Project Gutenberg's The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse, by Arthur Scott Bailey This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: The Tale of Dickie Deer Mouse Author: Arthur Scott Bailey Illustrator: Diane Petersen Release Date: July 31, 2006 [EBook #18953] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE *** Produced by Roger Frank and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net "Why do you want buds?" "Why do you want buds?" THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE BY ARTHUR SCOTT BAILEY AUTHOR OF THE CUFFY BEAR BOOKS SLEEPY-TIME TALES, ETC. Illustrations By Diane Petersen GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS NEW YORK Copyright, 1918, by GROSSET & DUNLAP PRINTED IN U.S.A. Contents I A LITTLE GENTLEMAN 9 II HUNTING A HOME 14 III A STARTLED SLEEPER 19 IV THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST 25 V DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME 30 VI A WARNING 34 VII NOISY VISITORS 39 VIII IN THE CORNFIELD 44 IX FATTY COON NEEDS HELP 49 X A BIT OF ADVICE 53 XI A SEARCH IN VAIN 58 XII A LITTLE SURPRISE 65 XIII THE FEATHERS FLY 70 XIV MAKING READY FOR WINTER 75 XV A PLUNGE IN THE DARK 80 XVI A LUCKY FIND 85 XVII A SLIGHT MISTAKE 89 XVIII TOO MANY COUSINS 95 XIX THE WRONG TURN 100 XX BEDFELLOWS 107 XXI ONE WAY TO KEEP WARM 112 XXII QUEER MR. PINE FINCH 117 XXIII A FEAST AT LAST 122 THE TALE OF DICKIE DEER MOUSE I A LITTLE GENTLEMAN All the four-footed folk in the neighborhood agreed that Dickie Deer Mouse was well worth knowing. Throughout Pleasant Valley there was no one else so gentle as he. To be sure, Jasper Jay wore beautiful—perhaps even gaudy—clothes; but his manners were so shocking that nobody would ever call him a gentleman. As for Dickie Deer Mouse, he was always tastefully dressed in fawn color and white. And except sometimes in the spring, when he needed a new coat, he was a real joy to see. For he both looked and acted like a well-bred little person. It is too bad that there were certain reasons—which will appear later—why some of his feathered neighbors did not like him. But even they had to admit that Dickie was a spick-and-span young chap. Wherever he was white he was white as snow. And many of the wild people wondered how he could scamper so fast through the woods and always keep his white feet spotless. Possibly it was because his mother had taught him the way when he was young; for his feet—and the under side of him —were white even when he was just a tiny fellow, so young that the top side of him was gray instead of fawn colored. How his small white feet would twinkle as he frisked about in the shadows of the woods and ran like a squirrel through the trees! And how his sharp little cries would break the wood-silence as he called to his friends in a brisk chatter, which sounded like that of the squirrels, only ever so far away! In many other ways Dickie Deer Mouse was like Frisky Squirrel himself. Dickie's idea of what a good home ought to be was much the same as Frisky's: they both thought that the deserted nest of one of the big Crow family made as fine a house as any one could want. And they couldn't imagine that any food could possibly be better than nuts, berries and grain. To be sure, Dickie Deer Mouse liked his nuts to have thin shells. But that was because he was smaller than Frisky; so of course his jaws and teeth were not so strong. Then, too, Dickie Deer Mouse had a trick of gathering good things to eat, which he hid away in some safe place, so that he would not have to go hungry during the winter, when the snow lay deep upon the ground. And even Frisky Squirrel was no spryer at carrying beechnuts—or any other goody—to his secret cupboard than little white-footed Dickie Deer Mouse. It was no wonder that Dickie could be cheerful right in the dead of winter, when he had a fine store of the very best that the fields and forest yielded, to keep him sleek and fat and happy. So even on the coldest nights, when the icy wind whipped the tree-tops, and the cold, pale stars peeped down among the branches, Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends and had the gayest of times. 9 10 11 12 13 No one would have thought that he had a care in the world. II HUNTING A HOME Warm weather was at hand. And Dickie Deer Mouse gave up frolicking with his friends for a time, because he needed to find a pleasant place in which to spend the summer. He had his eye on a nest high in the top of a tall elm, where a certain black rascal known as old Mr. Crow had lived for a long while. Now, Dickie had heard a bit of gossip, to the effect that the old gentleman had moved to another tree nearer to Farmer Green's cornfield. So Dickie wanted to lose no time. He was afraid that if he waited, some brisk member of the Squirrel family would settle himself in Mr. Crow's old home. Without telling anybody what was in his head, Dickie Deer Mouse set forth one pleasant, warm night in the direction of the great elm, where he hoped to pass a number of delightful months. It was some distance to the tall tree. But the night was fine, and Dickie enjoyed his journey, though once he stopped and shivered when he heard the wailing whistle of a screech owl. "That's Simon Screecher!