A little gray mouse was out on his travels. He wanted to see the world and get some supper. It was late in the afternoon. It was growing dark, and mousie lighted a match.
You don't believe it?
Mousie really did it, though he did not mean to; and this is the way it happened: Mousie crept through a little hole into a nice, cosy room. It was very quiet and warm. Grandpa West sat there writing. There was a little pile of chips and bits of paper on the hearth, ready to light the fire next morning.
Mousie smelt crumbs of cake in one of the papers. He crept in and found them. They were very nice, but he wanted something more to eat. He nibbled some of the chips. There was a match among them.
Mousie found the match. He did not know what it was. Mousie never smoked, and never lighted fires. So he thought matches were of no use; that is, unless they were good to eat. He would try and see; so he nibbled the match.
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Snap! went his wee white teeth. Up jumped a little flame right in his face.
"Quee!" screamed mousie, and ran back to his hole.
If no one had been in the room, mousie's match might have set the house on fire. It caught the papers and chips, and they blazed up in a second. But Grandpa took them up on a shovel, and threw them into the fireplace. Then he sat down in his easy-chair, and laughed to think how fast mousie ran. Mousie reached his nest in safety; and very likely he told his wife that the world was burning up.
—MRS. MARY JOHNSON.
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