"Smouse."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20426, 30 November 1929, Page 4 (Supplement)

"Smouse."

A VOYAGE ACROSS THE WORLD

This charming littlo story of Sniouse, a Chinese mouse, rescued by an English lady in Pekin from a group of boys, relates tho adventures of one of the most widely-travelled mice in the world, and is particularly suited to our Nature Page to-dav.

Seeing that tho Chinese boys were teasing the mouse, tho English lady bought it from them for a small coin (about 3d), and carried it home in the pocket of . her jersey. It was a beautiful little creature, with short, silky hair, and such tiny legs that its littlo white tummv brushed along tho ground as it walked. The. rest of its body was biscuit colour. It had tiny black ears, a little pink nose, pink paws, and the biggest, blackest eves you ever saw.

" Smouse spent a peaceful four months in my bedroom," writes bis owner, Miss O'Mallev, of Pekin, in relating the adventures of her pet. "Ho had a little two-storey cage, with a sliding glass front and a small hole by which to climb up into tho top storey, Once a week I gave him a fresh handful of cotton-wool, out uf which he made himself a sweet littlo nest. Every morning I used to spread a towel in the bath, on which he would run up and down, taking exercise, while I scrubbed his cage; and every night, as he sleeps all day, 1 gave him his supper—a little Chinese grain, three or four green beans, and, as ho cannot drink, some apple or cabbage for moisture. "By the time we had to return to England we had all become so fond of him that it was decided that lie could come home with us.

Smouso must have found the very first part of tho journey tho mosk exciting, because, in tho train, going up to Mukden and down through Korea, whenever we stopped I used to get out on to tho platform to stretch my legs, and an admiring group of Chinese or Koreans used to gather round him. I do know if he was seasick on tho ship from Yokohama to Vancouver/ but he seemed very healthy, and we made friends with the bath steward, who scrubbed his cage most beautifully every day. Another friend on board was the head waiter; he gave mc fresh green stuff and hazel-nuts, which I discovered Smouso liked, so every other evening I gave him a nut in the, shell, and next morning I would find in his cage a clean, empty shell, with a tiny hole in it.

" On the voyage from Quebec to Southampton, if Smouso had used his great black eyes, he would have seen something to remember, for one night we passed 13 icebergs, and the great white mountains standing up out of the sea in tho moonlight aro not easily forgotten.

3fflffiißffiffi©ffiffi©i^ffiffiffiffl©ffiffis "In England Smouso was much admired, fie was now so tamo that lie would sit on my hand to wash his tiny face or peel his beans, and run up my sleeve if anything frightened him. But even here his adventures were not at an end. I have 110 time (o tell you about the big cage wo made for him, in which he made one burrow for himself &nd another for his food, nor about that dreadful time in Wales, when he escaped and was lost for a week in a houso with three cats and a dog in it!" As his owner travelled about a great deal, she finally gave Smouse to tlic London Zoo, where lie was a scurco of great interest to all visitors to the Small Rodents' House.

" But I warn you that he has grown much wilder since, lie was at the Zoo," concludes Miss O'Mailoy, "and probably will not eat out of your hand or wash his face, as lie • seel to do with me."