“I do not know, Switchy,” answered the mother mouse; “but stranger things have happened.”
And I think, perhaps, you children remember the story of how once a lion was caught in a net, and how a little mouse gnawed through the ropes of the net so the lion could get out. And if a mouse could help a lion, which is a big animal, a mouse might help an elephant. So you see Flop Ear was not so very far wrong.
The white rabbit kept on gnawing away at the outside of the wooden box trap, and he soon had a hole almost through. The mother mouse and the little mice heard the gnawing sounds and they were glad, for they hoped soon to be free, and to run back to their home and to the papa.
“It will not need a very large hole to let such little mice as we are crawl through,” said the mother, speaking through the wires to Flop Ear. “So do not tire your jaws and teeth too much by biting a big hole.”
“I won’t,” returned the white rabbit. “I do not see why any one would want to catch such dear little mice as you are.”
“Perhaps the trap was set to catch some big mice, or some rats,” said the mother field mouse, “and we just got into it by mistake. Never again will I go in to get cheese out of a box. I will eat the things I find in the woods and fields.”
“Yes, that is safest,” agreed Flop Ear. “I was caught once myself, and kept in a box by a boy. I did not like it, though I must say the boy was very kind and good to me. So when I heard you talking in here about being caught I thought the best thing I could do would be to set you loose.”
“And oh! how glad we will be to run about on the ground once more,” said the mother mouse. “I was afraid we would never get out!”
All the while he was talking, Flop Ear was gnawing away at the side of the trap. Up and down went his four big front gnawing teeth, two in the upper jaw and two in the lower. They were almost like the chisels a carpenter uses when he is smoothing down a piece of wood. Beavers are great gnawers, too, and they have four large front teeth, just as has a rabbit, a rat, or a mouse, only a beaver’s teeth are orange colored. Why that is I do not know.
“There!” cried the white rabbit at last. “I have gnawed a hole for you, Mrs. Mouse. I think you and your little ones can get out of that. But be careful you do not get stuck. Make sure the hole is large enough. If it is not I will make it bigger.”