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed under his breath. "I know his voice. And I hope he won't come this way!" Dickie halted for a few minutes, near an old oak with spreading roots, under which he intended to hide in case Simon Screecher should suddenly appear. But he soon decided that Simon was headed for another part of the woods, for his quavering cry grew fainter and fainter. So Dickie promptly forgot his fright and scampered on again faster than before, to make up the time he had lost. Though he travelled through the flickering shadows like a brown and white streak, he did not pant the least bit when he reached old Mr. Crow's elm. He did not need to pause at the foot of the tree to get his breath, but scurried up it as if climbing was one of the easiest things he did. 14 15 16 Mr. Crow's big nest was so far from the ground that many people would not have cared to visit it except with the help of an elevator. But Dickie Deer Mouse never stopped to think of such a thing. Of course it would have done him no good, anyway, to wish for an elevator, for there was none in all Pleasant Valley. In fact, even Johnnie Green himself had only heard of—and never seen—one. It took Dickie Deer Mouse only a few moments to reach the top of the tall elm, where Mr. Crow's bulky nest, built of sticks and lined with grass and moss, rested in a crotch formed by three branches. Dickie had never before been so close to Mr. Crow's old home. And now he stood still and looked at it with great interest. It was ever so much bigger than he had supposed, and exactly the sort of dwelling—cool and airy—that he had hoped to find for his summer home. "I don't see what sort of house the old gentleman can want that would be better than this," Dickie Deer Mouse remarked to himself. "But it is a long way from the cornfield, to be sure." And then he climbed quickly up the side of the nest and whisked down inside it. The next moment a great commotion frightened him nearly out of his wits. A deafening squawking smote Dickie Deer Mouse's big ears. And something struck him a number of blows that knocked his breath quite out of him. III A STARTLED SLEEPER Of course Dickie Deer Mouse ought not to have been so ready to believe that stray bit of gossip about Mr. Crow. It is true that the old black scamp had talked about moving to a new place nearer Farmer Green's cornfield. But his plan had gone no further than that. He was sound asleep in his bed when Dickie Deer Mouse jumped down beside him. And when Mr. Crow suddenly waked up it would be very hard to say which of the two was the more startled. For a few moments Mr. Crow screamed loudly for help. And he flapped and floundered about as if he didn't know which way to turn, nor what to do. During the uproar Dickie Deer Mouse managed to slip out of Mr. Crow's house without being seen. But he was too polite to run away. Instead of hurrying off to escape a scolding from Mr. Crow he clung to a near-by branch and called as loudly as he could: "Don't be alarmed, sir! There's no one here but me. And I ask your pardon for disturbing you." 17 18 19 20 Dickie Deer Mouse had to repeat that speech several times before Mr. Crow noticed him. But at last the old gentleman caught sight of his visitor. And when he heard what Dickie said he looked far from pleasant. "Asking my pardon is one thing," Mr. Crow spluttered. "And receiving it is another." "I'm very sorry," Dickie Deer Mouse replied. "I didn't mean to frighten you." Mr. Crow gave a sudden hoarse haw-haw. "Pooh!" he cried. "You don't think I was scared, do you?" "You called for help," Dickie reminded him. "Certainly I did," Mr. Crow agreed. "I wanted somebody to help you out of my house, before I trampled on you and broke one of your legs—or maybe two or three of 'em." That explanation gave Dickie Deer Mouse another surprise; for he had supposed all the time that Mr. Crow didn't know who—or what—had awakened him. "Oh!" he cried. "I thought that you thought I was somebody else." Mr. Crow glared at him. "I thought that you thought that I thought——" he squalled. He was so angry that his tongue became sadly twisted; and he all but choked. Meanwhile Dickie Deer Mouse waited respectfully until Mr. Crow had recovered his speech. "What are you doing here at this hour?" Mr. Crow demanded at last. "I thought——" Dickie began. "There you go again!" the old gentleman interrupted him testily. "I didn't ask you what you thought. I asked you what you were doing." "I'm not doing anything just now," Dickie Deer Mouse faltered. "Yes, you are!" Mr. Crow corrected him. "You're sitting on a limb of my tree.... Get off it at once!" So Dickie