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+Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse, by Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse
+
+Author: Arthur Scott Bailey
+
+Illustrator: Diane Petersen
+
+Release Date: July 31, 2006 [EBook #18953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+[Illustration: "Why do you want buds?"]
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE
+
+BY
+ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY
+
+AUTHOR OF
+THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS SLEEPY-TIME TALES, ETC.
+
+Illustrations by
+Diane Petersen
+
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+Copyright, 1918, by
+GROSSET & DUNLAP
+
+PRINTED IN U.S.A.
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER                              PAGE
+
+      I A Little Gentleman                9
+     II Hunting a Home                   14
+    III A Startled Sleeper               19
+     IV The Blackbird's Nest             25
+      V Dickie's Summer Home             30
+     VI A Warning                        34
+    VII Noisy Visitors                   39
+   VIII In the Cornfield                 44
+     IX Fatty Coon Needs Help            49
+      X A Bit of Advice                  53
+     XI A Search in Vain                 58
+    XII A Little Surprise                65
+   XIII The Feathers Fly                 70
+    XIV Making Ready for Winter          75
+     XV A Plunge In The Dark             80
+    XVI  A Lucky Find                    85
+   XVII  A Slight Mistake                89
+  XVIII  Too Many Cousins                95
+    XIX  The Wrong Turn                 100
+     XX  Bedfellows                     107
+    XXI  One Way To Keep Warm           112
+   XXII  Queer Mr. Pine Finch           117
+  XXIII  A Feast At Last                122
+
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE
+
+I
+
+A LITTLE GENTLEMAN
+
+
+All the four-footed folk in the neighborhood agreed that Dickie Deer
+Mouse was well worth knowing. Throughout Pleasant Valley there was no
+one else so gentle as he.
+
+To be sure, Jasper Jay wore beautiful--perhaps even gaudy--clothes; but
+his manners were so shocking that nobody would ever call him a
+gentleman.
+
+As for Dickie Deer Mouse, he was always tastefully dressed in fawn color
+and white. And except sometimes in the spring, when he needed a new
+coat, he was a real joy to see. For he both looked and acted like a
+well-bred little person.
+
+It is too bad that there were certain reasons--which will appear
+later--why some of his feathered neighbors did not like him. But even
+they had to admit that Dickie was a spick-and-span young chap.
+
+Wherever he was white he was white as snow. And many of the wild people
+wondered how he could scamper so fast through the woods and always keep
+his white feet spotless.
+
+Possibly it was because his mother had taught him the way when he was
+young; for his feet--and the under side of him--were white even when he
+was just a tiny fellow, so young that the top side of him was gray
+instead of fawn colored.
+
+How his small white feet would twinkle as he frisked about in the
+shadows of the woods and ran like a squirrel through the trees! And how
+his sharp little cries would break the wood-silence as he called to his
+friends in a brisk chatter, which sounded like that of the squirrels,
+only ever so far away!
+
+In many other ways Dickie Deer Mouse was like Frisky Squirrel himself.
+Dickie's idea of what a good home ought to be was much the same as
+Frisky's: they both thought that the deserted nest of one of the big
+Crow family made as fine a house as any one could want. And they
+couldn't imagine that any food could possibly be better than nuts,
+berries and grain.
+
+To be sure, Dickie Deer Mouse liked his nuts to have thin shells. But
+that was because he was smaller than Frisky; so of course his jaws and
+teeth were not so strong.
+
+Then, too, Dickie Deer Mouse had a trick of gathering good things to
+eat, which he hid away in some safe place, so that he would not have to
+go hungry during the winter, when the snow lay deep upon the ground. And
+even Frisky Squirrel was no spryer at carrying beechnuts--or any other
+goody--to his secret cupboard than little white-footed Dickie Deer
+Mouse.
+
+It was no wonder that Dickie could be cheerful right in the dead of
+winter, when he had a fine store of the very best that the fields and
+forest yielded, to keep him sleek and fat and happy. So even on the
+coldest nights, when the icy wind whipped the tree-tops, and the cold,
+pale stars peeped down among the branches, Dickie scampered through the
+woods with his friends and had the gayest of times.
+
+No one would have thought that he had a care in the world.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+II
+
+HUNTING A HOME
+
+
+Warm weather was at hand. And Dickie Deer Mouse gave up frolicking with
+his friends for a time, because he needed to find a pleasant place in
+which to spend the summer.
+
+He had his eye on a nest high in the top of a tall elm, where a certain
+black rascal known as old Mr. Crow had lived for a long while.
+
+Now, Dickie had heard a bit of gossip, to the effect that the old
+gentleman had moved to another tree nearer to Farmer Green's cornfield.
+So Dickie wanted to lose no time. He was afraid that if he waited, some
+brisk member of the Squirrel family would settle himself in Mr. Crow's
+old home.
+
+Without telling anybody what was in his head, Dickie Deer Mouse set
+forth one pleasant, warm night in the direction of the great elm, where
+he hoped to pass a number of delightful months.
+
+It was some distance to the tall tree. But the night was fine, and
+Dickie enjoyed his journey, though once he stopped and shivered when he
+heard the wailing whistle of a screech owl.
+
+"That's Simon Screecher!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed under his breath.
+"I know his voice. And I hope he won't come this way!"
+
+Dickie halted for a few minutes, near an old oak with spreading roots,
+under which he intended to hide in case Simon Screecher should suddenly
+appear.
+
+But he soon decided that Simon was headed for another part of the woods,
+for his quavering cry grew fainter and fainter. So Dickie promptly
+forgot his fright and scampered on again faster than before, to make up
+the time he had lost.
+
+Though he travelled through the flickering shadows like a brown and
+white streak, he did not pant the least bit when he reached old Mr.
+Crow's elm. He did not need to pause at the foot of the tree to get his
+breath, but scurried up it as if climbing was one of the easiest things
+he did.
+
+Mr. Crow's big nest was so far from the ground that many people would
+not have cared to visit it except with the help of an elevator. But
+Dickie Deer Mouse never stopped to think of such a thing. Of course it
+would have done him no good, anyway, to wish for an elevator, for there
+was none in all Pleasant Valley. In fact, even Johnnie Green himself had
+only heard of--and never seen--one.
+
+It took Dickie Deer Mouse only a few moments to reach the top of the
+tall elm, where Mr. Crow's bulky nest, built of sticks and lined with
+grass and moss, rested in a crotch formed by three branches.
+
+Dickie had never before been so close to Mr. Crow's old home. And now he
+stood still and looked at it with great interest. It was ever so much
+bigger than he had supposed, and exactly the sort of dwelling--cool and
+airy--that he had hoped to find for his summer home.
+
+"I don't see what sort of house the old gentleman can want that would be
+better than this," Dickie Deer Mouse remarked to himself. "But it is a
+long way from the cornfield, to be sure." And then he climbed quickly
+up the side of the nest and whisked down inside it.
+
+The next moment a great commotion frightened him nearly out of his wits.
+A deafening squawking smote Dickie Deer Mouse's big ears. And something
+struck him a number of blows that knocked his breath quite out of him.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+III
+
+A STARTLED SLEEPER
+
+
+Of course Dickie Deer Mouse ought not to have been so ready to believe
+that stray bit of gossip about Mr. Crow. It is true that the old black
+scamp had _talked_ about moving to a new place nearer Farmer Green's
+cornfield. But his plan had gone no further than that.
+
+He was sound asleep in his bed when Dickie Deer Mouse jumped down beside
+him. And when Mr. Crow suddenly waked up it would be very hard to say
+which of the two was the more startled.
+
+For a few moments Mr. Crow screamed loudly for help. And he flapped and
+floundered about as if he didn't know which way to turn, nor what to do.
+
+During the uproar Dickie Deer Mouse managed to slip out of Mr. Crow's
+house without being seen. But he was too polite to run away. Instead of
+hurrying off to escape a scolding from Mr. Crow he clung to a near-by
+branch and called as loudly as he could:
+
+"Don't be alarmed, sir! There's no one here but me. And I ask your
+pardon for disturbing you."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse had to repeat that speech several times before Mr.
+Crow noticed him. But at last the old gentleman caught sight of his
+visitor. And when he heard what Dickie said he looked far from pleasant.
+
+"_Asking_ my pardon is one thing," Mr. Crow spluttered. "And _receiving_
+it is another."
+
+"I'm very sorry," Dickie Deer Mouse replied. "I didn't mean to frighten
+you."
+
+Mr. Crow gave a sudden hoarse _haw-haw_.
+
+"Pooh!" he cried. "You don't think I was scared, do you?"
+
+"You called for help," Dickie reminded him.
+
+"Certainly I did," Mr. Crow agreed. "I wanted somebody to help you out
+of my house, before I trampled on you and broke one of your legs--or
+maybe two or three of 'em."
+
+That explanation gave Dickie Deer Mouse another surprise; for he had
+supposed all the time that Mr. Crow didn't know who--or what--had
+awakened him.
+
+"Oh!" he cried. "I thought that you thought I was somebody else."
