Then hearing somebody go by the door, she cried out, ‘Who is there? is it you, Betty? if it is, I wish you would come and take down the mouse-trap, for I have caught a mouse.’ Betty instantly obeyed her call, and desired to know what she wanted. ‘I want you to take down the mouse-trap,’ she replied, ‘for I cannot leave the child. I am glad that I have got it, I am sure, for the closet swarms so, there is no such thing as bearing it. They devour everything: I declare they have eaten up a whole pound of sugar, which cost me elevenpence, sugar is now so monstrously dear! indeed the man made a favour to let me have it for that; only, he said, as our family were good customers, and I was but a servant, he would take no more. And enough too I thought it was, to have only a penny back in change out of a whole shilling for one pound of sugar: and then to think of the poison mice to have it all; but I will break their filthy necks. Do, Betty, pray take the trap down, and return with it as soon as you can, and I will set it again: for I dare say I shall catch another before I go to bed, for I heard some more rustling among the things.’ ‘O lauk!’ replied Betty, ‘you do not think that I will take down the trap, do you? I would not touch it for twenty pounds. I am always frightened, and ready to die at the sight of a mouse. Once, when I was a girl, I had one thrown in my face, and ever since I have always been scared out of my wits at them; and if ever I see one running loose, as I did one night in the closet below stairs, where the candles are kept, I scream as if I was being killed.’ ‘Why then,’ answered Nurse, ‘I think you behave like a great fool, for what harm could a mouse do to you?’ ‘O la! I hate them,’ returned she, and then ran away without the trap. Greatly was I rejoiced at her departure, as I hoped that, by some means, Softdown might still be able to make his escape. But, alas! no such good fortune attended him. Some person again passing the door, Nurse once more called out, ‘Who is there? John is it you?’ ‘Yes,’ replied a man’s voice. ‘Then do you step in, will you, for a moment?’ rejoined Mrs. Nurse: and instantly entered a man whom I had never before seen. ‘What do you want, Nurse?’ said he. ‘I only want to get rid of a mouse,’ returned she; ‘and, do you know, Betty is such a fool that she is afraid of taking it, and I want the trap to set it again, for they swarm here like bees in a hive, one can have no peace for them: they devour and spoil every thing; I say sometimes that I believe they will eat me up at last.’ While she was saying this, John took the trap in his hand, held it up once more to the candle, then taking a piece of thread out of a paper, that lay bound round with a dirty blue ribbon upon the table, he shook the trap about till he got my brother’s tail through the wires, when catching hold of it, he tied the thread tight round it and dragged him by it to the door of the trap,