WINTER had come. The snow lay deep over Pleasant Valley. But Master
Meadow Mouse didn't object to that. On the contrary, he had welcomed the
snow. Even Johnnie Green, peeping out of his chamber window at the first
snowfall of the season, hadn't been any happier over it than Master
Meadow Mouse was. To Johnnie Green the snow meant fun. To Master Meadow
Mouse it meant fun and something more.
At last he could scamper about the meadow without being seen by
everybody. For he set to work at once to make tunnels beneath the snow.
They ran in every direction from his house. And he was forever pushing
them further and further.
Through those tunnels Master Meadow Mouse could look for seeds and grain
in the stubble. And while he was rambling along his network of halls he
didn't have to worry about anybody's making trouble for him, unless it
was Peter Mink, perhaps, or Grumpy Weasel.
Of course Master Meadow Mouse didn't stay under the snow all the time.
Now and then he liked to climb up into the open air. And he made many
shafts that led to the world above.
Although most of the birds had gone South to spend the winter, there
were still some that Master Meadow Mouse had to shun. Old Mr. Crow was
spending the winter on the farm. And there were Solomon Owl and his
cousin Simon Screecher, who hunted over the meadow nightly. And at dusk
sometimes a fierce hawk known as "Rough-leg" would beat his way back and
forth across the snow covered stretches in the hope of catching one of
the Meadow Mouse family unawares.
In spite of such unpleasant neighbors, the big Meadow Mouse family
managed to have many a gay frolic under the stars on crisp winter
nights. Sometimes Johnnie Green, wandering over the fields on snow-shoes
by day, noticed a lacy tracery on the snow. It was the tracks of the
tiny toes of Master Meadow Mouse and his dozens of cousins. At first
Johnnie almost thought that he had stumbled upon the scene of a revel of
fairy mice. He did not know then that the Meadow Mouse family had a
village of their own right under his feet.
But Solomon Owl and Simon Screecher and old Rough-leg, the hawk, knew
all about the habits of the villagers. In fact they sometimes complained
about the way the Meadow Mouse family had built their tunnels. They
agreed that there were too many holes leading down to the village
streets. It gave the Meadow Mouse people too many openings into which to
dive in case of a sudden surprise when they were having a moonlight
party.
"If they ever invited me to one of their affairs I wouldn't care what
they did," Solomon Owl remarked one evening to his whistling cousin,
Simon Screecher. "If they'd welcome me just once to one of their dances
I'd be satisfied."
"It's plain that they don't like you," his cousin remarked.
"Nor you, either!" Solomon Owl boomed. And then all at once he burst
forth with a peal of ghostly laughter. _"Wha, wha, whoo-ah!_"
Now, Master Meadow Mouse had just crept out of one of his doorways and
was looking up at the stars when that shivery sound came rolling out of
the woods. When he heard it he turned quickly and hurried back where he
came from.
"There won't be any fun to-night," he grumbled.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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