ± .12 | | | | Postpalatal | | | | length | 6.35 ± .19 | 6.38 ± .30 | 7.11 ± .15 | 6.95 ± .20 | | | | Depth | | | | of cranium | 6.65 ± .24 | 6.61 ± .17 | 7.10 ± .18 | 7.08 ± .18 | | | | Incisive | | | | foramina | | | | (length) | 3.82 ± .15 | 3.81 ± .18 | 4.43 ± .11 | 4.35 ± .14 | | | | Length | | | | of rostrum | 5.87 ± .20 | 5.88 ± .21 | 6.81 ± .16 | 6.66 ± .31 | | | | Breadth | | | | of braincase | 8.54 ± .23 | 8.52 ± .12 | 9.84 ± .38 | 9.52 ± .20 | | | | Alveolar | | | | length, | | | | upper molars | 2.98 ± .08 | 3.01 ± .08 | 3.20 ± .09 | 3.24 ± .10 --------------+------------+-------------+-------------+-------------- INDIVIDUAL VARIATION Length of tail varied more than any other measurement used by me in taxonomic comparisons. Clark (1941:298), Hoffmeister (1951:16), and Van Gelder (1959:239) point out that external measurements generally are more variable than measurements of the cranium, probably because different techniques of measuring are employed by different collectors. As can be noted in table 3, females varied more than males. In the 3520 specimens examined, an extra tooth was observed in only one (see Hooper, 1955:298). The left mandibular tooth-row of an adult male (USNM 71539) from Omentepec, Guerrero, is worn more than the right one. Irregularities in number of teeth and abnormalities in individual teeth seem to be rare in pygmy mice. TABLE 3.--Individual Variation: Coefficients of Variation for Dimensions of External and Cranial Parts in a Population of B. Musculus and B. Taylori. =====================+=========================+========================= | Baiomys taylori | Baiomys musculus +-------------------------+------------------------- | Vic. (see page 595) | Vic. (see page 595) Measurement | Altamira, Tamaulipas | El Salvador +-----------+-------------+------------+------------ | 21 Males | 18 Females | 17 Males | 13 Females | C. V. | C. V. | C. V. | C. V. ---------------------+-----------+-------------+------------+------------ | | | | Total length | 3.0 | 4.7 | 4.9 | 3.7 Length of tail | 5.7 | 5.9 | 6.2 | 6.4 Length of body | 2.8 | 5.0 | 5.9 | 3.5 Length of hind foot | 3.7 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 4.1 Length of ear | 0.0 | 0.0 | 5.5 | 3.3 | | | | Occipitonasal length | 2.2 | 2.7 | 1.8 | 2.3 Zygomatic breadth | 3.6 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 2.7 Interorbital breadth | 3.2 | 3.3 | 2.2 | 2.9 Incisive foramina | | | | (length) | 3.8 | 4.6 | 2.5 | 3.2 Depth of cranium | 3.6 | 2.5 | 2.5 | 2.5 Alveolar length, | | | | upper molars | 2.7 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.2 Postpalatal length | 3.1 | 4.7 | 2.1 | 2.9 Length of rostrum | 3.3 | 3.6 | 2.4 | 4.7 Breadth of braincase | 2.7 | 1.4 | 4.0 | 4.9 ---------------------+-----------+-------------+------------+------------ The posterior margin of the bony palate varies from semicircular to nearly V-shaped. The suture between the nasals and frontals varies from V-shaped to truncate to W-shaped. The maxillary part of the zygoma varies from broad to slender in dorsoventral width in both species. PELAGE AND MOLTS There are three distinct pelages, juvenal, postjuvenal, and adult. The sequences of molt and change of pelage from the juvenal, to the postjuvenal, and from it to adult, are essentially as reported for _Peromyscus_ by Collins (1918:78-81; 1924:58-60) and Hoffmeister (1951:5). The juvenal pelage is uniformly dusky gray throughout except for the paler gray on the venter. In most juvenal mice, the yellow to ochraceous pigments of the subterminal bands are reduced or absent. Unlike _Peromyscus_, _Baiomys_ has bright brownish hairs on the head as the first evidence of the postjuvenal molt (see Figure 4, part a). Blair (1941:381) reports adult pelage in pygmy mice being evident first at an age of 46 days. Two of my juveniles born in captivity began the postjuvenal molt on the 38th and 40th days. The area of new hairs on the head spreads most rapidly posteriorly. New hair appears ventrally and laterally at the end of 46 days (see Figure 4, part b). Hair replacement proceeds more slowly after the "saddle back" stage (described in _Peromyscus_ by Collins, 1918:80) has been reached. That stage was reached in two pygmy mice at 52 days (see Figure 4, part c). Areas immediately posterior to the ears, in the scapular region, molt last. The postjuvenal pelage was seemingly complete in one captive pygmy mouse at the end of 60 days. Another captive failed to complete its growth of new pelage until two additional weeks had elapsed. Length of time required to molt in pygmy mice is about the same as that reported by Layne (1959:72) in _Reithrodontomys_. [Illustration: FIG. 4. Diagrams showing progress of the postjuvenal molt in pygmy mice. For explanation of a, b, and c, see text. All approximately 2/3 natural size.] If, after the postjuvenal molt, a distinct adult pelage is acquired it is difficult to separate it from the annual replacement of pelage in adults at the beginning of the rainy season. Adults of both species have been found in molt in all months of the year. To the north, in Texas, the pelage of winter-taken specimens is denser and slightly more reddish than that of specimens taken in spring and summer. In the two last mentioned seasons, the pelage is more uniformly gray. To the south, in México, the pelage is heavy and long in most specimens taken in the rainy season. The percentage of specimens in molt immediately before the rainy season and immediately before the dry season is slightly higher than in specimens taken at other times of the year. The adult or seasonal molt (both loss of old pelage and growth of new) resembles that in _Peromyscus truei gilberti_, described by Hoffmeister (1951:6) as proceeding "posteriorly as a wave over the entire back." The new hair is slightly brighter than the old. Old adults are usually in ragged pelage regardless of season; possibly only one regular annual change of pelage occurs in most animals before they die. Only one case of melanism was observed among all the specimens of both species examined. It was a young male _B. t. taylori_, KU 35943, from 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, Coahuila, possessing black hairs throughout. Its hairs are longer and finer than those on specimens of comparable age and sex. No albino was found, although Stickel and Stickel (1949:145) record one--an adult male of _B. taylori_. TAXONOMIC CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS _External parts._--Length of body, foot, ear, and tail are useful when considered together in distinguishing species and subspecies. I found as Hooper (1952a:91) did that length of ear in combination with length of hind foot suffices to identify nearly all specimens to species, especially where the two species occur together. _Pelage._--Color in adults is of especial value in subspecific determination; the manner in which it varies geographically is described on pages 609, 630. _Skull._--Difference in occipitonasal length and zygomatic breadth, both having low coefficients of variation, are useful in separating species, especially where they are sympatric. Shape of presphenoid, nasals, interparietal, frontoparietal sutures, and length and degree of the openings of the incisive foramina are useful in delimiting subspecies. The rostrum of _B. taylori_, in front of the frontonasal suture, is deflected three to five degrees ventrally in 85 per cent of the adults examined, and in _B. musculus_ is less, or not at all, deflected. _Teeth._--Alveolar length of the upper and lower molar tooth-rows aids in distinguishing fossil and Recent species, and to a lesser degree in delimiting subspecies. Occlusal pattern is useful in estimating the relationship of fossil and living species. Degree of development of the mesostyle, mesostylid, mesoloph, and mesolophid have been useful in determining relationship between fossil and living species as well as useful in separating the living species. Rinker (1954:119) and Hooper (1957:48) have shown the degree of variation in dental patterns in _Peromyscus_, _Sigmodon_, and _Oryzomys_, mice thought to be closely related to _Baiomys_. In pygmy mice, however, the dental patterns are relatively constant. The lophs and styles are subject to some geographic variation but, nevertheless, are useful in estimating relationships. [Illustration: FIG. 5. Ventral view of hyoid bones. × 18. A. _Baiomys musculus brunneus_, adult, female, No. 30182 KU, Potrero Viejo, 1700 feet, Veracruz. B. _Baiomys taylori analogous_, adult, female, No. 36761 KU, 2 mi. N Ciudad Guzmán, 5000 feet, Jalisco.] _Hyoid apparatus._--Shape and, to a lesser extent, size of the hyoid apparatus differentiate nearly all specimens of _B. taylori_ from all those of _B. musculus_. The hyoid of _B. taylori_ differs from that of _B. musculus_ principally in the shape of the basihyal. It possesses an anteriorly pointed entoglossal process in _B. musculus_, and is not rounded to completely absent as in _B. taylori_ (see Figure 5). The shoulders of the basihyal protrude anteriorly in _B. musculus_, and are not flattened as in _B. taylori_. The total length was measured in a sample of 55 basihyals of _B. musculus_, and was compared to the total length of a sample of 80 basihyals of _B. taylori_. The means of the two samples differ significantly at the 95 per cent level; the mean plus two standard errors of _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_, are, respectively, 2.43 ± .02; 2.18 ± .03. There is sufficient overlap of the samples (mean plus one standard deviation of _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_, respectively: 2.43 ± .15; 2.18 ± .15) to make the total length of the basihyal of only secondary importance in distinguishing species, but shape and total length of the basihyal, when considered together, serve to identify all specimens to species. When length of the basihyal is plotted against occipitonasal length (see Figure 6), all specimens studied, regardless of age or geographical origin, were separated at the level of species. The hypohyals of _B. taylori_ seemingly remain distinct throughout life; those of _B. musculus_ completely fuse in some adults. The ceratohyals are highly variable in shape and of little taxonomic use. [Illustration: FIG. 6. Relationship of length of basihyal to occipitonasal length of skull. Black symbols, all below the curved line, represent measurements of _B. taylori_; open symbols, all above the curved line, represent measurements of _B. musculus_.] The degree of geographic variation in shape of basihyal is not great. Specimens of _B. musculus pallidus_ from 1 km. NW Chapa, Guerrero, have a small indentation on the anteriormost part of the entoglossal process. The shoulder of the basihyal is directed less forward in specimens of _B. taylori taylori_ from 6 mi. N, 6 mi. W Altamira, Tamaulipas, than in other specimens of the species. The variations observed seemed not to be clinal. According to White (1953:548) the hyoid, like the baculum (Burt, 1936:146), is little influenced by changes in external environment and may serve to clarify intergeneric relationships. Hyoids of both species of _Baiomys_ are smaller than hyoids of all subgenera of _Peromyscus_. In shape, the hyoids of _Baiomys_ resemble those of _Ochrotomys nuttalli_ (as explained on page 605, _Ochrotomys_ is here accorded generic, instead of subgeneric, rank). In size, the hyoid of both species of _Baiomys_ resembles that in _Reithrodontomys_. Sprague (1941:304) reports a resemblance in shape between the ceratohyals of _Baiomys_ and _Reithrodontomys_. The thyrohyals differ from those of _Reithrodontomys_, being less boot-shaped, and having a slight terminal expansion as in _Ochrotomys_ (see Sprague, _loc. cit._). In shape, the large basihyal of _Onychomys_ resembles the smaller one of _B. musculus_. The basihyal of _Oryzomys_ lacks the entoglossal process present in _Baiomys_. On the basis of shape of hyoid, _Baiomys_ seems to be most closely related to _Ochrotomys_. [Illustration: FIG. 7. Dorsal view of bacula. × 16. A. _B. musculus brunneus_, adult, No. 24336 KU, 3 kms. W Boca del Río, 10 feet, Veracruz. B. _B. taylori taylori_, adult, No. 35937 KU, 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, Coahuila.] _Baculum._--Of _Baiomys_, 166 bacula were processed, using the method of White (1951:125), and studied. They provide characters of taxonomic worth at the level of species and aid in evaluating generic relationships. The baculum of _B. taylori_ differs from that of _B. musculus_ in: shaft narrow; wings anterior to base projecting dorsolaterally instead of anteriorly; anterior part knob-shaped having indentation at tip, instead of anterior part spatulate-shaped (in some) to knob-shaped (see Figure 7), without indentation; significantly shorter (see Table 4). TABLE 4.--Length of Bacula ==============+===========+=========+==========+===========+========== | Number of | Average | 3 × | 1 | Species | specimens | length | standard | standard | Range | | | error | deviation | --------------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+---------- _B. taylori_ | 108 | 2.535 | .078 | .274 | 2.00-3.12 | | | | | _B. musculus_ | 58 | 3.324 | .090 | .233 | 2.80-3.88 --------------+-----------+---------+----------+-----------+---------- In each of the two species, individual and geographic variation in the baculum is slight; its length varies insignificantly according to age. Excluding juveniles contained in Table 4, but including young and subadults, only three bacula of _B. taylori_ were longer than 3 mm., and only one baculum of _B. musculus_ (a young) was shorter than 3 mm. The total length of the baculum, considered together with its shape, serves to identify to species all specimens examined by me. The bacula of both species of _Baiomys_ were compared with bacula of _Akodon_, _Scotinomys_, _Holochilus_, _Oryzomys_, _Zygodontomys_, _Reithrodontomys_, _Thaptomys_, and _Calomys_ and illustrations of bacula by Blair (1942:197, 200) of _Peromyscus_ (subgenera _Peromyscus_, _Haplomylomys_, _Podomys_), _Ochrotomys_, and material at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History of _Megadontomys_. Shape of baculum most resembled that of _Ochrotomys_ and _Calomys_. The bacula of _Baiomys_, as pointed out by Blair (_op cit._:203), differ as much from those of the genus _Peromyscus_ as do the bacula of _Reithrodontomys_ and _Onychomys_. In size of baculum, _Baiomys_ resembles _Ochrotomys_. Blair (_op. cit._:202) pointed out that the length of the baculum of _B. taylori subater_ was contained in the length of the animal's body 20.3 times, and 24.2 times in the length of that of _Ochrotomys nuttalli_. The length of the baculum of _B. musculus_ (average of 58 specimens without regard to subspecies) is contained in the length of the body (of specimens from which the bacula were removed) 22.7 times, a figure approaching that in _Ochrotomys_. When bacula of both species of _Baiomys_ were compared to those of _O. nuttalli_, bacula of _B. musculus_ were found to most closely resemble those of _O. nuttalli_. The baculum of a single specimen of _Calomys_ (_C. laucha_) was contained in the length of the body 15.5 times. In general shape, as well as in possession of an anterior knob and the position of the expanded posterior wings, the baculum of _C. laucha_ resembles the baculum of _Ochrotomys_ and _Baiomys musculus_. Blair (_op. cit._:201) considers generic _versus_ subgeneric rank for _Ochrotomys_, and on the basis of studies of the phallus Hooper (1958:23) stated that "it is clear that _nuttalli_ should be removed from _Peromyscus_ and should be listed as _Ochrotomys nuttalli_ (Harlan)." I agree with Hooper (_loc. cit._) and point out that on the basis of the baculum, there is less of a hiatus between _Baiomys_ on the one hand, and _Ochrotomys_ and _Calomys_ on the other hand, than there is between any one of those three genera and _Peromyscus_. White (1953:631) reported that the baculum of chipmunks might indicate relationships more clearly than do skulls and skins. He thought that skulls might more quickly than bacula reflect the habitus of the animal. The resemblance in cranial morphology between _Peromyscus_ and _Baiomys_ is judged to be the result of such a convergence of habitus and the baculum in _Baiomys_ is thought to reflect relationships more accurately than does the skull. _Auditory ossicles._--Examination of a number of auditory ossicles of _Baiomys_ reveals constant interspecific differences in the malleus and incus. There is only slight individual variation, slight variation with age, and no secondary sexual variation. In _Baiomys taylori_ the orbicular apophysis of the malleus (see Figure 8, A) is rounded to nearly ovoid; the anterior process is pointed, and the neck is short, being slightly recurved. The body of the incus is round and the short process is elongate. The sides of the long limb of the incus are nearly parallel. The lenticular process is relatively large. The posterior and anterior crus of the stapes are bowed, and the muscular process is either absent or much reduced. In _Baiomys musculus_, the orbicular apophysis of the malleus (see Figure 8, B) is round to oblong, and less ovoid than in _B. taylori_; the anterior process is less acutely pointed than in _B. taylori_, and the neck is long, less recurved than in _B. taylori_. The body of the incus, though tending to be round, is more flattened, and the short process is knob-shaped, not elongated. The sides of the long limb of the incus are not parallel. The lenticular process is, relative to the size of the incus, small. The posterior and anterior crus of the stapes are more nearly straight than in _taylori_. A prominent muscular process occurs on the posterior crus. The auditory ossicles of representative species of all the subgenera of _Peromyscus_ were studied as were the ossicles of _Onychomys_, _Ochrotomys_, _Oryzomys_, _Akodon_, _Thaptomys_, _Zygodontomys_, _Calomys_, _Reithrodontomys_, and _Holochilus_. [Illustration: FIG. 8. Lateral views of auditory ossicles. × 20. A. _B. taylori analogous_, adult, female, No. 28104 KU, 4 kms. ENE Tlalmanalco, 2290 meters, Estado de México. B. _B. musculus pallidus_, adult, male, No. 28346 KU, Cahuilotal, Sacacoyuca, 960 meters, Guerrero.] The general plan of structure of the auditory ossicles in _Baiomys_ resembles that in _Calomys_, _Akodon_, and _Thaptomys_. The ossicles of _Calomys_ and _Thaptomys_, in particular, closely resemble the auditory ossicles of _Baiomys musculus_. The short process of the incus is knoblike in _Calomys_ and _Thaptomys_, and the general conformation of malleus and stapes in those two genera is nearly identical to that in _B. musculus_. In _Akodon_, the anterior and posterior crus of the stapes is more rounded than in _B. musculus_, resembling that in _B. taylori_. _Reithrodontomys_ differ from _Baiomys_ in having a more elongate orbicular apophysis on the body of the malleus, an elongated short limb on the incus, and a stapes having anterior and posterior crura bowed as in mice of the genus _Peromyscus_. In _Ochrotomys_, the orbicular apophysis of the malleus resembles the orbicular apophysis of _B. musculus_, but the short process of the incus is longer, resembling the short process of _B. taylori_. In general conformation of the malleus, incus, and stapes, _Ochrotomys_ shows closer resemblance to _B. taylori_ than to _B. musculus_. In _Holochilus_ the anterior crus and posterior crus of the stapes are similar to those in _B. musculus_, but in shape and size of malleus and incus, _Holochilus_ differs considerably from _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_. In _Zygodontomys_, size and shape of the ossicles differ greatly from those of _Baiomys_. In the genus _Peromyscus_, only _Peromyscus floridanus_ (subgenus _Podomys_) possesses a knoblike short process on the incus similar to that in _B. musculus_; representatives of the other subgenera examined possess an elongated short limb on the incus. The conformation of the ossicles of both _Onychomys_ and _Oryzomys_ appears to be more nearly like that in _Peromyscus_ than that of _Baiomys_. On the basis of shape and size of auditory ossicles, _Baiomys_ resembles South American hesperomines (_Calomys_ and _Thaptomys_) rather than North American hesperomines. Genus =Baiomys= True 1894. _Baiomys_ True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 16:758, February 7. Type, _Hesperomys (Vesperimus) taylori_ Thomas. _Diagnosis._--Size small (total length in adults, 93-135); tail shorter than head and body; hind foot in adults 12-17; ears small (8-12) and rounded; upper parts blackish sepia to ochraceous-buff; underparts slaty gray to white or pale buffy; eyes small; hind feet having six plantar pads, soles nearly naked except for some hairs on anterior parts of soles and anteriorly to base of toes and between toes; occipitonasal length of skull in adults, 17.0-21.5; zygomatic breadth, 9.0-11.5; coronoid process of mandible well developed, strongly recurved; ascending ramus of mandible short and erect; anterior palatine foramina (incisive foramina) long, usually terminating posterior to plane of the front of first molars; posterior palatine foramina nearly opposite middle of M2; interorbital space wide relative to widest part of frontals; nasals projecting only slightly over incisors; condyle terminal; upper incisors relatively heavy; primary first fold of M3 obliterated at an early stage of wear; major cusps of upper and lower anteriormost two molars alternating, more so in m1-m2 than in M1-M2, dental formula I/i, 1/1; C/c, 0/0; P/p, M/m, 3/3 = 16. For distribution of the genus, see Figure 9. [Illustration: FIG. 9. Geographic distribution of the genus _Baiomys_. Black area shows where the two species occur together. Black dot (Acultzingo, Veracruz) shows locality where _Baiomys taylori_ occurs within the range of _B. musculus_, but _B. musculus_ is not known to occur at that locality.] SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF SPECIES AND SUBSPECIES =Baiomys musculus= Southern Pygmy Mouse (Synonymy under subspecies) _Type._--_Sitomys musculus_ Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 7:170, September 29, 1892. _Range._--Southern Nayarit, Michoacán, México, Morelos, Puebla, and central Veracruz, southeastward to western Nicaragua, but unknown from southern Veracruz, Tabasco, and the Yucatán Peninsula (see Figure 10); occurs principally in the arid upper and lower divisions of the Tropical Life-zone. _Characters for ready recognition._--Unless otherwise noted, characters are usable only for the two age-categories of adult and old adult. Differs from _B. taylori_ in: hind foot 16 millimeters or more; occipitonasal length, 19 millimeters or more; zygomatic breadth, 10 millimeters or more; rostrum not deflected ventrally at frontoparietal suture but, instead, curving gradually toward anteriormost point of nasals; cingular ridges and secondary cusps on teeth more pronounced; basihyal having anterior pointed entoglossal process, shoulders of basihyal protruding anteriorly (characteristic of all age categories); baculum having broader shaft, spatulate to knob-shaped tip, wings at base projecting anteriorly; baculum more than 3 millimeters long; short process of incus knob-shaped rather than attenuate; muscular process of posterior crus of stapes prominent. _Characters of the species._--Size large (extremes in external measurements of adults; total length, 100-135; length of tail vertebrae, 33-56; length of hind foot, 14.1-17; length of ear, 9-12); upper parts dark reddish brown, or ochraceous-buff to nearly black; underparts pale pinkish buff to white or pale buffy. _Geographic variation._--Eight subspecies are here recognized (see Figure 10). Features that vary geographically are external size, color of pelage, certain cranial dimensions (occipitonasal length, zygomatic breadth, least interorbital breadth, length of rostrum, length of incisive foramina, depth and breadth of cranium, and alveolar length of upper molar tooth-row). External and cranial size (except for _B. m. handleyi_) is less in the southernmost subspecies, _B. m. pullus_, _B. m. grisescens_, _B. m. nigrescens_, and more in the northernmost subspecies, _B. m. musculus_, _B. m. brunneus_, and _B. m. infernatis_. Increase in size from south to north is in keeping with Bergman's Rule that within a species, smaller individuals occur in warmer parts of its geographic range. Southern pygmy mice at high altitudes average larger than those from low elevations, except where the two species are sympatric. There the Southern Pygmy Mouse is uniformly larger, regardless of altitude. Osgood (1909:257, 259) suggested that degree of relative humidity might in some way control color of pelage in both _B. taylori_ and _B. musculus_. In _B. musculus_, the darker subspecies, _B. m. brunneus_, _B. m. nigrescens_, and _B. m. pullus_, occur in zones of rather constant high relative humidity, whereas the paler subspecies _infernatis_, _musculus_, _handleyi_, and to a less extent _grisescens_ and _pallidus_, occur in zones of lower relative humidity. This is in keeping with Gloger's Rule, which states that melanins increase in the warm and humid parts of the range of a species, and reddish or yellowish-brown phaeomelanins prevail in arid climates. _B. m. musculus_ ranges into areas where relative humidity is such that darker pelages might be expected, but this is in the area where the two species are sympatric, and color of pelage may be an important character of recognition. [Illustration: FIG. 10. Distribution of _Baiomys musculus_. Known localities of occurrence are represented by circles and black dots; the former denote localities that are peripheral (marginal) for the subspecies concerned. 1. _B. m. brunneus_ 2. _B. m. grisescens_ 3. _B. m. handleyi_ 4. _B. m. infernatis_ 5. _B. m. musculus_ 6. _B. m. nigrescens_ 7. _B. m. pallidus_ 8. _B. m. pullus_] _Natural History_ _Habitat and numbers._--In Veracruz, Dalquest obtained the southern pygmy mouse in stands of tall grass (_Spartina?_) in sandy loam soil bordering, and in, dense vegetation; Davis (1944:394) found the species living in dense stands of grasses and seemingly utilizing underground burrows. Near Chilpancingo, Guerrero, rocky situations seemed to be the preferred habitat. Davis (_loc. cit._) believed that the species has a wide tolerance to kinds of habitats. In Morelos, Davis and Russell (1954:75) found these mice to be abundant along rock fences separating cultivated fields, and in arid lowlands. In Colima, Hooper (1955b:13) obtained specimens from an open thorn forest in sparse grass and rocky hillside bounding a stream and in litter below shrubs on the floor of a nut-palm forest; in Michoacán, these mice were taken in cane grass, shrubs, and mesquite near an irrigation ditch. From Guatemala, Goodwin (1934:39, 40) records specimens from Sacapulas, a hot, dry, sandy area where cactus and sparse grasses are present, and from La Primavera, on the edges of pine-oak-alder forests. Felten (1958:137) has taken _musculus_ from bushy areas in El Salvadore. In 1955, I obtained the southern pygmy mouse 6 mi. SW Izucár de Matemores, Puebla, along a stream in heavy grass bordered by cypress, willow, fig, bamboo, and in rocky grazed area near sugar cane fields. The southern pygmy mouse seems to be locally abundant in certain parts of its geographic range, and in other parts, scarce. For example, Dalquest (_in. litt._) recorded the pygmy mouse as common at a place 2 km. N Paraje Nuevo, 1700 feet, Veracruz, where, by means of 50 traps, he took 14 of these mice in one night. The species was scarcer, although the habitat seemed suitable, 3 km. N Presidio, 1500 feet, Veracruz, where he caught only two pygmy mice in several days of trapping. Six miles southwest of Izucár de Matemores, the pygmy mouse was the most common rodent. I have trapped for it in Oaxaca and Veracruz in habitats that seemed almost identical to those mentioned by Dalquest, and also that at Izucár de Matemores, Puebla, with almost no success. The reason for the seeming disparity in numbers at different localities having nearly the same kind of habitat is unknown to me and bears further investigation. _Behavior._--Little is recorded concerning the behavior of this species. David and Russell (_op. cit._:76) found that of small mammals _B. musculus_ was the first to appear at night. I caught mice of this species by hand in the afternoon in Puebla. They seemed to be active from noon until dark. Albert Alcorn wrote in his field notes that specimens were taken near noon at a place 9 mi. NNW Estelí, Nicaragua. My impression is that _musculus_ is diurnal to crepuscular. _Enemies and food._--Owl pellets (thought to be those of a barn owl, _Tyto alba_) from within the geographic range of _B. musculus_, from 6 mi. SW Izucár de Matemores, yielded mandibular tooth-rows belonging to _musculus_. Presumably, most of the carnivorous mammals and raptorial birds within the range of the southern pygmy mouse could be listed as enemies. Diurnal to crepuscular habits of this mouse may protect it from some of the nocturnal carnivorous mammals and raptorial birds. Food of the southern pygmy mouse includes nuts, bark, grass seeds, and leaves. Dalquest (MS) writes that bits of banana proved to be useful bait in trapping these mice in Veracruz. _Reproduction._--Notations concerning lactation and embryos on specimen labels of females suggest that the southern pygmy mouse breeds in all months. I have records of pregnant or lactating females in every month, save January, April, May, and June. The average of 26 counts of embryos or young per litter is 2.92 (1-4). =Baiomys musculus brunneus= (J. A. Allen and Chapman) _Peromyscus musculus brunneus_ J. A. Allen and Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:203, June 16, 1897; Elliott, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(4):136, July 1, 1905; Elliott, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 115(8):203, 1907; Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:259, April 17, 1909. _Baiomys musculus brunneus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912; Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:318, April 29, 1924; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:437, July 31, 1951; Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 102:318, August 31, 1953; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955; Booth, Walla Walla Publs., Dept. Biol. Sci., 20:15, July 10, 1957; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). [_Peromyscus musculus_] _brunneus_, Elliott, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 95(4): 176, 1904. _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:258, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Davis, Jour. Mamm., 25:394, December 12, 1944 (part); Goldman, Smith Miscl. Coll., 115:437, July 31, 1951; Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part); Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _brunneus_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:96, February 18, 1952. _Baiomys taylori_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 12535/10845 American Museum of Natural History; Jalapa, Veracruz, Republic of México; obtained on April 13, 1897, by F. M. Chapman, original number 1203. _Range._--Central Veracruz, coastal plains and eastern slopes of the plateau of Central México, see Figure 10. Zonal range: Upper Tropical Life-zone (Lowery and Dalquest, 1951:537), parts of the Veracruz and eastern Transverse Volcanic biotic provinces of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from near sea level at Boca del Río, Veracruz, up to 5500 feet 3 km. SE Orizaba. _Diagnosis._--Size medium to large for the species; ground color of dorsum of paratypes near Olive Brown; darkest of specimens of this subspecies examined (from Potrero Viejo, Veracruz) between Prouts Brown and Mummy Brown; distal two-thirds of guard hairs of dorsum black, proximal third dark gray to sooty; hairs of dorsum black-tipped having subterminal band of Ochraceous-Tawny; sides paler (less of dark brown) than dorsum; venter Deep Olive Buff to clay color, individual hairs pale olive buff at tips, dark gray basally; region of throat and chin sooty gray; ventralmost vibrissae white to base, other vibrissae black to base; ears dark brown, sparsely haired; forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored in palest specimens, sooty in darkest; tail pale brown, slightly paler below than above; presphenoid only slightly constricted towards midline; average and extreme external and cranial measurements of 10 adults from Cerro Gordo, Veracruz, are as follows: total length, 118.9 (112-127); length of tail vertebrae, 45.1 (42-50); length of body, 74.0 (69-78); length of hind foot, 16.0 (16); length of ear from notch, 12.8 (12-13); occipitonasal length, 19.5 (19.0-20.0); zygomatic breadth, 10.3 (10.0-10.8); postpalatal length, 7.1 (6.7-7.5); least interorbital breadth, 3.9 (3.7-4.0); length of incisive foramina, 4.4 (4.1-4.6); length of rostrum, 6.9 (6.5-7.2); breadth of braincase, 9.5 (9.2-9.7); depth of cranium, 7.1 (7.1-7.4); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.3 (3.2-3.3); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_a_, and Plate 3_a_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. nigrescens_, see account of that subspecies. From _B. m. pallidus_, _B. m. brunneus_ differs in: dorsal, lateral, and facial coloration deeper reddish brown, more melanins present; venter darker; buff gray rather than whitish buff to gray as in paratypical series; vibrissae black rather than brownish to white; tail sooty, less flesh-colored; forefeet and hind feet averaging slightly grayer; most external and cranial dimensions averaging slightly larger; nasals less attenuated; presphenoid less hour-glass shaped, sides more nearly straight. From _B. m. infernatis_, _B. m. brunneus_ differs in: side of face and neck deep reddish-brown rather than yellowish-gray (the differences in dorsal colorations are greater between _brunneus_ and _infernatis_ than between _brunneus_ and _pallidus_); venter darker buff-gray; tail brownish rather than flesh-colored; forefeet and hind feet average slightly grayer; most external dimensions averaging slightly larger; cranial dimensions nearly the same except length of incisive foramina, which is smaller; presphenoid differs in much the same way as from pallidus. _Remarks_.--Specimens from Chichicaxtle, Puente Nacional, 3 km. W Boca del Río, 1 km. E. Mecayucan, and Río Blanco (20 km. WNW Piedras Negras), are all paler than the paratypical series and other specimens from within the assigned range of _B. m. brunneus_. All these specimens from the coastal plain average considerably paler than those from the front range and slopes of the mountains. Specimens from Puente Nacional are intermediate in color between paler, grayish brown, specimens from the coastal plains and the darker, brown, specimens from the mountains. When Allen and Chapman (1897:203) described _brunneus_, they did so on the basis of the darker brown mice from the higher altitudes. The name, _brunneus_, _sensu stricto_, could be restricted to those mice from the higher altitudes of central Veracruz. However, when the mice of intermediate color from Puente Nacional are considered, it seems best to include the material from the coastal plain with _brunneus_. Crania from the higher altitudes are slightly larger than, but not significantly different from, crania of specimens from the coastal plains. Specimens examined from the coastal plains resemble the darker series of _B. m. pallidus_ to the west in central México. But there is no evidence of gene flow between the paler coastal specimens and _B. m. pallidus_ to the west. In fact, these paler brown mice on the coastal plain grade in color into the darker brown mice from the mountains. The paler mice from the coast may be an incipient subspecies. The type and paratypes seem to have faded somewhat since they were described by Allen and Chapman (_loc. cit._) and by Osgood (1909:259). However, the color of the paratypes and other specimens herein assigned is the feature most useful for distinguishing _brunneus_ from all other subspecies of _B. musculus_. _Specimens examined._--Total 187 all from VERACRUZ, Republic of México, and distributed as follows: type locality, 4400 ft., 16[1] (including the type), 6[2], 1[3]; _Cerro Gordo_, 1500 ft., 19; _Teocelo_ [= _Texolo_], 4500 ft., 1; _2 mi. NW Plan del Río_, 1000 ft., 14[4]; _Plan del Río_, 1000 ft., 2[5]; _Carrizal_, 4[2]; Chichicaxtle, 3[2]; _Puente Nacional_, 500 ft., 1[5], 2; _Santa Maria, near Mirador_, 1800 ft., 10[2]; Boca del Río, 10 ft., 1[5], 8; _Córdoba_ [= _Córdova_], 14[1]; _4 km. WNW Fortín_, 4; _Río Atoyac, 8 km. NW Potrero_, 1; _2 km. N. Paraje Nuevo_, 1700 ft., 9; _El Xuchil_, _1 mi. W. Paraje Nuevo_, 6[6]; Potrero Viejo, 1700 ft. 15; _Cautlapán_ [= _Ixtaczequitlán_], 4000 ft., 16; _Micayucan_, 1; 3 km. SE Orizaba, 5500 ft., 3; Río Blanco, 20 km. WNW Piedras Negras, 400 ft, 7; _29 km. SE Córdoba, Presidio_, 15[4]; _3 km. N Presidio_, 1500 ft., 2; Presidio, 600 meters, 6[3]. _Marginal records._--VERACRUZ: type locality; Chichicaxtle; Boca del Río, 10 ft.; Río Blanco, 20 km. WNW Piedras Negras, 400 ft; Presidio; 3 km. SE Orizaba, 5500 ft. [1] American Museum of Natural History. [2] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [3] Chicago Natural History Museum. [4] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [5] Texas A & M, Coop. Wildlife Res. Coll. [6] Univ. Illinois, Mus. Nat. History. =Baiomys musculus grisescens= Goldman _Baiomys musculus griesescens_ Goldman, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 45:121, July 30, 1932; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:259, March 6, 1942; Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 79(2):160-161, May 29, 1942 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:513, March 3, 1955 (part); Felten, Senck. Biol., 39:136, August 30, 1958; Packard, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:401, December 19, 1958; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 257083 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Comayabuela [= Comayaguela] just south of Tegucigalpa, 3100 feet, Honduras; obtained on March 6, 1932, by C. F. Underwood, original number 838. _Range._--Central to south-central Guatemala, east to south-central Honduras. Zonal range: Lower parts of the Merendon Biotic Province of Smith (1949:235). Occurs from 3200 feet at a place 1/2 mi. N and 1 mi. W Salama, Guatemala, up to approximately 4500 feet at Monte Redondo, Guatemala. _Diagnosis._--Size medium to small for the species; general ground color of dorsum between Olive Brown and Buffy Brown; distal fourth of individual guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, proximal three-fourths gray, underfur black-tipped with subterminal band of Vinaceous-Buff, gray basally; facial region below eye Olive-Buff to Deep Olive-Buff; regions of flanks without black-tipped guard hairs, therefore, appearing paler brownish-buff than dorsum; venter Pale Olive-Buff to whitish in midline, hairs there white to base, laterally grayish basally; hairs in region of throat and chin resemble those of underparts; forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored with grayish suffusion; ears dusky brown; tail almost unicolored, slightly darker brown above than below; coronoid process less acutely falcate than in other subspecies; zygoma bowed. Average and extreme external and cranial measurements of 14 adults from La Piedra de Jesús Sabana Grande, Honduras, are as follows: Total length, 110.7 (100-123); length of tail vertebrae, 44.0 (32-55); length of body, 66.7 (60-70); length of hind foot, 14.1 (12-15); length of ear from notch, 11.8 (10-13); occipitonasal length, 19.3 (18.9-19.8); zygomatic breadth, 10.1 (9.8-10.4); postpalatal length, 6.8 (6.2-7.3); least interorbital breadth, 3.9 (3.8-4.1); length of incisive foramina, 4.3 (4.0-4.5); length of rostrum, 6.9 (6.6-7.2); breadth of braincase, 9.6 (9.2-10.1); depth of cranium, 7.0 (6.8-7.3); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.2 (3.0-3.4); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_b_, and Plate 3_b_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. pullus_ and _B. m. handleyi_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. m. nigrescens_, _B. m. grisescens_ differs in: dorsum less blackish (dark brown to buffy); face buffy below eye rather than brownish-black; venter buffy to whitish in midline, not sooty gray; forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored with gray overtones, not dusky to sooty; zygoma bowed, sides less parallel; braincase and bony palate slightly broader. _Remarks._--Goodwin (1942:160) mentioned that a specimen from the type locality of _grisescens_ was as dark as specimens of _B. m. nigrescens_ from Guatemala. However, all specimens from Guatemala, other than those from Sacapulas, were referred by Goodwin (1934:40) to _B. m. nigrescens_. My studies reveal a grayish-brown population in central Honduras near to and including the type locality. This population appears to grade into a slightly paler, particularly as concerns color of hind foot and tail, group of Guatemalan mice from 1 mi. S Rabinal, from 1/2 mi. N, 1 mi. E Salama, and from Lake Atescatempa. Specimens from western Guatemala at Nentón and Jacaltenango, on the other hand, are darker brownish-black, more nearly like the paratypical series of _nigrescens_ from the Valley of Comitán, Chiapas, Republic of México. This darker brownish-black color of the back persists in specimens from southern Guatemala and El Salvador (see specimens examined of _B. m. nigrescens_ for localities), and they are best referred to _nigrescens_. _B. m. grisescens_, in color and certain cranial characters, therefore, seems to grade into two different subspecies: (1) _B. m. handleyi_, pale mice in the Río Negro valley in central Guatemala, and (2) _B. m. nigrescens_, dark mice from southern Guatemala, and parts of El Salvador. Felten (1958:136) referred all _B. musculus_ from El Salvador to _B. m. grisescens_. Although I have not examined the specimens reported on by Felten (_loc. cit._), I have examined specimens from Lake Atescatempa, Guatemala (which I refer to _grisescens_), not too distant from Cerro Blanco, and Finca Las Canarias, Department of Ahuachapan, and Laguna de Guija, Department of Santa Ana (localities listed by Felten). It would seem that specimens from these localities might indeed be _grisescens_. However, specimens that I examined from 1 mi. S Los Planes, and 1 mi. NW San Salvador were considerably darker than paratypes of _grisescens_ and were nearly intermediate in color between _nigrescens_ and _pullus_. I refer the specimens from 1 mi. NW San Salvador, and 1 mi. S Los Planes to _nigrescens_ rather than to _grisescens_. There is no positive evidence that _B. m. grisescens_ intergrades with _B. m. pullus_ to the south in Nicaragua. But, there is a suggestion that intergradation occurs between these subspecies in a series of 76 skins from La Piedra de Jesús Sabana Grande, Honduras, referable to _grisescens_. A total of 16 of 76 skins from this locality (21 per cent) possess the mid-ventral white stripe found in 18 of 20 skins (90 per cent), from the type locality of _pullus_ in Nicaragua. Further collection in areas between central Honduras and western Nicaragua may yield specimens of _B. musculus_ that are intermediate in characters between _grisescens_ and _pullus_. _Specimens examined._--Total 149, distributed as follows: GUATEMALA: 1 mi. S Rabinal, 3450 ft., 14; 1/2 mi. N, 1 mi. E Salama, 3200 ft., 10; Lake Atescatempa, 10[7]. HONDURAS: Cementario, Gracias, 1[8]; Monte Redondo, 1[8]; El Caliche, Cedros, 1[8]; _La Flor Archaga_, 2[8], 1[9]; Hatillo, 1[8]; _type locality_, 7[8], 6[7] (including the type), 3[9]; _El Zapote_, _Sabana Grande_, 4[8]; La Piedra de Jesús Sabana Grande, 76[8]; _Cerro de las Cuches Sabana Grande_, 5. _Marginal records._--GUATEMALA: 1/2 mi. N, 1 mi. E Salama, 3200 ft. HONDURAS: El Caliche, Cedros; Hatillo; La Piedra de Jesús Sabana Grande; Cementario. GUATEMALA: Lake Atescatempa; 1 mi. S Rabinal, 3450 ft. [7] United States National Museum (Biol. Surv. Collections). [8] American Museum of Natural History. [9] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. =Baiomys musculus handleyi= Packard _Baiomys musculus handleyi_ Packard, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:399, December 19, 1958. _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 68(1):39-40, December 12, 1934 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955 (part). _Baiomys musculus nigrescens_, Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 275604 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Sacapulas, El Quiche, Guatemala; obtained on April 24, 1947, by Charles O. Handley, Jr., original number 991. _Range._--Known only from the type locality in the valley of the Río Negro. Zonal range: Part of the Chimaltenangan Province of Smith (1949:235). _Diagnosis._--Size medium to large for the species; dorsum Wood Brown in some series to Buffy Brown; guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, color of underhairs Avellaneous; hairs white to base in region of chin, throat, and median venter; in lateral region, hairs Neutral Gray at base; dorsal surfaces of forefeet and hind feet and ankles white; tail white below, brownish above; nasals truncate anteriorly; frontoparietal suture forming an obtuse angle with the suture separating the parietals; alveolar length of upper molar tooth-row and tail long. Average and extreme external and cranial measurements for nine adults from the type locality are as follows: Total length, 121.4 (115-128); length of tail vertebrae, 50.7 (49-54); length of body, 70.8 (66-77); length of hind foot, 15.3 (15-16); occipitonasal length, 19.6 (18.8-20.7); zygomatic breadth, 10.5 (10.2-11.0); postpalatal length, 6.9 (6.4-7.4); least interorbital breadth, 4.0 (3.9-4.0); length of incisive foramina, 4.2 (4.0-4.5); length of rostrum, 7.2 (7.0-7.7); breadth of braincase, 9.8 (9.7-10.2); depth of cranium, 7.1 (6.8-7.2); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.5 (3.4-3.6); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_c_, and Plate 3_c_. _Comparisons._--From _B. m. nigrescens_, _B. m. handleyi_ differs as follows: everywhere paler; forefeet and hind feet whitish instead of dusky to sooty; hairs of anterior part of face white instead of brown; tail bicolored instead of unicolored; anterior tips of nasals truncate rather than rounded; frontoparietal suture forming obtuse angle with suture separating parietals instead of forming right angle; tail and upper molar tooth-row longer. From _B. m. grisescens_, _B. m. handleyi_ differs in: slightly paler above and below, primarily as a result of lacking buff-colored hairs; forefeet and hind feet white, not flesh-colored with gray overtones; tail bicolored, not unicolored; anterior tips of nasals truncate rather than flaring; tail and upper molar tooth-row longer. _Remarks._--_B. m. handleyi_ seems to be restricted to the valley of the Río Negro, in the region of Sacapulas, Guatemala. Stuart (1954:7) points out that the Río Negro drops down into a gorge at a place near Sacapulas and flows northward through a deep canyon for approximately 60 kilometers. The Río Negro, then, flows onto the lowlands of the Yucatán Peninsula. The habitat is xerophytic in the valley of the Río Negro near Sacapulas. Stuart (_op. cit._:10) suggests that this xerophytic habitat may be continuous to a place to the north of Chixoy, Chiapas, where the vegetation then becomes more mesic. The mesic conditions to the north in Tabasco and Yucatán probably have restricted the movement of pygmy mice to the north. No specimens of this mouse are known from the Yucatán Peninsula or from the State of Tabasco, México. _B. m. handleyi_ intergrades with _B. m. grisescens_ to the south. Specimens from 1 mi. S Rabinal, and those from a second locality 1/2 mi. N and 1 mi. E Salama, Guatemala, are intermediate in color of pelage between _handleyi_ and _grisescens_. Stuart (_op. cit._:5) mentions the continuity of habitat and tributaries from the Salama Basin into the valley of the Río Negro. Absence of physiographic and biotic barriers in the corridor between these two basins probably allows for some gene flow between _handleyi_ and _grisescens_, and results in populations intermediate in color. To the north and northwest of Sacapulas, the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes rises abruptly and separates the known geographic range of _handleyi_ from that of _nigrescens_ to the north, while to the west the cactus-mesquite habitat of _handleyi_ gives way to the oak-pine timber that, so far as known, does not support _Baiomys_. The difference in elevation and flora seems to restrict gene flow between _handleyi_ and the more northern _nigrescens_. The only evidence of integration between these two subspecies is provided by one specimen from Chanquejelve, Guatemala. That specimen is intermediate in color between the pale _handleyi_ and blackish-brown _nigrescens_. The subspecies closest, geographically, to _B. m. handleyi_ is _B. m. nigrescens_, from which _B. m. handleyi_ differs more in color than from any of the other named subspecies, except _B. m. pullus_. There is a close correlation of pallor of mice and the xeric Río Negro Valley, and the darkness (melanistic color) of mice and the mesic mountains and valleys to the north. _Specimens examined._--Total 49, from GUATEMALA: type locality, including the type: 12 (U. S. Nat. Mus., Biol. Surv. Coll.), 37 (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.). =Baiomys musculus infernatis= Hooper _Baiomys musculus infernatis_ Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:96, February 18, 1952; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959. _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 28:50, February 15, 1947 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 91497 Univ. of Michigan, Museum of Zoology; Teotitlán, Oaxaca, Republic of México, obtained on February 24, 1947, by Helmuth O. Wagner, original number 2702. _Range._--Southeastern Puebla, in the basin drained by the Río Salado and Río Quiotepec, into northern Oaxaca. Zonal range: Arid Tropical in a part of the Orizaba-Zempoaltepec Faunal District of the Transverse Volcanic Biotic Province of Moore (1945:218). Occurs from 3100 feet in Oaxaca up to 6000 feet in Puebla. _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the species; dorsum Drab, terminal parts of individual guard hairs black, Neutral Gray basally, distal parts of underfur Pinkish Buff, proximally Neutral Gray; sides same color as dorsum; hairs in region of throat and chin white to base; venter whitish to Neutral Gray with tinges of Pinkish Buff; dorsal parts of forefeet and hind feet whitish with flesh-colored undertones, ventral parts whitish to dusky-gray; tail bicolored, grayish-brown above, white below; tip of tail not bicolored, instead grayish-brown throughout; ears pale brown, sparsely haired; incisive foramina long, not constricted posteriorly. Average and extreme external measurements for 9 adults from the type locality are as follows: total length, 113.9 (106-122); length of tail vertebrae, 44.1 (41-48); length of body, 71.0 (65-79); length of hind foot, 14.8 (13-16); length of ear, 11.9 (11-12). Average and extreme cranial measurements of 7 adults from the type locality are as follows: Occipitonasal length, 20.1 (19.7-20.4); zygomatic breadth, 10.4 (10.2-10.6); postpalatal length, 7.3 (7.0-7.7); least interorbital breadth, 4.2 (4.0-4.4); length of incisive foramina, 4.8 (4.4-5.6); length of rostrum, 7.2 (6.6-7.5); breadth of braincase, 9.6 (9.5-9.8); depth of cranium, 7.4 (7.1-7.6); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.3 (3.1-3.4); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_d_, and Plate 3_d_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. nigrescens_ and _B. m. brunneus_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. m. pallidus_, _B. m. infernatis_ differs in: sides, ears, and dorsum paler (less of dark brown); venter whitish gray rather than gray with tinge of buff and brown; forefeet and hind feet paler; tail bicolored, not unicolored; incisive foramina longer and not constricted posteriorly; mastoid process turning dorsally and sickle-shaped at posteriormost point rather than capitate. _Remarks._--_B. m. infernatis_ resembles _B. m. handleyi_ more than any other subspecies in color of pelage and in external and cranial dimensions. The resemblance in color between _B. m. pallidus_, in certain parts of its range, and _B. m. handleyi_ may have resulted from nearly parallel selective forces that gave rise to two subspecies, widely separated geographically. The same relation obtains between _B. m. infernatis_ and _B. m. handleyi_. Both inhabit arid river basins. In them, pale soil and low relative humidity are important passive factors of selection that give adaptive value to the pale colors of pelage of both _infernatis_ and _handleyi_. Specimens from 6-1/2 mi. SW Izucár de Matemores, and 1 mi. SSW Tilapa, Puebla, are intergrades between _B. m. infernatis_ and _B. m. pallidus_. These specimens are intermediate in color and cranial characters between the aforementioned subspecies but possess more of the pale brown overtones seen in paratypes of _pallidus_, and are best referred to that subspecies. _Specimens examined_ (All in Univ. Michigan, Mus. Zool.).--Total 18, all from the Republic of México and distributed as follows: PUEBLA, Tepanaco, 6000 ft., 3, Tehuacán, 5400 ft., 3. OAXACA: Type locality, 3100 ft., 12 (including the type). _Marginal records._--See specimens examined. =Baiomys musculus musculus= (Merriam) _Sitomys musculus_ Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 7:170, September 29, 1892; Lyon and Osgood, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 62:135, January 15, 1909. _Baiomys musculus_ [= _musculus_], Mearns, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 56:381, April 13, 1907; Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 36:29, May 26, 1955. _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], J. A. Allen and Chapman, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:203, June 16, 1897; Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(4):135, July 1, 1905; Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:257, April 17, 1909 (part). [_Peromyscus_] _musculus_, Trouessart, Cat. Mamm., 1:518, 1898. [_Peromyscus_] _musculus_ [_musculus_], Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 95(4):175, July 15, 1904. _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912 (part); Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:318, April 29, 1924 (part); Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:258, March 6, 1942; Davis, Jour. Mamm., 25:394, December 12, 1944 (part); Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 28:50, February 15, 1947 (part); Hall and Villa-R., Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 1:460, December 27, 1949 (part); Hall and Villa-R., Anal. del Inst. Biol., 21:196, September 28, 1950 (part); Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:336, July 31, 1951 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955 (part); Hooper, Occas. Papers Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 565:13, March 31, 1955; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _musculus_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part); Packard, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:400; December 19, 1958. _Baiomys taylori allex_, Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 33437/45460 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Colima (City), Colima, Republic of México, obtained on March 9, 1892, by E. W. Nelson, original number 2055. _Range._--Southwestern Nayarit and northwestern Jalisco, south into Colima, thence eastward into Michoacán. Zonal range: part of arid Lower Tropical Subzone of Goldman (1951:330); approximates part of the Nayarit-Guerrero Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from near sea level in Colima up to 5800 feet in Jalisco. _Diagnosis._--Size large for the species; dorsum Olive-Brown in darkest series to Buffy Brown with tones of Fawn Color in the palest series; guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, gray basally (in some specimens, guard hairs gray-tipped with subterminal black band, and gray base); underfur of dorsum black-tipped with subterminal band of fawn to buff, Neutral Gray basally; face and head paler than back because of greater number of fawn-colored and buff-colored hairs; hairs on throat and chin white to base; venter and flanks Pale Olive-Buff in palest series to Gray (Pale Gull Gray) in darkest series; individual hairs of venter tipped with white to buff, basally Gray (Dark Gull Gray); forefeet and hind feet white to gray with flesh-colored undertones; tail faintly bicolored, individual hairs above black, below white; nasals flared anteriorly; zygoma and zygomatic plate thick. Average and extreme external and cranial measurements for 8 adults from Armeria, Colima, are as follows: total length, 125.5 (115-135); length of tail vertebrae, 47.5 (42-54); length of body, 75.6 (68-81); length of hind foot, 16.5 (16-17); occipitonasal length, 20.3 (19.8-20.7); zygomatic breadth, 10.7 (10.3-11.1); postpalatal length, 7.4 (7.1-7.7); least interorbital breadth, 4.0 (3.9-4.1); length of incisive foramina, 4.3 (4.1-4.5); length of rostrum, 7.3 (6.9-7.6); breadth of braincase, 9.8 (9.4-10.0); depth of cranium, 7.1 (6.7-7.2); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.4 (3.3-3.6); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_e_, and Plate 3_e_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. brunneus_, _B. m. infernatis_, and _B. m. pallidus_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. m. nigrescens_, _B. m. musculus_ differs in: dorsum paler throughout (less of blackish brown); region of face and ears paler, more buff and fawn-colored hairs rather than blackish-brown to grayish hairs; vibrissae paler; venter paler, less dark gray and less of sooty-colored undertones, tips of hairs whitish to pale Olive-Buff rather than light gray at tips becoming darker basally; forefeet and hind feet paler, whitish to pale buff-color with flesh-colored undertones, not sooty-colored to dark brown; tail paler below; nasals flaring outward, not tapering toward midline at anteriormost point; zygoma more massive; larger in external and cranial dimensions. _Remarks._--Merriam (1892:170) described _Sitomys_ [= _Baiomys_] _musculus_ on the basis of 23 specimens (from Colima City, Colima; Armeria, Colima; Plantinar, and Zapotlán, Jalisco). According to the original description, _B. musculus_ resembled a small house mouse and was smaller than any known species of _Sitomys_ except _S. taylori_ [= _Baiomys taylori_]. From _taylori_, _musculus_ differed in being larger [in size of body], and in having longer ears and tail, and larger hind feet. When Allen and Chapman (1897:203) described _Peromyscus_ [= _Baiomys_] _musculus brunneus_ from Jalapa, Veracruz, the specimens described by Merriam from Colima and Jalisco became representative of the nominal subspecies _B. m. musculus_. Osgood (1909:258) assigned specimens from Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Michoacán, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Sinaloa, Veracruz, and Zacatecas to the subspecies _musculus_. Subsequently, Russell (1952:21) named the subspecies _pallidus_ from the arid lowlands of Morelos; Hooper (1952:96) described the subspecies _infernatis_ from northern Oaxaca and southeastern Puebla; and Goodwin (1959:1) described a new subspecies _nebulosus_ from the Oaxaca highlands. Each of the subspecies mentioned immediately above was described from within the geographic range assigned to _B. m. musculus_ by Osgood (_loc. cit._). Hall and Kelson (1959:661) mapped the range of _B. m. musculus_ so as to include Colima, parts of Jalisco, Michoacán, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and Veracruz. Lukens (1955:159), in a study of the mammals of Guerrero, has shown that the characters attributed to _B. m. pallidus_ are not significantly different from those of pygmy mice studied from Guerrero. He (_loc. cit._) concluded that: (1) if the specimens of pygmy mice from central Guerrero were typical of the subspecies _musculus_, then _pallidus_ did not deserve subspecific recognition, or; (2) the name _B. m. musculus_ should be restricted to the larger pygmy mice inhabiting the lowlands immediately adjacent to the Pacific Coast and the area to the north. My data (see Figure 12) show pygmy mice from southwestern Nayarit, northwestern and central Jalisco, Colima, and parts of Michoacán to be significantly larger in certain cranial and external measurements than pygmy mice from Guerrero, Oaxaca, Morelos, and parts of Puebla. This finding essentially corroborates Hooper's (1952a:96) findings. It seems advisable, therefore, to restrict the range of _B. musculus musculus_ to the large mice inhabiting west-central México and the coastal lowlands of Colima and Michoacán. The name _pallidus_ is applicable to the smaller mice occupying Morelos, southwestern Puebla, Guerrero, Oaxaca, and southwestern Chiapas. _B. m. musculus_ intergrades with _B. m. pallidus_ in eastern Michoacán and central and western Guerrero. Specimens from San José Prura and 12 mi. S Tzitzio, Michoacán, though referable to _B. m. musculus_ because of slightly larger size of crania are intermediate in size and color between the smaller and slightly darker _pallidus_ to the south and east and the larger, slightly paler _musculus_ to the northwest. _Specimens examined._--Total 156 all from the Republic of México, and distributed as follows: NAYARIT: 3 mi. NNW Las Varas, 150 ft., 1. JALISCO: 7 mi. W Ameca, 4000 ft., 2[10]; _6 mi. W Ameca_, 4300 ft., 3[10]; _10 mi. S Ameca_, 5800 ft., 1[10]; _13 mi. S, 15 mi. W Guadalajara_, 3; _13 mi. S, 9-1/2 mi. W Guadalajara_, 1; _3 mi. ENE Santa Cruz de las Flores_, 1; 27 mi. S, 12 mi. W Guadalajara, 1; _4 mi. NE Autlán_, 3000 ft., 5[10]; _Sierra de Autlán_, 5000 ft., 2[10]; _2-1/2 mi. NNE Autlán_, 3000 ft., 8; 2 mi. SSE Autlán, 1; _5 mi. S Purificación_, 2; Chamela Bay, 1[10]; _2 mi. N La Resolana_, 1500 ft., 6[10]; _1 mi. N San Gabriel_, 4000 ft., 32[10]; 2 mi. N Cuidad Guzmán, 5000 ft., 1; 3 mi. E Navidad, 4300 ft., 10[10]. COLIMA: _type locality_, 10[11] (including the type); _3 mi. SE Colima_ (_City_), 5[10]; _4 mi. SW Colima City_, 1; Armeria, 200 ft., 8[11]; _Paso del Río_, 20[10]. MICHOACÁN: 12 mi. S Tzitzio, 6[10]; San José Prura, 4[12]; 1 mi. E, 6 mi. S Tacámbaro, 4000 ft., 3[13]; La Salada, 3[11]; 1/2 mi. SE Coalcomán, 15[10]. _Marginal records._--NAYARIT: 3 mi. NNW Las Varas, 150 ft. JALISCO: 3 mi. E Navidad, 4300 ft.; 27 mi. S, 12 mi. W Guadalajara. MICHOACÁN: 12 mi. S Tzitzio; San José Prura; 1/2 mi. SE Coalcomán. COLIMA: Armeria, 200 ft. JALISCO: Chamela Bay. [10] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [11] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [12] Chicago Natural History Museum. [13] Univ. California, Mus. Vert. Zoology. =Baiomys musculus nigrescens= (Osgood) _Peromyscus musculus nigrescens_ Osgood, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 17:76, March 21, 1904; Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(4):136, July 1, 1905; Lyon and Osgood, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 62:135, January 15, 1909; Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:259, April 17, 1909. _Baiomys musculus nigrescens_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, March 31, 1912; Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:318, April 29, 1924; Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 68(1):40, December 12, 1934; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:259, March 6, 1942; Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 28:50, February 15, 1947; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:357, July 31, 1951; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:513, March 3, 1955; Booth, Walla Walla Publs., Dept. Biol. Sci., 20:15, July 10, 1957; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). [_Peromyscus musculus_] _nigrescens_, Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 95(4):176, 1904. _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _nigrescens_, Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 79(2):160, May 29, 1942; Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part); Packard, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:399, December 19, 1958. _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _musculus_, Booth, Walla Walla Publs., Dept. Biol. Sci., 20:15, July 10, 1957 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 76827 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Valley of Comitán, Chiapas, Republic of México, obtained on December 9, 1895, by E. W. Nelson and E. A. Goldman, original number 8719. _Range._--Southern coastal region and eastern parts of Chiapas, southeastward into central and southern Guatemala, thence south into El Salvador (see Figure 10). Zonal range: parts of Lower Austral; also occurs in parts of the arid division of the Upper Tropical Life-zone, and in parts of the arid division of the Lower Tropical Life-zone; approximates a part of the Chiapas Highlands Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349), and parts of the Guatemalan Subregion of Smith (1949:235). _Diagnosis._--Size medium to small for the species; dorsum Vandyke Brown mixed with blackish, individual hairs black-tipped with a subterminal band of Warm Buff, Neutral Gray at base; guard hairs of dorsum black distally, Neutral Gray basally; hairs on sides grayish-brown, facial region like dorsum; chin buffy-brown; vibrissae brown, ventrally some white; venter creamy-buff to grayish, individual hairs creamy-buff at tips, gray basally; in region of throat and chin, hairs tipped with Ochraceous-Buff; dorsal surface of forefeet and hind feet dull whitish gray to brownish-black; tail indistinctly bicolored, dusky above, grayish to brownish below; incisive foramina short, wide medially; average and extreme external and cranial measurements of 15 adults from 6 mi. NW Tonalá, Chiapas, are as follows: total length, 107.5 (100-116); length of tail vertebrae, 41.1 (33-48); length of body, 66.1 (62-73); length of hind foot, 15.0 (14-16); length of ear, 10.9 (10-12); occipitonasal length, 18.9 (18.4-19.7); zygomatic breadth, 9.8 (9.4-10.2); postpalatal length, 6.9 (6.6-7.4); least interorbital breadth, 3.7 (3.5-3.8); length of incisive foramina, 4.4 (4.1-4.8); length of rostrum, 6.7 (6.1-7.1); breadth of braincase, 9.2 (9.0-9.4); depth of cranium, 6.9 (6.5-7.3); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (2.9-3.2); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_f_, and Plate 3_f_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. handleyi_, _B. m. grisescens_, _B. m. musculus_, _B. m. pallidus_, and _B. m. pullus_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. m. brunneus_, _B. m. nigrescens_ differs in: dorsum blackish-brown rather than reddish to ochraceous brown; face and ears brownish-black rather than brownish with tinges of ochraceous; vibrissae darker; forefeet and hind feet darker; venter with more grayish tones; dorsalmost part of zygomatic plate projects farther anteriorly; interparietal oval to diamond-shaped and narrower anteroposteriorly; zygomata narrower at anteriormost part; slightly smaller in most cranial and external measurements. From _B. m. infernatis_, _B. m. nigrescens_ differs in: dorsum darker; region of face and ears darker; venter buffy to gray rather than whitish-buff; vibrissae darker; forefeet and hind feet darker; tail darker above and below; incisive foramina shorter, more constricted laterally; cranium slightly smaller in most dimensions. _Remarks._--Hooper (1952a:93-94) reported specimens from the coastal strip of southern Chiapas as the most intensely pigmented, whereas, specimens from central and western Chiapas were distinctly paler. Crania of specimens from the coastal region of southern Chiapas were smaller than crania from the central highlands and mountains of Chiapas. My studies essentially corroborate the findings of Hooper. The gradation of color between the pale brown _pallidus_ to the north in Oaxaca, and the brownish-black _nigrescens_ to the south in Chiapas is extremely gradual. Specimens from the central and western parts of Chiapas (see Figure 10 for localities) are difficult to assign to either _pallidus_ or _nigrescens_. Equal justification exists for assignment to either subspecies. I have assigned the specimens to _nigrescens_ because they are geographically closer to the type locality of _nigrescens_. Specimens from Reforma, Oaxaca (assigned by Hooper, 1952a:93-94, to _nigrescens_), are nearly identical in size and color to paratypes of _pallidus_. I assign the Reforma specimens to _pallidus_. The darkest of all the specimens examined and assigned to _nigrescens_ are from 1 mi. NW San Salvador and 1 mi. S Los Planes, El Salvador. The variations in color in this subspecies closely correspond to degree of relative humidity; the palest samples are from areas of low relative humidity and the darkest are from areas of high relative humidity. In view of the present state of differentiation of specimens from the southern coastal areas of Chiapas and mountainous areas of El Salvador, it would seem that populations there might be incipient subspecies. _Specimens examined._--Total 319. CHIAPAS: _17 mi. W Bochil_, 1[14]; _15 mi. W Bochil_, 1[14]; _14 mi. W Bochil_, 1[14]; Bochil, 6[15]; Ocuilapa, 3500 ft., 5[16]; _5 mi. NNW Tuxtla Gutiérrez_, 9; _11 km. W Tuxtla Gutiérrez_, 800 m., 2[15]; _10 km. W Tuxtla Gutiérrez_, 800 m., 2[15]; _Tuxtla Gutiérrez_, 2600 ft., 8[16], 11; _Ocozocoautla_, 10[15], 2[16]; 25 mi. E Comitán, Las Margaritas, 1250 m., 5[17], 24[15]; Cintalpa, 555 m., 1[14], 18[15], 3[17]; _Jiquilpilas_, 2000 ft., 1[16]; San Bartolome, 3[16]; _type locality_, 5700 ft., 26[16] (including the type); 15 mi. SW Las Cruces, 1; Villa Flores, 600 m., 12[15]; _23 mi. S Comitán_, 1[14]; _15 mi. S, 2 mi. E La Trinitaria_, 4; _30 mi. S Comitán_, 2[14]; 35 mi. S Comitán, 1[14]; _3 mi. E Arriga_, 1[14]; 6 mi. NW Tonalá, 19; _Tonalá_, 8[16]; _Los Amates_, 1[14]; Pijijiapan, 10 m., 7[15]; Mapastepec, 45 m., 25[15], 4[17]. GUATEMALA: Chanquejelve, 1[14]; _Nentón_, 3000 ft., 1[16]; Jacaltenango, 5400 ft., 8[16]; La Primavera, 5[14]; 4 mi. S Guatemala City, 4700 ft., 3; _5 mi. S Guatemala City_, 4050 ft., 10; _6 mi. S Guatemala City_, 4680 ft., 1; _Lake Amatitlán_, 4500 ft., 13[16]; El Progresso (Distrito Santa Rosa), 3[15]; _2 mi. N, 1 mi. W Cuilapa_, 2980 ft., 1[14]; _1 mi. WSW El Molino_ (_Distrito Santa Rosa_), 2; _2-1/2 mi. W, 2-1/4 mi. N San Cristobal_, 2900 ft., 1; El Zapote, 1[15]. EL SALVADOR: 1 mi. NW San Salvador, 29; 1 mi. S Los Planes, 15. _Marginal Records._--CHIAPAS: Bochil; 25 mi. E Comitán, Las Margaritas, 1250 ft. GUATEMALA: Chanquejelve; La Primavera; Jacaltenango, 5400 ft.; 4 mi. S Guatemala City, 4700 ft.; El Progresso. _El Salvador_: 1 mi. NW San Salvador; 1 mi. S Los Planes. GUATEMALA: El Zapote. CHIAPAS: Mapastepec, 45 m.; Pijijiapan, 10 m.; 6 mi. NW Tonalá; 15 mi. SW Las Cruces; Cintalpa, 555 m.; Ocuilapa, 3500 ft. [14] American Museum of Natural History. [15] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [16] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [17] University of Florida Collections. =Baiomys musculus pallidus= Russell _Baiomys musculus pallidus_ Russell, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, January 29, 1952; Davis and Russell, Jour. Mamm., 35:75, February 10, 1954; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:662, March 31, 1959. _Peromyscus musculus brunneus_, Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 115(8):203, 1907 (part). _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:257, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912 (part); Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:318, April 29, 1924 (part); Davis, Jour. Mamm., 25:394, December 12, 1944 (part); Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 28:50, February 15, 1947 (part); Goldman, Smith, Miscl. Coll., 115:336, July 31, 1951 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955 (part); Booth, Walla Walla Publs., Dept. Biol. Sci., 20:15, July 10, 1957 (part); Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part); Goodwin, Amer. Mus. Novitates, 1929:1, March 5, 1959. _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _musculus_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part). _B._ [_aiomys_] _m._ [_usculus_] _nigrescens_, Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 33:97, February 18, 1952 (part). _Baiomys musculus nebulosus Goodwin_, Amer. Mus. Novitates, 1929, March 5, 1959. _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 4501 Texas A&M Cooperative Wildlife Collection; 12 kms. NW Axochiapán, 3500 feet, Morelos, Republic of México, obtained on July 28, 1950, by W. B. Davis, original number 5112. _Range._--Guerrero thence eastward into Morelos and west central Puebla along the southern edge of the Transverse Volcanic Biotic Province (Goldman and Moore, 1945:349), south into Oaxaca, see Figure 10. Zonal range: largely Arid Lower Tropical Subzone of Goldman (1951:330). Occurs from near sea level in Oaxaca and Guerrero up to 6550 feet in Oaxaca. _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the species; dorsum Buffy Brown in palest series to Olive-Brown in darkest series, individual hairs Warm Buff, Neutral Gray basally, some with black tips and a subterminal band of Warm Buff, guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, gray basally; hairs on sides creamy-buff, gray basally; face same color as back fading to white on throat; vibrissae white-tipped, pale brown basally; venter, whitish with tinges of buff on lower throat, individual hairs having tips white to buffy-white, light gray basally; dorsal surface of forefeet and hind feet whitish to flesh-color; tail indistinctly bicolored, brownish above, grayish brown below; zygoma bowed as in _B. m. grisescens_; tail short; average and extreme external and cranial measurements for 17 adults from Tehuantepec, Oaxaca, are: total length, 117.3 (110-126); length of tail vertebrae, 46.9 (41-51); length of body, 70.4 (65-76); length of hind foot, 15.8 (15-16); occipitonasal length, 18.9 (18.2-20.1); zygomatic breadth, 10.1 (9.7-10.6); postpalatal length, 6.9 (6.6-7.5); least interorbital breadth, 3.8 (3.6-3.9); length of incisive foramina, 4.4 (4.2-4.7); length of rostrum, 6.7 (6.3-7.2); breadth of braincase, 9.3 (8.7-9.7); depth of cranium, 6.6 (6.4-6.8); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.2 (3.1-3.4); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1g, and Plate 3g. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. m. brunneus_ and _B. m. infernatis_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. m. musculus_, _B. m. pallidus_ differs in: dorsum more olive-gray and brown, less ochraceous on either side of mid-dorsal region; face below eye grayish, not buffy; sides gray with buffy overtone, not creamy with light yellow overtones; venter grayish-white rather than an olive-buff; zygomata more tapering anteriorly; maxillary part of zygoma narrower when viewed from above; external and cranial dimensions smaller. From _B. m. nigrescens_, _B. m. pallidus_ differs in: dorsum paler, fewer black hairs medially; face paler, less sooty; vibrissae brownish with white tips rather than black with brownish tips; venter paler; dorsal surface of forefeet and hind feet whitish to flesh-colored rather than sooty to dusky-white; tail paler; nasals slightly more attenuated; averaging slightly larger in external and cranial measurements. _Remarks._--Russell (1952:21) described _pallidus_, on the basis of specimens from the arid Balsas Basin, of Morelos, as pale gray dorsally. After examining the original material from Morelos, I find the dorsal color of _pallidus_ to be much closer to a buffy brown than a pale grayish. Even so, smaller size differentiates _pallidus_ from _musculus_. _B. m. infernatis_, not _B. m. pallidus_, is the most pallid of all named subspecies of _B. musculus_. _B. m. pallidus_ intergrades to the northwest with _B. m. musculus_, to the northeast with _B. m. infernatis_, and to the southeast with _B. m. nigrescens_. According to Goodwin (1959:2), _B. m. nebulosus_ (named on the basis of one specimen) differs from _B. m. musculus_ [= _pallidus_] from southern Oaxaca in: darker and longer pelage; larger skull; interorbital region broader and less constricted posteriorly. From _B. m. nigrescens_ and _B. m. brunneus_, _B. m. nebulosus_ differs as follows: pelage longer and softer; skull larger. Study of specimens of _B. musculus_ from Oaxaca reveals considerable variation in external and cranial measurements as well as color, corresponding to that reported by Goodwin (_loc. cit._). Specimens from higher altitudes average somewhat darker and larger in external and cranial size than those at lower elevations. These differences seem to be microgeographic and not of subspecific rank. Among specimens that I have studied in Oaxaca are several from different localities (KU 63052, an adult male, from 3 mi. W Miahuatlán; KU 68964, an adult male from 3 mi. W Mitla, 6000 ft.; KU 63055, an adult female from 3 mi. S Candelario, 1200 ft.) that, according to Goodwin (_in. litt._) match _nebulosus_ in reported color, size of body and skull (except for the region of the rostrum). Two of the three specimens (KU 63052 and 63055) are the darkest of a series in which the palest are inseparable from _B. m. pallidus_. Goodwin, who kindly compared the three specimens with the type of _nebulosus_, mentioned (_in. litt._) that the skull of the type has a slenderer rostrum. Included in the series of skulls of _B. m. pallidus_ from 3 mi. W Mitla are several adults (not seen by Goodwin) with slender rostra. _B. m. nebulosus_ is judged to be a synonym of _B. m. pallidus_. Populations of pygmy mice occurring in partially isolated areas of highland in Oaxaca seem to me to be incipient subspecies. _Specimens examined._--Total 824 all from the Republic of México and distributed as follows: PUEBLA: 2 mi. S Atlixco, 5800 ft., 1; _1 mi. SSW Tilapa_, 5800 ft., 2; _6 mi. SW Izucár de Matemores_, 7; _Piaxtla_, 3900 ft., 4[18]; Acatlán, 4100 ft., 1. MORELOS: 5 mi. W Tepoztlán, 6000 ft., 7[19]; _1 mi. W Tepoztlán_, 6000 ft., 9[19]; _2 mi. SW Tepoztlán_, 7000 ft., 1[20]; _Cuernvaca_, 9[19]; _6 mi. W Yautepec_, 4500 ft., 1[20]; _Yautepec_, 12[19]; _3 mi. N Alpuyeca_, 4000 ft., 2[20]; _Puente de Ixtla_, 2[19]; _Tetecala_, 4[21]; _2 km. S Jonacatepec_, 4500 ft., 6[20]; _type locality_, 6 (including the type). GUERRERO: _Yerbabuena_, 1800 m., 1; _Cueva de tia Juana_ [= _1.5 km. SSW Yerbabuena_], 1; _Laguna Honda_, 1840 m. [= _1.5 km. S Yerbabuena_], 3; 9 mi. SE Taxco, 3800 ft., 1[22]; _17 km. S Taxco_, 4000 ft., 2[20]; _Iguala_, 5[19]; _3.2 km. SSE Iguala_, 970 m., 1; 1 km. SSE Texcaizintla, 1600 m., 2; _Teloloapán_, 20[19], 5[24]; _1 km. N Chapa_, 1470 m., 6; _Chapa_, 1470 m., 5; El Limón, 3[18]; 2-1/2 mi. W Mexcala, 2100 ft., 1[20]; _Río Balsas_, 1[18]; Ayusinaha [= Ayotzinapa], 1[18]; _Tlapa_, 3900 ft, 1[18]; _2.5 mi. S Almolonga_, 5600 ft., 13[20]; _1 km. N Zihuatanejo_, 1; Zihuatanejo Bay, 4[19]; _Las Gatas_ [= _2 km. S. Zihuatanejo_], 2; _2 km. SSE Zihuatanejo_, 9; _4 mi. W Chilpancingo_, 5800 ft., 3[20]; _Chilpancingo_, 4800 ft., 14[18], 21[19], 45[21]; _2 mi. N Tixtla_, 4400 ft., 3[20]; _3.2 km. S Chilpancingo_, 4; _Cd. Chamilpa_ [= _12 km. ESE Chilpancingo_], 5; _Tlalixtaquilla_, 4200 ft., 2[18]; _15 km. S. Chilpancingo_, 4300 ft., 10[20]; _1 mi. SW Colotlipa_, 2700 ft., 16[20]; _2 mi. SW Colotlipa_, 2700 ft., 1[20]; _Achuitzotla_, 2800 ft., 7[20]; _8 mi. SW Colotlipa_, 1[20]; _5 mi. S Rincón_, 2600 ft., 2[20]; _8 mi. SW Tierra Colorado_, 600 ft., 1[20]; Río Aguacatillo, _30 km. N Acapulco_, 1000 ft., 3[20]; 5 mi. ESE Tecpán, 50 ft., 9; _Ejido Viejo_, _12 km. NNW Acapulco_, 1; _2 mi. NNW Acapulco_, 7; Acapulco, 3[18], 3[21]; Omentepec, 200 ft., 7[18]. OAXACA: _4 mi. E Huajuapám_, 5000 ft., 1; 2 mi. NW Tamazulapán, 6550 ft., 1; Yalalag, 3000 ft., 5[18]; _11 mi. NW Oaxaca_ [_City_], 1; _Yaganiza_, 3900 ft., 1[18]; Oaxaca [City], 5000 ft., 15, 7[21], 7[19], 5[24]; _3 mi. ESE Oaxaca_ [_City_], 30; _4 mi. ESE Oaxaca_ [_City_], 5050 ft., 1; _10 mi. SE Oaxaca_ [City], 1[22]; _Cerro Ocotepec_, 1[23]; Tepantepec, 9[23]; _1 mi. E Tlacolula_, 5500 ft., 53[19]; _3 mi. W Mitla_, 11; Jalapa, El Campanario, 1[23]; _2 mi. SE Matalán_, 5950 ft., 14; _Lachiguiri_, 2[23]; _Tres Cruces_, 10[23]; _Agua Blanca_, 11[23]; _San José_, 1[23]; Reforma, 30[19], 7[21], 10[23], 6[24] _Totolapa_, 1[18]; _Nejapa_, _85 km. WNW Tehuantepec_, 500 m., 12[19], 6[24]; _Chicapa_, 2[18]; _Gueladu_ [= _Jalapa_], 6[23]; _Juchitán_, _Laguna Superior_; Manteca, 8[23], 1[23]; San Bartolo, 3000 ft., 1[18]; _Ejutla_, 1400 m., 21[19]; _El Bambita_, _Tequisitlán_ 4[23]; _Mixtequilla_, 2[23]; _Guiencola_, 5[23]; _Tehuantepec_, 200 ft., 26[18], 11[19]; _Sola de la Vega_, 26[19], 3[24]; Huilotepec, 13[18], 3[23]; _Santa Lucia_, 24[23]; _Cerro de Paste_, _Tenango_, 7[23]; _Sta. C. Quieri_, 3[23]; _Santa Marie Ecatepec_, _Zarzamora_, 13[23]; _Rincón Bamba_, 11[23]; _3 mi. W Miahuatlán_, 5300 ft., 1; _Miahuatlán_, 12[19], 1[23], 6[24]; _San Juan Acaltepec_, 5[23]; _Zapotitlán_, 1[23]; _Llano Grande_, 3[18]; Pinotepa, 700 ft., 2[18]; Juquila, 8[18]; _Arroyo_, _San Juan_, _north of Cerro Otate_, 1[23]; Cerro Otate, 3[23]; 3 mi. S Candelaria, 1. _Marginal records._--MORELOS: 5 mi, W Tepoztlán, 6000 ft. PUEBLA: 2 mi. S Atlixco, 5800 ft.; Acatlán, 4100 ft. OAXACA: 2 mi. NW Tamazulapán, 6550 ft; Tepantepec; Oaxaca [City], 5000 ft; Yalalag, 3000 ft; Jalapa, El Campanario; Reforma; Huilotepec; 3 mi. S Candelaria; Cerro Otate; Pinotepa, 700 ft. GUERRERO: Acapulco; Zihuatanejo Bay; El Limón; 9 mi. SE Taxco, 3800 ft. [18] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [19] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [20] Texas A & M, Cooperative Wildlife Research Collection. [21] Chicago Natural History Museum. [22] California Academy of Sciences. [23] American Museum of Natural History. [24] University of Florida Collections. =Baiomys musculus pullus= Packard _Baiomys musculus pullus_ Packard, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:401, December 19, 1958. _Baiomys musculus grisescens_, Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 79(2):161, May 29, 1942 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:513, March 3, 1955 (part); Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult female, skin and skull; No. 71605 University of Kansas Museum of Natural History; 8 mi. S Condega, Estelí, Nicaragua, obtained on July 15, 1956, by A. A. Alcorn, original number 4218. _Range._--West-central Nicaragua, from Matagalpa northwest into the valley of the Río Estelí, east as far as Jinotega, see Figure 10. Zonal range: Upper Tropical Life-zone. _Diagnosis._--Size medium to small for the species; dorsum Fuscous-Black, individual hairs black-tipped with a subterminal band of Ochraceous-Buff, Neutral Gray at base; some hairs on dorsum all black to Neutral Gray at base; hair on sides Neutral Gray tinged with blackish; face blackish, becoming buffy on sides of head, and white on throat; vibrissae black; tail unicolored Chaetura Black; forefeet and hind feet sooty to dusky-white; mid-ventral region of venter white, hairs white to base; in region of anus and throat, hairs white-tipped, Neutral Gray at base; average and extreme external and cranial measurements of the type and 16 paratypes are as follows: total length, 117.3 (111-121); length of tail vertebrae, 47.2 (44-50); length of body, 70.4 (66-74); length of hind foot, 15.5 (14-17); length of ear from notch, 11.9 (10-13); occipitonasal length, 19.3 (18.9-19.8); zygomatic breadth, 10.2 (9.7-10.6); postpalatal length, 7.0 (6.8-7.3); least interorbital breadth, 3.9 (3.8-4.1); length of incisive foramina, 4.3 (4.0-4.6); length of rostrum, 7.0 (6.5-7.4); breadth of braincase, 9.6 (9.3-10.0); depth of cranium, 7.0 (6.8-7.3); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (3.0-3.2); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_h_, and Plate 3_h_. _Comparisons._--From _B. m. grisescens_, _B. m. pullus_ differs in: dorsum and tail darker; sides and lateral parts of venter grayish instead of buffy-brown, thus forming distinct mid-ventral white stripe; average length of body and tail significantly longer, thus total length greater; maxillary tooth-row significantly shorter; slightly larger in other cranial and external dimensions. From _B. m. nigrescens_, _B. m. pullus_ differs in: dorsum slightly darker; face grayish, not sooty; mid-ventral white stripe (absent in most specimens of _nigrescens_) present and becoming grayish laterally; tail darker, less hairy, and averaging significantly longer; smaller in most external and cranial dimensions. _Remarks._--_B. m. pullus_ resembles _B. m. nigrescens_ in size and color but can readily be distinguished from _nigrescens_ by the shorter tail. _B. m. pullus_ intergrades with _nigrescens_ as shown by specimens, referable to _B. m. nigrescens_, from 1 mi. NW San Salvador and from 1 mi. S Los Planes, El Salvador. In color of the dorsum, specimens from these localities are intermediate between _nigrescens_ and _pullus_. The mid-ventral white stripe characteristic of _pullus_ is present in three of 28 adults from El Salvador. Goodwin (1942:160) reported white hairs on the pectoral region of several topotypes of _B. m. grisescens_. The areas of white hairs on the venter of _grisescens_ occur in approximately 10 per cent of the specimens examined, whereas in _pullus_, the frequency of occurrence is 90 per cent. The areas of white hairs in _grisescens_ are in broad patches on the pectoral region, while in _pullus_, a white stripe passes from the pectoral region to the inguinal region in both males and females. I know of no selective advantage that the presence of this white stripe would confer on the mice. _Specimens examined._--Total 46, all from NICARAGUA, and distributed as follows: Type locality, 32 (including the type); _9 mi. NNW Estelí_, 8; _8 mi. NNW Estelí_, 3; San Rafael Del Norte, 1 (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.); _1 mi. NW Jinotega_, 1; Matagalpa, 1 (Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.). _Marginal records._--NICARAGUA: San Rafael Del Norte; Matagalpa; type locality. =Baiomys taylori= Northern Pygmy Mouse (Synonymy under subspecies) _Type._--_Hesperomys_ (_Vesperimus_) _taylori_ Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Ser. 5, 19:66, January, 1887. _Range._--Southeastern Arizona and southwestern New Mexico, south into Chihuahua and Durango, just east of the Sierra Madre Occidental, thence southeast through Zacatecas, Aquascalientes, Jalisco, Querétaro, and Guanajuato; two fingerlike projections extend northward, one on the west along the coast of Sinaloa into southern Sonora, and the other on the east covering eastern San Luis Potosí, Tamaulipas, eastern Coahuila, Nuevo León, into south, southeast, and north-central Texas. Southern margin of range in central México approximates the 19th degree of latitude (see Figure 11). Arid lower and arid upper subdivisions of the Tropical Life-zone in south; principally Lower Sonoran and Lower Austral life-zones in north. _Characters for ready recognition._--Unless otherwise noted, characters are usable for the age-categories of adult and old adult. Differs from _B. musculus_ in: hind foot less than 16 millimeters; occipitonasal length less than 19 millimeters; zygomatic breadth less than 10 millimeters; rostrum deflected ventrally at frontoparietal suture rather than curving gradually toward anteriormost point of nasals; cingular ridges and secondary cusps on teeth reduced or absent; basihyal having entoglossal process much reduced or absent, shoulders of basihyal not protruding anteriorly, but more flattened (characteristic of all age categories); baculum having narrower shaft, knob-shaped tip, wings at base projecting laterally, baculum less than 3 millimeters long; short process of incus attenuate; muscular process of posterior crus of stapes reduced. _Characters of the species._--Size small (extremes in external measurements of adults: total length, 87-123; length of tail vertebrae, 34-53; length of hind foot, 12-15; length of ear, 9-12). Upper parts pale drab or reddish-brown to almost black; underparts grayish to cream-buff. _Geographic variation._--Eight subspecies are here recognized (see Figure 11). Features that vary geographically are mostly the same as those that do so in _B. musculus_ (see page 609). External and cranial size is less in _B. t. allex_, the southernmost subspecies, and progressively more in _B. t. paulus_, _B. t. taylori_, _B. t. ater_, _B. t. subater_, _B. t. fuliginatus_, _B. t. canutus_, and _B. t. analogous_. Size is largest in subspecies that occur at higher altitudes. Those subspecies are _B. t. analogous_ and _B. t. fuliginatus_. The correlation with Bergman's Rule is less exact in _B. taylori_ than in _B. musculus_. It is noteworthy that the smallest subspecies, _B. t. allex_, occurs in the area where the two species are sympatric. There is close correlation in _B. taylori_, as also in _B. musculus_, of darker pelages with zones of high relative humidity. The subspecies having dark pelages are: _analogous_, _fuliginatus_, and _subater_. The two first-mentioned subspecies occur at high altitudes, and the other, _subater_, occurs in the humid coastal region of Texas. The paler subspecies, _taylori_, _canutus_, and _allex_, occur at lower altitudes. Two subspecies that occur at relatively high altitudes, _ater_ and _paulus_, are reddish-brown. The color of pelage in these subspecies resembles the color of soil upon which they live. Blair and Blossom (1948:5) demonstrated close correlation of color of soil with color of pelage in _B. t. ater_ by use of an Ives tint photometer. [Illustration: FIG. 11. Distribution of _Baiomys taylori_. Known localities of occurrence are represented by circles and black dots; the former denote localities that are peripheral (marginal) for the subspecies concerned. 1. _B. t. allex_ 2. _B. t. analogous_ 3. _B. t. ater_ 4. _B. t. canutus_ 5. _B. t. fuliginatus_ 6. _B. t. paulus_ 7. _B. t. subater_ 8. _B. t. taylori_] _Natural History_ _Habitat and numbers._--The habitat occupied by the northern pygmy mouse ranges from sparse grassy areas along rock walls in central México (see Davis, 1944:394), and mesquite-cactus associations in southern Texas (Blair, 1952:242) to heavy stands of grasses such as _Bouteloua_ sp., _Andropogon_ sp., _Hilaria_ sp., and sacaton grass intermixed with _Yucca glauca_ in New Mexico, Arizona (see Hoffmeister 1956:281), and Chihuahua. Baker (1951:213) reports the species from 2 km. W El Carrizo, Tamaulipas, in dense grass and weeds at the edge of a cornfield. Hooper (1953:7) recorded the northern pygmy mouse in a cultivated field overgrown with herbaceous vegetation at Pano Ayuctle, Tamaulipas. In the State of Sinaloa, Hooper (1955b:13) obtained specimens in grass and among shrubs and vines bordering a fallow field. The northern pygmy mouse, in general, lives in situations more xerophytic and more grassy than does the southern pygmy mouse. The northern pygmy mouse, as the southern pygmy mouse, is locally abundant in its geographic range. Stickel and Stickel (_op. cit._: 145) pointed out that on the third night of live-trapping in Bexar County, Texas, there was a sudden increase in unmarked pygmy mice trapped. This increase in numbers, after the resident population was seemingly marked, followed a one-half inch rainfall. Collectors from the University of Kansas, myself included, have had similar experiences in trapping these mice. In the Mexican states of Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Jalisco, _B. taylori_ is one of the commonest small mammals. In New Mexico and Arizona and the Mexican states of Sonora and Sinaloa, nevertheless, these mice are rare. Stickel and Stickel (_loc. cit._) thought that the home range normal for _B. taylori_ in a grassy habitat was less than 100 square feet, but Blair (1953:10) thought that a complete home range had not been recorded by Stickel and Stickel. _Behavior._--The northern pygmy mouse is crepuscular to nocturnal and where I trapped in northern Mexico was one of the first small rodents to appear in my traps in the evening. Hall and Villa-R (1949:460) recorded this habit in Michoacán. Observations of wild-taken _B. taylori_ held in captivity, lend support to its being crepuscular. Captives were rarely active in bright lights, but in diffuse or dim lights the same mice were active. Blair (1941:381) pointed out that captive _B. t. subater_ were much more tolerant of one another than mice of the genus _Peromyscus_. He pointed out also that males aided in care of young. In one litter born in captivity in the course of my study, the female killed the male when the young were four days old. In another instance, the female and two eight-day-old young were killed by the male. Until that time, the male, female, and young had lived together peacefully. In other litters born in captivity, adult males did not harm the other mice. I have noted, as Blair (_loc. cit._) did, that _B. taylori_ utters high-pitched squeals in a "singing" posture resembling that of the coyote, yet remains silent when being handled. The northern pygmy mouse makes runways in the grass, in miniature resembling those of _Microtus_, and often uses runways constructed by _Sigmodon_. A small firm nest of finely shredded plant material (mostly grasses) is constructed in burrows or under logs, rocks, or fallen cactus plants. Thomas (1888:447) recorded nests of fine curly grass and cornsilk. Secondary refuge nests are not uncommon. Thomas (_loc. cit._) states, "If other mice live in the same place, the individuals of _Baiomys_ watch till others disappear, then suddenly steal part of the other nest and run to their own with it." _Enemies and food._--Little is recorded of the animals that prey upon the northern pygmy mouse. Twente and Baker (1951:120) found remains of _B. taylori_ in 16 per cent of barn owl pellets (_Tyto alba pratincola_) collected 21 mi. SW Guadalajara, Jalisco. Presumably most of the crepuscular and early nocturnal raptorial birds and carnivorous mammals feed on these mice. Food of _B. taylori_ consists in part of grass seeds and leaves, prickly pear (_Opuntia_ sp.) and the softer exposed parts of roots of vegetation among which the mice reside. _Reproduction._--The northern pygmy mouse breeds throughout the year. The only months in which I have not recorded pregnant females or females with young are June and October. Forty-one records of embryos or young per litter average 2.48 (less than in _B. musculus_), and range from as few as one to as many as four per litter. =Baiomys taylori allex= (Osgood) _Peromyscus allex_ Osgood, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 17:76-77, March 21, 1904; Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(6):135, July 1, 1905; Lyon and Osgood, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 62:124, January 15, 1909. _Baiomys taylori allex_, Packard, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 71:17, April 11, 1958; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). [_Peromyscus_] _allex_, Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 95(4):175, July 15, 1904. _Peromyscus taylori paulus_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:255, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys taylori paulus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912 (part); Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:317, April 29, 1924 (part); Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, British Mus. Nat. Hist., 2:402, March 21, 1941 (part); Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:259, March 6, 1942; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:373, July 31, 1951 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955 (part); Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Baiomys taylori analogous_, Hall and Kelson, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:367, December 15, 1952 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 33429/45452 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Colima (City), Colima, Republic of México, obtained on March 7, 1892, by E. W. Nelson, original number 2029. _Range._--Colima, western lowlands of Michoacán and Jalisco, thence north into southern half of Nayarit, see Figure 11. Zonal range: arid lower tropical, approximates northern half of the Nayarit-Guerrero Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from near sea level in Nayarit, up to 4000 feet in Jalisco. _Diagnosis._--Size small for the species; dorsal ground color pale grayish-brown, near Isabella color; mid-dorsal region washed with blackish, individual guard hairs black to base, other hairs black-tipped with subterminal light olive bands, Neutral Gray at base; laterally, black-tipped hairs less abundant, hairs grayish-white to base; venter Pale Gull Gray to whitish, distal half of individual hairs white, proximal half Neutral Gray; hairs in regions of throat and chin white to base; facial region colored like dorsum, becoming paler below eye; in region of mouth, hairs white to base; dorsalmost vibrissae black to base, others white to base; ears flesh-colored, sparsely haired; tail unicolored, sparsely haired for the species; dark blotches on tail of some series (particularly the paratypical series); dorsal and ventral parts of forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored, whitish to gray in some series. Slightly smaller in most cranial dimensions. Maxillary part of zygoma forming almost a right angle with rostrum, rather than tapering at less than a right angle to rostrum; supraoccipital rounded posteriorly rather than indented on each side of foramen magnum; cranium, relative to length of rostrum, more nearly square; interparietal large relative to size of cranium. Average and extreme measurements of five adults from 2 mi. SSE Autlán are as follows: total length, 100.0 (93-107); length of tail vertebrae, 40.0 (37-44); length of body, 60.0 (56-63); length of hind foot, 14.0 (14); length of ear from notch, 10.5 (10-11); occipitonasal length, 17.3 (16.8-17.9); zygomatic breadth, 9.1 (8.7-9.4); postpalatal length, 6.3 (6.0-6.6); least interorbital breadth, 3.4 (3.3-3.5); length of incisive foramina, 3.9 (3.8-4.0); length of rostrum, 5.5 (5.2-5.8); breadth of braincase, 8.6 (8.0-8.9); depth of cranium, 6.4 (6.0-6.7); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.0 (2.8-3.1); for photographs of skull, see Plate 1_i_ and Plate 4_a_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. t. canutus_, see account of that subspecies. From _B. t. analogous_, _B. t. allex_ differs in: external and cranial dimensions less; dorsal coloration paler; tail and ears paler and less hairy; dorsum and belly paler; dorsal and ventral parts of forefeet and hind feet paler; median parts of incisive foramina less constricted on either side of midline and wider open laterally; interparietal larger in relation to skull; interorbital breadth greater relative to occipitonasal length. _B. t. allex_ differs from _B. t. paulus_ as follows: dorsum gray with yellowish-brown wash rather than fawn to buff; tail unicolored in most series, less hairy; hind feet flesh-colored to light sooty, rather than whitish; rostrum slightly longer relative to occipitonasal length; incisive foramina differ from those of _paulus_ in much the same way as from _analogous_. _Remarks._--Osgood (1909:255-256) dismissed as taxonomically unimportant the differences in color of pelage and size of cranium that he observed between the specimens from Colima (City), Colima, representative of _allex_ and those representing _paulus_ and chose to synonomize _allex_ with _paulus_. The differences that Osgood (_loc. cit._) deemed "... scarcely worthy of recognition ...," are, in fact, not only worthy of recognition, but also important in an understanding of the evolution of _Baiomys taylori_ (see speciation p. 659). Recently, I (1958b:17-18) studied ten specimens from Colima (City), Colima, and chose to regard _Peromyscus [= Baiomys] allex_ as a subspecies. I suggested (_loc. cit._) that the geographic range of _B. t. allex_ might encompass the southern part of Nayarit, and western Jalisco. Subsequent study of specimens from these areas reveals that the populations there are referable to _allex_. Most of the specimens obtained from these areas, however, merit special comment. In color of pelage, those populations from south of the Río Grande de Santiago and northwest of Guadalajara (4 mi. SE Ahuacatlán; 1 mi. E Ixtlán; Etzatlán) show evidence of intergradation with _paulus_ to the east and south (Magdalena, Tequila, and Tala, Jalisco), and with populations more closely adjacent to the south bank of that river. Intergradation is indeed complex in this area. Specimens from some localities seem to be intergrades between _allex_ and _paulus_; from other localities, some specimens are referable to _allex_, and the others to _paulus_; from still other localities, all specimens are referable to _allex_. A series of 39 specimens from 1 mi. SSE Ameca, 4000 ft., Jalisco, are uniformly grayish-brown. This series averages grayer than paratypes of _allex_. There is little, if any, difference between the series from 1 mi. SSE Ameca and paratypes of _allex_ in external size of body, hind foot, length of ear, and size and conformation of the cranium. Populations from Ameca and vicinity might be expected to average considerably larger inasmuch as they occur at higher altitudes (see Bergman's Rule, p. 609) then the material from the lower coastal plains to the south in Colima and Michoacán, and at lower elevations in the west in Jalisco and Nayarit. The means of external and cranial measurements are not significantly different between the specimens from the highlands and those from the lowlands. In the area of Ameca where the two species _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_ occur together, interspecific competition seems to have limited, perhaps even reduced, size of external and cranial parts of _taylori_ (see p. 660). In color, specimens from the northern part of the valley of the Río Tepalcatepec (10 mi. S, 1 mi. W Apatzingán) in Michoacán resemble paratypes of _allex_. Intergradation probably occurs to the north with _analogous_. In the eight specimens from 13 mi. E and 1 mi. N Talpa de Allendé, the skull, as reflected in occipitonasal length and zygomatic breadth relative to length of body, is larger than in other specimens here assigned to _allex_. The median part of the belly of the eight specimens is buff-colored rather than whitish-gray as in typical _allex_; the mid-dorsal region also averages darker than in any other specimens referred to _allex_. Additional specimens are needed from this and closely adjacent areas, especially to the west on the coastal plain, in order to determine more accurately the taxonomic status of the mice there. At present, it seems best to refer them to _allex_. Possibly the population represented by the eight specimens is an incipient subspecies. There is no evidence of hybridization or intergradation of populations of _B. t. allex_ with any population of _B. musculus_ where the two species occur together. _Specimens examined._--Total 233, all from the Republic of México, distributed as follows: NAYARIT: 3 mi. SE Mirador, 7; _2 mi. S. Compostela_, 2900 ft., 5; _4 mi. N Santa Isabel_, 3800 ft., 2[25]; _2 mi. N Santa Isabel_, 3800 ft., 22[25]; _4 mi SE Ahuacatlán_, 5200 ft., 2[26]; _1 mi. E Ixtlán_, 4000 ft., 13[25]; 1 mi. E Ixtlán del Río, 3700 ft., 1; 2 mi. WNW Valle de Banderas, near sea level, 1. JALISCO: Arroyo de Gavalán, 16[28]; Etzatlán, 6[27]; _Mascota_, 3900 ft., 6[27]; _7 mi W Ameca_, 15[25]; _6 mi. W Ameca_, 15[25]; _3 mi. W Ameca_, 5[25]; Ameca, 4000 ft., 11[27]; _1 mi. SSE Ameca_, 4000 ft., 38; 2 mi. N Resolana, 1500 ft., 28[25]; 13 mi. E, 1 mi. N Talpa de Allendé, 8; 2 mi. SSE Autlán, 5; 1 mi. N San Gabriel, 4000 ft., 1[25]; Las Canoas, l[28]. COLIMA: Type locality, 10[27] (including the type). MICHOACÁN: 9 mi. S Lombardia, 1500 ft., 1; _3 mi. W Apatzingán_, 1000 ft, 1; Apatzingán, 3[25]; 10 mi. S, 1 mi. W Apatzingán, 800 ft., 10. _Marginal records._--NAYARIT: 3 mi. SE Mirador; 1 mi. E Ixtlán del Río. JALISCO: Etzatlán; Ameca; 2 mi. N Resolana; Las Canoas. MICHOACÁN: 9 mi. S Lombardia; 10 mi. S, 1 mi. W Apatzingán. COLIMA: type locality. NAYARIT: Valle de Banderas. [25] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [26] California Academy of Sciences. [27] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [28] American Museum of Natural History. =Baiomys taylori analogous= (Osgood) _Peromyscus taylori analogous_ Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:256, April 17, 1909 (part); Elliott, Check-List Mamm., N. Amer. Cont., West Indies and Neighboring Seas, Suppl., Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., p. 44, January 8, 1917. _Baiomys taylori analogous_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912; Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:318, April 29, 1924; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, British Mus. Nat. Hist., 2:402, March 21, 1941; Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:259, March 6, 1942; Davis, Jour. Mamm., 25:394, December 12, 1944; Hooper, Jour. Mamm., 28:50, February 15, 1947; Hall and Villa-R., Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 1:460, December 27, 1949; Hall and Villa-R., Anal. del Inst. Biol., 21:196, September 28, 1950; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 114:373, July 31, 1951 (part); Hall and Kelson, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:367, December 15, 1952 (part); Villa-R., Anal. del Inst. Biol., 23:435, May 20, 1953; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955; Hooper, Occas. Papers Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, 565:13, March 31, 1955; Packard, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 71:17, April 11, 1958. _Peromyscus musculus brunneus_, Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 115(8):203, 1907 (part). _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:258, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Hall and Villa-R., Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 1:460, December 27, 1949 (part); Hall and Villa-R., Anal. del Inst. Biol., 21:196, September 28, 1950 (part). _Baiomys taylori taylori_, Dalquest, Louisiana State Univ. Studies (Biol. Sci. Ser.), 1:155, December 28, 1953 (part); Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:660, March 31, 1959 (part). _Baiomys taylori allex_, Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:661, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 120261 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Zamora, Michoacán, Republic of México, obtained on January 15, 1903, by E. W. Nelson, and E. A. Goldman, original number 15764. _Range._--Central and eastern Jalisco south into Michoacán, east through Guanajuato, Querétaro, thence into Estado México, and Distrito Federal, and west-central Veracruz, see Figure 11. Zonal range: approximately the Transverse Volcanic Biotic Province of Moore (1945:218) and of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from 5000 feet, 7 mi. S Ocotlán, Jalisco, up to 8000 feet in Ixtapalapa, Distrito Federal. _Diagnosis._--Size large for the species; dorsum dark Sepia to near blackish medially in freshly taken specimens (Sepia fading to near Fuscous in prepared specimens); belly slaty-gray, hairs Deep Neutral Gray near tips and Dusky Neutral Gray at bases; hairs on back black-tipped with subterminal band of Ochraceous-Tawny (guard hairs blackish to base); hairs of throat and chin white-tipped, gray at bases; dorsal vibrissae black, ventral and anteriormost vibrissae white; hairs on face and sides black-tipped, and Ochraceous-Tawny at base; ears sparsely haired, individual hairs grayish, blackish, and ochraceous; tail sooty to blackish dorsally, lighter ventrally; forefeet and hind feet sooty brown on dorsal and ventral surface. Skull relatively broad interorbitally; zygoma broad and squared; cranium larger in all dimensions than in most other subspecies. Average and extreme measurements of 10 adults from 1 mi. S, 11 mi. W Zamora, 5400 ft., Michoacán, are: total length, 109.4 (102-121); length of body, 64.3 (58-72); length of tail, 44.9 (39-51); length of hind foot, 14.6 (14-15); occipitonasal length, 18.0 (17.5-18.6); zygomatic breadth, 9.4 (9.1-9.7); postpalatal length, 6.6 (6.2-7.2); least interorbital breadth, 3.5 (3.3-3.8); length of incisive foramina, 4.0 (3.8-4.2); length of rostrum, 6.2 (5.8-6.5); breadth of braincase, 8.7 (8.5-8.9); depth of cranium, 6.6 (6.3-6.9); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (3.0-3.3); for photographs of skull, see Plate 2_a_ and Plate 4_b_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. t. allex_, _B. t. canutus_, _B. t. paulus_, and _B. t. fuliginatus_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. t. taylori_, _B. t. analogous_ differs as follows: sides and dorsum darker, differing most in freshly prepared specimens; dorsal surface of forefeet and hind feet darker; basal part of hairs on belly darker gray; frontal bones less constricted, causing less taper anteriorly in interorbital space; interparietal wider transversely; basioccipital more expanded laterally, narrowing more abruptly at suture between basioccipital and basisphenoid. _Remarks._--The pelage of _analogous_ becomes paler with wear as pointed out by Osgood (1909:257). A paratype, U. S. Nat. Mus. 120260, and several specimens from 1 mi. S, 11 mi. W Zamora, Michoacán, are grayish rather than brownish-black. All of these are old adults having the terminal black parts of the hairs on the dorsum nearly worn away. Excluding such grayish individuals, _B. t. analogous_, like _B. t. subater_ and _B. t. fuliginatus_, is uniformly brownish-black. Both _analogous_ and _fuliginatus_ occur in relatively high mountainous country on dark soils or pedregals, and all three of the aforementioned subspecies occur in zones of high relative humidity. _B. t. analogous_ intergrades with _B. t. paulus_ (see account of that subspecies) and _B. t. allex_ south and west of Lago de Chapala in Jalisco. Additional specimens are needed from Querétaro and San Luis Potosí in order to ascertain whether or not _B. t. analogous_ intergrades with _B. t. fuliginatus_ or _B. t. taylori_. Specimens from western Jalisco, in the past referred to _B. t. analogous_, are referable to _B. t. allex_ (see account of that subspecies). Specimens obtained west of, and bordering, the Río del Naranjo in Jalisco show a mixture of characters of both _B. t. allex_ and _B. t. analogous_. For example, specimens from 2 mi. N Ciudad Guzmán resemble _analogous_ on the dorsum, whereas, on the belly, the individual hairs are white-tipped, pale gray at the base, and in over-all appearance are whitish-gray, unlike typical _analogous_ (being like _allex_ instead). The dorsal surface of the forefeet are sooty to light brownish (as in _analogous_), whereas, the hind feet are flesh-colored (as in _allex_). Another series of specimens from 4 mi. W León, Guanajuato, are intergrades between _B. t. analogous_ and _B. t. paulus_. These specimens are grayish to brownish on the dorsum, have sooty forefeet and hind feet (more nearly as in _analogous_ than in _paulus_), are grayish-white on the venter, and have a distinctly bicolored tail (resembling that of _paulus_ more than that of _analogous_). When the average of cranial characters is considered, both series are best referred to _analogous_. Hooper (1947:50) pointed out that specimens from the pedregal San Gerónimo, Distrito Federal, were more nearly black than topotypes and generally showed less brownish hues typical of _analogous_. I have examined this series and several others from this area (see Specimens examined, p. 640) and am convinced that these populations average darker. Actually, the dorsum is more nearly black and the venter is more buffy than in typical _analogous_. The hairs of these individuals average longer than in other populations of _analogous_. Skulls of the specimens from the pedregal are indistinguishable from those of paratypes of _analogous_. The populations from the Distrito Federal seem to be incipient subspecies. _Specimens examined._--Total 696, all from the Republic of México, distributed as follows: SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: Hacienda Capulín, 5[33]; _3.3 mi. N Tamazunchale, by-road_, 2[34]; 1 mi. N Tamazunchale, 700 ft., 1[35]. VERACRUZ: Acultzingo, 4[29], 1[31]. JALISCO: 1 mi. S Jalostotitlán, 5700 ft., 5; 7 mi. NW Tepatitlán, 3[29]; _6 mi. N, 4 mi. E Tepatitlán_, 6400 ft., 25; _2-1/2 mi. E Tepatitlán_, 6200 ft., 15; _2 mi. S, 1/2 mi. W Tepatitlán_, 9; _near Tepatitlán_, 2; _5 mi. SW Arrandas_, 6700 ft., 6; _2 mi. E Zapotlanejo_, 23; _2-1/2 mi. E Puente Grande_ (_5-1/2 mi. SW Zapotlanejo_), 3; _8 mi. S Guadalajara_, 10[29]; _3 mi. ENE Santa Cruz de las Flores_, 9; _4 mi. NE Ocotlán_, 5050 ft., 18; _13 mi. S, 9-1/2 mi. W Guadalajara_, 1; _2 mi. WNW Ocotlán_, 5000 ft., 15; 13 mi. S, 15 mi. W Guadalajara, 2; _Ocotlán_, 5000 ft., 8[30]; _1 mi. S Ocotlán_, 5000 ft., 12; 27 mi. S, 12 mi. W Guadalajara, 9; _1-1/2 mi. N Mazatmitla_, 6[29]; _1/2 mi. NW Mazatmitla_, 4; _3 mi. WSW Mazatmitla_, 4; 2 mi. N Ciudad Guzmán, 5000 ft., 18. GUANAJUATO: 4 mi. N, 5 mi. W León, 7000 ft., 25; 5 mi. S Salamanca, 2[29]; _5 mi. E Celaya_, 6000 ft., 6; _1 mi. E Yuriria_, 5725 ft., 3; Salvatierra, 5775 ft., 8; _NE edge Acambaro_, 6050 ft., 10; _Acambaro_, 3[30]. QUERÉTARO: Tolimán, 7[30]; 6 mi. E Querétaro, 6550 ft., 37. HIDALGO: Tula, 2050 m., 1[31]. MICHOACÁN: _2 mi. E La Palma, SE side Lago de Chapala_, 7; type locality, 4000 ft., 10[30] (including the type); _9 mi. E Zamora_ (_Camenaro_), 2[29]; _1 mi. S, 11 mi. W Zamora_, 5400 ft., 17; S Cuitzeo, 36[29]; _Jiquilpan_, 4800 ft., 15; _11 mi. W Jiquilpan_, 6700 ft., 2; _1 mi. E Jiquilpan_, 7; _1 mi. E Zinapecuaro_, 6300 ft., 17; _4-1/2 mi. NE Tarequato_ (_Tarecuato_), 6600 ft, 1; _Tanganciguaro_ (_Tangancicuaro_), 5500 ft., 4; _2 mi. N Tarecuato_, 7200 ft., 1; _2 mi. S Maravatio_, 6650 ft, 6; _2 mi. SE Zacapu_, 6600 ft., 11; _1 mi. N Tinquindin_ (_Tinguindin_), 6300 ft., 2; _3 mi. E Morelia_, 6600 ft., 3; _11 mi. E, 2 mi. S Morelia_, 1; 2 mi. SE Hidalgo (Villa Hidalgo), 6; _1-1/2 mi. N Los Reyes_, 1; _E Los Reyes_, 18[29]; _Los Reyes_, 8[30]; _3 mi. W, 1 mi. N Pátzucuaro_, 6600 ft., 2; _N Pátzucuaro_, 2[29]; _Pátzucuaro_ 9[31], 4[30], 4[29]; Uruapan, 1[29]; _E Uruapan_, 12; _2-1/2 mi. E Uruapan_ (_La Presca_), 2[29]; 2 mi. SW Zitacuaro, 1; 1 mi. E, 6 mi. S Tacámbaro, 4000 ft., 11[37]; _La Huacana_, 1[30]. MEXICO: Templo del Sol, Pyramídes de San Juan, Teotihuacán, 8000 ft., 1; _31 km. E México City_, 7500 ft., 11[36]; _17 km. E México City_, 7500 ft, 1[36]; _Cerro La Caldera, 11 mi. ESE México_, 2350 m., 5; 4 km. ENE Tlalmanalco, 2290 m., 9; _Hacienda Córdoba_ (_Córdova_), 6. MEXICO, D. F.: _Cerro de la Estrella, Ixtapalapa_, 2450 m., 1; _3/4 mi. S, 1 mi. E Churubusco_, 2400 m., 2; _5 km. S México City, South of Cd. Universitaria_, l[32]; _Pedregal San Angel_, _2.6 mi. S Monumento a Obregón, 2_; _El Pedregal, 1 km. S San Angel_, 2260 m., 1; _Falda SW Cerro Zacatepec, 3.9 mi. SW Monumento a Obregón_, 1; _2 mi. N Tlalpan, Zacayuca_, 2380 m., 5; _Tlalpan_ (_Pedregal_), 2400 m., 21[31]; _San Gerónimo_, 37[29], 6[38]; _Santa Rosa_, 2700 m., 1[32]; _Tlalpan_, 8; _3/4 mi. SW Las Fuentes, Tlalpan_, 2450 m., 25[30]; _Tepepán_, 6[29]; _Rancho La Noria, 1 mi. W Xochimilco_, 2270 m., 4; _500 meters N Xochitepec_, 2250 m., 7; 200 m. N San Mateo Xalpa (Jalpa), 2390 m., 2. _Marginal records._--SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: Hacienda Capulín; 1 mi. N Tamazunchale. HIDALGO: Tula, 2050 m. MEXICO: Templo del Sol, Pyramídes de San Juan, Teotihuacán. VERACRUZ: Acultzingo. MEXICO: 4 km. ENE Tlalmanalco. MEXICO, D. F.: 200 m. N San Mateo Xalpa (Jalpa), 2390 m. MICHOACÁN: 2 mi. SW Zitacuaro; 1 mi. E, 6 mi. S Tacámbaro; Uruapan. JALISCO: 2 mi. N Ciudad Guzmán; 27 mi. S, 12 mi. W Guadalajara; 13 mi. S, 15 mi. W Guadalajara; 7 mi. NW Tepatitlán; 1 mi. S Jalostotitlán, 5700 ft. GUANAJUATO: 4 mi. N, 5 mi. W León. QUERÉTARO: 6 mi. E Querétaro, 6550 ft.; Tolimán. [29] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [30] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [31] Chicago Natural History Museum. [32] American Museum of Natural History. [33] Museum of Natural History, Louisiana State University. [34] Univ. Illinois, Mus. Nat. History. [35] The Museum, Michigan State Univ. [36] Texas A & M, Cooperative Wildlife Research Collection. [37] Univ. California, Mus. Vert. Zoology. [38] University of Florida Collections. =Baiomys taylori ater= (Blossom and Burt) _Baiomys taylori ater_ Blossom and Burt, Occas. Papers Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, 465:2, October 8, 1942; Blair and Blossom, Contrib. Lab. Vert. Biol., Univ. Michigan, 40:1, March, 1948; Hoffmeister and Goodpaster, Ill. Biol. Monogr., 24(1):115, December 31, 1954; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:511, March 3, 1955; Hoffmeister, Amer. Midland Nat., 55:281, April, 1956; Packard, Jour. Mamm., 40:146, February 20, 1959; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Peromyscus taylori paulus_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:256, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys taylori_ [_ater_], Justice, Jour. Mamm., 38:520, November 20, 1957. _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 85425, University of Michigan, Museum of Zoology; 7 mi. W Hereford, Cochise County, Arizona, obtained on March 25, 1941, by Philip M. Blossom, original number 2195. _Range._--Southeastern Arizona, north to Graham County, thence east to the Animas Valley, Hidalgo County, New Mexico; south to northern Chihuahua and northwest to the southern border of Cochise County, Arizona, see Figure 11. Zonal range: largely lower Sonoran (Apachian Biotic Province of Dice, 1943:56). Occurs from 4300 feet in Chihuahua up to 6200 feet in New Mexico. _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the species; dorsum between Mummy Brown and Prouts Brown; individual tips of hairs intermixture of black and Ochraceous-Tawny, bases of all hairs slate-gray; sides of body and face, Buffy Brown to Cinnamon Brown; belly Cinnamon Buff, proximal half of individual hairs Deep Neutral Gray, distal half white; in region of throat, proximal fourth of individual hairs gray, distal three-fourths white; dorsal vibrissae black to base, ventral vibrissae white to base; tail brownish above, gray below; dorsal and ventral surface of forefeet and hind feet buffy to gray; interparietal somewhat compressed anteroposteriorly. Average and extreme cranial measurements of 15 adults from 9-1/2 mi. W New Mexico State Line, 5-1/2 mi. N Mexican border, Cochise County, Arizona, are as follows: occipitonasal length, 18.0 (17.5-18.6); zygomatic breadth, 9.5 (9.2-9.9); postpalatal length, 6.6 (6.0-7.1); least interorbital breadth, 3.6 (3.4-3.8); length of incisive foramina, 4.0 (3.8-4.2); length of rostrum, 6.1 (5.7-6.4); breadth of braincase, 8.6 (8.4-9.1); depth of cranium, 6.5 (6.3-6.9); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.2 (3.1-3.4). Average and extreme external measurements for six adults from 9 mi. W Hereford, Cochise County, are as follows: total length, 106.3 (98-115); length of tail vertebrae, 42.3 (39-46); length of body, 64 (59-69); length of hind foot, 13.6 (13-14.2); length of ear from notch, 11.1 (10.5-11.5); for photographs of skull, see Plate 2_b_, and Plate 4_c_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. t. canutus_, see account of that subspecies. From _B. t. paulus_, the subspecies to the southeast, _B. t. ater_ differs in: dorsum darker brown; tail less strikingly bicolored; belly buffy rather than whitish to white-gray; forefeet and hind feet darker dorsally and ventrally; posterior margin of basioccipital bowed anteriorly in a broad U-shape with a secondary small median anteriorly directed U-shaped curve, rather than bowed anteriorly in a simple U-shape; interparietal more compressed anteroposteriorly; coronoid process of mandible so acutely recurved that tip of coronoid points posteroventrally and appears sickle-shaped. _Remarks._--Blossom and Burt (1942:1) described _B. t. ater_ as the darkest of the known subspecies. It is dark, but specimens from some parts of the ranges of _B. t. analogous_, _B. t. fuliginatus_, and _B. t. subater_ exceed in melanins the darkest individuals of _ater_. Blair and Blossom (1948:5) also concluded by the use of an Ives tint photometer that _B. t. subater_ was significantly darker than _B. t. ater_. When paratypes of _ater_ and specimens of _B. t. paulus_ are compared, the darkest individuals of _ater_ exceed but slightly the darkest of _paulus_. The darkest specimens of _paulus_ occur in southern Zacatecas, and northern Jalisco, and the palest of the series are in northern Durango and southern Chihuahua. When paratypes of _ater_ and _paulus_ are compared, the difference in color is readily distinguishable. Specimens from 1-1/2 mi. N San Francisco, in northern Chihuahua, appear to be intermediate in color between _ater_ and _paulus_ except for a faint tinge of buff ventrally. In characters of the crania, these specimens resemble _ater_ and are referred to that subspecies. A slightly different pattern of color is present in pygmy mice from the Peloncillo Mountains and the Animas Valley of New Mexico; the upper parts resemble those of paratypes of _ater_, but the venter has only the faintest suggestion of the buffy wash. Crania of these specimens from New Mexico are inseparable from those of paratypes of _ater_, and the specimens are, therefore, referred to _ater_. When specimens are arranged by localities from Arizona east into southern New Mexico, thence south into Chihuahua and Durango, gradual intergradation in color is evident from dark in the north to pale browns in the south, whereas, size and shape of interparietal and size and shape of coronoid process of the lower jaw divide quite distinctly into two morphological types in central Chihuahua. Cranial variation in size and proportion among adults is slight throughout the range of _ater_ compared to variation detected in other subspecies of _Baiomys taylori_. Perhaps such a relatively stable pattern of characters of the crania reflects the homogeneity of the gene pool, with respect to these characters, of the populations sampled. The fact that the color of the pelage of this subspecies varies considerable throughout its known range and that the crania do not is perhaps a clue to the mode of inheritance of characters in these mice. Seemingly, color of pelage is inherited independently of characters of the cranium. The relative lack of variability in the crania of _ater_ may result from uniform environmental conditions, which have served to select for uniform characters in the populations. All of the other wide-ranging subspecies of _B. taylori_ occupy more diverse habitats than _ater_. Secondly, the rather abrupt change in the cline of measured characters of the crania between _ater_ and _paulus_ in central Chihuahua suggests a secondary zone of intergradation. The probable cessation of gene flow in the past between these two subspecies, allowing _ater_ to be isolated for a time, may also, in part, account for the relative lack of variability in the crania of _ater_. _Specimens examined._--Total 58, distributed as follows: ARIZONA: _Graham County_: 1-1/2 mi. SW Ft. Grant, Graham Mts., 1[39]; _Pima County_: 1-1/2 mi. ENE Greaterville, Thurber Ranch, 2[39]; _Santa Cruz County_: Patagonia, 3[39]; _Cochise County_: _9 mi. W Hereford_, 10[43]; type locality, 2[43] (including the type); _5 mi. W Hereford_, 5[43]; 9-1/2 mi. W New Mexico State Line, 5-1/2 mi. N Mexican border, 20[42]; _3 mi. E, 1 mi. N Chiricahua_, 1[42]. NEW MEXICO: _Hidalgo County_: 18 mi. S, 2 mi. W Animas, 2; _22 mi. S, 2 mi. W Rodeo_, 6000 ft., 1[40]; _22 mi. S, 2 mi. E Rodeo_, 6000 ft., 3[40]; 25-1/2 mi. S Animas, 6200 ft. (in Big Bill Canyon), 1[40]. CHIHUAHUA: _5-1/2 mi. N, 2 mi. W San Francisco_, 5100 ft., 1; _2-1/2 mi. N, 3 mi. W San Francisco_, 5200 ft., 1; 1-1/2 mi. N San Francisco, 5100 ft., 4; Casas Grandes, 4300 ft., 1[41]. _Marginal records_--ARIZONA: 1-1/2 mi. SW Ft. Grant, Graham Mts. NEW MEXICO: 18 mi. S, 2 mi. W Animas; 25-1/2 mi. S Animas (in Big Bill Canyon). CHIHUAHUA: 1-1/2 mi. N San Francisco; Casas Grandes. ARIZONA: Patagonia; 1-1/2 mi. ENE Greaterville, Thurber Ranch. [39] University of Illinois, Museum of Natural History. [40] University of New Mexico. [41] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [42] University of Arizona. [43] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. =Baiomys taylori canutus=, new subspecies _Peromyscus taylori paulus_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:255, April 17, 1909 (part). _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:256, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys taylori paulus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912 (part); Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:317, April 29, 1924 (part); Burt, Miscl. Publ., Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, 39:54, February 14, 1938; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:373, July 31, 1951 (part); Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:512, March 3, 1955 (part); Hooper, Occas. Papers Mus. Zool., Univ. Michigan, 565:13, March 31, 1955; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:336, July 31, 1951 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 62075, University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History; 1 mi. S Pericos, Sinaloa, Republic of México; obtained on June 14, 1954, by A. A. Alcorn, original number 1754. _Range._--Central Nayarit northward through western Sinaloa, to as far north as south-central Sonora, see Figure 11. Zonal range: Lower arid tropical, closely approximating the Sinaloan Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from near sea level at Escuinapa (43 feet), Sinaloa, to 3200 feet at a place 2 mi. WNW Tepic, Nayarit. _Diagnosis._--Dorsal ground color Buffy Brown (some specimens near Olive Brown); proximal fourth of individual guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, distal three-fourths dark grayish; dorsal underfur black-tipped having subterminal band of Buffy Brown; hair around eyes buffy to base; belly Pallid Neutral Gray with overtones of buff; individual hairs in region of chin whitish-gray to bases; vibrissae blackish to bases except ventralmost, those being white to base; tail Dark Olive above, slightly paler below. Average and extreme external measurements of 13 adults from 15 mi. N Rosario, Chelé, Sinaloa, 300 ft., are as follows: Total length, 109.6 (99-120); length of tail, 43.4 (38-49); length of body, 66.2 (58-75); length of hind foot, 11.2 (10-12). Average and extreme cranial measurements of 19 adults from the same place are as follows: occipitonasal length, 18.2 (17.7-18.9); zygomatic breadth, 9.6 (9.2-10.1); postpalatal length, 6.9 (6.5-7.3); least interorbital breadth, 3.6 (3.4-3.8); length of incisive foramina, 3.9 (3.5-4.2); length of rostrum, 5.9 (5.5-6.6); breadth of braincase, 8.7 (8.3-8.9); depth of cranium, 6.5 (6.2-6.7); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (3.0-3.2); breadth of zygomatic plate, 1.8 (1.6-2.0); for photographs of skull, see Plate 2_c_, and Plate 4_d_. _Comparisons._--From _B. t. ater_, _B. t. canutus_ differs in: dorsum slightly grayer; belly whitish to pale-gray with only faint tones of buff, rather than cinnamon-buff to buff-gray; forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored to grayish above instead of whitish to flesh-colored; tail paler above, less hairy, scales more evident; interparietal relatively larger from anteriormost to posteriormost points; incisive foramina tapering less abruptly posteriorly, not constricted towards midline; over-all size of body and cranium somewhat larger. From _B. t. paulus_, _B. t. canutus_ differs in: dorsum grayish-brown rather than fawn-colored (not differing appreciably from extremes of darker brown specimens of _paulus_); forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored to grayish above rather than white above; tail less hairy, unicolored to faintly bicolored rather than distinctly bicolored; braincase slightly larger; alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row slightly less. From _B. t. analogous_, _B. t. canutus_ differs in: dorsum paler, less of dark brown hues; belly paler; forefeet and hind feet slightly paler, less sooty above; tail less hairy, paler and having scales evident; jugal of zygoma extending ventrally to a point immediately above, instead of below, level of alveolus of upper molars; nasals more nearly truncate anteriorly; infraorbital foramina less deeply notched toward midline of skull; body and skull averaging smaller throughout. From _B. t. allex_, _B. t. canutus_ differs in: dorsal ground color grayish rather than fawn color having grayish overtones; underfur on dorsum darker gray; dorsal surface of forefeet and hind feet flesh-colored to grayish rather than flesh-colored; incisive foramina tapering to a point posteriorly rather than rounded posteriorly; interparietal relatively smaller; body and skull averaging larger throughout. _Remarks._--Burt (1938:54) reluctantly assigned specimens from Ciudad Obregón to _B. t. paulus_, probably being influenced by the resemblance in size. He suggested that, perhaps, a distinct subspecies occurs in the State of Sonora. Study of larger series of specimens than were available to Burt reveals that populations of pygmy mice inhabiting the northwest coastal plains of México are indeed distinct. The darkest of the material assigned to _canutus_ is from Nayarit (for specific localities see specimens examined). According to Tamayo (1949:Carta de Suelos), color of soil changes from chestnut in northern Sinaloa to black in southern Sinaloa and northern Nayarit. There seems, therefore, to be a close correlation between color of pelage and color of soil in this area. In Nayarit, particularly in the central and southern parts, the mice are intermediate in color between the paler, grayer population to the north and the more brownish samples, representative of _allex_ to the south. The coastal vegetation changes from the arid tropical thorn forests of the north and central parts of Sinaloa to a savannah in Nayarit, thence to a tropical deciduous forest farther south (see Leopold, 1950:508). In size and color, specimens from 3 mi. SE Tepic and 2 mi. SW Rosa Morada are intermediate between the larger, grayer _canutus_ and the smaller, light-brownish _allex_. In size of cranium, these specimens are more nearly like _canutus_, and are referred to that subspecies. Mice from the western coastal plain are relatively homogeneous as regards size of body and skull, except that those from 13.5 mi. S Acaponéta, Nayarit, average somewhat larger. _B. t. canutus_, like _B. t. subater_, is predominantly a lowland or coastal subspecies. The pallor of the former, that lives on generally paler soils, presumably is of adaptive value. Pygmy mice are seemingly rare in the northern part of the range of this subspecies. J. Raymond Alcorn and Albert Alcorn were successful in collecting only two specimens from the type locality after three successive nights of trapping with 100 traps set each night. Only six specimens are known from Sonora. These were obtained in the irrigated regions of Ciudad, Obregón, and Navajoa. Charles Sibley obtained one specimen 10.6 mi. SE Ciudad Obregón in a "maguey field." I obtained one specimen 1 mi. NNW Navajoa in a sparse grassway, 20 feet wide, bordering an open sewer, which coursed northward into the Río Mayo. Irrigated wheat fields bordered the grassway and ditch. _Specimens examined._--Total 70 all from the Republic of México and distributed as follows: SONORA: [Ciudad] Obregón, 4[44]; 10.6 mi. SE [Ciudad] Obregón, 1[45]; 1 mi. NNW Navajoa, 1. SINALOA: type locality, 2 (including the type); Culiacán, 175 ft., 2[46]; Mazatlán, 1[48]; _15 mi. N Rosario, Chelé_, 300 ft., 35[47]; Rosario, 3[46]; Escuinapa, 5[48]; _Railroad Station Escuinapa_, 43 ft., 2[45]. NAYARIT: Acaponéta, 4[46]; _13.5 mi. S Acaponéta Junction_, 6[49]; 2 mi. SW Rosa Morada, 2; _2 mi. WNW Tepic_, 3200 ft., 1; 3 mi. SE Tepic, 1. _Marginal records._--SONORA [Ciudad] Obregón. SINALOA: type locality; Escuinapa. NAYARIT: Acaponéta; 3 mi. SE Tepic. SINALOA: Mazatlán. [44] Coll. Univ. California, Los Angeles. [45] Univ. California, Mus. Vert. Zoology. [46] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [47] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [48] American Museum of Natural History. [49] Univ. Illinois, Mus. Nat. History. =Baiomys taylori fuliginatus=, new subspecies _Baiomys taylori taylori_, Dalquest, Louisiana State Univ. Studies (Biol. Sci. Ser.) 1:155, December 28, 1953 (part). _Baiomys taylori taylori_, Booth, Walla Walla Publs. Dept. Biol. Sci., 20:15, July 10, 1957 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 36765, University of Kansas, Museum of Natural History; 10 mi. E, 2 mi. N Ciudad del Maíz, 4000 ft., San Luis Potosí, Republic of México; obtained on January 17, 1950, by J. R. Alcorn, original number 10400. _Range._--Occurs in the Sierra Madre Oriental of the northeastern third of San Luis Potosí. Zonal range: Upper Tropical (see Dalquest, 1953:10); approximates a part of the Sierra Madre Oriental Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349, 356). Occurs from 2000 feet at El Salto up to 4000 feet at Ciudad del Maíz. _Diagnosis._--Size large for the species; ground color of dorsum Chaetura Drab; individual guard hairs of dorsum black to base, distal fourth of hairs of underfur in posterior half of dorsum tipped with grayish-brown, proximal three-fourths Dark Neutral Gray; in anterior region of dorsum, posterior to ears, distal third of hairs grayish-brown and proximal two-thirds Dark Neutral Gray to base; sides slightly paler than dorsum; ground color of belly Neutral Gray, individual hairs of belly and throat tipped with Pallid Neutral Gray, basally Deep Neutral Gray to Dark Neutral Gray; tips of individual hairs of face Ochraceous-Tawny; lateral vibrissae whitish, dorsal and ventral vibrissae black to base; forefeet and hind feet sooty above and below, thigh bearing some white-tipped hairs; tail near Chaetura Drab above, Pale Neutral Gray below; anterior part of jugal projecting slightly ventrally and forming small protuberance at point of articulation with maxillary part of zygoma; jugal extending anteriorly nearly to lacrimal. In most cranial measurements averaging as large as _B. t. analogous_. Average and extreme measurements of the type and three additional paratypes, all adults, are: total length, 105.5 (101-109); length of tail, 39.8 (35-42); length of body, 65.8 (63-68); length of hind foot, 14.3 (14-15); length of ear from notch, 11 (11); occipitonasal length, 18.1 (18.1-18.8); zygomatic breadth, 9.6 (9.3-9.8); postpalatal length, 6.5 (6.0-6.7); least interorbital breadth, 3.4 (3.3-3.6); length of incisive foramina, 4.0 (3.8-4.2); length of rostrum, 6.3 (6.1-6.4); breadth of braincase, 8.8 (8.6-8.9); depth of cranium, 6.7 (6.5-6.8); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.2 (3.1-3.3); for photograph of skull, see Plate 2_d_, and Plate 4_e_. _Comparisons._--From _B. t. taylori_, _B. t. fuliginatus_ differs in: dorsum slightly darker than in darkest _taylori_; tail densely haired, bicolored rather than unicolored; belly sooty to grayish rather than grayish to whitish; forefeet and hind feet sooty to grayish rather than flesh-colored; incisive foramina less bowed laterally, more nearly straight; interparietal compressed anteroposteriorly, less diamond-shaped. From _B. t. paulus_, _B. t. fuliginatus_ differs in: dorsum dusky to blackish rather than fawn color; belly sooty to grayish rather than buffy to whitish-gray; forefeet and hind feet sooty to grayish rather than whitish; zygoma more nearly forming a right angle with rostrum or skull, less tapered anteriorly; anterior part of jugal possessing ventral projection; jugal extending nearly to lacrimal on posterior surface of maxillary part of zygoma. From _B. t. analogous_, _B. t. fuliginatus_ differs in: mid-dorsal region blacker, less brownish; tail distinctly bicolored rather than unicolored to faintly bicolored; incisive foramina not constricted medially; presphenoid broader (at narrowest point); jugal differs much the same as it does from _paulus_; nasals anteriorly truncate instead of rounded. _Remarks._--Dalquest (1953:155-157) and Booth (1957:15) assigned all of the pygmy mice that they examined from the state of San Luis Potosí to _B. t. taylori_. Examination of all of the material that was available to Dalquest, plus additional specimens at the University of Kansas Museum of Natural History, reveals that there are three subspecies in San Luis Potosí. _B. t. taylori_ occurs in the eastern part of the State at lower altitudes; _B. t. analogous_ occurs to the southeast at higher altitudes; _B. t. fuliginatus_ occurs in the northeastern part of the State in the Sierra Madre Oriental. Specimens obtained from Ebano, Pujal, and Tamuín, representative of _B. t. taylori_, are much paler on the belly and on the ventral surface of the forefeet and hind feet than are specimens from Ciudad del Maíz, representative of _B. t. fuliginatus_. The tail in _B. t. taylori_ is nearly unicolored and less hairy than in the paratypical series of _fuliginatus_. Specimens from 4 km. NE Ciudad Valles are nearly intermediate in color of the belly, dorsum, forefeet and hind feet, and tail, between the palest mice from the coastal plain and the darker mice in the mountains of the northeastern part of the State (specimens from El Salto average paler, however, than the type and paratypes). These specimens seem to be intergrades between _B. t. taylori_ to the east on the coastal plain and _fuliginatus_ to the northwest in the mountains. It seems best to refer the mice from 4 km. N Ciudad Valles to _B. t. taylori_ on the basis of the average of external and cranial characters. Specimens from 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, Coahuila, also referred to _B. t. taylori_, resemble in color the mice from 4 km. N Ciudad Valles. When more specimens are obtained from the front range of the Sierra Madre Oriental, at lower altitudes, the manner in which these two subspecies intergrade with one another will be better understood. At present, populations from higher altitudes in the mountains seem to represent a dark subspecies; populations from the coastal plain represent a pale subspecies, and those from the lower slopes and high valleys seemingly are intergrades. _B. t. fuliginatus_ occurs in a somewhat limited strip of chernozem soil (or suelos negros of Tamayo, 1949: Carta de Suelos). The populations occurring at lower altitudes on the coastal plain are on generally paler soils. _Specimens examined._--Total 39, all from the Republic of México, as follows: SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: El Salto, 24 Mus. Nat. Hist., Louisiana State Univ., 7 Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist.; type locality, 8 (including the type). _Marginal records._--See specimens examined. =Baiomys taylori paulus= (J. A. Allen) _Peromyscus paulus_, J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 19:598, November 12, 1903; Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(6): 136, July 1, 1905. _Baiomys taylori paulus_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:137, December 31, 1912 (part); Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:317, April 29, 1924 (part); Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941 (part); Goldman, Smith, Miscl. Coll., 115:373, July 31, 1951 (part); Hall and Kelson, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 26:367, December 15, 1952; Goodwin, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 102:318, August 31, 1953; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:511, March 3, 1955 (part); Packard, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 71:17, April 11, 1958; Packard, Jour. Mamm., 40:146, February 20, 1959; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). [_Peromyscus_] _paulus_, Elliot, Field Columb, Mus. Publ., 95(4):136, July 15, 1904. _Peromyscus taylori paulus_, Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:255, April 17, 1909 (part). _Peromyscus musculus_ [_musculus_], Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:256, April 17, 1909 (part). _Baiomys taylori_ [= _paulus_], Twente and Baker, Jour. Mamm., 32:121, February 15, 1951. _Baiomys musculus musculus_, Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:336, July 31, 1951 (part). _Baiomys taylori allex_, Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 21165, American Museum of Natural History; Río Sestín, Durango, Republic of México; obtained on April 15, 1903, by J. H. Batty, original number 455. _Range._--Central Chihuahua south through Durango (west to eastern edge of Sierra Madre Occidental), to Zacatecas and Aguascalientes, thence west into northern and northwestern Jalisco, see Figure 11. Zonal range: Lower Sonoran, approximately the Chihuahua Desert Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore (1945:349). Occurs from 4000 feet 2 mi. ESE Tequila, Jalisco, up to 6700 feet 2 mi. W Miñaca, Chihuahua. _Diagnosis._--Size medium to small for the species; dorsum Buffy Brown to fawn color; dorsal ground color of unworn pelage of adults varying from Buffy Brown in darkest series (especially those from higher altitudes) to Avellaneous with grayish overtones in palest series; worn pelage in mid-dorsal region of adults fawn to grayish; terminal parts of individual hairs buffy, gray basally; guard hairs on dorsum black-tipped, grayish basally; belly Light Gull Gray, distal half of hairs white, proximal half Neutral Gray; hairs in region of throat and chin white to base (some specimens with faint buffy overtones); forefeet dusky below, whitish above; hind feet whitish above, ventral surface whitish to dusky; dorsal and lateral vibrissae black, other vibrissae white. Average and extreme measurements of six adults from the type locality are as follows: total length, 109 (106-117); length of tail, 44.5 (43-48); length of body, 63 (57-69); length of hind foot, 13.1 (12.7-14.0); occipitonasal length, 17.5 (17.4-18.0); zygomatic breadth, 9.3 (9.1-9.5); postpalatal length, 6.6 (6.2-6.9); least interorbital breadth, 3.5 (3.4-3.6); length of incisive foramina, 3.8 (3.6-4.1); length of rostrum, 5.9 (5.7-6.0); breadth of braincase, 8.6 (8.5-8.8); depth of cranium, 6.6 (6.2-6.9); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.2 (3.1-3.4); for photographs of the skull, see Plate 2_e_ and Plate 4_f_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. t. allex_, _B. t. canutus_, _B. t. ater_, and _B. t. taylori_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. t. analogous_, _B. t. paulus_ differs as follows: dorsal color paler having more reddish-brown than blackish-brown tones; venter whitish to buffy, instead of gray to light-gray; tail bicolored (not unicolored), usually having more hairs; hind feet white (not sooty) above. Cranially, _B. t. paulus_ differs from _B. t. analogous_ in: skull slightly smaller in all dimensions; maxillary part of zygoma narrowing and forming oblique angle rather than a near right angle with rostrum; anterior incisive foramina constricted posteriorly; tips of nasals truncate (less rounded). _Remarks._--J. A. Allen (1903:599) correctly pointed out that young specimens, in first pelage, were gray brown; young adults were darker and more varied with some blackish; adults and old adults were buffy to grayish. The change in color of pelage with increasing age is more pronounced in _paulus_ than in other subspecies of _B. taylori_. Of two males collected on April 12, 1949, one, an adult, is buffy brown, and the other, an old adult with worn pelage, is grayish-brown. In mice in the earlier stages of adulthood, underfur of the dorsum is buffy at the tips and gray basally. With increased wear, the buffy tip is lost. Consequently, mice in the later stages of adulthood are grayish. _B. t. paulus_ intergrades with _ater_ to the north in Chihuahua (see account of that subspecies), with _analogous_ to the south in Jalisco, and with _allex_ (see account of that subspecies) to the southwest in Nayarit and Jalisco. The zone of intergradation between _paulus_ and _analogous_ in Jalisco approximately borders the Río Grande de Santiago from the western part of the State to the northwest shore of Lago de Chapala. Nineteen specimens from 2 mi. WNW Lagos de Moreno in northwest Jalisco seem to be intermediate between _paulus_ and _analogous_ in color, averaging slightly grayer than typical _paulus_. The series of 19 is referable to _paulus_ on the basis of cranial characters. A series of 34 specimens from 3 mi. W La Venta, Jalisco (referable to _paulus_), is indistinguishable in color of pelage from two series of _paulus_ from 5 mi. N Durango, and from 8 mi. NE of Durango, except that the antiplantar surfaces of the hind feet are sooty as in _analogous_. Seemingly, features of color mentioned above as diagnostic of the two subspecies are either present or absent and there is no tendency toward intermediacy in color in the population from 3 mi. W La Venta. The Río Grande de Santiago may have acted in the past as a physical barrier reducing gene flow between _allex_ and _paulus_ and in separating completely the two populations for limited periods. _Specimens examined._--Total 176, all from the Republic of México and distributed as follows: CHIHUAHUA: Rancho Sanignacio, 4 mi. S, 1 mi. W Santo Tomás, 1; El Rosario, 6700 ft., 1; 2 mi. W Miñaca, 6900 ft., 11; Balleza, 1[50]. DURANGO: Rosario, 1[51]; type locality, 14[51] (including the type); _San Gabriel_, 2[51]; _Rancho Santuario_, 2[51]; 1 mi. N Chorro, 6450 ft., 1; _8 mi. NE Durango_, 6200 ft., 2; 5 mi. N Durango, 6400 ft., 2. ZACATECAS: Valparaíso, 6500 ft., 10[50]. AGUASCALIENTES: _18 mi. W, 2 mi. S Aguascalientes_, 6000 ft., 1; 16 mi. S Aguascalientes, 5[52]. JALISCO: 1 mi. NE Villa Hidalgo, 6500 ft., 1; 2 mi. WNW Lagos de Moreno, 6370 ft., 19; _2 mi. ESE Tequila_, 4000 ft., 11; _3 mi. W La Venta_, 33, 1[53]; _12 mi. W Guadalajara_, 3[54]; _Atemajac_, 12[50]; 4 mi. W Guadalajara, 5100 ft., 3; _2 mi. N, 1/2 mi. W Guadalajara_, 11; 2 mi. NW Magdalena, 4500 ft., 7[50]; _1 mi. N Tala_, 4400 ft., 3; 3 mi. W Tala, 4300 ft., 18. _Marginal records._--CHIHUAHUA: Rancho Sanignacio, 4 mi. S, 1 mi. W Santo Tomás; El Rosario; Balleza. DURANGO: Rosario, 6700 ft.; 1 mi. E Zarca (Blossom and Burt, 1942:1); 1 mi. N Chorro, 6450 ft. ZACATECAS: Valparaíso, 6500 ft. AGUASCALIENTES: 1 mi. N Chicalote (Blossom and Burt, 1942:4). JALISCO: 2 mi. WNW Lagos de Moreno, 6370 ft.; 4 mi. W Guadalajara, 5100 ft.; 3 mi. W Tala, 4300 ft.; 2 mi. NW Magdalena, 4500 ft. DURANGO: 5 mi. N Durango, 6400 ft.; type locality. CHIHUAHUA: 2 mi. W Miñaca, 6900 ft. [50] United States National Museum (Biol. Surv. Collections). [51] American Museum of Natural History. [52] Univ. Illinois, Mus. Nat. History. [53] The Museum, Michigan State Univ. [54] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. =Baiomys taylori subater= (V. Bailey) _Peromyscus taylori subater_, V. Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 25:102, October 24, 1905; Lyon and Osgood, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 62:139, January 15, 1909; Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:255, April 17, 1909; Elliot, Check-List Mamm. N. Amer. Continent, West Indies and Neighboring Seas, Suppl., Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist, p. 44, January 8, 1917. _Baiomys taylori subater_, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:136, December 31, 1912; Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:317, April 29, 1924; Anthony, Field Book of North American Mammals, p. 348, 1928; Baker, Jour. Mamm., 21:223, May 14, 1940; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Blair, Jour. Mamm., 22:378, November 14, 1941; Poole and Schantz, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 178:259, March 6, 1942; Blair, Jour. Mamm., 23:196, May 14, 1942; Blair and Blossom, Contrib. Lab. Vert. Biol., Univ. Michigan, 40:1, March, 1948; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:511, March 3, 1955; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959. _Baiomys taylori_ [= _subater_], Taylor and Davis, Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Comm. Bull., 27:56, August, 1947 (part). _Type._--Subadult female, skin and skull; No. 32616/44539 U. S. Nat. Mus. (Biol. Surv. Coll.); Bernard Creek, near Columbia, Brazoria County, Texas; obtained on February 25, 1892, by W. Lloyd, original number 1122. _Range._--Southeastern Texas, north of Matagorda Bay west to Lavaca County, north to Brazos and Walker counties thence east to Jefferson County, see Figure 11. Occurs from near sea level in Brazoria and Galveston counties, up to 500 feet in western part of range. Zonal range: Humid division of lower Austral (the western part of the Austroriparian Biotic Province of Dice, 1943:18-21). _Diagnosis._--Size medium to large for the species; mid-dorsal region Clove Brown (sooty in freshly captured specimens); some parts of mid-dorsal region all blackish; individual guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, Deep Neutral Gray basally; underfur black-tipped with subterminal band of light buff, Neutral Gray at base; belly grayish-white, laterally Isabella Color; distal three-fourths of hairs in region of throat and chin white, proximal fourth light gray; in median region of belly distal half of individual hairs white, proximal half dark gray; vibrissae in most specimens black to base. Average and extreme cranial measurements of six adults from 7 mi. S La Belle are as follows: occipitonasal length, 18.9 (17.5-19.4); zygomatic breadth, 9.6 (9.1-9.9); postpalatal length, 6.8 (6.2-7.2); least interorbital breadth, 3.7 (3.4-3.9); length of incisive foramina, 4.0 (3.6-4.2); length of rostrum, 6.5 (6.1-6.8); breadth of braincase, 8.7 (8.3-8.9); depth of cranium, 6.7 (6.6-6.8); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (2.9-3.2). Average and extreme external measurements of four adults from Richmond are as follows: total length, 111.5 (108-118); length of tail vertebrae, 43.5 (41-47); length of body, 68 (67-71); length of hind foot, 14 (13-15); for photographs of the skull, see Plate 2_f_, and Plate 4_g_. _Comparisons._--Because _B. t. subater_ intergrades only with _B. t. taylori_ to the south and west, _subater_ is compared only with _taylori_. Young adults of both subspecies in unworn pelage show best the colors that differentiate the two subspecies. Old adults of _subater_ in worn pelage appear grayish, resembling _taylori_, and at that age, only certain cranial characters are of taxonomic use. Cranially, _subater_ differs from _taylori_ in: presphenoid not shaped like an hour-glass; parapterygoid processes thicker medially; interparietal diamond-shaped instead of elongated and compressed. Skull slightly larger in most measurements. [Illustration: PLATE 1 Photographs of skulls in dorsal view of _Baiomys_. × 2. _a._ _B. m. brunneus_, [F] ad., 10834, AMNH, Jalapa, Veracruz. _b._ _B. m. grisescens_, [F] ad., 257080, USNM, Comayabuela, Honduras. _c._ _B. m. handleyi_, [F] ad., 275597, USNM, Sacapulas, Guatemala. _d._ _B. m. infernatis_, [F] ad., 91499, MZUM, Teotitlán, Oaxaca. _e._ _B. m. musculus_, [F] ad., 45462, USNM, Colima, Colima. _f._ _B. m. nigrescens_, [M] ad., 76834, USNM, Comitán, Chiapas. _g._ _B. m. pallidus_, [F] ad., 4802, Texas A & M, Axochiapán, Morelos. _h._ _B. m. pullus_, [F] ad., 71608, KU, 8 mi. S Condega, Nicaragua. _i._ _B. t. allex_, [F] ad., 45453, USNM, Colima, Colima.] [Illustration: PLATE 2 Photographs of skulls (_a-g_) in dorsal view of _Baiomys_. × 2. _a._ _B. t. analogous_, [F] ad., 120265, USNM, Zamora, Michoacán. _b._ _B. t. ater_, [F] ad., 15056, UI, 1-1/2 mi. ENE Greaterville, Arizona. _c._ _B. t. canutus_, [F] ad., 62076, KU, 1 mi. S Pericos, Sinaloa. _d._ _B. t. fuliginatus_, [F] ad., 36771, KU, type locality. _e._ _B. t. paulus_, [F] ad., 40032, KU, 18 mi. W, 2 mi. S Aguascalientes. _f._ _B. t. subater_, [F] ad., 44543, USNM, type locality. _g._ _B. t. taylori_, [F] ad., 57944, KU, 5 mi. E San Antonio, Texas. _h._ Photo. of captive [M] _B. t. taylori_, 25 mi. E Austin, Texas. × 1.] [Illustration: PLATE 3 Photographs of skulls in ventral view of _Baiomys_. × 2. _a._ _B. m. brunneus_, [F] ad., 10834, AMNH, Jalapa, Veracruz. _b._ _B. m. grisescens_, [F] ad., 257080, USNM, Comayabuela, Honduras. _c._ _B. m. handleyi_, [F] ad., 275597, USNM, Sacapulas, Guatemala. _d._ _B. m. infernatis_, [F] ad., 91499, MZUM, Teotitlán, Oaxaca. _e._ _B. m. musculus_, [F] ad., 45462, USNM, Colima, Colima. _f._ _B. m. nigrescens_, [M] ad., 76834, USNM, Comitán, Chiapas. _g._ _B. m. pallidus_, [F] ad., 4802, Texas A & M, Axochiapán, Morelos. _h._ _B. m. pullus_, [F] ad., 71608, KU, 8 mi. S Condega, Nicaragua.] [Illustration: PLATE 4 Photographs of skulls in ventral view of _Baiomys_. × 2. _a._ _B. t. allex_, [F] ad., 45453, USNM, Colima, Colima. _b._ _B. t. analogous_, [F] ad., 120265, USNM, Zamora, Michoacán. _c._ _B. t. ater_, [F] ad., 15056, UI, 1 mi. ENE Greaterville, Arizona. _d._ _B. t. canutus_, [F] ad., 62076, KU, 1 mi. S Pericos, Sinaloa _e._ _B. t. fuliginatus_, [F] ad., 36771, KU, type locality. _f._ _B. t. paulus_, [F] ad., 40032, KU, 18 mi. W, 2 mi. S Aguascalientes. _g._ _B. t. subater_, [F] ad., 44543, USNM, type locality. _h._ _B. t. taylori_, [F] ad., 57944, KU, 5 mi. E San Antonio, Texas.] _Remarks._--This subspecies retains its chief diagnostic character, blackish mid-dorsal region, throughout nearly all parts of its range. Specimens from the general area of Matagorda Bay and Lavaca County grade into _taylori_ in characters of color and crania. The Colorado and Brazos rivers seemingly serve as barriers reducing gene flow between _taylori_ and _subater_. These rivers may well have been important factors in the origin and the limitation of these two seemingly closely-related subspecies. _Baiomys taylori subater_ is not differentiated in color of pelage and characters of crania from _B. t. taylori_ to the same degree that _B. t. paulus_ is differentiated from _B. t. analogous_, or that _B. t. taylori_ is differentiated from several of the other subspecies of _Baiomys taylori_. _B. t. subater_ probably is a more recent occupant of the area in which it now lives than is the case with any other one of the subspecies of _taylori_. Sufficient time probably has not elapsed to allow for formation of more distinctive phenotypic patterns. _Specimens examined._--Total 65, all from TEXAS and distributed as follows: _Brazos County_: 1/2 mi. NW College Station, 1[55]; _3 mi. W College Station_, _1 mi. W Easterwood Airport_, 1[55]; _College Station_, 1[55]. _Walker County_: Huntsville, 1[55]. _Hardin County_: Sour Lake, 1[57]. _Jefferson County_: 7 mi. S Labelle, 10. _Harris County_: 6 mi. NE Crosby, 1[56]. _Colorado County_: _10 mi. N Eagle Lake_, 1[55]; _9 mi. N Eagle Lake_, 1[55]; 2 mi. W Eagle Lake, 1; _Eagle Lake_, 1[55], 5. _Fort Bend County_: Richmond, 4[57]. _Galveston County_: _Texas City_, 6[58]; Virginia Point, 1[57]. _Brazoria County_: _Austin Bayou near Alvin_, 2[57]; 14 mi. SSE Alvin, 2[59]; type locality, 7[57] (including the type). _Lavaca County_: 4 mi. W Hallettsville, 1[55]; _1 mi. SW Hallettsville_, 3[55]; _13.7 mi. SW Hallettsville_, 2[55]; 4 mi. NE Yoakum, 11. _Marginal records._--TEXAS: Huntsville; Sour Lake; 7 mi. S La Belle; Virginia Point; 14 mi. SSE Alvin; type locality; 4 mi. NE Yoakum; 4 mi. W Hallettsville; 1/2 mi. NW College Station. [55] Texas A & M, Cooperative Wildlife Research Collection. [56] Carnegie Museum. [57] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [58] Los Angeles County Museum. [59] American Museum of Natural History. =Baiomys taylori taylori= (Thomas) _Hesperomys_ (_Vesperimus_) _taylori_ Thomas, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, 19:66, January, 1887. _Baiomys taylori_ [_taylori_], Mearns, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 56:381, April 13, 1907; Stickel and Stickel, Jour. Mamm., 30:141, May 23, 1949. Baiomys taylori taylori, Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 79:136, December 31, 1912; Miller, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 128:317, April 29, 1924; Anthony, Field Book of North American Mammals, p. 327, 1928; Ellerman, The Families and Genera of Living Rodents, 2:402, March 21, 1941; Taylor and Davis, Texas Game, Fish and Oyster Comm. Bull., 27:56, August, 1947 (part); Blair, Texas Jour. Sci., 2:104, March 31, 1950; Goldman, Smith. Miscl. Coll., 115:373, 426, July 31, 1951; Baker, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 5:212, December 15, 1951; Blair, Texas Jour. Sci., 4:242, June 30, 1952; Hooper, Occas. Papers, Univ. Michigan, Mus. Zool., 544:7, March 25, 1953; Dalquest, Louisiana State Univ. Studies (Biol. Sci. Ser.), 1:155, December 28, 1953 (part); Blair, Adv. in Genetics, 5:10, January 27, 1954; Miller and Kellogg, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., 205:511, March 3, 1955; Baker, Univ. Kansas Publs., Mus. Nat. Hist., 9:273, June 15, 1956; Packard, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 71:17, April 11, 1958; Hall and Kelson, The Mammals of North America, 2:659, March 31, 1959 (part). _Cricetus_ (_Vesperimus_) _taylori_, Thomas, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 68:446, November 20, 1888. _Sitomys taylori_, Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 7:170, September 29, 1892. _Sitomys_ (_Baiomys_) _taylori_, True, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 16(972):758, February 7, 1894; J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 6:181, May 31, 1894. _S._ [_itomys_] _taylori_, Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, 46:256, October, 1894. _Peromyscus_ (_Baiomys_) _taylori_, J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 8:65, April 22, 1896. [_Peromyscus_] _taylori_, Trouessart, Cat. Mamm., 1:517, 1898. _Peromyscus taylori_ [_taylori_], Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 105(4):135, July 1, 1905; V. Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, 25:101, October 24, 1905; Elliot, Field Columb. Mus. Publ., 115(8):203, 1907; Osgood, N. Amer. Fauna, 28:253, April 17, 1909. _Type._--Adult male, skin and skull; No. 87.11.24.1, British Museum, Natural History; San Diego, Duval County, Texas; obtained by William Taylor. _Range._--North-central to southeastern Texas, excluding the coastal plain north of the region of Matagorda Bay, thence south into the southern part of Tamaulipas and west into Coahuila and Nuevo León, see Figure 11. Occurs from near sea level in Texas up to 1500 feet in Coahuila. Zonal range: mostly Lower Austral (in México and southeastern half of Texas, the Tamaulipas Biotic Province of Goldman and Moore, 1945:349, and Blair, 1952:230). _Diagnosis._--Size medium for the species; dorsum grayish in freshly taken specimens to Hair Brown in preserved specimens; individual guard hairs of dorsum black-tipped, grayish basally, underfur black-tipped with a subterminal band of olive-buff; sides of body pale-grayish near venter, individual hairs buffy proximally, grayish basally; belly pale grayish, individual hairs white-tipped, Pale Neutral Gray basally; throat and chin colored as is belly; forefeet and hind feet sooty-gray dorsally, sparsely-haired ventrally, thus appearing flesh-colored; tail unicolored gray to sooty-gray. Average and extreme cranial measurements of 22 adults from 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, Coahuila, are as follows: occipitonasal length, 18.0 (17.4-19.0); zygomatic breadth, 9.6 (9.2-10.2); postpalatal length, 6.5 (5.9-7.1); least interorbital breadth, 3.6 (3.3-3.8); length of incisive foramina, 4.0 (3.6-4.3); length of rostrum, 6.1 (5.7-6.7); breadth of brain case, 8.8 (8.5-9.1); depth of cranium, 6.5 (6.0-7.0); alveolar length of maxillary tooth-row, 3.1 (3.0-3.3). Average and extreme external measurements of 19 adults from 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo are as follows: total length, 102.2 (95-115); length of tail vertebrae, 39.4 (21-46); length of body, 62.8 (53-76); length of hind foot, 14.0 (12-15); length of ear from notch, 10.7 (10-12); for photographs of skull, see Plate 2_g_, and Plate 4_h_. _Comparisons._--For comparisons with _B. t. subater_, _B. t. analogous_, and _B. t. fuliginatus_, see accounts of those subspecies. From _B. t. paulus_, found to the southwest, _B. t. taylori_ differs as follows: dorsum grayish rather than fawn-colored; hairs on dorsal parts of forefeet and hind feet sooty-gray (not white to white-brown); venter gray to Light Drab-Gray, rather than whitish with gray overtones; tail unicolored instead of bicolored; skull averaging slightly larger over-all; maxillary part of zygoma forms right angle with rostrum rather than obtuse angle; incisive foramina extending posteriorly to anterior plane of first upper molars instead of to a transverse plane at middle of right and left first upper molars; bullae less inflated; interorbital region broader relative to length of skull; rostrum sloping gently from frontonasal suture to anterior tip of nasals rather than declining abruptly from frontonasal suture to anterior tip of nasals. _Remarks._--The geographic range of _taylori_ is relatively large, and the subspecies is locally variable. Nevertheless, none of the external and cranial measurements of specimens assigned to this subspecies differs significantly from the corresponding measurements of material from the type locality and adjacent areas in southeastern Texas. In southeastern Texas, south of the Guadalupe River, south to the coastal plain of Tamaulipas, this subspecies differs in color (being paler) from _B. t. subater_ with which _taylori_ might be confused. The foothills of the Sierra Madre Oriental in western Tamaulipas, north through Nuevo León and Coahuila, seem to mark the southwestern limit of the range assignable to _taylori_. On December 27, 1958, a specimen, KU 81552, was obtained 3 mi. N Bowie, Montague County, Texas. This record station extends the known range of _B. taylori_ 65 miles northward from the previous northernmost locality, listed by Hunsaker, Raun, and Swindells (1959:447). Two specimens, KU 81553 and 81554, were collected by the author 2 mi. NE Cedar Hill, Dallas County, Texas, on October 31, 1958. These two specimens, plus the single specimen from Bowie County are all paler with more buffy bellies than either _B. t. taylori_ or _B. t. subater_. They may represent an incipient subspecies. I tentatively assign them to _B. t. taylori_ because of the pale rather than dark (like _B. t. subater_) pelage. Additional specimens are needed from these areas and from the hiatus between the ranges of _B. t. taylori_ and _B. t. subater_ the better to understand the manner in which these two subspecies intergrade. Among named subspecies of _Baiomys taylori_, _B. t. taylori_ most closely resembles _B. t. subater_ to the north in Texas. Nine specimens examined from Yoakum are intergrades between _taylori_ and _subater_. These specimens have the sooty dorsal color of _subater_, but ventrally are inseparable from topotypes of _taylori_. In length of body and tail, specimens from Yoakum are like _subater_, but in length of hind foot, they are intermediate between the two subspecies. Cranially, they are like _subater_. When all characters are considered, the specimens are best referred to _subater_. Bailey (1905:103) suggested that specimens from the southern part of the range, which he ascribed to _subater_, tended to a more grayish color than topotypes of _subater_, therefore, grading into _taylori_. The zone of intergradation runs from Matagorda Bay northwest through Lavaca County, thence north to the Colorado River, and closely follows the boundary between the Lower Austral and Humid Division of Lower Austral Life-zone as plotted by Bailey (_loc. cit._). Findley (1955:44) pointed out that where two life-zones meet, the resulting populations of shrews are mostly intergrades. Such is the case between these two subspecies of _Baiomys taylori_ in an area where life-zones might seem less important than in the mountainous west. In the southern part of the range of _taylori_, intergradation occurs between _B. t. taylori_ in western Tamaulipas and _B. t. fuliginatus_ in the mountains of San Luis Potosí. Dalquest (1953:156) found no indication of intergradation between the two species, _B. taylori_ and _B. musculus_, in San Luis Potosí. After examination of specimens from San Luis Potosí, I am in agreement that they are all referable to the species _taylori_. _Specimens examined._--Total 435. TEXAS: _Montague County_: 3 mi. N Bowie, 1. _Dallas County_: 2 mi. NE Cedar Hill, 2. _Travis County_: 8 mi. NW Austin, 2[60]; _Austin_, 2[60]; _4 mi. E Austin_, 4[60]; _5 mi. E Austin_, 3[60]; _6 mi. E Austin_, 16[60], 1; _7 mi. E Austin_, 1[60]; _15 mi. E Austin_, 1[60]; _4 mi. S Austin_, 1[60]. _Bastrop County_: 25 mi. E Austin, 2. _Kendall County_: Boerne, 1[61]. _Bexar County_: _1 mi. N Randolph Field_, 3[64]; _5 mi. ENE_ (_on U. S. Highway 81_) _San Antonio_, 1; _3 mi. NE San Antonio_, 1; San Antonio, 26[61], 11[62], 1[63]; _5 mi. E San Antonio_, 11; _4-1/2 mi. E Sayers_, 3. _Gonzales County_: 7 mi. S Luling, 2[60]. _Wilson County: 4 mi. W LaVernia_, 3; 12 mi. W Floresville, 1. _Atascosa County_: 9 mi. SW Somerset, 1. _Goliad County_: 8 mi. NE Goliad, 1[60]. _Bee County_: Beeville, 1[61]. _Aransas County_: Aransas (Wildlife) Refuge, 1[65]; _5 mi. E Copana Bay_, 1[65]; _4.6 mi. NE Rockport_, 5[60]; _4.5 mi. NW Rockport_, 2[60]; 3 mi. N, 2 mi. E Rockport, 4; _Rockport_, 1[60], 1[61], 1[63]; _1-1/2 mi. SW Rockport_, 1[60]; _2 mi. SW Rockport_, 2[60]; _13.4 mi. SW Rockport_, 1[60]; _14 mi. SW Rockport_, 1. _San Patricio County_: Welder Wildlife Refuge, 7. _Duval County_: type locality, 2[61], 1[66]. _Nueces County_: Corpus Christi (south Nueces Bay), 1[64] (Cleveland Mus. Coll.). _Kleberg County_: 2 mi. S Riviera, 3[65]. _Brooks County_: 3 mi. S Falfurrias, 2[65]. _Hidalgo County_: 6 mi. S McAllen, 17[60]. _Willacy County_: 28 mi. E Raymondville, 10[65]. _Cameron County_: Brownsville, 31[61], 23[62], 5[64]. COAHUILA: 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, 32. NUEVO LEÓN: Santa Catarina, 1[61]; 14 mi. N Monterrey, 1950 ft., 2[67]; Monterrey, 1[61]; 20 km. N General Terán, 3[64]. TAMAULIPAS: _Near Headwaters Río Sabinas, 8 km. W, 10 km. N El Encino_, 400 ft., 1; Camargo, 5[61]; Charco Escondido, 20 mi. S Reynosa, 3[67]; Matomoras, 5[61]; _Ejido Santa Isabel, 2 km. W Inter-American Highway_, 2000 ft., 7; Hidaglo, 7[61]; _Hda. Station Engracia_, 4[63]; 4 mi. N La Pesca, 1; 29 mi. N Ciudad Victoria, 1[67]; Ciudad Victoria, 6[61], 3; Jaumavé, 2400 ft., 6[64], 10; Sierra de Tamaulipas, 3[64]; _25 mi. N El Manté, 3 km. W Inter-American Highway_ (_on Rancho Pano Ayuctle_), 300 ft., 4; _6 mi. N Gomez Farias_ (_on Rancho Pano Ayuctle_), 1; _5 mi. NE Gomez Farias_, 12[64], 1[62]; 70 km. (by highway) S Ciudad Victoria, 2 km. W El Carrizo, 5[62], 2; Antigua Morelos, 5[64]; _6 mi. N, 6 mi. W Altamira_, 31; _5 mi. N, 5 mi. W Altamira_, 4; _Alta Mira_ (_Altamira_), 2[61]; 1 mi. S Altamira, 6; _10 mi. NW Tampico_, 1. SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: Ebano, 5[68]; _4 km. NE Ciudad Valles_, 1; Ciudad Valles, 1; _3 km. W Tamuín_, 1[68]; _Tamuín_, 6[68]; _Pujal_, 300 m., 1[64]. VERACRUZ: Tampico Alto, 50 ft., 1; Potrero Llano, 350 ft., 1; Ozulama, 2; Cerro Azul, 350 ft., 1. _Marginal Records._--TEXAS: 3 mi. N Bowie; 2 mi. NE Cedar Hill; 25 mi. E Austin; 7 mi. S Luling; 8 mi. NE Goliad; Aransas (Wildlife) Refuge; 3 mi. N, 2 mi. E Rockport; Corpus Christi (South Nueces Bay); 2 mi. S Riviera; 28 mi. E Raymondville; Brownsville. TAMAULIPAS: Matomores; 4 mi. N La Pesca; 1 mi. S Altamira. VERACRUZ: Tampico Alto; Ozulama; Cerro Azul; Potrero Llano. SAN LUIS POTOSÍ: Ciudad Valles. TAMAULIPAS: Antigua Morelos; 70 km. S Ciudad Victoria, 2 km. W El Carrizo; Jaumavé; Hidalgo. NUEVO LEÓN: 20 km. N General Terán; Santa Catarina. COAHUILA: 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo. TEXAS: 9 mi. SW Somerset; Boerne; 8 mi. NW Austin. [60] Coll. University of Texas. [61] U. S. Nat. Museum (Biol. Surv. Coll.). [62] American Museum of Natural History. [63] Chicago Natural History Museum. [64] Univ. Michigan, Museum of Zoology. [65] Texas A & M Coop. Wildlife Res. Coll. [66] Carnegie Museum. [67] Univ. California, Mus. Vert. Zool. [68] Museum of Natural History, Louisiana State University. EVOLUTION AND SPECIATION The history of the genus dates back to the early late Pliocene, but morphological change since then has been slight insofar as can be judged from lower jaws. _Baiomys_ seems to have been relatively conservative also in types of habitat occupied. According to Wilson (1937:59), the late Pliocene was a time of decided expansion of myomorph rodents, more particularly cricetines. Furthermore, at this time, the climate in the interior basin of southwestern North America presumably was becoming arid, if we can judge from the spread of elements of the Madro-Tertiary flora. Axelrod (1950:266) points out that the drier, continental climate initiated in the early Tertiary probably had its culmination in middle Pliocene time. Some floras of early late Pliocene of the southwestern United States reflect a climate slightly cooler and more moist than the climates of the middle Pliocene. However, late Pliocene times reflect an arid climate. The flora of the southwestern interior basin of North America in early late to late Pliocene was intermediate between the previous grassland floras of the middle Pliocene and the savannah flora of upper Pliocene. Axelrod (_loc. cit._) suggests that this intermediate flora of the interior basin of southwestern North America resulted from the folding of the Cascades and uplifting of the Sierra Nevada and Peninsular ranges to the south. The development of these mountains produced greater aridity to the lee of the mountains, thus accounting for the grassland-savannah flora. Pygmy mice probably originated in that time, I judge in México, and moved northward and southward in a grassland-savannah habitat that seemingly existed as far north as what is now Meade County, Kansas (where the Sawrock fauna lived). Further evidence for occupancy of a grassland-savannah habitat by ancestral pygmy mice stems from the distribution of the living species, _B. taylori_, that at present occupies territory adjacent to parts of the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts. _B. taylori_ seems to be morphologically more specialized for life in an arid grassland than was _B. sawrockensis_. The geographic range of ancestral pygmy mice possibly extended farther south in late Pliocene time than the range of _B. musculus_ does now. Anyhow, _B. sawrockensis_ of the early late Pliocene dwelt in a more mesic type of habitat than _B. musculus_ does, and such habitat may have existed from the Pacific lowlands of Central America to the Caribbean lowlands of northern South America (see Duellman, 1958:136, and Dunn, 1940:156) during late Pliocene times. An ancestral stock of hesperomine mice, not greatly different from _Baiomys_, may have emigrated from the North American continent into South America across the continuous land connection, which Simpson (1950:395) suggests was formed in the Chapadmalalan age (= Blancan age of North American terminology). The length of time of interchange of genes between northern and southern populations of mice across the Central American land connection probably was brief. Duellman (_op. cit._:129) pointed out that once the Panamanian portal was closed, the warm counter equatorial current, El Niño, combined with the uplifting of the Andes, began to produce heavy rain forests in Central America and northern South America in late Pliocene or early Pleistocene times. These forests presumably isolated the stock in North America from that in South America where the latter probably evolved rapidly into kinds that differed from one another and from _Baiomys_ in shape of body, type of pelage, and shape of skull. Internal structures such as hyoid apparatus, auditory ossicles, and baculum remained almost unchanged, as for example in _Calomys_ now living in South America. The present resemblance in internal morphological features between it and _Baiomys_, I judge, reflects taxonomic relationships more accurately than do shape and conformation of body and skull that seem to respond more rapidly to external environmental changes. The cranial characters distinguishing _Baiomys musculus_ from _Calomys laucha_ are as follows: posterior lacerate foramina between second, rather than first, upper molars; parapterygoid fossa shallower; mesopterygoid fossa as wide or wider, instead of narrower, than parapterygoid processes; burr for attachment of superficial masseter muscle hypertrophied instead of well-developed. In other cranial characters studied, the two genera closely resemble each other. Such similarities of crania between _Calomys_ and _Baiomys_ may reflect convergence, but the total of internal and external morphological characters shared, I think reflects true relationships. _Peromyscus_ has a large number of living and extinct species and exhibits a wide range of morphological variation, whereas _Baiomys_ has a small number (7) of species and exhibits a narrow range of morphological variation. The small number of known species of pygmy mice suggests their conservatism in elaboration of morphological characters. Possibly this is because the habitat, or even the ecological niche, occupied in geological time by these mice was restricted, geographically and in kind. If the habitat of the pygmy mice oscillated between savannah and arid grassland, then an hypothesis can be made possibly accounting for the origin of species of these mice. My idea is that the geographical distribution of _Baiomys_ today reflects a predilection on the part of these mice for a relatively uniform warm climate. Therefore, in the past, in times of warmer continental climate, these mice moved toward favorable habitat northward from an area in central and northern México. In cooler periods, the mice moved southward as habitats to the north became unfavorable. Dr. W. B. Davis (_in. litt._) informs me that _B. taylori_ was uncommon in Brazos County, Texas, approximately 15 years ago, and suggests that the abundance there now of this mouse and my taking it in 1958 northward nearly to the southern border of Oklahoma reflects a definite movement northward. Movement in the same direction in late years has been suggested for the nine-banded armadillo and the hispid cotton rat (Hall, 1959:373) that are associated with warm climates to the south. These movements possibly reflect only minor fluctuations of climate, but in a long period of warmth movements northward would be expected to be pronounced and extensive. Extinct species of _Baiomys_ may have originated as a result of extension northward of the geographical range and subsequent retreat southward of the northern populations, as follows: (1) the range of the genus moved northward in a warm period; (2) in cooler times, most of the mice in the north disappeared and only isolated colonies remained in small patches of remaining habitat still favorable to the mice; (3) the small populations of isolated pygmy mice after a time changed through mutations, recombinations and subsequent selection to a degree that prevented crossbreeding once populations from the south again moved northward and came in contact with previously isolated stocks; (4) then competition caused further divergence in morphological characters. Such an hypothesis would account for the morphological differences between the extinct _B. kolbi_ and _B. rexroadi_. The extinct _B. brachygnathus_, presumably a dweller of a xerophytic grassland, may have had its origin from a _B. minimus_-like stock in the manner outlined. FORMATION OF THE RECENT SPECIES The morphological difference between the extinct _B. minimus_ and the living _B. musculus_ is not great, and musculus seems to be the product of the _B. sawrockensis-B. minimus_ line of development. Morphological characters of the parental stock of the two living species, _musculus_ and _taylori_, may have been intermediate between those of _B. minimus_ and those of _B. musculus_. The principal part of the range of _Baiomys_ today is in México, and probably was there through much of Pleistocene time. Extension northward of the species and retreat southward of those northern populations of pygmy mice would not only have left isolated populations in the north, but would have allowed the mice that retreated south to share a common gene pool. Therefore, populations of pygmy mice occurring to the south in central México might be expected to maintain a relatively high degree of heterozygosity in morphological and behavioral characters. The occurrence of any physical or biotic barrier that would have separated this homogeneous group would be conducive to speciation. There is evidence that a barrier occurred in the Pleistocene in central México sufficient to separate the supposed interbreeding, relatively homogeneous populations of pygmy mice. According to Sears (1955:529) and De Terra _et al_. (1949:51), parts of the higher regions in the Valley of México, and the transverse volcanic zone in central México were glaciated. On the mountain Ixtaccihuatl, De Terra (_op. cit._:52) found evidence of four marked advances of ice, from oldest to youngest, as follows: Salto, ice advanced to 3100 meters; Xopano, ice at 3200-3300 meters; Trancas, ice to 3400 meters; Ayolotepito, ice to 4350 meters. The Salto advance is correlated by De Terra (_loc. cit._) with the Iowan glacial period. The advance of ice down the mountain sides in the transverse volcanic zone was accompanied by cool moist climates or pluvial periods. Such climates probably altered habitat formerly suitable for _Baiomys_. There is no record of _Baiomys_ known to me exceeding 8000 feet in elevation, although the lower edge of the ice on Ixtaccihuatl is at approximately 15,300 feet (4600 meters, Sears, _loc. cit._). Presumably, the advance of ice down the mountains forced the pygmy mice to move to lower altitudes. Pluvial conditions possibly rendered the habitat even at lower altitudes uninhabitable for the mice, with the result that none continued to live in the transverse volcanic zone, but only north and south thereof. Long-continued separation of these northern and southern segments allowed species formation to occur. As climatic and habitat conditions became more favorable in central México, the two species moved back toward each other, and eventually their geographic ranges overlapped. An analysis of external and cranial characters of pygmy mice (see Figure 12) reveals that both species are essentially largest to the north and smallest to the south. There are exceptions to this cline in both species. For example, _B. taylori analogous_ is a large subspecies; it lives allopatrically in the southern part of the range of the species. _B. musculus pallidus_ is not the largest subspecies; it lives allopatrically in the northern part of the range of the species. In west-central México, where the two species are sympatric, _B. taylori_ is smaller than elsewhere and _B. musculus_ is larger than elsewhere. _B. t. analogous_ lives in the mountains of the transverse volcanic zone in central México. Its large size may be a result of the cooler climate in the mountains. _B. t. allex_, the smallest subspecies, lives sympatrically with _B. musculus musculus_ at lower elevations in west-central México. The small size of _allex_ could be a result of the warmer climate of the lower elevations. _B. m. pallidus_, at lower elevations in southern Oaxaca, is smaller than other subspecies of _musculus_ to the south at higher elevations. _B. m. musculus_ lives at low elevations along the coast of west-central México. Unlike _B. m. pallidus_, _B. m. musculus_ is large at lower elevations. It occurs sympatrically with _B. t. allex_. It is my idea that during the period of separation, when the two species were evolving, larger subspecies evolved to the north or at higher altitudes where climates were cooler; smaller subspecies evolved to the south or at lower elevations; the two cognate species, _musculus_ and _taylori_, made contact at lower elevations where individuals of _taylori_ may have been smallest, but individuals of _musculus_ were not the largest of the species. The differences, therefore, between the two species in their initial contact probably were slight. Hybrids, if they occurred, were probably inviable, sterile, or ill-suited for occupancy of the habitat of either of the parental stocks. The occurrence of hybrids, therefore, would result in what geneticists call "gamete wastage," and any further divergence in the parental stock, either in external characters (size and shape of body and head), or behavior, useful in recognition of species, would be favored by natural selection (see Dobzhansky, 1951:225; and Koopman, 1950:147). The two species seem to have diverged more in external characters where they occur together than in areas where they live separately (see Figure 12). The two species could be confused if a sample of adults of _taylori_ from 7 mi. S La Belle, Jefferson County, Texas, were compared to a sample of adults of _musculus_ from Tehuantepec, Oaxaca (see Figure 12). No confusion in species identity would arise, however, if a sample of adults was taken from the area where the two species live together (see Figure 12). Brown and Wilson (1956:49) pointed out that where two closely related species occur together, characters (morphological, ecological, physiological, or behavioral) of each species are easily distinguished. However, where the two species are allopatric, the two closely related species so resemble one another that the species are not easily distinguished. This phenomenon has been called "character displacement" by Brown and Wilson (_loc. cit._). In the area where the two species of pygmy mice occur together, there seems to be a disparity in numbers between them. Hooper (1952a:91) has recorded the collection of both _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_ in a single trap line. A series of pygmy mice collected from San Gabriel, Jalisco, contained one _taylori_ and 33 _musculus_; another sample from La Resolana, Jalisco, had a ratio of 25 _taylori_ to 6 _musculus_. The disparity in numbers where the two species occur together has been further substantiated by collections of the University of Kansas. Possibly this disparity in numbers is a result of interspecific competition. Hooper (_op. cit._:90) pointed out that where the range of _B. musculus_ (typical of arid tropical lowlands) meets that of _B. taylori_ (typical of arid temperate highlands), the two geographic ranges interdigitate with parts of the range of _musculus_ extending into the highlands and parts of the range of _taylori_ extending into the lowlands. In the lowlands, _musculus_ may be better adapted to environmental conditions and, therefore, more successful in competition with _taylori_ for available habitat. The reverse situation may exist in the highlands. Also, the fact that _musculus_ is more of a diurnal animal than is _taylori_ may account for the difference in numbers of individuals of the two species taken in trap lines. Many collectors set their traps in late afternoon or evening and retrieve them in early morning. Such a schedule might not yield many _musculus_. If interspecific competition does occur in the area where the two species occur, any change in habits or microhabitat by either species that would reduce this competition would be favored by natural selection (see Mayr, 1949:518; Lack, 1944:262-263; and Brown, 1958:154-155). Brown (_op. cit._:154), as I understand him, pointed out (taking account of Gause's principle) that when two species having similar ecological valences move into the same niche in the same locality, one of three things must eventually happen: (_a_) the two species occupy different geographic ranges; (_b_) they compete and one is eventually eliminated; (_c_) the two species, because of differentiation or specialization, exploit different aspects of the niche. In _Baiomys_, (_c_) seems to apply. Natural selection probably would favor a continuation of diurnal activity in _musculus_ and nocturnal activity in _taylori_, thereby preventing frequent meeting of the two species. AREAS OF PRESENT DIFFERENTIATION In both species of _Baiomys_, the most distinct subspecies, _B. t. allex_ and _B. m. musculus_, occur in the area where the two species are sympatric. Seven subspecies, or 44 per cent, occur either in or adjacent to the transverse volcanic zone. This area is the major area of active differentiation. Incipient subspecies are also evident in these areas. A secondary area of differentiation is indicated within the range of _B. musculus_ in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras. Three subspecies occur in this area (_grisescens, handleyi_ and _nigrescens_) and incipient subspeciation is in evidence there. ZOOGEOGRAPHIC POSITION Hooper (1949:25) regards _Baiomys_ as a member of the rodent fauna of the arid, western Sonoran region, whereas Hershkovitz (1958:609) suggests that _Baiomys_ is a nearctic-neotropical varicant (a kind that occurs in contiguous zoogeographic regions without our knowing in which region the taxon originated). The findings from my study do not contradict either of the above suggestions. Because of the close resemblance of _Baiomys_ to certain hesperomine mice of South America, it is postulated that _Baiomys_, in more primitive form than now, occurred farther south in past times than it does now. Fossils show that primitive stocks of the genus in late Pliocene or early Pleistocene times occurred also north of the present range of the genus. The belt in west-central México between nearctic and neotropical regions is the current center of distribution of the genus and probably has been for a considerable time. [Illustration: FIG. 12. Averages of the occipitonasal lengths of skulls of adults at 19 localities of occurrence (solid symbols) of _Baiomys taylori_, and at 17 localities of occurrence (open symbols) of _Baiomys musculus_. Note that the occipitonasal length decreases from north to south in each of the two species, and that in the region where the two species occur together, west-central México, _B. taylori_ is smallest and _B. musculus_ is largest. Average, extremes, number of specimens averaged (in italic type), and name of locality, from north to south for each species, are as follows: _Baiomys taylori_ 18.0 (17.5-18.6) _15_, 9-1/2 mi. W New Mexico state line, Ariz. 18.9 (18.2-19.4) _6_, 7 mi. S. La Belle, Jefferson Co., Texas. 18.2 (17.8-18.5) _10_, San Antonio, Bexar Co., Texas. 18.2 (18.0-18.5) _5_, 2 mi. W Miñaca, Chihuahua. 18.0 (17.6-19.0) _22_, 6 mi. SW San Gerónimo, Coahuila. 18.2 (18.1-18.3) _3_, Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. 18.1 (17.4-18.5) _5_, vic. (see p. 649) Durango, Durango. 18.1 (17.5-18.5) _9_, Jaumavé, Tamaulipas. 18.2 (17.7-18.9) _19_, 15 mi. N Rosario Chelé, Sinaloa. 17.9 (17.4-18.3) _27_, vic. (see p. 655) Altamira, Tamaulipas. 18.3 (17.9-18.7) _9_, Valparaíso, Zacatecas. 18.1 (18.1-18.2) _4_, Ciudad del Maíz, San Luis Potosí. 18.6 (18.3-18.9) _8_, Tepic, Nayarit. 18.0 (17.7-18.4) _18_, 4 mi. N, 5 mi. W León, Guanajuato. 18.1 (17.5-18.9) _28_, 6 mi. E Querétaro, Querétaro. 17.7 (17.1-18.1) _17_, 1 mi. SSE Ameca, Jalisco. 17.3 (16.8-17.9) _10_, 2 mi. SSE Autlán, Jalisco. 18.0 (17.5-18.6) _10_, 1 mi. S, 11 mi. W Zamora, Michoacán. 17.6 (17.4-18.2) _8_, Colima, Colima. _Baiomys musculus_ 20.2 (19.9-20.3) _6_, vic. (see p. 622) Ameca, Jalisco. 20.2 (19.9-20.3) _6_, 2 mi. SSE Autlán, Jalisco. 19.6 (19.2-20.1) _6_, Jalapa, Veracruz. 20.3 (19.7-20.9) _9_, Colima, Colima. 19.5 (19.0-20.0) _10_, Cerro Gordo, Veracruz. 19.8 (19.4-20.3) _6_, 6 mi. S Izucár de Matemores, Puebla. 20.0 (18.8-20.5) _7_, Teotitlán, Oaxaca. 20.1 (19.7-20.7) _7_, 1 km. NW Chapa, Guerrero. 19.9 (19.4-20.4) _8_, 5 mi. ESE Tecpán, Guerrero. 19.5 (19.1-20.1) _22_, 3 mi. ESE Oaxaca, Oaxaca. 19.5 (19.1-19.9) _11_, Valley of Comitán, Chiapas. 18.9 (18.2-20.1) _17_, Tehuantepec, Oaxaca. 18.9 (18.4-19.7) _15_, 6 mi. NW Tonalá, Chiapas. 19.1 (18.8-20.4) _10_, 1 mi. S Rabinal, Guatemala. 19.7 (18.8-20.4) _10_, Lake Amatitlán, Guatemala. 19.2 (18.4-19.8) _26_, vic. (see p. 625) San Salvador, El Salvador. 19.3 (18.9-19.9) _24_, 8 mi. S Condega, Estelí, Nicaragua.] CONCLUSIONS 1. Two Recent species, each polytypic with eight subspecies, and five fossil species are recognized. 2. The phyletic trends in the genus _Baiomys_ have been from an ancestral stock that possessed relatively brachydont teeth having raised cingular ridges and orthodont to proödont incisors, to species having hypsodont teeth with reduced cingular ridges and retrodont incisors. 3. Reduction of cingular ridges in pygmy mice is associated with an existence in open grassland (more xeric than mesic), whereas, the presence of cingular ridges is associated with an existence in a savannah habitat (more mesic than xeric). 4. Shifts of geographical range of populations of pygmy mice at and near the periphery of their geographic range may account for the differentiation of the extinct species. 5. The two living species, _B. musculus_ and _B. taylori_, are seemingly derived from a common ancestor that in morphological structure was intermediate between _B. minimus_ and _B. musculus_. 6. The living species of pygmy mice resulted from a geographic separation, perhaps occurring in the Iowan glacial period (See De Terra, 1949:51) in the transverse volcanic zone of central México. 7. The two species are now sympatric in west central México, where morphological characters (size and shape of body and length of skull) differ most. Where the two species are allopatric, these same morphological characters differ least. 8. This is a documented instance of character displacement in mammals. 9. On the basis of internal morphological characters studied (auditory ossicles, hyoid apparatus, and baculum), _Baiomys_ seems to be more closely related to a South American hesperomine, perhaps _Calomys_, than to any North American cricetine. 10. Pygmy mice were more widely distributed in the past than they are at present. Part of the ancestral stock of the pygmy mice may have emigrated from North America into South America in a brief period in the Pliocene; if so, it is easy to understand why certain South American hesperomines resemble _Baiomys_. 11. The combination of morphological and behavioral characters in the living pygmy mice warrants generic status for them. 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Paleon., 10:388-391, 2 figs. _Transmitted March 4, 1960._ [] 28-3030 UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATIONS MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY Institutional libraries interested in publications exchange may obtain this series by addressing the Exchange Librarian, University of Kansas Library, Lawrence, Kansas. Copies for individuals, persons working in a particular field of study, may be obtained by addressing instead the Museum of Natural History, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas. There is no provision for sale of this series by the University Library, which meets institutional requests, or by the Museum of Natural History, which meets the requests of individuals. However, when individuals request copies from the Museum, 25 cents should be included, for each separate number that is 100 pages or more in length, for the purpose of defraying the costs of wrapping and mailing. * An asterisk designates those numbers of which the Museum's supply (not the Library's supply) is exhausted. Numbers published to date, in this series, are as follows: Vol. 1. Nos. 1-26 and index. Pp. 1-638, 1946-1950. *Vol. 2. (Complete) Mammals of Washington. By Walter W. Dalquest. Pp. 1-444, 140 figures in text. April 9, 1948. Vol. 3. *1. The avifauna of Micronesia, its origin, evolution, and distribution. By Rollin H. Baker, Pp. 1-359, 16 figures in text. June 12, 1951. *2. A quantitative study of the nocturnal migration of birds. By George H. Lowery, Jr. Pp. 361-472, 47 figures in text. June 29, 1951. 3. Phylogeny of the waxwings and allied birds. By M. Dale Arvey. Pp. 473-530, 49 figures in text, 13 tables. October 10, 1951. 4. Birds from the state of Veracruz, Mexico. By George H. Lowery, Jr., and Walter W. Dalquest. Pp. 531-649, 7 figures in text, 2 tables. October 10, 1951. Index. Pp. 651-681. *Vol. 4. (Complete) American weasels. By E. Raymond Hall. Pp. 1-466, 41 plates, 31 figures in text. December 27, 1951. Vol. 5. Nos. 1-37 and index. Pp. 1-676, 1951-1953. *Vol. 6. (Complete) Mammals of Utah, _taxonomy and distribution_. By Stephen D. Durrant. Pp. 1-549, 91 figures in text, 30 tables. August 10, 1952. Vol. 7. *1. Mammals of Kansas. By E. Lendell Cockrum. Pp. 1-303. 73 figures in text, 37 tables. August 25, 1952. 2. Ecology of the opossum on a natural area in northeastern Kansas. By Henry S. Fitch and Lewis L. Sandidge. Pp. 305-338, 5 figures in text. August 24, 1953. 3. The silky pocket mice (Perognathus flavus) of Mexico. By Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 339-347, 1 figure in text. February 15, 1954. 4. North American jumping mice (Genus Zapus). By Philip H. Krutzch. Pp. 349-472, 47 figures in text, 4 tables. April 21, 1954. 5. Mammals from Southeastern Alaska. By Rollin H. Baker and James S. Findley. Pp. 473-477. April 21, 1954. 6. Distribution of Some Nebraskan Mammals. By J. Knox Jones, Jr. Pp. 479-487. April 21, 1954. 7. Subspeciation in the montane meadow mouse. Microtus montanus, in Wyoming and Colorado. By Sydney Anderson. Pp. 489-506, 2 figures in text. July 23, 1954. 8. A new subspecies of bat (Myotis velifer) from southeastern California and Arizona. By Terry A. Vaughan. Pp. 507-512. July 23, 1954. 9. Mammals of the San Gabriel mountains of California. By Terry A. Vaughan. Pp. 513-582. 1 figure in text, 12 tables. November 15, 1954. 10. A new bat (Genus Pipistrellus) from northeastern Mexico. By Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 583-586. November 15, 1954. 11. A new subspecies of pocket mouse from Kansas. By E. Raymond Hall. Pp. 587-590. November 15, 1954. 12. Geographic variation in the pocket gopher, Cratogeomys castanops, in Coahuila, Mexico. By Robert J. Russell and Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 591-608. March 15, 1955. 13. A new cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) from northeastern Mexico. By Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 609-612. April 8, 1955. 14. Taxonomy and distribution of some American shrews. By James S. Findley. Pp. 613-618. June 10, 1955. 15. The pigmy woodrat, Neotoma goldmani, its distribution and systematic position. By Dennis G. Rainey and Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 619-624, 2 figures in text. June 10, 1955. Index. Pp. 625-651. Vol. 8. 1. Life history and ecology of the five-lined skink, Eumeces fasciatus. By Henry S. Fitch. Pp. 1-156, 26 figures in text. September 1, 1954. 2. Myology end serology of the Avian Family Fringillidae, a taxonomic study. By William B. Stallcup. Pp. 157-211, 23 figures in text, 4 tables. November 15, 1954. 3. An ecological study of the collared lizard (Crotaphytus collaris). By Henry S. Fitch. Pp. 213-274, 10 figures in text. February 10, 1956. 4. A field study of the Kansas ant-eating frog, Gastrophryne olivacea. By Henry S. Fitch. Pp. 275-306, 9 figures in text. February 10, 1956. 5. Check-list of the birds of Kansas. By Harrison E. Tordoff. Pp. 307-359, 1 figure in text. March 10, 1956. 6. A population study of the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster) in northeastern Kansas. By Edwin P. Martin. Pp. 361-416, 19 figures in text. April 2, 1956. 7. Temperature responses in free-living amphibians and reptiles of northeastern Kansas. By Henry S. Fitch. Pp. 417-476, 10 figures in text, 6 tables. June 1, 1956. 8. Food of the crow, Corvus brachyrhynchos Brehm, in south-central Kansas. By Dwight Platt. Pp. 477-498. 4 tables. June 8, 1956. 9. Ecological observations on the woodrat, Neotoma floridana. By Henry S. Fitch and Dennis G. Rainey. Pp. 499-533, 3 figures in text. June 12, 1956. 10. Eastern woodrat, Neotoma floridana: Life history and ecology. By Dennis G. Rainey. Pp. 535-646, 12 plates, 13 figures in text. August 15, 1956. Index. Pp. 647-675. Vol. 9. 1. Speciation of the wandering shrew. By James S. Findley. Pp. 1-68, 18 figures in text. December 10, 1955. 2. Additional records and extensions of ranges of mammals from Utah. By Stephen D. Durrant, M. Raymond Lee, and Richard M. Hansen. Pp. 69-80. December 10, 1955. 3. A new long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis) from northeastern Mexico. By Rollin H. Baker and Howard J. Stains. Pp. 81-84. December 10, 1955. 4. Subspeciation in the meadow mouse, Microtus pennsylvanicus, in Wyoming. By Sydney Anderson. Pp. 85-104, 2 figures in text. May 10, 1956. 5. The condylarth genus Ellipsodon. By Robert W. Wilson. Pp. 105-116, 6 figures In text. May 19, 1956. 6. Additional remains of the multituberculate genus Eucosmodon. By Robert W. Wilson. Pp. 117-123, 10 figures in text. May 19, 1956. 7. Mammals of Coahuila, Mexico. By Rollin H. Baker. Pp. 125-335, 75 figures in text. June 15, 1956. 8. Comments on the taxonomic status of Apodemus peninsulae, with description of a new subspecies from North China. By J. Knox Jones, Jr. Pp. 337-346, 1 figure in text, 1 table. August 15, 1956. 9. Extensions of known ranges of Mexican bats. By Sydney Anderson. Pp. 347-351. August 15, 1956. 10. A new bat (Genus Leptonycteris) from Coahuila. By Howard J. Stains. Pp. 353-356. January 21, 1957. 11. A new species of pocket gopher (Genus Pappogeomys) from Jalisco, Mexico. By Robert J. Russell. Pp. 357-361. January 21, 1957. 12. Geographic variation in the pocket gopher, Thomomys bottae, in Colorado. By Phillip M. Youngman. Pp. 363-385, 7 figures in text. February 21, 1958. 13. New bog lemming (genus Synaptomys) from Nebraska. By J. Knox Jones, Jr. Pp. 385-388. May 12, 1958. 14. Pleistocene bats from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo León, México. By J. Knox Jones, Jr. Pp. 389-396. December 19, 1958. 15. New Subspecies of the rodent Baiomys from Central America. By Robert L. Packard. Pp. 397-404. December 19, 1958. 16. Mammals of the Grand Mesa, Colorado. By Sydney Anderson. Pp, 405-414, 1 figure in text. May 20, 1959. 17. Distribution, variation, and relationships of the montane vole, Microtus montanus. By Emil K. Urban. Pp. 415-511. 12 figures in text, 2 tables. August 1, 1959. 18. Conspecificity of two pocket mice, Perognathus goldmani and P. artus. By E. Raymond Hall and Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie. Pp. 513-518, 1 map. January 14, 1960. 19. Records of harvest mice, Reithrodontomys, from Central America, with description of a new subspecies from Nicaragua. By Sydney Anderson and J. Knox Jones, Jr. Pp. 519-529. January 14, 1960. 20. Small carnivores from San Josecito Cave (Pleistocene), Nuevo León, México. By E. Raymond Hall. Pp. 531-538, 1 figure in text. January 14, 1960. 21. Pleistocene pocket gophers from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo León, México. By Robert J. Russell. Pp. 539-548, 1 figure in text. January 14, 1960. 22. Review of the insectivores of Korea. By J. Knox Jones, Jr., and David H. Johnson. Pp. 549-578. February 23, 1960. 23. Speciation and evolution of the pygmy mice, genus Baiomys. By Robert L. Packard. Pp. 579-670, 4 plates, 12 figures in text. June 16, 1960. Index will follow. Vol. 10. 1. Studies of birds killed in nocturnal migration. By Harrison B. Tordoff and Robert M. Mengel. Pp. 1-44, 6 figures in text, 2 tables. September 12, 1956. 2. Comparative breeding behavior of Ammospiza caudacuta and A. maritime. By Glen E. Woolfenden. Pp. 45-75, 6 plates, 1 figure. December 20, 1956. 3. The forest habitat of the University of Kansas Natural History Reservation. By Henry S. Fitch and Ronald R. McGregor. Pp. 77-127, 2 plates, 7 figures in text, 4 tables. December 31, 1956. 4. Aspects of reproduction and development in the prairie vole (Microtus ochrogaster). By Henry S. Fitch, Pp. 129-161, 8 figures in text, 4 tables. December 19, 1957. 5. Birds found on the Arctic slope of northern Alaska. By James W. Bee. Pp. 163-211, pls. 9-10, 1 figure in text. March 12, 1958. 6. The wood rats of Colorado; distribution and ecology. By Robert B. Finley, Jr. Pp. 213-552, 34 plates, 8 figures in text, 35 tables. November 7, 1958. 7. Home ranges and movements of the eastern cottontail in Kansas. By Donald W. Janes. Pp. 553-572, 4 plates, 3 figures in text. May 4, 1959. 8. Natural history of the salamander, Aneides hardyi. By Richard F. Johnston and Schad Gerhard. Pp. 573-585. October 8, 1959. 9. A new subspecies of lizard, Cnemidophorus sacki, from Michoacán, México. By William E. Duellman. Pp. 587-598, 2 figures in text. May 2, 1960. 10. A taxonomic study of the Middle American Snake, Pituophis deppei. By William E. Duellman. Pp. 599-612, 1 plate, 1 figure in text. May 2, 1960. Index will follow. Vol. 11. 1. The systematic status of the colubrid snake, Leptodeira discolor Günther. By William E. Duellman. Pp. 1-9, 4 figs. July 14, 1958. 2. Natural history of the six-lined racerunner, Cnemidophorus sexlineatus. By Henry S. Fitch. Pp. 11-62, 9 figs., 9 tables. September 19, 1958. 3. Home ranges, territories, and seasonal movements of vertebrates of the Natural History Reservation. By Henry S. Fitch, Pp. 68-326, 6 plates, 24 figures in text, 8 tables. December 12, 1958. 4. A new snake of the genus Geophis from Chihuahua, Mexico. By John M. Legler. Pp. 327-334, 2 figures in text. January 28, 1959. 5. A new tortoise, genus Gopherus, from north-central Mexico. By John M. Legler. Pp. 335-343. April 24, 1959. 6. Fishes of Chautauqua, Cowley and Elk counties, Kansas. By Artie L. Metcalf. Pp. 345-400, 2 plates, 2 figures in text, 10 tables. May 6, 1959. 7. Fishes of the Big Blue River Basin, Kansas. By W. L. Minckley. Pp. 401-442, 2 plates, 4 figures in text, 5 tables. May 8, 1959. 8. Birds from Coahuila, México. By Emll K. Urban. Pp. 443-516. August 1, 1959. 9. Description of a new softshell turtle from the southeastern United States. By Robert G. Webb. Pp. 517-525, 2 pls., 1 figure in text, August 14, 1959. 10. Natural history of the ornate box turtle, Terrapene ornata ornata Agassiz. By John M. Legler. Pp. 527-669, 16 pls., 29 figures in text. March 7, 1960. Index will follow. Vol. 12. 1. Functional morphology of three bats: Eumops, Myotis, Macrotus. By Terry A. Vaughan. Pp. 1-153, 4 plates, 24 figures in text. July 8, 1959. 2. The ancestry of modern Amphibia: a review of the evidence. By Theodore H. Eaton, Jr. Pp. 155-180, 10 figures in text. July 10, 1959. 3. The baculum in microtine rodents. By Sydney Anderson. Pp. 181-216, 49 figures in text. February 19, 1960. 4. A new order of fishlike Amphibia from the Pennsylvanian of Kansas. By Theodore H. Eaton, Jr., and Peggy Lou Stewart. Pp. 217-240, 12 figures in text. May 2, 1960. More numbers will appear In volume 12. Transcriber's Notes The text presented is that of the original printed version except for the revisions below and a few assumed typesetting errors. The subsection headers under "VARIATION WITH AGE" were converted to italic only to match the rest. All other section title formatting retained as printed. The words Miscellaneous and Monograph were abbreviated as Miscl. and Mongr. respectively. Except for the two variant spellings of one word (Mexico/México) which were retained, the most prevalent form of accented words was used. Both decimal and whole plus fractional part of numbers (i.e., 9-1/2) were retained as printed. The male and female symbols are represented by [M] and [F] respectively. Footnotes were all placed at the end of each species account. The list of KU Publications were compiled after the article's text. Typographical Corrections Page Correction ==== ==================== 591 proödent => proödont 694 hesperomyines => hesperomines Text Emphasis _Text_ - Italic =Text= - Bold 
