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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/18953-h.zip b/18953-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f35d627 --- /dev/null +++ b/18953-h.zip diff --git a/18953-h/18953-h.htm b/18953-h/18953-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..47f302b --- /dev/null +++ b/18953-h/18953-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2638 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Tale Of Dickie Deer Mouse, by Arthur Scott Bailey + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {display: inline; font-size: x-small; text-align: right; + position: absolute; right: 2%; border:1px solid white; + padding: 1px 3px; font-style: normal; + font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; text-decoration: none; + color: #444; background-color: #EEE;} + .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + hr.full {width:100%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.major {width:75%; margin-top:2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + hr.minor {width:30%; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + .caption {font-size: 100%;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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: ISO-8859-1 + +*** 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 + + + + + + +</pre> + + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 292px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-001" id="illus-001"></a> +<img src='images/pre-fp.png' alt='' title='' width = '292' height = '265'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 333px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-002" id="illus-002"></a> +<img src='images/fp.png' alt='"Why do you want buds?"' title='' width = '333' height = '481'/><br /> +<span class='caption'>"Why do you want buds?"</span> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 296px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-003" id="illus-003"></a> +<img src='images/title.png' alt='' title='' width = '296' height = '532'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<table width='450' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='' border='1'> + <col style='width:100%;' /> + <tr> + <td align='center'> + <span style='font-size: 220%;'><br />THE TALE OF</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 240%;'>DICKIE DEER MOUSE</span><br /><br /><br /> + + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>BY</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 140%;'>ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY</span><br /><br /><br /> + + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>AUTHOR OF</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 120%;'>THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 120%;'>SLEEPY-TIME TALES, ETC.</span><br /><br /><br /> + + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>Illustrations By</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 120%;'>Diane Petersen</span><br /><br /><br /> + + <span style='font-size: 100%;'>GROSSET & DUNLAP</span><br /> + <span style='font-size: 80%;'>PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</span><br /><br /><br /> + </td> + </tr> +</table> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<p class='center'>Copyright, 1918, by<br />GROSSET & DUNLAP</p> + +<p class='center'>PRINTED IN U.S.A.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<h2><a name="Contents" id="Contents"></a>Contents</h2> +<div class="smcap"> +<table border="0" width="500" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0" summary="Contents"> +<col style="width:15%;" /> +<col style="width:75%;" /> +<col style="width:10%;" /> +<tr><td align="left">I</td><td align="left">A LITTLE GENTLEMAN</td><td align="right"><a href="#I">9</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">II</td><td align="left">HUNTING A HOME</td><td align="right"><a href="#II">14</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">III</td><td align="left">A STARTLED SLEEPER</td><td align="right"><a href="#III">19</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IV</td><td align="left">THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST</td><td align="right"><a href="#IV">25</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">V</td><td align="left">DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME</td><td align="right"><a href="#V">30</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VI</td><td align="left">A WARNING</td><td align="right"><a href="#VI">34</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VII</td><td align="left">NOISY VISITORS</td><td align="right"><a href="#VII">39</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">VIII</td><td align="left">IN THE CORNFIELD</td><td align="right"><a href="#VIII">44</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">IX</td><td align="left">FATTY COON NEEDS HELP</td><td align="right"><a href="#IX">49</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">X</td><td align="left">A BIT OF ADVICE</td><td align="right"><a href="#X">53</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XI</td><td align="left">A SEARCH IN VAIN</td><td align="right"><a href="#XI">58</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XII</td><td align="left">A LITTLE SURPRISE</td><td align="right"><a href="#XII">65</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XIII</td><td align="left">THE FEATHERS FLY</td><td align="right"><a href="#XIII">70</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XIV</td><td align="left">MAKING READY FOR WINTER</td><td align="right"><a href="#XIV">75</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XV</td><td align="left">A PLUNGE IN THE DARK</td><td align="right"><a href="#XV">80</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XVI</td><td align="left">A LUCKY FIND</td><td align="right"><a href="#XVI">85</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XVII</td><td align="left">A SLIGHT MISTAKE</td><td align="right"><a href="#XVII">89</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XVIII</td><td align="left">TOO MANY COUSINS</td><td align="right"><a href="#XVIII">95</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XIX</td><td align="left">THE WRONG TURN</td><td align="right"><a href="#XIX">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XX</td><td align="left">BEDFELLOWS</td><td align="right"><a href="#XX">107</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XXI</td><td align="left">ONE WAY TO KEEP WARM</td><td align="right"><a href="#XXI">112</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XXII</td><td align="left">QUEER MR. PINE FINCH</td><td align="right"><a href="#XXII">117</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align="left">XXIII</td><td