Deer Mouse moved to a more distant perch. "Now you're sitting on another!" Mr. Crow exploded. "Get out of my tree this instant!" It always made him ill-tempered to be awakened from a sound sleep in the middle of the night. Once more Dickie Deer Mouse asked his pardon. "I was told," he explained, "that you had moved lately. And I did not expect to find you here." "Ah!" said Mr. Crow. "I know now why you came sneaking into my house. You'd like to live here yourself." "Pardon me!" Dickie Deer Mouse exclaimed with the lowest of bows. "You are mistaken, Mr. Crow. Though your house is a fine, large one, it's much too small to hold us both." And whisking about, while Mr. Crow stared at him, he ran down the tall elm as fast as he could go. It was clear that if Mr. Crow wasn't going to move he would have to look elsewhere for a summer home. 21 22 23 24 IV THE BLACKBIRD'S NEST For a few days after his visit to Mr. Crow's elm, Dickie Deer Mouse kept watch carefully of Mr. Crow's comings and goings. And he decided at last that the old gentleman liked his home too well to leave it. But Dickie was not discouraged. He had no doubt that he could find some other pleasant quarters in which to spend the summer—quarters that would prove almost as airy, and perhaps more convenient—because they were not so high. For there was no denying that Mr. Crow's nest was a long, long way from the ground. So Dickie began to search for birds' nests. And for a time he had to suffer a great deal of scolding by his feathered neighbors. It must be confessed that they were none too fond of Dickie Deer Mouse. There was a story of something he was said to have done one time—a tale about his having driven a Robin family away from their nest, in order to live in it himself. That seems a strange deed on the part of anyone so gentle as Dickie Deer Mouse. But old Mr. Crow always declared that it was true. And Solomon Owl often remarked that he wished Dickie Deer Mouse would try to drive him away from his home in the hollow hemlock. Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends Dickie scampered through the woods with his friends But during his hunt for birds' nests Dickie Deer Mouse was careful to keep away from Solomon Owl, and his cousin Simon Screecher, and all the rest of the Owl family. He contented himself with hasty peeps into nests built by such 25 26 27 smaller folk as Blackbirds and Robins. And if it happened that anybody was living in one of those nests, Dickie soon found it out. For the angry owners were sure to fly at him with screams of rage, and peck at his head as they darted past him. It was really not worth while getting into a fight over a bird's nest, when there was plenty of old ones in which nobody dwelt. To be sure, many of them were almost ready to fall apart. But Dickie Deer Mouse finally found one to his liking —a last year's bird's nest where two Blackbirds had reared a promising family. They had not come back to Pleasant Valley. And there was their house, almost as good as new, just waiting for some one to move in and make himself at home. Nobody objected when Dickie took the old nest for his home, though many a bird in the neighborhood remarked in his hearing that he would hate to be too lazy to build a house for himself. Dickie Deer Mouse was too mild and gentle-mannered to make any reply to such rude speeches. Besides, he expected to make a good many changes in the old nest before the place was exactly what he wanted. "I don't understand," he said aloud to nobody in particular, "why most birds don't know how a house should be built. Of all the birds in Pleasant Valley the only good nest-builder I know is Long Bill Wren. He must be a very sensible fellow, because he puts a roof on his house." Now, Dickie Deer Mouse may—or may not—have known that some of his bird neighbors were near at hand, watching him. Certainly they must have heard what he said, for they began to scold at the top of their voices. And one rude listener named Jasper Jay screamed with fine scorn: "What do you know about building a nest?" And then he laughed harshly. But Dickie Deer Mouse only looked very wise and said nothing. V DICKIE'S SUMMER HOME Dickie Deer Mouse was busier than ever. When he wasn't looking for food—and eating it when he had found it—he gathered cat-tail down in Cedar Swamp. If there was one thing that he liked in a house it was a soft bed. And he knew that if the weather happened to be chilly now and then, he could snuggle into the cat-tail down and sleep as comfortably as he pleased. The swamp was none too near his new home; and he might have found moss or shreds of bark near-by that would have served his purpose. But he would rather have cat-tail down, even though he had to make a good many trips back and forth before he finally lined the old bird's nest to his liking. Then, having finished his bed, he had to make a roof over it. So he covered the top of his house with moss, leaving a 28 29 30 