45751	----	_LITTLE SUNBEAMS._ VI. NELLIE'S HOUSEKEEPING. By the Author of this Volume. I. LITTLE SUNBEAMS. By JOANNA H. MATHEWS, Author of the "Bessie Books." 6 vols. In a box $6.00 _Or, separately_:-- I. BELLE POWERS' LOCKET. 16mo 1.00 II. DORA'S MOTTO. 16mo 1.00 III. LILY NORRIS' ENEMY 1.00 IV. JESSIE'S PARROT 1.00 V. MAMIE'S WATCHWORD 1.00 VI. NELLIE'S HOUSEKEEPING 1.00 II. THE FLOWERETS. A series of Stories on the Commandments. 6 vols. In a box $3.60 "Under the general head of 'Flowerets,' this charming author has grouped six little volumes, being a series of stories on the Commandments. 'Our folks' are in love with them, and have made off with them all before we could get the first reading."--_Our Monthly._ III. THE BESSIE BOOKS. 6 vols. In a box $7.50 "We can wish our young readers no greater pleasure than an acquaintance with dear, cute little Bessie and her companions, old and young, brute and human."--_American Presbyterian._ ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, _New York_ NELLIE'S HOUSEKEEPING. "Be good, sweet child, and let who will be clever: Do noble things, not dream them, all day long; So shalt thou make life, death, and that vast for ever. One grand, sweet song."--KINGSLEY. BY JOANNA H. MATHEWS, AUTHOR OF THE "BESSIE BOOKS" AND THE "FLOWERETS." NEW YORK: ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, 530 BROADWAY. 1882. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by ROBERT CARTER AND BROTHERS, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington. CONTENTS. PAGE I. HARD AT WORK 7 II. A TALK WITH PAPA 25 III. NELLIE A HOUSEKEEPER 50 IV. A COURTSHIP 70 V. WHITE MICE 94 VI. THE GRAY MICE 113 VII. THE BLACK CAT 136 VIII. DAISY'S SACRIFICE 157 IX. MAKING GINGER-CAKES 181 X. FRESH TROUBLES 204 XI. A NIGHT OF IT 224 XII. AN ALARM 236 XIII. LAST OF THE SUNBEAMS 245 [Illustration] NELLIE'S HOUSEKEEPING. I. _HARD AT WORK._ "NELLIE, will you come down to the beach now?" "No!" with as much shortness and sharpness as the little word of two letters could well convey. "Why not?" "Oh! because I can't. Don't bother me." And, laying down the pencil with which she had been writing, Nellie Ransom pushed back the hair from her flushed, heated face, drew a long, weary sigh, took up the Bible which lay at her elbow, and, turning over the leaf, ran her finger slowly and carefully down the page before her. Carrie stood with one elbow upon the corner of the table at which her sister sat, her chin resting in her palm as she discontentedly watched Nellie, while with the other hand she swung back and forth by one string the broad straw hat she was accustomed to wear when playing out of doors. "I think you might," she said presently. "Mamma says I can't go if you don't, and I want to go so." "I can't help it," said Nellie, still without taking her eyes from her Bible. "I wish you'd stop shaking the table so." "How soon will you come?" persisted Carrie, taking her elbow from the table. "When I'm ready, and not before," snapped Nellie. "I wish you'd let me alone." Carrie began to cry. "It's too bad," she whimpered. "Mamma says, if I go at all, I must go early, so as to be back before sundown, 'cause my cold is so bad. There won't be any time for me to play." Nellie made no answer, but, having found what she wanted in her Bible, began to write again, copying from the page of the Holy Book before her. Presently Carrie, forgetting her caution, tossed down her hat, and pettishly plumped both elbows upon the table, muttering,-- "I think you're real mean." "Stop shaking the table, or I won't go at all," said Nellie, in a loud, irritable tone. "Ask mamma to let Ruth take you." "She can't spare Ruth, she says. The baby is fretful, and she don't feel well enough to take care of it herself; and I think you might go with me. I haven't been to the beach for four days, because I was sick," pleaded Carrie, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Well, I'm too busy to go now. You'll have to wait until I'm ready," said Nellie. "I'll come by and by." "By and by will leave hardly any time," said Carrie, with a wistful glance out upon the lawn, where the shadows were already growing long. No answer; only the rustle of Nellie's sheet of paper as she turned it over. Carrie wandered restlessly about the room for a moment or two; then, coming back to the table, began idly to turn over some loose papers which lay at Nellie's right hand. Nellie snatched them from her. "Now, look here," she said, "if you don't go away and let me and my things alone, I won't go to the beach at all. You hinder me all the time, and I won't be so bothered." "Cross, hateful thing!" said Carrie, passionately. "I don't b'lieve you mean to go at all. I wish I had a better sister than you." Nellie turned once more to the Bible, but deigned no answer to this outburst. Carrie looked back from the door, which she had reached on her way from the room, and said in a tone one shade less furious than her last,-- "You're always poking over your Bible now, but it don't seem to teach you to be kind. You grow crosser and crosser every day; and you're not one bit like you used to be." "Carrie!" called Mrs. Ransom's gentle voice from the next room; and Carrie vanished, leaving Nellie, as she had said she wished to be, alone. Did her work go smoothly after that? Not very, at least for a few moments. Perhaps mamma had heard all that had passed, and Nellie did not feel quite satisfied that she should have done so. What had she said to Carrie? She could hardly recollect herself, so divided had been her attention between her little sister and the task before her; but she was quite certain that she had been "cross," and spoken to Carrie in an unkind manner, apart from her refusal to accompany the child, who, she well knew, had been confined to the house for the last few days, and deprived of her usual play and exercise in the open air. But then Carrie might just as well have waited patiently a few moments till she was ready to go, and not bothered her so. She would go presently when she had looked out three--well, no--five--six more verses, and written them out; and once more she took up the Bible. But the words before her eyes mingled themselves with those which were sounding in her ears. "Not like she used to be! Crosser and crosser every day!" Ah! none knew this better than Nellie herself, and yet she strove, or thought she did, against the growing evil. Well, there was no use thinking about it now. She would finish the task she had set herself, call Carrie, make it up with her, and go to the beach. And once more she was absorbed in her work, in spite of aching head and burning cheeks,--so absorbed that she did not heed how time was passing, did not heed that the six verses had grown into ten, until, as she was searching for the eleventh, the last golden rays of the sun fell across her paper, and, looking up quickly, she saw that he was just sinking in the far west. Too late for Carrie to go out now! The poor child had lost her afternoon stroll. Oh, she was so sorry! How could she forget? Hastily shutting the Bible and pushing it from her, she gathered up her papers, thrust them into her writing-desk, and turned the key, ran into the hall for her hat, and went in search of Carrie. Where was she? She had not heard the child's voice since she left her in such a temper, nor had she heard Daisy's. Probably the two little sisters had found some other way of amusing themselves, and Carrie would have forgotten her disappointment. Well, she would be sure to give her a good play on the beach to-morrow. Where could the children be? For, as Nellie thought this to herself, she was looking in all the places where they were usually to be found, but they were nowhere to be seen. She called in vain about house and garden; no childish voice answered. "I suppose Carrie is provoked with me, and won't speak to me, and won't let Daisy," she said to herself. "Well, I'm sure I don't care." But she did care, though she would not acknowledge it to herself; and she sat down upon the upper step of the porch, and watched the last rosy sunset tints fading out of the soft clouds overhead, with a restless, discontented feeling at her heart. The stillness and the beauty of the scene did not seem to bring peace and rest to her troubled little soul. And why was it troubled? Because for days past--nay, for weeks past--Nellie had been conscious of an increasing ill-humor and irritability,--"crosser and crosser every day,"--yes, that was it; but why was it? She did not know, she could not help it; she was sure she tried hard enough; and every night and morning, when she said her prayers and asked not to be "led into temptation," she always thought particularly of the temptation to be cross, for that seemed what she had to struggle with in these days. That, and one other thing. Nellie tried to put that other ugly failing out of sight, would not believe that she was guilty of it; and yet it would come before her sometimes, as it did now; and as she thought of little kindnesses, even little duties unperformed and neglected, she wondered if she were really growing selfish. She should so hate to be selfish. And yet--and yet--people were always asking her to do favors at such inconvenient times, when she was so busy; and somehow she was always busy now. There was so much she wanted to do; so much to accomplish this summer, before she returned to the city and to school; and she did not like to be interrupted when she was reading or studying. It was so hard to put her mind to it again, and she was sure it was right to try to improve herself all she could. The click of the gate-latch roused her from her troublesome thoughts; and, looking around, she saw her mother crossing the lawn, Carrie holding her hand and walking quietly by her side, Daisy jumping and skipping before them. Daisy was always skipping and jumping. What a happy, merry little thing she was! never still one moment, except when she was asleep, and not always so very still then, little roll-about that she was! But where had they all been? The toys the children had with them soon answered this question, for Daisy was pulling a wagon which had been filled with stones and shells. The most part of these, however, lay scattered here and there along the way home; for Daisy's prancings and caperings--she was supposed to be a pony just now--had jolted them out of the wagon and shed them broadcast on the path. Still the few that were left at the bottom of the wagon told whence they had come; and the tiny spade and pail full of shells which Carrie held told the same story. But how tired and languid mamma looked! how wearily she walked across the lawn! Nellie ran down to meet her. "Why, mamma!" she exclaimed. "Have you been down to the beach?" "Yes, Nellie." "But, mamma, you look so tired. Didn't you know that was too long a walk for you?" Nellie, a child grave and wise for her years, always, or almost always, showed a tender, thoughtful care for her mother; and it was sometimes really droll to see how she checked or advised her against any imprudence, even gently reproved, as in the present case, when the deed was done. "You ought not to do it, mamma, you really ought not." "I had promised Carrie that she should go this afternoon," said Mrs. Ransom, "and I could not bear that she should be disappointed after being shut up in the house for four days." "Mamma," said Carrie, "I'm sure I'd rather have stayed home than had you make yourself too tired. I didn't know it was too far for you. I really didn't. Oh, I'm so sorry you said you'd take me! Will it make you ill again?" "No, dear. I think not. I do not believe it will hurt me, though I do feel rather tired," said Mrs. Ransom, smiling cheerfully down into the little troubled face which looked up so penitently into her own. Self-reproached, humbled and repentant, Nellie could find no words to say what she would, or rather the choking feeling in her throat stifled her voice; and she could only walk silently by her mother's side until they reached the piazza, where Mrs. Ransom sank wearily into a chair, giving her hat and parasol into the hands of the eager little Carrie, who seemed to feel as if she could not do enough to make her mother comfortable after the sacrifice she had made for her; and Daisy, who always thought she must do what Carrie did, followed her example. Carrie brought a footstool, Daisy immediately ran for another, and nothing would do but mamma must put one foot on each. Carrie brought a cushion to put behind her, and Daisy, vanishing into the library, presently reappeared, rolling along with a sofa pillow in each hand, and was quite grieved when she found that mamma could not well make use of all three. Then Carrie bringing a fan, and fanning mamma, Daisy must do the same, and scratched mamma's nose, and banged her head, and thumped her cheek with the enormous Japanese affair which would alone serve her purpose; to all of which mamma submitted with the meekest resignation, only kissing the dear little, blundering nurse, whenever such mishaps occurred, and saying,-- "Not quite so hard, darling." And meanwhile Nellie, with that horrid lump in her throat, could do nothing but stand leaning against the piazza railing, wishing--oh, so much!--that she had gone with Carrie when she asked her, and so spared mamma all this fatigue. Mamma had uttered no word of reproach; she knew that none was needed just now, although she feared that under the same temptation Nellie would do the same thing again. But what greater reproach could there be than that pale face and languid voice, and the knowledge that but for her selfishness--yes, selfishness, Nellie could not shut her eyes to it--mamma need not have gone to the beach. And she knew that it was necessary and right that her mother should be shielded from all possible fatigue, trouble, and anxiety; she knew that they had all come to Newport this summer because the doctor had recommended that air as best for her, and that papa had taken this small but pretty cottage at a rather inconvenient expense, so that she might be quite comfortable, have all her family about her, and gain all the benefit possible. Every one was so anxious and careful about her, as there was need to be; and she had improved so much the last fortnight in this lovely air, and under such loving care. And now! She had been the first one to cause her any fatigue or risk,--she who had meant to be such a good and thoughtful young nurse. To be sure, she had never dreamed that mamma would take Carrie to the beach, but still it was all her fault. Oh dear! oh dear! Carrie and Daisy chattered away to one another and to their mother, while the latter sat silently resting in her easy-chair, thinking more of Nellie than of them, thinking anxiously too. Suddenly a choking sob broke in upon the children's prattle,--a sob that would have its way, half stifled though it was. "Nellie, dear!" said Mrs. Ransom. "Come here, my child,"--as Nellie turned to run away. Nellie came with her hands over her face. "Don't feel so badly, dear. I am not so very tired, and I do not think it will hurt me," said Mrs. Ransom. "I thought I was stronger than it seems I am; but another time we will both be more careful, hey?" And she drew away Nellie's hand, and tenderly kissed her hot, wet cheek. Nellie went down upon one of the pair of stools occupied by her mother's feet, somewhat to Daisy's disgust, who only forgave her by reason of the distress she saw her in, and buried her face on her knee. She was never a child of many words, and just now they failed her altogether; but her mother needed none. "What did Nellie do? Did she hurt herself?" asked the wondering Daisy. "No," said Carrie. "She hasn't hurt herself, but she"--Carrie's explanations were not apt to prove balm to a wounded spirit, and her mother checked her by uplifted finger and a warning shake of her head, taking up the word herself. "No," she said to Daisy. "Nellie is troubled about something, but we won't talk about it now." "Yes, we'll never mind, won't we?" said Daisy. "But I'll fan her to make her feel better." And, suiting the action to the word, she slipped down from her perch beside her mother, and began to labor vigorously about Nellie's head and shoulders with her ponderous instrument. Somehow this struck Nellie as funny, and even in the midst of her penitent distress she was obliged to give a low laugh; a nervous little laugh it was, too, as her mother noticed. "She's 'most better now," said Daisy, in a loud whisper, and with a confidential nod at mamma. "I fought I'd cure her up. This is a very nice fan when people don't feel well, or feel sorry," she added, as she paused for a moment, with an admiring look at the article in question; "it makes such a lot of wind." And she returned desperately to her work, bringing down the fan with a whack on Nellie's head, and then apologizing with-- "Oh! I didn't mean to give you that little tap, Nellie; it will waggle about so in my hands." Nellie laughed again, she really could not help it, though she felt ashamed of herself for doing so; and now she raised her head, wiped her eyes, and smiled at Daisy; the little one fully believing that her attentions had brought about this pleasing result. Perhaps they had. But although cheerfulness was for the time restored, poor Nellie's troubles had not yet come to an end for that evening. [Illustration] [Illustration] II. _A TALK WITH PAPA._ MR. RANSOM had said that the family were not to wait tea for him, as he might be late; but they were scarcely seated at the table when he came in and took his place with them. "Elinor," he said immediately, looking across the table at his wife, "I met Mr. Bradford, and he told me he had seen you down on the beach with the children. I told him he must be mistaken, as you were not fit for such a walk, but he insisted he was right. It is not possible you were so imprudent, is it?" "Well, yes, if you will call it imprudence," answered Mrs. Ransom, smiling. "I do not feel that it has hurt me." "Your face tells whether it has hurt you or no," said her husband in a vexed tone; "you look quite tired out: how could you do so?" "I wanted Carrie to have the walk, and I felt more able to go with her than to spare the nurse and take care of baby myself," answered Mrs. Ransom, trying to check farther questioning by a side glance at Nellie's downcast face. But Mr. Ransom did not understand, or did not heed the look she gave him. "And where was our steady little woman, Nellie?" he said. "I thought she was to be trusted to take care of the other children at any time or in any place." "And so she is," said Mrs. Ransom, willing, if possible, to spare Nellie any farther mortification, "but she was occupied this afternoon." "That's nonsense," exclaimed Mr. Ransom, with another vexed look at his wife's pale face; "Nellie could have had nothing to do of such importance that it must hinder her from helping you. Why did you not send her?" "Papa," murmured poor Nellie, "I--mamma--I--please--it was all my fault. I--I was cross to Carrie. Please don't blame mamma." Nellie's humble, honest confession did not much mollify her father, who was a quick-tempered man, rather apt to be sharp with his children if any thing went wrong; but another pleading look from his wife checked any very severe reproof, and in answer to her "I really think the walk did not hurt me," he contented himself with saying shortly, "I don't agree with you," and let the matter drop. No sooner was Nellie released from the tea-table than she was busy again over her Bible and the slips of paper, quite lost to every thing else around her. The children chattered away without disturbing her; and she did not even notice that papa and mamma, as they talked in low tones on the other side of the room, were looking at her in a manner which would have made it plain to an observer that she was the subject of their conversation. By and by Daisy came to kiss her for good-night. She raised her head slightly, and turned her cheek to her little sister, answering pleasantly enough, but with an absent air, showing plainly that her thoughts were busy with something else. Daisy held strong and natural objections to this not over-civil mode of receiving her caress, and, drawing back her rosy lips from the upraised cheek, said,-- "No, I shan't kiss you that way. I want your mouf; it's not polite to stick up a cheek." An expression of impatience flitted over Nellie's face; but it was gone in an instant, and, dropping her pencil, she put both arms about Daisy, and gave her a hearty and affectionate kiss upon her puckered little mouth. Daisy was satisfied, and ran off, but, pausing as she reached the door, she looked back at her sister and said,-- "You're an awful busy girl these days, Nellie; the play is all gone out of you." Nellie smiled faintly, hardly heeding the words; but other eyes which were watching her thought also that she did indeed look as if "all the play had gone out" of her. She returned to her work as Daisy left her side, but even as she did so she drew herself up with a sigh, and passed her hand wearily across her forehead. "It is time a stop was put to this," whispered her father, and mamma assented with a rather melancholy nod of her head. Not two minutes had passed when Daisy's little feet were heard pattering down the stairs again, and her glowing face appeared in the open door. "Ruth says she can't put baby down to put me to bed," she proclaimed with an unmistakable air of satisfaction in the circumstances which made it necessary for mother or sister to perform that office for her. "Who wants to do it?" she added, looking from one to the other. Mrs. Ransom looked over at Nellie, as if expecting she would offer to go with Daisy; but the little girl paid no attention, did not even seem to hear the child. Mrs. Ransom rose and held out her hand to Daisy. "Nellie," said Mr. Ransom sharply, "are you going to let your mother go upstairs with Daisy?" Nellie started, and looked up confusedly. "Oh! I didn't know. Do you want me to, mamma? Couldn't Ruth put her to bed?" she said, showing that she had, indeed, not heard one word of what had passed. "Ruth cannot leave the baby," said her mother; "but I do not want you to go unwillingly, Nellie. I would rather do it myself." "I am quite willing, mamma," and the tone of her voice showed no want of readiness. "I did not know you were going. Come, Daisy, dear." But she could not refrain from a backward, longing look at her book and papers as she left the room. She was not unkind or cross to her little sister while she was with her; far from it. She undressed her carefully and tenderly,--with rather more haste than Daisy thought well, perhaps, but doing for her all that was needful; and, if she were more silent than usual, that did not trouble Daisy, _she_ could talk enough for both. But her thoughts were occupied with something quite different from the duty she had before her; she forgot one or two little things, and would even have hurried Daisy into bed without hearing her say her prayers, but for the child's astonished reminder. This done, and Daisy laid snugly in her crib, she kissed her once more, and gladly escaped downstairs. Daisy was never afraid to be left alone; besides, there was the nurse just in the next room. "Are you going back to that horrid writing?" asked Carrie, as Nellie took her seat at the table again. "I am going back to my writing," answered Nellie, dryly. Carrie looked, as she felt, disgusted. Papa and mamma had gone out on the piazza; but mamma would not let her be in the evening air, and she wanted amusement within; and here was Nellie going back to that "horrid writing," which had occupied her so much for the last three days. Nellie had plainly neither time nor thought to bestow upon her; and she wandered restlessly and discontentedly about the room, fretting for "something to do." But a few minutes had passed when a loud thump sounded overhead; and a shriek followed, which rang through the house. There was no mistaking the cause: Daisy had fallen out of bed, as Daisy was apt to do unless she were carefully guarded against it; and the catastrophe was one of such frequent occurrence, and Daisy so seldom received injury therefrom, that none of the family were much alarmed, save her mother. Mrs. Ransom ran upstairs, followed quickly by Nellie and Carrie, and more slowly by her husband, who hoped and believed that Daisy had had her usual good fortune, and accomplished her gymnastics without severe injury to herself. It proved otherwise this time, however; for, although not seriously hurt, Daisy had a great bump on her forehead, which was fast swelling and turning black, and a scratch upon her arm; and she was disposed to make much of her wounds and bruises, and to consider herself a greatly afflicted martyr. How did it happen? Daisy should have been fastened in her little bed, so that she could not fall out. "Nellie," said Mrs. Ransom, as she held the sobbing child upon her lap and bathed the aching little head with warm water and arnica,--"Nellie, did you fasten up the side of the crib after you had put Daisy in bed?" "No, mamma, I don't believe I did," said conscience-stricken Nellie. "I don't quite remember, but I am afraid I did not." "And why didn't you? You know she always rolls out, if it is not done," said her mother. "I--I suppose I did not remember, mamma. I was thinking about something else; and I was in such a hurry to go downstairs again. I am so sorry!" And she laid her hand penitently on that of Daisy, who was regarding her with an injured air, as one who was the cause of her misfortunes. "Yes, I am afraid that was it, Nellie," said Mrs. Ransom. "Your mind was so taken up with something else that you could not give proper attention to your little sister. I am sorry I did not come myself to put her to bed." It was the second time that day that Nellie might have been helpful to her mother, but she had only brought trouble upon her. She stood silent and mortified. Mr. Ransom took Daisy from her mother and laid her back in her crib, taking care that she was perfectly secured this time; then went downstairs. But Daisy was not to be consoled, unless mamma sat beside her and held her hand till she went to sleep; so Mrs. Ransom remained with her, dismissing Carrie also to bed. Nellie assisted her to undress, making very sure that nothing was forgotten this time, and then returned to see if her mother was ready to go downstairs. But Daisy was most persistently wide awake; her fall had roused her from her first sleep very thoroughly; and she found it so pleasant to have mamma sitting there beside her that she had no mind to let herself float off to the land of dreams, but kept constantly exciting herself with such remarks as-- "Mamma, the's a lot of tadpoles in the little pond."--"Mamma, the's lots of niggers in Newport; oh! I forgot, you told me not to say niggers; I mean colored, black people."--"Mamma, when I'm big I'll buy you a gold satin dress." Or suddenly rousing just as her mother thought she was dropping off to sleep, and putting the startling question, "Mamma, if I was a bear, would you be my mamma?" and mamma unhappily replying "No," she immediately set up a dismal howl, which took some time to quiet. Finding this to be the state of affairs, and warned by her mother's uplifted finger not to come in the room, Nellie went downstairs again, meaning to return to her former occupation. But, to her surprise, the Bible, which she remembered leaving open, was closed and laid aside, her papers all gone. "Why," she said, "who has meddled with my things, I wonder?" "I put them all away, Nellie," said her father. "I am going to write more, papa." "Not to-night. Put on your hat and come out with me for a little walk," said Mr. Ransom. Nellie might have felt vexed at this decided interference with her work; but the pleasure of a moonlight walk with papa quite made up for it, and she was speedily ready, and her hand in his. Mr. Ransom led her down upon the beach, Nellie half expecting all the time some reproof for the neglect which had caused so much trouble; but her father uttered none, talking cheerfully and pleasantly on other subjects. It was a beautiful evening. The gentle waves, shimmering and glancing in the moonlight, broke softly on the beach with a soothing, sleepy sound; and the cool salt breeze which swept over them came pleasantly to Nellie's flushed, hot cheeks and throbbing head. She and her father had the beach pretty much to themselves at this hour; and, finding a broad, flat stone which offered a good resting-place, they sat down upon it, and watched the waves as they curled and rippled playfully upon the white sands. "Now," thought Nellie, when they were seated side by side,--"now, surely, papa is going to find fault with me; and no wonder if he does. Twice to-day I've made such trouble for mamma, when I never meant to do a thing! I don't see what ailed me to-day. It has been a horrid day, and every thing has gone wrong." And Nellie really did not know, or perhaps I should say had not considered, what it was that had made every thing go wrong with her for the greater part of the day. But no; again she was pleasantly disappointed. Papa talked on as before, and called her attention to the white sails of a ship gleaming far off in the silver moonlight, and told her an interesting story of a shipwreck he had once witnessed on this coast. As they were on their way home, however, and when they had nearly reached the house, Mr. Ransom said,-- "Nellie, what is this you are so busy with, my daughter?" "What, my writing do you mean, papa?" asked Nellie, looking up at him. "Yes, some Bible lesson, is it not?" "Not just a lesson, papa," answered Nellie. "Miss Ashton gave us three or four subjects to study over a little this summer, if we chose, and to find as many texts about as we could; but it is not a lesson, for we need not do it unless we like, and have plenty of time." "Then it is not a task she set you?" said Mr. Ransom. "Oh, no, papa! not at all. She said she thought it would be a good plan for us to read a little history every day, or to take any other lesson our mammas liked, but she did not even first speak of this of herself; for Gracie Howard asked her to give us some subjects to hunt up texts about, and then Miss Ashton said it would be a good plan for us to spend a little time at that if we liked, and she gave us four subjects. She said it would help to make us familiar with the Bible." "Yes," said Mr. Ransom musingly, and as if he had not heeded, if indeed he had heard, the last sentence of her speech. "And I have such a long list, papa," continued Nellie, "that is, on the first subject; and on the second I have a good many, too, but I am not through with that. I had very few the day before yesterday; but then, you know, Maggie Bradford came to see me, and she is doing it, too, and she had so many more than I had that I felt quite ashamed. Then the same afternoon I had a letter from Gracie Howard, and she told me she had more than a hundred on the first, and nearly a hundred on the second; so I felt I must hurry up, or maybe all the others would be ahead of me. I've been busy all day to-day finding texts, and copying them." "Is that all you have done to-day?" asked Mr. Ransom. Nellie cannot gather from his tone whether he approves or not; but it seems to her quite impossible that he should not consider her occupation most praiseworthy. "Oh, no, papa!" she answered. "I have done several things besides. I read nearly twenty pages of my history twice over, and learned every one of the dates; then I studied a page of Speller and Definer, and a lesson in my French Phrase-book, and did four sums, and said '7 times' and '9 times' in the multiplication table, each four times over. 7's and 9's are the hardest to remember, so I say those the oftenest. I did all those lessons and half an hour's sewing before I went to my texts; but I've been busy with those almost ever since." "And you have had no walk, no play, all day?" questioned Mr. Ransom. Nellie was not satisfied with her father's tone now; it did not by any means express approbation. "I have not played any, papa, but I had some exercise; for all the time I was learning my French phrases, I was rolling the baby's wagon around the gravel walk." "And it was pretty much the same thing yesterday, was it not?" said Mr. Ransom. "Well, yes, papa," rather faintly. "Nellie," said her father, "did you ever hear the old couplet, 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy'?" "Yes, papa," answered Nellie, half laughing, half reluctantly, as she began to fear that her father intended to interfere with her plans for study. "But am I 'a dull boy'?" "Neither 'dull' nor a 'boy,'" answered her father, playfully shaking the little hand in his. "But I fear there is danger of the former, Nellie, if you go on taking so much 'work' and no 'play.' Miss Ashton did not desire all this, if I understand you, my dear." "Oh, no, papa! I was just doing it of myself. Miss Ashton only said, if our papas and mammas did not object, she thought it would be wiser for us to have a little lesson or reading every day. But you see, papa"--Nellie hesitated, and then came to a full stop. "Well?" said her father, encouragingly. "Papa, I seem to be so far behind all the girls of my age in our class. It makes me feel ashamed, and as if I must do all I could to catch up with them." "I do not know," said Mr. Ransom. "It seems to me that a little girl who keeps the head of her spelling, history, and geography classes for at least a fair share of the time, and who has taken more than one prize for composition and steady, orderly conduct, has no need to feel ashamed before her school-fellows." "Well, no, papa--but--but--somehow I am not so quick as the others. I generally know my lessons, and do keep my place in the classes about as well as any one; but it takes me a great deal longer than it does most of the others. Gracie Howard can learn in half the time that I can; so can Laura Middleton, Maggie Bradford, and 'most all the girls as old as I am, whom I know." "And probably they know them and remember them no better than my Nellie," said her father. Mr. Ransom was not afraid of making his little daughter conceited or careless by over-praise; she had not sufficient confidence in herself or her own powers, and needed all the encouragement that could be given to her. Too much humility, rather than too little, was Nellie's snare. "Yes, papa," she answered. "I suppose I do _remember_ as well as any of the rest, and I seldom miss in my lessons; but I don't see why it is that often when Miss Ashton asks us some question about a lesson that has gone before, or about something that I know quite well, the words do not seem to come to me very quick, and one of the others will answer before I can. Miss Ashton is very good about that, papa, and sometimes it seems as if she knew I was going to answer; for she will say, 'Nellie, you know that, do you not, my dear?' and make the others wait till I can speak. But, papa, even then it makes me feel horridly, for it seems as if I was stupid not to be quick as the others, and I can't bear to have them waiting for me to find my words. So I want to study all I can, even out of school and in vacation." Nellie's voice shook, and her father saw in the moonlight that the eyes she raised to him were full of tears. "And you think that all this extra study is going to help you, my little girl?" he said. "Why, yes, I thought it would, papa. I want to learn a great deal, for, oh, I would so like to be quick and clever, to study as fast and answer as well as Maggie, Gracie, or Lily! Please don't think I am vexed if the other children go above me in my classes, or that I am jealous, papa; I don't mean to be, but I would like to be very wise, and to know a great deal." "I certainly shall not think you are envious of your schoolmates and playfellows, my daughter, however far they may outstrip you, and papa can feel for you in your want of readiness and quickness of speech, for he is troubled sometimes in the same way himself; but, Nellie, this is a misfortune rather than a fault, and, though you would do well to correct it as far as you can, I do not know that you are taking the right way; and I am sure, my dear, that you have plainer and nearer duties just now." "You say that, papa, because I was disobliging to Carrie this afternoon, and careless with dear little Daisy to-night, and I know it serves me right; but do you think it is not a very great duty for me to improve myself all I can?" "Certainly, Nellie, I think it your duty to make the most of your advantages, and that you should try to improve yourself as much as you can at proper times and in proper places; but I do not think it wise or right that my little girl should spend the time that she needs for rest or play in what is to her hard work and study. My child, you are doing now four times as much as you should do, while at the same time you are forgetting or neglecting the little every-day duties that fall to you. Is it not so?" "I dare say you think so, papa, after to-day," answered Nellie, with quivering voice; "but I can try not to let myself be so taken up again with my lessons, and then there will be no harm in it, will there?" "Have you felt very well, quite like yourself, during the last few days, Nellie?" "Well, no, sir," said Nellie, reluctantly. "Not quite. I feel rather tired every morning when I wake up, and my head aches a good deal 'most all the time. And--and--I _don't_ feel quite like myself, for I feel cross and hateful, and I don't think I usually am very cross, papa." "And the harder you work, the worse you feel; is it not so?" "Well, I don't know, papa; but you do not think study makes my head ache, or makes me cross, do you?" "Certainly I do, dear; too much study, too much work, which may make Nell a dull girl, if she does not take care. Your little mind has become over-tired, Nellie; so has your little body; and health and even temper must suffer." "I'll try not to be cross or careless again, papa," said Nellie, humbly. "And there is no need for me to play if I do not choose, is there?" "Who gave you your health and good spirits, Nellie?" "Why, God, papa!" "And do you think it right, then, for you to do any thing which destroys or injures either?" "No, papa," more slowly still, as she saw his meaning. They had been standing for the last few moments at the foot of the piazza steps, where mamma sat awaiting them; and now, stooping to kiss his thoughtful, sensible little daughter, Mr. Ransom said,-- "We have had talk enough for to-night, Nellie; and it is past your bed-time. Think over what we have said, and to-morrow I will talk to you again. Put texts and lessons quite out of your head for the present, and go to sleep as soon as you can. Good-night, my child." Nellie bade him good-night, and, kissing her mother also, obeyed, going quietly and thoughtfully upstairs. That was nothing new for Nellie; but her mother's anxious ear did not fail to notice that, spite of the walk and talk with papa, her foot had not its usual spring and lightness. [Illustration] [Illustration] III. _NELLIE A HOUSEKEEPER._ MR. RANSOM acted wisely in leaving what he had said to work its own effect on his little girl. Nellie was such a sensible, thoughtful child--almost too thoughtful and quiet for her years--that she was sure to think it all over, to consider what was right, and, when she had decided that, to resolve to do what she believed to be her duty. She was honest with herself too, not making excuses for her own shortcomings when she saw them, or trying to believe that what she wished was the right thing to do because she wished it. If she saw clearly that it was wrong, wrong for _her_, a temptation and a snare, though it might be right in other circumstances, she would be sure to put it from her, hard as it might be. And her father thought that it would be easier for her to resolve of her own accord to give up some of the tasks on which her heart was set than it would be to do so at his command. It is generally pleasanter to believe that we are guided by our own will and resolution than by that of another. Mr. Ransom was right. Nellie did indeed think over in all seriousness the conversation she had had with her father; even more, she went back in her own mind over past weeks and months, and acknowledged to herself that for some time she had found every thing but study irksome and troublesome to her, that lately even this had lost its pleasure, though she would persevere and felt irritated and troubled at the least interruption to the tasks she set herself. She was forced to see that she did not feel "like herself" either in mind or body; that after hours of study her head ached and throbbed, she was weary and cross, finding every thing a burden, and having no wish or energy for play or exercise. It had been especially so for the last two or three days, ever since she had worked so hard over her "Bible subjects;" and honestly, though unwillingly, with many tears, Nellie made up her mind to do what she saw to be right, and give up at least a portion of the tasks she had undertaken. "For I do see I'm growing cross and hateful," she said to herself. "I can't bear to have the children come and ask me to play, or to do any little favor for them, and I don't like it very much whenever mamma wants me to help her. I know I _felt_ provoked when she asked me to roll the baby's wagon this morning, though I don't think I let her see it. I believe I don't feel so happy or so good, or even so well, as I used to do, and I don't know--I'm afraid it is so much reading and studying makes it so. I think I'll have to make up my mind not to know as much, or to be so quick and clever as Maggie, and Gracie, and some of the others." But this was a hard resolve for Nellie, and she fell to sleep in no happy frame of mind. She slept later than usual the next morning, for her mother, remembering how dull and languid she had seemed, would not let her be awakened; and Mrs. Ransom and the children were just finishing breakfast when she came downstairs. "Why, where's papa?" asked Nellie, seeing his place was vacant. "A telegram came this morning which called him to town very unexpectedly," said her mother. "He went in and kissed you as you lay asleep, and left his love and good-by for you, and told me to tell you he hoped to see his own old Nellie back when he comes home in a week's time." Nellie knew what that meant, but she was sorry that papa had gone,--sorry, not only that he should have been obliged to leave home sooner than he had expected, but also that she could not now talk more with him on the matter of her studies. However, there was her dear mother: she would listen to her, and give her all the advice and help she needed. The children asked permission to leave the table, which was granted; but Mrs. Ransom herself sat still while Nellie took her breakfast, talking cheerily to her, and trying to tempt her very indifferent appetite by offering a little bit of this or that. "Nellie," said her mother, when they were alone, "I was thinking of asking you how you would like to be my little housekeeper." "Your housekeeper, mamma!" echoed Nellie, pausing in the act of buttering her biscuit, and looking at her mother with surprise. "Yes," answered Mrs. Ransom, "or rather suppose we should be housekeeper together, you being feet and hands, and I being the head. Is that a fair division, think you?" Nellie colored and laughed. "Why, yes; but do you think I could, mamma?" "I think there are a hundred little things you might do if you would like," said her mother. "I'll give you the keys, and you may make the store-room and sideboard your especial charge, keeping them in perfect order, giving out what is needed, seeing that the sugar-bowls, tea-caddy, cracker-basket, and so forth, are kept full, taking my orders to the cook, and other little things which will be a great help to me, and which will give you some useful lessons. What do you say?" "Why, I'd like it ever so much, mamma, but"-- "Well, but what?" said Mrs. Ransom, as Nellie hesitated. "Mamma, I think I'm rather stupid about such things, and I might make you trouble sometimes." "Not _stupid_, Nellie; and, if you are willing to learn, I shall be willing to put up with a little trouble now and then, and to excuse mistakes. If you undertake it, I believe you will be faithful and painstaking, as you are about every thing, and that you can really be a great help to me. Will you try it for a week, and see how you like it? By the time that papa comes home again, you will be accustomed to it, and he will not be apt to suffer from the little slips you may make at first." "Yes, indeed, mamma; and, if you are not tired of such a funny housekeeper as I shall make, I don't think I shall be tired of doing it. Mamma, _do_ you think I could learn to make some cake? those ginger-snaps papa likes?" "I do not doubt it," said Mrs. Ransom, smiling back into the face that was eager and bright enough now. "Mamma," said Nellie, "did papa tell you what we were talking about last evening while we were out walking?" "Yes, dear, he did; and he said he thought our Nellie had sense enough to see what she ought to do, and courage and strength of mind enough to make any sacrifice she felt to be right." "Courage, mamma?" "Yes, dear, it often needs much courage--what is called moral courage--to resolve to do what we feel to be a duty, especially if it calls for any sacrifice of our pride or vanity, or of the desire to appear well in the eyes of others." Nellie knew that she was thinking of such a sacrifice, and it was rather a consolation to have mamma speaking of it in this way. "Moral courage" sounded very fine. But she sat silent, slowly eating her omelet and biscuit, and feeling that she had not quite made up her mind how far the sacrifice must go, or how much of her work she should decide to give up. But one thing she had fully resolved,--that her studies should no longer interfere with what papa called "nearer and plainer duties," or cause needless injury to her health and temper. She would help mamma, play with the children, walk and run as other little girls of her age did, and try hard to put from her all rebellious and impatient feelings at not being quite so clever as some among her schoolmates. "Mamma," she said, after another pause, during which she had finished her breakfast,--"mamma, how much do you think it would be wise for me to study every day?" "Well," said Mrs. Ransom slowly, and as if she knew that she was about to give advice that would not be quite agreeable, "if you wish to know what I think _wisest_, I should say give up study altogether for at least a fortnight." "For a whole fortnight, two weeks, mamma?" echoed Nellie, in dismay. She had expected that her mother would say she might well study two hours a day, hoped for three, wished that it might be four, and had resolved to be content with the allowance proposed; but to give up her books altogether for two weeks! "It seems such a waste of time for such a great girl as me, mamma," she added. "Well, my great girl of ten years, suppose we say one week then," said Mrs. Ransom playfully. "Keep on with your practising as usual, and with your half-hour of sewing these with your new housekeeping duties will take up a good part of the morning without much 'waste of time,' I think; the rest of the day I would give entirely to play and amusement. If at the end of a week we do not find that you are feeling better and happier"-- "And not so cross," put in Nellie, with rather a shamefaced smile. Her mother smiled, too, and took up her speech. "Then we will agree that my plan was not needful, and that all this constant poring over books does not hurt your health, your temper, or your mind." "Yes, mamma," said Nellie, with a sigh she could not suppress, though she did try to speak cheerfully. Then she added, "O mamma, I should so like to be a very clever, bright girl, and to know a great deal!" "A very good thing, Nellie, but not the first of all things, my daughter," said Mrs. Ransom, putting her arm about the waist of her little girl, who had risen and come over to her side. "No, mamma," said Nellie softly, "and you think I have made it the first of all things lately, do you not?" Before Mrs. Ransom could answer, sounds of woe came from the piazza without, Daisy's voice raised in trouble once more. Tears and smiles both lay near the surface with Daisy, and had their way by turns. One moment she would be in the depth of despair, the next dimpling all over with laughter and frolic; so that Nellie did not fear any very serious disaster when she ran to see what the matter was. The great misery of Daisy's life was this,--that people were always taking her for a boy, a mistake which she considered both unnatural and insulting, and which she always resented with all her little might. Nellie found her sitting at the head of the piazza steps, crying aloud, with her straw hat pressed over her face by both hands. "What's the matter, Daisy?" asked her sister. "Oh! such a wicked butcher-man came to my house," answered Daisy, in smothered tones from beneath her hat. "What did he do? What makes him wicked?" asked Nellie. "He sweared at me," moaned Daisy; "oh! he sweared dreadful at me." "Did he?" said Nellie, much shocked. "Yes," said Daisy, removing the hat so far that she was able to peep out with one eye at her sister, "he did. He called me 'Bub,' and I'm not a bub, now." Nellie was far from wishing to wound Daisy's feelings afresh; but this mild specimen of _swearing_ struck her as so intensely funny that she could not keep back a peal of laughter,--a peal so merry and hearty that it rejoiced her mother's heart, who had not heard Nellie laugh like that for several weeks. Daisy's tears redoubled at this. She had expected sympathy and indignation from Nellie, and here she was actually laughing. "You oughtn't to laugh," she said resentfully; "it is very naughty to swear bad names at little girls, and I shan't eat the meat that bad butcher-man brought." Nellie sat down beside the insulted little one, and, smothering her laughter, said coaxingly,-- "I wouldn't mind that, Daisy. Here, dry your eyes." "Yes, you would," sobbed Daisy, taking down the hat, but rejecting the pocket handkerchief her sister offered; "I have a potterhancher of my own in my pottet;" and she pulled out the ten-inch square article in question, and mournfully obeyed Nellie's directions. "He called me a fellow too, and he ought to see I don't wear boys' clothes," she added. "How did he come to be talking to you?" asked Nellie, trying to keep a grave face. "What were you doing?" "I was very good and nice, just sitting on the grass, and making a wreaf of some clovers Carrie gave me," explained Daisy, piteously, "and he brought the meat in, and said, 'Good-morning, bub; you're a nice little fellow!' and I'm not, now." "Here he comes again," said Nellie, as a jolly, good-natured-looking butcher's boy came around from the other side of the house. "I shan't let him see me," cried Daisy, and, scrambling to her feet, she rushed into the house before the disturber of her peace came near her again. A moment later Nellie heard her rippling laugh over some trifle which had taken her attention, and she knew that the April shower was over, and sunshine restored. This little incident had so diverted Nellie's thoughts, and amused her so much, that for the time she forgot the subject of the conversation with her mother, which had been so abruptly broken off; and when she returned to her, she laughed merrily again as she related the cause of Daisy's trouble, and her indignation at having been taken for a boy. Mrs. Ransom did not return to it. She thought that enough had been said, and she agreed with her husband in thinking that Nellie would feel a certain satisfaction in believing she exercised her own will and judgment in the matter. "Here are the keys, dear," she said, when she and Nellie had laughed over Daisy's tribulations; "and it is time Catherine had her orders for the day. Go first to the kitchen and tell her"--and here Mrs. Ransom gave Nellie the necessary directions, which she in her turn was to repeat to the cook. Then she was to ask the woman what was needed from the store-room, and to give out such things. "What's Nellie going to do?" asked Carrie, who had come in, and stood listening while her mother gave Nellie her directions. "I'm going to be mamma's housekeeper," said Nellie, feeling at least a head taller with the importance of all this responsibility. "Oh!" said Carrie, looking at her with admiration, and quite as much impressed as she was expected to be. "You can come with me, and see me, if you want to," said Nellie. "And can I help her, mamma?" asked Carrie. "Yes, if Nellie is willing, and can find any thing for you to do," answered Mrs. Ransom. Thoroughly interested now in her new undertaking, Nellie had for the time quite forgotten lessons, "Bible subjects," and other tasks, till Carrie said,-- "What are you going to do, Nellie, when you have finished keeping house?" "I think it will take me a good while to do all the housekeeping," replied Nellie. "When that is finished, I will see. Oh! I'll go down to the beach with you, Carrie, if mamma says we may." Carrie looked very much pleased. "Then you're not going back to that old Bible lesson this morning?" she asked. "Why, Carrie! what a way to speak of the Bible!" "Oh!" said Carrie, rather abashed, "but I didn't mean the Bible was old, Nellie; only the long, long lessons you have been studying out of it are so tiresome, and make you so busy." Nellie understood by this how much Carrie had missed her company since she had been so taken up with her self-chosen task; and again she felt that she had been rather selfish in letting it occupy so much of her time. Here Daisy met them, and, asking where they were going, was told of Nellie's new dignity. Of course she wanted to "help" too; and, permission being given, she marched first into the kitchen, and informed the cook,-- "Me and Carrie and Nellie are going to keep the house." Nellie gave her orders with great correctness, Daisy repeating them after her, in order that the cook might be sure to make no mistake, except when Nellie told what was to be done with the meat, when she declared she should not "talk about the meat that wicked butcher brought," and turned her back upon it with an air of offended dignity. Her resolution held good throughout the day, for at dinner she positively refused to eat of either the meat or poultry brought by the "swearing butcher-man," and even held out against the charms of a chicken's wish-bone which mamma offered. Next to the store-room, where the two younger children looked on with admiring approbation, while Nellie gave out to the cook such articles as were needed for the day, and then saw that tea-canisters, sugar-bowls, cake-basket, &c., were all in proper order. The filling of the cake-basket and sugar-bowls was a particularly interesting process, especially when Nellie, following mamma's daily practice, bestowed "just one lump of sugar" on each of her little sisters, taking care to select the largest, and then sweetening her own labors with a like chosen morsel. It was great fun also to ladle out rice, break the long sticks of macaroni, and, best of all, to weigh out the pound of raisins required for the pudding. Daisy, however, permitted herself some liberties under the new reign which she would not have ventured upon under her mother's rule; and, not considering herself obliged to obey Nellie, was decoyed away by the cook under the pretence of shelling peas for dinner. Having opened about five pods, little white teeth as well as her ten fingers assisting at the operation, and letting about every other pea roll away, she concluded that she was tired of helping Catherine, and went back to Nellie, who was fortunately by this time quite through with her arrangements in the store-room. "Mamma," said Nellie, when she had returned to her mother and reported how successfully she had fulfilled all her orders,--"mamma, I do not think the store-room is in very good order." "I know it is not, dear," replied Mrs. Ransom, "and I have been wishing to have it properly arranged, but have not really felt able to attend to it." "Couldn't I do it, mamma?" asked Nellie, full of zeal in her new character. "It would be rather hard work for you; but some day next week we will go there together and overlook things; after which I will have it dusted and scrubbed, and then you shall arrange it as you please. The people who hired this house before we had it were not as neat as my Nellie, I fear. But I am thankful to find that there are no mice about; I have not heard one since we have been here." Mrs. Ransom's dread of a mouse was a matter of great wonder to her children, who could not imagine how she could be so afraid of such "cunning little things;" and, although she really did try to control it, it had the mastery over her whenever she saw or heard one, and was a source of great and constant discomfort to her. [Illustration] IV. _A COURTSHIP._ "WILL you come to the beach now, Nellie?" said Carrie. "Yes, if mamma has nothing more for me to do," said Nellie; and mamma telling her that there was nothing at present, they were soon ready and on their way; Daisy also being allowed to accompany them on promise of being very, very good and obedient to Nellie. Nellie, wise, steady little woman that she was, was always to be trusted to take care of the other children, and to keep them out of mischief, so long as she gave her mind to it; and her mother had no fear that it would be otherwise now, after the lesson of last night. Poor Nellie! the sight of that black bump on Daisy's forehead was sufficient reminder in itself, even had she not formed such good resolutions. _She_ felt it, I believe, more than Daisy did. An unexpected pleasure awaited Nellie and Carrie when they reached the beach, for there they met, not only the little Bradfords, whom they now saw frequently, but also Lily Norris and Belle Powers, who had come to pass the day with their friends, Maggie and Bessie. Daisy and Frankie Bradford, who were great cronies and allies, were soon busily engaged in making sand-pies, and conveying them in their little wagons to imaginary customers who were supposed to live upon the rocks. Nellie had brought her doll with her. This was a doll extraordinary, a doll well known and far famed. It had been presented to Nellie by old Mrs. Howard, as a reward for her kind and generous behavior to her little grand-daughter Gracie, at a time when the latter had fallen into trouble and disgrace at school. To the young residents of Newport, the chief claim to distinction of the Ransom family lay in the fact that in their midst resided this wonderful creation of art. Mr. and Mrs. Ransom enjoyed the glorious privilege of being "the father and mother of the girl that has the doll." Nellie herself was considered the most enviable of mortals, while her brothers and sisters shared a kind of reflected glory. To meet Nellie when she had her treasure out for an airing was an event in the day; and frantic rushes were made to windows or down to gates and palings when the announcement was made,--"The doll is coming!" It was impossible that Nellie should not be gratified by all this flattering homage to her darling, and she received such tributes with a proud but still generous satisfaction, for she would always take pains to walk slowly when she saw some eager eye fastened upon the doll, or carry it so as to afford the best view of all the beauties of its toilet; and, choice and careful as she was of it, she was always ready when she met any of her young friends to allow them to take and nurse it for a while. Of late, however, even this doll had been neglected and put aside in the press of work which Nellie had laid upon herself; and this was the first time in several days that she had appeared in public. So Nellie was eagerly welcomed, partly on her own account, partly on that of her daughter; and after the latter had been duly admired, and ah'ed and oh'ed over to the heart's content of her mamma and the spectators, she was intrusted to Belle's tender care for a while, Lily having the promise of being allowed to take her afterwards. Nellie was never a child who cared much for romping play or frolic; quiet games and amusements suited her much better; therefore her playmates were rather surprised when, having seen her doll safe in Belle's keeping, she proposed a race down the length of the beach, to see who could first reach a given rock she pointed out. For Nellie, like many another little child--ay, and grown person too--when they mean to turn over a new leaf, was now disposed to run into the opposite extreme, and to strive to make up for lost time by taking an amount of play and exercise to which she was not accustomed at any time. Maggie and Lily readily agreed to her proposal, though they were rather surprised at it, as coming from her; but Bessie declined, not being fond of a romp, and Carrie, too, chose to stay with Bessie and Belle. Nellie, however, soon found that strength and breath gave way, unaccustomed as she had been for weeks past to a proper amount of exercise; and she was forced to sit down upon a stone and watch Lily and Maggie as they sped onwards towards the goal. They flew like the wind, and it was hard to tell which was there the first, for they fairly ran against one another as they reached it, and, laughing and breathless, turned to look back for Nellie, who smilingly nodded to them from the distance. Meanwhile Bessie, Belle, and Carrie were amusing themselves more quietly. "Do you think your mamma would let you come to our house this afternoon?" said Bessie to Carrie. "Mamma said we might ask you." "Oh, yes! I'm sure she would. She quite approves of your family," answered Carrie. "I should think she might," said Belle. "Mamma thought we'd all like to have a good play together," said Bessie. "And, besides, we have some new things to show you, Carrie. We have some white mice that Willie Richards gave us; and they are just as tame, as tame." "Oh! they're too cunning for any thing," said Belle. "They hide in your pocket, or up your sleeve, or in your bosom if you'll let them, and eat out of your fingers, and are not one bit afraid." "How did you tame them so?" asked Carrie, who was extremely fond of dumb pets of all kinds. "We did not do it," said Bessie. "Willie Richards did it before he sent them to us; but white mice can be tamed very easily. Harry says so." "Gray mice can be tamed too," said Belle. "Why, no!" said Carrie. "They always scamper away from you as fast as they can go." "Not always," said Belle, with the air of one who had good authority for her statement. "Not always, do they, Bessie? For there's a little mouse lives in our parlor at the hotel in New York, and he's just as tame as he can be, and he comes out every evening to be fed." "And do you feed him?" asked Carrie. "Yes," said Belle. "Every evening I bring a piece of bread or cracker or cake from the dinner table for him, and when papa and I come in the parlor he is always on the hearth waiting for us. Then papa sits down by the table, and the mousey runs up his leg and jumps on the table, and then he takes the crumbs I put down for him. Oh, he's so cunning, and his eyes are so bright! And he even lets me smooth his fur with my finger." "How did you make him so tame?" asked Carrie. Belle colored and hesitated, looking down upon the doll in her arms, and seeming as if she would much rather not tell the story; but Carrie, who was not very quick to see where another's feelings were concerned, repeated her question. "Well," said Belle, slowly at first, and then, as she became interested in her own story, with more ease, "he used to run about the room, but was not one bit tame, and papa told the waiter to set a trap for him. And the man did; and one morning when we went in the room the little mouse was caught. And he looked so cunning and so funny, peeping through the bars of the trap, that I felt very sorry about him; and, when the man was going to take him away to drown him, I cried very hard, and begged papa to let me keep him in the trap. And because I felt so badly papa said I might, but I must feed him, so he would not starve; and he very 'spressly told me I must not lift the door of the trap, for fear the mouse would run out. Papa thought I would soon grow tired of him,--he said so afterwards; but I did not, and I grew very attached to that mouse, and he to me. But--but"--Belle's voice faltered again, and she looked ashamed--"but I disobeyed my papa, and one day I opened the door of the trap a te-en-y little bit, just a very little bit; but the mouse ran out just as quick, as quick, and scampered away to the fireplace where his hole was." "Did your papa scold you?" asked Carrie, as Belle paused to take breath. "No," answered Belle, remorsefully, "he didn't _scold_ me, but he looked very sorry when I told him. He always looks sorry at me when I am not good, but he never scolds me, and that makes me feel worse than if he was ever so cross to me." "Well, what about the mouse?" asked Carrie. "That very evening I was sitting on papa's knee, talking to him," continued Belle, "and what do you think? why, the first thing I saw was the mouse on the hearth looking right at me. I had a maccaroon, and papa crumbled a little bit of it on the floor, and the mouse came and eat it. Then he played about a little while; we kept very still, and at last he ran away. But the next night, and every night after that, he came; and at last one evening, first thing we knew, he jumped on papa's foot and ran up his leg; and now every evening he does that, and sits on the table till I feed him." "How cunning!" said Carrie. "I wish I had one; but I'd rather have a white mouse." "The white mice are prettier, but then they are stupider than Belle's mouse," said Bessie. "They don't do much but eat and go to sleep. I don't think they are so very interesting." "There's Daisy crying again," said Carrie. "Daisy, what's the matter now?" raising her voice. Daisy only cried the louder, and the three children ran forward to where she sat upon the sand, the picture of woe; while Frankie, busily engaged in piling sand pies into his wagon, remained sublimely indifferent to her distress. Nellie, Maggie, and Lily came running back also to see what was the matter. "What _are_ you crying for, Daisy?" asked Nellie. "Frankie, do you know what is the matter with her?" "He told me he'd marry me if I let him mix the pies," sobbed the distressed Daisy; "and now he won't." "Now, Daisy, you ought to be ashamed to say that," cried Frankie, stopping short with a pie in each hand, and looking with a much aggrieved air at his little playmate. "Yes, I did promise to marry her if she'd let me make the pies," he continued, turning to Nellie, "and so I will; but I promised three other girls before her, and so I told her she'd have to wait till they were all dead, and she wouldn't have patience, but just went and cried about it. I can't help it if so many girls want to marry me," added the young sultan, tenderly laying his sand pies in the wagon. Daisy had ceased her cries to listen to Frankie's statement of the case; but her spirits were so depressed at once more hearing this indefinite postponement of her matrimonial prospects that she broke forth into a fresh wail of despair. "Oh, Daisy!" said Nellie, "what shall we do with you: you're growing to be a real cry-baby." "Yes," said Master Frankie, seeing his way at once to a peaceful solution of his difficulties. "And I shall never, never marry a cry-baby. You'd better hurry up and be good, Daisy." At this terrible threat, Daisy's shrieks subsided into broken sobs; and Frankie, touched by the extreme desolation of her whole aspect, farther consoled her, by telling her if she would dry her eyes and be good, he would let her "make two mixes, and marry her besides." At which condescension on the part of her chosen lord and master, Daisy was in another instant beaming with smiles, and thrusting her dimpled hands into the wet sand; and the older children left her and Frankie to their play. All but Bessie, that is, who lingered behind to give her brother a little moral lecture. For Bessie's sense of justice had been shocked by Frankie's arrangements, and the hard bargain he had driven with the devoted Daisy, who upon all occasions submitted herself to his whims, and let him rule her with a rod of iron. Moreover, Bessie considered his gallantry very much at fault, and thought it quite necessary to speak her mind on the subject. "Frankie," she said with gravity, "you are selfish to Daisy, I think. You ought to let her make half the pies." "I'm letting her do two mixes," said Frankie; "and, besides, she said I needn't let her do any if I'd marry her. That's fair." "No, it's not. It's not fair, nor polite either," said Bessie, reprovingly. "You oughtn't to make it a compliment for you to marry Daisy. It is a compliment to you." This was a new view of the subject to Frankie, and, as he stood gazing at Daisy and considering it, Bessie added,-- "Anyhow, you ought to let her do half. You're not good to be so selfish." Daisy meanwhile had been balancing in her own mind the comparative advantages of the present and the future good, and came to the conclusion that she had made a foolish choice, and that the mixing of sand pies was more to be desired than the promise, whose fulfilment seemed so far distant; and now, with a deprecating look at Frankie, she made known this change in her sentiments. "I b'lieve I'd rafer mix half the mud than be your wife, Frankie," she said. "I'll just 'scuse myself and do the pies." "Oh! I'll let you do half," said Frankie, encouragingly, "and marry you too, Daisy. I really will." But Daisy, before whom Bessie's words had also placed the matter in a new light, now felt the advantage of her position, and was disposed to make the most of it, as she found Frankie inclined to become more yielding. "I'll see about marrying you," she said coquettishly, "but I _will_ do half the pies." "Yes, yes, you shall," replied Frankie, now extremely desirous to secure the prize the moment there seemed to be a possibility of its slipping through his fingers; "and you'll really marry me, won't you, Daisy?" "Maybe so," said Daisy, a little victorious, as was only natural, at finding the tables thus turned. "Ah! not maybe, Daisy. Say you truly will, dear Daisy, darling Daisy. You shall mix all the pies, Daisy, and I'll be your horse, too." "I'll tell you anofer time," said Daisy, much enjoying the new position of affairs. "Ah! no, Daisy," pleaded the now humble suitor: "if you'll promise now, I'll--I'll--Daisy, I'll give you my white mice." Daisy plumped herself down upon the sand, and gazed at Frankie, astounded at the magnitude of this offer, in return for the promise which, in her secret soul, she was longing to give. "Maybe your mamma won't let you give 'em away," she said at length; and then, with relenting in her generous little heart, she added, "and I wouldn't like to take 'em from you, Frankie: it's too much." "Yes, yes, mamma would let me," said Frankie, eagerly. "Bessie has a pair, and Maggie a pair, and I a pair; and mamma said that was too many, and she won't mind one bit if I give you mine. And I don't care for them at all, Daisy, they're such stupid things. I'd just as lieve give them to you." "Well," said Daisy, shaking her curls at him, "then I'll promise; and I only want to mix half the pies, Frankie, I wouldn't do 'em all, oh! not for any thing." This amicable agreement being sealed with a kiss, and peace thoroughly restored, Bessie left the two little ones to their "mixes," and went back to the others, whom she entertained with an account of Frankie's complete defeat and submission. They rather rejoiced at it, for the way in which Frankie usually lorded it over the submissive Daisy did not at all agree with their ideas of propriety. "But do you think Frankie really means to give the white mice to Daisy?" asked Nellie. "Why, yes," answered Bessie, "he _promised_, you know." "But," said Nellie, doubtfully, "I do not think mamma would like Daisy to have them." "Oh! she needn't mind," said Maggie. "Our mamma did say she was sorry Willie Richards had sent three pair; and Frankie has not really cared for his since the first day. They're too quiet for him. Daisy might just as well have them." "But I don't know if mamma would care to have them in the house," said Nellie. "She is so afraid of mice." "What, a grown-up lady afraid of white mice!" said Lily. "Well, she's afraid of _real_ mice," said Nellie, "and I'm not sure she wouldn't be of white ones." "Pooh! I don't believe she would be," said Carrie. "I wish we could have them." "I shouldn't think your mother would mind _white_ mice," said Belle: "you can ask her." "You're all to come to our house this afternoon, you know," said Maggie, "and then you can see them; and bring Daisy too, Nellie: we want her." After a little more talk and play, the children separated, Nellie going home with her sisters, and promising to come over to Mrs. Bradford's house as early in the afternoon as possible. "What makes you go home so soon?" asked Carrie, supposing that it was those "horrid lessons" which took Nellie away. "I thought mamma might have something else she wanted me to do," said Nellie, "and we have been down on the beach a good while." "What makes you do the housekeeping," asked Carrie,--"just to help mamma, or because you like to?" "Mamma asked me to do it to help her," said Nellie, without a thought of her mother's real object in proposing the plan, "but I do like to do it, it is real fun." "I'd like to do something to help mamma," said Carrie. "Me too," put in Daisy. "I think you both could do something to help her, if you chose," said Nellie, with a little hesitation; for she was a modest, rather shy child, who never thought it her place to correct or give advice even to her own brothers and sisters. "How can I?" asked Carrie, and,-- "How could I?" mimicked Daisy, looking up at her sister as she trotted along by her side. "Well," said Nellie, "I think you, Carrie, could be more obedient to mamma." "I'm sure I do mind mamma," said Carrie, indignantly. "I never do any thing she tells me not to." "No," said Nellie, "you never do the things she tells you you must _not_ do, and you generally do what she says you _must_ do; but--but--perhaps you won't like me to say it, Carrie, but sometimes you do things which mamma has not forbidden, but which we both feel pretty sure she would not like; and then, when she knows it, it makes trouble for her." Carrie pouted a little, she could not deny Nellie's accusation, but still she was not pleased. "Pooh!" she said, "I don't mean that. I mean I want to do some very great help for her, something it would be nice to say I had done." "You're not large enough for that yet," said Nellie, "and I don't believe you could help her more than by being good all the time." "Then why don't you be good all the time?" said Carrie, not at all pleased. "I shouldn't think it was a great help to mamma to let Daisy fall out of bed." Nellie colored, but made no reply. Not so Daisy, who at once took up arms in Nellie's defence. Seizing upon her hand, and holding it caressingly to her cheek, she said to Carrie,-- "Now don't you make my Nellie feel bad about it. That falling out of bed wasn't any thing much; and my bump feels, oh! 