align="left">A FEAST AT LAST</td><td align="right"><a href="#XXIII">122</a></td></tr> +</table> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 352px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-004" id="illus-004"></a> +<img src='images/p009.png' alt='' title='' width = '352' height = '185'/><br /> +</div> + +<h1>THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE</h1> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="I" id="I"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">9</a></span> +<h2>I</h2><h3>A LITTLE GENTLEMAN</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As for Dickie Deer Mouse, he was always tastefully dressed in fawn color +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">10</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">11</a></span></p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>To be sure, Dickie Deer Mouse liked his nuts to have thin shells. But +that was because he was smaller than Frisky;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">12</a></span> so of course his jaws and +teeth were not so strong.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">13</a></span> with his friends and had the gayest of times.</p> + +<p>No one would have thought that he had a care in the world.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 347px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-005" id="illus-005"></a> +<img src='images/p013.png' alt='' title='' width = '347' height = '351'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 327px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-006" id="illus-006"></a> +<img src='images/p014.png' alt='' title='' width = '327' height = '123'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="II" id="II"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">14</a></span> +<h2>II</h2><h3>HUNTING A HOME</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">15</a></span> waited, some +brisk member of the Squirrel family would settle himself in Mr. Crow's +old home.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That's Simon Screecher!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed under his breath. +"I know his voice. And I hope he won't come this way!"</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">16</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">17</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">18</a></span> the cornfield, to be sure." And then he climbed quickly +up the side of the nest and whisked down inside it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 331px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-007" id="illus-007"></a> +<img src='images/p018.png' alt='' title='' width = '331' height = '241'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 349px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-008" id="illus-008"></a> +<img src='images/p019.png' alt='' title='' width = '349' height = '157'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="III" id="III"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">19</a></span> +<h2>III</h2><h3>A STARTLED SLEEPER</h3> +</div> + +<p>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 <i>talked</i> about moving to a new place nearer Farmer Green's +cornfield. But his plan had gone no further than that.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For a few moments Mr. Crow screamed loudly for help. And he flapped and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">20</a></span> +floundered about as if he didn't know which way to turn, nor what to do.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Don't be alarmed, sir! There's no one here but me. And I ask your +pardon for disturbing you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>Asking</i> my pardon is one thing," Mr. Crow spluttered. "And <i>receiving</i> +it is another."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">21</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm very sorry," Dickie Deer Mouse replied. "I didn't mean to frighten +you."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crow gave a sudden hoarse <i>haw-haw</i>.</p> + +<p>"Pooh!" he cried. "You don't think I was scared, do you?"</p> + +<p>"You called for help," Dickie reminded him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he cried. "I thought that you thought I was somebody else."</p> + +<p>Mr. Crow glared at him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">22</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile Dickie Deer Mouse waited respectfully until Mr. Crow had +recovered his speech.</p> + +<p>"What are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Crow demanded at last.</p> + +<p>"I thought——" Dickie began.</p> + +<p>"There you go again!" the old gentleman interrupted him testily. "I +didn't ask you what you <i>thought</i>. I asked you what you were <i>doing</i>."</p> + +<p>"I'm not doing anything just now," Dickie Deer Mouse faltered.</p> + +<p>"Yes, you are!" Mr. Crow corrected him. "You're sitting on a limb of my +tree.... Get off it at once!"</p> + +<p>So Dickie Deer Mouse moved to a more distant perch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">23</a></span></p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Once more Dickie Deer Mouse asked his pardon.</p> + +<p>"I was told," he explained, "that you had moved lately. And I did not +expect to find you here."</p> + +<p>"Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I know now why you came sneaking into my house. +You'd like to live here yourself."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And whisking about, while Mr. Crow stared at him, he ran down the tall +elm as fast as he could go.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">24</a></span></p> + +<p>It was clear that if Mr. Crow wasn't going to move he would have to look +elsewhere for a summer home.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 339px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-009" id="illus-009"></a> +<img src='images/p024.png' alt='' title='' width = '339' height = '343'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 343px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-010" id="illus-010"></a> +<img src='images/p025.png' alt='' title='' width = '343' height = '149'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IV" id="IV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">25</a></span> +<h2>IV</h2><h3>THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For there was no denying that Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">26</a></span> Crow's nest was a long, long way from +the ground.