31 hole right under the eaves, for a doorway. When Dickie's home was done he was so pleased with it that he asked all his neighbors if they didn't like his "improvements," as he called the additions he had made. And all his Deer Mouse relations told him that he certainly had a fine place. But none of the birds cared for it at all, except Long Bill Wren; and even he remarked that the house would be better "if it was rounder." As for Jasper Jay, he told Dickie Deer Mouse that, in his opinion, the house was ruined. "It's nothing but a trap," he declared. "And I'd hate to go to sleep inside it." His views, however, did not trouble Dickie Deer Mouse in the least. The place suited him. And he was so happy in it that sometimes when the weather was bad and he wasn't whisking about in the trees, or scurrying around on the ground, he would stay inside his cozy home, with only his head sticking out through the doorway, while his big, bright, bulging, black eyes took in everything that happened in his dooryard. Dickie Deer Mouse knew that one needed sharp eyes to spy him when he was peeping from his house in that fashion. And often when somebody of whom he was really afraid came wandering through the woods, Dickie would keep quite still, while he watched the newcomer without being seen. But with some of the wood folk he took no chances. Whenever he heard Solomon Owl's rolling call, or his cousin Simon Screecher's quavering whistle, Dickie Deer Mouse always pulled his head inside his house in a hurry. For they were usually on the lookout for him. And he knew it. Of course, if they had been aware that Dickie Deer Mouse was hidden inside his rebuilt, last year's bird's nest, either of them, with his sharp claws, could easily have torn the moss roof off Dickie's home. But luckily for Dickie, there were some things that they didn't know. VI A WARNING If old Mr. Crow had minded his own affairs everything would have gone well with Dickie Deer Mouse, after he moved into his new home. But Mr. Crow could not forget the time when Dickie had awakened him out of a sound sleep and frightened him almost out of his mind. So whenever he caught sight of Dickie the old gentleman was sure to drop down upon the ground and ask him in a loud voice whose house he had prowled into lately. "Nobody's!" Dickie Deer Mouse always told him. And then he would assure Mr. Crow that he was very sorry to have disturbed his rest. It was quite like Mr. Crow, on such occasions, to act grumpy. "I haven't had a good night's sleep since you broke into my house," he declared to Dickie one day. 32 33 34 35 "Perhaps you're over-eating," Dickie suggested politely. Old Mr. Crow did not appear to like that remark. "Nothing of the sort!" he bawled. "I don't eat enough to keep a mosquito alive." "I often see you in the cornfield," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. "Ha!" Mr. Crow exclaimed. "What are you doing in the cornfield, I should like to know?" "Sometimes I go there to get a few kernels of corn," Dickie explained. "Ha!" Mr. Crow cried once more. "That's where the corn's going! Farmer Green thinks I'm taking it. And so you're getting me into a peck of trouble, young man." Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help being worried when Mr. Crow said that. And he looked puzzled, too. "I don't see," he said, "how I could have got you into a peck of trouble, Mr. Crow, for I haven't eaten a peck of Farmer Green's corn. I've had only a few kernels of it—not more than half a pint." "Then you've got me into a half-pint of trouble, anyway," old Mr. Crow insisted. "And that's too much, for a person of my age. You'll have to keep away from my—ahem!—from Farmer Green's cornfield. And what's more, Fatty Coon says the same thing." At the mention of Fatty Coon's name Dickie Deer Mouse had to smile. "Fatty Coon!" he echoed. "How he does like corn!" "Yes! But he doesn't like you," Mr. Crow snapped. "You'd better look out for him," he warned Dickie. "He'll come to call on you some night, the first thing you know. "By the way, where are you living now?" Mr. Crow inquired. But Dickie Deer Mouse made no answer. Right before Mr. Crow's sharp eyes he vanished among the roots of a tree. And it made the old gentleman quite peevish because he couldn't discover where Dickie Deer Mouse had hidden himself. For a little while Mr. Crow stood like a black statue and peered at the tangle where Dickie Deer Mouse had disappeared. But Mr. Crow couldn't see him anywhere. And at last his patience came to an end. "He never answered my question," Mr. Crow grumbled. "He wouldn't tell me where he lived. But I'll find out. I'll ask my cousin, Jasper Jay; for there isn't much that he doesn't know." 36 37 38 VII NOISY VISITORS Of course Jasper Jay knew where Dickie Deer Mouse lived. And he took great pleasure in pointing out the exact spot to his curious cousin, old Mr. Crow. It was broad daylight when they visited the tree where Dickie's house