Sue.
"No, they're very tame and gentle," answered Sam. "White mice and white
rats, you know, aren't like the other kind. I guess being colored white
makes them kind and nice. They run all over me, in my pockets and up my
sleeves. Sometimes they go to sleep in my pockets.
"Why, even my mother isn't afraid of them, and she'll let them go to
sleep in her lap, and she wouldn't do that for a black mouse or a black
or gray rat. No sir!"
"No, I guess not!" exclaimed Bunker. "Other rats and mice would bite.
But it's too bad your white ones are gone. We'll have to find them. We
can't have a good circus without them. Everybody help hunt for Sam's
lost mice!" cried Bunker.
"I--I know how to get them," said Sue.
"How?" Sam wanted to know. He and the others, including Bunny and Sue,
had gone inside the tent to look at the empty mouse cage.
"With cheese," answered Sue. "Don't you know the little verse: 'Once a
trap was baited, with a piece of cheese. It tickled so a little mouse it
almost made him sneeze.' And when your mices sneeze, when they smell the
cheese, you could hear them, and catch them, Sam."
"Yes, maybe that would be a good plan," laughed Bunker Blue. "But do
your mice like cheese, Sam?"
"Yes, they'll eat almost anything, and they'll take it right out of my
hand. Oh dear! I hope they come back!"
Sam felt very bad, for he had had his white mice pets a long time, and
had taught them to do many little tricks.
"We'll all help you look for them," said Ben. "Did you ever teach any of
them the trick of opening the cage door?" he asked.
"No," replied Sam. "I don't believe they could do that, for the door was
fastened on the outside, and white mice haven't paws like a trained
monkey. Maybe I didn't fasten the cage door good last night."
"Oh, Bunny!" cried Sue. "Wouldn't it be fun if we could send and get Mr.
Winkler's monkey Wango for our circus? Wouldn't it?"
"Yes, maybe it would," replied Bunny. "But I don't guess we could do it.
Come on, Sue, I'm going to look for the white mice."
"All right," Sue said. Maybe some little girls would be afraid of mice,
white, black or gray. But Sue was not. Perhaps it was because she knew
Bunny was going to be with her. Then, too, Sue was very anxious to have
the circus as good as it could be made, and if the mice were missing
some of the people who came might not like it. So Sue and Bunny said
they would help hunt for the lost white mice.
With the big boys, the
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