THE DUEL OF THE DORMICH.

OvrT in the fields, in the hollow of an old willow-tree, two Dormice

slept the whole winter long. They neither ate nor drank, nor did
they so much as raise their heads from their pillows during all
this dreary time. A ray of sunshine, as the sun passed right over
their tree, would perhaps make one of them stretch out his paws ;
but as soon as the gleam had passed and left them, he would curl
himself wp all the closer in his nest, and go faster asleep than ever.

But the sun came one bright spring morning, and shone on the
Dormice so warmly, that they turned round in their bed, stretched
their paws, rubbed their eyes, yawned, and at last woke quite up.

“It is summer-time at last,” said the elder Dormouse, as he ~
took a nut from his store of provisions and cracked it, “‘ and we
may now leave our winter’s bed.” ‘I don’t believe it,’’ replied
the younger. ‘The wind blows cold; I shall go to sleep again.”

*¢ Ah, that’s like your laziness,”’ rejoined the elder; “ sleep on;
I’m off to the wood.’ And so saying, he scrambled up the tree, then
down the outside of the trunk, and so into the wide meadows.

The younger Dormouse went to sleep. He slept for an hour,
then he woke again, and finding his companion gone, he turned
to the food and ate a hearty meal; then he slept again, but the
sun had made his bed too hot: so he presently woke and made
another attack on the provisions; and this he did the whole day
long, until, at evening time, all the corn and nuts which the two
Dormice had so diligently collected in the autumn, were gone.
Soon the moon rose, and the young one curled himself for sleep.

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