DANNY MEADOW MOUSE often had sat watching Skimmer the Swallow sailing
around up in the blue, blue sky. He had watched Ol’ Mistah Buzzard
go up, up, up, until he was nothing but a tiny speck, and Danny had
wondered how it would seem to be way up above the Green Meadows and the
Green Forest and look down. It had seemed to him that it must be very
wonderful and beautiful. Sometimes he had wished that he had wings and
could go up in the air and look down. And now here he was, he, Danny
Meadow Mouse, actually doing that very thing!
[Illustration: He was being carried. _Page 45._]
But Danny could see nothing wonderful or beautiful now. No, indeed!
Everything was terrible, for you see Danny Meadow Mouse wasn’t flying
himself. He was being carried. Yes, Sir, Danny Meadow Mouse was being
carried through the air in the cruel claws of Hooty the Owl! And all
because Danny had forgotten—forgotten to watch up in the sky for danger.
Poor, poor Danny Meadow Mouse! Hooty’s great cruel claws hurt him
dreadfully! But it wasn’t the pain that was the worst. No, indeed! It
wasn’t the pain! It was the thought of what would happen when Hooty
reached his home in the Green Forest, for he knew that there Hooty
would gobble him up, bones and all. As he flew, Hooty kept chuckling,
and Danny Meadow Mouse knew just what those chuckles meant. They meant
that Hooty was thinking of the good meal he was going to have.
Hanging there in Hooty’s great cruel claws, Danny looked down on the
snow-covered Green Meadows he loved so well. They seemed a frightfully
long way below him, though really they were not far at all, for Hooty
was flying very low. But Danny Meadow Mouse had never in all his life
been so high up before, and so it seemed to him that he was way, way up
in the sky, and he shut his eyes so as not to see. But he couldn’t keep
them shut. No, Sir, he couldn’t keep them shut! He just _had_ to keep
opening them. There was the dear old Green Forest drawing nearer and
nearer. It always had looked very beautiful to Danny Meadow Mouse, but
now it looked terrible, very terrible indeed, because over in it, in
some dark place, was the home of Hooty the Owl.
Just ahead of him was the Old Briar-patch where Peter Rabbit lives so
safely. Every old bramble in it was covered with snow and it was very,
very beautiful. Really everything was just as beautiful as ever—the
moonlight, the Green Forest, the snow-covered Green Meadows, the Old
Briar-patch. The only change was in Danny Meadow Mouse himself, and it
was all because he had forgotten.
Suddenly Danny began to wriggle and struggle. “Keep still!” snapped
Hooty the Owl.
But Danny only struggled harder than ever. It seemed to him that Hooty
wasn’t holding him as tightly as at first. He felt one of Hooty’s claws
slip. It tore his coat and hurt dreadfully, but it slipped! The fact
is, Hooty had only grabbed Danny Meadow Mouse by the loose part of his
coat, and up in the air he couldn’t get hold of Danny any better. Danny
kicked, squirmed and twisted, and twisted, squirmed, and kicked. He
felt his coat tear and of course the skin with it, but he kept right
on, for now he was hanging almost free. Hooty had started down now,
so as to get a better hold. Danny gave one more kick and then—he felt
himself falling!
Danny Meadow Mouse shut his eyes and held his breath. Down, down, down
he fell. It seemed to him that he never would strike the snow-covered
meadows! Really he fell only a very little distance. But it seemed a
terrible distance to Danny. He hit something that scratched him, and
then plump! he landed in the soft snow right in the very middle of
the Old Briar-patch, and the last thing he remembered was hearing the
scream of disappointment and rage of Hooty the Owl.