One Summer day the sun shone bright,
Mid sweet flowers roved the bee,
And I wandered in a garden old
Beside the deep blue sea.
But close at hand, a shady path,
Beneath some beech trees wound,
And there. that sultry summer day,
A pleasant seat I found.
Suddenly, just beside my chair,
A little sound I heard;
A scratch upon the gravel path,
As of a mouse or bird.
I turned my head; there, on the path,
What strange sight did I see!
A little mouse, and in her mouth
Another still more wee.
Softly she crept across the path,
And then, her journey done,
In a hole beneath the green grass verge
She laid her little one.
And back and forth from side to side,
I watched her carry five
Sweet little mice, her own dear brood,
Long tailed, and all alive.
She never wearied in her work,
Yet oh! so small was she!
And thus, that bright, hot summer day
She moved her nursery.
Dear mother mouse! My verse has told
Your patient loving deed;
Methinks our boys and girls may learn
Some lessons as they read.