hung. The two rogues did not know that he was drowsing inside his snug home, because he had been out late the night before. No one that knew the two cousins would need to be told that they could never talk together quietly. Perched close to Dickie's house, Mr. Crow croaked in a hoarse voice, while Jasper Jay squalled harshly. "This is it!" Jasper had announced, as soon as they arrived. "This is his house. And isn't it a sight?" "I should say so!" old Mr. Crow agreed. "It's got a roof on it—ha! ha!" And the two visitors laughed loudly, as if they thought there was a huge joke somewhere. They made such a noise, from the very first, that Dickie Deer Mouse awoke and heard almost everything they said. But he didn't mind their remarks in the least—until he caught Fatty Coon's name. It was old Mr. Crow who mentioned it first. "I'll have to tell Fatty Coon about this queer house," he chuckled. "It's too good a joke to keep. He'll be over here as soon as he knows where to come, for he'll be glad to see it; and he wants to talk to Dickie Deer Mouse about taking our corn." Dickie had still felt somewhat sleepy during the first part of this talk outside his house. But when Mr. Crow began to speak about Fatty Coon, Dickie became instantly wide awake. He sprang quickly to his feet; and thrusting his head through his doorway, he called in his loudest tone: "When do you think Fatty Coon will call on me?" The two cousins looked at each other. And then they looked all around. "What was that strange squeaking?" Mr. Crow asked Jasper Jay. "To me it sounded a good deal like a rusty hinge on Farmer Green's barn door," Jasper Jay answered. But Mr. Crow shook his head. "It couldn't have been that," he said. "Maybe Mrs. Green is rocking on a loose board on the porch," Jasper suggested. Still Mr. Crow couldn't agree with him. "Don't be silly!" he snapped. "We're half a mile from the farmhouse." "Well, what do you think the noise was?" Jasper Jay inquired. Old Mr. Crow cocked an eye upward into the tree-top above him. "I'd think it was a Squirrel if it was louder," he replied. Jasper Jay laughed in a most disagreeable fashion. "I'd think it was thunder if it was loud enough," he sneered. And at that the two cousins began to quarrel violently. To tell the truth, they never could be together long without having a dispute. For a short time Dickie Deer Mouse listened to their rude remarks, hoping that they would stop wrangling long enough to hear his question about Fatty Coon. But they talked louder and louder. And since Dickie Deer Mouse never quarreled with anybody, and hated to hear such language as the two cousins used, he slipped out of his house without their seeing him and went over to the cornfield. For he was hungry. 39 40 41 42 43 VIII IN THE CORNFIELD In one way, especially, Fatty Coon and Dickie Deer Mouse were alike: They were night-prowlers. When they slept it was usually broad daylight outside, and the birds—except for a few odd fellows like Willie Whip-poor-will and Mr. Night Hawk—were abroad, and singing, and twittering. And when most of the birds went to sleep Dickie and Fatty Coon began to feel quite wide awake. It was not strange, therefore, that Dickie Deer Mouse was surprised when he found himself face to face with Fatty Coon in the cornfield at midday. Dickie tried to slip out of sight under a pumpkin vine that grew between the rows; but Fatty Coon saw him before he could hide. And Fatty began to make the queerest noise, as if he were almost choking. Dickie Deer Mouse stopped. And he trembled the least bit; for Fatty looked terribly fierce. Perhaps (Dickie thought) he was choking with rage. "Can I help you?" Dickie asked him. "Would you like me to thump you on the back?" Fatty Coon shook his head. There was nothing the matter with him, except that he had stuffed his mouth so full that he couldn't speak. After swallowing several times he wiped his mouth on the back of his paw—a habit of which his mother had never been able to break him. It was no wonder that dainty Dickie Deer Mouse shuddered again, when Fatty did that. "May I go and get you a napkin?" Dickie asked, as he edged away. "No!" Fatty Coon growled. "I've been wanting to have a talk with you. And now that I've found you, you needn't run off." Then, to Dickie's horror, Fatty stopped talking and licked both his paws. "May I get you a finger bowl?" Dickie inquired. Fatty Coon actually didn't know what he meant. "Is that something to eat?" he asked. And he looked much interested, and seemed quite downcast when Dickie said "No!" "Then you needn't trouble yourself," Fatty Coon told him with a sigh. "Can't you find corn enough for a good meal?" Dickie asked him wonderingly. 