3. They are playful little animals, and may easily be tamed. When a mouse comes into the room where people live, it is ready to run away at once if anything moves. 4. But if all are still, it will scamper about the floor, and look over and smell everything in the room. The next day it will come back, and finally it will play about the room as if no one were there. 5. The mice that run about the house have gray coats; but some mice are white, with pink eyes, and these are often tamed and kept as pets. 6. A lady once tamed a common gray mouse, so that it would eat out of her hand. She also had a while mouse in a cage. 7. The gray mouse was very angry when he saw the lady pet the white mouse; and one day he some way got into the cage, and when the lady came back into the room, she found the white mouse was dead. 8. Music sometimes seems to have a strange effect upon a mouse. At one time, when a man was playing upon his violin, a mouse came out of his hole and danced about the floor. He seemed almost frantic with delight, and kept time to the music for several minutes. At last he stopped, fell over on the floor, and they found he was dead. LESSON XXVI. _WHITE-PAW STARTS TO SEE THE WORLD._ [Illustration] 1. White-paw was a young mouse that lived with his mother. Their home was in a barn, behind some sacks of corn, and a very nice home it was. 2. When a sunbeam flashed in upon them at midday, "That was the sun," said Mrs. Mouse. When a ray of the moon stole quietly in, "That is the moon," said the simple-minded creature, and thought she was very wise to know so much. 3. But little White-paw was not so contented as his mother. As he frisked and played in his one ray of sunshine or one gleam of moonlight, he had queer little fancies. 4. One morning, while at breakfast on some kernels of corn and sweet apples which his mother had brought home, he asked: 5. "Mother, what is the world?" 6. "A great, terrible place!" was the answer, and Mrs. Mouse looked very grave indeed. 7. "How do you know, mother? Have you ever been there?" asked the youngster. 8. "No, child; but your father was lost in the great world, my son," and Mrs. Mouse's voice had a little shake in it. 9. "Ah!" said the son, "that was for want of knowing better." 10. "Knowing better! Why, he was the wisest mouse alive!" said the faithful Mrs. Mouse. 11. "I could not have been alive then," thought White-paw to himself. Then he said aloud, "Mother, I have made up my mind to go and see the world; so good-by!" 12. His mother wept. She tried to have him stay at home and be content--but all in vain; so she gave him a great hug, and he was off. LESSON XXVII. _WHAT THE MICE SAW IN THE FARM-YARD._ [Illustration] 1. He had not gone many steps when he met Mr. Gaffer Graybeard, a wise old mouse, and a great friend to the family. 2. "Well, where are you off to, Mr. Pertnose?" he asked, as the young traveler was whisking by. "I'm off to see the world," was the answer.