Secret of the Woods | Page 7

one
could hide in a thimble, and that snuggled down in the darkest corner of
my hand confidently.
It was ten minutes before the little mother came back, looking
anxiously for the lost baby. When she found him safe in his own nest,
with the man's face still watching, she was half reassured; but when she
threw herself down and the little one began to drink, she grew fearful
again and ran away into the tunnel, the little one clinging to her side,
this time securely.
I put the stone back and gathered the moss carefully about it. In a few
days Mother Mouse was again at my table. I stole away to the stone,
put my ear close to it, and heard with immense satisfaction tiny squeaks,
which told me that the house was again occupied. Then I watched to
find the path by which Mother Mouse came to her own. When her
cheeks were full, she disappeared under the shred of bark by her usual
route. That led into the hollow center of the birch log, which she

followed to the end, where she paused a moment, eyes, ears, and
nostrils busy; then she jumped to a tangle of roots and dead leaves,
beneath which was a tunnel that led, deep down under the moss,
straight to her nest beneath the stone.
Besides these older mice, there were five or six smaller ones, all shy
save one, who from the first showed not the slightest fear but came
straight to my hand, ate his crumbs, and went up my sleeve, and
proceeded to make himself a warm nest there by nibbling wool from
my flannel shirt.
In strong contrast to this little fellow was another who knew too well
what fear meant. He belonged to another tribe that had not yet grown
accustomed to man's ways. I learned too late how careful one must be
in handling the little creatures that live continually in the land where
fear reigns.
A little way behind my tent was a great fallen log, mouldy and
moss-grown, with twin-flowers shaking their bells along its length,
under which lived a whole colony of wood mice. They ate the crumbs
that I placed by the log; but they could never be tolled to my table,
whether because they had no split-eared old veteran to spy out the
man's ways, or because my own colony drove them away, I could never
find out. One day I saw Tookhees dive under the big log as I
approached, and having nothing more important to do, I placed one big
crumb near his entrance, stretched out in the moss, hid my hand in a
dead brake near the tempting morsel, and squeaked the call. In a
moment Tookhees' nose and eyes appeared in his doorway, his
whiskers twitching nervously as he smelled the candle grease. But he
was suspicious of the big object, or perhaps he smelled the man too and
was afraid, for after much dodging in and out he disappeared
altogether.
I was wondering how long his hunger would battle with his caution,
when I saw the moss near my bait stir from beneath. A little waving of
the moss blossoms, and Tookhees' nose and eyes appeared out of the
ground for an instant, sniffing in all directions. His little scheme was
evident enough now; he was tunneling for the morsel that he dared not
take openly. I watched with breathless interest as a faint quiver nearer
my bait showed where he was pushing his works. Then the moss stirred
cautiously close beside his objective; a hole opened; the morsel

tumbled in, and Tookhees was gone with his prize.
I placed more crumbs from my pocket in the same place, and presently
three or four mice were nibbling them. One sat up close by the dead
brake, holding a bit of bread in his forepaws like a squirrel. The brake
stirred suddenly; before he could jump my hand closed over him, and
slipping the other hand beneath him I held him up to my face to watch
him between my fingers. He made no movement to escape, but only
trembled violently. His legs seemed too weak to support his weight
now; he lay down; his eyes closed. One convulsive twitch and he was
dead--dead of fright in a hand which had not harmed him.
It was at this colony, whose members were all strangers to me, that I
learned in a peculiar way of the visiting habits of wood mice, and at the
same time another lesson that I shall not soon forget. For several days I
had been trying every legitimate way in vain to catch a big trout, a
monster of his kind, that lived in an eddy behind a rock up at the inlet.
Trout