AS SIMON SCREECHER remarked to his cousin, Solomon Owl, it was a hard
winter. The snow was deep. The days were cold. And the nights were
colder. And, worst of all, food became scarce. It seemed as if there
wasn't anything to eat anywhere except at the farm buildings, which
Farmer Green had stuffed full of hay and grain during the summer and
autumn. Many of the forest folk stole down from Blue Mountain after
nightfall and visited the farmyard in the hope of getting a bite of
something or other.
Even Master Meadow Mouse began to find it harder and harder to get
enough seeds under the snow to satisfy his hunger. He had stored away a
stock of food. But it hadn't been big enough. And that was a great
mistake. Master Meadow Mouse promised himself that he would not repeat
it another time. Unfortunately, all the promises in the world wouldn't
give him a square meal when he needed one.
At last he went to one of his cousins who had already spent one winter
in the meadow.
"This is my first winter," Master Meadow Mouse explained. "I'm running
short of food. And I wish you'd tell me what to do in such a case."
"That's easy," his cousin answered. "Get more!" And then he hurried
away, for he had important business to attend to.
Poor Master Meadow Mouse ran after him. It was hard to follow his
cousin through the winding galleries beneath the snow. Several times
Master Meadow Mouse took the wrong turn and had to retrace his steps.
But at last he found his busy cousin again.
"You advised me to get more food," said Master Meadow Mouse. "But you
didn't tell me where to get it."
"In the orchard!" his cousin cried. And then he hurried away again.
"I wish he'd wait a minute," Master Meadow Mouse grumbled as he tore
after his cousin once more. "I don't feel like running. I haven't had a
hearty meal for days."
The cousin seemed surprised when Master Meadow Mouse overtook him.
"What!" that busy gentleman exclaimed. "Have you been to the orchard and
back so soon?"
"No!" said Master Meadow Mouse. "I've been chasing you. I want you to
tell me what I'll find to eat when I go to the orchard."
"That's easy," his cousin replied. "Trees!" Having said those three
words he dashed off again even faster than before.
"Trees!" Master Meadow Mouse echoed. "I can't eat trees. I've never
eaten a tree in all my life. There must be something that my cousin
forgot to explain. So I suppose I'll have to run after him again and ask
him what he meant."
The fourth time that Master Meadow Mouse found his cousin he took no
chances. He caught his cousin by his tail and held on firmly.
"You're not going to get away from me till I've found out what I want
to know," he declared. "How can I eat a tree?" Master Meadow Mouse
demanded.
"You can't!" his cousin replied, struggling desperately to free himself,
for he was too busy to stop long.
"Then explain what you mean!" Master Meadow Mouse cried.
"Eat the bark!" his cousin answered.
Then--and not till then--did Master Meadow Mouse let him go.
Master Meadow Mouse chased his cousin no more, but hurried away to
Farmer Green's orchard, where he gnawed a ring all the way around one of
the young fruit trees, at the top of the snow. It was the first big meal
he had enjoyed for weeks. And he went home feeling that the winter was
not so hard as he had thought, after all.
But Farmer Green didn't agree with him. When he happened to go into the
orchard one day, later, and saw tree after tree ruined, he was very,
very much displeased.
"I ought to have put wire netting around those young trees," he told the
hired man. "This is what comes of a hard winter."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
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