+
+Mr. Crow glared at him.
+
+"I thought that you thought that I thought----" he squalled. He was so
+angry that his tongue became sadly twisted; and he all but choked.
+
+Meanwhile Dickie Deer Mouse waited respectfully until Mr. Crow had
+recovered his speech.
+
+"What are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Crow demanded at last.
+
+"I thought----" Dickie began.
+
+"There you go again!" the old gentleman interrupted him testily. "I
+didn't ask you what you _thought_. I asked you what you were _doing_."
+
+"I'm not doing anything just now," Dickie Deer Mouse faltered.
+
+"Yes, you are!" Mr. Crow corrected him. "You're sitting on a limb of my
+tree.... Get off it at once!"
+
+So Dickie Deer Mouse moved to a more distant perch.
+
+"Now you're sitting on another!" Mr. Crow exploded. "Get out of my tree
+this instant!" It always made him ill-tempered to be awakened from a
+sound sleep in the middle of the night.
+
+Once more Dickie Deer Mouse asked his pardon.
+
+"I was told," he explained, "that you had moved lately. And I did not
+expect to find you here."
+
+"Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I know now why you came sneaking into my house.
+You'd like to live here yourself."
+
+"Pardon me!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed with the lowest of bows. "You
+are mistaken, Mr. Crow. Though your house is a fine, large one, it's
+much too small to hold us both."
+
+And whisking about, while Mr. Crow stared at him, he ran down the tall
+elm as fast as he could go.
+
+It was clear that if Mr. Crow wasn't going to move he would have to look
+elsewhere for a summer home.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+IV
+
+THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST
+
+
+For a few days after his visit to Mr. Crow's elm, Dickie Deer Mouse kept
+watch carefully of Mr. Crow's comings and goings. And he decided at last
+that the old gentleman liked his home too well to leave it.
+
+But Dickie was not discouraged. He had no doubt that he could find some
+other pleasant quarters in which to spend the summer--quarters that
+would prove almost as airy, and perhaps more convenient--because they
+were not so high.
+
+For there was no denying that Mr. Crow's nest was a long, long way from
+the ground.
+
+So Dickie began to search for birds' nests. And for a time he had to
+suffer a great deal of scolding by his feathered neighbors. It must be
+confessed that they were none too fond of Dickie Deer Mouse. There was a
+story of something he was said to have done one time--a tale about his
+having driven a Robin family away from their nest, in order to live in
+it himself.
+
+That seems a strange deed on the part of anyone so gentle as Dickie Deer
+Mouse. But old Mr. Crow always declared that it was true. And Solomon
+Owl often remarked that he wished Dickie Deer Mouse would try to drive
+_him_ away from his home in the hollow hemlock.
+
+[Illustration: Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends]
+
+But during his hunt for birds' nests Dickie Deer Mouse was careful to
+keep away from Solomon Owl, and his cousin Simon Screecher, and all the
+rest of the Owl family. He contented himself with hasty peeps into nests
+built by such smaller folk as Blackbirds and Robins. And if it happened
+that anybody was living in one of those nests, Dickie soon found it out.
+For the angry owners were sure to fly at him with screams of rage, and
+peck at his head as they darted past him.
+
+It was really not worth while getting into a fight over a bird's nest,
+when there was plenty of old ones in which nobody dwelt. To be sure,
+many of them were almost ready to fall apart. But Dickie Deer Mouse
+finally found one to his liking--a last year's bird's nest where two
+Blackbirds had reared a promising family. They had not come back to
+Pleasant Valley. And there was their house, almost as good as new, just
+waiting for some one to move in and make himself at home.
+
+Nobody objected when Dickie took the old nest for his home, though many
+a bird in the neighborhood remarked in his hearing that _he_ would hate
+to be too lazy to build a house for himself.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse was too mild and gentle-mannered to make any reply to
+such rude speeches. Besides, he expected to make a good many changes in
+the old nest before the place was exactly what he wanted.
+
+"I don't understand," he said aloud to nobody in particular, "why most
+birds don't know how a house should be built. Of all the birds in
+Pleasant Valley the only good nest-builder I know is Long Bill Wren. He
+must be a very sensible fellow, because he puts a roof on his house."
+
+Now, Dickie Deer Mouse may--or may not--have known that some of his bird
+neighbors were near at hand, watching him. Certainly they must have
+heard what he said, for they began to scold at the top of their voices.
+And one rude listener named Jasper Jay screamed with fine scorn:
+
+"What do you know about building a nest?" And then he laughed harshly.
+
+But Dickie Deer Mouse only looked very wise and said nothing.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+V
+
+DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME
+
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse was busier than ever. When he wasn't looking for
+food--and eating it when he had found it--he gathered cat-tail down in
+Cedar Swamp.
+
+If there was one thing that he liked in a house it was a soft bed. And
+he knew that if the weather happened to be chilly now and then, he could
+snuggle into the cat-tail down and sleep as comfortably as he pleased.
+
+The swamp was none too near his new home; and he might have found moss
+or shreds of bark near-by that would have served his purpose. But he
+would rather have cat-tail down, even though he had to make a good many
+trips back and forth before he finally lined the old bird's nest to his
+liking.
+
+Then, having finished his bed, he had to make a roof over it. So he
+covered the top of his house with moss, leaving a hole right under the
+eaves, for a doorway.
+
+When Dickie's home was done he was so pleased with it that he asked all
+his neighbors if they didn't like his "improvements," as he called the
+additions he had made. And all his Deer Mouse relations told him that he
+certainly had a fine place.
+
+But none of the birds cared for it at all, except Long Bill Wren; and
+even he remarked that the house would be better "if it was rounder."
+
+As for Jasper Jay, he told Dickie Deer Mouse that, in his opinion, the
+house was ruined.
+
+"It's nothing but a trap," he declared. "And I'd hate to go to sleep
+inside it."
+
+His views, however, did not trouble Dickie Deer Mouse in the least. The
+place suited him. And he was so happy in it that sometimes when the
+weather was bad and he wasn't whisking about in the trees, or scurrying
+around on the ground, he would stay inside his cozy home, with only his
+head sticking out through the doorway, while his big, bright, bulging,
+black eyes took in everything that happened in his dooryard.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse knew that one needed sharp eyes to spy him when he was
+peeping from his house in that fashion. And often when somebody of whom
+he was really afraid came wandering through the woods, Dickie would
+keep quite still, while he watched the newcomer without being seen.
+
+But with some of the wood folk he took no chances. Whenever he heard
+Solomon Owl's rolling call, or his cousin Simon Screecher's quavering
+whistle, Dickie Deer Mouse always pulled his head inside his house in a
+hurry.
+
+For they were usually on the lookout for him. And he knew it.
+
+Of course, if they had been aware that Dickie Deer Mouse was hidden
+inside his rebuilt, last year's bird's nest, either of them, with his
+sharp claws, could easily have torn the moss roof off Dickie's home. But
+luckily for Dickie, there were some things that they didn't know.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+VI
+
+A WARNING
+
+
+If old Mr. Crow had minded his own affairs everything would have gone
+well with Dickie Deer Mouse, after he moved into his new home. But Mr.
+Crow could not forget the time when Dickie had awakened him out of a
+sound sleep and frightened him almost out of his mind.
+
+So whenever he caught sight of Dickie the old gentleman was sure to drop
+down upon the ground and ask him in a loud voice whose house he had
+prowled into lately.
+
+"Nobody's!" Dickie Deer Mouse always told him. And then he would assure
+Mr. Crow that he was very sorry to have disturbed his rest.
+
+It was quite like Mr. Crow, on such occasions, to act grumpy.
+
+"I haven't had a good night's sleep since you broke into my house," he
+declared to Dickie one day.
+
+"Perhaps you're over-eating," Dickie suggested politely.
+
+Old Mr. Crow did not appear to like that remark.
+
+"Nothing of the sort!" he bawled. "I don't eat enough to keep a mosquito
+alive."
+
+"I often see you in the cornfield," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.
+
+"Ha!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "What are you doing in the cornfield, I should
+like to know?"
+
+"Sometimes I go there to get a few kernels of corn," Dickie explained.
+
+"Ha!" Mr. Crow cried once more. "That's where the corn's going! Farmer
+Green thinks I'm taking it. And so you're getting me into a peck of
+trouble, young man."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help being worried when Mr. Crow said that.
+And he looked puzzled, too.
+
+"I don't see," he said, "how I could have got you into a _peck_ of
+trouble, Mr. Crow, for I haven't eaten a peck of Farmer Green's corn.
+I've had only a few kernels of it--not more than half a pint."
+
+"Then you've got me into a half-pint of trouble, anyway," old Mr. Crow
+insisted. "And that's too much, for a person of my age. You'll have to
+keep away from my--ahem!--from Farmer Green's cornfield. And what's
+more, Fatty Coon says the same thing."
+
+At the mention of Fatty Coon's name Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile.
+
+"Fatty Coon!" he echoed. "How he does like corn!"
