It was one of those rare occasions when the realization of a long-cherished scheme is even more enjoyable than imagination has already painted it, and so eagerly did Squarky-woo enter upon his task that for some moments he was totally oblivious of all other considerations. At length, however, when the first glow of gratified appetite was gradually cooling down, he began to realise that the whole apartment was permeated by a delicate perfume for which none of the fragments on the floor were directly responsible. He stopped eating and began to sniff the air with the rich satisfaction of a true connoisseur. "If that isn't Cheddar cheese," he murmured to himself, "I'm a Dutch-mouse!" As far as he could judge, the source of this delicious odour lay somewhere in the direction of the fireplace. In eager expectancy he darted across the floor; and there, just in front of the grate lay the most perfect slice of Cheddar cheese, surrounded by a curious arrangement of wire and wood. Now Squarky-woo had been brought up by Mammy-ana on an excellent principle, carefully copied from the manner in which she had observed human beings educated their children. That such things as traps and cats existed it was, of course, impossible to deny, but what they were like in appearance, and where they were likely to be found, were things that no decent-minded young mouse had any right to know. The great object of education was to launch one's children upon the world in absolute ignorance of the darker side of life. "My own little Squarky-woo," she would say to other approving mothers, "is just as pure-minded as the day that he was born." This being so, Squarky-woo had naturally no idea that the curious thing in front of him was a trap. He had often heard other young mice speak of such things with bated breath, but had never dared to ask what they were actually like, for fear that he should be laughed at for not knowing. So he walked round it, and sniffed at it, and puzzled his head trying to make out what it was. It could scarcely be intended to keep the cheese clean; it was obviously not intended to prevent anybody stealing it. Well, it was no good trying to account for human idiocy. People who kept cats for pleasure were obviously a little wanting in ordinary intelligence. If they chose to put their cheese into a sort of birdcage and leave it on the kitchen floor, that was their own look-out. He knew what to do with it if they hadn't.