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 +<i>him</i> away from his home in the hollow hemlock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">27</a></span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 341px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-011" id="illus-011"></a> +<img src='images/opp-p026.png' alt='Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends' title='' width = '341' height = '486'/><br /> +<span class='caption'>Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">28</a></span> Valley. And there was their house, almost as good as new, just +waiting for some one to move in and make himself at home.</p> + +<p>Nobody objected when Dickie took the old nest for his home, though many +a bird in the neighborhood remarked in his hearing that <i>he</i> would hate +to be too lazy to build a house for himself.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">29</a></span> fellow, because he puts a roof on his house."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"What do you know about building a nest?" And then he laughed harshly.</p> + +<p>But Dickie Deer Mouse only looked very wise and said nothing.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 330px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-012" id="illus-012"></a> +<img src='images/p029.png' alt='' title='' width = '330' height = '150'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 338px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-013" id="illus-013"></a> +<img src='images/p030.png' alt='' title='' width = '338' height = '158'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="V" id="V"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">30</a></span> +<h2>V</h2><h3>DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The swamp was none too near his new home; and he might have found moss +or shreds of bark near-by that would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">31</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>As for Jasper Jay, he told Dickie Deer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">32</a></span> Mouse that, in his opinion, the +house was ruined.</p> + +<p>"It's nothing but a trap," he declared. "And I'd hate to go to sleep +inside it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">33</a></span> quite still, while he watched the newcomer without being seen.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For they were usually on the lookout for him. And he knew it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 328px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-014" id="illus-014"></a> +<img src='images/p033.png' alt='' title='' width = '328' height = '118'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 331px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-015" id="illus-015"></a> +<img src='images/p034.png' alt='' title='' width = '331' height = '129'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="VI" id="VI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">34</a></span> +<h2>VI</h2><h3>A WARNING</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Nobody's!" Dickie Deer Mouse always told him. And then he would assure<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">35</a></span> +Mr. Crow that he was very sorry to have disturbed his rest.</p> + +<p>It was quite like Mr. Crow, on such occasions, to act grumpy.</p> + +<p>"I haven't had a good night's sleep since you broke into my house," he +declared to Dickie one day.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps you're over-eating," Dickie suggested politely.</p> + +<p>Old Mr. Crow did not appear to like that remark.</p> + +<p>"Nothing of the sort!" he bawled. "I don't eat enough to keep a mosquito +alive."</p> + +<p>"I often see you in the cornfield," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "What are you doing in the cornfield, I should +like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Sometimes I go there to get a few kernels of corn," Dickie explained.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">36</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help being worried when Mr. Crow said that. +And he looked puzzled, too.</p> + +<p>"I don't see," he said, "how I could have got you into a <i>peck</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">37</a></span></p> + +<p>At the mention of Fatty Coon's name Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile.</p> + +<p>"Fatty Coon!" he echoed. "How he does like corn!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"By the way, where are you living now?" Mr. Crow inquired.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For a little while Mr. Crow stood like a black statue and peered at the +tangle where Dickie Deer Mouse had disappeared.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">38</a></span> But Mr. Crow couldn't +see him anywhere. And at last his patience came to an end.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>he</i> doesn't know."</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 343px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-016" id="illus-016"></a> +<img src='images/p038.png' alt='' title='' width = '343' height = '272'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 313px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-017" id="illus-017"></a> +<img src='images/p039.png' alt='' title='' width = '313' height = '136'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="VII" id="VII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">39</a></span> +<h2>VII</h2><h3>NOISY VISITORS</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">40</a></span> +croaked in a hoarse voice, while Jasper Jay squalled harshly.</p> + +<p>"This is it!" Jasper had announced, as soon as they arrived. "This is +his house. And isn't it a sight?"</p> + +<p>"I should say so!" old Mr. Crow agreed. "It's got a roof on it—ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>And the two visitors laughed loudly, as if they thought there was a huge +joke somewhere.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was old Mr. Crow who mentioned it first.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">41</a></span> 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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"When do you think Fatty Coon will call on me?"</p> + +<p>The two cousins looked at each other. And then they looked all around.</p> + +<p>"What was that strange squeaking?" Mr. Crow asked Jasper Jay.</p> + +<p>"To me it sounded a good deal like a rusty hinge on Farmer Green's barn +door," Jasper Jay answered.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">42</a></span></p> + +<p>But Mr. Crow shook his head. "It couldn't have been that," he said.</p> + +<p>"Maybe Mrs. Green is rocking on a loose board on the porch," Jasper +suggested.