This little ball was built on the stalks of the wheat by an animal called the " Harvest Mouse."

The ball is not much larger than an egg, and yet there are sometimes three or four little harvest mice in it.

They are baby mice. Of course they must be very small to live in such a little house.

The mother of these little mice is not half so large as the little mouse you sometimes see running about your homes.

This little mouse is almost red on her back. The under part of her body is soft and white, like silk, and her ears are short.

Even wise men do not know how so small an animal can make this pretty ball.

We can not tell how she fastens

the ball to the wheat stalks, nor how she gets into it to feed the baby mice.

In the picture you see the mother mouse sitting on the nest, eating her dinner. She has a little bug for her dinner.

Father Mouse is away, trying to

find one for his dinner.

Do you see his tail curled around the wheat stalk?

The tail of the harvest mouse is as long as his whole body, and he can hold on with it as if it were a hand.

The little harvest mice do not spend their winters in this airy They make a snug, warm

home.

house underground.

This house has a room large enough for the mice, but it seems to us to be very small.

It has long halls leading to it, and through these, the little mice carry bits of soft, dry grass, with which they make warm and cozy nests.

When the days begin to grow cold, these little mice go into their nests in the ground.

There they sleep through the whole winter, and do not wake till the spring comes back and the sun warms the ground.

LANGUAGE LESSON.

Let pupils tell in their own words,—

Where the harvest mouse makes her nest.

How large the ball, or nest, is.

The size of this little mouse.

What she is eating for her dinner.
Where these mice live in winter.

Let pupils write statements about,—

The tail of the harvest mouse.

The mouse on the nest in the picture.

The mouse on the stalk in the picture.

In another lesson you have read about the black bear.

In this lesson you will learn something about the white or polar bear.

In the cold, cold North there is nearly always snow on the ground. Even in summer it is very cold, and great pieces of ice float about in the sea.

Here is the home of the white bear. He does not mind the cold, for he has a coat of thick fur to keep him warm.

He walks about in the deep snow, and seems to like the cold air as well as you do the warm sunshine.