Yet, the moment a Mouse is needed, that very common animal becomes rare.

Braving decorum in his speech, which follows the Latin of his ancestors, the Provencal says, but even more crudely than in my translation: "If you look for dung, the Asses become constipated!" At last I possess the Mouse of my dreams! She comes to me from that refuge, furnished with a truss of straw, in which official charity gives the hospitality of a day to the beggar wandering over the face of the fertile earth; from that municipal hostel whence one invariably emerges verminous.

O Reaumur, who used to invite marquises to see your caterpillars change their skins, what would you have said of a future disciple conversant with such wretchedness as this?
Perhaps it is well that we should not be ignorant of it, so that we may take compassion on the sufferings of beasts.
The Mouse so greatly desired is mine.

I place her upon the centre of the brick.

The grave-diggers under the wire cover are now seven in number, of whom three are females.