'most well this morning. I b'lieve it feels better'n it did before I bumped it. Nellie, what could I do to help mamma?" "If you tried not to cry so often, Daisy, darling, it would help mamma. It worries her when you cry, and sometimes you cry for such very little things." "Does she think a bear is eating me up when she hears me cry and can't see me?" asked Daisy, whose mind was greatly interested in these quadrupeds. "No," said Nellie, "'cause she knows there are no bears here to eat little girls; but it troubles her to hear you cry. Besides, you are growing too big to cry so much, and you don't want people to call you a cry-baby, do you?" "No, I don't," answered Daisy, emphatically, "'cause then Frankie won't marry me. And I don't want to t'ouble mamma, Nellie. But how can I help crying when I hurt myse'f?" "Oh! you can cry when you hurt yourself," said Nellie, "but try not to cry for very little things; and we'll all see what we can do to help her. I believe I have been selfish in reading and studying all the time lately, and not thinking much about other people, especially mamma, so I will give up my books for a while, and try to help her about the house; and Daisy will try not to cry so much; and--and Carrie will be careful not to do the things mamma would not like her to do; will you not, Carrie?" Carrie made no answer; she was not mollified by Nellie's taking blame to herself for her own short-comings, but only resented the gentle reproof she had herself received. Perhaps one reason was that she felt she deserved it. But pet Daisy took hers in good part. "I will," she said, clapping her hands, and looking as if tears were always the farthest thing possible from her bright face, "I will try. I won't cry a bit if I can help it, but just laugh, and be good all the time, unless I hurt myse'f, oh! very, very much, indeed. Nellie," pausing in her capers with an air of deep consideration,--"but, Nellie, if somebody cut off my nose, I ought to cry, oughtn't I?" "Oh, yes! certainly," laughed Nellie. "And if a bear _did_ come, I could sc'eam very loud, couldn't I?" "Yes, whenever that bear of yours comes, you can cry as loud as you please," answered Nellie. "Oh! he's not mine," said Daisy. "He's a black man's, I b'lieve. I 'spect he's an old black Injin man's. There's mamma on the piazza, an' there's two ladies come to see her." [Illustration] [Illustration] V. _WHITE MICE._ THE ladies with mamma proved to be two aunts who had come to pass a part of the day with her. They had brought pretty gifts for each one of the children: a series of books for Nellie,--for they knew her tastes; a wax doll for Carrie; and a doll's tea-set for Daisy. So it was no wonder if the white mice were for the time forgotten in the children's delight over their new treasures. Carrie's doll was the handsomest one she had ever owned; not by any means equal to Nellie's nonpareil, it is true, but she was more than contented with it. Nellie was equally pleased with her books; but after looking at the pictures, and seeing "how very interesting" the series looked, she resolutely put them away, and devoted herself to the entertainment of her aunts, believing that as "mamma's housekeeper" a part of this duty devolved upon her. Moreover, she found that her "help" was needed by her mother in certain little preparations for this unexpected company. Perhaps in her new zeal she did more than was needful, and might have left some things to the servants; but her mother was so glad to see her occupied and content without her beloved study books, that she put no check upon her. Carrie, too, being very anxious to carry out her new resolution of making herself of use to mamma, was very busy, and more than once had her fingers where they were not wanted. She ended her performances by a mistake which alarmed her very much, believing as she did that she had done great mischief. The grocery-man having brought several articles from the store at a time when it was not convenient for the cook to attend to them at once, they had been left standing upon the kitchen porch. Such as were to go to the store-room were by Nellie's direction now carried there; but there were others which were to be left under the cook's care, among them some rock-salt and some saltpetre. Carrie being, as I have said, seized with the desire of making herself useful, went peering from one to another of these things. Seeing the salt in one bucket, and the saltpetre in another, neither of the vessels being full, and not knowing there was any difference between them, she thought the one pail would hold both, and forthwith emptied the one into the other. "An' whatever have ye been about then, Miss Carrie?" she heard the next instant from Catherine the cook, and the woman stood beside her with uplifted hands, looking from the empty bucket to the full one. "If she ain't been and emptied all the salt-pater into me rock-salt," she cried to one of the other servants who was near. "Oh my! and saltpetre explodes and goes off sometimes, when it is put with other things," called Nellie, who had heard from the store-room. "Children, come away from it; it might be dangerous." Away went Carrie, frightened half out of her senses, and, rushing into the room where her mother sat with her aunts, cried in a tone of great distress,-- "Oh! mamma, mamma, I've put all the Peter salt into the other salt, and Nellie thinks we'll blow up." The smile with which her mother and the other ladies heard this alarming announcement somewhat reassured her, and she soon learned that she had done no such very great harm; but, her brothers Johnny and Bob hearing the story, it was long before she heard the last of the "Peter salt." With so much else to think about, it is not very surprising that the little girls should forget the white mice; and, even up to the time of their leaving home to go to Mrs. Bradford's house, Nellie did not remember to ask her mother if she would object to them. Daisy, mindful of the advantage she had gained in the morning, and very much enjoying the position of affairs, was extremely coy and coquettish with Frankie this afternoon; while he, anxious to return to his old standpoint with her, would have given her every thing she fancied, and courted her favor by every means in his power. So you may be sure that he repeated his offer of the white mice, for which he really did not care much, so that it was no great act of generosity to give them up to his young lady-love. "They're my own, my very own," said the delighted child, showing her prize to Nellie, and the others. "Frankie says so. Just see this one run up my arm, and the ofer one is way down in my pottet. Oh! they're so cunning, and my very own. There comes that one out of my pottet." Daisy was too much absorbed with her mice to notice the grave, doubtful face with which Nellie heard her, and watched the tame little creatures as they ran over her hands and arms, and up to her shoulder. Nellie could not bear to damp her little sister's pleasure, but she feared that her mother would be nervous and troubled by their presence. "Did you ask your mamma if Daisy could have them?" asked Maggie, noticing the expression of her face, and guessing the cause. "No, I quite forgot it," answered Nellie; "and I can't bear to disappoint the dear little thing; and yet--and yet--I am 'most sure mamma will not like to have them about." "I don't believe she'd mind," said Bessie. "Our Aunt Annie is dreadfully afraid of real mice, but she don't mind those white ones a bit." "Suppose you take them home with you, and see what your mamma says," suggested Maggie. "If she will not let Daisy keep them, then you could bring them back to-morrow; but I feel 'most sure she will not be willing to disappoint Daisy. Just see how delighted she looks, Nellie." "Or if your mamma won't let Daisy keep them, Johnny could bring them back to-night," said Bessie. Nellie was still doubtful; but it was quite true that she herself could not bear to check Daisy's delight by even a hint that their mother would not admire or tolerate the white mice; and, though against her better judgment, she resolved to let the child carry them home, and then act as circumstances, or rather mamma's wishes, dictated. It would have been better to have told Daisy at once, Nellie knew that; but she always shrank from inflicting pain, or saying that which was disagreeable to another; and, besides, she had a faint hope that her mother might not so much mind the _white_ mice. Miss Annie Stanton's example was an encouraging one in this matter. So after an afternoon pleasantly spent in play, during which Daisy could scarcely be persuaded to part from her new pets for a single moment, the Ransom children said good-by to their young friends, and turned their faces homeward. Daisy walked sedately along by Nellie's side, not skipping and jumping as was her wont, lest she should disturb the precious white mice, one of which lay curled in her "pottet," the other in a box also given to her by Frankie, which she held tenderly clasped with both hands to her breast. The child's face was radiant as she talked of her treasures, and every now and then peeped within the box where one of them lay; and Nellie, watching and listening to her, was ready to believe that mamma could not and would not have any fear of the pretty little things. Still! She, Nellie, had intended to be the first to speak to her mother of the white mice, and to tell Daisy to keep them out of sight till mamma should hear of them, and her permission be gained to bring them into the house. She was just about to speak to Daisy as they entered the gate, when her attention was called for the moment by Johnny, who begged her to help him unravel a knot in his fish-line, knowing well--impetuous fellow!--that her patient fingers were better at that than his own stronger but less careful ones. All that needed patience and gentleness it seemed natural to bring to steady, painstaking Nellie. But just at the moment that she was engaged with Johnny's line, and when she had for the time forgotten Daisy and the white mice, the little one spied her mother coming out upon the piazza; and, anxious to display her prize, she scampered away over the lawn as fast as her feet could carry her, Carrie following. "Mamma, mamma!" cried Daisy as she reached her mother's side, "dear mamma, just see what Frankie Bradford gave me. All for my own, my very own, to keep for ever, an' ever, an' ever, he said so." And, plunging her hand into her pocket, she brought forth one mouse and laid it in triumph on her mother's lap; then, opening the box, thrust the other beneath her very eyes, her own chubby face fairly brimming over with dimples and smiles. Mrs. Ransom turned a shade paler, shrank back a little, then with a forced smile said,-- "Yes, darling, very pretty. I dare say you are very much pleased; but suppose you put this little fellow in the box with his brother. It is a better place for him than mamma's lap." "Oh, no! mamma, he'd just as lieve stay in your lap," said Daisy. "He's not a bit af'aid of you. He likes peoples. See, he'll run right up your arm;" and, taking the mouse up, she would have laid it upon her mother's hand, had not Mrs. Ransom drawn back with an unmistakable shudder and expression of disgust which struck even the unconscious Daisy. "Don't, darling, don't," she said hurriedly, but gently, unwilling to wound her little girl, or to give her any dread of the harmless creatures, but still feeling that she _could not_ bear them near her. "Take them away, my pet: you know mamma does not like mice." "They're not _weally_ mice, mamma," said the little one, opening great astonished eyes at her mother, but at the same time obeying her words and drawing farther away with her mice,--"they're only white ones, not _weally_ ones." "Yes, darling," said her mother, trying to control her disgust for the child's sake, "but mamma does not like any mice. Suppose you put them away." Just at this moment Nellie ran up the piazza steps. "O mamma!" she said, seeing the expression of her mother's face, "I meant to tell you about the white mice before Daisy brought them near you or showed them to you, but she was too quick for me. Daisy, darling, take them away; you see mamma does not like them, and you must take them back to Frankie Bradford." To have seen Daisy's face! She could not believe it possible that any one should really have a fear or dislike to "such cunning little things" as her white mice, and she stood looking from mother to sister, dismay, disappointment, and wonder mingling in her expression. Poor little Daisy! Nellie hastily explained to her mother, telling her how she had been detained by Johnny, and that she had not intended to allow her to see the mice until she had learned whether or no they would annoy her; and ending by saying that she was sure Daisy would be a good girl and carry them back to Frankie. Nellie herself, Mrs. Ransom and Carrie, all expected to hear Daisy break into one of her dismal wails at this proposal; but, to their surprise, this did not follow. True, the little face worked sadly, and Daisy winked her eyes very hard, trying to keep back the gathering tears, while her bosom, to which she held the mice tightly clasped, rose and fell with the sobs she struggled to suppress. "Mamma," she at last gasped rather than said,--"mamma, I'm trying very hard: I _am_ trying not to be a cry-baby any more, 'cause Nellie said that was a good way to be a help to you; but, mamma, oh! I do 'most _have_ to be a cry-baby if you don't love my mice, 'cause I do love 'em so." "My precious lambie!" said the mother; and, forgetting her own aversion to Daisy's pets in her sympathy for the child, she held out her arms to her, and gathered her, mice and all, within their loving clasp. Thoughtful Nellie in another instant had taken the mice from Daisy's hold, and shutting both within the box laid it on a chair at a distance. "Mamma," sobbed Daisy, hiding her little pitiful face on her mother's bosom, "I will take 'em back to Frankie. I didn't know you would degust 'em so, and I'm sorry I bringed 'em home for you to see. And, mamma, I wouldn't be a cry-baby, 'deed I wouldn't, if I could help it." "You can cry a little if you want to, and no one shall call you a cry-baby, my pet," said her mother, "and"--Mrs. Ransom hesitated; then after a little struggle with herself, went on--"and you shall keep the mice, darling. Perhaps we can find a place for them where mamma will not see them." Daisy raised her head, showing flushed cheeks and tearful eyes, and a still quivering lip, although smiles and dimples were already mingling themselves with these signs of distress, at this crumb of comfort. Never was such an April face and temper as Daisy Ransom's. "I'll tell you, mamma," said Johnny, coming to the rescue, "Bob and I can make a cubby hole for them down in the garden-house, and they can live there, where they need never bother you. Daisy can go and play with them there when she wants them. Will that do, Daisy?" Do? One would have thought so to see Daisy's delight. She was beaming and dimpling all over now. "Oh! you dear, darling, loving Johnny," she exclaimed, clapping her hands; then turning to her mother, and softly touching her cheek, she asked in the most insinuating little way,-- "Mamma, dear, would they trouble you down in the garden-house? If they would, I'll do wifout 'em." Who could resist her sweet coaxing way. Not her mother, certainly, who, once more kissing the little eager, upturned face, assured her that she might keep the white mice, and have them down in the garden-house. "There's an old bird-cage upstairs in the attic," said Nellie, "why wouldn't that do for a house for them?" "Just the thing. I'll bring it," said Johnny, and away he went upstairs, three steps at once, and returning in less time than would have seemed possible, with the old, disused bird-cage. "It is rather the worse for wear," he said, turning it around, and viewing it disparagingly, "but we'll make it do. I'll cobble it up; and it will hold the mice anyhow, Daisy." To Daisy it seemed a palace for her mice. Every thing was _couleur de rose_ to her now that she was to be allowed to keep her new pets, and that, as she believed, without any annoyance to mamma. Johnny and Bob were very kind too. They went to work at once; the former straightening the bent bars of the cage, the latter finding a cup and a small tin box for the food and drink of the white mice. Daisy was enchanted, and stood by with radiant face till she saw her pets lodged safely within their new house, when she was even satisfied to have the boys carry them to the garden-house, and to stay behind herself; mamma telling her that it was too late for her to go out again. Never was happier child than Daisy when she laid her little head on her pillow that night. "What a nice day this has been!" said Carrie, as the four elder children sat with their mother upon the piazza, after Daisy had gone to rest. "What's made it so wonderfully nice?" asked Johnny. "Well, I don't know," said Carrie. "I've had a very pleasant time somehow, and I believe it's 'cause Nellie has been with me 'most all day, and been so nice. Why, Nellie, you haven't studied one bit to-day." "Why, no," exclaimed Nellie. "I declare I forgot all about my practising and sewing, and every thing. I never thought of my books, I've been so busy. Why didn't you remind me of the practising and sewing, mamma?" Her mother smiled. "I thought it just as well to let you take the whole day for other things, Nellie," she said: "a whole holiday from books and work will not hurt you. You _have_ managed to live and be happy through it, have you not?" "Why, yes," answered Nellie, astonished at herself, as she recollected how completely lessons, sewing, and practising had slipped from her mind; "and it has been a very nice day, as Carrie says. A great deal pleasanter than yesterday," she added, as she contrasted her feelings of last night with those of to-night. There could be no doubt of it. She felt more like herself, better and happier to-night, than she had done, not only yesterday, but for many days previous; and here was fresh proof, if her sensible little mind had needed it, that her father and mother were right, and that "all work and no play" were fast taking ill effect on both mind and body. Now it will not do for little girls who are inclined to be idle and negligent in their studies to find encouragement for their laziness in Nellie's example, or to think that what was good for her must be good for them. Nellie was a child who, as you have seen, erred on the other side, not only from real love for her books, but also from the desire to learn as much and as fast as her quicker and more clever schoolmates; but this is a fault with which but few children can be reproached, and I should be sorry to have my story furnish any one with an excuse for idleness or neglect of duty. [Illustration] [Illustration] VI. _THE GRAY MICE._ DURING the next few days Daisy, and not Daisy only, but also the other children, found great pleasure and satisfaction in the white mice. They were all very careful not to take them near the house where they might trouble their mother, and Daisy was so particular about this, and so grateful to mamma for allowing her to keep them, that whenever she saw her go out in the garden, or even on the piazza which faced that way, she would rush to the garden-house, put the cage containing her mice in a corner behind a bench, throw over that a piece of old cocoa matting with half a dozen garden-tools piled on top, and then come out in a state of great excitement, shutting the door behind her, and holding it fast with both hands till mamma was out of sight. One might have thought, to see her, that some fierce dog or wild animal was behind that door, able to unlatch it for itself, and eager to make a fierce attack on her mother. As for taking them near the house, or letting them annoy mamma in any way, that Daisy would not have thought of; and she was so good that when a rainy day came, and she could not go out to the garden-house, she never whimpered or fretted at all, but cheerfully submitted to have her pets cared for by the boys. After that first day of her new experiment, Nellie did not altogether discard her lessons. Her half-hour of sewing, another of reading history, and an hour's practising, mamma thought might as well be kept up; but she no longer devoted herself to her books and writing as she had done: indeed, this would have been quite impossible if she properly fulfilled her new and pleasant duties as mamma's little housekeeper. There seemed so much to be done; and Nellie was quite amazed to find what a help she could be, and how interested she felt in having things in nice order. One morning, Mrs. Ransom said she would have the store-room cleaned, and put in thorough order. But first various drawers, bins, boxes, and other receptacles must be looked over; and this Nellie could do, with Catherine to assist her, and move such articles as were too heavy or cumbersome for her. Mrs. Ransom went herself to the store-room, and gave both Nellie and the cook some general orders, but she was feeling more than usually languid that day, and soon tired of the bustle; so she returned to the library, telling Nellie to send to her if she was in any difficulty, or at any loss to know what to do. Nellie determined that mamma should be troubled as little as possible, and, with a pleasant sense of responsibility and happiness, set about her task. Catherine humored her as much as possible; for Nellie, with her pleasant, gentle ways, was a favorite with all her inferiors, and every servant in the house was ready to oblige her, or do her bidding. Carrie and Daisy were very busy too, of course, and trotted many times between kitchen, pantry, and store-room, carrying articles that were to be thrown away or put in other places. "There now, Miss Nellie, I think you can get along without me for a bit," said Catherine, at last. "I have my bread to see to, and you could be overhauling all these boxes and pots the while, and setting by what you're sure Mrs. Ransom will want emptied. If ever I see sech an untidy set as must have had this house afore us, and a shame to them it is to be laving things this way, and they calling themselves ladies and gentlemen." And, with her arms full of "rubbish," away walked the good-natured Irishwoman, whose tidy soul was, as she had said, sorely vexed by the slovenly way in which the house had been left by those who had lived in it before Mrs. Ransom's family. "Here, Daisy," said Nellie, who thought it necessary to find incessant occupation for the busy little fingers of her smallest "helper" lest they should find it for themselves,--"here, Daisy dear, you may sort those corks. Pick out all the large ones and put them in this jar, and put the small ones in this. That will be a great help." "I'd rafer help fissing sugar," said Daisy, raising herself on tiptoe with one hand on the edge of the sugar-barrel, and peeping longingly within its depths. "Yes, I dare say you would," laughed Nellie, "but then the sugar is to stay where it is. But I'll tell you, Daisy. Run and ask mamma if I may give you the largest lump of sugar I can find when the corks are done." Away scampered Daisy, and did not return for some minutes, her attention being attracted on the way with something else than her errand, for one thing at a time was not Daisy's motto. Having at once eased her own mind on the subject of the sugar by receiving mamma's permission to have "the largest lump that Nellie could find," she thought that both sugar and corks would keep till it suited her convenience to return to the store-room, and, seeing a large parcel lying upon the hall-table, she was seized with a thirst for information respecting its contents. She walked round and round it, inspecting it on every side; then ran back to her mother. "Mamma," she said, "there's oh! _such_ a big bundle on the hall-table." "Yes, I know it," said mamma. "And with writing on it," said Daisy. "I fink the writing says, Miss Daisy Ransom, with somebody's respects." "No," said her mother, smiling: "it says John Ransom, Esq." "Is that our Johnny?" asked Daisy. "No, it means papa," answered her mother. "Are you going to open it, mamma. Papa is away." "No, we'll leave it till papa returns. He will be here to-morrow evening." "I don't fink it's a good plan to wait. It makes people tired," said Daisy, plaintively. "But it is right to wait when papa did not tell us to open it," said Mrs. Ransom. "Little girls must not be too curious." "Is it kurous to make a little hole in the paper and peek in?" asked Daisy, after a moment or two of deep reflection. "Yes, curious and very naughty," said Mrs. Ransom. "That would be meddlesome. Ask Nellie to tell you a story she knows about a meddlesome girl." Daisy obeyed, but with less alacrity than usual, lingering for three or four moments longer about the parcel; although, with the fear of being thought "curious and meddlesome," she did not venture to touch it. At last with a long sigh she departed. Meanwhile Nellie and Carrie were opening the various boxes, jars, &c., and inquiring into their contents. "I wonder what's in this," said Nellie, who was standing on a chair, and reaching down things from a shelf. "I thought I heard something rustle in it. There it is again. Why! I wonder if there's any thing alive in it," and she looked with some trepidation at a wooden box which stood on the shelf before her. The lid was not shut down quite tight, and again as she looked at it came that rustle from within. Nellie took up the box rather gingerly; raised the lid a little, just enough to peep within; then, with an exclamation, quickly closed it again. "Why! what is it?" asked Carrie, gazing up at her. "There are mice in it, and one almost jumped out," answered Nellie, crimson with the little start and excitement, although she was not in the least afraid of mice. "I'm not quite sure, I had such a little peep; but I think there's a big one, and some little tiny ones." "How do you suppose they got in?" asked Carrie. "I expect the cover has been left partly open, and then they have gnawed a place large enough to pass in," said Nellie, turning the box around in her hand. "See here," and she showed Carrie where the lid was gnawed away. "What shall we do with them?" asked Carrie. "I don't know," said Nellie, "they'll have to be killed, I s'pose. They must be put out of the way before mamma knows any thing about them, and I think it is best not to tell her, Carrie. It would only trouble her to know there had been any about the house." "Oh! it's too bad," said Carrie. "Must they be killed?" "Yes, I'm afraid so," said Nellie. "I am sorry too: they are such cunning little things." "Why couldn't we keep them, and take them down to the garden-house where Daisy's white mice are?" asked Carrie. "Oh, no!" answered Nellie: "it would never do, Carrie. I do not believe they would stay there, and they might come back to the house, and perhaps frighten mamma. They must be killed. Just take the box to Catherine before Daisy comes back: she might let it out to mamma without meaning to." "What will Catherine do with them?" said Carrie, taking the box from her sister's hand, and lingering with it. "I don't know. Drown them, I suppose. I don't like to think about it, but it can't be helped. Besides, mice _have_ to be killed, you know, they are so mischievous. Tell Catherine not to speak about them before mamma." Carrie passed slowly out of the store-room, feeling very unwilling to have the mice killed; not only from pity for the poor little creatures, but also because she had a strong desire to keep them as pets. Daisy had her white mice, and was allowed to keep them: why should she not have these little animals, so long as they were kept out of mamma's way? Belle Powers had her tame mouse: why could not she tame these as well? And rebellious thoughts and wishes began to rise in Carrie's breast as she lingered half way between the store-room and the kitchen, unable, or rather unwilling, to make up her mind to do as Nellie had told her, and carry the box to Catherine. "I don't see why mamma need be so afraid of a harmless, cunning little mouse," she said to herself. "I know grandmamma said she was frightened into convulsions once, when she was a little girl, by a bad servant-girl putting one down her back; but I should think she'd had plenty of time to grow out of being afraid of them, now she's grown up; and if she don't know it, I don't see why I can't keep them in the garden-house, or--or--somewhere else. 'Cause I s'pose if I did take them to the garden-house, there would be a fuss about it; and the other children would say I ought not to keep them, and maybe tell mamma. It's a shame to kill the dear, pretty little things. Belle Powers' papa just lets her have every thing she wants. I wish my papa and mamma did. And Daisy has her own way too, 'most always; and it's not fair. I'm older than she is. If she can have white mice, I don't see why I can't have gray ones. One isn't any more harm than the other. Besides, I don't have to mind Nellie. She needn't be telling me I _must_ take the mice to Catherine. She thinks herself so great ever since she's been mamma's housekeeper; but I'm not going to mind her when I don't choose to. I shan't let them be drowned now; and--and--I've just a good mind." Turning hastily about, Carrie ran down a short side entry which led to a dark closet where Catherine kept wood for daily use; thrust the box in a far corner; and then, with fast beating heart, returned to the store-room. "How long you stayed!" said Nellie. "I began to be afraid you were waiting to see Catherine drown the mice, and yet I didn't think you could bear to." "No, I didn't," said Carrie, in a low tone, glad that Nellie had not said any thing that would have forced her either to confess, or to tell a deliberate falsehood. She persuaded herself that she was not acting untruthfully now, but she could not make her voice as steady as usual. Nellie did not notice it. She was just then absorbed in trying to extract a small jar from one but little larger, into which it had been thrust. Succeeding in her endeavors, she took up again the low song which her words to Carrie had interrupted. "I wish Nellie would stop that everlasting singing," said Carrie to herself, feeling irritable and out of humor with every one and every thing. "I've a good mind not to help her any more." She had been pleasant, happy, and interested in her work, but a few moments since. Can you tell what had made such a change in so short a time? "Daisy has forgotten about her corks and sugar, I think," said Nellie presently, interrupting herself again in her song. "Oh, no! here she comes;" then, as Daisy's little feet pattered into the store-room, "Did you forget the corks, pet?" "No, and mamma says I can have the biggest lump of sugar, Nellie; and there's a very big bundle on the hall-table, but it's papa's." "Is it?" said Nellie. "Yes," answered the little one, settling herself to the task of sorting the corks, "but I wasn't kurous or messeltome." "Wasn't what?" asked Nellie. "Messeltome. Mamma said to touch what wasn't ours, or to peek, was messeltome; but I didn't do it. Tell me about that messeltome girl, Nellie. Mamma said you would." "Very well," said Nellie, understanding Daisy's definition. "Tell it a long, long story,--tell me till your tongue is tired, will you?" pleaded Daisy, for whom no story could ever be too long. "I'll see," said Nellie; and she began her tale, but had made but little headway in it when a servant came and told Daisy that Master Frankie Bradford was waiting to see her. "What shall I do?" said Daisy, in a state of painful indecision between the conflicting claims of business and society. "The torks are not done, and I didn't have my sugar." "You can take the corks with you, and the sugar too: perhaps Frankie would like to help you," said Nellie, dismounting from her perch, and fishing out the largest lump from the sugar-barrel. "There, I suppose you will want a lump for Frankie too." "No," said Daisy, "mamma said only one lump. If Frankie does half the torks he shall have half my sugar;" and away she ran, carrying corks and sugar with her. "What a dear, honest little thing Daisy is!" said Nellie, when she was gone. "I don't believe she could be tempted to do the least thing she thought mamma would not like, or take any thing she thought was not quite fair. And she's so sweet and thoughtful about mamma. Just see how much pains she's taken not to cry for little things since I told her it troubled her." Carrie turned away her face, feeling more uncomfortable than ever, bitterly reproached by Nellie's unconscious words, no less than by the uprightness and loving dutifulness of her almost baby sister. Daisy found Frankie in the library with her mother. Mrs. Bradford had sent her nursery maid to ask if Mrs. Ransom would drive with her in the afternoon, and Frankie had decided to accompany her. "Mamma said I could stay and play with Daisy, if you asked me," was the young gentleman's first remark, after he had greeted Mrs. Ransom. "Oh!" said Jane, the maid, much mortified, "Master Frankie, I'm ashamed of you. Mrs. Bradford never expected he'd do that, ma'am." "No, I suppose not," said Mrs. Ransom, smiling; "but Daisy will be very glad to have you stay, and so shall I." Daisy was called, as you have heard, and made her appearance in great glee, delighted to see Frankie, and at once inviting him to share her labors, and their reward. The sugar had its attractions, but Frankie privately regarded the cork business with disdain. Having come, however, with the intention of making himself especially agreeable to Daisy, he did not refuse to enter into partnership; and they were soon seated on the upper step of the piazza, and busily at work. "Frankie," said Daisy presently, luxuriating in thus having him all to herself, and in this condescending mood, "would you rafer go to heaven, or stay here and sort torks?" "Well, I don't know as I care much about either," answered Frankie. "I'd rather dig clams. But, then, I'd want you to dig them with me, Daisy," he added, sentimentally. The proposal was alluring certainly, but it had its objections in Daisy's eyes; and she said, in a corresponding tone,-- "I b'lieve I couldn't. They might think I was a boy if I digged clams. But, Frankie, if I went to heaven wifout you, would you cry?" "No," answered Frankie, indignantly, "men don't cry about things like that. Maybe I wouldn't laugh much that day, but I would not cry." Daisy was silent for a moment, then suddenly put one of those startling questions for which she was famous. "Frankie, if I went in to bafe, and Jonah's whale came and swallowed me up, how could God get my soul out of him?" Frankie considered for a little; then not seeing his way clear to a satisfactory answer, and unwilling to confess ignorance on any point, he said gravely and reprovingly,-- "That's not a proper question for you to ask, Daisy." Daisy looked abashed, and said,-- "I didn't mean to ask improper kestions." "No, I don't s'pose you did, so I thought I'd better tell you," said Frankie. "We'll talk about something else." "They're all done," said Daisy, meaning the corks, "now we'll eat the sugar." But the dividing of the sugar proved a difficult matter; for the lump was large and thick, and resisted the efforts of both pairs of little hands. "I'll crack it with this stone," said Frankie; and, suiting the action to the word, he laid it upon the step and gave it a blow with the stone. One part of the much prized morsel remained in very good condition, but the rest suffered severely under this violent treatment, and was reduced very nearly to powder. "Just see what this horrid old stone did!" said Frankie, looking at his work in much disgust. "Never mind," said Daisy, "you can have the whole piece, and I'll eat the mashed." The swain made a feeble resistance to this generous offer, feeling in duty bound to do so; but Daisy insisted, and he was so moved by the magnitude of her self-sacrifice that he said,-- "Daisy, I shall make those other girls wait till you're dead, and marry you first, 'cause you're the best of all the lot." Here Carrie joined them, for she had soon quitted Nellie, telling her that she was tired; but the true reason was that she feared her sister might say something that would force her to confess that she had not obeyed orders about the mice. But, wherever she went, it seemed somehow as if things would be said to make her feel self-reproached and uncomfortable. "Oh! but you're a help, Miss Carrie, and your mother'll be proud to see the forethought of you and Miss Nellie," said Catherine, when Carrie brought out her last load to the kitchen. "What dear, helpful little girls I have!" said mamma, with a loving smile, as Carrie paused for a moment at the open door of the library, not feeling as if she could pass it without seeming to notice her mother, and yet ashamed and afraid to go in. "It almost helps me to feel stronger to see you all so considerate and anxious to do all you can for me." Carrie smiled faintly in reply; then passed out upon the piazza. She would be safe with Daisy and Frankie, she thought, from speeches that would make her feel guilty and uncomfortable. But no. "What shall we do now?" asked Daisy, when the last crumb of sugar had been disposed of. "Where are the white mice? Let's play with them a little while," said Frankie. "Down in the garden-house," answered Daisy. "What a funny place to keep them!" said Frankie. "Let's go and bring them up here." "Oh, no! we mustn't," said Daisy: "we can go and play wif 'em; but they can't come here, 'cause mamma don't like 'em." "We won't take them in the house, Daisy, only out here on the piazza." "No, no," said Daisy, decidedly, "not out of the garden-house. Mamma might see 'em, and they would make her feel, oh! dreffully! I should fink we _wouldn't_ do any fing mamma don't like, would we, Carrie?" she added, lifting her great, innocent eyes to her sister's face. Carrie turned quickly away without an answer, and was glad when the next moment the two little things ran hand in hand down the path which led to the garden-house. Carrie was not happy,--no, indeed, how could she be? A great many uncomfortable feelings were in her young breast just then. Jealousy of her little sister, whom she chose to consider more petted and indulged than herself; envy even of her motherless little playmate, Belle Powers; irritation which she dared not show against Nellie, for bidding her take the mice to Catherine; fear that her secret would be discovered, and the doubt what she was to do with the mice now that she had them: all were making her very restless and miserable. What though she did persuade herself that Nellie had no _right_ to give her orders; what though mamma had never forbidden her to have the mice; what though she did believe she could keep them safely hidden in some place where they need never trouble her mother,--was she any the less guilty and disobedient? And where should that place be that she was to hide them, not only from mamma, but from every one else? [Illustration] [Illustration] VII. _THE BLACK CAT._ "NELLIE, dear," said Mrs. Ransom's gentle voice at the store-room door. "Yes, mamma," answered Nellie, from the top of a row of drawers where she had climbed to reach some jars from a shelf above her head. "I think you have worked long enough, my daughter; and I do not wish you to take down those jars. Hannah is at leisure now, and she may come and attend to the rest of the things." "Oh! but mamma," pleaded Nellie, "if you would just let me do it all myself. It would be so nice to tell papa that I cleared out the store-room entirely, except the very heavy things; and Hannah might be doing something else that would be a help to you." "It would be no help to me to have you make yourself ill, dear; and papa would not think it at all nice to come home and find you tired and overworked. And it is dangerous for you to be reaching up so high. I had rather you would leave the rest to the servants." Nellie was very sorry to stop; and for a moment she felt a little vexed. But it was only a fleeting cloud that passed over her face, and almost before her mother could mark it, it was gone. If she wanted to be a real help to mamma, she must do as mamma wished, even though it did not seem just the best thing to herself. It would have been delightful, she would have been proud to tell papa she had done as much in the store-room as mamma herself could have done if she had been well and strong; but it would not prove a real service if she troubled her mother, or made her feel anxious. Nellie did not herself think that she ran any danger of injury; but since mamma did, there was but one thing that was right to do. "Very well, mamma," she said cheerfully, "I'll come down," and taking the hand her mother offered for her assistance, she descended from her perch. Still it was with a little sigh that she left her task, as she thought, incomplete, and Mrs. Ransom could not help seeing that it was a disappointment to her. "You look warm and tired now, dearie," she said, pushing back the hair caressingly from her little daughter's flushed face, "go upstairs and be washed and dressed. Then if there is nothing else you prefer to do I should very much enjoy hearing you read from one of your new books. I feel tired, and should like to lie on the sofa and listen to you." Nellie brightened immediately, inwardly as well as outwardly. She could be useful to mamma still, if she must leave the store-room; and she ran away to remove the traces of her late toil, and make herself neat and nice. She was in her own room, washing her face, when she heard a short, quick step running along the hall. She thought it was Carrie's, and called aloud, meaning to tell her she was going to read to her mother, and to ask if she would like to hear the story. "Carrie!" she called from out of the folds of the towel where she had just buried her face. No answer; but the step paused for a moment, then ran on. "Carrie!" this time louder and clearer, for her voice was no longer smothered in the towel. Still no answer; but Nellie heard the door at the foot of the garret steps softly closed. "Why! how queer," she said to herself, "what can Carrie be going up to the garret all alone for? I don't believe it was Carrie, it must have been Johnny going up to his printing-press or something." For Johnny was the only one of the family who much frequented the garret, he having a printing-press, carpenter's tools and other possessions up there. Nellie did what she could for herself; then went into the nursery to have her dress fastened, and sash tied. "Would you stop a minute and mind baby while I call Carrie to be dressed?" said the nurse; "I might as well do it now, for there's Daisy to be dressed afterwards, and I suppose they'll both have to be hunted up." "Daisy is playing somewhere with Frankie Bradford," said Nellie; "but I thought I heard Carrie go up to the garret a few moments ago. But I'm not sure." "I thought I heard her run along the entry, too," said the nurse. She went to the foot of the garret-stairs, and opening the door, called Carrie three or four times. But no answer came, and closing the door again, she went away downstairs to look for her. Baby was just beginning to take notice, and as it lay in the cradle, followed with its eyes the bright-colored worsted ball which Nellie dangled in front of them, cooing softly in reply to the gentle, playful tones of its sister's voice, as she talked "baby" to it. But this did not prevent Nellie from presently hearing again the closing of the garret door, closed very softly as by a hand which did not wish that the sound should be heard. Nellie was a little startled, and it was in a tone of some trepidation that she called again. "Johnny! Carrie! who is that? Do speak." A step along the hall, and Carrie appeared at the open door of the nursery. "Where did you come from? was that you went upstairs?" questioned Nellie, looking with surprise at Carrie's crimson, rather troubled face. "Yes, I went upstairs," answered Carrie. "And didn't you hear Ruth calling you?" asked Nellie. "I'm not going to be screeched all over the house by the servants. I should think I was big enough to go where I chose," muttered Carrie, turning away. "You needn't go away. Ruth wants to dress you," said Nellie. "She'll just bring you back. Just see how cunning the baby is," for she saw Carrie was out of humor, and would have tried to soothe and interest her. "I want Daisy to be dressed first," said Carrie, who was evidently anxious to be away. "I'm going to see if she can't." "Daisy is with Frankie, and mamma won't make her come," said Nellie. "I wouldn't bother mamma about it, Carrie, she's lying down." "Oh, yes, Daisy always has to have every thing _she_ wants," said Carrie, coming reluctantly into the room, but keeping away on the other side, "and I shan't have _you_ telling me all the time what to do and what not to do. I haven't got to mind you." The parti-colored ball remained motionless in Nellie's fingers, as she gazed in surprise at her sister, who walking to the window, planted her elbow on the sill, and her chin in her hand; the very picture of a sulky, ill-humored child. Nellie could not think what she meant by her ugly speech. She had spoken very gently to Carrie, and without any undue authority, either of tone or manner, meaning only to suggest, not to command. But perhaps Carrie thought she had taken too much upon herself in the store-room. That was unreasonable, for she had come there of her own accord, begging that she might be allowed to help, and seeming quite ready to put herself under Nellie's orders. Yes, that must be it, and Nellie herself felt a little resentment at her sister's behavior. But it was not Nellie's way to speak when she was angry; she waited till she could do so without temper, and then said gently. "But, Carrie, dear, you know some one had to--" give orders she was about to say, but wise little woman that she was, changed the obnoxious word--"had to say what was to be done, and mamma put me in charge there 'cause I am her housekeeper now. I had to tell you what to do with every thing." Nellie could not help--what little girl could have helped?--a slight consciousness of authority and satisfaction in her position as mamma's right hand woman; but Carrie did not notice that so much as her words, which brought fresh cause for uneasiness to her guilty conscience. What "things" did Nellie mean? The mice? "Is Johnny upstairs?" asked Nellie, receiving no answer to her last speech, but still wishing to make peace. "I should think you'd know he hadn't come home from school," snapped Carrie. "I forgot; I really don't know at all what time it is," said Nellie. "What were you doing upstairs then?" "Let me be," was the answer Carrie gave to this; and Nellie was silent, feeling, indeed, that in such a mood she was best let alone. Little she guessed of the cause of all this ill-temper, however. For what had Carrie been doing upstairs? Can you imagine? Watching her opportunity when she thought no one was observing her, she had run to the wood-closet, seized the box containing the mice; and had actually been naughty enough to bring it upstairs, carry it away to the garret, and there hide it behind some old furniture. But now what was she to do with the mice? How was she to tame them, now that she had them? What pleasure or good could they be to her? How she wished that she had done as Nellie told her, and taken the box at once to Catherine. Now she was afraid to do it. And yet she tried to persuade herself that there was no reason she should not have the mice as long as she kept them out of mamma's way; that she had as much right to decide what was to be done with them as Nellie; that it was not fair that Daisy should keep her pets any more than herself. But why, if all this were true, did Carrie fear to betray her secret; why was she so guilty and miserable? Presently Ruth returned, rather incensed at finding Carrie in the nursery, and at having had "so much trouble for nothing." Neither nurse nor child being in a very good humor, the process of dressing Carrie was not likely to be a very pleasant one; and seeing this, and that baby was growing restless, Nellie thought she had better wait till it was accomplished. There was need for the children to be helpful and obliging in Mrs. Ransom's nursery. Pour little girls, one a young infant, who all required more or less care, to say nothing of the occasional calls of their brothers, gave enough to do; and as their now invalid mother was able to assist but little, it was necessary that the older ones should learn to help themselves and one another. Daisy, in spite of the floods of tears which had been so frequent until within the last few days since she had taken so much pains to check them, was, as Ruth said, "the blessedest child to have to do with," giving no trouble beyond what her tender age required; patient, obliging, and winsome. Nellie was generally ready to give any assistance that was needed, to tend baby awhile, put Daisy to bed, or any other little office not too hard for her; and few little girls of her age do as much for themselves as she was accustomed to do. And since she had resolved to give all the help she could to mamma, she did all this pleasantly and cheerfully; often, as in the present case, not waiting to be asked, but taking up the small duty of her own free will. "She's the wisest head of her age ever I saw, has Miss Nellie," the admiring nurse would say to Mrs. Ransom, when some little thoughtful act had lightened her labors, or put aside the necessity of calling upon her feeble mistress. But poor Carrie had neither Nellie's gentle consideration, nor Daisy's sunny temper, and when, as now, she was not in a good humor, she was a sore trial to the nurse; and seeing that there was every probability of a stormy time, Nellie decided to stay and amuse the baby till Ruth should be at leisure to take it. Mamma would rather wait for her than to be called upstairs by baby's cries. It was as she had feared. In three minutes a battle royal was raging between Carrie and the nurse. It did not call Mrs. Ransom up to the nursery, as Nellie feared it would; but it brought her to the foot of the stairs, whence she called to Carrie in a tone of more sadness than severity; and Carrie did look and feel ashamed, when Ruth remarked,-- "See there now, how you're worrying your mother. Daisy wouldn't do that." But although she now submitted to be dressed, it was still with pouting looks, and much pettish twisting and wriggling, making Ruth's task no light one, and taking far more time than it would have done if Carrie had been patient and amiable. But how could she be patient and good-humored with that uncomfortable secret weighing on her mind? Presently, Daisy came running up to the nursery. "Where's Frankie?" asked Nellie, seeing that she was alone. "Gone home. Jane came for him," answered Daisy, "and mamma told Jane to ask Maggie's and Bessie's mamma to let them come and play with you this afternoon; and Frankie said he'd just as lieve come back too; and mamma said he could. But, O Nellie! what do you fink? a great big, ugly, black cat came in the garden-house, and she was so saucy she was looking at my white mice." "Was she? Oh, dear!" said Nellie. "Is she there now, Daisy?" "No, no," said Daisy, "we wouldn't let her stay. Frankie shu'ed her way far off, and chased her wif a stick, and she put up her back at him, and was mad at him; but he wasn't 'f'aid of her, not a bit. Nellie, do black cats eat white mice?" "I don't know," said Nellie looking uneasy. "Do they, Ruth?" "You may trust any cat to do that, if she gets the chance," said Ruth. "Daisy, my pet, did you shut the door of the garden-house after you?" "Yes, always I shut it, 'fear mamma might some way see the mice," answered Daisy. "But the black cat's gone quite, quite away, Nellie." "She might come back if she has seen the mice, and try to come at them," said Nellie in a low tone to the nurse. "It is what I was thinking," said Ruth. "I'm going to take baby out for a bit when I have these two dressed, and I'll just walk down that way and see that all's right. It would just break that lamb's heart if aught happened to her mice. I'll get along nicely now if you want to go, Miss Nellie. Daisy's no trouble." Baby delighted in Daisy as a playmate, and was now crowing in the most satisfied manner as she danced back and forth before her; clapping her hands and exclaiming, "Jackins and forwis, jackins and forwis." The interpretation of these mysterious words being, "backwards and forwards." Nellie went downstairs, and explained to her mother why she had delayed, without making any complaint of Carrie. She told her also of the black cat, and said she felt uneasy about Daisy's white mice, and thought she would go and see that the creature had not returned. Mrs. Ransom herself was disturbed when she heard of the unwelcome intruder upon the premises, for she, too, feared danger to Daisy's pets. Her anxiety and Nellie's proved too well founded; for when the latter reached the garden-house, she discovered the black cat forcing her way under the door, there being quite an open space between that and the ground, as the little building was old and somewhat out of repair. Nellie drove the cat away once more, and put a board against the aperture; but she could not but feel that Daisy's pets were in much danger, and she could not bear to think of her distress if such a terrible fate befel them. "I think the mice had better be brought up to the house, Nellie," said Mrs. Ransom, when Nellie returned and made her report. Carrie heard, for she had come downstairs, meanwhile, and fresh jealousy of Daisy took possession of her. "Mamma don't care if Daisy has _her_ mice in the house," she said to herself, "so I might just as well have mine upstairs. One is no worse than the other." Carrie was doing her best to drown her remorseful feelings, and to persuade herself that she was doing nothing wrong and undutiful, trying rather to feel injured and martyr-like; but it was up-hill work with her own conscience. For although she was a little apt to be jealous of the other children, and fretful at times, she was very seldom disobedient or regardless of her mother's wishes, and she had not had one easy moment since she had hidden the mice. But for all that, she was determined to think herself hardly used, and Daisy preferred to herself. And it seemed to her as if Nellie must know and meant to reproach her, when she said in answer to her mother's last words,-- "Oh, no, mamma! it would never do to have the mice brought into the house, and you made uncomfortable. I am sure Daisy would never wish to do that, no matter what became of the white mice." "But I can't have the poor creatures destroyed by that cat," said Mrs. Ransom, uneasily. "No," said Nellie, "but perhaps we could--" she hesitated, not knowing what plan to advise. "As soon as the boys come home we will see if they can find any way to make the garden-house secure," said her mother. Ten minutes later, when Nellie had settled down to her reading, but with thoughts which would wander away to the garden-house, white mice and black cat, the boys came in from school, and were speedily made acquainted with the facts of the case. This was nuts for Johnny and Bob; and true to that aversion with which every well regulated boy-mind must regard all animals of her species, away they rushed in search of the black cat, intending to take the direst vengeance upon her, if they caught her again threatening Daisy's darlings. And there she was once more, this time forcing her way beneath the wall of the slight structure, which, never very strong even in its best days, was now fast tumbling into decay, and presented many an aperture and crack passable to cats, or other small animals. She saw the boys, however, before they could catch her; and, either knowing that she was trespassing, or instinctively aware of what would befall her if she fell into their hands, she fled before them, and was presently out of their reach. Bob and Johnny soon came to the conclusion that the garden-house was no longer a safe shelter for the white mice. Although it did present a pretty appearance from the outside, covered as it was with flowering vines, it was so thoroughly ruinous that they found it would take at least two or three days to make it at all secure against a determined and greedy pussy. They might watch and keep her away in the daytime; but what was to be done at night? No, Daisy's pets could no longer be left there, if they were to be saved from pussy's clutches. The boys went back to the house and reported; asking their mother what they should do, for there seemed to be no other proper or convenient place for the white mice. "I'll think about it," said Mrs. Ransom, who was trying to make up her mind to allow the mice to be brought into the house, "and will tell you what to do after dinner. Will they be safe till then, do you think?" "Yes, mamma," answered Johnny, "for we set Rover to watch there, and he'll see after that old beast if she comes around again, but we can't keep him there all day, and she's sure to do it some time, if we leave the mice there." "Don't trouble Daisy about it," said Mrs. Ransom, "there is no need to tell her just now." [Illustration] [Illustration] VIII. _DAISY'S SACRIFICE._ ROVER had to be released by and by after dinner, of course, but it did not seem to matter so much by that time, for Daisy went to her pets, and the cat would not dare to come near them so long as she was there. So every one believed; but this proved to be a mistake, for puss was more persistent and daring than any one would have thought possible. "Johnny," said Mrs. Ransom, when Daisy had gone, "could you not arrange some place up in the garret where Daisy could keep her mice and they need not come in my way?" "It is just what I was thinking of, mamma," said Johnny; "you need never know they were there." "There now," said Carrie to herself, "so it is no harm at all for me to have my mice up there. I shall just keep them." For repentant resolutions of giving up her hidden prize, and disposing of it in some way without betraying herself, were flitting through Carrie's mind; but now she put them from her again. "First, we'll see if we cannot knock up some sort of a support to hold a hook in the garden-house," said Johnny, "and then we'll hang the cage upon that. The roof is so old and broken it will not hold; but we may put something in the wall to keep the cage out of the cat's reach, and we'll try it before we bring them in the house, mamma." Daisy fed her mice, as she generally did at this time of the day,--the little creatures nibbled their food right out of her hand--played with and fondled them, talking to them the while in a coaxing, crooning voice of all her affairs, unconscious of the cruel, greedy eyes which were watching her every motion and those of her pets. For Rover having gone, puss had made the most of her opportunities, and came creeping slowly and stealthily beneath bushes and behind walls, till she reached the garden-house once more; and climbing to the roof sat watching the little child and her playthings through a hole in the thatch. And, by and by, this naughty _bête noir_ thought her chance had come. "Now, you ducky darlin's," said Daisy, "I b'lieve it's time for Frankie to come back to my house and play wif me. So you must go in your cage while I go and see, and we'll come back and play here where you can see us. No, you needn't want to go into the house wif me. Mamma don't like you, which is a great, great pity; but she can't help it." The mice seemed strangely reluctant to go back in their cage, whether it was that they only scented their watchful enemy, or that they had caught a glimpse of the glittering eyes looking down upon them; for one, with a squeak of terror, fled into the depths of Daisy's pocket, and the other would have followed had she not caught him in her hand and stopped him. "No, no," she said, "you'll have to go into your cage, Dot, and you too, Ditto. Peoples have to do what they don't want to sometimes, and so do mouses. I've found that out," and Daisy shook her head with the air of one who has made a novel and important discovery. She put the mice into the cage, where they speedily hid themselves beneath their bed, shut and fastened the door and set it upon the floor, believing that she would return in a moment with Frankie and let them out again. Then she ran away to the house, where, as she had expected, she found Frankie who had just arrived with his sisters, Maggie and Bessie. They had not cared to wait till their mother came to take Mrs. Ransom to drive, but had begged and received permission to walk over that they might have the longer afternoon for their visit. Daisy and Frankie were off together immediately, and the four elder children were settling the question of "what shall we do first?" when the whole household were startled by a succession of fearful shrieks from Daisy, accompanied by shouts of defiance and threats from Frankie. The sounds came from the garden-house; and Daisy's cry was not the dismal, low wail she set up at times over some minor trouble, but an unmistakable scream of terror and pain. Away ran every one to see what was the matter; mother, brothers and sisters, guests and servants; even Ruth, baby in arms, tearing down the stairs to follow the rest. The garden-house reached, the trouble proved not as serious as might have been feared; but quite enough so to warrant all the uproar from the two distressed little ones. There crouched Daisy in an ecstasy of terror, bending over her white mice, which she held cuddled up in her lap; never ceasing her screams and calls for help, while Frankie brandishing a hoe stood boldly between her and the black cat, which with glaring eyes, back erect, stood spitting and growling at the two children, determined no longer to be balked of her prey. For this was no tame puss accustomed to be fed, and having a comfortable home; but a wild, stray cat, half-starved, and now quite furious at seeing her intended prize once more rescued. Not fairly rescued, if she could help it. Long waiting for the dainty meal and many disappointments had made her desperate; and more than once she had nearly sprung past the brave little Frankie, who, resolute as the brute herself, fairly stood his ground, and faced her at every turn, calling aloud,-- "Hi! you there! you'd better be off with yourself. Now, you; you'll catch it! I'll give it to you! I'll hoe you if you don't look out! You want to be hoed, do you? I won't let her get them, Daisy. Run, Daisy, run!" But Daisy was past running; terror had taken all power from her save that of shielding her pets, as she best could, against her bosom, and shrieking aloud for help. It was well that help was so close at hand, or the situation of the two little ones might indeed have become dangerous; but at the sight of so many flocking to the rescue, the cat turned and fled, pursued by the boys with stones and sticks,--and who could blame them in such a case as this?--but escaped without much hurt from the missiles which they threw with better will than aim. The story was soon told: how, coming to the garden-house and pushing open the door, the first thing that presented itself to the eyes of Daisy and Frankie was the black cat, with one paw actually in the cage, the mice squeaking in terror, and shrinking from the cruel claws outstretched for their destruction; how Frankie had snatched the cage away, and the mice had immediately fled to the protection of Daisy's bosom, whence the cat had once tried to tear them. How the brave little knight had fought her off, and then tried to stand between his tiny lady-love and farther harm, the new-comers had seen for themselves; how devotedly Daisy herself had clung to her darlings, and how furious their enemy had been, was testified by the poor little woman's torn and scratched arm, bleeding from the adversary's claws, and the bent and twisted bars of the cage. It was plainly to be seen that the garden-house was no longer a safe place for the white mice, not even until such time as the boys could arrange some contrivance for hanging up the cage; and now Mrs. Ransom almost forgot her dread of them in her sympathy over her poor little girl's distress and bleeding arms. Poor little dimpled white arms! even now they would not relax their sheltering hold of the white mice, but held them firmly clasped. Daisy was speedily carried to the house, and once more seated, white mice and all, on her mother's lap, while her scratches were bathed and bound up. "A wag on it" was Daisy's sovereign remedy for every thing in the shape of a wound or bruise. "Let me put your mice away, darling," said Nellie, ever mindful of her mother's antipathy. "Oh, no! don't take 'em out. Mamma might see 'em, and she can't bear 'em," sobbed Daisy, holding the little skirt tighter than ever. "And oh, dear! I b'lieve I'll have to give 'em back to Frankie, 'cause I can't let 'em live in the garden-house for that black old dreadful cat to eat them up, and I s'pose mamma wouldn't want _me_ to live there all the time, even with some one to take care of me." No, indeed, mamma thought not, as she folded the darling closer in her arms, and bade her cry no more; for her white mice should come into the house, and the boys should arrange a place for them where they would be quite safe from black cats and other enemies. To see the change in Daisy's face! "Mamma! don't you mind? don't you weally mind? Won't they trouble you?" It was not possible for Mrs. Ransom to say that she would not be annoyed by the presence of the white mice in the house, even though they might never come under her own eye; and, although for Daisy's sake she put aside her own feelings, the loving heart of the little one detected the slight reluctance with which she spoke. "Mamma couldn't have your white mice destroyed, darling," she answered; "and if Daisy is so careful for mamma, mamma must be careful for Daisy. So let the mice come Suppose you let Nellie take them now." Opening her skirt, Daisy revealed the mice, still trembling and quivering with their fright; and, seeking to hide themselves, the one made for the bosom of her dress, the other unluckily ran over mamma's lap looking for some place of refuge. Johnny's hand was over him in an instant, but not before his mother had grown white to the lips, and in spite of a strong effort she could not control a shudder of disgust. This did not escape Daisy. "Better put 'em away, quick, 'way far off, Johnny," she said in a pitiful little voice, and resigning the other mouse to his care; and Johnny carried both away. Daisy was used to petting; but in consequence of her misfortunes, and the honorable wounds she had received in the skirmish, she was so overwhelmed with attentions and caresses, not only from her own family, but also from Maggie and Bessie, that she was presently consoled, and beguiled from mamma's lap to the piazza, where she was seated in state among her admirers, and continued to be made much of. Frankie also came in for a share of the honors he had so fairly won by his heroic defence of his little lady-love and her property; but he presently concluded he had had enough of them, and would like to go upstairs with the older boys and watch them at their work. He would fain have persuaded Daisy to go with him, but she still remained mournful and subdued, and preferred to stay with the little girls and be petted. For there was a great weight on Daisy's little mind, and a great purpose working there,--a purpose which required much resolution and much self-sacrifice; and it was hard to bring her courage to the point. She had small thought for what the other children were saying, as she sat nestled close to Nellie's side, with her sister's arm about her, and one of Bessie's hands clasped in her own. Carrie's thoughts were not more easy than Daisy's, and they were far less innocent. She was in an agony lest the boys, who were now in the garret, should discover her secret. And there was Frankie with them! Frankie, who had a faculty for finding that which he was not intended to find, for seeing that which he was not intended to see, for hearing that which he was not intended to hear; who, full of mischief and curiosity, went poking and prying everywhere, and whose bright eyes and busy fingers would, she feared, be sure to fasten themselves upon the hidden box. But she dared not follow the boys upstairs, for it would seem strange if she left Maggie and Bessie, and her doing so might excite questions. Oh that she had never touched the mice, or had at once obeyed Nellie's directions respecting them, which Carrie's conscience told her now, as it had at the time, was the same as if her mother had given them! "Nellie and Carrie," said Maggie, "what do you think we are doing, Bessie and I?" "We don't know. What?" said Nellie. "Guess," answered Maggie. "Oh! I'm not good at guessing," said Nellie, smiling. "I never guessed any thing or answered a conundrum in my life, except some of Daisy's;" and she drew her arm closer about the pensive little mortal at her side. Daisy's conundrums were many and various, some so very transparent that she might as well have given the answer with the question, others so extremely bewildering that Oedipus himself could scarcely have unravelled their meaning; and it was in these last that she gloried, always feeling rather aggrieved if any one gave the right answer. "She gave a conundrum last night that none of us could guess," continued Nellie, wishing to amuse and interest her little sister. "See if Maggie and Bessie can guess it now, Daisy." Daisy aroused a little from her melancholy, and said in a plaintive voice,-- "Why don't a pig wif a ni'gown on him want to go to the kitchen fire?" Maggie and Bessie gave up at once, knowing that this would be Daisy's preference; besides being really quite at a loss to understand why a pig in such unusual attire should shun that particular spot, "the kitchen fire." "Because he's af'aid he'll burn his ni'gown," said Daisy, when she was called upon for the answer, which Maggie and Bessie pronounced "very good;" and, being encouraged by her success, the pitiful little damsel put forth another conundrum, having reference to the subject which was weighing so heavily on her mind. "Here's anofer one," she said: "Why don't white mice like to live in the garden-house?" "Because they are afraid the black cat will eat them," said Carrie, less mindful of her sister's prejudices than Maggie and Bessie had been. "Now, why did you guess it so soon?" said the affronted Daisy; and this proving the drop too much in the already overflowing cup, her head went down in Nellie's lap, and she resigned herself to tears once more. None of the other children dreamed of the chief trouble which was weighing on her little heart; but her misfortunes of the afternoon were considered so serious that no one thought it at all strange that she should be in a melancholy state of mind. Still, silent sympathy, at present, seemed the best to Nellie, and she contented herself with softly caressing the bent head, and checked the others with uplifted finger when they would have cheered Daisy with spoken words. "Talk about something else," she spelled out in the sign alphabet, and then asked aloud,-- "What is it you and Bessie are doing, Maggie?" "Making such lovely Christmas presents for mamma," answered Maggie. "What! already?" said Carrie. "Yes," said Maggie, "because it will take us so long to work it, and we have lots besides to do. And then some dreadful accident might happen to us to prevent our finishing it, you know, like Sir Percy nearly putting out Lily Norris' eye; so it's best to take time by the forelock at once, even if it is only July." "What are you making?" asked Nellie. "A pair of brackets, the loveliest things," answered Maggie, with emphasis. "Bessie is filling up one, and I the other." "And we are going to have them made up ourselves, quite ourselves, out of our own money," said Bessie. "Nellie, why wouldn't you like to make something for your mamma of your own work? You can do worsted work so very nicely." "I would like to very much," said Nellie. "And I have some money of my own that I could use." "I shall do it too," said Carrie. "If you would like to do the same thing that we are doing," said Maggie, "Mrs. Finkenstadt has another pair of brackets nearly like ours, and at the same price. They are very pretty." "But I'm afraid"--began Nellie, then paused. "Not that you don't know how," said Maggie; "why, Nellie, every one knows you work better than any of us." "I was thinking if I would have time enough," said Nellie, "now that I am mamma's housekeeper. It takes up a good deal of time; and then--and then"-- "Oh! it's your old books," said Carrie. "I should think you might be willing to give them up to make something pretty for mamma. If you didn't study so much more than any of the other girls, you could do it very well. I think you might make one; for then I could do the other, if you would show me how." "I'll show you how and help you all I can," said Nellie, "but I do not think I shall try to do one myself. And it's not because of my studies, Carrie, but for another reason that I'd rather not tell." "Mamma would just as lief let you give up being her housekeeper if you want to do something else for her," said Carrie. "I don't want her to," answered Nellie, "for--I do believe I am of use to mamma, and I would not like to put that off for something that is not necessary. Besides, I have still another reason." "I'm sure I think it seems a great deal more to make a lovely Christmas present for mamma than to do housekeeping for her. I believe she'd rather," said Carrie. "I don't believe so," answered Nellie. "And, Carrie," said Maggie, "very often in this world we have to put up with appearances being deceitful, and with knowing not only that 'all is not gold that glitters,' but also that some very true gold does not glitter at all; and Nellie's private reason may be very true gold, indeed, without our seeing it glitter. Besides, mamma says Nellie is one of the most sensible little girls she ever saw; and I believe she is a case of 'old head on young shoulders,' so we may as well think that she is wise and right until we know differently." Maggie's fine speech, overflowing as it was with proverbs, silenced Carrie, as her wise sayings did usually silence her companions, who did not command such a flow of ideas and language; and Nellie gave her a grateful look. "Here's mamma in the carriage to take out your mamma," said Bessie; and the attention of the children was for the moment diverted from their own affairs. "Will you go and drive too, Daisy?" said Mrs. Bradford. "No, fank you, ma'am," answered Daisy, much to the astonishment of the other children, as she raised her woe-begone little face from its resting-place. For Daisy was generally very ready for a drive, or for an outing of any kind. But now to all their persuasions, to all their expressions of surprise, she remained perfectly immovable, only blinking her eyes very hard, pursing up her rosy lips, and shaking her head, in the most deplorable manner possible. But the cause of this came out when Mrs. Bradford and Mrs. Ransom had gone; for as the carriage drove away the boys came running downstairs and out upon the