</p> + +<p>Still Mr. Crow couldn't agree with him.</p> + +<p>"Don't be silly!" he snapped. "We're half a mile from the farmhouse."</p> + +<p>"Well, what do <i>you</i> think the noise was?" Jasper Jay inquired.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'd think it was thunder if it was loud enough," he sneered.</p> + +<p>And at that the two cousins began to quarrel violently. To tell the +truth, they never could be together long without having a dispute.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">43</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>For he was hungry.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 341px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-018" id="illus-018"></a> +<img src='images/p043.png' alt='' title='' width = '341' height = '207'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 354px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-019" id="illus-019"></a> +<img src='images/p044.png' alt='' title='' width = '354' height = '144'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">44</a></span> +<h2>VIII</h2><h3>IN THE CORNFIELD</h3> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">45</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse stopped. And he trembled the least bit; for Fatty +looked terribly fierce. Perhaps (Dickie thought) he was choking with +rage.</p> + +<p>"Can I help you?" Dickie asked him. "Would you like me to thump you on +the back?"</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">46</a></span> Mouse shuddered again, when Fatty did +that.</p> + +<p>"May I go and get you a napkin?" Dickie asked, as he edged away.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Then, to Dickie's horror, Fatty stopped talking and licked both his +paws.</p> + +<p>"May I get you a finger bowl?" Dickie inquired.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon actually didn't know what he meant.</p> + +<p>"Is that something to eat?" he asked. And he looked much interested, and +seemed quite downcast when Dickie said "No!"</p> + +<p>"Then you needn't trouble yourself," Fatty Coon told him with a sigh.</p> + +<p>"Can't you find corn enough for a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">47</a></span> good meal?" Dickie asked him +wonderingly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"There's no use saying anything to him," Fatty continued, "because he +thinks this is <i>his</i> 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——"</p> + +<p>He did not finish his threat. But he looked so darkly at Dickie that +what he <i>didn't</i> say made Dickie Deer Mouse shiver<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">48</a></span> all over, though the +warm midday sun fell upon the cornfield.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Stop! Stop!" Fatty Coon called after him. "There's something more I +want to say to you."</p> + +<p>But whatever it may have been, Dickie Deer Mouse did not wait to hear +it.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 358px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-020" id="illus-020"></a> +<img src='images/p048.png' alt='' title='' width = '358' height = '177'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 327px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-021" id="illus-021"></a> +<img src='images/p049.png' alt='' title='' width = '327' height = '135'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="IX" id="IX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">49</a></span> +<h2>IX</h2><h3>FATTY COON NEEDS HELP</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">The</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Now that he has talked with me," Dickie reasoned, "he won't trouble +himself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">50</a></span> to come to my house when old Mr. Crow tells him where I live."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So instead of quitting his snug home—as he had feared he must—he went +back to it to finish his nap.</p> + +<p>Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had lost so much sleep—through being disturbed +by Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay—that when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">51</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">52</a></span></p> + +<p>"Stop!" Fatty Coon cried. "Mr. Crow told me where I could find you. And +I want to have a word with you."</p> + +<p>"What sort of word?" Dickie Deer Mouse inquired.</p> + +<p>"It's about the cornfield," Fatty Coon explained.</p> + +<p>"I haven't been near that place since you last saw me there," Dickie +declared.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 330px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-022" id="illus-022"></a> +<img src='images/p052.png' alt='' title='' width = '330' height = '45'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 316px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-023" id="illus-023"></a> +<img src='images/p053.png' alt='' title='' width = '316' height = '138'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="X" id="X"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">53</a></span> +<h2>X</h2><h3>A BIT OF ADVICE</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">"It's</span> 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."</p> + +<p>"Well, I should say it was very kind of Mr. Crow to tell you," Dickie +remarked.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon was not so sure of that.</p> + +<p>"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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">54</a></span> me, I certainly don't want to go near the place again."</p> + +<p>"Then I'd stay away, if I were you," Dickie Deer Mouse told him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Something seems to pull me right away from it," Dickie Deer Mouse told +him.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon groaned.</p> + +<p>"Something seems to pull me <i>towards</i> the corn!" he wailed.</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help feeling sorry for him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">55</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But there isn't!" Fatty Coon exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"Have you ever tried <i>horns</i>?" Dickie Deer Mouse asked him.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon looked puzzled.</p> + +<p>"What kind?" he asked his small friend.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon actually began to look hopeful.</p> + +<p>"I'm always hungry," he announced. "And perhaps if I could get a taste +of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">56</a></span> deer's horns they would keep my mind off the cornfield. Where did +you say I could find some?