Down in the cellar of the a fat couple known as Mr. and Mrs. Moses Mouse crept out of a hole under the pantry floor and ran down a post to the cellar bottom.  
"Things have come to a pretty pass!" Mr. Mouse . "Mrs. Green never did leave more than a or two in the pantry where a fellow could get it. And since Miss Snooper came to live here there's less to eat than ever."
 
Mrs. Mouse nodded her head somewhat dolefully.
 
"Do you remember, Moses," she said to her husband, "what delicious bits of stale cheese Mrs. Green used to serve for us here in the cellar, stuck on a short piece of wire? To be sure, she was somewhat thoughtless—the way she left that dangerous loop caught back, so it would snap over and catch you behind the ears if you weren't careful. But you were always very skillful at avoiding that."
 
"Ah! Those were happy days—or, I should say, nights!" Mr. Mouse exclaimed with a sigh. "It makes me sad just to think of that fine, old, stale, cheese."
 
"I suppose Mrs. Green gives it all to that Miss Snooper now," said Mrs. Mouse, as she climbed to a shelf and looked at the labels on several jars of jam and jelly that stood there in a row.
 
Moses Mouse watched her hopefully. Being quite plump, he was a bit lazy. And he did not care to up to a shelf for nothing.
 
"There isn't one without a cover, is there?" he inquired.
 
"No!" his wife replied.
 
"There isn'............