Produced by R.G.P.M. van Giesen
[Illustration: cover]
THE TRAVELS OF FUZZ AND BUZZ
[Illustration: "FUZZ AND BUZZ THOUGHT THAT THEIR LAST MOMENT HAD
COME"]
The Travels
of Fuzz and Buzz
BY
GERALDINE MOCKLER
Author of "The Four Miss Whittingtons" "Best of Intentions"
"A Boy Cousin" "The Little Girl from Next Door" &c.
_ILLUSTRATED BY S. B. PEARSE_
BLACKIE AND SON LIMITED
LONDON GLASGOW AND BOMBAY
Contents
I. MR. BROWNIE MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT
II. THE WATER-RAT PLAYS HIDE-AND-SEEK WITH THE OWL
III. THE TOMTIT GIVES FUZZ AND BUZZ SOME BAD NEWS
IV. FUZZ AND BUZZ SAVE MISS PATTY GREY-FUR
THE TRAVELS OF
FUZZ AND BUZZ
CHAPTER I
MR. BROWNIE MEETS WITH AN ACCIDENT
ONCE, not so very long ago, a family of field-mice lived in the
middle of a big wood. There was Mr. Brownie, the father-mouse, and
Mrs. Brownie, the mother mouse, and their two children, a boy-mouse
and a girl-mouse, whose names were Fuzz and Buzz.
In the summer, and in the spring and autumn too, field-mice have a
very nice time indeed; but in the winter, when the ground is frozen,
and the nuts and acorns and berries are gone from the trees and
bushes, their life is not quite so happy. And then, if the
father-mouse has not laid in a good store of food they have not
enough to eat, and are often very hungry until the spring comes
round again.
But this Mr. Brownie was a very careful mouse, and during the autumn
he always got such a large store of nuts and acorns, that when the
winter came it found their larder nice and full.
But one windy day in the month of October, when he was hard at work
digging up a big grass-root to carry home for the winter, a sad
thing happened to him. A heavy branch was blown down from a tree
close by, and it hit one of poor Mr. Brownie's front paws and broke
it.
Fuzz and Buzz, who were having a merry game with the yellow leaves
that were being tossed about by the wind, ran up to him looking very
much frightened indeed, and then Fuzz went off as fast as he could
to tell his mother that his father had been hurt.
[Illustration]
Of course Mrs. Brownie came at once, and as one or two of her
neighbours ran after her to see where she was going in such a hurry,
they helped to carry poor Mr. Brownie home to his cosy nest.
And it was a great many days before he was able to leave it again,
for his paw took a long time to get well.
And when at last he limped on three paws to the door of his little
house and looked out into the wood, autumn had gone and winter had
come. And such a cold winter, too! Every blade of grass was covered
with white frost, and every leaf had a pretty white edge to it.
Mr. Brownie gave a big shiver as he glanced round him, and then he
said to his wife:
"My dear, I hope while I have been ill you have not forgotten to
fill our larder. It was nearly empty when I was last in it."
"But, my dear," Mrs. Brownie cried, "I have forgotten to fill it.
Besides, I have been so busy nursing you that I have not had time to
think of anything else. And I don't believe that there is a single
nut or one grass-root left in it."
"Then, my dear," said Mr. Brownie sadly, "we shall starve this
winter, for it is too late now to find any acorns or anything else.
The squirrels and the birds have taken them all."
Fuzz and Buzz looked very unhappy when they heard what their father
and mother were saying, and Fuzz said to his sister:
"How sad it will be to be always hungry!"
And the two young mice, and their father and mother as well, looked
still more unhappy as the days went by and the nuts and acorns in
their larder grew fewer and fewer. But though Mr. Brownie could only
limp about on three legs, he was not idle during those days. Mrs.
Brownie was so very fat that she could not walk far without sitting
down to rest, so she stayed at home, but Mr. Brownie, with Fuzz and
Buzz trotting one on each side of him, went about the wood looking
everywhere for nuts or acorns. But they could not find any. Mr.