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon's face brightened at once.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Little Dickie Deer Mouse smiled as he watched the actions of his late +caller. The instant Fatty Coon reached the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">57</a></span> ground he began to look +under the trees—first one and then another.</p> + +<p>"Don't miss a single tree!" Dickie called to him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 326px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-024" id="illus-024"></a> +<img src='images/p057.png' alt='' title='' width = '326' height = '237'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 331px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-025" id="illus-025"></a> +<img src='images/p058.png' alt='' title='' width = '331' height = '130'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XI" id="XI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">58</a></span> +<h2>XI</h2><h3>A SEARCH IN VAIN</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">It</span> 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.</p> + +<p>But he didn't know that, even if Dickie Deer Mouse did. And that was the +reason why Dickie smiled as he watched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">59</a></span> Fatty Coon dodging about among +the trees, looking for deer's horns where there couldn't possibly be +any.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And then Dickie set forth to find his friends and enjoy a romp in the +moonlight.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">60</a></span> Deer Mouse? Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>Where's Dickie Deer Mouse</i>?" Again that question startled him, though +he was wide awake, and couldn't be dreaming.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Looking down, he could see that Fatty Coon was in something quite like a +rage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">61</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Dickie called to him.</p> + +<p>Fatty could do nothing but glare and growl at him.</p> + +<p>"Have you had your breakfast?" Dickie asked him.</p> + +<p>Fatty shook his head.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It has kept you out of the cornfield, hasn't it?" Dickie inquired.</p> + +<p>"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!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">62</a></span></p> + +<p>"Aren't you afraid to go there?" Dickie asked him.</p> + +<p>Fatty Coon sniffed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Don't you think, then, that you and I ought to eat all the corn we +can?" Dickie inquired.</p> + +<p>"I certainly do!" Fatty Coon replied. "Let's hurry over now and get +some!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">63</a></span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-037" id="illus-037"></a> +<img src='images/opp-p062.png' alt='"Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"' title='' width = '334' height = '484'/><br /> +<span class='caption'>"Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"</span> +</div> + +<p>Fatty Coon paid no attention to the old gentleman.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Noticing that the old gentleman seemed peevish about something, Dickie +said to him:</p> + +<p>"There ought to be enough for all."</p> + +<p>But still Mr. Crow looked glum.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"You can have all the deer's horns you want," Fatty Coon remarked +thickly—for already his mouth was full.</p> + +<p>And being very polite, Dickie Deer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">64</a></span> Mouse said the same thing; though of +course he waited until he could speak distinctly.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 325px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-026" id="illus-026"></a> +<img src='images/p064.png' alt='' title='' width = '325' height = '328'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-027" id="illus-027"></a> +<img src='images/p065.png' alt='' title='' width = '335' height = '156'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XII" id="XII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">65</a></span> +<h2>XII</h2><h3>A LITTLE SURPRISE</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Simon Screecher</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One thing is certain: Dickie Deer Mouse was not eager to make Simon +Screecher's acquaintance. Whenever he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">66</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>So he stood stock still, hardly daring to breathe.</p> + +<p>To Dickie's dismay, a mocking laugh rang out. And somebody said:</p> + +<p>"I see you!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">67</a></span></p> + +<p>It was Simon Screecher himself that spoke.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What made you jump when I whistled?" Simon Screecher asked him.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," Dickie answered, "unless it was you."</p> + +<p>Simon Screecher chuckled.</p> + +<p>"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—<i>what are left of them</i>."</p> + +<p>These last words made Dickie Deer<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">68</a></span> Mouse more uneasy than ever. But he +made up his mind not to let Simon Screecher know that he was worried.</p> + +<p>"I have a great many relations," he declared stoutly. "Ours is a big +family."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>He had hardly finished that remark when a loud <i>wha-wha, whoo-ah</i> came +from a hemlock not far away. And the next moment Simon's cousin Solomon +Owl sailed through the moonlight and alighted near him.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's a pleasant night," said Solomon Owl in his deep, hollow voice.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">69</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 328px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-028" id="illus-028"></a> +<img src='images/p069.png' alt='' title='' width = '328' height = '166'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 322px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-029" id="illus-029"></a> +<img src='images/p070.png' alt='' title='' width = '322' height = '133'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">70</a></span> +<h2>XIII</h2><h3>THE FEATHERS FLY</h3> +</div> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">I'm</span> 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."</p> + +<p>"I'm well enough," Simon Screecher grunted.