+
+"Yes! But he doesn't like you," Mr. Crow snapped. "You'd better look out
+for him," he warned Dickie. "He'll come to call on you some night, the
+first thing you know.
+
+"By the way, where are you living now?" Mr. Crow inquired.
+
+But Dickie Deer Mouse made no answer. Right before Mr. Crow's sharp eyes
+he vanished among the roots of a tree. And it made the old gentleman
+quite peevish because he couldn't discover where Dickie Deer Mouse had
+hidden himself.
+
+For a little while Mr. Crow stood like a black statue and peered at the
+tangle where Dickie Deer Mouse had disappeared. But Mr. Crow couldn't
+see him anywhere. And at last his patience came to an end.
+
+"He never answered my question," Mr. Crow grumbled. "He wouldn't tell me
+where he lived. But I'll find out. I'll ask my cousin, Jasper Jay; for
+there isn't much that _he_ doesn't know."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+VII
+
+NOISY VISITORS
+
+
+Of course Jasper Jay knew where Dickie Deer Mouse lived. And he took
+great pleasure in pointing out the exact spot to his curious cousin, old
+Mr. Crow.
+
+It was broad daylight when they visited the tree where Dickie's house
+hung. The two rogues did not know that he was drowsing inside his snug
+home, because he had been out late the night before.
+
+No one that knew the two cousins would need to be told that they could
+never talk together quietly. Perched close to Dickie's house, Mr. Crow
+croaked in a hoarse voice, while Jasper Jay squalled harshly.
+
+"This is it!" Jasper had announced, as soon as they arrived. "This is
+his house. And isn't it a sight?"
+
+"I should say so!" old Mr. Crow agreed. "It's got a roof on it--ha! ha!"
+
+And the two visitors laughed loudly, as if they thought there was a huge
+joke somewhere.
+
+They made such a noise, from the very first, that Dickie Deer Mouse
+awoke and heard almost everything they said. But he didn't mind their
+remarks in the least--until he caught Fatty Coon's name.
+
+It was old Mr. Crow who mentioned it first.
+
+"I'll have to tell Fatty Coon about this queer house," he chuckled.
+"It's too good a joke to keep. He'll be over here as soon as he knows
+where to come, for he'll be glad to see it; and he wants to talk to
+Dickie Deer Mouse about taking our corn."
+
+Dickie had still felt somewhat sleepy during the first part of this talk
+outside his house. But when Mr. Crow began to speak about Fatty Coon,
+Dickie became instantly wide awake. He sprang quickly to his feet; and
+thrusting his head through his doorway, he called in his loudest tone:
+
+"When do you think Fatty Coon will call on me?"
+
+The two cousins looked at each other. And then they looked all around.
+
+"What was that strange squeaking?" Mr. Crow asked Jasper Jay.
+
+"To me it sounded a good deal like a rusty hinge on Farmer Green's barn
+door," Jasper Jay answered.
+
+But Mr. Crow shook his head. "It couldn't have been that," he said.
+
+"Maybe Mrs. Green is rocking on a loose board on the porch," Jasper
+suggested.
+
+Still Mr. Crow couldn't agree with him.
+
+"Don't be silly!" he snapped. "We're half a mile from the farmhouse."
+
+"Well, what do _you_ think the noise was?" Jasper Jay inquired.
+
+Old Mr. Crow cocked an eye upward into the tree-top above him. "I'd
+think it was a Squirrel if it was louder," he replied. Jasper Jay
+laughed in a most disagreeable fashion.
+
+"I'd think it was thunder if it was loud enough," he sneered.
+
+And at that the two cousins began to quarrel violently. To tell the
+truth, they never could be together long without having a dispute.
+
+For a short time Dickie Deer Mouse listened to their rude remarks,
+hoping that they would stop wrangling long enough to hear his question
+about Fatty Coon.
+
+But they talked louder and louder. And since Dickie Deer Mouse never
+quarreled with anybody, and hated to hear such language as the two
+cousins used, he slipped out of his house without their seeing him and
+went over to the cornfield.
+
+For he was hungry.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+VIII
+
+IN THE CORNFIELD
+
+
+In one way, especially, Fatty Coon and Dickie Deer Mouse were alike:
+They were night-prowlers. When they slept it was usually broad daylight
+outside, and the birds--except for a few odd fellows like Willie
+Whip-poor-will and Mr. Night Hawk--were abroad, and singing, and
+twittering. And when most of the birds went to sleep Dickie and Fatty
+Coon began to feel quite wide awake.
+
+It was not strange, therefore, that Dickie Deer Mouse was surprised when
+he found himself face to face with Fatty Coon in the cornfield at
+midday.
+
+Dickie tried to slip out of sight under a pumpkin vine that grew between
+the rows; but Fatty Coon saw him before he could hide. And Fatty began
+to make the queerest noise, as if he were almost choking.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse stopped. And he trembled the least bit; for Fatty
+looked terribly fierce. Perhaps (Dickie thought) he was choking with
+rage.
+
+"Can I help you?" Dickie asked him. "Would you like me to thump you on
+the back?"
+
+Fatty Coon shook his head. There was nothing the matter with him, except
+that he had stuffed his mouth so full that he couldn't speak. After
+swallowing several times he wiped his mouth on the back of his paw--a
+habit of which his mother had never been able to break him. It was no
+wonder that dainty Dickie Deer Mouse shuddered again, when Fatty did
+that.
+
+"May I go and get you a napkin?" Dickie asked, as he edged away.
+
+"No!" Fatty Coon growled. "I've been wanting to have a talk with you.
+And now that I've found you, you needn't run off."
+
+Then, to Dickie's horror, Fatty stopped talking and licked both his
+paws.
+
+"May I get you a finger bowl?" Dickie inquired.
+
+Fatty Coon actually didn't know what he meant.
+
+"Is that something to eat?" he asked. And he looked much interested, and
+seemed quite downcast when Dickie said "No!"
+
+"Then you needn't trouble yourself," Fatty Coon told him with a sigh.
+
+"Can't you find corn enough for a good meal?" Dickie asked him
+wonderingly.
+
+"I could," said Fatty Coon, "if other people didn't take so much of
+it.... Now, there's Mr. Crow," he complained. "I had to get out of bed
+and come over here to-day, in the sunlight, because I was afraid he
+wouldn't leave any corn for me.
+
+"There's no use saying anything to him," Fatty continued, "because he
+thinks this is _his_ cornfield.... But little chaps like you will have
+to keep away from this place.... Now I've warned you," he added. "And if
+I hear of your eating any more corn I'll come straight to your
+house--when I find out where it is--and I'll----"
+
+He did not finish his threat. But he looked so darkly at Dickie that
+what he _didn't_ say made Dickie Deer Mouse shiver all over, though the
+warm midday sun fell upon the cornfield.
+
+Now, Dickie Deer Mouse hadn't eaten a single kernel of corn all that
+day. But he suddenly lost his appetite for it; and murmuring a faint
+good-bye he turned and ran for the woods as fast as he could go.
+
+"Stop! Stop!" Fatty Coon called after him. "There's something more I
+want to say to you."
+
+But whatever it may have been, Dickie Deer Mouse did not wait to hear
+it.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+IX
+
+FATTY COON NEEDS HELP
+
+
+The moment he plunged into the woods beyond the cornfield Dickie Deer
+Mouse began to feel better. He knew that Fatty Coon would not leave that
+place of plenty until he had filled himself almost to bursting with
+tender young corn.
+
+After Dickie had eaten a few seeds that he found under the trees, as
+well as a plump bug that was hiding beneath a log, he actually told
+himself that he was glad he had met Fatty Coon in the cornfield.
+
+"Now that he has talked with me," Dickie reasoned, "he won't trouble
+himself to come to my house when old Mr. Crow tells him where I live."
+
+That thought was a great comfort to him. Ever since he had waked up and
+heard Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay talking outside his house he had felt most
+uneasy. If Mr. Crow was going to guide Fatty Coon to his new home,
+Dickie hardly thought it safe to stay there any longer.
+
+But now he was sure that that danger was past. Fatty had given him his
+warning. And Dickie had no doubt that so long as he kept away from the
+corn his greedy neighbor would never bother to disturb him.
+
+So instead of quitting his snug home--as he had feared he must--he went
+back to it to finish his nap.
+
+Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had lost so much sleep--through being disturbed
+by Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay--that when night came he kept right on
+sleeping. Yes! Instead of joining his friends in a mad scamper through
+the woods in the moonlight, Dickie Deer Mouse slept on and on and on,
+until--something shook the small tree where he lived and made it sway as
+if an earthquake had come.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse roused himself with a start. His sharp ears caught a
+scratching sound. And sticking his head through his doorway, he looked
+out.
+
+One quick glance told him what was happening. That pudgy rascal, Fatty
+Coon, was climbing the tree! And every moment brought him nearer and
+nearer to Dickie's house.
+
+Dickie's big, black eyes bulged more than ever as he whisked out of his
+house and scampered to the top of the tree, where the branches were so
+small that Fatty Coon could never follow him.
