Vain Foresight Most of us have had evidence of the
migration of mice to our houses or sheds. Here is a quaint example of their in- genious ways of fending for the winter. A gardener, rendered idle by the weather, left his garden boots for some while in a shed. When he at last went to put them on again, he found both without laces. Slipping on one of the boots he felt a certain roughness, and on investigation of the cause pulled out the missing laces cut neatly into about two-inch lengths, and among the laces a good quantity of spinach seeds, each of which must have been carried separately from an upper shelf. The mouse is a great hoarder against winter hunger and discomfort; but it is the old story :
" The best-laid plans of mice and men Gang aft agley."
The gardener has lost his laces and the mouse its two-course meals.
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