All of my mice by this time had become quite tame.  They had plenty to eat and drink, and a comfortable home, and not a care in the world; and familiarity with their master had bred assurance; and so they had become quite tame, and shamefully, abominably lazy.  Luxury, we are taught, was ever the mother of sloth.  I could put my hand in amongst them, and not one would bestir himself the littlest bit to escape me.  Mercedes and I were inseparable.  I used to take her to school with me every day; she could be more conveniently and privately transported than a lamb.  Each lyceen had a desk in front of his form, and she would spend the school-hours in mine, I leaving the lid raised a little, that she might have light and air.  One day, the usher having left the room for a moment, I put her down on the floor, thereby creating a great excitement amongst my fellow-pupils, who got up from their places and formed an eager circle round her.  Then suddenly the usher came back, and we all hurried to our seats, while he, catching sight of Mercedes, cried out, ’A mouse!  A white mouse!  Who dares to bring a white mouse to the class?’ And he made a dash for her.  But she was too quick, too ’cute, for ‘the likes of’ Monsieur le Pion.  She gave a jump, and in the twinkling of an eye had disappeared up my leg, under my trousers.  The usher searched high and low for her, but she prudently remained in her hiding-place; and thus her life was saved, for, when he had abandoned his ineffectual chase, he announced, ’I should have wrung her neck.’  I turned pale to imagine the doom she had escaped as by a hair’s-breadth.  ’It is useless to ask which of you brought her here,’ he continued.  ’But mark my words:  if ever I find a mouse again in the class I will wring her neck!’ And yet, in private life, this bloodthirsty pion was a quite gentle, kindly, underfed, underpaid, shabby, struggling fellow, with literary aspirations, who would not have hurt a fly.

The secrets of a schoolboy’s pocket!  I once saw a boy surreptitiously angling in Kensington Gardens, with a string and a bent pin.  Presently he landed a fish, a fish no bigger than your thumb perhaps, but still a fish.  Alive and wet and flopping as it was, he slipped it into his pocket.  I used to carry Mercedes about in mine.  One evening, when I put in my hand to take her out, I discovered to my bewilderment that she was not alone.  There were four little pink mites of infant mice clinging to her.

I had enjoyed my visit to the theatre so much that at the jour de l’an my father included a toy-theatre among my presents.  It had a real curtain of green baize, that would roll up and down, and beautiful coloured scenery that you could shift, and footlights, and a trap-door in the middle of the stage; and indeed it would have been altogether perfect, except for the Company.  I have since learned that this is not infrequently the case with theatres.  My company consisted of pasteboard men and women who,