</p> + +<p>"Do you find plenty to eat nowadays?" Solomon asked him.</p> + +<p>Simon Screecher admitted that he was not starving.</p> + +<p>"Ah!" Solomon exclaimed. "Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">71</a></span> you can have no objection to sharing a +specially nice tidbit with your own cousin."</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"Haven't you dined to-night?" Simon Screecher inquired in a testy tone.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>An angry light came into Simon Screecher's eyes.</p> + +<p>"Can't I look where I please?" he snapped.</p> + +<p>And he changed his seat again, so that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">72</a></span> he might get a better view of +Dickie and Solomon at the same time.</p> + +<p>Solomon Owl promptly moved to another limb behind Simon, and slightly +higher.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">73</a></span> that quarrelsome fellow angrier than ever.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Simon made no answer.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>he</i> thought was a joke.</p> + +<p>"That's <i>my</i> Deer Mouse!" Simon Screecher squalled, suddenly finding his +voice. "I saw him first. And he's my prize."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">74</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'll do nothing of the sort!" Simon Screecher declared; and his voice +rose to a shrill quaver.</p> + +<p>Turning swiftly, he flew straight at his cousin. And then how the +feathers did fly!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-030" id="illus-030"></a> +<img src='images/p074.png' alt='' title='' width = '335' height = '149'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 328px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-031" id="illus-031"></a> +<img src='images/p075.png' alt='' title='' width = '328' height = '123'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">75</a></span> +<h2>XIV</h2><h3>MAKING READY FOR WINTER</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> 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.</p> + +<p>Sometimes, when summer had ended and fall brought a night that was +rainy<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">76</a></span> and cold, he liked to go home after he had finished his supper, +and burrow deep into his soft bed of cat-tail down.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The cold wind searched him out, even under his soft covering; and the +driving rains trickled annoyingly through his roof of moss.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">77</a></span> done, he set out at once to see what kind of place he +could find.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">78</a></span> sniffed at. What he +was hunting for was <i>holes</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>One look into it usually told the story. Eggs in a bird's nest meant +that somebody<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">79</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>But a <i>hole</i> is different. One can't see what's at the bottom of it +without going inside it.</p> + +<p>And that is not always a pleasant thing to do.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 342px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-032" id="illus-032"></a> +<img src='images/p079.png' alt='' title='' width = '342' height = '276'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 354px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-033" id="illus-033"></a> +<img src='images/p080.png' alt='' title='' width = '354' height = '143'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XV" id="XV"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">80</a></span> +<h2>XV</h2><h3>A PLUNGE IN THE DARK</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">There</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Something told him that he had stumbled upon the home of a dangerous +person.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">81</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>That was enough for Dickie Deer Mouse.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He had come upon Tommy Fox's burrow!</p> + +<p>And if there was one hole in the ground into which he had no wish to +go,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">82</a></span> that was it. For Tommy Fox was no friend of his.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">83</a></span> the smaller field people +had overlooked it.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Slipping inside the hole, Dickie found himself in the mouth of a big, +airy tunnel, which went sharply downwards for a few feet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">84</a></span></p> + +<p>And without the slightest fear he plunged down the dark hole, to see +what he could see.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 337px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-034" id="illus-034"></a> +<img src='images/p084.png' alt='' title='' width = '337' height = '353'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 324px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-035" id="illus-035"></a> +<img src='images/p085.png' alt='' title='' width = '324' height = '134'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">85</a></span> +<h2>XVI</h2><h3>A LUCKY FIND</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Though</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">86</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">87</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">88</a></span> Tommy Fox tried +to dig them out of their underground home, he would find the passage +between the roots too small to squeeze through.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And that was where Dickie Deer Mouse made a slight mistake.</p> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 338px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-036" id="illus-036"></a> +<img src='images/p089.png' alt='' title='' width = '338' height = '144'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">89</a></span> +<h2>XVII</h2><h3>A SLIGHT MISTAKE</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Scarcely</span> had Dickie Deer Mouse plunged into the woods when he met Fatty +Coon coming in the opposite direction.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I've been looking for a winter home," Dickie explained. "And I've just +found the finest one you ever saw."</p> + +<p>"Where is it!" Fatty asked him. "I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">90</a></span> might want to pay you a call some +night—when I had nothing else to do."