+
+"Stop!" Fatty Coon cried. "Mr. Crow told me where I could find you. And
+I want to have a word with you."
+
+"What sort of word?" Dickie Deer Mouse inquired.
+
+"It's about the cornfield," Fatty Coon explained.
+
+"I haven't been near that place since you last saw me there," Dickie
+declared.
+
+"I know you haven't," Fatty told him. "That's just why I want to have a
+word with you. I'm in a peck of trouble. And I want you to help me."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse could scarcely believe it. But being a very polite
+young gentleman, he told Fatty that he would be glad to do anything in
+his power to assist him--or at least, anything except to come down out
+of the top of the tree.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+X
+
+A BIT OF ADVICE
+
+
+"It's like this," Fatty Coon said, puffing a bit--on account of his
+climb--as he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse. "Old Mr. Crow says that
+Farmer Green is going to sick old dog Spot on me if I don't keep out of
+the cornfield."
+
+"Well, I should say it was very kind of Mr. Crow to tell you," Dickie
+remarked.
+
+Fatty Coon was not so sure of that.
+
+"He'd like to have the cornfield to himself," he told Dickie. "He'd like
+nothing better than to keep me out of it. And if old dog Spot is coming
+there after me, I certainly don't want to go near the place again."
+
+"Then I'd stay away, if I were you," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.
+
+"Ah! That's just the trouble!" Fatty Coon cried. "I can't! I'm too fond
+of corn. And that's why I've come here to have a word with you," he went
+on. "I've noticed that you haven't set foot in the cornfield since I
+spoke to you over there in the middle of the day. And I want you to tell
+me how you manage to stay away."
+
+"Something seems to pull me right away from it," Dickie Deer Mouse told
+him.
+
+Fatty Coon groaned.
+
+"Something seems to pull me _towards_ the corn!" he wailed.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help feeling sorry for him.
+
+"If there was only something else that you liked better than green
+corn," he said, "perhaps it would help you to keep away from this new
+danger."
+
+"But there isn't!" Fatty Coon exclaimed.
+
+"Have you ever tried _horns_?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked him.
+
+Fatty Coon looked puzzled.
+
+"What kind?" he asked his small friend.
+
+"Deer's!" Dickie explained. "You know they drop them in the woods
+sometimes. I've had many a meal off deer's horns. And I can say
+truthfully that there's nothing quite like them when you're hungry."
+
+Fatty Coon actually began to look hopeful.
+
+"I'm always hungry," he announced. "And perhaps if I could get a taste
+of deer's horns they would keep my mind off the cornfield. Where did
+you say I could find some?"
+
+"I didn't say," Dickie Deer Mouse reminded him; "but I don't object to
+telling you where to look. They're generally to be found in the woods,
+near the foot of a tree."
+
+Fatty Coon's face brightened at once.
+
+"Then it ought to be easy for me to get a taste of some," he cried. And
+he began to crawl down the tree even as he spoke.
+
+He did not thank Dickie Deer Mouse for his help. But that was like
+Fatty. Always having his mind on eatables, he was more than likely to
+forget to be polite.
+
+Little Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he watched the actions of his late
+caller. The instant Fatty Coon reached the ground he began to look
+under the trees--first one and then another.
+
+"Don't miss a single tree!" Dickie called to him.
+
+"Don't worry!" Fatty Coon replied. "I'm going to keep looking until I
+find some deer's horns. And I hope I'll like 'em when I find 'em, for
+I'm terribly hungry right now."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XI
+
+A SEARCH IN VAIN
+
+
+It was true that Dickie Deer Mouse and all his relations feasted on the
+horns shed by the deer. But of course they didn't find horns in the
+woods every day. Only at a certain season of the year did the deer drop
+them. And since that time was now past, and the Deer Mouse family had
+scoured the woods until they found--and devoured--them all, it is clear
+that Fatty Coon had started out on a fruitless hunt.
+
+But he didn't know that, even if Dickie Deer Mouse did. And that was the
+reason why Dickie smiled as he watched Fatty Coon dodging about among
+the trees, looking for deer's horns where there couldn't possibly be
+any.
+
+"It's the finest thing that could happen to Fatty," Dickie Deer Mouse
+thought. "While he's hunting for horns he can't go to the cornfield. And
+so long as he stays away from the cornfield, old dog Spot can't catch
+him there."
+
+And then Dickie set forth to find his friends and enjoy a romp in the
+moonlight.
+
+Dawn found him creeping into his house once more. And after what had
+happened during the night it was not strange that he should dream about
+Fatty Coon.
+
+It was not a pleasant dream. For some reason or other Fatty Coon seemed
+to be angry with him, and was shouting in a terrible, deep voice,
+"Where's Dickie Deer Mouse? Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"
+
+And then Dickie awoke, all a-shiver. But of course he felt better at
+once, for he knew that it was only a dream. And he stretched himself,
+and buried his head in his bed of cat-tail down, because the daylight
+was trickling in through his doorway.
+
+"_Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?_" Again that question startled him, though
+he was wide awake, and couldn't be dreaming.
+
+The next instant Dickie's tree began to quiver. Fatty Coon was climbing
+up it! And Dickie Deer Mouse jumped out of bed in a hurry and slipped
+out of his door.
+
+Looking down, he could see that Fatty Coon was in something quite like a
+rage.
+
+"What's the matter?" Dickie called to him.
+
+Fatty could do nothing but glare and growl at him.
+
+"Have you had your breakfast?" Dickie asked him.
+
+Fatty shook his head.
+
+"No!" he roared. "I haven't had a morsel to eat since I last saw you.
+I've been hunting for horns all this time. And I've come back to tell
+you that I don't like your advice. If I followed it much longer there's
+no doubt that I'd starve to death."
+
+"It has kept you out of the cornfield, hasn't it?" Dickie inquired.
+
+"Yes!" Fatty admitted. "But it won't much longer. I'm on my way to the
+cornfield now." He looked at Dickie and frowned, as if to say, "Just try
+to stop me!"
+
+"Aren't you afraid to go there?" Dickie asked him.
+
+Fatty Coon sniffed.
+
+"That story about old dog Spot was nothing but a trick," he declared.
+"It was just a trick of old Mr. Crow's. He wants all the corn himself."
+
+"Don't you think, then, that you and I ought to eat all the corn we
+can?" Dickie inquired.
+
+"I certainly do!" Fatty Coon replied. "Let's hurry over now and get
+some!"
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse was only too glad to accept the invitation. And he
+waited politely until Fatty had reached the ground, before going down
+himself.
+
+Old Mr. Crow saw them the moment they entered the cornfield. And he
+hurried up to them with a most important air and advised them both that
+they "had come to a dangerous place."
+
+[Illustration: "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"]
+
+Fatty Coon paid no attention to the old gentleman.
+
+But Dickie Deer Mouse thanked Mr. Crow and told him that after he had
+had all the corn he wanted he was going back to the woods.
+
+Noticing that the old gentleman seemed peevish about something, Dickie
+said to him:
+
+"There ought to be enough for all."
+
+But still Mr. Crow looked glum.
+
+"There's enough for them that don't care for much else," he muttered.
+"But we can't feed the whole world on this corn, you know.... How would
+you like it if I took to eating deer's horns--when they're in season, of
+course?"
+
+"You can have all the deer's horns you want," Fatty Coon remarked
+thickly--for already his mouth was full.
+
+And being very polite, Dickie Deer Mouse said the same thing; though of
+course he waited until he could speak distinctly.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XII
+
+A LITTLE SURPRISE
+
+
+Simon Screecher lived in the apple orchard, in a hollow tree, where he
+could sleep during the day safe from attack by mobs of small birds, who
+had the best of reasons for disliking him.
+
+By night Simon wandered about the fields and the woods, hunting for mice
+and insects. And since night was the time when Dickie Deer Mouse was
+awake, and up and doing, it would have been a wonder if the two had
+never met.
+
+One thing is certain: Dickie Deer Mouse was not eager to make Simon
+Screecher's acquaintance. Whenever he heard Simon's call he stopped and
+listened. If it sounded nearer the next time it reached his ears, Dickie
+Deer Mouse promptly hid himself in any good place that was handy.
+
+So matters went along for some time. And Dickie actually began to think
+that perhaps he didn't need to be so careful, and that maybe Simon
+Screecher was not so bad as people said.
+
+However, he jumped almost out of his skin one night, when he heard a
+wailing whistle in a tree right over his head. And when he came down
+upon all-fours again he couldn't see a single place to hide.
+
+So he stood stock still, hardly daring to breathe.
+
+To Dickie's dismay, a mocking laugh rang out. And somebody said:
+
+"I see you!"
+
+It was Simon Screecher himself that spoke.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse looked up and spied him, sitting on a low limb. He was
+not so big as Dickie had supposed. But it was certainly Simon. Dickie
+knew him, beyond a doubt, by his ear-tufts, which stuck up from his head
+like horns.
+
+"What made you jump when I whistled?" Simon Screecher asked him.
+
+"I don't know," Dickie answered, "unless it was you."
