THE Meadow Mouse party, in the cornfield, vanished as if by magic. Not
one of the merrymakers lingered an instant after hearing that Fatty Coon
was entering the field. And since Master Meadow Mouse happened to be
near the shock where he lived, he ran up it in a twinkling and crept
inside it, to curl up in his nest and try to catch forty winks.
He felt safe enough. Hadn't old Mr. Crow come to the cornfield every
day? _He_ had never even poked into a shock to disturb Master Meadow
Mouse or one of his cousins. Mr. Crow had eaten corn, to be sure. But
he hadn't bothered anybody. And now Master Meadow Mouse thought that as
soon as Fatty Coon had stuffed himself with corn he would stroll back to
Cedar Swamp.
Master Meadow Mouse had fallen into a doze when a sharp rustle waked
him.
"Ho, ho!" he chuckled. "There's Fatty Coon now! He's pulling an ear of
corn off my shock. Well, I don't believe I'll miss it. There's corn
enough in this field for everybody."
Master Meadow Mouse tried to go to sleep again.
"I wish Fatty Coon wouldn't make so much noise," said Master Meadow
Mouse, grumbling a little because he was very drowsy and didn't like to
be disturbed.
"There!" he exclaimed after a few moments. "He's gone, thank goodness!"
But Fatty Coon had only carried his ear of corn to Broad Brook, to wash
it before he gobbled the kernels. He was very particular to wash almost
everything he ate. But that was about the only way in which he was
fussy. There was nothing, almost, that he wouldn't bolt greedily.
After he had devoured the first ear of corn, Fatty Coon went back and
pulled another off the same shock.
Again he roused Master Meadow Mouse from his slumbers.
"He's at it again!" Master Meadow Mouse complained. "I wish he'd go to
some other shock."
The third time that Fatty Coon wrenched an ear of corn from the shock
where Master Meadow Mouse lived he paused and cocked an ear towards the
top of the shock.
"Was that a squeak?" he asked himself. And then he sniffed. "Ha!" he
cried. "Do I smell a Meadow Mouse?"
Fatty Coon was not mistaken. When he rustled the dried cornstalks the
third time, Master Meadow Mouse had cried right out in his sleep. And he
waked up just soon enough to hear Fatty Coon's remarks.
"Maybe you do smell a Meadow Mouse," he replied under his breath, so
Fatty Coon couldn't hear him. "But it won't do you any good; for I'm not
coming out of my castle until you go away."
It soon appeared that Fatty Coon did not intend to leave. For Fatty
began to pull at the cornstalks with his claws. Although Farmer Green
had bound the stalks together tightly, one by one Fatty tore them loose
and let them fall upon the ground.
And inside the shock Master Meadow Mouse suddenly started up in alarm.
[Illustration]
14