A Yankee Girl at Shiloh

								

Mouse thought of was the white cat, but the cat wasn’t anywhar ter be
seen; so Mother Mouse goes all about the kitchen calling the missing
mouse, an’ when she crept by the cupboard she heard a little bit of a
squeak, and then she stopped mighty quick. She knew the little mouse
was in that cupboard, an’ she prob’ly knew that thar war traps set in
it. So she calls her fam’ly an’ then says she, ‘Your brother is in
thar, an’ we mus’ get him out. Now the folks have all gone to bed, an’
we’ll begin work.’ So she began to nibble at the edge of the door, and
the little mice did their best to help her, and jes’ ’fore daylight
there was a hole big enough for the little mouse to come through. But
he wouldn’t come. Says he, ‘I only squeaked so you’d know that I’m
well fixed fer life,’ says he. ‘I ain’ no need ever to gather kitchen
crumbs again,’ he says, ‘an’ so you can all go your ways an’ ferget
me.’ An’ he ran back to his cheese. Wal, at that very minute the woman
of the house came into the kitchen to light up the fire, an’ she sees
the mice. ‘My land!’ she calls out; an’ off went Mother Mouse and all
her family into a safe hiding-place. But the woman opened the cupboard
door, and then she called, ‘Puss, puss!’ an’ the big cat came running,
an’ into the pantry she sprung an’ the little mouse, who had felt so
grand and had scorned his own folks who were tryin’ ter help him, was
so stupid and clumsy because he had eaten so much that he couldn’t
run, and in a minute the cat had grabbed him and fetched him out to
the kitchen an’ ate him up. Thar,” Mrs. Bragg concluded, “I guess I’ll
hev to stir up a corn pone fer dinner,” and she got up from the bench.
“What became of the Mother Mouse and the other little mice?” Berry
demanded.
But Mrs. Bragg shook her head, “I reckon they jes’ moved away,” she
said.
It was now nearly noon, and Berry realized that she must get home as
soon as possible; so reminding Mollie that “school” would begin the
next morning, she bade them good-bye.
As soon as she had left the Bragg cabin Berry’s thoughts flew back
to the man she had encountered that morning. Although she had not
spoken of him to Mrs. Bragg, for some reason that she could not easily
account for, she was now eager to reach home and tell her father
and mother of the stranger who had taken her for a boy, and who had
threatened her.
“I’ll go home another path,” she decided. “I never want to see that
man again,” and she made her way up the crest of the ridge, circling
about thick growths of trees and underbrush, and coming into the trail
that led to the cabin a mile above the place where she had encountered
the stranger.

                             CHAPTER III



                                SCHOOL

It was with a grave face that Mr. Arnold listened to Berry’s story