I
reminded Maria of the fact that she was a fool. Then she got the tea-kettle
and wanted to scald the mouse. I objected to that process, except as a last
resort. Then she got some cheese to coax the mouse down, but I did not dare
to let go for fear it would run up. Matters were getting desperate. I told
her to think of something else, and I kept jumping. Just as I was ready to
faint with exhaustion, I tripped over an iron, lost my hold, and the mouse
fell to the floor very dead. I had no idea a mouse could be squeezed to
death so easy.
That was not the end of trouble, for before I had recovered my breath a
fireman broke in one of the front windows, and a whole company followed him
through, and they dragged hose around, and mussed things all over the
house, and then the foreman wanted to thrash me because the house was not
on fire, and I had hardly got him pacified before a policeman came in and
arrested me. Some one had run down and told him I was drunk and was killing
Maria. It was all Maria and I could do, by combining our eloquence, to
prevent him from marching me off in disgrace, but we finally got matters
quieted and the house clear.
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