+
+Simon Screecher chuckled.
+
+"You're a bright young chap," he observed. "But that's not surprising,
+for I notice that you belong to the Deer Mouse family, and everybody's
+aware that they are one of the brightest families in Pleasant
+Valley--_what are left of them_."
+
+These last words made Dickie Deer Mouse more uneasy than ever. But he
+made up his mind not to let Simon Screecher know that he was worried.
+
+"I have a great many relations," he declared stoutly. "Ours is a big
+family."
+
+"Yes--but not nearly so big as it was when I first came to this
+neighborhood to live," Simon told him with a sly smile.
+
+He had hardly finished that remark when a loud _wha-wha, whoo-ah_ came
+from a hemlock not far away. And the next moment Simon's cousin Solomon
+Owl sailed through the moonlight and alighted near him.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help thinking that it was a great night for
+the Owl family. And he was surprised to notice that Simon Screecher did
+not act overjoyed at seeing his cousin.
+
+"It's a pleasant night," said Solomon Owl in his deep, hollow voice.
+
+Simon Screecher replied somewhat sourly that he supposed it was. And he
+changed his seat, so that he might keep his eyes on both his cousin and
+Dickie Deer Mouse at the same time.
+
+But Solomon Owl made matters very hard for Simon. Simon had no sooner
+seated himself comfortably when Solomon Owl moved to a perch behind him.
+
+Simon Screecher looked almost crosseyed, as he tried to watch everything
+that happened. And he looked so fretful that for a moment Dickie Deer
+Mouse actually forgot his fear and laughed aloud. [Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XIII
+
+THE FEATHERS FLY
+
+
+"I'm glad to see you," Solomon Owl told his cousin Simon Screecher,
+while Dickie Deer Mouse stood stock still on the ground beneath the tree
+where the two cousins were sitting. "I'm glad to see you. And I hope
+you're enjoying good health."
+
+"I'm well enough," Simon Screecher grunted.
+
+"Do you find plenty to eat nowadays?" Solomon asked him.
+
+Simon Screecher admitted that he was not starving.
+
+"Ah!" Solomon exclaimed. "Then you can have no objection to sharing a
+specially nice tidbit with your own cousin."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse shivered. But he did not dare move, with one of Simon
+Screecher's great, glassy eyes staring straight at him. And there was
+something else that did not help to put him at his ease: Solomon Owl
+seemed to be watching him likewise!
+
+"Haven't you dined to-night?" Simon Screecher inquired in a testy tone.
+
+"Yes!" Solomon admitted. "But I haven't had my dessert yet.... What are
+you looking at so closely, Cousin Simon, down there on the ground?"
+
+An angry light came into Simon Screecher's eyes.
+
+"Can't I look where I please?" he snapped.
+
+And he changed his seat again, so that he might get a better view of
+Dickie and Solomon at the same time.
+
+Solomon Owl promptly moved to another limb behind Simon, and slightly
+higher.
+
+And Dickie Deer Mouse took heart when Simon Screecher began to make a
+queer sound by opening his beak and shutting it with a snap, as if he
+would like to nip somebody.
+
+Dickie knew that Simon Screecher was in a terrible rage. And unless his
+threatening actions scared Solomon Owl away, Dickie thought there was
+likely to be a cousinly fight.
+
+He was pleased to notice that Solomon Owl showed no sign of dismay.
+There was really no reason why he should. He was much bigger than his
+peppery cousin. And he looked at Simon in a calm and unruffled fashion
+that seemed to make that quarrelsome fellow angrier than ever.
+
+"What's the matter?" Solomon Owl asked Simon Screecher. "If you had any
+teeth I'd think they were chattering.... Are you having a chill?"
+
+Simon made no answer.
+
+"Maybe you're afraid of something," Solomon Owl suggested. "Can it be
+that young Deer Mouse down there on the ground?" And he laughed loudly
+at what _he_ thought was a joke.
+
+"That's _my_ Deer Mouse!" Simon Screecher squalled, suddenly finding his
+voice. "I saw him first. And he's my prize."
+
+"He looks to me like the one I lost a few nights ago," Solomon Owl
+announced solemnly. "In that case, of course I saw him first. So you'd
+better fly home to your old apple tree in the orchard."
+
+"I'll do nothing of the sort!" Simon Screecher declared; and his voice
+rose to a shrill quaver.
+
+Turning swiftly, he flew straight at his cousin. And then how the
+feathers did fly!
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse wanted to stay right there, for he hated to miss any
+of the fun. But he remembered that he was a "tidbit"; so he scampered
+away through the woods. And though he never knew how the fight ended, he
+was sure of one thing: There was no prize for the winner.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XIV
+
+MAKING READY FOR WINTER
+
+
+After his escape from Solomon Owl and Simon Screecher, Dickie Deer Mouse
+never felt quite so care-free as he always had before, when wandering
+through the woods at night. And he never stayed inside his house after
+dark without wondering whether Solomon or Simon could by any chance
+discover his snug home in the last year's bird's nest. It was not a
+pleasant thought. And the oftener it popped into Dickie's head the less
+he liked it.
+
+Sometimes, when summer had ended and fall brought a night that was
+rainy and cold, he liked to go home after he had finished his supper,
+and burrow deep into his soft bed of cat-tail down.
+
+But even after he had dried his wet coat and warmed himself well, at
+such times Dickie Deer Mouse started whenever he heard the slightest
+noise. Somehow, he couldn't get the Owl family out of his mind.
+
+As the days grew shorter--and the nights longer--he began to find that
+his summer home was not so cozy as it might have been.
+
+The cold wind searched him out, even under his soft covering; and the
+driving rains trickled annoyingly through his roof of moss.
+
+So at last Dickie Deer Mouse made up his mind that he would move once
+more. And since he was not the sort to put off the doing of anything
+that had to be done, he set out at once to see what kind of place he
+could find.
+
+Now, Dickie Deer Mouse liked the woods in which he had always lived. So
+one might think it strange that when he set forth on his search he
+headed straight for Farmer Green's pasture. But there is no doubt that
+he knew what he was about.
+
+For some time he crept cautiously about the pasture, peeping under big
+rocks, and moving among the roots of the trees which dotted the hillside
+here and there. And since his eyes were of the sharpest, what he was
+looking for he found in surprising numbers.
+
+Most people, strolling through the pasture, would have noticed little
+except grass and bushes, trees and rocks and knolls. But those were not
+the things that Dickie Deer Mouse discovered, and sniffed at. What he
+was hunting for was _holes_.
+
+For Dickie had decided that when winter came, with its ice and snow, its
+cruel gales and its piercing cold, he would be far more comfortable
+underground than he could ever hope to be in a last year's bird's nest
+that was fastened to a tree.
+
+He had found it no easy matter to pick out a summer home. And now there
+were reasons why his search for a winter one was even harder.
+
+It is true that at the beginning of summer, when Dickie Deer Mouse
+climbed the tall elm where Mr. Crow lived, he found the old gentleman
+asleep in the nest that he had hoped to take for his own. But on the
+whole it was easy to discover whether a nest was deserted.
+
+One look into it usually told the story. Eggs in a bird's nest meant
+that somebody must live there. And of course if Dickie saw a bird
+sitting on a nest he knew right away that he couldn't live there without
+having a fight first.
+
+But a _hole_ is different. One can't see what's at the bottom of it
+without going inside it.
+
+And that is not always a pleasant thing to do.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XV
+
+A PLUNGE IN THE DARK
+
+
+There was one hole, especially, among those he found in Farmer Green's
+pasture, from which Dickie Deer Mouse ran as fast as he could scamper.
+
+This was a hole with a big front door, and plenty of fresh dirt
+scattered around it, as if somebody had been digging there not long
+before.
+
+When Dickie first noticed the burrow he stopped short and stood quite
+still, while he peeped at it out of a tangle of blackberry bushes.
+
+Something told him that he had stumbled upon the home of a dangerous
+person. And if the wind hadn't been blowing in his face, as he looked
+towards the wide opening, he would not have dared stay there as long as
+he did.
+
+As he looked he suddenly saw a pair of eyes gleaming from the dark
+cavern. And soon he beheld a long, pointed snout, which its owner thrust
+outside in a gingerly manner.
+
+That was enough for Dickie Deer Mouse.
+
+He wheeled about and whisked up the nearest tree he could find. And
+there he stayed for a long, long time, until he felt sure that it was
+quite safe for him to venture down upon the ground again.
+
+He had come upon Tommy Fox's burrow!
+
+And if there was one hole in the ground into which he had no wish to
+go, that was it. For Tommy Fox was no friend of his.
+
+Since he didn't care for Tommy's company, Dickie went to the corner of
+the pasture that was furthest from Tommy's home, to search once more for
+such a hole as he hoped to find.
+
+Almost nobody else ever would have discovered the one that Dickie picked
+out at last as the best place of all in which to spend the winter. But
+the bright eyes of Dickie Deer Mouse found a tiny opening, which he
+carefully made just big enough to admit him.
