discovered; as we were of much the same hue with many of the
flowers on the carpet. At last a little girl, who was at work in
the room, by the side of her mamma, shrieked out as if violently
hurt. Her mamma begged to know the cause of her sudden alarm.
Upon which she called out, 'A mouse! a mouse! I saw one under the
chair!' 'And if you did, my dear,' replied her mother, 'is that
any reason for your behaving so ridiculously? If there were
twenty mice, what harm could they possibly do? You may easily hurt
and destroy then,; but, poor little things! they cannot, if they
would, hurt you.' 'What, could they not bite me?' inquired the
child. 'They may, indeed, be able to do that; but you may be very
sure that they have no such inclination,' rejoined the mother. 'A
mouse is one of the most timorous things in the world; every noise
alarms it: and though it chiefly lives by plunder, it appears as
if punished by its fears for the mischiefs which it commits among
our property. It is therefore highly ridiculous to pretend to be
alarmed at the sight of a creature that would run from the sound
of your voice, and wishes never to come near you, lest, as you are
far more able, you should also be disposed to hurt it.' 'But I am
sure, madam,' replied the little girl, whose name I afterwards
heard was Nancy, 'they do not always run away; for one day, as
Miss Betsy Kite was looking among some things which she had in her
box, a mouse jumped out and ran up her frock sleeve--she felt it
quite up on her arm.' 'And what became of it then?' inquired the
mother. 'It jumped down again,' replied Nancy, 'and got into a
little hole in the window-seat; and Betsy did not see it again.'
'Well, then, my dear,' resumed the lady, 'what harm did it do her?
Is not that a convincing proof of what I say, that you have no
cause to be afraid of them, and that it is very silly to be so?
It is certainly foolish to be afraid of any thing, unless it