MASTER MEADOW MOUSE felt ill at ease. Now that the grass had been cut
from the meadow he began to think he didn't care to live there any
longer. After his adventure with old Mr. Crow, Master Meadow Mouse
scarcely dared stray from his dooryard in the daytime. Anybody, almost,
could see him as he crept through the stubble.
At night he ventured further from home. And once he went even as far as
the farmyard.
To his surprise he found that the grass in Farmer Green's yard was
longer than he had ever seen it. Earlier in the summer, when Master
Meadow Mouse visited that spot, he had been afraid to cross the lawn
because it was clipped so short. But now he could creep through the
thick green carpet and nobody could see him, unless a waving grass blade
happened to catch somebody's eye. Everybody at the farmhouse had been
too busy with haying to spend any time running a lawn mower.
Why not move to the farmyard? The thought came into Master Meadow
Mouse's head. It seemed to him that the farmyard would be a fine place
to live. There was grain scattered here and there, where somebody had
fed the hens. There was the duck pond near-by, when he wanted a swim.
"I'll come!" Master Meadow Mouse decided. "I'll come--if I can find a
good place for a nest."
Thereupon he began to look about for a site for his new home. And it
wasn't long before he had found one that suited him. When he saw the
woodpile he squeaked with delight.
"The very place!" he cried. "I'll begin to built my nest to-night."
So he set to work. He carried dead leaves and dried grass to the
woodpile and started to make a snug home for himself in a space between
the logs, well inside the heap of wood. And he had just crept from a
chink and stood under the stars when a tiny voice greeted him with a
cry, "What ho, stranger!"
Master Meadow Mouse looked around. And there on a stick of wood just
behind him was a plump gray person. The newcomer looked the least bit
like Master Meadow Mouse himself, except that his tail was ever so much
longer.
"I'm Moses Mouse and I live in the farmhouse," said the gray gentleman.
"I'm Master Meadow Mouse and I'm going to live in this woodpile," said
the reddish-brown chap in reply.
"That's good news," Moses Mouse remarked. "But you must look out for
Miss Snooper," he added.
"Who is she?" Master Meadow Mouse asked his new friend.
"Miss Snooper--" Moses Mouse explained--"Miss Snooper is our name for
Miss Kitty Cat. She lives in the farmhouse. And when she isn't indoors
she's usually prowling about the yard."
To the great astonishment of Moses Mouse, the short-tailed stranger
seemed in no wise startled by his news.
"Huh!" Master Meadow Mouse exclaimed. "If this Miss Snooper--as you
call her--bothers me, I'll serve her as I did one of her kittens."
"What did you do to the kitten?" Moses Mouse inquired with great
interest.
"I bit her nose," said Master Meadow Mouse.
Moses Mouse gazed at him with horror.
"Don't try that on the old lady!" he cried. "If you do, you'll be
sorry."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
9