+
+It was the entrance to an old burrow where an aunt and an uncle of Billy
+Woodchuck had once lived and raised a numerous family. When the children
+had all grown up and gone away their parents had left that home for a
+new one in the clover field. And somehow all the smaller field people
+had overlooked it.
+
+Little by little the frost had heaved the earth about the doorway, and
+the wash of the rains had helped to fill it, and Farmer Green's cows had
+trampled over it, and the grass had all but covered the small opening
+that remained.
+
+There were signs in plenty about the spot that told Dickie Deer Mouse
+the burrow was deserted. Or perhaps it would be better to say that there
+was no sign at all of any occupant. Dickie found not a trace of a path
+nor even a foot-print near the hole nor did his nose discover the
+faintest scent either of friend or enemy.
+
+Slipping inside the hole, Dickie found himself in the mouth of a big,
+airy tunnel, which went sharply downwards for a few feet.
+
+And without the slightest fear he plunged down the dark hole, to see
+what he could see.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XVI
+
+A LUCKY FIND
+
+
+Though Dickie Deer Mouse was shy, he couldn't have been a coward. For
+when he had reached the end of that first pitch that led into the old
+burrow of Billy Woodchuck's uncle and aunt he never once thought of
+turning back. Before him stretched a dark, dry, level tunnel. And
+through it Dickie quickly made his way.
+
+It was surprisingly long--that underground passage. But he came to the
+end of it at last. And creeping upwards, because the tunnel rose
+suddenly, Dickie Deer Mouse found himself in a roomy chamber,
+comfortably furnished with a big bed of soft, dried grasses, where Mr.
+and Mrs. Woodchuck had passed a good many hard winters asleep, while the
+snow lay deep upon the ground above them.
+
+It took Dickie Deer Mouse no longer than a jiffy to decide that he had
+found the very place for which he had been looking. He knew that in that
+secret chamber he had nothing to fear from Solomon Owl nor Simon
+Screecher, nor Fatty Coon, either. And when midwinter came, and the
+nights turned bitterly cold, he could cuddle down in that soft bed and
+dream about summer, and warm, moonlit nights in the woods of the world
+above.
+
+It was no wonder that Dickie Deer Mouse was pleased. And for a time he
+forgot everything but his good luck--until he remembered that he had had
+nothing to eat since the night before.
+
+So he made his way back through the long tunnel, and up into Farmer
+Green's pasture. Then, looking around under the twinkling stars, he took
+pains to see exactly where his new home was.
+
+It certainly would have been a great mishap if he had gone away in such
+a hurry that he could never have found his doorway again. But it was an
+easy matter to fix the spot in his mind. When he came back he needed
+only to follow along the rail fence until he came to the corner. Not far
+from the fence corner, in the woods, stood Farmer Green's sugar house.
+And about the same distance on the other side of the fence a lone
+straggler of a maple tree stood on a knoll in the pasture. The departed
+Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck had been wise enough to dig the opening to their
+burrow between the roots of the tree. They knew that if Tommy Fox tried
+to dig them out of their underground home, he would find the passage
+between the roots too small to squeeze through.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he saw what the builders of his house had
+done. They had made everything exactly to suit him. He knew that he
+could have done no better himself; in fact he knew that he couldn't have
+done nearly so well. For he was no digger. But he told himself that
+there was no reason why he should feel sad about that, so long as others
+were kind enough to dig a fine home and leave it for him to live in.
+
+Then he slipped into the woods, feeling so happy that he had to stop and
+relate his good fortune to the first person he met.
+
+And that was where Dickie Deer Mouse made a slight mistake.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XVII
+
+A SLIGHT MISTAKE
+
+
+Scarcely had Dickie Deer Mouse plunged into the woods when he met Fatty
+Coon coming in the opposite direction.
+
+"Hullo!" Fatty said, looking up at Dickie, who had scrambled into a tree
+as soon as he caught sight of Fatty's plump form. "What have you been
+doing in Farmer Green's pasture! I thought you always stayed in the
+woods--unless you happened to go to the cornfield."
+
+"I've been looking for a winter home," Dickie explained. "And I've just
+found the finest one you ever saw."
+
+"Where is it!" Fatty asked him. "I might want to pay you a call some
+night--when I had nothing else to do."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse was in such a cheerful mood that almost anything Fatty
+Coon might have said would have pleased him.
+
+"My new house is just beyond the fence," Dickie explained. "But I'm
+afraid you can't very well visit me there," he added with a smile.
+
+"Why not?" Fatty Coon inquired. "I'm as good a climber as anybody. I can
+climb the tallest tree you ever saw, without feeling dizzy. But of
+course I'm a bit heavier than you are. And if you've gone and picked out
+a nest that's a long way above the ground, among the smallest branches,
+it might not be safe for me to go all the way up to it."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile once more.
+
+[Illustration: Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox]
+
+"My new home isn't as high as I am right now," he told Fatty Coon.
+
+Fatty grunted.
+
+"Then I'll certainly come to see you," he said, "when time hangs heavily
+on my hands."
+
+"My new house isn't as high as you are right now," Dickie remarked.
+
+And at that Fatty Coon looked puzzled. His mouth fell open; and for a
+few moments he stared at his small friend without saying a word.
+
+"You must be mistaken," he replied at last. "I'm standing on the ground.
+And I never saw a last year's bird's nest that was lower than that."
+
+"I shall have to explain," said Dickie, "that my new home is much finer
+than my old one. Now, you may not believe it, but it has a front hall
+that's a hundred times as long as your tail."
+
+Fatty Coon looked around at his ringed tail, with its black tip; and
+then he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse again.
+
+"You must be mistaken!" he cried. "I'll have to take my tail to your
+house and measure your front hall myself before I'll believe that."
+
+"You can't measure my hall!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed.
+
+"Who's going to stop me?" Fatty Coon growled. He was used to having his
+own way. And it always made him angry when anybody tried to upset his
+plans. "I'm going to your house in the pasture now; and I'll soon show
+you that you're mistaken about your front hall.... You come with me and
+lead the way, young fellow!"
+
+But Dickie Deer Mouse said he was so hungry that he couldn't go back
+just then.
+
+"I'm headed for the big beech tree to see if I can find a few nuts," he
+announced.
+
+At the mention of food Fatty Coon's face took on a different look.
+
+"I'm hungry myself," he said, as if he had just remembered something. "I
+was on my way to Farmer Green's corn house when I met you. And I really
+ought to get there before the moon comes up. So if you'll tell me where
+your house is I'll stop there when I come back."
+
+"My new home----" Dickie Deer Mouse informed him with an air of great
+pride----"my new home is in the burrow where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck used
+to live. The front door is under the tree that stands on the knoll just
+beyond the fence. But you can never get inside it, because you're
+altogether too fat."
+
+The stout person on the ground knew that he spoke the truth. And without
+saying another word he turned about and disappeared in the direction of
+the farm buildings.
+
+"Don't forget to take your tail with you!" Dickie Deer Mouse called to
+him, just before he was out of sight. "You might want to measure the
+corn house."
+
+But Fatty Coon did not trouble himself to answer.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XVIII
+
+TOO MANY COUSINS
+
+
+In high spirits Dickie Deer Mouse hurried on through the woods until he
+came to the big beech tree. And though many others had been there before
+him, since the nuts had ripened, Dickie had such a sharp eye for a beech
+nut that even though it was then night, he soon found enough for a
+hearty meal.
+
+Then he had to have a romp with a few gay fellows whom he met under the
+beech tree. And so quickly did the time pass that before he knew it the
+night had turned gray. Day was breaking. And shouting good-bye to his
+friends Dickie Deer Mouse ran off towards Farmer Green's pasture. He
+wanted a nap. And having nothing in his summer home that was worth
+moving, he knew of no reason why he shouldn't begin at once to live in
+his new quarters.
+
+He never felt happier than he did as he scampered in and out among the
+trees, slipped under the rail fence, and streaked across the short grass
+of the pasture. But when he reached his doorway he stopped in dismay.
+
+Where he had expected to see nobody at all, his eyes bulged with
+surprise at the crowd that had gathered in his dooryard.
+
+As soon as he had taken several good looks at the company, Dickie Deer
+Mouse discovered that they were distant relations of his, of all ages
+and sizes. And at last he succeeded in sorting them into families.
+
+There were three big families. And no one in the whole crowd paid any
+heed to Dickie Deer Mouse. They seemed to be talking about something
+most important, and too busy to notice the newcomer.
+
+If the truth were known, the sight of his second and third and fourth
+cousins did not particularly please Dickie Deer Mouse. But he was an
+agreeable young gentleman. So he stepped forward and called several of
+his cousins by name. And since he couldn't say honestly that he was
+delighted to see them, he told them how well they looked and said that
+he hoped they had passed a happy summer.
+
+"Here he is at last!" everybody cried. "We've been waiting for you for a
+long time, because we weren't sure whether we'd found the right place."
+
+"What place?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked them as he looked from one to
+another in dismay.
