ing how it's done. I don't like leaving necessary executions to
servants. As to mice, you know--poisoning is out of the question, on
sanitary grounds. 'Catch-'em-alive' traps are like a policeman who
catches a pickpocket--all the trouble of the prosecution is to come; and
as to the traps with springs and spikes--my man set one in my bedroom
once, and in the middle of the night the mouse was caught. For nearly an
hour I doubt if I was much the happier of the two. Every moment I
thought the poor wretch would stop screaming, for I had ordered the trap
in the belief that death was instantaneous. At last I jumped up, and put
the whole concern into my tub and held it under water. The poor beast
was dead in six seconds. A catch-'em-alive trap and a tub of water is
the most merciful death, I fancy; but I am rather in favour of letting
one animal kill another. It seems more natural, and _fairer_. They have
a run for their lives, so to speak."

"And who did you get to kill your mouse?"

"Well, I know a youngster who has a terrier. They are a perfect pair. As
like as two peas, and equally keen about sport--they would go twenty
miles to chase a bluebottle round an attic, sooner than not hunt
something. So I told him there was a mouse _de trop_ in my rooms, and he
promised to bring Nipper next morning. I was going out hunting myself.

"The meet was early, and my man got breakfast at seven o'clock for me in
my own quarters; and the first thing I saw when I came out of my bedroom
was the mouse sitting on the edge of my Indian silver sugar-basin. I
knew him again by his ear. And there he sat all breakfast-time,
twitching his tail, and nibbling little bits of sugar, and watching me
with such a pair of eyes! Have you ever seen a mouse's eyes close? Upon
my word, they are wonderfully beautiful, and it's uncommonly difficult
to hurt a creature with fine eyes. I didn't touch it, and as I was going
out I looked back, and _the mouse was looking after me_. I was a fool
for looking back, for I can't stand a pitiful expression in man or
beast, and it put an end to Nipper's sport, and left me with a mouse in
my quarters--a thing I hate. I didn't like to say I'd changed my mind
about killing the mouse, but I wrote to Nipper's master, and said I
wouldn't trouble him to come up for such a trifling matter."

"So the mouse was safe?"

"Well, _I_ thought so. But the young fellow (who is very good-natured)
wrote back to say it was no trouble whateve