+---------------+
| |
| Knowledge Box |
| |
+---------------+

Musical Hespie and Her Play.


Little Hespie, the wood mouse, sang sometimes as long as nine minutes.
Her song usually came forth when she was at play, or exercising in some
way. One time she became especially delighted because her wheel squeaked
when she turned it. You know how pleased a boy is when his hobbyhorse
creaks. So Hespie, too, enjoyed the new noise; but it so drowned her
pretty little warble that a drop of oil was put in the wheel to stop the
creaky sound.

Poor Hespie became quite excited over this change, and bit the wires of
her wheel. So a plan was made to soothe poor mousie's feelings. A small
strip of stiff paper was placed in such a way that it hit the wheel
every time it turned and so made a nice little noise. Hespie forgot her
trouble and worked at the wheel joyously, making the paper noise and
singing her pretty song at the same time.

If Hespie had not had her wheel to play with, her life would have been
quite dull. One time her wheel was corked up so that she could not go
inside. She became quite angry and ran in and out of her bed-box, hardly
knowing what to do. Her rage did not last long, however, and she was
soon frolicking about the cage and singing. The song sounded at first
like the cooing of a dove; then it changed to quick notes more like the