It was true that Dickie Deer Mouse and all his relations feasted on the
horns shed by the deer. But of course they didn't find horns in the
woods every day. Only at a certain season of the year did the deer drop
them. And since that time was now past, and the Deer Mouse family had
scoured the woods until they found--and devoured--them all, it is clear
that Fatty Coon had started out on a fruitless hunt.
But he didn't know that, even if Dickie Deer Mouse did. And that was the
reason why Dickie smiled as he watched Fatty Coon dodging about among
the trees, looking for deer's horns where there couldn't possibly be
any.
"It's the finest thing that could happen to Fatty," Dickie Deer Mouse
thought. "While he's hunting for horns he can't go to the cornfield. And
so long as he stays away from the cornfield, old dog Spot can't catch
him there."
And then Dickie set forth to find his friends and enjoy a romp in the
moonlight.
Dawn found him creeping into his house once more. And after what had
happened during the night it was not strange that he should dream about
Fatty Coon.
It was not a pleasant dream. For some reason or other Fatty Coon seemed
to be angry with him, and was shouting in a terrible, deep voice,
"Where's Dickie Deer Mouse? Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"
And then Dickie awoke, all a-shiver. But of course he felt better at
once, for he knew that it was only a dream. And he stretched himself,
and buried his head in his bed of cat-tail down, because the daylight
was trickling in through his doorway.
"_Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?_" Again that question startled him, though
he was wide awake, and couldn't be dreaming.
The next instant Dickie's tree began to quiver. Fatty Coon was climbing
up it! And Dickie Deer Mouse jumped out of bed in a hurry and slipped
out of his door.
Looking down, he could see that Fatty Coon was in something quite like a
rage.
"What's the matter?" Dickie called to him.
Fatty could do nothing but glare and growl at him.
"Have you had your breakfast?" Dickie asked him.
Fatty shook his head.
"No!" he roared. "I haven't had a morsel to eat since I last saw you.
I've been hunting for horns all this time. And I've come back to tell
you that I don't like your advice. If I followed it much longer there's
no doubt that I'd starve to death."
"It has kept you out of the cornfield, hasn't it?" Dickie inquired.
"Yes!" Fatty admitted. "But it won't much longer. I'm on my way to the
cornfield now." He looked at Dickie and frowned, as if to say, "Just try
to stop me!"
"Aren't you afraid to go there?" Dickie asked him.
Fatty Coon sniffed.
"That story about old dog Spot was nothing but a trick," he declared.
"It was just a trick of old Mr. Crow's. He wants all the corn himself."
"Don't you think, then, that you and I ought to eat all the corn we
can?" Dickie inquired.
"I certainly do!" Fatty Coon replied. "Let's hurry over now and get
some!"
Dickie Deer Mouse was only too glad to accept the invitation. And he
waited politely until Fatty had reached the ground, before going down
himself.
Old Mr. Crow saw them the moment they entered the cornfield. And he
hurried up to them with a most important air and advised them both that
they "had come to a dangerous place."
[Illustration: "Where's Dickie Deer Mouse?"]
Fatty Coon paid no attention to the old gentleman.
But Dickie Deer Mouse thanked Mr. Crow and told him that after he had
had all the corn he wanted he was going back to the woods.
Noticing that the old gentleman seemed peevish about something, Dickie
said to him:
"There ought to be enough for all."
But still Mr. Crow looked glum.
"There's enough for them that don't care for much else," he muttered.
"But we can't feed the whole world on this corn, you know.... How would
you like it if I took to eating deer's horns--when they're in season, of
course?"
"You can have all the deer's horns you want," Fatty Coon remarked
thickly--for already his mouth was full.
And being very polite, Dickie Deer Mouse said the same thing; though of
course he waited until he could speak distinctly.
[Illustration]
[Illustration]