piazza. "Now your white mice will be all safe, Daisy," said Frankie; "me and Johnny and Bob have made the first-ratest place for them up in the garret. I'd like to see that old cat finding them up there. Come and see how nice it is." "It's no matter about it," said Daisy. "You're all very good, and I'm very obliged to you; but I wouldn't feel to keep my mice up in the garret." "What are you going to do with them then?" asked Johnny. "I couldn't have 'em in the house when mamma feels so about it," said Daisy, choking back a sob, and trying to be very brave. "She said you could," said Bob. "Yes, I know she did," answered Daisy; "but she don't like it, I know she don't, and so I'm going to give 'em back to Frankie." "But, Daisy"--began Johnny. "No, no," said Daisy, putting out a little hand to stop him, "don't speak to me about it, Johnny, 'cause I do feel so very bad, then maybe I wouldn't; and I should fink a little girl who wouldn't rafer please her mamma than to have white mice must be the naughtiest little girl in the world." "You dear little thing!" exclaimed Maggie. "I don't believe mamma would care at all so long as she never saw them," said Bob; "do you, Nellie?" Nellie hesitated. "I do think she would _care_," she answered reluctantly, for Daisy's wistful eyes were raised to her face, as if hoping for an encouraging answer; "but she has made up her mind to bear it for Daisy's sake." "But I don't want her to do any more sake for me," sighed Daisy. "I'd better do sake for her, I should fink; and please don't speak any more about it, children. I'd like to have 'em to play wif down here till mamma comes home; and then I'll give 'em back to Frankie for ever an' ever an' ever. That was why I wouldn't go and drive, so I could say good by to 'em." Nellie did not oppose her self-sacrificing resolution, hard as she knew it was for the child; for she was sure that her mamma would never feel easy while the creatures were in the house, and she was sure also that in some way she would make it up to Daisy. Not that Daisy had any such idea. No, in giving up her mice she did it without any thought of payment, only to save mamma from annoyance and discomfort, a great and generous sacrifice for such a little child; for Daisy was but five years old, you must remember; and this showed thought and consideration worthy of a much older person. But then Daisy always had been remarkable for her tender, clinging love for her mother, and her earnest desire to please her in all things. It struck all the other children; and they overwhelmed her with caresses and expressions of admiration and affection; even bluff Bob, who seldom condescended to bestow much flattering notice upon his sisters, declaring,-- "Well, you are a little brick, Daisy." It was pleasant to be so petted and admired, for Daisy dearly loved praise, and in all this she found consolation, and began to put on little airs and graces befitting a heroine. Dear little lamb! who would quarrel with her if she did? How hard it went with her might be seen by the working of the sweet face, the pitiful pressure of the tiny hands one against the other, the swimming eyes and choking voice. It was too much for Carrie. The contrast between her own conduct and that of her little sister was more than her uneasy conscience could bear; secret remorse and shame overwhelmed her, and with a quick resolve to be "as good as Daisy," and sacrifice her own wishes to her mother's prejudices, she slipped away from the other children, and ran upstairs, determined to put the gray mice out of the way. [Illustration] [Illustration] IX. _MAKING GINGER-CAKES._ BUT how? Ah! there it was. That which would have been easy and simple enough in the beginning, had she but done as she should, and taken the mice at once to the cook, was now a great trouble and difficulty. For if she took them to Catherine now, the cook would ask where she had found them, and put other questions which she would not wish to answer; for that would involve a confession she had no mind to make, penitent though she was, or thought herself. And how was she to put the mice out of the way herself? She could not tell what to do with them. Should she carry the box off somewhere, away to the woods or down on the shore, and let the mice out there? But then again, if she did this, she must leave the other children, her little guests Maggie and Bessie, too; and this would excite wonder and curiosity; more than that, she was not allowed to go out of their own grounds alone. She might perhaps hide them in the garden-house if she could but contrive to escape the eyes of her companions for a few moments, but no, the black cat might return in search of Daisy's pets, and her own fall victims to the creature. No, that plan would never answer; but what should she do? Oh! if she only had known beforehand what trouble and unhappiness her momentary disobedience and deceit would bring upon her, she would never, never have yielded to temptation, and hidden the mice. Why had she not taken time to think about all this? Ah, Carrie, there it is. If we only knew beforehand, if we only could foresee the consequences of our wrong-doing, the misery and punishment we shall bring upon ourselves, perhaps upon others, how careful it would make us to avoid the sin! But the pleasure comes first, the punishment after, when it is too late; and nothing is left but repentance and regret. Carrie had run up to the garret once more, hastily taken the box from its hiding-place, and brought it down to the room next her mother's, which she and Nellie shared. There she stood now, a most unhappy little girl, as such thoughts as these chased one another through her mind, trying to think of some plan for ridding herself of the mice, but obliged to reject first one and then another. What was she to do? She was in dread this very moment lest the other children should come upstairs and find her there with her dreadful secret; yes, it was dreadful to Carrie now; and she felt almost angry at the innocent little mice. You have all heard of the unhappy man who was very anxious to have an elephant, and at last won one in a raffle; but the moment it was his own he did not know what to do with it, and would have been glad to have some one take it off his hands. Those mice were as bad as so many elephants to poor Carrie, and oh, how she wished that she had never seen them! _Seen_ them! She had not even done that! Only _heard_ them as they rustled in their prison-house; not very satisfactory payment certainly for all the pain and trouble she had gone through ever since she had taken them. The man at least could _see_ his elephant, but her mice she had only _heard_. And what a rustling and scratching and gnawing they were making now within the box which stood on the table before her, where she regarded it with puzzled, troubled face, wishing it and its occupants a thousand miles away! There was a little hole near the bottom of the box: had the mice gnawed it, trying to make their escape? And how had they come in the box, and how many were there? What a noise they made! Forgetting her anxieties for one moment, Carrie took up the box again, put her eye to the hole, and tried to peep within. But it was useless, she could see nothing; and now the mice, frightened by her movements, were as quiet,--well, as quiet as only mice can be under such circumstances. Carrie thought she would open the lid of the box a little and peep within, just a very little bit, not far enough for the mice to escape, but so she could see how many were there, and what they looked like. Mice were such dear little things! No sooner said than done. She raised the lid, cautiously and very slightly at first, then a little farther, when, quick as thought, a mouse sprang through the opening, and in a second of time was gone. Carrie gave a start as sudden; the box fell from her hands, the cover rolled off, and there were four or five little mice tearing wildly about the room, seeking each one for a hiding-place, but rather bewildered by finding themselves so abruptly turned out from their old home, and scattered abroad upon the wide world. But perhaps you would like to hear how the mice had come to be in the box, and I will let you know. The mice never told _me_; but I know for all that, and this was the way. Mother Nibble, having strayed into the house one day, made her way into the store-room, and there found this box with the lid partly open, a fine stock of chocolate and barley within, and plenty of soft, tender paper; and made up her mind that here would be a quiet, well-provisioned house in which to bring up her young family. And here they had remained undisturbed until that very morning, when Nellie, putting her store-room to rights, had chanced to discover them, and, closing them down in sudden imprisonment, had sent them to a fate from which Carrie's naughtiness had saved them. And they had escaped now, every one of them, and were scampering here and there before Carrie's startled eyes. Another moment, and they were gone, hidden safely away in nooks and crannies such as only mice could find. But they were out at large. Here in this very room next to mamma's; even worse, Carrie had seen one run through the open door into mamma's own bedroom! What was she to do? Suppose her mother should see him, find him anywhere, even hear him scratching and nibbling on her own premises! She had seen enough of her mother's nervous terror of a mouse, strange, even needless it might seem to herself; but she knew too well what a torment it was; and now! She felt as though it was rather hard that the mice should have escaped, and here in this very place, just at the moment when she had been going to sacrifice her own pleasure to her mother's comfort, and to be "as good as Daisy." Ah! but, Carrie, there was a great difference between you and Daisy. Your little sister had never yielded to temptation, had put aside her own wishes at once for the sake of her mother's feelings,--put them aside as a matter of course, and without a thought that it could or should be otherwise. Dear, unselfish little Daisy! But it would not do for her to stand here, idly gazing about her. There were the other children expecting her, perhaps looking for her; she heard their voices even now in the hall below. Hastily gathering up the scattered fragments of paper, tin-foil, and crumbs of chocolate and barley which had fallen to the floor, she collected them within the box, put the cover upon that, opened a drawer belonging especially to herself, and thrust all beneath some other things. Some other time, she thought, she would throw the box away; for the present it was safe there. This done, she ran downstairs and rejoined her sisters and brothers and young friends, who were all still so occupied with Daisy and her pathetic sorrow over the parting from the white mice, that they had scarcely noticed Carrie's absence, and did not annoy her with the questions she had dreaded. But it was a miserable afternoon to Carrie. She felt that repentance had come too late, and that now at any time her mother might encounter a mouse. She was not sorry when it came to an end, and Mrs. Bradford, returning with Mrs. Ransom from their drive, took away her own little flock with her; Frankie carrying the white mice, which he assured Daisy he was "only keeping" for her till he and she were married, when he would "build her a gold house for them;" and that they were just as much hers if they did live in his house. Daisy watched the departure of her pets with the most pitiful of little faces, striving with all her might to smile and look cheerful, but failing distressingly. Mrs. Ransom hardly understood what it was all about till Mrs. Bradford's carriage had gone, the white mice with it; but, when she did, she overwhelmed her unselfish little darling with so many thanks and caresses that Daisy felt repaid for her sacrifice. Nellie wondered what it could be that made Carrie continue so out of spirits and almost fretful all the evening; but, having been repulsed once or twice when she would have attempted to give sympathy or ask questions, she found it best to let Carrie alone, even when she heard her crying quietly to herself after they had both gone to rest, and her sister believed her to be asleep. But when the next morning came, and nothing had yet been seen or heard, so far as she knew, of the escaped prisoners, Carrie's spirits rose once more, and she believed that she should have no farther trouble from them. Papa was expected home upon the evening of this day, and Nellie was to be allowed to try her hand upon his favorite ginger-cakes. Nellie had something of a turn for cooking, and was always so careful about rules and proportions, steady little woman that she was, that mamma was not much afraid that she would fail, especially with good-natured Catherine to keep an eye upon her. Of course the making of the ginger-cakes was a very important business, the grand event of the day to Nellie, Carrie, and Daisy; for the two last must have a hand in them, and "help" Nellie in her operations. More than this, they were to be allowed to roll out some "teenty taunty" cakes for their own eating and that of their dolls. They would have had Nellie go to her cake-making the first thing in the morning, and leave all else till this was accomplished; but that was not Nellie's way. "Duty before pleasure" was generally her motto; and of late she had kept it steadily before her, and tried also to be very sure which was the _duty_ and which the _pleasure_, feeling that she had too often mistaken the one for the other. But at last all the regular small housekeeping tasks were done, and, with a pleasant consciousness of duty fulfilled, Nellie signified to the other children that she was ready to begin her cookery. Catherine had every thing ready for her; and Nellie with a long apron tied about her neck and covering all her dress, her sleeves rolled up to her shoulders, and her receipt-book lying open beside her, was soon deep in the mysteries of mixing, while Carrie stood on the other side of the table, sifting sugar; and Daisy, mounted on a chair beside Nellie, ladled spoonful after spoonful of flour into the stone bowl wherein Nellie was stirring her mixture. Nor did she spill more than a quarter of each spoonful on the way, which, on the whole, is saying a good deal. Daisy's face was radiant, and her troubles of yesterday were for the time quite forgotten in the interest of her occupation. "Carrie," said Nellie presently, trying to be mysterious, so that Daisy might not know she was the subject of remark, "Carrie, don't you think a certain person of our acquaintance has pretty well recovered?" "Yes," answered Carrie, "you mean the youngest person in the k-i-c-h-u-n, don't you? Oh! quite recovered." But Daisy was too quick for them, and, immediately understanding that she was the individual alluded to, thought herself called upon to return to the mournful demeanor which she considered proper under her bereavement, and, banishing the smiles from her face, she said, dolefully,-- "You mean me! I know you mean me; and I'm not recoveryed at all, not one bit." "But I would if I were you," said Nellie. "When we do a kind thing for any one, like your giving up your mice for mamma, it is better not to let them see we feel very badly about it. That is, if we can help it; and I think you could feel a little glad and happy now if you chose: couldn't you?" "Well, I don't know, I b'ieve not," answered Daisy, closing her eyes with an expression of the most hopeless resignation. "There now!" continued this unappreciated little mortal, opening them again, "just look how that old flour went and spilled itself! There's only a little speck left in the spoon!" "Because you didn't look what you were doing," said Nellie, laughing; "better keep your eyes open, Daisy, when you are carrying flour." "I fink I could recovery a little if I only knew what was in that big parcel," said Daisy, taking up another spoonful of flour, this time with her eyes open. "What parcel?" asked Carrie. "That large parcel that came home yesterday," said Daisy. "It is for papa, so mamma said it wasn't right for me to peek; and now it's in the hall-closet where I can't even see the outside of it. I asked mamma if I couldn't just open the closet door and look at it, but she told me I'd better not, 'cause, if I did, it might be a temp-ta-tion," repeated Daisy with a justifiable pride in the long word and her correct pronunciation of it. "Yes, I know," said Nellie, turning to kiss the chubby, befloured little face at her side. "I know, darling; and you were a wise girl to keep away; you've been very good yesterday and to-day. Don't put in any more flour till I come back. I am going into the store-room for another paper of ginger." "Carrie," said Daisy, when Nellie had gone, "did you ever have a temp-ta-tion?" Carrie did not like this question; innocently as her little sister put it, it brought back to her too plainly that yielding to temptation of which she had so lately been guilty. "Of course, child," she answered pettishly, "everybody does." "Did it make you do somefing naughty?" was Daisy's still more unwelcome question. "Mind your own business," snapped Carrie. "Daisy, I never did see a child who talked so much." Daisy ventured no further remark, but stood gravely regarding Carrie with reproving displeasure till Nellie returned, when she turned to her and said,-- "Nellie, isn't it more politer to say, 'Please wait and talk a little more anofer time,' than to say, 'Mind your own business, you talk too much!'" "I should think it was. O Daisy, what a funny child you are!" said Nellie, much amused, and without the least suspicion that Carrie was the offender in question. "Who has been so rude to you, darling?" "Never mind," said Daisy. "Carrie, I won't tell tales 'bout you, if you was rude to me,--oh, so rude!" Nellie laughed merrily again over Daisy's fancied concealment of Carrie's sins against her. "I don't see what there is to laugh about," said Carrie, angrily. "You think Daisy is so smart." Nellie was grave in a moment, wondering, as she had had occasion to do many times during the last twenty-four hours, what could make Carrie so cross and ready to take offence. "Any more flour, Nellie?" asked Daisy. "No more now," answered her sister. "Catherine, the receipt don't _say_ cinnamon, but papa likes it so much, I think I will put some in. It can't do any harm, can it?" "Not at all; I'm thinking it would be an improvement myself, Miss Nellie," answered the cook. "But then I've not a pinch of powdered cinnamon. I used the last yesterday for the rusks." "There's some in the dining-room," said Nellie. "Daisy, dear, you can do that. Go to the sideboard, open the right-hand door, and bring sister the spice-box you will see on the first shelf. Bring it very carefully." "Yes, I know it," said Daisy, scrambling down from her chair, and feeling rather important in her errand. "Cafarine, don't I help a whole lot?" "Oh! a wonderful lot! I never saw a darlin' that made herself so useful;" and with these words of praise sounding in her ears, Daisy went off happy. In two minutes she was back again, breathless, with wide-open eyes, the crimson deepening in her cheeks, but with the spice-box safely in her clasp. "Nellie! and Carrie! and Cafarine! all of yous! what do you fink?" she cried. "Oh! such a fing!" "What is the matter?" said all three at once. "A mouse! a weally mouse in the dinin'-room. Not a white mouse, but a nigger mouse,--oh! I forgot again,--I mean a colored person mouse, right in the dinin'-room! What will mamma say?" "Oh! you must be mistaken, Daisy," said Nellie, while Carrie heard the words of her youngest sister with a sinking heart. "No, I'm not, I'm not," persisted Daisy. "It was just as weally a mouse as it could be. He was under the sideboard, and he ran out and under the sofa." "Oh dear!" said Nellie, in dismay at the news. "Catherine, there must be mice in this house. A good many too." "Well, no, miss, I think not," said the cook. "This is the first one"-- Down went the bowl into which Carrie was sifting her sugar, not purposely, though she was only too thankful for the diversion it afforded, but because she had given a violent start and knocked the bowl with her elbow in her alarm at Catherine's words. How nearly her secret had been discovered! But now it was safe at least for the time, for the bowl was broken, the sugar scattered over the floor, and it was some moments before order was restored; by which time Nellie was intent upon cutting out her cakes, marking them with the "jigging iron," and laying them in the bake-pans, so that she had no thought for mice, white or gray. Declaring herself "tired of helping," and feeling that her labors had brought no very satisfactory result to herself or others, Carrie left the kitchen and wandered into the dining-room, possibly to see if she could spy the mouse Daisy had discovered. But no, there was no mouse there, at least she could find none; and she began to hope that, after all, the little one had been mistaken. Oh dear! how wretched and unhappy she felt! She began to think she would feel better if she went and told mamma, making honest confession of what she had done, and begging her forgiveness. Just then Daisy came into the room, and began peeping around in every corner and under each article of furniture. "You needn't be looking for that mouse," said Carrie, "he's gone; and, any way, I don't believe there was any mouse there." "There was, oh! there was," cried Daisy. "I saw him wif my own eyes running fast, fast. But, Carrie, Nellie says we'd better not speak about it 'fore mamma, 'cause it would trouble her." "I don't believe it. You just thought you saw him," persisted Carrie. "Now you've said a great many bad fings to me, but that's the baddest one of all, and I shall leave you alone wif your own se'f," said the offended Daisy, and walked away with her head held high. Now it might almost have been imagined that Daisy knew that Carrie's "own se'f" was no very pleasant company just at this time, and that she wished to punish her by leaving her "alone wif" it; and, innocent as she was of any such intention, she certainly had her revenge. Carrie's own thoughts were not agreeable companions; even less so now than they had been before Daisy came in, for her half-formed resolution of telling all to her mother seemed less difficult than it had done before her little sister had said that Nellie thought it best not to speak of the mouse to mamma. If mamma was not to hear of one mouse, it would not do to tell her that several were running at large about the house; and Carrie could not help feeling and believing that this was one of the escaped captives. Mice could come downstairs, that she knew; for once, when she and Nellie had been spending the day with Lily Norris, they had seen a little mouse hopping down from stair to stair, and had stood motionless and silent, watching till he reached the bottom of the flight, when his quick, bright eyes caught sight of them, and he scampered away in a fright. And now that it was forbidden, she was seized with a strong desire to relieve her mind by a full confession to mamma. Then at least she would be free from the burden of carrying about with her such a guilty _secret_. "Oh dear! oh dear!" she said to herself, "whenever I've done anything naughty before, I could always go and tell mamma, and then she forgave me, and I felt better; but now it seems as if I did not dare to tell her this. I'd dare for myself, even if she was very much displeased and punished me; but I suppose I mustn't dare for her. It is _too_ hard." Ah, Carrie! so, sooner or later, we always find the way of transgression; and oftentimes the sharpest thorns in the road are those which we have planted with our own hands, not knowing that they will wound our feet, and hold us back when we would retrace our steps. [Illustration] [Illustration] X. _FRESH TROUBLES._ THE ginger-cakes were a great success. It is true that one's tongue was bitten, now and then, by a lump of ginger or other spice, not quite as thoroughly mixed in by Nellie's unaccustomed fingers as it might have been by those which were stronger and more used to such business; but who minded such trifles as that, or would refuse to give the little workwoman the meed of praise she so richly deserved? Not her papa certainly, who found no fault whatever, and eat enough of the ginger-cakes to satisfy even his Nellie. Not even Daisy, who met with such a misfortune as that spoken of above, while at the tea-table, and who was perceived first by Nellie holding her tongue with one thumb and finger, while in the other hand she held out the ginger-cake, regarding it with a puzzled and disturbed expression. "What's the matter, Daisy?" asked Nellie. "Somefing stinged my tongue. I b'ieve it was a bee, and I eat him up," said Daisy, the ever ready tears starting to her eyes. They were excusable under the circumstances certainly. "It has been a little bit of ginger," said Mrs. Ransom, who had suffered in a similar manner, but in silence. "Take some milk, my darling." "O Daisy, I'm so sorry! I suppose I haven't mixed it well," said Nellie, looking horrified. Daisy obeyed her mother's command, which brought relief to her smarting tongue, and then, turning to Nellie with a most benignant smile, said,-- "You needn't mind, Nellie. I'd just as lieve have my tongue bited for your ginger-cakes. Papa," she added, turning to her father, "I s'pose you're going to be busy after tea, ar'n't you?" "No, papa has nothing to do but to rest himself this evening," answered Mr. Ransom. "Oh dear!" sighed Daisy, taking her tongue between thumb and finger again. "Do you want papa to be busy?" asked Mr. Ransom. "I fought you would be," said Daisy, who found it extremely inconvenient not to be able to pet the injured member and to talk at the same moment. "I s'posed you'd have to undo that big parcel that's in the hall closet; and I fought my tongue would feel a good deal better to know what's inside of it." "Oh! that is it, is it?" said Mr. Ransom. "Well, yes, I believe I _have_ that little business to attend to, so your tongue may get well right away, Daisy." Having finished his tea, Mr. Ransom now rose and went out into the hall, returning with the great parcel which had so excited the curiosity of his little daughter. This he put down upon the floor beside his chair, went out once more, and came back again with two smaller parcels. These he put upon the table, and took his seat before all three. Daisy's excitement hardly knew bounds now, especially when there came from within one of the smaller parcels a little rustle, as though something alive was inside. Still, her attention was principally taken up with the "biggest one of all;" and, to her great delight, this was the first papa opened. Paper and string removed, two bird-cages, _empty_ cages, presented themselves to the eyes of the children. What could they be for? "Papa," said Daisy, "you _couldn't_ be going to catch the little birdies out the trees, and put them in there, could you?" "Wait a moment," said her father, taking up the parcel whence the rustling had come. This, opened, revealed another bird-cage, this a tiny wooden one, but oh! delight! containing two beautiful canaries. They looked rather uncomfortable and astonished, it is true, and as if they might be thoroughly tired of their narrow quarters, from which Mr. Ransom now speedily released them, putting one bird in each large cage, which was soon furnished with fresh seed and water, sugar, and all that birds love. "What little beauties! Who are they for, papa?" asked Carrie. "For little girls who have been helpful and kind to mamma during the past week," said Mr. Ransom, smiling. "I sent up the cages by express, but brought on the birds myself. Poor little fellows! they are glad to have reached their journey's end, I think." "But there's only two, and there are fee girls," said Daisy,--"one, two, fee girls," pointing by turns to her sisters and herself, "and one, two birds. That's not enough, papa." "Papa thought his Daisy too young to have the care of a bird yet," said Mr. Ransom, "but here is what he brought for her; for mamma wrote to him what a good girl she was, and what pains she was taking to cure herself of that foolish habit of crying for trifles." And, unwrapping the last parcel, Mr. Ransom disclosed a box containing a pretty little dinner-set. At another time Daisy would have been delighted; but what was a dinner-set to a bird? She stood looking from one to the other without the slightest expression of pleasure or satisfaction in her own pretty gift. "Don't you like it, Daisy?" asked her father. "Papa, I--I--I would if I could, but--but the birdies are 'live, and the dinner-set is dead; but I wouldn't cry about it, would I, mamma?" With which she ran to her mother, and buried her face in her lap. Poor little woman! it was almost touching to see how hard she struggled with her too ready tears, which had been so long accustomed to have their way upon small occasion. There was no mistaking the good-will and resolution with which she was striving to cure herself of a rather vexatious and foolish habit; but it was such hard work as can only be imagined by little girls who have been troubled with a similar failing. Mamma's praises and caresses helped her to conquer it this time again, though it was a harder trial than usual, and she altogether declined to look at the dinner-set, or to take any comfort therein. "Papa," said Nellie to her father in a low tone, as she and Carrie stood beside him, their attention divided between the birds and Daisy, "papa, if you will buy Daisy a bird, I will take care of it for her. I suppose she is too little to do it herself; but she likes pets so much, and she was so very sweet and unselfish about her white mice, that I think she deserves a reward." Mr. Ransom had not heard the story of the white mice; but he now made inquiries which Nellie soon answered, Daisy's sacrifice losing nothing of its merit in her telling; while Carrie, feeling more and more uncomfortable, but neither caring nor daring to run out of hearing, and so excite questions, stood idly rubbing her finger over the bars of her bird's cage. The contrast between her own conduct and that of her almost baby sister was making itself felt more and more to her own heart and conscience. If Daisy deserved a bird because she had been loving and considerate for mamma, surely she did not deserve the same. How she hoped that papa would give Daisy one! But no; papa plainly showed that he had no such intention, for when Nellie concluded with these words,-- "Don't you think you will give Daisy a bird of her own, papa?" he answered,-- "I think not at present, Nellie. I have spent as much as I can afford at this time on trifles, and Daisy must wait for her bird till Christmas, or some other holiday. But she is a darling, blessed, little child, with a heart full of loving, generous feeling, and I do not think the less of her sacrifice because I do not find it best to give her a bird just now. I shall try to give her some other pleasure which may make up to her for the loss of her white mice." But it did not seem to Nellie or Carrie, any more than it did to Daisy herself, that any thing could do this so well as a canary-bird; and, although they knew that it was of no use to try and persuade papa to change his mind when he had once resolved upon a thing, they felt as if they could hardly let the matter drop here. Daisy had heard nothing of all this, for she was cuddled up in her mother's lap on the other side of the room, where mamma had taken her away from birds and dinner-set, till she should be petted and comforted into happiness once more. And now papa left the other children, and, going over to mamma and Daisy, sat down beside them, and gave his share of praise to his little daughter, not only for the giving up of the white mice, but also for that other matter concerning the tears, which she was so bravely learning to control, with the idea of "helping mamma." So at last a calm, though mournful resignation returned to the bosom of the little one, and she was farther consoled by mamma insisting upon putting her to bed herself, a treat which Daisy had not enjoyed since Nellie had taken up the character of mamma's housekeeper; for, when Ruth could not leave baby, Nellie now always considered this a part of her duty. Still Daisy could not refrain from saying, as her mother led her from the room,-- "Mamma, I fink I never heard of a little girl who had so many _sorrys_ as me; did you?" When Mrs. Ransom came downstairs, however, she reported Daisy as restored to a more cheerful frame of spirits, and as singing herself to sleep with her own version of the popular melody of "One little, two little, three little nigger boys,"--namely, "One little, two little, fee little _colored person_ boys;" so careful was she in all things to heed mamma's wishes, and not at all disturbed by the fact that the words of her rhyme did not exactly fit the tune. It was all the same to Daisy. Rules of music and measure were nothing to her, so long as her conscience was at rest. The family had all gone out upon the piazza. The father and mother sat a little apart, talking; the boys were amusing themselves with old Rover upon the lower step; while Nellie and Carrie were seated above at the head of the flight. "What makes you so quiet, Carrie?" asked Nellie. "I don't know," answered Carrie, though she said "don't know" more from that way we all have of saying it at times when we are not prepared with an answer, than from an intention to speak an untruth. Then, after another silence of a moment or two, she spoke again,-- "Nellie, why won't you make one of those brackets for mamma?" "For the reason I told you. Because I don't think I shall have time. I think I'd better take my money to buy her some other Christmas present all ready made. Mamma will like it just as well if she sees I try to help and please her in the mean time," said sensible Nellie. "But you could give her something a great deal prettier if you made it yourself," said Carrie. "I know it," answered Nellie, quietly; "but I cannot do it, and have any play-time, and mamma says she does not wish me to be busy all the time." "Pshaw!" said Carrie, whose mind was quite set upon the pair of brackets to be worked by herself and her sister, "your housekeeping don't take you so long, and you never study so _very_ much now, so you have a good deal of time, and I should think you might be willing to use some of it to make a pretty thing for mamma. You think yourself so great with the housekeeping." "I have some other work I want to do," said Nellie. "I would do it if I could, but I cannot, Carrie." "That's real selfish," said Carrie. "You'd rather do something for yourself than please mamma." Nellie made no answer. If our quiet, gentle "little sunbeam" could not disperse the clouds of Carrie's ill-temper, she would at least not make them darker and heavier by an angry retort or provoking sneer. Carrie was very unjust and unreasonable, it was true; but Nellie knew that she would feel ashamed and sorry far sooner, if she were let alone, than she would if she were answered back. And Nellie felt that it was not so long since she herself had been "cross" and fretful at trifles. She believed, too, that "something ailed Carrie," making her unusually captious and irritable at this time. It was not over-study certainly: Carrie was not likely to be at fault in that; but Nellie could not help thinking either that she was not well, or that some trouble was on her mind. What that was, of course, she had not the slightest suspicion. "After all, Nellie don't think so very much about pleasing mamma," said Carrie to herself, with rather a feeling of satisfaction in the thought. It was not pleasant to feel that, while both her sisters were trying so hard to be useful and good to mamma, that she alone had done that which was likely to bring annoyance and trouble upon her. There is an old adage that "misery loves company." I am not so sure about that, for I do not see what comfort there can be in knowing that others are unhappy; but I fear that sin often "loves company," and that there is a certain satisfaction in being able to feel that some other person is as naughty as ourselves. _Then_ we need not draw comparisons to our own disadvantage. Such was Carrie's state of mind just now; and there is no denying that she was somewhat pleased to believe that Nellie was seeking her own happiness rather than mamma's. But still she did not feel that she could so easily give up the idea of the pair of brackets. To make mamma such a grand present as that seemed in some sort a kind of amends for her past undutifulness, and she could not bear that she and Nellie should fall behind Maggie and Bessie in a Christmas present to their mother. So she went on to urge Nellie farther, but in a pleasanter tone. "I think it would be perfectly splendid to give mamma such a lovely present," she said, "and it would be so nice to tell all the girls in school that we are going to do it. Don't you think it would?" "I don't care about telling the girls," answered Nellie, "but I would be very glad to make such a lovely thing for mamma." "And you will do it then?" "No," said Nellie, reluctantly, but decidedly: "I tell you I cannot, Carrie. I have something else to do, and I know mamma would not wish me to take any more work. Don't ask me any more." "What are you going to do?" asked Carrie. "I'll tell you another time," said Nellie, lowering her voice still more. "I don't want mamma to hear. Please don't talk about it." Carrie pouted again, and, to one or two proposals from Nellie that they should amuse themselves with some game, returned short and sullen refusals. Presently she rose, and, going to her father and mother, bade them good-night. "What! so early, dear?" said her mother in surprise, for it was something very unusual for Carrie to wish to go to rest before her ordinary bed-time. "Yes'm," said Carrie: "I've nothing to do, and it's so stupid; and Nellie's cross and won't talk to me." O Carrie, Carrie! "I am afraid it is Carrie who is a little cross and fretful," said Mrs. Ransom, who had noticed that this had been Carrie's condition all day. "Well, perhaps bed is the best place for you. Try to sleep it off, and be pleasant and good-natured in the morning." "Everybody seems to think Nellie and Daisy are quite perfect," murmured Carrie to herself, as she sauntered slowly through the hall and up the stairs. "No one ever says they do any thing wrong; but always say I am cross, and every thing else that is horrid. I've a good mind--I mean I'd just like to go 'way far off in a steamboat or the cars or something, and stay for a great many years, and then how sorry they'd be when they'd lost me, and didn't know where I was. They'd be glad enough when I came back; and wouldn't they wish they'd never been cross to me!" Drawing such solace as she could from thoughts like these, after the manner of too many little children when they have been cross and discontented, and brought trouble upon themselves, she went on to the nursery. "I want my clothes unfastened," she said imperiously to Ruth, who held the ever-wakeful baby across her knees, having just succeeded in hushing it to sleep. Ruth would probably at another time have declined the service demanded from her, until Carrie spoke in a more civil way; but now she preferred submission to having the baby roused, which would be the probable result of any contention between Carrie and herself. So she did as she was _ordered_ without answering, and thereby secured the quiet she desired. At least so she thought, as Carrie stood perfectly silent till the task was nearly completed. But Ruth had reckoned without her host. Carrie had fully expected that Ruth would reprove her for her disagreeable way of speaking, perhaps even refuse to do what she wanted; and she felt ashamed and rather subdued as she stood quietly before the nurse while she unfastened sash, buttons, and strings. She had resolved that she would give no more trouble to-night, would not make any noise that could disturb baby, and was even trying to make up her mind to tell Ruth she was sorry that she had been so troublesome and rebellious all day, when she saw--what? There, secure in the silence of the quiet nursery, was a little mouse darting here and there, seeking, probably, for what he might find in the shape of food. Carrie gave a start, a start as violent as though she herself had been afraid of the harmless little animals her mother held in such nervous dread, causing Ruth to start also in involuntary sympathy, and thus waking the baby upon her lap. Ruth scolded Carrie, of course: she was more apt to blame her than she was either of the other children, and to believe that she did a vexatious thing "on purpose." Probably this was Carrie's own fault, because she really gave more trouble than her sisters; but it was none the pleasanter, and perhaps there was some truth in her oft repeated complaint that she had "a hard time in the nursery." Be that as it may, Ruth's harsh words were the last drop in Carrie's brimming cup; and, wrenching herself out of the nurse's hands, she declared she would finish undressing herself, and ran away to her own room. [Illustration] [Illustration] XI. _A NIGHT OF IT._ SCARCELY was she there when she repented that she had come, until she found out what became of the mouse; but she was too much offended with Ruth to go back, and with some difficulty succeeded in taking off the rest of her clothes without help, tears slowly dropping from her eyes the while. Poor Carrie! how miserable she did feel; and to her troubled little mind there was no way out of her difficulties. She would have confessed all, if there had seemed to be any one to confess to; but, remembering Nellie's charge to Daisy and herself that morning, it did not seem wise or right to tell mamma that there were mice in the house when she might possibly escape the knowledge; she was afraid to tell her father, for all Mr. Ransom's children stood a good deal in awe of him; and she did not feel as if there would be much satisfaction or relief in telling Nellie. Nellie could not know how to advise her or tell her what to do. And yet--perhaps she could. Nellie was such a wise, thoughtful, well-judging little girl. Perhaps Carrie would not have put her thoughts into just such words; but this was the feeling in her heart at this moment, and it was no more than justice to Nellie. She knew she could depend on Nellie's sympathy, however much shocked her sister might be at her naughtiness, and she half believed that she could help her. How she wished now that she had not been so pettish and disagreeable to her! "Nellie wasn't cross at all, it was old me that was cross and hateful and horrid; and I have been ever since I took the mice," she said to herself, the tears rolling over her cheeks. "I wish she'd come up, and I'd tell her I'm sorry; and if she asks me what's the matter, I b'lieve I've a good mind to tell her. Oh dear! I wish I'd never seen those mice. S'pose that one should run out of the nursery into mamma's room. I wish the door was shut between her room and the nursery." Then when she knelt down to say her prayers, and came to the words of our Lord's Prayer, "Lead us not into temptation," she remembered how Daisy had asked her what she would do if she "had a temptation;" and she buried her face in the bed-clothes as if she wished to shut out the remorseful recollection of how she had acted yesterday in that moment of temptation; and more and more bitter became her self-reproaches as she thought how sweetly Daisy had acted in the matter of the white mice. Yes: Daisy had shown true love and tenderness for her mother; but how far had she been from doing the same? Perhaps never in all her little life had Carrie sent heavenward as true and sincere a prayer as that she added to-night to her usual petitions: "And lead me out of this temptation, and show me what to do, O God!" Then when she was, with considerable trouble to herself, all ready for bed, she lay down, but not without another anxious glance at the door between her mother's room and the nursery. If she could but have that door closed! Having soothed the baby to sleep once more, Ruth brought her into her mother's room, and put her into the cradle. This done, she passed on into Carrie's room to see that all was right there, and the little girl safely in bed. She did not speak,--perhaps she thought Carrie was already asleep,--but moved quietly around, picking up the articles of dress which her little charge had left strewn about, arranging the windows and doors properly, and turning down the light. Then she went away. And now to have the door closed between her mother's room and the closet which led into the nursery became the great desire of Carrie's mind as she lay in her little bed,--closed so that the mouse should not find its way through. She did not dream that mousie had done that already, and hoped to be able to close the door this way without attracting Ruth's attention. Slipping from her bed, she went softly, so that Ruth might not hear her, over her own floor, and through her mother's room to the closet door, and stretching out her hand was about to push it to, when Ruth caught sight of her through the closet door. "What's the matter, child? What do you want?" she asked in much surprise, coming forward. "I want this door shut, and I'm going to have it, too," said Carrie, preparing for battle at once, for she saw that Ruth would object. "Well, what whim has taken you now?" said Ruth, pushing back the door. "Indeed, and you can't have it shut till your mother comes up. How would I hear the baby if it cries?" Carrie persisted in her purpose. Ruth would have been firm, but finding the child would not yield, and fearing to wake the baby once more if an uproar were raised, she let her take her way, and immediately went down with a complaint to Mrs. Ransom. Papa heard as well as mamma, and took the matter into his own hands; and scarcely had Carrie climbed into bed again, glorying, partly in having attained her purpose, partly in the supposed victory over Ruth, when papa appeared, and, with a few stern words to the wilful little girl, set it open again, forbidding her to touch it, and leaving her in a more unhappy state of mind than ever. She lay there and cried till Nellie came up; Johnny accompanying her, and each carrying a bird. No hooks were in readiness for hanging the cages; and it was decided that, for to-night, they should be placed upon chairs, Nellie's bird by her side of the bed, Carrie's by hers. Carrie, whose heart and conscience were so uneasy, was very wakeful; and, long after Nellie was asleep, she lay tossing restlessly from side to side. Even after mamma came up to her room, she could not go to sleep for a long while. In the night, far into the night it seemed to her that it must be, she was wakened by a sound at her side,--a rustling, scratching sound. What could it be? Carrie was not so foolish as to be afraid of the dark, indeed she was rather a brave child; but now she felt as if she would have given any thing to have had a light in the room, to see what made that strange sound. She bore it as long as she could, then woke Nellie. "What can it be, Nellie?" she whispered, as Nellie listened. "I don't know: I'm afraid there's somebody here," said Nellie, in the same tone, but very much alarmed. "What shall we do?" said Carrie, clinging to her sister. "'Thou shalt not steal,' 'Thou God seest me,' 'The way of transgressors is hard,' if you are a robber," said Nellie, raising her voice as she addressed the supposed intruder with all the Scripture texts she could muster for the occasion, and which might be imagined to influence him. No answer, but the rustling ceased for a moment, then began again; and it was more than the children could bear. "Papa! papa!" shrieked Nellie, "there's some one in our room! Please come, do come, papa!" And Carrie joined her cries to her sister's. Papa heard, and came; and so did mamma, very much startled. "There's a noise, a robber, here, by my bed!" exclaimed Carrie all in a flutter, though the noise had again ceased. Papa struck a light, there was a faint rustle, a sound of some small body jumping or falling from a height, and Mr. Ransom exclaimed,-- "A mouse! Nothing but a mouse in the bird's cage!" If there had been a veritable robber there, doubtless Mrs. Ransom would have stayed to confront him, and defend her children; but at the sound of "a mouse," a harmless little mouse, she turned about, and ran back to her own room, closing the door in no small haste. If the children had not felt too much sympathy for her, they could have laughed to see how she rushed away. But Carrie did not feel like laughing, you may be sure, relieved though she might have been to find that it was nothing worse than a mouse that had caused her own and Nellie's alarm. I do not know but that she would almost have preferred the "robber," or some wild monster, now that papa was there to defend them, to the pretty, innocent little creature which had been the real cause of the disturbance. Mr. Ransom hunted about for the mouse, but all in vain: he had hidden himself somewhere quite safely and was not to be found. The bird-cages were put upon the mantel-piece where he could not reach them again, for mousie had found the bird-seed an excellent supper, and Mr. Ransom thought he might return to his repast. Return he did in search of it, as soon as papa had gone and the room was quiet once more; but this time the children knew what it was, and although, when he found his supper placed beyond his reach, he made considerable disturbance, they were not frightened. But they found it impossible to sleep, such a noise did he make, tearing about over the straw matting which covered the floor, nibbling now at this, now at that, and altogether making himself as much of a nuisance as only a mouse in one's bed-room at night can do. At last he was quiet, and the two weary children were just sinking off to sleep, when Nellie started up with,-- "Carrie! I do believe that mouse is in the bed!" This was too much, not to be borne by any one, however much they might like mice; and both Nellie and Carrie were speedily out of bed, the former hastily turning up the light which papa had left burning for their comfort. Carrie was about to run to the door and call papa to come, but Nellie stopped her. "Don't, Carrie," she said: "it will just frighten mamma again. Let's see if we can't find him. I'm not afraid of him, are you? Only, I don't like to have him in the bed." Rather enjoying the fun, Nellie pulled off the covers and pillows, and even, exerting all her little strength, contrived to turn up one end of the mattress; but this, even with Carrie's help, she found hard work, and, nothing being discovered of the little nuisance, they were content to believe that Nellie had been mistaken, to put on the bed-clothes as well as they could, and lie down again. But Carrie did not enjoy all this, if Nellie did. At another time she, too, might have thought that it was "fun" to have such a good and sufficient excuse for being up and busy when the clock was striking--could it be?--yes, it was twelve o'clock, midnight! and she and Nellie frisking there about the room, as wide awake as if it were noon. But there was a weight on Carrie's mind, she felt too guilty to enjoy the novelty, and she was almost vexed at Nellie's glee over it. Oh dear! how she did wish that she had never seen the mice, that "such things as mice had never been made." And when at last she fell into a troubled slumber, for they heard nothing more of mousie, it was not the calm, peaceful sleep of her sister who lay beside her, but filled with uncomfortable dreams, and many a start and moan. [Illustration] [Illustration] XII. _AN ALARM._ NOR did she feel lighter-hearted in the morning, especially when Nellie began to lament the too plain fact that there must be a good many mice in the house, and that they seemed to have come so suddenly. First discovered but two days ago in the store-room, and never seen or heard before since the family had occupied this house, they now appeared to be running wild, all over. It was very singular, certainly. So thought Nellie, adding that mamma would now "have no peace of her life," so long as the mice were free, and she should ask papa to buy a lot of mouse-traps and set them in every room. Carrie knew only too well how this had come about; but now that mamma did know that there were mice in the house, she did not feel as if she could confess that it was through her fault that they had been brought upstairs. It seemed so horribly unkind, such a dreadful thing to have done to mamma now. So, although she was not cross and fretful as she had been last night, she went about listlessly, and with a subdued and melancholy manner that was worthy of Daisy herself when she was at the very lowest depths of despondency, but with far better reason than Daisy usually had. Even when Ruth, who felt a little grudge against her for her naughty conduct of the last few days, snubbed her and pulled her about rather more than was necessary when she was dressing her, Carrie bore it meekly, not having spirit to answer back, and so softening the nurse by her silent submission that she gave her a kindly pat on the shoulder, saying that she saw she was "tired of being naughty and was going to be good to-day." Which small encouragement Carrie received as she left the nursery with as great a want of interest or animation as she had shown for every thing that morning; and Ruth, shaking her head, privately confided to baby her opinion that that child was "going to be sick, or she never in the world would be so good." When Mr. Ransom came down to breakfast, he said that Mamma would not be down right away; but sent word that Nellie might "pour out" for her this morning. She had had a restless, wakeful night, having been made nervous and uncomfortable by the knowledge that a mouse was around, and could not compose herself to sleep after the little excitement in the children's room. Were Carrie's troubles never coming to an end? "Pouring out" was not new to Nellie, for she had made tea and coffee for her father and brothers many a morning before when mamma was not well enough to come downstairs; but still it was an important business, and one to which she felt obliged to bend every energy, till all were served according to their liking. Then she felt at leisure for conversation, and for observing what was going on about the table. "Are you not going to eat your breakfast, Carrie?" she asked, seeing that her sister sat idly playing with her spoon, as if she had no appetite. "I'm not hungry," answered Carrie, not altogether pleased at having notice drawn upon her. "Did the mouse frighten your appetite away, Carrie?" asked Mr. Ransom, looking at her. "No, papa,--I--I think not. I'm not afraid of mice," said Carrie. "But he frightened us very much before we knew what it was," said Nellie; "and afterwards we thought he was in the bed, papa." "What was it? Tell us all about it," said Johnny. "A mouse! Won't mamma be in a taking, though?" "Poor mamma!" said Nellie; and then she related the whole story, seeming to think her own experience and Carrie's rather a good joke, though she was sadly troubled about mamma's nervousness over the matter. "That's worse than white mice," said Daisy, who had listened with wide open eyes, in such intense interest that she quite forgot to eat her breakfast. "But that's awful for mamma," said Bob. "What will she do?" "It is a great pity," said Mr. Ransom. "I had hoped mamma would not be troubled in that way." "They seem to be appearing all over the house at once," said Nellie, "and only since day before yesterday when I found the first in the store-room." "Did you find one in the store-room too?" asked Johnny. "Ever so many in a box; but Catherine killed them," said Nellie, never doubting, of course, that she was stating the truth. Carrie raised her downcast eyes in terror; but, to her relief, the servant in waiting had left the breakfast-room for one moment, and there was no contradiction of Nellie's words. "Why, Cad?" said Johnny, "what ails you? you seem to take the mouse almost as hard as mamma would. You needn't be afraid for your bird, if that's it; for he was only after the seed." Mr. Ransom looked at Carrie again. "Don't be troubled, little daughter," he said. "Johnny is right: the mice will not hurt your birds. But you are quite upset with being so disturbed last night, are you not? Come here to papa." Dreading questions which she would not care to answer, and wishing that she could creep under the table, run out of the room, or hide herself anywhere, Carrie was about to obey; but, before she could rise from her chair, there was heard a commotion overhead, a smothered scream in Mrs. Ransom's voice, a running and scuffling, and then Ruth calling to her master to "come quick." Mr. Ransom sprang from his chair, and rushed upstairs, followed by every one of his boys and girls, fearing they knew not what, save that something dreadful had happened. Something dreadful, indeed, all the children thought, when, running into mamma's room, she was seen, pale, with closed eyes and quite senseless, lying back in the arms of Ruth; while the baby, resenting being placed suddenly face downwards upon the bed, was shrieking with all its little might. The younger children, not unnaturally, thought that she was dead, and were terrified half out of their senses; but Nellie had seen mamma in a fainting fit before, and, though frightened, knew that she would be better by and by. So she gave the best help she could by taking up the screaming baby and hushing its cries, and encouraging her sisters--although her own lips were trembling and eyes filling with tears--with hopeful words. "What happened? What caused this?" asked Mr. Ransom, when he had laid his wife upon the couch, and was engaged with the assistance of the servant women in restoring her. "Indeed, sir, and it was just a mouse, nasty thing!" said Ruth. "I came in with the baby to ask Mrs. Ransom for some ribbon for its sleeves, and she went to the bureau drawer for them, and as she opened it what did a mouse do but jump right out on her. 'Twas enough to scare a body that wasn't afraid of mice; but, for her, it's no wonder it's half killed her, poor dear! We're just getting overrun with mice. There! she's coming to now. That's all right, dear lady!" Carrie heard, saw mamma's eyes slowly unclosing and looking up at papa; but oh! how white and very ill she looked still. She heard and ran, anxious to shut out sight and hearing,--ran out of the room upstairs to the garret, and, squeezing herself behind the old furniture in the place where she had hidden the mice, sobbed and cried as if her heart would break. What if mamma was not dead, as she had thought at first: she might be dying still, must be very ill to look like that, and she had done it. It was all her fault. [Illustration] [Illustration] XIII. _AND LAST OF THE SUNBEAMS._ HOW long she stayed there she did not know, now crying, now ceasing, and crouched there in a kind of dumb remorse and misery which would have been a severe punishment for even a worse fault than that of which she had been guilty. She wanted to come out and learn what was going on downstairs, and yet she did not dare to: she felt as if she could not bear to see that look upon mamma's face again. Then she would shed more bitter tears. She imagined and wondered over many things. If mamma died and went to heaven, would she know what she had done, and be so grieved and displeased at her unkindness that she would love her no longer? Were people in heaven ever troubled about the naughty things their loved ones did or had done upon the earth? So she sat all in a heap, behind the old chairs and tables, perplexing her poor little brain, and racking her heart with all kind of imaginary consequences to this morning's occurrence. By and by she heard the servants calling her, but would not answer; then her father's voice, but now she believed that he must know all; "it had come out in some way," and she was afraid to face him and did not stir. Ruth opened the door at the foot of the garret stairs and called her name, even came up and looked about the open space, but did not see Carrie crouched in her far corner, and the little girl never stirred till she was gone. Next she heard Nellie calling her from the garden below, her voice troubled and anxious. "Carrie," she said, "Carrie, dear! where are you? Do answer if you can hear me. Mamma is growing so troubled because we can't find you." Here was a scrap of comfort. Mamma was at least alive enough to inquire for, and be anxious about her. She crept to the window and looked down to where Nellie stood, calling still, and turning her eyes in every direction. "Here I am, Nellie, I'll come down," she answered, ran down the stairs, opened the door, and then, her courage failing her once more, stood still and peeped out. Papa stood at the door of mamma's room, and saw her at once. A pale, tear-stained, miserable little face it was that met his eye, and stirred his pity. "My poor little woman!" he said, holding out his hand to her: "why, how woe-begone you look. Have you been hiding because you were frightened about mamma? That was not worth while, and mamma has been asking for you, and every one looking for you this ever so long. Come and see mamma, she is better now, and looks like herself again." Carrie came forward, still with hesitating steps and hanging head; and her father, taking her hand, led her into mamma's room. Mrs. Ransom lay upon the sofa, looking very white still, but with a smile upon her lips, and her eyes bright and life-like as usual; and the timid glance which Carrie gave to her mother's face reassured her very much. Still she felt so guilty and conscious, such a longing to confess all, and yet so ashamed and afraid to do it, that her manner remained as confused and downcast as ever. Nellie stood behind her mother, leaning over the head of the couch, and looking troubled and anxious, but her face brightened when she saw Carrie. Daisy, with the most solemn of faces, was seated in a little chair at mamma's feet, gazing silently at the pages of "Baxter's Saint's Rest," held upside down. Not one word could Daisy read, she barely knew her letters; but she had found Baxter in the little rack which held mamma's books of devotional reading, her "prayers books," Daisy called them; and believing any work she found there must be suitable to the day, and the state of mind she considered it proper to maintain while mamma was ill, she had possessed herself of it, and was now fully persuaded that she was deriving great benefit from the contents thereof. "So you ran away from mamma," said Mrs. Ransom, caressing Carrie's hand as she buried her face in the sofa-pillows beside her mother's. "Did she frighten you so? What a poor foolish mamma it is to be so startled at such a harmless little thing as a mouse, is it not, dearie? I hope I should not have been quite so foolish if I had been well and strong. My poor Carrie!" Worse and worse! Here was mamma blaming herself and pitying her! She could say nothing, only nestle closer to her mother, and try to keep back the sobs which were struggling to find way. Mrs. Ransom was quite well again by afternoon, and able to join the family at the dinner-table; but although the spirits of the other children rose with her recovery, Carrie still continued dull and dispirited. She accompanied her father and Nellie to church in the afternoon. Happening to turn his eyes towards her during the service, Mr. Ransom saw her leaning her head listlessly against the back of the pew, while her lips were quivering and tears slowly coursing one another down her cheeks. He wondered what could cause it. There was nothing in the sermon to touch her feelings, indeed she probably did not understand one word of it. He drew her towards him, and passing his arm about her let her rest her head against his shoulder where she cried quietly for a few moments, and then, as if this had relieved her, dried her eyes and sat up. Carrie had taken a resolution, and the very taking of it had done her good, and made her feel less guilty and unhappy. Papa was so kind and good that she began to think that after all perhaps it would not be so very hard to tell him all, and confess how naughty she had been. Even if he punished her very much, the punishment could not be worse to bear than this, she thought. She would tell him as soon as they reached home, and she could find an opportunity to talk to him alone. But alas for poor Carrie's hopes of unburdening her mind at once! On the way home from church a gentleman joined her father and went to the house with him, came in, stayed to tea, and actually remained all the evening, even long after her bedtime and Nellie's. Nor was this the last drop in Carrie's cup. Daisy met them at the gate when they returned from church, brimming over with excitement, which was speedily taken down when the strange gentleman, laying his hand on her little round head, turned to her father and said,-- "Your youngest son, Mr. Ransom?" "My daughter,--another little daughter," said Mr. Ransom, quickly, knowing Daisy's sensitiveness on this point; but the wound was given past recall, and the stranger was henceforth looked upon as a man capable of breaking any and every commandment among the ten. "I s'pect that man never ermembers the Sabbaf day to keep it holy; and I don't b'lieve he ever says his p'ayers," said Daisy, severely, regarding him with an air of great offence as he walked on with her father to the house. "I think he does. I believe he's a very nice gentleman," said Nellie, much amused. "No, I fink not," said Daisy, decidedly. "I b'ieve he slaps his wife fee times ev'y day. He has the look of it." Nellie laughed outright. "He hasn't any wife," she said. "He'd do it if he had one then," persisted Daisy, who, in general the most forgiving and soft-hearted of little mortals, could not overlook the offence of the visitor, "'cause he calls people sons. Augh! People that slap their wives so much that they kill 'em have to be took to prison," she added reflectively, and as if she found some consolation in the thought. "Hannah told me so. She knew a man that was." "Hannah had no business to tell you such stories as that," said Nellie. "Mamma wouldn't like it at all, Daisy." "Then I'll tell her she mustn't do it," said Daisy; "but, Nellie, do people that kill mice have to be took to prison?" "No," said Nellie, "mice are very troublesome and mischievous, so it is not wrong to kill them. But it would be very wicked to tease them or hurt them more than we can help." "I'm glad of that," said Daisy, "'cause I wouldn't like you and Carrie to go to prison." "No, I should think not," said Nellie, "but Carrie and I did not kill a mouse." "Oh, yes! you did," said Daisy, "least you squeezed him up in the bed so he had to kill hisse'f afterwards." "O Daisy!" said Nellie. "It's the truf," answered Daisy, as one who knows. "Hannah found him 'most dead in your bed this morning, 'tween the mattresses, and she said you must have put him there last night, but you didn't know it, and afterwards he killed hisse'f about it. I saw him when he was dead, and going to be frowed away." Nellie shuddered, the thought was very painful to her that the mouse should have come to his death in such a way; but Carrie felt worse still, and turning round and resting her arm upon the back of a rustic chair which stood beneath a tree, she laid her head upon it, and cried as she had done in the morning when she was hiding in the garret. Nellie comforted her as well as she could, but Carrie was hard to be consoled; and felt as if she was never to hear the last of those unlucky mice, and the consequences of her own naughtiness. Mr. Ransom sat up late that night, long after his visitor had left, and the family gone to rest. All his little children he supposed to be long since fast asleep; and he was just preparing to turn out the lights and go upstairs himself, when a slight sound in the hall without attracted his attention. The patter of small bare feet it sounded like, and the patter of small bare feet it was, as he was assured a moment later when a little white-clad figure presented itself at the open door, and looked wistfully at him with pitiful, beseeching eyes. "Carrie! my child! are you ill? What is wrong?" he asked in much surprise. "No, papa, not ill, but,--but"--Tears choked her voice, the little feet ran over the floor, and she had clambered upon his knee, and with her face hidden in his bosom sobbed out her confession. "I've been awake so long, papa," she said, "and I thought I never could go to sleep till I had told you, and I could not wait till morning, so I came out of my bed down here to find you. Oh! please forgive me, and do you think mamma can ever forgive me for being so cruel to her, and trying to think it was all nonsense about her being so afraid of mice? And then to think that poor little mouse was killed just for me! Nellie and I never knew he was there when we turned the bed over, but he wouldn't have been in our room if I had not brought the mice upstairs; and now Ruth says she don't know when we'll be rid of them, and mamma will be troubled and frightened with them for ever so long. And Nellie and Daisy have been real helps to mamma, and I talked so much about helping her too, but I've only been a bother and trouble to her, and never did a thing for her after all." All this, and much more, the sorrowful little penitent poured into her father's ear. Mr. Ransom had no mind to punish or scold her: he saw that she was already sufficiently punished by the remorse and anxiety she had brought upon herself, and he thought that this was likely to prove a lasting lesson to her. Besides, the thing was quite a new offence of its kind; for Carrie was generally not only obedient, but also regardful of what she believed to be her mother's wishes, whether expressed or not; and he did not desire to be hard with her now that she saw her fault so plainly, and was in such a humble, repentant frame of mind. So although he talked seriously to her, he did so very kindly and quietly,--poor Carrie thought she had never known her father so kind,--nor did he talk very long that night, but soon carried her up to bed in his arms, quite soothed and comforted; and so great was the relief of the confession, that the poor little weary head was scarcely on the pillow before she was fast asleep. No sooner were she and Nellie awake in the morning than she told her sister the whole story, feeling that she could no longer keep the secret from her, but making her promise not to tell the boys, lest they should tease her, which Carrie felt she could not bear. The hardest of all was yet to come, the confession to her dear, gentle, tender mother. Mamma would look so surprised and grieved, would be so shocked to think she could be so cruelly thoughtless. But it was gone through with bravely, not very steadily it is true, for Carrie's voice failed her more than once, but she did not attempt to hide or excuse any thing. And oh! how much lighter her heart was when it was over, and mamma knew the worst. Perhaps Mrs. Ransom was not as much surprised as Carrie had expected she would be: it may be that she was prepared to hear the story which Carrie had believed would shock and distress her so much; and the readiness with which she granted her forgiveness but made her little daughter feel all the more repentant for having been so heedless of her comfort. It was a healing repentance now, though, with the sting and bitterness gone from it; and Carrie felt as if she should never be fretful and cross again; no, not even with Ruth She would try to be so helpful, so considerate and good now, she thought; but she would make no "fuss" about it, or talk as though she meant to do such very fine things, only to fail after all perhaps. Nellie and Daisy had said and promised far less than she had done, but their actions had spoken for them. "What is that you are doing, Nellie?" she asked, when all the little housekeeping tasks accomplished, her reading and practising finished, Nellie brought her workbox and sat down to sew. "Why! those are the slippers mamma was going to work for Johnny, are they not?" "Yes," said Nellie. "And are you going to help her with them?" "I am going to work them all," answered Nellie. "Mamma began them, but she found it tired her eyes, and she was anxious that Johnny should not be disappointed, so I told her I would work them." Carrie sat a moment silent. "And I suppose," she said at length, "that that was the reason you said you would not have time to make the bracket for mamma?" "Yes," said Nellie, quietly. "O Nellie!" said Carrie, "how much better you are than I am. You are a real, true help to mamma: you think of and you do what is really useful to her, but you don't talk about doing such great things. And Daisy, too; when I think about her giving up her white mice that she really had a right to keep, 'cause mamma said she could, I do feel too ashamed and mean for any thing. Nellie,"--after another little thoughtful pause,--"do you think a good way to show mamma how sorry I am would be to spend all my saved-up money for mouse-traps?" "Well, no, I don't," said Nellie. "I do not think that would do any good, for papa has bought several this morning; and there is one set in every room in the house, so that we hope the mice will soon all be caught." "Then what can I do to show mamma how sorry I am?" asked Carrie. "I think mamma knows it already, dear; and the best way is just to be careful to think about what she would like, and then to be very sure to do it;--and--and I think one good way would be not to quarrel with Ruth, and not to make trouble in the nursery." "Ruth is so hateful," murmured Carrie. "I don't think Ruth would be cross to you if you would be a little more patient and good in the nursery," said Nellie. "You know, Carrie, dear, how often poor mamma has to go to the nursery to make peace, or to take the baby, because you will not wait for what you want, or will not stand quiet to be dressed, or something like that." "Yes," owned Carrie, half reluctantly, "and Ruth never does be cross to you or Daisy; and when I am good she is pretty decent. But, Nellie, such things as that do not seem like a real help." "But they _are_ the best help: mamma says so, and I've found it out for myself, Carrie," said Nellie. "Nellie, would you ever have believed that I could do such a thing as to keep those mice?" "I was surprised when you told me," answered her sister, "but I was just thinking, Carrie, that it was really not so very much worse than the way I behaved while I was studying so much and tiring myself out over those 'Bible subjects.' I think I was horrid to mamma and to all of you then." "Yes, you were," said tactless Carrie. "I was thinking so much more about being wise and knowing a great deal than about being good and a help to mamma," continued Nellie, not offended, though she had winced a little at Carrie's plain speaking, "that it seems to me now that I was almost as naughty as--as"-- "As I was to keep the mice?" said Carrie. "Yes, as you were to keep the mice. I don't think I thought any more about mamma than you did, and I know several times I made a good deal of trouble for her which might have been helped if I had been more careful." "You've quite given up your Bible subjects, haven't you?" asked Carrie. "Yes, I made up my mind to be contented with those I had. They would show Miss Ashton I had thought of what she said, but I know she would think it was right for me to leave them. I've made up my mind too, Carrie, not to be so very anxious about my books and studies." Here Daisy came running up to them. "Nellie, what'll make me grow very fast?" "I don't know," said Nellie: "what do you want to grow very fast for?" "So I can have a birdie," said Daisy. "Papa said I was too little now, least he said he would give me one when I was bigger. If I was to plant myse'f and then pour water on my foots like they do on the flowers' foots, then wouldn't I grow pretty fast?" "No," said Nellie, "you'd only be all wet and muddy, and then you'd be sick." Daisy sighed. "Oh, I do want a birdie so," she said. "I'd love my birdie more'n my white mice; oh! a great deal more. Nellie, if I was a birdie, or a white mouse, would you love me the most?" "I'd love you whatever you were," said Nellie, turning to kiss the sweet, dimpled cheek beside her: "I couldn't help it." "If I was an ugly bug crawling about, would you love me?" questioned Daisy. Nellie laughed. "Yes, I'd try to," she answered. "Nellie, if I was that ugly bug crawling about, would you smash me?" "Not if you were not doing any harm," said Nellie. "That would be cruel." "I'm glad," said Daisy, with unmistakable signs of relief in the assurance. "I wouldn't like my sister to smash me even if I was a bug. Nellie, mamma said God sometimes made people sorry 'cause He thought it was good for 'em to make 'em better: does He send bugs and spiders 'cause it is good for 'em too, and birdies just to make 'em glad?" Daisy's questions were sometimes quite beyond Nellie's powers of answering: indeed they often puzzled older and wiser people. But she tried to explain to her little sister that even bugs and spiders were made for some good purpose; and after this Daisy looked with more respect upon those obnoxious creatures, and was even upon one occasion heard to say,-- "Good, little, very ugly spider, maybe God has some work for you to do, so I won't smash you, but let you do it." While Nellie was talking to Daisy, Carrie rose and went in search of her father. She found him in the library. "Papa," she said, going close to him, "I think I ought to ask you to give my bird to Daisy. She deserves it a great deal more than I do for giving up her white mice, and I do not think I ought to have it. Nellie will take care of it for her, and she does want a bird so much." Mr. Ransom lifted her upon his knee. "You really think this, Carrie? You really wish that Daisy should have your bird?" "Yes, papa, it really seems the most right for her to have it. I thought so ever since you brought the birds home and she wanted one so much, but I felt as if I could not tell you to give her mine; but now I think I would feel better if you let her have it instead of me." "Do as you please, my dear child," said her father, kissing her. "Daisy certainly does deserve a reward for her self-sacrifice." To describe Daisy's delight when Carrie took her up stairs, and leading her up to the bird said that it was hers, would be quite impossible. "Are you sure you don't mind, Carrie? Would you just as lieve I'd have him, for my own?" she exclaimed. "Oh! I am so glad, so glad! When I have a camel wif two humps on his back, I'll give him to you, Carrie,--I really will." The bird was henceforth called Daisy's, but I believe that he afforded quite as much satisfaction to the former little owner as he did to the present one; for she had the care of him as much as if she had kept him for her own; and it was thought best that he should still hang in her room so that he might not be separated from Nellie's bird. * * * * * And now good-by to my "Little Sunbeams." If they have shed light in any shady places, brightened any youthful eyes, or cheered any innocent hearts; if they have poured even the faintest ray upon the safe and narrow path which leadeth upward to Eternal Light,--the recompense is great; and may the blessing of the Master go with them, and prosper them, it may be, for His glory. * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Punctuation errors repaired. Page 17, "Neilie" changed to "Nellie" (Nellie ran down to meet) Page 64, "reponsibility" changed to "responsibility" (of all this responsibility) Page 74, "oppsite" changed to "opposite" (into the opposite) 
