[Illustration: “Mrs. Squirrel followed Fluffy down the path.”]
Mrs. Squirrel followed Fluffy a little way down the path and at the
corner Fluffy turned, waved goodbye with her little fan, and then was
gone out of sight. Mrs. Squirrel sighed as she went back into the
house, hoping all would be happy for her darling that day.
Fluffy herself was surely happy, and after waving goodbye to her
mother, her thoughts were filled with the good time and the good things
she knew she would get to eat at the party. Her little brown eyes
seemed to just dance whenever she would think of the pleasures in store
for her. She had not gone very far along the road when she heard a wee
voice crying, “Oh, please help me! It hurts so!” and looking around
she saw a poor little mouse whose tail was caught between two stones.
[Illustration: “‘Oh, please help me!’”]
“Just a minute,” said Fluffy, and after carefully putting down her
hanky and fan, she tried to move the stones between which little Timmy
Mouse’s tail was caught. At first she thought she would not be able to,
but at last she got a good sized stick and raised the stone just enough
for poor little Tim to get loose. He was so glad to be free, he said,
not only because the stone hurt him dreadfully but because he feared
that Old Mrs. Tabby Cat was liable to be along any minute. “I can’t
tell you how much I thank you,” he said, “but maybe some day I can do
something for you.”
“That’s all right,” said Fluffy, gathering up her things. “Tell your
mother to put some arnica on your tail and it won’t hurt any more,” and
she was gone out of sight. “I must hurry a little more,” she thought,
“as I would hate dreadfully to be late for the party.”