+
+"Why, the great house that you've found!" somebody cried. "We've heard
+that it has a front hall a hundred times as long as Fatty Coon's tail.
+So of course there must be lots of rooms in it; and we've come to keep
+you company and spend the winter."
+
+When he heard that news Dickie Deer Mouse became almost faint. He did
+not want to hurt his cousins' feelings. But his plan of spending the
+winter quietly hardly made him welcome the idea of having a dozen
+half-grown children in his home.
+
+"Who told you about my house?" he demanded with just a trace of
+disappointment.
+
+"It was Fatty Coon," several of his cousins explained at once.
+
+And then Dickie Deer Mouse knew that he had made a mistake when he told
+Fatty of his good fortune.
+
+"I'm sorry to say that he has misled you," Dickie informed his
+relations. "It's true that my front hall is very long. But the trouble
+is, there's only one chamber."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XIX
+
+THE WRONG TURN
+
+
+For a few moments Dickie Deer Mouse's cousins looked terribly
+disappointed. He had told them that his new house had only one chamber.
+And each of the three big families had expected to have at least one
+bedroom.
+
+The elder cousins gathered in a group and talked in low tones. Dickie
+could not hear what they said. He hoped that they were going to bid him
+farewell and go back where they came from. But he soon saw that they had
+no such idea.
+
+The eldest of all, whom Dickie knew as Cousin Dan'l, said to him
+presently:
+
+"Cheer up! We know you'd be sorry not to have us with you during the
+winter. So we'll take a look at your chamber. Perhaps it's big enough
+for all of us."
+
+Dickie tried to tell Cousin Dan'l Deer Mouse that he was afraid the
+chamber would be too crowded with so many in it. But when he opened his
+mouth the words, somehow, would not come. And at last he nodded his head
+and crept through his doorway, while his cousins followed him one by
+one.
+
+The younger cousins pushed and crowded and quarreled, making such a
+commotion that Dickie Deer Mouse could hear them plainly, though he was
+some distance ahead of them.
+
+"Those youngsters will have to keep still," he said over his shoulder to
+the cousin that was nearest him.
+
+Everybody passed the message down the line. And when the youngsters
+heard it they began to laugh.
+
+"Tell Cousin Dickie to stop us if he can," they shouted.
+
+Their rude answer reached Dickie Deer Mouse just as he came to a place
+in his front hall to which he had paid little heed before. Right at the
+spot where he stood the tunnel divided itself into two passages. Before,
+he had taken the one on the right. But now something told him to go the
+other way. So he turned to the left, still followed closely by the
+cousin that was behind him.
+
+The whole procession came trailing after them. And the first thing
+Dickie--or anybody else--knew, they all found themselves standing in the
+grassy pasture once more, in the gray light of the morning.
+
+They had passed out through the back door of the house, without entering
+the chamber at all!
+
+As soon as Dickie's relations saw where they were they looked at one
+another in a puzzled fashion.
+
+"What's the matter?" Cousin Dan'l demanded of Dickie. "I followed the
+crowd. But I saw no chamber anywhere."
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse didn't know exactly what to say. So he merely shook
+his head, hoping that the company would go away.
+
+"Can it be possible that you've lost your bedroom?" Cousin Dan'l Deer
+Mouse asked him. "Is it so small that you could have overlooked it?"
+
+"The bedroom's none too big," Dickie replied.
+
+"Then maybe we passed through it without noticing it," his elderly
+cousin observed.
+
+"We can't stand around here in the pasture all day, Dan'l," the cousin's
+wife complained. "If Mr. Hawk happened to come this way he'd be sure to
+see us."
+
+"What do you suggest?" Cousin Dan'l asked Dickie Deer Mouse. "You see
+the women are nervous." And he cocked an eye up at the sky, as if he did
+not feel any too safe himself when he thought of Mr. Hawk.
+
+"It seems to me," Dickie told him, "that we'd all of us better go back
+to our summer homes."
+
+And then, after saying that he hoped everybody would get home without an
+accident, and wouldn't meet Mr. Hawk, Dickie Deer Mouse turned towards
+the woods and hurried away.
+
+His parting words did not make his numerous cousins feel any happier.
+And since they wanted to get out of sight as soon as they could, they
+quickly followed Dickie's example and scurried off as fast as they could
+go, to spend another day in the summer houses in which they had been
+living.
+
+Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had paused as soon as he had reached the rail
+fence at the edge of the woods. And unseen by his cousins he peeped back
+to find out what they might do.
+
+When the three families scattered in three different directions Dickie
+Deer Mouse believed that he was well rid of them.
+
+But by that time it had grown so light that he did not want to show
+himself in the pasture, not even long enough to scamper the short
+distance from the fence back to the front door of his new house.
+
+So he passed another day in the last year's bird's nest.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XX
+
+BEDFELLOWS
+
+
+During his rambles on the following night Dickie Deer Mouse took great
+care to keep out of sight of the three families of cousins that had
+tried to quarter themselves in his new house in the pasture. Moreover he
+said nothing to anybody about his future home. Fatty Coon had taught him
+in one lesson that it is sometimes wise to keep a secret.
+
+The night was not ended when Dickie sought the burrow in the pasture
+once more. He hardly dared hope, as he neared the dooryard, that he
+would not find a crowd waiting there again. But when he reached his
+doorway he saw not a soul anywhere around.
+
+He felt happy beyond words. And he popped through his doorway, hurried
+through the hall--which was a hundred times as long as Fatty Coon's
+tail--and burst into the cozy chamber.
+
+Dickie had hardly entered the room when he stumbled over something soft.
+And a voice that sounded exactly like Cousin Dan'l's called out in
+rather a peevish tone that he'd better look out where he stepped.
+
+"Who's here?" Dickie asked in a faint whisper.
+
+"We are!" the voice replied. "There are eighteen of us in all. And you'd
+better be careful not to trample on anybody."
+
+Dickie's heart sank. He understood, in a flash, what had happened. The
+three families of cousins were all there, sleeping in his soft bed of
+dried grasses! They had come back to the house in the pasture ahead of
+him, and had found the chamber without his help.
+
+At first he almost turned around and left that place forever, without
+saying another word. But the night had turned cold and a drizzling rain
+was falling. And he knew that the roof of his summer home must be
+leaking badly. That underground chamber was delightfully dry and warm.
+And if the twelve children didn't wake up and begin to cry he saw no
+reason why he shouldn't spend one night there, anyway.
+
+So he felt his way carefully about the room. There was no denying that
+it was dreadfully crowded. But at last Dickie Deer Mouse found a vacant
+spot that was big enough to lie upon. And burrowing down into the bed
+of grasses he soon fell asleep.
+
+When Dickie Deer Mouse awoke, after his first sleep in the underground
+chamber, he thought that summer had come. He hadn't felt so comfortable
+for weeks. And for a little time he lay quite still, half dozing,
+enjoying the delightful warmth.
+
+And then all at once he came to his senses. He remembered that he was in
+the burrow where Mr. and Mrs. Woodchuck had lived, in Farmer Green's
+pasture. And he recalled unpleasantly the misfortune that had happened:
+he had been forced to share his snug bedroom with eighteen of his
+distant cousins.
+
+They were still sleeping soundly all around him. And Dickie Deer Mouse
+made a strange wish.
+
+"They're here," he said to himself. "And I don't know of any way to get
+rid of them. I only wish they wouldn't wake up till spring."
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XXI
+
+ONE WAY TO KEEP WARM
+
+
+After making his strange wish about his eighteen cousins--that they
+would sleep straight through the winter--Dickie Deer Mouse crawled out
+of bed. The sleepers filled the chamber so full that Dickie had to step
+into the hall before he could stretch himself.
+
+For some reason he seemed to feel unusually _stretchy_. Generally when
+he waked up he sprang up at once and dashed out of his house, to find
+something to eat. But now he had half a mind to go back to bed again.
+
+He did not do that, however, because he wanted to get away from his
+unwelcome guests for a time. So he crept through his long hall and
+crawled out through his front door, into the world above.
+
+To Dickie's great surprise a startling change had come over the pasture.
+The weather had cleared while he slept and the stars twinkled in the
+heavens above him. And the hillside pasture was white with a thick
+blanket of snow.
+
+It was cold, too--much colder than it had been when Dickie went to
+sleep.
+
+Luckily a crust had formed upon the snow--a crust that was just strong
+enough to support Dickie's weight. And he made swiftly for the spruce
+woods, to hunt for his supper, for he knew he could find nothing on the
+ground, covered as it was by the snow.
+
+Dickie felt even hungrier than he usually did when starting out of an
+evening to look for something to eat. But that was not strange, for
+without knowing it, he had slept several days and nights in the snug
+chamber with his cousins.
+
+Dickie did not stay out all night long. Yet he took time, before he went
+home, to hide a small store of spruce seeds in a hollow rail of the
+pasture fence. He knew that before the long winter came to an end he
+would find that food in the woods would grow alarmingly scarce.