7767	----	Juliet Sutherland, S. R. Ellison, Ted Garvin, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE GRAYMOUSE FAMILY BY NELLIE M. LEONARD CHAPTER I THE GRAYMOUSE HOME CHAPTER II UNCLE SQUEAKY CHAPTER III TREASURES FROM THE PLAY-ROOM CHAPTER IV MOTHER GRAYMOUSE KEEPS SCHOOL CHAPTER V LIMPY-TOES IS LOST CHAPTER VI BUSTER AND THE CHOCOLATES CHAPTER VII SILVER EARS' ADVENTURE CHAPTER VIII VISITING MRS. FIELD-MOUSE CHAPTER IX MOVING DAYS CHAPTER X THE CHRISTMAS TREE ILLUSTRATIONS That Wicked Thomas Cat is prowling about and I had to be careful The little Graymouse children greeted Uncle Squeaky gleefully "I might manage to tell one more Story," he chuckled There was a pretty daughter who loved Bright Ribbons The door flew open and in ran Ruth and Robert Giant How shall we ever manage to get it home? "That cross old Norah" Buster folded his paws in his lap and sang very sweetly "How nice the Apples smell," said Buster "My poor, dear Limpy-toes," she sobbed "Tell us all about it?" they begged It was a hot summer day Grand-daddy Whiskers with a pan of warm biscuits under his arm The only food in sight is set around on the pantry shelves in traps A busy little procession marched to the barn "Jolly little mice are we" GRAYMOUSE FAMILY [Illustration] CHAPTER I THE GRAYMOUSE HOME Mother Graymouse, with her family lived in a cosy attic which was as snug and comfortable as any good mouse could wish. Her children were named Limpy-toes, Silver Ears, Buster, Teenty and Tiny, and Baby Squealer. Although they had many faults, upon the whole they were good children and made a happy family. On pleasant mornings, the sun shone in bright and warm through the dainty cobweb curtains of their east window. In the summer-time, robins and orioles sang sweetly among the green branches of the maple tree which shaded the west window. Even when it stormed, Mother Graymouse and her little ones enjoyed the patter, patter of the rain-drops upon the roof and window-panes. They were thankful for such a good home. The house in which they lived belonged to a family of giants. There was Mr. Giant, his wife, and two little Giants. The little girl was a pretty child named Ruth, with blue eyes and long yellow curls. Her brother, Robert, looked almost exactly like her, except that his yellow curls were shorter, he wore bigger boots that made more noise, and instead of playing with dolls and tea-sets he liked balls and bats and air-rifles. After Mr. Giant had fitted up half of the attic for his children's play-room, life was much jollier for the little Graymouses. The steam heat from the play-room came through the cracks and made their home as warm as toast. Limpy-toes and Silver Ears worked busily away until there were three holes through which they could steal softly in and watch Ruth and Robert at their play. Since Christmas the attic had become a merry, noisy place. "I wonder how those young Giants manage to make such a racket?" grumbled Mother Graymouse. "I've been trying for an hour to rock Baby Squealer to sleep and the poor dear is wide awake now. Such a din, I've seldom heard." "It's their Christmas presents, Mammy," replied Silver Ears. "Ruth has a toy piano." "And Robert blows his new cornet and beats his drum," finished Limpy-toes. "He must like to work so hard," drawled Buster. "Oh, it's jolly fun!" cried Tiny. "It's jolly fun," echoed her twin Teenty. "Maybe it is," said Mother Graymouse, "but I'd like to chew a hole in those toys that would let out all the noise. With their racket and Squealer's howling, I'm almost crazy. Here, Silver Ears, sit by the cradle and amuse the baby. I must try to find something for our supper. Buster, I want you to help the twins set the dishes on the table while I am gone. Don't shirk now. Even if Limpy-toes is so lame, he helps me far more than you do. See the nice dish he is carving out of a walnut shell for me. I shall cook his favorite pudding in it to-morrow as a reward for his patient toil. Aren't you ashamed to be idle when your poor crippled brother tries so hard to help his mother? Now be good children and don't quarrel." She slipped on her gray coat and the bonnet trimmed with blue ribbons and whisked out of sight down a hole in one corner of the attic floor. Silver Ears left little Squealer to cry himself to sleep while she stood on tiptoe before the old cracked looking-glass and tied a pink ribbon in a bow under her chin. "Where did you get that ribbon, Miss Prinky?" asked Buster. "In the play-room," laughed Silver Ears. "It used to belong to the doll, but now it belongs to me." "You look very sweet, Silvy," lisped Tiny. "You're sweet, Silvy," chimed in Teenty. Silver Ears made them a charming bow. "I thank you, twinnies! I'll bring you both something nice from the play-room some day. Now hurry! Mammy will soon return and you haven't even laid the table-cloth. Run and get the spoons from the cupboard, Buster, or I'll tell Mammy to put you to bed without any supper. Oh, that baby! Can't you jiggle the cradle, Limpy-toes, while you finish digging out the dish?" Mother Graymouse looked very sober when she came home. She took a cracker and some stale cake crumbs from her pocket. "This is all I could get to-night, my dears," she explained sadly. "That wicked Thomas Cat is prowling about and I had to be careful. It is snowing and the drifts are very deep, so I did not dare go across the street to the store. Ah well, we shall not starve." "Never mind, Mammy," said Limpy-toes. "Crackers and cake crumbs are nice." [Illustration: That Wicked Thomas Cat is prowling about and I had to be careful.] "By and by it will be summer, Mammy, and then we can all go out to hunt for food," added Silver Ears cheerfully. "But I want some cheese with my cracker," whimpered Buster. "When your poor Daddy was alive, we had cheese or meat for every meal. He was a wonderful provider. And so clever! What other family has a cradle like ours? And my rocking-chair--I'm quite proud of it. He made 'em all,--every stick of furniture we have, with his own clever paws. Poor Daddy, I miss him so! It is a cold world for a lone widow to be left in with six small children." Mother Graymouse sighed and wiped a tear away with her handkerchief. The five little mice tiptoed to their places at the table very quietly, for Limpy-toes had rocked Baby Squealer to sleep at last. They ate their supper in silence. Only Tiny and Teenty whispered and giggled softly to each other. Suddenly there was a great scrambling and scratching outside. "It is Uncle Squeaky!" cried Limpy-toes. "He's coming up the elevator," decided Silver Ears. "Oh, how lovely to have a visit from Uncle Squeaky on a snow-stormy night!" and the twins ran a race to the attic entrance. "Boo-hoo!" cried Baby Squealer. CHAPTER II UNCLE SQUEAKY The little Graymouse children greeted Uncle Squeaky gleefully. Silver Ears took his fur cap and cane, Limpy-toes hung up his great-coat, and the twins captured both his kindly paws and danced back to the chimney corner with him. Buster was such a fat, lazy fellow that he just sat upon his little stool and waited for his uncle to come to him. "Howdy do, Uncle Squeaky?" he said as the others drew their little red-painted stools into a half circle before Uncle Squeaky's arm-chair. "Have you any peppermints in your pocket?" "And will you please tell us a real exciting story?" begged Silver Ears. Uncle Squeaky laughed until tiny wrinkles came all around his twinkling, black eyes and he looked ever so pleasant. "Just listen to that, Ma Graymouse!" he cried. [Illustration: _The little Graymouse children greeted Uncle Squeaky gleefully._] "Just listen to that! One would think I was a walking candy store and a story book, all in one. Very sorry, Buster Boy, but I haven't a single peppermint in my pocket. I think you ought not to eat so much candy. You are too fat, already. As for stories, you kiddies have heard every tale that this old gray head holds, time and time again." He watched the five sober little faces as they sat upon their red-painted stools with their paws folded primly in their laps. Then he winked slyly at Mother Graymouse. "Oh, well, if you are going to feel as bad as all that, perhaps I might manage to tell you one more story," he chuckled. "But I think Silver Ears will hardly call it exciting. And I wonder if you little folk could make some checkermints do?" He drew forth a handful of pink candies from his pocket and gave them three apiece. "Bless my stars, how that little Squealer does squeal! Here, Ma Graymouse, stuff his mouth with this candy and I will begin my story:" [Illustration: "I might manage to tell one more Story, he chuckled."] "Once upon a time, away up in an attic, so high that it made their fat old uncle puff to climb up to their dwelling, there lived a widow and her six children. Their father met a sad death a short time ago and so her children had to be very brave and work hard to help their dear mother." "Sniff! Sniff!" went Mother Graymouse behind her handkerchief. "Boo-hoo!" cried Baby Squealer. Uncle Squeaky passed Mother Graymouse another checkermint for the baby and went on with his story: "The oldest son was much like his Daddy, very wise and clever at making things. He was somewhat lame as he had lost the toes of one foot in a trap when he was a small mouse, too small to be wise." "Limpy-toes!" they cried in a chorus. "And a great comfort he is, to be sure," put in Mother Graymouse heartily. [Illustration: There was a pretty daughter who loved Bright Ribbons.] "And there was a pretty daughter who loved bright ribbons and spent quite a good deal of time dancing before the looking-glass. But she was good-natured and helpful, with all her gay ways and dainty habits, and every one who knew her loved her." "Silver Ears, of course!" shouted the others. "The third little fellow resembled his Grand-daddy Whiskers," continued Uncle Squeaky. "He was fat as a butter ball, so he could not squeeze through holes to hunt for food with the others. He ate so many goodies that he was too tired to do much work, so he had to sit on his little red stool most of the time. But he could sometimes sing the baby to sleep, which was a great blessing. He was a sweet singer and now he is going to sing us a song. Wake up, Buster Boy, and give us a right good tune." Buster blinked sleepily. "It is rather warm in this chimney corner," excused Mother Graymouse. "Now, Buster, sing your newest song for Uncle Squeaky; that's a good child." Buster rubbed his sleepy eyes and began: "Cheese oh! Merry oh! Apple pie and cream; Cheese oh! Merry oh! Pudding that's a dream. "Heigh oh! Merry oh! Spice cake's very nice; Heigh oh! Merry oh! We are happy mice." "A voice just like his poor Daddy's," sighed Mother Graymouse, "and so he is a comfort, too." "Then there was a pair of twins," resumed Uncle Squeaky. "The two of 'em wouldn't make one good sized mouse. But it did not take much stuff for their dresses and they could steal through the tiniest, teentiest holes, which was often very handy for the whole family." How they all clapped for Tiny and Teenty! "Hush!" cautioned Mother Graymouse. "If we make too much noise, the Giant may be angry and turn us out of our cosy home." "Then there was a small baby; he was rightly named Squealer," added Uncle Squeaky dryly. "Well, one stormy night when the snow was packed against the windows so you couldn't even peep out, their old uncle made them a visit. He reminded them that once again it was New Year's Eve." He paused solemnly. "And so we must make new resolutions," smiled Silver Ears. "Very good," agreed Uncle Squeaky. "Suppose you begin." "I will obey my mother," said Silver Ears. "I will try to take poor Daddy's place," said Limpy-toes. "I will mind the baby," said Tiny. "I will mind baby, too," said Teenty. "Your turn, Buster," reminded Uncle Squeaky. "I will try to wake up mornings," said Buster. "And not eat so much, my boy. And do a little more work; it is good exercise," advised Uncle Squeaky in a rather severe tone. "Now that is fine. Good little mice are always obedient and helpful. I think, Ma Graymouse, that you ought to be very happy and contented this year with such dutiful kiddies. Now it is getting late. I must tell you the good news which was my real errand, and then be gone. Granny and Grand-daddy Whiskers have met with great good fortune. They have moved up one flight into the pantry closet. They say the air there is very fine--all sorts of delicious odors. And food! Why, it is hard to choose the bill of fare, there's so many goodies laying around! Granny wishes you to visit her and bring all the kiddies,--especially Buster," he grinned. "Good night. A happy New Year to you all!" "Happy New Year, Uncle Squeaky!" they called in chorus. "Bring your fiddle next time, uncle," coaxed Silver Ears, as he pulled his fur cap down snugly. "And don't forget the checkermints," drawled Buster from his little red stool. CHAPTER III TREASURES FROM THE PLAY-ROOM Tiny and Teenty were inquisitive little twins. One fine day, when Mother Graymouse had taken Baby Squealer down cellar to call upon Aunt and Uncle Squeaky, and Limpy-toes had been sent to the store across the street, they planned a pleasure trip of their own. "Silvy and Limpy-toes often visit the playroom and have a lovely time," whispered Tiny. "Let's go, you and I." "Let's go!" agreed Teenty, clapping her paws. "We'll stay just as long as we wish," planned Tiny. "So we will. It will be good fun," answered Teenty. Silver Ears heard them whispering and giggling together, but she was busy making herself a blue velvet hood from some pieces that Mother Graymouse had found in an old trunk. So she never noticed when Tiny and Teenty slipped through a hole that led to the play-room. "Oh, isn't it grand to come all by ourselves!" whispered Tiny. "Isn't it grand!" echoed Teenty. "Mammy Graymouse will think we are old enough to look out for ourselves if only we can find something nice to take home to her," went on Tiny. "Oh, see, Teenty, they haven't thrown away their Christmas tree, yet! I smell goodies. Why, it is pop-corn! But I never saw it growing on a string before. Hurry and pull it off before the young giants come." Tiny and Teenty cut the strings of pop-corn with their sharp teeth and they fell softly to the carpet. All at once, the door flew open and in ran Ruth and Robert Giant. Tiny and Teenty scrambled out of sight under the sofa pillows and sat tremblingly holding each other's cold little paws, while their hearts went thumpity-thump! [Illustration: The door flew open and in ran Ruth and Robert Giant] "Norah must throw out this tree to-day," said Ruth Giant. "It has stood here nearly a month. The hemlock is falling all over the carpet." "Even the pop-corn is falling," laughed Robert. "I am going to draw a picture of the tree and color it with my new paints." "And I will read another chapter in my book before papa comes back with the auto." It was so still in the play-room that the poor scared twins under the pillows were afraid the Giant children would hear their hearts beating pitty-pat! pitty-pat! It seemed a long, long time before Maid Norah's freckly face appeared in the doorway. "Your pa says you're to hurry if you want to ride in the auto with him," she announced. Flying footsteps, slamming doors, and then the play-room was deserted. Tiny and Teenty crept shyly from their hiding-place, feeling very stiff. "Oh, see, Teenty!" cried Tiny. "There's a bag of Christmas candy away up in the tree. The young Giants did not find it." Up among the branches she scrambled, almost to the tip-top of the tall tree. Her sharp white teeth cut the string arid with a bang, down fell their prize. Then Tiny swung herself nimbly to the floor. "Such a lot of candy! Won't Buster grin," laughed Tiny as she caught up a string of pop-corn and started for home. Teenty took another string and followed after her sister. "See, Silvy, what a nice lot of pop-corn we have brought," said Tiny. "See my nice pop-corn, too," echoed Teenty. "Why, isn't that lovely!" cried Silver Ears. "I will put it away safely on the cupboard shelf and perhaps Mammy will make us a pop-corn pudding." "And, Silvy," went on Tiny eagerly, "there's a bag of candy, oh, a very big bag of candy, on the play-room floor." "It's a very big bag of candy," said Teenty. Buster pricked up his ears. "Shall I help you bring it home?" he offered. "Oh, please do. And Silvy, too, for it's a real giant bag of candy," explained Tiny, excitedly. So they all four marched into the play-room and tugged and tugged until they had pulled the candy bag close to the biggest hole. But oh dear me! Even the biggest hole was ever so much too small. Silver Ears sat down and scratched her head thoughtfully. "How shall we ever manage to get it home?" she asked. "I know," planned Buster. "Let's eat it right here. That is a nice easy way." "Oh, no," said Silver Ears. "The Giants might come back, or old Tom. Besides, I want Limpy-toes and Squealer and Mammy to share our goodies. We will untie the string and take out the candies. Buster and Tiny must go through the hole and Teenty and I will push the candies through, one piece at a time." "That is hard work," grumbled Buster. "My way was ever so much easier." Silver Ears gave the fat, lazy, little fellow a shove that sent him squealing through the hole. [Illustration: How shall we ever manage to get it home?] Tiny followed quickly after. Soon the four little mice were busy shovelling candy. It was rather hard work; "almost as bad as shovelling coal into a bin," Buster thought. "Silvy, make Buster help me," complained Tiny. "He is just sucking the candy off his paws and I'm most buried up." "Well, my paws are all sticky," drawled Buster. "Get to work, Buster, and help Tiny," called Silver Ears, sharply, "or I'll come through the hole and shake you till you'll see stars." At last every stick of the pretty colored candy was pushed through into the Graymouse side of the attic. Teenty frisked through and Silver Ears danced after her, with the candy bag rolled in a little bundle under one arm. When Mother Graymouse came home just at dusk, after a delightful visit with Aunt Squeaky and all the little Cousin Squeakies, a fine surprise awaited her. Limpy-toes had returned from the store with plenty of cheese, a slice of boiled ham and some cute little oyster crackers. Silver Ears and the twins had set the table. At each place they had laid a stick of red and white striped candy. The cupboard door was ajar, and even before Mother Graymouse had put Baby Squealer in his cradle, or taken off her bonnet, she caught sight of the heap of Christmas candies and the popcorn, which looked like a white snow-bank upon the cupboard shelf. "Sniff! Sniff!" Out came Mammy's handkerchief as she sank into her rocking chair, bonnet, baby and all. "Boo-hoo!" cried Baby Squealer. The five little mice looked dismayed. "What is the trouble now, Mammy?" asked Silver Ears, sadly. "We thought you would be glad. Just see this candy bag. Won't it make a nice shopping bag for you if we make it smaller?" Mother Graymouse wiped her eyes. "And so I am glad, my dear Silvy," she smiled. "Did ever a poor widow mouse have such good, helpful children? When I'm sad, I cry. And when I'm glad, I cry, also. Your poor Daddy used to think it very queer. But never mind, my dears. Bring your little stools and we will eat this splendid supper before the tea gets cold." CHAPTER IV MOTHER GRAYMOUSE KEEPS SCHOOL Silver Ears was very angry and excited one morning when she returned from a visit to the play-room. Her eyes were pink and swollen from crying as she sat beside Squealer in the chimney corner. "She is a hateful old Norah, Mammy," she burst out at last. "Ruth Giant wants me to be her little pet mouse. I heard her tell Robert. And she tossed me the nicest bit of cake I ever tasted. It was frosted and stuffed with strawberry jam. "Then that horrid old Norah Maid came in and shoo-ed me with her broom. I hid under the doll's bed. You wouldn't believe the bad things that freckly-faced Norah said. She told Ruth Giant that she wasn't going to have nasty little mice around, running up her skirts, not if she knew it. She stuck her snubby nose up in the air and said it seemed as if the room smelled mousey. Then when I started to run home, because I couldn't listen to such talk a minute longer, she cried--'There he goes now, Miss Ruth! The nasty, thieving, little beast! If there's a creature I can't abide, it's a mouse, to be sure!' "I'm not a nasty little beast, am I, Mammy? I have a nice warm bath every Saturday night." "Every Saturday night, the whole six of you," agreed Mother Graymouse wagging her head proudly. "And what could a body ask more of a neat mother mouse with a big family?" "The Giants have a bath every morning," said Limpy-toes. "Granny Whiskers says so, and of course Granny knows." "A bath every morning!" cried Silver Ears. "Just think of that." "Just imagine it!" drawled Buster. "Well, they must be very dirty children," decided Mother Graymouse. "A bath every morning! I'd be ashamed if my children could not keep clean longer than that. Ruth Giant isn't a bit cleaner, sweeter, nor daintier than my pretty Silver Ears, if I do say so, as shouldn't." "I'm not a thief either, Mammy," sobbed Silver Ears. "When that Maid Norah goes about killing flies by the dozens, does she call herself a murderer?" demanded Mother Graymouse with indignation. "When that old black Tom gobbles up an innocent mouse for his supper, does she call him a murdering beast? Neither are we thieves," went on Mother Graymouse hotly. "Even mice must live, and unless we eat we will surely die. It is very ill-natured of the Giants to begrudge us the few poor scraps that we are able to pick up. But don't ever let me hear of your eating any cake again, Silver Ears, even if it is stuffed with jam, without first showing it to me," she finished in a severe tone. "But, Mammy, I'm sure Ruth Giant would not give me cake that was not fit to eat." Then Mother Graymouse drew up the five little red-painted stools in a row. She sat down before them in her rocking chair with little squirming Squealer upon her knees. She gave him a stick of pink candy to suck, so he would stop squealing while she talked. "It is very painful," she began slowly, "but I see that I must teach you some lessons this morning. Sit on your little stools and come to order for school. Buster, you sit up straight and pay attention. Now listen every one. "E--n--e--m--y. Now spell it after me." "E--n--e--m--y!" piped five shrill little voices. "Who can tell me what an enemy is?" Buster waved his paw wildly. "Something good to eat, Mammy," he answered, smacking his fat little chops. "I fear, Buster, that I must make a dunce cap for you," said his mother, trying hard not to smile. "An enemy is a trap that pinches off toes," answered Limpy-toes. "That cross old Norah is an enemy," decided Silver Ears. "But Ruth Giant is not an enemy." [Illustration: "That cross old Norah."] "Maybe not; maybe not," returned Mother Graymouse. "But I mistrust all the other Giants. So take care, my dears. "An enemy is anything that will harm us. Traps are our enemies. Some traps look like wire cages with a nice smelly bit of toasted cheese inside. But the silly mouse who enters the cage will only be let out when there is a cruel cat waiting outside to pounce upon him. There are many kinds of traps, but they are all wicked enemies. So beware, my dears. "Cats are our enemies. You have all seen that cruel old Thomas Cat, the black imp, with brass eyes that shine in the dark like automobile lamps. His teeth are sharp and strong; his claws are like ugly needles. Never take any chances when he is around, my dears. "The Giants are our worst enemies. They set the traps to catch us; they keep the cat to eat us. Often they try to poison us. That is the reason, Silvy, why you must never eat Ruth Giant's cake until I have seen it. "Your poor Daddy ate a cracker one day, which was spread with salmon and rat poison. It was the cause of his untimely death. 'Water, water, water!' he moaned. Oh, I shall never forget how he suffered! I helped him down to the pond and found a hole in the ice where he could get water. But he grew worse as soon as he drank. Poor Daddy! And so he died out there in the cold winter weather. Sniff! Sniff! This has been a painful task, but you must remember every word I've spoken this morning. Now for our review lesson." "E--n--e--m--y, enemy," she spelled. "E--n--e--m--y, enemy," chanted five obedient mice. "T--r--a--p, trap," went on Mother Graymouse. "T--r--a--p, trap," echoed her scholars. "C--a--t, cat," she continued firmly. "C--a--t, cat," shrilled all five. "P--o--i--s--o--n, poison; that is the last word." "P--o--i--s--o--n, poison," finished the tired little scholars with a sigh. "Very good," smiled Mother Graymouse. "Very good, indeed! School is dismissed. You may run out and play." Buster waved his paw high. "Please, Mammy, I've made a new song. May I sing it now?" "We shall all be delighted. Hush, hush, Squealer, while your clever brother sings to us." Buster folded his paws in his lap and sang very sweetly: "Traps are our enemies, Old Tom Cats, too; Watch out for Norah's broom, When she cries Shoo! "Although the cheese smells nice, Nibble it not; Wise little mice you see, Ne'er will be caught." "Charming!" cried Mother Graymouse, and all the little Graymouse children clapped their tiny paws. "I think we will learn it for our bed-time song," decided Mother Graymouse. "It will help you remember the lessons I have taught you to-day." [Illustration: _Buster folded his paws in his lap and sang very sweetly_] CHAPTER V LIMPY-TOES IS LOST "May Limpy-toes, Buster and I visit our cousins to-day, Mammy?" asked Silver Ears one bright morning. "If you will be careful and remember all I have told you. Be sure to come home before dark." The three little mice trotted bravely away. They went down their elevator, then crawled through a dark subway, until they came to the warm cellar where Uncle Squeaky and his family lived. Aunt and Uncle Squeaky had gone to the city, but all the cousins--Dot, Scamper, Wink and Wiggle, were at home. They were very glad to see them. "Mother left us a nice lunch and we will have a picnic together," planned Dot. Dot and Silver Ears looked almost exactly alike. A stranger could hardly have told them apart. Silver Ears had brought some squares of patch-work to sew. She was making a new quilt for Baby Squealer's cradle. "Let's sew first," said Silver Ears, "and then we can have fun all the rest of the day." "All right," agreed Dot. "Pa Squeaky always says, 'Work before play, my dears.' I will finish the silk ties I am hemming for Wink and Wiggle." So the pretty cousins sat down cosily together at their tasks. Scamper invited Limpy-toes and Buster to the apple closet where they often played. Wink and Wiggle went along also. "How nice the apples smell," said Buster. "They taste good, too," answered Scamper. Then the five little mice each chose a red apple to nibble. "Aren't we glad we came, Limpy-toes?" cried Buster. "It is good fun," said Limpy-toes. "What is that big yellow thing, Scamper?" "That's our play-house," cried Wink and Wiggle. [Illustration: "How nice the Apples smell," said Buster.] "We made it out of a pumpkin," explained Scamper. "Just see the windows and doors," said Wink. "Come inside and see how nice it is," invited Wiggle. They all took their apples and sat down inside the toy house. "It is very cunning," said Limpy-toes. "But it must have been hard work to chew it all out," added Buster. "It did take a long time," admitted Scamper cheerily, "but it was great sport. We like to make our own playthings." Then Buster and Limpy-toes had to tell the cousins all about the wonderful toys in the Giant's play-room. It was a long story. By the time it was finished, Dot called them to a nice lunch. In the afternoon, Uncle Squeaky and his wife returned from the city. "Bless my stars!" cried Uncle Squeaky, "if here aren't three of the Graymouse kiddies! Glad to see you, my dears." Aunt Squeaky asked about Mother Graymouse's health and wanted to know all about Baby Squealer and the twins. Then she hurried away to change her best gown for a house dress and put away all the bundles. Uncle Squeaky took down his fiddle and began to play a jig. "Now, Buster Boy, sing us a song?" he coaxed. Buster loved to sing; so he made no excuses. He folded his paws just as Mammy had taught him and sang: "Cheese oh! Merry oh!" while Uncle Squeaky played softly on the fiddle. "Sing your newest song, Buster," reminded Silver Ears. Uncle Squeaky was delighted with "Traps are our enemies." He made them all stand up in a row and sing it over and over until they knew it by heart. "A very good lesson in rhyme," said Aunt Squeaky wagging her head approvingly. It seemed a very short time before it began to grow dark. "We must start home now," said Silver Ears. "We promised Mammy." "Good mice always keep their promises," said Uncle Squeaky as he filled their pockets with dried pumpkin seeds and raisins. When Mother Graymouse, with Squealer and the twins, returned from making Granny Whiskers an afternoon call, she found Silver Ears and Buster setting the tea-table. "Where is Limpy-toes?" she asked. "He was here only a few minutes ago," said Silver Ears. Supper was ready and still Limpy-toes was missing. Mother Graymouse grew uneasy. "Are you sure he came all the way home from Uncle Squeaky's with you, Silvy?" "Quite sure, Mammy. He brought this bag of crullers which Aunt Squeaky sent to you." Mother Graymouse became very anxious when supper was over and still Limpy-toes did not come. She stole into the play-room and looked in every corner. Then bidding Silver Ears rock Squealer to sleep, she hastened down to tell Grand-daddy Whiskers her trouble. "I fear that some dreadful accident has befallen my poor, dear Limpy-toes," she sobbed. "Now, Daughter Betsey, don't you worry," was Grand-daddy's cheerful reply. "Limpy-toes is a wise lad and knows well how to look out for himself. I will light my lantern, however, and go out. Perhaps I may meet him." Mother Graymouse went home somewhat comforted and laden with a pocketful of good things which Granny sent the children from the pantry shelves. Grand-daddy Whiskers and Uncle Squeaky searched all that evening, flashing their lanterns into every dark corner, but at midnight they had to tell Mother Graymouse that no trace of Limpy-toes was to be found. Poor Mammy cried and cried. All night long she wondered which enemy had captured her oldest son. Could it be old Thomas Cat? Was he caught in some dreadful trap, or had he eaten poison like poor Daddy? At last she fell asleep. [Ilustration: My poor, dear Limpy-toes, she sobbed.] In the morning as she prepared the little bowls of oat-meal, she kept wiping her eyes. "How shall I ever tell the poor dears that their brother is dead?" she sighed. At last, Silver Ears, Buster, Tiny and Teenty were seated around the breakfast-table sipping their hot porridge. Mother Graymouse was dressing Baby Squealer who was howling, as usual. "Where is Limpy-toes, Mammy?" asked Tiny. "Didn't he come home?" "Sniff! sniff!" went Mother Graymouse. "My poor children, I fear you will never see your dear brother again." While she was speaking, there came the far-off patter, patter, scratch, scratch, of somebody climbing up to the attic. "Grand-daddy Whiskers," guessed Mother Graymouse, "or it may be Uncle Squeaky bringing us bad news." And then, up through the hole in the attic floor, who should appear but Limpy-toes himself! "Boo-hoo!" cried Baby Squealer as his mother dropped him in a wriggling heap among the cradle pillows and ran to hug Limpy-toes. "Tell us all about it?" they begged, as Limpy-toes drew up his little stool and asked for his bowl of oat-meal porridge. "I had quite an adventure," laughed Limpy-toes. "It wasn't so bad, only I knew Mammy would worry. I slipped into the play-room while Silvy got supper, hoping to find something good to eat. That Maid Norah was there and she tried to hit me with an old shoe. I couldn't get back through our holes, but had to run down-stairs. I dodged old Thomas Cat and ran and ran. Ruth Giant opened the door and I whisked out onto the piazza. "At first I thought of going through the subway down to Uncle Squeaky's. But I remembered that our meal-bag was empty. The barn was near and I ran out to fill my pockets in the meal-chest." [Illustration: Tell us all about it? they begged,] "While I was working, Mr. Giant came into the barn and got a dishful of meal for his chickens. It was quite dark and he did not see me. But all at once, down slammed the lid, and there I was, a prisoner for the night! Well, the meal made a soft bed and I slept nicely. This morning, Norah opened the grain chest and I sprang out so swiftly that she hardly saw me. I had a narrow escape from old Thomas Cat, but here I am, safe and sound. Please, Mammy, may I have some more porridge?" CHAPTER VI BUSTER AND THE CHOCOLATES It was a hot summer day. Mother Graymouse had taken her children out for a stroll in the fields. Only Buster remained at home. He had been naughty and was punished by being left behind. "I'd rather lie here and read my picture book than trot around in the hot sunshine," he thought. "If only I had some candy, I would be quite happy." After he had looked at all the pictures and read one of the shortest stories, he shut the book and began to sing softly to himself. By-and-by he grew restless. "Oh, dear, I'm not one bit sleepy. I can't take another nap. I wish I had some candy. I wonder--" Then he pushed Baby Squealer's high-chair over to the cupboard and climbed up until he could reach the shelf where Silver Ears had put the Christmas candy. It was gone; every single piece. [Illustration: It was a hot summer day.] "Oh, I know!" remembered Buster. "Ruth Giant had a birthday party last night. I think there may be some candy in the play-room. It will do no harm to look." He stole softly into the play-room on tiptoe, lest old Thomas Cat might be prowling about and hear him. Ruth Giant was sitting among the pillows upon the couch, reading a book. Beside her was a box of splendid chocolates. Now and then she ate one. Buster hid behind the doll's dresser and waited. At last he got impatient. "She will eat 'em all up and I know they are real good," he fussed. "Mammy will come home and call me pretty soon. Oh, why doesn't somebody call Ruth Giant down-stairs? I wonder if she would think I was Silver Ears and toss me some candy? It can't be poison, for she is eating it her own self." At last, such a long at last, Buster thought, Ruth closed her book and went away. How Buster did hurry to get his greedy little paws into that box of chocolates! He ran home with one, frisked back for another, and still another, until the very last one of Ruth's fine chocolates was added to the delicious heap on Buster's bed. "My, but that was hard work!" panted the fat, lazy, little fellow. "I wonder where I can hide 'em so I can have candy to nibble when I want it?" Down behind an old trunk was a pair of old boots that Mr. Giant had brought to the attic. They were rather musty and dusty, but Buster decided it would be quite safe to hide his candy in one of them. So he trotted back and forth until half of the chocolates were stored away in the toe of a boot. "I guess I can eat the rest before Mammy comes, for I'm real hungry for candy," thought Buster. He lay down on his little bed and snuggled cosily among the pillows with his book and candy. "Just like Ruth Giant," he thought proudly, as he nibbled a chocolate. "It is almost as good as having a birthday party of my own. And it is much nicer than tramping around out of doors, if Mammy does call it a picnic." When Mother Graymouse returned, the children were all eager to tell Buster about their good time in the fields. "We went down the lane," said Silver Ears, "and found lots of sweet wild flowers." "And we met Mr. Hop Toad and his wife out for a stroll," added Limpy-toes. "Yes, and we saw Pete and Dickie Grasshopper, and Madame Butterfly, also." "We had our lunch in a lovely grove of ferns," piped Tiny's shrill little voice. "It was a lovely, cool grove," echoed Teenty, "and we had a nice lunch." Buster listened sleepily. Now and then he rubbed his stomach. "Were you lonely, Buster?" asked his mother. "No, ma'am." "Did you have a good nap?" "Yes, ma'am." "Are you sick, child?" she demanded, anxiously. "Yes, Mammy," wailed Buster. "It seems as if my little jacket would burst! Boo-hoo!" Mother Graymouse hastened to get him a hot drink, but poor Buster rolled and tossed upon his little bed. Grand-daddy Whiskers came puffing up to the attic with a pan of warm biscuits under his arm. Mother Graymouse looked relieved, for Grand-daddy was quite a doctor. "What shall I do for the poor child, Grand-daddy?" she asked. "What has he been eating?" was Grand-daddy's first question as he bent over Buster's bed. "They weren't poison, Grand-daddy, 'cause Ruth Giant was eating 'em her own self," moaned Buster. "Eating what?" cried Mammy and Grand-daddy in the same breath. "Chocolates," confessed Buster. [Illustration: Grand-daddy Whiskers with a pan of warm biscuits under his arm] "How many?" demanded Grand-daddy sternly. "Only ten," whimpered Buster. "I will be right back," said Grand-daddy. "There is a bottle of castor oil on the pantry shelf. That was what the doctor gave Robert when he ate too much candy. You will get a good dose, young man, and then you will feel better. Ten chocolates; the greedy little pig!" he grumbled as he hurried away. "I won't take castor oil, Mammy!" cried Buster. "It tastes horrid." "You will take castor oil, Buster," replied Mother Graymouse, "if I have to hold your nose." Grand-daddy soon returned with the oil bottle and in spite of Buster's kicks and squeals, he managed to pour a big dose down his throat. In a short time, Granny Whiskers came up to see her sick grandchild. "I fear that oil will not cure him," she said. "You see, he has been eating a good deal of sweet. What he needs is some sour medicine." She disappeared down the hole and soon returned with a bottle of vinegar tucked under her plaid shawl. "Aren't you afraid that vinegar will strangle the poor dear?" protested Mother Graymouse. "Not a bit of it; not a bit of it! Give me a spoon," directed Granny. Buster made a wry face as he swallowed the sour dose. Then he began to cough and splutter and choke until Mammy grew frightened. Uncle Squeaky appeared upon the scene just then. "Stop that, you young rascal!" he laughed. "That is a very poor imitation of a cough. What you need is neither oil nor vinegar, but a good dose of salt. You are altogether too fresh for a youngster." Buster stopped choking at once. Soon he began to feel better. Then he called Silver Ears. "There's ten more chocolates hidden in the toe of the Giant's boot, Silvy," he whispered weakly. "Bring 'em out and eat 'em for supper. I'm not hungry for candy any more." He rolled over and tried to go to sleep. Silver Ears dived down into the boot toe and pulled out the hidden candies. And so the Graymouse family found two plump chocolates at each place when they sat down to supper. "It has been a lovely picnic day," lisped Tiny, nibbling her chocolate. "It has been a real lovely day," echoed Teenty sweetly. Poor Buster, his face hidden in the pillows, remembered his picnic day--chocolate, castor oil, vinegar, and pain,--and he just scowled and scowled. CHAPTER VII SILVER EARS' ADVENTURE It was a rainy day. Big drops splashed against the window-panes and drummed upon the attic roof. Silver Ears was restless. She had helped Mammy sweep the floor, had wiped the dishes, and rocked Baby Squealer to sleep. She did not wish to sew any more patchwork squares. She could hear Ruth Giant laughing softly in the play-room. "I'd like to be Ruth Giant's pet," she thought wistfully. "That strawberry jam cake was lovely and so were the chocolates and pop-corn. I mean to visit her again. I know Ruth Giant is not an enemy. Mammy need not fear." She tied her pink ribbon bow under her chin, and without a word to anyone, slipped through a hole into the play-room. But oh dear me! Ruth Giant had company. A little girl with brown curls and great brown eyes was sitting in Ruth Giant's rocking-chair. Silver Ears hid behind the doll's dresser which stood near the biggest hole. Perhaps Ruth would not want her for a pet to-day. Maybe the other girl would be afraid of a mouse. Some girls were silly just like that. So Silver Ears waited and listened. "Let's play dinner-party, Dorothy," Ruth was saying. "I like to play dinner-party on rainy days. It is ever so cosy. We must dress the dolls in their prettiest gowns." The two girls worked busily away putting dainty white dresses upon their flaxen-haired dolls. Silver Ears listened with great interest. She learned that the dark-eyed doll with the red sash was Pansy; Daisy wore a blue ribbon to match her eyes; while the one who was dressed in yellow silk was named Rose. They were very stylish dolls and wore lace collars, pretty hair ribbons and strings of beads. It took quite a while to get them ready for the party. "Now if you will spread this napkin on the table, Dorothy, I will go down and coax Norah for some nice things to eat," planned Ruth. Dorothy set the tiny table with a cunning tea-set of white and gold. Then she placed Daisy, Pansy and Rose around the table. "Oh, isn't it lovely!" cried Ruth. "Just see all the nice things that dear old Norah fixed for us." She put a plate of cold chicken, some bread and butter sandwiches, a glass of raspberry jam and four frosted cup cakes upon the table. "How nice!" exclaimed Dorothy. "Oh, I just love dinner parties!" "So do I," thought Silver Ears. "I wish they would invite me to dinner." "Dinner is served," announced Ruth, sweetly. "Oh, my! I never thought about something to drink until I saw the empty cups. I must ask Norah to make us some cocoa." "I'll go down with you," said Dorothy. "Oh, joy!" Silver Ears almost clapped her excited little paws. Chicken, jam, frosted cake! The minute the play-room door was closed, she invited herself to dinner. Daisy, Pansy and Rose looked smilingly on and said never a word while she nibbled some cake and dipped her paw daintily into the jam. Then she tried the chicken. It was the most delicious chicken she had ever tasted. "I hope it will take that Norah Maid a long time to make the cocoa," she thought, and her sharp teeth nibbled the chicken as fast as ever they could. By-and-by, Silver Ears heard footsteps. Seizing a slice of chicken, she whisked softly into the doll's bed and, safely hidden under the blankets, kept on with her feast. "Now we are all ready at last," laughed Ruth. "I think I must make Tommy sit beside me. He does not behave real good at dinner-parties. I cannot teach him not to put his paws on the table." Silver Ears began to tremble. So that cross old Tom Cat was a guest at the dinner-party! That cruel, black Tom with the brass eyes and sharp claws. Suppose--just suppose! "Why, Ruth!" exclaimed Dorothy, "one of the dolls has been eating cake." "And where in the world is all that chicken?" wondered Ruth. "It is over half gone. Tommy wasn't here or I'd think he was the thief. Who do you suppose could have---" Ruth paused suddenly to watch Tommy. He was acting strangely. He sniffed at the table, hopped down and ran straight to the doll's bed, like the keen-nosed detective that he was. Out popped Silver Ears. She darted across the room and squeezed through the tiniest hole just as Tom's sharp claws reached out to grab her. She slipped safely through to the other side and Tom went angrily back to the empty bed, switching his long tail. He had to be content with a piece of cold chicken for his dinner that day. Silver Ears ran sobbing to Mammy. "My dear child," said Mother Graymouse, "you are all of a quiver. And your poor little back is bleeding!" She hurried to find some lint and cobwebs in the dark, unswept corners of the attic. "Do not be frightened, Silvy. Mammy will fix you up as good as new. Run down to Grand-daddy, Limpy-toes, and fetch a pinch of cure-all salve. By to-morrow, your scratch will be all well, Silvy dear." "Oh, such a fright!" gasped Silver Ears. "I don't wish to be Ruth Giant's pet any more. She can have her dear Tommy if she wants him." "Did you get anything good to eat?" asked Buster. "Oh, yes. Come over here, twinnies, and I will tell you all about it. I wish I'd had time to stuff some of that chicken and frosted cake into my pocket for you all. It was a splendid dinner party, if that old Tom hadn't been invited." "Chicken, raspberry jam and frosted cake," repeated Buster in his slow, drawling voice. "Say, Silvy, don't you mind that scratch. I'd risk it for such a good feast. Do you suppose there's any left?" "I forbid you all to enter that play-room again without asking my permission," commanded Mother Graymouse. "Don't risk it, Buster," laughed Silver Ears. "Why, you never would have reached that hole. You are too fat to run fast. I nearly missed it. And anyway, you would have stuck in the middle of that teentiest hole and old Tom would have chewed your tail right off." "True, quite true," echoed Mother Graymouse, wagging her head solemnly. CHAPTER VIII VISITING MRS. FIELD-MOUSE One fine morning in midsummer, Mother Graymouse and her family started upon their annual outing. Mrs. Field-Mouse, who was a distant cousin of Daddy Graymouse, lived near Pond Lily Lake. Mother Graymouse usually visited her each year in August. The children had been looking forward to this trip for many days. The bag which had once held the Christmas candy, was packed with dainties for the little Field-Mouse Cousins. Limpy-toes and Buster were to take turns carrying it, while Silver Ears helped her mother with Squealer. They started quite early in the morning, while the grass was wet with dew, for it was a long walk and by noon the sun would be very hot. Tiny and Teenty raced merrily on ahead, picking bouquets of wild blossoms and calling gaily to the butterflies and honey bees who were flitting among the flowers. By-and-by, the tired little party stopped to rest under a clump of red clover. Granny Whiskers had slipped a ginger cookie into each tiny pocket when they called at her door to say good-by. These cookies made a nice luncheon for them. "How much farther is it, Mammy?" asked Tiny. "We must follow this crooked path that leads through the sweet clover, then go to the south of a big corn field. Do you see the top of that wild cherry tree over yonder? Well, Cousin Field-Mouse lives near that tree." They were soon rested and eager to go on. It was sweet among the nodding pink and white clover blossoms. The tall corn stalks, with their silky tassels, seemed like a forest to the timid children, but Mother Graymouse trotted bravely on. Under the shade of the wild cherry tree, however, she paused in confusion. "Why, Mr. Giant has plowed this land all up for his garden!" she cried. "Poor Cousin Field-Mouse! Her comfortable home has been destroyed." "Must we go home?" sighed Silver Ears. "I'm tired," mourned Buster. "Wait. I see Dickie Grasshopper over by the pond," said Limpy-toes. "Perhaps he can tell us where Cousin Field-Mouse lives now." Dickie Grasshopper agreed at once to show them the way to Mrs. Field-Mouse's new home. He went on ahead with a hop, skip and jump, so that they had to hurry to keep him in sight. He soon brought them, warm and breathless, to a pile of rails near the corn field. "I thank you very kindly, Dickie," said Mother Graymouse. Then she knocked upon the door of the humble cottage. "Why, my dear Betsey!" cried Mrs. Field-Mouse. "I am glad to see you! And all of the children. Dearie sakes, how they do grow! This is a pleasure, a real surprise party. Do come in and take off your bonnet." "We did not know that you had moved, Debbie," said Mother Graymouse as she untied Squealer's bonnet strings. "How did it happen?" Tears came into Mrs. Field-Mouse's eyes. "Oh, it was dreadful, Betsey, just dreadful! One bright, sunshiny morning in the spring, there came a terrible earthquake. All in a minute, our home was a mass of ruins. Pa Field-Mouse was away from home. I snatched Baby Wee and saved him. But oh, my dear Betsey, of all my ten children, Wee and Nimble-toes were the only ones to escape. Sniff! sniff! sniff!" "Sniff! sniff!" cried Mother Graymouse. "Well, we mice must make the best of things," added Mrs. Field-Mouse more cheerfully. "Our new home is snug and sheltered and not nearly as damp as the old one. There is an abundance of sweet corn and other juicy vegetables in the Giant's garden, and a big oak tree near by to supply us with all the acorns we shall need for next winter. "The pond is near, also. Pa Field-Mouse has built us a small raft of dried mushrooms and sometimes we go sailing across the water. Pa and Nimble-toes are down by the pond, gathering seeds. When they come home, Nimble-toes shall show the dear children the sights." When Pa Field-Mouse and Nimble-toes returned, Mrs. Field-Mouse had dinner ready, out under the oak tree in real picnic fashion. Nimble-toes danced with delight when he saw the bag of rare goodies. Buster, however, thought that the minced turnip and seed salad was a great treat. Baby Squealer never cried "Boo-hoo!" once all that long summer day. He played with Baby Wee as smiling and happy as could be. "The darling is always as good as gold when he is out doors," said Mother Graymouse. "I always said it was fresh air and sunshine that made Wee so healthy," agreed Ma Field-Mouse. After dinner, Nimble-toes invited Limpy-toes, Silver Ears, Buster and the twins to go out and play with him. They went down to the pond, which was dotted with sweet, white lilies, and watched the fish splash in the water. Grandpa Bull Frog hopped over to chat with them. He invited them to a frog concert which was to be held that evening. "We would love to stay," smiled Silver Ears, "but I fear Mammy will go home early." "Grandpa Bull Frog plays a bass-viol," explained Nimble-toes. "He plays very nicely." "So does my Uncle Squeaky," bragged Buster, "only he plays a fiddle." A big black snake crawled along just then and frightened the twins so badly that they all had to run away from the pond. In the garden, Nimble-toes showed them how to climb a corn-stalk, peel off the husks and nibble the sweet, white kernels. "Oh, isn't it sweet and juicy!" cried Buster. "Say, Nimble-toes, I'd like to stay here a whole month." "You would grow fatter than ever," laughed Limpy-toes. "But it is delicious." They found some little red berries growing under the oak tree, that tasted very much like Uncle Squeaky's checkermints. Nimble-toes said that they were checkerberries. All too soon, the sun sank in the west, it began to grow dark and Mammy called that it was time to start for home. It was a fine moonlight evening and the walk home seemed short. Crickets were singing their even-songs all along the road. Whippoor-wills and tree toads shrilled their calls, also. From Pond Lily Lake, they heard faint, sweet sounds in the distance as the frog concert began. "It has been a lovely day, Mammy," said Silver Ears. "I would like to live away out in the country." "Where there are sweet, juicy ears of corn," added Buster. "Nimble-toes promised to take me for a sail some day," said Limpy-toes. "Oh, let's go again, Mammy," lisped Tiny. "Let's go," echoed Teenty. Baby Squealer was sound asleep in the candy bag which hung over Mother Graymouse's shoulder, so he did not even say "Boo-hoo!" "Well, well, dearies, we did have a delightful visit," replied Mother Graymouse. "Perhaps some day we will go again." CHAPTER IX MOVING DAYS One day, Mother Graymouse put on her gray bonnet with the blue ribbons on it, and hunted around for the candy bag. She was going shopping. When at last she found the bag, there was a hole in one corner. "I have not used it since the day we visited Cousin Debbie Field-Mouse," she remembered. "That naughty Baby Squealer must have chewed a hole in it on the way home. Please bring a needle and thread and mend it for me, Silvy." "There is no thread, Mammy. I used the last needleful yesterday sewing patchwork." "Dear me, I shall have to get some," sighed Mother Graymouse. "I have a whole paper of needles, but they are useless without thread." "I saw Ruth Giant making a doll's dress in the play-room," lisped Tiny, "and she had a nice, new spool of white cotton. I didn't go in, Mammy, truly I didn't. Teenty and I were peeping through the littlest hole." When Mother Graymouse had gone, Silver Ears was eager for another adventure. "We need that nice new spool of thread," she argued, "and I mean to get it. No, Buster, you are too fat to run fast, and Limpy-toes is lame. I shall not let the twins venture, for old Tom is often in the play-room. So I must go myself." Away she skipped, before cautious Limpy-toes could say no. Pretty soon she slipped through the tiniest hole, laughing gleefully. She held a long white thread in her mouth. "Hurry and bring the empty spool," she cried. "I fooled old Tom that time. He was asleep on the couch and never heard me. I couldn't pull the spool through the hole, so I've brought one end of the thread. We'll take turns winding it on to our spool." They wound, and wound, and wound. "Seem's if there is no end," complained Buster. Limpy-toes went on with the work. Suddenly, the thread tightened and the spool in the playroom stopped bobbing. The twins crept slyly to the hole to see what had happened. They came back giggling softly. "Old Tom thinks someone is bobbing it for him to play with," lisped Tiny. "Stop winding," directed Silver Ears, "and old Tom will soon take another nap." When Mother Graymouse returned, Silver Ears had the shopping bag neatly mended and there was plenty of thread upon their spool. "I meant to have gone for it myself. And I had told you, Silvy, never to go to the play-room without asking," she scolded. "I'm sorry I disobeyed, Mammy," said Silver Ears. "You see, we needed the thread so badly and it was such fun to fool old Tom, that I forgot what you said. Please forgive me, Mammy?" "Yes, dear, I will forgive you this time. But oh, such a risk!" she sighed. Next day, Silver Ears discovered that all three of the holes into the play-room had been stuffed with yellow soap. "The nasty tasting stuff!" she scolded. "How can we ever get it out? If we chew new holes, I suppose they will be stuffed, too." When Mother Graymouse called upon Granny Whiskers, she found her in great trouble. "The cookies are shut tight in pails. The cheese and meat are covered. The only food in sight is set around on the pantry shelves in traps. The Giants mean to starve us out. Such terrible times as have befallen us!" she moaned. Uncle Squeaky was of the same opinion. Mr. Giant had been very angry when he found the pumpkin play-house that Wink and Wiggle had made. He found fault because his choice red apples were nibbled. "And now," continued Uncle Squeaky in a disgusted tone, "the whole cellar is full of traps." They held a serious counsel,--Grand-daddy and Granny Whiskers, Uncle and Aunt Squeaky, and Mother Graymouse. They talked until midnight. When the clock struck twelve, Grand-daddy summed it all up. [Illustration: The only food in sight is set around on the pantry shelves in traps.] "This has been going on for some time. War is now declared. Our enemies are stronger, wiser and richer than ourselves. Daddy Graymouse has lost his life, Limpy-toes had lost some toes, and I have lost a generous piece out of one ear. We must consider the safety of our children. It is wise, therefore, to retreat before it is too late," he finished, looking very solemn. The other four wagged their heads in approval. Next morning when all the little Graymouses were eating their breakfast food, Mother Graymouse announced soberly, "My dears, we are going to move." "Out into the country?" cried Silver Ears and Buster at once. "Out into the barn." "Oh, dear!" wailed five little mice. "Boo-hoo!" cried Baby Squealer. "Listen, dearies," argued Mammy patiently. "Our lives are no longer safe in this attic. Our enemies are cruel. We must go. But Grand-daddy and Uncle Squeaky will go with us. You will have Dot, Scamper, Wink and Wiggle for playmates. Just think what fun you ten children will have together. Uncle Squeaky knows a snug place in the hay loft where we can live in safety. There's plenty of grain in the barrels and the store is still across the street. We older folk may even venture into the Giant's pantry now and then. But we think it best to take you children out of danger." "It might be worse," remarked Limpy-toes. "I shall love to have Cousin Dot with us," smiled Silver Ears. "And Wink and Wiggle," added the twins. "Prob'ly Granny will make us some ginger cookies," drawled Buster. "But oh, Mammy, what hard work it will be to move!" "It will, indeed," agreed Mother Graymouse, "so I think, Buster, that you may as well start right now to help me pack. There's my rocking chair, Squealer's cradle and high-chair, all your little beds and stools, besides my dishes,--it makes me weary just to think of it." "We must not forget our needles and thread," said Silver Ears. "I mean to rummage in these trunks and get a whole lot of stuff for dresses and bonnets and patchwork. And our shopping bag--we must not forget that." Each night as it grew dusky, a busy little procession marched to the barn, laden with their household goods. It took a long time, for they meant to stock up as heavily as possible for the coming winter. But at last, Granny wrapped herself in her plaid shawl, slipped a bottle of castor oil and another of vinegar into her skirt pocket, and said good-by to her pantry home. Uncle Squeaky, with his precious fiddle tucked under his arm, joined her and Grand-daddy. Then followed Mother Graymouse and her little brood, with Aunt Squeaky and the cousins. But the next week was Thanksgiving. Granny, Mammy and Aunt Squeaky were good cooks and they forgot their sadness in their preparations to celebrate the holiday. And so it was a jolly, thankful party which sat down to the feast at Grand-daddy Whisker's long table which was laden with good things for their Thanksgiving dinner. [Illustration: A busy little procession marched to the barn.] CHAPTER X THE CHRISTMAS TREE It was twilight time. Silver Ears, Dot and Buster were sitting in the fragrant hay. Over in another corner of the loft, Wink and Wiggle were playing a game of tag with the Graymouse twins. "Let's have a Christmas tree next week, like the young Giants did last year," proposed Silver Ears. "All trimmed with pop-corn and candy!" exclaimed Buster. "Oh, Silvy, that would be grand!" "Let's go right now and find Scamper and Limpy-toes," said Dot. "We will ask them to help us choose a tree and bring it home. There is lovely moon-light, out of doors." Mother Graymouse and Aunt Squeaky said they might go to the woods if they would be very careful. So they dressed warmly and started out. They met Limpy-toes and Scamper dragging home the shopping bag filled with delicious cream cheese from the store. They readily agreed to help find a tree. Limpy-toes led the way. He remembered seeing a pretty little cedar tree down by the pond when they had visited Cousin Field-Mouse. It was a long walk, but at last they found it, all powdered with snow which sparkled in the moonlight. Such a frolic! They took turns hacking away at it with their tiny hatchet, giving merry squeals when the cedar twigs pricked their paws. Then they dragged it home, making a funny path in the snow. "To-morrow we will come again," planned Scamper, "and we will bring Wink and Wiggle, Teenty and Tiny. We must all gather princess pine, evergreen and holly to trim the barn so it will look real Christmasy." All that week, the children had a jolly time. They made holly wreaths dotted with red berries, and yards of evergreen trimming. Grand-daddy set the cedar tree in one corner where it looked very grand. Uncle Squeaky slipped into the Giant's pantry one evening, when his keen nose smelled pop-corn, and came back with a load of the fluffy white stuff. "Get your needles, children," called Mother Graymouse, "and we will string some pop-corn for the tree." They sat in a circle upon the barn floor around the heap of corn and sewed it into strings which Granny Whiskers tossed upon the branches of their tree. Granny was as interested as the youngsters in the Christmas doings. Another evening, Uncle Squeaky brought home some peppermints and checkermints. "Here, kiddies, sew some thread through these candies and hang 'em on your tree," he grinned. "Oh, how pretty!" cried Dot, when the pink and white candies were swinging among the green branches. At last came Christmas Eve. "We have a Christmas tree and it is all trimmed lovely," lisped Tiny, "but do you s'pose there'll be any presents like Ruth and Robert Giant had on their tree?" "They say that Santa comes down from the North Pole on his sled drawn by swift reindeer and brings a great pack filled with presents for good little mice," said Grand-daddy. "But you must all go to bed early, for he would not want you peeping while he trimmed your tree," added Granny. It was not easy to go to sleep on Christmas Eve. But at last, Baby Squealer stopped squealing; the twins giggled themselves to the Land of Nod; Wink and Wiggle could not keep their heavy eyes open any longer; and the four oldest children went sound asleep, for they had worked hard that day cracking nuts for Mammy's cake and seeding raisins for Aunt Squeaky's Christmas pudding. When the clock struck eleven, strange to say, it was Buster's eyes which were still wide open. He was usually very sleepy, but to-night he was very curious. He wanted to see Santa trim that tree. So he winked and he blinked under his blankets, keeping real still and pretending to be asleep. And what do you think? Grand-daddy began to hang pieces of cheese on the tree! Aunt Squeaky tiptoed in with a pile of cute little hemstitched handkerchiefs; Mammy had a handful of gay ribbon bows and neckties; and Granny was hanging up ten pair of scarlet mittens. Uncle Squeaky brought in a red double-runner sled and pushed it under the tree! "I guess Santa is a joke," chuckled Buster sleepily. "Won't we have fun sliding on that double-runner Uncle has made!" Quite happy, he closed his eyes and went sound asleep. He awoke suddenly when the clock struck one. There was a jingle of sleigh bells; the reindeer were racing across the frozen snow; and there, in the bright moonlight, was old Santa trimming their tree! Buster gazed in wonder while the fat old fellow tied on handkerchiefs, red mittens, cream cheese, ribbon bows and candies. Why, he was even pushing a sled under the tree! "That is queer," thought Buster drowsily. Bright and early next morning, ten little mice were dancing about their tree. Sure enough, Buster found it loaded with the very presents he expected. "Grand-daddy, did you trim our tree, or did Santa?" he demanded. "Why do you ask such funny questions, Buster Boy?" laughed Grand-daddy. Then Buster told all he had seen in the night. "You must have eaten too much cheese for supper," chuckled Uncle Squeaky. "Cheese always makes me dream." "But did I dream about Santa, or about you and Grand-daddy and Mammy?" insisted Buster. "Well, that's the question," grinned Uncle Squeaky as he walked off, leaving Buster very much puzzled. They left the presents on their tree all Christmas day. In the evening, they held a concert. Uncle Squeaky played upon his fiddle and Buster sang his newest song: "We are merry as can be, Happy little mice, Gathered round our Christmas tree Hung with gifts so nice. Jolly little mice are we, Happy all day long; So we shout and sing with glee Our glad Christmas song." Then Grand-daddy played Santa and distributed the gifts. "Oh, I think the hay loft is nicer than our attic home, after all," laughed Silver Ears. "So it is," agreed Limpy-toes. "Because we are all living together," said Dot. "I think we have nicer things to eat," drawled Buster. "And we love to play with Wink and Wiggle," lisped Tiny. [Illustration: "Jolly little mice are we, Happy all day long; So we shout and sing with glee Our glad Christmas song"] "Yes, my children, it is indeed a Merry Christmas this year," said Grand-daddy. "We are safe and snug in a comfortable home with plenty to eat. I just heard that our old enemy, Thomas Cat, has been run over by Mr. Giant's automobile. He will worry us no more. Your uncle and I are making a profound study of traps. We no longer fear them, because we understand them. "Come, Uncle Squeaky, tune up and we will all dance around the Christmas tree and sing Buster's new song with right good will." The jolly old moon, peering through the one dusty window-pane, saw a frolicsome circle of mice join hands and dance around a little cedar tree. They were singing merrily: "Jolly little mice are we, Happy all day long; So we shout and sing with glee Our glad Christmas song." And so ended a merry Christmas day in the Giant's barn loft. 
