මීයෙකුගේ ආත්ම කථනයෙන් - From the Autobiography of a Mouse.

One day in the grocer’s shop I made a hole in a bag of dog-biscuits and thought I would make my nest there. But the next morning a customer came into the .shop and carried me away to the prison. Not as a prisoner, but because the biscuits were for the jailor’s dogs. As soon as I could I escaped and got through .a hole into a small room. It was a prison-cell, and in it was a man who looked very pale and sad. When he saw me, his eyes grew bright and he smiled. He broke a piece of bread into crumbs and threw them down to me. In a few days we became good friends. He talked to me, and let me run up and down his arms, and even up his sleeves. I made up my mind I would stay and keep him company.

But it was he who did not stay. One day he spoke more kindly than usual to me, and I saw tears in his eyes. He gave me twice as much bread and cheese as he ever had done. Then he was taken away, and I never saw him again.

Then the jailor caught me and put me into a little cage, which he fastened with a bar. There was a
wheel in the cage, and as I trod on it; it went round and round. It was a tread-mill, and I got so tired of running and running and getting no farther.

The jailor had a little girl with golden hair and happy eyes. She was sorry for me and so she pulled out the bar of the cage and let me free. I sprang out on to the window sill and ran along a rain-spout, so glad to be free again that I danced for joy.