44 45 46 47 "I could," said Fatty Coon, "if other people didn't take so much of it.... Now, there's Mr. Crow," he complained. "I had to get out of bed and come over here to-day, in the sunlight, because I was afraid he wouldn't leave any corn for me. "There's no use saying anything to him," Fatty continued, "because he thinks this is his cornfield.... But little chaps like you will have to keep away from this place.... Now I've warned you," he added. "And if I hear of your eating any more corn I'll come straight to your house—when I find out where it is—and I'll——" He did not finish his threat. But he looked so darkly at Dickie that what he didn't say made Dickie Deer Mouse shiver all over, though the warm midday sun fell upon the cornfield. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse hadn't eaten a single kernel of corn all that day. But he suddenly lost his appetite for it; and murmuring a faint good-bye he turned and ran for the woods as fast as he could go. "Stop! Stop!" Fatty Coon called after him. "There's something more I want to say to you." But whatever it may have been, Dickie Deer Mouse did not wait to hear it. IX FATTY COON NEEDS HELP The moment he plunged into the woods beyond the cornfield Dickie Deer Mouse began to feel better. He knew that Fatty Coon would not leave that place of plenty until he had filled himself almost to bursting with tender young corn. After Dickie had eaten a few seeds that he found under the trees, as well as a plump bug that was hiding beneath a log, he actually told himself that he was glad he had met Fatty Coon in the cornfield. "Now that he has talked with me," Dickie reasoned, "he won't trouble himself to come to my house when old Mr. Crow tells him where I live." That thought was a great comfort to him. Ever since he had waked up and heard Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay talking outside his house he had felt most uneasy. If Mr. Crow was going to guide Fatty Coon to his new home, Dickie hardly thought it safe to stay there any longer. But now he was sure that that danger was past. Fatty had given him his warning. And Dickie had no doubt that so long as he kept away from the corn his greedy neighbor would never bother to disturb him. So instead of quitting his snug home—as he had feared he must—he went back to it to finish his nap. Now, Dickie Deer Mouse had lost so much sleep—through being disturbed by Mr. Crow and Jasper Jay—that when night came he kept right on sleeping. Yes! Instead of joining his friends in a mad scamper through the woods in the moonlight, Dickie Deer Mouse slept on and on and on, until—something shook the small tree where he lived and made it sway as if an earthquake had come. 48 49 50 51 Dickie Deer Mouse roused himself with a start. His sharp ears caught a scratching sound. And sticking his head through his doorway, he looked out. One quick glance told him what was happening. That pudgy rascal, Fatty Coon, was climbing the tree! And every moment brought him nearer and nearer to Dickie's house. Dickie's big, black eyes bulged more than ever as he whisked out of his house and scampered to the top of the tree, where the branches were so small that Fatty Coon could never follow him. "Stop!" Fatty Coon cried. "Mr. Crow told me where I could find you. And I want to have a word with you." "What sort of word?" Dickie Deer Mouse inquired. "It's about the cornfield," Fatty Coon explained. "I haven't been near that place since you last saw me there," Dickie declared. "I know you haven't," Fatty told him. "That's just why I want to have a word with you. I'm in a peck of trouble. And I want you to help me." Dickie Deer Mouse could scarcely believe it. But being a very polite young gentleman, he told Fatty that he would be glad to do anything in his power to assist him—or at least, anything except to come down out of the top of the tree. X A BIT OF ADVICE "It's like this," Fatty Coon said, puffing a bit—on account of his climb—as he looked up at Dickie Deer Mouse. "Old Mr. Crow says that Farmer Green is going to sick old dog Spot on me if I don't keep out of the cornfield." "Well, I should say it was very kind of Mr. Crow to tell you," Dickie remarked. Fatty Coon was not so sure of that. "He'd like to have the cornfield to himself," he told Dickie. "He'd like nothing better than to keep me out of it. And if old dog Spot is coming there after me, I certainly don't want to go near the place again." "Then I'd stay away, if I were you," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. "Ah! That's just the trouble!" Fatty Coon cried. "I can't! I'm too fond of corn. And that's why I've come here to have a word with you," he went on. "I've noticed that you haven't set foot in the cornfield since I spoke to you over there in the middle of the day. And I want you to tell me how you manage to stay away." "Something seems to pull me right away from it," Dickie Deer Mouse told him. Fatty Coon groaned. "Something seems to pull me towards the corn!" he wailed. Dickie Deer Mouse couldn't help feeling sorry for him. "If there was only something else that you liked better than green corn," he said, "perhaps it would help you to keep away from this new danger." 52 53 54 55