This little animal likes to live near the dwellings of men, for there it finds most easily the food which it likes best to eat. Mice generally remain in their holes during the daytime. It is only the young and foolish mice that come out then. The old ones are too much afraid of being caught and eaten by the cat. But at night they are bolder, and they come out from the holes which they have gnawed in the woodwork of the house, and run about seeking for something to eat and to drink.

The mouse is a very small animal, hardly three inches in length if we do not reckon its tail. But the tail is very nearly as long as the body. The body of the mouse is covered with short, velvety grey fur, which is darker on the back than on the rest of the body.

The mouse has two bright little black eyes, so small that they look like beads. Its ears are large, and it can move them about so that they catch every sound. The feet of the mouse have sharp little claws, one for each toe. There are four toes on each fore foot, and five on each hind foot.

We can almost always tell something about the habits of an animal, and the nature of its food, by looking at its teeth. The teeth of the mouse are like those of the rat, the rabbit, and the squirrel; they are made for gnawing, or cutting through hard substances such as wood.

In the front or middle of its mouth, the mouse has two long cutting or gnawing teeth in each jaw. These teeth never wear short, for they keep on growing at the end which is buried in the gum as fast as they wear away at the cutting end.