Brownie was a very proud mouse, so he would not beg from his
neighbours; but they soon heard that he had very few nuts and
acorns, and without waiting to be asked they gave him as much food
as they could spare from their own larders. But that was not very
much. The summer had been a wet and a very short one, and none of
the mice who lived in that wood had been able to collect a very big
store of food. So what they could give to the Brownie family would
not be nearly enough to last them until the spring came, and the sun
thawed the ground and made it soft again so that they could scratch
into the earth and dig up roots.
"Oh, dear, dear!" sighed Mrs. Brownie. "Why didn't we take my
sister's advice and go and live as she does in a barn, where there
is always plenty of good oats and corn to be picked up?"
"Because," said Mr. Brownie, "there are too many cats and dogs
living near barns to make them at all safe places for honest
field-mice like ourselves. But you never know when you are well off,
Mrs. Brownie."
"Well, at any rate," Mrs. Brownie remarked, "we couldn't be worse
off than we are just now. For what is to become of us all without
any food this winter, I am sure I don't know." And then poor Mrs.
Brownie put her front paws up to her face and began to cry.
"Mother! Father!" Fuzz said suddenly in an eager little squeak. "Why
shouldn't Buzz and I go down to the barn where my aunt lives and
bring back as much corn as ever we can carry'?"
But no sooner had he said that than Mrs. Brownie stopped crying, and
told her son in a very severe voice indeed not to talk nonsense; and
Mr. Brownie said that if he let them go he was sure that they would
never come back again, for some big dog or cat would be sure to kill
and eat them.
"Well, you see, Father," said Fuzz, "if we don't go we shall die
just the same, for there are only three acorns and one nut, which is
a bad one, left in the larder."
And what Fuzz said was so very true that in the end he had his way,
and before the Brownie family went to bed that night it was settled
that the very next morning he and Buzz should start for the barn
where their aunt lived.
Miss Patty Grey-Fur was the name of their aunt, and once, about two
summers ago, she had come out to the wood on a visit to the
Brownies. She had not stayed very long, for she said she found the
country a very dull place. She had seemed a nice, gentle old
lady-mouse, and Fuzz and Buzz were sure that she would be kind to
them and give them as much corn as they wanted.
So early the next morning, after having said good-bye to their
father and mother, Fuzz and Buzz set out on their travels.
It would take them quite two days to reach the barn; but they could
not lose their way, for all they had to do was to follow the stream
that ran through the wood until it brought them out into the big
river on the bank of which the barn stood.
It was such a fine frosty morning, that although Fuzz and Buzz had
only had two bites each at an acorn they were very merry; and as
they ran in and out over the dry leaves that lay on the ground, they
talked gaily of the great heap of oats and corn that they meant to
bring back with them. How they were going to carry it they did not
stop to think, for, as Fuzz, who was a very wise young mouse, said,
the first thing they had to do was to get to the barn.
The sound of the running water led them straight to the stream,
which flowed through the wood very quickly, and was quite deep
enough to drown both of them if they had fallen into it. After they
had run beside the stream for some time Buzz began to get rather
tired.
"Oh, wouldn't it be nice," she said, "if we had a boat, Fuzz, and
could be carried down the stream in it!"
"That's a very good idea of yours," Fuzz cried at once; "let's look
for a nice piece of bark, and then we will put it in the stream and
float on it."
Buzz was just a little bit frightened when she found what Fuzz was
going to do, and she said she was sure they would be drowned; but
Fuzz told her not to be silly, and said that as long as he was with
her no harm should come to her. Then he set to work to look for a
piece of bark which should do for a raft. He soon found one, and,
helped by Buzz, he pulled it to the edge of the water and let it
fall into the stream. Then before it had time to float away he took
hold of one of Buzz's little front paws, and together they jumped on
to their raft.
"Oh, oh!" squeaked Buzz in a great fright, for their weight had made
the wood sink about a quarter of an inch below the water, and that
was quite enough to wet their little feet, and their legs too. And
the water was so cold! But in a minute their raft came up again, the
water ran off it, and it floated merrily away down the stream. Buzz
was then no longer afraid of being drowned; and after they had dried
their paws and curled their tails round them to keep them warm, she
said that it was much nicer to sail down the stream than to walk
along its banks. And Fuzz said the same.