THE THREE MOD-EL MICE.
Once on a time—the story-book time when an-i-mals wore clothes and could talk—there were three mod-el mice. Their names were Gray Cloak, Fine Ear and Sat-in Slip-per. Sat-in Slip-per had a spoon of her own, Fine Ear had a knife, and Gray Cloak owned a fork.
One day they thought they would club the knife and the fork and the spoon to-geth-er, and keep house. As they were mod-el mice, they eas-i-ly a-greed where to live. They chose Farm-er Jones' cel-lar, be-cause there were bar-rels of ap-ples, bas-kets of eggs, and shelves loaded with good-ies, and an egg, or an ap-ple, or a stray cake would not be missed.
"I lived once," said Gray Cloak, "in the cel-lar of a wom-an who bought by the doz-en or the dime's worth, and she missed the least lit-tle thing at once, so that fi-nal-ly I left in dis-gust."
Such good times as those three mice had! The cel-lar had a smooth, wa-ter-limed floor, a beau-ti-ful place to play mar-bles, blind-man's-buff and Kit-ty-kit-ty-cor-ner. They always ate from the same egg, and as Farm-er Jones kept his cats at the barn, there was noth-ing to spoil their comfort for many years.