7808	----	GRAND-DADDY WHISKERS, M.D. By NELLIE M. LEONARD Illustrated By CARLE MICHEL BOOG CONTENTS CHAPTER I A MESSAGE PROM THE WOODFOLK CHAPTER II BACK TO THE LAKE CHAPTER III GRAND-DADDY BEGINS HIS WORK CHAPTER IV DOT SQUEAKY'S SUMMER SCHOOL CHAPTER V A WOODS FIRE CHAPTER VI DR. WHISKER'S BUSY DAY CHAPTER VII TWIN TAILS CHAPTER VIII WIGGLE BORROWS THE AUTOMOBILE CHAPTER IX AUTUMN LEAVES CHAPTER X SNOWED IN ILLUSTRATIONS Somebody stole softly up behind him; two paws blindfolded his eyes "All aboard for Pond Lily Lake!" he cried gaily The heavy furniture cart was pulled down the last hill "Will you walk into my parlor, Dr. Whiskers?" Dr. Whiskers worked deftly away, setting the broken limb Webbie Spider raised his paw They worked bravely with Uncle Squeaky for captain The little band began to play Silvy's Waltz Dr. Whiskers twisted and pulled upon the hook It was long past midnight when tired old Grand-daddy pulled off his boots. "Fetch that creoline bottle, Silvy," repeated Grand-daddy sternly. "Hold your breath, now" They had good fun picking the brown nuts from the soft, silky linings of the burrs. Sure enough, next morning poor Buster could hardly see out of his eyes. "And so," explained Uncle Squeaky, "he went on a hop, skip and jump like this" He folded his paws as Mammy had taught him long ago, tossed his head high and sang merrily. GRAND-DADDY WHISKERS M.D. CHAPTER I A MESSAGE FROM THE WOODFOLK Nimble-toes Field-mouse trotted briskly along the dark subway and up the steep attic stairway in Mr. Giant's house. He had travelled a long way from his woodland home and it was getting late. The door of the cosy attic where Cousin Graymouse lived was ajar. Nimble-toes paused to get his breath and peep in at the busy, happy family. Mother Graymouse sat in her rocking-chair singing to little Squealer. Tiny, Teenty and Buster Graymouse were playing upon the floor near by with their cousins, Wink and Wiggle Squeaky. Aunt Squeaky and Uncle Hezekiah were busy around the stove. Grand-daddy and Granny Whiskers sat in the chimney corner waiting patiently for their supper. From the pantry came Silver Ears Graymouse and Dot Squeaky, bringing food to the table. "I hope Limpy-toes Graymouse and Scamper Squeaky have not gone away," thought Nimble-toes. Somebody stole softly up behind him; two paws blindfolded his eyes. "It is Limpy-toes," he guessed, trying to be brave in that dark, strange place. "Right you are, Nimble-toes," laughed Limpy-toes. "Scamper and I have been over to the store to get some cheese. I thought you were a burglar, just at first. Push open the door and trot in." "It is Cousin Nimble-toes!" cried a noisy chorus of little mice. "It is Nimble-toes Field-Mouse, sure as I'm a mouse!" declared Uncle Squeaky. "Welcome to our attic, my lad." [Illustration: Somebody stole softly up behind him, two paws blindfolded his eyes.] "You must be hungry after your long tramp, Nimble-toes," said Mother Graymouse. "Supper is all ready." The little mice crowded around their cousin from the Pond Lily Lake country. They all talked at once, squealing excitedly and asking all sorts of questions, until poor Nimble-toes was bewildered. At last he climbed upon a little red stool and shouted in Uncle Squeaky's ear: "I've a message for Grand-daddy Whiskers. Please make 'em be still a minute, Uncle Hezekiah." Uncle Squeaky rapped smartly upon the floor with his cane. At once there was silence. "Fetch your little stools and sit down to supper, every last mouse of you!" he commanded. "Let your victuals fill your mouths and stop your noise. Nimble-toes has brought a word for Grand-daddy." In a twinkling they were all seated around the long table. Nimble-toes sat beside Grand-daddy, so he could talk with him easily, for Grand-daddy's left ear had been torn in a trap and he was somewhat deaf. "Now we are as still as mice," chuckled Grand-daddy. "Speak out, Nimble-toes." "I have a message from our woodfolk, Grand-daddy," began Nimble-toes. "No one could write a letter, so they told me what to say. I've said it forty-'leven times, lest I forget. The message is from Pa Field-Mouse, Squire Cricket, Sir Spider, Daddy Grasshopper, Mr. Hop Toad, and Mr. Jack Rabbit. They bade me say this: "Dr. Grand-daddy Whiskers-- "We woodfolk are sometimes sick; we need a doctor. We wish our children to have a teacher. They must learn to read and write. Our wives must learn to cook and sew. We wish to be civilized. We miss Uncle Squeaky's band. Please come to Pond Lily Lake and help us." "We'll come, all right, Nimble-toes," interrupted Wiggle. "We'll surely come," promised Wink. "Hurrah for another summer at Pond Lily Lake!" "Hush! hush!" cried Mother Graymouse. "You will put your noses in a dark corner instead of eating supper, if you interrupt again," warned Uncle Squeaky, scowling at his excited twins. "Are there many sick ones?" asked Grand-daddy. "Squire Cricket has a sore throat, Lady Spider is ailing, and almost everyone is sneezing," replied Nimble-toes. "They really need you, Grand-daddy," advised Aunt Belindy Squeaky. "Our kiddies need the country sunshine after being shut up all winter in this attic," added Mother Graymouse. "Limpy-toes shall help Grand-daddy, I'll be his nurse, and Dot will make a lovely school teacher," planned Silver Ears. "I'd love to teach the little Spider, Cricket and Grasshopper kiddies," smiled Dot Squeaky. "Ah, there's lots of goodies down by the Lake!" reminded Buster. "There's strawberries, blueberries, apples, potatoes, sweet corn--let's go right away, Grand-daddy." Granny Whiskers sat silently rocking while the others chattered eagerly. Grand-daddy watched her as she wiped away a tear and sighed wearily. "What do you say, Granny? You enjoyed last summer's vacation at the Lake, didn't you?" he asked. "Ah, Zenas, it was pleasant enough; pleasant enough, to be sure! But I cannot bear to think of leaving our dear attic home. You went away last winter with Hezekiah and Scamper. And what happened? Why, we nearly fretted our hearts out, waiting for your return. Something was always happening at the Lake. Baby Squealer got lost, Wiggle 'most got drowned, Limpy-toes came near burning to death, and the barn burned to the ground. If you listen to me, Zenas Whiskers, you'll tell Pa Field-Mouse and his neighbors that you cannot be their doctor. Let us stay safely in our attic where there is nothing to harm us." Grand-daddy looked sadly disappointed. "I always wanted to live in the country and be a doctor, Granny," he sighed. "Bless my stars, Granny," laughed Uncle Squeaky, "we found Squealer without much fuss; Nimble-toes fished Wiggle out of the pond, and Limpy-toes didn't get even the patch on his trouser's knee scorched. To be sure, the barn did burn down. Lucky we were at the Lake, I'm thinking. Just take a nap, Granny, and forget your notion that this attic is the safest spot in the world. Nimble-toes' coming has stirred up my Gipsy blood. It is summertime again and the country is the place for your Uncle Hezekiah. We'll start for the Lake as soon as we can pack our belongings, Nimble-toes. Let me give you some more pudding." "I really feel called to go, Granny," argued Grand-daddy earnestly. "Just think of those kiddies who cannot read or write. You can help Betsey and Belindy teach their mothers how to make these delicious puddings and cookies. You can help me brew medicines. Think of those poor kiddies, as sweet and good as our own pretty ones, and they may be having the colic, or the tooth-ache, the whooping-cough or the measles, and never a doctor to dose 'em with peppermint and cure-all salve. I see that you and I are needed at the Lake." Granny began to look interested. "I suppose so, Zenas, I suppose so. I know you are a good doctor, a grand doctor, indeed. But it's a big risk to leave our cosy attic home and travel amid dangers." "We will go, Granny," decided Grand-daddy. "I promise you solemnly that Hezekiah and I will take good care of our big family and bring you all back, safe and sound, before snow flies." Granny still looked worried. "Ah well, Zenas, we shall see! Ah yes, we shall see!" she sighed as she sipped her tea. After supper the little mice had to show Nimble-toes all the wonderful toys that Uncle and Grand-daddy had brought from the city. Uncle Squeaky began to pull out boxes and bags in which to pack his shirts and neckties. "Hurrah, Grand-daddy!" he cried. "I'm as excited as the kiddies. Bless my stars, but they are giving Nimble-toes a jolly good time! Pond Lily Lake until snow flies ah, but it's a great country down there!" "I'm a-thinking if I do much doctoring and we fetch greedy Buster, little Squealer, and those mischievous twinnies of yours home safe and sound, that it will not be all vacation fun between now and snow-time," said Grand-daddy. "Better tuck the kiddies into the blankets early, Hezekiah. We have a busy day ahead of us on the morrow." CHAPTER II BACK TO THE LAKE Their attic home was a bare-looking place by the next evening. All day long the little mice had trotted down the dark subway, carrying their treasures to the entrance near Mr. Giant's back doorstep. Here was hidden the cart which Grand-daddy had made from a stout box and four big spools. It was piled high with furniture, boxes of food and clothing, and all sorts of supplies. Dot and Silver Ears had rummaged in Mrs. Giant's trunk and chosen pretty pieces of cloth from which they could make dainty summer gowns. Aunt Squeaky and Mother Graymouse had spent the day baking ginger cookies, jelly tarts, and other goodies. Granny Whiskers had helped Grand-daddy make a stout bag and packed it with his precious medicines. Near their furniture cart stood the wonderful automobile which Limpy-toes had invented and built in the long winter evenings. He had taken the wheels and springs from an old clock in the attic. The whole family was quite proud of Limpy-toes' automobile. Early the next morning, he meant to make a trial trip and take Dr. Grand-daddy to the Lake. "Please let me ride with you and Grand-daddy, Limpy-toes?" begged Buster. "Better not, Buster Boy," grinned Uncle Squeaky. "There's a whole load of goodies on our cart. Mammy and Aunt Belindy baked lots of good stuff to eat." "Mammy will give me some cakes in my pocket. I want to ride in the automobile. Please let me, Limpy?" "All right," agreed Limpy-toes good-naturedly. "Cousin Nimble-toes may ride also." Nimble-toes opened his eyes wide. "Excuse me, if you please, Limpy-toes," he said quickly. "I will help Uncle Squeaky pull the cart. I'm sort of scared of a cart that'll go without pulling or pushing. It may run away with you." "And it may have to be pushed or pulled," teased Uncle Squeaky. "It is every bit as good as Mr. Giant's automobile," insisted Buster. "I'm not the leastest bit scared. I know it will go whizzing. Ah, what sport we will have!" "Grand-daddy will start very early, for he must find a house near his patients. If you wish to ride with Limpy-toes, you must trot off to bed right now, Buster," decided Mother Graymouse. "Aunt Belindy and I are going down cellar to say good-by to Polly Scrabble and her babies." Next morning, while the Giant family were sound asleep, Grand-daddy, Limpy-toes and Buster tip-toed softly down to the entrance. "Do not make too much noise cranking your automobile, Limpy-toes," whispered Grand-daddy. "We do not wish to disturb Mr. Giant." Limpy-toes pushed in the key and began to wind the stiff spring. "See if you can turn it any more, Grand-daddy. Perhaps your paws are stronger than mine." Grand-daddy gave it several twists. Then Limpy-toes hopped upon the seat and grasped the wheel. "All aboard for Pond Lily Lake!" he called gaily. Grand-daddy and Buster scrambled in. The automobile made a dash through the chrysanthemum bushes into the driveway. On and on they sped, past the new barn, by the poultry houses and the sweet apple tree. Grand-daddy pulled his cap closer. "Ah!" cried Buster, "this is fun. But is it running away, Limpy-toes?" "Oh, no, I am steering it and can stop any minute," answered Limpy-toes. "A wonderful invention," praised Grand-daddy. "Now if any creature is sick, Dr. Whiskers will be there in a jiffy. Ah! What is the trouble, Limpy-toes?" The automobile had come to a sudden stop at the edge of Mr. Giant's orchard. "It has stopped," explained Limpy-toes. "So I see," chuckled Grand-daddy. [Illustration: _"All aboard for Pond Lily Lake!" he called gaily._] "I'll crank it up." So Limpy-toes pushed in the key and wound, and wound, and wound. Then they started on again. "Runs fine," said Grand-daddy. "'Most takes my breath away," gasped Buster. "Say, Limpy-toes, why are we stopping?" "Run down again, I guess," sighed Limpy-toes. "Must we stop every few minutes and wear our paws out cranking it up forty-'leven times?" grumbled Grand-daddy. Again they were off--and again they stopped. This time they were in the middle of Mr. Giant's clover field. "Sakes alive, Limpy-toes! Suppose I was on my way to see a sick mouse? He'd die maybe, or else be all cured, before I could ever get there." "Automobiles need lots of twistity," argued Buster. "Mr. Giant has to twist his automobile. I heard Robert Giant say there was twistity in the batteries." "Why doesn't it go this time?" demanded Grand-daddy. "The key must have bounced out when we struck that big stone near the ash heap," said Limpy-toes. "I will trot back and find it." "And I'll take my stout cane and my own strong legs and trot toward the Lake, if you don't mind," decided Grand-daddy. "You and Buster can finish your pleasure trip a little at a time, but I have business to look after and a house to hire before the rest of the family catch up with us." He started off at a brisk pace. Buster sat on the front seat and nibbled ginger cookies, while Limpy-toes limped back to find the lost key. By-and-by, Buster's cookies were all eaten, so he strolled off to help Limpy-toes. "Never mind, Limpy," he said, looking up into his big brother's sad face. "It is a fine automobile, if you do have to twist it often. We can have nice rides around the Lake." But Limpy-toes would not be comforted. "I wanted an automobile that would fetch Dr. Grand-daddy to his patients very quickly. I must study until I make better power than this clock spring. Ah, here is the key! We must hurry, or Uncle Squeaky will catch up and laugh to find us by the roadside." Grand-daddy and Pa Field-Mouse were standing on the bungalow steps talking earnestly together when Limpy-toes drove up. "A fine automobile, Pa Field-Mouse," said Grand-daddy, waving his paw. "My grandson is a great inventor; he will be famous some day." "Ah!" cried Buster, "how good our Gray Rock Bungalow looks! See the pretty hemlocks and sweet ferns, Limpy." "Wait until you see the fine house the neighbors have built for me!" exclaimed Grand-daddy. "They felt sure that I would come. Silvy would call it Wild Rose Cottage. It is a real bower of roses. Here come our folk, now. Wait and I'll tell you all about it." The heavy furniture cart was pulled down the last hill and stopped at the door of Gray Rock Bungalow. Grand-daddy held up his paw and hushed the merry chatter of the travellers. [Illustration: _The heavy furniture cart was pulled down the last hill._] "Listen!" he cried. "Do not unload my belongings. These kind woodfolk have made me a splendid house right at the center of their village. I want Limpy-toes to be my helper and stay with me. If Dot teaches school, she must come with us, for her scholars live near by. Granny needs Silvy to help with the housework. She and Dot can be together and when I need a nurse, Silvy will be right handy." "A fine plan," agreed Uncle Squeaky, "only our family at the Gray Rock will be rather small." "Limpy-toes will fetch us all over in the automobile every evening," smiled Silver Ears. "I shall love to help Granny and be with Dot. May Limpy-toes and I go, Mammy? You will not mind?" "Surely you may go, dearie," smiled Mother Graymouse bravely. "You will be happiest where you can do the most good, and Granny needs you just now." "With such a small family, Betsey and I can manage the work nicely," said Aunt Squeaky. "Ah, it is good to get back to our woodland home!" cried Uncle Squeaky. "Many paws will soon set our rooms in order. Then we will trot over to Wild Rose Cottage and help Dr. Whiskers get his pine-needle beds ready before moon-rise." CHAPTER III GRAND-DADDY BEGINS HIS WORK "Good-morning to you, Grand-daddy!" said Uncle Squeaky cheerily the next morning. "How are all the folk at Wild Rose Cottage?" "Nicely, Hezekiah, nicely," grinned Dr. Whiskers. "Dot and Silvy are helping Granny make our rooms cosy, and I am going to visit my first patient." "I want Limpy-toes to go over to Polly-Wog Bridge and help get my boat afloat upon the Lake. I mean to catch some fish and have Belindy fry 'em for dinner." "Limpy-toes has gone with Nimble-toes to fetch a load of wood. They will soon be at home. It is only a short walk to Sir Spider's house; I shall not need Limpy-toes this morning." [Illustration: _Will you walk into my parlor Dr. Whiskers?"_] "Is Sir Spider ill?" asked Uncle Squeaky. "Lady Spider has been cleaning her parlor. She is overtired and ailing and wishes to see me." "Hm!" said Uncle Squeaky thoughtfully, "I heard Ruth Giant sing a song one day: 'Will you walk into my parlor, Said the Spider to the fly.' "If I remember aright, that fly came to grief in Lady Spider's parlor. Better watch out, Dr. Grand-daddy." "Don't worry, Hezekiah, and good-day to you, for I must be on my way. I will keep out of Lady Spider's parlor." Dr. Whiskers rapped upon Sir Spider's door. Lady Spider opened it. "Will you walk into my parlor, Dr. Whiskers?" she said sweetly, as she held aside the cobweb draperies of her spick-and-span parlor. Dr. Whiskers wanted to run away. Those were the very words that Uncle Squeaky had recited! "Ah, well," he decided quickly, "as I am not a fly and have my stout cane in my paw, I'll be a brave doctor mouse and try to cure Lady Spider. Maybe she is not so sly as some folk think." So he entered her pretty parlor, admiring the beautiful silken draperies. "I am glad that you have come to our village, Dr. Whiskers," began Lady Spider, sitting beside him on the moss green divan. "We've had a hard time. Sir Spider lost one of his legs a while ago; but would you believe it--a new one has begun to grow! He feels better and is building a bridge across our brook. I'm just worn out with the Spring cleaning and spinning, and the care of my big family. My eyes ache all the time, Dr. Whiskers." "Ah, yes! Spring fever, I've no doubt. I have been told that you are very busy,--a skillful weaver and splendid housekeeper. But my dear Lady Spider, health is better than silk draperies. I fear you strain your many eyes searching for dust and dirt. When my one pair of eyes get tired, I have a headache; with your many eyes, you must suffer much pain. But cheer up. I will give you some medicine and you will soon feel like a new Spider. Please fetch a glass of water." Dr. Whiskers took a bottle of dried checker-berries from his bag. He dropped ten of them into the water. "These red pills are a splendid tonic. Take a sip of the medicine several times each day and your many eyes will stop aching." "I will follow your directions carefully, Dr. Whiskers," smiled Lady Spider. "Is there really to be a school where my little Webbie, Spinnie, Tony, and Patty can be taught the civilized ways of your learned family?" "We have just arrived at the Lake and are hardly settled. There will soon be a school. My grand-daughter, Dot Squeaky, will be the teacher. A sweet young lady mouse she is, if I am her grand-daddy and maybe ought not to boast of her smartness. I must bid you good-day, Lady Spider. I will come in next week and see if you are better." "A very pleasant call," thought Dr. Whiskers, as he trotted along the country road. "Lady Spider does not seem to be a harmful creature. Hello! Here I am at Squire Cricket's gateway. I must cure his sore throat." Squire Cricket came to the door. He wore a red flannel around his neck and his voice was hoarse as he greeted Dr. Whiskers. "Nimble-toes said you needed some medicine," began Dr. Whiskers. "I see you are wearing the red flannel that Granny sent. She believes that red flannel will cure almost anything." "It's no good," croaked Squire Cricket. "I've worn it ever since Nimble-toes fetched it, and I'm still as hoarse as Grandpa Bull Frog." "Ah well, if Mistress Cricket will fetch a glass of water, I will fix a gargle that will help you." He sprinkled some salt into the water which Mistress Cricket brought. "Now, Squire Cricket, if you will use this mixture, a spoonful every hour, and rub a little cure-all salve under your red flannel at night, we'll soon have your voice as clear as a lark's, and the soreness all gone. How many kiddies shall you send to my grand-daughter's summer school, Mistress Cricket?" "Our two children, Sammie and Fidelia, must go. I hope Miss Squeaky will teach music. Our children love to fiddle. We all enjoyed Mr. Squeaky's band last summer. It was good news when we heard that you were coming back to the Lake." Just then, Sammie Cricket hopped excitedly in. "Oh, Dr. Whiskers, old Daddy Longlegs has had an accident! He wants you to come at once," cried Sammie. Dr. Whiskers snatched up his bag and rushed across the fields to Daddy Longleg's home. "I've broken one of my legs, Dr. Whiskers," cried Daddy Longlegs. "Can you mend it for me, or must I limp on a cane the rest of my days?" "Mend it? Of course I can," laughed Dr. Whiskers. "Let me catch my breath. I hustled some and am puffing considerable. Now then for some splints and a stout string. If you were younger, I'd rub in some cure-all salve and wait for another leg to grow, as Sir Spider's has done. We'll take no chances, however; I'll mend your broken leg." Dr. Whiskers worked deftly away, setting the broken limb and wrapping it neatly in splints and a white bandage. Now and then he whistled a bit of Mammy's Lullaby, for he was happy in his work. "It feels 'most as good as new; just a bit stiff," declared Daddy Longlegs. "I don't know how we have managed all these years without a doctor. Welcome to our village, Dr. Whiskers!" "A beautiful village it is," replied Grand-daddy. "I like to spend my summers near Pond Lily Lake. Now I must say good-day. Don't use that leg for a few days and it will mend all right. No crutches for old Daddy Longlegs this time." That evening the whole family gathered at Gray Rock Bungalow. Dr. Whiskers had many stories to tell of his first day's practice in the Lake village. [Illustration: _Dr. Whiskers worked deftly away, setting the broken limb.]_ Uncle Squeaky brought out his fiddle and all the little mice stood around his arm-chair and sang their merry songs. "Come, Dr. Whiskers," called Granny at last, "we must start home. You have had a busy day and Dot wants Limpy-toes to build her school-room tomorrow. Good-night, folkses. Yes, Limpy-toes, I suppose I can ride in your automobile. But do be careful and not break your old Granny's neck. We must all help Grand-daddy to keep his promise to fetch us all safely to our dear attic home before snow flies." CHAPTER IV DOT SQUEAKY'S SUMMER SCHOOL The spot which Dot chose for her schoolroom was down in a lane behind Wild Rose Cottage. Uncle Squeaky helped Scamper and Limpy-toes set four strong corner posts and made a roof of green boughs to shelter the kiddies when it rained; but there were no walls to shut out the fresh air and sunshine. There were rows of green mossy seats and a desk in which Dot could keep her books and papers. Tiny, Teenty and Buster gathered wild flowers to decorate their pretty school-room. Pete and Dickie Grasshopper stopped on their way home from the Lake. "May we come to school, Miss Dot?" asked Dickie. "Surely; any one who wishes to learn to read and write may come. But you must obey your teacher." "We could not come every day," said Pete. "I shall not teach every day," smiled Dot. "One day is lesson day; the next is play day." "I brought this stick for you," said Dickie, presenting Dot a smooth willow stick. "If Bobsey Rabbit or Tony Spider play any tricks, just give 'em a walloping." "Thank you, Dickie. I will hang it over my desk, but I think I shall not need to use it." "She may wallop you, Dickie," laughed Pete as they hopped home. At last the school-room was finished. Limpy-toes and Buster rode around the village in the automobile and invited the children to come to Miss Squeaky's school. Limpy-toes got quite angry with Grandpa Bull Frog. "He was ever so impolite, Mammy," he complained. "He said he'd never send his family to a Graymouse school. He said that Uncle Squeaky's band couldn't play as good as the Frog Orchestra, and that Uncle Squeaky didn't know anything about the Lake, if he did make a raft and float around. Ah, Grandpa Bull Frog thinks he is a wonderful fellow!" Granny Whiskers was interested in the pupils' names which Dot wrote in her school book. "Pete and Dickie Grasshopper and Sammie Cricket!" she exclaimed. "Why, Dot Squeaky, they are too old to begin school! Baby Wee Field-Mouse and little Squealer won't do a thing but play and squeal." "I think I can teach them all something, Granny," laughed Dot. "There's a good many Spider and Grasshopper kiddies," said Silver Ears. "Pete and Dickie have two sisters, Molly and Dolly. Hopsy Toad is a cute little fellow. Topsy Toad must be his twin sister. Webbie, Spinnie, Tony, and Patty Spider! You will have a big school, Cousin Dot." "Fidelia Cricket is going with Sammie," added Granny. "Ah, I see that Mr. Jack Rabbit is sending his two boys--Bunny and Bobsey. I fear you will have your paws full, Dot." "If I can manage my two small brothers, I'll not fear the others." "Tiny and Teenty are great gigglers," said Silver Ears. "It takes Mammy Graymouse to teach them their lessons. If they don't mind, just tell Mammy." School began upon a lovely summer morning. Dot found many pupils waiting upon the green moss seats. "What a splendid school! I am proud," she exclaimed as she tossed her pink sun hat upon her desk. "I shall soon teach you some pretty songs, but this morning Fidelia Cricket has promised to fiddle for us." Fidelia tripped smilingly up to the desk and stood beside Miss Dot while she fiddled a cheery little tune. Then Dot gave them all some paper and pencils and taught them to write A, B, C. Even Dickie Grasshopper bent over his work, scowling eagerly as he tried to make the pretty letters. To be sure, little Squealer would squeal every time little Wee pinched him, which was quite often, for Wee loved to hear him squeal. And Bunny Rabbit had to keep trotting out to his lunch basket to nibble the nice yellow carrot that Mother Rabbit had put in for Bunny and Bobsey's lunch. "They are only babies after all," excused Dot. "They haven't learned school ways and rules." "Now we will do something else," said Dot by-and-by. "Put away your pencils and I will teach you some numbers. Listen. One and one are two. Everybody say it." The noisy chorus was almost deafening as they all shouted, "One and one are two!" "If I should give Hopsy Toad one piece of candy and Dickie Grasshopper should give him one piece, how many would he have?" asked Dot. Buster waved both paws. "Well, Buster, how many?" "Not any; he'd eat 'em up," said Buster. "But if he did not eat them?" laughed Dot. Webbie Spider raised his paw. "You may tell us, Webbie." "One and one are two pieces of candy," answered Webbie. [Illustration: _Webbie Spider raised his paw_.] "Right. You are a smart scholar, Webbie." "Then please, Miss Dot, don't give the candies to Hopsy--give 'em to me." "Now here is a harder problem," went on Dot. "If Bunny Rabbit had two red apples, and I took one away from him, how many red apples would he have?" "You couldn't do it, Miss Dot!" cried Bunny. "I wouldn't give it to you, so you better not try." Wiggle Squeaky hopped up excitedly. "Bunny was saucy. Why don't you get the willow stick, Dot?" he cried. Bunny turned around and wrinkled his funny pink nose and stuck out his tongue at Wiggle. All the kiddies shouted and laughed. "Hush! hush!" said Dot sternly. "You must learn not to laugh in school. Wiggle must not meddle. And Bunny--if I had my looking-glass here, so he could see how he looked, I know he wouldn't make such a silly face again. Bunny did not mean to be saucy. He just said what he thought was the truth. "Now," continued Dot with a smile, "if I had two apples and Bobsey Rabbit took one away from me, how many apples would I have?" Molly Grasshopper stood up quickly. "Not any apple, Miss Squeaky!" she cried, "'cause Bunny would grab the other one." "Now once more; how many are one and one?" "One and one are two!" they recited in a shrill chorus. "Right. You all remember very nicely," praised Dot. So the lessons went merrily on all that long summer day. "I shall need you to help me, Silvy," said Dot after school when the cousins were strolling together among the wild blossoms. "I have a big class and they are such lively youngsters that it will take some time to tame them. But it is real fun." "I'll love to come if Doctor Grand-daddy doesn't find any patients for me to nurse," agreed Silver Ears. "Let's ask Limpy-toes to take us over to Gray Rock Bungalow in the automobile tonight. Mammy and Aunt Squeaky will wish to hear about your school." "I must ask Pa Squeaky to fetch his fiddle and teach the kiddies some new music. Mrs. Cricket wants Sammie and Fidelia to have lessons on their fiddles." Dot entertained the whole family that evening with her school stories. They laughed heartily over Bunny and Bobsey. "They must be real baby clowns!" chuckled Uncle Squeaky. "Never mind, Dot, keep at 'em until they all learn their A, B, C's and remember to keep your willow walloping stick handy." CHAPTER V A WOODS FIRE "Mercy on us, Hezekiah! It seems as if I could smell smoke!" cried Aunt Squeaky one hot summer afternoon. "Now, Belindy, please don't begin sniffing for smoke," grinned Uncle Squeaky. "I haven't heard you mention smoke for quite a spell." "I can smell smoke, Pa," said Wink. "So can I," agreed Wiggle. "Bless my stars, I guess you can!" exclaimed Uncle Squeaky as he went to the door. "Is the whole village afire?" Off he started without even snatching up his cap. The smoke rolled up in great, choking clouds. "Oh, dearie me!" moaned Granny, "the woods are all afire. We shall all be burned. Why didn't we stay safely in our dear attic home? Oh, dearie me!" "I hope Wild Rose Cottage and Dot's schoolroom down in Grasshopper Lane will not burn," sighed Aunt Squeaky. "This is a play day, so the kiddies are not in school." "I'm going to the fire," decided Mother Gray-mouse. "Perhaps I can help. Get some buckets, Limpy-toes. I will call Scamper, Buster, Wink, and Wiggle. We cannot let the village burn up." Most of the woodfolk were at the fire. Some poured on pails of water from the Lake; other groups stood talking wildly as they watched the leaping flames. "I wish we had engines and hose-reels like the Giant fire-men used when the barn was on fire," sighed Silver Ears. Uncle Squeaky ran here, there, and everywhere; filling pails, pouring water, beating burning bushes with Mother Graymouse's best broom, and shouting excited orders to the crowd of scared woodland folk. The fire crept nearer to Wild Rose Cottage. "It will be a shame if Dr. Whiskers loses his new house," said Sir Spider. "He shall not lose it," replied Uncle Squeaky. "I'll set a back fire." He rushed into the house and got a pawful of matches. Then he set fire to the little bushes behind Grand-daddy's house. "Neighbor Squeaky has gone crazy!" declared Sir Spider to Daddy Grasshopper. But as they watched him beat the burning bushes to a blackened mass, they saw that Uncle Squeaky knew what he was doing. "Neighbor Squeaky has saved Dr. Whisker's house. That burned patch cannot burn again, Sir Spider," cried Daddy Grasshopper. "Come on. We will make a little fire around Pa Field-Mouse's cottage." "Pile of Rails Cottage is on fire!" cried Scamper Squeaky as he trotted by. "Come on and help Pa Field-Mouse!" They rushed to the Field-Mouse's Cottage, but the little cedars which overhung the roof were already a mass of crackling flames. "Nothing more can be saved for Neighbor Field-Mouse. Help me build back fires up yonder and save Neighbor Hop Toad's house." [Illustration: _They worked bravely with Uncle Squeaky for captain._] They worked bravely with Uncle Squeaky for captain, and, following his directions, they finally stopped the dreadful fire. Then tired out, they sat under the laurel bushes to rest and talk it over. "How did the fire start?" asked Uncle Squeaky. "One of those Skunk kids was trying to smoke a grape-vine cigarette," piped Tony Spider. "I saw him." "Where did he get matches?" demanded Uncle Squeaky. "Prob'ly he stole 'em," sputtered Mistress Grasshopper. "I should think Dinah Skunk would wallop those little Skunks forty times a day. They are a mean crowd." "And poor Debbie Field-Mouse's home is in ruins, all because of little Skunk's cigarette. Sniff! sniff! sniff!" cried Mother Graymouse. "A Lake full of water and no way to put out a fire," scolded Aunt Squeaky. "I guess likely, Hezekiah, I shall worry some more about smoke. Let me catch a kiddie smoking cigarettes!" "Poor Debbie! I'm so sorry for you, dearie," moaned Granny Whiskers. Debby Field-Mouse smiled calmly. "Ah, Granny, it might be worse. I have lost eight children in an earthquake; I have been caught out in a blizzard and nigh frozen to death. No one is hurt and we saved a few things. Maybe we can build a finer house." "Right you are, Debby Field-Mouse, and brave, also!" cried Uncle Squeaky admiringly. "We will all lend a paw and you shall have a nice new house right beside my Gray Rock Bungalow. Then you and Betsey and Belindy can be real neighborly. You must stay at our house until your new home is ready. What do you say, neighbors? Shall we begin Pa Field-Mouse's bungalow bright and early tomorrow?" Sir Spider, Squire Cricket, Mr. Hop Toad, Jack Rabbit, and Daddy Grasshopper nodded approvingly. "We will all help," they promised. Debby Field-Mouse looked sadly at the blackened ruins of her old home; then taking Mother Graymouse's arm, she led little Wee to Uncle Squeaky's home. The others went homeward, also, for it was getting late. "A little music is like medicine to a sad mouse," said Uncle Squeaky after supper. "Pa Field-Mouse seems down-hearted tonight. Trot along, laddies, and put on your band uniforms that Ma Graymouse made last summer. We will give Pa Field-Mouse a band concert." Grand-daddy nodded his head. "A grand idea, Hezekiah. Melodious music makes many melancholy mice merry. Ha! ha! That's nearly as good as the jingle Robert Giant used to sing about 'Picker Peter's peppered pickles.'" Buster Graymouse hopped up and down in delight. He laughed until the tears ran down his fat cheeks. "What's the trouble, Buster Boy?" asked Grand-daddy. "Did you eat too much supper?" "No, Grand-daddy, but my little jacket is nearly bursting. Ah, that is too funny! Guess I shall laugh all night." "I fear you have outgrown your band suit, Buster," said Mother Graymouse. "I shall have to give you less to eat." "Ah no, Mammy!" cried Buster in alarm. "Please don't starve me. Oh! oh! What Robert Giant realty said was: "'Peter picked a pint of pickled pipers.'" "What's pipers, Buster?" asked Tiny. "I don't know; prob'ly something good to eat. It was one of Robert's funny songs, twinnie. I can make nicer songs myself," bragged Buster. "All ready for the concert!" shouted Uncle Squeaky. Wink and Buster found their cornets; Limpy-toes brought his flute, Wiggle his fife, Scamper the alto horn, and Nimble-toes his beloved drum. At a signal from Uncle Squeaky, the little band began to play Silvy's Waltz. It was late when they had played all the music they could remember. The moonlight cast long shadows over the dewy grass and even the Frog Orchestra was hushed and listening. [Illustration: _The little band began to play Silvy's Waltz_.] "Now your Uncle Hezekiah will play a goodnight jig." Uncle Squeaky hopped nimbly up and played such a jolly tune upon his fiddle that they all joined paws and danced in a circle about him. "Enough! enough, Hezekiah!" panted Grand-daddy at last. "We must rest if we expect to build a bungalow tomorrow. I shall not be Dr. Whiskers, but just a good neighbor mouse tomorrow. I reckon my patients can wait while I have one vacation day. Hurrah for a holiday and a fine new house for Neighbor Field-Mouse! Come, Granny, we're homeward bound. Fetch the automobile, Limpy-toes. I hope the twistity will not give out. Good-night, folkses, goodnight!" CHAPTER VI DR. WHISKER'S BUSY DAY Neighbour Field-Mouse's new bungalow was begun before sunrise next morning. Squire Cricket and Daddy Grasshopper brought their saws, Jack Rabbit and Mr. Hop Toad had shovels, and all the neighbors came with axes, hammers and other tools ready for work. "Pa Field-Mouse has chosen this spot under the laurel bush," explained Uncle Squeaky. "First we must dig a cellar where he can store his winter's food." "Don't forget that I want a stone fireplace just like yours, Mr. Squeaky," reminded Debby Field-Mouse. "And a dining-room, also, if you please." "Ah, yes, Debby! A good living-room, a big pantry--you shall have all the fixings." They worked busily away. By-and-by, Grand-daddy Whiskers paused to look around. "It looks pretty fine already," he declared. "I'm having a great vacation day. Plenty of fresh air, sunshine, pine breezes and vigorous exercise make a mouse feel good, Neighbor Field-Mouse. I suppose there will not be much work for old Dr. Whiskers in this healthy country in summertime, because--" "Dr. Whiskers! Dr. Whiskers!" interrupted Nimble-toes, "this little Skunk says that old Simon Skunk has a dreadful attack of asthma and wants you to come quick." Down went Grand-daddy's ax, and away he trotted to Gray Rock Bungalow where he had left Granny and his medicine bag. "Did you say Simon Skunk was ill?" asked Granny in alarm. "Don't you go a step, Zenas. Remember your solemn promise to fetch us all safe and sound to our attic home before snow flies. How will you do it, I want to ask you, Zenas Whiskers, if Simon Skunk harms you?" "Better keep away from that Skunk tribe," advised Aunt Squeaky. Even Mother Graymouse, who was usually so brave, looked anxious. "Everyone says that Simon is ill-natured. He is a giant beside you, Grand-daddy," she said. Grand-daddy grew impatient. "I was wondering whether I wished to visit Simon, but I'll be blamed, Hezekiah, if I'm going to be bossed by a lot of women mice! A doctor must be brave. I'll risk it. I'm on my way to Skunk Avenue," and away marched Grand-daddy. Mrs. Dinah Skunk was watching for Dr. Whiskers. "Oh, hurry!" she cried. "Simon has wheezed all night and can hardly breathe." "A strange time o' year to have asthma, Simon," grinned Dr. Whiskers. "Wheezes mostly come in cold weather." "Too much woods smoke," gasped poor Simon. "Ah, I see! Well, let me rub this grease into your chest. You must take two of these pills every half hour until you stop wheezing." "Haven't any clock," growled Simon. "How shall I know when to give him the pills, doctor?" asked Dinah. Grand-daddy scratched his head. He did not wish to lend his watch. "It takes half an hour to trot from here to Polly-Wog Bridge and back," he decided. "Send a little Skunk to the bridge and give Simon two pills every time the little Skunk gets home. It will keep that little Skunk out of mischief who set the fire. "One of my ancestors," went on Dr. Whiskers pleasantly, "a great-great-great-grandfather, was a mouse of the wilds, a regular Indian. He told his children, and the story was repeated until it came down to me, that a hornet's nest smoked in a pipe would cure the worst case of asthma that ever was known." "Haven't any pipe; no hornet's nest," grumbled Simon. "Neither have I," chuckled Dr. Whiskers. "I threw mine away after the hired man set the barn afire with a spark from his pipe. I'll try to find a hornet's nest and maybe I can borrow a pipe from Daddy Longlegs. Now take these pills and start young Skunk to trotting. Good-day to you, Simon. I hope you'll feel better soon. "I'll have the kiddies hunt for a hornet's nest," planned Grand-daddy. Buster, Wink, and Wiggle met him by the pond. "All safe, Grand-daddy?" they cried. "Sure," grinned Grand-daddy. "They are harmless folk. Have you seen a gray paper balloon dangling from the bushes, kiddies?" "I have," cried Wink. "Uncle said hornets lived in it and they were real fighters." "I'll fight 'em, then. I want that nest for medicine. Trot ahead and show it to me." "Hi! hi! Dr. Whiskers!" came a cry from the Lake. Grand-daddy ran to the water's edge. There sat Grandpa Bull Frog groaning miserably. "Hello! a fish hook!" exclaimed Dr. Whiskers. "Let's see if I can extract it." He took a sharp instrument from his bag. "I'll be as careful as possible, Grandpa Bull Frog, but it is bound to hurt you considerable," he explained. "Now open your mouth wide." Dr. Whiskers twisted and pulled upon the hook. At last, out flew the ugly thing. "How did it happen?" he asked, wrapping the instrument carefully. "I've been hoarse for years," croaked Grandpa Bull Frog as he wiped away the tears. "Squire Cricket told me that red flannel cured his throat, so when I saw some red flannel dangling from a line right over this log, I grabbed it. I got it easily, and this cruel hook beside. The Giant boy has gone away. I thank you kindly, Dr. Whiskers. Ahem! You might tell Mr. Squeaky that I say his band played very fine music last evening." "Better leave fish-hooks alone, hereafter, Grandpa Bull Frog," chuckled Dr. Whiskers. "When you need red flannel, hop over to Wild Rose Cottage. Granny fetched a good supply from Mrs. Giant's trunk." [Illustration: Dr. Whiskers twisted and pulled upon the hook.] "Grand-daddy!" called Wiggle from the grove. "I have the hornet's nest. Isn't it big? We had a fight with the hornets. I ran away, but Buster and Wink are chuck full of stingers. They want you to come quick. Buster is howling real loud." Dr. Grand-daddy trotted along the pine-needle path. "Oh, Grand-daddy, those hornets were full of hot prickers!" sobbed Buster. "Wait a bit, kiddies," he called. "I'll mix some mud plasters that will stop the pain. So the hornets won out, did they?" "No, sir, they didn't!" cried Wink, doubling his little fists. "We beat 'em, Grand-daddy. We got what we went after. Wiggle rolled their nest home." "I guess you are right, sonny," grinned Grand-daddy. "I'll soon cure the wounds for my brave soldiers. There, you feel better already. Forward march. I want to get back and work on the new bungalow." But Grand-daddy had just begun to nail up a pantry shelf, when Mother Graymouse beckoned. He found Tim Scrabble waiting for him. "Can you go home with me, Dr. Whiskers?" he asked eagerly. "Jimmie and Johnnie have the whooping cough; Janie ate some candy and it made her tooth ache, and Baby Judy has the croup. Worst of all, Polly went into Mrs. Giant's pantry and it is a wonder she ever got back down cellar. She is all rolled up in sticky fly-paper. And me with four sick babies on my paws!" "I'll come at once, Tim," agreed Dr. Whiskers. "Limpy-toes and I will soon fix things all right." He called Limpy-toes to help carry his heavy bag. "We'll not take the automobile," he decided. "The Giants might hear it chug-chug. If you please, Belindy, let Scamper go over and tell Granny that we will probably be home by midnight. She may wish to return and spend the night with you. Now we're off to help that poor Scrabble family." It was a long journey and there were many doses to be ordered for the little patients. It took a long time to remove Polly's fly-paper with an alcohol bath. Then cure-all salve must be rubbed in where patches of skin came off. But at last every patient was made comfortable. Tim and Polly thanked them again and again. "Now for our long homeward tramp, Limpy-toes," sighed Grand-daddy wearily. It was long past midnight when tired old Grand-daddy pulled off his boots. "A great vacation day it proved," he yawned. "Bless me, it has been the busiest day I ever lived! And yet, I'm glad that I am a doctor-mouse." [Illustration: It was long past midnight when tired old Grand-daddy pulled off his boots.] CHAPTER VII TWIN TAILS The woodland folk were all busy making Neighbor Field-Mouse's new house when Dr. Whiskers strolled over next morning. "Good-morning to you all!" he cried, waving his cap. "I wish to borrow a pipe for Simon Skunk. Have you one to lend him, Daddy Longlegs?" "None for Simon Skunk," replied Daddy Longlegs, gruffly. "Neither have I," said Mr. Hop Toad. "I have no pipe, but I'd not lend one to Simon Skunk if I had a dozen," added Jack Rabbit. "I am sorry," sighed Dr. Whiskers. "Perhaps Simon Skunk is mean. But suppose we were all kind to him; might it not make him a better neighbor?" "We know Simon better than you do, Dr. Whiskers," said Daddy Grasshopper. "I wish you would all try being kind to him," suggested Dr. Whiskers. "I am going to see him now. He was very decent to me." "Good-morning, Simon!" greeted Dr. Whiskers. "Wheezes all gone?" "No, but I'm better," replied Simon shortly. "He's a lot better, Doctor," said Dinah. "I brought the hornet's nest as I promised, but I couldn't borrow a pipe in the whole village. I will burn some of it in this tin can. You must inhale the smoke." Simon bent his head over the smoking can. He began to cough and choke. "Choke me to death, will you?" he spluttered. "A pretty doctor, you are!" "Patience, Simon," urged Dr. Whiskers gently. "Just a few whiffs more. There now--where are your wheezes? My Indian ancestor knew a thing or two, you see. I must confess that I never tried hornet's nest smoke before. I believe that you will not wheeze again for a long time, Simon. Good-day." Dr. Whiskers bowed politely and hurried away. Granny, Silver Ears and Dot were visiting at Gray Rock Bungalow. They had brought over some patchwork squares and were making quilts for Debby Field-Mouse. As it was a play day from school, Dot invited Patty Spider, Topsy Toad, Molly and Dolly Grasshopper, and Fidelia Cricket to visit Tiny and Teenty and help sew the pretty patchwork. Aunt Squeaky had baked them some tiny raisin cakes. They were having a jolly party under the wild grape-vine. Wee and Squealer played in the grape-vine swing. Wink, Wiggle and Buster were over watching their big brothers bring stones for Debby's fireplace. They sewed for a long time, squealing merrily now and then as they pricked their tiny paws. Teenty borrowed Silvy's scissors to cut some thread. A strange idea popped into her head as she used those sharp, shiny scissors. "I'm the very onliest one that goes trailing a long tail behind them. Neither Dolly, Molly, Patty, Fidelia, Topsy, nor Tiny wears a long tail. I want to look like my twin sister. Say, Tiny, did it hurt awfully when Buster snipped off your tail?" "It hurt dreadfully! And it bled and bled. But Limpy-toes cured it," remembered Tiny. "And now no one can step on your tail. That hurts dreadfully, too. I'm going to cut off my tail." "Oh, you daresn't, Teenty Graymouse!" they cried in a shrill admiring chorus. "You watch. Come back here, Tiny; you shall not tell tales to Mammy. One, two, three--snip!" Off flew the long slender end of Teenty's tail. "Oh! oh! Get Dr. Grand-daddy!" cried Teenty, quite scared by the blood and pain. Grand-daddy rushed over. All the older mice ran out with their white aprons full of patchwork squares, thimbles and spools of thread. "Fetch my bottle of creoline and some warm water, Silvy," ordered Dr. Whiskers. [Illustration: Fetch that creoline bottle, Silvy, repeated Grand-daddy sternly.] "Now, Zenas, when Tiny's tail was cut, Limpy-toes cured it with water. I don't recollect whether it was hot or cold water, but I'm positive it was just plain water," said Granny. "Limpy-toes used cold water," said Aunt Squeaky. "No, it was hot water, Ma," contradicted Dot. "First he freezed me with cold water; then he boiled me in hot water," said Tiny. "I guess I can remember. Mammy put on cobwebs, Wink gave me some candy, and then I got better." "Fetch that creoline bottle, Silvy," repeated Grand-daddy sternly. "Land o' pity, who is the doctor, anyway? "This creoline is worth its weight in gold," went on Dr. Grand-daddy, as he soaked the poor stubby tail. "I got it from Mr. Giant's medicine closet. It takes all the soreness out." "Better leave a little soreness in, Grand-daddy," said Mother Graymouse. "I am ashamed of you, Teenty Graymouse. Your foolish pride has spoiled the nice party which your little neighbors were enjoying. You might have bled to death. You deserve to be shut in a dark closet or put to bed without any supper." "Oh, Mammy, Tiny and I have truly twin tails now, like Bunny and Bobsey Rabbit. I think they are splendid," smiled Teenty. "Want to go for an automobile ride, kiddies?" called Limpy-toes. "I have made another seat and can take seven." So the seven little patchwork sewers climbed into Limpy-toes' wonderful automobile. "Be careful of that bandage, Teenty," warned Dr. Grand-daddy. "I don't want you to bleed any more." Away they whizzed; along the blue Lakeside, by Polly-Wog Bridge, through the Pine Grove, and up Laurel Lane, only stopping now and then while Limpy-toes twisted up the spring and the kiddies gathered wild flowers. "Are you all better, Teenty?" whispered Tiny, as they drove home to Gray Rock Bungalow. "Ah, yes, all better, Tiny," lisped Teenty. "You all said I daresn't cut it. I think it is lovely to wear a short tail. Now you and I are real honest-and-true twinnies again, Tiny." CHAPTER VIII WIGGLE BORROWS THE AUTOMOBILE The midsummer days were full of good times. Uncle Squeaky sometimes took them for a sail upon Pond Lily Lake; they fished from Polly-Wog Bridge and went splashing about in the water dressed in their bathing-suits. Then there were merry parties of berry pickers who spent the day in the shady woods picking blueberries and raspberries for Mother Graymouse and Aunt Squeaky to preserve. Buster loved the moonlight evenings when Uncle Squeaky's band, looking very fine in the gay uniforms, marched along the Lake shore and played the music which he had written. He was also delighted when they gathered in the fire-glow around Uncle Squeaky's fireplace and nibbled roasted corn, baked potatoes, toasted cheese, and other goodies. He could not decide which was nicer. Limpy-toes was generous with his automobile. He was busy, for Grand-daddy's practice was growing larger, and as Limpy-toes was studying medicine, he often went along with Grand-daddy. But he found time to give the little mice many jolly rides along the pine-strewn paths and lanes. Sometimes he allowed Wink or Wiggle to steer and they felt very proud indeed. One beautiful moonlit night when Limpy-toes had gone with Dr. Whiskers to see Mrs. Hop Toad, a wild plan entered Wiggle's mischievous head. "Let's borrow the automobile without asking Limpy," he whispered to Wink. "It will be sport to run it all our own selves. This is a dandy evening." "S'pose something breaks?" objected Wink. "Huh, you can't hurt the old chug-chug! We'll take turns cranking it. Let's ask Pete and Dickie to go with us." Stealing quietly away while Scamper and Uncle Squeaky were busy, they managed to start off without being seen. "Come on for a joy ride, Pete, and fetch Dickie," invited Wiggle. The Grasshopper brothers hopped briskly in and away they whizzed. Down Grasshopper Lane, through a pine grove, along Skunk Avenue, past the Lake, on and on, only stopping here and there to twist up the spring. "I'm getting tired of so much twisting," declared Wiggle. "It would be good sport to coast down Crooked Hill." "Come on!" cried Wink gaily. "Guess we'll not need much twistity there." "Can you steer straight?" asked Dickie doubtfully. "Sure I can steer. I wouldn't be afraid in the dark, and this moonlight is as bright as day," bragged Wiggle. "Hold your breath, now." Crooked Hill was very steep and slippery with pine needles. On either side there were jutting rocks and old pine stumps. At the foot of the hill ran Beaver Brook. [Illustration: "_Hold your breath, now_."] Later that evening, Mr. Jack Rabbit was hopping homeward with a bag of carrots and clover leaves slung over his shoulder. "Hello, what's this?" he cried. "Limpy-toes Graymouse's automobile, sure as I'm a Bunny! Hi, there, Limpy, are you underneath?" "Ah, please help us, Mr. Rabbit," came a faint cry from under the wrecked automobile. "It is Wink and Wiggle. Fetch Grand-daddy and Pa Squeaky. Go quick!" Jack Rabbit threw down his bag of carrots and leaped across the fields as though a hound dog was on his track. It seemed a long time to the four little fellows under the automobile, but it was really surprising how soon Jack Rabbit returned with help. Limpy-toes and Grand-daddy had medicines and bandages. Scamper and Uncle Squeaky hauled the cart with its four stout spool wheels. "Bless my stars!" cried Uncle Squeaky, when he had pulled poor battered Wiggle out from under. "One broken paw, a smashed-in nose, and a black eye! Is Wink much damaged, Grand-daddy?" "Sprained ankle and a banged head," answered Grand-daddy. "Dickie and Pete have only a few scratches. We'll plaster and bandage 'em up and they will finish their joy ride in the cart. Reckon they'll go up hill some slower than they came down." Poor Limpy-toes stood and looked at his ruined automobile. "Can you fix it, Limpy-toes?" asked Jack Rabbit. "Maybe," sighed Limpy-toes, "but it will take all winter. I shall have to haul it home in pieces. Well, I am glad the twinnies aren't killed." "They ought to be walloped," growled Scamper. "It's a shame, Limpy-toes, that's what it is!" It was many weeks before Wink and Wiggle were able to leave their pine-needle beds. Silvy, in her pretty nurse's cap and apron, was kept busy waiting upon her mischievous cousins. Debby Field-Mouse often ran over from her cottage, which she had named the Cosy Retreat, bringing dainties for the poor bruised twinnies to eat. Poor Granny Whiskers' nerves were badly shaken. "Ah, Zenas," she moaned, "take us to our dear attic home before some one is killed. You promised me that we should all go home safe and sound, and there lay those precious twinnies, all bandages and plasters. Ah, dearie me! What will happen next? Poor Debbie's house was burned; Wink and Wiggle are all smashed up. Zenas Whiskers, I say we must pack up and go home tomorrow." "Ah, Granny," grinned Grand-daddy, "Wink and Wiggle are perfectly safe, but I can't truthfully call 'em sound just yet. I must dose 'em awhile before they will be sound enough to go back to the attic. Pine breezes, fresh air and sunshine, Granny, that's what they need. I'm sure Debby Field-Mouse isn't complaining because Pile of Rails burned. She is as happy as a lark in her Cosy Retreat. "I am having the time of my life. Never was so important and sought after as I've been since Hezekiah stuck that Dr. Whiskers sign in front of my cottage. Ah, no, Granny, we don't leave Pond Lily Lake until snow flies and I'm hoping that it will be a long time from now." CHAPTER IX AUTUMN LEAVES "I'm going after chestnuts tomorrow, Mammy," said Buster one autumn evening. "We have had a good frost. I think the burrs have cracked open, Buster," grinned Uncle Squeaky. "I like to roast chestnuts in the winter," lisped Tiny. "I like to roast chestnuts," echoed Teenty, "and I like to pop corn." "Those wild grapes you fetched home made delicious jelly," said Mother Graymouse. "There are red berries dangling from a prickly bush. Shall I fetch some home, Mammy?" "Barberries," guessed Granny. "There is no better sauce made. Fetch a basketful, Buster." "Barberry sauce is full of pegs," complained Grand-daddy. "Grape jelly is my favorite sauce." "Nimble-toes says there's poison ivy and dogwood around here," said Scamper. "Be careful or you'll get poisoned, Buster." "Yes," added Limpy-toes, "don't touch any bushes except blueberry, cedar, pine, hemlock, sweet fern, bayberry, or peppermint. Those are all safe and you know 'em well." "For pity sake, Buster, don't get poisoned!" cried Silver Ears. "We hope to get Wink and Wiggle out of doors tomorrow. I'm not anxious for any more patients. I wonder that you let him roam about the woods, Mammy." "He never goes alone, Silvy," replied Mother Graymouse, calmly. "Hopsy Toad, and Webbie Spider are going chestnutting with me," said Buster. "I had a nice walk yesterday with Bunny and Bobsey Rabbit. They took me over to Mr. Giant's strawberry bed. What do you think, Mammy! There are ripe red berries and pretty blossoms, now! On the way home, we saw yellow dandelion blossoms. It isn't summer any more; it is frost-time. Everything seems topsy-turvy!" "Mercy on us!" cried Aunt Squeaky. "Ripe strawberries when it is 'most snow-time!" "The Giants are a wise folk," explained Grand-daddy. "They grow plants nowadays that bear fruit most of the time. Prob'ly you could find berries on those vines when they are buried under the snow." "You take a basket and fetch home some strawberries, right now, Buster Graymouse, and I'll bake a strawberry short cake for supper that'll melt in your mouth," promised Aunt Squeaky. "Take Tiny and Teenty along and show them how to dig dandelions. We will have a mess of greens for dinner tomorrow," planned Mother Graymouse. "Such treats as we have in the country! I am afraid I shall not wish to go back to our attic very soon, Grand-daddy." "I am not rushing in that direction, myself, Betsey," chuckled Grand-daddy. "Guess we will stay to supper, Granny, and have some of Belindy's short cake. Dot was invited to tea with Mrs. Rabbit, so there's nobody home at our house." "Of course you must stay," invited Aunt Squeaky. "Buster will fetch plenty of berries." They had a jolly tea-party with a delicious strawberry cake for dessert to celebrate the first time that Wink and Wiggle had come to the table since the automobile accident. The next day, Hopsy and Webbie came to go nutting. They carried bags for the chestnuts. Buster took a basket also, for barberries. They had good fun picking the brown nuts from the soft, silky linings of the burrs. "The burrs are prickly and the barberry bushes are prickly," said Hopsy. "Perhaps they are trying to say 'Touch me not!' But we will pick them just the same," laughed Buster. "Let's get a bouquet of pretty leaves," said Webbie. "Ma would like some for her parlor." [Illustration: They had good fun picking the brown nuts from the soft, silky linings of the burrs.] "There are lovely gold and scarlet leaves on that stone wall," said Buster. "Let's climb and get them." They were pulling eagerly at the sprays of bright leaves, when along trotted Simon Skunk. "Hi, there!" he shouted, "leave those leaves alone." "Don't mind him," said Hopsy. "He is angry because we are getting the pretty leaves." "Hi! Those leaves are poison," warned Simon again. "Do you s'pose they are poison?" asked Webbie Spider. "I don't believe one word that Simon Skunk says," sputtered Buster. "Mr. Giant had a vine like this growing on his piazza. Giants don't plant poison vines." By-and-by, they arrived at Gray Rock Bungalow laden with bags of chestnuts, plenty of barberries for Granny's sauce, and the pretty autumn leaves twined around their shoulders. "For the land o' pity!" cried Aunt Squeaky. "Betsey Graymouse, here is Buster with his paws full of poison ivy!" "Trot out and throw that stuff away at once," commanded Uncle Squeaky. "Only last evening we told you not to touch poison ivy." "Simon Skunk said that it was poison, but I thought he meant to scare us. I've seen Ruth Giant pick these pretty leaves on her piazza," whimpered Buster. "The poor kiddie didn't understand, Hezekiah," smiled Mother Graymouse. "Hold up your paw and count the fingers. How many are there, Buster?" "One, two, three, four, five," counted Buster. "Yes, and the leaves on Ruth Giant's vine have five fingers. These wild leaves have only three fingers and you must never touch them. You see these berries are waxy white and the berries on Mr. Giant's woodbine were purple. Remember, Buster, unless the leaves have five fingers like your paws, they are poison ivy. Now trot along with Hopsy and Webbie over to Wild Rose Cottage. Tell Grand-daddy all about it and ask him to fix you up." Dr. Whiskers washed the three scared little patients in salt water. [Illustration: Sure enough, next morning poor Buster could hardly see out of his eyes.] "I am afraid you will be some puffed-up youngsters in the morning," he said. "But I guess you will know poison ivy next time." Sure enough, next morning poor Buster could hardly see out of his eyes. His face and paws were swelled and puffy and oh, how they itched! "Simon Skunk meant to be kind to you, Buster, because Grand-daddy had been good to him," said Mother Graymouse. "Next time I'll mind Simon and leave the old ivy alone, Mammy," promised Buster sadly. CHAPTER X SNOWED IN The autumn days passed swiftly. Yellow, crimson, and russet leaves fluttered to the ground. Early in the mornings the grass was frosted in white. Granny, Mother Graymouse and Aunt Squeaky were busily preparing for winter. In the cool cave behind their bungalow, were rows of jelly glasses; boxes of tiny red apples from the orchard; plenty of little potatoes which the hired men had left in Mr. Giant's garden, and a bucket of fish which Scamper and Limpy-toes had caught and Uncle Squeaky had salted. "Ah, it is good to have a plenty!" sighed Granny. "Last winter we wondered how we should get our supply of fruit and vegetables. Now we have 'em all stored up. Surely we shall soon start for our dear attic home." "It is lovely by the Lake," said Mother Graymouse. "I'd like to see ice on the pond before we go home." "Why, Betsey Graymouse, we would all freeze!" cried Granny. "It would be horrid," shivered Aunt Squeaky. Dot Squeaky closed her summer school when the cool days came, and bade her little pupils good-by until another year. Limpy-toes worked, whenever Grand-daddy could spare him, upon his broken automobile. He bent and patched and mended it until at last the poor old machine would go once more. "But it is a worse chug-chug than ever," sighed Limpy-toes. "Some day I will build a better one and lock it away from Wiggle's mischievous paws." Dr. Whiskers shut up Wild Rose Cottage and they all moved over to Gray Rock until they should leave the Lake. But Mrs. Jack Rabbit got a bad cold; Wee Field-Mouse was ill; Squire Cricket sprained his ankle, and all the little Spiders had the measles. "I cannot leave all these sick folk, Granny," decided Dr. Whiskers. "There'll be sick folk all winter, Zenas. Must we stay and freeze to death? We'll get sick, also. You promised to go home before snow-time," sobbed Granny. "So we will, Granny, so we will. The weather is still mild. Never fear; have I not taken good care of you all?" Then came a day, when to Granny's great joy, Uncle Squeaky announced that they would begin to pack next morning. "The ground is hard and smooth. It will be easy to pull our cart. We must start before the heavy rains begin," he planned, "for after that there will be deep, frozen ruts." That last night by the Lake was a merry one. The Field-Mouse family came to spend the evening. Buster sang his sweetest songs, the kiddies recited verses they had learned at school, and Uncle Squeaky's band played for the last time. "I'll take our instruments over to Wild Rose Cottage and lock 'em up tomorrow," planned Limpy-toes. "It doesn't seem possible that we shall be back in our attic tomorrow night," said Dot. "I thought we'd be there long ago," sighed Granny. "Your Grand-daddy is getting slow in his old age." "Not slow, Granny, just moderate," corrected Grand-daddy. "Which reminds me of two mice I once knew. One mouse never would hurry. Ah, he was slow! He said he'd get through this world soon enough if he went slowly." Uncle Squeaky hopped up. "And so, kiddies," he chuckled, "he went poking along like this. He drawled and he droned and was always an hour behind time. Finally the old sleepy-head laid down and died." "Just so, Hezekiah," nodded Grand-daddy. The kiddies laughed at Uncle Squeaky's droll antics. "You walked like Grandpa Turtle, Uncle," laughed Nimble-toes. "Well," continue Grand-daddy "the other young mouse thought life was so short that he must move like a whirlwind or his work would not get done." "And so," explained Uncle Squeaky, "he went on a hop, skip and jump like this. He made dust fly in other folks' eyes, a-hustling and a-bustling about until he hardly knew if he was on his head or his heels." They all shouted as Uncle Squeaky pranced about the room, his coat tails flying out straight behind him. "I've always believed in being moderate. Neither too fast nor too slow," finished Grand-daddy. "Do stop being such a clown, Hezekiah," scolded Aunt Squeaky. "Give us a little more music. We shall not hear our band again all winter." "We have to be real quiet in the Giant's house. Let's stay here with Pa Field-Mouse where we can do as we choose," grinned Uncle Squeaky. "We are going home tomorrow, Hezekiah Squeaky," said Granny firmly. [Illustration: _"And so," explained Uncle Squeaky, "he went on a hop, skip and jump like this."_] Tomorrow came. "What makes it so dark?" wondered Limpy-toes. He lighted a lantern and looked at his watch. "It is after sun-up, Mammy!" he called. "You don't suppose we are snowed in?" Uncle Squeaky opened the door. In tumbled a mass of drifted snow. "Just so, Limpy-toes!" he exclaimed. "Clear up to our roof!" "We cannot haul our furniture today," said Grand-daddy. "Snowed in?" wailed Granny. "Ah, whatever will become of us?" "We will stay right in our cosy bungalow, Granny, until the snow melts," said Uncle Squeaky. "We have plenty of chips and pine cones to keep us warm, and tasty food stored up to eat. We can be comfortable and happy." "It is a lovely adventure," smiled Dot. "Aren't you glad it snowed, Silvy?" "Ah, yes," replied Silver Ears, "for now we can stay longer by the Lake. Perhaps Limpy-toes will make us a sled and some skates." "Don't worry, Granny," said Mother Gray-mouse cheerily. "Grand-daddy and Hezekiah will take care of us. After the storm, they can tramp to the store on the frozen crust and fetch some cheese, matches and sugar. By-and-by, the ground will be bare and they can pull our furniture cart home. Debbie likes winter in the country. I shall enjoy staying a little longer." There was a scraping sound outside the door. "Pa Field-Mouse and Nimble-toes have tunnelled under the snow!" exclaimed Aunt Squeaky. "Now we can visit Debby. It is nice to have neighbors in the Cosy Retreat." "A bad storm, Hezekiah," greeted Pa Field-Mouse. "Guess you'll stay with us a spell longer, Dr. Whiskers." "Ma sent this thistle-down," said Nimble-toes. "She says it will make warm beds for you." "Very kind of Debby, I'm sure," said Uncle Squeaky. "We'll be very fine in our downy beds. I will ask Lady Spider to spin us some silk draperies for the windows, Granny. She will do anything we ask. The woodland folk all love Dr. Whiskers. And no wonder. Never a bit of reward has he taken for all the wonderful cures he has made. We'll have a jolly winter, if we must stay. I think it will be grand. Something new in our lives, Granny." Granny shook her head dolefully. "Of course the kiddies think it is very fine to be snowed in, but I think the rest of you might have more sense," she scolded. "Come and sit by your old Granny, Buster, and sing your sweet song about our dear attic home." Buster grinned mischievously. "I'll sing you a newer one, Granny," he offered sweetly. He folded his paws as Mammy had taught him long ago, tossed his head high and sang merrily: "Softly all the night long Fell the snowflakes white; Jolly little snowflakes, Such a pretty sight! "All the pines and hemlocks, See them bending low; We are warm and cosy In our bungalow. "So we'll play our music, Sing our songs of cheer; For we love the snow-time Best of all the year." [Illustration: _He folded his paws as Mammy had taught him long ago, tossed his head high and sang merrily._] "We love our attic home best of all, Buster Graymouse!" sobbed Granny. "And we can't see the pines and hemlocks bending low. We can't see anything. Ah, dearie me! Snowed in, so far away from our home! It is the first time that Grand-daddy Whiskers ever broke a promise to me. It all comes of his being a doctor! Ah, dearie me, what will happen to us before Spring?" "That is a question for a wise mouse to answer, but I'm hoping that the next happening will be hot griddle cakes for our breakfast," chuckled Dr. Whiskers.