</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse was in such a cheerful mood that almost anything Fatty +Coon might have said would have pleased him.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile once more.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">91</a></span></p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 335px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-937" id="illus-937"></a> +<img src='images/opp-p090.png' alt='Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox' title='' width = '335' height = '487'/><br /> +<span class='caption'>Dickie escapes from Tommy Fox</span> +</div> + +<p>"My new home isn't as high as I am right now," he told Fatty Coon.</p> + +<p>Fatty grunted.</p> + +<p>"Then I'll certainly come to see you," he said, "when time hangs heavily +on my hands."</p> + +<p>"My new house isn't as high as you are right now," Dickie remarked.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">92</a></span></p> + +<p>Fatty Coon looked around at his ringed tail, with its black tip; and +then he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse again.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You can't measure my hall!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>But Dickie Deer Mouse said he was so hungry that he couldn't go back +just then.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">93</a></span></p> + +<p>"I'm headed for the big beech tree to see if I can find a few nuts," he +announced.</p> + +<p>At the mention of food Fatty Coon's face took on a different look.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">94</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>But Fatty Coon did not trouble himself to answer.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 338px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-038" id="illus-038"></a> +<img src='images/p094.png' alt='' title='' width = '338' height = '223'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 343px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-039" id="illus-039"></a> +<img src='images/p095.png' alt='' title='' width = '343' height = '129'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">95</a></span> +<h2>XVIII</h2><h3>TOO MANY COUSINS</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">In</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">96</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Where he had expected to see nobody at all, his eyes bulged with +surprise at the crowd that had gathered in his dooryard.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">97</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What place?" Dickie Deer Mouse<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">98</a></span> asked them as he looked from one to +another in dismay.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who told you about my house?" he demanded with just a trace of +disappointment.</p> + +<p>"It was Fatty Coon," several of his cousins explained at once.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">99</a></span></p> + +<p>And then Dickie Deer Mouse knew that he had made a mistake when he told +Fatty of his good fortune.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 348px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-040" id="illus-040"></a> +<img src='images/p099.png' alt='' title='' width = '348' height = '294'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 337px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-041" id="illus-041"></a> +<img src='images/p100.png' alt='' title='' width = '337' height = '134'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">100</a></span> +<h2>XIX</h2><h3>THE WRONG TURN</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">For</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The eldest of all, whom Dickie knew as Cousin Dan'l, said to him +presently:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">101</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Those youngsters will have to keep still," he said over his shoulder to +the cousin that was nearest him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">102</a></span></p> + +<p>Everybody passed the message down the line. And when the youngsters +heard it they began to laugh.</p> + +<p>"Tell Cousin Dickie to stop us if he can," they shouted.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">103</a></span></p> + +<p>They had passed out through the back door of the house, without entering +the chamber at all!</p> + +<p>As soon as Dickie's relations saw where they were they looked at one +another in a puzzled fashion.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?" Cousin Dan'l demanded of Dickie. "I followed the +crowd. But I saw no chamber anywhere."</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse didn't know exactly what to say. So he merely shook +his head, hoping that the company would go away.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"The bedroom's none too big," Dickie replied.</p> + +<p>"Then maybe we passed through it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">104</a></span> without noticing it," his elderly +cousin observed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It seems to me," Dickie told him, "that we'd all of us better go back +to our summer homes."</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">105</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When the three families scattered in three different directions Dickie +Deer Mouse believed that he was well rid of them.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">106</a></span> fence back to the front door of his new house.</p> + +<p>So he passed another day in the last year's bird's nest.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 342px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-042" id="illus-042"></a> +<img src='images/p106.png' alt='' title='' width = '342' height = '333'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 331px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-043" id="illus-043"></a> +<img src='images/p107.png' alt='' title='' width = '331' height = '128'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XX" id="XX"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">107</a></span> +<h2>XX</h2><h3>BEDFELLOWS</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">During</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">108</a></span> when he reached his +doorway he saw not a soul anywhere around.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Who's here?" Dickie asked in a faint whisper.</p> + +<p>"We are!" the voice replied. "There are eighteen of us in all. And you'd +better be careful not to trample on anybody."</p> + +<p>Dickie's heart sank. He understood, in a flash, what had happened. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">109</a></span> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">110</a></span> down into the bed +of grasses he soon fell asleep.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>They were still sleeping soundly all around him. And Dickie Deer Mouse +made a strange wish.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">111</a></span></p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 350px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-044" id="illus-044"></a> +<img src='images/p111.png' alt='' title='' width = '350' height = '349'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 336px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-045" id="illus-045"></a> +<img src='images/p112.png' alt='' title='' width = '336' height = '132'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">112</a></span> +<h2>XXI</h2><h3>ONE WAY TO KEEP WARM</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">After</span> 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.</p> + +<p>For some reason he seemed to feel unusually <i>stretchy</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>He did not do that, however, because<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">113</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was cold, too—much colder than it had been when Dickie went to +sleep.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Dickie felt even hungrier than he usually<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">114</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">115</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">116</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 330px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-046" id="illus-046"></a> +<img src='images/p116.png' alt='' title='' width = '330' height = '79'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 340px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-047" id="illus-047"></a> +<img src='images/p117.png' alt='' title='' width = '340' height = '143'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">117</a></span> +<h2>XXII</h2><h3>QUEER MR. PINE FINCH</h3> +</div> + +<p><span class="smcap">Perhaps</span> 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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">118</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">119</a></span> hadn't met Mr. +Pine Finch early one morning.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">120</a></span></p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>He looked all around to see what had hit him. And there, on the snow +beside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">121</a></span> him, lay a bud off the tree above him.</p> + +<p>Then Dickie Deer Mouse understood what Mr. Pine Finch was about. He was +eating the buds that clung to the tips of the branches.</p> + +<p>Dickie Deer Mouse quickly ate that bud; and then he waited, watching +eagerly every move that Mr. Pine Finch made.</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 331px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-048" id="illus-048"></a> +<img src='images/p121.png' alt='' title='' width = '331' height = '284'/><br /> +</div> + +<hr class='major' /> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 342px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-049" id="illus-049"></a> +<img src='images/p122.png' alt='' title='' width = '342' height = '147'/><br /> +</div> + +<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">122</a></span> +<h2>XXIII</h2><h3>A FEAST AT LAST</h3> +</div> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In a little while he felt so much better<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">123</a></span> that he called out to Mr. Pine +Finch:</p> + +<p>"Shake a lot of 'em down—there's a good fellow!"</p> + +<p>Mr. Pine Finch fluttered to a perch on a limb and looked down in great +surprise.</p> + +<p>"Did you speak?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The request surprised Mr. Pine Finch. His face told that much.</p> + +<p>"<i>Buds</i>!" he exclaimed. "Why do you want <i>buds</i>?"</p> + +<p>"I eat them—when I can get them," Dickie Deer Mouse informed him.</p> + +<p>The streaked gentleman in the tree looked quite blank.</p> + +<p>"What a strange thing to do!" he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">124</a></span> cried through his nose—or so it +seemed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Then he turned himself upside down,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">125</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">126</a></span> ground, where he knew he could find food.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Perhaps that odd gentleman knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">127</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>At last the breakfast parties beneath Mr. Pine Finch's favorite tree +came to an end. The snow vanished. Warm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">128</a></span> 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.</p> + +<p style='text-align:center; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 3em;'>THE END</p> + +<div class='figcenter' style='width: 223px; padding-top: 1em; padding-bottom: 1em;'> +<a name="illus-050" id="illus-050"></a> +<img src='images/p128.png' alt='' title='' width = '223' height = '271'/><br /> +</div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse, by +Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE *** + +***** This file should be named 18953-h.htm or 18953-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/5/18953/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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b/18953-h/images/pre-fp.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0109f93 --- /dev/null +++ b/18953-h/images/pre-fp.png diff --git a/18953-h/images/title.png b/18953-h/images/title.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0b9a162 --- /dev/null +++ b/18953-h/images/title.png diff --git a/18953.txt b/18953.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..46029e8 --- /dev/null +++ b/18953.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2410 @@ +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 + +[Illustration] + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse, by +Arthur Scott Bailey + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE *** + +***** This file should be named 18953.txt or 18953.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/8/9/5/18953/ + +Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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