BLOOD RELATIONS.
"Of course there's a difference in tastes," Mrs. Mouser said thoughtfully. "Some of the things which Bunny Rabbit thinks are good, I don't like at all, and perhaps he objects to what I believe is very fine. Now here is a story Mr. Crow has got about Mr. Man's boy Tommy. Mamma Speckle thinks there was nothing like it ever told. He says that Tommy Man, one night after he had been tucked up in his crib, was awakened by a strange, humming, buzzing sound close to his head, and when he got out the sand that the 'sand-man' had put in his eyes, he stared about him. There on the bottom of the bed was a fearful hobgoblin, so Tommy Man thought, with big round eyes, awfully long legs and wings, and a beak that looked like a trooper's sword.
"'Are you one of those angels that my mamma said took care of little boys at night?' asked Tommy Man, trembling.' 'Cause if you are I guess I can get along by myself all right; you needn't stay.'
"But the mosquito made a jab with his bill at the bed-clothes over Tommy's chin, and said, loudly:
"'Cousin-n-n-n-n, Cousin-n-n-n.'
"'Oh, you're a cousin, are you? I wonder which one?'
"'Z-z-i-m m-m,' answered the mosquito, buzzing about Tommy Man's head.
"'Zim? Oh, I guess you must be that soldier cousin of mother's by the looks of the sword you carry; his name was Jim.'
"'Cousin-n-n-n-n!' buzzed the mosquito sharply. 'Don't you know your own relations?'