The House Mouse
(Mother, or teacher sings:)
1. A child comes lightly about the room with hippity-hop step.
2. Several children come out and hippity-hop about swiftly and gaily.
Sometimes a child at night
Awakes from slumber sweet,
And seems to hear the step
Of fleeing elfin feet.
(Child sings:)
’Tis I, the merry Mouse,
The little bright-eyed Mouse
That dwells within the house!
Tis I! ’tis I! ’tis I!
(Mother sings:)
A rush as of a troop!
A scamper in the walls!
A scurry in the floors!
Then perfect silence falls.
(Children, pausing, sing:)
’Tis we, the merry Mice!
’Tis we, the frolic Mice
All scudding in a trice!
’Tis we! ’tis we! ’tis we!
(Mother sings:)
A merry sprite it is!
Yet children fear the Mouse,
The Mouse that joys like them
To dwell within the house!
(Children sing, joining hands, dancing in a round:)
We do! each merry Mouse,
Each little tricksy Mouse;
We like the cosey house,
We do! we do! we do!
3. Children hippity-hop around in pairs, joyously.
4. Children hippity-hop about gently.
(Mother sings:)
And dainty is the Mouse!
What children like, it eats!
It chooses grains and fruits,
And has a tooth for sweets.
(Children sing, dancing in a round:)
Then do not fear the Mouse,
The dainty merry Mouse
That shares your cosey house;
O, no! no, no! no, no!
BABYLAND
THE KIND LITTLE CAT.
Miss Howells has told the story of Posy Pinkham’s cat that dreamed. This is a story of two other cats Posy had.
The cats were sisters. Their names were Fluff and White-face. Fluff was a gentle milk cat. White-face was a fierce mouser. White-face would often bite and claw her sister, but Fluff never bit and clawed back.
Once, however, Fluff bit and clawed first, and there was a fight, and Fluff—but that’s the story.
Papa Pinkham had caught a gray mouse in the wire cage-trap. It was so cunning Posy begged to keep it, and Papa Pinkham left it in the cage-trap and went off to business. Posy fed the mouse with five kernels of corn, and then went to dress her doll Lilybell for breakfast.
FLUFF ALSO ADMIRES THE MOUSE.
Fluff had been looking on. Now she went close up to the cage and sat down.
Just then White-face came creeping, creeping up, in the way of mouse-hunting cats.
“Hush,” she whispered to Floss; “there’s a mouse; see me catch it!”
THE FIGHT.
“No,” whispered Floss, “it’s such a cunning mouse, so soft and smooth, such bright little eyes, such a long slim tail—no, don’t.”
“I shall, I say!”
“No, you mustn’t—besides, it is Posy’s mouse.”
“I don’t care, I want it!”
UP THE TREE.
Just then the mouse moved so its tail came through the wires. White-face sprang, but Floss sprang quicker, not at the tail, but at her fierce sister.
White-face was very angry; she bit and clawed terribly; she scratched Floss across the face—but Floss fought on.
At last White-face got away, and ran out the door and up a tree. Floss chased her and nipped the tip of her tail as she climbed. Then she ran back to the house, and told Posy all about it.
WEARING THE RIBBON.
Posy hugged the kind little cat, and tied a beautiful ribbon about her neck, and told her she was brave as a lion, and kind as—as—a little girl!
But White-face got no ribbon, and no praise—and she was so scared she staid up in the tree all day.
C. P. Stuart.