+
+Long before daybreak Dickie Deer Mouse was glad to return to the
+underground chamber. And as he crept into the crowded room he thought it
+the coziest home he had ever had. He knew, at last, what made the place
+so warm. The soft, round bodies of his eighteen cousins heated it almost
+as well as if he had had a real stove.
+
+It was lucky for him, after all, that Fatty Coon had told them about
+Dickie's new house. And now Dickie only hoped that none of them would
+leave before spring.
+
+That snowstorm proved to be only the first warning of winter. In a few
+days the weather grew quite warm again. And to Dickie's dismay the three
+families of cousins waked up and went out of doors to get the air, and
+gather seeds and such thin-shelled nuts as they could find.
+
+They did not eat all that they picked up. Like Dickie Deer Mouse, they
+stored some of the food in secret nooks and crannies, against a time of
+need.
+
+That first early snowstorm had been a good thing for the dwellers in the
+underground chamber. It had warned them that winter was coming. And
+during the weeks that passed before the whole countryside became
+snow-bound they managed to gather enough nuts and seeds to last them
+through any ordinary winter--if they didn't eat too heartily.
+
+When the real winter finally descended upon Pleasant Valley it found the
+Deer Mouse cousins quite ready for it. And even if Dickie's relations
+did wake up now and then, when the weather wasn't too cold, they slept
+soundly enough at other times, so that they did not disturb him greatly.
+
+Even the children, who had pushed and crowded when they first entered
+the front hall of the house--even they were surprisingly quiet, when
+they were asleep.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XXII
+
+QUEER MR. PINE FINCH
+
+
+Perhaps the winter was longer than usual; or perhaps Dickie Deer Mouse
+ate too freely of his hidden store of good things. At any rate, Dickie's
+hoard slowly grew smaller and smaller. And long before the day came when
+he bolted the last seed that remained in the hollow fence-rail he had
+begun to wonder where he should find more food.
+
+While he had been sleeping the birds that stayed in Pleasant Valley
+during the winter had been feasting greedily upon the very kind of fare
+that Dickie Deer Mouse needed. Jasper Jay and his noisy cronies had
+taken good care that there shouldn't be a beechnut left. And when they
+had eaten the last sweet nut they turned to such dried berries as still
+clung to the withered stocks on which they had grown.
+
+No longer could Dickie Deer Mouse spend so much time asleep in his cozy
+chamber. Instead, he had to wander far through the woods at night,
+thankful to pick up a bit here and there as best he might.
+
+On those crisp, cold nights he had to scamper fast in order to keep
+warm. And often, when dawn came, he crept home still hungry.
+
+At last Dickie's night runs lapped well over into the day. For his
+search for food became more and more disappointing. And afterward he
+often wondered what would have happened to him if he hadn't met Mr.
+Pine Finch early one morning.
+
+Mr. Pine Finch was an odd fellow. He had a peculiar way of talking as if
+he spoke through his nose. Though Dickie Deer Mouse had seen him before,
+he had paid scant attention to Mr. Pine Finch. But when he caught sight
+of him on a certain chilly morning there were so few birds stirring that
+Dickie stopped short and watched Mr. Pine Finch, who was so busy in a
+tree-top that he didn't know anybody else was near him.
+
+He was talking to himself. And as nearly as Dickie Deer Mouse could
+tell, he was remarking--through his nose--that he was having a good
+breakfast.
+
+That news made Dickie Deer Mouse prick up his big ears. A good breakfast
+was something that he had not enjoyed for a long, long time.
+
+At first Dickie couldn't quite see what Mr. Pine Finch was about. It was
+he, beyond a doubt. There could be no more mistaking his odd voice than
+his plump, black-streaked back, with its splashes of yellow at the base
+of his tail, and his yellow-edged wings. Dickie had a good view of Mr.
+Pine-Finch's back, because its owner hung upside down from the tips of
+the branches of the tree where Dickie spied him.
+
+To Dickie Deer Mouse the sight, at first, was somewhat of a puzzle. He
+stood quite still, gazing upward in wonder. And then all at once he
+discovered what Mr. Pine Finch was doing. Something struck Dickie Deer
+Mouse lightly on his back--something that made him jump.
+
+He looked all around to see what had hit him. And there, on the snow
+beside him, lay a bud off the tree above him.
+
+Then Dickie Deer Mouse understood what Mr. Pine Finch was about. He was
+eating the buds that clung to the tips of the branches.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse quickly ate that bud; and then he waited, watching
+eagerly every move that Mr. Pine Finch made.
+
+[Illustration]
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration]
+
+XXIII
+
+A FEAST AT LAST
+
+
+To Dickie Deer Mouse, waiting impatiently for Mr. Pine Finch to drop
+another bud out of the tree-top, it began to seem as if his good luck
+were short lived. Could it be possible that Mr. Pine Finch was so
+careful that he lost a bud only once in a long time--perhaps only once a
+year?
+
+But as Dickie Deer Mouse wondered, a small shower of buds came rattling
+down upon the snow-crust. And Dickie Deer Mouse snatched them up, every
+one, and ate them hungrily.
+
+In a little while he felt so much better that he called out to Mr. Pine
+Finch:
+
+"Shake a lot of 'em down--there's a good fellow!"
+
+Mr. Pine Finch fluttered to a perch on a limb and looked down in great
+surprise.
+
+"Did you speak?" he inquired.
+
+"Yes!" Dickie Deer Mouse piped up. "You know, I can climb a tree; but I
+can't crawl out to the tips of the branches, because I'm too heavy. So
+you'll oblige me if you'll drop a few dozen more of those buds."
+
+The request surprised Mr. Pine Finch. His face told that much.
+
+"_Buds!_" he exclaimed. "Why do you want _buds_?"
+
+"I eat them--when I can get them," Dickie Deer Mouse informed him.
+
+The streaked gentleman in the tree looked quite blank.
+
+"What a strange thing to do!" he cried through his nose--or so it
+seemed.
+
+"Strange!" Dickie Deer Mouse echoed. "Why, you've just been eating some
+yourself!" And he couldn't help thinking that Mr. Pine Finch was even
+odder than he sounded.
+
+"That's so," Mr. Pine Finch admitted. "In fact, I may say that I'm very,
+very fond of tree-buds. But I'm a bird. And of course everybody knows
+that you're a rodent."
+
+"I'm hungry, anyway," Dickie Deer Mouse retorted. He didn't mind Mr.
+Finch's calling him names, if only he would drop some more buds.
+
+"You're hungry, eh?" the odd gentleman in the tree replied. "That
+reminds me that I'm still hungry myself. So I can't stop to talk with
+you any longer just now."
+
+Then he turned himself upside down, as he picked out a promising
+cluster of buds. And before he had finished his breakfast he had dropped
+so many buds that Dickie Deer Mouse called to him and thanked him for
+his kindness.
+
+"What! Are you still there?" Mr. Pine Finch exclaimed, gazing down at
+Dickie as if he were greatly surprised to see him lingering beneath the
+tree. "I must go away now," Mr. Pine Finch added. "But I'll make this
+remark before I leave: If you have anything more to say to me, you can
+find me here almost any morning soon after daybreak." And then he flew
+off.
+
+Dickie Deer Mouse told himself that he was in luck. By coming to that
+spot early every day he could pick up buds enough--dropped carelessly by
+Mr. Pine Finch--to feed himself until spring came and the snow melted
+and uncovered the ground, where he knew he could find food.
+
+So he went home and slept as he had not slept for weeks. And the next
+morning, when he went back to the tree where he had found Mr. Pine
+Finch, his eighteen cousins followed him. For Dickie Deer Mouse told
+them of his good fortune and asked them to share it with him.
+
+As for Mr. Pine Finch, he looked queerer than ever when he saw that
+Dickie had brought eighteen of his relations with him. However, he bade
+them all good morning. And he seemed to be even clumsier than he had
+been the day before. He dropped an enormous number of buds; so many, in
+fact, that Dickie Deer Mouse wondered how Mr. Pine Finch managed to get
+enough breakfast for himself.
+
+Perhaps that odd gentleman knew what he was about. To tell the truth,
+he had noticed the day before that Dickie Deer Mouse looked thin and
+hungry. His coat, too, struck Mr. Pine Finch as being somewhat shabby.
+But he said nothing to show Dickie Deer Mouse that he knew there was
+anything wrong. And if he dropped tree-buds on purpose, he never let
+anyone know it.
+
+Anyhow, Mr. Pine Finch did not fail to appear at that tree a single
+morning during the rest of the winter. Before spring came the Deer Mouse
+family had long since decided that he was the best friend they had in
+all Pleasant Valley. And they all agreed that his voice, although he did
+talk through his nose, was the pleasantest they had ever heard.
+
+At last the breakfast parties beneath Mr. Pine Finch's favorite tree
+came to an end. The snow vanished. Warm weather made the underground
+chamber in Farmer Green's pasture seem crowded and stuffy. And Dickie
+Deer Mouse said farewell to his eighteen cousins, because he wanted to
+look for a pleasant place in which to spend the summer.
+
+THE END
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+[Illustration]
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