Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 May 1875 — A Singing Mouse. [ARTICLE]

A Singing Mouse.

Dr. M. V. B. Harwood, the reporter of the Jonesboro Gazette at Anna, 111., relates the following interesting and pleasing incidents,, for the truth of which it will be seen that he pledges his “ sacred honor”: “We have in our house a ram avis, unfeathered and quadruped—a veritable singing mouse. It sings its little song with all the musical trills and quavers of a canary, and with nearly as many of the variations as a mocking-bird. Early in the winter a mouse began to frequent one of our bird-cages. He climbed up the window curtain and gained access easily. He became so tame and impertinent that he was finally considered a pet instead of a pest. So he made his home with the bird aaid got a new song in his mouth. We could hardly believe it at first, but when in the long winter evenings, while the bird-cage was covered with paper to exclude the light, we heard a canary song in low soft tones floating out from the cage like the ‘faint, exquisite music of a dream.,’ or as if She ghost of some departed canary had come back to interview its mate, we were led to a solution of the mystery, one that we least expected. One evening we carefully lifted a corner of the paper from the bird-cage and there sat our pet mouse, singing as never mouse sang before. Since then he is our household fairy, singing every evening and at intervals through the day, gayly as the cricket on the earth. Since the warm weather bis favorite cage has been removed to another room, and it is pitiful to see him hunting for his feathered teacher. Climbing up the curtain to the place where the cage hung he will look around a moment, then return to the window and, perched upon the cross-rail of the sash, pour out his little soul in a song as mournful as that of the dying swan. Then be steps down and out, and in a little while is heard again in his tavorite niche near the clock. ‘To all of which we pledge our sacred honor.’” - * —That society is a despotic one which ordains that a man must black his boots once a month and put on a clean shirt once every three weeks.